Essence "The Endpoint" 023. (The Mikimiya Family Arc) Strange

This was an extremely simple house, with a pile of dry yellow straw, about the height of a person, neatly stacked in front of the woodshed door. Stepping into the house, what immediately caught the eye was the cheap plaster on the walls, which, however, had been carefully applied. The area of the house was not large, merely a poor-style layout with two cramped rooms. In the corner was an old wooden bed, not finely made, clearly handcrafted.

At this moment, a sturdy man in his thirties was sleeping deeply on it. The long scar on his cheek held no trace of malice, only a profound sense of the hardships life had brought him. His pale complexion and chapped lips revealed a deep sense of illness.

Qingyan was sitting upright on the wooden table in the center of the room, occasionally tapping his fingers on it, looking somewhat anxious. Glancing at the man on the bed, a hint of worry appeared on Qingyan's brow.

With a creak, the wooden door was pushed open, and a woman in her thirties entered with a kind, welcoming smile, though the smile looked somewhat forced.

Without any delay, Qingyan hurriedly asked the woman, “Aunt Li, what exactly happened to Uncle Li Chong? If I remember correctly, he is quite skilled. Who could have the strength to wound him like this?”

The middle-aged woman called “Aunt Li” was wiping the man's forehead and mouth with a cloth. After a brief pause, she finally made up her mind and said with some bitterness:

“Yan'er, you have a kind heart and have always taken good care of us. But you come from a wealthy family, while we are at the very bottom of society—worlds apart. If it weren't absolutely necessary, Aunt Li would never trouble you. The reason we had both children come to call you here is, really, because Uncle Li Chong's condition is very…”

“A few days ago, Uncle Li Chong was assigned a duty on the border of the Shou Ri Forest. With the strength of Uncle Li Chong and his mercenary team, the task shouldn't have been difficult. But on their way back, they unexpectedly encountered a third-rank fierce leopard. In the end, only Uncle Li Chong escaped with severe injuries, while seven or eight other men in the mercenary group… it's unlikely that any of them survived…”

A third-rank fierce leopard? Normally, it is extremely rare for a third-rank magical beast to appear on the outskirts of the Shou Ri Forest.Thinking back, it was probably also because of the situation we encountered at the time; if we hadn't met that strange girl, Dugu Xiaoxuan, I'm afraid the outcome for ourselves would have been far from good. However, even against a third-rank fiery leopard, with Uncle Li Chong's years of mercenary life-and-death experience, the army shouldn't have been almost entirely wiped out, right?\ \ Qingyan thought so quickly, feeling a bit of lingering fear alongside a faint sense of confusion. Then she heard Aunt Li continue speaking:\ \ "Your Uncle Li Chong has also been rolling on the edge of life and death for many years, so he's not lacking in experience. Even if severely injured, as long as he avoids some deadly spots, given your Uncle Li Chong's injuries, he should have been able to recover after a month or so of careful rest. But for some unknown reason, your Uncle Li Chong's condition has not developed in a normal direction at all. Not only have the wounds shown no signs of healing, the wounds have been inflamed every day recently, his whole body is feverish, he is constantly thirsty, and the situation has worsened day by day. Even more seriously, despite having consulted several doctors, none of them can figure out exactly what the condition is..."\ \ At this point, overcome with sadness, Aunt Li finally couldn't hold back and let out a gentle cry.\ \ Listening to this, Qingyan genuinely worried about Uncle Li Chong's illness. She was well aware of his family situation; encountering such a troublesome matter, if it were any other family like his, the only option would have been to wait for death.\ \ Seeing Aunt Li Li's grief, Qingyan couldn't bear it and comforted her, saying: "This morning, at the family gate, listening to those two children crying so sadly, I had a feeling something was wrong, but I didn't expect things to be this bad. However, Aunt Li, don't be too upset. Yan'er has already sent Xiaoyu to call the divine healer Bai Yan, so he should be on his way by now. Bai Yan's medical skills are superb, Uncle Li Chong will surely turn misfortune into blessing."\ \ "Cough… cough…"\ \ At some point, Li Chong on the sickbed had already woken up. Now he coughed heavily twice, and that unpleasant sensation seemed so intense that even Qingyan could feel the burning in his throat.\ \ She picked up a cup of tea from the wooden table and handed it in front of Li Chong. Seeing Uncle Li Chong's pale, sickly face, Qingyan's doubts grew even heavier, as she looked at Li Chong, wanting to speak but hesitating.Taking a sip of water, Li Chong looked at Qing Yan's changing expression, forced a smile at the corner of his mouth, recalled something, furrowed his brows again, and hoarsely said slowly:

