He Lan Tianxia

The little figure darted around cleverly at Luo Xie, then suddenly slid off Luo Xie and jumped back into the tree hole. Luo Xie was still standing there, dumbfounded.

Ling Yi was also taken aback, and the pale-faced scholar was even more surprised than Ling Yi. However, he recovered in the blink of an eye. Only the old pine tree spirit, who was watching from afar, took in all his actions.

Are there little people living in the tree hole? Luo Xie became interested. Could it be that a whole nest of little people live in this tree hole? Luo Xie's imagination ran wild, and he was even a little excited. Just as he was about to jump into the tree hole, Ling Yi spoke up.

"Shanyu, you should wait for the prince to come out before going in." Lingyi wasn't worried about him, but rather about the situation inside.

Luo Xie stood there without moving, but he couldn't help but press his ear against the tree and listen desperately for any sounds inside, but he heard nothing after a long time.

"I'd better go in." Luo Xie jumped into the tree hole before he finished speaking. He didn't want Ling Yi to stop him with another excuse. In short, he was immediately interested in this unfathomable tree hole.

With a "thud," a person was thrown out, falling from mid-air and landing squarely on the pale-faced scholar. The scholar dodged with a look of disgust, and the person slammed to the ground with a "thud."

"You damn monkey, I'll kill you!" Luo Xie cursed, clutching his sore buttocks.

"How are things? Are the prince and the others in danger?" Lingyi hurriedly inquired about the situation.

"No. I'm fine." Luo Xie simply plopped down on the ground and grabbed an apple to eat.

"What's the situation inside?" Lingyi asked, still worried.

"You'll see for yourself when you go inside." Luo Xie simply lay down on the ground.

"Have you seen the princess?" Lingyi asked again, but Luoxie pretended to be asleep.

Since the prince and princess were both alright, Lingyi wasn't in a hurry and sat there to heal her injuries. As she healed, her eyelids began to droop, and she drifted off to sleep.

The pale-faced scholar stood up, flicked the grass clippings off his body, glanced at Ling Yi and Luo Xie with disdain, then walked over and kicked them twice. Seeing that they didn't react, he walked straight to the entrance of the tree hole and jumped in without hesitation.

"Whoosh whoosh whoosh." A flurry of hidden weapons flew over, catching the pale-faced scholar off guard. Just as he was about to grab the poison powder and scatter it, he heard the woman's voice stop him: "Stop, he's just a pretty boy."

The pale-faced scholar: "..."

The pale-faced scholar stood there, too afraid to move. He regretted his impatience, but he was surprised that no one came to arrest him after waiting for so long. He secretly glanced up and saw a large group of little figures standing there. In the main seat sat his sister Yan and her husband, the gorilla, while Murong Junlan and Jiang He were tied up and thrown into a corner.

The pale-faced scholar chuckled. It turned out that the pretty boy Yan had mentioned wasn't him, but Murong Junlan. "Hey, this is truly gratifying! You never expected this, did you, my elder brother? You've finally met your match!" In his joy, the pale-faced scholar forgot his predicament.

"There's another one over there, catch them too." The pale-faced scholar was startled. His mind raced, and he quickly teleported back, collapsing to the ground and pretending to be dead again.

A swarm of little people ran out of the tree hole and circled around the three people: the pale-faced scholar, Lingyi, and Luoxie.

"They died so quickly. Arrest them all and tie them up." The woman, dragging the gorilla, looked at the group with unusual excitement. "Let's have a big party today. Husband, go hunt some wild goats or deer, and roast a whole goat or deer for the little people to enjoy." The woman excitedly ordered, patting the gorilla beside her.

The gorilla seemed displeased, so the woman slapped it hard on the shoulder, sending it flying out of the tree hole in pain. It glared at the woman defiantly, and she glared back fiercely. As the woman pulled a thin rope from her body, the gorilla let out a vicious cry and leaped out of the tree hole.

