Zhu Xian Chapter 141-150

Chapter 141 - Chance Encounter

Placing the freshly cooked steaming dishes on the table, shopkeeper Ho retired back to the counter, opened his account book once again and pretended to tabulate his accounts. However his eyes moving slightly, in-between while reading the lines he was making surreptitious glances at his customers in the shop.

Zhou YiXian, Xiao Huan and Wild Dog Taoist the three of them, were already sitting at the table where Xiao Hui was, as for the newly ordered dishes, naturally they were also delivered there, however all of them did not have the appetite for it. Only Xiao Hui was pleased, eating and drinking with big mouthfuls of food and wine, looking very happy.

Zhou YiXian and the two of them, right now were not looking at Xiao Hui but were quietly looking at that man slumped over the table.

Xiao Huan slowly stretched out her hand, pushed that man and quietly called out, “Ghost...Li.” That man after being pushed by her, did not have any reaction. Zhou YiXian and Wild Dog looked at each other.

That man’s build, obviously was the Ghost Li that they had met in the past but this figure who had struck fear in numerous people, had became so down-and-out, for a moment they were unable to register it.

Xiao Huan turned her head over, asked in astonishment, “Why did he become like this?”

Zhou YiXian’s eyes grew big and he shrugged, said, “Don’t ask us.”  He paused a while, suddenly frowned and turned to Xiao  Hui  crouching  at  the  table,  smiled  and  said,  “Little monkey, what happened to your master?”

Xiao Hui’s three eyes turned at the same time, glanced at this old man with a divine demeanour but did not have any reaction, only its tail extended up, swayed a few times and then spit out a snear, [chi], from its mouth, ostentatiously turned around and drank a mouthful, totally disregarding this old man. Zhou YiXian was embarrassed outright, immediately he angrily  shouted,  “Damn  monkey,  you  dare  to  show  me attitude, you are rebelling huh. If you provoke your immortal into a rage, wait till I use my spiritual powers to subdue you and crush you under Qing Yun mountain, trapping you for a thousand and eight hundred years, see if you are afraid…”

Before he could finish, Zhou YiXian only heard a whistling, a pitch of darkness before his eyes, something was charging towards him and seemed like he would not be able to avoid it in time, Xiao Huan exclaimed out in shock and fortunately, a hand stretched out from beside, swiftly pushed Zhou YiXian aside and he fell onto the floor.

Zhou YiXian was caught off guard and fell sprawled on his back with his legs and hands up in the air, a pathetic look for the divine-looking old man. But at least he avoided the incoming attack. The thing missed its target and flew for a short distance before [du] a muffled sound, hit the wall, it was a roasted duck bone.

The group including shopkeeper Ho, who was watching the commotion from a distance, turned and looked together, the three-eyed monkey was chewing happily on a chicken drumstick, did it use its hands to throw the bone or spit it out using its mouth?

Zhou YiXian gritted his teeth in hatred but with his profound knowledge, he knew this monkey was an exceptional spiritual intelligent animal and looking at it, it seemed hot-tempered, he better not provoked it. In addition it also had a master Ghost Li who was well-known for sucking blood, if that guy wakes up then that would be even more troublesome.

He staggered and got up, rolled his eyes and instead lashed out at Wild Dog Taoist, “You deliberately wanted me dead is it, why did you have to use such a strong force to push your immortal down?”

Wild Dog was speechless, if it was the old him, he would have retorted but the Wild Dog now only rolled his eyes and turned his head around, ignoring Zhou YiXian.

Zhou YiXian was rebuffed, felt even more infuriated and was about to say something more when Xiao Hui cut in, “Grandfather!” Zhou YiXian in the recent years, was most afraid of this sharp-tongue granddaughter, immediately stammered and shut up but his mouth was still mumbling, obviously very unwilling.

Xiao Huan ignored him, turned and looked at Xiao Hui, revealed a smile and said, “Xiao Hui, do you still remember me, I once gave you sugar-coated haws to eat.”

Xiao Hui’s eyes looked at Xiao Huan, its three-eyes blinked a few times and suddenly it nodded and started grinning, even its tail started to swish around, not sure if it had learnt that from that yellow dog, ‘Da Huang’, from Qing Yun Hill Big Bamboo Valley.

Xiao Huan burst out laughing, said, “Didn’t expect that you still  remember  me,  come  over  here.”  she  beckoned  to  the monkey.

Xiao Hui’s eyes rolled around, stretched its hand to its head and seemed slightly undecided, out of habit it wanted to scratch its head but one of its hand was holding a wine flask, the other a drumstick, both hands occupied so it decided to just use the drumstick to rub its furry head, leaving a few oil stains.

Xiao Huan covered her mouth and laughed lightly, Xiao Hui saw her laugh and also grinned, then it slowly shifted over and came before Xiao Huan, crouched down.

Zhou YiXian, Wild Dog and shopkeeper Ho at a distance, stared in disbelief.

Xiao Huan carefully assessed the monkey, took out a handkerchief, frowned and said, “Throw away the stuffs on your hands.”

The three-eyed monkey froze for a moment, [zhi zhi] called out, clearly it was unwilling, Xiao Huan gently patted its head, said, “Quickly!”

Xiao Hui’s mouth twitched, put the drumstick back to the plate, took a few more glances at it then just when it was about to put down the wine flask, it suddenly snagged a big mouthful from it before putting it on the table. Xiao Huan shook her head and could not help laughing, “When did you become so greedy.” While speaking, she pulled both of the monkey’s hands towards her and wiped off the oil using the handkerchief, Xiao Hui quietly allowed her to do that.

Strangely, other than its master, Ghost Li, the three-eyed monkey only seemed to have favourable impression on a few girls, as for people like Zhou YiXian, Wild Dog, it never seemed to like them.

After cleaning up, Xiao Huan kept the handkerchief aside, glanced sideways at Ghost Li who was slumped over the table, spoke to Xiao Hui, “How did he turn out to be like this?”

Xiao Hui scratched its head, [zhi zhi zhi zhi] started to call out, at the same time flourished its hands and gestured, everyone looked at each other bewildered, clearly nobody understood. Xiao Hui seemed to notice this and stopped what it was doing.

Suddenly, the monkey pointed at Xiao Huan, almost poking her face, Xiao Huan was taken aback, Wild Dog was about to move, he thought the monkey was feral and wild, unexpectedly was stopped by Zhou YiXian.

Wild Dog was surprised and looked over at Zhou YiXian, Zhou YiXian only quietly said, “Watch first.”

Xiao Hui pointing at Xiao Huan and then suddenly flipped over and jumped to the centre of the table, [zhi zhi] calling incessantly, gestured to Xiao Huan and then both of its hands moved up and down its body, making a body silhouette.

Xiao Huan was stunned, Zhou YiXian frowned and said, “Woman?”

Xiao Hui nodded earnestly and then pointed to Ghost Li and then making a heart shape with its hands, [zhi zhi ya ya] called out a few times, suddenly its body fell backwards straight down.

Xiao Huan suddenly cried out, “Watch out!” Before her words ended, Xiao Hui who was too engrossed in its act, forgot that this was not a very big table and while jumping around it had came to the edge of the table, this fall, [pu tong] a sound was heard, it had fell to the bottom of the table.

Xiao Huan found it funny and worried at the same time, she quickly rose up to check but [suo] a sound, the monkey had already scurried up, grinning at Xiao Huan.

Xiao Huan saw that the monkey did not sustain any injuries, felt relieved and patted its head, Xiao Hui blinked its eyes, watched Xiao Huan.

Xiao Huan after a pause, glanced again at Ghost Li, turned and spoke to Zhou YiXian, “Grandfather, he this…”

Zhou YiXian frowned and said, “Could it be he was hurt by a girl? With his current skills and status in Ghost King Sect, in the world, not many could achieve that. Is it ShuiYue from Qing Yun Sect, if not SanMiao from Evil Sect HeHuan Sect?...” Wild Dog Taoist who was sitting beside, suddenly spoke, “I think not.”

Zhou YiXian retorted in anger, “What did you say, you dare to contradict old man me, erm, immortal me.”

Wild Dog Taoist however did not look at him, a strange expression appeared on his dog face, looking at that slumped figure, he slowly said, “From what I know, he is not the type of man who view victory and defeat as important, and also he did not have any injuries on his body…”

Zhou YiXian humphed, thought nothing of it, mockingly said, “That is because your skill level and others differ greatly, if he is like you, with only with second-rate skills, win one and lose one fight, naturally would view victory and defeat lightly, everyday quoting: Victory or defeat is a common thing for a soldier…”

Wild Dog Taoist was infuriated, was about to rebut him when Xiao Huan glared at the two of them, raising her voice she said, “Alright, enough!” Zhou YiXian and Wild Dog then stopped at the same time but both glared angrily at each other.

Xiao Huan contemplated and then nodded, as if she had made some decisions, spoke to Xiao Hui, “Xiao Hui, you and him will come with us first.”

“What?”

Before Xiao Hui could react, Zhou YiXian and Wild Dog Taoist both shouted out first, their voices volume, even shopkeeper Ho who was at a distance, was also startled.

Xiao Huan looked at them, said, “What is it?”

Wild Dog Taoist stammered and said, “He, he has too many enemies, I’m afraid there might be trouble.”

Xiao Huan said, “I am not afraid, what are you afraid of?” Wild Dog Taoist was silent but Zhou YiXian beside him could not contain and angrily said, “We are not charity, why do you always take in other people?”

Xiao Huan glared at her grandfather, said, “He is not others, he saved my life in the death marsh! And, “suddenly with a smirk, said, “Grandfather, ten years ago you deceived other people about stepping on dog’s poo, do you still remember?”

Wild Dog Taoist was surprised, Zhou YiXian instead turned red, angrily said, “The old scores ten years ago, why do you bring it up for?”

Xiao Huan snorted, indifferently said, “It is good that you remember, anyway I cannot stand by and do nothing.”  After speaking, she ignored her grandfather and turned to look after Ghost Li.

When she gently turned the man’s body over, a strong alcohol smell hit her, Xiao Huan frowned, saw that familiar face, both eyes shut tightly, brows frowning tightly together, not knowing whether even in his dreams, he was also grieving. Xiao Huan quietly watched the man’s face, suddenly a scene flashed past her mind, that day outside the death marsh, this man came to her stall, quietly said one sentence:

“You have grown up…”

Zhou YiXian naturally did not know that his granddaughter was suddenly having some wild thoughts but he clearly knew that he would be having an additional big big trouble, as such, how would he be in a good mood, he angrily turned around, glared at Ghost Li, loudly shouted, “Shopkeeper, bill.”

Shopkeeper Ho hurriedly ran over, smiling courteously said, “Customer, aren't you going to stay longer?”

Zhou YiXian snapped back, “Stay longer? I the immortal, only stayed a while and invited such a big trouble, if I stay longer, I would be troubled to death!”

Shopkeeper  Ho  controlled  his  laughter,  said,  “Thank  you customer, four silvers.” Zhou YiXian still mumbling, took out the silvers from his bosom, suddenly Xiao Hui scurried over from the side, took out that big wine bag from its back and waved continuously in front of shopkeeper Ho, [zhi zhi] incessantly.

Zhou YiXian, Xiao Huan and the rest were stunned, did not know what this monkey was up to, instead it was shopkeeper Ho who had lived with this monkey for three days, more or less knew a little, he frowned a little and after a pause, suddenly said, “Is it that you want to add wine in this wine bag?”

Xiao Hui was delighted, nodded earnestly, grinned.

Zhou YiXian and the rest were dumbfounded, after a long while, Xiao Huan with a cough, laughed drily said, “Shopkeeper, just help it to add...add a little wine then.”

Shopkeeper Ho was delighted, quickly acknowledged, turned and went to take the wine.

This wine bag was really big, after the wine was poured in, the wine bag gradually bulged out but shopkeeper Ho, after pouring two vats of wine in, still had not filled it up, Xiao Hui was smiling happily beside, Zhou YiXian instead could not bear it, disregarding his immortal status, jumped up in fury and said, “Enough, enough…”

[Hu!] A black shadow flew into his face but Zhou YiXian this time, already experienced, quickly dodged once he heard the sound and indeed it was Xiao Hui who had threw a dish plate over, [pong] it smashed onto the floor.

Before Zhou YiXian could say anything, [hu hu hu] the plates on the table, one after another thrown over by Xiao Hui, he dodged left and right and could not continue his words. Shopkeeper Ho, hearing the crisp breaking sound of the plates, immediately felt heart-pained and since the bag was almost filled, quickly said, “Forget it, forget it, for the remaining wine considered it my treat, my treat. Monkey master, don’t throw any more plates, this, erm, this sage you will just pay me two vats of wine will do.”

Xiao Hui then stopped, Zhou YiXian stopped moving, panting loudly and cursing but did not dare to go near that hot- tempered three-eyed monkey again. Xiao Huan smiled, turned and again glanced at Ghost Li but she did not notice Wild Dog Taoist who had been keeping quiet for a long time, right now he was also staring at Ghost Li from beside, a strange glint slowly flickering in his eyes.

X x x

Qing Yun Hill, Tong Tian Peak.

The stone staircase in front of Crystal Hall, in the cold Jade Pool, Qing Yun Sect Mountain Guard Spiritual Beast Water Qilin lazily flipped over in the water, the water waves foamed and rolled, gushing outwards from its enormous body’s movements, surging up layers of waves, magnificent and impressive.

Li Xun, who was sent especially from FenXiang Valley, saw everything from the stone stairs, turned, smiled and said, “Long  heard  that  Qing  Yun  Sect  Mountain  Guard  Spiritual Beast Water Qilin is a thousand years old spiritual beast, now that I see it for myself, it is really extraordinary.” “Li senior brother overpraise.”  A clear laughter, was heard beside Li Xun, it was from Qing Yun Sect main branch, TongTian Peak, most well-known disciple Xiao YiCai, he also glanced  towards  the  Water  Qilin,  smiled  and  said,  “The spiritual beast is subdued by our sect Qing Ye founder, to recollect our forefather prowess at that time, it really makes us the junior disciples revere and respect.”

Li Xun smiled and nodded, he came from an established Good Faction sect, his eyesight set high but for that astounding talented brilliant Qing Ye founder, he was too, extremely in awe.

Xiao YiCai stretched his hands out and made a gesture towards the mountain top, “Li senior brother please.”

Li Xun, after modestly declining for a moment, walked over together with Xiao YiCai.

Xiao YiCai chatted while walking, “I wonder what is the purpose for Li senior brother’s visit this time?” Li Xun smiled and said, “It is nothing actually, just that my teacher has a letter and wants me to pass it to Reverend DaoXuan.”

Xiao  YiCai  was  surprised,  said,  “Why,  don’t  tell  me  your honourable valley master Yun elder senior has already come out of his seclusion, a while ago I still heard from Lu XueQi who just came back from southern border, that Yun elder senior is still in seclusion?”

Li Xun smiled and said, “Not to hide the facts from Xiao senior brother, my teacher just came out several days ago. Heard him saying that he has not met Central Plains Reverend DaoXuan, PuHong Master etc his old friends for many years and is very concern and has the intention to come and visit!”

Xiao YiCai’s countenance changed slightly and then he laughed loudly, “This could not be better, Yun elder senior’s divine arrival, it is really something significant that has not happened in our Central Plains Good Faction for a long time.”

Li Xun looked at him, Xiao YiCai looked back, both of them looked at each other for a long while, suddenly both burst out laughing loudly, their expressions joyful.

Xiao YiCai pulled Li Xun’s hand, smiled and said, “Come come come, my teacher happens to be having a chat with the various teacher uncles in the Crystal Hall today, let me lead the way and I will make the introductions.”

Li Xun smiled and said, “Then I shall trouble Xiao senior brother.”  After walking a few steps he suddenly seemed to recall something, spoke to Xiao YiCai, “Oh right, Xiao senior brother, there is one thing I will like to ask.”

Xiao YiCai smiled and said, “Li senior brother can speak your mind.”

Li Xun said, “Previously Qing Yun Sect sent Lu XueQi junior sister to southern border to visit my teacher…”

Xiao YiCai’s expression changed slightly and then resumed to normal but this change was caught by Li Xun, Li Xun was surprised but he still carried on speaking, “That day when we said our goodbyes, Lu XueQi seemed to be slightly injured, after all she was injured because she helped our FenXiang Valley, humble me is worried and wonders if her body is feeling fine these few days?”

Xiao YiCai thought for a moment, said, “Many thanks for Li senior’s concern, Lu junior sister is fine, just nice, today ShuiYue Master has also brought along her disciples, WenMin and Lu XueQi over, later you will be able to see her.”

Li Xun’s face could not help but revealed a hint of delight, nodded and acknowledged.

Xiao YiCai saw his expression but did not comment. Both of them walked up, changing their conversation topics, they chatted about irrelevant stuffs and not long after, both of them reached the top of the stairs and came before TongTian Peak Crystal Hall.

An impressive monumental building appeared before Li Xun. Li Xun stared for some time, sighed and said, “I always thought FenXiang Valley Mountain River Hall, Inferno Altar are already the world’s masterpieces, today upon seeing this, I now realize there are people beyond people, skies beyond skies!” Xiao YiCai laughed loudly, said, “Li senior brother is too kind, come, this way please!”

Li Xun [he he] laughed and followed Xiao YiCai, arrived before the Crystal Hall, inhaled deeply, arranged and tidied his clothes and then strided in.

Chapter 142 - Murderous Intentions

In the Crystal Hall, Reverend DaoXuan, in a robe of dark green, his long beard lying against his chest, sat in the main seat of the hall. On both sides of the seat sat the other Qing Yun branch leaders. Since the Qing Yun battle ten years ago, three out of the seven Qing Yun branches leaders had changed, this scene, compared to the time when Zhang Xiao Fan and Lin JingYu first came up to Qing Yun, the people were no longer the same.

Other than Long Shou Valley Cang Song Taoist’s seat replaced by QiHao, the remaining ones with second generation of leaders, Morning Sun Valley leader Shang ZhengLiang replaced by disciple, Chu YuHong, Sunset Valley leader Taoist Tian Yun replaced by his junior brother, Taoist Fei Yun. In these three branches, other than Sunset Valley leader Taoist Fei Yun and Reverend DaoXuan were of the same generation, they still had common topics to talk about. Long Shou Valley and Morning Sun Valley second generation leaders were slightly more awkward. Long Shou Valley QiHao still fared better, after all he was a leader in the younger generations and was rather familiar with the various senior teachers, as for Morning Sun Valley Chu YuHong, he sat quietly at the rear and did not speak at all. And those senior leaders, Big Bamboo Valley Tian BuYi, Small Bamboo Valley ShuiYue Master and Return of the Wind Valley leader Zeng ShuChang, they had not seen each other for some time and those leaders who usually bickered with them were already not around, the atmosphere in the great hall was much harmonized than the previous times.

Behind ShuiYue Master, stood Lu XueQi and WenMin, absent for a period of time, Lu XueQi’s face was as beautiful and clear as always, her expression indifferent, neither revealing joy nor anger but for some reason, a never-felt-before hint of coldness emanated from her.

As for WenMin, she was also obediently standing behind her teacher but her gaze was not well-behaved, roving from side to side at times and inevitably caught glimpse of Song Daren who was standing behind Tian BuYi, each time Song Daren saw that, he could not help but revealed a smile, looking over, he looked rather simple and honest, WenMin gave him an annoyed look and then turned away.

