A Hair's Breadth from Death

Zhen Jin's counterattack proved remarkably effective, killing many Fire Poison Bees. But at the same time, it attracted even more of them.

The Fire Poison Bees kept coming without end.

After hundreds of sword thrusts, Zhen Jin felt his muscles ache and swell.

After more than a thousand thrusts, that soreness turned into a throbbing pain. Especially the arm wielding his sword; in Zhen Jin's illusion, it seemed to have swollen a full size. The sword in his hand had also grown heavy.

Buzz, buzz, buzz...

The swarm of Fire Poison Bees seemed endless. Enraged by their casualties, a large mass of bees flew out of the campfire. The swarm rushed at them like a tidal wave, ready to drown the Boy and the girl in one sweep.

"Damn it!"

Zhen Jin cursed inwardly and swung his Sharp Sword with all his strength.

The Sharp Sword now felt several times heavier. Zhen Jin knew this was a sign that his strength had reached its limit.

He was drenched in sweat, and his mind had begun to grow muddled.

The arm wielding the sword scarcely felt like his own anymore. Its muscles had gone numb. Every thrust even sent a stabbing pain from his bones, like rusted gears that had fallen into disrepair yet were being forced to work.

One Fire Poison Bee after another stung Zhen Jin. Against such attacks, the Chainmail offered little protection.

Zhen Jin gritted his teeth, never forgetting that Zi Di was behind him. To protect his Fiancee, he had not taken a single step back since the battle began!

He held his sword in one hand while using the other to feel over his body, pulling out every Fire Poison Bee that had stung him and was still struggling.

The bees died as a result, and Zhen Jin casually tossed them onto the ground.

"My lord, my lord..." Zi Di sobbed behind him.

Not a single Fire Poison Bee attacked her. Perhaps Zhen Jin had thoroughly enraged the swarm. Great numbers of Fire Poison Bees even abandoned the blazing campfire to deal with him. At the same time, perhaps Zhen Jin's violent exertion made him radiate far more heat than Zi Di did at that moment.

Time became unbearably long in Zhen Jin's perception.

At last, his vision suddenly cleared. There was not a single Fire Poison Bee before him.

The ground was covered in Fire Poison Bee corpses. He had won!

The tension in Zhen Jin's heart eased, and he could no longer hold his Sharp Sword. Its tip nearly pierced his foot.

Numbness was Zhen Jin's strongest sensation.

But soon, the wounds left by the Fire Poison Bees sent searing pain through his entire body.

His right arm, the one that had wielded the sword, felt as though it no longer existed. He had almost completely lost feeling in it.

"My lord, watch out!" Zi Di cried.

That shout jolted Zhen Jin, abruptly clearing his numb mind.

The campfire was nearly extinguished, yet more than a dozen Fire Poison Bees flew out from it and attacked again.

There was still one final batch of Fire Poison Bees!

But...

"I have no strength left to fight." Zhen Jin gave a bitter smile. He knew his condition very well.

He understood perfectly that if those Fire Poison Bees had attacked all at once earlier, he might still have been able to deal with them. But now that he had relaxed, once his breath had leaked away, he could not even lift the sword in his hand.

Though he felt nothing right now, Zhen Jin also knew that the Fire Poison venom was already spreading through his body.

A voice in his heart seemed to tell him that if he continued to fight stubbornly, he might very well pay with his life!

It was a powerful instinct born of a warrior's training.

Zhen Jin valued that feeling and knew he could not keep fighting head-on.

"Run!" Zhen Jin gritted his teeth, sighed, turned, grabbed Zi Di's hand, and hurried away.

The Boy and the girl fled hand in hand, plunging headlong into the dark forest.

They had no choice but to run.

If they stayed, they would only die beneath the venomous stingers of the Fire Poison Bee swarm. But if they ran, however dangerous it might be, there was still a sliver of hope.

"Until the very last moment, I will never give up!" Zhen Jin's gaze was resolute, and his fighting spirit did not diminish in the slightest.

Zi Di was dragged along by him, and before long she staggered, unable to keep pace with Zhen Jin.

Even though Zhen Jin's stamina had fallen to rock bottom, Zi Di was ultimately only a mage.

"My lord, let me stay behind. I'll draw them away..." Zi Di panted.

"Shut up!" Zhen Jin suddenly stopped and turned to face Zi Di.

The girl cried out as momentum carried her into Zhen Jin's arms.

The next moment, the world spun around her and her vision changed completely.

When she came back to her senses, she discovered that Zhen Jin had swept her into his arms and was running wildly onward.

