Chapter 81 The Spear of Courage Still Presses Forward (Part 4) Our Mission...
The dense forest already receives little sunlight, and now there's not a ray of light at all. All the gaps in the trees are blocked, and the perceived temperature has dropped drastically.
Xia Zhu felt that the once lush and vibrant forest suddenly felt empty, as if the similar-looking trees were just an illusion, and that they were actually in an open area.
This means that the enemy is in the dark while we are in the light.
The six people stood apart, remaining vigilant. The buzzing sound stopped four or five meters away and didn't approach any further. At such a short distance, they should have been exposed, but Xia Zhu looked around and saw nothing different from before.
She subconsciously looked up and suddenly noticed that the shadow between the leaves seemed to have turned into liquid, flowing slowly as the leaves swayed gently.
No, she instantly tightened her grip. It wasn't a shadow cast by the light, but some kind of black substance flickering.
"Watch out!" Feng Feng, who was standing diagonally in front, suddenly shouted. Immediately afterward, vines rose in a circular area around the six people. The vines grew rapidly and gathered above their heads to form a protective barrier that flipped over.
But the very next second after the vine barrier was formed, a thick, silver steel needle easily pierced through the vines and fell from the sky, plunging straight into the central open space to a depth of half a meter.
The steel needle itself is one meter long.
"Is it a Needle King Bee?" Ji Wuchou instantly raised her hand, and a rhombus-shaped ice cone rose from her palm to the gap in the vine barrier, quickly filling the gap. Starting from this point, ice layers spread out in all directions, reinforcing the protective shield.
At the same time, a teeth-grinding vibration sound also appeared outside the protective shield, accompanied by the ear-piercing noise of countless steel needles piercing the ice.
"The ice layer won't last long! We need to think of a solution quickly!" Ji Wuchou said as he injected a new rhombus cone into the center point above his head.
Based on the frequent attacks from outside the ice layer, Xia Zhu guessed that the swarms of Needle King Bees outside might all be gathered near the protective shield. Regardless of whether they have steel needles or something else, if these monsters also have the characteristics of bees, then their attacks and chases will be carried out in swarms.
In this dream, she didn't lose her power like before. Perhaps she could use her extreme self-healing ability to draw the fire of the swarm of bees, while the others could take the opportunity to escape through another opening. As long as they created distance from the swarm, they could launch a counterattack.
However, that would expose my abilities to Ji Yinxiu and Ying Huo.
Xia Zhu quickly considered countermeasures in her mind. Since Ji Yinxiu had already chosen to join the team, Ying Huo's secrets were no less than hers, and there was no point in hiding his healing power anymore.
She took a step forward with her right foot.
"I have a way," Ying Ya said first.
"Little crow? Do you have any ideas?"
He gazed deeply at Feng Feng, the sand rising from his feet, lifted into a veil by the invisible wind. His cloak fluttered wildly, and Xia Zhu felt as if the last glimmer of light in his eyes had been sucked away. A pair of large black feathers instantly unfurled, a slight tremor enough to envelop six people.
"Wow!! That's so cool!" Feng Feng exclaimed excitedly.
Ying Ya simply lowered his head slightly, his long black hair obscuring his eyes, revealing only his sharp chin and light-colored lips. With a flap of his right wing, all the silky black feathers stood up at the base, trembling as they transformed from a soft texture into hard, scale-like armor.
"Wow!!" Feng Feng turned around and looked at his little wings. "That's not fair!!"
The Queen Stinger wasp is more than a hundred times larger than a regular bee, each one resembling a plump watermelon. When it curls up its stinger and stretches its abdominal muscles, it can instantly shoot out a terrifying steel stinger. A brand new stinger will immediately appear at the end. After a short cooling period, the originally soft stinger will become sharp again. The Queen Stinger wasp will continue to attack until its round belly gradually deflates.
The protective shield was melting away from the inside, and the swarm watched helplessly as only a sphere covered in black spikes remained on the open ground below, like a giant hedgehog with its body curled up.
The steel needles pierced the "hedgehog's" body, sparks flying, but they couldn't penetrate its shiny black armor. The queen bee's attack gradually ceased, and the swarm curiously observed this strange creature that had suddenly appeared.
The next second, the huge wings spread out instantly, stirring up a gale that blew the Queen Needle Bees all over the place, disrupting their formation. Before they could adjust their positions, several figures shot out like swords from beneath their wings.
Xia Zhu and two others stepped onto the vine pillars raised by Feng Feng and burst into the air. With a flash of cold light, the small sword split the Needle King Bee in two.
The Xuanyuan Sword's sword energy was like a rainbow, and the icy blade's chilling aura could instantly freeze the Needle King Bees. In just a few minutes, the swarm of bees fell to the ground like rain.
A mercury-like liquid slowly flowed from the gutted Queen Stinger bee.
Seeing that they were no match for their opponents, the remaining bees began to flee in the same direction. The three men exchanged a glance and decided to press their advantage.
Feng Feng watched their retreating figures as they leaped into the air, then retracted the vines. He patted Ying Ya's shoulder with a look of satisfaction, before giving Ying Huo, who had been standing leisurely to the side the whole time, a look of utter disdain.
Are you just going to stand there like this forever?
Ying Huo raised one eyebrow, as if he had heard the biggest joke in the world.
"What else? Should I throw out some gold coins to bribe them and ask these bees to be merciful and spare us? Or should I just take the money and spend it in the village?"
"Tch!" Feng Feng was too disgusted to argue any further, and pulled Ying Ya along, "Little Crow, let's go see how A Zhu and the others are doing."
He snorted coldly and walked past Ying Huo, leaving behind two resounding words.
"waste."
Ying Huo curled the corners of his lips, coldly watching the two figures disappear into the distance. A few seconds later, he casually followed them.
