Chapter 159

  Eternal Range (I)

  I woke up rather well rested.

  In fact, it was kind of surprising how well rested I was. Usually, I never really got a full night's rest; I don't like to brag, but this stupid brain of mine doesn't really know how to 'turn off'. So, it concocts all these scenarios, puts them into a nightmare, and lo and behold, I'm waking up at 3:37AM, coated in sweat.

  Anyway, the point is that I slept well.

  The good day was ruined quickly, however, by two revelations--all people who were 'infected' by the vine... disappeared.

  Honestly, I thought they'd die if I'm being entirely transparent, but they didn't. And now they've disappeared, alongside the village chief.

  Then again, a single look at yawning, slightly pissed-off-seeming Long Tao told me practically everything... so I didn't bother asking.

  We had a quick breakfast and left, wondering whether we made the place better off or worse off... no, better off, certainly better off. Though quite a few died, if we hadn't come, they all would have died.

  Anyway, once again, we had to move on foot.

  One of the reasons I was looking for villages was really that--I'm so damn tired of walking! No, seriously, my blisters have blisters! Any day now I expect new toes to just spontaneously form around how many blisters I've got!

  I wasn't made for this life, and Lu Qi certainly wasn't either.

  The kids, though, seemed... fine. Hell, considering that, once a day, they beat the ever-living shit out of each other, they were doing great. Had the stamina of an Olympic marathoner.

  ... marathoner? That can't be a word, can it? Whatever. If it's not, I'm making it one.

  As I was saying, nothing tired these little gremlins.

  Strangely, though, they always knew just when to take a break because it always just so happened to be the moment I first thought, Damn, I could use a break.

  I know they can't read my mind because, if they could, they'd have long since left me, which means that they are so familiar with just how crappy my body is that they can tell when I've reached my limits.

  On one hand, it's beautifully endearing.

  On another, I kind of want to dig a hole and hide in it.

  "We're about halfway there," Wan Lan said after Dai Xiu asked her how far we are from the Eternal Range.

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  "Have you ever been there, Junior Sister?"

  "To the Eternal Range? No," the young woman shook her head, smiling faintly. "There were a lot of stories in town about that place, and none of them were good. Madame, too, said it was best to always orient yourself toward those mountains and then just go the opposite direction."

  "Eh? Why? Are they scary? Do, do big, big beasts live there?!"

  "I don't know. Maybe? Are you scared?"

  "As, as long as they don't look like bugs, I'll be fine!" Dai Xiu bravely proclaimed.

  By the way, why the hell is this child sitting on my lap so nonchalantly, and why is nobody saying anything about it?!

  Well, it's been this way ever since I 'dragged' her out. She clung to me like hot glue, and I really didn't have the heart to shoo her away. I mean, I know it's probably best if I do, but dammit, I can't do it.

  So, she sat in my lap, eating away in silence, and listening to others' chatter.

  I thought she'd open up more and start laughing like she did in that dream, but, honestly, she's just been... Light. An occasional wiseass remark, a lot of questions stemming from curiosity, but otherwise... just apathetic silence.

  "Seeing how relaxed you seem to be," Long Tao said. "And not at all worried about breaking through, maybe you lot got used to the training?"

  "..."

  "..."

  "N-n-no, not at all! Auu, my legs hurt so much!" That was Dai Xiu.

  Thankfully, she was the only one, and when she realized neither Wan Lan nor Xi Zhao followed her lead, she seemed on the verge of bursting into tears. Which she did a moment later, when Light spoke up.

  "My fingers hurt so much, too. Can you feed me, Master?"

  "..."

  Yeah.

  A wailing twelve-year-old girl, a wistfully cruel six-year-old girl, a pair of teenagers doing their best not to burst out into laughter, and an old monster stirring fires from the sides.

  ... what in God's name is this little group?

  **

  Cold winds howled as the blizzard continued to blow.

  It hadn't yielded in over two months, piling almost twenty inches of snow weekly over the mountain peaks.

  Even halfway up the surrounding mountains, it was practically impossible to see beyond a few feet, even with light, and near the peaks, the blizzard made everyone lose sight.

  Balancing on a thick ledge pressed into the side of a mountain was a brilliant-seeming, yet also worn-out fort. Its walls jutted out tall and fierce, made out of an almost wholly black stone, with corner towers rounding out into strange spirals, as though otherworldly.

  Shimmering flickers of light dipped in and out of existence through the blizzard within the few visible windows, shadows moving silently among them.

  The massive courtyard housing decrepit stone and hay lay silent and unmoving, while armored silhouettes circled the wall walks around the central area.

  It seemed an impenetrable fortress, defying time itself, pressed into the mountain and blocking one of the few passages between the north and the south. A giant unfelled.

  A shadow suddenly burst through the thick layer of haze and hail, a terrified and bloodied figure emerging as motes of light swirled out of his black-sewn cat.

  He seemed a middle-aged man and would have been considered handsome if not for a gnarly scar running straight across his face, from the forehead to his chin. More than that, however, he was desperately holding onto a stump where his left arm used to be--now it was a bloodied mess, churning out crimson droplets like rain.

  Even so, he sped through the knee-high snow the best he could, appearing and disappearing within almost twenty feet of distance. As such, he made it to the wall relatively quickly, and just for a moment his expression alighted before suddenly turning dark.

  "Dammit," he mumbled.

  "You almost escaped; consider it an honor for me to have chased you out." He couldn't quite make out the face of the newcomer--it was cloaked in both snow and red shadows. But that energy... he remembered it.

  "You damned bloodsucker," he snarled. "I should have burned you when I had the chance."

  "You should have," the voice cackled eerily. "Be honored, Little Yang; you are going to the Lord of Blood!"