The wind blew through the Black Forest, bringing with it a jar of freezing cold. The mummified black trees danced to the sound of the wind, while the smell of iron spread through every corner. The tree branches pointed upwards, where extremely high mountains stood, hidden beneath the veil of a dark mist, preventing any kind of light from passing through. The sky was covered by a thick layer of mist, and only the peaks of the mountains could be seen, with great difficulty.
Yuan Tianzhu looked around and noticed that the pitch-black ground of the Black Forest, was moving strangely.
A strange red liquid was seeping from it subtly.
If someone didn't look closely, they wouldn't notice such details. Yuan Tianzhu felt his blood turn cold, his face losing its color.
He crouched down and pulled his right hand from the embrace of Tie Xin's hand.
"Eh? Wait a minute…"
Since when…?
Yuan Tianzhu quickly stopped his actions and slowly looked at his hand, then at Tie Xin, who was averting his gaze, embarrassed.
However, he noticed that Tie Xin's ears were turning red.
'STOP, STOP right there! Why are you embarrassed, you idiot?!Ahggghggggggggggggg!'
After shouting internally as if he were transforming into a SSJ, Yuan Tianzhu reluctantly calmed himself.
He couldn't afford to waste time on nonsense like fragile masculinity. However, he couldn't help but rub his hand for a few seconds before sighing in relief. He closed his eyes and slowly touched the black ground. His eyes widened and his pupils constricted.
Tie Xin noticed the change in him and asked cautiously:
"What happened?"
He couldn't understand what was going on in the mind of this newbie. How could he be so calm and, at the same time, so strangely full of fear? It was extremely contradictory.
But that wasn't the only thing that made him strange.
Tie Xin couldn't help but notice that Yuan Tianzhu seemed to be a different person at times. Gentle, cold, kind, funny, disrespectful… it seemed like he wore multiple layers of personality, as if he were afraid to connect with people, but at the same time, he wanted to get close, always wearing a mask that suited the person he wanted to relate to.
It was contradictory.
It was strange.
It was, above all… scary.
Tie Xin lightly shook his head. It was no use trying to understand such a person, since he probably didn't even understand himself. Besides… he wasn't in a position, nor did he have the right, to judge someone by their actions…
Yuan Tianzhu turned to him and said heavily:
"A strange liquid is slowly overflowing from the ground—"
"And so?" Tie Xin couldn't help but scratch his head.
Yuan Tianzhu rolled his eyes.
"At least let me finish speaking… As I was saying before being rudely interrupted: a liquid is overflowing from the ground, making the ground thicker and more unstable."
"And what's the problem? It's not like we're going to sink, right? Right?"
"….."
When Tie Xin noticed that Yuan Tianzhu wasn't responding, his face turned green with anguish and anxiety.
"…. How is this possible?"
"I don't know… but in areas where the water table is high, the sand can easily become saturated with water. However, there is no water here in the Black Forest, if I'm not mistaken, right?"
"Yes, exactly. Since I've been here, I've never found any body of water, not even a puddle."
He hesitated for few seconds before adding:
"We… we drank blood…"
Yuan Tianzhu remained silent for a few moments, a dark frown forming on his handsome face. A minute later, he shook his head helplessly.
"So that's it."
"That what?" Tie Xin asked.
Yuan Tianzhu looked at him with disdain. "After all that explanation, you still haven't figured it out?"
Tie Xin coughed, embarrassed. "I… I didn't understand."
Yuan Tianzhu put his hand to his face, but then helplessly added:
"For the sand to become saturated, we need water. But here, in the Black Forest, there is no water. So, how could the sand here be saturated?"
"Ah!"
Tie Xin's eyes lit up with realization before his face darkened strangely.
"Exactly," Yuan Tianzhu nodded gravely and then continued: "Blood. Only blood could saturate the sand here in the Black Forest. However, it would require a huge amount of blood for that to happen."
Yuan Tianzhu stood up, shook off his ragged clothes, and said darkly:
"How many people have died in this damn forest? A hundred? A thousand? Thousands? Billions? Trillions?"
"I don't know, how I should know…"
"Idiot, I'm not asking you."
Yuan Tianzhu looked at Tie Xin with the corner of his eye, disdainfully. Didn't he know how to read the room? He was just talking to himself for god's sake! "Anyway, we're in trouble. We need to quickly climb the mountains, or we'll sink into blood quicksand."
Yuan Tianzhu didn't even want to imagine what kinds of murderous horrors were sleeping beneath the pitch-black ground.
Tie Xin shuddered.
"But shouldn't we find Yi Sheng and the young woman?"
'Yi Sheng; doctor?' Yuan Tianzhu's eyes narrowed subtly. However, Tie Xin didn't notice the change.
"Yi Sheng?"
Yuan Tianzhu feigned confusion, with a slight irony hidden in his tone.
"Ah, you don't know his name, the ragged old man? Besides, the situation didn't give us a chance to properly introduce ourselves. Not that it matters now."
Yuan Tianzhu waved his hand, as if to say it was too late for such concerns.
"We need to find them, of course, if they're still alive…"
Tie Xin's face darkened.
"They're alive… I'm sure they are…"
Even saying this, his words didn't sound as assertive as he thought. It was clear that he didn't entirely believe what he was saying. However, that didn't matter to Yuan Tianzhu. His eyes, cold and relentless, once blue like the ocean, were now a light blue, so clear that they seemed almost transparent.
Yuan Tianzhu looked at the Black Forest and the ground, which was becoming thicker and softer. With a dark frown, his eyes, blue as the ocean once again, fixed on the horizon.
"Let's go," he said after a few minutes, as he started walking.
"Where are we going?"
Tie Xin couldn't help but ask.
Yuan Tianzhu kept walking.
"Of course, we're following the blood trails on the ground."
Only now did Tie Xin notice a blood trail, forming a straight line on the ground of the Black Forest, as if it was intentional for them to follow it, like ducks.
Tie Xin shuddered slightly.
The wind blew erratically through the Black Forest, sounding like knives cutting through the air. The smell of blood became stronger and stronger, and he could feel his feet slowly sinking. If he wasn't careful, he could sink and be trapped forever.
"Ah, wait!"
Noticing that the distance between him and Yuan Tianzhu had grown spontaneously, he quickly reacted.
However, it was at that exact moment that a deafening scream reverberated through the Black Forest.
The echoes could be heard repeating the scream relentlessly.
Tie Xin froze in place.
Yuan Tianzhu also stopped in his tracks. His face was dark and pale. He couldn't help but bite his lips in fear, but also to remind himself not to succumb to fear.
Cold sweat dripped down his back, making him feel chills down his spine.
Yuan Tianzhu wiped the cold sweat that fell from his forehead and closed his eyes instinctively.
When he opened them, he was faced with the most desperate image he had ever seen in his life…