Translator: transcendent.wings
Thank you to the editors who tried out: Alygams, dancing.in.the.rain, JP, Mythos, Turquoise_Reina, and Wolf
With 15 kilometers of ground that could only be covered on foot, not to mention a person to carry as well, it was only natural that they progressed at a snail’s pace.
Fortunately, the person wasn’t too heavy and could be carried effortlessly, although, that was probably only because he was burned until only a human husk remained.
The path he took was also deserted to the extent that not a single serpent, worm, rat, or ant could be seen.
Besides, their destination was particularly eye-catching.
From 15 kilometers away, Xu Xingzhi could already see a the tall and upright tower in the Southeast. It directly reached for the heavens, surrounded by floating lights and sparkling specks of gold. A closer inspection of the surroundings showed that only that area had traces of human activity.
Even without the black figure navigating, Xu Xingzhi would’ve chosen to head over there without hesitation anyway.
Daylight didn’t exist in the savage wasteland, the backdrop of sky was hazy, like the nebulous corneal deposits in the eyes of the elderly. It should’ve recently rained pretty heavily here and the rainstorm must’ve just passed since the sky was dim and the trees in the forest were still lush with drops of rain like a rippling green tide.
Xu Xingzhi trudged through the forest with a burnt body at death’s door on his back.
In the end, the surroundings were just too quiet, quiet to the point that a person would feel unnerved, so Xu Xingzhi started to whistle in order to break the silence.
The whistling sound was so crisp and refreshing that it seemed to be able to seep into damp rock.
He quite smoothly finished whistling a classical tune, then complimented himself sincerely: “I whistled pretty well, if I do say so myself.”
The person on his back shifted slightly and a breath of hot air swept across his neck.
. . . He seemed to be laughing.
However, when Xu Xingzhi turned around to take a look, the other’s head was just resting quietly on his back, motionless.
It was probably just an illusion ba.
Past the woods, craggy hills began to emerge for the first time. Xu Xingzhi had walked until his legs turned into jelly. He was so exhausted that he randomly picked a cool and dry cave and slipped into it.
There was a moss-covered rock in the cave. Xu Xingzhi wanted to prop the other against it, but he discovered that it was as if that pair of arms had become stiff and rigid and were exhausting nearly all its strength to encircle his neck, barely leaving him enough room to breathe.
Xu Xingzhi would be perfectly fine if he didn’t put him down but if he did decide to lay him down and was even just a little inattentive while doing it, he would’ve easily strangled himself to death.
Xu Xingzhi felt quite helpless. He didn’t dare pat the other’s body for fear that he’d accidentally jolt his fragile arms and legs off if he was even a slight bit careless: “‘Ai’, wake up. Can you get up?”
The person behind him wriggled slightly in response.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
Xu Xingzhi said: “Let’s rest here for a while. Let go of me.”
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Even though the other’s face was so ghastly, Xu Xingzhi’s heart was actually quite calm.
On one hand, he’d just fought that monster in close quarters and had its blood splashed all over his face, so right now he would be able to remain unperturbed no matter what he saw.
On the other hand, in the savage wasteland where all sorts of monstrous things congregated, a monster that pretty much still maintained a humanoid form wouldn’t be too terrifying.
Xu Xingzhi settled the person down on the rock then attentively removed his own outer robe and wrapped it on the other’s body as he replied: “. . . Not leaving.”
The burnt empty eye sockets of that person looked straight at Xu Xingzhi, weakly inquiring: “Why did you save me?”
Xu Xingzhi tucked the robe in for him: “Why are there so many whys?”
He murmured: “If I had died on your back, what would you do?”
Xu Xingzhi felt that it was pretty amusing: “Naturally I’d carry you home ah. Is it possible that I’d just abandon you halfway?”
After he said so, he stood up and declared: “There’s a river outside, I’ll haul some water back. Don’t let the robe slide down, otherwise don’t complain that it hurts if it tears your skin open.”
