Although Peerless Sky Sect is now hailed as the one possessing the most powerful martial arts in Tianyun, it was not so until Yunfeng Zheng came into prominence. In fact, in the olden times, it was the All-Seeing Radiance Sect and the White Jade Sect that stood ‘hegemony’ over all others in the martial arts, with Ming Clan possessing techniques that expressed toughness and with Yu Clan possessing techniques that expressed subtlety. As such, by this time, Qiangjun rushes forward with extraordinary speed, and yet his movements are subtle enough to catch the one hiding in the darkness off-guard.
The man in the dark is in his mid-twenties, neither his appearance nor demeanour particularly standing out. Despite his attainments in concealment techniques, he is by far inferior to the likes of Qiangjun, when it comes to direct combat.
A flicker of light radiates brightly, as a lean blade flows beautifully toward the unassuming man, who looks as if he wishes to curse all his ancestors, for his overly cautious actions actually led to his downfall. Had the man been fully focussed on Qiangjun and others from the beginning, instead of occasionally checking out from behind the cover of an abandoned shack, he might have noticed earlier that they had already caught onto him. However, now that his escape has been sealed, he is forced to confront the overwhelming prowess of Yu Clan sword arts head-on.
With blades locking one another like mortal enemies, spiritual energy sparks vividly every time they clash. Yet, to his dismay, the man realises that after every exchange, Qiangjun would somehow manage to leave a minor wound on him, and it has only been a few breaths since their fight started. Nevertheless, the man is as persistent as a cockroach. Using all the strength he could muster, he tries to force his way through the quiet youth before him. However, it is all futile. By the time Lifang and the others have arrived and encircled the man, Qiangjun has already swiftly disarmed him by effectively countering his last strike. Now, the man kneels on the ground, groaning in pain, his body trembling and his expression exceptionally ugly.
“Speak.” Qiangjun commands impatiently, his face wrathful, and his blade resting dangerously atop the man’s shoulder.
The man frightfully stares at the lean blade that is now almost nicking his neck. He opens his mouth as if wanting to say something, but then he closes it, in utter dejection, his face hopelessly pale.
Qiangjun’s brows knits tightly, and soon he retracts his blade, not out of mercy, but to torture the man to get every bit of information out of him. However, before his blade could fall down, Xueyan speaks in a soothing tone. “Please hold your blade, Fellow Yu.”
The fury in Qiangjun’s eyes softens minimally when hears the enchanting voice, shooting a questioning glance toward the beautiful man, his expression becoming not very gentle. However, Xueyan does not seem to mind his antics, continuing nonchalantly. “Press your spiritual energy onto the base of his tongue and you will see that he’s under a restriction.”
At this revelation, Lifang, who is standing nearby, lithely moves forward, and he finds out that there is indeed a cursed mark on the man’s tongue. “Is this the Withering Lotus restriction?” The boy asks anxiously.
When Lifang sees Xueyan nod in confirmation, his eyes harden, though his tone remains gentle. “Let’s take him to the Tower and have his identity confirmed before we bring him forward to the elders.”
By the time Qiangjun and the others have arrived to the Tower of Eyes and Ears, the night has already begun. Amidst the encroaching darkness, frogs and crickets would sing loudly in harmony, blissfully ignorant of their predatory relationship.
In contrast with its exterior, the Tower is now frighteningly quiet, with its inhabitants standing in its hall way, some of them young cultivators, their tender faces especially nervous, and at their lead is a large middle-aged man with a bloated face, he appears awfully sullen and sad.
“This… How could it be…” The Tower Administrator breathes loudly in disbelief. “Ah Hu…my student… He can’t be affiliated with fallen cultivators!!!”
Holding onto the handcuff that bound the young man called ‘Ah Hu’, Qiangjun stands calmly beside Lifang, who wears a solemn expression.
“Be that as it may be…” The gentle youth responds. “The truth will be out, when we bring him forward to my sect’s elders. Until then…I ask of you, Tower Administrator, to apprehend Ah Hu’s closest associates and relatives, so that we may get to the roots of the matter.”
“This… Hah…” The Tower Administrator lets out a painful sigh. “I will do as you said…I hope it is a misunderstanding.”
“I too hope so.” Lifang speaks gently, before giving a polite bow to the middle-aged cultivator, and he quickly departs the place.
