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Novel: [Night Without Borders]
Chapter 80: [Abnormality]
Author: [Chen Dong]
Translator: [Shadow Knight AK]
Editor: [Shadow Knight AK]
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Behind Qin Ming, Xu Sheng, and their companions, Chi Xia City blazed like daylight, its towering, thick walls of blue stone radiating a brilliant glow.
Ahead of them lay a night shrouded in mist, where majestic mountains loomed, their dark silhouettes casting deep shadows across the landscape.
The scene before and behind them felt like two entirely different worlds.
Xu Sheng remarked, "After the first Spring Thunder, the mountains have temporarily darkened again. But in a few days, when the underground Fire Springs fully awaken and surge, the wilderness will transform into another extraordinary spectacle."
Even now, the landscape had already changed.
Most of the ice and snow had melted, revealing the earthy scent of the soil, and new buds were sprouting on the branches of ancient trees.
"Could our luck finally be turning?" Zhou Lin exclaimed excitedly, pointing her long spear forward.
By now, they had ventured deep into the mountain range.
"Is that a Mutated Plant? Old lady's about to hit the fortune!" Zhou Lin, though only in her twenties, often referred to herself this way due to her bold and unrestrained nature.
"It really does seem to be one of those special plants brimming with spiritual energy, and it's newly emerged! We might still be in time!" Xu Sheng was equally astonished.
Without another word, the three of them sprinted forward.
Deep within the forest, a unique ancient tree bloomed with silver flowers that radiated a soft, ethereal light, gradually illuminating the dense undergrowth.
Mutated Plants could transform various birds and beasts, and if humans consumed them, they could enhance their physical constitution and undergo a rapid mutation.
This wasn't Qin Ming's first encounter with a Mutated Plant.
Once, while traveling to Yinteng (Silver Vine) Town with Xu Yueping, they had witnessed a crimson glow erupting, accompanied by the dance of "Red Butterflies."
Unfortunately, they had been too far away, and the petals had already been scattered into the night sky by strong winds.
"We actually made it!" Xu Sheng exclaimed, overjoyed.
In the forest ahead, an ancient tree was rapidly sprouting, blossoming, and radiating a crimson glow, filling the air with a refreshing fragrance.
A gentle breeze caused some petals to detach, drifting through the night like dancing fireflies.
Mutated Plants bloomed without regard for seasons or patterns, making them extremely difficult to find proactively.
Moreover, their splendor was fleeting; after their radiant peak, they would wither and die completely.
This rarity explained Zhou Lin and Xu Sheng's excitement—they had truly struck gold.
"Xiao Qin, don't hesitate! Grab every petal!" Xu Sheng urged.
"The mutant creatures from the Great Mountain will be here soon. We need to hurry!" Zhou Lin thrust her spear forward, snapping off a thick branch with a crack.
"ROAR!" A ferocious beast roared, startling all nearby creatures.
Qin Ming and Xu Sheng desperately wanted to carry the entire ancient tree away, but it was impractical.
Massive raptors had already appeared in the sky, swooping down toward them.
The emergence of a Mutated Plant inevitably leads to chaos, as no one can monopolize it.
"Ugh, what's with this bloody taste?" Zhou Lin spat out the glowing flower bud she had just put in her mouth.
"Ptooey!" Xu Sheng also spat out his mouthful, his expression darkening.
He quickly bent down to examine the roots of the tree, sensing something was wrong.
"The bloody stench is overwhelming!" Qin Ming added.
Xu Sheng's expression turned grave.
"This isn't a natural Mutated Plant," he said. "It's been artificially cultivated. Could an Outsider be trying to lure beasts here to refine medicine?"
As a former Traveling Merchant with extensive knowledge, he immediately bowed toward the depths of the forest.
"Forgive us, Senior," he called out. "We stumbled upon this place unintentionally and have trespassed."
"Let's get out of here!" Zhou Lin whispered urgently.
A massive claw descended from the sky, reaching for them.
Zhou Lin thrust her spear upward, sparks flying as it collided with the claw.
The raptor, nearly ten meters long, had black wings like steel blades that sliced through treetops as it swooped low. Its eyes glowed with golden light.
"Roar!"
Under the night sky, hordes of Mountain Beasts charged from the forest, their dense, dark shadows swarming overhead.
"How long has it been? The sky is already swarming with birds and beasts! We need to break through now!"
The three of their faces paled.
The mutated plant Qin Ming had discovered last time was located just outside the Great Mountain, very close to Yinteng (Silver Vine) Town, so there were no particularly powerful mutant creatures in the area.
Now, deep within the mountain range, their situation was far more dangerous.
"A five-times mutated venomous python, already emerging from its burrow in early spring!" Xu Sheng's face darkened as he confronted a python as thick as a water vat, which lunged directly at him.
"Is it a spiritual creature?" Qin Ming charged forward.
