Valle del Hombre Salvaje de Qingshan

Capítulo 76

"Alright, let's go and see what happens." Chu Junfeng agreed without hesitation.

"No, His Highness is of such high status, how can we take such a risk? Let's retreat and call some more people to come and see for ourselves." Huang Jin disagreed and tried to pull Mo Xibei back.

“It doesn’t matter who investigates,” Mo Xibei said, shaking off Huang Jin’s hand.

I'm too tired, so I'll update less today and make up for it tomorrow.

I imagine everyone had a happy Valentine's Day, haha, as long as everyone's happy!

Volume Two: The Wind Leaves a Mark, Chapter Twenty-One: The Treasure (Part Six)

Two against one, Huang Jin wanted to stand still, but he had many concerns. Finally, he slowly took a step forward.

One step, two steps, three steps...

Mo Xibei's torch illuminated his feet, Chu Junfeng's torch illuminated his head, and Huang Jin's torch illuminated his center. He took one step at a time and slowly made his way to the side of the already dead Imperial Guard.

The three men stopped simultaneously. Mo Xibei's attention was on his feet. In the torchlight, a very thin metal wire was tripping one of the Imperial Guards' feet.

"Such an intricate mechanism. I wonder what will come out after it's triggered." Mo Xibei pointed it out to the two of them. She prided herself on having some knowledge of mechanisms, but such thin and elastic metal wires were not easy to forge. In addition, after a hundred years, they had not decayed or deteriorated. The mechanism would activate at the slightest touch, killing people in an instant. It was truly amazing.

“This mechanism is really intricate,” Chu Junfeng said without looking down, because he also saw a dark metal wire lying across the middle of the hole.

There were three such metal wires, each at a different height, and the distance between each wire was extremely close. Fortunately, all three people were agile, and after passing through them, they were able to walk another three or five zhang (approximately 10-15 meters) calmly.

Huang Jin's torch unexpectedly swayed slightly forward.

Then, with a "snap," it sounded like something had broken.

Mo Xibei hurriedly looked up, only to see something golden suddenly fly towards him and hit Huang Jin's sleeve squarely.

The things that the torches had touched were nowhere to be found; only a faint, strange smell remained in the air, much like the smell of burnt silk.

"What just landed on your sleeve?" Chu Junfeng also saw the glimmer of gold earlier, raised his torch, and shone it on Huang Jin.

"It might have been sparked by a spark." Huang Jin raised his sleeve to look at it, and after a long while, he found a tiny hole the size of a grain of millet on his sleeve. He touched the skin around the hole but felt nothing, so he was relieved. Just as he was about to say that he was leaving, he suddenly heard Mo Xibei say, "Why are your hands so black?"

"How did my hand turn black?" Huang Jin was stunned. He had just said that when his hand, which was holding the torch, suddenly went limp and weak. The torch fell to the ground. When he looked again, the arm that had been hit by that golden light had turned completely black, starting from the elbow. Not only was it completely black, but there was also a small thing, about the size of a little fingernail, moving along the blood vessels in his arm, gradually moving upwards and growing bigger.

"Could this be the Golden Cicada Gu?" Chu Junfeng could see it very clearly from close up. However, this Golden Silkworm Gu came from Miao territory and was rarely seen in the Central Plains. Legend has it that this Gu is the egg of a golden cicada, protected by golden cicada silk, and can remain unhatched for a hundred years. But once the larvae enter the bloodstream, they can hatch instantly and travel up the blood vessels of the human body, heading straight for the heart, and then quickly devouring the heart. It is extremely vicious.

"Is it one of those worms that eat people's hearts?" Mo Xibei's hair stood on end as he watched the thing moving through Huang Jin's arm grow bigger and bigger.

"Ah!" Huang Jin suddenly roared, drew his waist knife, and with a whoosh, severed most of his arm. The severed arm fell to the ground, black blood splattering everywhere. In the blink of an eye, a golden object emerged from the severed arm.

Volume Two: The Wind Leaves a Mark, Chapter Twenty-One: The Treasure (Part Seven)

"Watch out!" Almost at the same time Chu Junfeng shouted the warning, the golden insect had already made a few "crackling" sounds, biting off the flesh on the severed arm that was blocking its movement, and crawled out, shaking its head. Then, after only a slight pause, the three of them watched in disbelief as something flashed with golden light and suddenly rushed straight towards Mo Xibei, who was standing directly opposite them.

At that moment, the silvery light of the sword pierced the darkness of the stone cave.

When the sword light subsided and no one spoke in the cave, Mo Xibei, in his haste to protect himself, had dropped his torch. Chu Junfeng's torch, however, was struck by Mo Xibei's sword, struggled for a moment, and then extinguished its embers. Thus, the entire cave was plunged into complete darkness. Only Huang Jin's heavy breathing, caused by his injury, pounded against one's heart with each deep breath.

