Chapter 152: No Birds Fly in the Mountains

"Stop right there!" barked the Miao tribesman, stepping forward to close in on Baozi.

"I'll stop your grandmother's leg!" As the man drew near, Baozi whipped out a single mace and smashed it straight at his head.

The Miao man was already on guard and easily dodged the blow. He drew his blade and moved to slash, but Baozi had no intention of fighting head-on; he spun around and bolted.

Before he had run far, an old crone blocked his path. "Little boy, you cannot escape. Come back with me. Once this matter is settled, Grandma will let you go. How does that sound?"

Hearing this, tears instantly welled up in Baozi's eyes. "Have mercy, Grandma! I have an eighty-year-old mother above and ten-year-old children below. If you capture me, how will they ever survive?" Baozi kept his wits about him even while begging; the Miao woman had been using an infant in swaddling clothes, so by claiming to have ten-year-old children, he figured the Miao might think him useless and set him free.

The crone couldn't help but chuckle. Usually, the Miao people treated her with utmost reverence, so she found Baozi's whimsical banter rather amusing. She wanted to see what other excuses he could come up with.

"How old are you?" the crone asked.

"Twenty. What's it to you?" Baozi blurted out instinctively, momentarily blanking on why she would ask his age.

"You're twenty and already have ten-year-old children? What a lucky fellow you are," the crone said, stroking her chin.

Baozi's large eyes rolled around wildly. A flash of inspiration struck him, and though he was laughing inside, his face morphed into a picture of tragic misfortune. "Grandma, you don't understand. I had a child bride who lacked morals. She got pregnant when I was only ten. Family shame shouldn't be aired in public, and I couldn't tell outsiders, so I proudly became a father at the age of ten!"

Upon hearing about this lack of moral restraint, the crone's expression darkened instantly. "Deserving of death!"

When the crone said "deserving of death," she wasn't referring to the nonexistent child bride of Baozi's fabrication; she meant that Baozi himself deserved to die. With that, she threw a palm strike directly at the crown of his head.

Baozi was still in the middle of playing his emotional card and never expected the crone to attack without warning. Terrified, he let out a shriek and frantically begged for mercy, "Grandma, have mercy!"

At that moment, the crone's palm stopped just a single finger's breadth away from Baozi's skull. Had he spoken half a second later, his life certainly would have ended beneath her blow.

The crone paused, narrowing her eyes as she asked, "Do you have any last words?"

"Grandma, please take your hand away first. Having it resting right on top of my head is terrifying!" Baozi looked up at the hand hovering above him, a lingering chill gripping his heart.

***

"Fine, now you can speak," the crone said, withdrawing her hand.

"I'll speak to your grandmother!" Seeing her hand lower, Baozi cursed loudly and turned to bolt. No one could have anticipated such a turn of events; to hurl insults at the crone under these circumstances meant Baozi truly had no regard for his own life.

The crone didn't give chase, genuinely stunned by his vulgar outburst. By the time she recovered, Baozi had already sprinted to the edge of the large pit.

Miao tribesmen flanked both sides of the pit. Unless Baozi could fly across it, running toward either side would lead straight into an ambush, leaving him with no way out.

"Up yours, you bastards!" Knowing escape was impossible, Baozi glanced down at the pit filled with rainwater, let out a yell, and plunged in headfirst.

It was a stagnant pit, and the Miao saw no need to go down after him; the pit led nowhere, so Baozi would have to crawl out himself if he didn't want to drown, rendering any further action redundant.

Let us leave Baozi there for a moment and turn to Zhou Yi and Mu Chen, who were sitting in the inn, consumed by restlessness. With night fast approaching, the others had still not returned, and they had no idea whether anyone had made any headway.

"Brother Yi, I wonder if they've found anything. It's almost dark, and if they don't find it today, another day is wasted! Sigh..." Mu Chen sighed despondently.

"Shall the two of us go out and look? It's four-thirty now. We can search a round, and if we still find nothing, we'll come back," Zhou Yi said. He had been eager to head out all day, feeling thoroughly stifled inside the inn.

Mu Chen felt the same way. The two immediately hit it off and agreed to return by seven in the evening, as two hours would be plenty of time to check numerous places.

Leaving the inn, they did not head toward the potter's field; Baozi had claimed that area as his own that morning, and he was familiar with it.

They racked their brains trying to figure out where anyone could possibly hide within a radius of a hundred miles, yet they still hadn't found the lair of the Miao.

Strolling aimlessly while chatting, the center of their conversation naturally revolved around the whereabouts of the Miao headquarters—though such a secret could hardly be unlocked merely through idle talk.

"Brother Yi, we forgot a helper!" Mu Chen's eyes lit up as a brilliant thought struck him.

"Oh? Who did we forget?" Zhou Yi turned to ask.

"The bats in the Phoenix Mountain bat cave! That's an army of tens of thousands of helpers. Why didn't we think of that before?" Mu Chen said, scratching his head.

***

"Right! Using bats to search at night—we're bound to find something!" Zhou Yi slapped his forehead in regret, berating himself for not thinking of it sooner.

They couldn't leave right away, however; making a round trip to the bat cave would take well over two hours, and the rest of the group would panic upon returning to the inn and finding them gone.

Back at the inn, every single second felt like torture. Time dragged on through anxious waiting until the moon quietly rose above the treetops.

The others returned to the inn one by one, but past eight o'clock, Baozi had still not appeared. Zhou Yi wasn't particularly worried about his safety; although Baozi rarely used his brain to solve problems, he was shrewd enough that the Miao wouldn't easily capture him.

Without waiting any longer for Baozi to return, the group set off directly for the Phoenix Mountain bat cave.

Upon reaching Phoenix Mountain, however, everyone sensed something was amiss. Normally, the woods here were filled with fluttering birds, yet not a single bird was startled into flight as they entered the mountain. Aside from the sound of their own breathing and the crunch of footsteps over dead branches, the forest was completely silent.

"Master, something feels a bit off," Mu Chen said, turning his head.

"It is quite pure here; nothing is amiss," Yuan Tingyu replied from the side. By "pure," Yuan Tingyu meant free of ghosts and demons, not that the absence of birds went unnoticed.

"Master, since we arrived at Phoenix Mountain, have we seen any birds startled into flight? Have we seen any venomous insects crawling about?" Mu Chen asked, turning back.

Yuan Tingyu hadn't considered this angle before. Hearing Mu Chen's observation, he furrowed his brow and shook his head. "It is not unusual to see no venomous insects at this hour, but the complete absence of birds is indeed peculiar."

"Does Master Yuan mean someone has been here before us?" Zhou Yi understood the underlying implication; it was impossible for people to move through the mountain without disturbing the local wildlife.

"Brother Yi, that's exactly what I mean. Yet nothing else along the path seemed wrong. I wonder if I'm just overthinking it," Mu Chen nodded.

"Stop overthinking. We've reached the bat cave. The two of us will go inside; Master Mingyu and Abbot Yuan can wait outside. It's far too filthy in there!" Even now, the mere thought of bat droppings gave Zhou Yi goosebumps all over his body.

The others agreed and waited outside. Stooping low, Zhou Yi and Mu Chen stepped into the bat cave...