As expected, his later words aroused Jun Xin's interest. He lifted his brows. "For killing people?"
"That's right, it's for killing people." That person looked towards the ocean solemnly. "You must be curious about why there's not a single fish in the sea near this island?"
Jun Xin nodded. "A little."
That person paused, then said, "This island has existed for many years. I arrived here only three days ago. It was Manager He that took me in, so I stayed here and started working here. Even if you ask for more details, I wouldn't know about it. All I know is that in these past three years, on the fifteenth of every month, a large number of people would be sent here, then those people would die one by one. When the time came, Manager He would have those corpses buried in a hole in the forest."
"There are no other animals on the island. There's only a dozen tigers that grew up eating human flesh."
After saying that, the person just looked at Jun Xin without speaking.
Jun Xin was stunned for a few moments. "You're done?"
"En."
"..." Jun Xin looked towards the sky. "There's nothing else?"
"No. With my status, this is all I know. If you want to know more, you have to ask Manager He."
Jun Xin peered at him. After confirming that this person wasn't keeping anything from him, he shook his head helplessly. "Alright, I'll believe you for the time being."
"For the time being?"
"Ha…" Jun Xin chuckled as he flicked away the dust on his collar. "If not? Do you really expect me to believe whatever you say? If our situation was reversed, would you believe my words?"
That person was taken aback for a moment.
Jun Xin patted his shoulder. "Alright, then let's leave things at here! I'm going to go find Manager He, and as for you!"
"What are you planning to do? You already said that you wouldn't do anything to me!" That person shrank back warily.
Jun Xin smirked. "Guess!"
A few moments later, the two figures on the beach were already gone. Jun Xin appeared from somewhere and dusted off his hands before turning back to glance at the person hanging off the large rock he had spent the last few days meditating on. He smiled happily.
However, once he turned around, his expression turned cold.
Lan Jia had actually killed so many people to feel these soul devouring bugs. What exactly was he trying to do?
They had all thought that his motive was only to make a celestial pill in order to cultivate like the cultivators of the legends. However, from the look of things now, Lan Jia had more motives than that… Jun Xin lowered his eyes. Could his actions be related to what happened twenty years ago?
As he was thinking this, he had already arrived at the residence. Before he even walked in, he heard someone call him happily from behind. "Jun Xin!"
Jun Xin could tell from the voice that it was Baili Yiling.
"Qhere did you go? Why was there no news at all for so many days?" Before Jun Xin even had a chance to speak, Baili Yiling had already started bombarding him with questions.
Perhaps it was because the concern in her voice was too obvious and made Jun Xin uncomfortable because he hadn't originally been planning to mess with her, but now he felt like it. "Huh? Why are you still here?"
Baili Yiling was surprised. "What do you mean?"
Jun Xin crossed his arms and lifted his brows in a surprised manner. "Baili Feng had rushed here from so far away, hadn’t it been for the sake of bringing you back?"
"Big Brother only came to tell me some news. After telling me, he left. I've searched for you for so many days. Where exactly did you go?" When this was brought up, a serious expression appeared on Baili Yiling's face and she looked around guardedly before pulling on Jun Xin's sleeve and asking this quietly.
"Big Brother? You sure are close with him. Tsk tsk... I wonder what Baili Yu will think when he hears you call his enemy this way." What exactly did Baili Feng say to her? She had clearly been against accepting him earlier, but in the blink of an eye, she was calling him ‘big brother’ so smoothly. She seriously didn't stand her ground.
Baili Yiling was shocked. "Enemy?"
"It seems like he hasn't told you everything since he actually didn't tell you about such an important matter. Even I feel sad on your behalf. You probably think that he's such a great guy, right?" The more Jun Xin spoke, the more sour his tone became. In reality, he didn't understand what he was so annoyed about. However, he just felt extremely uncomfortable when he heard Baili Yiling call that person big brother.
Even though he hadn't felt anything when she called Baili Yu that.
It was seriously strange.
However, he didn't think much into it. When he saw how confused Baili Yiling was, he felt that this girl was quite pitiful after all. She had never had a mother or father to look after her and was sent alone to Cerulean Mountain, that creepy place, to survive on her own. And now she had to face the reality that her two older brothers were enemies…
"Jun Xin!?"
Jun Xin came to his senses and yawned as he walked inside. "Let's go. Let's go rest. If nothing out of the usual happens, we'll leave this place tomorrow."
Baili Yiling had a ton of questions to ask, but she could tell that Jun Xin didn't want to talk to her, so she decided to hold the questions back to avoid being mocked by him again. She'll just ask the questions once they start traveling.
After they entered, they found that Manager He wasn't resting and had been waiting for them. When they walked in, he hastily greeted them. "Saint Maiden, you guys are finally back!"
Jun Xin just glanced at him without saying anything.
Baili Yiling was standing behind him. When Jun Xin didn't respond, she hastily walked up with a smile and asked Manager He, "Manager He, did something happen?"
"Oh, no, there's nothing," replied Manager He.
"Then…"
"It was just that I forgot to tell you. Tonight is the fifteenth. On the island, on the fifteenth of every month, the tigers would become very fierce and attack everything in sight. That's why none of the people on this island dare to wander around on the fifteenth." Manager He sighed as if he found this problem a huge pain.
