The Real Awakening

The vegetation here was very lush. For as far as the eye could see, the mountain range was covered in dense branches and leaves. There was green everywhere, plants everywhere. However, every branch and every leaf was quiet and still. There was no trace of wind, no trace of movement. It seemed fake, like an intensely coloured oil painting. It was beautiful, but did not give off any impression that it was a real existence.

The strangest part was that the instant one entered this area, one would be hit with a sinister air.

This sinister air did not originate from the weather, but a chilliness that rose from the bottom upwards. It was as though there was solid ice underneath the feet rather than earth – no, perhaps it was even colder than ice. It felt like the sinister air that rose ceaselessly took the form of…hands.

Indeed, just like pairs of freezing hands that passed through the cloth of pants to tightly wrap around one’s ankles.

As Ye Xiao walked, he suddenly was stuck in one place.

“What’s wrong?” Su Mu glanced back at him.

Ye Xiao gulped and said, “I think…I think there’s something grabbing onto my foot.”

He did not look down because he knew that there was absolutely nothing there. However, he truly did feel something present.

Su Mu flicked his gaze down and then let out an impatient sigh. “Didn’t I tell you not to follow me?”

“Oi, can’t you be a bit nicer?” Ye Xiao indignantly shot back, “I came because I was worried about you. This cursed place is so weird and haunted, what if something happens? Two people are always stronger than one person.”

“Hmph, your presence is just an inconvenience to me,” Su Mu coldly sneered.

“You…”

“If you weren’t so set on knowing the truth, how would we have fallen into this cursed place?”

“I…”

“So if something really does go wrong today, you will be the one to blame.”

“Fuck!”

Ye Xiao wordlessly rolled his eyes. He knew that he could never beat Su Mu’s venomous tongue in a verbal fight.

As they spoke, Su Mu grabbed Ye Xiao’s left hand and swiftly drew out some lines in his palm.

Su Mu’s movements were extremely quick, and the lines were messy and in no particular order. There was no knowing if he was writing a word, or if he was drawing some bizarre symbol. Regardless, because Ye Xiao could even react, Su Mu firmly closed Ye Xiao’s fingers and said in a low voice, “Remember, don’t peek. Clench your hand into a fist and follow me. Don’t stop.”

Ye Xiao stared at him in confusion, but Su Mu had already spun around to stride forwards. The sinister air underneath them seemed to instantly disperse, but did not vanish entirely. Rather, it circled all around them.

He felt a faint, aching pain on his ankle.

Ye Xiao bent down to pull up the leg of his pants suspiciously to take a look. His heart suddenly dropped with a thunkas an indescribable chill spread through his body.

Five fingerprints!

There are five red fingerprints on my ankle!

It seemed that he had not been hallucinating just now. There really had been an invisible hand gripping him.

But where is that hand? Why can’t I see it?

“Oi, hurry up,” Su Mu shouted from in front.

“…Oh.”

Ye Xiao gave a muddled response. With no time to ponder, he quickened his pace to catch up.

Although the cross-dressing man had called this place the “back of the mountain”, this “back” was too wide. When they stood there, it was like they had landed in a boundless, untouched forest. The green leaves of rattans were everywhere, seemingly concealing a malicious intent. They blocked off all light, as well as the horizon.

Along the way, Ye Xiao and Su Mu did not see any other shoeprints. They did not know where they were going either; they could only go by their instincts as they continuously parted the plants obstructing their vision. They went back and forth along the forked road for a very long time until they heard some sort of noise.

Whoosh…whooshhhhhhhhhhhh…

“Water; it’s the sound of running water.” Ye Xiao excitedly said, “There must be a river nearby. It might be the river that we’re looking for.”

Su Mu turned to look in the direction of the sound. “Let’s go and check.”

A while later, they found the source of the water noise.

After cutting through a patch of dense, overgrown shrubbery, their field of vision suddenly opened up. A wide river snaked down from the distant mountaintop. As it was a sharp incline, the stream flowed rapidly.

