“You truly don’t know your own face is long like a horse’s or your own horns are curved like a bull’s — I’ve never seen anyone with skin as thick as yours.” Pang Bo brushed his hand aside, cast him a sideways look, and put away the three drifting, sweet-scented fruits.
“How can you speak like this?” Li Changqing’s face fell, unable to maintain his composure. “We are classmates — having arrived together in a strange world, we should be supporting one another. Everyone is hungry right now. When food is found, it should be shared among all. Are you going to eat it all by yourself?”
“Pah — you have the nerve to say such things?” Pang Bo said with a cold laugh: “Who was it eating chocolate in secret inside the copper coffin? Where were your thoughts of ‘everyone’ back then? Now you act with such an air of righteous indignation — don’t sicken me. Seeing you turns my stomach more than seeing those divine crocodile reptiles. Go stand somewhere else — I can’t be bothered with you!”
Li Changqing was immediately silenced, his face cycling between pale and ashen. He could not possibly admit it, and though he argued back several times, it sounded hollow and feeble.
Though Pang Bo spoke bluntly and forcefully, that didn’t mean his mind was any less sharp. He naturally understood Li Changqing’s ploy — getting a share of the food would be the best outcome, and failing that, he would isolate Pang Bo and Ye Fan. After all, there were quite a few people present, and if they didn’t share with those people, those people would certainly have something to say about it.
“My apologies to everyone — too many mouths, too little food. There were only five fruits to pick, truly not enough to go around.” Pang Bo didn’t bother looking at the others as he distributed the fruits. “Zhang Ziling — this one’s for you.” He tossed one over, then added: “These five fruits were just picked by Ye Fan and me, so it goes without saying we get to reward ourselves as well.”
Pang Bo stuffed the fourth fruit directly into Ye Fan’s mouth. As for the fifth gleaming little fruit, he himself took a large bite, consuming most of it.
The five fruits were thus distributed. Liu Yiyi looked a little flustered and said: “I… I can make do with half — let’s divide these among everyone.” She wanted to give the red jade-like fruit back, but Ye Fan pushed it right back toward her and said: “Don’t worry — the vegetation here is abundant. There will certainly be plenty of wild fruit to find.”
Pang Bo also fixed her with a look, urging her to eat quickly and not to decline. He knew perfectly well that these fruits were no ordinary thing — after eating them, one was filled with boundless energy and all fatigue was swept away. There were certainly other benefits he had yet to discover.
“But…” Liu Yiyi felt a little embarrassed, glancing at the people around them.
“Yiyi, you’re far too kind — that won’t do,” Pang Bo said in a low voice. “Quite a few of them have chocolate hidden on them, but not one person took it out to share with everyone.”
Only when Ye Fan nodded to her as well did Liu Yiyi stop declining.
“I still have some chocolate here — let everyone share.” Just then, Liu Yunzhi suddenly stepped forward and produced several bars of chocolate for everyone to divide.
“Are you serious?!” Pang Bo was instantly furious. This was a blatant slap in the face — enough to make his teeth itch with rage. Yet there was nothing he could actually say or do about it; even if he jumped up in protest, there was nothing to argue.
“Now that’s the kind of loyalty we need from Yunzhi!” Li Changqing unwrapped a piece of chocolate, popped it in his mouth, and said this as he chewed, while making sure to glance over at Pang Bo and Ye Fan.
“Those who share hardship together — that’s where you see a person’s true heart…” The female classmate who had been staying close to Liu Yunzhi’s side also said this in a pointed tone.
This left Pang Bo’s expression even more unsightly. He muttered under his breath: “In and out of the circle he goes — why didn’t he take it out earlier? Now that the mountains are full of plants and wild fruit can surely be found, the chocolate is barely of any use. Waiting until now to make a gesture — to hell with him.”
“You learn who a man really is over time and distance — when we get out to the wider world, Yunzhi, I’ll follow you.” Li Changqing deliberately put on this particular air, then let out a long sigh and said: “Ahh—” — and made sure not to forget to cast several glances at Pang Bo and Ye Fan.
Having been given such a light and dismissive slap by Liu Yunzhi, and then being mocked by the man and woman at his side, Pang Bo was so furious he wanted to drag him over and thrash him soundly — but with so many eyes watching, he could only endure it.
The group looked out at the distant mountain shapes and terrain, settled on a direction, and judged that heading that way would get them out of this mountain range in the shortest time and reach an area with people.
