[ CHRONOLOGY OF A HUNDRED HERBS ]
CHAPTER 17: Red Nails I
last edited on ZLT: 04.08.2023
This translation is hosted at ZHANLANN.COM
As she walked along the alley, Hua Rong Yue suddenly felt as though the last two months she’d spent here had just flew by.
The sense of danger and eerieness — it wsa the kind of feeling that only strolling within Heaven’s Will Tower would instill in her.
It was back — ever since she brushed past the person earlier, she was submerged in the same feeling again. In this dark, dirty alley, she could almost hear her own heartbeat — that was how silent it was here. Even the low hanging clouds in the sky was adding to the atmosphere — everything about this place screamed familiarity, as though she had been to a similar place before.
Hua Rong Yue had not experienced something like this in a long time. As she walked through the alley, her heart thumped away, despite so, she remained exceptionally calm.
She would occasionally walk past a few people along her way out. There were some that — like her — bore a crimson mole on their face. There were also others who held their oil-paper umbrella low. Least to say, Hua Rong Yue brushed past a wide variety of people.
This familiar yet unfamiliar alley had Hua Rong Yue feeling as though she had transmigrated into Yi Ling Long’s previous life.
Yi Ling Long had been strange and withdrawn back then. To a certain extent, you could even say that she was ostracised. She would often tread on her own through alleyways like this, in utter silence. Hua Rong Yue flipped through Yi Ling Long’s last few memories; no matter how bright the colour of the robes she wore, her memories were all depressing and dark.
She had no way forward and no way of getting out of the situation she was in. Perhaps Yi Ling Long herself had realised what kind of situation she was in. Rather than putting in all her effort to go against the righteous people after her, perhaps deep within her, she wanted to let herself self-destruct.
Hua Rong Yue wasn’t quite sure exactly what kind of emotional state Yi Ling Long had been in. Even though she could replay Yi Ling Long’s past memories, she coudln’t hear her past thoughts.
As Hua Rong Yue slowly walked out the alley, she caught a very faint but strange sound.
The was the howls of a woman.
Through the rain, Hua Rong Yue could smell a stench of blood floating towards her.
This was getting rather ominous. She stood there unmoving as she contemplated. When the howling voice became softer and softer, she bit her teeth, shrugged off her robe and threw it where the rain didn’t hit. Dressed in just her thin garment, she pulled the handkerchief masking her face higher, revealing only a pair of eyes, before she ran in the direction of the sounds.
The crimson liquid pooled together with the rain; even the entrance of the alleyway had been stained with blood.
Fully wrapped up from head to toe, Hua Rong Yue looked into the alley. Standing within was a man; he held a dagger in his hand as he panted away. No matter how she looked at the situation, he seemed incredibly abnormal. With bloodshot eyes, looked as though a bull having seen a red flag. Collapsed on the ground was a female; Hua Rong Yue had no idea if she was still alive.
The standing person’s Madness was probably acting up. ♢ CHRONOLOGY OF A HUNDRED HERBS, CHAPTER 17 is hosted at ZHANLANN.COM ♢
Hua Rong Yue immediately came to such a conclusion after just a single glance at him.
All those that became a Maniac would in some way possess a certain degree of mania, paranoia, or uncontrollable violent tendencies. They would appear exactly the same as the rest under normal situations, but such a characteristic was at the end of the day not something they could completely disguise. The moment they are triggered, they would lose all control.
Hence, there were a lot of Maniacs that ended up with a terrible temperament and became incredibly violent. Some would even go crazy. Wasn’t Yi Ling Long like this too in her previous life? It’s just that Hua Rong Yue did not expect this person to have such audacity — to wreck havoc in broad daylight.
The woman collapsed on the floor had scars all over her body. The Maniac opposite her probably found delight in torturing people to death.
That was how the woman died.
But this did not mean that all Manics enjoyed torturing others. In reality, there were some that really had no way of controlling themselves – in fact, the further they delve into Madness, the worse this addiction becomes. Hua Rong Yue remembered how uncontrollable Yi Ling Long’s violence tendencies had became just before she died. But there were also some others that had no intentions to control these tendencies altogether.
Or rather, perhaps it would be more accurate to say that the latter group of people enjoyed the tyrannous adrenaline that came with such violent tendencies, and abused such emotions to launch a bloodbath.
—Just like the person before her.
As for this woman, should she save her or not? Hua Rong Yue glanced at the woman, she was still breathing, it seemed.
…After a moment of mental back and forth between her rationale and ethics, the latter spoke to her more — as long as the woman was alive, she should be saved.
When Hua Rong Yue neared the two, she made an effort to make her footsteps heard. The person ahead suddenly whipped his head around, and glanced at her with his eerie, bloodshot eyes. The moment he noticed the red mole at her eye, he seemed to have calmed down a little.
“Is she still alive?” Hua Rong Yue asked. It’s been a long while since she’d done anything similar. Now that she was once again inhaling the smell of blood, she felt her heart thumping away faster than before. The pooling crimson on the ground was also making her a little anxious. After all, she wasn’t entirely sure of the status of her combat abilities at the moment, sometimes it activates, sometimes it doesn’t,
“Still alive, but what does that have anything to do with you?” Perhaps it was the red mole at Hua Rong Yue’s eye that – despite his angry and violent expression – had the man repling in annoyance instead of making a move
Hua Rong Yue’s umbrella was still held low, shading almost her entire being within its shadow.
What a good question. Hua Rong Yue had to come up with an appropriate answer that suited the mentality of a Maniac, and that was definitely not anything along the lines of “you only live once, you need to treasure every life form” or anything like that.
She had to come up with something else.
Hua Rong Yue slowly walked forward, half her person shielded beneath the umbrella canopy had her expression hidden. With every step shored too a looming sense of pressure.
As she stepped forward, she spoke, her voice rusty: “There’s already people keeping tabs on this place, if you keep at it, the attention here will only grow… it’ll be too late if you still want to stay out of it by then.”
Given her current getup and her hoarse voice, Hua Rong Yue sure looked quite different from how she usually did. Here, she looked like someone who had experienced the vicissitudes of life.
What Hua Rong Yue had said earlier wasn’t all untrue.
TRANSLATOR & EDITOR: WYNNE.
This translation is hosted at ZHANLANN.COM
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T/N: T/N: hihi friends my schedule freed a lil up but it’s mostly my wrist/elbow acting up again so typing on my com/hp is uncomfortable in general TTwTT it used it hurt many years ago but stopped for a long while, not sure why it’s suddenly back 🙁 will TL what i can when i can :”)
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