Chapter 176

Chapter 176

The shy grass beneath him suddenly retracted, leaving Yan Bubu lying on the ground.

Still dazed from the shock of the fall, he lay there motionless. It was only when Binunu rushed over and frantically searched over his body that he grasped Binunu's paw and hoarsely said, "I'm fine."

Yan Bubu slowly sat up, his voice a mix of laughter and tears: "The shy grass caught me... I was saved by the shy grass. My brother too, it must have caught him, he and Sasaki are both fine."

Binunu stood still for two seconds, then suddenly broke free from Yan Bubu's hand and ran off in an unknown direction.

"Binunu—"

Bang!

Yan Bubu heard the dull thud of Binunu hitting the mountain wall, then continuing to run wildly nearby, occasionally colliding with the wall before turning and continuing on.

Yan Bubu knew Binunu was too excited, but he still cautioned: "Don't hurt yourself in your excitement... and watch your step. What if my brother is in the bushes? Be careful not to step on him."

Binunu, clearly too agitated to listen, continued to crash around wildly.

Yan Bubu slowly got up and deeply bowed in all directions, sincerely expressing his gratitude: "Shy grass, thank you, thank you."

After thanking the shy grass all around him, he took a deep breath, his chest expanding slightly with the intake.

Then he yelled with all his might: "Brother…"

Brother… Bro…

The narrow valley at the bottom of the cliff amplified Yan Bubu's voice, making it louder and echoing repeatedly.

"Brother… Brother… Bro…"

Yan Bubu slowly turned around on the spot, calling out Feng Chen's name in all directions. Binunu also dashed back, joining in the shouting.

After calling out for a while and hearing no response, Yan Bubu stood with his legs slightly apart, took another deep breath, and prepared to shout for his brother with earth-shattering force.

But as he inhaled, he suddenly noticed a faint light before him, like sleeping in a room with the lights on; even with eyes closed, one can sense the light. The extreme darkness was quickly fading, as if water had been splashed into dense ink, washing away the blackness and revealing a glimmer of light.

The shout for his brother caught in his throat, Yan Bubu kept his deep breath, turning his eyes to look around.

He saw the darkness around him dispersing like fog, growing thinner and thinner. A beam of light fell from above, illuminating a meter around him, while the rest remained in thick darkness, the boundary between light and shadow clearly defined.

He looked down slightly and saw the shy grass at his feet and Binunu turning its head in surprise. Looking up, he unexpectedly saw a small patch of round sky.

The patch of sky above was a brilliant blue, surrounded by thick darkness. A beam of light, like a heavy hammer, smashed down, piercing straight through, creating a luminous passage. Yan Bubu felt as if he were in a deep well, with the bright exit at the top.

"Binunu, what do you think is going on?" he murmured.

"Aow…" Binunu's voice also carried a tone of astonishment.

Yan Bubu stared at the light for a few seconds before turning back: "Never mind that, let's find my brother first."

As soon as he finished speaking, the dense darkness ahead began to fade, revealing a long passageway. The sides of the passageway were still cloaked in dark matter, a pure black, but the path itself was illuminated by sunlight.

Yan Bubu and Binunu both looked up at the sliver of sky, then slowly lowered their heads to the bright green path ahead.

"Who did this? Was it the shy grass?" Yan Bubu suppressed his shock, speaking softly to Binunu as if afraid that a loud voice might blow the dark matter back into place.

Binunu shook its head in bewilderment, then nodded, and shook its head again.

"It must be the shy grass. But why create a visible path for us? Is it guiding us to leave? But I remember when soldiers fell off the cliff before, they were pulled back to the top by vines, no one ever mentioned a lit path..."

Binunu continued to nod and shake its head in confusion.

A sudden conjecture popped into Yan Bubu's mind, his heart racing so much that he stammered: "Could it be, could it be showing us, showing us the way to find my brother?"

After a few seconds of silence, they quickly stepped onto the sunlit path.

With darkness on both sides extending upwards, and only the path illuminated, Yan Bubu felt an illusion as if he was on a bridge built in the void, the only bright passage to the human world, with endless abysses on either side.

He and Binunu walked forward, the dark matter closing quickly behind them, engulfing the path they had passed in darkness once again.

Yan Bubu followed the path straight for about a hundred meters, then saw it curve to the left. Upon reaching the corner, he found the path continued along the left side of the mountain wall.

The mountain wall was illuminated by a streak of light, revealing a cave about a few dozen meters high.

