Originated from mountains and seas, life never ends

Yin Xihui secretly looked at Qin Xiao's expression.

Qin Xiao still had no special expression on his face: "What's down there?"

"... a lot of strange snakes." Qin Yun'an was terrified for a moment, afraid that any of his words would irritate him, "But that thing is not so easy to get. There is a stream below, but it is stagnant water, and it is full of corpses of people who died there... So in fact, he might also--"

Before Qin Yun'an could finish his words, he saw that Qin Xiao's face had become so gloomy that water could be squeezed out of it.

Qin Xiao glanced at him coldly, said nothing, walked to the side of the cliff, and thought for a moment.

"I'll go down and find him." Qin Xiao said to Yin Xihui, "You guys can handle it yourself."

"Ah, ah?" Yin Xihui pointed at himself and Qin Yun'an, "...Me and him?"

"Do whatever you want." Qin Xiao said, and jumped down.

Qin Yun'an's heart skipped a beat and he hurried forward, but Qin Xiao was no longer there.

Qin Yun'an blinked, scratched his head, and looked at Yin Xihui: "Do you think he can come back?"

Yin Xihui couldn't see his expression clearly, but after hearing what he said, he smiled and said, "I'm not sure either. I'm going to go down and take a look. Do you know the way?"

"Oh, of course I know. I want to go too. How about we go together?" Qin Yun'an also grinned.

Yin Xihui nodded, as if he was not on guard at all, and showed a pure and bright smile.

"But speaking of which, are you friends with him?" Qin Yunan was walking. He was somewhat familiar with this area and knew where to go to wait for people, so he took the lead and walked to the front.

"Yes." Yin Xihui followed him and said with a smile, "You and him too?"

"Ah... maybe?" Qin Yun'an touched his neck, and the burning sensation that he felt when the curse was first placed seemed to revive again.

...Isn't that kid going to send me away and kill me directly?

Qin Yun'an was really skeptical. After all, Qin Xiao gave him a gloomy and cold feeling these days.

Qin Yun'an took Yin Xihui to a forest at the foot of the mountain and said to him confidently, "If they come out, they will definitely take this road. We just need to wait for them here."

Yin Xihui looked around, thinking about something, and smiled: "Then let's wait here..."

As Yin Xihui was speaking, he suddenly felt an unspeakable sense of crisis coming from behind him. The moment he realized it, his hair stood on end and his back was instantly covered with cold sweat.

Yin Xihui did not act rashly. He could feel the terrifying aggressive aura behind him and knew very well that he was no match for the attacker.

"It is indeed here."

A powerful and dangerous voice came from behind, followed by a rustling sound of grass leaves rubbing against each other.

Yin Xihui slowly turned his head, and the first thing he saw was a pair of glowing dark golden eyes. The huge beast slowly walked out of the woods, its pupils slightly turned, and looked at him.

Even though Qiongqi only glanced at him lightly, Yin Xihui felt as if he was in an ice cellar in an instant, and his limbs felt numb.

Qiongqi noticed his abnormality, but he didn't care. He walked slowly over and looked at Qin Yun'an: "You actually found someone to bring him here before? Haha."

Qiongqi sneered and then transformed into a muscular man, exactly the same as when they first met.

Qin Yun'an looked at the Qiongqi, who was a head taller than him, and secretly swallowed his saliva. Even though they had been together for so many months, he still didn't dare to look directly at Qiongqi, especially now that Qin Xiao was not here. If Qiongqi suddenly got angry and slapped him to death with one claw, no one could stop it.

As soon as Qiongqi saw the human's expression, he knew that he was daydreaming again. Although he didn't know what he was thinking about, it must be some boring guesses.

Qiongqi looked at Yin Xihui beside him and narrowed his eyes.

Yin Xihui slowly took a step back. At this moment he had recovered a little. The corners of his mouth twitched slightly, and he narrowed his eyes and gave Qiongqi a well-behaved smile.

Although this miracle of resurrection was far beyond his imagination, Yin Xihui did not ask anything. When he saw Qiongqi looking at him, he smiled at him.

When Qiongqi saw his reaction, a hint of surprise flashed across his eyes.

"Is there anything wrong?" Qin Yun'an asked with gritted teeth after hearing what Qiongqi said.

Qiongqi glanced at him indifferently: "Because those humans will die."

"……what?"

"what?"

Yin Xihui couldn't help but exclaimed, frowning: "Then Qin Xiao and the others——"

"Oh, they are fine." Qiongqi continued calmly.

"Why, why do you say that?" Qin Yun'an's heart was pounding and his brows were furrowed.

