Chapter 138

His gaze was icy and firm, revealing that if Shi Ran insisted on not leaving, he would likely resort to force.

Shi Ran bit her lip hard. She again felt the suffocating sensation of being driven to desperation. Trust Qianmian? She couldn't. But staying put? That was a dead end.

The red thread on her wrist throbbed again, this time bringing a vague pulling sensation toward the distance.

Finally, she nodded with difficulty, her voice hoarse: "... Lead the way."

Qianmian's face showed a victorious smile, but deep within that smile lay a hint—something even he himself had not fully noticed—of anticipation and apprehension toward the unknown.

He quickly gathered the beast bones he had laid out for the formation, and the eerie sound from outside the tree hollow instantly became clearer.

"Stay close, sis." Qianmian's voice merged into the heavy night and mist: "The road ahead—even I… must tread with extreme caution. I hope your 'little treasure' brings us luck this time, not… greater trouble."

The two went one after the other, once again sneaking into the pitch‑black night where visibility was nearly zero. This time, the guide was not only Qianmian's experience but also a strange summons from deep within the Misty Forest, faintly resonating with the red thread on Shi Ran's wrist.

The path ahead grew ever more rugged and hard to travel, often requiring climbing slippery giant fungal stalks or detouring around bottomless fissures that exuded a rotten stench. The surrounding trees took on increasingly bizarre shapes, twisted and knotted like solidified agony.

Meanwhile, the red thread on Shi Ran's wrist throbbed with increasing frequency, its icy touch beginning to warm, as if something slumbering was gradually being awakened.

The thick mist was no longer a diffuse background; it had become a tangible, malevolent living thing. It coiled around their hands and feet, trying to slip into their mouths and noses, each breath bringing a suffocating sensation of decay and fungal sweetness.

Qianmian moved with extreme speed, darting through the nearly pitch‑black, tangled woods like a fish returning to the sea, always precisely avoiding the deadly traps hidden in the mist that emitted faint phosphorescence—sometimes a sudden fissure opened, a slime‑covered pit; sometimes a silent vine dropped, seeking to coil around their necks.

Shi Ran exerted all her strength just to keep up; her spiritual power was drained enormously and her stamina neared its limit. But what most unsettled her was the red thread on her wrist, growing ever more active.

Its throbbing was no longer feeble but turned into a continuous, low hum; its temperature rose from lukewarm to scalding, as if a piece of metal about to melt were pressed against her skin.

A vague yearning, a sense of being pulled in a direction, was continuously transmitted through the red thread into the depths of her consciousness, astonishingly matching the direction Qianmian was leading.

This feeling frightened her. It was no longer an inanimate object, nor merely a symbiont; it seemed like a living entity with its own will, being strongly drawn by some kindred presence deep in the forest.

"Where exactly are we going?" Shi Ran panted, her voice weak in the mist.

"A 'node'." Qianmian didn't turn back, his voice distorted by the mist: "The Misty Forest is not a uniform whole; inside it there are… naturally formed energy convergence points or spatial weak spots. They are usually dangerous, but also hold opportunity. The fluctuation we just sensed points to one of those active nodes. Passing through it, we might instantly cross a large hazardous stretch and reach the far side of the forest."

"What about the risk?" Shi Ran pressed, the burning sensation on her wrist making it hard to believe this was merely an "opportunity."

"Risk?" Qianmian chuckled lightly, with an almost manic excitement: "Maybe we'll be torn apart by the chaotic energy inside the node, maybe we'll be sent to an even more dreadful dead zone, maybe we'll provoke whatever guards the node… Who knows? But it's still better than being made into dumplings by the Pure Dust Bureau, or being ripped apart alive by those increasingly restless 'neighbors' outside, right?"

He seemed to utterly relish this knife‑edge, blood‑licking thrill. Shi Ran even wondered that, even without the threat of the Pure Dust Bureau, once he noticed this node's anomaly he would unhesitatingly come to explore it.

The surrounding environment began to change markedly. The trees were no longer twisted black trunks but displayed an eerie, semi‑translucent ash‑gray texture, as if all life had been drained, leaving only a cold mineral husk.