Xia Zhu and his two companions chased the remaining remnants of the defeated army deeper into the forest. The surrounding trees became increasingly sparse, and a flower field slowly unfolded before their eyes.
Ji Wuchou leaped into the air like a swallow, her toes touching the tree trunk beside her for leverage. She spun gently in the wind, and several crescent-shaped ice blades scattered from her body, striking the Needle King Bees that were fleeing ahead. Then she landed quietly.
"As expected of the Ji family of Puyang." Ji Yinxiu sheathed the Xuanyuan Sword and looked at Ji Wuchou with admiration. "Even in the Nine Heavens Arena, I have never seen such a freely controlled ice and snow current."
Ji Wuchou turned her head slightly and met Ji Yinxiu's gaze.
"Then you still haven't seen enough."
Ji Yinxiu was taken aback, and said with some shame, "Perhaps so."
"Ah Zhu!" Feng Feng caught up and put his arms around the back of their necks, one in each hand. "Xiao Chou! Are you alright?"
"Wow! Is that an Ai-something-something flower?" She jumped off the two of them and pointed to a flower in the center of the flower field that emitted a soft red glow.
“Ah, Noah.” Xia Zhu suddenly remembered Winona’s request.
Compared to the surrounding delicate flower buds, Aingar was practically a behemoth.
Surrounded by layers of waves of flowers in the center of the field, the flowers swayed gently in the breeze, scattering shimmering dust of sunset light. The group walked through the flower field and arrived beside the Eingar flowers.
The flowers are indeed delicate and pure, making one want to bend down and smell what fragrance such beautiful flowers might have.
Feng Feng just leaned his head closer.
"Huh? What's this?" She bent down and reached her hand towards the base of the flower.
Xia Zhu also squatted down, gently parted the Eingar flowers above, and let the slanting sunlight expose the soil underneath.
A white protrusion was buried under the soil, clinging tightly to the flower stem. Feng Feng worked with both hands, digging more and more vigorously like a puppy digging a hole. It wasn't until what was underneath was gradually revealed that everyone realized something was wrong.
The area is getting larger and larger, and the white part stands out like a mountain ridge.
It was a human skeleton.
Feng Feng stopped what he was doing, tilted his head, and examined the skeleton from head to toe.
“Is this… Noah?” She and Xia Zhu stood up, allowing the crowd to see the skeleton in its entirety.
"Wait a minute? Winona said Noah was only gone for a day and a night, so why is it all just a pile of bones? Could it be that the Queen Bee is a scavenger?"
The skeleton was in a crawling position, and Xia Zhu stared at the hand bone with its five fingers spread out, about to approach the flower.
"Noah..." a soft voice called from behind.
Everyone turned to see the blonde girl standing in the flower field. The sunlight seemed to favor her, softly showering her with tiny golden rays, making Winona appear as light as a warm breeze. Tears welled up in her green eyes, like a cascading lake, turning into pearls on her delicate white chin before sliding down and disappearing into the flower field. She was bathed in sunlight, becoming pale and translucent.
“Noah…” She ran, her light body like a spring breeze, passing through everyone. Winona threw herself onto the skeleton, her delicate hair loosening and falling like golden threads, tears dripping one after another into the grass between her thoracic vertebrae, creating a thin mist.
“I remember… I remember everything… Noah… a hundred years have passed… and I’ve seen you again…”
Xia Zhu stared blankly at Winona's back, the beautiful flower buds piercing through her transparent body, swaying in the wind.
*
One hundred years ago, on a certain night.
The spring breeze is intoxicating.
Young Winona watched her lover's departing figure, clenching her fists so tightly her knuckles cracked. Without hesitation, she turned and walked through the long corridor swaying with vines, her steps unwavering as she headed towards the treasure room at the end. The hem of her white cotton skirt brushed against her translucent ankles.
The treasure room contained her father's most prized possessions. She passed by a fist-sized luminous pearl, kicked aside the tridacna shell pagoda blocking her way, and ripped the dust cloth off its towering shape.
Shoulder armor, arm guards, breastplate—she squeezed her body into her father's silver armor, feeling the cold, solid weight pressing down on her shoulders. Sweat-dampened blond hair clung to her taut jaw, yet her gaze was intense, and her lips were pressed into an unyielding line.
Winona drew her sword from her waist, the gleaming tip pointing towards the moonlit forest.
She walked down the steps piled high with gold and jade, step by step, out of the stone manor where her ancestors had lived for generations. Looking at the black forest shrouded in thick fog before her, an unprecedented courage filled her chest.
It's just a flower.
She wanted to pick it herself.
She wanted to prove to her father that she had enough courage and ability to survive, and that she wasn't just dependent on a man. Even if letting go of her hands meant she wasn't sheltered behind high walls, she could still live as Winona in this complex world.
She also wanted Noah to see this shining heart that loved him.
Like a true knight, she walked into the forest with her back to the moonlight.
The story is not like a typical fairy tale. Miracles do not favor any ordinary person. Winona did not leave the secret forest alive, and Noah, after her, also walked towards the Eingar flowers in the field with the determination to die one early morning.
Just one step away, he could return to his beloved's side with flowers, tell her that he has figured things out, and that he will grow strong arms so that everyone who deeply loves Winona can sincerely acknowledge him.
Winona, now a ghost, awakens in the forest and, like a newborn child, drifts back to the blacksmith's shop at the village entrance, Noah's home, in a daze.
She forgot everything in the forest; her memory remained stuck on the night she argued with her lover. She waited bitterly under the eaves, pleading with every passing traveler that if they saw the brave young man, they should take him back to her side, whether he lived or died.
Whether in life or death.
Souls must also be interdependent.
A hundred years have passed...
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