Chapter 142: Centipede
Lightning regularly streaked across the sky, brightening the thick darkness every half minute or so, but aside from the frightening flash, there was no sign of thunder at all.
When another flash split the night, Xuan Xia looked up at the distant sky and stopped in her tracks.
She stopped, and Ren Tongjin followed suit.
Before he could speak, Xuan Xia said first, “I think this won’t work.”
Not sure if every Illusionary Scenery was related to the current scene, Xuan Xia felt this one was simply too big. They had walked for so long, and the scenery they saw consisted only of grass and trees of varying density, along with distant lightning that was out of reach; otherwise, they couldn’t distinguish directions at all.
The further they walked, the more she even began to worry that they wouldn’t reach the end at all.
They needed to think of another way.
Thinking this, she looked at Ren Tongjin and met his eyes.
Ren Tongjin: “?”
Xuan Xia asked him, “Do you know that Tracking Technique for finding people? Can it be used here?”
Ren Tongjin was silent for a moment, then answered, “Not everyone can learn the Tracking Technique.”
Xuan Xia didn’t even need to hear the rest to know what he meant: he didn’t know it.
She huffed through her nose.
Ren Tongjin fell silent, and only after a while did he say, “I’ll give it a try.”
As he spoke, he looked around as if searching for something, then walked to the side and pinched off a few blades of grass.
Xuan Xia watched those leaves and curiously asked, “Does the Tracking Technique require using a thing?”
Besides curiosity, she also harbored a bit of intent to secretly learn it; figuring out the basic principle first might allow her to learn it herself.
“It’s not the Tracking Technique.” Ren Tongjin said, “I’ll try if the Spirit Control Technique can substitute for the Tracking Technique.”
Xuan Xia was first surprised, then changed her mind, wondering if this Spirit Control Technique could be secretly learned.
However, Xuan Xia quickly determined that this one couldn’t be secretly learned.
Not to mention the complex hand seals, the light here was too dim to see clearly; even the incantation for the Spirit Control Technique, Ren Tongjin didn’t utter a single sound, reciting it all silently.
How could it be secretly learned?
When Ren Tongjin’s operation ended, the few leaves between his fingers moved without wind and whooshed off in one direction.
Unfortunately, the night was too dark, the environment too dim, and the leaves small and inconspicuous; after just three or two seconds, they could no longer be seen.
Xuan Xia had no choice but to withdraw her line of sight and look at Ren Tongjin.
Not long after, Ren Tongjin suddenly frowned.
“What’s wrong?”
Ren Tongjin suddenly coughed dully twice, and when he spoke, his voice already carried a hint of weakness, “My Spirit Control Technique failed.”
Shortly after the leaves flew out, he quickly lost sense of their existence.
The result was the same as if the spell had been broken, causing him to feel backlash now, with a dull pain in his chest.
Xuan Xia: “Are you okay then?”
“I’m fine.”
Ren Tongjin thought, as expected, it was the Mountain Mirage Fiend; its evil energy was fierce.
Coming in here on a whim this time might really mean being trapped here forever.
Xuan Xia looked at him again, confirmed he was truly fine, then turned to look in the direction the leaves had flown.
After thinking for a bit, she said, “But it’s not entirely without gain.” At least they had seen which direction the leaves flew in.
Still, better to confirm: “You used the Spirit Control Technique to find them, right?”
Ren Tongjin said yes.
He had actually sent those leaves to find Ren Tongli.
So the direction those leaves went should be Ren Tongli’s location.
“Mm, then let’s go this way.” She raised her hand and pointed to the right front.
After pointing, Xuan Xia once again took the role of leader.
Ren Tongjin saw her walking ahead without any hesitation, couldn’t help shaking his head, and quickly followed.
Once he was shoulder to shoulder with her, Ren Tongjin couldn’t hold back and said, “You’re really not afraid at all?”
Not sure whether to say her courage was truly great, or that she was boldly charging ahead out of ignorance.
“Afraid?” Xuan Xia’s first reaction was Qu Xingxuan, and she couldn’t help inwardly complaining that she wasn’t Qu Xingxuan.
Besides, what use was being afraid in a place like this?
Ren Tongjin only heard her laugh, as if mocking his question.
Thinking it over, he realized he had indeed asked unnecessarily.
The rest of the way, both kept quiet.
Fortunately, the direction the leaves flew was indeed different from their previous path; they were clearly slowly entering deeper into the mountain forest, and the undulating terrain underfoot told them they were gradually going uphill.
The uphill path was not easy to walk, but fortunately, aside from being difficult, nothing else happened.
The mountain they were on was like a dead mountain; aside from trees and plants, there were no other living things.
“Eh, it’s raining.”
Xuan Xia felt water drop onto her face.
Ren Tongjin grunted in acknowledgment.
Luckily, both had put on raincoats before setting out, so they weren’t afraid of getting wet.
From feeling the first raindrops to the rain intensifying, it happened in an instant.
But it was still quite unexpected, because the rain fell silently, without a sound.
Moreover, lightning continued to flash occasionally.
If not for being able to hear each other’s voices, they might really suspect they had gone deaf long ago.
Xuan Xia put on her raincoat hood, and just as she did, she suddenly heard a few rustling sounds.
She couldn’t help stopping, and Ren Tongjin also halted, standing at her side.
Xuan Xia listened again, but heard nothing.
She uncertainly lowered her voice and asked, “Did you hear any sounds just now?”
Ren Tongjin said, “I heard them.”
So it wasn’t her imagination.
The two stood in place, deliberately staying quiet and straining to listen, but there was no sound at all.
Ren Tongjin said, “Let’s keep going.”
Xuan Xia agreed, and the two continued forward, but now even more cautious, not daring to take large steps.
They walked like this for a stretch, but never heard any more unusual sounds.
But the soil, fully soaked by rainwater, had become slippery and even harder to traverse.
Xuan Xia was just thinking of suggesting they rest when she turned her gaze, just as lightning flashed, and her expression changed instantly, her breath catching in her throat.
Ren Tongjin saw her expression and immediately turned to look, soon wearing the same expression.
Just a few meters away, a massive Centipede was coiled around the trunk of a wild tree.
What shocked them wasn’t the Centipede, but its exposed abdomen; each segment was as long as a human face, because human faces were indeed growing on it, one next to another.
There were both men and women, old and young, all with the same expression: eyes closed.
They looked seemingly serene.
But whether they were truly serene, who could know.
Xuan Xia’s line of sight involuntarily lifted, landing on the Centipede’s head.
Its head was actually also a human head.
Likewise with eyes closed; because the hair was very long, it was hard to tell at first if it was a man’s or woman’s head.
Perhaps sensing Xuan Xia’s line of sight, that head slowly opened its eyes.
At the same time, the human faces below it also began to open their eyes one by one.
