Chapter 126: I am the Wind of the North Sea
Chapter 126: I am the Wind of the North Sea
Translator: TYZ Editor: Pranav
Zhou Xiaoxi was worried sick. He was flying at his highest speed as he knew that the students could not hold on for too long.
Every one hundred kilometers, he would stop and chop down a tree to see if the blood poison had spread to that area. However, every time he stopped to check, his disappointment would only increase. He had already flown halfway through the Garden of Life, but the cores of the trees he chopped down were still red in color.
He could not imagine what was going to happen. He felt fear.
In his eyes, the boundless Garden of Life had become a boundless sea of blood.
The Garden of Life was being corroded by the blood poison. His body was also being corroded by the blood poison. It was like a monster that continuously devoured his elemental energy, making itself grow increasingly stronger.
He clenched his teeth and flew with all his might. However, he soon discovered that his pair of azure wings was becoming weaker and his flying speed was decreasing.
He became dismayed and somewhat mocked himself. If his brothers from his department saw him flying at this speed, they would definitely laugh at him. The day when the Wind of The North Sea, Zhou Xiaoxi, was slower than a tortoise had finally come.
Like a bird with injured wings, he lost his balance and started to wobble in mid-air, his altitude rapidly decreasing.
As he flew through the canopy of the woods, densely-packed tree branches whipped his body, but he could not feel anything.
When was the last time he flew so low? It should be when he was twelve years old...
An image of a young and immature youth appeared before his eyes. The youth was clumsily wearing a pair of azure wings that was much bigger than the size of his body. It was his father’s azure wings. Even in his dreams, he would yearn to soar through the skies like his father.
The first time the youth had put on the azure wings, he had been very nervous. He had pursed his lips and channeled his elemental energy before unsteadily taking off from the ground. But before he could rejoice, he had screamed and crashed into the tree in his backyard like a drunk bird.
The feeling of branches smacking his face then was similar to what he was feeling now.
That youth was filled with ignorance and vision. Those were good old times.
Zhou Xiaoxi’s body slammed heavily onto the ground, causing soil and rotten leaves to fly everywhere. A warm and nostalgic smile appeared on his face.
After struggling to pick himself up, he leaned against a tree and took out a bamboo tube from his shirt. He then pulled out a distress leaf and pinned it on the tree trunk.
When he saw the glow of the pine needle dim, he was in a daze for ten seconds.
He carefully closed the bamboo tube and hid it well within his shirt. Without any hesitation, he turned around and started staggering in the direction of the Induction Ground. However, as he moved, he found it to be increasingly difficult to breathe, and his body’s temperature was rising. His energy was rapidly reducing as well. All right, he actually did not have any strength left; his legs went to jelly, and he was shaking.
Luckily, Cui Xianzi was not able to see his current pathetic state; otherwise, it would be very humiliating...
The dizziness and the ringing in his ears had sent him into a state of stupor.
He must look very ugly now….
In his daze, he seemed to see Cui Xianzi give him a smile. Suddenly, his legs tripped over a branch, and he fell flat on his face, causing his forehead to knock against a rock and start bleeding.
This made him a bit sober. With a surge of strength, he picked himself up and struggled forward.
Tumbling, staggering, and dazed.
His body was as red as a cooked prawn; his body temperature was astonishingly high. He could feel an erupting volcano inside his body.
The blood on his forehead was emitting an alluring fragrance.
Sounds of rustling could be heard as several pairs of scarlet eyes began to light up in the nearby underbrush.
Even so, he did not feel fear anymore, just like how he did not know how far he had walked. His dazed eyes were dyed red by the blood dripping from his forehead, causing his vision to be of a similar blood-red.
He could hear his own breathing loud and clear, and his heart was pounding so hard that it resembled a roaring monster. He could feel the world leaving him.
Is this the feeling of death....
He tried to move his lips, but he no longer had any strength. He collapsed onto the ground.
The wild beasts started to approach from all directions. Their scarlet eyes were filled with hunger and desire.
Behind the blood-red canopy, there was the deep, blood-red sky. It was so beautiful. He did not know since when he had loved the sky, but he had always desired to conquer and soar through the heavens.
Who was the one who had told him that the last thought before someone died was the thing that they loved the most?
Such bullshit…
So the thing he loved the most was his bamboo tube? Hahaha….
Next time, he should remember to not close the lid of the bamboo tube so tightly… Okay, there would be no next time.
With shaky hands, he managed to open the lid of the tube and involuntarily spilled the pine needle leaves all over the ground.
Through his blood-filled vision, he could not differentiate the multi-colored pine needle leaves from each other.
His eyes had been rendered colorblind from the blood…
Dark red tears started to flow down his cheeks, but he did not know whether they were blood or tears. The tears fell onto his soil-smudged palms, forming a small, heart-shaped puddle.
Cui Xianzi, you must survive!
He summoned the last bit of strength he had and grabbed a bunch of pine needle leaves. Then, like a beast that was pushed to its edge, he dashed towards the nearest tree!
Bang!
A bunch of pine needle leaves smudged with mud was pinned onto the tree.
He stared blankly at it. There was a speck of light that was becoming brighter and brighter, bit by bit.
He wanted to laugh, he wanted to laugh at the top of his voice! However, he could not make any sound.
This was his distress leaf, and the Induction Ground could track it. The Induction Ground would be able to identify Cui Xianzi’s location as his North Sea Token was in the bag of rations and medicine that he had passed to her.