Jun Xin who already knew about the tigers' secret wasn't surprised by this information, but Baili Yiling didn't know about it and was very curious. "Why would it be like this? You guys never tried to investigate what was behind it before?"
Manager He made a troubled expression. "Once those tigers go crazy, most people aren't a match for them. There aren't many people on this island from the start, so we all chose to just stay in at night instead of trying to investigate this matter."
As he spoke, his gaze flickered, making it clear that he was hiding something.
Baili Yiling looked towards Jun Xin and saw that he was unconcerned and even a little annoyed. She furrowed her brows. It seemed that he didn't want to get involved in unrelated matters.
She then recalled what he said earlier and said to Manager He, "Alright, then we won't head out again tonight. We'll be leaving tomorrow morning. Many thanks for your care these past few days! If there's a chance in the future, we'll definitely repay you guys properly!"
"What? Saint Maiden, you're leaving?" Manager He reacted with astonishment even as a dark light flashed through his eyes.
Jun Xin rolled his eyes. He had only left one obvious warning out, and she ended up doing exactly that—telling Manager He about the fact that they were leaving. It seemed like they wouldn't be able to sleep tonight. He felt helpless.
Baili Yiling was focused on talking to Manager He and didn't notice Jun Xin's expression at all. Once she finished speaking and turned around, she found that Jun Xin was staring at her and blushed. However, she tried to feign calm as she asked, "I-Is there something on my face?"
"En." Jun Xin blinked.
Baili Yiling reached up to touch but she didn't feel anything. Her eyes widened in confusion. "There's nothing though?"
Jun Xin laughed and flicked her forehead. "You can't even feel such thick skin?"
After saying that, he pillowed the back of his head with his arms and walked inside.
It took Baili Yiling a long while to get it. Jun Xin was saying that she had thick skin!
Her flushed face became redder from anger!
They went back to their own rooms to rest. When it was near midnight, Jun Xin suddenly opened his eyes. Before he even got up from the bed, he heard Baili Yiling shouting from outside the door. "Jun Xin, Jun Xin! Hurry and wake up!
"Jun Xin!"
Jun Xin rubbed his aching temples and sighed before pulling on his clothes a little and getting off the bed.
He opened the door but before he even had a chance to take a look, Baili Yiling grabbed his hand. "Let's hurry and leave! We've been surrounded by tigers!"
"What are you afraid of? Isn't it just some tigers?" Jun Xin yawned as he pushed away her hand. "How could a big well-bred lady be tugging at a man all the time? People that didn't know the situation would think I was seducing you."
Baili Yiling was besides herself with worry and didn't hear what he said clearly. "Who cares if you're seducing me or I'm seducing you? Let's go already! Those tigers are too strong. A lot of people have already died. Neither of us have inner strength right now so if we don't go, we won't make it in time!"
Jun Xin only became a little serious when he heard this. "Someone has died?"
"That's right!"
"Where?"
"Over there!"
"Hey! Do you want to die? There's a lot of tigers over there!"
However, Jun Xin didn't care and just walked towards the place Baili Yiling had pointed at. Baili Yiling stomped her feet anxiously, but still followed him. "Jun Xin, wait for me!"
Jun Xin abruptly stopped, so Baili Yiling crashed into him. Jun Xin inhaled sharply from the pain and turned around to shout, "Is your head made of iron?"
As he spoke, he rubbed his back. It was clear that the collision had really hurt.
However, who asked him to stop without even giving a warning?
Even though this was what Baili Yiling was thinking, she didn't say it and instead said, "Let's not go there after all. Even Manager He has run away, we should run too!"
Jun Xin continued inhaling sharply from the pain. "What do you mean by run? We can't!"
Baili Yiling was taken aback for a moment, then she looked around and realized what Jun Xin meant. Her face also turned extremely pale as she exclaimed in shock, "Why's it like this?"
"Why's it like this?" At the exact same time, Baili Yu who was in the distant Azure Water Valley made the same exclamation.
He was facing Tang Doudou, who was sleeping peacefully on the bed. Her long, slightly curled eyelashes seemed like resting butterflies in the candlelight, but they showed no trace of movement.
The poison had been cured successfully two hours ago. Cang Baicao had said that Tang Doudou would wake up within an hour, but two hours had already passed and there was still no sign of her waking up.
Meanwhile, Cang Baicao had used all his energy in drawing out the poison, so after it was done, he had fainted.
Baili Yu was the only one left to watch over Tang Doudou.
"Why are you still not walking up?" Baili Yu's eyes were filled with worry and he reached out to softly stroke Tang Doudou's face. "Doudou…"
Suddenly, those eyelashes fluttered.
Baili Yu's face lit up with joy and he withdrew his hand to stare at those eyelashes. He even held his breath as if he was afraid to disturb those timid little butterflies.
As he watched, the lashes that only moved once slowly started moving more.
Finally, they opened fully to reveal the dewy black gems beneath.
Baili Yu's flawless eyes were reflected in those black gems. Tang Doudou grinned. "I'm hungry!"
C: Sounds like something Luffy would say.