Beside Tian BuYi, his wife, SuRu also came, right now beckoning Tian LingEr over who had came together with QiHao, mother and daughter spoke together quietly, both of them had not seen each other for a long time and seemed to have endless topics to talk about.

And following QiHao along, other than Tian LingEr, was his junior, Lin JingYu, he stood behind, together with Return of the Wind Valley Zeng ShuChang’s son, Zeng ShuShu, both of them experienced the death marsh fight together and were considered to be on friendly terms.

This Qing Yun gathering, was also not considered a formal session, everyone was rather relaxed, even the conversations between Reverend DaoXuan and Tian BuYi, Zeng ShuChang, ShuiYue Master were easy, other than the usual aloof ShuiYue, the rest of them mostly had smiles on their faces.

When FenXiang Valley Li Xun walked in, what he saw, was such a scene, only a moment later, his eyes on that cold frosty girl, were gleaming like fire flames.

Xiao YiCai walked forward, spoke to Reverend DaoXuan, “Teacher, Li Xun Li senior brother is here.” Reverend DaoXuan looked over smiling, Li Xun walked to where Xiao YiCai was, bowed to Reverend DaoXuan, said, “FenXiang Valley junior Li Xun, paying my respect to Reverend DaoXuan.”

Reverend DaoXuan smiled and said, “Forget it, quickly get up.”

Li Xun got up and then cupped his hands before his chest to the people around him, said, “Junior Li Xun, greets various Qing Yun senior teacher uncles.”

Tian BuYi, Zeng ShuChang and the rest all nodded their heads in acknowledgment.

Reverend DaoXuan said, “I hope your teacher is doing well, I have not seen him for many years and do not know how is Yun brother’s condition nowadays, earlier on I heard that Yun valley master suddenly went into seclusion, I was even quite worried for a period.” Xiao YiCai by now was already standing beside Reverend DaoXuan, after hearing the words, he smiled and said, “Teacher you do not know this, just now I heard from Li senior brother, Yun elder senior has already came out of his seclusion.”

Reverend DaoXuan was slightly taken aback, exclaimed with an [ah], spoke to Li Xun, “Is it, good nephew?”

Li Xun respectfully replied, “It is true, my teacher did emerge from his seclusion several days ago and especially send disciple to pay a visit to Sect Head DaoXuan, there is also a letter which he instructed me to pass it Reverend. “ After speaking, he took out a sealed letter from his bosom and handed it over to Reverend DaoXuan.

Reverend DaoXuan took the letter, after a moment, tore the sealed opening and took out the thin paper, he carefully read it once, everyone’s eyes were on his face but Reverend DaoXuan’s expression did not change, nobody could tell if there was any change in his emotions. After a while, Reverend DaoXuan finished the letter, unhurriedly kept the letter back to its envelope, held it in his hand for a moment and placed it on the tea table beside his hand. Li Xun carefully watched Reverend DaoXuan but did not hear this current world’s number one Good Faction figure speak any words, he could not help but feel uneasy.

Reverend DaoXuan, after a long pondering, did a quick glance around and looked over at ShuiYue Master, ShuiYue Master sensed it and frowned.

Reverend DaoXuan looked away, coughed once and glanced at Li Xun standing below the seat, his face again showed a kind smile, said, “Good nephew, before you come to our Qing Yun, did Yun valley master instructed you with any matter?”

Li Xun hesitated for a moment, cupped his hands before his chest  and  said,  “Benefactor  teacher  instructed  before,  Qing Yun Sect Reverend DaoXuan is the current Good Faction main pillar, when disciple comes to Qing Yun and pay my respect Reverend, disciple intends to enrich my knowledge and experience, before going back to FenXiang Valley, disciple will take all instructions from Reverend.” Reverend DaoXuan was surprised and then laughed and said, “This teacher of yours, is really a crafty one, throws all of the difficult tasks to me.” After speaking, he paused for a moment and then nodded and said, “Why not like this, your teacher also mentioned it in his letter, at most in three days time, he will lead FenXiang Valley disciples to Central Plains and most probably he will first come to Qing Yun Hill. Before that, you shall stay at our Qing Yun Hill for a few days.”

Li  Xun  was  delighted  in  his  heart,  quickly  replied,  “Yes, disciple will obey.”

Reverend DaoXuan nodded and then seemed to think of something, he turned and spoke to Lu XueQi standing behind ShuiYue Master, “XueQi.”

Lu XueQi did not expect that Reverend DaoXuan would call her and was startled, she stepped forward, bowed and said, “Sect Head Teacher Uncle, disciple is here.”

Reverend DaoXuan smiled and said, “You and FenXiang Valley Li senior brother are considered former acquaintances, I remember these few years you both have met many times, why not like this, these few days for the time being, trouble you to bring him around Qing Yun Hill, you have to be a good host.”

Lu XueQi frowned, turned and glanced at her teacher, ShuiYue Master but ShuiYue Master’s graceful brows were also knitted, her eyes looking at Reverend DaoXuan, Reverend DaoXuan looked back at her, an inquiry look in his eyes.

ShuiYue Master sighed in her heart, indifferently said to Lu XueQi, “Since Sect Head Teacher Uncle has already given the orders, Qi’er you are more familiar with him, just bring him around will also be good.”

Lu XueQi’s lips twitched, slowly she lowered her head and after  a  moment,  quietly  said,  “Yes,  disciple  obey  teacher’s command.”

Li Xun was overjoyed in his heart but his face still maintained a smile, he spoke to Lu XueQi, “Then I will have to trouble Lu junior sister.” Lu XueQi nodded her head briefly but there was no other expression.

Reverend DaoXuan in the main seat smiled and nodded, Zeng ShuChang, Tian BuYi beside also looked over but did not say anything, instead it was Tian BuYi’s wife SuRu and her daugher, Tian LingEr, who glanced over while conversing, their brows slightly frowning.

X x x

The gathering concluded after a long while, Tian BuYi with his wife, SuRu, first disciple Song Daren, strided out of TongTian Peak Crystal Hall. Song Daren followed his teacher out but could not help but secretly sneaked glances back.

This action was caught by Tian LingEr, who was sending her parents out, she suddenly burst out laughing.

Hearing the laughter, Tian BuYi and SuRu turned over, SuRu looked  at  her  daughter,  smiled  and  said,  “What  are  you laughing about?” Tian LingEr walked to her mother, pulled SuRu’s hand and looked sideways at her big senior brother, Song Daren felt guilty and immediately turned red.

Tian BuYi snorted, said, “Purposely acting mysterious, what is it?”

Tian LingEr smiled and said, “Dad, mum, you both better quickly go to Small Bamboo Valley on big senior brother’s behalf, find ShuiYue Master teacher uncle and propose marriage, if not he might really be anxious to death.”

Tian BuYi was stunned, SuRu instead was quicker than her husband, had already got over the reaction and spoke to Song Daren, smiling, “What, so you already have someone in your heart and that someone is a disciple under my senior sister, ShuiYue Master Small Bamboo Valley? Come, tell your teacher wife, I will decide for you.”

Song Daren opened his mouth to speak but glancing at Tian BuYi, not a word came out, he could only bowed his head down,  SuRu  was  surprised,  said,  “What  happened  to  you, Daren?” Tian LingEr laughed gleefully, said, “Isn’t that big senior brother is worried that dad will scold him, let me say it for him then…”

Song  Daren  with  some  nervousness,  said,  “Little  junior sister, you…”

Tian LingEr ignored him and said to SuRu, “The one that big senior brother fancy is, the one below ShuiYue Master teacher uncle’s seat, WenMin senior sister.”

Tian BuYi snorted again, his expression strange, SuRu instead laughed out, “Good kid, indeed have good taste, WenMin that lass is really not bad but I’m not sure how she feels, I can’t just…”

Song Daren suddenly with a rush, lifted his head and said, “She, she feels the same too…”

Before he finished, he saw his teacher, teacher’s wife and junior sister looking at him at the same time, their expressions amusing, somehow he could not continue and could only lowered his head down.

SuRu shook her head and with a wry laugh, said, “Forget it, forget it, you this fellow, learnt from your teacher his good taste but why didn’t you also learn his thick skin…”

Tian BuYi suddenly coughed once, glared over but SuRu ignored him, spoke to Song Daren, “Don’t worry, leave this matter to me, as long as the lady is willing, your wish will come true.”

Song Daren felt elated, his face revealed ecstatic, Tian BuYi coldly snorted, said, “Look at you, with your little bit of prospect!”

Song Daren was startled, quickly withdrew his smile, stood behind his teacher but eventually he could not hide his overjoyed expression. SuRu smiled and shook her head, pulled her daughter aside, after giving her some instructions, came back and with Tian BuYi, Song Daren wielded their swords and flew up, returning to Big Bamboo Valley. They passed through the clouds and mists, swift as the wind and quick as lightning, about an hour later, the three of them reached Big Bamboo Valley.

Tian BuYi kept quiet after landing and walked straight into Observe Silence Hall, SuRu turned and said to Song Daren, “Go and have a rest first, don’t have to worry about that matter.”

Song Daren could not help but laughed foolishly twice, hurriedly bowed and then strided off.

SuRu smiled and shook her head, slowly walked to Observe Silence Hall, Tian BuYi was sitting inside, she walked over, said, “Hey, your favourite big disciple’s marriage, you will have to propose the marriage to my senior sister, ShuiYue Master.”

Tian BuYi snorted, turned his head over and said, “Want me to humbly ask a favour from your senior sister, I won’t go.”

SuRu was not angry, only smiled and said, “Then your first disciple will have to be a bachelor for the rest of his life, I don't care.” Tian BuYi’s face showed a hint of disdain, lifted his head to the sky, said, “I can’t be bothered too, anyway it is not me who is going to be a bachelor!”

SuRu could not help but burst out laughing, she gently hit Tian BuYi, said, “Really, look at your own age, still like that not decent!”

Tian BuYi’s eyes blinked but still looking at the sky, on his face an expression of stony-hearted, not a tear shed when one sees the coffin, never turn back when kicked to Nanshan.

[Translator’s note: Sorry I don’t understand the last expression so I translated it literary. Nanshan could mean a place or southern mountain]

SuRu  at  her  wit’s  end,  could  only  said,  “Alright,  let’s  be serious, finally this disciple of yours fancy someone and besides, that lady WenMin is really not bad, I like her too. You only have to go to Small Bamboo Valley and speak to my senior sister ShuiYue Master, with me beside you supporting, at most you would only be subjected to a few harmless words by her, what is so hard? Since WenMin also reciprocated our Daren’s feelings, my senior sister would not just because she has some displeasure with you, she would impede her disciple’s life.”

Tian BuYi after a long while, angrily said, “I just know that Lao Da is good for nothing, really, actually fancy the people from Small Bamboo Valley, make me this old man at this age and still have to be subjected to that woman ShuiYue’s damned anger!”

[Translator’s note: Lao Da means number one, a kinship term. Zhang Xiao Fan was Lao Qi, number seven]

SuRu with a [pei], said, “I am also from Small Bamboo Valley, why did you fancy me at that time too, looking at your tiny bit of prospect, now you still want to bring out the old scores with me.”

Tian BuYi for a moment was speechless, bitterly said, “Forget it, forget it, anyway I have already resigned to fate long ago, a bunch of useless guys, I will just make a trip to Small Bamboo Valley.” SuRu then smiled and nodded, “This is better.”

Putting aside this matter, she walked to the side, after only taking a few steps, she suddenly stopping, turned over, her graceful brows frowning, as if recalling something, spoke to Tian BuYi, “oh right, today you saw that FenXiang Valley Li Xun, did you notice something amiss at the end?”

Tian BuYi indifferently said, “You mean when Sect Head senior brother asked Small Bamboo Valley Lu XueQi to entertain him?”

SuRu nodded and said, “You also felt something amiss?”

Tian BuYi humphed and said, “There is nothing wrong, if there is really a problem, your senior sister would have long coldly rejected it but you saw that she did not speak a word, so it could be that Sect Head senior brother has at least mentioned it to her before and your senior sister also agreed.”

SuRu was surprised, nodded, said, “Oh, what you said is also right, I did not think of that but senior sister has always doted most on Lu XueQi, how would…”

Tian BuYi coldly said, “Is that Li Xun very inferior, in her eyes, I’m afraid he is much better than our disciples.”

SuRu non-plussed, said, “We are talking fine, why did you bring this up out of a sudden?”

Tian BuYi’s lips twitched and offhandedly said, “At that time at East Ocean Liu Bo Hill, that night of storm, I punished Lao Qi, didn’t she…” he suddenly realized what he was saying and stopped but for some reason, he shook his head and sighed.

SuRu frowned and said, “Your words are getting stranger, now even Xiao Fan is also involved, what is it?”

Tian BuYi’s enthusiasm suddenly died down, he shook his head and said, “Don’t ask.” SuRu knew her husband’s temperament and so did not ask further, just that suddenly her feelings were evoked and she could not help but sigh and said, “It has been ten years, wonder how Xiao Fan is doing now?”

Tian BuYi after a pause, slowly stood up and coldly said, “Didn’t you hear, he is now Ghost King Sect vice leader, changed his name to Ghost Li and known as Xue GongZi, extremely powerful!”

SuRu lowered her head, slowly sat down at a chair beside, after a long while quietly said, “Ai, when he first came to us, although he was foolish and clumsy but…” She did not continue, after a long pause, she softly spoke again, “He was originally such a good child, to you, to me he was always very respectful but now...he has landed into the situation that befalls one who is kicked out of the door!”

Tian BuYi felt a flash of anger, suddenly loudly said, “They wanted to kick out as they pleased, I did not say I want to kick this disciple…” SuRu stood up abruptly, broke her husband’s sentence with a shout, “BuYi!”

Tian BuYi glanced sideways at his wife, stopped his words but his face looked angry, suddenly he stomped his feet, with a heavy [ai] sound, he strided out.

SuRu quietly watched her husband’s back figure and then quietly sighed, turned and looked out.

Looking out from the Observe Silence Hall, the pleasantly warm sunlight shining down on Big Bamboo Valley, far away, indistinctly was a kitchen in a secluded area, revealing a corner of its roof from behind the trees’ shadows.

The house was still there but the person was long gone.

SuRu stared for a while, shook her head, turned and entered the inner quarters of the hall. X x x

The night slowly descended, layers of dark clouds in the sky, looming low overhead, making one have a feeling of being suffocated.

Under such scenario, starless and moonless, at the mountain foot in the wildlands, only on a mountain backfacing the wind, a camp fire was burning.

Zhou YiXian and the three of them, together with Ghost Li and Xiao Hui, walked along the ancient path, this day they had came to KongSang Mountain, the night had fallen and so they made a campfire on this mountain, intending to spend the night out.

Although they were mostly roaming throughout the year and had long accustomed to these, Zhou YiXian once he sat down, yelled in pain and incessantly beat his back and waist, like his waist was about to break from tiredness. However nobody paid any attention to him, after yelling for a while, he found it boring and so slowly stopped. Xiao Huan crouched beside the fire and placed her hands above the fire for warmth, Wild Dog Taoist after placing down Ghost Li and the bags, walked to the fire and took deep breaths. Among them, only the monkey was the most active, once landed on the ground, it peered around and jumped here and there.

Ever since Xiao Huan decided to bring Ghost Li along, for a long time Ghost Li was unconscious, occasionally he would be awake, looked around and only called for Xiao Hui, drank unstopped from the wine bag on its back and after a while, he would passed out, he was really leading a befuddled existence.

Along the way, Wild Dog Taoist other than carrying the bags, he had an additional task of carrying Ghost Li, and the monkey Xiao Hui, most of the time would jump onto Ghost Li, increasing his weight, if not for the fact he had been practising cultivation for some time, normal people would not be able to sustain.

After Wild Dog Taoist panted for a while, he looked around, saw Zhou YiXian grumbling for half a day, most likely he was also tired by now, lay down aside and slept clothed; Xiao Huan was lying somewhere near the fire. As for the unconscious Ghost Li, because Wild Dog Taoist, intentionally or unintentionally placed him at a further distance, the firelight could not reach that area, only a blurred figure was reflected, and his monkey had ran off somewhere, mostly likely to find wild fruits, along the way, Xiao Hui frequently did that.

Wild Dog Taoist quietly sat before the fire, the surroundings slowly turned quiet, Zhou YiXian’s snores gradually started, Xiao Huan’s body rose up and down, seemed like she was already asleep.

The firelight shone onto Wild Dog Taoist’s face, his face flickered between light and darkness, also contrasting the strange glint in his eyes.

After a long time, he suddenly lifted his head, looked at that lofty precipitous in the darkness, the KongSang Mountain rocks suddenly like a night ferocious ghost baring its claws, there, was once his Blood Forger Hall sacred place. And right now, the Blood Forger Hall was already gone, leaving him this lonely soul. He slowly turned his head back, that unconscious drunk man in the dim night, lying there unmoving.

Wild Dog Taoist inhaled deeply, deliberately moved his hand to his waist, grabbed hold of his beast fang magical weapon.

Then, he slowly rose, walked towards Ghost Li, the light reflecting his back figure, casting his shadow long, gradually shrouding the sleeping Ghost Li within it.

The next moment, he was standing before Ghost Li

Chapter 143 - At a loss

The grey light emanated softly from the ice-cold beast’s fang, swept past Wild Dog Taoist’s face. This man lying in front of him, was the murderer who destroyed Blood Forger Hall with his own hands.

A glint in his eyes flashed, as if he was wrestling with some thoughts but this opportunity was really one in a million, what kind of a figure was Ghost Li usually, Wild Dog Taoist could not even imagine he would be able to kill this man but right now this man looked like he had lost his will, it was a good opportunity for revenge.

Wild Dog Taoist’s murderous glint flashed in his eyes, the beast fang magical weapon struck down.

The wind whistled, suddenly a soft sharp sound broke through this deep night stillness.

Before the magical weapon touched the body, the force of the wind blew onto that dispirited man, his disarray hair on his forehead lifted, revealing a face with his eyes closed. He looked quite pale, such a thought suddenly flashed past Wild Dog Taoist’s mind, in his lifetime, he had never met such a strange man like Ghost Li, he could not figure out too, just what was it that could make this person who looked so unwavering, to be so despondent.

However, he did not want to know too, in his heart, Blood Forger Hall had always had an important place, this importance even surpassed Nian Leader who ruled Blood Forger Hall and the rest of the members. Therefore after being pushed to the brink by Ghost Li and his men, Nian Leader and the rest surrendered but only Wild Dog Taoist surprisingly persisted.

And right now, it was a golden opportunity to take revenge!

Wild Dog Taoist had already started to imagine the image of fresh blood spurting out and spraying onto his face, at that flint-spark moment, he suddenly thought: if he killed this man, Xiao Huan who was lying behind him, would she be upset and broken-hearted, maybe, she would never talk to me again… After all, Xiao Huan and Ghost Li, they had a past that Wild Dog Taoist did not know but watching how Xiao Huan insisted to bring Ghost Li along and take care of him, he would have guessed the relationship between them.

Wild Dog Taoist for some reason, his mind was in a mess and at that moment, countless of thoughts went past his head. But, that beast fang in his hand, eventually still, stabbed down!

Watching, almost reaching that despondent man’s throat, about to stab in.

An enormous hand, suddenly stretched out from the darkness.

Soundlessly, like a ghost suddenly appearing before Wild Dog Taoist, that huge hand without waiting for Wild Dog Taoist to react, grabbed hold of Wild Dog Taoist’s beast fang magical weapon.

