Chapter 40: Thick Fog

  Yang Cangcang stood up and said: "I'll go with you." He made a face at us, this time Wu Zihuan did not refuse.

  Lao San let out a soft "oh" and said nothing more. Wu Zihan's figure gradually disappeared into the thick fog, and my heart was like this heavy mist, unable to find its direction.

  Karamay said in a low voice: "We must be careful with Wu Zihan, we can't have the heart to harm people, but we can't lack the heart to guard against people, otherwise we won't even know how we die."

  Fu Ma sat on the ground, lowering his head and saying: "I think Yang Cangcang is right. Although we can't hear his inner voice, if he wanted to harm us, he could have just stood by and done nothing time and again."

  "Why didn't he let that monster finish speaking?" Lao San asked indignantly.

  Fu Ma sneered: "Everyone has things they don't want others to know, this matter may not necessarily harm us. Moreover, that's just a monster, we are brothers who share life and death together. You suspect your brother because of a monster? The trust between us is really weak. Even Yang Cangcang understands this logic, but you, Ah Long, don't understand?" Lao San was left speechless.

  We waited for a while, and from afar came the sound of chatter and laughter. I hurried over, and there were Xiao Lao and Cang Cang.

  Hehehe walked ahead, Wu Zihan followed behind with no expression.

  "Old Xiao, you're back." I went up to greet him.

  Lao San smiled slyly and said, "Xiao Lao, why didn't you bring my Auntie Xiao back with you? I didn't have a chance to congratulate you on having a son yesterday, and now you're out here while still in your honeymoon, isn't that not good?"

  Xiao Lao went up and gave Lao San a punch: "You little guy performed quite well on the stage, I didn't know you had the potential to be a movie emperor." He then turned to us, "You guys are not enough, leaving old me alone in that place where heaven doesn't respond and earth doesn't care."

  Karamay smiled and looked at Xiao Lao's embarrassed face, asking: "Then Dairenqiu let you go so easily?"

  Yang Cangcang hastily said: "That's it, our Zihuan has gone out to settle the matter, he has already cried and found his sister." She looked at Wu Zihuan with admiration, Wu Zihuan's eyes were distant, as if he was not in this world.

  "Now everyone is here, let's hurry up and leave, lest we have too many dreams tonight." Karamay said.

  We walked and listened to Xiao Lao complaining about Dai Lei Qiu's various annoying things, and all the way we heard loud laughter. I occasionally glanced at Wu Zihan in front of me, his face was serious, not saying a word, as if he had some worries.

  The sun slowly set, and after walking for a while, the scenery around us was no longer a swamp. We returned to the desert, which was different from the endless sand sea we saw before. Here, many weathered earth mounds stood upright, and some broken rock walls resembling city walls.

  "It should be out of the swamp by now." Lao San said, looking around nervously.

  Xiao Lao looked around and said: "Strange, why isn't there a stone monument with directions here?"

  Yang Cangcang quietly crept up behind Kalamayi and gave his shoulder a forceful slap, scaring Kalamayi so badly that he trembled all over and directly knelt on the ground. Yang Cangcang burst out laughing beside him: "Kalamayi, what are you thinking? You're so focused!"

  Yang Cangcang's laughter suddenly froze, Kelamayi's face turned iron-green, her whole face was covered in sweat, Yang Cangcang was also frightened and quickly asked: "Are you okay? I was just joking, how...?"

  Karamay suddenly realized that he was a bit out of sorts, and hastily used his sleeve to wipe away the cold sweat on his face, covering up and saying: "Oh... nothing... maybe I was injured by that monster just now, my body is a bit uncomfortable."

  Fu Ma glanced at Karamay lightly and didn't speak. Lao San said with concern, "Is everything okay? If not, we can wait a bit before leaving."

  Karamay waved his hand: "Nothing, don't delay the journey, it'll be fine in a while. Xiao Lao, what formation is this?"

  Xiao Lao scratched his head in confusion: "I don't know either, there's no indication on the stone tablet."

  "Geomancy." Wu Zihan suddenly blurted out a sentence.

  "How did you know?" Lao San asked with his head tilted.

  Wu Zihan didn't speak, staring blankly at the broken rock walls, occasionally reaching out to touch them. Xiao Lao's eyes swept around in a circle before explaining, "Now we only have the Qian, Kun, and Gen arrays left to conquer. The Qian and Kun arrays correspond to the natural attributes of heaven and earth, and are generally the most difficult. They will be placed last. Following this reasoning, this should be the Gen array. The Gen attribute corresponds to mountains."

  "There aren't any mountains here either?" Yang Cangcang said after looking around, "Could we have made a mistake?"

  Xiao Lao said firmly: "It shouldn't be, but there may be a mountain that corresponds to it."

  The night grew deeper, a big and round moon slowly climbed up the sky, but tonight's moonlight was tinged with a bloody red color.

