They took the straw rope they made with grasses before and hung it on the shoulder. Yuan Zhan and Meng directly jumped out from the window, then turned around to block the window with the wooden board again. They blocked the window with two wooden bars so animals from the woods won’t be able to get in.
Meng held up a torch. The two of them hurried to the edge of the cliff.
Once at the overhanging cliff above Jiu Feng’s nest, Yuan Zhan laid flat on the ground with his head poking out of the cliff edge. He shouted, “Yanmo?”
No one answered him.
Yuan Zhan called a few times more, but couldn’t hear even a weak reply below the cliff. His face suddenly turned terrible.
“I’ll go down and take a look.” He looked for a place to tie his ropes on.
“You’re crazy! It’s still dark and this cliff is leaning out! That rope is not strong! Look at the wind, anyone who goes down will die!” Meng disagreed, he stood in Yuan Zhan’s way. “Jiu Feng will come back soon, let’s wait until he comes back.”
“If we wait until he comes back, Yanmo might be dead by then.” Yuan Zhan couldn’t describe his feelings at the moment, was he worrying over a slave, or a priest? No matter which it was, now that he knew that something might have happened to Yanmo, he couldn’t just sit around.
“Maybe he’s already dead.” Meng didn’t mince his words. Although he didn’t know why the little slave would have an accident all of a sudden, it had always been like this. Sometimes their clansmen could seem alright during the day but come night, they would suddenly die. Maybe got eaten by beasts, or had eaten some poisonous plant, drank something bad, or bitten by some poisonous snake. Or they were killed by someone in the tribe or had offended someone and was dealt with. Sometimes when in the middle of training or running, there would be one or two people dying inexplicably. They had grown used to this kind of life where people can die out of nowhere.
That’s why Yuan Zhan wasn’t angry at Meng for his direct words. He knew that what Meng said was probably true, but still wanted to check himself.
“Yanmo is a priest with Ancestor God’s inheritance, there’s no way he’d die that easily. Moreover… I need him to make a tribe.”
Meng looked up at the half-moon in the sky, then hit his head. “Alright. Actually, I want to go down and see what’s happened to little slave. But if we just go down like this, we’ll just drop to our deaths.”
Meng stretched out his head over the overhanging cliff. The bottom was so far that it’s all black to him. He shrank back his head in fear.
Yuan Zhan warmed up his hands and feet. “Stay here and be lookout. It’s enough if I go. I’m level three now, my control of earth and rocks is better than before. I shouldn’t have trouble climbing down if no one attacks me.”
Yuan Zhan’s words really didn’t seem like he’s endangering himself, so Meng stopped dissuading him, “Give me the rope. This rope is not long enough, it’s better to tie it on me. Remember brother, if you fall down, I will also die with you.”
Yuan Zhan thumped a fist on his chest and gave one end of the rope to his companion. The other end was tied to his own waist. He took a good look at his target under the cliff, and walked over to the edge.
Yuan Zhan wasn’t acting blindly. He went down to check because he truly had confidence in his ability.
After upgrading to level three, he discovered that he could control the soil better, it came more smoothly, and he had a wider range.
After that discovery, he had always wanted to try climbing down the cliff wall and check out Jiu Feng’s other nest.
He even spent the daylight estimating the route to get to the cave several times. In his mind, he had roughly planned out how he could get there. He just never found the chance to try it these two days.
He didn’t expect he would use the plans so quickly.
His fingers, his toes, easily sunk into the hard rocks.
If it weren’t for the raging wind behind him that kept pushing his body towards the cliff wall and forcing him to slowly shift downwards, he’d have reached the nest faster.
Like this, with every hole his feet made marking his slow but steady progress (plus his two hands holes), Yuan Zhan carved out his road to Jiu Feng’s other nest.
When he got there, Yuan Zhan didn’t immediately jump to the ground, and instead climbed down from the cliff wall like a lizard.
“Mo? Yanmo?”
