The moment the morning mist was shattered by the drumming of hooves, the silhouette of the Tianyuan Mountains split open like a ghost's mask being torn away, revealing its ferocious true face. The mountain body was ash-black, like calcined iron and stone, and the mucus seeping from the cracks in the rocks shimmered with an eerie blue under the sunlight. As the wind passed, a stench akin to rotting flesh drilled into their nasal cavities.
Su Qingxue's nostrils twitched, and a thin layer of sweat slicked her palms where she clutched her short flute—this smell was identical to the poisoned corpses soaked for seven days in the Hanmei Pavilion torture chamber.
"Hongzhuang." Ye Fan suddenly reined in his mount, the gray-steed rearing its front hooves and carving a deep arc into the snow. His gaze swept over the horses' bellies, where, unobserved, hair-thin silver threads had crawled all over, climbing up the horses' legs toward the saddles. "Can your Gu mother recognize this thing?"
Chapter 272