Chapter 581 Run
Jonathan sprinted in Joselle’s wake through the abyss. According to Joselle, she lived not far from where Jonathan grilled the meat. Though both of them had been dashing madly forward for half an hour, Joselle showed no signs of slowing.
It was then Jonathan finally felt something awry. He had seen Summerbank Mountain in its entirety from Prima Majestica on the outside. Even though the three peaks were rather far apart, it was a journey of a dozen miles at most.
The abyss between the summits should not exceed that distance, no matter their size. Upon entering Summerbank Abyss, Jonathan had, aside from the distance he had covered with Joselle, run more than ten miles back then to escape the Beetle.
However, he underestimated the distance due to the unique sights and strange happenings within Summerbank Abyss. Now it seemed that the perimeter of Summerbank Abyss was quite a bit larger than expected.
It was a world of its own within its deceptively small area. In comparison to the outside world, Jonathan noticed similarities in the location to the formation method recorded in the second volume of the Necrobook.
However, Jonathan did not dare make a confident assumption, as he had only glanced through the volume. “Are we not there yet, Joselle?” Jonathan asked curiously.
“You shouldn’t ask the questions a master would ask. Play the part of the slave.” Though Joselle did not object to the name Jonathan gave her, she was very persistent in calling him a slave. The terrain began to ascend. The pair soon arrived at the foot of a mountain.
Joselle hopped forward easily. Though the width of every stride was not wide, she moved with great speed and disappeared into the dense forest ahead in the blink of an eye.
Having recently recovered his cultivation level, Jonathan was not going to be left behind. A moment after Joselle landed, he appeared in a flash beside her.
However, Jonathan’s eyelids twitched upon his arrival as he was greeted by two rows of mummified corpses on the ground.
Judging by the extent of damage to the corpses’ clothes, they had been dead for years. Scanning them with his spiritual sense, Jonathan found exactly twenty-three of them.
Jonathan could not repress a sense of confusion upon recalling that Joselle once mentioned that she had seen twenty-four outsiders, including himself.
“Are these the outsiders you were talking about, Joselle?”
“That’s right. They’re all here,” she said matter-of-factly before pointing at one of the dried corpses. “This was the fellow who had called me ‘Puppy’ and made me call him ‘Master.’ He was also the first outsider I’d seen.”
Jonathan sighed inwardly upon seeing the pile of bones littered on the ground.
These men must have been expert martial artists to have made it into Summerbank Abyss.
Upon entering and meeting such a naïve girl as Joselle, who did not put up her guard, they must have been tempted by wicked thoughts.
Unsurprisingly, their fate ended in two hundred pieces of their bones strewn about the ground. Even after death, their corpses had not been left whole.
This is lady is definitely not to be trifled with.
For the first time, Jonathan felt thankful for his fate compared to the men before him.
He felt fortunate that his lust was under control, or he would not have escaped the fate of being the twenty-fourth corpse.
“The two old priests I mentioned, slave, are those two kneeling over there.”
As Joselle spoke, she pointed at two corpses clad in vivid-colored robes.
As brightly as they were dressed, they were still nothing more than two corpses.
Though the torn robes had faded with time, the green and gold embroidery upon them glittered with no sign of decay.
Both of them were dressed so well, even seated cross-legged in the manner of masters. Could they be the legendary God Realm warriors who had joined forces to enter Summerbank Abyss?
It had happened dozens of years ago. Jonathan had heard of the tale but did not dare jump to conclusions as he did not know what the two elders looked like back then.
Though he could not be sure, it must have been years judging by the time of death of those cultivators.
The pile of bones of Joselle’s first victims had begun to look gray and white. From experience, Jonathan could tell they had been dead for many years to look like that.
According to the dressing style of the other victims, it had definitely been over thirty years.
How old is she?
“Tell me the truth, Joselle. How long have you stayed here?”
“How long?” Joselle shook her head. “I don’t know myself. I know you consider a day the exchange between light and dark, with three hundred and sixty-five days in a year.
“But I like to sleep. Sometimes I wake up and find that the grass has grown wild without knowing how much time has elapsed.
“By the way, I’ve once gotten a watch brought by that slave, which informs me of the time throughout the day.
“Not even a month later, I took a nap. I fell asleep on the third and found it was already the first when I woke up. However, I’m unsure how many months had elapsed since falling asleep.”
Jonathan felt his scalp tingle as he heard Joselle’s narration.
Though Joselle looks like an innocent and unworldly young girl, I can now be sure that she’s an old demon who has been alive for who knows how many years.
Jonathan was frantically thinking of a way out of his predicament as he gazed at Joselle giggling before him.
He never considered himself clever. Witty, perhaps. He also knew that some of the twenty-three victims before him must have been as strong as he.
Yet, those people never left after meeting Joselle. Jonathan finally understood how terrifying the harmless-looking young woman before him truly was.
“These are not the people I’m looking for, Joselle,” Jonathan said to her with a laugh. “I’m looking for a man named Vladimir. Let’s split up to search. I’ll cook you something delicious if we find him.”
As Jonathan spoke, he turned casually around and walked toward the direction he had come in.
Just then, Joselle’s amused voice sounded behind him.
“Are you thinking of running away, slave?”
Jonathan froze imperceptibly at those words before turning around to face Joselle as he forced a smile.
“Why would I do that? We are good friends. How would I leave without saying goodbye?”
Joselle giggled as she held her spear. “Nothing. It’s just that we engaged in a game of cat and mouse before I’d beaten these people to death.”
Staring at him, she slowly turned away from Jonathan.
“I’d eaten the meat you grilled. Consider me indebted to you. You may go.”
Jonathan froze before heaving a long sigh of relief, thanking his lucky stars as he did so.
The old adages never lie. Do good, and good shall come to you. Indeed.
Just as Jonathan was about to thank Joselle, she laughed again.
“I’ll give you a ten-second head start. Ten. Nine. Eight…”
