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0016: Centipede Den

The centipedes could not roar nor screech, but the thunderous clattering of hundreds of thousands of feet was no less terrifying.

Baiyun watched from the windows at the back of the carriage as the guards fled with all their might, dispersing to split the swarm of centipedes. But the scene quickly shrank away into the distance, the guards reduced to the size of ants, then night-invisible specks.

The bull was simply too fast for him to witness more.

He sighed, feeling a tinge of sympathy for the guards. It was thanks to their dangerous work that this operation was possible. But in the end, was it not merely the whims of a young master seeking thrills? From Ying Shi's generosity with the artefacts, he didn't seem to be exactly lacking in funds.

A mere rock on the ground could lead to a deadly stumble, just as unreasonable as the demands of their master.

His thoughts were interrupted as Mohei ran up to him.

"Baiyun? You can stomach looking out of the window too?" he asked in shock.

...this kid. Baiyun laughed dryly.

The bull charged at full speed, circling the edge of the twisted forest. It was by no means a small forest, but in just a minute of frenzied charging, it arrived at the opposite side!

"Halt!" Yingtao called out.

The bull came to a screeching stop and the carriage behind it spun. But before it came to a full halt, Ying Shi forced the door open and leapt out!

"Go!" he yelled!

With those words, he took off running. The disciples roared back in response as they spilled out of the skidding carriage, rushing after him as well.

"Wait, wait, waitt!"

Mohei yelled as one of the guards stumbled past him to squeeze out of the carriage first. Just as he made another attempt to get out, Fei An shot past him with a burst of wind, laughing as she took off flying towards Ying Shi.

Baiyun leapt out with Jingfeng next. But as he landed, he felt a veil of wind envelop him. It was the spell from before that made his footsteps light as air!

"Thanks!"

He nodded gratefully. Jingfeng must have realised it would be hard for a servant like him to keep up physically.

Somehow, Mohei was the last disciple to squeeze out of the carriage. Only Yingtao ran further behind, keeping a careful eye out to ensure no one got lost.

The hoard of disciples yelled as they rushed into the dark forest. Now that the centipedes had been lured out, it was better for them to be loud. That way, it would be easier to keep track of everyone's position even with limited visibility.

Without the need for stealth, they found an entrance quickly this time. Baiyun was almost disappointed he couldn't harvest more mushrooms. He would have to ask Jingfeng to split the spoils later.

Clack clack!

A Gatekeeper Centipede reared its head and snapped its mandibles.

Yingtao leapt high into the air and jumped from tree to tree vertically with little heed to gravity. In mere seconds, she weaved through the trees and shot past Ying Shi, reaching the front of the party!

The centipede recoiled, but it was too late.

Yingtao slammed into the centipede from the sheer momentum, smashing its head backwards into the stone walls of the cave. Her hands reached out with fingers arched like talons. With a horrifying crunch, her fingers pierced through the carapace and sunk into grey matter.

"Hahhhh!"

She leaned backwards and pulled with all her might. Her muscles bulged as she ripped the massive creature out of the tunnel in one go and slammed it into a cluster of trees, the deafening sound of crushed stone accompanying it!

Loud splintering filled the air as the trunks of several trees were demolished. They began to topple, but came to a stop against other trees. The forest was simply too dense for them to hit the ground.

A cloud of stone dust flooded the cave entrance as crushed rock and sand rolled into the depths beneath, their little thuds echoing in a strange rhythm. Yingtao smashed the centipede's head to pulp with a punch for good measure, before wiping the gunk off her hands. It no longer moved, save for a few occasional leg twitches.

No one stopped to comment on the kill.

The disciples covered their noses and mouths as they rushed into the nest, not wanting to inhale the rock dust. Baiyun quickly pulled out a rag and tied it around his mouth before following them in. He could see the massive gashes left on the walls from its feet forcefully being ripped out by Yingtao.

Ying Shi and the guards pulled out lanterns, their light revealing the grotesque nature of the tunnel. Dried blood, mould and mysterious stains caked the walls. A faint stench filled the air. Fei An frowned and conjured bubbles of clean air around both her and Jingfeng's heads.

