Deep within Nanwu Mountain, chill winds swept across the disorderly mountain path.
Along the uneven mountain path, a figure jumped about its ups and downs. Zhang Fugui had never run so hard in his life. The living corpse behind him would at times abruptly close in and at times abruptly be left behind. Its claws slashed by his ears on multiple occasions, nearly reaping Zhang Fugui’s oh-so-frail life.
“Daoist Master, this won’t work, I can’t sprint anymore.” Zhang Fugui squeezed out while panting, “This thing’s also too intense.”
Su Yu strained to look behind Zhang Fugui. The form of the living corpse chasing them sharpened in his vision, and his attention was practically glued to the inky spots within its body. Compared to at first, the inky spots within the mass of white yin qi seemed to be more spirited and active, as if all the living corpse’s power was sourced from those few scattered spots.
This was different from what Su Yu had seen in the living dead, and it also differed from how Zhang Fugui invoked yin qi. As he thought this, Su Yu couldn’t help but turn to the yin qi within his body that had once again settled down. The yin qi entrenched in his body had become more dense. He thought of that familiar handprint, and how he initially fell off the cliff……
Su Yu was right about to take another closer look, but the living corpse closed the distance again, pouncing straight onto the human and ghost. It instantly threw Zhang Fugui flying across the ground, and the living corpse’s ape-like eyes moved to Su Yu.
It stepped on Su Yu’s broken leg and leaned over his body.
The living corpse crawled between Su Yu’s injured legs, the saliva on its fangs about to drip, and in that instant, it abruptly lowered its head and firmly bit down on Su Yu’s broken leg, sucking up the blood on its surface. The sharp pain rushed straight to his ocean of consciousness. The yin qi in Su Yu’s body sank, his body already a step ahead of him. He kicked out at the living corpse, forcefully kicking its head crooked.
Zhang Fugui was almost hit by the living corpse as he got up. He spoke blankly: “Vajra Iron Legs…”
Su Yu struggled to raise himself up and gazed down at the yin qi condensed on his leg.
Then, he lowered his eyes to look inwardly at his ocean of consciousness. The eye totem seemed to be revolving quicker.
Zhang Fugui immediately came back to his senses and ran over, he rushed to take this chance to run away with Su Yu on his back. But when he picked the youth up onto his back to keep running the same way, he looked up to find the Misty River, which was supposed to be behind him, right before him.
Strange, that’s not right…
Didn’t he run with his back to the river? Why was the river still here?
“Zhang Fugui!” Su Yu shouted sharply.
Zhang Fugui snapped out of his thoughts and turned his head. The living corpse was charging over again.
Right at that moment, the living corpse raised its hand. Zhang Fugui felt an inexplicable, massive pull. He was instantly dragged over by the force from behind.
Zhang Fugui: “!!!”
The living corpse clamped down on Su Yu’s shoulder. It was too preoccupied with hunting its prey, and after it grabbed hold of the human, it extended its claws to fiercely take hold of Zhang Fugui and tore Su Yu from his back. It locked down its prey’s waist and dragged the human away.
I can’t break free…Su Yu’s arms were bound. He heard a crisp sound from them, and his right arm suddenly lost strength and fell down.
This time, the living corpse wised up. After catching its prey, it locked the other’s resisting body with its other hand.
With utter madness in its red eyes, in a few mere breaths, it had fully restrained Su Yu around the waist.
Zhang Fugui was drenched in cold sweat watching the living corpse carry Su Yu towards the Misty River. Before he could mull it over, his body was dragged away by Su Yu’s chain, and he neared the Misty River alongside the living corpse.
Wait, this thing isn’t going to drag us back to its lair right!?
That river…if we really end up there how will we get out alive!
Zhang Fugui couldn’t tug on the chain whatsoever, and he was frightened to the point his voice shook: “Daoist Master!”
The youth not far away didn’t respond. The human and ghost were slowly dragged into the Misty River.
Upstream of the Misty River, the scattered wandering ghosts that had not yet fled caught a whiff of the movement. As the youth was brought to the Misty River, they too were attracted by the youth’s blood, approaching the living corpse one after another. The living corpse pulled the youth into his arms and roared at the ignorant wandering ghosts with its yin qi gushing out. The wandering ghosts with low cultivations instantly dispersed at the cry.