"No, but it's highly venomous! Watch out for its poison mist!" Xu Sheng warned urgently.
The python opened its jaws, unleashing a violent gust of wind that propelled a vast cloud of iridescent, multicolored mist toward them.
Heavenly Light flowed across Qin Ming's skin as he dodged instantly.
There was no need for a bloody fight against a non-spiritual creature.
The python, enraged, whipped its tail, snapping trees as thick as a man's thigh and lashing out at Qin Ming.
"Thud!"
Qin Ming's hammer struck, instantly turning the python's tail into a bloody mess, severing a section.
Meanwhile, Zhou Lin clashed twice with a golden leopard using her spear.
Xu Sheng faced a four-meter-tall black bear, roaring, "What rotten luck! Trouble the moment we enter the mountains! You blind bear dares to bully me? I'll take your gall bladder!"
Without hesitation, he charged forward and swiftly brought the bear down.
"Brother Xu, run! There's a bigger bear!" Qin Ming shouted.
Xu Sheng froze for a moment, then his face paled.
A bigger bear?
A deafening roar echoed through the forest.
Behind the four-meter-tall "cub," a six-meter-tall behemoth emerged, its massive form looming menacingly over Xu Sheng.
"Roar!" The black cub seemed to be complaining.
"Could this be a creature mutated six or seven times?" Xu Sheng's scalp tingled with dread.
A massive shadow lunged forward, and a terrifying paw slammed down with earth-shattering force.
He turned and fled.
If it had been just one bear, Qin Ming might have considered fighting.
But with the forest teeming with birds and beasts, lingering was suicidal.
Worse, these creatures saw them as living elixirs, their eyes burning with predatory hunger.
"Thud!"
Qin Ming finally clashed with the giant bear, smashing its paw into a bloody pulp with his Black Gold Hammer.
Only then did the creature cease its pursuit.
The brutal display also deterred the other mutant creatures.
Even so, the three of them were battered and bruised, having narrowly escaped being overwhelmed by the horde.
"I thought we'd struck fortune," Zhou Lin lamented, "but it's just been one disaster after another. We almost ended up as bear food."
She felt like her luck had completely abandoned her lately.
"Are there really Outsiders there?" Qin Ming asked.
Xu Sheng shook his head. "Not necessarily. It might just be a blood-colored potion from Beyond the Mortal Realm that someone used to lure the beasts."
Zhou Lin glared at Xu Sheng. "Xu Sheng, did you get mixed up with something sinister when you were a Traveling Merchant? I swear, every time I come out with you, we run into trouble."
"How could that be?" Xu Sheng protested.
After the fierce battle, Zhou Lin and Xu Sheng were exhausted.
They decided to return to rest and recuperate, planning to venture back into the mountains the next day.
"Tomorrow, we just need to find the Spiritual Shells. No need for a bloody fight—their combat power is extremely weak," Xu Sheng assured them.
The following day, Xu Sheng and Zhou Lin led the way, with Qin Ming following closely behind, as they arrived at a vast swampy area in search of the rare Spiritual Shells.
The area was sparsely wooded, dotted with numerous water pits and extensive mudflats, all shrouded in a faint black mist.
"See? That glowing substance in the mud? That's the trail left by the Spiritual Shells," Xu Sheng pointed to the blue, viscous fluid in the muddy water.
"Be careful," Zhou Lin warned. "We were ambushed here last time."
This time, however, they encountered no hidden attackers.
An hour later, they were fleeing for their lives, a pack of Mud Dragons snapping at their heels like hounds.
The entire swamp seethed with chaos.
Deep within the seemingly tranquil swamp lay a massive Mud Dragon nest.
These creatures resembled crocodiles but possessed a single horn on their heads and long, powerful legs that allowed them to outrun even the swiftest crocodiles.
Each adult Mud Dragon weighed several thousand pounds, their crimson eyes burning with fury as they pursued the intruders, mistakenly believing they were after their eggs. With early spring arriving, some Mud Dragons had already begun laying their clutches.
"Aaaah!" Zhou Lin screamed in frustration after escaping the swamp, her entire body coated in thick mud, her elegant hair and face plastered with muck.
The once-strikingly beautiful woman now looked like a mud-caked monkey, her anger boiling over.
"Xu Sheng, there's definitely something wrong with you! Every time we come out lately, we run into the worst luck!"
"Don't blame me!" Xu Sheng retorted, his own temper flaring. "How was I supposed to know the Spiritual Shell's trail led straight into the Mud Dragon nest?!"
He even suspected someone was deliberately sabotaging him.
Qin Ming was equally exasperated, having taken several tumbles in the mud himself.
Now all three of them looked equally filthy.
Without a doubt, Zhou Lin transformed back into Sister Fenfang, cursing all the way from the mountains to the city.
Xu Sheng tried to calm her down.