"From what you just said to your Aunt Li, I also understand how things went. It was really unavoidable to trouble you, Yan'er, but Uncle Li Chong never speaks polite words, so I won't say much more, and I trust you can understand."

"Yan'er, although you're not very old, your mind has always been meticulous, and you should have noticed that something is off, right? Exactly, there have always been some very strange things in all this!"

"At that time, it was already approaching dusk, and the mercenary team had completed its mission and reached the edge of the Sunwatcher Forest, about to leave the forest. But at that moment, a third-rank flaming leopard suddenly rushed out from behind a rock for no apparent reason, acting violently and biting one of our brothers. When I saw this beast, I immediately felt something was very wrong!"

"First, near the edge of the Sunwatcher Forest, it's almost impossible for such a powerful magical beast to appear because the resources at the edge of the forest are scarce and cannot meet the training requirements of high-rank magical beasts. Therefore, a sudden appearance of such a high-rank magical beast is extremely strange. Second, this flaming leopard, on the surface, seemed enraged, but that wasn't really the case. Its pupils were indeed blood red, but they were filled with veins of blood, and its nostrils were unusually flared, exhaling harsh breaths that gave a sense of chaos. In this state, the leopard was in pure furious madness, which is entirely different from so-called beastification."

After pausing, Li Chong took another sip of water, looked at Qing Yan's surprised expression, and continued with some seriousness:

"Normally, we have experience dealing with a third-rank magical beast, and even if it meant serious injuries, we could have escaped successfully. But this beast, even though it only had a third-rank magic ring, didn't act like any third-rank magical beast—it really had the strength of a fourth-rank beast. We couldn't compete at all; any countermeasure would have been useless. In just a few minutes, I watched seven brothers who had faced life and death together fall, one after another!I was also seriously injured, and just when I was utterly hopeless, something strange happened: that enraged leopard suddenly, right before my eyes, inexplicably calmed down and slowly retreated! Then, for reasons unknown, the leopard became extremely docile, even wagging its tail somewhat playfully! After a while, it unexpectedly turned around, grabbed the body of one of my brothers in its mouth, and ran deep into the forest.”

“If I'm not mistaken, I think this leopard must have an owner, and the owner was right there with us at the time! Immediately, I realized this and didn't dare to make any move. Soon after, the leopard went back and forth six times, carrying away the bodies of all seven of my brothers, for reasons unknown, and eventually, it disappeared. By then, it was almost completely dark, and with my own severe injuries, I struggled to make it back to Jingdong City alone.”

“But the situation was far from over. My wounds showed no signs of improvement and were actually getting worse! At the same time, my whole body started burning with fever, and my throat felt like it was on fire! As of now, it has only been getting more serious…”

Listening to Li Chong recount slowly, Qingyan felt that the matter was becoming even more serious. He thought carefully for a long time but couldn't come up with any clue.

Qingyan's situation at that time was essentially that he had been suddenly attacked by a leopard, then inexplicably developed bestial instincts, and subsequently encountered the mysterious girl Du Gu Xiaoxuan, who used a powerful demon ape to knock him unconscious, and finally even put him into a rare spatial container… wait… put him… put him in! Oh no, Xiaoxuan was now in trouble!

Qingyan suddenly realized this and was immediately filled with worry. He could only silently pray that Du Gu Xiaoxuan would survive unharmed.

Clearly, behind all of this, something was manipulating the course of events, or in other words, orchestrating some kind of plan.