“This place looks like a graveyard.” Upon spotting the lacquered-metal arches, Ji Bai subconsciously spoke the first thing that came to his mind.
“As I thought, Mr. Cockroach’s mouth is incapable of spewing out auspicious words, isn’t it?” Lin expressionlessly looked at her surroundings, but the barren stretch of land around them had nothing of observational value outside of the three lacquered metal arches.
“I presume you have knowledge on the scale and form of these ruins then?”
“I don’t.”
“In that case, wouldn’t my observation make sense? For all we know, this might even be a grand tomb of some ancient monarch.” Ji Bai touched the lacquered metal arches with his gauntlet. Having gone through the baptism of history, their engravings had already grown incomparably blurry from being eroded by the wind and were long since unrecognizable as a result.
—He could tell that the lacquered metal must have been weathering for more than a thousand years.
Ji Bai fell into deep thought while Lin didn’t idle around either, taking out her equipment and finding an angle to photograph their findings. The three little musketeers were the same; They were pretentiously knocking on the lacquered metal arches.
“Do we need to examine it more carefully?” Ji Bai softly murmured to himself. An indescribably ominous feeling arose in his heart after he recalled the faint voice that had been calling out to him earlier.
“There’s snow all around us, so what’s there for you to examine?” Replied Lin as she turned the photo around for a look. Suddenly, her complexion undertook a subtle change.
The equipment she brought along had gone through layers of checks and testing, so it was impossible for quality issues to appear. But why…
In a daze, Lin stared at the photo she had taken earlier and repeatedly compared it against the perspective she had captured it from.
The scenery, angle and color it depicted was normal— An extremely ordinary photo, if one excluded the fact that the arched architecture was missing.
Lin’s brows furrowed tightly as she intensely stared at the picture of the snow-white plains while incessantly flipping it around.
‘Don’t tell me I’ve inadvertently missed the arches?’
Harboring such a far-fetched idea in her mind, Lin picked up her equipment and focused the center of its lens on the three pitch-black arches.
“Click.”
“…How can this be?” While holding onto the camera, Lin murmured in a daze.
Even though the result was unexpected, it was in line with her earlier discovery. Once again, the photo taken with the device had left the object of importance out. The three large arches had completely disappeared in the photo, with their former position replaced by the azure sky.
“Mhm… Other than them being kind of large, these three broken doors look very ordinary.” Raybia spoke while stroking his chin. Despite being ignorant about the subject, he had put on a facade that suggested otherwise.
The trio was still rapping and knocking against the axle of the door in curiosity, except for Capeau. With his scimitar in his embrace, he was relaxing with his eyes closed while freely allowing his dilapidated cape to be blown around by the wind.
“Hey Capeau-bud, what are you doing?”
“Sssh… The wind is awfully noisy today.” Capeau’s voice rose and fell in cadence, as he motioned for the others to be silent.
“Drop the act, old pal. Do you think we still don’t understand what you’re worth? What are you pretending to be all mysterious for?”
“A martial artist does not engage in braggery. Have you two forgotten the title the mortals had endowed to me?” The wind whisperer, Capeau, shot a meaningful look at the azure skies.
Before his voice had faded away, a fierce gale began to stir. A hysterical howl was unleashed upon the silent snow plains, resembling a series of surging great waves on the ocean.
“Roar!!…” Like a formless large hand, a hurricane incessantly swept towards the crowd; Pushing and pulling at everyone, as if attempting to tear them apart.
“W-What’s going on??”
“Capeau! You’re really a jinx. What sort of monstrosity have you provoked this time??”
Raybia and the spiky-head youth tightly wrapped their arms around one of the lacquered metal pillars, in an attempt to prevent their bodies from being swept away by the hurricane.
Only one man seemed unaffected in the face of its howling gale. He stood unwavering at his spot and allowed the berserk wind to rip at his cape, revealing suntanned and robust muscles in the process.
“This is a man molded by the vicissitudes of life.”