The pain from a blade of wind cutting through his skin was obvious, and Su Yu felt a throbbing in his ears, he couldn’t tell whether it was due to the living corpse’s roar or the severe pain in his ocean of consciousness. The Misty River’s mist seemed to stimulate the totem dwelling in his dantian. The peaceful rest of the yin qi in his dantian was animated by the yin qi in the Misty River, eager to move. He saw the inky spots in the living corpse before him assemble and spread out, and the yin qi near the totem in his body also began to gather.
As they got closer, the lively inky spots within the corpse sharpened in the youth’s eyes. He moved his eyes and gazed at the path of the inky spots along the corpse. Angled where no one noticed, the dormant golden threads within the youth’s eyes shifted again, swiftly crawling to his pupils and pricking into the pitch-black irises like needles.
A frigid air rose up from the Misty River. The river had more than just mist, but also bone-chilling corpse water. Its bottom and banks were littered with withered bleached bones. The touch underfoot was bumpy, and the river water and misty qi soaked half of the youth’s body. The pain in his broken leg was aggravated and shot up.
Hazily amidst this, the misty qi looked to have roused something, and distant voices sounded from the depths of his mind.
‘A person born with incomplete hun and po actually wants to study Daoist teachings, he can’t even keep control of his psyche!’
‘He’s blind too and can’t write a thing. The teachers don’t want to teach him.’
‘Already fifteen, yet only at the elementary stage of Qi Refining. Mentioning him shames the whole Su family.’
A little further away, chill winds howled. He was lifted by his clothes to the cliff’s edge.
Someone whispered into his ear—’Pitiful…the blame can only lie with you for being born at the wrong time.’
What do you mean born at the wrong time?
Who was born at the wrong time?
The totem sensed danger and was desperate to control the youth’s body.
Just then, as the yin qi it mobilized left the dantian, its host instantly hindered and severed the yin qi it moved!
Su Yu abruptly opened his eyes. Pain filled his head again, and strong corpse water flooded his nostrils. He raised his hand and grabbed the living corpse’s wrist.
The eye totem: “?”
The youth remained still. His consciousness was terribly calm, and he stared at the living corpse. The yin qi, flowing faster than earlier, streamed into the youth’s body via his skin. His meridians were torn open once more, and the yin qi scattered in his dantian was ready to move.
At this instant, the living corpse seemed to notice the movement in his arms. It lowered its head in surprise and saw that the yin qi in the Misty River was rushing to gather towards the human it held. It rushed to let go of the prey at hand, but the latter reacted faster. The moment it let go, the other swiftly grabbed its left hand.
A sense of crisis overwhelmed it, and the living corpse did its utmost to shake off the abrupt grip.
The youth felt the yin qi in his body shift to his will, channeling through from his dantian to his meridians, all the way up to his hands. The burst of qi was more powerful than he had imagined. He pinched the living corpse’s wrist and pulled it towards him, interrupting its movements.
Right at that moment, the youth glimpse the inky spots gathering in the living corpse’s body. When the inky spots collected in the other’s palm, he immediately made a judgment in his mind. He leaned forward, borrowing the strength in the living corpse’s arm, and just avoided the attack in one move.
If higher level cultivators had witnessed this, they would have seen the trajectory of the ‘qi‘ circulating within the youth’s body clearly paralleling that of the living corpse. Even their methods in commanding it were virtually identical; starting from the dantian, then circulating through the body. The youth mimicked the living corpse’s qi regulation like a mirror, calling out the yin qi entrenched in the dantian totem within his body.
Soon, the yin qi circulating in the youth’s palm condensed, identical to the strokes of an ink brush. The handprint engraved in the youth’s mind was drawn out once more.
The next moment, the living corpse roared at Su Yu, and earth-shattering yin qi rushed over. Su Yu felt as though his skin was going to be torn apart, and pain flooded his brain. Hot blood welled up and gushed out of his throat, spraying onto the living corpse’s face. The living corpse was dazzled by the blood, its movements slowing, but Su Yu’s other hand didn’t cease. The extremely familiar handprint condensed into a creamy white rune at his fingertips. When he drew the last stroke, the handprint suddenly took form.