Yuan Zhan used the little light from outside to feel his way from the entrance. The cave was not very deep. He instantly found a figure lying down at one corner.
“Yanmo?” Yuan Zhan sped over and stretched out his hands to hold up the boy lying on his side.
The young boy’s eyes tightly shut, his nose had bright blood.
Yuan Zhan’s heart felt tight. That strange panic again, seizing his inside, making his hand shake when he wanted to check the boy’s breathing.
The young man clenched his fist. His hand moved slowly to feel under the boy’s nose. For a good while, he couldn’t feel anything, and his heart slowly sank further.
He stubbornly kept his hand in the same position. After a bit, he remembered to take in a deep breath to calm himself down, and finally felt a weak breathing from the boy in his arms.
“Ancestor god blesses!” Yuan Zhan hugged the boy tight then quickly released him again. He checked all over his body to see if there’s a visible wound.
When he found Yan Mo, bloody-faced and looking miserable, he thought that the boy had angered the mountain god Jiu Feng and was pecked to death, or he might’ve ate something poisonous.
But he checked for a while without finding any obvious injuries on the boy. Then, he heard Meng’s indistinct shouts.
Yuan Zhan pulled on the rope three times to tell Meng that he’s okay.
He wanted to take the boy away, once Jiu Feng gets back and finds him inside his nest, he will definitely be driven out or even killed.
But how to take him away from here?
Yuan Zhan considered piggybacking the boy, climbing back up with the boy on his back. But that rope was not very sturdy, the wind was too strong. What if the rope snapped when he had climbed up halfway, and the boy falls off of his back? Then it would be better to let him stay in the nest.
The body in his arms suddenly trembled.
Yuan Zhan unconsciously held him tighter. Although the nest protected them from the wind, it was still very cold. He couldn’t leave his future priest alone in this place. Jiu Feng had flown off, the boy had lost consciousness, if he left him like this, Yanmo would freeze all night and die before morning.
Yuan Zhan thought about it and laid the boy down again. He gathered what hay and feathers he could find in the nest and took off his animal skin to cover him.
He walked around the cave and checked the surroundings before climbing back up following the trail he had made.
“Is Xiaomo still alive?” Meng extended out a hand to help him up when he saw his head.
“Still alive, but his breathing is very weak.”
“What happened to him?”
“Don’t know.” Yuan Zhan untied the rope on himself and made Meng give him the rest of the rope back. “Go back. It’s too cold at night, you can’t stay here.”
“What about you?”
“I still have to go back down. Yanmo will freeze to death if he stays alone down there.”
Meng’s expression changed. “If Jiu Feng comes back and finds you there, he’ll catch you and throw you down.”
“I know.” Yuan Zhan said calmly. “I’ve checked the cave, it’s very big, there’re also passages inside the cave. If Jiu Feng attacks me, I’ll run into the inner passage. Wait until he goes out before climbing back up.”
“Then I’ll also go…”
“Don’t be stupid! Remember, if Jiu Feng sounds weird tomorrow, you run towards the forests. Once Yanmo dies, Jiu Feng won’t allow us to stay in his territory anymore.”
Meng scratched his head. “Alright… Do you want the torch?”
“How do I take it down? The wind is so strong.” Sometimes Yuan Zhan also felt speechless towards this companion of his.
When Yuan Zhan had the boy in his arms again, he suddenly felt a strange sense of fullness.
Embracing, penetrating, these are intimate actions that he could think of. But at this moment, merely holding the boy like this; their skins closely touching and body temperatures exchanging from the stuck skins, their limbs entangling with one another, he felt very, very comfortable.
He and the boy had been connected in a more intimate way, but he was mostly venting at that time, and the boy was just a slave to him.
But now… he didn’t know what had changed, he found that he didn’t just want to possess the boy like that. He wanted to be closer, even closer to the boy. But what could he do to get closer to him? Was it not enough to just tightly hold him like now?
The young man, who had awoken a different want aside from his physiological needs, couldn’t get out of his confusion. He couldn’t distinguish what was this strange feeling he had for the boy. He wanted to do many, many things to the boy, simply entering and possessing was no longer enough.
