In the distance, large amounts of lava bubbled from a volcano.
The lava spewed an estimated eight hundred meters.
Black smoke obscured half of the sky. Scarlet magma spurted up, then fell.
“Fortunately, we are still at the periphery, let's get going.” Cang Xu urged.
But Zi Di was walking slowly and turned her head around to look behind her from time to time.
Before the girl set off, she thought everything would go wrong, but when she and Cang Xu escaped the cave, it went smoother than she could have possibly imagined.
All of this happened because the body double attracted all of the scorpions.
“With how safe I am here, then that means he’s in grave danger!”
“How is he doing right now?”
Rationality told Zi Di that the body double might already be dead. But sentiment impeded her footsteps, and with a trace of hope, she wanted to continue waiting.
So much so that an idea appeared in her mind: “Even if I saw his corpse as my final glimpse, I could die peacefully!”
“Lord Zhen Jin was in terrible physical condition, he did not eat anything, and was short on stamina.”
“Facing the besieging scorpion group would violently consume his stamina. The longer time went on, the more uncertain his vitality.”
“Alas……” Cang Xu sighed.
Zi Di’s heart was very jittery, and she wanted to berate Cang Xu and tell him to shut up.
They continued to wait.
During the girl’s despair, a figure appeared in her field of view.
The figure left a profound impression on Zi Di.
Just as it appeared, Zi Di was somewhat skeptical whether it was an hallucination or not.
But quickly, she cried out in pleasant surprise.
Her knight had returned, like the beautiful heroes of old.
“He also returned with Bai Ya.” Zi Di regretfully sighed in a complex tone.
“A true templar knight!” Cang Xu wholeheartedly exclaimed.
When both sides converged, Zi Di immediately healed the body double.
During this process, she saw the new injuries left by the spear scorpion, she also keenly detected the body double’s mental state was completely different.
“Could it be that in his moment of life and death, his beatification was stimulated again?”
“It should be so.”
“He can’t use battle qi, only through beastification could he defeat the scorpion group!”
Although they had broken away from the scorpion group, the exploration only had four people left: the body double, Zi Di, Cang Xu, and Bai Ya.
“Is this the center of Mystifying Monster Island?”
“Is the alchemy factory here?”
Zi Di had guesses, however she didn’t want to explore this place.
The environment here was too dangerous, it had erupting volcanoes and those terrifying gold level gigantic lava turtles she had just seen with her own eyes……
Furthermore, she couldn’t justify going deeper to the others.
She also wasn’t sure if the alchemy factory was really hidden here.
Although Cang Xu advised the body double to abandon Bai Ya, the body double would rather bear the burden himself than abandon his comrade.
Body double: “I already said that I would do all I can to save everyone and would never abandon a single man. This is my promise and also my responsibility.
“My Lord, your noble character is like a bright star in the darkness of the night sky! Cang Xu lamented internally, “You are a paragon among the templar knights.”
The body double bitterly laughed and shook his head.
Seeing this expression, Zi Di’s heart understood more: “My prior guess should be the truth, he beastified to prevail over the scorpion group. However, he was inevitably vexed and bewildered as a result.”
“Templar knight bodies cannot transform.”
The body double being trapped in anger and misgivings also made Zi Di very sad.
“I should tell him the truth.”
Last night, Zi Di quietly decided that at dawn, she would tell the body double the whole truth.
But at dawn, she hesitated again: “If I tell him the truth, wouldn’t that disturb him? Would it make his mood chaotic? He needs to lure the scorpion group and his situation is far more dangerous than ours!”
In her hesitation, he lost her chance.
“I should tell him the truth! Even if he isn’t Zhen Jin or a templar knight, he was once a knight. That is all I know of his former identity.” Zi Di resolved herself again.
Food was critically deficient, and when the four returned to the desert, they only had a small lizard and a jumping mouse on hand.
The body double gave the precious meat to Zi Di and Cang Xu, meanwhile Bai Ya’s state grew worse. Not only was he still unconscious, he now had a high fever.
“There is movement.” The body double’s complexion sank. “You two eat first, I will go stand guard to drive away or perhaps kill any beasts around.”
The body double disappeared for a while then came back.
“He seems somewhat different.” Zi Di sharply detected some kind of change appearing in the body double.
Zi Di and Cang Xu didn’t eat the meat, they wanted to give it to the body double.
“Don’t tell me you two want to make me violate my vow? Do you want my knight’s honor to be blemished?” The youngster’s expression became very serene.
Zi Di and Cang Xu looked at the youngster, it was as if holy light radiated from his entire body and for a moment, their hearts shook and neither of them spoke.
