RIIDMDR chapter 143

After walking a short distance and looking back through the dusty air, one could vaguely see some light in the distance. That was the Golden Crow Clan’s encampment. Nan Xu had no memory of this place, yet it didn’t feel unfamiliar.

“What are you looking at? Hurry up; some of the demons in our clan have excellent eyesight. If they discover us, we won’t be able to leave,” Yun Yi said.

Nan Xu nodded and quickened his pace to catch up with Yun Yi. Seeing him stride forward silently, Nan Xu couldn’t help but ask, “With so much sand and dust, how can you find your way?”

Yun Yi felt looked down upon. As a member of the Bird Clan, he was the best at determining directions. How could he be asked such a question? He immediately retorted angrily, “Do you think I’m like you, mistaking east for south when digging a ditch?”

Nan Xu: …

After hesitating for a moment, Nan Xu decided to follow his heart and ask the question that had puzzled him for half the afternoon: “If you have such a good sense of direction, how did you end up digging into the sea with me?”

Yun Yi paused and looked at Nan Xu, unfazed. Spending this time together had given Nan Xu a sense of Yun Yi’s temperament. Although he was impulsive and quick-tempered, he wouldn’t attack someone he perceived as weaker than himself, like a mere novice such as himself.

Sure enough, Yun Yi glared at him intently, as if he wanted to bore holes through him. “How could I have imagined you could even dig a crooked ditch?!”

Nan Xu chuckled awkwardly and muttered, “Well, you trust me a bit too much.”

The two argued incessantly along the way. Yun Yi jumped up and down several times, but they easily lost track of time in their conversation. Before they knew it, they arrived at a body of water.

Seeing that Yun Yi didn’t intend to stop or take a detour, Nan Xu assumed the water was similar to that of the Southern Sea and didn’t reveal his ignorance by showing surprise.

However, just before his feet touched the water, Yun Yi transformed into his true form. His true form was enormous. His wingspan alone was the size of an ordinary house. Nan Xu had seen it before during their previous encounter, but seeing it up close now made it feel even more imposing. His feathers were black and radiated a faint, shimmering golden light—truly beautiful.

While Nan Xu admired its beauty, Yun Yi took flight, covering several kilometers in the blink of an eye.

Nan Xu stood there, stunned.

A moment later, Yun Yi flew back and landed in front of Nan Xu, transforming into human form. His tone was one of undisguised disdain. “I forgot you can’t transform. The cave is in the middle of the water. How are you going to get there?”

Nan Xu thought for a moment, rolled up the sleeves of his robe, and replied, “How about I swim across? I know a little about swimming.”

Yun Yi looked at his posture, remained silent for a moment, and then said resignedly, “You’re not a fish demon. It’ll take you forever to swim. Fine, I’ll reluctantly let you sit on my back. You’re getting off easy.”

With that, Yun Yi transformed back into his true form and spread his wings so Nan Xu could climb on quickly.

Nan Xu had ridden in cars and high-speed trains before, but never on a bird’s back. The experience was truly novel. He carefully climbed onto the golden crow’s back, but it felt unstable. Looking around, he couldn’t find anything to hold onto. Just as Yun Yi, impatient as ever, was about to take flight, Nan Xu grabbed a handful of feathers.

“Why are you pulling my feathers? Do you think I’d throw you off? Let go now, or I’ll throw you into the lake!” Yun Yi yelled immediately.

Nan Xu quickly released his grip, but the fear remained. He could only lie down and cling to the bird’s back.

Yun Yi: …

Yun Yi was too exhausted to say anything else. He spread his wings and flew into the sky. Perched on the bird’s back, Nan Xu looked down. Yun Yi flew very high. Perhaps because of his large size, however, there wasn’t the turbulent and dangerous situation Nan Xu had imagined, even at high speed. Relaxing, Nan Xu slowly sat up and realized how soft and beautiful his feathers were. His earlier tug had really been a bit too much.

Just as Yun Yi had said, the cave wasn’t close by. They flew for almost half an hour before seeing a rocky mountain in the middle of the water. Nan Xu guessed that it was their destination.

As they traveled north, the temperature gradually decreased. To avoid the wind, Nan Xu constantly changed positions on the golden crow’s back—sitting, lying down, and crouching—without regard for decorum. Yun Yi would occasionally make a threatening remark but ultimately didn’t throw Nan Xu off. Now that they had arrived, both Nan Xu and Yunyi breathed a sigh of relief.

Yunyi landed by the rocky hill and let Nan Xu use his wing for support as he climbed down. Watching Nan Xu cling to his feathers while cautiously testing the stones beneath him, Yun Yi was numb with disbelief. Honestly, he had never met a demon as useless as Nan Xu in all his life.

Following the rocky mountain downwards, they came to a cave. Inside, the path continued downward, growing increasingly dark and difficult to see. Frequent forks in the path forced them to move slowly, relying on the sound of the wind to determine their direction.

Perhaps because it was in the middle of a body of water, the cave was damp. Occasionally, they could hear the sound of water droplets hitting the ground.

At one point, they reached a dead end. Yun Yi was about to turn back when Nan Xu insisted they were on the right path. For some unknown reason, he was extremely confident. As he ventured deeper into the cave, he even sensed some of its internal structure.