As they descended the uneven ground, the tunnel narrowed.

Mohei looked backwards anxiously. But with the disciples packed tightly behind him, he couldn't leave unless they agreed to all turn around.

Yingtao suffered most as the only adult in the group. She was too tall for the tunnel and could only crawl awkwardly.

"We're here."

The disciples entered a large underground chamber, the ceiling expanding to a height of 3 to 4 metres. Yingtao sighed in relief, finally able to raise her head and stand once more. The foul scent intensified and the disciples gagged, staring at Fei An and her brother in envy.

Down here, there was little visible rock. The garbled roots of the forest formed the walls and ground of the biological caverns.

The stale winds howled eerily. Nonsensical winding tunnels draped in darkness surrounded them; what little light the lanterns provided was not enough.

"I-I can help!" Mohei said.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

He summoned a ball of flame from his hand and let it float into the air. Baiyun nodded. This was one of the ideas he gave Mohei. Aside from combat, balls of flames could also be floated into the distance to illuminate dark tunnels.

But Qinghe's small hand snatched it out of the air and snuffed it out.

"No need."

She raised her staff and struck the ground. From its tip, orbs of light flowed out like a stream. Dozens of orbs floated into the many tunnels, lightning up the countless paths ahead. It was still a horrid maze, but they could finally see what lay ahead.

"Ah! You..." Mohei gritted his teeth.

It seemed someone didn't want her job stolen. Baiyun patted Mohei on the back and stopped him from shouting.

The sudden light seemed to have attracted attention and faint scuttles echoed all around.

Several small centipedes rushed by in panic. They were less than metre long and had soft whitish-grey exoskeletons, unlike the shiny black plates the adults had.

Mohei screamed and raised his spear, but Ying shi caught his hand and stopped him.

"Stop. Do not harm the centipedes unless necessary, much less the harmless brood. If we affect the health of the nest, the Lifesap harvests won't be good. This was stated during the meeting."

"Hn..." Mohei grumbled.

Ying Shi sighed and grabbed one of the little centipedes, holding the squirming creature before Mohei's horrified eyes.

"Look, they have no intent to fight. Otherwise, they'd be lured out by the smoke bombs as well. Take a-"

At that moment, a worker centipede revealed itself behind the bends of a tunnel and charged towards him! Yingtao appeared before it in a flash and crushed its head with a bare hand. She grinned for whatever reason.

"...self defence is an exception." Ying Shi said.

He tossed the little centipede aside and let it scuttle away. A few of the disciples snickered, but were silenced by his glares.

Ying Shi reached into his bag, finally pulling out the aforementioned qi compass.

It was a round plate of metal, covered in concentric rings of alternating gold and black similar to a bisected onion. The rings clattered as he rotated them with his fingers and adjusted the rows of inscribed sigils on them.

Baiyun casually swept his divine thread over the compass, sensing clumps of qi had formed above it. He frowned. The artefact was by no means poorly made, but its design was far more unsophisticated than he imagined.

With how indistinct the qi was, it was fairly difficult for inexperienced users to make out the slightest flow of qi. Ying Shi might be competent, but he was too young to have much mastery over qi control.

Ying Shi took the lead with the compass in hand and marched ahead. But his eyebrows were furrowed; beads of sweat trickled down his face as he clutched the compass in hand. Baiyun shook his head and wondered why Yingtao wasn't using the compass instead.

Fei An seemed very interested in it and floated slightly into the air to peek over Ying Shi's shoulder, only to be swatted away like an oversized fly.

Baiyun frowned. Something was off, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it.

It took him a moment to figure it out, but he finally realised the atmosphere was far too relaxed. Though each of the disciples kept quiet, they walked leisurely as if they were just on a casual stroll. The only exception was Mohei, whose footsteps were shaky with fear.

None of them seemed to be paying much attention to their surroundings.

How reckless.

Baiyun had heard enough stories of cultivators meeting their demise due to complacency. Well, not that he of all people had the right to complain, given his recent reckless behaviour.