The live insects on the surface of the living’s corpse’s body let out shrill screeches. Su Yu pressed his hand onto the living corpse’s face, stopping it from roaring, and pressed down on its teeth. The sharp teeth pierced into the youth’s tiger’s mouth, and blood instantly broke through the skin and spilled out.1The tiger’s mouth (虎口) refers to an acupressure point on the web of skin between the thumb and pointer finger. When the living corpse ate the blood, the muscles all over its body swelled, its blue veins bulged one by one, yet Su Yu didn’t stop regardless.
Zhang Fugui raised his head amidst the strong winds and saw the huge handprint at the chain’s end floating above the youth and the living corpse.
The living corpse’s scarlet eyes appeared to dull a little. As it looked at the handprint that had emerged above it, the madness in its eyes gradually receded. It stared at it intently, and at that moment, the youth’s hand fell down in one motion. The handprint up above followed his movements and pressed down on the living corpse’s face like a falling mountain.
Su Yu made the scarlet hand seize the living corpse’s head and press it straight into the water. The yin qi in his body flowed into the living corpse’s forehead along the handprint.
Su Yu pressed the living corpse’s body down, blood endlessly dripping from all seven orifices. He felt like the bones in his body were broken, yet his keen intuition told him that he couldn’t relax at this moment. Once he did, he would give his opponent a chance to bite back at him…He forced himself to stay alert, ignored the dantian totem’s strong resistance, and controlled the yin qi in his body again.
He lowered his gaze and saw the inky spots in the living corpse still moving, “Still not dead?”
When Zhang Fugui walked up, he saw the Daoist Master kneeling at the Misty River’s banks, covered in blood and gripping the living corpse’s head in one hand. When he saw the living corpse move, the Daoist Master grabbed its forehead and knocked it against the ground. The river bank was suffused with blood, it was hard to tell whether it was from the youth or the rotten blood of the living corpse.
After a few blows, the inky specks within the living corpse stopped moving, yet its body still retained some will.
“Daoist Master” Zhang Fugui approached with trembling limbs.
The youth was drenched in blood, he only opened his eyes when he heard his voice. The pain was killing him. When he climbed up from the shore, he felt the broken bones within his body make sharp protests, but he didn’t stop. The blood on his body dripped onto the barely moving living corpse, and he dragged it ashore by the neck.
As he moved, the bones in his body crackled.
Though he wasn’t dead yet.
The youth looked into his ocean of consciousness and saw that the totem in his dantian was sapped, as if it had been totally emptied. Even its eyes, which had been open the whole time, shut.
Su Yu didn’t say it, but when he though about being controlled by this totem, he felt it indescribably sickening.
As those eyes shut, Su Yu’s eyes also ached, his eyelids heavy. But he wasn’t unhappy, on the contrary, he thought: This thing also has weaknesses.
“…Can you move?” Su Yu glanced at Zhang Fugui.
Zhang Fugui was frightened by his eyes filled with red-gold threads, “I can, I can.”
This picture was bloody and horrifying. Zhang Fugui had seen other wandering ghosts reduced to ashes at the youth’s hands, but he had never seen anything like this. He gazed down at the chain tied around his ankle emitting a scarlet bloody qi. He didn’t know how a weak ghost like him with no cultivation could survive in such an environment, but he knew that it must be closely related to the Daoist Master.
Su Yu let go, and his whole person knelt down in exhaustion. Soon he stood up again, his eyes filled with gold threads, “Take it, drag it here.”
Zhang Fugui hurriedly dragged the living corpse up and followed the youth fearfully, watching him walk to the edge of the Misty River.
In his panicked run for life, Zhang Fugui could no longer tell where they were and where they’d run from. He saw the Misty River in front of him, which he could never escape no matter how much he ran. There was more fear in his eyes, but this time, when he got closer, he suddenly realized that the scene at the Misty River’s edge seemed different from what it was before.
