The red-clothed woman sitting cross-legged there appeared to have known all along. When the sword’s edge came down above her head, her body split in two, then she swiftly got to her feet and launched a light palm strike.
Li Weiyi’s all-out attack with a single sword strike only managed to slice away the afterimage of her seated form, leaving a deep gap at the edge of the blood pool. Before he had a chance to be shocked, a searing pain arose on his face as her palm wind swept over him like an all-encompassing tide.
In a hurry, Li Weiyi could only muster seventy percent of his peak state. With his left hand, he formed a palm seal and countered her strike head-on.
“Bang!”
Li Weiyi felt his left hand connect as though slamming into a metal wall, the pain spreading from his wrist to his shoulder. He was sent flying backward, landing on the ground about one zhang away. Using his sword tip to stab the ground to steady his balance, he barely avoided a clumsy tumble.
The red-clothed woman also retreated half a step, with soil clinging to her feet falling into the blood pool. She looked surprised.
“In just a few days apart, you’ve already broken through your realm and opened the second spring eye of the Spring Surge Realm. Your cultivation speed is that fast?”
Li Weiyi’s left arm throbbed with soreness and weakness as he secretly activated the qi circulation under his feet to heal. With a look of incredulity, he glanced toward Qi Shanshan, who stood at the edge of the blood pool. She was dressed in the attire of a Bone Demon, with white bone wind chimes tied at her waist.
Her hair, long enough to brush the ground, cascaded dramatically, and her gaze was entirely different from before—cold and haughty, as if looking down upon all beings.
“You drank Golden Crow Blood... No, you’re not Doctor Qi—you are that white bone in the grave.”
Li Weiyi noted the flow of Golden Crow fire light on the red-clothed Qi Shanshan and guessed that she had consumed Golden Crow Blood to fortify her flesh. Though she had not transformed her body into a transcendent immortal spirit, there was an uncanny, demonic air about her.
Li Weiyi felt that Doctor Qi had most likely been taken over by her, or perhaps she had even devoured him. As legends went, such undead monsters were well-versed in these methods.
“Bone Demon?”
The red-clothed Qi Shanshan murmured to herself before speaking in an exceedingly calm tone, “I can sense enmity in you, but I wish to say that there is no need for us to fight to the death. Why not talk first? Perhaps we can both take what we need, a win-win for both.”
Her voice now held an ethereal quality, different from the Qi Shanshan of old.
“You may be stronger than me, yet you propose negotiation first. It seems you are harboring some fear, and so you dare not act rashly.”
Li Weiyi couldn’t help but think that the red-clothed Qi Shanshan was afraid of the Dao Ancestor Taiji Fish. But the truth was, even now Li Weiyi didn’t quite know how to activate that power. Deep inside, he felt uncertain and could only force himself to remain calm.
“But I must ask—you want something. What exactly is it you want, and what can you offer me in return?”
The red-clothed Qi Shanshan replied, “Isn’t that a rhetorical question? I want the blood within you.”
“How much?”
Li Weiyi couldn’t understand why she said “a rhetorical question,” thinking she must have misunderstood something.
“Plenty.”
“Would half a bowl suffice?”
Li Weiyi recalled that the half bowl he had released earlier was still there.
“Not enough—far from enough. Besides your blood, I also want your soul.”
It was then Li Weiyi understood that she wasn’t interested in negotiation at all but merely toying with him.
“Then I want your whole body of white bones. Can you give that to me?”
The red-clothed Qi Shanshan narrowed her eyes, cold light sparkling vividly. She thought Li Weiyi had no sincerity whatsoever. This child of the ancient Gu Clan had barely set foot on the path of cultivation, yet he showed no respect towards her.
It seemed necessary to teach him a lesson right then and there, lest he enslave others in the future. Slowly, she raised her palm, her momentum reaching its peak in an instant.
“Very well, I shall come and take it myself! Li, you little Li disciple, call forth your Dao Protector Wife. With your current paltry realm, facing two foes alone should be no trouble.”
Li Weiyi became more and more confused by her words, saying, “Wait a moment, you must be mistaken.”
“In the legends, children of your ancient Gu Clan, even as infants, are sent by the elders to roam the famous mountains, great rivers, immortal tombs, and ancestral graves, in search of a deceased spirit whose life was once fearsome, to become your Dao Protector Wife, hidden within your bloodline. Could the legend be wrong?”
The red-clothed Qi Shanshan found herself utterly baffled. She believed that with Li Weiyi’s identity already revealed, there was no need for concealment. Li Weiyi suspected that she was using trickery, purposely spouting strange words to distract him.
With that thought, he held his Yellow Dragon Sword horizontally in front of him in a defensive stance, his gaze growing ever more solemn and sharp. The red-clothed Qi Shanshan said no more. She intended to capture him first and sort things out later.
“Swish!”
She transformed into a red shadow, dashing out like lightning.
“Very fast.”
Li Weiyi’s belt of scriptures boosted him, but his speed in footwork still lagged behind. He had no choice but to take out his Black Iron Seal and use the hilt of his Yellow Dragon Sword to strike the top of the seal forcefully. He then channeled both warm and cold streams of qi into it.
This was a method he had developed—a more potent technique that did not harm himself.
“Boom!”
Thunder roared as lightning flashed. The red-clothed Qi Shanshan was forced to retreat, and bolts of electricity landed upon her. However, the red robe she wore was unyielding and had endured a thousand years; it was evidently extraordinary, so the electric bolts did not truly injure her.