The other grabbed the robes that Xu Xingzhi had snuggly wrapped him up in tightly like a puppy dog: “. . . It doesn’t hurt.”
After Xu Xingzhi left, he snatched up the sleeve of the robe and sniffed at it greedily.
Pieces of his skin flaked off with the pulling motion but he seemed unable to register any of the pain in the first place.
He quietly chanted: “Shixiong, shixiong.”
Xu Xingzhi left the cave and proceeded to squat down by the river. He lacked a sense of reality in his heart that haunted him persistently.
He leaned over and attempted to wash the blood stains off his hands. However the metallic stench of blood only became thicker and more intense as he scrubbed over and over, making it difficult for anyone to endure.
Xu Xingzhi’s knees suddenly gave out. He leaned over by the river side and retched quite a few times without actually vomiting anything up.
He wiped his mouth and laid down, then he touched his waist and gazed up at the boundless green-colored sky.
That dagger that was supposedly soaked with the spiritual aura of heaven and Earth was still fastened there, reminding Xu Xingzhi of his incomplete mission.
Xu Xingzhi didn’t notice that a serpent with a head the size of a dustpan was slowly slithering out of the woods dozens of meters away.
Only the head of the serpent remained whole while its torso was just a skeleton with chunks of rotten flesh connected by just a few strands of muscle.
The serpent noiselessly flicked it’s bright red tongue as it slithered in Xu Xingzhi’s direction, exercising its lower jaw.
Its jaw was opened wide enough that it could bite off Xu Xingzhi’s head in one motion.
But Xu Xingzhi was ignorant and oblivious to it all as he spaced out.
The serpent crept closer to Xu Xingzhi inch by inch, then stopped when it was only a mere 30 meters away.
A moment later, it seemed to have sensed a terrifying aura and decisively turned around 180 degrees, fleeing frantically. The serpent’s bones made a sharp chacha sound as it slid across the ashen ground.
Upon hearing the abnormal noise, Xu Xingzhi immediately touched the dagger at his waist then stood up and looked back—
It was completely deserted except for the strange tracks that wound all the way to the edge of the woods until it disappeared.
. . . F*ck.
Xu Xingzhi decided that this wasn’t a place where one should linger in for too long. He smoothly plucked a broad leaf from a tree by the river, cleansed it and then casually rolled it up to collect some water.
While he was filling up, he inadvertently caught a glimpse of his own reflection on the surface of the water.
Even with the knowledge that this place was dangerous, Xu Xingzhi still couldn’t help but spend some time trapped in a daze.
This face really wasn’t that bad. The overall appearance was tall and slender paired with a rather gallant bearing and distinguished air. When the face was expressionless, he would seem quite average, but once an expression spreads, his facial features would open up. From his eyebrows to his eyes then down to his mouth and nose, all of it aligned with the word “handsome”.
Probably because the temperament was too regal and solemn plus the presence of a teardrop mole adorning the corner of his left eye that you would detect traces of asceticism and coldness when Xu Xingzhi had a stern look on his face.
Xu Xingzhi couldn’t believe that the Heavens actually wasted such a godly face on himself, this annoying chatterbox.
As Xu Xingzhi lamented, the serpent that had slithered back into the forest was soundlessly writhing in agony on the ground.
Its joints were being fractured one by one by some mysterious force. Each snap resounded like a harshly twisted stalk of grass.
When Xu Xingzhi returned to the cave, the black figure was already sitting up and was in the middle of twisting a strand of withered grass in his hands.
He had already formed several breaks starting from the root of the withered grass.
Counting off as he folded it: “. . . 5, 6, 7. . .”
Then upon noticing Xu Xingzhi’s return, he hid his hands behind his back as he looked up at him.
. . . It was an oddly obedient and cute gesture.
Xu Xingzhi noticed that he had recovered some energy and urged after feeding him some water: “Let’s hurry and leave. There’s something not quite right about this place.”
The black figure nodded, tossed the stalk of grass that he’d folded into several sections aside, and then stretched out his two arms, his demand was clear.