The ground became hard, covered with a fine layer of shimmering crystal powder. The mist here actually thinned a bit, but visibility did not improve, because the air was filled with a field that distorted light, making everything appear as if seen through a rippling water layer.

That low, throbbing sound like a giant heart beating grew clearer and stronger—dong… dong… dong…—each beat making Shi Ran feel her own heart resonate, producing a nauseous urge to vomit. The red thread on her wrist trembled excitedly, even emitting a faint red glow, like an eager hound.

"Looks like our little guide likes this place too." Qianmian glanced at her wrist, tone teasing: "Calm its emotions, sis; drawing unnecessary attention before we arrive would be bad."

Shi Ran struggled to suppress the turmoil in her heart and the agitation transmitted by the red thread, but this was nearly impossible. The will of the red thread was growing stronger, trying to influence her in return.

After advancing another stretch, the view ahead suddenly opened up.

They seemed to have arrived at the entrance of a massive underground cavern, but the cavern's structure was anything but natural. Before them lay an enormous, downward‑spiraling pit, its walls smooth as glazed porcelain, presenting a bizarre form as if instantly melted by extreme heat and then solidified.

In the depths of the pit, a thick, almost tangible green‑tinged mist swirled, the throbbing sound emanating from its deepest part; each pulse caused the green mist within the cavern to flash in and out like breathing.

Around the pit's edge lay countless gigantic, unidentifiable white bones, some still bearing massive tooth marks or tearing wounds. The air reeked of suffocating energy pressure and an ancient, barbaric terror.

Is this the "node"? It clearly resembles the lair entrance of some terrifying entity!

"This is the place." Qianmian's expression turned utterly solemn as he carefully examined the markings on the cavern wall and those bones, his eyes flickering: "It's even more… 'active' than I imagined. It seems something has just used this node, or… just emerged from it."

He crouched, pinched a speck of the cavern wall's crystal powder between his fingers, brought it to his nose to sniff, and his face shifted slightly: "It's 'Youjin'… residue left when a high‑level demon tears through spatial barriers. It looks like our 'shortcut' was opened just now by a formidable 'friend'."

Shi Ran felt a chill run down her spine. A being that had just departed, capable of rending space—a high‑level demon? Are we now to walk in its footsteps, treading on its tail?

"Are we still going in?" Shi Ran's voice was laced with disbelief.

"Of course." Qianmian stood up, his eyes burning even more fiercely, "It just left; the passage is the most stable, and the lingering aura can help us intimidate some petty troublemakers. This is the best time!" He looked at Shi Ran's wrist, "And your red thread… isn't it already eager?"

Indeed, the red thread was scalding hot, even tightening slightly around her wrist, a powerful pull dragging her toward the bottomless green abyss. Shi Ran could barely control her steps.

Qianmian hesitated no longer, pulling from his bosom the jade talisman he had used before, engraved with the ancient seal characters "Breaking Barrier." As soon as it appeared, it emitted a sharp buzz, its light flashing rapidly across the surface—clearly the spatial energy here was extremely unstable and violent.

"Stay close to me! No matter what you see or hear, don't stop! And don't stray more than three steps from my side!" Qianmian barked, his earlier leisurely ease vanishing, replaced by utter focus and gravity.

He drew a deep breath and violently poured his spiritual power into the talisman.

Buzz!

The talisman burst forth with an unprecedented blinding light, like a sword viciously stabbing into the rolling green mist ahead. Where the light passed, the mist violently boiled and split to the sides, revealing a passage barely wide enough for one person, extremely unstable. Inside, the light was bizarre and varied—no longer a cave scene but twisting, rotating color shards and fragmented space debris; the tremendous throbbing sound here became a deafening roar.

"Go!" Qianmian lowly growled, stepping first into the passage.

Shi Ran gritted her teeth, nearly dragged by the red thread around her wrist, and rushed in as well.

As soon as she entered the passage, a spinning vertigo struck her instantly, as if she had fallen into a high‑speed rotating drum, the immense centrifugal force threatening to tear her apart.

