Three quarters past the hour of Xu, Moluo Gorge. Dark shadows surged together, flower faces bewitching.
The Jin father and son were somewhat flustered. Although they had experienced insect tides rolling into the flower clusters before, none had been more shocking than this moment. Heaven and earth were completely covered with black carrion beetles, leaving no space. Jin Chuang fearfully pulled Kua Lao back toward the Moluo flower clusters.
“Father, there are so many insects. Why don’t we leave first?” Jin Yaoguang looked at the insect tide and Meng Rui and the others not far away. He also felt like retreating. However, if he didn’t send the girl into the gorge tonight, the agreement with the mysterious person would be broken. The mysterious person’s terrifying nature also made Jin Yaoguang wary. He was trapped in a dilemma with no way forward or back.
Meng Rui blocked in front of the Fu couple. This massive scale of insect tide also opened Meng Rui’s eyes. The dense black insect tide let out piercing cries, like a giant black hand drilling out from the netherworld, rushing toward Meng Rui and these people. Meng Rui’s heart stirred as he reached into his bosom.
“Be careful. Among these carrion beetles are some big fellows.” Kua Lao reminded them. Jin Yaoguang also discovered that mixed within the black insect tide were some large yellow horned beetles the size of baby heads. Jin Yaoguang heard the hidden meaning in Kua Lao’s words, so he immediately asked, “These insects are dangerous?”
“Not all carrion beetles only like decayed flesh. Some also like living things.” Kua Lao said meaningfully. Jin Yaoguang revealed a panicked expression. Jin Chuang shouted even more urgently, “Those yellow insects are coming!”
Yellow large insects swarmed through the black insect tide, then separated from the insect tide like lightning, like yellow flying squirrels pouncing toward everyone in the gorge. Jin Chuang swung his blade and struck down one yellow insect, but several other yellow insects had already flown forward. On the other side, Jin Yaoguang could only flee in embarrassment. The black tide swept past everyone’s knees like a giant wave rising from thin air. Jin Yaoguang lost his balance while dodging left and right in the black tide and sat down on the ground with a “bang.”
The yellow beetle swarm seemed to see delicious food entering their mouths and all turned toward Jin Yaoguang.
At this time, Jin Chuang couldn’t care about Kua Lao anymore. He pushed Kua Lao away and rushed to Jin Yaoguang’s side in one step, dancing the steel blade into a circle to prevent the yellow insects from drilling inside the circle. But there were truly too many yellow insects. The yellow insects that penetrated through the blade circle bit fiercely into Jin Yaoguang’s legs, back, and arms. After the insect bites, wounds over an inch long remained. Blood gushed out profusely, attracting even more bloodthirsty beetles to pounce.
Jin Chuang’s hand holding the blade was almost out of strength. Jin Yaoguang was also gradually being devoured by the yellow beetles. In a flash, Jin Yaoguang glimpsed that in front of Meng Rui and the others was actually a safe clearing. Not only were there no yellow beetles attacking them, even the massive terrifying insect tide detoured around the several people. Jin Yaoguang’s mind raced. At the instant when the yellow insects were about to drown him, he cried out loudly, “Save me, I’ll take you into the Moluo… Gorge!”
Roaring sounds thundered in his ears, like thousands of troops and ten thousand horses galloping past. His body was in extreme pain. Blood kept flowing from various wounds. Jin Yaoguang felt in a daze that he had already stepped into hell. But suddenly, the yellow beetles surrounding his body all scattered together. Behind the insect curtain, a person’s ice-cold face was revealed—it was Meng Rui! Jin Yaoguang hadn’t died. Meng Rui walked over blowing a strange wooden whistle. Wherever he went, beetles avoided him one after another. Jin Chuang pulled up Jin Yaoguang. Jin Chuang at this time had also been bitten by yellow insects all over with wounds. And Kua Lao, whom he had held hostage earlier, was now standing safely together with the Fu Nianyu couple.
Meng Rui glanced at Kua Lao. The black whistle was given to Meng Rui by Kua Lao at the Yizhuang. Afterward, Kua Lao told Meng Rui that this whistle had miraculous uses against carrion beetles. Meng Rui discovered that the whistle couldn’t produce any sound at all. Kua Lao explained that the sound the whistle produced couldn’t be heard by human ears, but those beetles that didn’t rely on ears to hear things could hear it. The beetles would extremely reject the whistle sound and avoid people blowing the whistle from far away. Kua Lao finally said this was a treasure his master had given him before dying. His master had been a night lantern person, which in common parlance meant a tomb raider. Old tombs were heavy with yin energy and accompanied by many corpse insects. Kua Lao’s master used this whistle to avoid corpse insects.
The black insect tide completely surged into the Moluo flower clusters. They occupied positions beneath the gradually blooming giant flower faces of the Moluos, either turning soil or circling around the Moluo flowers in groups. Meng Rui waited for the insect tide to leave before putting away the black wooden whistle. Jin Yaoguang’s face was covered in blood. He sat limply on the ground without strength. Jin Chuang also crouched beside him. Meng Rui looked at the two men. “Take us into the Moluo Gorge.”
Jin Yaoguang wearily agreed, “Alright.”
