Chapter 139

Only saw that the unstable space exit, after she was pushed out, rapidly shrank and vanished. Just before it completely disappeared, a somewhat disheveled figure shot out from it, fell to the ground, staggered a few steps before steadying.

It was Qianmian.

His face was as pale as paper, his robe torn in multiple places by energy, blood still at the corner of his mouth, his breathing somewhat ragged. Yet he too had managed to escape, and his injuries did not look fatal.

He steadied himself; the first thing he did was look toward Shi Ran, especially her wrist. Seeing the red thread calm down, a flash of complex, unfathomable light crossed his eyes, as if he breathed a sigh of relief, yet also felt deep apprehension… and… greed?

He leisurely wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, tidied his torn robe, and that inscrutable, habitual smile of his reappeared on his face, though somewhat forced.

"Looks…" he caught his breath, his voice hoarse from surviving the ordeal, yet he slipped back into his lazy tone, "Our luck isn't bad, sis. This 'shortcut' really is incredibly swift."

He glanced around, nodded: "That's right, this is the Black Tooth Hills on the outskirts of the Mist Forest. We… finally made it out."

Shi Ran stared at him blankly, then glanced behind at the spatial passage that had completely vanished, as if it had never existed, and felt the red thread on her wrist—now silent but still present.

A strong sense of fatigue and a huge, unreal unreality washed over her. Had she really escaped? Thanks to Qianmian's crazy decision and the red thread's uncontrollable power that had almost killed everyone?

Qianmian walked up to her, reached out his hand, as if wanting to pull her up.

"Come on, sis. Although we've left the core of the Mist Forest, it's not absolutely safe. We need to find a place to rest." His smile on his pale face looked a bit weak, but his eyes remained deep, "Moreover, about your enthusiastic performance just now, this 'little treasure' of yours, I think… we really need to have a good talk."

His gaze fell on her wrist, where the red thread lay like a sleeping scar.

Shi Ran didn't take his hand, struggling to her feet on her own. The brief joy of escaping the forest quickly gave way to deeper worry and doubt. The road ahead still seemed shrouded in mist, and the curse and gift on her wrist, together with this mysterious guide beside her, foretold that this strange journey was far from over.

The abyss might have been left behind for now, but she felt as if she carried a piece of it with her, pressing onward.

Under the night, the Black Tooth Hills were silent and still, yet seemed to hide new secrets.

Qianmian watched her rise on her own, not embarrassed, naturally withdrawing his hand; that weak yet playful smile on his face remained unchanged. "You've got backbone, sis. Conserving your strength wouldn't hurt—the road ahead… heh, might not be easy." He added meaningfully, then took the lead.

The Black Tooth Hills' terrain rose and fell gently, covered with low shrubs and a kind of black hard grass whose leaf edges were serrated; stepping on it produced a faint 'shush' sound, which stood out sharply in the excessive stillness.

Here the trees were no longer twisted and bizarre, but still not normal—most trunks leaned, bark coarse and blackened, as if soaked in ink. The air carried a faint tang of iron rust and some indescribable odor reminiscent of old blood, not the nauseating rot of the Mist Forest, yet equally oppressive.

Shi Ran followed silently a few steps behind Qianmian, struggling to regulate her breath, restoring her nearly exhausted spiritual power and stamina. The red thread on her wrist lay unusually still, transmitting no emotion or warmth, as if it had truly become an ordinary red mark, even feeling icy.

But this stillness only made her more uneasy; she clearly remembered how it had frenziedly devoured energy in the spatial passage, almost turning the tables. Qianmian's drop of dark‑gold blood seemed to be holding it in check—for now—but how long could that last?

"That drop of blood…" Shi Ran finally couldn't hold back, her voice low and hoarse from weakness, "What is it? It seems… able to restrain this red thread?"

Qianmian didn't look back, his steps unhurried, answering lazily: "Just a little 'warding‑off' trick, handed down from my ancestors—works surprisingly well on certain unclean things. Too bad there's not much; every drop used is a drop less." He paused, his tone tinged with inquiry, "Then again, sis, your 'symbiote' has quite the appetite—you dare swallow chaotic spatial energy? Aren't you afraid of bursting? Or… maybe it just likes this flavor."

Shi Ran's heart tightened. "I don't know. I can't fully control it."