While Yuan Zhan was thinking about his and that, Yan Mo received the first active warning from the guide, though he received it in his sleep.
That warning kept appearing in his mind. When he first regained consciousness, everything else was a blur, he only noticed the warning.
—— Warning. The Exile’s body is not fit to bear overuse of the mental ability. Exile should stop the use of the mind and use of the advanced ability.
—— Warning! The Exile disregards and carelessly endangers own life. The Exile forces himself to use ability and arbitrarily goes beyond what the Exile can handle, leading to the rupture of the brain’s blood vessels and the first death of the Exile. Penalty: +100 scum points.
—— Due to the increase of +100 scum points at once, the Exile had triggered a major penalty. Penalty description: Deeply understand the weight of life. The punishment will last for ten days and commence immediately.
—— The total scum points reduction falls under 1000 points, the guide’s third section will be locked from use. The third reward for 1000 points reduction will also be retrieved by the guide.
“So should I be thankful I had always restrained from killing myself?” If I had, not only would I not die, I’d get an increase of 100 scum points! Damn it!
“I didn’t overuse my ability on purpose. That technical communication ability actually killed me, how would I know?” Yan Mo bitterly gritted his teeth. One hundred points, ah! Not only was he getting punished, he also lost access to his surgical tools and the right to use the guide’s third section!
But what does that ‘deeply understand the weight of life’ mean? What kind of punishment was it? It sounds too general and serious, it shouldn’t be punishing him to feel the pain of childbirth, right? If it’s really that… He will use all of his life force to curse the god.
“Don’t tell me that if someone kills me in the future, or an animal attacks me, I will also get 100 scum points added?” Yan Mo kept grinding his teeth together. He only said it out of anger. The guide’s words had the implication that as long as his death wasn’t caused by himself, under normal circumstances, he will not get added scum points.
Despite his anger now, he knew that just like the guide said, he really didn’t care that much his life and death. He had the perk of his body restoring itself to original appearance, so he was even more careless about this body’s health.
As a doctor, especially after seeing what happened to Yuan Zhan after he overexerted himself, there’s no way he didn’t know what the end result would be if he overused his ability with this sickly body. By thinking he could use himself to experiment and having the confidence that he wouldn’t die, he had completely thrown out all cautiousness in using his ability and let it all out without control.
As a result, if it wasn’t for the guide and this self-repairing body cheat, he would’ve died from brain haemorrhage. If it wasn’t death, he would’ve ended up getting a severe stroke.
“Yanmo?” Someone called him with a voice full of joy.
Yan Mo was still mumbling. If he had known that the consequences were this serious, he would’ve been careful with his own body, he would definitely look after his body preciously as if it were his esteemed ancestor.
“Yanmo are you awake? What are you saying? Is Ancestor God talking to you?”
Where did this foreigner pop out from, chattering on and on, so annoying! Yan Mo angrily kicked away with his foot. He didn’t notice that he didn’t have any trouble understanding this ‘foreign language’. He even started feeling that this language’s pronunciation was very familiar to him, almost as familiar to him as his own mother language.
“Yanmo?”
The noises became too much for Yan Mo, he could only wake up reluctantly.
His first reaction after opening his eyes was, “Who turned off the lights?”
“What are you saying? Don’t use the language of gods, I can’t understand it.” Yuan Zhan frowned.
He was really happy that the boy woke up, but he kept using that language he couldn’t understand when fainting and after waking up, making him feel that the boy was far away from him. As if he could return to the Ancestor God’s embrace at any time.
Cold wind blew on his foot and Yan Mo shank back his feet. He finally woke up fully.
“Ah Zhan?”
“It’s me.” The young boy finally used a language they both knew, Yuan Zhan could finally let go of his worries.
Yan Mo felt around him and felt the dried plants and feathers on his body. “Why are you here? What about Jiu Feng?”
