Chapter 173: Chapter 110: First Head-on Confrontation with Mortal Transformation; Breakthrough to the Bone Tempering Realm; The Cries Outside Seven Stars Castle...
The trees on the fringe of White Tiger Mountain were exceptionally tall. Their canopies formed a dense cover, with branches and leaves so tangled they blocked out most of the sky. The forest within was profoundly dark, as if it hid countless pairs of watching eyes.
"Let’s find a place to rest here on the outskirts. We’ll head in to find the White Tiger Gang’s Sub-Branch first thing in the morning." Chu Fan’s voice was calm, but his sharp gaze swept across the edge of White Tiger Mountain.
The purpose of their trip was to destroy that White Tiger Gang Sub-Branch.
Zhao Tianxing nodded.
The two found a spot on an earthen slope at the foot of the mountain, sheltered from the wind. They cleared a small patch of ground, spread a layer of leaves as large as cattail fans, and sat down.
After a simple meal of dry rations, they decided on the watch schedule. Zhao Tianxing then leaned against the slope and lay down, still fully clothed.
Chu Fan, meanwhile, kept a vigilant watch on their surroundings.
An unknown amount of time passed before a rustling sound suddenly broke the darkness.
"Who’s there!"
Chu Fan pointed his Long Saber in the direction of the sound.
From a pile of rubble, a little girl emerged. She wore a tattered, red padded jacket, her hair tied in sheep-horn braids.
Chu Fan froze—the little girl looked strangely familiar.
But he couldn’t recall where he might have seen her before.
The little girl saw him, let out two soft sobs, then turned and disappeared into the forest.
Chu Fan didn’t move.
A little girl suddenly appearing in this desolate wilderness; no matter how he looked at it, something was wrong.
"Tianxing!"
He called out to Zhao Tianxing twice, but Zhao Tianxing was in such a deep sleep that he didn’t react at all.
Just as Chu Fan was about to shake him awake, his body suddenly floated into the air!
’What’s happening?!’
Chu Fan was alarmed. He felt the cold night wind pass right through his body, bringing a bone-piercing chill.
He tried to regain control but was powerless. He could only let an invisible force pull him along, drifting deeper into the forest.
"Whimper... whimper..."
From ahead, the faint, intermittent sound of crying reached his ears, wrapping around his consciousness like a spider’s thread.
He looked down and saw the little girl from before, wiping away tears as she stumbled through the woods.
Wherever she went, Chu Fan, suspended in the air, involuntarily followed.
From time to time, the little girl would lift her small, tear-streaked face to glance up at him.
Her face was utterly devoid of color, possessing only a transparent paleness.
She didn’t speak, only gazed at him with her large, watery eyes before turning to walk on.
She wasn’t walking fast, yet each step she took covered a great distance.
They skimmed over the treetops and flew across streams. The surrounding mist gradually thickened, carrying a damp, sinister chill.
Suddenly, the silhouette of a fortress built from rammed yellow earth appeared below.
The fortress wasn’t magnificent, but it emanated a forbidding aura.
As Chu Fan’s gaze passed over the fortress gate, he clearly saw the plaque hanging above it in the hazy moonlight—
"Seven Stars Castle"!
The three words, their calligraphy as sharp as iron strokes and silver hooks, glinted with a cold, hard light in the darkness.
’Seven Stars Castle?’
Chu Fan’s heart jolted. ’Isn’t this the location of the Seven Stars Gang Headquarters?’
’How did I "fly" all the way here?’
Before he could dwell on it, the pulling force intensified, carrying him effortlessly over Seven Stars Castle and onward to the north, deeper into the forest.
The scenery below retreated at high speed. The trees grew denser, and the light grew ever dimmer.
Finally, they plunged into a region completely enveloped in a fog as thick and black as ink.
The black fog here seemed alive. It writhed and roiled, blocking out all sound and light, creating a deathly silence that made one’s heart pound with fear.
The little girl led him to the edge of a cliff deep within the fog-shrouded forest, where they landed.
The cliff was a bottomless abyss, filled with an even denser black fog. A bone-chilling, sinister wind howled up from its depths, so cold it made one’s very soul tremble.
The little girl stopped walking. She simply squatted at the cliff’s edge, hugging her knees and burying her face in her arms. Her small, thin shoulders shook violently as she let out a suppressed, despairing cry.
Chu Fan landed behind her. The force controlling him seemed to weaken slightly.
He stepped forward, looking at her small, trembling back. "Little sister," he said in a low voice, "who are you? Why did you bring me here?"
The little girl snapped her head up. Her small, pale face was filled with helpless terror as she looked at him with tear-filled eyes.
She didn’t answer Chu Fan. Instead, she stretched out a slender finger and pointed north across the chasm, her voice a heart-wrenching sob as she repeatedly cried, "My brother... save my brother..."
Chu Fan followed her trembling finger, focusing his gaze down into the abyss.
Despite the immense distance and the thick black fog shrouding everything below, his vision now bizarrely pierced through the darkness, allowing him to see a scene below with perfect clarity—
It was a small hollow in the ground—or, more accurately, a charnel pit!
Dozens of children’s bodies were piled haphazardly inside the pit!
They were dressed in various clothes, but without exception, their bodies were shriveled and their faces a deathly purple. They were long devoid of life.
Even more horrifying, several thick, sharpened bamboo poles jutted out from the edge of the pit like monstrous fangs.
Several small bodies were impaled on the poles, pierced through the chest or abdomen. They hung in mid-air like broken dolls, swaying gently in the sinister wind...
Congealed, dark-red blood slid slowly down the bamboo poles.
The inhumanly tragic scene was like a red-hot branding iron, searing itself onto Chu Fan’s retinas and burning an impression deep into his soul.
An indescribable, icy chill instantly enveloped his entire body. It was immediately followed by a towering killing intent and a bone-deep hatred.
It erupted in his chest like a volcano, threatening to consume his very sanity.
"AH—!"
Chu Fan shot bolt upright, letting out a strangled roar. Veins bulged on his forehead as cold sweat instantly soaked his shirt.
Zhao Tianxing, startled by the sudden movement, whirled around and brandished his saber. "Old Chu, what is it?" he asked warily. "A nightmare?!"
Chu Fan gasped for breath, his chest heaving. The hellish scene from his dream was still before his eyes, perfectly clear.
He scanned his surroundings—he was still on the same leeward slope. In the distance was the dark silhouette of the forest. There was no black fog, no cliff, and no pile of children’s corpses.
But the icy killing intent and heart-stabbing hatred lingered in his heart with chilling reality, coiled there like a venomous snake.
He took several deep breaths of the cold night air, forcibly suppressing the turmoil in his blood. His voice was slightly hoarse. "It’s nothing... just a nightmare."
He looked up, his gaze fixed on the depths of the forest to the north, which was shrouded in the night’s mist. His eyes turned colder and sharper than they had ever been.
’Was it really just a dream?’
’Why did that little girl’s face look so familiar...?’
’Where could I have seen her before?’
Chu Fan lowered his head in thought.
Suddenly, his eyes flew wide open.
’I remember now—’
’It was my first day in the Seven Stars Gang!’
’That day, I went to the porridge distribution sites run by the various families and gangs outside North City. I saw a little girl get pushed over, so I helped her up and told her and her brother to go to Fang’s Porridge Shop!’
’The little girl from the dream... it was her!’