"That thing was not originally meant for you humans. You humans insisted on having it. Shouldn't you die?" Qiongqi said this without any emotion, even with some disgust. "You insisted on fighting for something that didn't belong to you. You speculated on your own and thought it was a treasure."

"Isn't that so?!" Yin Xihui raised his eyebrows in surprise. He didn't feel that Qiongqi had any killing intention towards him during these few words, so he relaxed a little, "But before coming——"

"I told you that it was your own speculation." Qiongqi gave him a cold look, "There has never been any treasure there. It is not as valuable to you humans as the yellow stones on Duntou Mountain."

Yellowstone? Was he talking about the gold ore?

Yin Xi pondered darkly. Of course, he had noticed the unpurified gold mines and some copper and iron ores along the way.

"...Then even if we take it out, the seal here cannot be lifted?" Qin Yun'an's pupils shrank uncontrollably and his face turned ugly.

"Who knows..." Qiongqi felt that he was in a bad mood, but still didn't care. He turned his head to look at the cave in the distance.

There was a stream of running water between them and the cave. The stream flowed through the bottom of the mountain. The trees on both sides were lush, some of which were even a hundred meters tall. There were also several tall and lush trees in front of the cave. The branches were slightly curved and the leaves were thick and broad, faintly covering the upper part of the cave.

"The cave is connected. Go further in and you'll find that thing at the very end." Qin Yun'an said to Yin Xihui, "The cliff below is on the other side of the cave. There's a pool of stagnant water with many corpses in it. Some of them have turned into skeletons. I don't know how many years they've been dead here. The water has a stench of rotting corpses. I couldn't stand it the first time I went there."

Qin Yun'an said this, thinking of something and shaking his head repeatedly.

"Since you have seen the treasure - that thing, why don't you take it?" Yin Xihui asked.

"I was old at that time and didn't want to take the risk." Qin Yun'an was vague.

Seeing his attitude, Yin Xihui didn't ask any more questions, but just confirmed with him again: "Are you sure they will come out from here?"

"Of course." Qin Yun'an nodded affirmatively.

Yin Xihui glanced at the silent Qiongqi, and seeing that he had no reaction, he suggested going to the other side, outside the cave, to wait for people.

Not knowing what Qiongqi was thinking, he followed the two of them. He watched them sitting on the grass beside the river, then slowly transformed into a beast and lay down, half-squinting his eyes, as if thinking about something.

Yin Xihui and Qin Yun'an both chose to avoid Qiongqi and pretended not to see it.

Yin Xihui was not familiar with Qiongqi and was afraid of offending it. After all this time, Qin Yun'an still didn't dare to have a familiar conversation with Qiongqi like Qin Xiao.

To ask the reason, we have to talk about Qiongqi’s attitude towards people.

Qin Yun'an always felt that in the eyes of Qiongqi, they were just a group of talking food, or in other words - toys used to entertain and fill the stomach?

He could not sense any kindness from Qiongqi. Most of the people he met along the way were eaten by Qiongqi - although even without Qiongqi, they might not have survived. Qiongqi liked to eat people, and he liked to eat them from scratch. Qin Yun'an could see from his micro-expressions that when Qiongqi saw the fear in the eyes of those being eaten, he would show some excitement, as if the more scared and panicked the people being eaten were, the happier he would be.

He was enjoying the dying struggles of those people.

This realization made Qin Yun'an shudder. He tried to find resonance with Qin Xiao, but found that Qin Xiao almost didn't care about such things at all.

Qin Yun'an really couldn't understand. They were all human beings, so why didn't Qin Xiao feel uncomfortable or worried about the death of his friend when he saw those scenes?

Isn’t he afraid that one day Qiongqi will eat him just like it ate those people?

This question gradually got its answer during the months that Qin Yun'an and Qin Xiao spent together.

He really wasn't afraid, he didn't even feel anything.

Qin Yun'an noticed that Qin Xiao seemed to be very stingy with his emotional investment, and he was cold to himself and others. Maybe for him, the excitement of his own kind dying in front of him was not as great as a delicious barbecue.

At least his eyes would light up when he ate something delicious.

Qin Yun'an thought about it and glanced at Yin Xihui.

So he was really curious about what kind of companions could cause Qin Xiao to react so violently and arrive so quickly.

To be honest, before seeing him, he thought he was either a cold stone like Qin Xiao, or a hot and excited little sun. He didn't expect it to be such a little kid... He looks quite normal, too?

It was totally different from what he expected.

Qin Yun'an stroked his chin and glanced at Yin Xihui again.

"Is there anything I can help you with?" Yin Xihui turned his head and asked.

The man had looked at him no less than five times.

"...No, nothing." Qin Yun'an turned his head away and scratched his head. After thinking about it, he asked, "Did you meet him here?"

