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墨書 Inktalez
Great Qin Empire Hall of Governance.
After finishing a day's worth of memorials, Xiao Luo noticed that the sky had darkened, and candles were lit in the Hall of Governance.
He glanced outside, counting the days on his fingers. It had been quite some time since he left, and there had been no news at all.
Feeling restless and worried about Mei Shuang's safety, he decided to put down his brush and stood up to head to the back garden.
Although the back garden was brightly lit with candles, everything felt empty without Mei Shuang's presence.
When Xiao Luo entered, several maidservants froze in surprise. Did the Emperor not know that Miss Lin had gone out?
"I came to take a look; you may continue with your tasks," he said impatiently, waving them away. He stood by the bed for a moment, and images of the two of them entwined together flashed through his mind, causing a faint smile to appear on his lips.
As he reached out to touch the pillow, something caught his eye—a corner of paper peeking out from beneath it.
He lifted the pillow and discovered a letter.
The envelope was addressed "To His Majesty."
She actually wrote him a letter? Xiao Luo pulled out the letter.
"Dear Your Majesty, by the time you read this letter, I will already be on my way to carry out my mission. The journey ahead is perilous, and the outcome is uncertain. Although I have prepared diligently, success depends on timing, location, and circumstances; thus, a favorable result is not guaranteed."
Upon reading this, Xiao Luo's heart sank. Was this woman writing a farewell letter?
He took a deep breath and continued reading: "I do not belong to this era; however, since I inadvertently became the legitimate daughter of Chancellor Mei's Residence and had the fortune to meet you, I never imagined that my days would be filled with worries each night before sleep about whether I would see Tomorrow's Sun again. It turns out that everything is related to this astonishing secret.
To be honest, I do have some impressions of that place, but they are merely impressions. As for how I came by these impressions, I am unclear; I can only suspect that I visited it at some point. But how did I get there? Did I go alone? If I have been there before, others may have also set foot in that place. This profound question troubles me greatly; however, what troubles me even more is whether this treasure truly exists. If I have been there, I must have seen it; if I saw it, there should be an impression. Yet I have no recollection at all."
"Alright, Your Majesty, practice is the only standard for testing truth. However, I will go and take a look. If I cannot return smoothly, please hand over the other letters to Lin Tian'er. Mei Shuang thanks you. Wishing you longevity."
Xiao Luo furrowed his brows, pondering over Mei Shuang's letter as if trying to solve a riddle. Although it was unlikely that Mei Shuang wrote this letter casually, what exactly did she mean?
Was she doubting that this batch of treasures even existed? Or was it that the treasures had already been moved by someone else?
He held onto Mei Shuang's letter and returned to the Hall of Governance, ready to study it in detail when he suddenly heard Li Gonggong's panicked voice, "Your Majesty, something bad has happened."
Interrupted unexpectedly, he looked up displeased, his deep gaze sweeping over the flustered Li Gonggong. "What is so alarming?"
Li Gonggong wiped the sweat from his forehead with his sleeve, his face filled with distress. "Your Majesty, it's terrible. A urgent report from six hundred miles away says that those who went up the mountain have lost contact..."
This news was indeed serious.
"What?!" Xiao Luo slammed the table, unable to hide his shock. "When did this happen?"
Li Gonggong rarely saw Xiao Luo so furious and quickly knelt down. "The latest report just arrived; it only mentioned that they encountered a Bear-like Creature after going up the mountain, and then there was no further news..."
Xiao Luo was stunned, remaining in a daze for a long time.
He picked up Mei Shuang's letter, a bitter smile appearing at the corner of his lips. His voice turned hoarse as he spoke again, "You may leave now. By the way, do not let the Empress Dowager know..."
Li Gonggong complied and left. Seeing the defeated expression on the emperor's face, he felt a pang of sympathy and hurriedly returned to whisper, "Your Majesty, those few individuals are highly skilled and unlikely to encounter danger easily; perhaps there is some situation we are unaware of. Let's wait a bit longer..."
Xiao Luo waved his hand with a tone of exhaustion. "Go ahead; have them search carefully. Alive or dead, we must see them."
After Li Gonggong left, Xiao Luo gazed at the delicate handwriting on the letter, his hand trembling slightly.
The dense jungle became increasingly difficult to navigate, making it impossible to discern directions; they could only walk a short distance and then reassess. The uphill paths were numerous, and in some areas, the rain had washed away the soil, leaving the ground damp and often slippery.
The mountain peak was steep and untouched by human feet, allowing the trees to grow wildly over the years without any order. In such deep mountains and old forests, there were bound to be dangers as well as treasures.
When they reached an open area, clusters of bright red fruits caught everyone's attention. Moreover, as they looked around, they were surprised to see large patches of them stretching out.
"My goodness, ginseng," several of them recognized.
They split up to start digging. After carefully unearthing a few ginseng roots, they were all astonished. The thick roots resembled human heads, hands, feet, and limbs; it was certainly not an exaggeration to call it thousand-year-old ginseng.
