Free Web NovelThe Longxiang Army Camp where Dragon Xiang was located was about twenty kilometers in a straight line from Yumen Pass. The Gobi Desert outside Yumen Pass was almost a flat road. Under normal circumstances, it would take half an hour to ride a horse, but Lu Yibei and her group of four walked very slowly.
As the Long Xiang Army and the Shaman King's "monsters" engaged in close combat, the flames of war were instantly ignited, then bloomed like fireworks in the vast yellow sand, spreading everywhere.
Amidst roars and shouts, with flesh and blood as fuel, the war burned more and more fiercely, and the rustling sound of burning was mixed with mournful cries, one after another.
Whether it was the Long Xiang Army that had been lurking in the vast Gobi Desert for a long time, or the various righteous individuals gathered by Dragon Xiang with great effort, or the warriors of various tribes who had submitted to the Shaman King, all were like moths attracted by the flames, continuously gathering towards the most intense part of the fire, fearless of death.
Tragic battles and fierce conflicts did not break out in just one place; almost every few kilometers, a battlefield could be encountered, varying in scale, from dozens to hundreds of people, like fully operating meat grinders in the desert, constantly shredding flesh and blood.
The wind carried flying sand and a faint smell of blood, and deep gray ashes, burned from who knew what, danced gracefully among the sand like butterflies.
But this stalemated war, and everything related to it, seemed to have nothing to do with the four people escorting two iron boxes back to Yumen City Pass. Whenever they encountered any fighting, they would silently bypass it under Zhu Sanming's guidance, who was familiar with the surrounding terrain, even if it meant taking a detour of several kilometers, or even more than ten kilometers.
They were like rare anomalies among a swarm of moths, flying away from the light, going against the flow, completely out of place.
As Lu Yibei said to Shen Baiwei, "No matter what, we must deliver these two iron boxes back to Yumen Pass. Since fighting has already broken out a dozen kilometers from Yumen Pass, will there be fighting five kilometers away? What about under the city walls?"
"Now is not the time to fight. We must preserve our strength as much as possible before the moment we absolutely have to fight arrives."
Lu Yibei always liked to imagine the worst possible outcome for things, and the worst outcome for their trip was that when they arrived at Yumen Pass, the Shaman King's army would already be at the city gates, and then, if they wanted to enter the city, battle would be unavoidable...
...
They continued to move forward.
Along the way, except for Zhu Sanming occasionally speaking when leading the way, most of the time, the four of them remained silent.
The two young Longxiang Army Armored Soldiers, burdened with their mission and thinking of their comrades fighting in bloody battles, had no mood to communicate with anyone.
Ever since Lu Yibei pulled her along, coldly ignoring the Long Xiang Army and gradually moving away, Shen Baiwei seemed to have been stimulated, no longer speaking. Then, along the way, she continued to ignore more deaths, and thus her entire being became numb.
Like a soulless puppet, she sat blankly on the horse's back, her face pale, her eyes hollow, and her mind dazed.
Observing Shen Baiwei's abnormality, Lu Yibei quietly asked, "Are you okay? If you're not feeling well... uh, should I boil some hot water for you to drink?"
Shen Baiwei glanced at the flame flickering in Lu Yibei's palm, rolled her eyes, and shook her head silently, "I'm fine, don't worry about it."
To come up with the bizarre idea of using a Spell to boil hot water for a girl at this time, Disaster was truly unique.
"It's good that you're fine." After hearing Shen Baiwei's words, Lu Yibei nodded and withdrew her attention from Shen Baiwei.
Although Shen Baiwei's state didn't look like she was completely fine, as she claimed, Lu Yibei was currently preoccupied and had no spare energy to delve into what was affecting Shen Baiwei's state.
As she completed that long-distance gaze with the Shaman King, her Witch Seed urban legend core began to agitate violently, as if it had taken a stimulant.
The sharp bone spurs on the Witch Seed urban legend core trembled, pressing against her heart, causing her heartbeat to become erratic and bringing unbearable stinging pain every moment without interruption.
Chilling Spiritual Energy, accompanied by the erratic heartbeat, surged from the urban legend core, which was almost integrated with her heart, spreading along her blood vessels to all her limbs and bones, as if to freeze her body.
The Witch Seed urban legend core seemed to be urging her, in this cruel way, to follow the inherent power instinct derived from Lilim.
Just as the mythological urban legend core, fused with Royalty, would prompt her to save when it heard the requests of Xia Lianqing and a group of urban legend-transformed Longxiang Army Armored Soldiers, and saw the suffering in Yumen Pass.
Affected by the Shaman King's power, Lu Yibei's Witch Seed urban legend core also had its power instinct awakened, urging Lu Yibei to kill, to create chaos, to obtain more blood, to nourish it, so that it could grow into a terrifying existence like its mother.
Like night, moon, storm, and blood and death...
Lu Yibei almost mobilized all her Spiritual Energy to suppress the agitation of the Witch Seed urban legend core, but what she got in return was a stability that could collapse at any time, and intense pain in her body.
