Chapter Thirty-Two: The Fading Beauty of Youth

  A tiger's roar shook the sky, scattered leaves flew about, a huge, hoarse cry echoed through the mountains, like thunder rumbling, or a flood rushing forward, making everyone change color, right where they had just rested.

  Pang Bo and Zhang Ziling exchanged a glance, they knew that Liu Yunzhi and Li Changqing were done for, being blocked by the adult tiger in its lair after going out to return, it was absolutely impossible to survive, especially this female tiger who was nursing her cubs was extremely ferocious.

  Everyone else's face turned pale, and as soon as they left the ancient forbidden land, they almost encountered a large ferocious beast. If they continued to move forward, who knows what they would encounter next. Now that I think about it, although the gloomy and eerie nights in the forbidden land were terrifying, at least during the day there wouldn't be so many dangers.

  "After narrowly escaping the jaws of death, having gone through countless dangers, traversing the desolate universe, I finally arrived at a world teeming with life, only to lose my life here. What a pity and a waste." Zhou Yi said, gazing out at the mountains a few miles away.

  The tiger's roar must have been caused by Liu Yunzhi and Li Changqing, thinking of this, everyone felt a chill, and an bloody picture appeared in front of their eyes. The fierce tiger tore apart three bodies, its sharp claws and white sword-like teeth were stained with blood, devouring flesh and blood. Just thinking about it made people feel a chill down their spine.

  "Hurry up!"

  We can't stay here for long. A ferocious tiger is lurking nearby, and this is its territory. It wasn't until they rushed out another four or five miles that everyone finally let out a sigh of relief.

  "This forest is so quiet, I wonder if we've strayed back into the Ancient Forbidden Land again?"

  Ancient trees that seem to touch the sky block out the sun, and in the midst of the primitive forest, it is eerily quiet. There are no birds chirping or beasts roaring, nor can any bees or butterflies be seen flying about. It's as if all living creatures have suddenly vanished into thin air.

  The direction was not wrong, but everyone felt a little uneasy and became more cautious.

  After walking forward for about two thousand meters, the towering ancient trees gradually thinned out, and a relatively open area appeared before everyone's eyes. The mountainous terrain was very flat and hard, and it felt like stepping on marble when walking on it. There was not a single blade of grass growing here, only some huge rocks.

  "What's that dark mass ahead?"

  "It seems to be... a huge black lake."

  The giant rocks were lying horizontally, blocking everyone's line of sight until they passed through a pile of rubble and saw the scene in front of them clearly. Everyone was shocked.

  A huge lake lay before us, silent as a block of iron, without a single ripple, and what was most astonishing was its color, a deep black, like ink, so dark it seemed to suffocate.

  "Now I finally understand that there really is bad water in the world. This black lake, no matter how you look at it, makes people feel uncomfortable in their hearts. I've never seen such dark lake water before."

  The black lake was deathly still, without a sign of life. The surrounding vast mountainous area had become a barren land, where even weeds couldn't grow. This place seemed to be a forbidden zone for life.

  "It seems... it seems like there's some kind of sound." A female classmate's voice trembled, her face slightly pale.

  At this time, others also heard a faint and strange sound, very low, like a painful hum.

  "Crack"

  Suddenly, a cracking sound came, as if something hard had broken.

  "There... it's there!" Yui Yui's face turned pale, pointing to the shore of the black lake, where a huge stone several meters long lay horizontally.

  It's as if something is lurking behind the giant stone, only revealing part of its body, with thick skin that looks like cold, hard black metal, having a dark gold texture and luster.

  "What is that thing?!" Everyone was shocked.

  "Never mind, hurry up and leave here!"

  A huge black lake, a hard and barren mountain with no grass growing on it. A creature that inhabits such a place is certainly not a benevolent one.

  "Crack"

  The sound of shattering echoed again, and the low growl seemed even more painful. It was as if it was struggling, and then it actually flipped its body and crashed into the huge boulder with a loud thud.

  Boulders, some as tall as seven or eight meters and others as long as over ten meters, were suddenly overturned and rolled into the dark, ink-like lake water, stirring up a patch of black waves.

  It wasn't until then that the crowd finally saw the ferocious beast clearly, no more than three meters long and less than one and a half meters high, not as huge as imagined, but it was even more shocking because of this. The three-meter-long body could actually knock over a giant stone tens of meters long and seven or eight meters high into the lake, such incredible strength was frightening to hear.

  "What is this thing?!"

  The crowd had never seen such a beast, no fur, no scales covering it, it was like black iron cast, all over the body was dark, shining with metallic texture and luster.

  It's less than three meters long, like a large black iron block, looking very solid and having an unparalleled sense of power. At first glance, it looks like a strong bull, but upon closer inspection, it is vastly different. On its head grow nine sharp horns, unmatched in sharpness, with a dark and ominous glow. Moreover, it has five eyes, with blood-red light shooting out from between them when they open. In its wide mouth, more than half a foot long, sharp teeth are exposed like daggers, shining coldly and ferociously, emitting a savage and brutal aura.

  This is a ferocious beast that has never been seen or heard before, and its appearance is extremely terrifying. Just looking at it from afar makes one's heart tremble with fear.

  "It's like shedding its skin..." Someone whispered in surprise.

  On the back of the black beast, a large mouth was slowly opening, revealing part of its newly born body inside, even more black and shiny, like it was forged from dark gold.

  "Let's hurry and leave while it's molting, let's get out of here quickly!"

  It's like a cicada shedding its shell, and such growth occurs on a ferocious beast, which is really strange and eerie. Fortunately, it's molting, otherwise, people dare not imagine the terrible consequences.

