Fell into the Trap

The hunting party trudged through the wilderness in a state of panic. There had never been many wild beasts to begin with, and now that everyone was in poor condition and had no mind for hunting, they naturally gained even less.

"Cough, cough!" An uncontrollable cough rang out. The entire party immediately stopped, and everyone turned to look at the person who had coughed.

"My throat was just itchy. I don't have the plague." The man looked somewhat terrified and hurriedly tried to sound calm, but his feet involuntarily backed away.

"Blade, lift your clothes and let us see your skin," Dax said grimly. In truth, he didn't know whether it was an illusion, but his own throat felt itchy as well, and his body seemed somewhat weak.

Blade's expression stiffened, but he still lifted his clothes. Small black spots had appeared across his body. His breathing was labored, and despair showed on his face.

"Blade..." Dax murmured his name. After a brief silence, he slowly walked over and said, "We don't know whether the rest of us have been infected yet. For everyone else's sake, please leave the party."

"Don't abandon me." Despair filled Blade's face, and his entire body trembled.

"Blade!" Dax shouted, drawing Blade's attention. Then, with a stern expression, he said, "Listen to me carefully. For the village, you have to leave."

"We're heading to Tuck Ridge next. You can return to the Xili River. We cast nets there before, and they should have caught some fish by now. You can have a good meal and live out the rest of your days."

Holding his breath, Dax embraced Blade before slowly stepping back and drawing his bow. "Obey orders and leave the party. Don't come near us, or for the sake of the party, I'll have no choice but to shoot you."

Blade's lips moved, but in the end, he said nothing. Lowering his head, he ran in one direction. Dax kept his bow raised as he watched Blade disappear into the distance, an indescribable look in his eyes.

Only after Blade vanished into the dense forest did Dax lower his bow. Looking at his grief-stricken companions behind him, he softly said, "Let's go. We're heading to Tuck Ridge."

"They're quite sturdy." Wang Yuan stood beneath the shade of a distant tree, watching the divided party.

Last night, he had used his control to move air carrying germs near the people he wanted to eliminate, infecting them. However, these people were physically fit, and they had inhaled too few germs. Only now had one of them begun showing obvious symptoms.

"I was still too overconfident. I should've waited until night to act. This is using up too much White Qi." Wang Yuan watched the hunting party set off again, calculated his White Qi expenditure, and made a plan. "Judging by their current condition, the illness should strike around dusk. I'll make my move then."

The journey was oppressively silent. Dax had no interest in hunting anymore and led the party straight toward the Tuck Ridge he had mentioned.

Coughing began to spread through the party around noon, but this time, Dax merely had those who coughed follow at a distance rather than driving them from the party as he had Blade. Perhaps he had already realized that the plague had descended upon them.

Only the youngest member, Komoro, showed no symptoms. The other three had all begun coughing. That was right—Wang Yuan only intended to leave Komoro alive. If he alone returned to the village, Wang Yuan was confident he could completely control him and make him obedient to every command.

Beside Tuck Ridge stood a small cliff, with a waterfall hanging from it. The rushing water roared endlessly. Several members of the party coughed as they rested beneath the waterfall, while Komoro uneasily edged away into the distance.

Dax watched the setting sun and understood that his life, like that sun, was about to sink away. But unlike the sun, which could rise again the next day, he would never rise again.

Yet when he heard the cawing of crows by his ear, Dax looked at the afterglow of the sunset and smiled. He, too, would shine with his own light one last time.

"I knew you damned beasts had been following us!" Dax barely rose to his feet, drew his bow halfway, and fired an arrow.

But the arrow flew too slowly and was easily dodged by the Mutated Crows.

"Still making a final struggle?" Wang Yuan watched the four-man party firing continuously from afar, unconcerned by their resistance. The germs were taking effect rapidly. In half an hour at most, they would collapse and die under the effects of the plague.

Still, he should have the crows kill some of them. That way, Negary's image would take root in their hearts. The crows would become his symbol, making it easier to control the remaining people afterward.

"Something just feels wrong." Wang Yuan watched their struggle as the sound of the waterfall continued ringing in his ears.

"The waterfall? Water... the Xili River!!" Wang Yuan froze abruptly, recalling what Dax had said to Blade. He hurriedly sensed the crows' situation and discovered that Dax and the others were deliberately using their arrows to drive the crows toward the waterfall.

"Damn it!" Wang Yuan immediately ordered the crows to scatter, but he was still a step too late. A man carrying a net leaped down from atop the waterfall. With black spots covering his face and blood spilling from his nose and mouth, he was clearly Blade, who had been driven from the party.

Blade used the last of his strength to cast the net. The tattered fishing net covered the crows. He was already on the verge of death; in fact, had Dax and the others arrived any later, he would have died.

Dax's final embrace had been to convey the details of this ambush. Just as Dax had said, the village needed him. If they did not kill these followers of Negary, the disaster of the plague would sooner or later Spread to the village.

The words Dax had spoken to Blade that morning flashed through Wang Yuan's mind. He instantly understood. Tuck Ridge was beside Xili Lake. Dax had intended this from the very beginning—Wang Yuan had fallen into the trap!

"How dare he! He couldn't be sure the crows would attack them, nor could he be sure that the man called Blade would understand and carry out his orders. How did he dare!!!"

Wang Yuan had no time to feel the humiliation of being fooled by his prey. He rushed toward them. The crows were caught in the fishing net, and though Dax and the others were weak, how could they possibly miss motionless targets?

As arrows flew, Wang Yuan immediately felt one crow's consciousness weaken.

He did not have much White Qi left. Although killing these people would earn him quite a bit of White Qi, if he lost the crows and lacked their assistance, the human settlement was still far away. With the power of a mere remnant soul, he might exhaust all his White Qi before reaching it.

"Damn it, damn it, damn it!! I was too careless!!" Wang Yuan felt the crows' consciousnesses vanish one after another as he frantically drifted toward the smiling humans.

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