The strong momentum of the beast fang going down pushed the huge hand down by an inch but only this distance, after which, the entire beast fang like an iron casted, held by the huge hand and immovable, stopping at Ghost Li’s throat, missing by just a little bit before it would have stabbed in but no matter how Wild Dog Taoist exerted strength, he could not move it down anymore.

Wild Dog Taoist was taken aback, he looked up and that instant, felt his blood turned cold, above him in the darkness, three balls of burning flames appeared, forming a triangle and especially that highest ball of fire, indistinctly had a solemn golden colour and a strange fierce blood red.

Even if Wild Dog Taoist broke his head open, he also could not comprehend how could the golden colour which represented subduing evil and blood-devouring red could actually mix together, but right now what he knew was, this monster in the darkness with just one hand could stop his beast fang, this level of skill was definitely not someone he could beat.

And in this shapeless darkness, suddenly like some strange beast had roared, in a blink darkness swept towards him, almost swallowing him up. Wild Dog Taoist did not dare to stay, almost subconsciously he released the magical weapon in his hand, turned and flew back, just at that instant, a swift powerful wind force came from above, blew opened a big hole with an enormous boom at where he was standing, the entire small mountain shook.

A distance, Zhou YiXian and Xiao Huan were jolted awake by the shock, looking over, they saw Wild Dog Taoist thrown over, landing near the fire pit and after landing he was unable to stand straight, stumbling a few steps back.

And on his face, a terrified look, his voice hoarse, saying, “Monster, monster…”

Zhou YiXian and Xiao Huan both turned behind and looked, the next moment their countenances changed.

In that darkness, at the place where Ghost Li was lying, within the darkness, an enormous body slowly emerged, both feet on the ground, both arms over the knees, one look and it was at least four, five zhangs high, far taller than the people at the scene, the group of people slowly lifted their head and could only stare up. At the highest point, the three balls of fire were actually this monster’s eyes, the enormous and sharp fangs appeared in its mouth, the muscular body, every part emanated murderous intent.

Zhou YiXian sucked in a breath of cold air, muttering, “Three-eyed  spiritual...no,  wrong,  it’s  three-eyed  ferocious monkey.”

Xiao Huan was stunned, asked in shock, “Grandfather, what did you say? Don’t tell me that is Xiao Hui?”

Zhou YiXian snorted, pulled Xiao Huan back and angrily spoke to Wild Dog Taoist, “What did you do, to anger this monster?”

Wild Dog Taoist kept quiet.

Zhou YiXian looked at his face, felt even more infuriated, was about to yell at him when suddenly he heard an angry roar ahead, the three-eyed ferocious monkey’s eyes were like blood, the huge body suddenly leapt into the air, the wind howled and a blanket of shadow shrouded over them.

Zhou YiXian and the rest turned pale, scattered around running, Xiao Hui who had evolved into an enormous ape seemed to be really angry over Wild Dog Taoist’s attempt to hurt its master, the fierce glare in its eyes surged, its attack not leaving any mercy.

The three of them turned pale, turned and ran in different directions, Xiao Hui who had evolved into an enormous ape seemed to be really incensed by Wild Dog Taoist’s malice towards its master, its eyes shone with terrible glint, attacking without any mercy at all.

They narrowly avoided the attack, Xiao Hui’s huge hand smashed down, [pong] a sound and another huge pit appeared on the ground, even the campfire beside, because of the huge impact, scattered and flew up, the remnant fire and ashes drifted in the air, illuminating Xiao Hui’s huge body like an legendary evil monster.

[Wu ah!...] The infuriated huge beast roared, waved its right hand, a stream of grey light flashed past, swift as the wind and quick as lightning, charged towards Wild Dog Taoist, in an instant it had already arrived before Wild Dog.

Wild Dog Taoist felt a burst of strong wind in his face, it had not reached him yet but his skin felt almost as if the wind force was about to tear it off, greatly shocked, he with all of his strength swerved to the side, his body had just barely moved when he felt pain in his back, that grey light brushed past his back, Wild Dog Taoist’s body shook violently, he felt a wave of great force surging over, a taste of sweetness in his throat and a mouthful of blood was already out of his mouth.

A flash from the corner of his eyes, he saw that the grey light was from his own beast fang magical weapon.

Before he could give a wry laugh, the huge ape body suddenly appeared above him, with a loud boom descended, Wild Dog Taoist wanted to escape but his body could no longer move, he could only heaved a long sigh and closed his eyes to wait for death. Looking helplessly as Xiao Hui was about to tear Wild Dog to pieces, the huge body descended with a loud sound, Zhou YiXian and Xiao Huan stared shell-shocked and did not know what to do. Suddenly, Xiao Hui’s body had a strange change, his enormous body suddenly tilted backwards and then with an extremely bizarre and comical posture, [pu tong] a sound, its backside going downwards, sat right down on the ground.

[Pong!]

This action had an extremely strong impact, resounding with a loud sound. Xiao Hui made a [wu] sound, evidently it was also extremely bewildered, its huge hand scratched its head, turned to look.

Zhou YiXian, Xiao Huan and that Wild Dog Taoist who was fortunate to survive, turned and looked at the same time.

Ghost Li who had woken up at some point, suddenly appeared behind Xiao Hui, a desolate expression on his face, his right hand clutching Xiao Hui’s tail, most likely he, by a moment of hair’s breath, pulled Xiao Hui from the air and thus saved Wild Dog Taoist’s life. Xiao Hui’s three eyes blinked, suddenly it howled to this man who was less than half of its size, Ghost Li instead only shook his head slightly.

Xiao Hui’s body suddenly wavered, the next moment the sounds of bones [ka ka] erupted, under the astonished stares of Zhou YiXian and the rest, the huge body shrank, in a short moment, the humongous body again turned into that adorable three-eyed monkey, it peered around while on the ground, [suo] a sound and again scurried up to Ghost Li’s shoulder.

Ghost Li stretched out his hand and patted the monkey’s head, Xiao Hui’s three eyes turned, it looked unwilling, [zhi zhi] called out and at the same time pointed at Wild Dog Taoist with its hand.

Wild Dog Taoist was stunned and noticed that Ghost Li was also looking at him, he was heard saying, “You wanted to kill me?”

The expression on Wild Dog Taoist’s face changed, displaying a mix of emotions, he also felt Xiao Huan’s astonished stare and for some reason, felt an inexplicable hurt, he could not help himself and burst out:

“That’s right, I want to kill you! You destroyed my Blood Forger Hall, killed so many of my sect brothers, today I want to seek revenge, shouldn’t I?”

Ghost Li did not speak, only gave him a cold stare, Xiao Hui on his shoulder also quietened down, [zhi] a sound, as if it was mocking Wild Dog.

Wild Dog, being stared down by Ghost Li, felt uncomfortable and Xiao Huan beside him kept quiet, which made him felt even more ill at ease, under such torment, he gritted his teeth, angrily said, “Kill if you want to, what are you looking at?”

Ghost Li slowly, looked away from that fierce of mien but faint of heart, Wild Dog, his expression, also slowly changed.

Looking somehow melancholy, somehow desolate, somehow broken-hearted, somehow in anguish… “What do I want to kill you for, if killing a person could save her, even if I have to kill the whole world, I would have done it long ago…” He mumbled, his voice distant, “Ten years already, what have I done other than killing people? What exactly am I living for?...”

His face bleak, his body slowly turning, ignoring the rest, he walked off alone.

Wild Dog Taoist was stunned, Xiao Huan’s face suddenly changed and she chased after him. Zhou YiXian was shocked and quickly stretched out his hand to catch her but unexpectedly his hands grabbed empty air.

Xiao Huan after a short while caught up with Ghost Li, she pulled Ghost Li’s hand, said, “What happened to you, where are you going?”

Ghost Li, with that question, felt his entire world shook and only that four words rumbled! “Where are you going?...Where are you going?...Where are you going?...”

“I...where can I go?”

This man, suddenly lifted his head, gazed at the firmament!

The black sky, heavy and dark, infinite boundaries, not a trace of light, the darkness filling the sky and covering the ground, like an avalanche, drowning him in it…

I, where should I go…

In the darkness, a soft voice, quietly asking him.

X x x

The southern border fringe, Seven Mile Cave. The dreary atmosphere shrouded the entire valley, countless of Miao people swarmed over from all directions, standing along the path to the altar halfway up the mountain, there were old people, children, sturdy men, women. Their eyes, contained infinite sorrow, some of the women started to weep, very quickly, sobs started from the crowd.

Qing Long, following behind the Miao tribe leader, Tu MaGu, his hand solemnly holding the porcelain urn which contained the great shaman ashes, slowly walked towards the altar.

Pairs of eyes, were all on that porcelain urn, the young men’s hands curled into fists, the women crying and the old people, with only desolation on their faces.

Tu MaGu, the tribe leader, kept quiet all the way, his face sombre but evidently he took the news better than the rest of the Miao people.

Traversing the path packed with people, traversing past the sorrowful gazes, the mountain breeze gently blew over, brushing past the small urn, there seemed to be a slight sound, like singing, like relief. This was the ground of the hometown!

Qing Long was someone who had seen innumerable grand occasions but right now, he was instead solemn and respectful, step by step he followed behind the tribe leader and walked to that altar.

On the platform before the altar, a circle of shamans were already standing there, the older ones had heads full of white hair, the younger ones still black however in their eyes, the reverence were all the same.

The shaman who looked the oldest slowly walked up, bowed deeply to Qing Long, spoke a few words in Miao. Qing Long did not dare to be impolite and respectfully listened but he did not understand the words and so turned and look at Tu MaGu.

Tu MaGu quietly said, “This is White Sheep shaman master, he is the current leader of the altar shamans. He is enquiring after you and extremely grateful that you have brought back our revered great shaman’s ashes.” Qing Long solemnly said, “The great shaman was a person of virtue and prestige and did all he could for our Ghost King sect, I am just doing what I must do.”

Tu MaGu quietly translated his words to White Sheep shaman master, White Sheep shaman master nodded, stepped forward and came before Qing Long, stretched out both of his hands.

Qing Long solemnly handed over the porcelain urn to him.

At the instant White Sheep shaman master took over, all of the shaman masters suddenly started to chant a strange scripture in Miao, their voices hazy, unreal, like spirits speaking softly, like a chill under the cold moon.

The incantation grew louder, resounding far and reverberating in the Seven Mile Cave, from the foot of the mountain, among the people, again crying sounds were heard.

The White Sheep shaman master bowed to Qing Long and Tu MaGu, turned and walked into the altar with the urn, the rest of the shaman masters also followed along. Qing Long watched all that, his ears still reverberating with the weeping sounds from a distance, he could not help but heaved a long sigh.

Tu MaGu’s face was sombre, quietly said, “The entire Miao tribe thank honourable envoy for sending the great shaman back to his hometown.”

Qing Long solemnly said, “Tribe leader is too kind, the great shaman was a great benefactor to our Ghost King sect, our reverence towards elders are no less than all of you. Our sect’s Ghost King wanted to send the great shaman back personally but unfortunately he is tied up with something and could not make it, he specifically entrusted me to convey his apologies to all of you.”

Tu MaGu nodded, said, “Ghost King Sir is too kind, we don’t deserve it. Honourable envoy please come this way.”

Speaking, he stretched his hand out, inviting Qing Long into the altar. Qing Long was startled, felt puzzled, he thought the altar was a sacred place and outsiders were not allowed to enter, could it be that this tribe leader had something to say to him?

While he was thinking, his feet still went forward, as expected, only Tu MaGu accompanied Qing Long into the altar, the rest of the Miao soldiers following behind him did not come along and the group of shamans had long disappeared, most likely they had gone deep into the altar.

After checking nobody was around, Tu MaGu stopped, Qing Long also stopped, looking at this Miao tribe leader with a brooding expression on his face, he quietly said, “What is it tribe leader, is there are other matters?”

Tu MaGu hesitated then said, “I indeed have a matter, will like to ask honorable envoy.”

Qing Long said, “Please speak.”

Tu MaGu said, “Previously that young man who came to our Miao tribe Seven Mile Cave and invited the great shaman, I wonder how is he now?”

Qing Long was surprised, an image of Ghost Li flashed past his mind, after pausing for a moment, said, “To be honest with tribe leader, that young man is our Ghost King sect vice leader but right now he is grieving and not many know where he is now.”

Tu MaGu’s face revealed disappointed but quickly turned solemn, after a period of silence, he said, “Then will like to trouble honourable envoy if you have the chance to see him, pass a message from old man me to him.”

Qing Long felt uneasy but still nodded and said, “Tribe leader please speak.”

Tu MaGu looked deep into the altar, his voice uncertain, said, “Please tell him, that day in the southern border Seven Mile Cave altar, an old man’s bequest of him, hope he still remembers.” Qing Long frowned, he was an intelligent man, hearing it once he already surmised that most likely Ghost Li had promised the Miao tribe something which was why the great shaman, disregarded everything to save BiYao, a pity Ghost Li was not around if not he would really want to ask, what matter was it that was so important.

While he was thinking, Qing Long’s face did not show it and he  only  solemnly  nodded,  said,  “Tribe  leader  please  don’t worry, I will definitely pass the message.”

Tu MaGu sighed, was about to say something when suddenly from outside the altar, a sharp cry was heard from afar.

This sharp cry seemed to come from the sky, it did not stop but yet the muffled cry sounded like it was from the nine netherworlds, filled with rage, in it an infinite viciousness, storming over.

In that instant, in this clear bright daylight, the entire Seven Mile Cave rang with wailing ghost cries, innumerable roars from ferocious beasts rocked the valley, waves of thunder peals rushed forth, like the huge waves of the great sea, instantly drowning the Seven Mile Cave this small island of about a hundred mu big. .

Tu MaGu immediately turned pale, even Qing Long too, both of them looked past out of the altar, in the sky above Seven Mile Cave, the original blue sky was already covered with heavy dark clouds.

Piercing sharp cries continued to cry out, black clouds billowed, the Miao people below the mountain were in a panic, the women and children shrieked loudly.

A gust of Yin wind swept past, blowing coldly from the black clouds above, like an arrogant evil spirit, grinning viciously at the earth.

The sounds of galloping finally arrived, the first enormous figure appearing at the distance mountain top ----

The white bones seemed especially glaring under the black clouds but the three pairs of brightly-colourful wings looked strangely beautiful, however these beautiful wings were instead on an enormous snake which other than its head, had only white bones for its body, it thus looked especially horrible.

A white-boned demonic snake close to three zhangs long, moved the three pairs of wings on its bones, its tongue flicking unceasingly, spitting out black air.

The next moment, behind this white-boned demonic snake body, beside its body and even the undulating mountain ranges, the mountaintops on the mountain valleys around Seven Mile Cave, in the unceasing ghost wails, numerous different and strange demonic beasts race gushed out, shrieking, grinning hideously, brandishing weapons and their sharp claws, charged down from the mountain, pounding towards the terrified humans in this mountain valley.

And this moment, in the horizon above, within the whistling Yin wind, a peal of thunder suddenly exploded, rumbling loudly, surging over like waves, shaking the Heaven and Earth, an indistinct cry in it:

Ling Long…

Chapter 144 - Predestined Fate

Qing Yun Hill.

TongTian Peak, Founders Ancestral Hall.

That old man who was keeping watch at the Hall, right now was still holding onto his decrepit broom, standing at the great hall entrance, looking out. The wrinkled face indistinctly revealing a different type of expression, like expectation and yet also excitement.

On the empty ground outside the great hall, there was no one. But looking carefully, one would realize on this empty piece of ground, a great number of strange charms were either pasted onto the surrounding trees or hidden under the rocks in the grasses. Every charm was placed a distance of about half a zhang away, looked unconnected but in fact it formed a mysterious formation, isolating this empty ground from its nearby surroundings.

The pleasantly warm sun, shone down from the sky, inside and outside the formation, the ground looked the same, illuminated as one by the sun.

However the next moment, suddenly a sharp sound rang out from that empty ground. The old man standing at the entrance raised his head and looked over, the hand that was holding the broom, subconsciously tightened.

A different kind of darkness, suddenly appeared above this empty ground, in a blink of an eye, it enveloped the air above the ground, instantly permeated the air with a heavy harsh feel. But this darkness, only appeared above this empty ground, to say it accurately, only within the formation formed by the charms, evidently, this strange formation perimeter was set up by a highly-skilled person to trap this energy within it.

The black energy gas in the air thickened, made one felt as if he was standing in the nine netherworlds but at the next moment, suddenly a long whistling of dragons singing emitted from the black gas, bluish green light flashed, burst forth from the black gas, in an instant shining with boundless radiance, dispelling the black energy and leaving nothing behind. Lin JingYu held the Dragon Slayer Sword, hovering high up in the air, the jade-green light emitting from his body, resplendent, both of his eyes shone fiercely, human and sword as one, pounced straight down from the air.

The Dragon Slayer Sword with its multitude of rays, made a loud whistle with a boom, its presence overwhelming, while still far up high in the air, the dust on the ground had started to stir, sands and stones scattered. And Lin JingYu’s body like lightning striking down, due to the high fierce speed, beside his body, flames erupted in the air.

Looking like a war deity filled with fighting spirit, without any regards, striking down.

The old man’s lips, suddenly started to quiver.

[Boom!]

The deafening boom came in an instant, the ground hit by this amazing power groaned, immediately the ground in that formation cracked, big and small rocks lifted from the ground, jumped up into the air. And the resplendent jade green light ball in the core of that force, had pierced deeply into the ground.

The various charms around this empty ground, including the mysterious charms drawn on the ground, suddenly started to glow. An indistinct incantation in the air was heard, like a low chant, invisible energy spreading out, encapsulating this devastating force within it, preventing it from leaking out.

Outside the formation, the sunlight warm, trees and grasses leisurely at peace, yet inside the formation, Heaven and Earth turned upside down, like in a violent storm.

This was the amazing scene right now outside Qing Yun Hill Founders Ancestral Hall.

In a distance, a dark green figure, gazed over from afar, his hands clasped behind, unmoving.

The storm within the formation gradually died down, the sands and stone thrown into the air due to the huge force landed one after another, the cracks on the ground and that massive crater were evidence of that earth-shaking impact.

On that old man’s face, his lips twitched, eventually revealed a hint of smile. Deep inside his eyes, there seemed to be a trace of being gratified.

After a sound of whistle, Lin JingYu holding the Dragon Slayer Sword, leapt out from that deep crater, his body caked with dirt, even his handsome face was marked with some. After his body landed, he immediately started to pant heavily but on his face, an uncontainable excitement.

He lifted his head, looked towards that old man standing at the entrance.

The old man’s lips had a smile, slowly raised his hand towards him, beckoning slightly.

Lin JingYu’s breaths started to calm down, he hurried over to the old man, called out, “Senior, I…” That old man smiled and nodded, his gaze on him, full of gratification and affection, quietly said, “You are good, really very good.”

Speaking, he slowly lifted his head, gazed at the sky, leisurely said, “Even if it was me at that time, the time took to complete this style, ‘Slay Ghost Deity’, true way sword formula, was not much faster than you.”

Lin JingYu, a [shua] sound, sheathed the sword, the excitement on his face still remained, said, “Senior, if not for your guidance, I do not know when I would be able to complete this level of supreme true way!”

That old man humphed, revealing a hint of disdain on his face, indifferently said, “Now in Qing Yun Hill, other than DaoXuan, only Tian BuYi and your former teacher can still make the cut, the rest of the elder leaders are all good for nothings.”

