The totem pole's icy chill and despair nearly consumed Gu Liang.
Freedom!
Leave immediately!
This thought burned like wildfire through his rational mind. He could no longer endure the bonds, the humiliation, or A Lie's suffocating gaze. Even if bloodthirsty beasts and endless dark jungles lay ahead, it was better than staying here!
Late at night, when the beastmen on guard were most lax, that faint sound reappeared. Gu Liang struggled to retrieve the small leaf bundle—by touch, he felt roots and a sharp flint inside.
Tools! Enough!
Ecstasy and resolve flooded his heart. Without hesitation, he aimed the flint's sharp edge at a rope and began scraping with every ounce of strength, over and over! The process was agonizing, each sound making his heart race, but the will to escape sustained him.
Snap! The rope snapped! He broke free instantly, not even pausing to feel the searing pain in his wrist. Like an arrow released from its bow, he charged toward the direction of the tribal fence he remembered! Faster! Faster still! Just get over it!
Yet, just as he neared the sparser section of the fence, a figure darted out from behind a pile of leather hides to his left, as if anticipating his path. Lightning-fast, one hand clamped over his mouth while the other arm clamped around his body like iron pincers. The overwhelming strength rendered all his struggles futile!
It was Emma!
Gu Liang's heart plummeted into an ice cellar, despair and rage nearly drowning him! She had come to capture him after all!
"Keep making noise if you want to feed the long-toothed beasts in the forest!" Emma's voice was cold and urgent, whispered against his ear with an unquestionable threat. She gave him no chance to resist, dragging him with astonishing force away from the path to freedom. Instead, she pulled him toward a remote cliff within the tribe, a place covered in weathered rocks and dead vines.
"Let go of me! Let me go!" Gu Liang choked out a hoarse protest, but Emma completely overpowered him.
Soon, Emma halted before a rock face nearly concealed by thick, tangled vines. She roughly parted the vines, revealing a dark, narrow crevice barely wide enough for one person to squeeze through.
"Get in!" she commanded, practically shoving him inside.
Inside, the crevice was narrow, gloomy, and cold, filled with the scent of earth and stone. The only light came from faint starlight filtering through gaps in the vines at the entrance.
Gu Liang stumbled into the darkness, spinning around to glare at Emma's figure at the entrance with fury and despair. "Why?! Why won't you let me go?! If I stay here, A Lie will kill me sooner or later!"
Emma blocked the entrance, her silhouette appearing cold and rigid in the dim light. "Let you go? So you can die faster?" Her voice dripped with scorn. "In the jungle at night, you won't survive a single breath. Your life is mine now."
"I'd rather die in the jungle than at his hands!"
"You don't get to choose." Emma's tone was unyielding. "The more Ale wants to completely control you, to grind away every last trace of your defiance, the less I want to grant him that satisfaction. If you surrender completely, wouldn't that be exactly what he wants? I insist you live—and keep glaring at him."
This reason was so brutally domineering, even tinged with childish defiance, that Gu Liang was momentarily speechless: "Just because of this? Just because you can't stand him?"
"That reason is enough," Emma replied coldly, tossing a leather pouch and a packet of food at his feet. "Drink some water, eat something. Stay put in here. Dare to step outside, and next time it'll be A Lie himself coming to 'tame' you."
[Target Gu Liang's escape attempt forcibly interrupted. Placed in relatively secure location. Survival pressure temporarily alleviated. Host exhibits intense confusion and forced dependency. Fear and resistance toward A Lie deepened. Darkening value fluctuates. Current Darkening Value: 26%.]
Gu Liang stared at the cold food on the ground, then shifted his gaze to the blurred yet powerful figure at the crack's entrance. A wave of helplessness and profound confusion washed over him. She had "rescued" him once again through such forceful means, yet her reasons remained utterly baffling.
"What... what do you want?" His voice carried exhaustion and struggle.
Emma paused briefly before replying stiffly, "You're alive. You can work. You can make him miserable. That's enough." With that, she said no more. She carefully restored the vines covering the entrance, completely sealing out light and sound, leaving Gu Liang alone in absolute darkness and silence.
His freedom was utterly stripped away, more suffocating than being bound to the totem pole—for now he was imprisoned within an unknown cage called "shelter," controlled by a woman whose motives remained a mystery.
ns216.73.216.141da2
and then Add to home screen.