Chapter 344: Death Sahara (25)

“My right hand is fine.”

At “Bai Xiaosheng’s” invitation, the Stargazer gave a slight nod, but the right hand in his pocket didn’t move.

“No need to trouble yourself.”

His tone was somewhat cool, though compared to how he had spoken to David it could genuinely be counted as warm. Wei Xun’s lips curved; he was about to say something more, but the next moment Yin-Yang Butterfly’s return broke the peculiar atmosphere between him and Stargazer.

“I killed him.”

Yin-Yang Butterfly said briefly and came back into the tower amid a howling wind. Ever since Wei Xun and the Stargazer had started talking, a strong wind had been blowing outside, like the harmattan they had encountered on their first day in the Sahara.

At first it was just a rushing sound, then in almost an instant the wind turned ferocious, sand pelted the tower like hail. The roaring gale whipped up clouds of sand and earth; great quantities of it blew straight in through the archway entrance, sweeping through the tower and over everyone inside. The archway was tall and wide; only Baby Corn, fat as it was, could plug it. Baby Corn was just moving to block the entrance when Yin-Yang Butterfly came back.

He looked disheveled, hair a mess, body coated in red sand, thoroughly worse for wear, his expression grim. Wei Xun noticed he was holding his blade; red sand, dry and grainy, clung to the blade and looked like blood.

“I was going to take him alive and he was cooperative too, but when I reached out my hand he suddenly went mad and attacked me.”

Yin-Yang Butterfly made a wringing motion.

“He tried to snap my head off.”

“He dared attack you?”

Wei Xun raised an eyebrow. He had sent Yin-Yang Butterfly precisely because the giants saw him as hermaphroditic, and with the chieftain’s child’s noble standing, the strict hierarchy of giant custom should have made the crippled old giant simply obey and come over.

“This is very odd. I read him as coming to beg for clemency, wanting to return to the settlement.”

Katie also looked puzzled, murmuring: “Fear, anxiety, hope, a desire to trade something in his hands for something in return. What I read shouldn’t have been wrong.”

How could she read a giant’s inner state? Wei Xun thought about this. Could this person read minds?

‘Metaphysics’s Katie has the orange titles “Centaurus” and “The Good Teacher.”‘

Understanding his question, An Xuefeng said privately to Wei Xun:

‘When she occupies a dominant position, she can read the true inner desires and some emotions of her “students,” or those she leads, and exert influence over them. The higher her status and the closer she is to the teacher’s role, the more she sees and the more she can influence.’

‘Remarkable title.’

Wei Xun was genuinely impressed. From the simple female-over-male giant status dynamic alone, Katie had read this much; this was not a simple person.

‘Indeed. The Stargazer has always been cultivating her, but unfortunately Katie has no interest in becoming a leader. She doesn’t like the heavy lifting; she prefers being free and easy.’

“He genuinely didn’t resist.”

Metaphysics seemed to collectively speak Mandarin. Though Katie had a slight accent it didn’t hinder understanding. Yin-Yang Butterfly was always cool toward outsiders; he tilted his head coldly.

“It happened suddenly, he just went mad.”

“Tell me the specific time, location, and also…”

Wei Xun’s gaze shifted slightly.

“Had his body disappeared?”

Yin-Yang Butterfly reporting that the crippled old giant had suddenly attacked and tried to snap his head off made Wei Xun think of the Stargazer’s prophecy about Zhu Yuande. As he had speculated, the new arrivals and Chen Cheng’s group members were in a correspondence-and-opposition relationship. So, if someone in the tour group didn’t die at the historical moment they were meant to, would the corresponding new arrival face some kind of danger? Or would some other change occur?

The crippled old giant suddenly going mad, was it under the influence of this kind of force? Or had he been seen as “Zhu Yuande” in the giant’s eyes?

This was why Wei Xun wanted the specific time and location, and he had also noticed Yin-Yang Butterfly had come back empty-handed. From his understanding of Yin-Yang Butterfly, if he had killed the crippled old giant, he would at minimum have brought back part of the body.

“Yes, his body turned into red sand.”

Yin-Yang Butterfly dutifully reported the time and location, then held up his blade. Beyond the bloodsucking blade, Yin-Yang Butterfly also had his regular blade. Using the bloodsucking blade was enormously taxing; every time he used it Yin-Yang Butterfly felt wrung dry. So, unless it was a life-or-death fight, or he was certain of a large blood supply for it, Yin-Yang Butterfly used this backup blade.

Just as Wei Xun had seen, the blade was coated in scarlet sand.

Taking the blade Yin-Yang Butterfly passed over and examining it, Wei Xun listened as Yin-Yang Butterfly continued:

“Red sand, and then the sandstorm started outside. His body completely disappeared in the wind and sand.”

