"Your task is to guard the man-eating tree. My task is to guard Longshan and Tingfeng City! What are you doing out here? You don't need to worry about me. Even if I die outside, you're not allowed to leave Ah Qing's side!"
"If there's a next time, I'll kill you!"
He looked so fierce that it seemed he might actually kill the person standing before him.
Zhang Shuhui bit her lip. Crying, she quickly shoved the sugar water into Lord Yan Chi's hands, then retreated to the man-eating tree's side and raised the barrier again.
She knew Lord Yan Chi was definitely only trying to scare her.
He had said this many times already. He was fierce every time, but he had never actually laid a hand on her.
The man-eating tree's soft branches gently stroked Zhang Shuhui's head, its leaves rustling.
She suddenly could not hold it in anymore and burst into tears.
She was so afraid. Ever since the Cult Master had left, she had felt lost every day.
She felt that she would die in this world. She could never go back...
On the outskirts, everyone was recuperating.
The Longshan Monsters, who had always been full of energy even after facing one training session after another, now had only numbness and fury left on their faces.
Xu Rizhao helped Old Cripple Granny bandage everyone's wounds and distribute medicine.
During these days, he had truly understood why Jiang You had been so determined to come to Longshan.
The Longshan he had imagined was a place of the old, the weak, the sick, and the disabled, people who could not even care for themselves.
But when the enemy invaded and he saw Longshan's old monsters unleash their full power and charge into the enemy camp like ghosts, he realized that he had judged people by their appearance.
Tingfeng City and the surrounding allied villages had nearly thirty thousand people altogether, but the core fighting force had always been the more than four hundred members of the Longshan Tribe.
Although they had no supernatural abilities that could summon wind and rain, every one of them possessed strength and speed beyond that of ordinary humans. Most frightening of all was their endurance. They had unbelievable stamina.
Supernatural abilities could be exhausted, but unless the Longshan Tribe's people were beheaded, they could keep attacking without end. They were true warriors.
More terrifying than zombies.
And under Jiang You's training, they were incredibly fast and had sharp reactions. Cutting off their heads in a single strike was practically impossible.
More than half the people from the other villages had already died.
But among the more than four hundred members of the Longshan Tribe, fewer than twenty had been lost so far.
Even supernatural ability user units would not dare dream of such a survival rate.
It would have been a lie to say that the people from the other villages were not envious. But when they thought that as long as they survived this war, they could gain the same regenerative abilities, they felt that there was still hope.
These people, born and raised in the mountains, regarded the mountains as another part of their bodies.
Number Nine City wanted them to leave the mountains and go to the bases outside. That was more painful to them than killing them.
Rather than walk into the enemy's hands and let others dictate their fate, they might as well take a gamble.
People from the cities would never understand why the trees in the mountains had such straight trunks.
Civilization had the weapons of civilization, while savagery had its own body.
As Xu Rizhao bandaged people's wounds, he cursed the inhuman Number Nine City for actually using something as despicable as corrosive liquid.
Across Longshan's grasslands, people were everywhere, burned by the corrosive liquid.
The most severely injured could not endure the pain and screamed frantically for their companions to kill them.
The mischievous children of the past seemed to have grown up in an instant. The older ones led the other children in helping the adults, carrying things, delivering medicinal herbs, and bandaging the wounded.
The toddlers still wearing split-crotch pants did not understand death yet, but instinctively felt sorrow.
At the edge of the cliff,
A'ying quietly held Nabar in her arms as they sat on the grass beside the precipice. Burning clouds stretched across the horizon.
The sunset was a deep red, red as if it were about to drip blood.
The blood dripping from the sunset fell among Longshan's forests and vegetation.
The waves of uproar and the roars of the rotting corpses echoed through the valley. It was Longshan's life struggling, desperately searching for hope in the midst of death.
Nabar would not survive. The enormous thing from Number Nine City that sprayed poisonous liquid was a monster seemingly stitched together from the corpses of countless mutated beasts.
Its level had already surpassed everyone's understanding.
Its hide was incomparably hard, and it seemed unable to feel pain. It was practically impossible to kill.
