Ah Hai’s big physique blocked the opening of the water pipe. The huge suction force was stopped, and the water level ceased to rise after reaching the height of everyone’s foreheads.

　　Zhan Beiye reached out to pull him, but Ah Hai suddenly trembled and raised his head, his face wearing a strange smile that was the combination of agony and relief. Seeing such a smile, Zhan Beiye was confused for a moment.

　　However, Ah Hai immediately grabbed on tightly to the rim of the water pipe, locking himself in that position. He gestured for the rest to leave before the water level rose again, but no one was willing to give up on him.

　　Meng Fuyao’s hand stayed on the door while she quickly said, “Take off your belts and tie one end to Ah Hai’s waist. Then, swim to the door. When I count to three, everyone will dash past the door and tug Ah Hai along with us.”

　　Some of them promptly took off their belts, swum over to Ah Hai and tied the belts on his waist. The strange smile surfaced on Ah Hai’s face once again as he looked down at the water. Seeing that his skin complexion turned from pale to a bright red color, Meng Fuyao knew that he could not stay too long underwater.

　　Once the rest were gathered around her, she straightaway shouted, “Three!”

　　Her shout was followed by a strong push towards the door.

　　With a loud bang, the back door opened. A strong gush of water tripped them and pushed them into the room, where a white object could be vaguely seen to drift past them as water splashed in all directions. Meng Fuyao was secured tightly in Zhan Beiye’s arms but her eyes hurt from being completely engulfed in the water. From her view of the room, there was no coffin, only a tall man with long and flowy hair floating in the water in a sitting posture. The silk clothing of his green robes and white cloak were casually scattered in the water, so weightless that they seemed to hover in the air.

　　The sight disappeared in the blink of an eye. The next thing she knew, both she and Zhan Beiye were slammed against the wall in the room, where a hole appeared as a result of the water’s force. Everyone could not help but stumble and bang against one another in the emerging whirlpool, and before long, they were all pushed through the hole.

　　The world span around them.

　　There was a stream that resembled a cascading waterfall, and water gushed past as fast as how time flew by. Through a thick patch of grass, an underground cave, a dark cliff and a burial pit that housed thousands of dead bodies, heaps of white skeletons lay on the banks of the stream. The lifeless and dark sockets were wide open, silently witnessing the intrusion of explorers into the sacred site of the Gun Tribe that no one had been able to step foot in for thousands of years. Broken bones protruded from the sand, and they were accompanied by skulls that seemed to be mockingly looking into the sky, thinking about the philosophy behind survival and sacrifice.

　　Along the bank, the forest of skeletons stretched for miles. While Meng Fuyao’s head was still spinning, the bones formed streaks of white lines in her vision, though the sight flashed by in an instant. She also detected a dull and rancid smell that signified death. It seemed that for thousands of years, the spirits were not destroyed, and they loitered above this stream by the mountain.

　　All this while, Zhan Beiye had been pressing Meng Fuyao’s head in his arms and using his body to block the powerful force of the scattered stones and the influx of water. No matter how disheveled he was as a result of the torrent – which encompassed the might of Heaven and Earth – and no matter how dizzy he was, he had always miraculously positioned Meng Fuyao right above his heart. She and the guinea pig in her arms were tightly held against his chest. In such a rushing stream of water, she and the guinea pig did not have to swallow much water.

　　They realized that the water had slowed down after they hit a bluestone. Diagonally in front of them, a gap between cliffs loomed in the horizon.

　　Meng Fuyao wriggled out of Zhan Beiye’s arms and turned back to give him a hand – his body was filled with scars, and he nearly fainted when he spotted the exit.

　　As he tried to steady himself on the bluestone, he saw that the rest had been washed up to the shore as well. Zhan Beiye slightly gasped for air, but on his face was an expression of relief.

　　He helped the soldiers up one by one. Pointing towards the gap between the cliffs, he said, “We have walked out of it.”

　　Everyone panted on the stones, rejoicing at the fact that they had a close brush with death.

　　Just then, a bang sounded, and the last soldier joined the group. He was the one who had been bringing Ah Hai along, and he had never let go of the belt, even after such a turbulent ride. “I dragged Ah Hai out,” he said in a joyous voice, while he turned back to check on Ah Hai. “You look like have a lot of muscles, but you’re actually pretty light… ”

　　He did not complete his sentence.

　　It was not just him. Those who were smiling elatedly suddenly froze.

　　The belt was still there, and so was Ah Hai, but there was only half a segment of his body.

　　His body was chopped off from his waist. The part that remained turned white in the water, and his skin crumbled. It no longer looked like the body of a human, but a plaster statue.

　　Meng Fuyao closed her eyes.

　　Ah Hai… was probably dead long ago.

　　While he was stuck in the water pipe, his lower body was already munched off by an unknown beast.

　　Even so, he still hurled Ji Yu away. Without giving off any sign of struggle, he used his remaining half of the body to block the water pipe and gave them precious time to escape.

　　The strange smile that appeared while he was in the water belonged to the smile of a deceased.

　　Yet the rest were still rejoicing over not letting go of the belt, thinking that they had also grabbed on to their comrade’s life. In the end, they realized that it was just a spirit that was set free.

