Chapter 65: Forgetting Stone Dream Realm

  Xu Erniang has no shadow... Can a person still be human without a shadow?

  "Don't be rash." I whispered to Balzar. In this desolate and remote mountain, we've encountered a monster.

  Barza hid the pistol and dagger behind his back, his eyes gleaming with a fierce light as he nodded. With this professional killer by my side, I felt a lot more confident.

  Xu Erniang sat down beside me, took off her thick bundle, and without a word, warmed her hands by the fire.

  We all fell silent for a moment, and the atmosphere was a bit eerie.

  The warm firelight dimmed significantly after Xu Erniang arrived, no matter how much more firewood was added, it seemed as if the heat had all been absorbed by this 'woman'.

  I took advantage of the interval of adding firewood to pretend to be unintentional and look for Xu Erniang's shadow, still empty.

  I took a deep breath and broke the silence, saying to Xu Erniang: "Erniang... you... uh, you're good..." I was so nervous that I didn't know what to say.

  Xu Erniang didn't look at me and continued to roast the fire, looking like she was very cold.

  "Is it true that you knew Li Xianglan, Kawashima Yoshiko, Zhou Xuan and Lin Huiyin back then? Wasn't that 'female traitor' Kawashima Yoshiko executed?" Barza casually brought up the topic to ask Xu Erniang. The latter let out a mouthful of white air, chuckled and laughed in a voice we had never heard before, sounding like a little girl learning to speak, saying: "I don't know, anyway they're not clean. Ah, it's so cold, it's going to snow!"

  I was so scared that I had goosebumps all over, Xu Erniang's voice was absolutely not her own!

  "It's snowing, damn it! In May? Where did this come from... Hmm? Son of a bitch, it really is snow!" Balza was shocked, his mouth agape.

  All that can be seen is a thin layer of snowflakes floating down from the sky, strangely, the snowflakes only fall within the ten-meter radius around where we are sitting, while other places remain untouched.

  I and Balza stared at Xu Erniang with a mixture of fear and disgust, unconsciously taking several steps back.

  "What a powerful magical power!" I exclaimed in my heart, changing the color of heaven and earth. This is indeed the legendary great demon. I touched the cold left-handed revolver, wondering if the monster was afraid of bullets. Today, it's likely to be more ominous than auspicious.

  "Previously, I've only encountered dumplings without wisdom, the danger level is far from comparable to the demon in front of me." I secretly felt a chill and thought about countermeasures.

  Ba Er stared at Xu Erniang's buttocks, almost sticking his face to them, muttering: "Where is the tail? Where is the tail?"

  Just then, Xu Erniang suddenly jumped up, clapping her hands and laughing loudly: "Haha, it's fun, it's fun! Look, the shadow is gone!"

  My spirit was shocked, could it be that the thief was shouting to catch the thief? This monster wanted to break through that layer of window paper by itself. But when I lowered my head and took a look, I was stunned.

  Xu Erniang's shadow suddenly appeared, but what was inconceivable was that my own shadow had vanished without a trace!

  "What's going on here!" I exclaimed in shock.

  Ba Erjia grabbed my collar and pulled me aside, saying in a low voice: "What kind of work are you doing? Are you human or demon?"

  "You think you can catch me if I were a monster? Eat my fist first!" I cursed, spitting at his face.

  Balzac let go of his hand, scratched his head desperately, and suddenly he exclaimed: "My...my shadow...is gone!"

  I hastily lowered my head to take a look and found that under Balza's feet was a large bright area with no shadow at all.

  "What the hell!" We looked at each other in dismay, and simultaneously turned to look at Xuer's harmless face. Had she eaten our shadows?

  The snow is getting heavier and heavier, and there's a faint smell of blood on us.

  Bao'er gave me a signal with his eyes and said in a low voice: "Let's get out of here quickly."

  I thought for a moment and soon agreed with his point of view. Taking advantage of the monster not eating us impulsively, it's still better to retreat as the best policy. It wasn't that I hadn't considered using force, but my heart was too weak, fearing that guns wouldn't be able to stop this tough guy.

  "We're going to take a leak." Barza said with a grin, pulling me along as we tiptoed into the thicket.

  Xu Erniang suddenly walked over and blurted out: "I'm coming too."

  We were so scared that we almost 'peed' our pants, Balza frantically waved his hands: "Don't come over here, if you take off your pants in the wilderness, we'll become beasts."

  "Disgusting!" Xu Erniang curled up her 'orchid' finger and scolded with a nasal tone, then sat back down by the fire pit with a reluctant expression.

  We let out a long sigh of relief and slipped away quietly, not daring to stay for even a moment.

  "Not good, the backpack hasn't been taken yet, there's dry food inside." Balza slapped his forehead and shouted, "Pah!" I also slapped him on the back of the head and said sternly, "You're not afraid of death, go back and get it."

  Under the moonlight, we quickly darted through the thicket. Relying on intuition, we headed towards the mountain cliff where the giant statue was located.

  Xu Erniang didn't chase after us, but we didn't dare to let our guard down. After running for about half an hour, a figure suddenly appeared in front of us.

  "Ts'ai Ling-ch'en!" I cried out.

  "Not bad, you're still alive." Cai Lingchen said indifferently.

  "Halt! Don't come any closer!" Balza shouted, gripping his pistol and menacingly threatened: "How can you prove that you are Cai Lingchen?"

  Cai Lingchen's face was displeased, and he retorted: "Are you asking a serious and complex philosophical question? All I want to say is, are you out of your mind?"

  I couldn't bear it anymore, pointing at Cai Lingchen's feet, I said: "It's okay, she has a shadow."