Lin JingYu was stunned, he had been studying under this old man for more than ten years, in these years, for every progression in his training, the respect and reverence for this old man increased, he really felt that this elderly had shown him an universe that he had never known existed, that cultivation could actually be like this.

And as the days went by, Lin JingYu interacted more with this old man and the old man also gradually liked and doted on him, they also started to talk more and naturally their topics would bring up some discussions on some of the world’s figures and each time, the old man’s tone would surprisingly turned arrogant, as if in his eyes, not many could measure up to his level.

In the beginning, Lin JingYu although did not dare to refute but in his heart he felt unconvinced. However as the training developed, the more he felt that this old man was really unfathomable and even for his arrogance, he must have his own reasons, with his level of skills, truly how many could match up to him?

However he had always found that Big Bamboo Valley plump teacher uncle, Tian BuYi, to be an eyesore, most likely one of the reasons was because he had saw Tian BuYi berating Zhang Xiao Fan, right now he could not help but say, “Senior, that Tian BuYi looks quite sloppy and ordinary, what is so great?” That old man glanced at him, shook his head said, “What do you, a young man, knows, Tian BuYi looks harmless but on the cultivation training he is naturally gifted, and beside he has unswerving determination and dedication, not what an ordinary person could match. Just this point is especially important in the later part of the cultivation. That year after he joined the sect, he was just always average but once he received guidance and enlightenment, his training improved

by leaps and bounds, his achievement, compared to those frolic senior brothers and sisters who looked down on him, instead was higher than them.”

He coldly snorted again, said, “The people in this world, eight or nine of them are mediocre, like previously Tian Yun, Shang ZhengLiang those useless things, what do they know?”

Lin JingYu was silent but looking at the haughty old man’s face, his words had even belittled Taoist Tian Yun and several Qing Yun elder leaders whose names had once shook the world, if this was spread outside, it would be a rude joke to the world but for some reason, Lin JingYu did not have the slightest doubt when he heard it. That old man turned and looked at Lin JingYu, said, “Although you are able to display this style, “Slay Ghost Deity’, but this form is strong, violent and extremely Yang, it although has a powerful force but it consume great amount of the body’s vitality. You are endowed by nature, at your young age and you could already achieve this style but you will still need to keep on practising in order to wield it as you desire. If it is not at the critical moment, better not summon this true way sword formula.”

Lin  JingYu  kneeled  before  him,  respectfully  said,  “Yes, disciple understands.”

The old man helped him up, assessed him with a few glances, a trace of pride on his face, said, “In the world now, everyone in and outside Qing Yun Hill only knows ‘Celestial Sword Wield Thunder True Formula’ as our Qing Yun Sect supreme true way, actually our sect Qing Ye Founder, what an exceptional figure he was at that time, he sorted out the true ways passed down by our ancestors and by himself comprehended what was on the nameless ancient scrolls, in total passed down four styles of true sword formulas, which one isn’t peerless and powerful supreme true formulas?” “What?”  Lin JingYu was surprised, said, “There is actually such a thing, my teacher he…, he never told me that before.”

That old man shook his head slightly, said, “Your teacher also did not know.”

Lin JingYu was even more stunned, Cang Song Taoist’s status in Qing Yun Sect was one below and above thousands but this elderly man actually said that even he did not know. However Cang Song Taoist did in fact never mention this to him before.

The identity of this old man, Lin JingYu could not help but feel even more intrigued.

That old man’s eyes, full of life’s vicissitudes and experiences, looked at his face and knew what this young man was thinking but he did not say it out, instead suddenly frowned, as if he had sensed some movements, his eyes suddenly looked into the distance.

After a moment, he looked away, his expression somehow strange, faintly said, “It is late, go on back first.” Lin JingYu hated to part but he had always revered this old man like deity and did not dare to disobey, he properly kneeled down and kowtow three times before leaving.

Not long after, only that old man was left alone, after a long while, his body again resumed its hunched form, hobbled to a side and started to sweep, the dust flew around, while he was sweeping up the stones and dust, the concealed mysterious charms were also swept up easily like nothing, drifted into the dirt.

X x x

After tidying up the empty ground, he stacked the stone pieces into the crater created by Lin JingYu and with difficulty managed to level it, this old man looked to be slightly panting and tired, after standing and resting for a while, he then slowly turned and walked back into the Founders Ancestral great hall.

In the great hall, it was tranquil and dim as usual, deep inside the hall where countless of tablets were enshrined, dots of blinking candlelights soundlessly burned. However right now, one more human figure suddenly appeared, stood before those tablets, tall and still.

That person’s dark green robe, with a celestial demeanour, he was the current sect head of Qing Yun Sect, Reverend DaoXuan.

Reverend DaoXuan heard the footsteps, turned and glanced over at the old man but did not speak, again turned back to the ancestors tablets, stepped forward, took up three thin incense sticks on the altar, lighted them up from the candle beside, respectfully bowed three times while holding the sticks and placed them into the incense burner.

“I have not come to offer incense for some time,” Reverend DaoXuan’s voice was calm and slow, like speaking to a very very old friend, “wonder if the ancestors would blame me.”

Standing behind him that old man tottered over, placed the broomstick aside and took up a piece of rag, gently wiped away the ashes on the altar, quietly said, “You have brought such glory to our Qing Yun sect, our ancestors could not be more happier, why would they blame you?” Reverend DaoXuan smiled faintly, turned and looked at him, suddenly said, “You seemed to have age again.”

The old man’s body paused for a moment then continued to wipe the table, without turning his head said, “For someone whose heart is also dead, naturally will age faster.”

Reverend DaoXuan quietly watched that old man, did not speak anymore, the elderly unhurriedly and detailedly finished wiping the table, placed the rag aside, turned and faced Reverend DaoXuan, after looking at him for a while, suddenly spoke, “You saw all that just now?”

Reverend DaoXuan silently nodded, with a sigh said, “That child’s aptitude is indeed high but, “ his voice seemed louder, “I did not expect you will passed him the ‘Slay Ghost Deity’.”

That old man humphed, said, “The child’s heart and aptitude are all good, since it is so, why not, don’t tell me like you, keep it to yourself and bring it to the coffin?” Reverend DaoXuan’s countenance changed, he seemed angry but for some reason, towards this old man, he, the world’s Good Faction respected leader, seemed especially patient, even with such sarcastic words, only his expression changed and then he controlled it.

“Oh right, there is one more matter that I need to tell you, “ Reverend DaoXuan indifferently said.

That old man raised his head, said, “I am only an old man with one foot in his grave, what matter is it?”

Reverend DaoXuan said, “Today, later on, FenXiang Valley valley master Yun YiLan will be leading his disciples to pay a visit to Qing Yun Hill.”

That old man suddenly frowned, said, “Yun YiLan?”

Reverend DaoXuan smiled and said, “You still remember him right?” The old man sneered, turned over, his voice suddenly turned deep with meaning, said, “That man, is a crafty old one…”

X x x

Southern border, Seven Mile Cave mountain range.

Here was an undulating mountain range, with Seven Mile Cave as the centre, stretched out in four directions. All along, the mountains here were exuberant and flourishing but right now it had totally lost its original look.

Cold Yin wind blew from the sky, screaming past the mountains, like ghosts wailing. The sky was full of black clouds, looming overhead, similar to the day where Li tribe attacked Seven Mile Cave but the power and might far exceeded that day.

And in the forests which used to have multifarious birds and animals, right now had completely turned into a living hell, different kinds of demonic beasts and races everywhere and corpses of birds and animals massacred strewn all over, the air heavy with the smell of blood.

Following a sound of long cry, a distinct figure flew over from a distance, within a few leaps the figure had reached, he was Qing Long.

His face grim, his robes already stained with blood. A powerful wind brushed past, he stopped on one of the branches above, urgently scanned the surroundings and then looked behind.

In the subdued forest, a sharp long howl suddenly erupted, sounds of wings flapping, that enormous huge white-boned demonic snake suddenly leapt into the air, its two huge eyes immediately reflected Qing Long’s figure, it gave an even louder cry and leapt forward. And closely following behind it, black gases surging, the roars came like waves, it was actually countless of demonic beasts surging over, together pouncing towards Qing Long.

Not long before that, the Seven Mile Cave where the Miao tribe resided, was suddenly besieged by innumerable demonic beasts, leading them was actually this terrible demonic white- boned snake. This snake’s body was gigantic, white bones danced where it passed by, human and animals beside were all thrown out and its body could even eject poisonous gases, which were immediate fatal to humans, as for the other evil beasts, their strength powerful and extremely brutal.

Although the Miao people were brave but how would they be a match for these demonic monsters, in a short while all hell had turned loosed in Seven Mile Cave, a scene of massacre. Qing Long saw the situation and reacted immediately, asked the Miao tribe leader Tu MaGu to lead the remaining Miao people into the altar, those shaman masters inside the altar knew a little of the southern border shaman skills and would be able to hold off for a while and he charged forward, made unexpected sly heavy attacks on the snake with his swift movements and skills at the same time, wounding the demonic snake, as expected most of the demonic monsters’ attention were all directed to him.

However, aside from the rest of the demonic beasts, this white-boned snake was something not to be trivialized, with Qing Long’s level of skills, including his rare treasure, ‘Ring of Universe Clear Light’, he was still unable to win. And as the number of beasts continued to grow, the pressure on him increased, he was appalled and also had the intention to lure those monsters away and so escaped up the mountain, as expected many of the monsters including the snake also followed him up.

Just that since he wished to lure them away, he was unwilling to fly and so swept past the forest ground. But contrary to his expectation, the wild animals and birds in this mountain had also went through a bizarre change, either they were slaughtered or they turned into brutal demonic beasts, wherever he went, he would be attacked, it was really hard to deal with.

Right now, Qing Long again flew up, avoiding the raging white-boned snake’s tail attack but when he looked down, three or four huge trees which had lived for unknown number of years, like withered leaves, swept aside in a loud crashing sound. Among these, many smaller monsters were also hit, immediately their wails were heard.

The white-boned snake saw Qing Long soaring up, its snake head lifted towards the sky, angrily bellowed, suddenly its three wings flapped, its enormous body lifted up, pouncing towards Qing Long in the air. Qing Long was taken aback, although he had saw the wings on the monster in the beginning but for such a huge body to take flight, this strength was astonishing, the humongous body was seen towering and pouncing over.

But Qing Long was after all not an ordinary human, he as one of the four holy envoys of the Ghost King Sect, naturally excelled others, his body twisted, forcefully escaped out from the gap between the snake’s body, heading towards the opposite direction of the Seven Mile Cave.

The white snake roared in succession, flapped its wings and pursued.

Qing Long after flying for a while, as he was highly-skilled, gradually he left the white-boned snake and the rest of the monsters behind, when he saw that the distance was slightly further, he contemplated if he should shake those monsters off and then turned back to Seven Mile Cave to check out how are the Miao people doing?

At this moment, a quick glance from the corner of his eyes, he saw a purple light flashed past below him and next, blood sprayed out, the sounds of beast roars were heard one after another, immediately the demonic beasts from all directions started to run towards the place below him.

Looking down, innumerable savage beasts brandishing their claws and fangs pounced over, like infinite turbulent waves, it was really a shock to see.

And among them, was a girl’s angry cries.

Qing Long was shocked, numerous thoughts flashed past his head like lightning, in the end his body still bent down, went forward to investigate.

Upon entering the forest, the smell of blood and flesh made him wanted to vomit, everywhere was the animals’ corpses, in pieces with blood splattered everywhere, not far there indeed was a girl battling with the monsters, in her hand a purple magical weapon glimmering, the sharp edge stabbing in and out, one look and it did not look like an ordinary weapon. Qing  Long’s  eyes  squinted,  he  exclaimed,  “Purple  light sword...you are Jin PingEr?”

That girl seemed to be taken aback, turned and looked, her body drifted over, her hands never stopping for a second, where the purple light flashed, another three monsters were slaughtered.

“Who are you?” Jin PingEr landed beside Qing Long, coldly said.

Qing Long felt puzzled, with Jin PingEr’s current skill level, why did she not fly, once she is up in the sky, only a small number of the beasts could ascend into the sky, wasn’t it much easier?

Although he was thinking that way but Qing Long still prepared an answer, just that before he could open his mouth, both Jin PingEr and his body shook at the same time and both looked ahead at the same time. Just when that wave of frenzied innumerable monsters, like tide waters receded, ahead of them deep inside the forest, a wave of cold murderous intent gushed over, this invisible feeling, made these two highly-skilled figures could not help but shiver.

Qing Long was aghast, in the southern border, there was actually such terrible thing!

While they were in shock, the next moment, behind a huge tree, a figure suddenly moved, a human unhurriedly walked out.

That person was dressed in bright silk, a head full of black hair covered his shoulders, both hands slender and fair, his face was even more striking, it was a beautiful, almost to the point of seducing, a young man.

Qing Long was dumbfounded but almost at the same time, he suddenly sensed that, Jin PingEr’s body beside him, for some reason, after this man appeared, seemed to be slightly trembling.

Chapter 145 - Reluctant

The forest quietened down gradually, a moment before there were still demonic beasts howling ferociously and then for some reason, all of them dispersed far in such a haste and Qing Long was taken aback by that. In his heart, Qing Long was even more nonplussed by Jin PingEr’s reaction to this strange young man.

That young man’s gaze unhurriedly stopped on them, after carefully assessing them, slightly frowning, said, “Are you all Central Plains people?”

The way the young man said, was gentle and pleasant and in perfect Central Plains language, Qing Long was astonished and instead asked, “Who are you?”

That young man smiled, revealing a set of white teeth, he looked somehow innocent, completely out of place with the surrounding scene of massacre, he was heard saying, “Who am I? This is a good question, “ he slowly spoke, “Hmm who am I?” Qing Long humphed, quietly said, “I am Ghost King sect Qing Long, who is this person?”

Jin PingEr was surprised, clearly she knew of Qing Long, the internal fights among the three big branches of the Evil Sect had always been vicious, Jin PingEr as the new generation of HeHuan Sect outstanding disciples, although she had never met Qing Long but the information on this important figure in Ghost King sect, she had long knew it by heart.

She immediately nodded slightly, considered it a greeting, actually from their standpoint, they should be foes and not friends but right now in this southern border, demonic beasts all around them, both inevitably treated the other party as battle allies.

Jin PingEr cast a sideway glance at that young man, quietly said, “Be careful, he is the Evil Beast, all of the demonic beasts are under his command, he is very highly skilled.” She paused for  a  moment  and  softly  added,  “His  skills  are  also  very strange.” Qing Long frowned, he was about to enquire more when a roar was heard behind him, following which sounds of trees crashing down were heard incessantly, both of them turned around hurriedly, that white-boned snake was charging straight over, just that the other small demons were not seen beside it, most likely like the other demons, with the appearance of the Evil Beast, they had stayed far away from this area out of fear.

Qing Long did not expect the snake to catch up this quickly, the demonic snake looked like it was about to reach, accompanied by a strong stench of blood, the white figure flashed, the enormous body sweeping over.

The ancient trees before this demonic beast, like grass, swept away, in the racket they were pulled up by the roots, flying over in this direction.

Qing Long and Jin PingEr both leapt up at the same time, both were not ordinary figures and with one glance they could tell this snake was not a simple demon, its demonic energy brimming, evidently highly skilled. But more importantly was that the mysterious young man in front of them, never made a move, the two of them could not tell the level of his skills. Qing Long was still better, he was only secretly fearful but that Jin PingEr seemed to know much more than Qing Long, was extremely tensed, even while facing the white-boned snake, half of her attention seemed to be placed behind her.

Jin PingEr’s movements naturally could not avoid the seasoned Qing Long’s eyes. Both of them did not fight with the snake heads-on and instead with their agile skills, leapt and flied around the snake, occasionally sniped at the white-boned snake, that snake’s body seemed to be very tough, ordinary magical weapons were unable to hurt it.

And the demonic snake who could not catch up with Qing Long and Jin PingEr, howled incessantly, its huge body twisted and turned ceaselessly, its speed increasing, not the slightest cumbersome, gradually catching up to them.

Qing Long was taken aback, this white-boned snake was actually this formidable, the young man who was said to be the Evil Beast by Jin PingEr, as the head of these demons, wouldn’t he be even more terrible. With such thoughts, he decided to escape, while brushing past Jin PingEr, he urgently said, “Let’s go!” Jin PingEr obviously did not wish to stay here any longer, immediately nodded and at the same time pointed towards the sky.

Qing Long understood and almost at the same time, both of them made a light hoot, a stream of clear light from Qing Long’s finger mixed within Jin PingEr’s purple light, hit the bones of the snake from the side. Even though the white snake’s bones were tough, it was also hit reeling back by these two highly-skilled people, it's snake body softened and with a few shakes dispersed this strong force but eventually it was unable to continue pursuing.

With this break, Qing Long, with a light whistle, leapt into the air but when his body had just moved, he suddenly had a thought and from the corner of his eyes looked over, Jin PingEr was not seen flying up.

[Roar…]

While Qing Long was feeling alarmed, the clear sky in front of him suddenly darkened, a sheet of darkness appeared above the tree branch where he leapt from, with an overwhelming force charged over.

Qing Long in the nick of time, luckily was alert, his right finger ‘Ring of Universe Clear Light’ surged with clear light, instantly creating a circle of light and protecting his body, at the same time his body forcibly shifted to the side.

Even so, the force of that sheet of darkness was inconceivably fast, with a loud sound [pong], Qing Long’s protective circle of light was still hit and thrown out, also at the same time, Qing Long clearly saw Jin PingEr transformed into a stream of purple light, flew up to the sky after that sheet of darkness was diverted by him, distantly, he could still hear her coquettish laughter,

“Many  thanks  uncle,  next  time  if  we  meet  again,  little woman me will definitely thank you personally!”

Qing Long fought to suppress the turbulent blood and energy in his chest, a wry smile appeared on his lips, his whole life unhindered and yet at his later age he would actually be schemed by this young girl. However by then he could not be concerned with Jin PingEr anymore, he stretched his arm and grabbed the tree bark of a big tree, [si], his palm deeply embedded into the trunk and his body made a turn and landed.

And the next moment, the white-boned snake had already arrived behind him, like a tiger eyeing its prey, it did not immediately pounced, the huge head with its forked tongue spitting, making hissing sounds. As for that sheet of darkness, it had landed on the ground, with a [suo] sound disappeared, extremely fast, it was really unusual.

As for that seductive young man, like an apparition, he appeared one zhang before Qing Long, clasping his hands behind.

Qing Long landed, heaved a long breath out, he was intercepted down and however right now he was not in a hurry to escape, frowning slightly, he took a few glances at the young man, suddenly said, “That evil thing in the sky just now, was it the legendary ‘TaoTie’?” The young man’s eyebrow raised, a smile revealed on his lips, nodded and said, “Didn’t expect you to have an eye for things, that’s right, it is TaoTie.”

[Roar!]

A deep strange sound was heard from behind the young man, a hideous-looking strange head slowly peeked out from behind the young man’s back.

It was hard to describe what kind of an animal it was but its four eyes, as big as bell, two above the other two separated on both sides of the face, six sharp fangs protruding from its huge mouth, salivating incessantly. Its grey black skin, full of coarse lumps, even the mortal world’s most ferocious spirit, would not be this ugly and hideous as this strange beast.

