Chapter 210
Chapter 210
Beneath the violet-blue night sky, the dark-red dunes resembled rolling waves frozen in place.
Starlight poured down in silver streams, and the wind swept over the fine sand, sending the grains rustling along.
Seeing that Han Lie wore nothing but thin leather armor, Chen Zhao, who was sitting beside the fire pit, took the black Monstrous Beast pelt draped over his knees and tossed it to him.
“Out with it. What do you want in the middle of the night?”
Han Lie had been an easy child from a young age. His survival skills had always been maxed out, and he’d never given anyone cause to worry.
Over the past few days, however, he had often been caught spacing out.
Chen Zhao had even heard that he’d traded with the army quartermaster for fine cloth and colorful brocade.
Assuming Han Lie was grieving because the tender bud of his first love had died before it could bloom, Chen Zhao had been especially tolerant of him.
Who didn’t have a dead first love in their past?
Chen Zhao sighed and tugged at the greatcloak over his shoulders. “What story do you want to hear? Go on.”
Seated on a slab of red sandstone, Han Lie asked, “Uncle Chen, when I was little, you once told me the story of Xi Nang, the Mountain God of the Gutless Tribe.”
“Does Xi Nang have any other abilities?”
The thick, blade-like eyebrows on Chen Zhao’s square, Tibetan-fox-like face rose. He was growing increasingly convinced that his dear nephew Han Lie was acting strange.
“You woke me up in the middle of the night just to ask me that?”
“Yes, just for that. I’m truly sorry for disturbing you, Uncle Chen. Once we return to the capital, I’ll buy you some wine.”
Chen Zhao studied him in silence. Seeing that his gaze was clear and he showed no signs of having lost his mind, Chen Zhao rubbed the short stubble on his chin with his thumb and began to speak.
“I did tell you about Xi Nang.”
“Xi Nang is a Mountain God worshiped by the Gutless People. What do you want to know?”
The hastily lit campfire illuminated Han Lie’s face.
He knew Qin Ying disliked facial hair, so he shaved every day. Without a beard to shield his handsome face from the scorching sun of the Danxia Region, he had been tanned nearly black.
With a solemn expression, he cupped his hands in salute. “May I ask, Uncle Chen, whether Xi Nang possesses an ability that can create a space where time becomes distorted and stagnant?”
Chen Zhao’s hand froze against his beard. He stared at Han Lie in shock and suspicion. “Why are you asking about that?”
Han Lie did not want to lie to him again, so he remained silent.
One look was enough for Chen Zhao to know that the stubborn streak Han Lie kept buried deep inside had reared its head again.
After a long silence, he sighed.
He smacked the dozing Little White Monkey on the back. “Go keep an eye on our surroundings.”
The wind sweeping over the dunes made the Little White Monkey’s bald scalp feel bitterly cold. He picked up a warm stone beside the fire, placed it on top of his head for warmth, and bounded away.
He stood watch some distance from the two men.
Only then did Chen Zhao look Han Lie squarely in the eye. “I wasn’t supposed to tell you the second half of this story, but it’s ancient history now. There’s no need to remain so tight-lipped about it.”
“I’ll tell you.”
“While alive, Xi Nang dwells in the mountains, breathing out Earth-Lung Yin Miasma and using a Puppet Stone to lure people into its belly.”
“After devouring nine hundred and ninety-nine women, it gives birth to a Flesh-Sac Embryo.”
“But…” Chen Zhao stared into the dancing flames. “If Xi Nang is slain after the Flesh-Sac Embryo is born but before it breaks free, a Xi Nang Ghost will form inside the flesh sac, and it will be able to speak the human tongue.”
“Its umbilical cord remains tethered to the Xi Nang’s tail. It dwells within waterways, and its eyes turn into ocher stones. It can create a bounded domain that traps those within.”
“That domain can be used as a prison.”
Han Lie’s head snapped up. “So the form Xi Nang takes after death is what throws space and time into disarray?”
