A silence spread within the withered forest. In anger, the living dead bared their sharp fangs and roared at the human and ghost seated on the tombstone.
Su Yu seemed to realize something, and he looked towards his palm. At the center of the yin qi winding around in his sight, the thing he’d broken off dispersed a faint black qi. It bore a resemblance to the inky specks on the living dead, yet it also didn’t seem quite the same.
He averted his gaze and scanned the almost unmoving inky specks around him.
Zhang Fugui tentatively extended a leg, only to be frightened by the living dead and quickly retract it.
The dried up, lurid living dead were crouched all around them, and more gathered in the distance. It felt as if the moment they stepped away from the tombstone, this band of living dead would flay them alive. Though they seemed afraid, evidently fearful of the tombstone. From the very beginning, they hadn’t dared near rashly.
More than half of the tombstone lay buried in the earth, and its exposed surface, battered by the elements, was now rather discolored. Zhang Fugui stared at the tombstone. If not for the Daoist Master bringing him here, he might have thought it was just a split rock, like what’s found everywhere around the mountain.
Who would think this thing may be the tomb owner’s stele?
As Zhang Fugui thought this, he heard a sudden cracking sound beside his ear. “Daoist Master!!”
The young Daoist Master’s hand hadn’t fully lifted from the tombstone’s corner. His hand, still cloaked in yin qi, continued to press down on it. It seemed there were a couple more cracks on the tombstone. His lifeless eyes, where a few lingering strands of gold threads remained, swept across the surrounding living dead with an inexplicable pressure.
At his actions, the roaring living dead immediately stopped and stepped back a bit in fear.
Zhang Fugui was cradling his head in his arms. Not feeling as though he were being torn apart, he looked up to see that the living dead had already backed a few steps away. “Daoist Master?”
Su Yu didn’t speak. As his surroundings fell silent, waves of exhaustion welled up in his body one after another. His arms, which he had used to fend off the living dead, felt so heavy that he could barely lift them. He tried to relieve the fatigue in his body and get a clearer view of the tombstone beneath him, but after moving just two steps, the pain that had initially lessened instantly returned.
His injured leg was covered in blood, and the pain from it intensified after his fatigue settled in.
Su Yu had to ignore the issue with the tombstone for now and try to feel out the condition of his broken leg. Otherwise, he wouldn’t even be able to walk.
Zhang Fugui and the living dead stared at each other. He was racking his brain for how to apologize and ease the living dead’s outrage over the broken ancestral tombstone when he heard a crisp sound. He whipped his head around in shock to see the Daoist Master reach out and snap the withered branches that he’d used to fix his leg in place…!
“Stop! Stop!” Zhang Fugui’s quick reflexes stopped the hand that was about to touch the fractured bone, and he blurted out his thoughts. “How can you do this? This is rebellious! Truly rebellious! If you keep this up your leg will be crippled!”
Su Yu was caught off guard.
He stopped, and so did Zhang Fugui.
Realizing what he’d just done after he’d spoken, Zhang Fugui withdrew his hand with a swish, sweating bullets. “No, Daoist Master, I didn’t mean it like that. It’s just your leg…it can’t.”
Why are you showing off? You’re just a half-bake.
How the Daoist Master treats his wounds is none of your business. Cultivators can use techniques to mend bones and restore their meridians with just a few strokes of their hand. They strengthen their spirits and cultivate their roots. What are you, a village doctor, speaking up for?
Su Yu didn’t move, a cold sensation still touching his wrist.
He was silent for a while, he glanced at the humanoid smoke ball, recalling how this ghost had initially tended to his injury.
“You do it.”
Zhang Fugui, already having cursed himself over repeatedly, was dazed for a moment hearing him speak. “Huh? I do it?”
Seeing the other silently acquiesce, Zhang Fugui approached fearfully.
After their intense battle, Su Yu’s clothes were in near tatters from the winds, and half his body was smeared with blood and dirt. Frankly, he was in a sorry state.
Zhang Fugui could only tear a strip from the relatively intact and clean hem of Su Yu’s clothing to bind his injury. “Daoist Master, I’m going to start…”
Su Yu nodded.
Last time, he had overstepped while the Daoist Master was unconscious, now, the other was awake as he treated his injury. Zhang Fugui’s hands couldn’t help but tremble. But it wasn’t his fault. The man before him had first killed two of his fellow ghosts, then shattered the stele of the Tomb of the Living Dead’s owner. If he wasn’t careful, he might become the next departed soul.
It’s said that Daoist priests are kind-hearted. He could only wonder whether the Daoist Master would turn around and take his measly life after having set his leg twice.
Su Yu watched as the humanoid ball of white moved around in front of him, his gaze following it. Its hands very gently pressed on his leg, working swiftly and skilfully, soon resetting his broken leg with practiced ease. “Are you a doctor?” he asked.
“…When I was young, I often treated injuries from falls and knocks,” Zhang Fugui replied, swallowing his saliva. His eyes couldn’t help but flit over to the youth. Was it just his imagination, or did the blood on the Daoist Master’s body seem even more fragrant?