Qing Long sucked in a breath of cold air!

The TaoTie’s neck seemed extremely long, that strange head extended long out and turning around, it circled to the front of the young man’s shoulder and the young man, in front of this savage-looking beast, his expression unperturbed.

Qing Long calmed his heart down, said, “Didn’t expect that such ferocious beast still exist in this world!”

That young man laughed, stretched out his hand and actually patted the TaoTie’s head, that TaoTie looked extremely fierce but under this young man’s hand, it only softly crooned and even used its head to rub against the man’s hand, if not for its hideous look, it behaved almost like a puppy.

That young man glanced at Qing Long, suddenly spoke, “Just now that girl, she must be your companion, she clearly knew the TaoTie was hiding in the sky and yet deliberately allowed you to be the bait, escaped by herself after TaoTie was lured down, right now you must be feeling extremely vex right?”

Qing Long was secretly on guard but he still smiled and said, “Being tricked by her, is because I am incompetent, others is not to blame!” That young man took a few more glances at him, nodded and said, “Since it is so, then you shall die.”

Before he finished his words, he did not seemed to make any movement but the white-boned snake behind Qing Long which had been eyeing its prey covetously, suddenly like receiving a command, its huge mouth opened wide and bit down.

Qing Long was already prepared, although the snake made a sudden attack but he did not panic and instead of retreating, he advanced, directly headed towards the snake, surprising that snake instead.

Taking advantage of that moment, Qing Long had already dashed below the snake’s body, his body flashed past, avoided the venomous air ejected by the angry snake, with one foot he leapt up the white bones of the snake, kicked the huge body forward by three chi, at the same time using the momentum to rise up to the sky, clear light shone from his hands, instantly creating six walls of light towards the direction of the TaoTie.

Between the two beasts and human, the one he feared the most, was that young man who had not made a move. The white-boned snake roared in succession but it still was unable to catch up, Qing Long was about to reach up the sky and escape when he felt his leg tightened, his ascending body was caught by a hand and the next moment, a deep laughter was heard below him, a great force came from that hand, Qing Long only felt his body like being burned, shook violently, he could not help but be flung out by this hand.

In the air, his body floated, accompanied by the sounds of tree branches broken, Qing Long’s body once again flung into the forest.

In the forest, numerous evil beasts’ cries filled the air again.

In the air, the young man closed his eyes slightly, facing the sky, a breeze blew past, his brightly coloured silk clothes flapped and danced in the wind.

In a distant, there seemed to be a ferocious beast’s cry…

X x x Qing Yun Hill, TongTian Peak, Crystal Hall.

Qing Yun sect from Reverend DaoXuan, the leaders of the various branches gathered in the hall, there were also many elders standing behind the leaders, a few stood at the Crystal Hall entrance, looking at their expressions, seemed like they were waiting for somebody.

No matter who it was, to be accorded with this level of courteous reception, the person was already a world’s first rank figure.

Other than Qing Yun sect’s members, Li Xun was already standing on the right hand side, quietly and solemnly standing, only his eyes indistinctly contained excitement, his gaze frequently looked to the other side.

Over there, Lu XueQi in white was standing expressionlessly behind ShuiYue Master.

Not long after, the melodious sound of the bell from Qing Yun Hill mountain top at a distance was heard, it continuously chimed five times, the crowd looked out of the hall, from far, a voice was heard,

“FenXiang Valley valley master, Yun YiLan Yun elder paying a visit…”

Almost at the same time when the voice was heard, a figure like fire, appeared at Crystal Hall entrance.

“He he, where is senior brother DaoXuan, junior brother misses him badly!”

Yun YiLan, dressed in red and beaming, strided in, behind him ShangGuan Ce, LuShun and other senior disciples of FenXiang Valley, roughly about several dozen people.

Astonished murmurs were heard from Qing Yun sect members but after a moment, all of the people’s gazes were on Yun YiLan’s face. This figure who was renowned in the Good Faction for many years, was also once an all-powerful character. The Qing Yun elders who were slightly advanced in age and present at the scene, most had seen this person but right now in their eyes, were all shocked expressions.

This face vaguely resembled but it was clearly a robust young man, was he really the Yun YiLan who several years ago already had a head full of white hair?

Reverend DaoXuan carefully assessed Yun YiLan, walked forward with a smile on his face, said, “Yun patron, you and me have not seen each other for many years, unexpectedly your distinguished self’s cultivation have already advanced so much, from ‘FenXiang Jade Volume’ comprehended ‘Jade Yang Realm’, a forerunner ever since FenXiang Valley established eight hundred years ago, congratulations!”

Yun YiLan’s face with his pleasant smile, suddenly froze, the next moment an astounded look flashed past his eyes but his face had already resumed to normal, said, “Senior DaoXuan is really astute, admirable, admirable!”

Reverend DaoXuan smiled and said, “You flatter me, it should be me admiring you.” Both eyes met, the next moment both of them laughed. Li Xun by the side walked over, kneeled and paid his obeisance, said, “Teacher, disciple has been waiting long here.”

Yun YiLan nodded, smiled and said, “Come get up, you have been staying here for a few days, have you had a taste of the marvel of Qing Yun Hill this paradise land?”

Li Xun stood up, respectfully said, “Qing Yun Hill really lives up to its fame, it is really an eye-opener for disciple, also many thanks to teacher uncle DaoXuan and …” He paused for a moment and clearly said, “and Small Bamboo Valley Lu XueQi junior sister, for bringing me around to appreciate this celestial wonderful scenery.”

The Qing Yun sect crowd immediately with a [weng] sound, started talking among themselves, other than the elders leaders, there were also many younger generation disciples around, numerous eyes immediately looked towards that frost cold girl.

Lu XueQi’s lips twitched but her face indifferent, eventually she did not say anything. Reverend DaoXuan laughed, held Yun YiLan’s hand and said, “Yun valley master has such a fine disciple, a qualified successor to carry on, come, please take a seat.”

Yun YiLan raised himself slightly, said, “Reverend please.”

Both looked at each other and smiled, walked forward at the same time, Reverend DaoXuan and Yun YiLan both sat at the seat of the host, beside them were their sect’s disciples.

After an exchange of conventional greetings, Reverend DaoXuan smiled and said, “FenXiang Valley is the world’s Good Faction power sect, in the world there are no one who does not revere it, Yun valley master this time actually honour us with your presence, this really brings light to our humble dwelling.”

Yun YiLan shook his head continuously, said, “Reverend is too kind, too kind, “speaking, his expression suddenly changed and he turned solemn, said, “Actually, my purpose of paying a visit here, there are two important things I will like to beseech all of you at Qing Yun sect.” Reverend DaoXuan quickly said, “Yun valley master is too polite, please speak your mind.”

Yun YiLan coughed once and said, “To tell the truth, this first matter, is one that concern a great calamity rarely seen for several hundred years!”

Qing Yun sect disciples immediately looked nonplussed, Tian BuYi sitting below Reverend DaoXuan frowned and said, “Yun valley master what do you mean by these words?”

Yun YiLan sighed and said, “All of you are unaware, just one month ago, in the southern border ten thousand great mountains that our valley for generations has guarded, an unparalleled evil demon has been revived.”

Reverend  DaoXuan  was  stunned,  said,  “Unparalleled  evil demon?”

Yun YiLan nodded and said, “That’s right, it is indeed an unparalleled evil demon, all of you are far in Central Plains and so do not know the background of it but our FenXiang Valley has been guarding the southern borders for generations therefore we know the details. This evil demon called himself the ‘Beast Deity’, is an ancient evildoer, we don’t know where he come from and only know that at that time he brought chaos to the world, slaughtered innumerable living things…”

Return of the Wind Valley leader, Zeng ShuChang, sitting beside Tian BuYi frowned and said, “Don’t tell me with Yun valley master’s exceptional skills, including FenXiang Valley strength and yet still unable to deal with this evil demon?”

Yun YiLan’s face looked grim, said, “Everyone please excuse us, it is not that our valley are afraid of trouble and don’t dare to shoulder it but it is really because I know this matter is not trivial and definitely not something FenXiang Valley can take on by itself and therefore took the liberty to come forward and request Reverend for the sake of the common people of the world, to make a public appeal, for the whole world to come and fight it together, only then we can have hope to win. Else if it becomes too late then wouldn’t there be countless of people unable to avoid death?”

Qing Yun disciples looked at each other, come to speak of it, all was fine until FenXiang Valley sudden appearance and mentioned this unparallelled evil demon, and only with the combined efforts of the world’s cultivated taoists then there would be hope, how could they accept it? But Reverend DaoXuan was after all an enlightened taoist, after contemplating for a long while, decidedly said,

“If this matter is what Yun valley master said, then it would be a calamity that the world has never seen before. I and the rest of the cultivated taoists, have always boast ourselves as the Good Faction, will definitely not ignore this. Since it is so, our Qing Yun sect will work together with FenXiang Valley to fight against this evil demon, later on I will send a letter to Tian Yin Temple PuHong Master and invite him over to discuss this together.”

Yun YiLan let out a long breath, clapped his hands together said, “This couldn’t be better, junior brother me can then put down the stone in my heart.”

Reverend DaoXuan laughed and said, “Yun valley master must be joking. Oh right, what is the second important matter, don’t tell me it’s another calamity?” Yun YiLan’s eyes flashed, looked deeply at Reverend DaoXuan and said, “It is not, this second matter, it is instead a good thing.”

Reverend DaoXuan’s lips revealed a hint of smile.

Yun YiLan smiled and said, “The second matter that I am here for, is for my disciple Li Xun, to propose marriage to your honourable sect Lu XueQi Miss Lu.”

Once he said the words, Lu XueQi standing behind her teacher shook and abruptly looked up and among Qing Yun sect immediately like a pot exploding, an uproar ensued, this reaction, was even greater than the news of an unparalleled evil demon calamity!

Numerous eyes instantly turned to look at the shocked Lu XueQi’s face, and then to Reverend DaoXuan.

Qing Yun sect Head, Reverend DaoXuan after some contemplation, clearly spoke out, “Li Xun this child I have observed these past few days, he is really a giant among men and have boundless prospects.”

Yun YiLan smiled and said, “Reverend is too flattering but I indeed have plans to pass on my position as the valley master to this good-for-nothing disciple, and before this formidable foe arrival, we have such a joyous occasion, it would even show our absolute sincerity in working together, at the same time rouse the world’s heroes’ morales, not sure what Reverend thinks of it?”

Tian BuYi who was sitting beside, had a face of disdain, almost snorted out, luckily his wife SuRu quick-wittedly held him back.

Reverend DaoXuan looked around, his gaze swept past Qing Yun disciples and lastly on Lu XueQi, Lu XueQi frowned tightly, her lips quivering, looked as if she wanted to say something but considering the situation, she in the end did not speak.

Reverend DaoXuan smiled, turned and spoke to Yun YiLan, “Yun valley master’s good intention is really unexpected!” Yun YiLan cupped his fist, smiled and said, “Humble me and my little disciple are sincere, hope Reverend can fulfil it.”

Reverend DaoXuan stretched his hand out and stroked his long beard, slowly said, “The innate evil demon, calamity right before us, will need both of our sects to work together and only then we can save the world. And this marriage, a perfect match, I too like it alot…”

Another round of commotion among the Qing Yun disciples, everyone did not expect that Reverend DaoXuan would actually agree to this marriage.

Reverend DaoXuan turned and spoke smilingly to ShuiYue Master sitting beside him, “ShuiYue junior sister, XueQi is your disciple, by right you should be making the decision.”

Lu XueQi’s face was pale, obviously she was taken aback by this matter, when she heard Reverend DaoXuan’s words, she could not help but stepped forward and spoke to her teacher,

“Teacher…” ShuiYue Master slowly lifted her eyes, her gaze observed Lu XueQi’s exceptional face, as if she wanted to deduce something from her expression, the emotions in her eyes obscure, after keeping quiet for a while, she then unhurriedly said, “Qi’er, this marriage, I also fully approve of it. Li GongZi is a giant among men, it is a good match.”

In the Crystal Hall, a silence suddenly descended, including Tian BuYi and the rest, stared disbelievingly at ShuiYue Master.

Lu XueQi’s body, suddenly wavered.

Li Xun at a distance, was already overjoyed.

“Ha ha ha ha ha ha!” Yun YiLan’s laughter broke the stillness, “This is very good, very good, since both elders agreed to this matter, Xun’er, quickly come and pay your thanks to both of them!”

Li Xun hurriedly ran up, kneeled and kowtowed. Yun  YiLan  smiled  and  said,  “Today  this  matter,  will definitely spread through the ages, eulogize for the world…”

“Wait a minute!”

Suddenly, a light shout, in this great hall, in the words of Yun YiLan known as the world’s Good Faction giant pillar, coldly rang out, interrupted his words.

Everyone’s countenances changed.

Lu XueQi in white like snow, her face pale, one hand clutching TianYa sword scabbard, slowly walked out.

Reverend DaoXuan’s face changed slightly, looked towards ShuiYue Master but ShuiYue Master only looked at Lu XueQi’s figure, suddenly quietly sighed, closed her eyes and looked like she would not bother anymore. Reverend DaoXuan’s face changed again, gradually turned somber,  he  slowly  stood  up,  said,  “XueQi,  do  you  have something to say?”

In the Crystal Hall, silence.

Everyone’s stares, were all on this white-attired lady.

Her clothes fluttered in a windless environment, looking from afar, even her figure indistinctly looked like duckweed, bobbing uncertainly, thin and frail.

Just that her lips were pursed up tightly, her pale cheeks indistinctly had a strange flush, that pair of shoulders started to tremble, for the first time emanated a feeling of helplessness.

Suddenly, she abruptly turned around, back-facing everyone in the Crystal Hall, facing the lofty grand hall entrance, looking at that boundless clear sky, at a far away place beyond the clear sky, towards that unknown place far away --- Staring deeply!

What kind of feeling was in that gaze?

In the Crystal Hall, her deep yet determined, ice-breaking- snow-cutting like voice,

“I am unwilling!”

X x x

Far away.

The unfamiliar mountaintop, a figure prostrated in a dark corner, suddenly trembled.

The wild countryside undulating insects’ cries, suddenly stopped. A human figure slowly struggled, stood up in the dimness, as if sensing something, staring dazedly in the distant.

A monkey’s figure, jumped out beside, in two or three leaps scurried up his shoulder.

After a long while, his voice was heard from the darkness,

“Xiao  Hui,  why  does  my  heart,  out  of  a  sudden,  beat  so rapidly…”

Chapter 146 - Chance Encounters

The great calamity started from that year spring summer, after thousand hundreds years later, the people still remembered it clearly, those terror and madness days.

The extreme south of the southern border, within the ten thousand great mountains, innumerable monsters and different races suddenly gushed out from it, the numbers were uncountable, each and every creature were blood-thirsty, regardless whether it was male, female, young or old, they killed anyone upon sight and many of them coveted for human meat, the places where they passed by, the scenes were appalling.

This calamity erupted from the southern border district nearest to the ten thousand great mountains, spread rapidly to the entire southern border, the five tribes, Miao, Zhuang, Tu, Li and GaoShan rose to fight.

However facing those innumerable monsters, especially when there were several strange demonic monsters with highly skilled shaman powers within them, the five tribes’ resistances were like a mantis trying to obstruct a chariot, destroyed in a blink of an eye, the southern border people in utter misery, a field littered with corpses.

The news shocked the world, words spread far and wide, the people in Central Plains were shocked by the news and for days in a constant state of anxiety, a few Central Plains commoners living near the southern border packed up their families and fled to the north, hoping to stay as far away as possible from this calamity.

Not one of the cultivated skilled martial artist was not appalled by the news, even the Good and Evil Factions which had always been fighting openly and covertly with each other, at that point in time also temporary cease fire, quietly watching the southern side movements and started to make strategies for themselves.

FenXiang Valley which was situated at the south, as the valley master, Yun YiLan, happened to lead a great number of disciples to pay a visit to Qing Yun Hill Reverend DaoXuan, fortunately escaped the disaster. It was said that after the event, Yun YiLan valley master heard about the tragedy of the southern border people, beat his chest and stomp his feet, was so grieved that he wished he was dead and said that if he was around, he would never allow the evildoers to make trouble and torment the commoners. The reproval of himself and grief were apparent in his words and already had the intention to commit suicide in order to seek redress, fortunately his disciples grabbed him right and left and with the Qing Yun sect various elders leaders’ persuasions,

Yun valley leader then calmed down, promised that with

FenXiang Valley’s entire force, he would seek revenge for the southern border people!

Soon, Yun YiLan at Qing Yun Hill announced to all of the cultivated martial artists of the world, explained that the great calamity at present was raised by an evil beast, this demon was highly skilled and by nature cruel and savage, without the combined efforts of everyone the evil would not be defeated, as such, FenXiang Valley and Qing Yun sect together appealed to the cultivated skilled martial artists of the world, with the power of everyone’s combined forces, execute this hunt!

The next day, Tian Yin Temple after receiving the news, formally made a reply, agreed with Qing Yun, FenXiang’s appeal and within the next few days sent men over to convene with them. The Good Faction feverishly raised money and discussed, dispatched batches of talented disciples to spy on those monsters’ backgrounds, after all, knowing yourself and your enemy and you would never be defeated.

And the Evil Faction three great powerful branches which had always been puffed up with pride, Ghost King sect, Wan Du Clan and HeHuan Sect instead became quiet, almost like watching each other and not in a hurry to make any move. And also with this situation, the Central Plains temporary entered into an unusual peacefulness.

This unusual peacefulness, a day before summer arrived, finally broke, the monsters which had trampled and devastated southern border had finally reached Central Plains.

But the initially, the number of casualties was not high, because a month ago, the commoners living near the southern border had all already fled. The number of monsters seemed to keep increasing and rapidly extending out, soon it would be entering the Central Plains hinterland, and that, would be the time when all of the people be plunged into misery and sufferings. Uncertain whether it was the terrifying news or the hard-to- discern-truth-or-lie rumours but shocking news did in fact come one after another, the previous day was a village wiped out in bloodshed, today was an entire city reduced to ruins, no matter to whoever living each day in fear and terror, all would be that torturous and filled with trepidation.

However, to someone whose heart had died, even if the entire world was dead, it did not concern him. Ghost Li staying with Zhou YiXian, Xiao Huan and Wild Dog, had already been more than a month, even he himself did not know why he was following them, maybe he had long sensed that he had nowhere to go and just went along with the flow.

Among them, Zhou YiXian vehemently objected to Ghost Li coming along, not to mention they had to feed one more person for free but this person was not like Wild Dog Taoist, who carried their luggage and did the trivial chores, the entire day he was either drinking or sleeping and instead needed others to care for him frequently.

And talking about free loaders, Ghost Li only drank a little wine and that was all, Zhou YiXian’s biggest eyesore was that three-eyed monkey, Xiao Hui, not only it had an astonishing appetite, even its alcohol tolerance far exceeded Ghost Li who passed out once he drank, a big bag of wine downed and the monkey’s face did not even turn red, if not for Xiao Huan who insisted on bringing this man and monkey, Zhou YiXian would have run as far as he can get.

As for Wild Dog Taoist, ever since he tried to attack Ghost Li and was stopped by Xiao Hui, and eventually pardoned by Ghost Li, from then onwards, Wild Dog Taoist became taciturn, not speaking a word for days frequently.