A river hidden among a precipitous mountain range was nothing rare. The rare part was that this river’s water was the colour of yellow blood plasma. Moreover, this colour was not due to silt like the colour of Yellow River.

The yellow colour was the river’s natural state.

“Ah, don’t tell me that cup of tea I drank earlier was made using the water from this river? Wow, how disgusting.”

Ye Xiao walked forwards with his brows furrowed. He crouched down next to the river and stretched his neck out to peer into the water.

The water was quite turbid, making it impossible to see the bottom. There was no knowing how deep it was. In addition, bloodred bubbles would randomly form on the surface like boiling lava as the rolling water rushed forwards. If one listened closely, it was possible to vaguely hear a strange sound coming from the depths of the water. They sounded like both the wails of grieving ghosts and the roars of wild beasts.

“Do you hear something?”

He glanced back at Su Mu, thinking he was imagining things.

However, Su Mu nodded and calmly replied, “I can hear it. They’re the lingering cries of the grieving spirits.”

“Cries of the grieving spirits?”

Ye Xiao blinked. Before he could ask, he felt something grab onto his arm and yank him down. He abruptly lost balance and fell head-first into the river. Luckily, Su Mu caught hold of him just in time. However, he was unable to pull Ye Xiao out completely from the water because a pair of ice-cold hands were currently keeping a firm grip onto him from inside the river.

Those hands had an enormous amount of strength. It was like a game of tug-of-war that continued trying to drag him into the yellow river.

“What the hell is that? It’s so strong!”

Ye Xiao braced his feet against the riverbank. Together with Su Mu’s strength, he tried to pull himself out with all the power he could muster.

However, no matter how much force he used, the hands in the river were even stronger. As Ye Xiao watched the lower half of his left arm sinking into the water, he unconsciously loosed his gripped fist. The palm that Su Mu had previously drawn on suddenly seared in pain, but a shriek rang out from the bottom of the water and the hands disappeared. The resistance pulling him down also vanished without a trace.

Without that force tugging him down, Ye Xiao tumbled down onto the ground.

“Ow, that hurts…”

Su Mu took a step back and knit his brows together. “Don’t go near this river again, and don’t wander around. This place has too much yinand has a strong evil aura. And you just happen to easily draw ghosts towards yourself.”

“Pfft, what do you mean draw ghosts to myself? Stop trying to scare me, alright?” Ye Xiao’s expression was bitter as he rubbed his aching arm and said, “This river is too strange. Why did you come searching for it?”

Su Mu gazed off into the distance where the river was flowing outwards as he quietly stated, “If my guess is correct, this river might be the origin of this entire incident.”

“This river?”

Ye Xiao raised his brow in curiosity.

Su Mu silently walked up the mountain, in the direction opposite of the current. Thus, Ye Xiao hurriedly scrambled up from the ground and followed.

This mountain was not very tall, but it was steep. The overgrowth around them was even wilder than before. A fierce scarlet colour appeared on the barren dirt underneath their feet.

As they continued upwards, they could see the yellow river next to them as the water rushed downwards. The strange thing was that the water that crashed into the rocky bank did not splash out. Instead…instead, a vague humanoid shadow would fall out like a fake illusion. It was very faint and blurry, but would be accompanied by piercing screams. However, it would only be for an instant when it hazily left the water’s surface before immediately falling back into the river and disappearing entirely.

Such a bizarre scene made Ye Xiao’s eyes nearly fall out of their sockets. He gaped in shock and curiously took two steps forward to get a closer look. However, Su Mu grabbed him by the collar and forcibly yanked him back.

“Are you tired of living?” He coldly glared at Ye Xiao.

Ye Xiao scratched his head as he chuckled in reply.

