Chapter 119 – The Mist
Translated by Sunyancai
When they went inside from different caves, the warriors of the five hunting groups finally got together.
In front of them, there was a very big empty hall. No one could ever see where the ceiling was, and there was a dense mist ahead.
Earlier, they thought that some bats would be driven to this direction by the smoke. However, to their surprise, they hadn’t seen a single bat in this open area.
Perhaps they had gone to other caves, but it shouldn’t have been so empty in here, going so far as not seeing even a single bat. Why the hell was that? People had no clue what was so special about this place.
“How are things on your side?” Mai asked the other few group leaders.
“It’s good. There were not too many bats left in the cave. It was a piece of cake.”
“It’s the same on our end.”
“It looks like most of them have gone outside.”
It was a good sign.
“Something’s coming!” Cha said out of blue.
There were far more than five bat caves outside, and other caves were connected to this place as well.
“Should we put out the fire?”
“No. There’s no point in doing that. Let’s wait. Only two bats are coming.”
Cheng waved to the others.
The faint sounds of fluttering wings were very easy to capture in this quiet hall.
Soon, people heard the sound of the bats flying out from one cave.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!
Although people might not be able to see what these two bats looked like, based on the things they heard, they could spot their locations just the same.
The long spears in Mai and a few other warriors’ hands all flew to the bats once they came out.
After a series of ‘puffs’, those two bats could barely make a sound before they hit the ground.
Cheng asked a few of his men to toss some smoking herbs to the other bat caves, while he stepped forward to check on the bats on the ground and their prey.
Those two bats had so many long spears piercing their bodies, that they looked like cactuses. The cow that they carried also suffered from the spears. It was still alive, but it was unconscious. Just like other prey, instead of being killed, they were only unconscious, and were directly brought in here.
“Judging from their flying route, they should be heading to that direction.”
People looked along the direction that Cheng pointed out, but even with the light of the torches, people couldn’t see what was ahead. It was all in the mist.
“Ah-Cheng, do you think that they maybe…” Cha stared at the mist and murmured.
All the prey that were brought in by the bats were delivered to that place. So perhaps, the three missing men from Cheng’s hunting group were brought to the same place? Also, one of the purposes for coming to this place was to find out the reason why all those bats were behaving so abnormally. If they could find that out, they would be able to solve the problem once and for all. Or else they would risk being hunted by an army of big bats every time they went to the giant pit for Fire Crystals in the future.
Well, the reason of all the bats acting so abnormally was probably hidden behind the mist, in that direction.
The five group leaders once analyzed the situation when they were having meetings together. They thought that the bats probably were preparing a feast for their leader. Many animals shared similar habits. It was very possible that they were storing food for that. If that was really the case, they would do whatever they could to put down that leader.
Was the leader in here?
Would the army of bats disband naturally once they killed that leader?
“Let’s check it out. Be careful!” Cheng said to the crowd.
Once they walked into the mist, the flames of the torches grew smaller.
The visibility was very low, and there was a very unpleasant smell around, just like a thick fog.
“Miasma?” Shao Xuan wondered.
The pungent odor made them dizzy, but it was not just the odd smell in those bat caves. It was a smell that befuddled people’s minds. Luckily, the fresh smell of the vines eased that feeling.
People put a piece of herb into their mouth, and the herb’s bitter cool taste refreshed them a little.
There was another burst of fluttering wings, and this time, there were more bats coming. The effect of the smoke was limited after all. Dozens of bats flew inside from other caves, all with prey in their claws. Mai and the others were prepared to throw stone spears at them, but to their surprise, they did not attack the hunting groups at all. Even without looking at them, they grabbed their prey and flew directly into the mist.
Somewhere in the mist, there was a sound of something dropping on the ground. Not long after that, those bats flew out from the thick mist and then headed out to the caves.
“Their leader must be in there.” Cheng whispered.
As they walked deeper inside, the flames of their torches grew smaller, as if they were struggling to keep burning. Because of the “mist”, even Mai could only see thing ten meters ahead with a torch in his hand, let alone the others.
“This place is…”
Before Cha could finish his words, he stumbled on something.
His nerves all tightened up in an instant, and he became fully alert for combat. But soon enough, he realized that the thing he kicked had no sign of life.
“Dead?” Cha kicked the object beneath his feet.
The thing he touched was the body of a dead bat. Moreover, it had been dead for quite a long time.
Not only beneath Cha’s feet, in this area covered by thick mist, there were skeletons of bats everywhere on the ground. In other words, there were numerous bats’ bodies everywhere. In some spots, there were layers of bats’ skeletons. It was kind of creepy.
When they walked forward, there were even more bodies of bats piling up like small hills.
Dead bats.
All of them were dead bats.
Moreover, a lot of them died miserably with their remains spread out everywhere. Apparently, they had been cruelly ripped off before they died.
No wonder that those other bats were not fleeing in here. It was literally a giant grave of bats.
“Each one of them was very big in size, and they have been dead for some time…” Said Cheng after he checked on a few lying on the ground nearby.
“It looks like an inside battle, judging from the wounds on their bodies.”
“Why would they fight each other?”