But in the past few days, no matter whether it was Zhou YiXian who was constantly grumbling or Xiao Huan, including the taciturn Wild Dog Taoist, started to notice some changes in Ghost Li, although it was hard for them to describe what exactly but Ghost Li indeed was slowly turning sober, the most obvious was the number of times he was drunk had started to reduce and at times remaining sober for the whole night. But his behaviour was still eccentric - Ghost Li often sat with Xiao Hui, facing north and staring blankly, as if he had something on his mind.

The news of the great calamity in the south, following the mass migration of the common people fleeing to the north, started to spread, Zhou YiXian and the rest also came to know about this.

Within the group, Zhou YiXian was first to be stunned after hearing the news, after which he contemplated for long, shook his head and then heaved sighs the whole day, muttering where should he flee to?

The others were not as worried as him, Ghost Li and Wild Dog Taoist looked like they had something on their minds, Xiao Huan did not seem to give a care about the danger which seemed still far away, to her, playing with Xiao Hui and occasionally chatting with Ghost Li, these kind of days were fulfilling.

However, under the insistence of Zhou YiXian, eventually they still headed north, according to Zhou YiXian, the further away from the south, it would at least be easier for them to live their lives. But as the refugees from the south increased along the way, the situations described turned worse and worse. Like splitting a bamboo, the demonic monsters and tribes devoured maniacally and had already forced their way into the Central Plains hinterland. A few days before, among the news there was one which said the monsters had already reached the city wall and moat several hundred miles behind them, scaring Zhou YiXiang and the rest into rushing their journey, although not long after they got to know that the news was just a rumour but the fear and trepidation of the people could clearly be seen.

Deep in the night, the group of them camped outdoors for the night, made a campfire at one of the small mountain top, they sat around the fire, only Ghost Li sat in a distance.

Xiao Hui jumped out from the darkness, carrying a number of wild fruits in its hands plucked from somewhere, scurried up Ghost Li’s shoulder, after settling down, started to munch with big mouthfuls.

Zhou YiXian glanced sideways over, hesitated for a while, looked over to Xiao Huan and Wild Dog Taoist, said, “I have something that I need to speak to all of you.”

Xiao Huan felt puzzled, looked over to Zhou YiXian and said, “Grandfather, what is it?” Zhou YiXian was about to speak when suddenly Xiao Hui sitting at Ghost Li’s shoulder seemed to discover something, loudly [zhi zhi] shouted. Everyone was startled and started to stand up, walk over to Xiao Hui and glanced in the direction of its gesturing. In the dim skylight, on the ancient path below

the small mountain, a group of people was walking over, young, old, men and women, each one of them looked fatigued but still trudged forward.

Zhou YiXian after looking for a while, sighed and said, “It is the refugees from the south.”

Nobody said a word, Zhou YiXian after a while, said, “Actually what I wanted to say was this, now we do not know what is the situation in the south but with such sudden huge numbers of demonic monsters rampaging killing people, this cannot be wrong. These few days we have seen many people fleeing to the north, I think we have to increase our speed and make haste to the north.”

Xiao Huan frowned and said, “Grandfather, heading to the north is right and anyways we have always been wandering but the north is so huge, heard that those monsters’ movements are especially fast, do you have any good place to hide?” Zhou YiXian glared at her, said, “Didn’t you hear the rumours spreading these days? There are skilled among the monsters, some are sharp-nosed, some have superb hearing, no matter where you are, hiding in the trees, in underground cellar or even deep inside the mountains, they would find you and eat you up. With such goddamn monsters, where do I go to find places where we can hide?”

Xiao Huan made a bitter face, said, “Then what do we do, don’t tell me sooner or later we all have to be eaten by those monsters?”

Zhou YiXian snorted, said, “Rubbish, I, Zhou Great Celestial, have superb strategy and wonderful foresight, how would I die by those beasts’ mouths. I have long figured out, in the whole world now, there is only one place where it is the safest.”

Xiao Huan was surprised, Wild Dog Taoist and even Ghost Li’s body also moved, turned to look at Zhou YiXian, Zhou YiXian could not help but feel conceited, [He he] laughed twice. Xiao Huan was both delighted and surprised, said, “Grandfather, there is actually such a place, quickly tell!” Zhou YiXian coughed twice then solemnly said, “Qing Yun Hill.”

Wild Dog Taoist’s face changed, Ghost Li turned his head back, only Xiao Huan curiously said, “I know Qing Yun Hill is where Qing Yun sect is, mostly cultivated Taoists but after all it is only one sect, facing those monsters, if they are able to defend themselves it is already very good, much less care about us?”

Zhou  YiXian  [ha  ha]  laughed,  said,  “This  you  don’t  know, although the news have not spread over but I am convinced that FenXiang Valley and Tian Yin Temple will definitely convene at Qing Yun, because Yun YiLan that old fellow right now is at Qing Yun, including the Qing Yun battle ten years ago, Qing Yun sect’s ‘Zhu Xian Sword Formation’...”

Ghost Li heard the four words, his body shook violently.

But Zhou YiXian did not notice him, continued to speak excitedly, “Qing Yun sect’s Zhu Xian Sword Formation has attracted much attention, everyone knows that sword formation truly has earth-shaking celestial powers, therefore if they convene at Qing Yun, at least they have another layer of protection. I guess the world’s Good Faction martial artists most likely in the next few days will head to Qing Yun and come together to fight against this unheralded catastrophe, if we go to Qing Yun then naturally we will be at the safest place. With so many highly skilled martial artists, I don't think they will just watch us commoners die right!” After speaking, he felt more and more conceited, could not help but laughed out.

A cold snort was heard suddenly in-between his laughter, Zhou YiXian was surprised and with Xiao Huan, Wild Dog Taoist together looked over, Ghost Li slowly stood up from the shadows but did not turn, coldly said, “Only that those Good Faction experts, not only will they leave you to die, they will also give you a kick behind your back.”

Zhou YiXian was mocked straight in his face, he felt a loss of face and angrily said, “Pei, anyway you are crooked devil in evil ways, even if you go you will also be kicked out…”

Xiao Huan suddenly shouted, “Grandfather!” Zhou YiXian glanced at Xiao Huan, knew his words were too much, bitterly stopped, Xiao Huan turned and looked at Ghost Li, had some hesitation but eventually still said, “You, you don’t listen to my grandfather, he is like this, shooting his mouth off…”

Zhou YiXian was furious, broke in and said, “You dared to say your own grandfather is shooting his mouth off!”

Xiao Huan ignored him, still facing Ghost Li said, “But right now the situation is really bad, you better come with us, after all that place will be safer than the others…”

Before Xiao Huan could finish, Ghost Li indifferently said, “Don’t need to, the world is so big, I will have places to go.”

After speaking, his body moved and walked ahead.

Xiao Huan was stunned, anxiousness appeared on her face, she hurriedly said, “Zhang...where, where are you going?” Ghost Li did not answer, his figure walking ahead increased in speed, Xiao Hui on his shoulder turned back, watching Xiao Huan who was staring blankly on the small mountain top, grinned and waved its hands.

Xiao Huan watched that swiftly diminishing and disappearing figure, for some reasons, she felt an inexplicable emptiness in her heart, she felt a lump in her throat and tears almost flowed out.

[Si!]

The light sound pierced through the air, Ghost Li’s figure swept past the night sky. The dark clouds heavy in the sky, not a single trace of starlight, the night sky seemed to be affected by the calamity in the south, looked sinisterly dark, not offering the people any hope.

Leaving Zhou YiXian and the rest, Ghost Li flew towards the south alone for some time, under this night sky, under the dark clouds, everywhere was black and heavy, the undulating wild mountains underneath the sky, cold and in solitude, the person in the air also felt empty, lost as to where to head to. Xiao Hui crouching at his shoulder suddenly called out twice, Ghost Li glanced at it, the three eyes before him, Xiao Hui grinning, to it, most of the time it was happy. It was rare that Ghost Li’s face revealed a hint of smile and tenderness, gently patted the monkey’s head, his figure dropped down, headed for ground.

Where he landed was a wild mountain overgrown with thick dense forest, the grasses and trees exuberant, shrubs densely packed together, it was hard to find a place to land in the forest, most likely in this wilderness remote place, no one had yet came to this mountain and this forest. Ghost Li, before he landed, his right hand shook, Soul-absorbing stick flew out from his sleeve, rotated one round below his feet, he did not hear any unusual sounds, the next moment, a radius of six feet from this place, all of the trees, shrubs, brambles suddenly withered down and turned into deadwood.

After the Soul-absorbing stick flew back to his hand, Ghost Li clearly felt thin strands of cold air travelling along the black stick. Xiao Hui delightfully called out once and jumped down from his shoulder, ran deep into the forest. Ghost Li raised his head and watched Xiao Hui’s back figure, ever since from the southern border, especially after Xiao Hui evolved, its appetite became bigger and was constantly looking for things to eat. The late night, the night breeze blew over from the open country, blew past this mountain, the trees making waves sounds, numerous shadows danced at the same time. Ghost Li slowly sat down on the ground and closed his eyes, the surrounding shadows brushed past his face, in the darkness, he was as silent as a spirit.

After some time, a low roar was heard indistinctly from afar and then disappeared, Ghost Li frowned slightly, opened his eyes but he did not move, and as expected the next moment, a movement from within the shrubs, Xiao Hui had ran back.

The sharp annoying brambles to Xiao Hui, was never an issue, many times it had just directly stepped over it, when it came near, Ghost Li saw one of Xiao Hui’s hands was placed at its chest, hugging several wild fruits but the other hand it was dragging behind it, like it was pulling something.

Ghost Li felt puzzled, looked behind it and got a shock. In the shadows, Xiao Hui seemed to be dragging something that looked like an animal, the size of it was not small, larger than Xiao Hui by a lot but Xiao Hui was dragging it easily. The next moment Xiao Hui had already ran to him, [he he] laughed and first put the fruits down, then flung its hands and [pong], a large thing slammed in front of it.

That was an adult boar, with a huge head, if it was standing, it would even be taller than Xiao Hui, the wild boar’s head had a wound, blood flowing from its body and already dead. Ghost Li looked at the wound, saw that it was fresh, paused for a moment in shock and asked Xiao Hui, “You caught it?”

Xiao Hui grinned and at the same time pointed to the boar and then pointed at Ghost Li.

Ghost Li sighed, smiled and said, “I am not hungry.”

Xiao Hui scratched its head, its three eyes blinked and then pointed to the wild boar and then at itself. Ghost Li could not help but laughed, for a moment the heaviness in his heart lifted, he smiled and said, “Alright, I’ll help you.”

Xiao Hui immediately grinned in delight, obviously it knew Ghost Li’s excellent cooking skills and its favourite. Ghost Li pulled back his sleeves, his finger like knife, gently sliced on the boar’s stomach and instantly the boar’s thick skin slashed opened, his actions skilled, in a few movements he had skinned the boar, flew up to find a stream and cleaned the meat, made a fire and started to roast.

The fire gradually grew stronger, Xiao Hui and Ghost Li’s faces were reflected red by the fire, by then Xiao Hui had already ate finished the wild fruits, its eyes staring at the roasted boar slowly emitting fragrant smell. Ghost Li slowly took out different self-made seasonings from his waist and added to the meat, and again found a small bottle of sesame oil, started to drip it slightly on the meat. The oil flowed slowly along the boar meat, stimulated by the fire grilling the meat, seeped into it. Very soon, a faint golden colour appeared on the meat surface, clear oil droplets oozed out from the meat, inviting fragrant smell wafted out.

The firelight gently wavered, illuminating the monkey and human’s faces and also the surrounding tiny empty ground and trees. The tall forest trees’ shadows wavered, as if there was wind. Ghost Li watched the fire in front of him and slowly went off into a trance and Xiao Hui, who was salivating while watching the roasted meat, touched its ears and grasped its cheeks, at times ran off nearby to get wood to add into the fire. The still air, permeated with strange and inviting fragrance.

Deep inside the forest, a low cry was suddenly heard, [Hou!].

That cry was deep and forceful, seemed to be very far but still clearly heard from here, a murderous air swiftly pervaded over. Ghost Li abruptly shook awake from his reverie, his brows frowning, he did not move but his gaze slowly turned deep, watching the direction from where the cry came from. Xiao Hui leapt up Ghost Li’s shoulder, its face did not display any fear, also turned to look.

[Pi pa] sound from the fire, a branch burst, the wild boar’s fragrance intensitfied.

Three chi away was the dark forest, the wind above the forest suddenly became stronger, making [hu hu] sounds, after that cry there was no more sounds but that cold chill seemed to be making its way swiftly over.

Ghost Li’s pupils slightly shrank, his brows knitting tighter. [Pi pa] the other branch also finally burst.

Suddenly, the howling wind lost its voice, the entire forest instantly turned silent and not a single sound made, ahead in the darkness, the dense forest entangled with the brambles, suddenly fell apart to the sides, making a narrow path for one person.

A young man wearing brightly-coloured silk clothes, with a handsome face and almost looking seductive, walked out one step at a time from the darkness. In the dark, he was so dazzling, as if the surroundings were illuminated because of him. Ghost Li did not stand up nor make any movements, he still sat on the ground, watching this young man.

That young man looked at Ghost Li and then at Xiao Hui, was slightly astonished, “Yi” a sound, said, “Three-eyed spiritual monkey!”

Ghost Li did not speak, Xiao Hui suddenly [zhi zhi] called out, looking like it was furious. Almost at the same time Xiao Hui called out, that deep roar once again cried out, the only difference was, this time the roar seemed to come directly from behind that young man.

[Hou…] following this deep and powerful roar, behind that composed young man’s back, from his shoulder a hideous strange head rose up slowly, four eyes, two pairs above and below on two sides of its face, as thick as bronze bell. Its mouth was huge, almost as wide as its face, when it opened its mouth, it revealed a mouthful of sharp teeth, especially six sharp fangs protruding out, was even more horrible, under the faint light from the fire, indistinctly saliva could be seen dripping from its fangs and onto its grey-black thick skin full of lumps.

Ghost Li’s expression finally changed, he unhurriedly stood up, coldly said, “TaoTie?”

Before that young man replied, he assessed Ghost Li and then like he sensed something, turned and looked at TaoTie (note 1) and was stunned, that ferocious beast’s vicious stare right now had greed but its stare was not at Ghost Li or Xiao Hui, instead it was at that roasting boar. The air was filled with wafting roasted meat fragrance.

The young man suddenly laughed, spoke to Ghost Li, “Your skills are not bad! I was thinking why TaoTie was being restless, didn’t expect it was being lured by you.”

Ghost Li indifferently said, “TaoTie although is an ancient ferocious beast, swift and fierce but has always been greedy, what is one roasted boar.”

The young man shook his head, said, “Not so, this TaoTie of mine is different from the rest, it has long disregards the usual delicacies, didn’t think that it would actually be this ravenous for this crude-looking grilled meat of yours.”

Like what the young man said, TaoTie seemed to especially favour this roasted boar, saliva flowed constantly from its mouth, dripping from the fangs, suddenly a howl, it jumped out from the young man’s shoulder, turned into a black figure and leapt towards the fire. Unexpectedly a grey figure flashed, [zhi zhi] angry cries were heard, it was Xiao Hui who had leapt over, blocked in front of the roasted boar. The TaoTie with a [hou] low cry, landed down and revealed itself, its body looked to be bigger than that boar by at least four times, four feet with sharp claws and the strangest thing was its neck was extremely long, rising up, it seemed raise its body up by one fold.

Xiao Hui compared to it now was really pathetic but for some reasons, TaoTie seemed to have some fear towards Xiao Hui and did not dare to negligent, just that it did not want to part with the delicacy in front of it, roared in a low sound, it expression slowly turning hideous.

Ghost Li saw the two beasts facing off each other over the roasted  boar,  suddenly  said,  “This  boar  is  still  not  ready,  its flavour also has not reached the optimal heat, what are you two fighting for?”

His words seemed somehow baffling, even the young man could not help but took a few more glances at him, however the two beasts facing each other reacted, the TaoTie’s four eyes stared at Xiao Hui, Xiao Hui with its three eyes stared wide opened, the two beasts’ seven eyes stared widely at each other, the next moment, Xiao Hui [zhi zhi] called out to the TaoTie, bared its teeth and then ran back a few steps, sat down on its bottom beside Ghost Li, eyes staring at the boar.

The TaoTie’s four eyes following Xiao Hui, when Xiao Hui sat down, this ferocious beast [hou hou] cried out twice, inconceivably slowly came to the other side of the fire, tucked its back legs, lightly placed it front legs and actually also lay down in front of the fire, just that it could not help but still salivated, it looked very horrible but also somehow comical.

That young man saw the TaoTie sat down, slowly walked over, disregarding the dirty ground, sat beside the TaoTie, watching Ghost Li, he smiled and said, “Which master is your distinguished self, didn’t expect you have such tactic, could make TaoTie temporary suppress its savage nature?”

Ghost Li did not look at him, sat down, his eyes back to the fire, said, “You and me is a chance encounter in the mountains, why do we have to know each other’s name, just a roasted boar, only to fill the stomach.”

The young man watched Ghost Li a while, suddenly laughed out, his laughter bright and clear, startled numerous nocturnal birds.

“Well said, well said.” He lightly beat his leg, an unexpected appreciation look on his face, said, “What a good fill-the- stomach. To say all the living things in the world, working hard for endless days, isn’t just to only fill their stomachs. As such, the so-called ‘human’ that you said, isn’t the same as me and this TaoTie and has no diference?”

Ghost Li gently rotated the boar, the fragrance smell on the boar immediately intensified, tempting the TaoTie to move restlessly again but not sure if it was because it wanted to taste the delicious food, this beast known for being greedy other than ferocious endured it and at the same time, Xiao Hui glared fiercely at it.

The fire quietly burned, reflecting on Ghost Li’s face, he slowly said, “Humans still has a difference.”

The young man said, “What?” Ghost Li said, “Love, hate, affection, revenge, human has feelings.”

The young man laughed, said, “Why wouldn’t the beasts have feelings, you killed this boar, you would have known the pain and fear of it, if I kill you, you are like the boar. All living things are originally equal, why would there be difference between human and beasts?”

Ghost Li looked up, looked at the young man, said, “There is difference.”

The young man’s eyes were stern, said, “What difference?”

Ghost Li said, “My whole life I have one big regret, day and night it is engraved on my heart, living like I’m dead but yet I cannot not live. Live and yet still will have hope, dead and is like turning your back to affections, a timid and weak-willed person. Such affection revenge, how would a boar have it?”

[Translator’s note: Sorry I’m not capturing the meaning well here but it’s too hard for me.] The young man was stunned, the stern look in his eyes slowly receded, following which a strange look appeared on his face.

[Note 1: TaoTie: <Divine and Evil . Strange Beast Chapter>

:the Divine Land extreme south has ferocious beast, long neck with four legs, its nature violent, gluttonous. It moves swiftly like the wind, becoming a calamity to the other party.

Chapter 147 - To Meet

There was no sound, only the occasional firewood crackling in the fire. That strange young man and Ghost Li did not speak anymore, the flames leapt and flared, burning between them.

The lustre and colour of the roasted boar skin slowly turned a golden colour, in the air thick with its fragrance, a slight burn smell wafted out, the entire skin surface was covered by a clear faint layer of oil, Ghost Li lastly turned the roast boar a few times, said, “It is ready, help yourselves!”

