Chapter 7: Before Life and Death

Zhen Jin’s counterattack was successful in wiping out many of the fire-poison bees. However at the same time he attracted more of them.

The fire-poison bees kept coming.

After thrusting hundreds of times, Zhen Jin’s muscles began to feel sore.

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After a thousand sword stabs the soreness swelled into pain. The arm swinging the sword seemed to swell the most, and the sword became heavier in his hand.

Buzz…...

The fire-poison bees seemed endless as a large part of the swarm flew out from the campfire, infuriated due to the casualties taken. The swarm of bees seemed like a tsunami pouring over the couple in a single swoop.

“Damn it!”

Zhen Jin cursed in his heart as he did his best to fight on.

As the sword became even heavier, Zhen Jin knew he had reached his limit.

He was sweating as his mind became faint.

he could no longer feel the sword in his arm because his muscles were numb. it felt as if his arm was made of rusty gears being forced to move.

Under such piercing attacks, the chainmail was useless in defending him.

Zhen Jin gritted his teeth and his heart went out to Zi Di. To protect his fiance, he would not retreat from battle!

He used one hand to hold his sword and the other to pull out the fire-poison bees that had stung him.

The dead bees were thrown to the ground by Zhen Jin.

“My lord, my lord.” Zi Di cried from behind.

Not a single fire-poison bee attacked her perhaps because Zhen Jin drew all of the fire-poison bee’s ire. Every fire-poison bee had abandoned the bonfire to deal with Zhen Jin. It could also be that because of Zhen Jin’s intense movement that his body had a higher temperature than Zi Di’s.

Zhen Jin felt as if time was passing excruciatingly slowly.

In the end his eyes finally cleared up and he saw no fire-poison bees before him.

All over the ground lay the dead bodies of fire-poison bees. He had won!

Zhen Jin’s heart relaxed as his sword fell from his hand, the tip nearly piercing his foot.

Zhen Jin felt numb all over his body.

But soon all the wounds dealt by the fire-poison bees induced a scorching pain all over his body.

He couldn’t feel his right arm anymore as if it didn't exist. It had become completely numb.

“My lord, be careful!” Zi Di exclaimed.

The scream sobered up Zhen Jin’s numb mind.

The bonfire was nearly extinguished as a few more fire-poison bees flew out.

There were still fire-poison bees remaining!

But…..

“I can no longer fight.” Zhen Jin smiled bitterly, very clear of his condition.

He knew if these fire-bees attacked with the others, he could have killed them. But now he had already relaxed his body and couldn’t even hold his sword.

Although he couldn’t feel it, Zhen Jin knew the fire-poison was spreading through his body.

A voice in his heart spoke: If you continue to fight, it will cost your life!

This was his warrior’s intuition.

Zhen Jin trusted this feeling and did not fight on.

“Run away!” Zhen Jin gritted his teeth with a sigh as he took Zi Di’s hand and swiftly ran away.

The couple fled together into the dark jungle.

They had to escape.

If they stayed, the fire-poison bee’s stingers would take their lives. But by running away, despite the dangers, there was still hope.

“I will never give up until the end!” Zhen Jin’s eyes were unyielding and his fighting spirit did not wane.

Behind him, Zi Di was dragged along, and as she was unable to keep up with his pace, she tripped.

Even if Zhen Jin's strength was rock bottom at the moment, Zi Di was still just a magician after all.

“My lord let me stay. I can distract…..” Zi Di was short of breath.

“Shut up!” Zhen Jin suddenly turned to Zi Di.

The girl cried as she crashed into Zhen Jin’s arms.

The next moment the girl was spun around and her vision shifted.

When she came to, she realized she had run into Zhen Jin’s arms.

Because the couple had rashly run into the dark jungle, they were surrounded by restless sounds from all directions.

Zhen Jin attempted to shake off the fire-poison bee swarm but the buzzing swarm kept coming.

Even in the moment of life and death, the teenager kept his wits about him.

The most direct way to deal with the swarm would be to jump into water to force the swarm’s retreat. But they knew that there were python-like vines lurking in the river, so diving in would be suicidal.

