Chapter Thirty-Six: The Meteorite Fragment

"Hey! You two, stop spacing out! Spray some of this on yourselves!" Haotian snapped at them, irritated by their blank stares at each other.

"What is this stuff?" Xiaoshan caught the small bottle Haotian tossed over and asked in confusion.

"It's sap from the man-eating trees. If you don't want to get tangled up by them, you'd better spray it on now!" Haotian said urgently.

After the interruption by the wolves, much time had slipped by, and the moon had quietly climbed to the middle of the sky.

"It's the middle of the night already. Won't your father scold you?" Xiaoshan asked Ruo Xi.

"Of course he will! He might even come out looking for me!" Ruo Xi replied, clearly annoyed.

"She never goes out, but when she does, she doesn't come back until the middle of the night!" Haotian said gleefully, as if he took pleasure in her predicament.

At those words, Ruo Xi rolled her eyes at Haotian, visibly exasperated.

"If he doesn't let you go out, all the more reason to do it and rile him up!" Xiaoshan said with a grin at Ruo Xi.

"Mm!" Ruo Xi returned his smile sweetly.

"Are you done spraying? If so, let's hurry up and go!" Haotian shouted again at the scene before him.

Xiaoshan and Ruo Xi exchanged a smile, then followed along inside.

"Do you think this stuff actually works?" Xiaoshan asked, sniffing himself curiously. The scent was faintly floral and grassy, not the bloody smell he had expected.

"Just try it and see!"

Never forgetting his grudge against the man-eating trees, Xiaoshan poked one of the branches with the tip of his sword.

The branch didn’t react at all, merely swaying as if blown by the wind.

"It really works!" Xiaoshan exclaimed with delight, poking the branch again.

"Why are you so obsessed with this?" Ruo Xi couldn't stand it any longer and pulled Xiaoshan deeper into the woods.

After Xiaoshan passed by, the branches of the man-eating tree shook violently for a moment before falling still.

As they walked on, the man-eating trees grew more robust; Xiaoshan no longer dared to touch any branches. It was as if the sap he'd sprayed had worn off—he kept far from the trees, constantly keeping his distance.

But they moved quickly, and soon the trees became sparser, though each was even mightier—some soaring over ten meters high.

Huge cracks appeared in the ground, stretching forward, starkly visible under the orb's light.

"What could have crashed down with such force to cause these massive fissures?" Xiaoshan exclaimed, staring at the ground in awe. The cracks were bottomless, and even the orb’s glow couldn't reach their depths.

"These were made by fragments of a meteorite!" Haoyun replied.

"Fragments? Not the whole meteorite?" Xiaoshan paused in shock. Could a fragment really do this much damage?

"The meteorite was massive, so there were plenty of fragments," Haoyun answered, his tone growing impatient at Xiaoshan’s questioning.

"Uh…" Xiaoshan was bewildered by Haoyun's sudden irritation and fell silent.

"At the end of the Carcinogenic Age, countless meteorites fell from the sky, nearly shattering the earth. This one probably almost pierced down to the planet’s core," Ruo Xi explained to Xiaoshan, seeing that Haoyun was unwilling to elaborate.

"Meteorites are really that powerful?" Xiaoshan looked up at the sky in wonder.

The heavens seemed unfathomably high, and the earth must be vast indeed. For a meteorite to nearly break the planet—how immense must it have been? Xiaoshan’s mind swirled with thoughts.

"Everyone, watch your step. Be careful not to fall in!" Haotian warned.

The cracks in the ground grew wider, large enough to swallow a person. One careless step could mean falling in for real.

"Go around the fissures—stick to the broadest stretches of land!" Haopo led the way ahead. "Or just follow me!"

Having witnessed Haopo’s strength, Xiaoshan and the others instinctively trusted his guidance and fell in line behind him.

This is what it means to be strong; the strong have always been those the weak rely upon.

The fissures widened until at last there was no crack ahead, but rather, a massive pit.

In its center floated countless fragments of stone—Xiaoshan thought to himself, this must be the meteorite debris, their destination.

"Can you two make your way down?" Haotian turned and asked Xiaoshan and Ruo Xi.

"Down into this hole?" Ruo Xi gaped in surprise.

"Yes," Haotian said, pointing his sword at the pit. "Step onto the meteorite fragments—they'll take you down. It's very simple!"

"We won’t fall?"

"Shall we go first and you two follow?" Haotian asked.

"Alright!" Xiaoshan nodded cautiously.

Ruo Xi was about to say something, but seeing Xiaoshan’s confident expression, she held her tongue.

"Let’s go!" Haopo said, and leapt onto the nearest meteorite fragment.

"Follow in Haopo’s footsteps," Ruo Xi said to Xiaoshan.

He nodded, and together with Ruo Xi, he began to descend, jumping from fragment to fragment.

Though it looked daunting and high, once they approached, the fragments were right before them—one jump, a slight sway, and they landed safely.

As time passed, Xiaoshan grew more sure-footed, his leaps quicker, gradually catching up to the others.