Upon seeing the cave, Yan Bubu felt his blood rush to his head, buzzing in his ears with excitement.

He had a firm conviction that Feng Chen was inside that cave.

Binunu seemed to have guessed the same and rushed forward with Yan Bubu, eager to reach the cave.

Binunu reached the cliff before Yan Bubu, swiftly climbing up using the crevices in the rock. Yan Bubu grabbed a vine and, without securing his grip, started to climb the wall with his feet.

The vine was not ordinary but a mutant variety, twisting its slender body in an attempt to shake Yan Bubu off.

Yan Bubu swung from the mountain wall into the air and back again due to the vine. Ignoring the pain, he firmly held onto the vine, seizing every opportunity to climb higher.

Binunu, climbing above him, suddenly reached down and fiercely scratched the vine. It then calmed down, allowing Yan Bubu to climb up without trouble.

Yan Bubu moved swiftly, following right behind Binunu into the cave. He barely had time to stand up before looking inside, instantly spotting the familiar figure lying there.

The light from outside the cave shone in, revealing Feng Chen lying bloodied on the ground, his complexion as pale as paper, resembling a lifeless wax figure.

Yan Bubu stood still for a few seconds before slowly dragging his feet towards Feng Chen. His gaze was fixed on Feng Chen, sweat streaming down his face, which was almost as pale as Feng Chen's.

"Brother…"

Binunu stood beside Feng Chen, staring blankly at his face. Seemingly bothered by the blood on his face, it reached out its paw to wipe off the red stains.

Yan Bubu walked over like a puppet, kneeling down slowly beside Feng Chen.

This movement was exceedingly difficult for him, his joints creaking as if rusted, each motion seeming to produce a grating sound.

He knelt beside Feng Chen and slowly turned his head, pressing his ear against Feng Chen's chest.

He wanted to listen for Feng Chen's heartbeat, but his mind was filled with a thunderous rumbling, like waves crashing against rocks, like a gong being struck, preventing him from hearing clearly.

"Binunu, listen for me, I can't hear…" he struggled to speak, his lips sticking together, his voice weak and hoarse like that of a dying man.

Binunu immediately lay down, pressing its ear against Feng Chen's chest.

The wait was torturous, excruciatingly long. With each passing second, Yan Bubu felt increasingly unable to hold on, each moment bringing him closer to death.

A thought then flashed through his mind: if his brother was gone, he would find a way for Binunu to live on after his own death, to end this prolonged torture sooner.

But at that moment, Binunu lifted its head, gently placing Yan Bubu’s hand on Feng Chen’s chest, looking at him with its deep black eyes.

Yan Bubu remained still in that position and after a few seconds, he suddenly gasped and looked back at Binunu.

Binunu nodded at him, its eyes brimming with joy.

The human and quantum beast, without further communication, began to busily tend to Feng Chen. The path they had walked was now filled with dark matter again, but a ray of sunlight still penetrated the cave entrance, providing sufficient light inside.

Yan Bubu took off his jacket and let Binunu tear it into strips to bandage Feng Chen’s wounds. He roughly attended to the external injuries before checking the mental realm.

Seeing Feng Chen's gruesome wounds and his deformed limbs due to broken bones, Yan Bubu couldn't stop his tears. But when he probed into Feng Chen's mental realm and saw all the wounds bandaged, his tears of fear retracted.

Feng Chen's mental realm was empty, the once shimmering strands of mental energy, like threads of gold and silver, were now nowhere to be seen.

Yan Bubu immediately realized Feng Chen must be in a trance state, and due to the extended duration, his mental energy was nearly depleted.

He had learned in his guiding course that if a sentinel stayed in a trance state for too long and their mental energy completely vanished, their mental realm would collapse. The sentinel would then fall into an eternal slumber, never to awaken.

Desperately, Yan Bubu raced through Feng Chen's mental realm. But this empty space, like the dark matter on either side of the path, felt like an endless void.

He also noticed Feng Chen’s mental realm was shrinking.

The space of the mental realm had halved, its once full and smooth translucent boundaries now wrinkled deeply, like a fruit that had lost its moisture over several days.

He looked towards the core of the spiritual realm in the distance, the floating silver-white core shrinking and its color turning dim and lusterless.

Feng Chen never allowed him to enter his spiritual core. Anytime he showed intentions of approaching, Feng Chen would mercilessly eject him from the spiritual realm, so he had developed the habit of staying away.

Even though Feng Chen was unconscious now, Yan Bubu knew there wouldn't be any spiritual threads in that core, so he wouldn't waste time searching inside.