Without dawdling too long, everyone followed the mountain’s slope downward, then entered the mountain forest and proceeded carefully and cautiously. Each person held a wooden stick, guarding against wild beast attacks — after all, the divine relics had become nearly useless.
Yet after walking the better part of the day, they had not seen a single large predator, not even a common field mouse — and not a single bird either.
“This really is a forbidden land — not even birds will come here to defecate…” Li Changqing muttered to himself.
Pang Bo retorted teasingly: “You should count yourself lucky. If you ran into a large predator, you’d be praying to escape to a place so empty not even a feather could be found.”
The mountain terrain was thick with dense, luxuriant vegetation. The group picked a great many wild fruits, temporarily relieving the food problem. But all the way until dusk, they still had not walked out of the forest — the endless mountain terrain seemed to have no end, with another mountain beyond every mountain.
“Could we have taken a wrong turn — could we be heading deeper into the forest?” Someone raised this doubt, but in the end the group still decided to continue forward.
Darkness had now fallen. The group was forced to stop in the forest and decided to set out again the following day.
It was an unsettling night. At midnight, everyone heard a wail that made their skin crawl — a sound shrill and immense, accompanied by the clanking rattle of iron chains, making everyone feel a chill that went from their heads straight down to their feet.
In that gloomy, eerie forest, it was deeply frightening — like a fierce ghost in shackles struggling against its chains. The sound made one’s heart tremble.
“It seems to be… the sound coming from within the abyss of the Primordial Forbidden Land.” Many people trembled with fear, gazing in the direction of that vast abyss formed by the nine encircling mountains in the distance.
Deep in the night, tree shadows swayed, ancient trees stood wolf-like and alien, swaying in the wind — like ghosts flickering in and out of sight.
The shrieking grew even louder, shaking the entire mountain range into a gentle trembling. The surrounding trees swayed continuously, countless leaves rustling and falling.
A bone-chilling cold emanated from the abyss of the Primordial Forbidden Land and spread outward. This terrified everyone — for they were already quite far from that place, and yet they could still feel this dreadful aura. It was genuinely horrifying.
Clang, clang…
The massive reverberating sounds carried especially far through the black night — like some enormous creature pounding on metal, making the forest tremble with every blow.
Everyone blanched simultaneously, each mind naturally arriving at the same thought.
“The nine massive Dragon Corpses and the Ancient Bronze Coffin fell into the abyss…”
“Could this mean…”
These heavy, powerful impacts sounded like something hammering against the great bronze coffin — a sensation that sent icy dread through everyone, every hair on their bodies standing on end.
“What… what is that thing?!”
Many people were shaken to the utmost extremity of shock, and equally to the utmost extremity of terror. The Ancient Bronze Coffin was mysterious and incomprehensible — even now, none of them truly understood it. What kind of thing could be hammering against it? That great coffin had effortlessly drained every last bit of divine power from all the divine relics in their hands.
“The Primordial Forbidden Land — does that mean a forbidden ground that has existed since primordial times?”
“Primordial… how unimaginably ancient an age that must be. Has no one set foot here since those times?”
Clang, clang…
The enormous sounds were deafening. The thunderous blows, the trembling tones of the bronze coffin — they resounded across heaven and earth. The ground shook. The surrounding forest swayed without pause. Leaves fell in scattered drifts, fluttering down.
The shrieking radiated fury, growing ever more shrill and terrifying. It was impossible to imagine what could be lurking within that abyss.
“We ought to be thankful — if it weren’t for the nine Dragon Corpses and the Ancient Bronze Coffin falling into the abyss and drawing the attention of that thing, it would probably have charged out in the night. If that had happened, none of us would have survived…”
This was very likely the truth. After all, this place was called the Primordial Forbidden Land — even birds and beasts did not dare to linger here. One could only imagine how terrifying it was, and what dreadful thing must exist here.
“Something that existed before the primordial era — it truly… makes one’s hair stand on end. I dare not even imagine it!”
“It appears to be temporarily unable to do anything to that mysterious Ancient Bronze Coffin. Thank goodness for that.”
It was a sleepless night. Many people could not fall asleep again.
“Boom!”
Suddenly, a violent explosion — out in the distant mountain range, the abyss abruptly underwent a tremendous earthquake, erupting with an endless stream of black mist that completely blotted out the sky in that area. Every star and trace of moonlight vanished from sight, leaving an oppressive, suffocating darkness.