He had just finished his sentence when Xiao Hui and the TaoTie pounced over at the same time, Xiao Hui [zhi zhi] shrieked, stretched one hand and first grabbed one of the hind leg of the roast boar, the steaming hot boar skin in its hand did not seem to have any effect on its hand. But that TaoTie was even more ferocious, without using its limbs or sharp claws, it opened its huge bloody mouth, disregarding the fact that the meat was still above the flames, stretched its head over and bit down in one mouthful.

This mouth of TaoTie, was already huge enough to terrify humans, such a big boar, the beast’s entire mouth swallowed the whole thing, leaving only that hind leg grabbed by Xiao Hui.

Xiao Hui was enraged, it’s monkey face displaying its anger, refusing to let go of the hind leg and at the same time jumped and shrieked loudly. But the ferocious beast TaoTie did not bother, that mouth full of sharp teeth [ga beng] crunched down, immediately like crushing dry weeds and smashing rotten wood, the delicious boar meat was bitten into two parts, Xiao Hui was caught unprepared, fell backwards and rolled twice on the ground, when it stood up, there was only the hind leg in its hand.

As for most of the delicacy roast boar, right now was in TaoTie’s mouth, it chewed loudly, the remnant bones seemed to be crushed and swallowed in too, like a strong wind scattering the last clouds, total annihilation, and especially that four eyes on its face, were pushed to the sides of its faces by its bulging big mouth but they still shone brightly, obviously it was eating very happily.

[Zhi zhi, zhi zhi…] Xiao Hui watched as the delicacy which belonged to him and now the greater part of it snatched away by this ferocious beast, how would it not be enraged but after shrieking a few times, it abruptly lowered its head and started to eat too, eating rapidly, in just a while the drumstick was eaten by half.

[Hou…] The low deep roar of the TaoTie once again sounded, it slowly turned to look at Xiao Hui, such a big roast boar, in such a short while it had already cleanly finished and swallowed it, not even leaving the bones. And very clearly, like it had not enough, its four eyes brightened, stared directly at the remaining portion in Xiao Hui’s hand.

Xiao Hui fiercely finished that last portion of meat, its three eyes glared widely at TaoTie. TaoTie’s mouth salivating, dripping down, one step by one step, walked towards Xiao Hui, Xiao Hui waved its hand suddenly, threw the last bone far away in one direction, at the same time its face gloated at what it had done. That TaoTie’s figure flashed, like lightning, leapt up and caught that flying bone with one bite, turned and flew back, landed beside that young man. However, the TaoTie seemed to know this was the last piece, did not swallow it all in one bite, instead lovingly, stuck out its tongue and licked incessantly on the bone. Xiao Hui was stunned by the TaoTie, turned and faced Ghost Li, suddenly gestured and danced, calling out [zhi zhi] continuously, Ghost Li watched for a while, was surprised and said, “You said it is similar to Big Huang?”

Xiao Hui immediately nodded and then looked over at TaoTie, the angry expression on the monkey face slowly disappeared, replaced by an unfamiliar-yet-warm expression. It watched the TaoTie which was licking the bones for a while then carefully moved over, slowly stretched its hand, looking like it wanted to pat TaoTie that savage’s head. The fierce TaoTie’s head turned and growled warningly, Xiao Hui immediately jumped backwards but after it [zhi zhi] called out quietly a few times, once again approached TaoTie and TaoTie’s attention seemed to also temporarily leave the bone and focus on Xiao Hui.

After a moment, Xiao Hui’s hand again stretched over, TaoTie did not move but it’s four eyes were watching Xiao Hui’s hand, Ghost Li and that young man were both keeping still, especially that young man’s eyes had a strange glint, quietly watching the interaction between the two strange beasts. Xiao Hui’s hand touched TaoTie’s head and gently stroked it, the TaoTie growled a few times quietly but it did not seem to object, its attention again back to that bone in front of it, Xiao Hui then slowly went near this beast, using its hands to gently stroke the TaoTie’s body, revealing a happy expression on its face.

Ghost Li slowly lowered his head down, vaguely remembered many years ago, on the Big Bamboo Valley, Xiao Hui and Big Huang, seemed to have gotten close like this too. Time flowed like water, so actually Xiao Hui still remembered the beginning…

That young man suddenly broke the silence, smiled and said, “Didn’t expect both of them to have an affinity for each other, isn’t it?”

Ghost Li glanced at both Xiao Hui and TaoTie, a trace of tenderness in his eyes, said, “That’s right.”

The young man turned his head over, added a thin small branch into the fire and became quiet again, after a long time he suddenly smiled and said, “This TaoTie has been with me for so many years, all along I thought I was taking care of it, unexpectedly today I then discovered, it is so much happier than me.”  An indistinct bitterness obscured in his smile, he continued, “Other than having its fill, even though it is not his species, it is willing to make friends with that monkey of yours.”

Ghost Li lifted his eyes and watched this young man, saw his melancholy expression, as if he had some unspeakable loneliness, faintly said, “If you are lonely, just find a friend will do.”

That young man snorted, haughtily said, “In this whole wide world, who deserve to be my friend, and who dares to be my friend?”

Ghost Li frowned, this young man’s boastful talk was really exaggerated, in his heart he felt somehow disgusted but he saw that the young man seemed to be recollecting something, his expression downcasted, muttering to himself, “But, there was once a person, I truly trust her…” Ghost Li watched him through the fire flames, faintly said, “What?”

That young man’s face suddenly turned cold, with a sneer said, “In the end, I discovered all along she was lying to me, not only that, she even caused me a lot of trouble, almost doomed me forever!”

Ghost LI was quiet, from that young man’s expression, he unexpectedly recalled that past buried deep in his heart ten years ago, that kindly and amiable monk’s face, once again appeared before his eyes…

He abruptly shook his head but the branch which he was about to add into the fire, emitted a light rough sound, turned into powder and scattered.

The young man glanced at his hand, suddenly asked, “You too have such a painful past?”

Ghost Li’s face was sombre and did not speak, that young man watched him, the glint in his eyes flashed and suddenly said, “If you were to die now, do you still have any unfulfilled wish?”

Ghost Li was stunned, his heart at a loss, at that instant a thousand thoughts crossed his mind, pouring in thick and fast, he had never once thought of this question and when it suddenly was placed before him, revenge, deep hatred, ten years of long-cherished wish, lingering white clothes, his whole life tossed about by the wind and rain but he had never thought about, deep inside his heart, what last wish did he have?

It should be to save BiYao, if he could revive her, he would even be willing to die! This thought, in the numerous nights in the past ten years, he had thought about it for countless of times. But that frost-like face, in the end he was unable to give it up, in a secluded corner of his heart, lightly fluttered…

For a moment he was dazed, the night breeze rustled by, not knowing how much time had passed, when he came out of his daze, that young man was already gone, the TaoTie on the ground had just flew up, merging into the night sky, it’s deep low roar was heard from afar. Xiao Hui scurried up its shoulder, [zhi zhi] called out twice, Ghost Li slowly looked up to the sky, suddenly quietly said, “Xiao Hui, eventually I have to meet her, isn’t it?”

Xiao Hui did not seem to understand and did not bother too, it’s monkey head also looked at the sky, as if searching for the figure of TaoTie.

The remnants of the fire gradually died out, forming a spiral of light smoke, gently drifted, Ghost Li and Xiao Hui stood quietly deep inside this mountain, after a very long time, in the night breeze, an indistinct quiet voice was heard.

“...eventually have to meet her…”

This great calamity with the passing of time, the situation became more devastating, the monsters had already reached the Central Plains, the casualties were heavy and most of the Good Faction disciples which were sent out to investigate disappeared, a few of the higher-skilled disciples made it back but were also wounded, when they reported to the various elders, they described the extreme horrors of the monsters. The people of the world were plunged into misery, the Good Faction people were helpless, at that moment the news that Qing Yun sect, Tian Yin Temple, FenXiang Valley the three big sects would convene at Qing Yun Hill and also invited the world’s Good Faction sects to come together and fight against this calamity, immediately the cultivated martial artists of the world started to head towards Qing Yun Hill. In just a few days, a never-before-seen masses and masses of people gathered

around Qing Yun Hill and most of them were Central Plains refugees, to them, those celestial-like Taoist figures on Qing Yun Hill were all of their last hope.

And Qing Yun sect, who was responsible to receive them, was terribly busy, more and more fellow Faction artists and commoners arrived at Qing Yun and soon, Qing Yun sect TongTian Peak’s guest rooms were all filled up and the other branches also had to accommodate guests. Fortunately Qing Yun sect was after all a thousand-year great sect, deep rooted with huge property, in the end they were able to accommodate them. However only the Small Bamboo Valley among the seven branches which had always had female disciples, ShuiYue Master was also quite temperamental and so they did not open to the outsiders, that instead made many of the young guests who had long admired them, to feel extremely disappointed. But after all, although the calamity was imminent, right now was still a never-before-seen large Good Faction assembly, Qing Yun sect honoured as the host, its fame increased even more, the world indirectly had already took Qing Yun as the leader, and Qing Yun sect head, Reverend DaoXuan, right now was firmly established as the world number one leader.

In the night, Qing Yun Hill mountain ranges various peaks were brightly lit, that was really something not seen before in a thousand hundred years, far below the foot of the mountain, accompanying the mountain breeze, the faint laughter and chatter of the people high up in the mountain could be heard, the people who were in fear because of the calamity, seemed to lighten up much. After all, even if the sky collapse, isn’t there still a Qing Yun Hill above their heads?

Right now the quietest place on Qing Yun Hill, most probably was Small Bamboo Valley. The various sects after Qing Yun sect’s sincere explanation, restricted themselves from going near Small Bamboo Valley, after all with the current situation, if there was to be any licentious scandal from their disciples, nobody would look good too. Compared to the bustling noises of the other branches, Small Bamboo Valley obviously was quieter, two or three Small Bamboo pretty female disciples walked past occasionally on the mountain path, the breeze blew past, the Tears Bamboos which populated the entire mountain rustled together, making [sha sha] sounds.

This night the moon was clear and cold, illuminated the mountain path in Small Bamboo Valley, the bamboos’ shadows swayed, the shadows wavered on the mountain stairs. From far four or five female disciples walked over, in the fore was WenMin. Those female disciples together with WenMin, looked somber, their brows knitted, as if they were troubled.

The chilly wind blew past the bamboo forest, a dark shadow seemed to flash past.

The youngest girl beside WenMin looked to be only about thirteen years old, rather timid, she glanced sideways at the darkness, her face slightly pale, shifted near WenMin, pulled her clothes, softly said, “Big, big senior sister, there, there seemed to be someone!” WenMin and the rest were shocked and looked over at the same time, after a moment, a hint of smile appeared on WenMin’s face, she patted that young girl’s face, said, “Xiao Shi, that was the bamboos swaying from the mountain breeze, the shadows caused by the bamboos moving, it is always like this every night, you have just come up the mountain, after some time you will know.”

That girl who was called Xiao Shi heaved a sigh of relief but was still afraid, however she suddenly seemed to think of something, turned around to look and said, “Big senior sister, that Full-Moon platform behind the mountain didn’t even have a single person there, everywhere are these, these gloomy dark things, we left XueQi senior sister alone there, will she be afraid?”

WenMin’s face was somber, sighed, said, “It was Sect Head teacher uncle who wanted your XueQi senior sister to do some soul-searching over there, we can’t do anything too but XueQi senior sister she most probably will not be afraid I guess!”

Another girl who was standing behind WenMin suddenly snorted, seemed aggrieved, said, “I really don’t understand, why must Sect Head teacher uncle treat XueQi this way, just because she refused to agree to FenXiang Valley’s marriage proposal?”

[Pa], deep inside the bamboo forest, there seemed to be a light soft sound, like some animal had stepped and broke a bamboo branch but the group of girls’ attentions were all right now distracted and did not hear it, only the youngest Xiao Shi seemed to be suspicious but when she looked into the deep forest, she only saw shadows moving and could not help but turn pale again and quickly turned back.

WenMin sighed again and said, “Actually that Li Xun fellow brother is really not bad, a man of striking appearance, his background is also good and in the future most likely the FenXiang Valley valley master’s position will be passed down to him, and also looking at his expression, he valued XueQi a lot but love this word, it really cannot be forced.”

Another girl suddenly lowered her voice and complained, “Teacher   is   really   too,   she   knows   very   well   XueQi’s temperament, why did she not also help to intercede to Sect Head teacher uncle.” The first girl shook her head and said, “I think something is not right, XueQi has always been most obedient to teacher and also reveres very much Sect Head DaoXuan teacher uncle but this time she actually contradicted them on TongTian Peak, I think…” she suddenly suppressed her voice and softly said, “Unless XueQi already has someone that she likes…”

“Stop  it!”  WenMin  suddenly  commanded  in  a  low  voice, everyone was taken aback, WenMin’s expression turned slightly relaxed but her tone was still stern, quietly said, “This kind of speculations, we must never speak of it carelessly, if not if this reaches Sect Head teacher uncle or teacher, the consequences would be unthinkable.”

The group was silent, the girl standing behind WenMin after being silent for a while, quietly said, “Senior sister, actually from what I see, what kind of figures are Sect Head teacher uncle and teacher, our conjectures, why wouldn’t they think of it? This time Sect Head and teacher deliberately consented to FenXiang Valley marriage proposal, most likely is because they know XueQi in her heart has…”

WenMin whipped her head around, glared at her, that girl’s expression changed, sighed and did not speak anymore. WenMin heard her sigh, she herself was silent for a moment, could not help also but sighed and said, “Lin junior sister, actually our thoughts are the same, XueQi with us all, although we joined the sect at different times but the past several years, we have long grown close like sisters and none of us wished to see her like this. But...ai, I too do not know what to say, anyway I think teacher doted most on XueQi and I guess ultimately will not be too hard on her.”

The rest of the female disciples nodded together, the group unhurriedly walked off, discussing quietly, indistinctly sighs were heard too and they gradually walked further away.

The shadows in the bamboo forest swayed, suddenly a dark figure from the deep darkness lightly drifted out, landed on the mountain path, it was Ghost Li. In this place where all of the surroundings were foes, his face was slightly pale, after staying quiet for a long while, he then slowly turned back and gazed towards the back of the mountain of Small Bamboo Valley. Behind that stretch of bamboo forest, the moonlight clear and bright like frost, it was heard that over there was one of the six scenic places of Qing Yun, Small Bamboo Valley Full-Moon platform. A clift solitary suspended in the mid air, other than the rear part of it was connected to the mountain body, most of it was suspended high up in the air. This night the moon was clear and bright, hung high up in the horizon, watery moonbeams, like frost-snow it shone down onto the world, onto this viewing platform. Although it was not like what the legend had described when it was a full moon night where the moonlight brilliancy could flood the entire Small Bamboo Valley but the

moonlight on the viewing platform was gentle, illuminating

the entire clift like daylight, especially because of the different angles of the smooth rocks on the floor, reflected the moonbeams, made it seemed even more clear, cold and beautiful.

When Ghost Li stepped onto the Full-Moon platform, what was presented before him, was this picturesque scene. And in that frost-like moonlight, there was a white clothed-like snow girl, who was back-facing him, stood at the fore of the viewing platform, gazing upon the boundless black night, quietly.

Ghost Li’s face was indifferent but a pair of eyes as if reflecting this beautiful moonlight and appeared glimmering with brilliant rays, that white clothed figure, like a fairy standing in the moonlight, seemed not to have any slightest mortal aura. As if sensing something, that figure moved, Lu XueQi’s cold and slightly tired voice said, “Senior sister, why did you all come back again…”

She slowly turned while speaking but her words halfway, suddenly disappeared, Lu XueQi’s usual detached cold face, suddenly revealed an inconceivable look, that man’s figure, quietly stood there, gazing at her.

“Zhang…” She opened her mouth slightly, before her words were out her voice was muffled, “...Xiao Fan.”

Ghost Li stood there, did not move, the moonlight shone onto Lu XueQi’s snow-white skin, almost like translucent and flawless, enhancing her that soul-stirring beauty. From far, he actually had that unapproachable feeling.

“You, still fine?”  He had thousands of words but what he said, was only these words.

Lu XueQi gazed at this man, that man who stood between the moonlight and shadows, his expression was that complicated, as if something was tormenting him in his heart but that figure was clearly in front! That figure which had appeared countless of times in dreams!

She lowered her head slightly, did not speak. After a long while, she softly said, “Since you are here, why don’t you come over?”

Ghost Li’s body shook, Xiao Hui who was with him, had ran off somewhere, hesitation flashed past in his eyes, to him, these few short steps seemed to require a lot of courage.

Lu XueQi was still standing there, quietly like that, the mountain breeze blew over, her white clothes gently fluttered.

Stepping out, walking in the moonlight, the bamboo forest making rustling sounds behind, the girl in front slightly lifted her head to look, Ghost Li stood in front of her.

Lu XueQi looked at him, the initial panic and emotions slowly disappeared, she suddenly spoke, “Still remember the words I once said to you, the next time we meet, we will be irreconcilable foes, you, “ She looked at him, slowly spoke, “Why did you still come to see me?”

Ghost Li’s lips moved, his eyes glimmered, suddenly looked away from Lu XueQi, just when Lu XueQi’s expression gradually became dejected, that man in front of her again slowly turned his head back, as if hesitating, as if struggling, finally softly said, “You, seemed to lose weight…”

Lu XueQi’s body shook, astonishment once again flashed past her face but what followed, was joy. Her snow-like fair face, for the first time in her life, flushed with faint redness, like sparkling ruby, boundless tenderness and lingering shyness.

Even if there was no tomorrow, even if ahead was still darkness, but if the heart was warm, maybe one would not be afraid…

This beautiful clear cold girl, suddenly smiled, like the most delicate and charming lily in the night, soundlessly smiled in the wind, her white figure was that dazzling presence in the moonlight. Ghost Li held his breath. Lu XueQi suddenly spoke, spoke each word by each word, “I am really happy!”  then, she was still smiling, her eyes gentle like lingering water ripples.

The night turned deeper, the moon set.

Standing side by side on the platform, gazing together at that blanket of darkness ahead, the mountain breeze blew past, both persons’ clothes fluttered at the same time, their figures within the clear bright moonlight.

Gentle, was the feeling when the wind blew onto the face!

In the bottomless and dark firmament, there was still spots of stars, quietly twinkling.

“FenXiang Valley proposed marriage to you?”

After remaining silent for a long while, Lu XueQi calmly said, “Yes, teacher and sect head teacher uncle both have agreed.” Ghost Li’s voice did not appear different, indifferently said, “When  I  was  on  the  way,  I  heard  your  senior  sisters’ conversations, heard that you are not willing?”

Lu XueQi smiled and said, “Yes, I am not willing.”

Ghost Li turned and looked at her, what reflected in his eyes was instead Lu XueQi’s cool expression and a hint of smile in her eyes. He suddenly had an impulsion, it seemed to leap up from deep within his heart, even his body also trembled, he burst out, “Come with me!”

Lu XueQi’s body trembled, looked at him, saw Ghost Li, no, right now in her eyes, it was clearly the Zhang Xiao Fan from the past! Was it that determined and persevering man?

Go where?

Anywhere! To the ends of the earth! Her lips smiled but crystal ripples seemed to move in her eyes, as if hesitating about something but after a moment, she finally still softly said, “Then BiYao?...”

Like a basin of cold water pouring down, Ghost Li’s entire body was rigid, from deep in his heart from the deepest recesses a chill seeped out and instantly turned him into ice. Light green figure, serene smile, that beautiful figure lying on that cold stone platform, instantly knocked him down.

