25: Chapter 25 Departure, Demon Clan's Central Tent

The entire process was eerily quiet.

Lin Weiwei's eyes widened little by little, her mouth slightly agape, and she even forgot to breathe.

What was that?

That was fired porcelain!

She stared blankly at Su Bai.

Su Bai looked at Lin Weiwei and began to explain:

"I am not going to my death."

"I promise you, I swear. I will come back alive. Whole and complete, returning to you and Chan Chan."

Lin Weiwei's gaze slowly shifted from his empty palms to his deep, profound eyes.

In those eyes, there was no fear, only absolute confidence.

"Really...?"

Lin Weiwei looked at Su Bai and spoke somewhat cautiously:

"Really."

Su Bai nodded solemnly and said, "You just need to wait at home for me to return."

That night, Lin Weiwei did not sleep.

After Su Bai returned to his room, she used the dim candlelight to rummage through chests and cabinets, finding a piece of red fabric pressed to the bottom of a trunk.

She sat at the table and, stitch by stitch, began sewing a safety amulet for Su Bai.

The night was deep and still.

Everything around was quiet.

Her movements were clumsy.

Several times, the needle pricked her fingertips.

Yet Lin Weiwei persisted in sewing, as if once the safety amulet before her was finished, Su Bai would truly return safely.

...

The next day, before the sky had fully brightened.

Su Bai was already dressed and ready.

He wore a crisp black outfit that made his figure appear even more upright.

He pushed open the door, and Lin Weiwei was standing outside holding a bowl of steaming meat porridge, with dark circles under her eyes, clearly having not slept all night.

"Eat it while it's hot."

Su Bai did not refuse; he took the bowl and finished the meat porridge in a few gulps.

Lin Weiwei pulled something from her bosom and cautiously handed it to Su Bai.

It was a somewhat crudely sewn red safety amulet, with a blurry character for 'peace' embroidered on it in crooked stitches.

"I... I made this last night."

Lin Weiwei lowered her head, not daring to meet his eyes, and whispered, "Keep it close to your body; it can... it can protect you and keep you safe."

Su Bai took the safety amulet.

The small amulet pouch still carried the girl's body heat.

He could imagine how she had stayed up all night, with what kind of feelings, sewing this item stitch by stitch.

To Su Bai, this small safety amulet felt heavier than a thousand-catty boulder.

Su Bai solemnly placed it into the pocket closest to his heart, then reached out, gently patted that spot, and grinned at Lin Weiwei:

"I accept it."

Lin Weiwei looked up, her eyes turning red, and she bit her lip hard to keep the tears from falling.

Seeing her like this, Su Bai suddenly smiled, pinched Lin Weiwei's mouth, and whispered:

"Don't look so glum; it's not like I'm not coming back."

"When I return, I will no longer be a nobody. By then, with military merits to my name, I will surely win great glory, so that you and Chan Chan will never have to do laundry for others again, and never have to suffer anyone else's attitude."

"At that time, I will buy the biggest mansion in Yunzhou City, and we..."

Listening to Su Bai's words, Lin Weiwei finally broke into a smile through her tears, looked at Su Bai, nodded vigorously, and said:

"Mm! I'll wait for you to come back!"

"Good."

Su Bai took one last deep look at her, then turned and left.

His black figure walked step by step into the morning mist.

Lin Weiwei stood where she was, motionless.

Watching Su Bai's figure as he drifted further and further away, she murmured to herself:

"You must... come back safely."

A barely audible whisper dissipated into the morning breeze.

Meanwhile, Su Bai, who had already left the alley, saw the gentle smile on his face long gone.

In its place was nothing but indifference.

His eyes were like an ancient well, bottomless and without ripples.

Reconnoiter a 300,000-strong Demon?

In the eyes of others, this was a road with nine deaths and one life—a dead end.

But in his view, that was not necessarily the case.

He looked up at the faint light on the horizon, the corners of his mouth curling into an arc that no one noticed.

Where there is danger, there is opportunity.

That 300,000-strong Demon, were they not the grim reapers, but also, in a way... a stroke of fortune?

...

Eighty li outside Yunzhou City.

The night dyed the mountain forest in deathly silence.

The wind howled, and every tree and blade of grass seemed like an enemy soldier.

Su Bai and his group of ten sneaked through the forest, making almost no sound.

Each of them had restrained their Qi to the extreme.

This was a scout squad, and at the same time, a suicide squad destined never to return.

The atmosphere in the team was terrifyingly oppressive; besides the sound of the wind, only their own heartbeats remained.

Ma Lie followed closely behind Su Bai, gripping the hilt of the blade at his waist tightly, his eyes fixed intently ahead.

"Squad Leader..."

Ma Lie lowered his voice, speaking with a faint breath, "We must have walked eighty li, right? This place... is already the core range of the Yao Race patrols."

Eighty li; this number pressed on everyone's heart like a great mountain.

They had penetrated deep into the heartland of the Demon, where the Yao Race and their scouts were everywhere; a moment of carelessness would mean certain doom.

Su Bai did not turn back; he simply raised his hand slightly, signaling everyone to stop.

He crouched down, his gaze scanning the dense forest ahead sharply.

"Hunker down in place."

Su Bai said in a low voice.

Somewhere along the way, the nine people behind him, led by Ma Lie, had subconsciously come to regard Su Bai as their backbone.

Now, hearing Su Bai speak, the hearts of Ma Lie and the nine others steadied slightly.

The ten immediately found cover nearby, holding their breath as they looked outside.

Ma Lie lay behind a bush, his heart almost jumping out of his throat.

He could even smell a faint trace of Demonic Qi permeating the air.

That was the unique scent of the Yao Race.

They... were nearby!

Time passed second by second.

Finally, a rustling sound of footsteps approached from afar.

Ma Lie looked through the gaps in the bushes, his pupils suddenly constricting.

Not far away, a squad of tall wolf-Demons, covered in grayish-brown mane, were pacing toward them.

They had human torsos and limbs, but possessed hideous wolf heads, their green eyes gleaming in the darkness.

There were five wolf-Demon scouts in total.

As they walked, they conversed in a strange language.

Ma Lie didn't dare to even breathe loudly.

He could feel that his companions beside him were just as tense, watching the five wolf-Demons in front of them.

The squad of wolf-Demon scouts seemed not to have discovered them, slowly walking past a spot more than twenty meters in front of their hiding place.

Just as their figures were about to disappear into the forest.

Su Bai asked in a barely audible voice, "Who here knows the Yao Race language?"

This question left everyone stunned for a moment.

The Yao Race language was obscure and difficult to understand; very few in the Human Race understood it.

"Squad Leader, I know some."

Ma Lie hesitated for a moment, then braced himself and whispered in response.