Translator: Dj22031
Editor: Dj22031
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Jiang Lan deliberately controlled his speed, and only after he saw out of the corner of his eye that he was catching up did he finally speed up and run towards the village.
He was worried that the giant wouldn’t have left yet, and that making too much noise would alert him, so he deliberately circled around the woods and ruins. Because of the two days and two nights of fighting, this space was almost a complete mess. Even though Jiang Lan had intentionally avoided this direction beforehand, it was inevitable that he would be affected by the fighting. Now, there were collapsed mountain ruins and rows of fallen trees everywhere.
The situation only improved slightly when he reached the vicinity of the holy site.
Ya Zi followed behind him, waving its paws in disgust after a few steps, looking extremely annoyed. It was probably only out of curiosity that it had managed to follow Jiang Lan this far.
Jiang Lan found it amusing: “Even if this place is dirty, it can’t be as dirty as it was just now. At least there’s still a path to walk on.”
The two cautiously made their way through the ruins and hollows, neither of them exactly clean. Ya Zi, who hadn’t shown any disdain before, suddenly became disgusted now that they were in a clean place.
Ya Zi looked indignant, snorted at him, and stopped in her tracks, refusing to move forward.
Seeing this, Jiang Lan had no choice but to stop as well. Just as he was about to coax him a few more times, he suddenly heard a terrible wail coming from the forest. He turned his head sharply and saw a cold wind blowing from the direction of the Holy Land, with resentment rising into the sky. The sky that had just brightened suddenly darkened again.
He crouched low warily and said to Ya Zi, “I’ll go take a look.”
The wailing was distorted and hoarse, yet it sounded almost like a human voice.
Ya Zi grumbled twice in dissatisfaction. Seeing him head towards the holy land, he hesitated for a long time, but finally suppressed his disgust and followed him.
He didn’t actually know what was in the woods ahead, but his aversion to the place was instinctive. He only reluctantly came here when hunting.
Jiang Lan concealed his presence and approached the sacred site with light steps, wondering if the giants had encountered Wa villagers when they were looking for them.
But then he thought it was impossible. With the giant’s abilities, these Wa villagers were no different from ants or insects. He would either not notice them or crush them with his foot. It was impossible for the villagers to have the opportunity to hide in the holy land.
As he pondered this, he grew closer to the holy land, and the cries of anguish within became increasingly clear. The wailing of countless men, women, and children mingled together, carrying with them resentment that soared into the sky. He estimated that even from a hundred miles away, one could still hear it.
The wailing was hoarse and unpleasant, yet extremely jarring; listening to it for too long would involuntarily make one feel irritable, thus breeding resentment.
No wonder Ya Zi didn’t want to come here.
As Jiang Lan pondered, he had already stepped into the entrance of the holy land. Countless wails assaulted his ears. Jiang Lan paused, temporarily shutting off his hearing, and only after confirming Ya Zi’s condition did he fully enter.
The holy site remained the same holy site, with burning torches illuminating countless human head piles.
However, unlike the last time, the heads on the wooden stakes this time were all fresh, bleeding, and alive.
Flesh and blood grew from the withered bones, and the rotting flesh was reborn. All the heads of the sacrificial people seemed to have returned to the moment they were cut off. If you didn’t look below the neck, their appearances were as vivid as when they were alive.
But looking at the whole picture, there was only a lonely human head hanging on a wooden stake, imprisoned in a bamboo basket, with only the eyes and mouth able to move.
Each head stared angrily with its eyes wide open and its black mouth gaping open, venting its anger, resentment, and sorrow.
The sounds blended together, forming a torrent that enveloped Jiang Lan and Ya Zi as they approached, as if to make them taste the pain they had endured.
Jiang Lan suppressed his discomfort and glanced at the human head stakes.
Upon closer inspection, he discovered many familiar faces.
There were hikers who had once livestreamed their plea for help, and villagers from the village. They still retained their faces from when they were alive, but their eyes were filled with resentment and their mouths with mournful cries.
Jiang Lan’s heart grew heavier. Although he had long anticipated that there was something wrong with the villagers, he never imagined that these villagers had already died and that their heads were being offered up at the sacred sacrificial site.
What about the villagers he encountered before?
Did those living, breathing villagers, who seemed perfectly normal and even quite ordinary, know that they had been dead for a long time?
Jiang Lan was deep in thought when he felt Ya Zi push him from behind.
He immediately snapped out of his daze, only to notice that the “living” human heads all had dark, malevolent eyes staring at them.
These heads were immobile, but their eyes, whether looking directly at them or glancing sideways, were filled with intense resentment.
The scene was too bizarre, and there were too many unpredictable aspects to this space. Jiang Lan was unwilling to start a conflict rashly, so he kept staring at them while carefully retreating.
Those heads couldn’t catch up; they only followed them with their dark, cold gazes.
Even when they were far from the holy site, Jiang Lan still felt the sensation of being stared at from behind.
He turned his head to look at Ya Zi and saw that the other was slapping its paws impatiently, turning its head to look around, looking very uneasy.
“What’s wrong?” Jiang Lan looked around but found nothing.
Ya Zi knocked down a tree with one paw, but shook its head, indicating that it didn’t know.
But he was very irritable, as if something he hated was about to happen.