“Amazing…”
Not exempted from the impact of the sudden gale, Ji Bai got down on one knee and stabbed his long sword onto the ground to ensure his body wouldn’t be sent flying.
“Roar!!…” The ear-deafening roars of a wild beast was followed by a series of intense tremors which streaked across the sky.
“It’s coming.” The man firmly standing in the wind — Capeau — slightly opened his mouth and spoke.
“Boom!!…” The ground shook and the mountain swayed, sending a mixture of mud and snow flying up more than 2 meters into the air. It seemed as if the entire valley was on the verge of tumbling down.
The head of an eagle, the body of a lion and a pair of wings on its back; A monster the size of a clock tower had suddenly descended.
‘Is this… a griffin??’
Witnessing the massive figure sending earth flying in all directions as it descended, Ji Bai felt extremely incredulous.
‘Can a creature that only lives in various fictitious legends truly be real?’
“Supernatural creature from antiquity, rouse up from your slumber! Inflict your divine punishment on this world filled with blood and sin in the name of the Lord of Sin!” A purple-gowned elder stood on top of the creature’s eagle-like head and brandished a snake-headed staff in his hands which immediately caused its dull gaze to become as sharp as a sword.
“God! W-What is this cursed being? How unlucky am I to encounter a boss on a side quest?? ” With his arms still wrapped around one of the pillars, the spiky-haired youth wanted to cry but his tear glands failed him.
“T-This monstrosity… Can’t be a griffin, right? Oh my dear God! Look at what this poor me had spotted?? A griffin? Of all things?! My god, if this is a dream, please let me wake up quickly!…”
The only calm person on the scene — the individual who had closed his eyes and was enjoying the wind from beginning to end, without even bothering to lift his head — was none other than Capeau.
“Pfft.” With his eyes narrowed into slits, it was unknown when he had spat out the blade of grass at the side of his mouth as he casually lifted his gaze upwards.
“A small sparrow.”
“Holy crap… Don’t tell me he had gone insane from fear, did he??” The youth with spiky-haired hair was shocked.
“Probably! After all, this is quite a big emotional shock. Without a strong mental fortitude, one would definitely have a mental breakdown somewhere around now!”
Capeau looked towards the griffin without paying attention to the peanut gallery. Seemingly as if it had sensed its gaze, it stared back as well.
“Mhm??” At the same moment, the purple-gowned elder on the griffin’s head had also noticed that he wasn’t alone here.
“Griffin, stomp these meddlesome bugs to death.”
“Roar!!!…” The griffin looked up into the sky and let out a long cry which simultaneously resembled that of an eagle and a beast.
“I’ve said you’re just a little sparrow.” Carpeau coldly harrumphed and drew his scimitar out of the scabbard. At the same time, a large gale engulfed this area. However, unlike before, it was sweeping towards the griffin.
‘Could this be… aura??’
The expression that Ji Bai’s eyes revealed while looking at Capeau changed.
‘Perhaps, this guy is not as simple as he looked?’
“What is this… hocus-pocus! Griffin, crush them!” Ordered the purple-gown elder with a loud shout.
“Hah! Eat this wind-whispering blade technique of mine, [Reincarnation]!!” Following a clear loud voice, the berserk wind grew more and more frantic over time, as it attempted to blow this griffin back into the sky.
“T-This is…” The purple-gown elder was shocked.
“One strike slays all!” The [Wind-Whisperer] Capeau made use of the blowing storm and leapt up into the air. His entire body floated before he used his scimitar to unleash a strike in front of everyone’s astonished eyes as if he was performing a flying sword technique in a Wuxia Novel.
[Wind-Whispering Blade Technique: Reincarnation]
As if its raison d’etre was only to be at his disposal, the formless gale turned into a sharp blade that swept forward and cut anything in its path.
Capeau landed on one knee and sheathed his sword in style.
“This attack was only a warning…”
“Boom!!” Before he could even finish his words, a nearby cliff collapsed. After which, silence reigned over the area once more.