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Chapter 208: Chapter 208: The Secret of Saving Lives
The group immediately became alert upon hearing this, observing their surroundings while quickly retreating to Han Yi’s side.
"Han Yi, what did you find?" Yan Xiao didn’t see any suspicious objects, so he asked Han Yi.
Han Yi looked ahead pensively. The distant army was getting further away. The speed of the soldiers was naturally fast, and with Han Yi’s group delayed, they had fallen quite a distance behind the troops.
"This place is too clean," Han Yi observed, staring ahead, "There are no bushes, no trees, and no wildlife; not even the usual snakes and rodents in the grass. And look—"
Han Yi pointed towards the spot Yan Xiao had just stepped on, continuing, "All this grass is of a single species, with no other plants mixed in."
Yan Xiao and Xiao Jian didn’t understand at first, but it was Hao Boming beside them who reacted first, unable to stop himself from exclaiming.
In such a primitive mountain range, where human footprints are rare, one would expect to find a dense thicket of miscellaneous trees. The appearance of a large expanse of grassland was strange enough, and yet there was only one type of grass covering it?
Even artificial turf couldn’t be so meticulously clean that no other plants would be mixed in. The natural phenomenon is for various wild plants to grow intermixed together.
This was why Han Yi said: it was too clean.
Everyone felt their hair stand on end, a cold sweat breaking out on their backs!
Suddenly, there was an uproar ahead; some soldiers discovered abandoned military-issued weapons, along with clothing and boots, in the grassland. Zhang Zhuo immediately ordered a thorough search of the area!
Han Rui turned around and saw that Han Yi and the others had not kept up with the troop. Thinking they were trying to slip away, he bellowed angrily, "Han Yi! You are not allowed to leave! You can’t go until you tell me where the ammunition is!"
Han Yi glanced at him impatiently and said to the people beside him, "Have them pull back."
Yan Xiao turned around and cursed at Han Rui, "Hey!—Idiot! If you want to live, get back here quick! There’s something wrong with this grassland!"
The people who heard were hesitant, their actions filled with doubt. However, as soldiers, their duty was to obey, and since Zhang Zhuo ordered them to search the area, they naturally wouldn’t listen to Yan Xiao.
Tian Xinyue, seeing those people walking further away, shouted anxiously, "Come back quickly! Don’t go further in! You can’t go there! Don’t walk on the grass! Come back quickly!!"
She didn’t know what specific harm the grassland would do to people. So, after shouting for so long without being able to provide a reason for retreat, she just kept repeating the danger of the grassland.
Only a few people slowly began to pull back, still with hesitation, while many others had walked far away.
Han Rui was furious. As he walked toward Han Yi, he shouted, "Han Yi! Shut your people up! Are you trying to shake the military’s morale and then sneak away in the chaos?!"
Tian Xinyue choked up, swallowing her words back down. The group around Han Yi were generally cold in disposition, and except for Yan Xiao shouting a couple of times, the rest observed with cold eyes. Only Tian Xinyue, with her warm heart, kept desperately shouting, so when Han Rui said this, was he clearly blaming her for being nosy?
Tian Xinyue pursed her lips and fell silent in frustration, feeling as though her good intentions were treated with scorn and indifference!
After walking a few steps, Han Rui felt something was wrong.
Why was moving his legs so effortful?... His body also seemed to become limp, lacking in strength... What was happening?
Panic appeared on Han Rui’s face! He felt his body slowly starting to grow numb from his feet upward, as if... he couldn’t feel his toes anymore?! Were they numb? Why?!
Han Rui tried to leave the grassland, only to find that he could no longer move his feet at all!
People farther away also started experiencing issues; some fell to their knees on the grassland, others were in more severe conditions, falling down completely, unable to stand up!
Desperate howls ebbed and flowed incessantly, transforming what should have been a vibrant, lush meadow into something as terrifying as hell on earth.
"...Han Yi! Save me!" Han Rui suddenly became aware that the numbing sensation had reached his calves, shouting at Han Yi in alarm and terror for help!
Han Yi looked at him indifferently, his bottomless black eyes filled with the usual icy chill.
Han Rui was in a panic, witnessing soldiers collapsing one after another around him, with fear taking over his heart! He screamed uncontrollably, "Han Yi! Get me out of here! Have you forgotten the family doctrine set by our grandfather before he died?! Have you forgotten the oath you swore?! Han Yi!!!!!"
The Han Family doctrine states that fights among Han descendants should not cost lives.
Does failure to save someone who is dying count as breaking that oath?
Yang Qi knocked down a few trees on the outer edges of the grass, and several people together threw them into the meadow. Those who were close, even with numb legs, could use the tree trunks as bridges to crawl out using their upper body strength.
Yan Xiao created a pathway through the grass by setting it on fire, but this was not efficient for rescuing people, because the victims were scattered in different locations, too far away to reach. If the fire were to spread, it would be hard to control and could cause a widespread fire, possibly leading to people being burned to death before they were rescued.
So, for those far away, there was really nothing they could do. Even Han Yi’s spiritual power was limited by distance.
Out of a troop of two hundred, less than ten were saved. Han Rui was among them, lying limp on the ground, trembling non-stop as if he had suffered a great fright.
Han Yi had Hao Boming conduct a physical examination on them, and Hao Boming found that their bodily functions were mostly normal, with heart rate, blood pressure, and body temperature all very regular.
Of course, Han Yi’s intent was not out of kindness, but rather... curiosity. Han Yi wanted to know why these people had suddenly lost their ability to move.
Not only did Han Yi want to know, but others were also baffled by this.
Somehow summoning the courage, Hao Boming walked to the edge of the grass, plucked a blade, and examined it in the palm of his hand for a long time.
Holding the blade of grass, he approached Han Yi and said, "The tip of the grass is needle-shaped, very long and thinner than a hair. It’s possible the tip contains some sort of neurotoxin that enters through the pant legs and then causes paralysis upon touching the skin. By the time people notice, it’s already too late."
He paused, then added, "However, these are just our speculations. What kind of toxin this grass contains specifically needs professional lab testing to determine."
Hao Boming’s words coincided with Han Yi’s own thoughts.
The grass wasn’t tall, so it could only reach the ankles, which were the first to lose sensation. Once people couldn’t stand and fell to their knees, the area in contact changed, enlarging the area of paralysis and eventually immobilizing the entire body.
As for what happens after paralysis... probably, just waiting silently to be digested by the meadow...
The people who had fallen in the meadow in the distance were no longer struggling, not yet dead, but lying motionless among the grass, like corpses.
"Can they recover?" Han Jiaojiao couldn’t help but ask. It had been difficult enough to rescue these few people, but if they couldn’t walk, how would they descend the mountain?
"I don’t know," Hao Boming said with a troubled shake of his head. "That depends on the nature of the toxin. We don’t have the means to determine that right now, we can only wait and see how they recover."
"Han Yi! Quickly think of a way to save me!!" Han Rui suddenly cried out, his voice piercing! "This doctor is your man! Hurry up and have him treat me! Treat me!"
Everyone looked at Han Rui as if he were a fool.
Unbeknownst to Han Rui, with bloodshot eyes and a ghastly pale face, he yelled at Han Yi, frantic and irate, "Han Yi! You must save me! I know your secret! I know about that matter!!"
