CH 66

Su Xiao Pei could feel her heart beating erratically at her throat. She didn’t really know what happen. All she knew was that Ran Fei Ze was suddenly next to her, and that they turned quite a few times. She hadn’t stabilized herself yet but she looked up and saw that she could not see anything.

There was a fog in front of her.

Su Xiao Pei was a little scared. She heard Ran Fei Ze voice, “Hold tight.” She subconsciously pinched her legs and wrapped them around Ran Fei Ze. At the same time, Ran Fei Ze held tightly onto her and there was a popping sound. Ran Fei Ze moved and seemed to hit something.

Su Xiao Pei clenched her mouth and gritted her teeth, struggling to keep her grip on Ran Fei Ze. After a while, Su Xiao Pei felt that they were raising up into the air, she almost screamed but she quickly bit her lips. He suddenly jerked and this movement scared her and she bit down on her lips. The pain made her sober but she calmed down. Ran Fei Ze stopped at this time and Su Xiao Pei looked carefully and found that they were standing on top of a tall tree with thick white fog everywhere, unable to see the distance and she had little visibility.

“Are you all right?” Ran Fei Ze asked.

“I’m fine.” Su Xiao Pei answered quickly. She saw that Ran Fei Ze was holding onto a long rattan cane.

Ran Fei Ze swing the rattan cane and it became a weapon, he used the rattan cane to probe the surrounding and with a swing, he used it to chop the surrounding trees.

It was quiet at this time, no sound was heard, Ran Fei Ze said, “The array has changed.

Su Xiao Pei wanted to ask, ‘what are we going to do?’ but she knew that she could not do anything, so she just kept her mouth shut.

Ran Fei Ze listened, looked around again and tied Su Xiao Pei to him with the rattan, “I will be going up, hold tight, don’t fall.” Su Xiao Pei responded quickly, Ran Fei Ze carefully jumped up and climbed for a while, the dense fog was still there but it was fading the higher they climb. Ran Fei Ze looked around, suddenly he made a long howl, after waiting for a while, they could not hear any response.

“Maybe they didn’t hear it.”

“En.” Ran Fei Ze took her hand and squeeze, “Don’t panic, we will definitely get out of it.”

“En, I won’t panic.” She was just tired. Fortunately, he had been supporting her for a while, and Su Xiao Pei felt that he was really useless.

“Let’s wait here first, if…” Ran Fei Ze didn’t finish speaking because they heard a loud noise, and the tree under them shook and fell to one side. Through the thick fog, they were able to see that the tree they were on was about to fall onto another tree, but a few arrows was shot out but Ran Fei Ze was able to avoid them and with a swing of his hand towards the tree in front of him, he managed to change his direction and turned around to avoid all the traps.

But more arrows were shot at them.

“Hug tightly.” Ran Fei Ze yelled and tore open the rattan that was on Su Xiao Pei’s waist. He swung the rattan and entangled it with the tree branch, with his strength, he swung the both of them to another branch, escaping.

He would stand firmly on the tree branch, but Su Xiao Pei felt that she could not hold on any longer and was falling. Before she could fall, Ran Fei Ze reached out and held her up.

“Run out of energy?”

“No.” Although she said so, he still heard something wrong, he looked around and determined that nothing would come at them for a while, then he let Su Xiao Pei down.

Just now Ran Fei Ze pulled the tree vines hard, Su Xiao Pei felt a burning sensation at her waist, then an arrow had brushed against her arm, which made her almost scream, but she was afraid to disturb Ran Fei Ze. She gritted her teeth and dare not speak out. Ran Fei Ze put her down, turned his head and saw that her clothes were torn. He frowned and carefully lifted her sleeves and saw that she had a wound on her arm, it had only scratch the skin and there was little blood, so he was relieved that it wasn’t serious.

“It’s just a minor injury, it’s fine.” He patted her head.

“En.” Su Xiao Pei thought that Soldier really knew how to comfort people, he did not make a fuss, making her feel that it wasn’t serious.

Even though Ran Fei Ze said that it was a minor injury, he did not feel any better, “Where does it hurt?”

Su Xiao Pei shook his head, ignoring the pain in her waist. Ran Fei Ze looked up and down at her, then he was satisfied. He waited for a while but he did not hear a response after a long while.

“Is there a flare in your bag?”