Murong Junlan and Jiang He watched silently, neither of them uttering a sound. They couldn't understand how, in such a short time, the woman had become the queen of the tree-hole miniature kingdom, and how the people of the miniature kingdom were so obedient to her. Murong Junlan released her inner force, and with a whoosh, the ropes binding her snapped. She then reached out and removed the ropes binding Jiang He as well. She continued to sit there, quietly observing everything.

The pale-faced scholar, Ling Yi, and Luo Xie were also thrown here. Two of them were genuinely unconscious, while the other was pretending. Jiang He tried to wake them up by slapping them repeatedly, but to no avail.

"Your Highness," Jiang He could only turn to Murong Junlan for help.

"Go and get some fruit." Murong Junlan suddenly became interested in the plates of fruit in the little dwarf's hands.

"Your Highness, here you go." Jiang He took a couple of steps and casually picked up a few bananas, a bunch of grapes, and three peaches.

"I fed it to Lingyi and Luoxie." Murong Junlan didn't intend to feed it to the pale-faced scholar; he had an inexplicable dislike for him.

While Jiang He was feeding her, Murong Junlan kept his eyes glued to the woman in the main seat. He felt there was something different about her, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it. Suddenly, he noticed: the woman also had a thin rope in her hand, and it looked like a pair with his.

"Jiang He, go and find out where that woman's thin rope came from?" Murong Junlan instructed again.

"..." Jiang He was speechless. Your Highness, isn't this incredibly boring? Seeing that Ling Yi and Luo Xie weren't eating, he became anxious. "Your Highness, they won't eat."

"Can't you use your internal energy to push it in? You've been with me for so long and you're still so stupid." Murong Junlan's eyes never left the woman's delicate cord.

Jiang He was speechless, but he still did as Murong Junlan suggested. He ate the grapes and bananas, but there was no reaction whatsoever.

"Your Highness, they still haven't woken up," Jiang He reported.

"Wake him up." Murong Junlan slapped the pale-faced scholar. He still felt that the pale-faced scholar was pretending to be asleep because his breathing was even. "If he doesn't wake up, tie him together with Lingyi and Luoxie so they can take better care of him. Remember to put the pale-faced scholar down there."

After giving his instructions, Murong Junlan turned his attention back to the woman's delicate rope. The pale-faced scholar, who had been feigning sleep, gritted his teeth in anger, cursing viciously in his heart: "Brother King, I'll remember this debt."

The gorilla's abilities were indeed not to be underestimated; within an hour, it carried back a deer, three goats, and five rabbits. The creature tossed them in three times and then ran away. Unwilling to be told by the woman to roast this and that, it simply slipped out and started eating bananas outside.

The woman stared at the pile of meat, unsure where to begin. She looked up and met a pair of eyes glued to her. She raised her head and called out, "Hey handsome, help me grill this pile of meat."

Murong Junlan was still lost in thought and didn't hear the woman's words at all. The woman saw him and called out again. At this moment, Jiang He, who had chased after them, came in with bananas.

"Guard Jiang, roast this pile of meat." Murong Junlan finally heard him, and he chuckled, looking at Jiang He with schadenfreude.

"Could you tell me what 'passing the buck' means?"

Jiang He was about to explode: "Do I even need to ask? Aren't you just trying to shift the blame?"

Jiang He glanced around; all the dwarves were staring at him. He then beckoned to them, and to his surprise, they swarmed over. Jiang He lit several fires, slaughtered the animals, and cooked them over the flames. Perhaps they had never eaten anything like this before; as the meat emitted a fragrant aroma, the dwarves enthusiastically danced around the fires.

Smelling the aroma, the gorilla darted in, abruptly appearing in front of the roast lamb. With a swipe of its paw, a roast lamb leg vanished. It began to devour it without any restraint, even deliberately walking up to the pale-faced scholar and munching loudly. The scholar, who was pretending to be asleep, clenched his fists, almost ready to jump over and smash its head.