“I don’t know, he left. I thought his calls sounded strange, so I ran over to check on you. You didn’t answer at all no matter how much I shouted from above, so I climbed down.”
“Climb…” Yan Mo thought of Yuan Zhan’s ability to control rocks. Since he could even make the rocks to be whatever shapes he wanted them to be, it shouldn’t be hard for him to climb down a cliff with bare hands.
“What happened to you? Why did you suddenly fall over? You also bled a lot.” A rough hand stroked Yan Mo’s chin.
Yan Mo blinked his eyes. He fumbled up for Yuan Zhan’s face. “Is it still dark outside?”
Yuan Zhan was stunned. He turned his head to the cave opening, “No, it’s already bright.”
“Morning huh…” Turns out that this was the so-called experience the weight of life! Trash guide, do you know what being blind meant in this hellhole world? You still made me blind for ten days? Yan Mo’s face instantly twisted malignantly.
Yuan Zhan watched the boy and found something off about him. He grabbed his hand and hurriedly asked in a solemn voice, “What’s wrong with your eyes?”
Yan Mo took several deep breaths and forced himself to calm down. His thought had shifted around, so he said, “It’s nothing. That kid was supposed to die but I asked Jiu Feng and forcefully saved him from death. Ancestor God punished me.”
Yuan Zhan didn’t even have to think before saying, “I’ll kill him right now!”
“Don’t!” Yan Mo fumbled to grab onto his hand. “You and Meng were part of the reason why I was punished, this is the mountain god’s territory, I entreated Jiu Feng to let you guys stay.”
That gave the young man a heavy blow on his pride as a warrior. Yuan Zhan closed his mouth tightly. His hand flipped over to hold the young boy’s cold hands tightly, “When spring comes…”
“Chieerk—!”
Yan Mo pushed open Yuan Zhan, “Jiu Feng came back, quickly leave!”
For a second Yuan Zhan was very unwilling to let go of his hand. If he lets go, it’s as if he’s afraid of Jiu Feng, even though little slave was clearly his.
“Ah Zhan!”
Yuan Zhan reluctantly put the young boy down. He touched his forehead on the boy’s forehead, “I will get stronger, I swear!”
Little boy! Yan Mo sneered at him inwardly. He only wanted him to leave as soon as possible. If not, Jiu Feng would get angry and restless later. He would have to spend a lot of effort to appease him.
Yan Mo didn’t see that Jiu Feng had flown in before Yuan Zhan could leave the nest.
Yuan Zhan had reached the inner cave routes fast enough, but Jiu Feng still could scent a smell that didn’t belong to his nest. Angered by the infiltrator, he started issuing low cries.
“Jiu Feng!” Yan Mo turned his head to where the sound was coming from.
Jiu Feng stared at the cave’s inner passage. He was so angry that his soft feathers all stood up, but he gave up on driving out that annoying two-legged monster. He dragged one of his wings that couldn’t fold back, walking unsteadily into the nest and slowly sat down.
“Jiu Feng?” Yan Mo reached out and slowly stroked that warm body.
Jiu Feng’s beak opened and caught onto the animal skin on Yan Mo, then furiously flung his head.
He flew out of the cave carrying the animal skin with Yuan Zhan’s smell and threw it out somewhere below the cliff.
He then bowed his head, his hard beak touching the little two-legs’s face. Then, his beak opened wide and his throat moved, as if he was trying to force something out of his throat.
Yan Mo felt something cold on his face. He couldn’t see it, so he wanted to feel what it was.
But before he could touch it, Jiu Feng had moved it towards his mouth with his beak.
“Keeh!” Eat this, eat it, and you’ll be fine after you eat it.
Yan Mo wanted to ask what this thing was but once he opened his mouth, that thing immediately rolled in.
Seeing that little two-legs had eaten the thing, Jiu Feng made another low cry, sounding extremely exhausted. The edge of his beak lightly rubbed against the little two-legs’s cheek, then Jiu Feng closed his eyes slowly.
Edited by Silversun
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