Chapter 4258 — Could We Have Taken the Wrong Path?
The Blossom Guardian · Page 2 of 2
Though they could not see them clearly, that spectacle of leaping shadows was unmistakably real. They were all steadfast Golden Core cultivators, and they could be certain this was no illusion—there was surely something there, and very likely one of those unclean things of legend!
And at this very moment, the mist that had been so thin before had imperceptibly grown far denser. A moment ago they could still clearly see the blood moon hanging upside down in the sky, but now, looking up, all was a blur.
Even they themselves, though no more than a few yards apart, saw their forms grow indistinct in the mist, until they seemed no more than faint silhouettes. Add to that the ghostly shadows flickering at the edges of their vision, and though the group's spirits were soaring with excitement over the infant ginseng, they could not help but feel a chill creep over them, their hearts faltering.
Huang Xiaotao, frightened, instinctively pressed herself tightly behind Wei Zhao, not daring to look at the surroundings, while ahead Guo Dengtao, Wang Feng, and Feng Hongyu all tiptoed along like birds startled by the twang of a bow, no longer daring to stride forward as they had before.
At the sight, Wei Zhao too felt a faint unease stir in his heart. He was not exactly afraid, but with ghostly shadows flickering about him every so often, seemingly close at hand yet impossible to make out no matter how hard he tried, it was impossible not to feel some dread.
Fortunately, Wei Zhao could tell that the mist around them was not the poisonous miasma from overhead. It could only affect their senses, not poison them to death—a blessing in misfortune.
Otherwise, even knowing the infant ginseng was here, they would have had to retreat at once. Fine as the infant ginseng was, one had to be alive to claim it. A place shrouded in miasma was a dead land; to linger would only make them fertilizer for the infant ginseng.
"Ah! There's no path ahead!" Feng Hongyu's startled cry came suddenly from the front. She was walking at the very front with Chu Bubai, the rest following behind them, so only she and Chu Bubai could clearly see what lay ahead.
"What?" Guo Dengtao and Wang Feng were startled and hurried forward to see for themselves. Wei Zhao and Huang Xiaotao exchanged a glance and followed.
The six of them stood in a circle, staring at the trail that had utterly vanished beneath their feet, and could only look at one another in dismay, at a loss for what to do.
Before, though the mist had thickened and the ground had grown indistinct, there had at least been some outline of a trail. But now even the barest outline was gone; ahead there was nothing but dense brush and thickets of shrubs. It seemed this trail simply ended here.
"Brother Chu, could we have taken the wrong path?" Guo Dengtao could not help asking. When a trail suddenly came to an end, the first reaction of any normal person was that they had gotten lost.
After all, the mist lay heavy in this place and visibility was very limited, so getting lost was only natural.
"It can't be. I have been checking the map and the compass all along, and our direction is surely not wrong. There is no need for alarm, either. This route map of mine has been passed down through my forebears, and who knows how many years it has been since anyone walked it. It is only natural that the trail should vanish," Chu Bubai said, still calm and composed.