The bonfire feast, including four kinds of fruit, would last until late at night, and the dwarves would only go to sleep when they were all full.

Murong Junlan only ate a piece of rabbit meat and an apple. His mind was still preoccupied with the woman's thin rope. He asked Jiang He about it several times, but Jiang He always gave evasive answers and pretended to be busy with other things. So he felt that there must be a story behind the thin rope.

Lingyi and Luoxie remained asleep, and Jiang He, not daring to be careless, kept watch. Around midnight, Jiang He went out to relieve himself. Outside the tree, the moon was bright and the stars were few, a clear and bright scene. But when Jiang He returned, he was startled. Where were they? Everyone who had been sleeping in the tree hollow had vanished, including Murong Junlan. By the firelight, Jiang He looked around, but there wasn't a single person in sight, and even the fire had disappeared without a trace. Jiang He suddenly felt a sinister, terrifying mist filling the tree hollow, but he forgot his fear and called out the prince's name loudly, but there was no answer, only an empty echo. Jiang He then called the princess and the others' names, but there was still no response.

Jiang He refused to believe it. Even if these hundreds of people ran away, their speeds would vary, and it would take time. He only went to the toilet briefly, and they all vanished without a trace. This was most likely a trick, and the most likely suspects, besides the dwarf, were the pale-faced scholar. Jiang He went outside again, even picking a fruit and taking a bite. It was sweet. Everything outside was the same as during the day, meaning the culprit was in the tree hole. So, Jiang He went back inside. Afraid of missing any corner, Jiang He carefully stepped on the ground. The only difference was that his feet felt like they were walking on cotton.

Like a dream? Jiang He had seen this record when he was helping Murong Junlan investigate that bastard in Wenyuan Pavilion. The record said: "Like a dream, it is like being in a fairyland. The shoes are as soft as cotton, the body is as light as a swallow, and one is as ethereal as a fairy..." It's a pity that he only read the beginning and didn't read the details. Alas, he regrets it a bit.

Jiang He guarded the tree hollow for three days and three nights, but there was no movement or even a trace of anyone. Fortunately, the fruit on the tree could provide sustenance, preventing him from being trapped. However, the longer Jiang He waited, the more uncertain he became. He didn't know if there was a secret passage in the tree hollow, whether the person inside was still there, or if they had already been moved. He had no clue whatsoever. If someone as capable as Prince Murong could disappear in an instant, what ability did Jiang He have to find out where the problem lay? That night, Jiang He drifted off to sleep, lost in thought. After all, he hadn't slept for days, and even a tough man like him couldn't hold on any longer.

In his daze, Jiang He seemed to hear someone picking fruit. The movement was quick, but because they were in such a hurry, an apple fell and hit a small pumpkin. The pumpkin was ripe and fell to the ground with a "plop" from the impact. Pumpkins don't usually make a loud noise when they fall, but unexpectedly, it hit him on the head, causing him to make a sound of pain. The person picking the fruit quickly disappeared into the tree hole.

Jiang He woke up groggily, feeling the dream had been too real. He shook his head and immediately ran to the tree to see if there was any fruit. But when he looked, he was dismayed; the ground wasn't bare of fruit, it was covered in fallen leaves—what a waste! Suddenly, a question popped into Jiang He's mind: surely so many people couldn't go without food and water? Did that mean everyone inside had been moved? And what about the person who had been picking fruit? A series of questions flooded his mind, and Jiang He couldn't make a judgment. There was no moonlight tonight, so Jiang He couldn't see clearly. He grabbed a stick and went back into the tree hollow.

Several lights in the tree hollow went out, their flickering glow adding to the eerie atmosphere. Suddenly, the light closest to the main seat began to sway violently. Jiang He rushed over, but slipped and fell flat on his face. Luckily, he was quick-witted; he braced himself with a branch and pressed his other hand to the ground. Jiang He frowned, a sense of foreboding washing over him. He felt as if he had grasped something, something soft and squishy. This thing quickly made him feel nauseous, and he vomited like a pregnant woman before he could even stand properly.