“Burp.”
At that moment, the youngster could not help but let out a satisfied burp.
Cang Xu and Zi Di:???
Zi Di’s eyes open wide: “What did I just hear?”
“A satisfied burp?”
“He ate his fill? With what?”
“No, impossible. He is a knight; he wouldn’t eat behind our backs. Perhaps this wasn’t a burp, but just his digestive system’s acid reflux swelling with gas.
“But if he really did eat something, could it be……he beastified?”
At dawn, the four set out again.
Seeing the golden granite boulders again, the body double went ahead and into the rocks: “I’ll be right back. If you have no choice but to move, use the pink compound to mark your route.”
Not long after, he returned and recounted his fight against the lizard group.
Quickly, he showed the way, leading Zi Di and Cang Xu to the battlefield.
Cang Xu couldn’t help but praise: “Lord Zhen Jin, I am now beginning to believe Lord Zi Di’s conjecture.”
“I fear you really do not only have just a silver level cultivation. To have such strong physical strength in such malnourished conditions is not ordinary. This lizard group had at least thirty lizards, yet you used an ordinary knife without battle qi to kill five of them as well as forcing the rest to flee.”
……
Zi Di quietly sized up the battlefield.
Her gaze rapidly concentrated on the traces left on the golden granite boulders, as well as the holes suspected to be caused by a spear scorpion tail.
In that brief time, the body double’s cleaning of the battlefield had limited effects.
“He didn’t mention spear scorpions, could it be that he beastified a scorpion tail to defeat the lizard group?” Zi Di’s heart moved.
She looked around her until she suddenly stared with a beating heart and burning cheeks.
She saw the body double’s buttocks through a hole in his trousers.
The hole was faint because the body double’s jacket was covering it, his intention was obvious.
“All of the clues fit together!”
“Hold on, yesterday he let out a satisfied burp. If it were lizard meat, based on his character, surely he would have returned with a share. But he didn’t……he did something too embarrassing to mention.”
“His food should be the golden granite rocks!”
“He can transform into a spear scorpion, and perhaps into even more beasts. After beastifying, he can treat the golden granite rocks as food.
“But he couldn’t share the rocks as food, because normal people can’t eat these things.”
Zi Di continued to reflect and thought back to the body double’s departure last night and his particular inquiry to Cang Xu about the spear scorpion’s digestive abilities.
“He was prepared in advance, in other words, before leaving he knew he could beastify into a spear scorpion, or at least partially into one.
“But he wasn’t sure if he could eat the golden granite. Therefore, he asked Cang Xu.”
“This implies he can actively beastify.”
“Maybe because he has beastified many times, he learned with familiarity. It is also possible that during the spear scorpion fight, he had a breakthrough and can now freely control his beastification.
Guessing at the body double’s secret, Zi Di’s heart tenderly welled up.
“This idiot……”
“He would rather risk eating rocks and give the food to us.”
“He must not want to beastify, because he believes he is Zhen Jin, a templar knight!”
“However, he is forced to do so, because of the environment and to protect me……”
At that moment, Zi Di’s heart gushed again with an urge, she wanted to tell the truth, she wanted to stand by his side, hold his hand, and share in all kinds of worries and vexations together.
However, that urge was muzzled and Zi Di lost her courage again.
She could only use her amethyst eyes to gaze at the body double and softly say: “My Lord, from now on I ask you to not take such risks again. We can take our time to decide more times than not.”
The body double didn’t know the girl already knew his secret as he nodded: “Be at ease, I understand. In fact, ever since I got away from the scorpion group, I experienced a sensation of being reborn. I felt like I had made a breakthrough, but it also felt like I hadn't. When I fight now, I feel clearer and have a greater understanding of what I can and cannot do.”
He wanted to cover up some things.
He was deliberately vague to give the others a certain impression.
In the future, after he used the magic core to dispose of threats, it would allow the others to not think that it was strange and abrupt that he was stronger.
The lizard meat saved the four people, now with adequate food, the four now needed water.
According to Cang Xu’s speculation, the lizard group must have a large water source, an oasis.
Not long after, the four found the oasis and entered it.
There, they saw Lan Zao and Huang Zao.
Huang Zao was long dead, his face was deathly pale, his body was broken, and his bloodstained white bones were a ghastly sight.
Soon after, Cang Xu and Zi Di saw this spectacle and their footsteps abruptly halted.
“Blegh.”
Zi Di was caught off guard, she immediately vomited almost all of the acid in her stomach.
“It was me……it was me……”
“I killed him, I killed him.”