In his desperation, Zhen Jin found that his best chance of escape was to sprint along the path he had walked that day.

However

,

his vision and sense of direction was greatly hindered in the dark

,

forcing him to rely on his fuzzy memory as a guide.

After hitting a tree for the third time, Zi Di took a potion from her leather waist pouch.

This potion was stored in a glass bottle and glowed like a firefly.

With this light, Zhen Jin could barely find his way.

The jungle had dense branches and tangled roots. It would be hard to walk here, let alone run!

Most of the time, the bushes and ferns formed a blockade.

Suddenly Zhen Jin and Zi Di hit a wall of vines!

He felt malice exuding from the jungle around him, like countless tentacles reaching out from all directions to block his path to survival.

He attempted to break out of the vines despite the thorns scratching his clothes and skin in the dark.

The only thing that Zhen Jin wanted was to find the path that he had walked on during the day. Otherwise it would simply be impossible to move quickly through the jungle.

Zi Di took out and threw a potion at the fire poison bees. Sometimes the fire-poison bees were attracted and slowed down, but most of the time it had no effect.

“What bad luck.”

Zhen Jin’s heart sank as he ran and found his surroundings becoming more and more unfamiliar. He knew they were stepping into the unknown.

Am I going in the right direction?

He held his head down and ran wildly.

He also didn’t know how far he had gone.

Howl!

Suddenly a beast pounced from the bushes.

“What is that?!” Zhen Jin cried upon seeing a black leopard.

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The bloody scent of a predator assaulted his senses!

By some fluke, he managed to dodge out of the way this time, and continued to run without looking back

The fire-poison bees flying behind them and the beast that looked like a black leopard became entangled with each other.

The black leopard quickly lost and took the initiative to retreat.

Because of this, the distance between Zhen Jin and the fire-poison bees increased.

But the fire-poison bees despised Zhen Jin and would never give up. As the chase continued, the distance between them and the couple grew shorter.

Zhen Jin was approaching his physical limit, his legs feeling like lead.

He was feeling weak and started to slow down.

As the terrain became steeper, a seemingly bottomless cliff appeared before the two by the light of the fireflies.

While fleeing they had lost all sense of direction and were in unfamiliar territory.

The fire-poison bees were coming from behind.

“There is a cave over there with light!” Zi Di suddenly said.

The cave had a distinct but weak orange light coming from it and seemed to be inhabited.

Zhen Jin exhaled with bright eyes as he and Zi Di plunged into the cave.

When they entered the cave, a searing odour rushed into them.

There were no signs of human activity in the cave, there was only a uniquely peculiar glowing ore. This ore was bright red and emitted intense heat, and gave of a shimmering orange light.

From the mouth of the cave, the size and quantity of the ore seemed small, however the deeper one went into the cave, the more both increased.

After a few hundred steps, Zhen Jin felt like he was in an oven and Zi Di was already sweating.

It was impossible to continue moving forward. The hot air inside the cave would steam them alive.

However the fire-poison bees also entered the cave to chase after them like the grim reaper.

The two were being hunted by the bees and had to grit their teeth as Zhen Jin led Zi Di further down into the cave.

Here the life and death chase had reached its peak.

Hope emerged within Zhen Jin's heart: Although he couldn’t fight the fire-poison bees, he could still use the terrain around him to somehow escape the fire-poison bee’s assault.

As far as he knew, the fire-poison bees used heat to lock onto their foes. The higher the heat, the more fearsome the fire-poison bees’s attack!

The future was dark, but there was still a glimmer of light struggling.

The couple clenched their teeth and pushed themselves to their physical limits, as they staggered forward one step at a time.

The cave became narrower, and the red hot ore began to cover the walls.

The walls were too hot to touch!

“There are traces of beasts.” Zi Di suddenly whispered.

Zhen Jin looked where the girl was pointing and saw claw marks on the cave wall.

To live in such an extreme environment, this wild beast was definitely not simple!