. . . He wanted to be carried.
Xu Xingzhi sized him up: “It doesn’t look like you’re injured too heavily. Get up and walk by yourself.”
The black figure didn’t move and just looked up at Xu Xingzhi.
Xu Xingnzhi confronted him for a few seconds, unmoved: “Get up.”
The black figure continued to keep his arms stretched out, but his chin was slightly tucked in unexpectedly displaying an extremely aggrieved countenance.
Xu Xingzhi held out against the face of that man so burnt that his facial features couldn’t be distinguished for an instant longer before his eyebrows wrinkled with impatience: “. . .Tsk.”
When they exited the cave again, the black figure was lying on Xu Xingzhi’s back exactly like before, though he was cocooned in Xu Xingzhi’s outer robe this time around.
Xu Xingzhi rolled up his trouser legs and waded towards the opposite bank of the river, while the black figure turned his head to look back upon the dense woods with a cold smile.
There the skeletal serpent lay collapsed in the woods, it’s bones already twisted into a pile of mush, while the ground was littered with the remnants of a struggle.
Its body laid amongst the weeds, long dead.
Soon a goup of ants the size of broad beans rushed out of their nest and picked the bones of the skeletal serpent clean in a matter of seconds.
However strangely enough, when they passed the footprints Xu Xingzhi left behind earlier as he crossed the woods, they not only avoided them in fear but also went directly around them as if they were avoiding a terrible wild beast that just passed by.
A 15 kilometer journey without any conversation would inevitably be a little boring, so Xu Xingzhi ended up spending more than 10 of those kilometers sorting out the remaining memories of the original owner. After doing so, he realized that most of them were just sporadic and scattered fragments that could not be pieced together to form even a remotely complete memory. It was to such an extent that even Meng Chongguang’s appearance was vague and blurred.
Xu Xingzhi thought that it was peculiar at first, however after some consideration, he realized that it was reasonable. These memories were stripped from a dead person so even if there were any ambiguities present, it wouldn’t be that out of place.
Now the only thing that he knew for sure was that Meng Chongguang had a cinnabar mole in the center of his forehead.
If he wanted to kill Meng Chongguang, he’d have to stab there.
As he’d be bored either way, Xu Xingzhi took the initiative to start a conversation with the person on his back: “How did you get hurt?”
That person responded hoarsely: “. . . Fell prey to a plot.”
Xu Xingzhi asked again: “How long have you been in the wasteland?”
He said: “I don’t remember anymore. It feels like it’s been a hundred years.”
Xu Xingzhi thought he was joking and transitioned to the main subject questioning: “Do you know Meng Chongguang?”
The translator has something to say: When shixiong asks me directly if I know who I am, how should I answer? Waiting online, urgent (And I can’t have shixiong‘s first impression of me after our reunion be of me in such a sorry state!)
I apologize for splitting the chapter, but RL is a little crazy right now so I’m still trying to find the right balance. And again, thank you to all of those who applied to be this novel’s editor. I am going to continue to go through new applications as I don’t think I’ve found the right person yet, so if you’re interested please apply (it would be a plus if you knew some Chinese!), thank you!
Thank you for the chapter!
You’re welcome~
Thanks for the chapter ♥️♥️
Glad you enjoyed, sorry for splitting it
Omg thank you for the chapter i was wondering why the title was so familiar!!!!!! AHHHH ilove this thabk you!!!!!
Yes, I’m bringing it back from beyond the grave
Thank You for the new chapter! Don’t worry, we will wait,Your rl is the most important, to take care, hope everything will be alright ღゝ◡╹)ノ♡
Everything is great, I just started a new job after I haven’t quit my old one so I’m kinda working a lot right now. Like A LOT. I think I’m just about settled into my new job
This seems interesting. Thank you for translating!
You’re welcome, I hope you’ll support the author
Shit I’m loving this..
Thanks for the chapter 🥰
I’m already enjoying this 😻