"Don't be angry," he said. "Tonight, I'll visit my Traveling Merchant Master and ask him where spiritual creatures have recently appeared that are relatively safe to approach."
The sight of Zhou Lin covered in mud only fueled her fury, drawing stares from many in the city.
"Brother Xu, why don't you have your Master check you out first? To see if there's anything wrong with you," Qin Ming suggested, wiping mud from his face.
In truth, Xu Sheng was starting to doubt his own sanity.
He nodded. "Alright, I'll have him give me a thorough examination tonight."
At dawn, Chi Xia City glowed brilliantly as the trio set out once more.
"My Master said there's nothing wrong with me," Xu Sheng immediately explained upon meeting them, determined to prove it wasn't his fault.
"We're heading to Red Mist Cave this time? There's a massive swarm of Fire Bats there—their numbers are terrifying! We can't afford to provoke them!" Zhou Lin shook her head.
"We're not going to provoke the Fire Bats," Xu Sheng clarified. "There's a frigid pool connected to an underground river in the grotto. Spiritual Eels have appeared there."
Red Mist Cave lay deep within the mountain's belly.
The three of them followed a fissure into the depths, where the interior wasn't as dark as expected, thanks to a reviving Fire Spring within the mountain's core.
"Won't this disturb the Fire Bats in the Red Mist Cave?" Qin Ming asked, worried.
Xu Sheng shook his head. "Don't worry. The Red Mist Cave is vast, and we're heading in the opposite direction from the Bat Nest."
They arrived at a frigid pool within the Red Mist Cave.
The black water was bone-chillingly cold, and flashes of iridescent light flickered beneath the surface, confirming the presence of Spiritual Eels.
"Bait, fishing rods, harpoons, and a large net—I've brought everything we need. We're fully prepared. The moment of harvest is at hand!" Xu Sheng declared confidently.
Zhou Lin scoffed. "Stop saying things like that. Just being out here with you is giving me nightmares."
Half an hour later, the Red Mist Cave echoed with incessant flapping sounds.
A massive swarm of Fire Bats surged forth, darkening the sky as they swarmed across the region.
"Why are there so many?" Qin Ming exclaimed, horrified. "We can't possibly kill them all!"
Xu Sheng explained, "The Great Mountain is teeming with mutated insects. The City Lord's Manor specifically ordered everyone to leave this Fire Bat colony undisturbed, hoping they'd control the pests. Instead, the Fire Bat population has exploded."
In the end, the three of them had no choice but to become their own "bait."
They plunged into the frigid pool and fled along the underground river.
Throughout their journey, they relentlessly searched for an exit to return to the surface, finding only a few air vents.
After swimming for over ten miles, they finally emerged from a mountain lake.
"Aaaah..." Zhou Lin couldn't contain herself any longer, warning Xu Sheng never to ask her to come out again.
"It's not Brother Xu's fault," Qin Ming interjected, his eyes hardening with suspicion. "I'll investigate this when we get back. This can't be a coincidence—it feels like someone's deliberately targeting us."
Though they had escaped unscathed each time, a single misstep could have cost them their lives.
Moreover, these incidents suggested that if someone was manipulating events from the shadows, they wanted them—or rather, him—to meet a natural end in the mountains.
"Is some invisible hand reaching from afar?" Qin Ming doubted it.
If it were those people, the attacks would be ten times more violent and terrifying.
"Could it be some petty troublemaker I dealt with years ago, now trying to smear me with these underhanded tactics?" he wondered privately.
"What did you say? He might have withstood six or seven waves of Heavenly Light?!"
Meng Xinghai, the City Lord, leaped to his feet upon hearing the black-clad messenger's report in the City Lord's Manor.
That day, surrounded by nobles, he had been drinking wine at the Mountain God Temple, marveling at the spectacle above the Thunder Fire Alchemy Hall, completely unaware of the situation inside the Bronze Hall.
"Is the information reliable?"
The black-clad figure replied, "The corpse collector, Xu Hai, died two days ago, coughing up blood. Before his death, he told his family that his greed might have led to the death of a prodigious talent. He deliberately subjected the youth to six or seven waves of Heavenly Light, and in the end, he himself suffered divine retribution."
"Incredible! Hmm, keep this matter buried deep within you. Never mention it again!"
Meng Xinghai instructed his confidant.
He waved his hand, dismissing the black-clad figure.
Standing by the window, Meng Xinghai murmured, "To withstand so many waves of Heavenly Light and survive... such a talent... the Cui Family will come to regret this."
A smile spread across his face.
"The most outstanding Outsider Disciples are vying for that legendary artifact, said to be hidden within the spiritual cave where the Heavenly Light is exceptionally dense. If Qingyue were to replace her golden-armored guard, she might just obtain it and emerge as the ultimate victor."
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END OF CHAPTER
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