sinovels Chapter 964 Heartbeat in the Mountains
Chapter 964 Heartbeat in the Mountains
The reason is simple—the person in front of me was walking too steadily.
A man walked for an hour in the wasteland of ashes, knowing that someone was following him, but he neither quickened his pace nor took a detour, and did not even turn his head once.
This composure suggests either that he was completely unaware of the danger, or that he simply didn't care.
Lin Qiye is clearly not the former.
Tieji gritted his teeth: "Follow him! He's leading the way, and we're following behind. Even if something happens, he'll look for him first, not us. Besides—" His gaze turned icy, "You should know Lord Lei Sha's orders. If we lose him, what will happen when we go back?"
The two scouts turned pale at the same time.
They certainly knew that.
Thunderfury's punishments for failure are notoriously cruel in the arena. The scout who failed the last mission was said to have had his hands and feet crippled and thrown into the lowest dungeon in the arena, where he has yet to climb out.
"Go." Without further hesitation, Tieji waved his hand and slid out from behind the pile of bones, moving silently forward along the layer of ash like a gray-white snake.
The other two exchanged a glance, gritted their teeth, and followed.
……
Lin Qiye could sense that his pursuers were still behind him—they were more patient than he had expected. He had originally thought that the three scouts would give up after seeing him change direction, but now it seemed that Lei Sha's assassins were more disciplined than ordinary gladiators.
He didn't look back, nor did he quicken his pace, continuing forward at his usual rhythm. The wind grew stronger, swirling up clouds of grayish-white powder, like countless tiny bone fragments dancing in the air. He squinted slightly, and through the hazy mist, the outline of the black mountain became increasingly clear.
Just like I remember.
The mountain resembled a giant black sword thrust into the earth, entirely black and devoid of any vegetation. Its surface was covered with cracks as if it had been repeatedly ravaged by some terrifying force. A layer of dark gray mist swirled around the mountainside, completely different from the grayish-white fluff drifting down from the sky—that gray was thicker, more stagnant, as if it possessed a life of its own.
He could already feel the faint pressure in the air. Just like last time, the pressure wasn't intense, but it was omnipresent, as if the entire mountain itself was a living thing, slowly breathing in its slumber. With each step he took closer, he felt as if an invisible hand was gently pressing on his shoulder—the pressure wasn't strong, but it was enough to send a chill down his spine.
The three scouts did indeed slow down.
They stopped on a gentle slope about ten miles from the foot of the mountain, no longer advancing, but lying there at a distance, like three stones embedded in a layer of ashes. They were waiting, waiting for him to enter the mountain's range, waiting for him to give up and retreat, or waiting for the main force to arrive.
Lin Qiye ignored them and continued walking forward.
As he stepped across that invisible dividing line—a natural barrier extending ten miles in radius from the foot of the mountain—the oppressive force in the air suddenly doubled. It felt as if the pressure surged directly up from the depths of the earth, seeping into his veins through the soles of his boots, carrying an ancient and bloodthirsty chill.
Lin Qiye paused slightly before resuming his pace. His gaze swept across the ground ahead—the layer of ashes there had an unusual dark red hue, as if it had been soaked in a large amount of blood and dried countless times. Scattered among the ashes were fragments of armor and weapon remnants, rusted and some already crystallized with the ashes.
He crouched down and picked up a fragment of the armor plate. The fragment had jagged edges, as if it had been torn apart by some enormous force, and a faint trace of dark gray primal energy remained at the break—exactly the same as the aura in the mist halfway up the mountain.
Lin Qiye threw away the armor plate, stood up, and continued walking towards the mountain.
Dark gray mist surged around him, trying to crawl into his mouth, nose, and pores like a living thing. He was already prepared—the power of the Blood Demon within him circulated slightly, forming an extremely thin black-red barrier on the surface of his skin, keeping the gray mist out.
Visibility was extremely low, less than twenty feet. The ground beneath his feet was no longer entirely composed of ashes, but was mixed with a large amount of black gravel and crystallized bone fragments. Those bone fragments gleamed with a fluorescent blue light in the dim light, exactly like the crystal fragments he had encountered before.
He slowed his pace, his eyes quickly scanning his surroundings.
The place where he last encountered that giant beast was on the other side of the mountain. This time, he chose the east side of the mountain. Judging from the outline of the mountain he saw in mid-air last time, the east side should be farther away from the giant beast's lair and relatively safer.
He didn't intend to venture deep into the mountain; he simply wanted to cross its edge and circle around to the other side to continue towards the Bone Ruins. The mountain was too vast, and circling around it would take several more days—a time he couldn't afford to waste.
More and more bone fragments lay beneath his feet, some even piling up into small hills. He rounded a small hill made of bone fragments, and the mist ahead suddenly thinned out, revealing a huge black object half-buried in grayish-white ashes.
Lin Qiye's pupils contracted slightly.
It's that stone tablet.
The stone tablet he had seen after the crystal went berserk was about three feet tall, its surface covered with cracks. The cracks resembled some kind of ancient script, but they were so badly damaged that they were completely unrecognizable. He still remembered the images that flooded his mind the moment his fingers touched the surface of the stone tablet—the falling figure, the hand reaching down from a higher dimension, and the shattered bones scattered into the ashes of this wasteland.
The stone tablet is still there.
Moreover, there were no traces of crystal spread around; the fluorescent blue crystal clusters seemed to have completely subsided after the explosion. Lin Qiye stopped in front of the stone tablet and looked down at it. The cracks on the surface of the stone tablet remained dim and did not emit light, as if they had completely lost their vitality.
He did not reach out to touch it again.
He didn't want to take the risk a second time, as the last time he touched the stone tablet, it almost caused a backlash.
He walked around the stone tablet and continued on his way.
Dark gray mist surged behind him, once again obscuring the stone tablet.
After walking for about half an hour, he had passed through the steepest section at the foot of the mountain. The terrain ahead began to level out, and the grayish-white layer of ashes thickened again. At this pace, he could walk for another hour or so to bypass the outer area of the mountain and rejoin the route to the Bone Ruins.
Just when Lin Qiye thought everything was going smoothly, a very subtle vibration suddenly came from the layer of ashes beneath his feet.
The tremor was extremely faint; if his Blood Demon power hadn't been in a state of high alert, it would have been almost impossible to detect. The tremor didn't come from afar, but from beneath his feet—from the very depths of the earth, one tremor after another, like a heartbeat.