He shook her head, “There is a fog, I’m afraid they won’t be able to see it. And the smoke will only indicate a general direction. We are not far from them. The smoke is useless.”

“Oh.” Su Xiao Pei stood against Ran Fei Ze and stopped talking.

Ran Fei Ze didn’t dare to act arrogantly this time. He didn’t have any weapons and he was carrying Su Xiao Pei on his back. He had hurt her accidentally therefore, he was not willing to take any risk lest he hurt her even more.

The two of them stayed on the tree for a while, but nothing changed, the fog hadn’t dispersed, and the sound of the hidden trap hadn’t been heard. Ran Fei Ze thought for a while, Carried Su Xiao Pei and jumped up, he managed to find a densely populated place and set her down. “Wait for a while, once the fog dispersed, we will leave.”

“Okay.” Su Xiao Pei nodded, still optimistic. “Maybe they are looking for us too, and they will find us in a while.”

“En.” Ran Fei Ze sat down beside her and leaned against her. “I won’t leave you.”

Su Xiao Pei was very touched and smiled at him. There was no words between them and they sat there for a long time. Nothing happened, the dense fog did not spread nor dispersed. No one called them, no sound was heard.

Su Xiao Pei was sitting and begun to feel sleepy, her head slumped for a moment and she saw Ran Fei Ze frowned. She stretched out her hand to support her chin, and she fell asleep on her pam for a while before she woke up suddenly. When she woke up, she looked at Ran Fei Ze smiled and apologized, forcing her spirits up.

“It’s been a long time, does Soldier want to go exploring?”

“Not going. If I leave and can’t find this tree, I will lose you.”

“Soldier can bring me along.”

“Not going. What if there is another hidden trap, I will lose you.”

“Oh. That’s right.” She was a burden. “Sorry.”

“It should be I’m sorry.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Does the wound hurt?”

She shook her head and asked, “What shall we do now?”

“Wait.”

“Wait till when?”

“Everything should be okay once you wake up from your sleep.”

Really? Su Xiao Pei couldn’t tell if he was joking or not. Her eyelids could not hold on any longer, she didn’t sleep well the previous night and she was too nervous ever since she woke up. Now, she just relax for a little and she felt her exhaustion catching up to her. Her head hurts, there was nothing to do up in the tree, so she closed her eyes and fell asleep. “Soldier, I will close my eyes for a while, if anything happens please remember to wake me up.

Then she fell asleep, Ran Fei Ze was surprised, he chuckled. Miss, why are you so funny. When we first met, you were gritting your teeth and climbing mountains, you were not afraid to break your legs and was willing to stay up late. When did you become like this? He sigh, sat nearer to her and extended his arms to make sure that she was leaning on him. Anyway, they are not able to move from this spot, so they would have to wait. He might as well let her sleep.

There was still no movement around, the dense fog was still there. Ran Fei Ze thought about it and pulled Su Xiao Pei’s arm gently so that he was able to see her injuries. Her injuries were minor and the bloodstains had already crusted over. He frowned and thinking that it was not good for them to keep waiting, but he was not willing to leave her alone to explore the area, and he does not where the team was. Moreover, this array is quite strange, just as he was wondering what to do next, he heard Su Xiao Pei calling out, “Senior… Senior…”

Ran Fei Ze jump up and immediately pulled Su Xiao Pei up with him, startling Su Xiao Pei awake and heard Ran Fei Ze shouted, “Brother Ji.”

There was no response for a while, Ran Fei Ze frowned and shouted again, “Brother Ji!”. This time, they heard Ji Jia Wen’s response, “Senior Ran, I heard… be careful…”

With that caution, several arrows were shot out again, Ran Fei Ze was annoyed with this traps and with a wave of this arm, and the arrows were deflected. At this time, Ji Jia Wen’s voice gotten closer, “Senior Ran, I’m sorry, I accidentally triggered the trap, I’ll come over now.”

Su Xiao Pei couldn’t stand anymore, leaning softly on Ran Fei Ze’s back, Ran Fei Ze patted her face, “Don’t sleep, wake up, they have found us.”

“En.” Su Xiao Pei promised and nod her head, but somehow her head felt heavier.

At the time, Ran Fei Ze heard the sound of people moving from the place where Ji Jia Wen spoke, they turned around and found that Ji Jia Wen stood on the tree behind them, he was waving at them, “Senior Ran, I’ve finally found you.”