Half an hour later, they finally reached the mountain peak by following the river. There, they discovered that this mountain only had an uphill, and not a downhill. Because when they crossed the top of the mountain, they saw that the other side of the slope was a precipice that dropped down at a ninety-degree angle. And the river…the river…

“Heavens! Come look! This river’s water actually flows backwards and goes up the cliff?”

Ye Xiao shouted out in astonishment.

The yellow river was like a rusted iron chain stuck fast against the wall of the cliff. Using some type of inconceivable method, it flowed from bottom up. It was very peaceful, very natural, as though “water flowing upwards” was a fact of life.

This was no longer the question of being impressive or not, but something impossible that defied the laws of nature!

“How is that possible? Where exactly is this river flowing up from?”

Ye Xiao sprawled down on the ground next to the cliff and craned his neck out to look down. The depth of the endless abyss was impossible to gauge and for as far as he could see, it was just a void of darkness. The darkness stretched infinitely like a bottomless black hole of eternal damnation that carried a sense of despair and trembling fear. Does it connect all the way to the depths of the Purgatory?

He stared and stared, a chilling air forming around his heart that made him involuntarily shudder.

“This is the truth that you wanted to know.”

Su Mu looked out at the reverse-flowing yellow river and the pitch-black bottom of the hole.

Ye Xiao’s eyes turned towards Su Mu as he muttered the same words, “This…is the truth?”

Su Mu nodded and replied, “Do you know the River of Forgetfulness?”

“River of Forgetfulness? You mean that bowl of soup from the myth of Mengpo? The myth that says before everyone goes onto the Bridge of Forgetfulness, they drink a bowl and forget everything from their current life?”

“That’s right.” Su Mu pointed at the precipice and said, “And the river you see right now is called River of Memory.”

“River of Memory?”

“Yes. Most people only know the River of Forgetfulness and do not know the River of Memory. In reality, the two rivers are connected to form one stream; half flows upwards, leading to the world of the living. The other half flows downwards, leading to the netherworld. The half that flows into the living world is called the River of Memory, while the one that flows into the netherworld is called the River of Forgetfulness. The two rivers originate from a single source, which is why they both appear a turbid yellow colour. The river water contains wandering souls that are unable to reincarnate, like the snakes and scum everywhere. Once they fall in, their souls can never reincarnate or transcend for a millennium.”

At this point, Ye Xiao recalled that he had nearly been dragged into the river by a grieving spirit, and he couldn’t help but feel a belated fear. After some thought, he couldn’t help but ask, “If the River of Forgetfulness can make one forget the memory of their current life, then what does drinking the River of Memory do?”

Su Mu shot him a look and slowly stated, “The water from the River of Forgetfulness makes you forget your current life; the water from the River of Memory evokes your past life.”

“Evokes your past life?”

Ye Xiao almost wanted to laugh at how ridiculous it sounded. However, he had no choice but to believe it based on Su Mu’s grave expression. Besides, the river was already flowing upwards in reverse. Was there anything unbelievable at this point?

For a moment, he could not think of any rebuttal. He could only stare blankly at Su Mu, then at that “River of Memory”. Every scene from this entire incident flashed through his mind in slow-motion.

The serial killings, the bizarre suicides, the mysterious disappearance of the exploration group…

Shen Guo Zhong, who had been executed by gunpoint forty-nine years ago; Wu Chang, the perverted murderer; Zheng Ze, the dead rat eater; Jin Hai Dong, who had drowned in a fishbowl; Cui Ting Ting, who had fallen from a building…

If…If the five members of the “Death Poetry Society” that tried to commit joint suicide, as well as the eleven people from the exploration group that year, all came to this abandoned village on Ghost Mountain, then absolutely everything has a logical explanation.

They had finally found the string that could tie together the incidents that were like scattered pearls on the ground. The riddle that originally felt impossible to solve was gradually clearing up.