He raised his head with satisfaction. Through his blood-covered vision, he could see those malevolent wild beasts.
So ugly….
At this moment, he just wanted to yell his name with pride to Cui Xianzi and his dear beautiful sky. He wanted to let the drifting wind carry his name…
I am the Wind of the North Sea!
Then, he fell to the ground, his body stiff, as he faced his beloved sky for the last time.
...
The students had already spent three days in darkness under the mound.
After the ferocious beast had left the last time, Ai Hui had requested Duanmu Huanghun to dig a few more small holes in the mound using his vines.
The amount of oxygen that these little holes could channel was minimal. Fortunately, everyone knew how dangerous it was outside. Even the delicate and petite female students were enduring and persevering at this point.
Outside was total chaos. There were various unknown wild beasts, and their roars were getting louder and louder.
Everyone was trembling in fear even though they were under the mound.
Their shelter had repeatedly been strengthened over these past few days. Ai Hui was in charge of the students’ security while those who were earth elementalists were in charge of controlling the soil and mud to strengthen the mound.
The mound was becoming increasingly thicker, but even after being strengthened, it still could not stop the roars from penetrating.
When will we be rescued?
"Will we survive?" someone asked in the dark.
"We will definitely survive!" Teacher Xu replied with absolute determination. "The Induction Ground will not ignore such an overt situation. Everyone needs to believe in the Induction Ground, and believe in ourselves."
"Teacher Xu is right." Cui Xianzi put in some encouraging words as well. "We need to believe in the Induction Ground. It’s quite a long distance between the Garden of Life and the Induction Ground, so it will take some time for reinforcements. However, no matter what, the Induction Ground will definitely not remain indifferent to such a dire situation."
After hearing these words, the students were more at ease.
After speaking, Cui Xianzi became silent in the darkness.
As she thought of Zhou Xiaoxi, her hands involuntarily grasped the bag that he had thrown to her. It had been three days, and there was still no news of that fellow. Could it be that he had gotten into some accident?
When she thought of the blood poison in Zhou Xiaoxi’s body, she became more worried.
That frivolous face kept appearing in her mind. When she thought of how his shamelessness had amused her and made her cheerful, a smile involuntarily appeared on her face.
That fellow was much more amusing than the other teachers….
She thought of how Zhou Xiaoxi had pestered her for her contact details and told her that he was going to write letters to her. Such an old-fashioned man. How could he not know that letter-writing is outdated?
By then, if I don’t receive any letters from you, you’re finished… Humph….
In the darkness, a faint blush appeared on Cui Xianzi’s face.
However, in the blink of an eye, all those distracting thoughts transformed back into ones of worry.
When she saw the injured student who was had been knocked out and tied up tightly, she became even more anxious.
No matter what, you must survive!
Ai Hui actually wanted everyone to stop talking. Although they were all keeping their volume low, he still wanted to tell them that a lot of wild beasts had superb hearing.
However, in the end, he did not say anything because he knew that if everyone really maintained total silence, they would all plunge into a mental breakdown.
He was used to being in darkness and was not in any discomfort.
He took a glance at Fatty, who was lying against a rock, sleeping soundly. Actually, the best thing to do in such a situation was to sleep.
However, Ai Hui did not dare to sleep because he wanted to pay constant attention to what was going on outside. His hand never left the grass sword at all.
As compared to other people, he was not really optimistic about the current situation. He had not slept for three days. He clearly knew what was going on outside.
The situation was deteriorating!
Everyone could hear that the wild beasts’ roars were becoming increasingly frequent; however, only Ai Hui was counting the types of roars in his mind.
Twenty-six!
During the last three days, he had heard twenty-six different types of roars. But these ferocious beasts would usually not let out such raging howls.
Every beast would only let out one distinct roar.
He guessed that these roars must contain some kind of special message. But the amount of information he had gathered was far too little. There was no way he could decipher the meaning behind them.
However, there was one thing that he was sure of, and that was that only dangerous beasts would give off such angry roars.
There were twenty-six different types of wild beasts out there, and every one of them was extremely dangerous. Just this fact would make everyone tremble with fear.
Ai Hui knew that the blood poison was beginning to spread. The incubation period of the blood poison had passed, and it was now in its maturity period. The fact that the blood poison had incubated had already been validated.
The student who was bitten by the red-haired rabbit was the one whom Ai Hui had gotten his validation from.
This student’s elemental energy had completely disappeared, and his entire body was boiling hot. When he woke up, he was filled with irritation and aggression. If Ai Hui had never broken away from the sword embryo’s state and detected these symptoms, roughly half the number of people under the mound would have been injured by this infected student.
The injured student’s body was undergoing astonishing changes. For example, his skin had become tougher, his eyes had become bloodshot and were giving off a demonic-red glow, his strength had increased tremendously, and his hair had become thicker. That fellow’s hair had also grown a significant length in the past three days.
The wound on his hand had also been fully healed without leaving any scar.
Furthermore, Ai Hui also noticed that this student did not lose his total self-awareness. It was just that he could not control his emotions. It was as if there was something in everyone’s body that was provoking him.
For the sake of everyone’s safety, this student was tied up.
Ai Hui was secretly observing the injured student, like how he had observed the dire beasts in the Wilderness.
Ai Hui was most worried about whether the Induction Ground was capable of handling the blood poison that was already in its maturity period.
However, when he thought of the lax garrison in the Induction Ground, he could only laugh bitterly.