“Where are the rest?” Ji Jia Wen’s question gave Ran Fei Ze an ominous premonition.

“I don’t know. I ran into the field and didn’t see them.” Ji Jia Wen looked around and seemed afraid to jump. He just stood on the tree and asked, “I was about to look for Senior Brother but I saw the fog getting denser. I checked with Head Cao and knew that the situation was getting more dangerous, I hurried back but I wasn’t able to find you anymore. The fog was too dense and too wide. This array is still in effect, I wasn’t able to hear sounds quite clearly. I have searched for a long time and saw a broken tree. I thought that Senior Ran must have broken the tree to leave a mark for your direction and went alone.”

Ran Fei Ze frowned, “The tree was broken by someone?”

When Ji Jia Wen heard Ran Fei Ze’s question, he became nervous, “Didn’t Senior Ran broke the tree?”

Ran Fei Ze help Su Xiao Pei. If the tree was broken by someone and the direction was towards them, then someone wanted to trap them in the array.

“How did this array come about? Didn’t you explore this area before? How did it go wrong?”

“I didn’t make a mistake, the points have been marked and I can walked out of this forest safety. I don’t know what happened. Ji Jia Wen took a deep breath and continued to look around. Ran Fei Ze asked him another time, “Are you sure the trees were broken by someone?”

“I’m sure.” Ji Jia Wen answered confidently. “I saw it properly, the palm prints on the trunk and point of breakage was obviously not made from any sharp tools, it was made by a person.” When Ji Jia Wen said this, he suddenly shut up. He understood it. The tree was not broken by Ran Fei Ze. They were high up in the trees, someone broke the tree and force them to the center of the array. That means someone within their group wanted to kill Ran Fei Ze.

“Why did you come here? You left them and you were lost. What should you have done?”

Ji Jia Wen scratched his head, “But I am carrying Senior Ran’s weapon and Senior Ran is with Miss Su. Senior Ran and Miss Su does not have any weapons. No matter what I should do, I should be finding Sir Ran and returning his weapon back to him. No matter what happen, I shouldn’t leave my seniors alone.”

Ran Fei Ze sighed, this silly boy, he should have brought everyone with him but he actually followed the trap by his own. Ji Jia Wen also seemed to react to his own stupidity and scratched his head, “I was really anxious at that time, Senior Fang was injured, and everyone can’t seem to find each other and traps kept activating by their own. The seniors started fighting. I was afraid that if I took long to follow your traces it would be gone and harder to find you, moreover, Sir Ran does not have a weapon. I wish to bring it to you soon.”

“Okay, that’s enough.” Ran Fei Ze waved his hand, “Since you’re here, do you have a less dangerous way to leave?”

“Yes, I’ve marked them. Although this array changes from time to time. I have found my way.”

“That’s good, let’s leave together.”

Ji Jia Wen looked at the sword on his shoulder and then looked at Ran Fei Ze. Ran Fei Ze waved again, “I am carrying Miss Su, and you carry the sheath, just pass the knife to me.”

“Okay.” Ji Jia wen responded, was optimistic about the terrain and jumped to the tree on Ran Fei Ze’s side. Ran Fei Ze shake Su Xiao Pei, “Haven’t you wake up yet? We’re leaving, stand up, I will carry you again.”

Su Xiao Pei blinked, she was a little confuse and answered. Ran Fei Ze turned around, showing Su Xiao Pei his back and bent down. Su Xiao Pei wanted to stand up, but she felt and fell back down. This frightened Ran Fei Ze, he quickly turned back to face her and grabbed her wrist to stabilize her lest she fell down the tree.

However, this action caused the trap to be activated, several arrows shot out from the tree in front of him. Ran Fei Ze was still pulling Su Xiao Pei and had no time to dodge. When Ji Jia Wen saw the situation, he took the sheath and jumped in front of them, the sheath unfolded and covered the three of them. There were several sounds and the soon, the arrows had stopped.

Ran Fei Ze and Ji Jia Wen was shock. Ran Fei Ze was more shocked that Su Xiao Pei could not open her eyes, and her body was so weak that she had no strength to hold on to him. He held her arms and pulled her sleeves of her injured arm again, the wound was starting to turn dark.

That arrow had poison on it.