Nanwu Mountain. The lake at the Misty River’s limits.
The living corpse plunged to the bottom of the Misty River’s pit with a splash. The twisted and creeping black insects on its surface swelled even further, and the remaining half-dead ones appeared to come to life after being stimulated by the blood. They crawled hideously beneath the living corpse’s skin, sucking up the blood washed away into the Misty River, and ultimately turning into new skin.
Deep at the pit’s bottom where none took notice. The blood, washed away from the living corpse by chill water, condensed within the putrid waters of the Misty River and turned into scarlet droplets of blood. As though pulled by something, they slowly sank to its floor.
The living corpse climbed up from the riverbed. It struggled in the misty lake, as if wanting to go upstream of the waterfall.
The surrounding fierce evil spirits noticed it, and all of them charged.
Zhang Fugui watched the living corpse try to climb up several times, and be pushed down by the fierce evil spirits with every try. Though he was also apprehensive for a good while, since Su Yu’s reminder, he’d felt like the chill winds weren’t so painful as they scraped at him. But it was useless to close his eyes. The powerful ghosts over the Misty River’s lake didn’t disappear, and he could hardly tell the real from the fake: “Daoist Master, I listened to you, but closing my eyes is no use…”
Su Yu tilted his head, gazing at the multitude of bright and vibrant lights in the distance.
At most, there was yin qi converging around those cultivators. The few fierce evil spirits over the lake also left to deal with the living corpse. Clearly, those people were bewitched as well.
The misty qi here could affect the mind. After being bewitched by the Misty River’s brink, what the eyes see is no longer real.
Su Yu re-examined the totem in his dantian. He too was affected by the mist momentarily, and he glimpsed a few chaotic memories in his ocean of consciousness, proving that the mist affected the five senses, and from them the mind. But the totem in his dantian didn’t seem to fear the mist here, and no illusions had ever shown up before him.
It seemed with his current eyes, he could see the truest forms underneath the shrouding mist.
So hungry……Su Yu gritted his teeth. As he watched the pure yin qi floating around the cultivators, his hunger appeared to gnaw at him further. The gold threads in his eyes, dyed red, deepened, piercing into his pupils, and the sense of hunger even seemed to creep and trail through the meridians in his body.
Zhang Fugui glanced at him and hurriedly turned back. He’s finished. He’s totally finished. His brain had a screw loose.
He actually felt like the Daoist Master was more terrifying than the fierce evil spirits down below.
The yin qi above the lake seemed to condense at this instant.
Su Yu spoke all of a sudden, “Is the mist you can see thickening?”
Zhang Fugui snapped to, “It seems so. It seems to be getting more misty down there.”
Hey, that doesn’t seem right? The mist had clearly cleared up a lot earlier, so why did it suddenly thicken?
The thick mist above the lake was becoming heavier, and there were more and more fierce evil spirits and wandering ghosts. The cultivators on the shore defending themselves from attacks had just resisted the Nascent Soul fierce evil spirits’ counterattack, but after a while, they saw even more fierce evil spirits gather towards them. Seeing the outer layer of the protective spiritual weapons break one after another, alarm crept onto the faces of the cultivators who wanted to let the fierce evil spirits fight and enjoy the spoils.
There were more fierce evil spirits that tore through the protective spiritual weapons, dragging away the cultivators at the edge into the river.
The screams abruptly cut off. The other cultivators looked out, watching as even more fierce evil spirits emerged from the lake shrouded in thick mist.
Not only were there fierce evil spirits at Nascent Soul, they even saw a few more cultivators. Sharp eyed Lihuo Sect cultivators immediately recognized those cultivators as the ones they’d seen at Nanwu Mountain Pass a short time ago. They were swept away by the gales and disappeared, and now, all of them were here.
“No, why are all these people here?”
“Wasn’t it just said there were only a few dozen fierce evil spirits?”
“What’s the swarm outside then!”