"Northwest?" Chu Junfeng frantically pulled a tinderbox from his pocket, but his hands trembled so much that he couldn't even get a spark out. The voice that came out startled him; the despair in that hoarse voice was something he had never experienced before in his life.

In the darkness, a soft "hiss" was heard, and a cluster of flickering sparks burst forth in a corner of the cave. Then, the sparks moved down, and a hand as white as jade was groping on the ground. A moment later, a large flame flared up, and a torch illuminated the eyes of several people.

Mo Xibei's face was expressionless. She simply raised the torch in silence. In the firelight, her face, like her hands, was almost transparently white.

"You...you..." Chu Junfeng began, wanting to ask her if she had hit the cicada, and how she felt now, but the words caught in his throat and he couldn't form a coherent sentence.

Mo Xibei remained silent, simply picking up the sword he had placed on the ground to light the torch, and then holding the tip up to his eyes. The sharp tip was somehow covered in a shimmering golden coat—the skin of a newly grown cicada that had consumed flesh and blood, pierced through the forehead by Mo Xibei's sword in a split second. Now, only a thin, flimsy skin remained.

"I think I'm alright now." Mo Xibei let out a long breath, his heart filled with a mix of emotions, including lingering fear and relief, which ultimately turned into a soft sigh.

Huang Jin silently bandaged his wound; he had injured his arm. Unable to carry a torch any longer, he simply pressed down on his weapon with one hand and continued walking side by side with Chu Junfeng.

There were no more obstacles ahead. After walking for the time it takes to brew a cup of tea, a large white jade door suddenly appeared at the end of the stone cave.

"Treasure?" The three of them silently uttered these two words in their hearts. This was the real treasure, this was the gateway to the treasure.

The gate was made of white jade. It was completely translucent and shimmered with light, so there was no need for torches here. The three people stepped forward and searched carefully, but after a long time, they couldn't find even a crack.

"Chen Youliang actually set up such a trap, probably to discourage future generations." Mo Xibei wasn't enthusiastic about the treasure. After searching around and not finding a way to enter, he felt relieved.

“Since there’s a door, there must be a way to open it.” Unlike Huang Jin, who repeatedly touched the white jade door with his hands, Chu Junfeng carefully examined the area around the stone door from all angles.

"Then take your time looking." Mo Xibei nodded, not saying much more. She glanced around at the scene in front of the door, found the furthest spot, and sat down on the ground. Slaying the Golden Cicada with her sword was purely lucky. Even now, she still felt weak in her limbs and needed to rest. This opportunity came at just the right time. As she sat there, her fingers tapped lightly on the ground beside her, seemingly intentionally or unintentionally. After tapping back and forth countless times, Mo Xibei suddenly felt as if she had touched something different from the surrounding stones. So she carefully moved her fingers back to the ground.

It was something that looked like a large copper screw, round, with a smooth surface, and slightly protruding from the ground. Mo Xibei touched it several times, unable to discern its material. By the light of the white jade, he could see that this screw-like object was actually squeezed into a crack in the stone. Mo Xibei found it amusing, so he pressed it with his hand, but the screw didn't move. He pressed it again with a little more force, but it still didn't move. He took a deep breath, used seventy percent of his strength, and pressed down with one finger. Finally, the screw slowly sank into the crack in the stone. Mo Xibei smiled and went to feel if the screw was flush with the ground this time, but to his surprise, he felt nothing.

Looking again, the screw, unaffected by external force, continued to sink into the ground little by little. At this moment, a rumbling sound came from the bottom of the cave, similar to the opening of the stone door outside. However, this dull sound was more like the mountain shaking, which was particularly thrilling inside the mountain.

Fortunately, the rumbling sound soon disappeared. Before the three could think further, the white jade door creaked as if it were being pushed from the inside out. It moved very slowly, taking about the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, until it turned completely, revealing two passages.

Standing at the doorway, the three of them forgot to marvel at the ingenuity of the mechanism. In fact, none of them even thought to ask how the mechanism had been triggered. They were all stunned by what they saw.

Inside the cave, countless dazzling luminous pearls illuminated the place as bright as day.

Inside the cave, there were several small, golden hills, which were actually made entirely of gold bars.

Inside the cave, gems and pearls were haphazardly piled up on the ground like trash.

Inside the cave, on the highest small golden mountain, lay a large brocade box. The box was half-open, revealing a corner of a carved jade artifact. Although none of them had ever seen the real Imperial Seal of the State, they all guessed that what was in the brocade box must be the legendary symbol of the emperor's supreme power.

"So, there really is such a thing as a treasure in this world." Mo Xibei clicked his tongue in amazement. "Chen Youliang only occupied one region and was a local tyrant for a few years, yet he accumulated so many things. No wonder everyone in the world wants to be an emperor."

Neither Huang Jin nor Chu Junfeng uttered a sound. They remained silent, seemingly looking at the countless gold and silver treasures before them, yet also seemingly seeing nothing at all.