novelraw Chapter 142 Companion
Chapter 142 Companion
They were lucky those people only stood there for a moment and didn’t walk our way.
They lingered as if waiting for some signal, muttered a few words among themselves, then slowly moved on.
I held my breath until their shadows finally dissolved into the thinning night, only then letting out a quiet exhale.
Dawn was just brushing the sky. Pale light seeped through the mist pooling in the valley, and the distant ridges lay under a thin veil of smoke-colored haze.
The smell of last night’s fire still clung to the air, mixed with damp grass and charred wood.
“Shall we go?” I whispered.
Lian gave a small nod. His robe flicked as he stepped lightly onto a jutting rock, landing as weightlessly as drifting vapor.
I cursed silently at the show-off and hurried after him.
We kept low, moving through the grass without stirring more than a whisper.
As we trailed those figures, something about their silhouettes nagged at me.
Then they rounded a bend, and the first bit of morning light hit one person’s cheek. I froze.
That round face—I knew it.
“Hey, I’ve seen her before!” I hissed near Lian’s ear.
He glanced sideways, tone flat. “Who?”
“That round-faced woman Hua and I met in the woods last time! Just—she’s dressed like a man now, hair tied up… If not for that face being so round, I wouldn’t have recognized her.”
Lian nodded slightly, thoughtful. “Keep following.”
So we continued tailing them from a distance.
They moved fast, clearly familiar with the terrain, yet barely made a sound.
Each time a patrol passed by, they avoided it with uncanny precision—almost as if they already knew the patrol routes.
My unease grew stronger.
“They’re not heading down the mountain?” I whispered.
Lian shook his head, eyes scanning the mountain lines.
“No. If they wanted to descend, they’d go southeast. They’re heading west. That’s not the way down.”
But the more we followed, the stranger it became. They kept veering northwest, where the cliffs grew sharper and the forest thinned.
“Go any farther and there’ll be no path left,” Lian murmured.
“Then what are they trying to do?” I blinked.
He didn’t answer. Instead, he lifted his hand slightly—a signal to stay quiet.
Soon, the group stopped at a broken cliffside.
Before us hung the remains of an old bridge. Half of it had collapsed into the abyss, leaving only a few planks and dangling chains swaying in the wind.
Below was a churning sea of clouds and fog, bottomless and black like an open maw.
I swallowed hard. “Don’t tell me they’re planning to cross that.”
Just as the thought formed, the first person stepped onto the broken edge.
Their foot shifted—then their entire body vanished.
“They jumped?!” I nearly yelped.
Lian frowned, a glint in his eyes. “Not necessarily.”
Before I could question him, he flickered forward, appearing beside the ruined bridge.
I crawled over and peeked down. Only then did the truth reveal itself.
Beneath the bridge, carved into the cliff face, was a razor-thin trail—so narrow it blended almost perfectly with the rock.
It twisted down the cliff wall, just enough for a single person to inch along.
They hadn’t jumped. They were descending the hidden path.
From our angle, the bridge had completely blocked it from view, making it look like they’d dropped into the void.
“…Great. Not suicide—just a shortcut,” I muttered.
At that moment, the people below seemed to sense someone above. They looked up—and we locked gazes.
For a heartbeat, everything fell silent.
One of them jerked in shock. Their feet slipped. Their whole body lurched toward the abyss—
“Careful!” I shouted.
Lian moved faster than thought. A soft rope lashed out, snagged the person’s wrist, and with a controlled pull, set them back onto the tiny ledge.
“Watch your step,” he said coolly.
They finally recognized us. Someone gasped, “It’s you?!”
The round-faced woman blinked wide-eyed, stunned for a breath. Then she broke into a grin.
“Well I’ll be—aren’t you that young lord we bumped into in the woods? What are you doing here?”
I forced an awkward laugh. “Heh… what a coincidence.”
“No!” she hissed. “You’re trying to get yourselves killed? Eight Prince’s people are crawling all over the place—if they spot you, you’ll be hauled off in one sweep!”