Yan Bubu searched everywhere for spiritual threads. If he could find even one or two, to rejuvenate them, then with proper care in the future, Feng Chen might not regain his former sentinel abilities, but at least his spiritual realm wouldn't collapse, preventing him from falling into eternal slumber.

But after scouring the entire spiritual realm, he couldn't find a single spiritual thread. It was as if a great fire had blazed through Feng Chen's spiritual realm, completely incinerating all the spiritual threads.

"Where are you hiding? Come out, where are you hiding?"

Yan Bubu's heart was filled with anxious murmurs as his eyes continuously scanned the surroundings. When he touched the outer wall of Feng Chen's spiritual realm again, his gaze suddenly caught a glimpse of a silver flash.

Yan Bubu's heart raced as he closely inspected the outer wall, finally discovering a delicate spiritual thread hidden in the wall's creases.

The state of this thread was precarious, its silver light flickering, as if it could vanish into thin air at any moment.

"Stay calm, don't move, just stay still..."

Fearing to disturb it, Yan Bubu cautiously stroked the nearly severed part of the thread. Under his repair, the frail spiritual thread regained its integrity and flexibility, shining once more with a lustrous light.

Watching it drift into the empty spiritual realm, Yan Bubu hurriedly searched the wall's creases for any other hidden spiritual threads. After some effort, he indeed found about a dozen more.

Once these dozen or so threads were restored, Feng Chen's spiritual realm ceased its shrinkage but didn't revert to its original state, merely maintaining its current condition.

Still concerned about Feng Chen's external injuries, Yan Bubu made one final search in the spiritual realm, ensuring the dozen threads were healthy and confirming no others could be found before exiting the realm.

Feng Chen remained unconscious, but his condition had improved from the beginning. His complexion was no longer waxen pale, and his chest showed clear signs of breathing.

Binunu had been sitting quietly by the side, and upon seeing Yan Bubu open his eyes, it immediately poked him with a paw.

Yan Bubu knew what it wanted to ask and replied, "I've stabilized brother's spiritual realm, and Sasa Ka will be alright."

Now, he needed to carefully tend to Feng Chen's external wounds, but lacked the necessary medical supplies.

"Binunu, did you see a plant with oval-shaped leaves when we were on the path earlier? It was mixed in with the shy grass. I remember from our wilderness survival class, the instructor mentioned a plant that can stop bleeding, disinfect, and promote wound healing. He showed us a picture of that plant with oval-shaped leaves, do you remember it?"

Binunu hesitated before nodding.

"I'm not sure if the plant the instructor described is the same one we saw. He explained a very detailed identification method, but all I remember are the oval-shaped leaves..."

For the first time, Yan Bubu truly felt distressed about his lack of knowledge. However, Feng Chen's wounds needed attention, so he and Binunu descended to the cave's bottom to gather essential items.

Although the path was filled with dark matter, it dispersed as they moved forward, revealing a new path ahead.

Unsure if the plants they found were the healing herbs mentioned by their instructor, Yan Bubu still picked some and stuffed them into his pockets, while he and Binunu each gathered an armful of various unknown wild herbs.

They returned to the cave, where Yan Bubu spread wild grass thickly on the ground beside Feng Chen, carefully moving him onto it.

"Binunu, go find some straight branches, about as thick as a forearm, and a few vines," Yan Bubu instructed.

After Binunu left, Yan Bubu took out a dagger and decisively cut his own forearm. As blood gushed out, he dropped the dagger, chewed some oval-shaped leaves from his pocket, and applied the chewed leaves to the wound.

Staring at his arm, he saw the blood quickly clot and felt a cooling sensation on the wound, uttering a surprised sound. He then chewed more leaves, working to unwrap the bandages on Feng Chen's shoulder.

Unwrapping the bandage revealed clothes stuck to the wound with dried blood. Yan Bubu carefully cut the fabric away, exposing the ghastly wound underneath.

As Yan Bubu applied the chewed herbs to Feng Chen's wound, tears kept falling, rubbing them onto his own shoulder.

"Once the medicine is applied, it will heal, and the pain will soon subside..."

After treating a wound and rewrapping it, Yan Bubu stuffed another handful of leaves into his mouth.

The fragrance of the leaves mixed with the bitterness of tears. He chewed vigorously, chokingly saying, "I'm not that bad at studying, right? I can recognize herbs and treat your wounds... When you wake up, don't forget to praise me."