Burial Immortal Town once housed tens of thousands of residents and thousands of houses, set out in orderly rows with impressive scale. But because it lay too close to the Departing Spirit Fog Domain, it was constantly disturbed by eerie happenings. Over time, it gradually fell into ruin and became an abandoned market town.
Most of the houses were dilapidated, with broken doors and missing tiles, and the earthen walls would collapse as soon as you pushed on them. Only during the coffin-retrieval season would the Nine Li tribes repair a few dozen houses at the town’s entrance for supplies and rest. However, none of them dared to step into the town itself.
The reason was a rumor they had heard: this was a cursed town. The residents had not moved away—instead, they had all transformed into departed spirits, and on every full moon night they all emerged.
By noon, under the scorching sun, the Mourning Lantern Guide, Li Ling, from the Cang Li Tribe; Li Songlin, the head of the Cang Li vanguard; and the sect leader’s own grandson, Cang Li, led the coffin-bearer team up the steep Dragon-Slaying Slope, heading toward Burial Immortal Town several miles away in succession.
Cang Li was only eighteen or nineteen years old, handsome and imposing as he rode his ferocious Zou Wu mutant beast—resembling a giant tiger. In one hand he held a silver spear nearly a meter long, his gaze fixed on the calm and peaceful Burial Immortal Town in the distance.
“How can it be so quiet? Where are our people? Fourth Uncle, something isn’t right,” he said sharply, his keen senses picking up an unusual feeling.
Li Songlin, standing atop a blue ox, raised his hand to signal everyone to stop. After a brief discussion, Cang Li on his Zou Wu mutant beast shot away like an arrow, heading straight for Burial Immortal Town to scout ahead. …
“Damn, you’re too alert! It’s all your fault—why did you kill everyone? Why not leave a few bodies behind to set an example?”
Stone Nine Chamber, wearing a Buddha Head Mask, scolded his three junior disciples behind him sharply. Then, with a voice like thunder, he bellowed, “Attack!” Already a step ahead, he leaped out of Burial Immortal Town like a cannonball, barreling toward the charging Cang Li on his beast.
In the very next moment, the sounds of slaughter filled Burial Immortal Town. All the soldiers of the Earth Wolf King Army, clad in monk robes and armed with various blades, surged out from the street entrances and alleys in a frenzy.
Many skilled fighters unleashed sprouting wells of magical energy and charged into the coffin-bearer team, instantly swinging their blades in a wild killing spasm. At the top of the town’s archway, the guest with the Buddha Head Mask stood elegantly, playing on a two-foot-long bone flute. The sound from the flute was plaintive and sorrowful, full of longing and lament.
With the boost of magical power, the sound waves spread out over a dozen or so miles. Among the mountains, dense and discordant wails began to sound like the shrieks of night owls, and in the forest, two- to three-meter-long man-eating dusk bats took flight. All of them were completely black and hairless, with grotesque humanoid heads.
Their leathery wings were wide and their claws as sharp as knives. Over on the other side, the killing had reached a frenzied peak. Li Weiyi and Gao Huan seized the chance to dash out of Burial Immortal Town, fleeing through the reeds along the grassy riverbank of the Sui River.
They should have been headed for the Bronze Ship, into the ocean of blood, but that direction was filled with enemy forces. They had no choice but to wait until the killing frenzy ended, then turn back.
“Don’t ever wear random clothes again. That nearly cost us our lives,” Gao Huan said with lingering fear in his heart.
Speaking of clothes, the two were about to take off their monk robes when suddenly the sound of thundering hooves arose behind them, startling countless waterbirds into flight as they fell toward the other side of the Sui River. A loud roar came from afar from behind: “Stop them! Don’t let them escape to fetch reinforcements!”
Li Weiyi hurriedly glanced back. Only to see two grotesque, deformed men, nearly three meters tall and clad in brown monk robes, chasing after five members of the Cang Li tribe riding sturdy horses. They were only several dozen zhang away and could reach them in the blink of an eye.
Clearly, the deformed monsters were treating them as their own tribe. Li Weiyi had always deeply abhorred the cruelty of the Earth Wolf King Army, and he had never wanted to be involved in this slaughter.
After all, they didn’t even possess enough strength to meddle; an existence like Stone Nine Chamber could kill them without so much as lifting a hand. His rational mind told him to mind his own business. Running away with Gao Huan as fast as they could was the most sensible course.
Among the Cang Li tribe, five members led by Zhao Zhizhuo rode on sturdy horses. When they saw the two figures in monk robes ahead, their hearts sank and despair filled their eyes.
It was because their head chief had been injured, leaving a narrow gap for them to escape toward the nearest of the Nine Li’s Beast Li Tribe to seek help. On their backs weighed the lives of five thousand Cang Li people.
Unexpectedly, the two figures in monk robes in front stopped and, after glancing over at them, sped away even faster. In that instant, hope flickered in Zhao Zhizhuo’s eyes.
“Swish!”
A rushing sound of wind came from behind. Arrows flashed across the air, and one of the five Cang Li tribe members was struck down by an arrow. It was that deformed ape-like monster.
He had a primate’s arms, ran at high speed with a two-hundred jin spinal bone bow in hand, and with arrows nearly two meters long, shot three people in rapid succession.
