Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Although An Xiaoning could not manage to see anything, she could roughly imagine the scenario inside.
She could not help but feel nauseated.
The door was opened again, and the men dragged the corpses out to be buried.
“You guys may have the rest, I’ll wait for you outside for two minutes.” He then exited.
The bunch of people split the remaining blood amongst themselves and began indulging ferociously in their bloody feast, as if it was the best delicacy in the world.
The man then brought the bunch of people away from the place. Fan Shixin and An Xiaoning then decided to split up. Fan Shixin followed the man while An Xiaoning continued to remain in the empty mansion.
She guided herself toward the wooden house with a torchlight and pushed the door open.
As soon as the door opened with a creak, her senses were attacked by the metallic odor of blood. Unable to curb her queasiness, she threw up immediately.
Covering her nose with a piece of tissue paper, she fumbled for the switch and turned on the lights in the room, after which she put the torchlight away.
There were bloodstains all over the ground as well as a bucket full of blood.
She could no longer see any spirits around.
She reckoned that they must have been brought away for reincarnation by grim reapers.
An Xiaoning caught sight of a bloodstained knife on the ground, after which she stepped forward and picked it up to wipe the blood off the blade with some tissue paper.
She held back her urge to vomit and scrutinized the knife to see that there was a small carving made on it.
The carved word was not in the native language of V Nation or any other official languages of the world. It was a word that An Xiaoning had never seen before.
She could not decipher what it meant at all.
Seeing that there was nothing else left to discover, An Xiaoning quickly left the place.
She trekked down the mountain and arrived back in the small town.
Drenched in sweat, An Xiaoning opened the door and asked, “Is your Brother-in-law not back yet?”
Xiao Bai shook his head and closed the door. “Not yet. Sis, why do you reek of blood?” he asked.
“I’ll explain it to you later. Let me take a shower first,” said An Xiaoning, bending forward to grab some clothes from her luggage.
After taking a brief shower, she whipped out the knife she took from the mansion and said to Xiao Bai, “I found this knife in that wooden house that wasn’t burnt. Look, there’s an unknown word on it that I can’t decipher.”
She snapped a photo of the knife and sent it to Jin Qingyan in a bid to ask him to find out more about it.
After the message was sent successfully, An Xiaoning then told Xiao Bai about everything that happened in the mansion relic.
“We’ll discuss this in detail when your Brother-in-law is back. What’s going on? Call him, his mobile phone is on vibration mode.”
“I was getting so anxious and worried while waiting for you guys here on my own. I didn’t dare to call or text you guys because I was afraid that your phones weren’t on silent mode and that the ringtone would go off,” Xiao Bai explained while sending a text message to Fan Shixin.
“Let’s all set our phones to vibration mode so that we can contact one another easily during times of emergency.”
A frown creased Xiao Bai’s forehead as he said, “He’s not picking up.”
“Call him again,” An Xiaoning urged.
Xiao Bai did as he was instructed.
This time, the call went through.
“Has your Sis returned?” Fan Shixin asked while panting heavily, seemingly running about.
They were both in shock. Before Xiao Bai could even respond, An Xiaoning snatched the phone from him and asked worriedly, “I’m back. Where are you?”
“I’m still very far away from the town. They’re chasing me down and they have been for more than four kilometers. I don’t have time to talk right now,” said Fan Shixin.
“Are you on the route that we took?” An Xiaoning asked, trying to suppress her frustration.
“I’m on the route beside that one.”
“Got it.” An Xiaoning ended the call and passed the phone to Xiao Bai while putting on her shoes. She instructed him, “Wait for me here, I’ll go fetch him.”
“Sis, shall I go with you?”
“No. Stay here and wait. Listen to me, it’ll be alright.”
She then rushed out of the rented room.
She sprinted through the crowds on the streets at godlike speed.
An Xiaoning was extremely worried about Fan Shixin, for it would be tough to kill those barbarians.
Regardless of how skilled Fan Shixin may be in martial arts, there was no way he could defend himself against so many of them since he would be outnumbered.
She clenched her jaw and continued sprinting forward.
“Nothing must happen to Fan Shixin,” she repeatedly chanted in her head.
There was no light on the mountain at all.
Fortunately, it had a smooth cemented road, which made it easier for her to run.
She finally stopped to catch her breath after having covered a long distance. She continued running once she’d recovered her stamina.
She could not afford to delay at all.
After running for a while longer, she heard a faint voice coming from afar, which instantly gave her a sense of relief.
She whipped her knife out and stood by the side.
Fan Shixin had run almost ten kilometers. He wouldn’t have been able to persist through it if not for his habit of jogging long distances every day. The crooks chasing him did not drive either and were running as well after him. Clearly, they had high endurance.
Fan Shixin picked up his speed again the moment he noticed that there were headlights beaming at him from behind. Turns out they had really sent their cars to take chase.
One would usually get flustered and anxious at such a juncture. However, Fan Shixin was still rather calm and clear-headed.
He had no time to let his imagination run wild.
The more he ran, the further away he would be from danger. He knew that his Young Madam must be on her way to save him. It was his motivation for pressing on.
Just as he was about to collapse, he suddenly caught sight of the petite An Xiaoning scurrying toward him.
Fan Shixin’s eyes lit up in joy and surprise. Before he could even say anything, An Xiaoning hurriedly held onto him. Noticing that he was about to stumble over, she helped him to the tree and pointed at the branches above them. “Do you have the energy to climb up?” she asked.
“Yes,” said Fan Shixin, who did not wish to become her burden, although he could not help her up onto the tree.
Fan Shixin whipped out the rope and cast it upwards, after which it latched onto a tree branch. Fan Shixin then climbed up with all his might under An Xiaoning’s assistance.
An Xiaoning looked away after seeing that he had camouflaged himself beneath the leaves.
The bunch of people who were hot in their pursuit had already caught up to An Xiaoning and were beaming the headlights of their car at her.
An Xiaoning chose not to run and lure them away, for she knew that that would lead her and Fan Shixin to death!
If the roads toward the foot of the mountain were blocked, she and Fan Shixin would then become trapped and things would become more complicated.
Why didn’t Fan Shixin find a place to hide after having run so far and for so long?
An Xiaoning could instantly guess that it was because he had known that there was nowhere to hide at all.
Ever since they eavesdropped on the Second Brother as he was saying that whoever enters the town of Ekerum would never make it out alive again, they’d known that the territory belonged to the barbarians.
The consequences would have been dire if Fan Shixin had not met up with An Xiaoning.
Not only will he have lost contact with her, but he’ll also have been placed in a dangerous situation.
Hence, he’d had no other option than to sprint toward the town and had not been able to afford any delay, to the point that he did not even have time to check the call history.