Chapter 98: One Person Has Vanished from the Team?!

Su took up Wang Chen’s thread. “But if it happens a few more times, the effect of taking away vision won’t be so good, will it? Because one grows used to it, to some degree.”

Wang Chen nodded. “We have to kill it before it gets used to it.”

Su fell silent, thinking. Then his expression suddenly twisted; it seemed the wounds on his back had begun to hurt. A gentle aura spread from Wang Chen’s palm, and a healing wave landed on Su’s back, slowly mending the scars.

After thanking him, Su hesitated and asked, “Do we really have no chance to escape?”

At that, Wang Chen gave a cold laugh. “Now you’re afraid? Weren’t you mighty enough before? Weren’t you going to become a Windchaser at twelve?”

Hearing the mockery in Wang Chen’s voice, Su’s face darkened and he lowered his head. “Yes. I was too childish. My childishness killed so many people.”

Wang Chen looked at the twelve-year-old boy; his eyes were already reddening, on the verge of tears.

Wang Chen sighed and said gravely, “There is a way out.”

Su lifted his head. “How?”

“I have a skill that can create a layer of concealment, enough to hide us here on this peak.”

“As long as we hold out long enough, the great wind will eventually grow hungry and go hunting. Once it leaves, we can climb down the mountain. I have supplies in my storage ring—enough for us to outlast it,” Wang Chen said.

“That’s great!” Su’s face lit up with joy, though he still dared not speak loudly. “Why didn’t you say so earlier, Brother Wang Chen? You had me terrified for nothing.”

Wang Chen said nothing. After a short silence, Su looked at him in puzzlement and was about to ask when a flash of deep blue light flickered in Wang Chen’s eyes.

“Brother Wang Chen, did you take away the great wind’s sight again? It can work without facing it directly?” Su asked curiously.

Wang Chen nodded, then suddenly asked, “Are you not really close to those wind hunters who risked their lives for you, either?”

Su looked embarrassed and said awkwardly, “That’s right. I only made some promises in my grandfather’s name to give them benefits, and they came with me to hunt the wind.”

“That explains why you didn’t notice something so strange.”

“What strange thing?”

Wang Chen said quietly, “One person is missing.”

Su’s eyes flew wide open, and Wang Chen went on, “The wind hunter who led us at the front—he’s gone.”

“I don’t know when, or how, he vanished. All I know is that when the toxic locusts took flight and began attacking everyone, and I was about to use a binding spell to reinforce the defense, I could no longer find him.”

While climbing the cliff face, Wang Chen could not easily turn his head toward whatever he wanted to observe, and his vision was severely obstructed.

Moreover, at that time all his attention was on dealing with the swarm of toxic locusts, so he had not noticed the others.

Only after the swarm could no longer be contained in the small hollow did he begin thinking of ways to help the others, and his first target had been Su.

These factors combined meant he had failed to notice the guide.

A wave of gooseflesh rose over Su’s body. “Could he be a ghost... Brother Wang Chen, I’m a little scared.”

“Mm, perhaps because this crack is rather dark.” Wang Chen took a camping lamp from his storage space and adjusted it to the lowest brightness.

Soft light filled the small enclosure, and Su felt some of the gooseflesh on his skin subside, allowing him to calm down and think.

“That guide... should be Dago. He’s one of the candidates in the chief’s attendant selection camp, and I do know he has some skill.”

Su considered it. “But when he learned such superb climbing techniques, enough to slip away without a sound, I have no idea.”

Once his mind settled, Su quickly cast aside his thoughts of spirits and ghosts.

Although his favorite refrain still seemed to be something like “By the ancestors,” he had, after all, wandered through the world of the internet for so long that he had been somewhat tempered by atheism, and he was still inclined to look for worldly explanations.

So he guessed that Dago, seeing the swarm of toxic locusts bearing down on them, had grown afraid and abandoned them, escaping alone.

Perhaps he had fled to the reverse side of the cliff and climbed down from there.

Su shared his guess with Wang Chen.

Wang Chen’s expression remained blank. “What means do you think he would have to move swiftly across the cliff face and hide himself on the far side?”

“That would be pretty hard to imagine,” Wang Chen said.

Su scratched his head. “It’s precisely because it’s hard to imagine that I called it superb.”

Wang Chen replied without confirming or denying it. “You have one guess, and I have another... no, not a guess exactly. It’s more like a wild guess.”

Su frowned. “This doesn’t seem like the time for that. Whatever happened to Dago, our most urgent task is still to use Brother Wang Chen’s skill to hide ourselves.”

Wang Chen ignored Su and continued on his own. “My wild guess is this: Dago didn’t hide on the back of the cliff at all. He hid inside the cliff.”

Su froze. “Inside the cliff? How would he hide in there? Dig a hole on the spot?”

He found it somewhat amusing and, suppressing the curve at the corner of his mouth, said, “Brother Wang Chen, stop joking. We should still think of a way—”

“Why must it be dug on the spot? Wouldn’t a hole dug in advance do?” Wang Chen interrupted.

Su frowned. “Why would he dig a hole in advance? He wouldn’t know there would be toxic locusts—”

At that point, Su suddenly went still.

Seeing his reaction, Wang Chen said, “Yes. Why did he seem to know there would be toxic locusts in advance?”

“It is still my wild guess, but the toxic locusts were placed in that small hollow by him. Perhaps he used some method to render them unconscious, then woke them after we arrived.”

With a flick of his fingertips, Wang Chen produced a bundle of rope in his hand. “This is the climbing safety rope made by your wind hunters. Smell it. Doesn’t it have a strange odor?”

Su took it and brought it close to his nose. Sure enough, he smelled a faint scent, like the odor left behind after some insect had burst.

Seeing Su fiddling with the rope in suspicion, Wang Chen went on, “I didn’t know where this smell came from, but I suspect it enrages the toxic locusts and makes them attack. So perhaps it comes from the toxic locust’s natural enemy.”

“Dago may have used this scent to awaken the unconscious toxic locusts. Since he was the guide, he could do it up front under the guise of scouting and placing anchors. Then the awakened locusts would attack us, since we were carrying the scent of their natural enemy.”

The confusion on Su’s face grew heavier. “But why would he do that?”

“Because he wants you dead. In fact, he was just about to do exactly that,” Wang Chen said coldly.

“What?” Shock surfaced on Su’s face. “Why would he want me dead? Just now? Brother Wang Chen, did you see him? Where is he?”

“He’s right behind you.”

No sooner had Wang Chen spoken than Su heard movement behind him.

In the cramped crevice, he had no time to turn and look; he only felt a fierce gust of wind slam toward him.