The other deformed monster, looking as slender as a chopstick, had legs more than twice the length of his upper body, covered with thick hair and ending in cloven hooves. He outran even the sturdy horse ridden by Zhao Zhizhuo that had tasted Zou Wu mutant beast’s blood.
Catching up to the fourth Cang Li tribesman, he leaped onto the horse and bit onto its neck to drink its blood, laughing maniacally. In an instant, of the five who had broken through, only Zhao Zhizhuo remained alive. The long-legged deformed monster tossed aside the blood-soaked Cang Li tribesman and then turned his murderous gaze to Zhao Zhizhuo.
His eyes swept over toward Li Weiyi and Gao Huan in the distance, his face filled with murderous intent. In a cold, harsh tone he shouted, “Dare to try and escape at the last moment!
How daring—you may run to the ends of the earth, but I will drag you back so that you can neither live nor die in peace.” Li Weiyi, who originally had no desire to get involved in this massacre, felt his rationality break into pieces with those words, as if the final straw had fallen.
The thought that had been lingering in his mind overpowered his common sense. … Zhao Zhizhuo opened up two spring wells. He was not weak in strength, but his years were many.
Clutching a long blade in hand, he fought desperately against the long-legged deformed monster that had caught up with him. After a few dozen exchanges, Zhao Zhizhuo gradually found himself at a disadvantage.
“Pfft!”
An iron arrow nearly two meters long came flying like a spear. Zhao Zhizhuo, judging by the sound, tried to avoid the vital points. Yet he was struck on the shoulder and tumbled from his sturdy horse.
It was over! Five thousand of the Cang Li tribe were about to perish here. Blood gushed from Zhao Zhizhuo’s shoulder where the iron arrow struck, his bones damaged, and his arm could no longer be raised.
Half his body throbbed with numb pain. But still, he managed to barely stand up, preparing to make one final, desperate stand.
“Can’t escape now, huh? Haha!”
The long-legged deformed monster, also a martial practitioner who had opened two springs, but with the added advantage of mutation, was far superior in combat strength to Zhao Zhizhuo. With his nearly two-meter-long right leg sweeping through the air, he sent shockwaves rippling as the surrounding grass and trees within several zhang trembled.
With that kick, not only would a person be crushed—if it were a tree as thick as a bowl, it would be snapped in two.
“Whoosh!”
Li Weiyi burst out like a fleeting shadow from behind Zhao Zhizhuo. The Yellow Dragon Sword left a streak of yellow brilliance in its wake. With a soft sound, a half-meter-long severed leg flew out, laced in blood and light.
Before the long-legged deformed monster could even let out a miserable cry, Li Weiyi had already vaulted up, driving his knee into the monster’s chest and slapping his palm onto its head. Instantly, blood gushed from every orifice of the monster, and it fell dead onto the muddy ground near a puddle. Zhao Zhizhuo could hardly believe it.
He had thought that the doom of the Cang Li tribe was sealed, but it turned out that his enemy was now turning on itself.
“Quick, go fetch reinforcements—I’ll hold him off,” Li Weiyi commanded, his eyes fixed on the deformed archer pursuing them from afar.
It then dawned on Zhao Zhizhuo that this was not an internal squabble among their foes at all. This young man was risking his life to save him, and at the same time, to rescue the five thousand lives of the Cang Li tribe.
But why?
“That kind of deformed ape-man, he is a martial practitioner who has opened three springs. Little brother, you must be careful!”
Zhao Zhizhuo, fully aware of the gravity of the situation, warned briefly. Supporting his gravely injured body, he turned over and mounted his horse. But as soon as he got on, Li Weiyi pounced down.
“Swish!”
An iron arrow screamed past from the horse’s back, nearly penetrating it. The ape-man deformed fighter strung his bow, bent low, and advanced with rapid steps. His body was tall and robust, his long arms rippling with muscle, looking just like a gigantic humanoid ape.
His gaze was fixed intently on the thick clump of reeds where the two had fallen. He was closing in quickly. The sharp sound of wind breaking echoed, and a sliver of metal shot out from the reed clump.
“Swish!”
As the ape-man fired another arrow toward the area from which the metal fragment had flown, he swiftly dodged to the right. Taking advantage of the moment before he could ready another shot, Li Weiyi dashed out from the reeds. He unleashed the Yellow Dragon Ascension, taking five steps that seemed to tread upon empty air, and dove toward him.
“You traitor, you sure love to court death!”
The ape-man flailed his enormous hand like a folding fan, slapping at Li Weiyi. Li Weiyi executed his Chain-Reaction Palm Strike, channeling streams of hot and cold energy into his Silver Thread Gloves, causing the silver glow in his palm to flare up dramatically, as though creating a three-foot square seal. He fought back head-on.
Before the clash, Li Weiyi had already prepared himself to take injuries. After all, his opponent was a martial practitioner of the Three Springs realm, with power well above his own. Moreover, with his monstrous body like that of a demon, his physical strength was far beyond what Li Weiyi could match.
“Boom!”
The ape-man staggered back six or seven steps, his hand as though about to shatter with pain. Li Weiyi was taken aback. He thought that perhaps the elder among the Cang Li tribe had misjudged the situation—that this ape-monster could not possibly have opened three springs, but likely only one.
If he were that weak, then what was there to fear?
Kill!
(End of Chapter)