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墨書 Inktalez
The darkness was boundless.
In the cramped, cold plastic space, only my senior sister and I were present, so close that our breaths intertwined and spread across each other's faces, creating an ambiguous atmosphere.
It was in this wonderful yet rare ambiance that my words shattered the moment irreparably.
My senior sister raised her hand and gave me a light smack on the back of my head. "Who are you glaring at?"
I was taken aback and quickly blinked. How strange! Just a moment ago, I felt as if I were possessed. My senior sister, still fuming, grabbed my ear and scolded me, "When have I ever lied to you?"
"Hiss..." I winced in pain, nearly on the verge of tears, and hurriedly grasped her hand. "What about the last time on the train and at Li You's Tomb? You didn't lie to me then!"
My senior sister showed no sign of remorse; instead, she tugged at my ear with even more conviction, almost twisting it off. "Oh, after so many years apart, what's wrong with giving you a little welcome gift? You've grown some skills and dare to act disrespectfully towards me—truly outrageous!" The more agitated she became, the tighter her grip grew, causing me to grit my teeth and cry out for mercy.
The sage did not deceive me; it is indeed difficult to raise women! Difficult indeed!
Regardless of beauty or ugliness, when they go mad, they all behave the same! No—those who are more beautiful tend to have hearts as venomous as snakes!
Just then, the positioning device on the sleeping bag suddenly flickered. The originally dark red Moon Meteorite emitted a blood-red glow. Unfortunately, that red light only flashed once before vanishing.
My senior sister and I exchanged glances and decided to act immediately, running outside to a more open high ground. However, strangely enough, no matter which direction we took, that bright light never reappeared.
"What’s going on?" I impatiently slapped the back of the positioning device a few times. "Is it broken?"
My senior sister shot me a sideways glance. "If you keep hitting it, it really will break!" She snatched the device from my hands and flipped it over. Just then, the red light appeared again. My senior sister pointed at the Twenty-Four Direction Scale's Meteorite Particles. "Look!"
There it was—a blood-red irregular particle moving towards the northwest at about a fifteen-degree angle. My senior sister and I exchanged another glance before quickly pursuing this direction, running while keeping an eye on the meteorite's trajectory changes.
The red light flickered intermittently, but the frequency of its flashes grew faster. So far, our direction remained correct, and we were getting closer to our target.
It was now three o'clock in the morning, and the forest was eerily silent; even the night owl had vanished. We moved like two restless souls, fleeing through the dense woods shrouded in darkness, often startled by our own heavy breathing or racing hearts.
I lost track of how long we had been running when a familiar stench suddenly filled the air. I exchanged glances with my senior sister and stopped, hiding behind a sturdy cedar tree.
At that moment, the Moon Meteorite began to flicker wildly. Three seconds later, it transformed into an everlasting red light. Almost simultaneously, a sharp cry from a Frugivorous Civet echoed from not far ahead, accompanied by the heavy sound of rustling footsteps.
Cautiously, we had just decided to stop when I turned off my flashlight and tucked the locator device into my pocket. Now, we were almost entirely enveloped in primal darkness, with only a faint blue glow from the hazy moon above.
As my eyes adjusted to the dim light, the rustling grew louder. In an instant, I spotted a plump figure covered in brown fur writhing in the Cedar Forest ahead. The sound didn’t seem to come from its paws.
At that moment, my senior sister pointed at the Frugivorous Civet's tail. When I looked closer, I realized that its tail was much thicker than that of the Black-Furred Civet we had encountered earlier; it appeared more robust and powerful. Just then, I noticed a snow-white arm emerging from beneath the swaying tail of the Frugivorous Civet. The arm hung lifelessly on the ground, dragged along by the creature, leaving a long trail behind.
I could bet that it belonged to a person!
My heart raced at the thought of my junior brothers and sisters. I quickly forced myself to stop thinking such things and scolded myself for being overly anxious.
Suddenly, darkness enveloped me as clouds obscured the dim moonlight overhead. The surroundings turned pitch black in an instant, and my already frantic heartbeat felt like it was about to leap out of my throat.
Just then, a soft hand grasped mine, and warmth flowed through me from that touch. Years of martial arts training should have made me instinctively pull away from this unknown hand, but for some reason, an innate instinct overcame my training, allowing her to hold on to me. All my tremors and anxieties vanished in an instant.
As if by magic, those damned clouds lingered before the moon for no more than five seconds before truly dissipating.
When I followed that hand to see its owner, I wasn’t surprised. However, my senior sister quickly released my hand and pointed ahead. “It’s gone?”
I snapped back to reality and looked where she indicated, only to realize that the brown-furred Frugivorous Civet had indeed vanished within those brief five seconds. If it weren’t for the lingering foul odor in the air, I would have thought everything was just a figment of my imagination.
My senior sister turned on her flashlight and scanned the forest around us; there was no trace of the Frugivorous Civet anywhere. The surrounding silence returned once more, as dead as before—no footsteps could be heard at all.
The Senior Sister seemed to be talking to herself, "No one can disappear into thin air, and animals are even less likely to." With that, she took out a locator device, and at that moment, the meteorite particles were still emitting a faint glow.
I turned on my flashlight and followed the Senior Sister to investigate the last place where the Frugivorous Civet had vanished. However, all we found were cedar trees; there wasn't even a mouse hole on the ground, let alone a large Frugivorous Civet burrowing down.
Just then, the red light on the locator completely disappeared.
The Senior Sister suddenly asked me, "Do you believe in the concept of disappearing into thin air?"
I recalled the experience at the entrance of Emerald Villa when we were chasing Old Qiao and shook my head. "I don't believe it. Any so-called disappearance will ultimately be proven to be an illusion or, at the very least, something we simply overlooked." I organized my thoughts and continued, "For example, it could be a man-made mechanism or a naturally occurring trap that the person just happened to fall into when we weren't paying attention."
The Senior Sister asked, "Then where do you think this trap might be?"
I surveyed our surroundings and said, "In this area of ten miles, even if we look a hundred miles away, it's still the Cedar Forest that obscures the sun. Aside from that, there is nothing but emptiness. So, the trap must be right here—" I pointed my flashlight at two trees that grew together, large enough that it would take three people to embrace them: the Gemini Tree.
Almost as soon as my flashlight beam hit it, the Senior Sister's light also shone on the Gemini Tree simultaneously. Under the illumination of both beams, a palm-wide gap appeared where the trunks of the Gemini Tree connected.
The Senior Sister pressed her hand into it, and immediately there was a faint cracking sound. The Gemini Tree split open in the middle, revealing a hidden passage leading underground. (To be continued.)
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