After sacrificing many people, Nabar finally found an opportunity. The instant it opened its mouth to spray poisonous liquid, he charged straight inside, entered the monster's body, and tore its internal organs apart from within...
The monster died...
Nabar had also become a bloody, unrecognizable monster. Every piece of clothing had been burned away, and his skin had been scorched clean.
When he struggled to tear through the monster's stomach and crawl out, both his eyes had already been completely corroded, leaving only a cloudy haze.
His injuries were too severe. Even the fruit's power seemed unable to save him.
Everyone else was recovering rapidly, but he remained in the distance, his breath growing weaker and weaker.
"Sister Ah Hua, Dad said that once I became an adult, I could invite you to watch the sunset. But you always refused me. Sister Ah Hua, isn't the sunset beautiful?"
"Yes, Longshan's sunset is beautiful."
Ah Hua's broad body was warm and solid, filled with a sense of security. She felt like the mother he had imagined. Whenever she held him, Nabar felt exceptionally warm.
"Sister Ah Hua, if I invite you to watch the sunset again, will you come?"
In Longshan, agreeing to watch the sunset with someone meant accepting that person's feelings.
Ah Hua lowered her head and looked at the child she had watched grow up, the one she treated as a younger brother, yet who had always wanted to become her man.
"Nabar, do you really want to watch the sunset with me?"
"I do."
"Adou wants to talk to you."
"No!"
Nabar suddenly trembled, and his voice unconsciously carried a hint of sobbing. "Sister Ah Hua, don't let Adou come over. Don't let her remember me looking like this."
"When she thinks of me in the future, she'll only remember a terrifying monster..."
Ah Hua gently kissed Nabar's forehead. "Nabar, you deceived your own heart. I hope that next time, you'll invite the person you truly love to watch the sunset with you."
Nabar fell silent.
Adou had long since been crying silently nearby, but she had not made a sound. Her lean body was wrapped in a dark red, tattered combat uniform, and blackish herbal paste covered the wound at her collarbone.
Her hair, soaked in blood and then dried, clung tightly to her delicate, innocent face. There was no trace of her former naivety left.
After being tempered by blood, she was now a qualified warrior.
Her grief could only be washed away with the lives of others.
The person who had truly accompanied Nabar to watch the sunset was not Ah Hua, but Adou.
She tremulously reached out and took Nabar's bloody hand, forcing her voice steady as she spoke gently.
"Nabar, you idiot."
"I forgive you for being so slow to understand. Wait for me to invite you to watch the sunset next time. You must swear to the Mountain God that you'll never deceive your heart again."
"Look, everyone saw your heart. You were the only one who failed to see it clearly."
Nabar's fingers moved slightly. A faint, indistinct smile appeared at the corner of his mouth, and he replied in a threadbare voice, "Swear to the Mountain God..."
He wanted to talk to Adou. At that moment, he suddenly realized that he actually had so much he wanted to say to her.
He wanted her to live well. He wanted her to find someone better to watch the sunset with...
But none of those were what he most wanted to say...
What he most wanted to say was: I swear to the Mountain God, next time I'll definitely invite you to watch the most beautiful sunset...
He wanted to say: I've seen so many beautiful flowers in the mountains, but none of them can compare to the way you smile...
Before he could finish speaking, his hand had completely lost its strength and drooped limply into Adou's palm.
Feeling his body gradually grow cold, Adou's voice trembled. "Nabar, I swear to the Mountain God that I'll guard Longshan and wait for the Creditor to return!"
She gently lowered his hand, then quickly rushed to the mountaintop.
Ah Hua shouted, "Adou, what are you going to do? It's time to rest and recover!"
Nabar's father called out, "Child, stop!"
Adou acted as if she had not heard them. She swiftly drew the long spear from her back, hooked it onto the cableway at the peak of Longshan, and leaped down. Her figure was like a bird piercing through a storm, while the mountain wind in the gorge wiped away her tears.
"Nabar, wait for me on the other side of the rainbow. And... Mountain God, please look after him for me..."
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