Master of Ten Thousand Foxes-Chapter 48: Slave Capture Talisman and Zhao Jing’s Face (Double - )
Zhang Jian hurried into the grove, dodging the tangled branches and stepping on the loose fallen leaves beneath his feet.
It wasn’t that he had any strange thoughts... but he suddenly remembered that Fang Yuan had mentioned earlier that she was having her period today! He wanted to bring tissue to Fang Yuan.
"Fang Yuan?"
"Fang Yuan, where are you?"
As he went deeper into the grove, he still couldn’t find Fang Yuan’s figure.
"That’s strange."
He continued to go deeper.
"Fang Yuan?"
"Fang Yuan?"
After a few more minutes of walking, Zhang Jian still hadn’t found Fang Yuan.
He turned around and shouted loudly in all directions.
"Fang Yuan?!"
"Fang Yuan?!"
"Where are you?"
After turning a few times, he was stunned to find that he seemed to be lost... Surrounded in all directions by tangled branches that looked the same, he forgot which direction he had come from.
He tried to look for footprints on the ground but suddenly a gust of wind blew with a "whoosh," sweeping up countless dry branches and leaves, covering the ground so that no footprints were visible.
"Huh? What’s going on?"
Zhang Jian furrowed his brows, pulled out his phone, and wanted to use the compass app.
He opened the app only to see the compass on the screen spinning wildly without pointing in any direction.
"Huh?"
He tried to send a message to his classmates on WeChat, but after sending it, a small circle just kept spinning... Upon closer inspection, his phone had no signal!
"Damn? Is the signal in the suburbs this bad?"
He was slightly unnerved.
He braced himself to walk in the direction that he thought he had come from. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺
But the further he walked, the more unfamiliar it felt.
"This isn’t the path I came from.
"Damn it, I really got lost."
While bewildered, he suddenly saw a figure squatting ahead in the woods.
Did he run into someone answering nature’s call?
He chuckled mischievously, sneaking a peek to see who it was.
But he found that the person wasn’t squatting. Instead, they were kneeling on the ground, deeply bowing towards the depths of the forest, with their heads touching the ground.
Huh?
Zhang Jian noticed that it wasn’t just one person kneeling; there were dozens sparsely kneeling ahead, all facing the depths of the forest, their heads touching the ground.
What’s going on?
What are they kneeling for?
What’s in the depths of the forest?
Raising his head to look, Zhang Jian saw that something seemed to be stuck on a tree ahead, swaying in the wind.
Was that a... Talisman?
Realizing something was wrong, Zhang Jian wanted to turn his head, to not look, to run!
But... it was too late.
The vivid red pattern on the Talisman had already entered his vision a moment before.
The strokes were bold and powerful, forming a pattern like an ancient pictogram, resembling a bizarre vertical eye!
Staring into the vertical eye, Zhang Jian felt as if he saw towering mountains, saw the chain of palaces upon them, saw bronze pillars inscribed with Runes before the palace, saw a high altar dripping with blood and intestines, and saw a large group of slaves kneeling at the foot of the mountain, shackled, deeply bowing, their heads touching the ground, not daring to look up.
And he, Zhang Jian, found himself to be one of these slaves...
Unknowingly, Zhang Jian had also kneeled, deeply bowing towards the depths of the forest, his head touching the ground.
...
In the depths of the forest.
A dozen or so students were arranged in a line on the ground covered with dry branches and leaves.
The first was a female student, stripped of her top, lying motionless on the ground. Her back was slashed open, marked with lines of blood. These lines were not chaotic but had a strange beauty to them, the bold strokes forming some kind of bizarre pictogram... Unfortunately, this pictogram was not completed. It seemed to fail halfway, leaving the writer no choice but to give up and stop.
Her body was deathly pale, rigid, and cold, like a soulless statue, like a zombie that had lost its Soul, lying there motionless.
The second student was a male, also stripped of his top, with his back slashed and marked with lines of blood. These lines also had the bold strokes and formed some kind of bizarre pictogram, also incomplete, failing halfway.
His body was similarly deathly pale, rigid, and cold, like a soulless statue, like a zombie that had lost its Soul, lying there motionless.
The third student had only a few lines on their back. The last stroke seemed too heavy, piercing through the skin, causing blood to gush... He, too, was a failed piece, abandoned by the creator.
The fourth student...
The fifth student...
The sixth student...
The eleventh student...
The twelfth student...
The thirteenth student...
All were failures, with only half-written pictograms on their backs, their bodies turning deathly pale, rigid, and cold.
The fourteenth student, who was Bai Mo’s classmate, Zhao Jing, was stripped of her top, lying on the ground. A sharp pen was constantly moving over her back, etching lines of blood.
Indeed, the sharp pen... this pen was a surgical knife, a small, stainless steel surgical knife. Its smooth, cold blade reflected the bark and leaves of the forest, stained with bright red blood, it fell lightly, sliced open the skin, maneuvered skillfully, leaving trails.
Zhao Jing’s eyes were tightly shut, her skin growing paler, her breathing weakening, and her body becoming more rigid. Only the blood lines carved by the surgical knife on her back became increasingly vivid red.
...
"Say cheese!"
Click!
After snapping another group photo next to the tree, one of the boys suddenly suggested, "Isn’t it taking a bit too long for Zhang Jian and Fang Yuan in there? What are they doing inside?"