“Something’s wrong…” Su Yi regarded the incoming barrage of fierce evil spirits outside with a heavy gaze. Suddenly, he caught a glimpse of a dozen fierce evil spirits with the Su family’s family crest, and his expression immediately changed: “No, the Su family doesn’t have so many people.”
Half a month ago, only Nascent Soul five Su family cultivators vanished in Nanwu Mountain, but there were more than that number here.
There are dozens of real and fake cultivators here! Which of them are real and which of them fake?!
When the other cultivators heard this, their faces changed drastically. How could they be fake??
These fierce evil spirits were hitting their spiritual weapons hard, and several were already scrapped. What could fake this?
Seeing the situation was dire, they had no choice but to helplessly stay here under attack, a place utterly different from their initially probed intel.
The bodies of the Lihuo Sect cultivators were riddled with wounds. At this moment, a pockmarked Su family cultivator came forward and spoke to the Lihuo Sect cultivators: “You Lihuo Sect cultivators should hold on for a while. We’ll set up a formation to request help from the outside.”
The Lihuo Sect cultivators’ faces lit up, “Yes!”
After that, the Lihuo Sect shixiongs took their shidis to defend the front.1Shidi – A junior sect brother.
“However, the teleportation formation can either be used to bring in a few elders from outside, or send a few of us out.” Another Su family cultivator looked at the Lihuo Sect cultivators far away delicately: “What about the others?”
They may be able to escape, but the Lihuo Sect cultivators who might stay here would certainly die.
“We’ve used up more than half of the spiritual weapons we brought in, and now we can’t even get to the bottom of the lake. Our first priority is escaping.”
The pockmarked cultivator thought to himself, what did this have to do with them? After all, the Lihuo Sect cultivators were also chess pieces used by the Su family in the name of cooperation. If they can be used, use them, and when they can’t, they ought to promptly be discarded. They couldn’t distinguish how to tell the true from the fake fierce evil spirits in front of them. If they wasted another incense stick of time, they’d die here.2The time a stick of incense takes to burn equates to about half an hour.
A Su family cultivator asked: “Do we need to inform the young master?”
“Right now the young master’s occupied dealing with the fierce evil spirits in front.” The pockmarked cultivator glanced at Su Yi in the distance and whispered, “Besides, Elder said that if we encounter a difficult situation, we must first protect the young master.”
He was doing this all for the sake of the Su family. If the young master died here, and the group of them escaped, they would be hunted down by the Su family.
The pockmarked cultivator looked at the misty lake where the fierce evil spirits raged nearby and suppressed his thoughts, timidly and briskly walking over.
The chill winds whipped up waves on the lake’s surface, and its dark and bottomless waters gave off a fishy stench. When the pockmarked cultivator neared, at the bottom of the seemingly unassuming misty lake, undercurrents invisible to the naked eye swirled. Like waves rising up from a deeper depth, they surged up alongside pitch-black mist and silently radiated throughout the whole misty lake.
Deeper, at the bottom of the misty lake, was a silt deposit. The undercurrents agitated the silt on the surface, exposing a pewter green stele hidden beneath the jet-black waters of the lake.
Suddenly, the undercurrents of the misty lake grabbed the living corpse’s ankle and dragged it into the water in one go.
From atop the misty lake’s waterfall, Su Yu’s gaze unconsciously landed on the cultivators. He saw spiritual energy leaving the group of cultivators, while on the other end, on a more remote shore, the surrounding yin qi seemed to be influenced by his guidance and flowed gently.
He examined it closely, but soon his attention was attracted by another movement.
“Daoist Master, is there anything over there?” Zhang Fugui looked down and saw that some of the cultivators had drawn away. It seemed they were fiddling with something using a spiritual tool. “What is that cultivator doing! He isn’t going to try something, is he?”
At the same time, Su Yu noticed something strange: “Is the living corpse still there?”
Zhang Fugui searched carefully upon hearing this. There was nothing else over the pitch-black misty lake save for the fierce evil spirits. “It’s gone!”
