Chapter 624 - 621: Another Sense

Chapter 624: Chapter 621: Another Sense

It wasn’t just the Great Clan Leader. Many of the ear flies from the Cave Clan had also sacrificed themselves.

They vanished silently, somewhere.

Sacrifice is inevitable when the weak fight the strong. The ear flies had long anticipated this, but when the moment truly came, sorrow still spread throughout the entire cave.

"I will record your voice," a survivor said softly to Mo Ling.

"Then make sure you take my voice back to Heaven’s End Mountain," Mo Ling teased.

"I will."

...

A buzzing echoed through the caves. The ear flies frantically committed their companions’ voices to memory, more carefully than ever.

Mo Ling lay quietly in the cave, awaiting his death.

His consciousness began to fray, and he could barely make out the sound of the ear flies calling to him.

He could only vaguely hear them say they would remember his voice, that they would carry it far away...

’Far away?’

’Where is that?’

’Perhaps these weak, tiny ear flies really could do it...’

When one died, the sound was passed to a second. When the second died, it was passed to a third. As long as the ear fly species existed, their voices would never be silenced.

Faint vibrations resonated within their frail bodies, traveling farther and farther...

Mo Ling felt his consciousness gradually detach from his body, as if it had truly latched onto that ethereal sound, carried far away on the vibrations of all things.

He heard the ear flies find other clans and unite with them, rebuilding the ear fly civilization.

He heard the ear flies launch a counterattack on the forests of Heaven’s End Mountain, reclaiming the territory of the forest clans.

He heard the ear flies establish a line of defense against the Feeding Birds of Prey and begin to push deeper into Heaven’s End Mountain.

And his voice drifted ever above the ear fly civilization, standing with all of them...

...

The Sea of Blood continued to churn.

The buzzing faded, and Mo Ling saw a creature resembling an ear fly flash past, melting into the Sea of Blood.

His thoughts were still a chaotic mess, but they had loosened considerably. It seemed as though a slight push was all it would take to escape the ever-falling Sea of Blood.

However, just as Mo Ling tried to break free, the Sea of Blood surged once more, dragging him even deeper.

The acrid stench of blood assaulted him, catching him completely by surprise.

The stench rushed straight to his head, threatening to overwhelm his thoughts completely. Mo Ling could only struggle frantically. Just as the reek of blood was about to consume him, a faint, fresh scent of grass and wood soothed his soul, driving the stench away.

Sensing this clean fragrance, Mo Ling gradually calmed down.

That wisp of Grass and Wood Fragrance caressed him, pulsing with a rhythm that tapped out a gentle lullaby in his heart.

Gradually, Mo Ling came to understand the message the fragrance wished to convey.

"Sleep now. Sleep well, sleep well..."

The fragrance enveloped Mo Ling, tucking him into swaddling clothes. It then gently wiped the stench of blood from him with soft silk, until he could no longer smell the acrid odor.

Just as Mo Ling was drifting into a peaceful sleep within the Grass and Wood Fragrance, a delicate floral scent wafted over, intertwining with it...

"The war continues. The bloodshed spreads." The Grass and Wood Fragrance seemed deeply concerned, its scent fluctuating wildly.

"Is it affecting the newborns badly?"

"Very badly. Some have been completely corrupted by blood. They have no subjective consciousness at this stage; they instinctively imprint on the first scent they smell. By the time I tried to stop it, it was too late..." The Grass and Wood Fragrance’s scent pulsed as it conveyed its troubles.

"Then... what did you do with the newborns corrupted by blood?" the floral scent asked.

"I killed them."

It was a nonchalant answer, but an incredibly cruel one. Even Mo Ling, wrapped in his swaddling clothes, trembled in fear.

"You’re scaring them... Isn’t that too cruel?"

"If I don’t kill them, they’ll become a scourge when they grow up. It’s my responsibility to guide them. Once they choose the wrong path, it is my right to correct it."

"And ’correcting it’ means killing them?"

"What else would it mean?"

To Mo Ling, the once-gentle Grass and Wood Fragrance now seemed utterly terrifying.

’It kills just like that. If I had been consumed by the stench of blood just now, would I have been killed too?’

"It’s not their fault. It’s the environment..." the floral scent argued, still trying.

"We can’t control the environment. I only did what I had to do. You are too merciful, and that’s dangerous. The war is intensifying, and the stench of blood will only grow stronger. If you remain this indecisive, you’ll soon be overwhelmed by it."

The Grass and Wood Fragrance warned the floral scent with great solemnity. The floral scent did not reply, seeming to accept the admonishment.

Mo Ling felt the two scents intermingle and pulse, feeling somewhat dazed.

’Where am I?’

Before he could give it much thought, the Grass and Wood Fragrance coiled around him again, and he drifted into a deep sleep.

...

Protected by the Grass and Wood Fragrance, Mo Ling never again sensed the acrid stench of blood. He spent most of his time asleep, only waking occasionally.

When he was awake, he would often smell the Grass and Wood Fragrance mingling with other scents. They would sometimes "talk" about the war spreading through Heaven’s End Mountain, sometimes about the vicious Feeding Birds of Prey, and sometimes about the ever-shrinking living space of the Fragrance Bees.

’Heaven’s End Mountain?’

’Feeding Bird of Prey?’

’Fragrance Bee?’

The names all felt familiar to Mo Ling, but whenever he tried to think hard about them, drowsiness would wash over him. Unable to resist the encroaching sleepiness, he could only sink back into the swaddling of the Grass and Wood Fragrance and drift off.

However, as time passed, Mo Ling found himself sleeping less and less, and staying awake for longer and longer periods.

He also gradually came to understand that "Fragrance Bee" was what they called themselves.

Mo Ling was a Fragrance Bee, too—just not yet an adult. He was with the other newborns, protected by the Grass and Wood Fragrance, which kept them from being corrupted by other scents.

It was only then that Mo Ling noticed that in other parts of the Grass and Wood Fragrance’s "swaddling," there were other enveloped "larvae."

Like Mo Ling, they spent their days sleeping, and when they woke, they would squirm about.

But Mo Ling discovered that these newborns were awake for much shorter periods than he was. Compared to him, they seemed incredibly dull-witted. After discovering they couldn’t squirm their way out of the "swaddling," they would simply zone out until sleepiness overtook them again.

Not a single one was like Mo Ling, filled with curiosity about its surroundings.

Mo Ling’s strange behavior also drew the attention of the Grass and Wood Fragrance.

"Why is this one never asleep? Squirming about, sniffing everything... could it have been affected by the stench of blood?"

The Grass and Wood Fragrance slowly coiled around Mo Ling, and he felt an indescribable sense of suffocation.

’It wants to kill me?’

A thread of fear rose in Mo Ling’s heart.