Chapter 413
Xia Valley
During the day, there was still a strong breeze . When the winds blew across the valley, they whistled .
“There used to be a river here,” said Gongjia Heng . The river was called Xia River but after that, it dried up and became a valley . So this was now Xia Valley .
“It will be difficult to cross Xia Valley . It was easier when there was a river . Now that the river has dried up into a valley, there have been many changes . I heard that people who entered the Xia Valley never returned . ”
These were stories the older people had told Heng . Now that he had seen the place for himself, it felt different .
“So this is Xia Valley . Shao Xuan, do you smell a very special smell?” he asked .
“Rocks?”
“It’s the smell of death . ”
Gongjia Heng commented wistfully, and then continued walking ahead .
Gongjia Mountain was in Xia valley . However, there was a suffocating feeling when one walked in the valley .
There were no animals, just bare rocks and boulders on both sides . Even vegetation was sparse . Before this, although there were no animals in the forest, at least there were plants . Here, it just looked like a dead piece of land .
Did the Xia people live here years ago?
Gongjia Heng said this used to be a river . That meant a long time ago, this should have been a good place to settle . Not sure why it became this .
“We’ll travel in the afternoon,” said Heng .
“Why?”
“The door to Gongjia Mountain can only be found in the afternoon . ”
Shao Xuan listened, since Gongjia Heng had said such a thing . The Xia people definitely knew more than him, it was better than travelling blindly .
In the afternoon, they set off .
As they walked further ahead, Shao Xuan had a familiar feeling . It reminded him of something . He had to admit that it was just as Gongjia Heng said- there was the smell of death here- but to others, it was the smell of opportunity .
Shao Xuan felt the core seed’s presence . It was not here, it was still far away . However, Shao Xuan clearly felt the sense of death that came from a core seed . Perhaps this entire piece of land was dead because of the core seed .
The legends denote that only the people of the Great Six had core seeds . It should be very rare for other tribes to have it . Plus the Xia people had already dispersed to different parts of the world, how could they have a core seed?
No matter what, finding Gongjia Mountain should be the answer .
Just like the forest, this was like an upgraded version of a maze . There were many forks, and every time you walked, you would quickly be blocked by a cliff or a mountain . Shao Xuan couldn’t just climb over either . Right now, he still could memorise the path he had taken, in case he had to return . But if he started climbing mountains, would he still remember?
Gongjia Heng climbed up the face of the mountain . He did not climb over, merely walked along with it . He was sure they could get out of here .
Right now, Shao Xuan had not been able to conduct a successful reading . Just like in the forest, he had not enough information . That was why he had to walk the journey on his own . Perhaps it would succeed when he had more information .
The third time they met a dead end, Gongjia Heng sighed . “My elders once told me that Xia river was a very special river . I have now seen it for myself . ”
The Xia river was formed naturally, not man made . That was why it was special . Now that it had dried up, it had become a natural maze .
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They looked up at the blue sky, so empty they could not see any clouds . Around them was just the valley, reeking of death .
As they travelled, they both made markings on mountain walls . When the sun set, Gongjia Heng stopped . They had to wait for the next afternoon .
“If we do not find the place as soon as possible, we will starve to death,” said Gongjia Heng .
In the forest, they knew how to return to their original path so if they were hungry, they could temporarily leave to get some food . Here, if they accidentally got lost, they could easily be trapped in the valley if they could not find their initial path . They could climb up mountains and take a straight path in the direction where they came from but somehow, one would unconsciously deviate from his original direction . It was a strange feeling . It was very easy to pinpoint the wrong direction too because of the sun in the sky . As time went on, sometimes there was one, then suddenly two, or even more . Sometimes, when you saw one sun, it could also be an illusion .
In a place like this, if you were not mentally strong, you would not live long .
It had been three days . They had walked in the valley for three days to no avail . Every day, they only had half a day’s time to search for the place . Gongjia Heng said they could walk slowly, as long as the method was correct, it should be fine . Unfortunately, it all amounted to nothing .
To save energy, other than the designated hours for searching, they would find a place to rest . Saving energy was also saving food . They brought limited dried meat with them, their stash definitely couldn’t last very long .
When they once again arrived at a dead end, they saw a human skeleton . Not sure how long this had been here but this must be a stronger person . At least a middle-ranked totemic warrior or above . A regular person’s skeleton would break easily .
