"Advance dozens of steps..."
Before Dai Xiaomei's book bag had finished falling, Jiang Fan let out a roar.
"Danger, move aside quickly!"
Still sluggish, she hadn't reacted and stood frozen like a fool.
Fortunately, Yao was quick-witted. In a flash, he grabbed Dai Xiaomei's hand and pulled her down.
Panda let out a loud yelp and fled to the left, pulling Zhou Niannian along.
"Whoosh!"
A volley of arrows shot out from the waterfall, splashing water everywhere.
These weren't just a few arrows, but dozens, even hundreds, that flew directly towards them.
Thankfully, Jiang Fan's warning came in time, giving everyone a chance to react and flee. Otherwise, they would have been pierced by the arrows.
"Clatter!"
The arrows missed their target and hit the stone wall behind them, clattering to the ground.
Dai Xiaomei instinctively got up, but her legs gave out, and she collapsed again.
Even with Jiang Fan's warning, Dai Xiaomei, lost in her fantasy of an idyllic paradise, hadn't reacted at all.
If Yao hadn't quickly pulled her out of the way, she would have been turned into a pincushion.
Yao, who had experienced many brutal battles, broke out in a cold sweat facing such a vicious trap.
Panda appeared calmer, like a seasoned veteran. He patted his chest and howled towards the waterfall.
The worst off was Zhou Niannian, who sat stunned on the ground, unsure if she was even injured.
The arrows had flown past her face, and some even clipped her hair.
The proximity was such that Zhou Niannian could feel the sharp killing intent emanating from the arrows and smell a strange, pungent odor.
Fortunately, Jiang Fan, a seasoned warrior, had jumped aside and shouted a warning even before seeing the arrow rain.
His action saved everyone. If they had waited until they saw the arrows, it would have been too late.
"Are you alright!"
Jiang Fan emerged from the waterfall and, seeing Zhou Niannian sitting like a motionless statue, quickly asked.
After entering the waterfall, he had seen a not-too-steep cliff below.
Beyond the cliff was a lush patch of trees. Across from the trees, on the opposite cliff face, was another mysterious stone cave.
Jiang Fan's intuition told him something was amiss, a subtle wave of killing intent.
As a professional explorer, Jiang Fan's intuition was as sharp, if not sharper, than Yao's.
So, he tentatively threw a stone into the bushes below the cliff, hearing rustling sounds.
Jiang Fan thought it was some fierce beast, but it turned out to be a family of hedgehogs, startled by his stone.
Then, with all his might, Jiang Fan hurled a large rock towards the cave on the opposite cliff.
He heard the sound of the rock hitting a metal plate.
Followed by creaking and groaning, like a door opening, interspersed with other noises, as if a mechanism was being activated.
It seemed that was the path forward.
He returned after scouting, and Zhou Niannian was still sitting on the ground, unresponsive.
Jiang Fan walked up to her and shouted in her ear.
"Are you alright!"
Only then did Zhou Niannian react, letting out a scream and frantically touching her face, fearing she had been injured.
"Am I injured? Am I injured?"
Zhou Niannian cried and wailed, more dramatically than when she came off the roller coaster.
Jiang Fan carefully examined her and shook his head.
"You're fine, just a few strands of hair were cut."
"Oh my god, this place is so scary."
Dai Xiaomei finally managed to stand up, her legs still trembling uncontrollably.
Zhou Niannian's face was also ashen with fear. They exchanged glances, their eyes filled with the lingering shock of narrowly escaping death.
Jiang Fan picked up an arrow and examined it closely.
The arrows were made of wood, but their tips were a dark, greenish-black, clearly coated with poison.
Jiang Fan's expression changed. They were poisoned arrows!
"This is the legendary Black Throat Wood poison, one drop of blood and you're dead!"
"Thank goodness we dodged it, or else..."
There was no medicine here. Once hit, there would be no hope of recovery.
Jiang Fan mentioned "one drop of blood and you're dead" casually, but Zhou Niannian was terrified.
She quickly checked herself all over again and said, trembling,
"Getting my hair cut won't poison me, will it?"
She had always dismissed the outlandish plots in novels about remote transmission of poison or poisonous scents, or how touching even a corner of Tang Sect's poison-laden clothing could be fatal.
Now, her face was ashen with fear, and she was becoming jumpy.
"Theoretically, no. But for added safety, shaving your head would be more secure."
Jiang Fan said expressionlessly.
Zhou Niannian was stunned. What kind of suggestion was that? Was he telling her to become a nun?
Looking at Jiang Fan's expression, she couldn't tell if he was serious or joking.
The audience in the live stream, along with Zhou Niannian and Dai Xiaomei, had broken out in a cold sweat.
"That was terrifying. Advancing dozens of steps almost cost them their lives."
"Dai Xiaomei is poisonous. She should stop pretending to be a scholar and reciting poetry, and stick to her promising career as an illiterate streamer."
"Thank goodness for Jiang Shen. Otherwise, they and the panda would have been shot into pincushions."
"Such a vicious trap suggests this secret realm won't be easy to explore."
The audience felt a sense of relief, but seeing that Jiang Fan had no further comments, they figured it wasn't a major issue.
Jiang Fan, however, picked up another arrow and examined it repeatedly.
Zhou Niannian, trembling, walked over and pouted.
"Why are you always looking at this arrow? Can you see flowers on it?"
Jiang Fan snapped the arrow in half and said in a low voice.
"You see, the wood of this arrow is quite old, it wasn't made recently."
"You know, after the Han Dynasty, arrows were carbonized for preservation."
"But the shaft of this arrow is crudely cut with a sharp tool and hasn't undergone any processing."
"The poison quenched on it is also ancient. I suspect this arrow was made from the long-extinct Black Throat Wood."
He paused for a moment before stating his conclusion.
"The murals outside depict scenes of Emperor Yan and Emperor Huang battling Chi You."
"Chi You had three heads and six arms, wielding six weapons, one of which was a bow and arrow."
"I suspect this arrow dates back thousands of years, when Black Throat Wood was not extinct, and it could be freely used to make arrows."
"These are the arrows that Chi You used in the Battle of Zhuolu."
Everyone listened, staring at Jiang Fan in stunned silence.
After a long pause, Dai Xiaomei said,
"Aren't Chi You and Emperor Huang supposed to be mythical figures?"
Her words echoed the thoughts of everyone present. In most people's understanding, Chi You and Emperors Yan and Huang were fictional mythological characters.
At most, they were ordinary tribal leaders whose legends were embellished into god-like beings with magical powers.
But according to Jiang Fan's deduction, these beings with divine powers truly existed?
Jiang Fan raised his head, his gaze calm.
"Whether they are mythical figures or real beings, having come this far, we are like an arrow nocked on a bow."
"No matter how many hardships and dangers lie ahead, we can only press forward."