The water flow is more turbulent…He strained to drag the living corpse along, and suddenly, he saw the mist in front of him clear up, like a drawn curtain, and slowly dissipate. Voices came through from the mist, and as he was thinking, the view before him became clearer. He watched the misty qi around the Misty River disperse substantially. Then, a pair of eyes showed up in front of him—those of a wandering ghost floating on the Misty River.
“Ghost!!!” Zhang Fugui shouted: “All the powerful ghosts are here!”
Su Yu followed his gaze in exhaustion. The river of white mist in his vision was rapid and fierce, and the sounds around him seemed to swell all of a sudden. He was about to take a few steps forward when Zhang Fugui suddenly stopped him. He heard Zhang Fugui speak rapidly: “A waterfall, Daoist Master, there’s a waterfall in front!”
The Misty River’s rapids rushed down at its end, the water flow was so turbulent because of it. There was a huge deep pool dozens of feet below.
The deep waters were filled with thick mist and shadows. The oppressive feeling emanating from the pool made Zhang Fugui pause in his steps.
Though the bigwig ghosts were rumored to be fighting within Nanwu Mountain, Zhang Fugui had never seen it before. But at this moment, he looked on as dozens of fierce evil spirits battled beneath the Misty River. He felt an extreme cold all over, and he didn’t even have the courage to take half a step forward.
“Daoist Master, we……” Zhang Fugui was a little frightened. Just the living corpse alone almost killed them. If the fierce evil spirits down below noticed them, they would probably tear them both apart. He’d thought everything would be fine after dealing with the living corpse, but who knew they would go from one crisis to another.
Su Yu didn’t speak. The wounds on his body bled out a little slower. He could see the situation at the drop’s bottom. The flow of the Misty River in sight was cut off, as though guided by something to drop straight down. He didn’t advance, but instead watched the figures floating below…Likely the fierce evil spirits Zhang Fugui spoke of.
At that moment, he suddenly saw several brilliant lights shine through the pooled mist.
Unlike the white yin qi, those brilliant lights were similar to the cultivators he first saw at Nanwu Mountain Pass.
“There are people—” Zhang Fugui took a closer look, and sure enough, saw the figures of more than a dozen cultivators under the Misty River where they were. His voice unconsciously carried a hint of joy, “Yes, yes they’re cultivators! The group of cultivators from Nanwu Mountain Pass.”
Cultivators…Su Yu coldly stared at the figures leaping around, silent.
Just then, the living corpse beside him twitched again.
Su Yu tilted his head. He saw that the inky spots within the living corpse had begun to surge again.
Zhang Fugui was overjoyed. With so many fierce evil spirits here, it would be impossible to rely on the Daoist Master. But it’s different with the other cultivators here. The cultivators below were the famed cultivators of the Su family. So long as they tailed this group of cultivators, they would be able to escape from this ghost ridden Misty River.
He was about to explain the situation to Su Yu, “It’s the cultivators of the Su family, Daoist Master, we can go out!”
“Do you think they’ll take you out?” Su Yu said.
Zhang Fugui was stunned and said insipidly, “…That won’t happen. But we can follow them!”
“How do you think we got here?” Su Yu’s eyes, dyed in golden threads, narrowed slightly. He glanced at the cultivators clashing with the fierce evil spirits in the distance, and calmly asked, “How do the winds from the mountain’s depths reach the mountain pass?”
Zhang Fugui had lived in Nanwu Mountain’s outskirts for decades. He had seen many strong winds, but never those like the one that swept them into the mountain’s depths, “But there were also many cultivators swept in. They…”
Su Yu languidly cut in: “Who can say, maybe some fed the living dead in the tomb.”
Those cultivators were just like them, merely readily available chess pieces that the influential family could use to take over Nanwu Mountain.
Zhang Fugui felt a chill climb from his feet hearing what Su Yu said. Don’t the common people say all cultivators are righteous and kind souls who support the righteous way? How could…
Suddenly, the young Daoist Master beside him moved a bit, and then kicked the living corpse into the Misty River.
Zhang Fugui: “!”
“Didn’t you say you were interested in my blood?” Su Yu watched the living corpse fall into the Misty River, saying wickedly: “I’ll see how interested they are.”