Jin Yaoguang and Jin Chuang slowly stood up and led Meng Rui, Kua Lao, and the Fu Nianyu couple into the Moluo flower clusters. Meng Rui had already taken out specially made fragrant powder from Jin Yaoguang’s bosom and smeared it on everyone’s clothes and beside their noses, reducing the invasion of the Moluo flowers’ strong corpse stench. Although they had applied the fragrant powder, Meng Rui and the Fu Nianyu couple were still dizzy from the waves of foul smell emitted by the Moluos. Meng Rui forced himself to stay alert to prevent the Jin father and son from using tricks. Kua Lao walked at the very back of everyone. The corpse stench didn’t affect him much.
After wandering in the Moluo flower clusters for half a shichen, Jin Yaoguang several times led Meng Rui and the others into side paths. Meng Rui secretly compared with the upper half of the map Wen Nansheng had left behind, corrected the route anew, and warned Jin Yaoguang that if he used tricks and took the wrong path again, he wouldn’t be polite. Jin Yaoguang had no choice but not to dare deviate anymore. He led Meng Rui gradually into the belly of the gorge.
The Moluo flowers here were even more enormous than those before. The gradually opening flower faces were like giant umbrella surfaces covering over everyone’s heads. The flower faces were bizarre like human faces. Meng Rui’s heart was in disorder. He thought of the flower faces carved in the old residence that were exactly the same. Could it be that Wan Xiang had truly entered the Moluo Gorge? In his memory, Wan Xiang’s innocent and lively cheeks gradually merged with the flower faces. Meng Rui felt a pang of heartache. Kua Lao patted Meng Rui’s back. Meng Rui suddenly snapped back to his senses and discovered Jin Yaoguang had stopped before a stone wall. The stone wall had a cave entrance that could only allow one person to pass in and out.
“Where are the abducted girls?” Meng Rui thought of Wan Xiang. His tone carried several traces of cold chill. Niu Zhiying’s figure swayed unsteadily. With a crying voice, she asked, “Where is Dandan? Tell us!”
The Jin father and son exchanged glances. Jin Yaoguang said, “Each time, the girls are sent into this stone cave. Then we leave. As for where the girls went, we also don’t know.”
“Nonsense! How could you not know… Dandan, return my Dandan!” Niu Zhiying shouted for a while and nearly fainted. Fu Nianyu hurriedly supported her.
“For Chunfeng Hall’s secret medicine, which part of the Moluo do you harvest?” Meng Rui suddenly asked. Jin Yaoguang hesitated slightly, but seeing Meng Rui’s sinister cold gaze, he could only answer, “The spirit medicine harvests the stem juice of hundred-year-old Moluos.”
“I’ve never been able to understand. Since the spirit medicine only needs the Moluo’s stem juice, why do you still need to abduct girls?” Meng Rui asked. This question was also a doubt that had troubled Kua Lao and the Fu Nianyu couple’s hearts for a long time.
Jin Yaoguang was expressionless before the stone wall. Jin Chuang pursed his lips but also didn’t speak.
Meng Rui suddenly smiled. He stepped forward and pressed down on the wound on Jin Chuang’s shoulder where the yellow beetle had bitten through. Jin Chuang grimaced in pain. Jin Yaoguang’s face changed. Meng Rui slowly increased the force in his hand. Jin Yaoguang faintly heard the sound of bones shattering. He sighed and said, “I’ll speak. I’ll tell you.”
Meng Rui released Jin Chuang and looked at Jin Yaoguang. “Speak then.”
“Actually, abducting the girls, we were also forced into it.” Jin Yaoguang sighed heavily again. Meng Rui asked, “Why?”
“Because of a devil’s agreement from fifteen years ago.” Jin Yaoguang’s eyes revealed deep helplessness and fear.
Jin Yaoguang slowly revealed the secret he had hidden in his heart for fifteen years. Fifteen years ago, a mysterious man in a black cloak found Jin Yaoguang and told him a method for amassing vast wealth, which was to harvest the stem juice of hundred-year-old Moluos to refine spirit medicine that had miraculous effects on women’s fertility and maintaining their figure. When the man in the black cloak informed Jin Yaoguang of the spirit medicine formula, he also made Jin Yaoguang promise an agreement. The agreement was that Jin Yaoguang must transport two girls to the location designated by the man in the black cloak every five months.
Having released the secret of many years, Jin Yaoguang suddenly felt relieved in his heart and continued, “Not long after abducting the girls, I wanted to give up, but after that, people in my family one after another contracted strange illnesses with no clear origin. One by one, they became dying. Only then did I realize the vicious methods of the man in the black cloak. I could only continue secretly abducting girls and transporting them into the gorge.”
“Fifteen years. Calculating, that’s a full sixty or seventy girls.” Jin Yaoguang sighed with emotion. Meng Rui furrowed his brow. “What does the man in the black cloak want the girls for? Have you ever seen these girls again?”
“What he wants the girls for, I don’t know. I don’t dare ask either. And the girls sent into the gorge have never come out again. Where they went, whether they’re dead or alive, I truly don’t know.” Jin Yaoguang shook his head.
Meng Rui was silent for a moment. Everyone else also fell silent. Only the rustling chewing sounds of the carrion beetles not far away remained.
“Do you know the name of the man in the black cloak?” Meng Rui thought for a moment and asked.
“He told us to call him Master Hua. I don’t know his name.” Jin Yaoguang replied.
“The location Master Hua designated is inside this cave?” Meng Rui asked.
Jin Yaoguang’s gaze drifted, looking behind Meng Rui. “That’s right, it’s inside.”
The stone wall’s cave entrance was ice-cold and narrow, only allowing one person to pass in and out. Meng Rui poked his head inside. Behind him, a sharp dagger suddenly stabbed toward Meng Rui’s back…