"I can tell." Qianmian chuckled lightly. "Its activity level far exceeds my expectations, and… its draw to nodes is even sharper than my compass. This isn't something an ordinary 'curse' or 'symbiosis' could achieve. It's more like… a coordinate, or rather, a beacon."

"A beacon?" Shi Ran blinked.

"Yeah, it might be attracting something, or perhaps… pointing to something." Qianmian gave her wrist a meaningful glance. "Now I'm even more curious—who was the 'friend' that planted this in you, and what's their goal?"

Shi Ran pressed her lips shut, saying nothing. The origin of the red thread was her deepest secret; she couldn't lay it all out before this dangerous man.

Qianmian didn't press further, as if just mentioning it in passing. They continued trekking through the silent hills. Night deepened, the temperature dropped, and a chilly wind swept over the hills, wailing.

After about half an hour's travel, Qianmian ahead suddenly halted, raising a hand to signal caution.

"What's wrong?" Shi Ran asked in a lowered voice, scanning warily. Apart from the wind and the swaying black grass, she saw nothing.

Qianmian narrowed his eyes slightly; in the darkness his pupils seemed to flash a faint gold. He sniffed the air carefully. "The scent has changed. Something passed through here not long ago—quite a few of them—and… they carry a heavy stench of death and resentment."

He crouched, his fingers lightly brushing a patch of black hard grass that looked ordinary. Shi Ran leaned in and saw that on the underside of the blades, nearly invisible transparent slime had congealed, giving off a faint fishy odor—hard to notice unless one looked closely.

"These are the tracks of Night Patrollers," Qianmian said, standing up, his face growing solemn. "It looks like, although we've left the Mist Forest, we haven't fully escaped trouble's domain."

"Night Patrollers? What are they?"

"The Black Tooth Hills' 'Scavengers,'" Qianmian explained. "They're beings between spirit monsters and corpse puppets, with no fixed form—like pools of sticky shadow, usually moving in groups, devouring any living thing that carries spiritual energy. Their perception is keen; they especially like to chase wounded prey or those whose spiritual power is exhausted…" He said, giving Shi Ran a meaningful look.

Shi Ran's heart sank. She and Qianmian were in terrible shape—exactly the kind of target they'd be drawn to.

"Follow me, conceal all your breath, and try not to use spiritual power," Qianmian whispered, his lazy tone vanishing, replaced by a hunter's vigilance. He shifted direction, no longer marching straight ahead but using the terrain and shrubs for cover, moving in a more roundabout, concealed way.

Shi Ran followed closely, suppressing her breath to the minimum, each step taken with utmost care. The stillness between the hills became oppressively heavy, as if every clump of shrubs and every patch of shadow hid watching eyes. The faint tang of iron rust and bloodiness seemed to grow stronger as well.

After another quarter hour of walking, the feeling of being watched grew stronger. Shi Ran could even hear extremely faint sounds, like a wet object dragging across the ground, coming faintly from all directions.

Qian Mian suddenly yanked her, and the two quickly ducked behind a huge weathered rock. Almost at the same moment, the shadow not far ahead twitched, and several vague, humanoid black 'things' rose from the ground.

They had no facial features, their bodies like constantly flowing tar, edges indistinct, exuding a cold deathly aura and a greedy resentment. They hovered soundlessly, as if sensing something. A stronger stench of rot permeated the air.

These were the 'Night Patrollers'. Shi Ran held her breath, cold sweat beading on her palms. Individually, the creatures' aura wasn't particularly strong, but their number… she sensed no fewer than ten, and more kept emerging from the shadows.

Qian Mian's eyes turned icy; he gave Shi Ran an absolute silence gesture. He slowly pulled out several pale yellow talismans from his bosom, flicked his fingers, and the talismans silently adhered to the rock where they hid, forming an extremely thin isolation barrier.

The Night Patrollers lingered in place for a moment, seeming to have lost a clear target, then began to spread out in a dragnet search. The nearest one almost scraped the rock they hid behind; its cold deathly aura made Shi Ran's skin break out in gooseflesh.

Time passed bit by bit; the Night Patrollers' search radius expanded, yet they did not stray far. They seemed to have concluded that the prey was somewhere in this area.

At that moment, the red thread on Shi Ran's wrist, which had lain dormant, twitched slightly without warning! Though extremely faint, more like an unconscious spasm, a trace of an abyssal aura still leaked out.

Qian Mian's face changed drastically!