Regardless, he was on full guard. He would diligently sweep his thread of divine sense in a spherical pattern, searching for fields of qi sense as well as checking Ying Shi's compass occasionally. His ears were perked, trying to listen for threats from beyond.

Thud, thud, thud, thud.

Baiyun's eyes twitched. All he could hear was the footsteps of the disciples! It wasn't as if they were walking particularly loudly; rather, it was the deafening silence that made even the slightest sound stand out. But it infuriated him to no end.

He tapped Jingfeng's back and leaned into his ear.

"Jingfeng."

"Eh? Ying Shi said not to talk..." Jingfeng whispered back.

"Yes, but this is important. Could you use that spell of yours to dampen everyone's footsteps?"

"Ah... It would be fine if it were just the two of us, but I don't have enough qi to sustain the spell on everyone for long. Also, you might not know this since you don't cultivate, but most people can only sustain about 5 spells at once..."

Baiyun's face went blank. To think the day would come when he'd be treated as someone clueless about magic...

And only 5 simultaneous spells? It seemed that while this world had advanced Martial Arts, their spellcasting was underdeveloped.

Baiyun nodded, but he could not help but feel a little disgruntled.

The trek continued for another 10 minutes.

"We are almost there." Ying Shi whispered.

The disciples looked at each other in excitement, gesturing to each other. But Baiyun was baffled.

Why had Ying Shi stopped here of all places?

Baiyun had figured out how to read the compass by now. The rings and sigils of the compass served to adjust the type and intensity of qi detected.

The clumps of qi above the compass represented what the compass could detect. The compass had been steadily accumulating clumps as they walked, now numbering more than 100. By cross referencing what his divine thread detected, Baiyun concluded the compass had a range of about 5 kilometres, though anything detected past the 3 kilometre point seemed to be unreliable. Past that point, the clumps seemed to change in size and flicker randomly.

Even with so many detected targets, the projection was only palm sized. It was a large part of why Ying Shi found the compass so difficult to use. Baiyun had a simple workaround, he simply visualised the same projection in a larger scale within his mind.

Most clumps were about the size of a grape. There were also 10 smaller clusters each about the size of a coin. The map was 3 dimensional in nature, so further downwards, there was a watermelon sized clump, surrounded by a swarm of orange-sized clusters.

Baiyun figured the grapes were most likely the Lifesap sources, from how consistent their size was. As for the watermelon and oranges, that was without a doubt the Nascent Soul Queen and her Elite Warriors.

He had no good guesses as to what the coins were, but they were likely miscellaneous objects that just happened to be in the range of strength the compass was detecting.

While the compass had a fairly large range, due to Ying Shi's poor mastery, Baiyun estimated he only could detect things within a 100-metre radius around them. Ying Shi should have detected 2 grapes and a coin, but he was leading them to the coin sized cluster.

Baiyun's pondering was interrupted by Sanguang excitedly pointing to the ceiling.

"There!" he whispered.

A strange root jutted from the ceiling. It was huge and pinkish-white, damp and covered in countless pin-sized holes. A droplet of greenish-gold liquid clung to its tip, the ground beneath it covered in a small puddle of the same substance.

Lifesap!

Fei An began to jump excitedly, and the disciples whispered to each other.

Ying Shi took a spatial gourd from his bag and raised it to the tip, while Qinghe raised her staff and channeled wood qi into the root to coax the Lifesap out.

Baiyun could not help but doubt himself for a moment.

Could he have overestimated the tree? It made sense for a tree of this size to have many feeding roots if it needed to nourish so many centipedes, so he didn't think the 10 coins could be the feeders.

He swept his divine sense into the compass once more.

Meanwhile, Ying Shi frowned.

"Odd. The sap isn't flowing smoothly."

"This root has been drained past its limit." Qinghe mused. "This is pretty weird... the centipedes don't normally drink enough to harm the tree."

Baiyun frowned as he attuned with the compass once more.

Then his heart sank. This root... it was not the coin cluster they had approached!