Chapter 266: He Yu

There was no time to get Tian Xiaoqi onto my back. He Yu simply grabbed me and hauled me up from the ground. I was sobbing so hard I was hyperventilating, following his instructions in a daze.

He Yu supported me from below, pushing me up first. I grabbed onto the rocks above the crevice and began pulling myself upward. The stones I touched were still vibrating slightly; one moment of inattention and a rock would split in two, slipping from my grip and plummeting below.

The sheer exhaustion gradually brought me back to my senses as a deep, throbbing ache radiated through my wrist. I realized then that the rope tying my wrist to He Yu’s still hadn’t broken. With that thought, I turned to look below.

He Yu was resting his feet on two protruding rocks. I knew climbing was sheer agony for him, because every time he lifted a leg, it inevitably tore at the bloody holes in his flesh. So even though my wrist ached and the rope was cutting bloody welts into my skin, I did my best to help him climb. Whatever happened, it would at least make things a little easier for him.

I turned back to continue climbing when I suddenly felt the rock wall sink beneath me. A massive roar erupted from the left. I looked toward the sound and saw a giant slab of rock tear away from the wall and fall. It was followed by a torrential surge of water bursting through the stone. The underground river was flooding upward, the water level rising with terrifying speed, instantly swallowing the crevice where we had been hiding moments ago.

“He Yu! The water is flooding up! Climb, fast!” I yelled. I no longer cared how exhausted I was, throwing every ounce of strength into my arms as I scrambled upward desperately.

I climbed until I was panting for breath, the metallic taste of blood filling my throat. This bloody sensation was ten times worse than after a long-distance run. By the time I could faintly see the platform at the top of the cliff, I felt like I was about to cough up blood.

But I was relieved. Seeing the cliff top proved the platform hadn’t collapsed yet. As long as we could escape along the stone path before the entire mountain crumbled, we still had a chance. I coughed a few times, my throat and lips parched and cracked. I parted my dry lips, just about to tell He Yu the good news.

Right then, a sudden force yanked me downward. I had been clinging securely to the rocks, but this jerk pulled me down half a meter. I scrambled to catch myself, but one hand got wedged in a crevice, and my fingernail bent clear back, burning with searing pain.

Before I could even cry out, my other arm was jerked down by He Yu’s weight. The rope chafed against my wrist until it bled, droplets of blood trickling down the cord one by one. I heard a sharp crack from my own wrist. He Yu must have lost power in his legs and missed his footing. Luckily, we were still linked by the rope; otherwise, falling into that stone-laden river would have meant certain death.

“Xiao Yao! Are you okay? My legs have no strength left!” He Yu grabbed the rope at his wrist, dangling and spinning helplessly in midair.

My reaction was swift. I reached back and grabbed the rope, trying to haul him up a bit, hoping to get him close enough to the rock wall to find a foothold. But dangling there with only one arm to support He Yu’s weight in midair, I couldn’t find any leverage. I managed to pull him halfway before my strength failed, and he dropped back down.

My face was flushed crimson from the effort. With one hand still wedged in the rock crevice, I looked at the cliff top just inches away and shouted to He Yu, “See if you can find any strength! We can hold on like this for a bit. Rest for a second and see if you can swing yourself toward the rocks!”

He Yu slowly straightened his legs, trying to reach the nearest stone, but every time his feet touched a surface, his body lacked the power to hold on, and the effort was wasted.

Time ticked away second by second. My hand remained jammed in the stone crevice, sweat pouring down my cheeks. It felt like the sharp edges inside the crack were cutting into my wrist over and over again. The upper part of the rope below me was already stained red with my blood. My strength was giving out, and my hand was slowly sliding out of the rock.

He Yu looked up at me. “It’s no use! Xiao Yao, I really don’t have any strength left.”

I couldn’t speak for a moment, my mind racing for a solution. We had climbed this far; we couldn’t just die here. Think, Gan Ji, think! Don’t you always manage to turn disaster into good fortune? There has to be a way, there must be a way! Think, damn it, think!

Just as I was on the verge of a breakdown, He Yu suddenly shouted, “There’s still a way!”

“What way? Tell me!” I shouted back.

“Cut the rope! You can make it up!”

I was so angry I nearly passed out. I roared, “What kind of bullshit solution is that?!”

“But it’s the best way! Gan Ji!”

His words infuriated me. Driven by a sudden burst of unknown strength, I grabbed the rope and tried to haul him up again. Hanging at the end of the line, He Yu pleaded, “Stop pulling me! If you keep this up, you won’t have the strength to get yourself up either!”

I pulled too fast and my hand slipped. With a sickening pop, my wrist completely dislocated. The rope slipped from my grasp, dragging me down a short distance. I nearly fell into the water, a cold sweat breaking out over my body. The rope was smeared with my blood, and my arm hung uselessly at my side.

“This is only making it more dangerous for both of us!” He Yu’s words were gradually drowned out by the roar of the rushing water below.