The dark forest erupted with restless sounds from every direction as the Boy and girl charged recklessly through it.

Zhen Jin tried to shake off the Fire Poison Bee swarm, but the buzzing mass kept closing in.

Even at a moment of life and death, the Boy remained rational.

The most direct way to deal with a swarm would have been to jump into water and force it to retreat. But the known river concealed vine pythons; jumping in would have been suicide.

Zhen Jin could only race along the path they had taken during the day, hoping to widen the distance. It was the best choice available in their helpless circumstances.

Yet darkness severely limited his vision. He could barely distinguish direction and could only rely on vague memories in his mind to guide him.

After nearly crashing into a tree trunk for the third time, Zi Di laboriously pulled a potion from the small leather pouch at her waist.

The potion was stored in a glass bottle and gave off a firefly-like glow.

With that faint light, Zhen Jin could finally barely make out the path.

The forest was thick with branches and tangled roots. Traveling through it was difficult enough, let alone running at full speed!

Much of the time, bushes and ferns formed walls that nearly blocked their way.

Holding Zi Di, Zhen Jin crashed straight through them!

He felt as if the entire forest radiated intense malice, extending countless tentacles to obstruct his path to survival from every direction.

He tore through every vine with all his strength, allowing thorns to tear his clothes and skin in the darkness.

The only thing Zhen Jin could be thankful for was that this route bore the traces of being trampled through, having been opened during the day. Otherwise, they could never have moved so quickly through the forest alone.

Zi Di pulled out potion after potion and hurled them at the Fire Poison Bees. Sometimes the bees were distracted and slowed slightly, but more often than not, it had no effect at all.

"This is bad."

Zhen Jin's heart sank as he ran. He realized that his surroundings were growing increasingly unfamiliar and knew he had entered unknown territory.

But there was nothing he could do. The Fire Poison Bees pursued them relentlessly. How could Zhen Jin stop where he was and find the right direction again?

He could only keep running blindly.

He did not know how far they had run when a howl suddenly rang out!

A beast pounced down from the trees.

"What was that?!" Zhen Jin seemed to glimpse a black panther.

A fierce gust carrying the bloody scent of a predator rushed at him!

At the critical moment, he dodged with incredible luck and continued running without looking back.

The Fire Poison Bees flew toward the beast behind him and tangled with the suspected black panther.

Very soon, the black panther was overwhelmed. It roared and retreated of its own accord.

As a result, Zhen Jin gained some distance from the Fire Poison Bees.

But the Fire Poison Bees hated Zhen Jin to the core and showed no intention of giving up. During the pursuit that followed, they closed the gap again, drawing ever nearer to the Boy and girl.

Zhen Jin's stamina was gradually forced to its limit, his legs as heavy as if they had been filled with lead.

His heart was willing, but his body was weak. His speed began to decline slowly.

The terrain changed and gradually rose. By the firefly-like glow of the potion, a bottomless cliff appeared before them.

In their desperate flight, they had lost the right direction and entered unfamiliar territory.

The Fire Poison Bees closed in from behind and to the left.

"There's a Mountain Cave over there. There's light!" Zi Di suddenly said.

An orange-red glow shone from within the Mountain Cave. Though extremely faint, it seemed as though someone lived there.

Zhen Jin panted heavily, his eyes suddenly lighting up. Holding Zi Di, he plunged headlong into the Mountain Cave.

The instant they entered, a scorching wave of heat hit them head-on.

There were no signs of human activity inside the Mountain Cave. The light came from a unique kind of ore. The ore was crimson, radiating great heat and a faint orange glow.

The ore near the entrance was sparse and small, but the deeper they went into the Mountain Cave, the more abundant it became, and the larger its pieces grew.

After several hundred steps, Zhen Jin felt as though he had entered a furnace. Zi Di was already drenched in sweat.

They could no longer continue forward. The air inside was scorching, as if it intended to steam them alive.

But the Fire Poison Bees pursuing them also flew into the Mountain Cave, closing in like death itself.

Zhen Jin put Zi Di down. Pressed by the swarm, the two of them had no choice but to grit their teeth and continue deeper into the Mountain Cave.

By now, the chase between life and death had reached its final stage.

Hope rose within Zhen Jin's heart. Though he had no way to deal with the Fire Poison Bee swarm, perhaps the special terrain here could make it lose its target.

As far as he knew, Fire Poison Bee swarms locked onto their targets by heat. The greater the heat, the more likely it was to attract their attacks!

The road ahead was completely dark, but a thread of light still struggled on.