  Balza's expression relaxed a bit, but Cai Lingchen suddenly shrieked: "Hey, where are your shadows?"

  "Alas, it's hard to put into words." I shook my head with a bitter smile.

  Suddenly, Cai Lingchen raised his hands and instantly 'revealed' two revolvers from his sleeves, aiming at me and Balza respectively.

  "My dear fellow, don't misunderstand, we are human." I hastened to explain.

  Bang!

  The bullet whizzed past my cheek and hit the tree trunk behind me. My foot, which I had just lifted, was still suspended in mid-air, frozen in place.

  "Hey, you stinky girls, don't think that just because you're pretty, you can kill people at will!" Barza spat out a wad of saliva.

  Cai Lingchen furrowed his brow and coldly snorted: "Then prove to me that you are Balza."

  This woman's heart is really heavy with revenge, much more so than her sister. I couldn't help but swallow my saliva, not knowing how to resolve the misunderstanding inside.

  Just then, the voice that made my back feel cold floated over from behind me.

  "Oh my, little one, it's been so long. I've never heard of constipation in urination before." A soft and sweet female voice came over.

  "Who!" Cai Lingchen's handgun moved behind me, highly alert.

  I desperately made a face at her, my mouth repeating the words "Run, run!"

  I felt a chill run down my back and couldn't help but shudder.

  Cai Lingchen ordered: "Turn around, quickly!"

  I and Balza reluctantly turned around, although we were extremely unwilling, slowly turning our bodies.

  The scene behind me made my eyelids twitch, I simply didn't dare believe my eyes.

  Behind a few sparse shrubs, the snow was pristine white. A beautiful young woman, covered in snow, sat crouched by the fire, rubbing her hands together. The flames in front of her had dwindled to no larger than the palm of one's hand.

  "The shadow is here, you will come back sooner or later, hehehe......" Xu Erniang's gloomy and sinister smile sent out a breath that condensed into icy crystals.

  "You're not Xu Erniang!" Cai Lingchen's face fell.

  I thought to myself, little girl, you have the leisure to talk like this, why don't you just run away quickly instead.

  Cai Lingchen was obviously ruthless and decisive, his eyes narrowed, the muzzle of the gun aimed at Xu Erniang's forehead, and he fired!

  Bang! Bang! Bang!

  "Ah, no!" I was shocked to see the bullet pass through Xu Erniang's forehead and disappear. Suddenly, Xu Erniang opened her mouth, and the bullet was completely contained within it. Her crimson tongue stretched out of her mouth over a foot, wrapped around the bullet, and with a swift motion, she flung it back out with a loud whooshing sound. The speed was so fast that no one had time to react, and all that could be heard was a blood-curdling scream as Balza took the bullet to the stomach and fell into a pool of blood.

  My liver and gallbladder are splitting, Xu Erniang floated up and flew towards me.

  I want to move my feet, but I just can't.

  Xu Erniang's face began to crack and peel off, gradually revealing a doll-like face full of scars.

  Tsai Lingchen ceaselessly fired at Xu Erniang, but every bullet was deflected back onto Balza's body.

  As I turned around, Cai Lingchen escaped towards the depths of the forest. And poor Balza was 'shot' into a beehive and died an even more miserable death.

  I stared wide-eyed as Xu Erniang approached, opening her small mouth, suddenly transforming into a bloody big mouth, emitting a foul odor that assaulted my nostrils, and in an instant swallowed me whole.

  Before I died, I chose to close my eyes.

  However, a few seconds later, I didn't feel any pain, but instead a piercing coldness that seemed to freeze my soul.

  When I opened my eyes, it was an empty darkness.

  "Where am I? Am I dead? Is this 'Yin' Cao's underworld?" I thought incredulously.

  Just then, Barza's voice came from all directions.

  "Dongzi, wake up, aren't you dead yet? You're so sturdy, even hanging from a 100-meter tree branch won't kill you, your life is worthless to the extreme."

  ……

  "Get up, or I'll beat you to death!"

  Clap...clap...

  I suddenly came back to myself, and my vision gradually cleared up. I saw Balza's big face squeezing his eyebrows at me.

  I was shocked: "You're not dead? Where am I?" As soon as my hand touched, a handful of fallen leaves, immediately, a wave of soreness swept through my entire body.

  "You must have gotten a concussion and lost your memory, I just found out that your parachute didn't open and got stuck in the tree. Threw stones at you, but you wouldn't wake up. Had no choice but to trouble myself to climb up and pull you down. Haha, how's that? I'm actually your lifesaver." Barza explained to me in one breath.

  My head was splitting with desire, and after a while, I saw the small stones scattered on the ground, and my whole body trembled.

  "Was it you who just hit me with this stone?" I picked up the stone and weighed it, suddenly shocked at how heavy it was!

  "What's wrong?" Barza asked in surprise.

  "Look, there's gold on the ground!" I cried out loudly.

  "Where is it!" Balza bent down to search, "Where is it, where is the gold?"

  Hmph!

  The stone controlled the force and hit the back of Balza's head. He covered his head, stuttering: "You... you..."

  "You hit me on the head with a brick, you madman! I almost got swallowed alive by Xu Erniang in my dream!" I was furious.

  Balza fainted for no apparent reason.

  I dragged Balza under the tree, took a sip of drinking water from my backpack, and chewed on some dry rations. I picked up a handful of small stones, judging their weight to be around ten or more. My eyes gradually cooled down, and I muttered: "Just landed and encountered this kind of thing, this place is quite evil."

  At this time, the color of the sky in the real world darkened. Looking at the lingering sunset, I felt a sense of melancholy in my heart, wondering if it was just a dream created by the Forgetting Stone after all. Only when Balza wakes up can he give me an answer.