Translator:
Misty Cloud Translations
Editor:
Misty Cloud Translations
Seeing that Sima You Yue and the rest of them had gone down, Elder Nalan had no choice but to follow after them. That Soul-Gnawing Beast was so powerful that if she had come alone, something terrible might happen. It might be for the best that she followed them, at least there was a Sacred Beast around.
Sima You Yue and the group reached their destination on the island, it was the same place as where they were in their first visit to the place. When she saw that large rock, she unconsciously remembered Jun Lin from Xuan Yuan Pavilion. Back then, they had met at that exact place, but after a while she had stopped hearing from him. She wasn’t sure where he was, or if he had been locked up somewhere.
You Yue, where should we go to look for the Soul-Gnawing Beast?
Fatty Qu asked.
Let me first someone to do a recce.
Sima You Yue did not dare to wander around, or too deeply, into the Forgotten Worry Island. So she called out a few scarlet bees and let them go to various parts of the island to do a search while they continued to wait at the shores. Since the Soul-Gnawing Beast was here, there might be other spirit beasts there as well. It would be unwise for them to walk around cluelessly.
You Yue, don’t you think that this place is slightly different from the last time?
Sima You Lin asked, looking around.
You feel it too..
Sima You Yue said.
What’s different?
Fatty Qu asked, running to Sima You Yue’s side to look for safety.
The sounds.
Sima You Yue said.
The sounds?
Fatty Qu did not understand. What could sound different?
It’s weird that it’s so quiet.
Bei Gong Tang said.
Other than the sound of the ocean lapping at the shore, I can’t hear anything else.
Ouyang Fei said.
It’s as though… There are no living beings here.
Wei Zi Qi was astonished.
Sima You Yue and Sima You Lin looked at each other. This was extremely strange!
Could it be that… That black light that you mentioned that time has consumed all the living things here?
Fatty Qu said.
I don’t think so.
Sima You Yue shook her head.
When we saw that black light, it had only eaten a few of the spirit beasts, but the other living creatures were not eaten. But now, there isn’t even the sound of any flora or fauna.
Do you think it’s that something had come and killed all the living things?
Bei Gong Tang asked.
Could it be the Soul-Gnawing Beast?
Wei Zi Qi guessed.
Possibly.
Sima You Lin said.
Let’s wait and see what news the scarlet bees come back with.
Sima You Yue said.
However, even after a period of time, none of the scarlet bees returned. Sima You Yue called out the Scarlet Queen Bee, but it said that the connections with the other scarlet bees had been cut off. That was a few hundred scarlet bees – if they had gone out they would be a formidable threat, yet when they entered the island, there was no news and no way to hear from them!
Are they all dead?
Sima You Yue asked.
No.
Scarlet Queen Bee said.
I still can feel their life pulse, but I cannot connect to them. It sounds like someone is intercepting the spirit connection between us.
That must be the Soul-Gnawing Beast.
Sima You Lin said.
Maybe they have been controlled by it.
Bei Gong Tang said.
What do we do now?
Everyone looked at Sima You Yue, waiting for her to make a decision. Just at this moment, they heard buzzing sounds coming from afar. As they looked out, they saw hundreds of scarlet bees flying towards them to launch an attack, and they all ran to hide. Each of the bees had a blank look in their eyes, and it must have been that they were being controlled.
Elder Nalan saw the scarlet bees flying towards her, and she summoned out some spirit energy to attack them. But before she could exhibit this skill, the environment around them changed, and they had suddenly moved from the island to a vast area.
Where are we?
She said, surprised, looking around. No one replied her. They were all next to Sima You Yue, watching her as she rounded up the scarlet bees. Just as the scarlet bees had started to attack she had kept all of them in the spirit pagoda, along with Elder Nalan. As the scarlet bees entered, they were kept by Sima You Yue in a transparent sphere vessel. As they knocked and buzzed around in the sphere, their eyes were filled with a ferocious anger that was fueled by hate, which was very different from how they normally looked.
Little Spirit, cut off their connection with the outside world, as well as the auras from outside.
Sima You Yue commanded.
Alright.
Little Spirit made a sound and the scarlet bees immediately settled down, and stopped their launches against the vessel, the hate in their eyes dissipating.
We’re sorry, master, we apologise for the way we’ve behaved.
The leader of the scarlet bees apologised to Sima You Yue, full of remorse. How could they dream of attacking their own master? This was an inconceivable and shameful action from a contracted spirit beast.
You guys were being controlled.
Sima You Yue did not blame them. She then turned to the Scarlet Queen Bee, saying,
Can you see what they went through?
Alright.
The Scarlet Queen Bee flew into their midst, chose a few and grabbed their feelers entered into their consciousnesses to retrieve their memories. At the same time, Sima You Yue closed her eyes, seeing everything that the Scarlet Queen Bee was able to see.
As the scarlet bees had left them and flew into the island, just as what Sima You Yue had said, they had not seen a single living thing throughout the island, there was only a scorched plain, and corpses that were wrangled with maggots. As they continued to fly, they suddenly encountered a black fog. The fog was thick and rolling, and a pair of red eyes opened from within the black fog, and stared at them intently as they flew over. The bloodied eyes caused Sima You Yue to not be able to help but shiver. Suddenly, a bout of the black fog floated towards them and wrapped the scarlet bees in them. From then, they could only see a deep darkness. The Scarlet Queen Bee came out. After they had been controlled, they could not recall anything.
Sima You Yue opened her eyes, and repeated what she had seen to the rest.
It seems like that black fog must have been the Soul-Gnawing Beast.
Sima You Lin said.
What the scarlet bees looked seems similar to what the ocean beasts looked like. The ocean beasts must have been controlled by the Soul-Gnawing Beast as well.
Is this Soul-Gnawing Beast the one that emitted the black light that you and Sima You Yue had seen back then?
Ouyang Fei asked.
I don’t think so.
Sima You Yue shook her head.
The aura of the latter is different. The feeling it gave me is different. I don’t think it was a spirit beast.
If we want to find out why a Soul-Gnawing Beast is here, then we can only know when we encounter it.
Sima You Lin said.
I guess that will be so.
Sima You Yue said.
Now we know where the Soul-Gnawing Beast is, let’s look for it, cautiously.
What about her?
Bei Gong Tang asked, looking at Elder Nalan, who was gasping at the sight of the pavilion.
Elder Nalan suddenly felt all the eyes that were on her and turned to look at them, withdrawing the greedy looks in her eyes and resuming that malicious look in her eyes, asking,
Where is this?
In my space.
Sima You Yue said.
Your space?
Elder Nalan’s eyes shone. But she lowered her head, her eyes unable to control themselves from emitting looks of greed and envy.
