Chapter 65: The Grown Men Cried Themselves Unconscious?

Chapter 65: Chapter 65: The Grown Men Cried Themselves Unconscious?

Gu Qingyin paused for just a moment before walking over to Lin Tian.

Lin Tian glanced behind her a couple of times. "Where are Huo Xinghai and Huo Zhao Hua?"

Gu Qingyin replied, "They went back to rent gear. They’re going into the ocean."

Lin Tian looked at the crystal-clear water, her heart stirring with desire. And as for Lin Xian, the extreme sports enthusiast, diving was far more interesting than taking pictures.

But the siblings were broke. They looked at each other, at a loss for words.

Gu Qingyin saw their dilemma and said with a smile, "You can try asking the director’s team for credit, just like with the fishing rods this morning."

The siblings’ eyes instantly lit up. ’That’s right, the director never said we couldn’t borrow!’

They turned and bolted toward the boat, unwilling to wait another second.

Gu Qingyin shook her head with a laugh. She glanced at Lin Xiaoyun without a word, then turned and headed inland.

The cameraman was a bit confused but dutifully followed. This island wasn’t exactly safe. Aside from the beach, the rest of it was undeveloped, primordial land. He decided to see what Gu Qingyin was up to before deciding whether to stop her.

Gu Qingyin stopped from time to time to get her bearings, and somehow, she managed to pass through the cordoned-off area and enter the woods.

The cameraman, shouldering his camera, followed her with a blank expression. ’How have we been walking for so long without seeing the blockade tape?’ he wondered.

The forest floor was covered in bushes and fallen branches, making the footing uneven. The camera image naturally shook with every step.

[Where is she going?]

[The shaking is making me feel carsick.]

[Is this island some kind of tourist spot? Is it safe in the woods?]

[What is Sister Qing doing in the woods? I want to see the epic ocean view!!]

Just as the viewers in the livestream chat were discussing this, the screen suddenly lurched violently. A short cry of alarm came through, followed by a dull THUD, and then the feed went black.

The viewers were left wondering, what just happened?

「In the island’s forest.」

The cameraman, his face a mask of frustration, scrambled up from the ground and cradled his precious camera to inspect it.

Gu Qingyin had been moving too fast; it was no exaggeration to say she walked as if on flat ground. To keep up, the cameraman had to speed up. While trying to keep the shot steady, he hadn’t watched his step and tripped on a protruding aerial root, sending him tumbling down.

Thankfully, the ground was cushioned by countless layers of leaves, with the hardest things around being twigs. The camera wasn’t damaged by the fall.

The cameraman let out a sigh of relief. Only then did it occur to him that he hadn’t heard Gu Qingyin’s voice since he fell. His yelp hadn’t been quiet, had it? ’There’s no way Gu Qingyin didn’t hear that, yet she didn’t even say a word of concern...’

The cameraman complained internally, ’This wealthy lady is so cold. It’s one thing not to care, but is she going to chew me out for delaying things later?’

His heart filled with unease. When he looked up, all he saw were trees. There was no sign of Gu Qingyin.

The cameraman froze. ’She didn’t just ignore me, she left me behind?! That’s going too far!’

A flicker of resentment rose in his heart, but he stuck to his duty. He shouldered the camera and stood up, planning to search ahead. Without having to film, he could move much faster. How hard could it be to catch up to a woman?

But reality often slaps you in the face when you least expect it. He took one step and collapsed to the ground again. He couldn’t feel his left foot!

His face filled with terror as he looked down at his foot. He discovered that his exposed ankle had turned from its usual tan to a dark purple, and the discoloration was spreading upward.

’I’ve been fucking poisoned!’ he realized. ’And it’s a potent one!’

Before he’d noticed, the cameraman hadn’t felt any discomfort. Now that he saw it, beads of cold sweat instantly broke out on his forehead. His heart began to race uncontrollably, so fast that he felt waves of panic and was on the verge of fainting.

’No!’ The cameraman took a deep breath. ’I have to save myself!’

He pressed his earpiece to call his colleagues for help, but it was dead silent. There was no sound at all.

Taking another deep breath, he pulled his phone from his pocket with a trembling hand. He shakily unlocked it only to find that there was no fucking signal out here!

Despair washed over the cameraman. He tossed his phone aside and started shouting at the top of his lungs. He wasn’t too far from the beach; if he was loud enough, someone there should be able to hear him.

He used all his strength and felt like he was yelling loudly, but his voice was all bark and no bite, unable to travel far. With the poison spreading and draining his energy, his vision started to go black.

Before passing out, the man, who was nearly six-foot-three, started to cry. He lost consciousness amidst his own sobs.

He didn’t see that the moment he started crying, Gu Qingyin, who had vanished into the forest, abruptly reappeared just three meters away, having witnessed his entire breakdown.

Gu Qingyin: "..."

’I was only inside the Barrier for a few minutes. What kind of world-shattering event happened out here? He couldn’t be crying like this just because he couldn’t find me, right?’

’He even cried himself unconscious!’

As she got closer, Gu Qingyin realized the cameraman had been poisoned.

’Oh, well. So much for being moved.’

This was her oversight. The forest was quite primitive, home to plenty of venomous insects and snakes. Since she wasn’t afraid of such things, she’d forgotten to remind the cameraman to tuck in his pant legs.

’My bad. I’ll take responsibility.’

Gu Qingyin found a few detoxifying herbs nearby, located two very small puncture wounds on the cameraman’s ankle, mashed the herbs into a poultice, and applied it. Then, she burned a talisman and dropped it into a water bottle.

The talisman’s ashes dissolved instantly upon contact with the water, leaving no trace.

She tilted the bottle and poured a few mouthfuls into his mouth. The cameraman’s complexion improved visibly.

"Good thing I came back quickly." Gu Qingyin sat on a nearby tree root to wait for him to wake up, muttering to herself, "You’re lucky you weren’t fated to die. That damn place stank so bad, I just set up a ventilation Array and got out. Otherwise, you’d be meeting me in a very different capacity."

"But this time it was my fault, so I won’t charge you a Fate Fee." Gu Qingyin wore an expression that said, ’You really lucked out.’ "Not many people get a freebie from me."

Inside the Barrier, it was still a forest, but the scenery was completely different. The ground was littered with white bones, and the stench of death was so overwhelming that Gu Qingyin could barely keep her eyes open. She set up the Array with the fastest speed she had ever mustered and scrambled back out.

This Barrier must have existed for a very long time—so long that cracks had appeared in its nearly perfect structure, allowing a faint scent to escape on the wind and attract Gu Qingyin’s attention.

Gu Qingyin was intensely curious. What exactly was this place? Why were there so many bones? The same went for the island itself; it was practically overflowing with Evil Qi, so why wasn’t there a single Fierce Ghost to be found?

Even more baffling, how could such a malevolent place be developed into a tourist spot where visitors came and went without incident? It defied all logic!

Gu Qingyin’s curiosity was an itch she couldn’t scratch. She wished she could go in and explore right this instant.

But the stench inside was truly unbearable. Besides, if she just left the cameraman here, it wouldn’t be long before he became a delicious buffet for some local critter.