As soon as he realized his attention had been attracted to the youth’s blood, Zhang Fugui quickly dismissed his dangerous thoughts and looked around. “Daoist Master, here we are, so how do we get out…”
In the withered forest, the living dead had retreated somewhat due to Su Yu’s earlier threat. Yet, through the forest in the mountain’s depths ran multiple intersecting mountain paths, shrouded in thick misty qi. Zhang Fugui hadn’t paid attention to his surroundings as he was running for his life. But now he calmed down and observed. Once he did, he found they had unwittingly arrived at a strange area, even the directions here were hard to make out.
Suddenly, Zhang Fugui glimpsed something in the distance. His heart was instantly lodged in his throat, and he took dozens of steps back.
“What are you doing?” Su Yu felt the chain around his ankle tighten.
Zhang Fugui flailed his arms and legs while pointing at the surroundings. Nearby, an underground river, swirling with pitch-black misty qi, was close at hand. “The river! The river’s there!!”
What river? Su Yu turned to the side where the white humanoid was frantically pointing. He squinted, trying to discern anything unusual amid the blend of inky specks and white qi. Gradually, his vision sharpened, and he could make out even more of the things before him.
Then, through the gaps in the yin qi, he started to make out something in a place further away. A rich and creamy white yin qi, within the thin yin qi, coalesced in one spot, like a lazy river of white mist.1Like in Chapter 5 for the chain connecting Su Yu and Zhang Fugui, the color of the yin qi here is that of mutton fat jade.
A river? Su Yu was surprised. “What is that?”
Zhang Fugui could barely speak coherently. “The deepest part of Nanwu Mountain…the Misty River.”
***
In Nanwu Mountain’s southeast, a cultivator dressed in blue silently walked at the front of a group. The Lihuo Sect cultivators behind him regarded their surroundings, increasingly wary of the mountain’s yin forest. The route from the mouth of the mountain pass to here hadn’t been smooth. They encountered numerous wandering ghosts along the way, especially as they neared Nanwu Mountain’s east face, from where the wandering ghosts throwing themselves at them turned into an unending slaughter.
At last, they understood why the Lihuo Sect elder had instructed them to stick close to the Su family members. Taking an erroneous path would lead them into the clutches of the wandering ghosts nearby. If that happened, they wouldn’t just struggle to move forward, they might well find themselves lost in Nanwu Mountain’s mist, just like the other rogue cultivators.
“We’ve arrived,” the blue-clad cultivator suddenly spoke.
The other cultivators followed his gaze—a peculiar river that lay before them.
As they reached the misty river’s edge along the mountain path, they could see its current flowing down from the mountain’s heights. Thick misty qi blanketed the river, setting off its particularly deep waters and overflowing with an unnamed allure.
“Sure enough, word of the place of rest is true!”
The eyes of several Lihuo Sect cultivators sparkled with excitement. As they took a closer look, they noticed the skeletal remains of demonic beasts along the riverbed’s sides. These remains, weathered by time, still retained an intimidating aura. The hidden reality before them was enough to inwardly frighten the cultivators
“Surely no other cultivators have come this way before us…?”
“How could they have come here? The outer area is a living tomb. If they haven’t passed through that, they can’t possibly enter here.” A Su family cultivator scoffed with disdain. The path leading to this misty river had been paved by their own cultivators using a formation. These Lihuo Sect cultivators thought entering Nanwu Mountain was easy, but if it weren’t for their Su family paving the way first, how could this bunch enter so easily?
Su Yi observed the remains of a demonic beast by the riverbank. Its skull remained intact, with an expression frozen in its last moment of terror and flight. He frowned and spoke in deep thought: “These beasts didn’t resist before they perished…or, they were suppressed by a bloodline…”
Bloodline suppression…Upon hearing this, another cultivator rushed to say. “Could a powerful demonic beast still reside here? If it can recognize a master…”
Su Yi gave him a frigid look after hearing his words.
An older cultivator of the Lihuo Sect quickly pulled the young man back and quietly scolded them, “What are you thinking? Even if such a demonic beast exists, do you really think you or I look like we can control it?”
At this, the cultivator only just repressed the greed within him.
Su Yi remained silent. While the others were attracted by the mysterious sights around them, he quietly took in the traces around him.
Three months prior, an astrologer from the Cangxue Sect had made a divination.
The divination clearly stated there was a vision in the sky of the eastern realm’s south.2天有異象 – A vision in the sky(heaven) refers to phenomena that don’t often occur in the world, like celestial changes (lunar eclipse, solar eclipse, comets etc), which signify changes in society. This is rooted in a belief that’s lasted since Ancient China; that there is always a connection between heaven and man. Ancient times come now, such visions emerging within the Cangxue Sect’s observatory could be counted on one hand. Coincidentally, around the same time, whispers of the Lihuo Sect discovering a strange occurrence in Nanwu Mountain began to spread throughout the south.
At that time, Su Yi, who was in the south, had just received news that they had lost contact with the Su family cultivators exploring Nanwu Mountain.