Ye Xiao was silent for a while. He organised his thoughts and said, “If drinking the water from the River of Memory means evoking memory from the past life, it means that every single person in this incident had returned to their past life to some extent. For example, Zheng Ze might have been a stray cat or dog in his past life. Due to his animal instincts, he enjoyed roaming around at night to rummage through trash cans in search of food, which lead to him eating a poisoned rat that ultimately caused his death. Then there was Jin Hai Dong, who might’ve been some kind of aquatic animal in his past life, like a fish. That was why he had stuck his own head into a fishbowl and eventually drowned. And Cui Ting Ting, who fell from the building, might have once been a bird or some other creature that could fly. That was why she could fearlessly jump down from the tenth floor with her eyes wide open…and if you continue reasoning with this logic, then Wu Chang, who had turned into a killing demon, used to be—”

“Shen Guo Zhong,” Su Mu said.

“That’s right!” Ye Xiao snapped his fingers and continued, “Wu Chang must’ve been the reincarnation of Shen Guo Zhong, the perverted serial killer from forty-nine years ago! That’s why he was frantically trying to resurrect Shen Wei and why he thought of hiding himself in that abandoned church. That’s also why he possesses such skilled dissection technique!”

At this point, he glanced at Su Mu and asked in confusion, “But what about Xie Jing Yun?”

Su Mu was quite for a moment before saying, “Multicoloured glass, a cross…she was the one that told me that Wu Chang was hiding in a church.”

“She did? How would she know?”

“Because she…had once been shut there too.”

Ye Xiao considered this and asked uncertainly, “Don’t tell me you mean that Xie Jing Yun’s past life…was one of Shen Guo Zhong’s victims?”

“Yes. She was the victim whose scalp was removed forty-nine years ago.”

Ye Xiao frowned and let out a sympathetic sigh. “How could there be such a coincidence? No wonder her father said she had been hiding in her room since returning and refused to go out, claiming someone wanted to kill her…so that’s what it was.”

With this, the bizarre suicides from the five people in the joint suicide group were explained. As for the ones that they had encountered in the abandoned village, they were likely members of the exploration group that had gone missing years ago.

The person that wouldn’t stop digging might have been the result of taking on a characteristic from some animal in their past life; the cross-dressing middle-aged uncle must have been a woman in his past life – specially the owner of an inn. As for the two corpses in that empty home, one could have previously been some type of wild animal that had attacked the other person in extreme starvation. And in the intense fight, the other person had stabbed their opponent in the chest while the latter had ripped open the former’s neck with their teeth, eventually resulting in both dying…

After sorting out the cause-and-effect of the entire matter, Ye Xiao said, “Oh yeah, regarding the expedition group that went missing three years ago, there were eleven people in total that arrived here back then. Why did only three later escape, while all five from the Death Poetry Society were able to run away? It’s so weird. Logically speaking, with how long it’s been, there’s no reason for the remaining eight people to have not found the exit if the others did.”

Su Mu was silent for a moment before answering, “Perhaps there are people who are keeping them from leaving.”

“Huh? What do you mean?” Ye Xiao was taken aback.

Su Mu replied, “Think about it. What did the Baishui police station say to you when you asked about the five from the Death Poetry Society?”

Ye Xiao thought back and said, “I remember they said that they had discovered the overturned car at the foot of the mountain, then rescued out…wait a second—”

He immediately realised something and his eyes widened at Su Mu in shock. “How…how could they have rescued them from the car? The car vanished after falling from the cliff in the middle, and the people fell into that abandoned village. Even if they later escaped, it’s impossible for them to have returned to the car…”

“Yes, they wouldn’t have regrouped in the car to wait for rescue.”

“Could it be that the people at the Baishui police station lied?”

“I think so.”

“Why? Why would they need to lie? They have no reason to!”

“Because they want to guard the secret of the abandoned village.”

“Secret?” Ye Xiao rolled his eyes and said, “Just so that people won’t know that the River of Memory is here?”

“No, it’s not just the River of Memory.”

“Oh? So there’s something else?”