A sense of helpless despair, of being swept away by fate, welled up inside me. I bellowed, “No! If we die, we die together! Everyone I care about is already dead. You can’t leave me too! If you go, how am I supposed to live? If you die, what reason do I have to keep going?”

Silence stretched between us.

He Yu raised his head, meeting my eyes. His lips were cracked and dry. Suddenly, he asked, “Haven’t you always wanted to know what my mission was?”

My gaze froze. Sensing with dread what he was about to say, I immediately tried to stop him. “No! Don’t say it! I don’t want to hear it! I’m not listening! Tell me when we get back!”

“I lied to you. I’ve been lying to you from the very beginning.” I saw tears slip from the corners of He Yu’s eyes. I watched him in extreme shock, yet he was unnaturally calm as he spoke each word clearly. “My mission was to keep you alive.”

My brain went blank, unable to grasp the deeper meaning of his words.

He Yu gave an easy smile. “Meeting you in Gansu, fighting the centipedes, going down the Nu River, heading to Inner Mongolia… all of it was arranged long ago by your Fourth Brother and the others. I know what Tian Xiao told you before he died. We haven’t lost yet. There’s still room to turn this around, because we still have a trump card.”

As he spoke, his gaze grew resolute. “You were wrong. Tian Xiao’s trump card was never Tian Yuqing. It was you.”

The string that had been pulled taut in my heart finally snapped.

“You are the next player at the board^[1], the last hope for the Five Masters to turn the tide. My mission is to protect you, to make sure you live and get out of here alive. As long as you make it out, my mission is complete, and none of us will have died in vain. Do you understand!” He Yu shouted passionately.

“Why me…” I murmured. “Why?”

“Because it’s fate! This is your destiny, Gan Ji! Didn’t you see the prophecy? Out of those four people, you are the only one who can open the Tomb of King Ne. The prophets of the A-Clan foretold this thousands of years ago. We could only enter the Tomb of King Ne because you were involved!”

I could barely feel my hands anymore. “Fate? I don’t understand… What are you talking about?”

A thunderous boom echoed from the top of the cliff. Massive chunks of rock broke away from the cavern walls, plummeting one after another into the water below. Directly above us, a boulder teetered precariously. He Yu snapped his head up to look, and my eyes followed his gaze.

“Gan Ji, I don’t regret making a friend like you. This time, you have to listen to me. Live your life and get the hell back home!”

In a flash, I felt the tension on my wrist suddenly vanish. I turned my head quickly to see that the end of the rope had been severed. I thought He Yu had lost his only Mountain-Cleaving Machete^[2], but I never imagined that he had a small dagger hidden away as well.

I watched helplessly as He Yu smiled and gave me a hand gesture, our usual way of greeting each other. Then, falling backward alongside the cascading rocks, he was swallowed in an instant by a massive, crashing wave.

“He Yu!!”

The strength left my hands, and my body began to slide down the rock face. Just as I was about to stop struggling and let myself drift away, someone rappelled down on a rope from the cliff top. I felt a powerful force grab both of my shoulders, and in one swift motion, I was hauled upward.

Had that group returned? I didn’t know. What they intended to do with me, I didn’t know either. It would be better if they just shot me too and threw me into the water. My family, my friends, everyone who had ever been good to me was gone. I was the only one left.

But I felt no pain of dying. I only heard the thunderous roar of mountains collapsing and the earth splitting open. The sound grew farther and farther away, as if all of this were just a dream. When I opened my eyes again, we would still be out on the grassland.

Someone would come and tell me that I’d just had a nightmare.

That it was all just a dream.

Suffocation made me cough frantically. I snapped my eyes open to find someone feeding me water. Seeing me wake, they quickly pulled the container away. I sat up, finding myself on an iron cot. I breathed heavily, staring up at the military-green canvas of the tent.

I was inside a large tent, surrounded by unfamiliar surroundings. Both of my hands were wrapped in gauze, yet I couldn’t feel any pain in my palms. Grabbing the collar of the doctor beside the bed, I demanded in a raspy, cracked voice, “Where is this? Who are you!”

The doctor feeding me water was startled by my reaction and couldn’t get a word out. I released him, got out of bed, and stumbled toward the exit. As I pulled back the flap, a torrential downpour greeted me outside under a dull, gray sky. Through the dense curtain of rain and mist, the mountain across from us had collapsed so utterly that its peak was no longer recognizable.

I stepped out into the rain. The cold wind whipped against me, instantly clearing my head. The Gan Clan workers, Fourth Brother, Liu Wan, and He Yu… I remembered how every single one of them looked right before they died.

I fell to my knees in the mud, my body feeling ice-cold as my wounds split open. Blood was everywhere: on my hands, around my mouth, and obscuring my vision. At last, I saw Tian Yuqing and Tan Qiu running toward me on the ground. After that, I lost consciousness.