Although the night is late, they could not possibly delay a matter related to something as horrifying as the hundred heart ghoul. At least that was what Taoming thought until his senior brother abruptly halts his steps two kilometres outside the Water Moon Village.
“Fellow Xueyan.” He begins in a serious manner, one that is unlike his usual tone. “I will have to trouble you.”
Taoming is confused when he heard Lifang, so he turns to face that brother behind him. The man’s expression is mild, and he coolly nods his head in agreement. “It is of no problem at all.”
After saying so, Xueyan immediately sits on the ground, cross-legged. Though his beautiful pair of eyes remains opened, it is unfocussed and seems to be transfixed onto something phantasmal on the ground. This continues for a long while that everyone else also lies down on the ground to rest, while Qiangjun drugs Ah Hu asleep, tying him to a tree in a safe distance.
“He’s moving now…” Xueyan suddenly speaks, and a chill passes everyone as they hear his enchanting voice.
Taoming now has a clear idea of what is actually happening, it appears that his senior brother is suspicious of the Tower Administrator, and that is why he asked Xueyan to keep track of him. There is a spell called ‘insidious haunt’, unique to immeasurable yin cultivators, capable of searching and locking onto an unwitting human, the lanky youth vaguely recalls, his pale fingers nervously clutching onto his sabre ‘Yuchang’.
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“…Can we really do this?” Taoming says anxiously. “He is-”
“An Early Core Apostle, I know.” Lifang’s eyes squint thoughtfully. “Although he is a tier higher than me and Qiangjun, he is only but a man. We can do this by ourselves.”
“But…the hundred heart ghoul? What if he can command it?”
“This…” Lifang hesitates, his eyes landing on that extreme yin cultivator. “Do we have a chance?”
As he hears the question, Xueyan responds nonchalantly, his voice very mesmerising. “Ghouls are the creatures of yin, and as such, they are the embodiment of the dark and the cold.”
“That is why…”
“…No matter how strong they become, they still abhor the light and the heat.”
“I have something on my mind…” Xueyan speaks mildly, his illustrious words flowing ceaselessly like a waterfall, captivating the minds and hearts of those listening.
When he hears the vivid details of the plan Xueyan wishes to formulate, Taoming is astounded, the admiration he feels for the man only growing greater.
“This could work…” He grins happily, his voice even sounding energetic.
At this moment, Qiangjun, who has been quiet for a while, suddenly shifts in position.
“Lifang,” The quiet youth speaks in a tone that is neither hostile nor friendly. “He could be our enemy you know.”
The ‘he’ Qiangjun was talking about is clearly Xueyan, and the atmosphere of the group quickly drops to a freezing point.
“What are you talking about, Yu Qiangjun!!!” Taoming fumes in anger, unwilling to let that man be accused! However, before he could do or say anything impulsive, his senior brother gently grasps him by the shoulder.
“If Fellow Xueyan were our enemy…” Lifang speaks earnestly. “We would already be long since dead.”
Qiangjun maintains his silence, as he hears his friend’s declaration, his serious eyes falling once more on Xueyan, who seems unperturbed by his intense stare.
“…Have it your way.” The quiet youth concedes abruptly, handing over the spirit-sealing pouch that contains the spirit diversion lamps.
After ten minutes have passed, Xueyan finishes making the necessary preparations for his plan. With a satisfied expression on his face, he speaks mischievously to the lanky youth. “Now, carry me.”
Taoming is troubled. He had always liked girls and women. The prettier they were, the stronger his attraction was. This has always been true unto this day, one could even say that he is truly like his father in this aspect. Although he has yet to pop his flower stem unlike his overly virile father, he always has the sincere ambition to!
However, now, his heart is beating like crazy, as he feels that appropriate softness on his back and that temptingly heated breath on his neck.
That man is just too alluring to ignore! Taoming laments miserably in his mind.
Forcibly trying to calm himself, he begins an idle conversation. “Won’t he know? Isn’t he an extreme yin cultivator like you?”
“How would he know??? My attainments are far higher than his!!!” Xueyan harrumphs proudly when he hears the question, this behaviour is something Taoming had not seen in the man before. “As long as you are carrying me and he is thirty metres away from us, he won’t even be able to see us even if we are in his plain sight!!!”
Too much of Xueyan’s heated breaths falls between his collarbone and neck, and Taoming’s heart skips a beat. This is bad, he thinks pitifully, when that beautiful man leisurely shifts on his back.
