Chapter 46 – Pale faces  

The giant stone blocking the entrance of the cave moved a little more, and the shaking sound become more intense and clear.

Based on that sound, Mao had already figured out what creature was moving that stone outside.

Because of that, Mao’s face immediately turned pale. All his blood seemed to have frozen over, as he stood still at his spot, with his eyes fixed on the entrance of the cave.

After examining the vents above, Shao Xuan jumped down and tapped on Mao’s shoulder, which almost made Mao jump up out of fear.

With trembling lips, Mao did not know what to say. After all, he and Shao Xuan were merely two newly-awakened kids, who could never be a proper opponent to that giant creature outside based on their own strength. It was such a big gap between their strength, no matter how brave they were, they could not deny the truth.

Shao Xuan took his knife, and indicated to Mao to escape from above. He had inspected roughly, and no dangerous animals were to be seen by the vent for now. Even if there were some dangerous animals around, there was no other option for them. Going out was far better than waiting inside and be eaten alive.

As the gap by the entrance grew bigger, the wind blew inside, and the flames began to dance more violently.

There was no time for panic, or thinking. Mao tried with great effort to calm himself down, then he followed Shao Xuan to climb up with a bone knife. Even though the experienced hunting warriors warned that night in the forest was filled with danger, they still had to go out.

Anyway, they had a chance of survival if they managed to escape through the vent. Staying inside, they would just die in a very stupid way. Perhaps, before they could even stimulate and gather their strength, they would already be slapped down by that Thorn Black Wind.

The vent barely allowed Shao Xuan and Mao to worm their way out. If they were older with stronger bodies, they would be stuck in.

When Shao Xuan and Mao were worming their way out, half of the entrance was opened.

The sound of shaking thorns was echoing through the cave, for that Thorn Black Wind was too excited. The whole cave was filled by that sound.

Animals in the forests feared the fire, but not all of them. Also, the bonfire in the cave was not big. For a Thorn Black Wind whose body length was over ten meters, such a small flame was no threat at all.

It seemed that it did not expect to find an empty cave. The Thorn Black Wind was curious. It stepped forward slowly. It poked out its long forked tongue to sense the smell inside, and scanned the whole cave with its radar-like sight. It felt that the bonfire seemed annoying, so with sudden speed, it approached the bonfire like a gust of black wind, and stepped on that flame.

Bang!

Thick horny scales protected its skin from being burned, and with only one step, it put out that flame. The cave then fell into complete darkness.

There was nobody inside, while a heavy smell of bloody meat of the four-fanged wild boar filled the air. However, it could still recognize many people’s smells, among which some of the people he was rather familiar with.

Thinking about its last encounter with those people, the thorns on its body began to shake again.

Sha-Sha-sha!

The sound of shaking thorns was even more rapid than before.

Outside the vent, Shao Xuan and Mao stood there with their backs against the cliff. Now, all they wanted was for the Thorn Black Wind to leave after it confirmed there was nobody inside. When Mai and the others returned, they could go inside the cave again.

Shao Xuan held his breath, as he focused on listening to the sounds in the cave. Aside from the sha-sha sound that occasionally entered his ears, he had no way to find what was happening inside. The sound of it stepping on the bonfire was also heard by Shao Xuan. He flexed his muscles, just in case.

After some time, there was no other sound from the cave. They did not know whether the Thorn Black Wind had left. The sky grew darker. Even if there were still traces of light, it was not bright enough for them to see the situation of the entrance of the cave. Plus, because of their perspective, they couldn’t see the entrance.

Shao Xuan suddenly felt a chill on his scalp as he was thinking. A sense of coldness quickly spread all along his spine, which made him quiver out of trepidation.

He quickly stepped away a few steps from the vent, he did not forget to drag Mao away as he moved, and warned him not to stay so close to the vent.

Mao moved his sight from the vent, and stepped back a little. He looked at Shao Xuan and raised up his arms to ask Shao Xuan through body language. Suddenly, he felt a gust of wind by his ear, and an icy killing breath was mixed in that wind. Mao felt that the pores on the back of his neck were about to explode.

Ding!

The beast’s claw nailed on the cliff, and flying stone shards fell all over Mao’s body. His arms got scratched by some sharp edged stone shards. But Mao did not care about that little injury, nor did he had the time to care about it.

At that time, he felt like he got heavily hammered in his heart.

He did not see when the beast’s claw raised out from the vent!!

Nor had he heard any sound!!

It all happened so fast, and so quiet. If Shao Xuan hadn’t dragged him aside a moment ago; if the vent was bigger to let the whole claw raise out; Mao would have been nailed onto the cliff by that giant black scaled claw, and would’ve gotten smashed to death.

The silent claw reached out of the went and wrenched on the cliff, and grabbed a giant stone piece as it pulled back. As it closed its claw, that stone immediately got smashed to pieces.