Listening silently from beyond the black mist, Qin Ying felt as though she had just caught hold of something important.
Chen Zhao nodded and divulged a little more to Han Lie. “Long ago, when Great Xia launched its northern campaign against the Gutless Kingdom, it captured six Xi Nang.”
“The commander-in-chief at the time originally intended to slay these evil creatures that devoured humans in order to be reborn.”
When the story reached the commander-in-chief, Chen Zhao glanced at Han Lie before continuing. “But one Flesh Embryo escaped.”
Han Lie pressed, “How did it get away?”
Chen Zhao shook his head. “That happened a century ago. The records were destroyed long since, for certain reasons.”
“All we know is that the Flesh Embryo fled into the Guixu Rift. It may no longer be in this world.”
Han Lie and Qin Ying both fell silent for a moment. Then Han Lie told Chen Zhao about the long-necked shadows and the Human-Faced Flesh Mass.
Chen Zhao casually tossed more firewood onto the flames. “Those shadows are nothing but tricks conjured by the Xi Nang.”
Without such tricks, how could it lure and frighten so many people into offering it women to devour?
As for the Human-Faced Flesh Mass, it was the foul waste excreted by the Xi Nang after it devoured people and spat out their bones.
Han Lie drew a deep breath and finally asked, “Uncle Chen, if someone accidentally becomes trapped by a Xi Nang Ghost, how can they break free?”
Chen Zhao snapped, “Have I taught you nothing?”
“There is nothing in this world that cannot be solved by killing it.”
As a member of the Fengshan Elite Cavalry, who campaigned far and wide to suppress giant beasts, Chen Zhao’s answer was as simple as it was brutal.
Negotiation was not an option. As far as Great Xia was concerned, anything that refused to obey and dared imprison people simply had to be exterminated.
The answer did little to ease Han Lie’s mind.
He had no idea what Qin Ying’s situation was. Still deeply worried, he took his leave and headed off some distance to speak with her.
Chen Zhao good-naturedly let his hasty arrival and departure slide. Just before Han Lie left, he called after him, “Go back and get some proper rest. Be careful you don’t work yourself to death.”
Mounted on the Sand Lizard, which held a clump of fresh grass in its mouth but couldn’t bear to eat it, Han Lie turned and called back, “Got it, Uncle Chen.”
“You should get some rest too.”
By the time the last word drifted back, he was already far away.
Chen Zhao snorted a couple more times, then extinguished the campfire atop the dune and returned to camp alone to catch up on sleep.
…
“Supreme Deity, do you have a way to kill that Xi Nang?” Han Lie asked anxiously.
On the other side of the black mist, Qin Ying, who had been listening for some time, rubbed her throbbing temple.
Her mind had yet to fully recover, and communicating with Han Lie through the black mist placed a strain on her.
After only this brief exchange, her head already felt as though needles were stabbing into it.
Still, it had not been entirely fruitless.
At the very least, she now knew what was soaking in the pool in the room farther back.
She had also learned of a way out: kill the thing that had created this prison.
Considering the condition of the Xi Nang chained beneath the pool, Qin Ying felt there was still a chance of finding a way to kill it.
She straightened and looked down.
If one crate of dynamite wasn’t enough, then… what about two?
Di Shang’s inspection had uncovered two caches in the study.
One was in the wooden crate linked to the narrow-waisted monster, while the other was beneath the dead foreigner’s desk.
If Qin Ying had rashly approached the desk earlier, she would not have escaped the fate of taking a dynamite blast straight to the face.
She was nowhere near as tough as the Yellow Weasel Immortal and the Willow Immortal upstairs. If she took a blast to the face, her flesh and blood would be smeared so evenly across the floor that no one would ever be able to scrape it all up.
Di Shang had already disarmed the dynamite beneath the desk. Now, perhaps, it could become her weapon instead.
With that thought, she said only two sentences to Han Lie through the black mist before severing the connection.
Then she braced her hands on her knees and rose to her feet.