As ever-thickening mist blanketed it, within the lake resembling a white-jade, something seemed to toil in its obscured and silent waters.
When Su Yu spotted inky specks on the white jade, similar to the ones on the living corpse, he couldn’t help but grit his teeth.
At misty lake’s edge, the pockmarked cultivator took advantage of the inattention and swiftly dashed to the other side of the protective spiritual weapons. Simultaneously, the other fierce evil spirits were drawn to the Lihuo Sect cultivators. The pockmarked cultivator briskly walked up to the misty river. Considering a malfunction of the formation or being cut off from the outside world, the Su family elder had prepared a rare formation that operated by relying on yin qi. This sort of formation could only be controlled by cultivators with extremely yin physiques.
“I do this all for the Su family.”
The pockmarked cultivator saw the spiritual tool formation lay out on the ground faster after absorbing from the surrounding spiritual weapons. He was carefully calling the Su family cultivators over, when suddenly, he felt the ground shaking. He was a little stunned, “What’s going on!?”
A Lihuo Sect cultivator turned his head. He saw other Su family cultivators approaching the formation, while their Lihuo Sect members were almost exclusively maintaining the line.
His face immediately changed.
“What do you intend to do!”
“The Su family surely doesn’t wish to abandon us and escape using the formation!”
The Lihuo Sect cultivators withdrew their hands in succession and hurriedly tried to run towards the formation.
Su Yi, who was supporting the frontline, turned his head and saw the formation that had been laid out. His expression instantly changed. That bunch of trash! If we activate a formation now, won’t it just attract the fierce evil spirits’ attention?
Taking in the strangeness of the misty lake, Su Yi shouted, “Don’t go over there!”
However he was a step too late. A gust of wind suddenly surged from the misty lake. Swift and fierce winds rushed out from the water and towards the cultivators on the shore without any forewarning. The pockmarked cultivator from the Su family, closest to the formation, was swallowed up by the raging waters before he could move, and screams rang out all around.
At the bottom of the pit, where silt was piled, flowing yin qi seeped into mud and rapidly turned into a thin layer of yin qi that rose once more. Right at that moment, a few drops of blood dripped from the living corpse’s hand into the mud. In the lull, the river water turned turbid. A buzzing vibration emanated from deeper, and the silt was gradually shaken off, revealing the original appearance of the lake’s bottom.
Under the silt dispersed by the tremors was a pewter-green, ancient and unadorned, stone door. The complex stele inscriptions engraved on the stone door became clearer with the slight tremors.
The slumbering tomb guardian opened its eyes.
It voraciously devoured the nearby yin qi and blood, practically leaving nothing behind. All the yin qi was stimulated by the stone door and instantly rushed up.
The waters of the misty river rushed upwards. The cultivators looked up dazed and saw an immeasurable amount of yin qi pouring into the sky, forming the huge phantom of a fierce beast.
“What is that…”
The fierce beast was lofty and solemn, and the phantom it formed ushered in an unprecedented pressure. Its form alone rendered all the cultivators weak in the knees, not daring to gaze above them.
It landed on the lake surface with its four limbs, and the water’s expanse seemed to have turned into huge, transparent stele inscriptions.
The lake surface became a stele, and the fierce beast formed its shadow.
The yin qi above Nanwu Mountain was distorted into an image, and all yin qi rushed to the bottom of the misty river’s pit like a whirlwind, revealing and shrouding the entirety of Nanwu Mountain.
At the same time, at Nanwu Mountain Pass, the cultivators of the Lihuo Sect and the Su family saw yin qi soaring into the sky.
Nanwu Mountain’s seal was only a few meters wide. Now, as all looked upwards, they laid eyes on dense coded text high above. The coded text, composed of unique runes, flew straight into the sky, overshadowing the whole of Nanwu Mountain, and allowing everyone present to take in the seal’s true appearance.