“You killed him that quickly? How?”

Someone expressed doubt. David wasn’t particularly convinced.

“Look, brother, I know you’re strong, but I have to say Tour Guides have a lot of restrictions here. Even if he just stood there letting you cut him it would still take a while, let alone you saying he went mad.”

True enough, from the time Yin-Yang Butterfly had gone out to now was barely ten minutes. [Read on RanaTranslations🌸] No bloodsucking blade, no alienated form; even if the giant was old and crippled, he was still six meters tall with extraordinary strength, so how had Yin-Yang Butterfly killed him completely in this short a time?

“Tch.”

Yin-Yang Butterfly only gave a cold laugh and said nothing more, though the corner of his eye slid quietly toward the person in the wheelchair. The reason he had been able to kill the old crippled giant so quickly was that he could now partially alienate. Pure Abyss energy remained inside him; it was faint, but extraordinarily pure, so pure that Yin-Yang Butterfly felt it was even more refined than what he had felt from His Grace when His Grace was still present.

He couldn’t quite describe it, but it was this force that had allowed him to partially alienate, and with not the slightest sense of losing control.

Your Grace. This was absolutely a change from contact with His Grace.

Yin-Yang Butterfly’s heart was pounding with emotion, but he quickly cooled himself down. His mind was running at full speed and he worked it out very quickly. His Grace had certainly anticipated the problem with the old crippled giant and sent him out alone deliberately, giving him the opportunity to discover this partial alienation.

Yin-Yang Butterfly’s heart hammered; nobody understood better than him what being able to alienate in a place like this meant. [Read on RanaTranslations🌸] Especially given their current unfavorable position, His Grace was certainly intending for him to keep this secret and bide his time, then act as an inside contact at the decisive moment. His Grace was planning to use him.

But, but…

Yin-Yang Butterfly hesitated, he was Bing-1’s person now; by the Weeping Medium’s account, he was supposed to build good relationships with the Tourists, turn over a new leaf, start fresh. And His Grace had specifically cultivated him into what he was, and then handed him to Bing-1.

If he defected now, there was absolutely no bright future ahead. And besides, the person in the wheelchair wasn’t His Grace himself but a fragment, which made Yin-Yang Butterfly even more conflicted.

All these contradictions and difficulties from His Grace’s orders, did fragments and their original always end up in conflict like this? Yin-Yang Butterfly didn’t dare meet the expectant gaze of the person in the wheelchair and simply kept his face flat and looked at An Xuefeng instead.

Whatever happened, looking at An Xuefeng had to be right. Your Grace, An Xuefeng is Bing-1’s linked Tourist, the strongest Tourist there is; you’re only a fragment, there’s absolutely no way the two of us could take him on together.

“Hey, what’s with that snort?”

David exaggerated his offence, but seeing Yin-Yang Butterfly looking toward An Xuefeng he didn’t press further, clicking his tongue with mild boredom. No wonder he was so bold now that he had someone covering for him. So, An Xuefeng covering Bing-1, covering the Mutual Aid Alliance, covering Yin-Yang Butterfly was all real; it wasn’t just for show.

Wei Xun had some guesses about how Yin-Yang Butterfly had killed the crippled old giant, but before he could talk it through with Yin-Yang Butterfly, Half-Life Daoist’s urgent voice came from across the room.

“The sandstorm is here, do you all see the sandstorm?!”

Half-Life Daoist hurried over, his face carrying an inexplicable anxiety that even the thread of connection couldn’t fully calm.

“The sandstorm has come early!”

Early? What did that mean?

But very quickly Wei Xun and the others understood.

“Lily saw that Zhu Yuande, Yu Hexuan, and Yu Feiluan will die at the crippled giant’s hands. And then He Yunlai; he will be lost in the great sandstorm.”

Half-Life Daoist was borderline incoherent.

“But the sandstorm was supposed to come the day after tomorrow, after they had reached the Petrified Forest!”

Everyone present quickly grasped what Half-Life Daoist meant. Over these few days the crippled old giant had originally continued toying with its prey, eating a few each day, and when Chen Cheng’s group reached the Petrified Forest new events would certainly have unfolded.

Perhaps the crippled old giant didn’t dare enter the giants’ quarry area, or perhaps something else had happened; whatever the case, starting from a certain point Chen Cheng’s group would no longer die at the crippled old giant’s hands and would instead begin dying to various other dangers.

Like this extraordinary sandstorm.

“The giant’s death pulled the subsequent death events forward?”

Zhang Xingcang’s mind was fast.

“Does that mean the three people who were originally going to die in the giant’s mouth won’t die now?”

“The probability isn’t high.”

Wei Xun said without hesitation.

“When the scene re-enactment ends, everything is possible.”

“I think the danger coming early is bad.”