From this skeleton’s position, the person had raised his/her arms to the skies before death, as if roaring at the heavens in defiance . Although the person had long lost his flesh and was just skin and bones, Shao Xuan could still see that he had died an unwilling death .
“The number of Xia people coming to look for Gongjia Mountain has dwindled . It’s because most of the people who came searching died . There were too few people who succeeded,” said Gongjia Heng .
That was just the first skeleton . After that, Shao Xuan encountered more skeletons . Someone even carved writings on the walls but perhaps due to the weather, they were illegible by now . These people’s last words would never be known, and no one would know who they were . If they were lucky, their identities could be found on their rusty weapons . However, weapons with too much rust rendered the embellishments illegible too . Then no matter how powerful and mighty these people were, after death, no one knew who they were .
Shao Xuan looked at the rusty weapons on the ground . Then, he got up and with a solemn face, told Gongjia Heng, “We have to hurry . Or we’ll just return to where we came from . We don’t have much food left . ”
“Mm, if this doesn’t work out, I can come next time . ” Although that was what he said, Gongjia Heng still felt like the goal was right under his nose . He just couldn’t see it . How could he return like that? He couldn’t blame these people who died . Some of them were just stubborn, refusing to return although they had far exceeded their physical abilities . Most of them probably starved to death here .
It was sad!
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“Can you do a reading yet?” asked Gongjia Heng .
Shao Xuan shook his head .
The anticipation in his eyes turned to disappointment . Then, he seemed to laugh at himself . It felt stupid . Didn’t the Xia people always rely on themselves? How could he place hope on another person? That person was an outsider .
He looked at the sky . “We’ll stop and continue tomorrow . He could make guesses based on the sunlight and shadows on the ground, plus the qualities of the rock around him . However, this was still too slow . If he kept using this method, he might just starve .
Sitting on the ground, Gongjia Heng carefully took out a piece of dried meat and sipped some water in his flask . He thought about what to do next .
Shao Xuan was thinking too . He had seen some broken skeletons here . This probably meant they had been cannibalised by other people . People could do very shocking things when they were at a dead end . Shao Xuan understood that the ones who would go looking for the mountain had a specific mindset too . Cannibalism was understandable .
Shao Xuan did not want to starve to death here, nor did he want to eat human meat here . It was fine if they could not find the place . He would rather return . However, they still had to do their best since they had already arrived .
He didn’t know why his knot divinations kept failing . He could only use other methods .
He used his senses to feel his surroundings . The death brought by the core seed was everywhere around him . However, it was difficult to confirm its position .
Could he determine its location using his mind’s totemic flames? No . This was the Xia people’s territory and unrelated to the Flaming Horn people . Their totemic flames were useless here .
Shao Xuan was about to calm the totemic power within him when he realised there were threads of power concentrating in his chest . He opened his eyes to see a bit of light there .
He fished the Elder’s Bone out to realise all four bone ornaments were on fire . There was no wind right now but the flames were all flickering in one direction!
Gongjia Heng had his eyes closed, deep in thought . When he noticed some movement, he opened his eyes to see flames in Shao Xuan’s hands . And the flames were flickering in one direction .
“That’s…”
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“We’ll head in that direction tomorrow . ” Shao Xuan put the bone ornaments behind his clothes again . As he calmed the totemic power in him, the flames died .
Gongjia Heng’s eyes brightened . He knew the kid would have a solution!
Initially, he was thinking of returning but now he had hope again .
On the next day, they waited till noon to leave . They continued heading in the direction of the ornaments’ flames . At the same time, after some time, Gongjia Heng also quickly calculated on his own to check if it was right .
When they passed by a place, Gongjia Heng suddenly yelled and stopped . “Wait!”
“What’s the matter?”
Previously, the flames had been pointing in this direction . Shao Xuan was about to take his ornaments out to check again but Heng had fished out a bronze nail and stabbed it into the ground . He looked at the sky . “This sun in the sky is the real one, right?”
Shao Xuan nodded .
After his confirmation, Gongjia HEng looked at the shadow of the nail on the ground, made some measurements, then looked at one of the cliff faces . Based on his guesses, he walked over .
The cliff face wasn’t far away but Gongjia Heng felt like every step was too heavy . That ten meters took him one minute to walk over . His throat was dry, his eyes filled with shock .
When he finally arrived at the face, Gongjia Heng looked at the seemingly regular wall . He placed both palms on it and roared, using all his energy to push .
Grrrrr-----
The sound of a stone door sliding open echoed .
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