More and more people on Wen Leyang’s side were getting wounded or killed but the Miao Bujiao’s ‘The Swarm of Bees’ were not faring so well either. This form of voodoo doll witchcraft was only effective when it was launched on a one-to-one basis so thirty voodoo dolls would require thirty sorcerers. Once the witchcraft had been jeopardized the sorcerer themselves would be severely injured as well.
In the depth of the dense jungle next to a huge swamp, a ball of light green-colored flame was blazing brightly. Around twenty to thirty dwarves lay next to the bonfire, their faces reflected the wretched green color of the burning flames. The dwarves had been disemboweled – their voodoo dolls were compromised and as a result, they suffered serious injuries. Their companions had dug into their abdomen as they breathed their last.
Another dozen dwarves were filled with joy as each of them held a huge jar. They carefully collected their companions’ internal organs and they conversed in whispers to one another. As they swayed around their jars to show off their harvest, they made a high-pitched squeaking sound like that of a rat’s teeth grinding.
These internal organs were the best-quality raw material for refining potions.
There was one more dwarf who was sitting upright and faced the flames. Beads of sweat were dotted densely around his entire forehead and his body would tremble every once in a while. His face was turning paler by the minute for every time the fake Wen Buzuo that he was controlling was injured, the voodoo doll’s witchcraft power would diminish and he would suffer more injuries on his body.
The dwarf was at his limit as he shouted and spat a mouthful of pus and blood upwards into the sky. At the same time, the sound of raging laughter was heard from the edge of the dense jungle and a voice said, “Kill them!” Five shadowy figures immediately pounced forward like raging leopards.
The dwarves that were collecting the internal organs immediately tried to flee the scene. They tossed the jars in their hands onto the ground and scattered clumsily in all directions. These dwarves had relied on hiding in the jungle and casting their spells from a distance to kill others. Face-to-face, however, they had almost no capacity to defend themselves and their strength was weaker than that of a seven or eight-year-old child.
The four men from the Death Trademark were like tigers whose wrath had just been unleashed. Their eyes were blood red as they executed their Art of Poison abilities and slashed with their knives without mercy to kill this group of monsters.
None of the dwarves managed to escape as they were brutally cut down by the agile killing strikes of the Death Trademark. Huge amounts of black-colored blood quickly began to stain the ground, their shriveled bodies had unexpectedly contained a surprising amount of blood.
Wen Leyang was slightly astounded for he did not expect that the affair could be executed so smoothly. He continued to sense his surroundings with his skin to ensure that there were no more enemies hiding in the dense jungle.
The four men of the Death Trademark did not need further orders as each of them put on a pair of surgical latex gloves and cautiously started examining the dwarves’ corpses.
Each time the dwarves from The Swarm of Bees cast their spells, the sound of squishing mud would grow louder. Wen Leyang was correct in guessing that the sound of the mud and the sound of ringing from the Buddha’s Golden Light on Zhanyan Peak served a similar function. The strange sounds not only distracted the enemies, it also enhanced the effectiveness of the spell. When the sorcerers were attacked and the spell was interrupted, the sound of the mud would gradually diminish until it was fully dispersed.
At first, the origin of the squishing sound of the mud was hard to identify as it had sounded from all directions at once. But when one of the sorcerers was attacked, the sound of squishing mud would become softer from one direction before the sound started to fade from the other directions too.
The Death Trademark and The Centipede who remained with Mumu had continued to stab the fake Wen Buzuo’s body. Therefore, Wen Leyang was able to identify the direction of the sound and followed it stealthily until he had found the dwarves’ camp. After that, the enemies were swiftly and easily dispatched.
The process may seem easy but it would not have been possible without his special telegnosis ability to sense the micro-vibrations in the ground. Without this ability, even if he understood the theory he could not have located the direction of the sound.
One of the Death Trademark lifted up a piece of green cloth strip found on a corpse and brought it to Wen Leyang.
Two big words were written on the cloth strip: Too late! The cloth strip appeared ragged, it must have been the missing message which had been torn off from the third ‘stool’.
The four men from the Death Trademark had completed their search, other than the cloth strip there was nothing else which was worthy of attention. They spread out in the area to keep a cautious lookout and every once in a while their gaze would sweep past Wen Leyang with a look of respect and joy.
Wen Leyang frowned, he had assumed that the ‘stool’ had been relaying warnings from the Miao Bujiao but it now seemed like the messages were from somebody else. Otherwise, the dwarves didn’t need to tear off the cloth strip so the warning would not reach them.
A small sentence was written on the back of the cloth strip, it said: North-west, put your trust in luck.
Wen Leyang put the cloth strip away into his chest pocket. He then instructed the Death Trademark, “We shall return now…” He took two steps forward before he suddenly stopped and, after hesitating a while, rapidly ran back to the open ground and kicked the corpses into the bonfire. As he was kicking the third corpse towards it, the green bonfire was extinguished.