The Boy and girl gritted their teeth, squeezing out the last of their strength as they staggered forward step by step through the Mountain Cave.

The Mountain Cave began to narrow, and scorching ore nearly covered the walls, dyeing everything crimson.

They absolutely could not touch the walls—they were too hot!

"There are traces of a beast here," Zi Di suddenly said in a low voice.

Following the direction of her finger, Zhen Jin saw claw marks slashed across the cave wall.

Any beast capable of surviving in such an extreme environment could not be ordinary!

Zhen Jin's heart sank, but he immediately shook his head with a bitter smile.

What beast could he possibly worry about now? He had no other choice!

After entering the Mountain Cave, the Fire Poison Bees had their attention scattered by the ore and often clung to it to absorb heat. Yet they never gave up, flying and stopping as they continued to trail behind them.

With no idea what lay ahead, the Boy and girl could only force themselves onward.

Suddenly, Zhen Jin's body swayed.

Then, an intense dizziness violently assailed his body and mind, nearly making him pass out on the spot.

"This is bad." Zhen Jin stumbled, his entire field of vision beginning to sway as if there had been an earthquake. He could barely remain standing.

The Fire Poison had flared up!

Zhen Jin had no choice but to reach out and brace himself against the cave wall.

Sizzle...

The cave wall scorched his leather glove, and a cloud of black smoke quickly rose.

At the same time, a foul stench seeped from Zhen Jin's body.

The stench immediately threw the Fire Poison Bee swarm behind him into a frenzy. They abandoned the ore outright, casting off their previous drifting, indifferent state as they rushed at Zhen Jin with surging killing intent.

Zi Di's face turned deathly pale in an instant, utterly bloodless.

She suddenly understood: on one hand, the Fire Poison Bees pursued high-temperature objects to absorb heat. On the other, they also used the scent of Fire Poison to lock onto their targets! When the Fire Poison flared up, that distinctive stench would completely ignite the Fire Poison Bees' savagery.

Zhen Jin carried a great deal of Fire Poison within him, which meant that many Fire Poison Bees had died at his hands. Such a powerful enemy would naturally provoke the swarm into a frenzied assault.

Zi Di paled in shock and hurriedly pulled out a potion, splashing it over Zhen Jin in an attempt to mask the foul Fire Poison stench. It worked immediately.

The Fire Poison Bees' killing intent abruptly faded, and they were drawn once more to the scorching rocks around them.

"Hurry. This potion will only last a little while." Zi Di draped Zhen Jin's arm over her shoulder and dragged him forward with her delicate body.

After taking only a few difficult steps, Zhen Jin felt the world spin. He completely lost his sense of direction and found it truly difficult to take even a single step!

The Fire Poison made his entire body burn, while a massive bell seemed to be constantly ringing within his head.

Relying on the last shred of clarity in his mind, he weakly said to Zi Di, "Go. Hurry and go."

The girl had not been afflicted by Fire Poison. In this Mountain Cave, the Fire Poison Bees targeted only Zhen Jin.

If Zi Di ran now, she indeed had a chance to survive!

But the girl shook her head fiercely. Tears glimmered in her eyes as she said with a faint sob, yet absolute determination, "No, my lord! I will never leave you behind. It was so hard for me to find you, and it was so hard for us to come this far. How can we give up?"

Zhen Jin sighed and suddenly shoved Zi Di away.

"Go!"

"No, my lord!"

As they struggled with each other, they fell to the ground together.

The Fire Poison Bee swarm had already flown over them.

Death descended at that moment!

Zi Di squeezed her eyes shut, but Zhen Jin glared furiously at the descending swarm. He lay on the ground, completely unable to rise.

He watched helplessly as Fire Poison Bees darted down, until they were only a finger's breadth from his face...

Roar!

A beast's roar suddenly came from within the Mountain Cave.

The roar echoed through the cave walls. The Fire Poison Bee swarm abruptly scattered, badly intimidated.

They flew through the air as if drunk, even crashing into one another.

Thud, thud, thud...

Then came a series of rapid sounds, like war drums being frantically beaten by a giant.

A monstrous beast came charging through the Mountain Cave. It carried a fierce gale, moving so swiftly that the Boy and girl saw only a huge black shadow flash across their eyes.

The mysterious beast of the cave pounced on the Fire Poison Bees.

The arrogant, vicious Fire Poison Bee swarm was actually driven away by the beast and began to flee in panic.

The beast pursued them relentlessly, and both quickly left the Mountain Cave.

The cave rapidly fell silent.

The Boy and girl lay on the ground, gasping as they stared at the cave ceiling. For a time, both were stunned.