Around them there was no visual scenery, only pure energy turbulence violently assaulting her senses. The light from Qianmian's talisman formed a fragile shield, barely holding them together, but outside it raged a spatial storm capable of instantly annihilating a Golden Core cultivator.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

The throbbing sound here became a tangible shockwave, continually striking the shield. Each impact dimmed the talisman's light a fraction and paled Qianmian's face further; even a trickle of blood seeped from the corner of his mouth, showing how arduous it was to maintain the passage.

Worse still, Shi Ran's red thread, in this pure and violent energy environment, had mutated!

It was no longer content with merely buzzing and heating; it shot up from Shi Ran's wrist, blazing red! One end remained coiled around her wrist, while the other end frenziedly grew and spread, like a hungry poisonous snake greedily devouring the rampant spatial energy around them.

"What are you doing?!" Qianmian exclaimed, shocked and angry. The red thread's action was like tearing a hole in a storm, instantly drawing in even more violent energy surges!

The red thread ignored him completely, jubilantly dancing in the energy turbulence; with each bit of energy it absorbed, its hue grew more vivid and its form seemed to solidify and thicken. It even tried to break free of Shi Ran's bonds, aiming to plunge wholly into the energy sea.

Shi Ran let out a painful groan, feeling her spiritual power and consciousness being frenziedly siphoned by the red thread to fuel its greedy consumption. At the same time, countless chaotic, violent, destruction‑tinged fragmented perceptions poured through the thread into her mind, assaulting her sanity.

"Control it! Otherwise we'll all die!" Qianmian roared, desperately driving the talisman.

Shi Ran focused all her will, even attempting to summon the seven‑colored fire lotus to counter the abyssal demonic power, using every means she had to pull the red thread back.

But the red thread's power was now astonishing; her resistance was like an ant trying to shake a tree. Seeing the shield about to shatter, Qianmian's eyes flashed with ruthlessness; he suddenly freed a hand, swiftly formed a strange seal, and forced out a drop of dark‑gold blood, flicking it hard at the wildly dancing red thread.

That drop of blood seemed to carry some strange restraining power; upon contacting the red thread it emitted a piercing "zizzle." The thread shuddered violently, its devouring action stalled momentarily, and its light dimmed somewhat.

It was precisely this momentary stall! Qianmian seized the chance, bellowed wildly, and poured all his spiritual power into the talisman without reservation.

"Breaking Barrier! Open!"

The talisman exploded with a boom! Yet the energy from the blast did not disperse; instead it condensed into an extremely thin, blinding white spear, like a needle's tip piercing the rotating chaotic energy barrier ahead!

A barely passable, extremely unstable exit suddenly appeared! Outside was no longer the gloomy green cavern, but a hazy, normal night!

"Go!" Qian Mian grabbed the nearly exhausted Shi Ran with one hand and, using all his remaining strength, shoved her hard toward that exit!

Shi Ran felt as if she had been flung by a catapult, violently bursting out of that terrifying passage. The tremendous roar and the sensation of space being torn apart vanished instantly; she crashed heavily onto the cold, damp ground, rolling over and over for more than ten turns before stopping, her whole body aching as if her bones had been scattered.

She coughed violently, struggling to lift her head.

Before her eyes was no longer the suffocating forest filled with twisted trees and thick mist. The sky remained overcast and starless, but the omnipresent gloomy green phosphorescence and the maddening sense of oppression had vanished. Though the air was still damp, it was no longer the rotten, sweet stench; instead it carried the normal scent of plants and earth. She even heard a faint owl's call in the distance.

She……had she gotten out?

Shi Ran struggled to sit up and look around. This place resembled an ordinary hillside, with normal trees and a tranquil night. Had she truly escaped the Misty Fog Forest?

The red silk thread coiled quietly around her wrist, its temperature having dropped, even dimmer than before—as if the frenzied devouring just now had drained its power, and that drop of dark-gold blood from Qian Mian seemed to have exerted some suppression upon it. Yet it still existed, like a sleeping demon, temporarily dormant but not gone.

A faint sound came from behind her. Shi Ran snapped her head around, her whole body tensing.