Zhen Jin’s heart sank and gave a wry smile.

Why should he care about a beast? He had no choice!

After the fire-poison bee swarm entered the cave, although they were distracted by the ore and lied down to absorb their heat, they never gave up on attacking them, and were always flying close behind.

The future was uncertain. The couple could only stubbornly go forward.

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Suddenly, Zhen Jin’s body started to sway.

Soon his body and mind began to feel dizzy making him almost pass out on the spot.

“This is bad.” Zhen Jin’s footsteps and vision began to tremble like an earthquake, making it hard for him to stand upright.

The fire-poison bees attacked!

Zhen Jin had to put his hand on the cave wall.

Sizzle…..

The cave wall burned his leather gloves as black smoke rose from them.

Simultaneously a stench came from Zhen Jin’s body.

The smell caused the fire-poison bee swarm to become agitated as they gave up the ore, replacing their laziness with killing intent straight at Zhen Jin.

Zi Di suddenly turned pale.

She suddenly realized: Not only did fire-poison bees chase things based on heat, but also by the smell of its fire-poison! Fire-poison emitted a special smell that excited the fire-poison bee’s fierceness.

Zhen Jin had a lot of fire-poison in his body meaning many fire-poison bees died at his hands.

In Zi Di’s fright, she poured a potion onto Zhen Jin’s body in an attempt to hide the fire-poison’s smell. To her surprise it worked.

The fire poison bee swarm’s killing intent dissipated and they once more focused on the boiling rocks around them.

“Quickly, the potion will only last for a short time.” Zi Di put her arms around Zhen Jin’s shoulder and carefully dragged Zhen Jin forward.

After just a few steps, Zhen Jin felt his head spinning and lost his sense of direction, making progress truly difficult.

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The fire poison burned his entire body, his head felt like a giant ticking clock.

He had only a small bit of clarity in his mind as he weakly said to Zi Di: “Go, escape now.”

Her body contained no fire poison, thus the fire poison bees in the cave only wanted to attack Zhen Jin.

Zi Di had the possibility of escape!

But the girl fiercely shook her head, her eyes tearful as she resolutely said: “No my Lord! I will not abandon you. It was with great difficulty that I found you and reached this point. We cannot give up now!”

Zhen Jin sighed and suddenly pushed Zi Di away.

“Go quickly!”

“No my lord!”

As the two pulled each other they suddenly slipped and fell.

The fire poison bees flew overhead.

The moment of death came!

Zi Di closed her eyes and Zhen Jin glared at the swarm as he lay powerless to stand.

He stared hopelessly at the fire-poison bees flying above, they were only a finger’s length away from his face…..

Suddenly from within the cave’s depths came a beastly roar.

The roar echoed on the cave walls intimidating and throwing the fire poison bees into disarray.

They seemed drunk as they collided into each other midair.

Dong dong dong……

Soon after, a series of noise resembling hercules beating a war drum resounded within the cave.

The head of a monster swiftly appeared. The figure was so fast that the couple’s eyes could only see a black shadow in the wind.

The mysterious cave monster faced the fire-poison bees.

Faced with this monster, the aggressive and savage fire-poison bee swarm began to panic and run away.

The monster quickly pursued them out of the cave.

Inside the cave it was quiet.

The couple laid down and gasped for breath in a momentarily daze. 

Notes

Nothing like having your first relationship issue being who is going to sacrifice themselves for the other. Also did you know the author really likes chase scenes? I mean it's super common in Xianxia but he loves using it as a plot setup a lot. The longest chase scene I think I’ve read from him lasted around 30-40 chapters actually.

Translation notes

So the editors suggested that although Zi Di constantly says 大人 it in fact doesn’t translate to “senior but rather “my lord” based on context.

肌肉 means muscle but also shares a similar pronunciation to chicken. I wonder if anyone has used this as a pun before.

“Cried” was put in here cause Chinese doesn’t feel like adding a verb beside just stating Zhen Jin saw something

硬着头: persevere/stubborn

举步维艰: chinese idiom translated as “to make progress only with great difficulty”