Su Mu stared out at the abyss below the cliff and frowned in silence.

Ye Xiao glared at him and retorted, “Oi, we’re already at this point. Don’t tell me you still want to hide something from me?”

Su Mu shook his head and coldly stated, “Knowing too much won’t do you any good. In the future, you will definitely regret it.”

Ye Xiao raised a brow and testily declared, “Stop avoiding the subject. Are you going to say it or not?”

Su Mu helplessly looked at him and replied, “I said it earlier. The River of Memory and River of Forgetfulness are connected as one. This river is the boundary between the living world and the netherworld. The end of the River of Memory is the River of Forgetfulness, and the end of the River of Forgetfulness is Hell.”

“Hell? Pfft!” Ye Xiao couldn’t help but chuckle as he said, “Then according to your words, as long as I follow this River of Memory, I can find the River of Forgetfulness, and then if I follow the River of Forgetfulness, I can find Yama’s Palace?”

“Yes.”

“Eh…” Ye Xiao was dumbstruck. He furrowed his brows and asked, “Is that for real?”

“You don’t have to believe it, just don’t ever try it.” Su Mu looked at him and stated, “Actually, the living world and the netherworld are not two independent spaces like people think. Rather, there are multiple hidden connecting points that we typically call ‘entrances’.”

“Entrances?”

“Yes, entrances to Hell.”

Su Mu flicked his gaze over to the abyss and continued, “And this should be one of the entrances. If I’m not mistaken, the Baishui police station probably has someone that knows of this. Back when the exploration group went missing, the news was abuzz. If they had let everyone out as well, it would have undoubtedly drawn certain people’s attention, resulting in further investigation on this entrance. In order to protect this secret, that person therefore could only keep the remaining eight group members confined in this abandoned village. I just have no idea who this person would be…”

After slowly saying these words to himself, Su Mu fell into deep thought. When he lifted his head afterwards, he saw Ye Xiao staring at him suspiciously.

In that moment, Su Mu realised that his tongue had slipped.

“Um, I’ve wanted to ask you this for a long time now…”

Ye Xiao’s eyes burned into Su Mu. “Who…who exactly are you? Why do you know all these bizarre things? And you said ‘we’ just now. Who does ‘we’ refer to?”

Su Mu remained silent in response to Ye Xiao’s questions. He met the other’s almost overbearing gaze and let out a light sigh. “In the end, I really did let you know too much.”

With his eyes still focused on Ye Xiao, he took a step forwards.

Perhaps due to Su Mu’s intimidating aura, Ye Xiao unconsciously took a step backwards. His feet were right at the edge of the cliff. The slightest movement caused fine rubble to tumble down.

Instantly, the air seemed to freeze.

The two stood at close proximity, their eyes locked onto each other.

Without any room to retreat behind him, Ye Xiao could only stiffly stand in place and watch Su Mu slowly raise his right hand. Ye Xiao then gulped anxiously and stammered out, “What-what are you doing?”

Su Mu did not respond, his gaze frosty.

Ye Xiao stared unmovingly at him. Suddenly, his eyes flashed and his jaw dropped open in shock in his attempt to express something, though he could not utter a single word. His eyes only widened as his tongue remained tied.

An extremely terrified look slowly spread across his face.

His line of sight was not focused on Su Mu, but rather behind him.

Realising this, Su Mu was about to turn his head when he heard a shout ring next to his ear.

“Watch out!”

In a flash, Ye Xiao pushed Su Mu away. At the same time, his nerves snapped as his bones shattered with a sharp crunch.

Pain. Intense pain instantly exploded from his shoulders.

He let out blood-curling scream.

Blood splashed onto Su Mu’s face.

“Ye Xiao!”

After freezing for a second, Su Mu immediately leapt up from the ground and raced over.

However, he was still too late to stop it. The giant monster had already bitten Ye Xiao’s shoulder. With a shake of its head, it tossed Ye Xiao out over the precipice, causing the terrifying sight of blood flying everywhere.

