Chapter 29: Star Pattern in the Eye
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After performing salvation rites for the souls of those who died in battle, Xu Yan was just about to leave the battlefield when something happened that made his heart jump with terror.
Endless baleful qi rushed toward him, pouring into his left eye. The stabbing pain didn’t lessen—instead, it became even more intense.
It felt as if flames were burning inside his eye. Xu Yan staggered and fell backward to the ground, facing the sky.
The sky he saw at that moment became incredibly strange—half blood-red, half clear. His left eye was filled with crimson, while his right eye was bewildered and helpless.
‘Am I going blind…’
Enduring the excruciating pain, before losing consciousness, Xu Yan could only think of this one possibility.
‘His left eye was probably really going blind.’
‘Going blind might be good—at least I won’t see those strange things anymore…’
The sky gradually darkened. The last ray of sunset disappeared at the horizon along with the rising moon, and the gorge fell into gloom.
Pale moonlight spilled down, turning the dim gorge into a cold and desolate killing field. Wild beasts drawn by the heavy scent of blood began gradually devouring the corpses on the battlefield.
They were the battlefield’s best cleaners. If rotting flesh remained too long, it would become plague, and plague could destroy towns or even entire nations.
No one cared about the little Taoist priest who had fainted on the battlefield. The Yuan Mountain bandits had all left without a single one remaining. They were bandits who had long since erased sympathy from their hearts, and they certainly wouldn’t check on a half-grown child who had just joined the stronghold. Even Zhang He, after climbing to the mountaintop and discovering that Xu Yan hadn’t followed, had no intention of going back down the mountain. Instead, he returned to the stronghold first.
Human life was worthless, especially in the eyes of these bandits.
The biannual dead man’s meal brought great benefits to many, but some were also suddenly killed by dying soldiers. These Yuan Mountain bandits still had to return and report, handing over half their gains to the three leaders. Everyone was calculating their own harvest—no one cared about a little Taoist priest’s life or death.
Yuan Mountain Stronghold wasn’t too far from the Western Garrison Army’s base. Since Flying Centipede Liao Jiuming dared to build his stronghold on Yuan Mountain, this biannual dead man’s meal was what he truly valued. Not only could he obtain silver, but most importantly, he could acquire large quantities of weapons and even armor from the battlefield after the border armies fought.
Robbing passing merchants couldn’t provide weapons—this was the real reason why Liao Jiuming occupied Yuan Mountain.
After nightfall, the sounds of beasts chewing could be heard everywhere in the gorge. Faced with so much blood food, wolves and tigers could even coexist without interference. Flocks of vultures covered the ground, and wave after wave of wolf packs surrounded the entire gorge. The small path back to the mountaintop was completely blocked by wild beasts.
The little Taoist priest who had fainted at the center of the battlefield was like someone sleeping in a sea of corpses and beasts.
The baleful qi in the gorge had completely disappeared, all absorbed into Xu Yan’s left eye. This phenomenon was something Xu Yan had never encountered in all these years.
He hadn’t been unconscious for long. After more than an hour, the little Taoist priest had awakened.
His left eye still ached somewhat, but much less than the previous excruciating pain. As soon as he regained consciousness, Xu Yan immediately covered his eye, only gradually opening it after a long while.
Everything before him was blurry, as if separated by a layer of gauze. Xu Yan didn’t move, just lay quietly among the pile of corpses.
‘His eye didn’t seem to be blind, but that wasn’t important. What worried Xu Yan now was how to get through the feeding beast packs. Once the wild beasts eating blood food discovered him as a living person, they would probably immediately surround and kill him.’
Blinking his eyes and looking up at the night sky, Xu Yan seemed to see a star very, very close to him. That wasn’t a star in the sky, but a star pattern that had appeared in his eye.
The moment Xu Yan regained consciousness, a star pattern outline had indeed appeared in his left eye—very faint, yet very real. As time passed, this dim star pattern gradually faded away, finally disappearing without a trace.