After carefully wrapping up the harvested ginseng, Kato wanted to continue digging but heard Mei Shuang say, "One should not be greedy for good things; these few roots are enough. We can consider this trip worthwhile. Moreover, generally speaking, such treasures are often guarded by something unusual nearby. We should leave here as soon as possible."
Suddenly, Shijieyu heard a noise behind her and turned around, instantly terrified.
Less than ten feet away in the grass was a snake about the thickness of a child's arm, quietly watching them with its body raised over half a meter high.
This snake was entirely golden yellow with occasional black spots that appeared ominous. The key detail was that its head sported a crest resembling that of a rooster, bright red as blood.
Shijieyu froze and quietly alerted the person squatting beside her.
Mei Shuang focused her gaze and exclaimed, "Oh my! Isn't that a Crested Serpent? I can't believe it actually exists!"
As the people in front began to move, the snake shifted slightly forward.
As it slithered out of the grass, everyone noticed a bunch of small white or yellow snakes following it on the ground, varying in size with some being only an inch long. Clearly, the large snake in front was their leader.
As the Crested Serpent revealed its entire body, it slowly reared up to over a meter high. Even more bizarrely, it emitted a sound reminiscent of a clucking hen.
Even Coach Brothers had never seen such a peculiar snake; their expressions changed slightly. It went without saying that just based on its vibrant colors alone, it belonged to a highly venomous species.
As they stared at each other, Mei Shuang noticed that the flesh crown on the serpent's head began to change color. She inwardly cursed.
"It's about to strike, don't move!"
Suddenly inspired, Mei Shuang quickly bent down and took off one of her shoes, throwing it into the air towards the charging Crested Serpent.
The others exchanged confused glances. What was she doing?
Who would have thought that as the shoe flew through the air and fell back down, the Crested Serpent actually shrank down like a noodle? The smaller snakes that had also been poised to attack seemed to lose their earlier ferocity.
They stared wide-eyed; the power of that shoe was astonishing.
Taking advantage of the moment, Mei Shuang quickly bent down to pick up her shoe and whispered, "Run! Don't let it touch you."
The group immediately gathered their strength, abandoning the shovel on the ground, and turned to run in the opposite direction. Sure enough, just as they had gotten a short distance away, the Crested Serpent seemed to snap back to reality and surged forward like a flood. Behind them, a series of low and sharp clucking sounds echoed, resembling a cacophony of hens, which was quite unsettling.
It was the first time they had encountered a snake that could make noise; now it seemed like all the snakes here could call out—truly an extraordinary sight.
"Run in circles!" Mei Shuang called back as she saw that the flesh crown of the Crested Serpent had completely turned purple. She shouted in panic.
"Should we climb a tree?"
Mei Shuang gasped for breath, "We can't climb! We can only run in circles to avoid it! Does anyone have snake-repelling medicine?"
Cong Fei reached into his bag while running but realized with dismay that it had somehow leaked, leaving only a small handful.
"What about ginseng? Throw it over!" Mei Shuang urged again.
Hastily, Cong Yue pulled out his ginseng from his bag and threw it at the leading Crested Serpent. The ginseng hit the serpent squarely, causing it to roll over and surprisingly stop its pursuit.
It surged up, climbing to the ginseng, wrapping around it and becoming completely absorbed, ignoring the situation of the people in front. The onlookers also stopped, surrounding the Crested Serpent in the center.
Everyone then understood that this creature was after the ginseng.
Since the danger was temporarily averted, a few people paused and moved behind a large tree to rest for a moment. Mei Shuang, having run barefoot until now, was panting heavily. Fortunately, there were no thorns in the jungle, so she bent down to put on her shoes.
Shijieyu curiously asked, "Miss Lin, do you think it will come after us?"
"No," Mei Shuang shook her head. "This creature is here to guard the ginseng. Ginseng grows in shady places, and it prefers the shade. Over time, it has likely developed a dependency on the ginseng's aura and won't allow anyone to disturb it."
"You seem quite familiar with this type of snake? How did throwing a boot manage to subdue it?" Kato asked with a buzz in his voice.
Mei Shuang patted her clothes and took deep breaths to calm herself. "I'm not very familiar; I've just seen it once before. The Crested Serpent is not only highly venomous but can also fly through the air. If it had chased us aggressively, it would have leaped up from the ground and flown over. At that point, we would have been in danger... This type of snake has a habit of standing tall when encountering people; it will rise almost completely upright to compare heights. If you are shorter than it, there is only one outcome: death."
Everyone suddenly realized, "No wonder you threw a shoe into the air; you were showing it that you are much taller. Ha ha..."
Listening to Mei Shuang's explanation, Anriyan looked at her with admiration. Although he had dealt with poisonous creatures for years, this was his first encounter with such a venomous creature. Undoubtedly, this woman possessed knowledge that was not commonly known.
As they continued talking, they remained completely unaware that immense danger was slowly approaching from all directions...
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