Suddenly, Jiu’er stopped and turned back to look at Feng Yinan, her expression turning strange. “Are you certain that the ground squirrel told you everyone who passed through this path was human?”
Feng Yinan froze, startled. “Yes… a large group — but the ground squirrel couldn’t say exactly what they were. Could it be…”
Could it be that they weren’t human?
Feng Yinan’s heart lurched, and cold sweat suddenly erupted from the length of his spine.
Ground squirrels were nothing more than small animals — of course there was no way they could truly communicate with him without limitation.
They had conveyed that many, many living things had passed through. Feng Yinan had naturally assumed it meant people. But now that Feng Jiu’er had raised the point, it struck him all at once — living things were not necessarily human beings.
“Watch out!” The words had barely left Jiu’er’s lips when, all of a sudden, something pitch-black came crashing out of the nearby undergrowth with a snarl, lunging straight for Feng Yinan’s face.
Jiu’er shoved Feng Yinan hard. He rolled with the force along the ground, narrowly evading the attack of whatever the thing was.
Looking back, it wasn’t just that single creature — from all eight directions, pairs of cold, glittering eyes had simultaneously emerged from the dark.
The eyes of animals! Wolves!
Wolves black as night from head to tail! With fur-raising, glacial gazes, and fangs that gleamed with a greenish light beneath the moonlight, the air around them was at once swallowed by the reek of death.
The massive group of living things that had passed through — they truly weren’t human at all. They were… black wolves!
Feng Yinan fixed his gaze on the black wolf at the head of the pack and immediately cupped both hands to his lips, letting out a long, low call.
The black wolf seemed to understand his intent. Its advancing steps slowed, and the cold ferocity in its eyes appeared to dim somewhat.
A flash of delight crossed Feng Yinan’s gaze. He continued to call.
But just as the black wolf was on the verge of abandoning its attack, a flute sounded in the distance — smooth and resonant, its melody like a death knell. The moment that sound rang out, the black wolf’s fangs bared once more.
Feng Yinan did not give up. He kept calling.
Feng Jiu’er’s expression shifted sharply. “Yinan, watch out!” she cried urgently.
Before Feng Yinan could react, the black wolf that had nearly come around to him suddenly sprang, its razor fangs slashing toward him.
Feng Yinan moved to retreat quickly, but the wolf’s speed was simply too great. After two steps back, its claws still reached his chest.
A fierce, overpowering force crashed down upon his shoulder and sent him hurtling backward.
There was a tearing sound — unmistakably the sound of a sharp edge cutting through flesh.
Feng Yinan leapt up from the ground and saw, with horror, that dark red blood was seeping from Feng Jiu’er’s arm, gleaming black in the moonlight.
“The wolf’s claws are poisoned!” Feng Yinan was stricken, and a wave of deep, agonizing guilt surged through him.
The young master had been slashed by a wolf’s claw while saving him!
Feng Jiu’er drew a sharp breath. She didn’t even have the chance to reach into her pack for the antidote. She seized the charging Feng Yinan by the arm and cried urgently, “Go!”
Feng Yinan immediately leapt alongside her, landing among the high branches, attempting to break through toward the miasma formation — but to their dismay, the black wolves could scramble up trees with alarming swiftness, completely blocking their retreat.
“Young master, how is your wound? Can you still move?” Seeing the injury on her arm bleeding steadily, Feng Yinan’s heart was seized with desperate anxiety.
The bleeding itself was one concern, but what mattered most was the color of the blood — a dark, reddish-black. That was the sign of poisoning.
“Young master…”
“That direction…” Feng Jiu’er drew a deep breath and fixed her gaze to one side. “For some reason, the black wolves came from three directions. Only one direction has almost no wolves in sight.”
She found it growing difficult to breathe. Though her body had built immunity to ordinary poisons, powerful toxins still produced initial symptoms.
The poison on these wolves’ claws was no simple matter — it seemed as though the claws had been soaked in venom for years.
What puzzled her most was this: why did these black wolves so closely resemble the ones she had seen in the rear mountains of the Imperial Academy?
Whether it was the color of their fur, those eyes that appeared steeped in poison, or the pigment of venom on their claws — they all seemed to originate from the same source.
Back then, when the Ninth Imperial Uncle had been attacked in the imperial capital by Ruohe people, if those assailants truly had not been sent by Mu Mu, then within the capital itself, there was indeed a faction acting in concert with the Ruohe from within.
Now these black wolves had appeared again within Ruohe territory. If the handlers of both groups of wolves belonged to the same organization, then who exactly was that person?
Was it someone from the Zhan imperial clan? Or someone from the Nanmen family? And who had that black-robed man been back then?
Could it be connected to the black-robed man as well?
“Move!” Feng Jiu’er gritted her teeth. Not knowing what lay in that one direction — whatever it was that the black wolves seemed unwilling to approach — there was no longer a choice. The wolves were already lunging this way. They had no other option.
With a sharp ring of steel, she drew the short blade from her boot, driving back a charging wolf with a single stroke. Jiu’er wasted no more thought on it and dragged Feng Yinan swiftly away into the unknown direction.
The black wolves gave chase, fast as the wind. The blade in Feng Yinan’s hand slashed continuously at those behind them, and more than once they barely escaped being seized.
Yet strangely, once the two of them plunged into the stretch of dense forest ahead — where the color of the trees was subtly and distinctly different — the black wolves halted at the border and did not follow.
Everything before Feng Jiu’er’s eyes was gradually becoming hazy. The severe poison was spreading through her body — she knew it would not be lethal, yet it still left her dizzy and unable to see the path ahead clearly.
Sensing that the black wolves were no longer in pursuit, Feng Yinan eased his pace slightly. He was about to say something when he saw Feng Jiu’er’s legs give way beneath her, nearly sending her crashing to the ground.
“Young master!” He rushed forward to support her. Looking at the dark red threads of blood seeping from her arm, his heart ached.
“Young master, it’s all my fault…”
“Save the useless words. This place…” Jiu’er drew a deep breath. She truly couldn’t keep steady on her feet. Yet why did the air here feel so suffocating?
It was as though they had stumbled unwittingly through the gates of the underworld. The reek of decay grew thicker with every breath, and it seemed one could already smell death itself.
A cold chill crept to the very tip of her heart. She wanted to be careful, but her body had gone limp — she could not gather her focus.
“Young master, they really don’t seem to dare follow us in.” Feng Yinan looked around at their surroundings. They seemed no different from an ordinary dense forest — so why did his heart feel so utterly entrapped, as though an invisible net had closed around him entirely?
“Go… further inside. Find a safe cave.” Jiu’er could barely stand. She had to find a quiet place to insert her needles and expel the poison.
“Understood.” Feng Yinan held her carefully and continued forward.
He had no idea where this path led, but the way Feng Jiu’er looked right now — if they didn’t find somewhere soon for her to treat her wound, Feng Yinan truly feared she might not hold on.
They pressed forward another ten or so steps, and then — abruptly — both of them stopped at the same moment.
There, in the distance ahead, two cold and piercing flickers of blue-green light emerged gradually from the depths of the dense forest…