Their last known location was this misty river that winds through Nanwu Mountain. Their previous intel indicated that the yin qi in this area is the most intense across the entirety of Nanwu Mountain, but the last message sent back to the Su family abruptly ceased here, and since then, they had received no more news.
Later on, the Su family had captured a few wandering ghosts from Nanwu Mountain. From their mouths, they learned that the misty river was something to be avoided like the plague.
The more mysterious it became, the more extraordinary this place appeared…It was more likely to align with the vision divined by the Cangxue Sect, that is, a once-in-a-thousand-years opportunity.
Misty black qi drifted all around them, emanating from the river and slowly creeping closer to the cultivators.
The other cultivators were drawn to the pair’s voices, and another expressed that the yin qi was gathering in a deep pit up ahead, greed sprouted from within them. They eagerly stepped forward.
Just then, one cultivator, rushing ahead towards the misty river, suddenly slowed. His body was out of control. To him, the misty river looked like a shining treasure trove brimming with spiritual weapons, and he plunged straight into its waters.
“Don’t get close!” Su Yi shouted coldly, “Guard your psyches!”
The other cultivators rushed to a halt. They wanted to fish out and save the cultivator, but as they gazed at the scene unfolding by the riverbank, they noticed a chilling yin qi swirling around their feet. They quickly stumbled back, their psyches instantly unstable. “Didn’t they say Nanwu Mountain is the land of a great master’s passing? How can there be a river of corpses like this here?”
Deep, putrid waters coursed through the river, and the stench of the rotten corpses assaulted their senses as they approached. A few inexperienced cultivators couldn’t tolerate it and had to turn away, their faces pale as nausea spread in their throats.
The amount of yin qi within this misty river takes years upon years to achieve, not to mention the bleached bones scattered all over.
Cultivation emphasizes the weight of cause and effect, and human lives are a crucial chain-link for this. How could a mighty figure choose a river of corpses such as this as their place of passing……This is a great sin!
The bewitched Lihuo Sect cultivator was swallowed up as he plunged into the misty river, and the turbulent waters swept him down. He soon left the other cultivators’ sights. Unable to save him in time, their faces were unsightly as they watched him vanish from right in front of them.
Su Yi took a few steps forward, he approached the misty river’s edge while keeping from its waters. From there, he noticed a fault in the mountain pass ahead. He made it out to be a deep pit filled with misty qi, any soul that carelessly ventured further would most likely tumble into its depths and never climb back up.
…Such a sinister entity is absolutely not a mighty figure’s predestined opportunity. What sort of place is this exactly?
Suddenly, a yin wind whipped past, catching the cultivators off guard. Several standing at the edge of the pit were swept away by the wind, knocked into the undercurrents of the misty river and plunging into its yin waters.
In that moment, amidst the undulating misty qi, several figures fully emerged before them. Right after they appeared, an overwhelming pressure caused the talismans ignited in the hands of the Lihuo Sect cultivators to extinguish.
What are these…?
The cultivators strained to raise their heads. The blood-red eyes of the ones standing atop the river revealed these were no ordinary wandering ghosts. Their attire was more proper, with some even clothed in the Daoist robes of unknown sects. If it weren’t for their terrifying scarlet eyes, they would resemble traveling Daoist priests exuding demeanours of immortals.
Among them, a few cultivators bore the emblem of the Su family embroidered on their robes. They seemed to be the Su family cultivators who had gone missing in Nanwu Mountain half a month ago.
“Nascent Soul…” Su Yi murmured, feeling the oppressive force closing in. “There’s more than one being at the Nascent Soul stage along that river.”
The cultivators present instantly paled. The highest-leveled among them had only reached the peak of the Golden Core stage. They could even out their disadvantage facing ordinary fierce evil spirits at Nascent Soul by coordinating, but now, at a glance, there were no fewer than twenty Nascent Soul stage fierce evil spirits scattered throughout the misty river’s depths—
In the Lihuo Sect, there were only three or four Nascent Soul cultivators, and even across the whole of the eastern realm’s south, renowned Nascent Soul cultivators weren’t many. Yet, in this unremarkable place, Nanwu Mountain, so many fierce evil spirits at Nascent Soul had gathered at the same time.
The most critical point was…these high-level fierce evil spirits had all lost their sanity.
What they encountered was likely not a grand opportunity left by a great master, but something far more sinister.
“This isn’t the resting place of a mighty figure,” Su Yi was first to react. “Send a message to those outside, let the other cultivators—”
But before he could finish, the Nascent Soul fierce evil spirits on the river turned their gazes towards them in unison. Their blood-red eyes were tilted askance, making the cultivators’ blood run cold. Before the cultivators could use their dharmic weapons, the fierce evil spirits abruptly opened their maws, unleashing ear-piercing howls that swept through the area.
“Ah—”
Author’s Postscript:
Yu-ge turned on his curiosity radar.
Coach Fugui on the road: There’s a river up front and a tomb behind, where should we drive(run) to!
Those on the other side: Back up! Back up!
alverose: Apologies for the late update! I totally underestimated how long this chapter would take me…