“C-Can’t you walk?” Taoming splutters, lacking confidence that he could retain his virtue.
“I can’t concentrate if I am walking.” Xueyan pouts in a childish manner, seemingly unaware of the lanky youth’s plight.
How could you talk so much if concentration is as important as you say? Taoming wanted to retort, however, he dares not voice out his thought aloud.
“…Alright.” That is all the boy could muster to speak. His pretty face flushes absolutely in red, but otherwise, he chooses to be silent the entire way, and just like this, they arrive at the forest where the banyans prosper abundantly.
Beneath a large banyan tree, the Tower Administrator “Cao Wei” stands enigmatically, his large round body surrounded by a group of wandering ghouls, whose eyes rolled back in madness, whose mouth drooped low in hunger. However, Cao Wei cares not for such lowly beings. Tonight, he has come for the innumerable heart ghoul. Since their nefarious activities are discovered by the youths of orthodox sects, it is with utmost priority that he must relocate both the innumerable heart ghoul and himself. Before that though, he must report to his master.
With a mocking snort, Cao Wei emits yin energy from the depths of his self, viciously repelling the wandering ghouls, and then with a wave of his hand, a bright translucent formation shoots out from his pouch, before becoming imprinted on the ground. After a short while, a figure of a man in his thirties is revealed, his expression gloomy and his features hard, he looks exceedingly displeased to be disturbed.
The shadowy man speaks in disdain. “What is this?”
Despite the animosity in other man’s tone, Cao Wei responds respectfully. “Disciple greets Master.” His large round frame crooks in utmost reverence. “We’ve been discovered.”
“So soon?” The man sounds surprised, the annoyance in his voice is now gone and replaced with a trace of thrill.
“My student who I had stationed at the graveyard was caught by the youths in their Coming of Age Journey. Although I have placed him under the Withering Lotus restriction, it is only a matter of time before an elder of Peerless Sky Sect or White Jade Sect will dispel it.”
“The youths are from those two sects?”
“Yes, my lord.”
“How strange.” The voice murmurs thoughtfully. “Did you not teach ‘Shadow Veil’ to your student? With that spell, he should have no trouble hiding his presence from those children.”
Cao Wei looks troubled when he hears his master’s conjecture.
“There was a problem…”
“There was another cultivator with the youths, and I fear that it was he who detected my student.”
“Oh?” The voice speaks pleasantly. “Do tell more.”
“From the way the youths addressed to him, it was apparent that he was not their elder, and yet, I was not able to see through his cultivation.”
“With your attainment in perception techniques, you should have been able to see through him, unless he was stronger than you by one full level, or…his attainments in concealment techniques are above yours…” The voice trails off in thoughtful pondering, and then it commands abruptly. “Cao Wei, summon your Immeasurable Heart Ghoul and have it disrupt the surrounding spiritual energies now.”
Shocked by the sudden change in his master’s tone, the man shifts his large round body in alarm. Without any hesitation, he unsheathes his sword and immediately cuts onto his palm, thick red blood falling onto the ground.
“Heed my call, Innumerable Heart Ghoul!!!” He incants heavily, and the previously tranquil forest becomes even more eerily tranquil, dark yin energy rising heavily in monstrous proportions, a terrifying aura enveloping the whole area.
Soon enough, the earth rumbles loudly, and a malevolent existence burrows out of the ground. It is a monstrous abomination, whose body solely consists of dark red fleshes, carved out of innumerable human hearts, reeking with an awful stench of dead yin energy.
When the innumerable heart ghoul meets its eyes with Cao Wei’s, understanding dawns on it, and then it suddenly turns around and screeches an earth-shattering howl!!!
“Ah, ah.” Xueyan speaks while clinging onto Taoming’s back, his expression very childish. “They caught onto us.”
When the boys hear his nonchalant statement and that terrifying howl that pierces through the entire forest, their youthful faces immediately grow old and gloomy, and they quickly get into the battle position.
By this point, Xueyan has also nimbly jumped off the lanky youth, drawing his sword in a flash, before charging out together with Qiangjun and Lifang, leaving Taoming and the other two trailing far behind them.
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= Glossary =
Withering Lotus (spell)
Insidious Haunt (spell)
Shadow Veil (spell)
Written by Lulin