“I remember that some animals must go through a fatal fight if they want to select a leader in their herd.” Said Mai.
“So, you are saying that…”
“The leader is really in here?!”
People instantly became tense. If the bats were alive, none of the five group leaders would ever dare to lead people inside, given the bats’ quantity and size. However, if the leader had out-beaten them all, what kind of ferocious beast would that be?
Even so, people had no intention of going back.
In fact, when discussing with Mai and the others, Shao Xuan once proposed that they should go back to the tribe to ask for help from the other hunting team. After all, they were only at the first holdout, which meant it would be much faster to go back to the tribe than going to find the advance group, given that they had merely started the hunting mission. Also, it would be much safer if they had more warriors from the tribe to help.
However, Shao Xuan’s proposal was rejected by the others at the meeting. One reason was that the two hunting teams were always competing with one another. All five group leaders did not want people from the other team to join the mission. They would even keep the news from them. Secondly, the more people got involved, the lesser benefit would each one get after the mission was accomplished. No one wanted that.
Shao Xuan’s proposal was based on the theory that “where there is life, there’s hope”, while the others were thinking that they would rather die to find Fire Crystals.
That was the logic of the people in the tribe. Earlier, Mai scolded Shao Xuan with “what could be more important than your life”, but later on, everyone became crazy after they heard about the Fire Crystal.
Shao Xuan had underestimated that craziness. So, he realized that these people were really going to risk their lives when he heard the five group leaders talking about the action.
As they were marching forward, they could still hear many bats constantly delivering prey in the air. None of the bats cared about those people standing in the mist. Instead, they were busy with their own business.
Bang!
It was another sound of something dropping on the ground.
The dropping spot was very close to the people of the hunting team.
“Wait a second!!” Said Cheng in a low voice.
“It’s the sound of breathing.” Mai and a few others also realized that.
There were a lot of breathing sounds nearby.
Aside from the breathing of the totem warriors of the hunting team, and the bats in the air, there were a lot of breath sounds, faint breaths.
Like climbing up a mountain, they stepped on thick layer of bat corpses and moved on.
The light of the torches was already faint. And the flame was only one fifth of its originally size, which led to severe visual impairment. Now, people relied more on their sense of hearing to learn about the things happening in the surrounding.
Some junior warriors couldn’t carry on anymore. They had almost reached their limit. Now, they were barely holding on to keep themselves from fainting. The effect of the vines and herbs were very little. They could not resist the poisonous fog.
“Whoever has difficulty hanging on should stop here first. The others keep moving on.” Said Mai.
The other four groups did the same.
Shao Xuan held the tiny Fire Crystal in his hand, and the energy from it kept him sober. He was able to carry on longer than the other junior totem warriors.
“It’s giant-antler deer!” Someone recognized a living creature on the ground.
“There’s a mountain antelope!”
“A wild boar!”
In the surroundings, there constantly appeared signs of living creatures. All those animals were unconscious. They could never remain conscious in such an environment. Even if they woke up, they would fall unconscious again once they inhaled the thick mist.
Warriors from Cheng’s hunting group were thrilled to learn that, for they thought the missing men were probably in here, alive.
In the bat corpse hill, there were a lot other kinds of animals. It was very difficult to find three men.
“Can you see anything, Ah-Xuan?” Mai remembered that Shao Xuan had better night vision than the others, so he asked.
“I cannot see afar, but I’ll try my best.” Said Shao Xuan.
Shao Xuan could see the surrounding objects when he used his special power, but even so, he felt that there was a layer of fog between him and the objects. It was not clear, and he could only see things in fifty meters. But even just that was much better than the others.
Since all he could see were skeletons, so, he had to identify different animals based on the skeletons.
The others were guarding against unforeseen dangers in the surroundings, while Shao Xuan focused on searching for human skeletons with his special vision.
Most junior totemic warriors had stopped following them, and Shao Xuan was the only young warrior that came so far.
However, people all assumed that it must because that Shao Xuan had learned from the Shaman. It should be the reason that he could still hang in there.
The energy of the Fire Crystal constantly got absorbed by Shao Xuan’s palm, which kept the fading totem in his mind stimulated. However, he was barely maintaining its function.
Shao Xuan guessed that perhaps the Fire Crystal was running out of its energy, so he was absorbing less than before.
The rhythmic sound of breathing was still there, however, Shao Xuan could not find the origin of the sound. In fact, he was the only one that could distinguish the sound from other the breaths.
He glimpsed over a pile of skeletons. And finally, he fixed his eyes on the place where there seemed to be three human skeletons.
“I found them!” Shao Xuan said in a low voice.
Cheng took some men to rush to the place where Shao Xuan pointed, and sure enough, he saw some people lying on the ground. These three men were not far from each other, and they were still breathing.
After they found those three missing men, Shao Xuan still felt uneasy deep down in his heart. He always felt that there was something nearby.
Shao Xuan looked down at his hand that held the Fire Crystal tightly. With only one quick glimpse, he felt a chill on his scalp. All his hairs stood upright, and cold sweat almost seeped into his every bone.
In his hand, the energy lines released by the “burning” Fire Crystal did not all enter into his body as usual. Some of them drifted to the mist, behind him.