“We were just going to ask you,” I said, trying to sound steady. “Why are you all heading this way at dawn?”
She sighed. “We’re going north.”
Lian’s eyes narrowed. “Why not descend the mountain?”
Her expression tightened. The group exchanged looks before she finally whispered, “We were from the foot of the mountain. We obeyed the decree to come up at first. Who’d have thought they wanted us to… test the formation.”
“Test a formation?” Just like what Mu Cangli had heard.
“Mm.” She nodded.
“They said there’s a strange array in these mountains. They forced us to walk inside it. And those who entered… never came back.”
Her voice trembled faintly. “We few escaped by sheer luck. With all the chaos at the stone statues, we wanted to circle around from the north. My husband’s there.”
Her eyes reddened.
Something in my chest pulled tight.
Just how many secrets did this mountain hide?
Lian stayed silent for a long time, then asked, “Do you know where the array is located?”
“Only that it’s in the north, beyond a broken cliff, inside a cave. They say the imperial guards watch it closely. Ordinary folk aren’t allowed near.”
Lian’s gaze darkened.
“That area is perilous. If you go, you might—”
“We know it’s perilous,” she cut him off. “But I can’t just abandon my family.”
Her eyes were steady and stubborn, and strangely, I felt something in me twist in response.
“Then… do you know how to get down this way?” I asked.
“This cliff path is an old hunter’s trail,” she said. “The officials don’t know about it.”
Lian nodded once, as if making up his mind.
“Then we go together.”
“Huh?” I stared. “We’re going too?”
“Of course.” His tone was calm. “This path leads to the array’s entrance. I intend to see what the Blood-Seal Formation truly is.”
Easy for him to say. I also wanted to live.
But at this point, I had no grounds to refuse. I could only grit my teeth and follow.
The round-faced woman actually looked relieved.
“Good, good. More people gives us courage. That friend of yours—”
She squinted at Lian.
“Huh? Where’s the other fellow? You brought a new one? This one’s much better looking.”
I nearly inhaled my tongue.
“Cough—he’s… my cousin! Yes. Cousin!”
Lian gave me a look. I knew that look. It meant, “I don’t believe a word out of your mouth.”
[System Message: Social-logic inconsistency detected. Recommend crafting a more coherent cover story.]
I screamed internally: Shut up!
The woman didn’t suspect anything.
“Handsome, but carries himself like someone important,” she chuckled. “No wonder you two stick together.”
I smiled stiffly, thinking: If you knew he was the Blood-Lotus Sect Master, you’d scream yourself hoarse.
After a few exchanged words, Lian said, “We need to cross before full daylight. Once Eight Prince’s men find the bridge, this path will be cut off.”
Everyone nodded quickly.
We started our descent along the narrow trail.
Morning fog thickened. Mountain winds whipped past our feet. The cliff face was icy to the touch, and the ledge barely fit half a foot. One misstep meant certain death.
“Damn it, this path is brutal,” I muttered.
“Careful,” the round-faced woman said over her shoulder. “This used to be a decent path. After they built the bridge, no one used it anymore, so it fell into disrepair. Just didn’t expect the bridge itself to give way.”
I kept silent. For all we knew, someone had broken that bridge on purpose.
About the time it takes an incense stick to burn, the cliff trail finally widened into a small platform. A few boulders had been stacked into a crude shelter, the sort hunters might use to hide from the wind.
The woman let out a weary sigh and wiped the sweat from her brow. “Let’s rest a bit. Go farther and we’ll reach the northern side.”
I was about to relax when I noticed Lian still scanning the surroundings, shoulders taut.
Something tightened in my chest. He must have sensed something.
Sure enough, he lifted his head and murmured, “Something’s wrong.”
“What is?” I asked.
“This place… someone has been here.”
He stepped toward the rock wall and brushed his fingers across it.
There, just beneath the surface dust, were several faint scratches—fresh, thin marks left by metal against stone, still catching the cold light.