My God, who's so inconsiderate as to relieve themselves anywhere? Jiang He ignored it; he needed to find a stream to wash himself clean right away. Jiang He ran like his life depended on it when a strange gust of wind blew by, clearing his head. He thought to himself, "This little dwarf's diarrhea is pretty sophisticated; it even smells like bananas."

Banana flavor? Jiang He quickly put his hand to his nose. Yes, it smelled like bananas. It must be bananas. Bananas? The one that person missed earlier? Jiang He was overjoyed. He happily sniffed his hand repeatedly, feeling a surge of elation. He figured he would laugh out loud even if he ate the shit on his hand. He casually wiped the banana on his hand in the grass and rushed back to the tree hollow like the wind. He knew there were still people in the tree hollow, which meant that Murong Junlan and the others were likely still inside.

With a "thud," Jiang He was knocked unconscious by a body as soon as he entered the tree hollow. In the darkness, the pale-faced scholar ripped off the black mask from his face, pulled out a handful of powder from his pocket, and sprinkled it on Jiang He, who immediately fell into a long sleep.

"I was hoping you could escape, but you came back and walked right into my trap." With that, the pale-faced scholar picked up a broken branch and waved it at the lamps, extinguishing the few remaining lights and plunging the tree hollow into darkness. The scholar walked to the main seat, cursed the gorilla as "idiot," then hoisted the unconscious Yan Mei out of the tree hollow and headed towards the "darkest hour."

The place was a mess, shrouded in darkness, and the innkeeper was still recovering from the poisoning. The pale-faced scholar carried Yan into the room, glancing at the half-bloomed, vibrant flower at the corner before placing Yan directly on the bed. He tossed a jug of spicy wine to the innkeeper, then added a few leaves from a nearby flower to the wine. He turned and closed the stone door, before taking out the half-eaten, brightly colored, withered flower from his pocket. He pulled out a small knife and, without thinking, made a cut on his wrist. A drop of blood dripped out, and he dripped the blood onto the flower. The withered flower, which had been dehydrated for several days, miraculously came back to life at a visible speed. He crushed the revived flower, squeezing it to pieces, and stuffed it into Yan Meimei's mouth. Then he helped Yan Meimei sit up, bent his knees behind her, and pushed his hands out. A moment later, a green mist continuously emanated from Yan Meimei's back and was drawn into his palms. The pale-faced scholar wanted to draw back the poison that Yan Meimei had absorbed.

"Pfft!" The pale-faced scholar spat out a mouthful of black blood, but he still refused to let go and continued to inhale until he collapsed next to Yan Mei with a "thud".

At this moment, the shopkeeper, who had caught a whiff of the wine, twitched his nostrils and then inhaled deeply. Suddenly, his eyes snapped open, his two blood-red eyes filled with a bloodthirsty glint. When he saw the jug of spicy wine in front of him, he reached out and gulped it down. It felt so good; a cool sensation ran straight to his heart, and his weariness vanished instantly. The shopkeeper stood up abruptly, glanced at the tightly closed stone door, hesitated for a moment, and finally went to the winery to find something to eat.

Just as they arrived at the winery entrance, the pale-faced scholar's page appeared out of nowhere, a few blades of grass still clinging to him; he'd probably been hiding in the bushes. The manager tossed him a broken branch and ordered, "Go and hunt a pheasant or something."

The young page stood still. He slipped out the door, brought in a large cloth bag, and carefully presented it to the shopkeeper. The shopkeeper peeked in and, to his delight, it was full of bird eggs, some big, some small, and all very fresh.

"Take it and cook it." The shopkeeper's stomach was growling with hunger, and he wished he could eat it raw. "Hurry up, I'm starving."