  "Let's rest here today and make a breakthrough tomorrow." Karamay suggested. Everyone agreed, so we set up our tents on the spot, had dinner, and it seemed like we hadn't had such a leisurely meal in a long time. Everyone was chatting and laughing, while Wu Zihan remained silent.

  After dinner, everyone packed up and prepared to sleep well. Wu Zihan whispered: "I'll keep watch, you guys go to sleep." Lao San was about to say something when he was stopped by Karamay.

  "Let's keep watch together," I said, and nobody else said anything more, all yawning and entering the tent. Before long, the sound of snoring came from inside the tent.

  "What do you want to ask me?" Wu Zihan suddenly said, looking at me and startling me.

  "I... how did you know I wanted to ask you something?" Wu Zihan's gaze shifted elsewhere, not responding to me. "Why didn't you let that monster finish speaking before killing it?"

  "It's all nonsense, no need to listen further."

  "What's going on with that virtual dream space that day? I saw Director Zheng's corpse in the previous formation, but when I turned around, it was gone?" I asked.

  Wu Zihan said lightly, "You yourself said it's a virtual dream space, so it's not real. As for Director Zheng, I don't know him, but whether he's dead or alive has nothing to do with me. Some people are alive, but they've been dead for a long time; some people may be dead, but there are still people in the world who care about them, so they're still alive."

  I frowned and said somewhat angrily: "Can't you just give a straightforward answer to people's questions? You always say some inexplicable things, it's really speechless."

  Wu Zihan smiled wryly: "If I were you, I wouldn't be entangled in this issue that has nothing to do with the main event. You should think carefully about how to control the nine worms and prevent them from backfiring, and how to rescue your grandfather."

  "What kind of person are you, how do you know everything?" I stared at him in surprise.

  Wu Zihan slumped his shoulders, and his eyes became distant: "A person who doesn't want to have any connection with this world but can't help himself, like me, even if I die, no one will be sad for me."

  I suddenly feel that Wu Zihan is quite strange tonight, seemingly more sentimental than before. I said: "If you die, Yang Can can will definitely cry to death, and I will be heartbroken too, everyone will be; besides, you are so powerful, there won't be things beyond your control?"

  Wu Zihan smiled slightly: "I hope that day never comes."

  Yang Cangcang yawned and walked out with a pair of green eyes, saying vaguely: "Why haven't you two gone to sleep yet?"

  "Big Sister Yang!" I looked at her helplessly, "People with night vision shouldn't come out at night to scare people, okay? Why are you not sleeping and getting up?"

  Yang Cangcang glanced at me and said: "Going to the toilet, isn't it?"

  Wu Zihan looked up at her and said: "Don't go too far."

  Yang Cangcang immediately changed her tone and said in an extremely gentle voice: "I know."

  The two of us fell silent for a while. "You go to sleep, I'll keep watch tonight, who knows what we'll face tomorrow," Wu Zihan said to me, and let out a deep sigh, as if he was extremely tired of the current situation.

  I suddenly felt something was off and turned around to ask him: "How long has Yang Cangcang been gone, why hasn't she come back yet?"

  I only heard a loud shout from afar, and Wu Zihan and I immediately got up, about to rush over. A pair of green eyes ran towards us from not far away, "It's Yang Cangcang," I said, "Cangcang, what's wrong with you, why are you shouting?"

  Yang Cangcang exclaimed with a gasp: "Jun... Jun Yang, I just went to the bathroom and suddenly saw a black shadow standing behind me. When I turned my head, it seemed like... it was your grandfather!"

  "What?" I shouted loudly, waking up everyone else. "Are you sure it's my grandfather?" At this moment, my emotions were extremely excited.

  Yang Cangcang hesitated and said: "I saw that it looked like, didn't dare look more and ran back."

  Lao San rubbed his eyes, yawning as he spoke: "Do you know his grandfather? Oh, right, it was my second brother's grandfather who sent you to the scorpion tomb before." Lao San said to himself.

  "Let's go and take a look." Fu Ma echoed.

  Xiao Lao smiled and said: "I didn't expect that in my lifetime I could still see Zhou Lao Di."

  Karamay calmly said: "I think there's a trick, if Junyang's grandfather didn't see us coming over without reason, it's better for us to be careful."

  "What if he's not in control?" I retorted, "Whatever it is, we've come this far, what trap am I afraid of?" I sneered and headed towards the direction Yang Cangcang had pointed out, everyone else followed me one after another.

  Yang Cangcang ran ahead to lead the way, this is a relatively flat dune area, surrounded by many wind-eroded soil mounds. During the day, they didn't have any particular shape, twisted and turned in all directions. At night, under the moonlight, upon closer inspection, somehow they looked like human sculptures, each with different postures, extremely eerie.

  Yang Cangcang pointed at the black shadow not far away and said: "It's him, take a look, is it your grandfather?"

  I opened the flashlight with a trembling hand and shone it over there. I was shocked at once and shouted: "Grandpa?"