Faraway Wanderers

Chapter 12. Illusions

Wen Kexing had no idea what the dust that Zhou Zishu had sprinkled was but he didn’t ask, as if he already knew what the other was capable of. He stood beside Zhou Zishu silently. Seconds later, the heavy breathing of the slowly approaching beast could be heard. The creature seemed to have noticed something, maintaining a slow tread. It went by a spot that was about ten feet away from them.

The creature was dog-like but as big as a pony, black all over. It panted through the nose, and in the air was a faint fishy smell. It slowed down even more, sniffing the air like it was suspicious of something.

Zhou Zishu crossed his arms in front of his chest, leaning on the wall, eyes narrowed, watching the scene intently.

There was a fleeting hint of a smile on Wen Kexing’s face; it was chilling and only there for a split second.

The beast was not far away but it had yet to notice the two’s presence. It stood still for a while then moved forward, being watched by two pair of human eyes. It followed the smell of blood to the corpses of the underwater monsters. After sniffing, it bellowed, head lowered and mouth chewing happily—it truly was able to decapitate the humanoid monsters.

Wen Kexing and Zhou Zishu glanced at each other. Zhou Zishu was quietly terrified; while he wasn’t a coroner, he had been through a lot in life and his knowledge was vast, it was impossible that he couldn’t recognize a human head. Is that creature really human? He mused.

If it was, how did it come to this?

Wen Kexing poked at him, pointing at a small road. Zhou Zishu nodded, leaving carefully.

The road widened and narrowed in an unpredictable fashion. After an unknown amount of turns far away from their starting point, Wen Kexing asked, “There are other teeth marks on the bones of those dead monsters, do you think they cannibalize?”

When he wasn’t talking nonsense, his voice was low, almost like sighing with no strength to it, as if he didn’t want to waste energy; completed with a hint of indifference. He paused, then continued, “Are they human?”

Zhou Zishu looked at him, voice also low, “Forgive me, I’m just a fool with shallow knowledge.”

“Wen Kexing laughed softly, “You, shallow knowledge? Hah.”

He didn’t ask further and kept walking.

After an indefinite time, at another turn, when the rapidly flowing “Yellow Spring” appeared again in front of their eyes, Zhou Zishu called out, “Wait.”

Wen Kexing looked back at him, the irritating demeanor making a return, “What’s wrong, beautiful Brother Zhou?”

Zhou Zishu knew all too well that reacting would only goad the other on, so he ignored the gibberish. “Those underwater creatures are incredibly strong and fast, and they can move in the water naturally. The beast we saw walks on land and is aware that it has to stay away from the river; if it doesn’t hunt near the water, how can it catch the monsters?”

Wen Kexing stopped walking, examining the ground under them. It was unclear whether he was monologuing or speaking to Zhou Zishu, “How big is this place?”

Why did it feel like the road was never-ending?

Zhou Zishu suddenly spoke after falling into pensiveness. “This river flows from east to west. I remember the direction very clearly; even though we took a few turns, we’re still going in the north-south direction…”