Chronicles of Primordial Wars

Chapter 119 – The Mist

Translated by Sunyancai

When they went inside from different caves, the warriors of the five hunting groups finally got together.

In front of them, there was a very big empty hall. No one could ever see where the ceiling was, and there was a dense mist ahead.

Earlier, they thought that some bats would be driven to this direction by the smoke. However, to their surprise, they hadn’t seen a single bat in this open area.

Perhaps they had gone to other caves, but it shouldn’t have been so empty in here, going so far as not seeing even a single bat. Why the hell was that? People had no clue what was so special about this place.

“How are things on your side?” Mai asked the other few group leaders.

“It’s good. There were not too many bats left in the cave. It was a piece of cake.”

All of them were dead bats.

Moreover, a lot of them died miserably with their remains spread out everywhere. Apparently, they had been cruelly ripped off before they died.

No wonder that those other bats were not fleeing in here. It was literally a giant grave of bats.

“Each one of them was very big in size, and they have been dead for some time…” Said Cheng after he checked on a few lying on the ground nearby.

“It looks like an inside battle, judging from the wounds on their bodies.”

“Why would they fight each other?”

“I remember that some animals must go through a fatal fight if they want to select a leader in their herd.” Said Mai.

“So, you are saying that…”

“The leader is really in here?!”

People instantly became tense. If the bats were alive, none of the five group leaders would ever dare to lead people inside, given the bats’ quantity and size. However, if the leader had out-beaten them all, what kind of ferocious beast would that be?

Even so, people had no intention of going back.

In fact, when discussing with Mai and the others, Shao Xuan once proposed that they should go back to the tribe to ask for help from the other hunting team. After all, they were only at the first holdout, which meant it would be much faster to go back to the tribe than going to find the advance group, given that they had merely started the hunting mission. Also, it would be much safer if they had more warriors from the tribe to help.

However, Shao Xuan’s proposal was rejected by the others at the meeting. One reason was that the two hunting teams were always competing with one another. All five group leaders did not want people from the other team to join the mission. They would even keep the news from them. Secondly, the more people got involved, the lesser benefit would each one get after the mission was accomplished. No one wanted that.

Shao Xuan’s proposal was based on the theory that “where there is life, there’s hope”, while the others were thinking that they would rather die to find Fire Crystals.

That was the logic of the people in the tribe. Earlier, Mai scolded Shao Xuan with “what could be more important than your life”, but later on, everyone became crazy after they heard about the Fire Crystal.

Shao Xuan had underestimated that craziness. So, he realized that these people were really going to risk their lives when he heard the five group leaders talking about the action.

As they were marching forward, they could still hear many bats constantly delivering prey in the air. None of the bats cared about those people standing in the mist. Instead, they were busy with their own business.

Bang!

It was another sound of something dropping on the ground.

The dropping spot was very close to the people of the hunting team.

“Wait a second!!” Said Cheng in a low voice.

“It’s the sound of breathing.” Mai and a few others also realized that.

There were a lot of breathing sounds nearby.

Aside from the breathing of the totem warriors of the hunting team, and the bats in the air, there were a lot of breath sounds, faint breaths.

Like climbing up a mountain, they stepped on thick layer of bat corpses and moved on.

The light of the torches was already faint. And the flame was only one fifth of its originally size, which led to severe visual impairment. Now, people relied more on their sense of hearing to learn about the things happening in the surrounding.

Some junior warriors couldn’t carry on anymore. They had almost reached their limit. Now, they were barely holding on to keep themselves from fainting. The effect of the vines and herbs were very little. They could not resist the poisonous fog.

“Whoever has difficulty hanging on should stop here first. The others keep moving on.” Said Mai.

The other four groups did the same.

Shao Xuan held the tiny Fire Crystal in his hand, and the energy from it kept him sober. He was able to carry on longer than the other junior totem warriors.

“It’s giant-antler deer!” Someone recognized a living creature on the ground.

“There’s a mountain antelope!”

“A wild boar!”

In the surroundings, there constantly appeared signs of living creatures. All those animals were unconscious. They could never remain conscious in such an environment. Even if they woke up, they would fall unconscious again once they inhaled the thick mist.

Warriors from Cheng’s hunting group were thrilled to learn that, for they thought the missing men were probably in here, alive.

In the bat corpse hill, there were a lot other kinds of animals. It was very difficult to find three men.

“Can you see anything, Ah-Xuan?” Mai remembered that Shao Xuan had better night vision than the others, so he asked.

“I cannot see afar, but I’ll try my best.” Said Shao Xuan.

Shao Xuan could see the surrounding objects when he used his special power, but even so, he felt that there was a layer of fog between him and the objects. It was not clear, and he could only see things in fifty meters. But even just that was much better than the others.

Since all he could see were skeletons, so, he had to identify different animals based on the skeletons.

The others were guarding against unforeseen dangers in the surroundings, while Shao Xuan focused on searching for human skeletons with his special vision.

Most junior totemic warriors had stopped following them, and Shao Xuan was the only young warrior that came so far.

However, people all assumed that it must because that Shao Xuan had learned from the Shaman. It should be the reason that he could still hang in there.

The energy of the Fire Crystal constantly got absorbed by Shao Xuan’s palm, which kept the fading totem in his mind stimulated. However, he was barely maintaining its function.

Shao Xuan guessed that perhaps the Fire Crystal was running out of its energy, so he was absorbing less than before.

The rhythmic sound of breathing was still there, however, Shao Xuan could not find the origin of the sound. In fact, he was the only one that could distinguish the sound from other the breaths.

He glimpsed over a pile of skeletons. And finally, he fixed his eyes on the place where there seemed to be three human skeletons.

“I found them!” Shao Xuan said in a low voice.

Cheng took some men to rush to the place where Shao Xuan pointed, and sure enough, he saw some people lying on the ground. These three men were not far from each other, and they were still breathing.

After they found those three missing men, Shao Xuan still felt uneasy deep down in his heart. He always felt that there was something nearby.

Shao Xuan looked down at his hand that held the Fire Crystal tightly. With only one quick glimpse, he felt a chill on his scalp. All his hairs stood upright, and cold sweat almost seeped into his every bone.

In his hand, the energy lines released by the “burning” Fire Crystal did not all enter into his body as usual. Some of them drifted to the mist, behind him.