Chapter 267

After the couple escaped the Flaming Horn tribe, they originally thought, “we cannot afford to continue to stay around the people of the tribe.” We’ll just try to go around to the area of the wanderers. However, unexpectedly, the people of the Flaming Horn tribe started a head count.

“Let’s just wait for another chance. There will always be people leaving, and that would be our chance.”

“Yeah.” The originally slender woman had blossomed quite a lot, and her facial features had also changed. So, if people were to find her, they wouldn’t think of them as “traitors” immediately. While thinking about that, the woman yelled: “Where is the thing?”

“What thing?”

“The leaf of eternal youth!”, the woman said while gritting her teeth.

This stunned the man, but he said nonchalantly, “It’s fine after the wind dies down, we’ll go back and dig it up.”

“But what if someone else gets it first……”, the worried woman said. This is a treasure that they found while hiding their belongings, down in a hole. Nobody knew which tribe the dead person was from. However, looking at the bone structure, one can deduce that it is from a very strong warrior.

The treasure was laying by the set of bones, which showed that the person seemed to have been dead for a long time, and the bamboos had already changed color. However, the leaf that it contains, was still good as new.

This was the leaf of eternal youth!

According to rumors, once this leaf enters the soil, it will stay fresh for ten thousand years. That is a really long time. The scribes of the tribes used this to write stuff to pass on to later generations. However, the ones that are left are really rare nowadays, and almost no one had seen one before.

Before, they were only rumors, but now since they were able to see the leaf they knew it was more than rumors. However, even when they saw it, they were both shocked. They were extremely surprised to be able to find such a treasure. It may even be able to make them rich. Unfortunately for them though, they weren’t able to read the ancient text inscribed on the leaf.

Because of how curious they were, and as well as not feeling secure putting it outside, they kept it a secret. They brought it along with them during the excursions with the Flaming Horn tribe but made sure to keep it well concealed.

When they entered the tribe, they shut themselves in a room to study secretly the leaf for a long time. They still couldn’t find the secret behind the leaf though. Maybe only mages and magicians could decrypt these.

“Who wants to go dig these things? Even if they break the house down, they still won’t be able to find it. Even if they did find it, would they even be able to understand what it means?”

However, unknown to the pair, Shao Xuan has already found the items a long time ago.

Unbeknownst to Shao Xuan, the gold powder on the freshly picked leaf disintegrated after he fainted. The leaf became dried up and turned yellow and proceeded to mix with the dirt on the ground.

At this moment, Shao Xuan suddenly saw a sea of knowledge, and the shape on the leaf took the form of a weird 2D shape.

What is the painting trying to depict here? Is it a totem?

No, it can’t be.

He looked at the odd, moving drawing. It is almost as if it had life in it as it was squirming.

Is it a bug? A snake? Something else?

It didn’t have eyes, nor did it have feet. It just is a simple line, but it is ceaselessly moving.

What in the world is this?

Shao Xuan doesn’t really know much about this world, and his knowledge of the history is even more scarce. Everything he knows is from what others told him, and all of it was just pure rumors, he couldn’t tell if it was true or not. He doesn’t know what the leaf that was in his hand before he fainted meant.

And he doesn’t know what the gold powder is either. He is even more confused on what the moving lines were trying to tell him..

While Shao Xuan was pondering behind the meaning of this, he noticed that within this weird shape, a faint pair of hands started to materialize. After this pair of hands appeared, the shape became much more realistic. This time, he could guess what it was.

When he was learning traps with Lao Ke (TL: Loki?), he also learned a few new ways to tie knots. And the pair of hands that he was seeing, was tying knots with a rope.

It was only tying knots, is it really that mysterious?

Shao Xuan didn’t understand, but after looking at it for a while, he noticed something was going on. The knots that it was tying were not the ones used to set traps but instead are more like the ones to transmit a message. A very important, serious and powerful message.

After a long time, Shao Xuan still couldn’t see the hands tie any knot. It was just there twirling chaotically.

Shao Xuan was staring at the pair of hands in his mind. However, in reality, he was inside the stone house of some sorcerers.

The leader, two elders and some other people were all here. Their attention was totally directed at a person, lying down on some animal skin.

“Leader, what happened to Shao Xuan? Did he get ambushed by some people?”, Ke ke whispered quietly.

The leader glared at him and said nothing, but he had an ugly expression.

Not only in the tower, but in the house, nobody had a kind expression. Especially Gui He. Gui He brings the people of the flaming horn tribe out and does head counts every day, and even searched the house of those two suspects. He didn’t find anything abnormal, but just as he finished at wanted to leave, he heard that Shao Xuan was heading this way. When he didn’t see much happening, he left. However, Gui He wanted to see if Shao Xuan went back to the house of the two traitors, so he headed back.

Unexpectedly, when he entered, he saw Shao Xuan lying down on the ground. He was scared out of his wits. Shao Xuan was promoted as elder just a while ago, and if something were to happened to him, the sorcerer and the leader would go insane. Good thing is, Shao Xuan’s breathing patterns were normal. Yet he was not responding to his name being called. Gui He could only carry him to the sorcerer for help.

Unfortunately, even when he brought him to the sorcerer, he still couldn’t wake him up either.

Gui He reported some details to the sorcerer and approached the holes with empty containers and sprinkled some of the gold powder onto it.

The two elders started to suspect that maybe the two traitors had returned. Maybe they decided to dig up some stuff, but when Shao Xuan touched it, he fainted. However, upon closer investigation, the facts just didn’t line up. Shao Xuan didn’t even have any signs of injuries on his body, so he didn’t get into a fight. Even more, if these two can knock out Shao Xuan so easily, why didn’t they just kill him?

They couldn’t come up with any conclusive evidence, so everyone just stood in silence.

The sorcerer touched some of the golden powder inside the empty container. When he touched it, his eyes started to sparkle.

“He is moving! Look! He moved!” Gui He yelled in astonishment.

Everyone gazed at Shao Xuan, who was lying on some animal skin. They saw that Shao Xuan’s fingers were twitching. There was no pattern in the movement, however, it was clearly very fast. The originally jittering fingers started to move to a larger area, and the wrists were starting to move. It seemed like Shao Xuan was enduring something very exhausting because he was drenched in sweat.

He didn’t fight, nor did he do anything other than lie there. What was draining his energy?

Everyone was astounded.

“Did he have a bad dream?” Ke ke said quietly. Looking at this man’s sweat-covered face, one could even assume that he was hunting some savage animal inside a dense forest.

The sorcerer saw the movement of his hand and felt that what Ke Ke said was wrong. It seemed familiar…. what is it? The sorcerer’s pupils contracted violently and raised his hand and started waving.

We must get everyone out of here.

The two elders kicked everyone out and returned to look at Shao Xuan’s situation. They also bolted the door shut so no one could enter.

Gui He was reluctant to leave, but after getting a firm stare from one of the elders, he turned around and left.

After confirming that everyone has left, and the door was firmly shut, the elders asked the sorcerer, “What do you think happened?”

The sorcerer looked at Shao Xuan’s hand movements and signed in vain. “Judging by his movements, I can conclude that he is fighting with something, and it seems to be tying knots.”