Seizing this rare opportunity, Li Weiyi charged after her, channeling warm and cold currents into his Silver Thread Gloves. Silver light flashed around his hands as his strength surged. He unleashed over a dozen sword strikes in succession, each blow thrown with all his might—a force as heavy as a thousand jun.
The red-clothed Qi Shanshan fought while retreating, her arms developing cracks in the skin as fresh blood continuously seeped out. In the end, Qi Shanshan’s mortal flesh was no match; it could not endure such relentless collisions. At the peak of their fierce battle, just when neither could cease their actions, “Clang clang!”
Within the Graveyard Forest, a thick, dense black nether fog burst forth, raging in a wild surge. The fog was accompanied by the dense and loud sound of camel bells. It came swiftly.
In less than the time for one breath, the black fog filled the sky, sending a bone-chilling cold that limited visibility severely. Both Li Weiyi and the red-clothed Qi Shanshan changed expression abruptly, sensing the danger, and were about to disengage. But the sound of the camel bells had already reached their ears, its roar like thunder.
Within the nether fog, the first half-real, half-illusory silhouette of a camel ghost emerged—a three to four meter tall specter with a hunched, emaciated human figure seated upon it. The figure waved a ghost flag, sending out a piercing cold blast of qi, striking the two who had yet to withdraw, knocking them backwards like scattering fallen leaves.
“Bang! Bang!”
The two crashed to the ground, spitting blood, clearly having injured their internal organs. In an instant, Li Weiyi rolled to his feet. With one hand clutching his sword and the other holding the Black Iron Seal, he assumed a defensive posture, determined not to allow his opponent any further chance to strike.
The bells hanging from the camel ghost were eerie beyond measure. Each time they rang out, they stirred countless negative emotions in him and evoked relentless thoughts of viciousness. Only by employing the Jade Void Breathing Technique could he withstand them.
The red-clothed Qi Shanshan’s body, already inferior to Li Weiyi’s, had suffered even heavier injuries. Her face was ashen. Slowly, she rose, uttering in a strange ancient tongue, “When the snipe and the clam contend, the fisherman benefits.”
“Observing the mist over the Chan Sea, it has been long since we last met, ha ha!”
The figure riding on the camel ghost, sometimes appearing solid, sometimes illusive, hoisted the ghost flag and laughed heartily. Had one a Bone Demon appear first, now another more vicious ghost creature had arrived? Li Weiyi had long heard from some expedition team members that they had seen a camel convoy entering a mausoleum in the Graveyard Forest.
He had initially thought they were exaggerating. Later, he too had occasionally heard the sound of camel bells, assuming it was an illusion or hallucination, so he had not given it much thought. It was only at this moment that he realized something was seriously amiss with those camel bells.
Many of the events aboard the ship might indeed be connected to them. Li Weiyi glanced toward the endless expanse of the Grave Sea Stone Forest, anxiety growing silently within him. Who were all these people buried in the tombs?
And just how many had not completely perished? The red-clothed Qi Shanshan’s eyes turned icy as she said, “I never expected—you managed to retain a wisp of soul essence within the Evil Camel Bell, barely clinging to life. The events on the ship were all your doing, weren’t they?
Using the Evil Camel Bell to beguile minds, inciting slaughter, and collecting evil thoughts in order to strengthen your own soul essence.”
“You’re mistaken! Evil thoughts come from oneself—what do they have to do with the Camel Bell? Besides, if I do not collect evil thoughts to solidify my soul essence quickly, I cannot even escape the clutches of the Evil Camel Bell.”
The lean figure on the camel ghost ceased laughing and said, “That treasure upon your neck—I, as king, have every intention of claiming it. Seeing as we were once old friends, today I shall give you a path to live. Now you may leave!
You are gravely injured; do not harm yourself further.” The red-clothed Qi Shanshan straightened her posture and laughed, “Are you trying to fool a three-year-old? Under your ambush, you failed to kill both of us with a single strike, forcing us to be separated to break your assault.
Were I to leave now, it would indeed be a sure death.”
“Very well. If you want to seek death, I, as king, will see it through.”
The camel ghost bolted out, as fast as a galloping steed. The bells shook and rang, and the lean figure’s ghost flag in hand surged forth with even denser nether fog. Using the flagpole like a spear, it stabbed toward Li Weiyi’s heart.
At that moment, something strange unfolded before everyone’s eyes.
“Whoosh—” The blood that Li Weiyi had spat out earlier began to vaporize, transforming the surroundings into a light red world of blood mist.
The very ground beneath them decayed and withered inch by inch. A graceful figure dressed in a red bridal gown appeared in the midst of the blood mist—a delicate woman wearing a bridal veil adorned with hanging copper coins. She stood before the charging camel ghost.
With slender jade-like hands raised, she swept her arm downward and forward. What unsettled Li Weiyi was that at that very moment he, too, was raising his sword to strike downward. It felt as if the two actions had become one in perfect union.
“Whoosh!”
The once half-real, half-illusory camel ghost was cleaved in two. With a wail of agony, the emaciated ghost figure along with the ghost flag in his hand dissolved into a mass of inky nether fog, retreating like a tidal wave into the unfathomable vastness of the Graveyard Forest. In just an instant, the bride had vanished!
Appearing out of nowhere and then disappearing without a trace.
“What is going on... Dao Protector Wife?”
A thought as absurd as it was bewildering suddenly entered Li Weiyi’s mind. He immediately searched for the red-clothed Qi Shanshan, only to find that she had long since fled without a trace. Worried that she might have gone toward the medical tent, Li Weiyi hurried back to the infirmary, fearing for her safety.
(End of Chapter)