If her body, having been reshaped by Wang Yingying's flesh and blood, hadn't been stronger than before, she might have been torn into pieces by the mutually warring Spiritual Energy within her if she wasn't careful.
And what made Lu Yibei uneasy was that the physical pain did not make her feel suffering; instead, it made her extraordinarily excited, far more excited than when she accidentally absorbed the "treasure" of Jade Palace Immortal on the Dream Come True Journey!
It was as if physical pain, and even all suffering in this world, had become the source of her happiness.
Sometimes, looking at the backs of Li Tieniu and Zhu Er Ming ahead, she even had some cruel and terrifying thoughts.
"What if I torture them to death just as we're about to reach our destination?"
"Let them watch their important mission, about to be completed, shatter in an instant, listen to their mournful cries, and watch their unwilling eyes gradually lose their focus—how wonderful that would be!"
"Don't worry about Shen Baiwei; she looked beautiful in that small room, didn't she? She was simply a work of art!"
"And..."
This extreme and twisted excitement also brought severe auditory hallucinations, faint whispers that were difficult for human ears to hear, rising from deep within her chest: pain, anxiety, panic, depression...
Those whispers roared, incited, and howled, merging almost perfectly with the angry shouts, heartbreaking wails, and piercing hum of clashing weapons from the battlefield in the distance, blurring the line between reality and illusion.
Lu Yibei was momentarily unable to distinguish whether those terrifying sounds came from within her body or from an unseen battlefield somewhere.
And under the cover of those terrifying sounds, familiar yet strange descriptions of power echoed in her mind.
"It is the mist that obscures the eyes, and the star that guides the storm; it is her child, and the lips that blow out lamps and kiss darkness, as crimson as slaughter and decay, as pale as desolation and silence; it is formless fear, and tangible chaos..."
"..."
The description of the Witch Seed's power had quietly become more complete and detailed, which was not a good sign...
How could this be? Was it merely due to the influence of the Shaman King's power?
Fortunately, it could still be suppressed for now, Lu Yibei thought.
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More than an hour had passed since they departed from the Longxiang Army Camp. Although Shen Baiwei had remained silent, her thoughts had not stopped for a moment.
Although from Lu Yibei's perspective, she seemed to have been stimulated and self-isolated, she herself knew very well that it was not the case.
She was just worried whether the decision to agree to Dragon Xiang's request was wrong, and whether she could hold on until she successfully escorted the two iron boxes to Yumen Pass...
In fact, just as Lu Yibei was affected by the agitated Witch Seed urban legend core, she was also being eroded by the power of the Spirit Mark, and the fierce erosion had begun the moment she agreed to Dragon Xiang's request.
Those chaotic black lines, symbolizing the prelude to the punishment of time, danced wildly within her body, like thousands of sharp threads, constantly cutting her flesh, bones, precisely down to nerves, cells, and even her soul.
At the same time, in her vision, an illusory, hideous giant snake, invisible to others, had been circling not far away. Its terrifying body, covered with huge scales, appeared and disappeared in the vast yellow sand. As it crawled, the stealthy rustling sound of its scales rubbing together was clearly audible, accompanied by the eerie aura stirred by its swaying tongue, gently patting her cheek...
Shen Baiwei couldn't remember where she had read that a large proportion of venomous snakes, after piercing their prey with their fangs and injecting venom, do not cause immediate death.
Death often slowly approaches them over a long period, and during this time, the venomous snake will linger nearby, patiently waiting for its prey to die from the venom.
Shen Baiwei felt that the moment she agreed to Dragon Xiang's request, she became the prey injected with venom, and the Spirit Mark power, which was never entirely under her control, was the venomous snake waiting for her to succumb to the poison.
"..."
What would happen if she were swallowed by the Spirit Mark power?
Would I die? Or would I stay in that terrifying room forever, never to be separated from those past "me"?
Perhaps, I might even turn into a terrifying monster due to the Spirit Mark losing control...
Shen Baiwei thought, looking at Li Tieniu and Zhu Sanming ahead, then slightly tilted her head, secretly glancing at Disaster behind her with her peripheral vision, and sighed silently.
Should I tell them that the danger isn't on those battlefields [N O V E L I G H T] that might be encountered at any time, but has always been right beside them?
If they left me behind now and went on their own, they should be safer, right?
As such a thought arose in Shen Baiwei's mind, as if it had angered the great snake invisible to others, an invisible and violent sense of constriction suddenly came over her body, as if she was being wrapped by a giant python, and then it kept tightening.
A sense of suffocation swept over her. Already weak, Shen Baiwei's consciousness blurred for a moment, her body swayed a few times, and then she fell from the horse's back to the ground...
"Thud!"
A muffled thud came, and unsettling Spiritual Energy fluctuations spread out, entering spiritual perception. Only then did Lu Yibei withdraw her attention from her struggle with the Witch Seed urban legend core, tilting her head to look at Shen Baiwei, who was unconscious on the ground, her brows furrowed.
What the heck? What's going on? Didn't she say she was fine and not to worry? How come I'm still holding on, but she's already dropped dead? Lu Yibei thought.
