Soon, the large crowd packed together had dispersed completely. The place grew quiet, even eerily deserted.
The dim, wavering flames of the oil lamps made every shadow sway.
Only two people remained. One stared up at the Purple Glittering Nebula, while the other stared at him.
The former was Shi Chun, whose eyes held nothing but that nebula.
After looking him over a few times, the overseer who had been giving orders still found him unfamiliar. His gaze paused on the wound on Shi Chun's arm before he asked again, "Which team are you from?"
Shi Chun ignored him completely. Not only that, he leaped onto the ribs of the skeleton, pushed lightly off the dragon's backbone, and sprang onto the snake skull with its savage fangs. Two cautious steps brought him before the Purple Glittering Nebula, which he examined curiously at close range.
The overseer looked startled and suspicious. "What are you doing?" he demanded.
He asked his question, and Shi Chun asked his own, each pursuing a separate line. "What is this thing?"
The overseer said, "How would I know? I'm afraid only Mr. Shen knows that."
Time was running short. Shi Chun dared not hesitate any longer. After a brief inspection, he reached out to try touching the Purple Glittering Nebula.
Seeing this, the overseer's voice deepened again. "What are you doing? Didn't you say we should wait for Mr. Shen?"
"He isn't here yet, is he?" Shi Chun turned to look down at him and coaxed, "Do you think Mr. Shen will let us know what this is once he arrives? Don't you want to know what it is?"
The overseer froze briefly, then suddenly leaped onto the dragon's backbone as well, staring at Shi Chun and occasionally at the Purple Glittering Nebula.
Shi Chun met his gaze several times. Seeing that he had fallen silent, Shi Chun hesitated no longer. His outstretched hand finally slipped slowly into the Purple Glittering Nebula.
The overseer watched intently, occasionally glancing back at the passage behind them, seemingly even more worried than Shi Chun that Shen Youkun might suddenly appear.
After stirring his hand around inside the nebula several times, Shi Chun could not help letting out a puzzled "Huh?" He finally understood why the overseer who had touched it earlier had kept making that sound. He felt nothing. His hand appeared to have entered the Purple Glittering Nebula, yet there was no sensation at all, and the nebula was like an insubstantial illusion, entirely unaffected by the foreign object stirring inside it.
He blew hard at it several times, but that did nothing either.
The overseer watching from the dragon's backbone glanced back at the passage. Once he was certain no one was coming, he sprang onto the other side of the Purple Glittering Nebula and reached inside to touch it too, stirring away opposite Shi Chun.
His earlier misgivings about Shi Chun had already been tossed to the back of his mind, at least for the moment.
Even he probably had not expected to be wallowing in the same muddy waters with this man so quickly, when the man had barely needed to persuade him.
The two now looked every bit like guards stealing what they were supposed to protect.
Unable to feel anything, Shi Chun looked it over from top to bottom and put his other hand to work as well. Both hands felt through the empty space around the nebula, trying to sense the source of the force keeping it suspended there.
Suddenly, the two men on either side let out a "Huh?" almost simultaneously. They had noticed the Purple Glittering Nebula shift, as though it had been stirred.
The overseer still did not quite understand what had happened.
Shi Chun, however, quickly fixed his gaze on his left arm, on the wound there. He felt a chill, along with a stinging pain.
As his hands had felt around, his injured left arm had naturally slipped into the Purple Glittering Nebula without him noticing. It seemed that this arm had stirred it.
He tried moving his left arm again. Sure enough, the Purple Glittering Nebula shifted once more, billowing like clouds and mist.
The overseer saw it through the nebula too and immediately asked, "What's going on?"
"Who the hell knows..." Shi Chun murmured in startled bewilderment, then suddenly sucked in a sharp breath with a hiss. His wound stabbed with pain and began bleeding again. That icy, stinging sensation abruptly shot through what felt like every nerve in his body, making him shudder all over. For an instant, he felt as though his soul had left his body. Sensing disaster, he dared not hesitate and hurriedly pulled his hand back, retreating.
Startled by his reaction, the overseer also hastily withdrew his hand and stepped back from the nebula.
As Shi Chun retreated, his terror deepened. He discovered that the purple-glittering nebula was like a curtain, with one corner being dragged along by his wound.
Shi Chun immediately swiped at it repeatedly with his right hand, trying to sever the connection between the nebula and his wound, because he could feel something burrowing into his body. But just as before, no matter how much his right hand moved, it could not affect the nebula at all.
He immediately circulated his power and cast a spell, but could not sever that connection. Fear of the unknown flooded his heart.
Suddenly, as though awakened by the nourishment of fresh blood, the nebula blazed with renewed color. Starting at the wound on Shi Chun's left arm, the change swiftly spread across the entire nebula, as if dust and dullness had been swept from it. In an instant, its purple glitter grew clearer and brighter, blossoming with fresh, dazzling vitality.
More terrifying still, Shi Chun's body seemed to have become a funnel, and the nebula poured into the wound on his left arm like flowing water.
"Ngh..." Shi Chun threw his head back and gave a muffled groan of agony.
Though he wore a mask, the overseer could sense how much pain he was in and was badly frightened. Afraid of being caught up in it, he scrambled away, jumping off the snake skull and landing between the dragon's backbone and ribs. He retreated two steps and looked up, his eyes full of alarm and uncertainty.
The last of the purple-glittering clouds soon flowed into Shi Chun's body.