When Wen Leyang’s group had rushed in earlier, they had arrived just in time before the last dwarf had cast his spell into the green flames. Wen Leyang did not know the secret within the flame but he knew that it should be extinguished just to be on the safe side.
Moments before the flame was extinguished, a sad and shrill cry was heard abruptly. It echoed from the direction of Seven Maidens Mountain and the voice penetrated into everyone’s eardrums into their brains like a burning-hot blade.
Wen Leyang was shocked, he had a ‘why are you always in trouble’ expression on his face as he looked at the Death Trademark and asked, “Are we in trouble now?”
The people from the Death Trademark blinked innocently, “We might be!” Upon saying that the group of five started to run back towards the direction where Little Chili Pepper was…
After the sad and shrill cry had sounded, the entire dense jungle became shrouded with a layer of nauseating humidity. Just as Little Chili Pepper was becoming restless, a blur appeared before her – Wen Leyang had returned.
Mumu leaped up in joyous surprise but before she could begin speaking, Wen Leyang had surged forward and grabbed onto her arm. He had no time to make sense of the direction as he cried out, “Run, quick!”
The group of people did not ask any questions as they followed behind Wen Leyang and started running as well.
The compact soil on the ground was cracking rapidly and started collapsing closely behind the group. One by one, gigantic mud bubbles erupted and burst, releasing a fishy stench into the air. The jungle continued to cave into the crack and a dull rumbling sounded from the center of the earth!
Little Chili Pepper kept looking back as she was running away. She then asked Wen Leyang with a voice full of astonishment, “How did you get into such a big trouble…” Before she could finish her question, she cried out in alarm abruptly as the ground underneath their feet had turned soft and mushy. Every step they took trapped them deeper into the mud and they were soon sunk up to their knees. Fortunately, they had stopped sinking down after that but it had greatly reduced the group’s running speed.
The crack behind them was like a hungry leech. It shook its head and wagged its tail as it rushed forward with a big, gaping mouth.
Wen Leyang dashed from person to person in the group, if someone was lagging behind he would grab that person and toss them to the front of the queue. In a short while, Wen Buzuo had been thrown forward five times already until even his taciturn brother had complained, “Why can’t you run faster?”
Little Chili Pepper stopped running as she turned around and shouted loudly at Wen Leyang, “Stop, there’s a trap in front of us!”
Wen Leyang had been so focused on tossing people to the front of the line that he had no time to process any other matters. He did not realize that in front of them were countless people-swallowing air bubbles that were hidden in the mud. Two of his people had lost their footing and sank out of sight before they could even cry out.
Wen Leyang felt extremely helpless for when he took care of those at the back he could not take care of those in front. He shouted through gritted teeth, “North-west! Run towards the north-west!”
Mumu managed to identify their direction despite being in the midst of panic, “But we are already running towards the north-west!”
“Then run faster!” Wen Leyang had not noticed this earlier but Little Chili Pepper loved to chat so much that whenever he said something she would definitely reply something else. He lost his train of thought for a while as he pondered this in his heart – earlier when he had written on her palm with his finger, what did she think he was trying to say? Soon after, he noticed that Wen Buzuo had become the last in line again. Wen Buzuo pulled a long face at Wen Leyang as he said, “So sorry for causing you so much trouble, so sorry for causing you so much trouble.”
The group of people ran as fast as they could, trying to seek refuge from the constant pursuit of the giant crack. Once in a while, one of them would sink into a hidden trap and the few from the Death Trademark and The Centipede with the fastest speed would run ahead of the queue. If one of them were to step into a trap, the others would then rapidly stay away from the trap. The expression on everyone’s face was ravaged with grief!
Finally, the mud beneath everyone’s feet gradually became shallower, their footsteps regained their agility and the crack that was chasing them too gradually began to lose speed. As the ground regained its former dryness and rigidity, Little Chili Pepper’s eyes brightened with hope, they had run out of the dense jungle.
The crack gave an unwilling roar as it stopped abruptly at the edge of the dense jungle. Wen Leyang was the last in line as the jungle behind him shook several times ferociously before returning to its prior serenity.
A total of nine people were lost to the mud.
Only eleven people remained behind Wen Leyang and Little Chili Pepper, consisting of seven from the Death Trademark and four from The Centipede.
Before their eyes was a dreary stretch of empty land. Beneath their feet, the dried mud was cracked and the place resembled an ancient, withered river bed. In the distance stood an oddly-shaped temple which rose impressively from the middle of a graveyard.
The few men from the Death Trademark all heaved a sigh of relief and the happiest one was Wen Buzuo, “Not a single blade of grass grows here!” He can still recall his nightmare of being strangled to death by a vine.
The river bed was dried and desolated, not a single root grew in it and the yellow soil connected straight to the foothill of the Seven Maidens Mountain.
However, as the four men from The Centipede rushed forward to the river bed, their expressions suddenly changed drastically!
Little Chili Pepper stomped her foot in rage as she yelled at Wen Leyang, “You…do you even know how to direct us to the correct path?!”