“I killed Huang Zao; I killed my younger brother.”
“I killed him; I killed my last living family member!”
Lan Zao wept bitter tears, and Zi Di was frightened of how beastly Lan Zao was.
Night, next to a bonfire.
Zi Di advised the body double: “We already saw Huang Zao’s corpse. Lan Zao also admitted his crime. This is too cruel; how can we keep such a man?”
“I also discovered that it seems acid was sprayed onto Lan Zao’s back, the wound has already putrefied, but it is clear it was tended to and bandaged. That was obviously Huang Zao’s handiwork, and it would be impossible for Lan Zao to treat himself to that degree.”
“Huang Zao assisted his older brother and bandaged him. But what did Lan Zao do? He is a terrible person.”
But Cang Xu’s opinions were different, leading to a dispute between him and Zi Di.
The body double was struggling, it was clear he felt awkward.
Late into the night and under the hazy moon, Zi Di heard the body double praying.
“God, Emperor Shen Ming, my great master. Thine gaze is like a light on the world that causes all shadows to flee. Now, thy believer, thy knight confesses to thee because his spirit is mired in a swamp. I seek the illumination of thy spirit to banish the shadows of my corruption, my hideousness, my filth. I beseech thee to pardon my sinful thoughts……”
The long confession finished.
The soft night wind brushed the young knight’s ears.
It was as the youngster expected——his god did not respond.
The youngster sighed with disappointment and frustration.
Zi Di also sighed in her heart.
It was a good opportunity to tell the truth, but she didn’t have to courage to truly open her mouth.
She was very scared.
Before, she was scared the body double would be provoked, act brutally, and harm her.
But now, after experiencing all kinds of trials, he had saved her life many times. Even if he brutally killed her, at worst she was simply returning her life to him, that’s all.”
She was scared of how the body double would look at her, she was afraid of seeing his thoroughly disappointed expression.
“If he is not Zhen Jin, I am also not his fiancé……”
Despite knowing the body double was not her fiancé, she still hoped he thought that way.
The sun rose and a new day began.
The body double Zi Di, and Cang Xu once again did their best to survive
The body double hunted and explored, Cang Xu fired pottery, and Zi Di mixed potions that expelled lower lifeforms.
She sighed again: the barbarian race’s leather book was too practical, and on Mystifying Monster Island, that leather book had helped her so much!
According to the plan, Zi Di began to weave tents from palm leaves.
She was kneeling on the ground with her upper body inside a tent, it seemed that she was adjusting palm leaves in the tent’s interior. Her lower body was on the outside of the tent, her boots were no longer covered by her enchanted gown, and because of her posture, she had a curved outline. Upon seeing this scene, Zhen Jin’s heart could not help but shake slightly.
The body double couldn’t help but be attracted as he stopped to watch for a good while.
“He just looked at me!” After sensing it, Zi Di’s heart was bashful and delighted.
The body double left and Zi Di continued to build tents, during these events, Ba Ya regained consciousness.
“Are you awake?”
“Lord Zi Di, thank you……”
“Don’t thank me. Everyone was done by Lord Zhen Jin; he was the one who saved you. In fact, we already abandoned you.” Zi Di then told Bai Ya the details with pride and a hint of dazzle.
The lizard group came to draw water and a fat ball flying fish group appeared, triggering a crisis.
“Run back to camp. You guys staying here will burden me!” The body double’s complexion changed as he shouted.
Cang Xu and Zi Di immediately turned around and ran as fast as they could.
The body double killed some fat ball flying fish, then transformed into a spear scorpion to lure away the shoal of fish.
“Where is he?” Standing on a hill near camp, Zi Di was filled with expectations and worry.
Suddenly, her eyes were ineffably attracted to a silver level scorpion.
She looked into the distance as the silver level scorpion ran into the lizard group.
The spear scorpion clearly attracted many shoals of fish, causing the lizards to fall into dire straits.
“Is it him? Is it him?”
How wonderful, Zi Di had instantly determined the spear scorpion’s true identity. Even though before this, she never believed the body double could transform into a complete spear scorpion.
Zi Di became absent-minded.
In her eyes, the spear scorpion figure gradually changed into the body double, he was galloping forward, wore white armor, held a lance, and weaved through the battlefield.
Notes
If I were Zi Di, I’d be questioning why I couldn’t just suck it up and ask 866 for a ride on his scorpion back. Since there are no animals to ride because basically everything is a ferocious predator, it would be nice to ride along the smooth back of a scorpion for a change. Then again, love is a fickle and strange thing. I bet Cang Xu is just taking it in stride as strange things continue to unfold around him.