　　Drenched, Ji Yu sat on the shore and stared at Ah Hai’s corpse expressionlessly.

　　Zhan Beiye dug his fingers into the bluestone, gradually leaving a deep scratch mark that was stained with blood.

　　Someone let out a cry. “Where’s Little Luo?”

　　Zhan Beiye trembled and immediately counted the number of people. Indeed, there was a missing person.

　　A soldier who looked very pale said in a shaky voice, “… He was beside me at first. Both of us were shot by arrows, and he said that he would protect me since he was good at swimming. When we were stuck together at the hole of the back room, he let me down first, and later I heard the sound of the door closing… I don’t know what happened after that… ”

　　No one would ever know what happened after that.

　　The unknown beast that chewed away Ah Hai’s body, and the tomb owner that was floating in the back room, could all be the murderers of Little Luo.

　　Zhan Beiye fell silent and sat on the gravel floor filled with white bones. He sat straight up, his drenched eyebrows resembling that of ebony. After a while, he slowly said, “We will wait for him for half a day.”

　　Rays of sunset shone through the gap between the cliffs, illuminating the narrow alley, the dead and alive, and the deathly-white skeletons in the sand. The faint reflections gradually faded and were replaced by the moon and stars.

　　The crescent moon was like a hook suspended in the middle of the gap. In the silence, Zhan

　　Beiye stood up and said calmly, “Let’s go.”

　　Everyone got on their feet quietly and followed him under the cold moonlight. Step by step, they climbed up the cliff.

　　The lush cliff was connected to the continuous mountain range. At the end of the winding mountain road, on a farther plain, a grand city lay in sight.

　　Zhan Beiye’s black robes fluttered in the wind as he stood on the cliff. With a cold expression, he looked at the city; the tall and thick city walls that birds found hard to fly over and the lights in the city were gleaming brightly like stars. As his sight narrowed towards the brightest and most radiant spot in the city, a deadly glare flashed in his eyes.

　　He turned around and looked at Ah Hai’s new grave, and at the remaining three of the eleven Black Wind Horses who stood by it.

　　Of the three, two were injured, and one was crippled.

　　The wind raged past the cliff and slammed against the rocks, as though trying to convey their bleeding sorrows filled with much detest.

　　The yellow soil was arranged flatly on the new grave. Ji Yu, who knelt the closest, picked up a handful of sand and sang in a low voice, “In the black mountains, wind and thunder raged. Mourn for our soldier who was supposed to walk out… ”

　　“… Mourn for our soldier who was supposed to walk out…” sang the rest of the soldiers. Their low voices resonated around the grave and faded into the night sky.

　　The elegy that belonged to the deceased was left eternally on the Western Cliffs of the Changhan mountain range. Day by day, it echoed the most secretive and tragic narrow escape from death of the century.

　　Zhan Beiye’s gaze landed on Meng Fuyao, who was looking back at him.

　　The tears in her eyes sparkled brighter than the stars, illuminating the fiery flames that were burning at the bottom of his heart. The flames so violently licked up all his willpower and soul, that he could hear the blood howling in his veins.

　　He looked at her and slowly spoke, his gaze resembling the pitch-dark night sky that covered the universe.

　　He called, “Fuyao.”

　　“Mmhmm,” she replied.

　　“Just wait, for the death of Heaven Demon.”

　　During the seventh spring of the Thousand Springs era in Heaven Demon, Prince Zhan Beiye encountered an ambush in the Changhan mountain range and was forced to tread in the “Forest of Death”, which no one had ever exited in one piece. He was thought to be doomed, but he miraculously appeared from the west end. In three days and three nights, he crossed the entire mountain range, though no one knew how he did it. This story eventually became a secret that no one would ever know of in Zhan Beiye’s entire life.

　　It was also this story that led to a new era in Heaven Demon. In that very era, the most outstanding men and women gathered on the stages of the seven kingdoms, creating one legend after another.

　　In historical records, Zhan Beiye’s story was simply recorded in a few lines – “In the seventh spring of the Thousand Springs era, the Prince entered the wild and exited three days later”. No one knew how much blood and terror this story encompassed; no one knew that behind these words, a young lady’s figure was ever-present, existing adjacent to this seemingly plain but actually pain-stricken record.

　　The enormous wheel of time slowly span. It ran over those conspiracies that were ready to stir trouble and the crumbled paper-like future of the Heaven Demon Dynasty.

　　It was the seventh year of the Thousand Springs era in Heaven Demon, but who did the longevity of Thousand Springs belong to?

　　Time traveled just as quickly for everyone, and would not differentiate for any Kingdom. It was not only spring in Heaven Demon, but also spring in Wuji.

　　During this spring, there was someone who fought hard against poisonous creatures and mutated corpses in the Changhan mountain range, narrowly escaping from death every time; there was also someone who graciously sipped tea on a boat, admiring the pleasant scenery of the lake under the company of beautiful servants.

　　Behind the layers of silk curtains on that boat, girls who looked exquisite held various instruments and played harmoniously. The mellow music resonated in the air, mixing together with the delicate smell coming from the white jade teacup, and the faint chromatic mist drifting along the lake.