Chapter 279: Tail (5/10, Autumn Subscription)

Between refugees, as long as they're close enough, there is a special, secret way of communicating!

I bet those two are blocking my face to chat on the sly!

Th-this is way too third-wheel-ish!

Liao Moran felt something was off. Seeing Fang Yue and Weiba about to leave, she hurriedly said, "You two wait, where are you going? Take me along!"

The Captain isn't all that hard to meet.

But for a temporary Captain like Fang Yue, once this stretch of time passes and Fang Yue leaves Mo Cun, for an ordinary person to meet him again, they'd probably have to count in years.

So the moment Liao Moran felt herself becoming interested in Fang Yue, she immediately became proactive.

However...

"Take you along for what? It's very dangerous. Go back to the village with Liaodashi. Remember to put in a word for me with Liaodashi, just say the two of us saw them off."

Shaking his head slightly, Fang Yue took Weiba and headed outside.

Liao Moran froze for a beat. Watching Fang Yue and the other walk off into the distance, she hesitated, then quietly tailed behind them.

First, Fang Yue and the other left the temporary camp, then Liao Moran secretly followed after them. This scene, however, was caught by Hai Ming, who was off sulking on his own.

He froze for a beat, thought it over for a while, then quietly followed as well.

After Weiba met Ni Dongmei, she was told that her talent was outstanding and she could enter the Extreme Ice Sect, but she had to complete a Trial Mission.

If Ni Dongmei hadn't genuinely taught Weiba a few moves those few days, boosting her attributes, Weiba would probably have taken Ni Dongmei for some kind of swindler.

And once her strength had been raised to roughly the right level, the Trial Mission she'd mentioned before was arranged for Weiba.

The so-called Trial Mission was similar to running dailies—one small quest after another.

Weiba went from 【Yuanyuan Hill】 all the way to 【Ruoyun Stone Ground】, and the final quest pointed her to 【Maple Leaf Forest】.

It was only here that she finally found the last hint: she was to locate the Huanggui Yiji, enter it, and find a certain something.

"A certain something?"

"Mm, said to be a jade pendant, but not necessarily in the shape of a jade pendant, so they just said a certain something."

A jade pendant?

The first thing that came to Fang Yue's mind was the Soul-Settling Jade Pendant.

If they really were looking for the Soul-Settling Jade Pendant, then things might get complicated.

The Soul-Settling Jade Pendant is no simple item. Earlier, that group from the Wuyu Clan had auctioned off a Soul-Settling Jade Pendant, seemingly coming to Mo Cun for that very purpose.

And although the Soul-Settling Jade Pendant itself is special, the most special thing about it is the soul inside.

Depending on the soul within, the value of a Soul-Settling Jade Pendant would vary by heaven and earth.

"In her hints, did she say anything special about the jade pendant?"

Weiba shook her head. The information she'd gotten was very limited, and she vaguely felt that this Trial was something Ni Dongmei had set up in advance herself, just waiting for someone to come complete it. Except... the final ruin should be a truly unopened one.

In other words, after running that long quest chain, the actual real quest was just to enter the ruin and find the jade pendant; everything else was merely a topic Ni Dongmei had arranged.

Enter the ruin, get the jade pendant, the Trial is complete—otherwise it's a failure. That's all there was to it.

And the problem Weiba was troubled by was... she couldn't get into the ruin.

"This is it."

Weiba pointed at the cliff ahead and said, troubled, "Based on my investigations these past few days, and the hints from before, the entrance to the ruin is right below this cliff!"

As she spoke, Weiba also glumly took out the long, thick rope she'd braided herself from her backpack—over a hundred meters long, basically using up all the materials from Liaodashi's side. At the end, she'd even tied on some coarse cloth and other odd bits to add length.

But for a cliff, a rope of this length was nowhere near enough.

"I could go back to the village to gather more materials and make a longer rope, but Lord Ni Dongmei's meaning is that if I can't complete the Trial Mission in one go, the moment I return to the village, the Trial is a failure, and there won't be a next chance."

"At first, going by my own understanding, I thought Lord Ni Dongmei wanted me to hunt the strange creatures of Maple Leaf Forest, the guai-beasts, use their materials to make a longer rope, and thus descend to the bottom of the cliff to find and enter the Huanggui Yiji."

"But as I've gathered materials these past few days, and summed up what I've thought through... the more I feel... Lord Ni Dongmei seems to want me to just leap straight off the cliff."

Leap straight off?

Hearing Weiba say that, Fang Yue was instantly taken aback.

"Why would she want you to jump off the cliff? Is jumping the correct way to enter the ruin?"

Fang Yue pictured the scene for a moment. Though a bit fantastical, if there was an array running beneath the cliff, it would still be acceptable.

The problem was... Fengye Ya of Maple Leaf Forest had stood for so many years, and it was no stranger to people slipping and falling off, yet no one had ever survived.

Moreover... Fengye Ya had stood for so many years; even if there was an array below, without anyone maintaining it, the energy would have long since run out.

This was a completely different concept from Mo Cun's ancient array. Though Mo Cun's ancient array hadn't existed for a short time either, Mo Cun's Captains had all done their utmost to keep the array running. Every year, the cost Mo Cun poured into maintaining the ancient array was no small sum.

By that comparison, a wild array would have long since broken down—how could it possibly be preserved?

Unless Ni Dongmei had set one up on the spot, but Weiba had said that only this final ruin was one Ni Dongmei hadn't touched at all, preserved in its original state as the true Trial.

So Fang Yue couldn't figure out at all what Ni Dongmei was up to with making someone jump off the cliff. Could it be... she wanted people to test their luck? To see if there was anyone blessed with heaven-defying fortune who could jump off a cliff, not die, and still enter the ruin smoothly?

No no no! No matter how you think about it, that's too absurd. Who would scam people like that? Unless your luck was heaven-defying, jumping off a cliff would be certain death, alright?

"I feel... maybe you're thinking about it the wrong way. Perhaps Ni Dongmei doesn't want you to go down with a rope, but to take it one step at a time, kick out footholds on the cliff face like mountain-climbing, and descend bit by bit."

Descend?

Hearing Fang Yue's words, Weiba pictured the scene and felt it wasn't much safer than jumping off the cliff.

And... unlike Fang Yue, Weiba had come all the way here following Ni Dongmei's quest chain herself, so she could sense that Ni Dongmei really did want her to jump off the cliff!

This left Weiba very glum, feeling it was contradictory.

On one hand, she could tell Ni Dongmei genuinely wanted to take her into the Extreme Ice Sect; on the other, what was the difference between making her jump off a cliff and making her go to her death?

In short, Weiba couldn't figure out what Ni Dongmei was thinking, couldn't find a suitable way to reach the bottom of the cliff, and yet didn't want to just give up, go back to Mo Cun, admit Trial failure, and miss the chance. So she was just stuck here in Maple Leaf Forest burning time.

Old rule: as long as I haven't gone to sleep, it still counts as today. Expect to finish updating before 3 AM.

(End of this chapter)