"Of course." Although Yin Xihui was puzzled by his question, he still answered with a smile.

"Ah, then I—"

Qin Yun'an paused halfway through his words when he sensed something.

Yin Xihui looked at the dark cave.

There were footsteps inside.

The footsteps were steady and heavy, and it seemed like there was only one person moving.

Qiongqi shook his ears and slowly opened his eyes.

A figure slowly walked out of the cave. After seeing them, he paused, as if confirming his identity, then he increased his speed and walked towards them.

"Qin Xiao, you have--" Yin Xihui just opened his mouth to ask something, and then he saw Mo Hanyu lying unconscious on his shoulder.

As Qin Xiao approached, an extremely foul smell hit him in the face. The smell seemed to be able to condense into a solid entity, which made Yin Xihui's eyes sore. He couldn't help but turn his head and hold his breath.

"Oh - my God!" Qin Yun'an was still curious, but when he turned around, he smelled the extremely fishy smell. The facial features instantly twisted into a ball, and he took a few steps back.

Qin Xiao noticed their discomfort, so he didn't get any closer. Instead, he took a few steps back, walked to the stream, and slowly put Mo Hanyu down.

If you get closer to them, you will find that Qin Xiao and Mo Hanyu are covered with a layer of sticky, translucent liquid, mixed with yellow pus and other unknown soft substances.

The smell coming from the two people was extremely bad, ten times worse than a dry toilet that had been fermenting for dozens of days in the summer, and it almost reached the pinnacle of olfactory perception.

Yin Xihui couldn't help but stand in awe of Qin Xiao.

It's only him who can remain calm despite this kind of smell.

Qin Xiao looked at Mo Hanyu's purple face, and seeing that Qin Yun'an and the others had no intention of approaching, he simply washed his arms with stream water, then scooped up water and pinched Mo Hanyu's nostrils to wash away the mucus on his face.

Yin Xihui frowned, suppressed his discomfort, and walked towards Qin Xiao.

"How did it become like this?" As soon as Yin Xihui opened his mouth, he felt as if the fishy smell was invading his lungs directly through his mouth, and his internal organs were also contaminated with this smell.

"There are a lot of corpses down there." Qin Xiao said concisely. He touched under Mo Hanyu's nose and didn't feel any breathing, so he opened his mouth and cleaned out the foreign object that had accidentally choked him.

Yin Xihui looked at the suspicious yellow sticky substance he had dug out and wanted to ask a question, but was afraid of getting a positive answer, so he paused.

Qin Xiao ignored the strange look in Yin Xihui's eyes. He crossed his hands and pressed hard on Mo Hanyu's chest a few times. Then he leaned over, pinched his nose, put his lips together, and blew air into it.

Yin Xihui was shocked again, and couldn't help but sigh again at Qin Xiao's inner strength, and he could remain calm...

If Yin Xihui put himself in his shoes, he would definitely not be able to do it.

It seems that falling into that corpse water is more disgusting than falling into a cesspool.

The more Yin Xihui thought about it, the more distorted his thoughts became. As images kept flashing through his mind, he couldn't help but tilt his head and retch.

"If you can't bear it, you can stand further away." Qin Xiao loosened his lips and continued to press Mo Hanyu's chest. During one of the pressures, a sound of broken ribs was heard from Mo Hanyu's chest.

When Yin Xihui heard the voice, he couldn't help but shudder and secretly glanced at him.

Qin Xiao did not show any surprise. He continued to perform first aid as usual, until he saw Mo Hanyu tilt his head and spit out a mouthful of fishy water, then he stopped.

Mo Hanyu coughed violently several times, and as he coughed he spat out several mouthfuls of fishy-smelling liquid, obviously choking a lot.

Mo Hanyu turned slightly to the side, covering his abdomen, as if he was in some discomfort.

Qin Xiao placed his hand slightly lower on his chest without any disgust and helped to press.

Yin Xihui felt that he could not help, so he just watched quietly from the side.

I don’t know how long Mo Hanyu vomited, until his face turned pale and he opened his eyes, then he slowly stopped.

As soon as Mo Hanyu opened his eyes, he wanted to sit up by supporting himself with his arms.

"Don't move yet." Qin Xiao thought of his broken ribs and stopped him.

When Mo Hanyu heard the voice, he was stunned and looked at Qin Xiao with a blank expression.

Qin Xiao was about to say something when he saw his expression relax, close his eyes and faint.

Qin Xiao caught his falling shoulder in time to prevent him from falling into his own vomit.

Qin Xiao stared at Mo Hanyu, whose face was calm, frowned slightly, and clicked his tongue.