Half-Life Daoist frowned.

“It will bring more danger.”

“Everything should happen when it’s meant to happen.”

The consistently quiet Stargazer finally spoke.

“Obviously, whether early or late, both bring danger.”

Nobody knew whether Zhu Yuande’s three companions would still face other dangers, or what was hidden inside the sandstorm that had come early, but just as the Stargazer had said, Wei Xun could feel the temperature around them dropping sharply. [Read on RanaTranslations🌸] The desert night, already cold, had become as bitter as a winter’s night.

The tower offered almost no insulation, and the areas touching the ground seemed to drain the warmth from a person’s body entirely; it was deeply unnerving. Everyone moved to the fortified ground-sunken area where Chen Cheng’s group was, the space was smaller there and somewhat warmer.

Chen Cheng’s group had already found many dried, hard animal skins; they seemed to be the former chieftain’s male giant’s private stores. The enormous skins spread out like rugs, fairly clean aside from a smell of rotting fruit, but these unprocessed hides offered little resistance to heat loss. Only a few of them, apparently prepared for juvenile giants, were softer and somewhat useful.

Several layers of animal hide were spread on the ground, a fire lit in the center; everyone clustered around it. The physically robust Tourists weren’t particularly bothered by the cold, but Chen Cheng’s group and the Tour Guides were shivering.

“It’s all sand out there, you can’t see anything.”

Zhang Xingcang, Lily, and Yin-Yang Butterfly returned shortly after, covered in wind-blown sand; they had gone back to check the location where Yin-Yang Butterfly had said the crippled old giant died, and had also ventured out to assess the sandstorm. The situation was worse than imagined.

“Worse than the harmattan. You can’t see your hand in front of your face, the wind could blow a person away.”

“If the sandstorm doesn’t stop by tomorrow, the hunt plan may run into trouble.”

Zhang Xingcang saw the little Dreamchaser dragon lying listlessly by the fire, the tip of its tail trembling; whether from cold or something else was unclear. Zhang Xingcang reached over and picked out a glowing ember and tucked it against the little dragon’s chest, warming it immediately. Dragons weren’t bothered by embers, but Yin-Yang Butterfly and the Infected couldn’t do the same.

Yin-Yang Butterfly, just back from outside, had a face that had gone completely white, and he was moving with a stiffness in every step. After so many years in the Agency, alienation had made him nearly impervious to heat and cold; the shock of feeling this kind of cold so suddenly was genuinely miserable.

“It’s not just the temperature drop; there’s contamination in it.”

Yin-Yang Butterfly added.

“Otherwise, I wouldn’t be affected this badly.”

He shivered and hesitated for a moment, then ultimately chose to sit not far from the wheelchair, he exhaled contentedly.

The Phoenix bird’s warmth radiated over to him. Even if Yin-Yang Butterfly absolutely refused to acknowledge it, An Xuefeng’s strength was extraordinary.

Wei Xun agreed entirely. An Xuefeng’s warmth could almost overpower the extreme cold the Cold-Blooded One title produced. That chill seeped into bone, leaving legs and feet like ice, hands and feet numb, but when the Phoenix bird lay across his knees like a small sun continuously passing heat to every part of Wei Xun’s body, all the cold simply ceased to exist.

Then Wei Xun felt someone’s gaze. He looked up to find Stargazer looking in his direction.

This was the first time Stargazer had truly looked at him.

Was it because of the “cold”? Cold-Blooded One?

Under everyone’s eyes, Wei Xun met his gaze. He didn’t feel that intense sense of being spied upon; it was as though Stargazer was simply looking at him, not deploying any title or ability.

The eye contact ended with the Stargazer looking away first, but Wei Xun felt playful. He nodded with great solemnity and shook his head calmly.

“No rush. We’ll go over there to talk in a moment.”

Stargazer: ?

But contrary to Wei Xun’s expectations, the Stargazer didn’t refuse; he tacitly accepted. This genuinely sparked Wei Xun’s interest. He had in fact been looking forward to a private conversation with Stargazer all along.

Not only because of the butterfly fragment, but because of the close relationship between the Stargazer and the Puppeteer.

“Is that what clever people do? Lord above, only mediums and witches could follow an eye contact conversation like that.”

Katie, who had been watching from the side, clicked her tongue with admiration. She was warming herself by the fire and had taken the opportunity to roast a few strips of meat.

“Hey Lily, want some roast sand lizard?”

“Giants will come tonight.”

But Lily, who had been silent since returning, suddenly spoke, and the air around them seemed to drop several degrees colder.

“Red, enormous, misshapen faces, appearing in the cold black night.”

A voice like a witch’s prophecy came from Lily’s mouth.

“They have already died, but unless the one who should be dead is taken, they will not rest.”