  If the tiger that was roaring like thunder earlier were to be brought here, it would probably be as gentle as a kitten in front of this ferocious beast. It can easily knock a huge boulder, 7 or 8 meters high and over 10 meters long, into the lake. How frightening and unpredictable is such a beast?

  Everyone was shocked but unharmed, and they skirted around the black lake. The low, anguished wail behind them gradually receded into the distance until it disappeared.

  Climbing up another small mountain, I gazed out at the distant high peak. The buildings there became increasingly clear and grand in scale, with temples stretching as far as the eye could see, like heavenly palaces fallen to earth.

  "I feel like I'm running a fever..." A female classmate said somewhat embarrassingly to another female classmate beside her.

  "I have the same feeling."

  At this moment, everyone discovered each other's abnormality, their skin was red and terrifying, as if they were about to bleed, every single person felt extremely hot, as if there was a fierce fire burning inside their body.

  It's not just the heat that's causing this, it's a physical condition, and people are starting to feel like their skin is being scorched, as if they're being steamed in an oven.

  "I... can't take it... it's so unbearable!" A female classmate was squatting on the ground in extreme pain, crying out: "It hurts so much, my flesh and blood feel like they're drying up..." She couldn't control herself, tears streaming down her face as she fell to the ground, rolling back and forth nonstop.

  The second and third students couldn't bear it, their bodies turned red with blood, and threads of blood seeped out from their skin, they fell to the ground, rolling around in agony.

  "What's going on? What happened?"

  Everyone realized the severity of the situation, at this moment no one could stand up, almost all fell to the ground, letting out painful screams, flesh and blood seemed to be stripped away, the whole body was in agony as if being cut by a knife.

  "Ah......" Finally, someone couldn't bear it anymore and burst out in loud cries, rolling back and forth on the ground, leaving behind a trail of bloodstains.

  "I don't want to die..." someone screamed in terror.

  This is a sudden disaster, no one knows why it happened, and the situation itself is not clear at all, only feeling like being tortured, the body is slowly being dismembered.

  "Just let me die... I'm so miserable..."

  Struggling, crying, rolling, and screaming, many people were almost desperate, loud wailing, the intense pain made their minds gradually blur.

  Finally, everyone's body was wrapped in a layer of blood gas, as if there were bloody flames burning. Fierce struggle, painful roar, this mountain land is no longer peaceful, and the nearby birds and beasts are frightened to escape.

  It's an inhuman torture, like being in purgatory, experiencing the most miserable and cruel punishment in the world. Finally, the intense pain made everyone faint, not a single person could remain conscious.

  It wasn't until much later that the mountains gradually quieted down and the painful low roars disappeared.

  Two hours later, Ye Fan was the first to wake up from the weeds, with a clear blue sky above and birds chirping and insects buzzing around. He quickly sat up, no longer feeling any pain in his body, but instead full of energy and vitality, as if he had endless strength, and felt that he could tear apart a saber-toothed tiger alive.

  However, he soon discovered that something was amiss. The clothes on his body had become larger and were now loose-fitting, completely ill-suited for him. He stretched out his hands from the oversized sleeves, and in an instant, he let out a startled cry - was this really his palm? It had shrunk by several sizes, looking extremely delicate and not at all like the hand of a grown man.

  Ye Fan quickly stood up, he felt that everything was so unbelievable, the clothes on his body were loose and wide, like an opera costume. But it wasn't that the clothes had grown bigger, but rather his body had shrunk smaller, at this moment, his body looked like a 11 or 12 year old boy's.

  At this time, not far away, Pong Bo woke up and rubbed his sleepy eyes. Seeing Ye Fan standing not far away, he suddenly looked surprised and said: "Little kid, who are you? Where did you come from? I'm going to report you, how did you put on Ye Fan's clothes?"

  He seemed to feel something was wrong, so he quickly sat up and then stood up, and then shouted loudly as if he had seen a ghost.

  "How did my clothes get bigger, no, how did my body get smaller?" He looked at Ye Fan in surprise and stuttered: "Y...you're Ye Fan?" As he said this, he covered his mouth because his voice was getting more and more like a young boy's, full of childishness.

  Looking at the distant Pong Bao, Ye Fan was also stunned for a moment. He was completely a young and tender boy, looking like he was eleven or twelve years old. Faintly visible was the shadow of an adult Pong Bao.

  "What's going on here?" Pang Bo rushed to Ye Fan's side, excitedly shouting and yelling, he was really stimulated.

  "I think... we might have turned back into children." Ye Fan was also shocked and couldn't understand what was happening, so he could only make this judgment. The two of them now looked very young, completely different from before.

  "How could this be happening to us?!" Pang Bo yelled, he really couldn't understand and was at a loss as to why such an unbelievable thing had occurred.

  "Go and see how others are doing."

  Ye Fan called out to him and they walked up the mountain together. Earlier, they had rolled down the mountain body for tens of meters, fortunately, the terrain here was gentle, and there were many trees growing, otherwise they would have been in danger. It can be imagined how intense their struggle was not long ago, now thinking back, that kind of pain still makes people shudder.

  As they reached the top of the mountain, Ye Fan and the others were stunned. Pang Bo shouted: "Who are these gloomy old men and women?"

  What they saw left them almost petrified on the spot, with a thrilling and terrifying feeling.

  Dozens of bodies were scattered all over the ground, with white hair and wrinkled skin that was incredibly old. However, these people were wearing familiar clothes, and it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say they were in their 70s or 80s, and had aged terribly.

  "Could it be Zhou Yi, Wang Ziwen, Lin Jia and Li Xiaoman?!"

  Time flies like an arrow, and red lips grow old; two people feel dry mouth and tongue, standing on the mountain top like clay sculptures or wooden carvings.