Xu Yan couldn’t understand why the massive baleful qi on the battlefield had been absorbed into his eye. Since he couldn’t figure it out, he could only attribute it to his naturally strange pupils.
He could see many things that others couldn’t see. The eye that could see these ghosts and spirits was precisely Xu Yan’s left eye.
When he was very young, Xu Yan couldn’t ignore what he saw. He had tried constantly covering his left eye and had even tried making an eyepatch. When he couldn’t bear it anymore, he had even used iron needles from the Taoist temple to stab his own left eye.
He wanted to gouge out that eye that filled him with fear, but he never succeeded.
It wasn’t that he didn’t dare to do it—the iron needle had stabbed hard into his left eye, but it was like stabbing an iron block. It didn’t even leave the slightest scar and simply couldn’t penetrate!
Xu Yan had long grown accustomed to his left eye’s strangeness, but this was the first time he had encountered something like his left eye actively absorbing qi.
Gently getting up, Xu Yan began checking the route back to Yuan Mountain.
‘If he stayed here, he would probably be eaten by the beast packs before dawn, because wild beasts were still continuously gathering from both sides of the gorge. There were indeed many dead, but if there were too many beast packs, it still wouldn’t be enough food.’
This was originally a branch of the Eternal Heng Mountain Range. This Qi Yuan Gorge was located between Yuan Mountain and Abyss Mountain, so wild beasts were naturally abundant.
The bright moonlight grew increasingly dim as dark clouds gathered in the sky.
‘He couldn’t wait any longer.’
Xu Yan furrowed his brow tightly and began slowly moving toward the base of Yuan Mountain, gripping two stones in his hands. If he waited longer, once the beasts finished eating the corpses on the periphery, it would be even harder to leave.
Several dozen zhang away, a pack of wild wolves was gnawing on flesh and blood. Among the wolf pack, a massive alpha wolf suddenly raised its head, its wolf ears twitching.
The wolf’s keen senses allowed this alpha to discover Xu Yan’s trail. A fierce wolf howl echoed through the gorge just as the moon was about to be covered by dark clouds.
Awoooo!
The alpha’s howl startled all the wild beasts, and pairs of eyes—large and small, but all deep and blood-red—simultaneously fixed on him.
Taking a deep breath, the stone in Xu Yan’s right hand had already flown out, directly striking the alpha wolf and making it stagger. The wolf’s head was nearly pierced through. As the flying stone shot out, Xu Yan crouched low, legs braced against the ground.
‘He needed to run for his life. Only by escaping the beast pack’s pursuit and climbing up the mountain path could he survive this ordeal.’
Xu Yan’s stone-throwing was indeed masterful. Even facing several alpha wolves, he wouldn’t be afraid. But now he was alone and deep in the center of a beast sea. Whether he could escape to the mountain base depended entirely on luck.
The surroundings instantly became dark as the moonlight disappeared, making Xu Yan’s escape even more difficult.
‘Perhaps even heaven doesn’t want to help this little Taoist priest,’ Xu Yan thought with bitter amusement.
The surrounding darkness couldn’t affect his left eye’s vision, but darkness could make it easier for the wild beasts to hide. As the moonlight vanished, Xu Yan could see some massive shadows wandering in the distance.
The bloody scent in the gorge could not only attract countless wild beasts but also draw the demons that dwelt deep in the mountains.
Determining the direction of the mountain path, the little Taoist priest prepared to run desperately. At that moment, on Yuan Mountain’s mountain path, an even smaller black shadow charged down, galloping on four hooves like wind and lightning. After reaching the mountain base, it crashed headfirst into a wave of wolves, followed by the wolves howling and scattering in all directions.
Snorting and munching sounds arose as broken corpses disappeared almost in the blink of an eye. In just a short while, an entire area of corpses had been devoured completely by that small, dark thing!