Blood dripped from his arm again. Shi Chun felt as though countless insects and ants were eating away at his entire spine, while his head hurt as if it would split into millions of pieces.
The excruciating, tearing sensation made his footing unsteady. He slipped off the already slanted, uneven snake skull, struck the dragon's backbone with a thud, then fell between the ribs and crashed onto the ground.
The pain of hitting the ground was negligible to Shi Chun now. The unbearable agony came from within. Cold sweat drenched him as he clutched his head and writhed on the ground, his throat producing low, beastlike gasps. It felt as though the pain had blinded him. His eyes were wide open, yet he could see nothing.
The watching overseer was genuinely frightened. He wanted to step forward and help, but dared not approach, as though afraid it might be contagious.
Just as Shi Chun himself thought he was finished this time, he suddenly realized that his awareness seemed to have returned. Yes, it seemed the pain had eased.
He immediately felt it clearly. That unbearable agony was receding like a tide, leaving as swiftly as it had arrived. But the damage it had done to his body could not vanish in an instant. His body felt as though it had been torn apart and no longer belonged to him.
The overseer stood nearby in alarm and uncertainty. He noticed that his colleague seemed to be suffering less now, but a faint purple light appeared to be glowing from his right eye beneath the mask. That light, however, was slowly fading.
After regaining his awareness as he lay on the ground, Shi Chun also discovered that something was wrong with his vision. He could no longer see clearly.
He hurriedly checked and found that it was not quite an inability to see clearly. When he closed his right eye, the vision in his left was normal. The mine looked exactly as it had before.
But when he closed his left eye, his right saw a strange, hazy scene, a translucent mingling of colors near and far. Occasionally, ethereal streaks of shimmering color swept across his vision; others flickered or squirmed. The backdrop to the entire scene was a pale blue-green, vast and profound.
This illusory scene seemed unaffected by the light inside the mine. What should have been vivid remained vivid, and what should have been dim remained dark.
Through his right eye, everything in the mine except the outline of the dragon skeleton, including the walls, seemed to have vanished, allowing him to gaze far into the translucent haze.
He knew this must be a consequence of the Purple Glittering Nebula. With no time to think further, he tested his control over his limbs, then immediately reached toward the overseer watching in bewilderment and gasped weakly, "I feel terrible. Quick, help me get to Mr. Shen. He should be able to save me. Hurry, help me get there, hurry..."
The overseer noticed that the purple light in his right eye had vanished completely. After hesitating briefly, he approached and tentatively nudged Shi Chun with the tip of his foot. Then he slowly crouched closer and touched him with a finger. Finding that there seemed to be no danger, he checked his pulse as well. His pulse and the flow of his blood and energy were indeed abnormally disordered. The overseer clicked his tongue. "Who told you to go touching things? You brought this on yourself."
Despite saying that, he still helped Shi Chun up and supported him as they headed outside.
It was not that he was particularly kind or determined to help. Rather, he had to hand Shi Chun over to Shen Youkun and let the man account for himself. Otherwise, he would have no way to explain the disappearance of the Purple Glittering Nebula to Shen Youkun, whose family background made him someone the overseer could not afford to offend.
He reckoned that once he delivered this man to Shen Youkun and Shen Youkun learned that his body had absorbed the Purple Glittering Nebula, there was no telling how furious he would be. Whether he would save the man or kill him was far from certain.
They had barely taken a few steps when, just as his thoughts wandered and he silently left Shi Chun to pray for his own luck, he suddenly gave a muffled grunt and staggered, abruptly separating from Shi Chun. Blood sprayed between them.
The overseer clapped both hands over his neck and staggered backward against the cave wall, his eyes wide as he stared at Shi Chun. Blood gushed like a spring between his fingers. The wound across his neck was too deep and too wide. He trembled violently, making gurgling sounds as he slowly slid down the wall.
Shi Chun had put too much force into the slash with the knife in his hand. Unable to control his body, he spun several times and collided with one of the dragon's ribs. His legs failed him, and he crashed to the ground.
After lying prone and panting for a while, he forced himself to get up despite his terrible physical condition and the strange images still muddling his sight. Swaying, he hurried toward the exit, not daring to waste another step.
He could not afford any further delay. If Shen Youkun intercepted him, he would probably be unable to stomach the consequences.
Back then, he had wanted to make Shen Youkun suffer a fate worse than death, but had failed. If Shen Youkun caught him this time, he would certainly repay him and make him truly wish he were dead.
He put away the small knife and brushed the dirt off his clothes so he would not look too disheveled.
He also grabbed several handfuls of dirt and smeared them over the whip welt that had begun bleeding again. The sight of fresh blood would easily arouse suspicion.
He knew his complexion must look awful now, which would also raise suspicion if anyone saw it. Fortunately, his mask concealed it.
He soon reached the T-junction in the mine tunnel. He did his best to steady his swaying body and act as though nothing had happened.
As soon as he turned the corner, he saw the waiting crowd, along with a sight that startled and bewildered him. With his right eye closed, he saw a group of ordinary people. With his left eye closed, he saw a group of whitish, hazy forms resembling human figures.
The crowd looked toward him as well, especially Wu Jinliang.
Before anyone could speak, Shi Chun said, "Make way. I have something to report to Mr. Shen."
This time, no one made things difficult for him. Though some disliked the sight of him, the crowd quickly cleared a path.
People sat on the ground on either side of the passage, looking as though they wanted little. The good things would never fall to them anyway. Being able to wait for a meal without working was a comfortable enough pleasure.