Chapter Fifty-Six: Lost Direction

The next morning, everyone rose from their respective resting places, each with dark circles under their eyes. The two daughters of the Mei family were also visibly exhausted.

For breakfast, they picked a few tart wild fruits and gnawed on the dry rations they had brought along. Those without provisions could only watch the others eat. After their meager meal, they packed up and continued their ascent up the mountain.

Aside from Guo Bighead, who tossed a little food to the four gravely wounded men, no one paid those four any mind.

“You four must fend for yourselves here; we can’t take you up the mountain. If you manage to survive until we return, we’ll take you back down with us,” Guo Bighead said.

But the four wounded men were already on the brink of death, barely able to hear his words.

The morning mist in the forest was thick. The group stumbled their way up the mountain, and the further they went, the less discernible the path became. After crossing several small hills, they lost all sense of direction, surrounded on all sides by dense forest and thin fog. No one could tell which way led up or down.

On this side of the main peak of Sunset Ridge, aside from the tallest summit, there were dozens of smaller peaks. In the woods, they couldn’t see any other peaks, nor did they know their exact location.

They crossed one hill after another, but everywhere was the same dense forest, and no one could figure out where they’d ended up.

Along the way, two of their companions accidentally stepped on venomous snakes and died from the poison before they could take any antidote. This frightened the Mei sisters terribly—they had never faced such dangers before. Regret gnawed at them for joining this expedition; now, caught in a dilemma, they couldn’t even find the way back.

By dusk, they arrived before a towering peak. There, for the first time, they encountered other people outside their group.

However…

The sight brought no relief. They saw more than a dozen men locked in a brutal melee, with another dozen corpses strewn across the ground nearby.

Remembering Xiao Ding’s advice, the Mei sisters immediately withdrew to the back of their group and hid behind a tree to watch what transpired.

Guo Bighead’s followers were all timid by nature. Seeing the violence, they too wished to turn and flee, fearing the chaos might engulf them.

But before they could escape, a burly man wielding a large broadsword spotted them and shouted, “Boss, more people have showed up!” With that, he felled his opponent and charged toward Guo Bighead’s party.

Two more men from the melee cut down their adversaries and came chasing after them as well.

Guo Bighead’s ragtag group was no match for these three brutes. They hadn’t gotten far before they were all struck down.

The Mei sisters, though trained in martial arts for years, had never killed or witnessed killing before. The carnage before them left them trembling with fear where they hid.

After dispatching Guo’s group, the three men returned to the battlefield. In no time, the fighting ceased, leaving only corpses littered everywhere.

Besides the three who had just joined, there were three others standing together, clearly allies. Their leader was a man of about forty, his face broad and coarse, with a long scar across his left cheek—a visage marked by countless dangers.

At a gesture from Scarface, the other five spread out to rifle through the dead, piling up whatever valuables they could find—silver, trinkets, copper coins, knives, and anything else of worth—wrapping it all in a cloak stripped from one of the corpses.

Led by Scarface, the six vanished into the forest.

The Mei sisters waited a few moments in silence. When all was quiet, they crept out from behind the tree. After a brief discussion, they decided this was too perilous to watch any further. But now, with dusk falling and no way to retrace their steps, they resolved to find a safe spot for the night and search for the way back in the morning.

They doubled back along what they hoped was their original path, searching for a place to rest. But with night upon them, they soon lost all sense of direction.

After walking several more miles, with the roars of wild beasts and the hoots of night owls echoing through the forest, and the rustling of grass at their sides, fear gripped their hearts.

For two girls who had never traveled far from home, this was their first experience in such a terrifying environment.

They considered lighting a fire for warmth, but feared it might attract either evildoers or, remembering the fireproof bear from the previous night, wild animals.

Now that darkness had fallen, the forest was pitch black. Though their martial training gave them better night vision than ordinary folk, it was still nothing like daylight.

Unable to find any truly secure shelter, they decided to spend the night in the trees. Dangerous as the branches might be, with snakes and insects, it was still safer than the ground.

They chose a tall tree and climbed up, checking for poisonous creatures before settling on a sturdy branch. Exhaustion weighing on them, they forced themselves to stay awake.

But after a sleepless night and a trying day, fatigue overcame them. Before long, Mei Ruoxue’s eyelids drooped, and she drifted into a restless doze.

Half asleep, she heard her elder sister, Mei Ruoshuang, say, “I’m going down for a moment…” followed by the sound of her climbing down.

Not thinking much of it, Mei Ruoxue murmured an acknowledgment and tried to rest.

But soon after, a sudden scream pierced the night, followed by the sound of thrashing in the underbrush, fading quickly into the distance.

“Sister!” Mei Ruoxue jolted awake, scrambling down the tree and running toward the source of the commotion.

“Sister, where are you?” she called, running and searching frantically.

But there was no reply.

Panic seized her as she shouted over and over, combing the area, but the dense forest and enveloping darkness made the search all but hopeless.

She ran until she was drenched in sweat, her voice hoarse, yet found no trace of Mei Ruoshuang. She could not even locate the tree where they’d rested.

Desperate, she cut a branch with her sword, wrapped it with dry grass, smeared it with resin, and set it alight as a torch, hoping her sister might see the light and find her.

But instead of her sister, someone else found her.

“Well, little girl, are you looking for us?” Suddenly, behind her appeared two leering figures, one tall and one short, their faces twisted with malice.