It did not catch any person, but still, it smashed down a large piece of stone by the vent, when the Thorn Black Wind retrieved its claw. Originally the vent was only big enough for a small kid, now it suddenly became two times bigger!

It not only did not want to stop, the beast intended to keep expanding the vent with its claw.

Apparently, that Thorn Black Wind already knew that Shao Xuan and Mao were outside the cave, and it had its attention focused on them already.

“Go!!”

Shao Xuan and Mao moved away quickly.

Actually, it was not very hard for them to run on that steep cliff. It was not completely dark yet, and all they had to do was to focus and not make mistakes. One mistake could cause them to fall along the cliff. Even though, with their body strength and quick reaction, they would not be dead after the fall. However, there would be a high chance that they might get captured by the Thorn Black Wind that was coming after them.

“Where should we go?” asked Mao. Because of what happened earlier, he had much more faith in Shao Xuan. After all, when he had not realized what was happening, Shao Xuan already sensed the danger.

“Let’s go up.” said Shao Xuan.

That was also the thing Shao Xuan was thinking about earlier.

Mai and the others should be at the mountain foot area. To go to Mai for help was of course a good idea, but if they ran down the mountain, it would be highly questionable whether they could outrun the Thorn Black Wind that’s chasing after them. That beast had a really sensitive smelling ability, and Shao Xuan had no confidence in getting rid of it easily. Also, since Mai and the others did not make it to the cave yet, who knows what situation that they were in? With no clear image of the situation down the mountain, obviously it was not a good idea to run down the mountain.

The other reason was based on Shao Xuan’s suspicion.

As they were running up, Shao Xuan asked, “Does the Thorn Black Wind dislike the cold?”

Hearing Shao Xuan’s question, Mao thought of something, “I heard that Thorn Black Winds like warm and moist places, and they rarely go up the mountain.”

As he was saying, Mao himself knew what Shao Xuan was thinking.

If they went up, the temperature would fall sharply. For mountains in this area, the range of temperature was really large. The upper part of the mountain was covered in snow, and on the mountaintop there was even perennial ice and snow. Not many dangerous animals lived up in the mountain, and the real danger was the environment and the temperature.

If they went down the mountain, as far as he knew, Thorn Black Winds could be very persistent with its prey. Also they had a very sensitive smelling ability, so once they confirmed their target, they would not give it up easily. Down the mountain was the territory of Thorn Black Winds. Night was the time for Thorn Black Winds, and since it was night already, going down meant sending themselves into the Thorn Black Wind’s belly.

Either be frozen to death, or be eaten alive. If Mao had to choose, he would rather go up the mountain for a better chance of survival. If at that time the Thorn Black Wind could not endure the cold environment and retreated, that would be great

There were sounds of stones breaking, so it seemed that the vent grew bigger and bigger. Mixed with the sounds of breaking, there were also dense clacking sounds. That Thorn Black Wind became more and more excited.

In fact, the Thorn Black Wind could totally exit through the cave entrance, and then chase after them. However, it chose not to do so. Perhaps it hadn’t thought about that way, perhaps tearing down a small vent was not a problem for it, but it disliked to take a detour. Or it had its own other reasons.

At the same time that Shao Xuan and Mao ran up to the mountaintop for their lives, Mai and the others had successfully attacked the two Thorn Black Winds down the mountain. The beasts were now hesitant in blocking their way.

Mai felt delighted for a moment, but after a second, his face became rather stiff.

The sound from the mountainside was not loud, but with the quiet surroundings and Mai’s outstanding hearing abilities, of course he heard the sound of stones breaking.

Mai heard it, there were a few other warriors that heard it too, and all their faces turned green.

“Is it coming from the cave?!” Qiao shouted surprisingly.

“Oh, no! Ah-Xuan is still in the cave!” Lang Ga’s knife in his hand was shaking heavily, which almost made him drop it.

“Go up the mountain!!” Mai shouted out.

This time, those two hesitating Thorn Black Winds did not stop them from going up.

Regardless of what, Mai led the others, rushing towards the cave immediately.

The sound of stones being broken did not last long, and the surroundings became quiet again, which made Mai and the others even more worried. With sounds of stones breaking, they could still hope that the two kids were fine. But with the silence, there were only two results… Either the crisis was over, or…

Mai dared not think more, and he spared no efforts to rush to the cave.

When they finally reached the entrance, many people’s faces turned totally pale at the sight.

With Shao Xuan and Mao’s strength, it would not be easy for them to move that giant stone. Even if they wanted to move it, they would not move it that far. With a small opening, their skinny bodies could easily come and go. Of course the stone was not moved by the two kids, let alone that there were also huge claw marks on it.

Seeing the shifted giant stone and fresh claw marks, Lang Ga’s legs became so weak that he could hardly stand.

Mai rushed into the cave without grabbing a torch to light it up. However, now there was merely chaos left inside.

The chilly wind coming from the entrance and the vent, blew away all the warmth in their hearts.