He stopped Yun Yi from turning back and continued to grope along the stone wall. Finally, he found a recessed area in the rock face. He pried at the indentation and heard the sound of stone scraping against the ground.

Yun Yi was astonished. “There really is a path! How did you know?”

Nan Xu’s arms trembled slightly from the exertion. “Perhaps I have a special affinity with these rocks?”

Yun Yi didn’t believe this, of course, but he followed Nan Xu for the rest of the journey. Nan Xu quickened his pace and found new paths in over a dozen seemingly hopeless situations.

After walking for an unknown amount of time, just as he was beginning to doubt his eyesight, Nan Xu saw a glimmer of light around a bend in the road.

He rubbed his eyes and muttered doubtfully, “Have we gone astray again?”

However, he quickly dismissed the thought. After taking a few steps closer, he realized the light wasn’t sunlight. It resembled the glow of the luminous pearl he’d won in a blind box. The passageway was narrow, forcing Nan Xu and Yun Yi to squeeze through sideways. The walk was quite cramped, making it hard to breathe.

Fortunately, Nan Xu wasn’t claustrophobic. His breathing became slightly rapid, but he quickly passed through the narrow passageway. Suddenly, the view opened up before him, and Nan Xu froze, stunned by the scene.

This place resembled a stone house and had a uniquely shaped stone sculpture in the center. Upon this sculpture rested a glowing bead the size of a human head. Nan Xu had never seen such a large glowing bead, even in the opulent palaces of Jingyuan. The entire wall was covered in colorful paintings, as if a master painter had devoted their entire life to creating this masterpiece.

The clash of colors was dazzling, and every line was exceptionally clear.

It was breathtaking—truly breathtaking.

Yun Yi, blocked at the exit and waiting for Nan Xu’s move, urged him to hurry and not block his way.

Nan Xu snapped out of his daze and took two steps forward. Yun Yi emerged from the narrow passageway and also seemed somewhat dazed. He muttered, “I don’t remember my uncle mentioning this place!”

Without another word, the two craned their necks to admire the paintings on the walls, mouths agape. The murals varied in style, sometimes clear and straightforward and other times abstract and difficult to understand. After a quick glance, Nan Xu realized that the stone house had no other exit besides the winding, narrow path they had come through.

He tried to sense the structure of the stone walls as before, but perhaps the paintings were too captivating because that intuition vanished without him noticing.

“Do you know how to get to the other side?” After circling around a few times, Nan Xu temporarily put aside his search for those inexplicable feelings and asked Yunyi.

Yunyi seemed not to hear him, still admiring the paintings on the wall. Nan Xu had little artistic talent. At most, he found the murals impressive and beautiful, but he couldn’t think of a more profound way to describe them. He hadn’t expected Yunyi to be interested in art.

After calling out twice more, Yunyi finally turned his head. He looked bewildered, as if he had forgotten about finding the pool.

Nanxu sensed that something was wrong and asked again. After regaining his senses, Yunyi shook his head. “I don’t know. My uncle never mentioned such a place in the cave.”

Nanxu was somewhat surprised. Could they have gone the wrong way? Was the real path not here?

Recalling the path he had taken, Nanxu didn’t think there was another way to go. He wanted to discuss it with Yunyi but saw that he was admiring the paintings again, completely unconcerned about the pool.

Nanxu sighed, thinking that Yunyi was indeed unreliable. He found a corner to sit down. It should be bright outside by now. Having been up all night, Nanxu was sleepy, so he leaned his head against the stone wall to rest for a while.

After sleeping for about fifteen minutes, he opened his eyes, yawned, and stood up to continue searching for the path to the pool.

He turned his head and saw that Yunyi was still standing in the same spot, looking up at the wall with the same angle of his head as before.

Nanxu finally realized the problem. Who would appreciate a painting by staring at only one spot?

“Yun Yi!” he called out hurriedly.

Yun Yi didn’t respond, standing there like a stone statue. Nan Xu felt a chill run down his spine. He had been out of his mind when he spoke to Yun Yi earlier, and now he couldn’t hear his own voice. The painting on the stone wall was strange and abnormal!

Nan Xu walked to Yun Yi’s side. Yun Yi’s eyes were still open, and he hadn’t blinked in a while. Nan Xu patted him several times, but he didn’t respond. Just as he didn’t know what to do, he suddenly remembered that, while he was recuperating some time ago, Zhixing had told him that demons have three souls that only dissipate after they die.

Nan Xu had asked Zhixing curiously, “Don’t demons lose their souls?”

Zhixing replied: “If a demon loses its soul, it’s not lost to the outside world. Rather, it’s devoured in a struggle when it can’t reach a consensus with the spiritual space.”

Upon hearing this, Nan Xu immediately mobilized his spiritual power and concentrated his mental energy to probe Yun Yi’s spiritual space.

Upon entering, he felt an intense heat. Looking closer, he realized he was standing on a volcano’s crater. One step forward would plunge him into the lava, which nearly set his robes ablaze as it splashed around. Nan Xu quickly retreated several steps and looked around at the devastation of the volcanic eruption. Ash occasionally rose and danced in the air.

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