Unable to get a clear answer, Jiang Lan could only lead him further towards the village, which was on the only way down the mountain. If they wanted to leave, they would inevitably have to pass through the village.
He vaguely sensed that something might be wrong with the village, so he thought he should try not to disturb the village and leave with Ya Zi first.
The purpose of this trip was to find Ya Zi. Now that Ya Zi had been found, they could figure out the rest of the things in this space later.
However, things didn’t go as planned. Before the two even reached the village, they encountered villagers running around in the woods.
—They were headless, leaving only a bloodied body with their hands raised as they ran and crashed around.
In the village further away, countless headless bodies knelt in the square, prostrating themselves on the ground as if they were still alive, bowing and begging.
The entire village was now nothing but ruins.
Some villagers knelt and prayed, some ran around with their hands raised, and some, somehow, found their heads and were now devouring their companions’ bodies. Hearing the noise, they raised their heads and looked in Jiang Lan’s direction, their twisted expressions a mixture of resentment, pleasure, and greed.
They quickly abandoned their companions, raised their heads high, and crawled towards Jiang Lan on all fours.
“Come with me!” Jiang Lan sensed something was wrong, and with a low growl, he told Ya Zi to follow, then ran down the mountain.
Several villagers who had found their heads moved incredibly fast and chased after them relentlessly.
Just as they were chasing each other, a long howl suddenly came from the east. Then, the dark sky seemed to be dyed red, and gradually the red spread to the whole sky. In a short while, the whole sky was dyed red.
The entire sky was filled with an ominous blood-red hue.
The villagers chasing after Jiang Lan stopped, turned to look east, and roared angrily and venomously.
Jiang Lan also turned his head to look over and saw that the sky was so red that it looked as if the clouds were on fire.
Alarm bells rang in his mind instantly; he instinctively sensed danger. He slung Ya Zi, which he had grabbed in his mouth, over his shoulder and raced towards the exit down the mountain. But just as he drew closer, Jiang Lan suddenly heard the clanging of chains. Then, everything went black, and he lost consciousness.
As evening fell, the fiery clouds in the sky turned exceptionally brilliant, boldly burning the entire sky red.
Halfway up the mountain, two unidentified beasts, one large and one small, were sleeping on the mountain path.
The larger one was covered in jet-black scales, with a pair of curved, sharp horns on its head, and ears on either side of its head that resembled cow ears, with two small tufts of soft down growing beside them. It was clearly Jiang Lan in his original form. The smaller one resembled a jackal, with silver-gray fur, and two dragon-like horns that curved and pressed against its back. Even in its unconscious state, it still tightly held a short sword in its mouth. It was Ya Zi.
At this moment, Ya Zi was lying on Taotie’s tail. Probably feeling the pressure, he groggily opened his eyes and got up. Instinctively, he first checked his short sword, and after finding it intact, he relaxed. He then looked at his “paw pad” with a puzzled expression.
It looks familiar, but I can’t remember where I’ve seen it before.
He shook his head, feeling a strange familiarity with the sensation, as if he had experienced it many times before. But he quickly stopped worrying about it, because he saw the rings on the “paw pad’s” claws.
This ring looks like it should belong to him.
Ya Zi glanced at the still unconscious Taotie and eagerly reached out its paws to pry at the “ring”.
For some reason, he felt there must be something delicious inside that ring.
In short, it’s definitely the right thing to do to take it back first.
The “ring” seemed a bit tight, and he struggled for a long time without being able to get it off. Just as he was considering the possibility of taking the claws back with him, Taotie woke up.
Jiang Lan opened his eyes groggily, his scarlet vertical pupils showing obvious confusion as he looked around at the unfamiliar yet familiar surroundings.
He sat up unsteadily, and inadvertently knocked over Ya Zi next to him. Only after being yelled at did he finally notice Ya Zi beside him.
“Huh???”
Jiang Lan turned his head and stared at Ya Zi, blinking in confusion as he racked his brains trying to figure out what this little thing was.
He looked somewhat familiar, and he was quite cute.
He squinted and couldn’t resist reaching out his paw to swat at Ya Zi. However, he used too much force and accidentally pushed Ya Zi, who had just gotten up, back down.
“…”
Ya Zi roared at him angrily, opening his mouth to bite, but Jiang Lan quickly withdrew his hand and gave him a disapproving glance.
Then he thought to himself, “He’s pretty fierce.”
He tilted his head, staring at Ya Zi as he habitually reached for food. When he pulled out a handful of colorful pebbles, he paused, looking down in confusion at the pebbles on his paws and the strange rings on them.
As Jiang Lan stared at his paws in deep thought, Ya Zi also noticed the small stone he was holding in his paws.
His eyes lit up, and he jumped up to grab it, but Jiang Lan reacted faster, instinctively stuffing it all into his mouth. Then he glared angrily at Ya Zi, silently questioning, “What are you doing?!”
Then he realized that the thing in his mouth tasted pretty good?
He chewed it again, and the more he chewed, the more delicious it seemed. So he forgot about Ya Zi and started eating the gem with a crunching sound.
Ya Zi: !!!
He stared wide-eyed at Jiang Lan, his anger beyond measure.
And it felt like this scene had happened before!
Ugh! I’m so angry!
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