Chapter Forty-Four: White Blossoms Seen Again

A white flower?

Shen Lie froze the moment he saw it, his throat moving in an involuntary swallow.

The blossom was almost identical to the white flower that had drifted down the blood-red river. The only difference was that its petals were not pure white, but laced with veins of crimson.

"No," Shen Lie said under his breath, his nostrils twitching. This flower’s fragrance was also different from the one on the river. It was not pure, but carried a faint stench of blood.

Though there were differences, Shen Lie knew in his heart that the white flower on the river had to have fallen from this very tree. The bare branches and the red pool below made the truth plain enough.

"What is this? Could it be the spider lily of the far shore?"

Behind them came Professor Liu’s deep voice. Shen Lie turned and saw that, accompanied by Yang Weiguo, Professor Liu had also come out of the woods, along with the more than four hundred surviving townspeople.

By now, these remaining survivors had gone numb. No matter how strange the scene before them, it could no longer astonish them. They only stared blankly at the sight before them, waiting for the few awakened among them to make a decision.

"Flowers without leaves, leaves without flowers... that does fit the spider lily’s traits," Du Lili murmured. "But in legend, spider lilies grow by the banks of the underworld river. How could they appear here? Could this place be linked to the realm of the dead?"

Her words drew Shen Lie’s gaze to the rift in space.

This tear in the void was undeniably connected to another world, and it was the culprit behind everything that had happened in Dongfeng Town. In truth, understanding it all would be simple enough: they only needed to cross through the rift in reverse. But none of them had the courage for that yet.

"Look, over there... is that a bridge?"

After arriving, Shen Lie and Du Lili had been so absorbed by the dead tree and the rift that none of them had noticed a narrow bridge near the edge of the mist on the far side of the pool. Only a small section of it showed outside the fog; the rest disappeared into the thick white haze.

"Let’s go take a look."

There was surely no way out on this side. The little bridge appeared at exactly the right time.

When Shen Lie and the others reached the bridgehead, they found that the water below was the pool’s outlet. Yet after the water flowed under the bridge, it became clear, as if a filter net lay beneath it, stripping every trace of red from the current.

"What... what is this?"

One of Yang Weiguo’s men pointed toward the bridge and cried out.

Everyone’s attention was drawn there. Shen Lie merely glanced at the span, and at once gave a startled gasp. The others soon followed with cries of astonishment.

This was no ordinary bridge at all. Its entire body had been formed by flocks upon flocks of crows gathering together.

"Is this the Magpie Bridge?" Shen Lie forced himself to sound calm, throwing out a grim joke. Yet no one could laugh. Setting aside how long the bridge was, just the exposed section alone must have required hundreds, perhaps thousands, of crows to make it. The few dozen crows from earlier had already left them nearly terrified out of their wits. If all these birds were to scatter at once, they might not even leave behind an intact corpse.

"What do we do?" Du Lili asked Shen Lie softly, as though afraid of disturbing the crows.

"How would I know? With those things here, who’d dare walk across it? But this is the only way out. Otherwise, we can either go back to town or try the thick fog on both sides!"

Shen Lie had no idea what to do either. He felt their chances of escape were desperately slim.

"Going back to town, who knows what might happen. But the fog zone is absolutely out of the question. Anyone who enters it has no chance of surviving," Professor Liu said, cutting in before Du Lili could speak. Even his voice had lost its usual composure.

Shen Lie did not doubt him. The professor had spent three months researching this little town, and with his bizarre auxiliary talent, he would have thoroughly mapped its secrets. If he said the fog zone was forbidden, then it truly was.

"Then what are we supposed to do? Even if we cross this bridge, the far end is still inside the fog," someone asked. With no one else stepping forward, only the three awakened ones could discuss the matter.

"That’s different. I suspect the bridge’s end lies beyond the red mist. Besides, the danger in the fog zone is mainly hallucination. This bridge may well have the power to block illusions. Even if it doesn’t, as long as we keep walking straight ahead, we should still be able to get out."

"Professor, can you be sure this bridge leads outside?" Du Lili asked hesitantly.

"I can’t say for certain, but I’d say I’m ninety percent sure. Otherwise, there’d be no sense in this bridge appearing here. The only question is what condition is required to set foot on it." The professor’s voice was slow, as though he were thinking even as he spoke.

"Over there, the flower seems to be turning red. Wait—why is the water in the pool getting paler?"

Unable to join the discussion, Yang Weiguo had been scanning the surroundings. Suddenly, as his eyes fell on the flower, he cried out.

Sure enough, when Shen Lie and the others looked back, they saw that the blossom on the dead tree had grown much redder than before, and it was still deepening in color, as though something were injecting dye into its petals.

As the flower turned red, the water in the pool below slowly cleared. No doubt the red substance in the water had all been absorbed by the blossom.

As the flower’s color grew ever deeper, the already unstable tear in space twisted with increasing violence. A tremendous suction force was born from the rift. It no longer spilled red water outward; instead, it began to draw the river backward!

"Aaah! Aaah! Aaaah!"

One cry after another rang out. More than a dozen survivors had strayed from the group to look around, and by sheer misfortune had come right up to the rift. It was as if they wanted to see its strangeness up close, only to be swallowed by it without warning.

What rift in space was this, really? It was more like the maw of a monstrous beast. The survivors who had been resting at the tunnel entrance screamed in alarm one after another, drawing Shen Lie and the others’ attention back.

"Bad news. Something is changing here. Everyone, get onto the bridge!" Professor Liu had barely glanced at the rift before issuing a sharp warning, then without another word strode toward the crow-built span.

"There’s no way back now. Let’s go."

Shen Lie sighed, casting one reluctant look at the red flower. Just moments ago, he had wondered whether he might pluck it from the tree. Now that thought seemed absurdly overconfident.

As the water in the pool and the red mist around it were swallowed bit by bit by the rift, everyone broke into a run. But not all of them ran toward the crow bridge; some turned and fled back the way they had come.

Each for himself. At such a moment, no one could spare anyone else.

When Shen Lie saw that Yang Weiguo had already stepped onto the bridge, he too strode forward, with Zhang Jing leading little Tao Tao close behind him.