Almost at the same instant, all the wandering Night Patrollers jerked to a halt and turned in unison toward the rock they hid behind. The faceless 'faces' seemed to split open a fissure, emitting a soundless yet piercing, soul‑stabbing hunger‑filled hiss.

"We've been found! Run!" Qian Mian snarled, no longer bothering to conceal himself, he grabbed Shi Ran and burst out from behind the rock.

The fragile barrier formed by the talismans shattered instantly under the swarm of Night Patrollers; they surged like a breached black tide, silently and swiftly lunging at the two.

Qian Mian moved with extreme speed, dragging Shi Ran as they sprinted across the hills. But the Night Patrollers were faster, flowing along the ground like ghostly shadows, quickly closing the distance. A cold deathly aura spread from behind, nearly freezing their marrow.

"We can't outrun them like this!" Shi Ran exclaimed, feeling the chill from behind drawing ever closer.

Qian Mian's eyes hardened; he violently shook off Shi Ran's hand: "Keep running forward! Don't look back!" Having said that, he suddenly turned to face the oncoming black tide.

He swiftly formed hand seals, chanting ancient, obscure syllables. A wild, violent aura unlike spiritual power erupted from his body. His eyes turned completely dark gold, and faint, non‑human scale patterns appeared on his forehead.

"Get lost!" he bellowed, thrusting both palms forward.

Boom!

A dark‑gold wall of fire sprang into existence, not scorching but radiating a majestic power that incinerates impurity and suppresses evil spirits. The leading Night Patrollers, caught off guard, slammed into the wall and immediately let out shrill wails, their bodies melting and evaporating like ice under a blazing sun.

The dark‑gold fire wall temporarily held back the flood of Night Patrollers. But these mindless things showed no fear; the ones behind surged forward in waves, each impact dimming the wall's glow. Qian Mian maintained the wall, his face growing paler, his body trembling slightly—obviously the technique exacted a heavy toll on him.

"Hurry!" he roared at Shi Ran without looking back.

Shi Ran gritted her teeth, knowing this was no time to hesitate. She turned and sprinted forward with all her might. Behind her came the frenzied impacts of the Night Patrollers and Qian Mian's suppressed groan.

She didn't know how far she had run, until her lungs burned as if on fire, her legs felt heavy as if filled with lead. She couldn't help but glance back.

In the distance, the dark-gold fire wall had become extremely thin, Qianmian's figure was surrounded and engulfed by countless surging black shadows... In the next instant, a piercing dark-gold light burst forth like a small sun, instantly clearing a large area of the surrounding night patrollers! Qianmian's figure stumbled out from the explosion's center, speed exploding to the extreme, rushing toward her from that direction, while behind him, even more night patrollers surged from all directions, relentlessly pursuing!

"Ahead! Jump down!" Qianmian's hoarse voice came, pointing to a steep slope not far away.

Shi Ran had no time to think, she rushed to the top of the slope and leapt downward! Below the slope lay a denser black forest.

She landed hard, rolling to cushion the impact, acquiring several scrapes. Immediately afterward, Qianmian also jumped down, landing much more steadily than she did, but his steps were unsteady—clearly the earlier blast had added injury to injury.

"This way!" He grabbed Shi Ran and ducked into the dense black forest. Here the trees' branches and leaves drooped and intertwined, forming a natural barrier that to some extent hindered those moving night patrollers.

The two stumbled through the dense forest, the hissing sounds and deathly aura behind them, though slowed and weakened by the trees, still clung like shadows.

Just as Shi Ran was about to exhaust her last bit of strength, a faint light appeared faintly ahead.

That light was extremely weak, a dim yellow like a bean, yet in this pitch-black hill and forest it stood out like a beacon.

Qianmian's spirits lifted: "Quick! That's the place!"

They desperately ran toward the light. After pushing through the last patch of blocking brush, the view suddenly opened up.

It was a small clearing in the woods. In the center of the clearing stood a low, crude hut built of rough black stone and wood. That faint yellow light came from the oil lamp shining through the hut's sole small window.

The shabby hut looked extremely crude, even on the verge of collapsing, but oddly, the frenzied and greedy night patrollers chasing after them, upon rushing to the edge of the clearing, seemed to hit an invisible wall, letting out unwilling hisses, yet no matter what they dared not step beyond the thunder pool one step; they could only wander and wriggle around the shadow's periphery of the clearing, like waves striking reefs, yet unable to intrude even a bit.