Desperate
"Xiangxiang... wake up... Xiangxiang..."
Who? Who's speaking? Where am I? My eyelids are so heavy I can't lift them. What... is going on?
"What should I do? Is Xiangxiang not going to wake up? Don't scare me! Xiangxiang..."
A murmur came from her ear, and she couldn't tell who was speaking. It was sometimes near, sometimes far, sometimes loud, sometimes soft. Ren Xiangxiang felt a splitting headache.
The moonlight was astonishingly bright, illuminating the graceful woman before her. The woman smiled warmly and said to her:
The person you're looking for is dead.
He died.
Mo You is dead.
"Xiangxiang... wake up! Xiangxiang!" Caowa was so anxious that he jumped up and down, but he didn't dare to shout loudly. He would glance at the door every now and then.
"Xiangxiang, why are you sleeping so soundly? You're going to die!" Caowa whispered in Ren Xiangxiang's ear.
Noticing that Ren Xiangxiang's eyelids seemed to twitch, he excitedly went around to the other side, "Xiangxiang, get up quickly..."
Ren Xiangxiang groggily raised her hand to cover her eyes, still feeling groggy, but she still managed to hear Caowa's words, "Headache... Caowa..."
Suddenly, footsteps sounded outside. Upon hearing this, Caowa darted under the bed. The guard glanced at him through the small window in the door, then turned and left.
This place looks like an underground prison cell, with only a table and a bed. On the table, besides a lamp, there is a pot of tea that hasn't cooled down, as well as two steamed buns and a dish of pickled vegetables.
Ren Xiangxiang finally woke up slowly after Caowa's urgent calls, and it took her a while to realize her situation.
"Xiangxiang, where did you run off to? Don't you know what just happened..." Caowa began to ramble on about his experience, while Xiangxiang listened absentmindedly. Recalling the woman she had just met, she suddenly felt a chill of fear.
"...I was terrified when I saw them throw you in, but luckily they didn't care about me, so I crawled in through that air vent. It scared me to death!" Caowa chattered on and on, while Xiangxiang rubbed her temples and asked, "So how do I get out now?"
"You..." Caowa had just opened his mouth when he immediately grabbed Ren Xiangxiang, "There's a road down there, let's run down there!"
As they were talking, Caowa lay down under the bed and started picking at the stones. After picking up a small pile of stone chips, he crawled through a narrow gap and pushed them out. Ren Xiangxiang's eyes lit up, and she immediately came down to help. In no time, the two of them pushed a stone out, and the narrow gap instantly became a small hole. It looked like Ren Xiangxiang, with her size, could barely squeeze through.
“Xiangxiang, come with me. I went inside when you were unconscious. There’s only a narrow path, but it’s very spacious in the back,” Caowa assured him.
Ren Xiangxiang was uneasy because Caowa had never been reliable, and the solutions he found were hard to believe, but there was no other way at the moment.
Outside were disciples patrolling back and forth, and she was underground. Unless she waited to be rescued, she would not sit and wait to die. Could there be a worse situation than this?
Ren Xiangxiang nodded, and Caowa took the lead and squeezed inside.
The narrow hole was smaller than she had expected. She regretted it as soon as she tightened her abdomen and barely managed to crawl in. But it was impossible to back out now. Caowa's promise was indeed just empty words. Ren Xiangxiang slowly slowed her breathing and moved into the hole little by little with her elbows.
She wasn't sure if it was just her imagination, but she felt the cave getting narrower and narrower until she was suffocating and seeing stars. Then she heard the little grass child calling her urgently from not far ahead.
"Xiangxiang, hurry, come here!"
Ren Xiangxiang held back a bellyful of curses, gritted her teeth and crawled out. As soon as she poked her head out of the small hole, a gust of cold wind rushed into her lungs. She shuddered, and the cold air instantly chilled her sweaty face.
Caowa grabbed her arm and dragged her out of the small hole. Despite his small size, Caowa was quite strong. By the time they came out, Ren Xiangxiang was too weak to move and Caowa pulled her out like a radish.
In the pitch-black cave, a cold wind whistled through the air. Ren Xiangxiang rubbed her eyes and noticed that the red agate on Caowa's head was actually glowing.
"Can you see it?" Ren Xiangxiang asked.
Caowa replied matter-of-factly, "Xiangxiang, can't you see? It's very bright here!"
You're kidding me.
"I can't see," Ren Xiangxiang replied expressionlessly. "Where do we go now?"
"Then I'll hold your hand." Caowa pulled Ren Xiangxiang's hand and said as they walked, "This place is very big, and there are rats too, can you hear that?"
Ren Xiangxiang listened carefully and indeed heard a squeaking sound. Caowa continued, "There's a cave on the left. There seems to be something inside. The light inside is a different color."
Ren Xiangxiang squinted in the direction he was walking, and could only see the small figure of the grass child up close. Beyond that, it was pitch black, with no light at all. However, since there was wind, it meant that this place was connected to the outside world, and it was only a matter of time before they got out. So she calmly hummed in agreement.
She followed Caowa for a while, only to find the ground uneven and the soil incredibly soft. It didn't seem like a naturally formed cave. Years ago, she had heard her master mention that the Yueshan clan was skilled at digging caves, and the places they lived in were often interconnected underground. Were their feelings genuine? But if this was the case, would she end up walking right into a trap again?
"Xiangxiang, look!"
Ren Xiangxiang snapped out of her thoughts, squinted, and looked ahead. Sure enough, there was a light not far away, a faint glow similar to that of a firefly.