“Rumble, rumble, rumble!”
Then, all at once, all the black mist was sucked back down into the abyss in an instant. The stars in the sky blazed into sight — but everyone witnessed an image of breathtaking intensity.
A blurred dark shadow — impossible to tell whether human or beast — was wielding iron chains hundreds of meters long, howling up at the sky, its ferocious might suppressing the world! The distance between them and it was vast, yet they could still see it — which gave some sense of just how enormous those iron chains must be. Its shriek was deafening, nearly sending everyone in the forest into unconsciousness from the sheer force. Rolling waves of sound made their eardrums ache.
That thing was bound by enormous iron chains — shackled and fettered — yet it swung and swept across heaven and earth, the iron chains spanning the sky! Its ferocious might overawed all the world. Like something gathering its strength, it let out one last shrill and piercing shriek, then suddenly dove back down into the abyss.
Clang, clang…
The sounds of the bronze coffin being hammered rang out once more.
“Do you think it’s trying to open that coffin-within-a-coffin?”
“That should be the case — after all, the large coffin is already open, so there would be no reason to break it apart.”
Everyone’s hearts were gripped with shock and terror. Only in the second half of the night did the abyss at last fall quiet, no longer sending out any sounds. Everyone slipped into a drowsy, fitful sleep.
The next day, the sun had already risen quite high before everyone woke one by one. They washed up by a stream, gathered some wild fruit to eat, and then set off again.
After walking another two or three hours without stopping to rest — everyone urgently wanted to leave this place; the Primordial Forbidden Land was deeply unsettling, and they had to get out of this area before nightfall.
At midday, a blazing sun hung overhead, though fortunately the trees provided shade. When they climbed to the top of one mountain, someone heard the distant roar of beasts.
“Not much further now — we should be able to walk out of this forbidden land before dark.”
“Hey — does anyone see what looks like buildings on that tall mountain in the distance?” Wang Ziwen suddenly pointed ahead. It was an exceedingly tall mountain, still very far away and separated by several mountain peaks, yet none of those smaller mountains could block its view.
“Those really are buildings — they seem to stretch on and on!”
Expressions of joy and surprise swept across the group. They would certainly be able to reach that place before dark.
“Wait — it looks like there might even be cranes flying around over there. Could that be a sacred immortal land? Could there be immortals there…?” Some people’s minds ran wild, immediately conjuring visions of the legendary immortals.
The group could not help but quicken their steps forward. Along the way, two or three people clustered together, breaking into small circles, many of them already murmuring quietly about what they would do once they reached a place with people — it was evident they were bound to go their separate ways.
At that moment, Ye Fan noticed that Liu Yiyi looked somewhat aggrieved and unhappy, and asked: “Yiyi, what’s the matter?”
“Wang Yan took my prayer beads to look at them and won’t give them back to me…” Liu Yiyi looked a little wronged, and also a little upset.
“It’s her? It must have been Liu Yunzhi’s idea!” Pang Bo was instantly furious. Wang Yan was the female classmate who had been staying by Liu Yunzhi’s side, consistently targeting Ye Fan and Pang Bo.
Upon hearing this, Ye Fan said nothing more. He strode forward, blocked the path of Liu Yunzhi, Wang Yan, and Li Changqing, extended his hand, and said: “Hand it over!”
“What are you talking about?” Li Changqing asked, showing no sign of backing down.
“Spare me the nonsense — hand over the prayer beads!” Ye Fan was not without a temper; he had simply been restraining it all along. When he truly lost it, it would be something far more formidable.
“Oh — you mean this matter,” Wang Yan explained. “I was just looking at them for a moment. I liked them quite a bit afterward, so I exchanged my copper bell for them with Yiyi.”
Ye Fan looked back at Liu Yiyi. By now the others had stopped as well, all turning to look.
“I… I didn’t agree to exchange with her. She took the prayer beads away and then… forced the copper bell into my hand.” Liu Yiyi was deeply wronged. Under everyone’s gaze she seemed somewhat uneasy, pitiful and forlorn.
“Yiyi, that’s not what you can say — you clearly agreed to the exchange.” Wang Yan said this.
“Hand it over! I have no patience for more of this.” At that moment, Ye Fan swept his gaze across Liu Yunzhi, Wang Yan, and Li Changqing, and said: “I have no patience left right now. We’re on the verge of escaping danger — do not bring trouble upon yourselves!”