“Ye Xiao!”

Su Mu shouted and threw his body over the edge of the cliff to grab Ye Xiao’s arm as he fell. The two crashed into the hard rock surface at the same time, loose rubble rolling down with a clatter.

They dangled down from the cliffside. Su Mu had one hand tightly clutched onto Ye Xiao, and his other hand grabbing onto a protruding part of the cliff wall.

And next to them was the yellow River of Memory flowing upwards. A few skulls faintly appeared within the torrential river waters, their sunken eye sockets peering sinisterly at the two people.

Su Mu gritted his teeth. Below them was the pitch-black abyss that looked like the gaping entrance to Hell, waiting to swallow them at any moment.

“Damn it,” he quietly cursed out. He glanced down at Ye Xiao hanging below him and asked, “Hey, are you okay?”

Ye Xiao lifted his head, his forehead covered in cold sweat as he weakly replied, “I’m not-not dead yet…”

“If we fall down, we’re done for. We need to figure out a way to climb up. Hold tight onto me. Oi, do you hear me?”

Ye Xiao bitterly smiled and said, “If I could hold onto you, I would’ve…done so already…”

Su Mu was momentarily stunned. The arm he was holding onto was Ye Xiao’s injured arm. The entire sleeve was dyed crimson, soaked in blood. The appalling sight was almost unbearable; judging from the circumstances, the shoulder bone had definitely shattered.

He did not say anything more as he silently held onto Ye Xiao while using all his strength to pull himself up the cliff, bit by bit. When he finally managed to reach the top of the mountain, he found that the giant beast was still packing back and forth nearby. In front of them was the beast’s back, which was dark brown in colour and covered in heavy and sturdy scales like armour. It had a thick and long tail arched up in the air. Even at a distance, its coarse, panting breaths could be heard.

“What is tha—”

“Sh, don’t make any noise.”

Su Mu supported Ye Xiao on the ground and the two of them hunched over, quietly slinking past behind the large creature’s tail. Only once they had retreated to hide behind a boulder did they relax slightly.

“That monster…can’t be a…dog, right?”

Ye Xiao was resting against the boulder, clutching his bloody injury with an ashen face as he looked at Su Mu.

Su Mu nodded and answered, “It is.”

“But…how can there be such a huge dog? And…it…it even has…two heads?”

Ye Xiao struggled to close his eyes, thinking that he was hallucinating.

Su Mu peeked out from behind the boulder and warily scanned the surroundings. “That is the two-headed hound of the netherworld, raised by Hades’ watchmen. It’s specifically meant to guard the entrance to Hell.”

“Two-headed hound…of the netherworld…fuck, what a flashy name…”

Ye Xiao panted for breath as he forced himself to smile.

Su Mu turned to glance at him. “Don’t be fooled by its two heads; it actually has very poor vision and is nearly blind. It relies solely on scent to hunt its prey. It must’ve been because we stayed by the cliff for too long that it got alarmed.”

“Relies on scent to hunt prey…” Ye Xiao stared down at his bleeding wound and bitterly chuckled. “We’re done for. There’s such a heavy stench of blood now…we probably can’t run away…Oi, hurry up and think of a way to make it go back…”

“There is no way.”

“What…no way? You…know so many random things…yet you don’t know how to make that creature go back? Tch…what a useless guy…”

“What did you say?” Su Mu coldly shot him a look.

Ye Xiao gasped for breath as he endured his pain and bluntly shot back, “What…did I say something wrong?”

“You…”

Su Mu wanted to reply, but an earth-shattering roar suddenly burst out.

The two of them looked up in unison to see a bloody mouth filled with fierce canines currently dripping saliva on them.

Shit! Su Mu inwardly cursed and then dragged Ye Xiao up and over his shoulder like a sack before breaking into a run. The monster chased after them relentlessly using their scent.