Ren Xiangxiang unconsciously quickened her pace, and when she bumped into the strange light source, she saw a steaming hot spring.
"Xiangxiang, look! There's a hot spring here!" Caowa was so excited that he wanted to jump down, but before he could, he suddenly heard Ren Xiangxiang gasp and exclaim, "Caowa, look up there!"
Thump, thump!
The cave ceiling shimmered with fluorescent light, and countless figures clad in golden robes hung upside down. They varied in size, some with their eyes closed, others with their eyes wide open in anger, and still others with their mouths agape in terror. Above these figures, something resembling a heart was pounding. Upon closer inspection, one could see that the feet of the figures extended outwards, clinging to the cave ceiling, continuously transmitting power to the central heart.
"What is this?" Ren Xiangxiang felt a chill run down her spine. She realized she had stumbled into a terrible place, but how could the Yue Shan clan do such a thing? And who were these people hanging upside down there?
Ren Xiangxiang moved cautiously along the shore, while Caowa clung to her arm, trembling. The two were afraid of accidentally disturbing the golden-clad creatures hanging upside down. At this moment, countless possibilities arose in Ren Xiangxiang's mind. From Yan Biegu, whom she had encountered when she first entered the mountain, to the suddenly appearing Rat-Head Flower, as well as the strange woman and the knockout worm, all seemed to suggest that something difficult to deal with had happened here.
Connecting these events one by one, it was as if telling her that Yangdian and Shiqiaoyan had encountered a major problem.
"Rat-head Flower... Miao Wu, and these people, who exactly are they?" Ren Xiangxiang dared not think any further. The hairs on the back of her head stood on end and cold sweat poured down her face. Her intuition told her that she was in a very dangerous situation.
"Thump, thump—"
Her heart was pounding violently above her head. Unconsciously, Ren Xiangxiang looked toward her heart, and her pupils suddenly contracted.
"Mo You!" Ren Xiangxiang was so surprised she couldn't close her mouth.
Directly below that heart-like object, hanging upside down in golden robes, was Mo You, her eyes tightly closed.
"Mo You—" Ren Xiangxiang cried out anxiously.
Grass Boy was also startled. "Xiangxiang, look closely, is it really a big bad guy?"
Ren Xiangxiang remained unmoved, shook off Caowa, and decisively climbed up the stone wall beside her, quickly moving to the side closer to Moyou. Caowa below was jumping up and down anxiously, "Xiangxiang! Be careful! Xiangxiang!"
Ren Xiangxiang glanced at the steaming hot spring pool below, steeled her resolve, and pounced forward, embracing Mo You as they plunged into the hot spring below.
Water splashed everywhere, steam rose, and Mo You's golden clothes slowly faded away, revealing his true appearance. Ren Xiangxiang choked on water and used all her strength to half-drag and half-pull Mo You, who had been awakened by the water, onto the shore.
"...cough cough..."
"Mo You." Ren Xiangxiang knelt down beside him and began to examine his injuries. Caowa watched the two of them with fear in his heart, not daring to breathe.
"Mo You, Mo You, wake up! It's me, Xiang Xiang! Mo You—"
The calls slowly awakened his dormant memories. He felt as if he had slept for a very long time, so long that he still thought he was in Fox Mountain.
His vision was blurry and dim, making it impossible to discern who was in front of him. He vaguely remembered following Xiangxiang to Qiling Mountain, and finally encountering...
Mo You suddenly opened her eyes, "I—"
"Mo You!" Ren Xiangxiang exclaimed excitedly, throwing herself into his arms. "Thank goodness, you're finally awake..."
"Xiang..." Mo You suddenly felt as if she hadn't woken up from a dream, "How could you..."
"How did you end up here?" Ren Xiangxiang wiped away her tears and asked impatiently.
Mo You snapped back to reality. "Quick, let's go! It's dangerous here."
He tried to get up, but found he had no strength left in his body.
"You've been poisoned with a nerve-numbing toxin; you can't move around for now."
"It's dangerous to stay here. You go first, no need to..."
Don't you want to know how I got here?
"This is not the place to talk." Mo You seemed impatient. "I was careless and was ambushed by that woman. I also encountered a lot of mutated corpses. Those corpses are impossible to kill. They are everywhere in this place. You should leave quickly."
"I know, I know too..."
Click—
Suddenly, the area around the heart hanging at the top cracked, and fine sand and stones collapsed. The golden-clad figures swayed and began to fall into the water with a series of splashes.
"Xiangxiang, listen to me—"
"Lend me your demonic power!" Ren Xiangxiang interrupted him. Mo You was taken aback. "No, Koma-kun said you—"
"What time is it!" Before he could finish speaking, Ren Xiangxiang slapped him on the chest. Mo You groaned, and Ren Xiangxiang said, "Don't worry, you're poisoned, I won't take advantage of you. Taking advantage of you less will reduce the burden on your body."
As she spoke, Ren Xiangxiang's body quickly grew taller, her oval face becoming charming and mature, her narrow eyes slightly upturned, her femininity revealing a hint of ruthlessness, her slightly curly long hair fluttering in the wind, revealing her pointed ears and a large, fluffy tail that appeared and disappeared among her hair.
The little grass cub immediately hugged the big tail, as if it were ready at any moment.
Ren Xiangxiang, her body surging with demonic energy, picked up Mo You without saying a word. Just as she lifted her foot, a corpse with its head tilted to one side suddenly leaped out from the shore.
"careful!"
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