A Su family cultivator came running with the spirit-finding compass, “Elder, the compass—”
Many gathered around the Su family elder to have a look. The needle spun erratically. The compass could detect the trajectory of Nanwu Mountain’s chaotic yin qi, and was spinning back and forth at this moment, even the compass’ surface had a few cracks.
The yin qi was abundant, beyond the range of what the spiritual tool could detect.
What was hidden within Nanwu Mountain’s cracked seal?!
“This is—!” The elder of the Lihuo Sect spoke anxiously. This was no longer an opportunity a small sect like the Lihuo Sect could afford.
The Su family elder looked a little dispirited: “This isn’t the work of a great master who has passed.”
“Oh no!”
The white-haired old man was seated atop the curtain wall formed by the spiritual boat. Seeing this, he straightened his back and slowly scanned the huge seal covering the top of Nanwu Mountain. He seemed to notice something, and his originally slouched posture straightened, “This technique…”
“Mere Nanwu Mountain actually retains an ancient seal!?”
The Su family elder beside him heard the words ‘ancient seal’ from the old man’s mouth, and greed surfaced on his face.
An ancient seal! What must be inside! A celestial artifact? A secret treasure? Any of these things is more valuable than a great master’s place of rest. Not to mention that the world’s number one sect—Tianlu Mountain, aren’t yet fully aware of it!
An ancient seal…the eastern ream’s cultivation world was thousands of years behind ancient times. After experiencing the upheaval a thousand years ago, throughout the eastern realm’s cultivation world, places that contain ancient ruins had been sealed or included in the current cultivation world. That is, under the supervision of the world’s foremost peak, Tianlu Mountain, very few ancient seals were left in unknown corners of the world.
They had thought that the great master who had fallen in this land was quite powerful, but they had never thought there would be an ancient seal here.
When everyone was in a panic, a cultivator from the Su family hurried over and said, “The spiritual tool formation has been detected!”
This is great! Joy showed on the Su family elder’s face: “Connect with the formation immediately!”
“All Nascent Soul cultivators of the Su family, heed my order and follow me into Nanwu Mountain!”
The white-haired old man took a few steps back and saw that the faces of the surrounding Su family, Lihuo Sect, and even all the rogue cultivators, had changed. In an instant, almost everyone was using a spiritual tool to spread the news that an ancient seal had appeared here. If it were just a great master’s place of rest, these rogue cultivators would still fear the Su family’s strength and dare not spread any news. But now the benefits far outweighed their fear, and the temptation brought by the ancient seal far outweighed that for a great master’s resting place.
“Trouble.” The white-haired old man’s face was gloomy. “The eastern realm’s south is going to be in chaos.”
He looked sideways into Nanwu Mountain’s depths and murmured, “Don’t let any troublesome creature get out.”
At the same time, atop Nanwu Mountain’s misty lake’s waterfall, a man and ghost barely stood up amid strong gales.
The yin qi in the misty lake rushed straight into the sky, and golden red seal runes appeared above Nanwu Mountain. The scattered yin qi almost cleaved Zhang Fugui’s soul.
Zhang Fugui hugged Su Yu’s thigh tightly: “Daoist Master, is this fake too?”
The misty lake resembling white jade had completely dispersed the mist, and the condensed mist at its center revealed ink-like black specks.
It was consistent with the inky specks in the bodies of the living corpse and the few fierce evil spirits still fighting, and there was a larger inky stone lurking underneath.
When Su Yu saw the inky stone, his hunger reached its peak.
He only had one thought, which was to eat it.
Author’s Postscript:
The misty lake found you and released a tomb guardian at you.
The others: ???
Those outside Nanwu Mountain: An ancient seal has appeared!
Young Comrade Zhang (confused, can’t believe his eyes): Is this real or fake?
Yu-ge (gazing at the tomb guardian beast): I want to eat it.
Gu Qi (looking at the author’s manuscript, counting time with his fingers)
alverose: There’ll be a double update next week to make up for missing the previous week’s chapter.