The two humans and one beast continued the chase across the uninhabited, barren mountain.

Ye Xiao’s shoulder never stopped dripping blood.

“Damn it, it really hurts…you’re pressing down on my wound…”

“Shut your mouth!”

“This is too unsightly…Can’t…I change to a different position…”

“If you utter another word of bullshit, I swear I’ll immediately toss you off the cliff!”

Su Mu loosened his grip. Frightened, Ye Xiao scrambled to clutch onto him as he shouted, “Ah, oi…don’t-don’t…I don’t want to be eaten by a dog…”

“Move your hand! You’re blocking my vision!”

“Fuck, you’d better not try to find a chance to toss me!”

“Let go!”

“I won’t!”

“You…”

“Hurry and run! The monster is catching up!”

“Fuck! What do you think I am?”

“Pfft…when did you…learn that word…”

“…”

As they spoke, the two-headed hound had already raced furiously after them with a roar. Its two towering, ugly heads waved back and forth. Its dark purple snout drew backwards to reveal its fierce white teeth covered in saliva. Its heads took turns to lunge forwards with bites that nearly landed on them every time. Fortunately, Su Mu’s movements were nimble and he dodged quickly. However, his speed could not surpass the four-legged beast. In the end, he slipped and both he and Ye Xiao tumbled down the slope until they crashed into a rock.

“Tch, bastard, nothing ever good happens when I’m together with you!”

Su Mu climbed up from the ground and patted off the dirt from his clothes.

Ye Xiao did not bicker back. He struggled to support his body up into standing position. Then he ripped the tattered cloth around his shoulder, exposing the wound of mutilated flesh completely to the air.

The reek of blood grew stronger.

Su Mu furrowed his brows and asked, “Hey, what are you doing?”

Ye Xiao swayed as he took two steps back. Cold sweat poured down from the edges of his forehead, his complexion turning even paler than before.

He smiled at Su Mu and said, “The blood won’t stop…at this rate, neither of us will be able to escape…”

Ye Xiao’s smile widened a few more centimetres. His ashen lips curled upwards into a glittering grin.

“I…still owe the landlord two months’ worth of utilities expenses…remember to help me pay it back…”

“Huh? What are you saying?”

Before Su Mu could figure out what was happening, he saw Ye Xiao pick up a stone from the ground and toss it at full strength towards the two-headed hound’s face. Then he waved his uninjured arm and loudly yelled, “Oi! Stupid dog! Come and chase after me!”

Then he staggered to run in the opposite direction.

As expected, the two-headed hound followed the smell of blood and began to run after Ye Xiao in a frenzy.

“Tch, what a reckless bastard!”

Su Mu shook his head and let out a sigh. Without moving from where he stood, he slowly raised his hand.

A large black dragon sprang out from his palm.

Ye Xiao was still running ahead wildly. The intense pain from his injury was getting harder to bear. He ran until he had no energy left, then with a stumble, collapsed on the ground.

The two-headed hound opened its fierce mouth and bit down…

It’s over…

He only sensed his vision go black. Before he lost consciousness, he seemed to dimly glimpse a giant, imposingly majestic, black dragon let out a long hiss as it shot straight through the air at the two-headed hound’s back…

Dragon? Heh, what a joke…where would a dragon come from…

Laying on the ground, he hazily thought this before the hand clutching his injury loosened and he lost consciousness.

TL/N:The myths referenced here are a mix of Chinese origin and Greek origin. There is a Chinese myth of Mengpo and the River of Forgetfulness (忘川) that is very similar to the Greek myth of the River Lethe, which is why Su Mu says that most (Chinese) people know only the River of Forgetfulness. However, there are some beliefs that there is also a River of Mnemosyne, the counterpart of Lethe, which is similar to the River of Memory (憶川) that is referenced here. Also, the two-headed hound is likely derived from the Greek myth of Orthus, though it is also being mixed with Chinese myths of Helland Yama‘s Palace.