He quietly bend his head, remained quiet for a long time, then, when he again raised his head, the agitation on his face was gone, replacing it was detachment. Lu XueQi stare blankly at his change, that clarity feeling of this man in front of her, from the lingering warmness, slowly departed, hiding into the cold darkness.

She inhaled deeply, a smile revealed on her lips but who could see, the tears at the corner of her eyes, that moment of soul-stirring beauty!

“Next time, “ Ghost Li turned around, slowly leaving, “When we meet again, use your sword!” He left without turning back, like a determined lover severing affection, the moonlight followed after him, like a gentle hand feebly tried to get involved but in the end unable to stop his figure.

He disappeared into the darkness, that was his way in, that was also the direction he left!

Lu XueQi’s pale face, still had a frozen faint smile, snow-like clothes danced in the wind, under the moonlight, until, she soundlessly shedded a drop of tear.

The tears bamboos which covered the entire mountain, under the moonlight, in such a cool night, rustled...

Chapter 148 - Venomous Scheme

Thousands of miles away, a similar late night, that bright moon high up in the horizon, quietly watching this mortal world.

In the wild countryside, there was also someone gazing at that cold moon with his head high, his big robe long sleeves, still that Taoist dressing, on the angular face, that authoritarian-and-not-anger demeanour could still be indistinctly seen.

The night breeze in the open country blew gently across, the wild grasses rustled, in-between the fluttering of the clothes and stillness, time felt like it had stopped too.

Just that, who could stop time, while you were distracted, ten years of time eventually still passed.

Someone sighed, the voice faint and clear, slowly drifted off with the wind. In this stretch of quietness, suddenly a voice was heard from afar, with some traces of laughter, said, “Such a fine moment and beautiful scene, priest enjoying it alone, really in a good mood!”

This voice in the beginning sounded very far but after the words were spoken the voice was already behind the taoist priest, the priest inhaled deeply, turned over, under the moonlight, it was Taoist Cang Song who ten years ago, conspired with the Evil Sect to betray Qing Yun.

And standing not far behind him, was the Ghost King sect leader Ghost King who was still smiling, looking over, Ghost King’s complexion looked the same but his head of white hair, his face a lot more haggard and in his eyes, had a kind of indistinct blazing glint, even more glaring than before.

Taoist Cang Song’s gaze swept past Ghost King’s hair, his composed expression changed, he stared in shock and said, “Sect head, what happened to your hair…”

Ghost King smiled faintly, he had already anticipated Taoist Cang Song’s reaction. With his high level of cultivation, even if it was another hundred years, his appearance would also not change that much but now that his hair suddenly turned white in three days, others like Cang Song etc who did not know the details were naturally taken aback, assumed that he had encountered some problems in his cultivation.

Ghost King also did not explain, even his expression did not change much, only smiled and said, “You and I although are cultivated martial artists but after all still mortals, gratitude, resentment, affection, enmity, there are bound to be sorrowful matters.”

Taoist Cang Song collected himself, solemnly said, “That’s right, I have said too much.”

Ghost King shook his head and laughed, clasped his hands behind and walked to Taoist Cang Song, smiled and said, “Let’s drop it. However, ever since that Qing Yun battle ten years ago, heard that priest is honoured by Wan Du Clan, extremely revered, tonight out of a sudden invited me here to meet, not sure if there is any urgent matter? If that God of Poison senior knows about this, I naturally don’t mind but I’m afraid it might be inconvenient for priest.” Taoist Cang Song watched Ghost King for a while, Ghost King did not ask any more, still maintaining a smile and waited. After a long time, Cang Song sighed and said, “Sect head you are really exceptional, truthfully, tonight humble me invited sect head, there is indeed something to discuss.”

Ghost King said, “Priest please speak.”

Cang Song glanced at Ghost King, said, “Sect head do you know, Wan Du Clan head God of Poison, had already passed away three days ago.”

Taoist Cang Song’s voice was not loud but like a soundless shock of thunder, even though Ghost King, a person figure with such composure, could not help but shook and his expression changed greatly, exclaimed, “What?”

Cang Song stared intently at Ghost King, said, “God of Poison had already passed away three days ago, in his last will, passed down the clan head position to his youngest disciple, Qin WuYan.” Ghost King slowly calmed down but his brows were still tightly locked, his face looked calm but in his heart was like thousands upon thousands of men and horses charging over at the same time, his mind in a turmoil incessantly with various kinds of thoughts.

The three great Evil sect branches currently facing off each other, the one he dreaded the most was this Wan Du Clan old venomous thing, with him around, Ghost King sect almost did not have any chance of pulling the Wan Du Clan down from the first position of the Evil Sect. But now, this old venomous thing who seemed to be immortal, actually die quietly like that!

Ghost King breathed deeply, his eyes again back to Taoist Cang Song, suddenly smiled and said, “God of Poison senior is our holy sect highly respected elder, now that he has unfortunately passed away, it is really sad.”  Although he was speaking words of mourning but there was none of the sorrow in his smile.

And Taoist Cang Song who was standing facing him was also indifferent, apparently the two of them did not have anything to reminisce of the old man who had passed away. “But, “  Ghost King seemed to reveal a trace of seriousness, said, “before I come, why didn’t I hear about this news! In those three days, Wan Du Clan although was peaceful but not a single news was divulged.”

Taoist Cang Song smiled with disdain, said, “After that old man died, although his wish was for Qin WuYan to take over the head position but the other disciples who rushed back together to send him off were unwilling, argued constantly over this head position and thus temporarily held back the news of the old man’s death. Now other than me and a few who are also honoured, most of the Wan Du Clan’s disciples still do not know about this matter.”

With Ghost King’s stature, he naturally comprehended once he heard it, a hint of smile surfaced on his lips, said to Taoist Cang Song, “This is not a trivial matter, for priest to tell me this, it serves to show your great kindness, humble me is really grateful.”

Taoist Cang Song laughed, said, “I dare not.” Ghost King’s eyes glimmered, said, “Does priest have any other words to say, no harm in saying?”

Taoist  Cang  Song  snorted,  said,  “Sect  head  is  indeed  an outstanding man of great talent and bold vision, thus I will not beat around the bush, Wan Du Clan is now no longer a place where I can stay, hope that sect head, on the account of our friendship, will take me in.”

Ghost King was surprised, said, “What are you saying priest, with priest’s prestige, humble me couldn’t have wish for more and has long admire for many years. Just that priest always has a high position in Wan Du Clan and since it is also another branch of the holy sect, I thus do not dare to invite without consideration, don’t tell me after God of Poison senior’s death, there are changes?”

Taoist Cang Song nodded and said, “Sect head is far-sighted, God of Poison did treat me well but that Qin WuYan never gets along with me, and with the vying of the head position, the various high-level disciples took their own sides, from what I see, even if there is one who is able to sit on that position and control the Wan Du Clan, there will still be heavy casualties, should not spoil the ship for a half a penny worth of tar.” Ghost King laughed, his laughter resonated in this wilderness, the next moment, he collected his laughter, solemnly said, “Priest don’t worry, Qin WuYan is an ignorant youth and doesn’t appreciate your talents, priest please come to our Ghost King sect, deign yourself to an honoured status, do whatever your heart desires with no worries.”

Taoist  Cang  Song  looked  delighted,  nodded  and  said,  “As such I thank sect head.”

Ghost King smiled and nodded, his eyes glimmered, said, “Since priest and I are already one family, I will be bold and consult priest, among the God of Poison’s disciples, who has the highest hope of succeeding the head position?”

Cang Song after pondering for a long while, said, “Although the various highly-skilled disciples are divided with their own men but from my opinion, in the end most likely Qin WuYan has the highest probability to emerge victorious, although this person is young but he is scheming and received God of Poison’s real skills, he cannot be belittled. Just that he was injured by Ghost Li several months ago at the death marsh, heard that the Sinister Orb evil power is extremely strange, it penetrated deep into his bones and until now he has not made a full recovery which is why his other senior brothers are able to take advantage and revolt, if not with his abilities, those few useless senior brothers of his are definitely not his match.”

Ghost King was surprised, the incident of Ghost Li ambushing Qin WuYan, even though happened in the death marsh too but Ghost Li had never told anyone, he was also unaware of it, now that he heard it from Taoist Cang Song, Ghost Li’s figure involuntarily flashed past his mind, his eyes’ glint surged.

The intensity of his glint, even Taoist Cang Song was shocked by it, asked in surprised, “Sect head, what is it?”

Ghost King instead reacted quickly, released a breath, smiled and said, “Nothing, just that I didn’t expect that the Ghost Li I have nurtured, now indeed has become a man of great talent, I am extremely delighted.”

Taoist Cang Song glanced at him, his face looked as normal and did not speak anymore but in his heart, a figure of Zhang Xiao Fan ten years ago at Qing Yun Hill surfaced and when he thought about Ghost King’s expression just now, he could not help but sneer in his heart.

Majestic Fox Mountain, Ghost King Sect Headquarters.

Landing down from the sky, that evil stick glimmering with green light quietly flew back into the sleeve, Ghost Li’s figure once again appeared at the entrance to Ghost King sect headquarters.

The few Ghost King sect disciples guarding the entrance were startled and then hurriedly stood aside to make way, their mouths chanting, “Vice leader.”

Ghost Li did not say anything, his face expressionless and walked directly in, Xiao Hui crouched at his shoulder, peered around as usual but after a while stopped looking, after all it was already too familiar with this place.

Ghost Li slowly walked to his own room, pushed the stone door opened, the things in his room remained exactly the same as the day he left, almost nobody touched anything. He stood for a long time in the room, as if thinking about something, a hint of hesitation and fear rarely seen appeared on his face. Xiao Hui jumped down from his shoulder, in two or three jumps leapt over to his bed, played by itself.

Ghost Li pressed his lips tight, suddenly sighed, like he had made up his mind, turned and walked out, then headed towards that ice cold stone chamber deep inside the mountain body.

On his way in he met quite a few Ghost King disciples but towards this vice leader who had disappeared for a long time and then suddenly appeared, they without exception bowed and walked off, to them, seemed like the further they stayed away from this man the better it was. However Ghost Li clearly was not bothered by their behaviours, only quietly walked forward, his room was not that far from the cold chamber, soon he reached it and saw that figure standing before the room.

YouJi. Ghost Li suddenly had a thought: Why was it that everytime he comes to visit BiYao, YouJi seemed to be standing outside the chamber? Seemed like she also had deep feelings towards BiYao…

While he was thinking, YouJi seemed to hear footsteps, looked up and seemed like she had never expected Ghost Li to suddenly appear, her body wavered slightly.

Ghost Li silently nodded to her, considered a greeting and then walked past her and walked towards the stone door.

Behind the black veil, YouJi was silent.

Just when Ghost Li was about to push open the door, he suddenly paused, turned and looked at YouJi, said, “You…”

He seldom spoke to YouJi, right now suddenly he did not know how to address her. YouJi faintly said, “Whatever BiYao calls me, you can also call me that!”

Ghost Li was silent, as if he was feeling something, for a moment only silence between them but eventually it was Ghost Li who spoke first, “Aunt You, before I left, I requested Qing Long holy envoy to send the great shaman’s ashes back to southern border…”

YouJi’s black veil nodded twice, quietly said, “Don’t worry, big brother has already sent it over but for some reasons, there isn’t  any  news  of  him  yet.”   while  speaking,  although  her expression could not be seen but an anxiety not heard before indistinctly revealed in her voice, “Recently evil beasts have been wreaking havoc in the southern border, although big brother is highly-skilled but I do not know why he is not back yet.”

Ghost Li frowned, after a while, said, “You too don’t worry! Qing Long holy envoy is highly skilled and powerful, those evil beasts can do nothing to him.” He paused for a while, said, “I shall go in then.” YouJi nodded and did not speak anymore.

[Rumble]

The heavy door emitted a deep low sound and then closed up behind him, Ghost Li once again in the cold chamber, silently watching that serene and beautiful figure.

Trails of white air gently wafted up from the ice, threads and threads drifted in the air above, slowly moving, making one felt surreal. On the smooth floor, the remnant markings of that soul-stirring “Spirit Calling Bait” could still be seen, the dark faint red colour, right now seemed to have seeped into the stones.

Ghost Li’s lips for some reason, started to tremble, slowly, he walked over one step by one step, stepped over the red markings, past the faint white mist, BiYao’s serene face appeared before him.

As of nothing had changed, looking at her like that, like it was still ten years ago, that beautiful girl he first saw… Ghost Li’s body trembled even more violently, before BiYao’s stone platform, little by little he stooped down, in the stone chamber, indistinctly the choking sounds he struggled to suppress but eventually could not, were heard.

Suddenly, Ghost Li’s body moved, turned his hand over, slapped himself hard, the loud sound rang out after his hand slapped his face immediately resounded in the stone chamber, the man’s anguish and regret, as if only now then it could be vent off slightly.

“Sorry, BiYao, sorry…”  that deep low voice, struggling to control his own voice, quietly speaking, repeating.

For an unknown length of time, the silence in the stone chamber once again was broken, the stone door was opened by someone. A head full of silver hair Ghost King unhurriedly walked in, stood behind Ghost Li. Ghost Li leaning over beside BiYao, moved and slowly stood up, then turned around.

Both men’s eyes met and were shocked, Ghost Li saw Ghost King’s head full of silver hair, Ghost King saw the five fingers red marks on Ghost Li’s face. “You  are  back.”   Ghost  King’s  voice  sounded  somehow strange, a faint relief in his calm voice, yet there was another inexplicable strange feeling.

Ghost Li silently nodded. Ghost King had long used to Ghost Li’s character and did not mind, said, “Come along with me! There is an old familiar, I guessed you should meet and there is soon to be a big matter for our Ghost King sect.”

Ghost Li was surprised, evidently he did not know who this old familiar was but looking at his expression, with his current mood he did not wish to know too, he turned and took another look at BiYao, as if he wanted to engrave this pale face deeply into his eyes and never changed again. Then, he turned and walked out.

Ghost King’s eyes, also slightly glanced at his daughter, a kindly expression in his eyes and then retreated, when he turned around, there would be no one who could see that weakness of his.

YouJi was still outside the door, Ghost Li stood ahead to wait, Ghost King after two steps, suddenly turned and spoke to YouJi, “You come along too!”

YouJi nodded slightly and followed along.

The three of them left the cold chamber, walked past the twisting tunnels and arrived at a secluded room deep inside the mountain, Ghost King pushed the door and walked in first, Ghost Li followed behind him, there was already two people in the room, one of them with a black veil obscuring the face, it was the mysterious Mr Ghost; another in Taoist robe and angular face, it was Taoist Cang Song.

Hearing footsteps, Taoist Cang Song and Mr Ghost turned around too.

When Ghost Li and Taoist Cang Song’s eyes met, both were stunned, ten years of time seemed to stop, as if God had cracked a heartless joke on them with some ridicule, the people on Qing Yun Hill at that time! Now they actually met in such a circumstances.

 Mysteriously and inexorably, who was it that manipulated everything?

The atmosphere in the room became heavy, nobody spoke, Ghost Li and Taoist Cang Song looked at each other, both expressionless but their eyes were that complicated, nobody would have a clue.

In the end it was still Ghost King who walked over, smiled and said, “Why, an old friend meets again, it is considered rare, sit down and talk!”

Once he spoke, the atmosphere turned better, Ghost Li and Taoist Cang Song both looked away and sat down.

Ghost King first spoke to Ghost Li, “Taoist Cang Song now is already honoured in our Ghost King sect, in the future we are all fellow Faction, if there is a chance, you all should also get to know each other better.”

Ghost Li’s eyes glimmered, said, “Isn’t priest at Wan Du Clan, why did he come to Ghost King sect?” Taoist Cang Song had already anticipated this question, the expression on his face unchanged and did not speak, as expected, Ghost King smiled and spoke, “Because a big change has already happened in Wan Du Clan.”

“”What, big change?” Those words, not only Ghost Li, even the two mysterious figures with their faces obscured with black veils, YouJi and Mr Ghost, both could be seen shocked too, now that the Evil Sect was divided into three, three great sects controlling each and when a big change happened in Wan Du Clan, naturally it would also mean a big opportunity to the other two sects.

YouJi was the first to ask, “What is the big change?”

Ghost King smiled and said, “God of Poison is already dead.”

“What?”  This  news  was  even  more  shocking  than  what Ghost King had said earlier, Ghost Li and the rest knew the intricate relationships of those figures, naturally knew what his death meant. Ghost King looked around at everyone, smiled and said, “All of us are not fools, should know that currently we are facing an opportunity.”

Ghost Li was silent, glanced at Taoist Cang Song, said, “This news, is this...priest brought over?”

Ghost King nodded, said, “That’s right and these few days I have also been secretly checking, it is indeed true.”

Ghost Li inhaled deeply, said, “How is the situation at Wan Du Clan now?”

Ghost King glanced at Cang Song, Cang Song understood, said, “Before God of Poison’s death he had passed the head position to Qin WuYan but his other disciples were not accepting it, now Wan Du Clan is in a chaos, while vying for this head position, the various highly-skilled disciples formed their own groups, fighting incessantly.”

Ghost King continued, “The mess is good, the more in chaos it is, the better, now then is the time for us to unite the holy sect.”  He  paused  for  a  while,  suddenly  smiled  at  Ghost  Li, “Speaking of which, it is also because you have injured Qin WuYan heavily in the death marsh, thus creating this disorder, your contribution is not small too.”

Ghost Li was surprised, raised his head and looked at Ghost King, Ghost King looked as usual, his eyes glimmering with a sharp glint but did not look anything out of usual, and so he could only keep quiet.

Ghost King did not speak anymore on this topic, said, “Today I have asked all of you here to discuss, mainly is because Taoist Cang Song has a plan which can help our Ghost King sect to wipe out Wan Du Clan in one stroke…”

Everyone was shocked, Wan Du Clan had always been the number one among the Evil Sect three big branches, although the thorn in the flesh God of Poison was already dead but a centipede does not topple over when it’s dead, even if Ghost King sect gathered all of its strength, to wipe out Wan Du Clan in one stroke, it would still be difficult. Even if they could accomplish it, most likely their resources would also be severely depleted and in the end, that would give HeHuan Sect who would be watching from the sidelines, the advantage. Ghost Li knew Ghost King had always been cautious and meticulous and would never fail to see through this consequences, which even he himself could easily predict, for a moment felt curious about this so-called wonderful plan of Taoist Cang Song, said, “Oh, there is such wonderful plan, I have to seek guidance.”

Taoist Cang Song did not modestly decline, nodded slightly to Ghost King, glanced around at them, said, “Does everyone knows right now what the world fear most?”

Once this irrelevant question was asked, Ghost Li and the rest were nonplussed, YouJi said, “Naturally would be those cannibal evil demons from the southern border, priest, why out of the sudden do you bring up these monsters for?”

Mr Ghost who was sitting beside Ghost King, after the initial shock, right now suddenly nodded, made a soft sound, as if thought of something.

Taoist Cang Song spoke to YouJi, “This plan, is for those evil demon beasts, if not with Wan Du Clan’s strength, whoever wants to take it down, will also suffer serious losses too.” By now most of the people had got it, Ghost Li nodded and said, “That’s right, if we could make Wan Du Clan and the evil demons to fight with each other, that would be the best but how do we do it?”

Taoist Cang Song smiled, said, “Actually to say it is really easy, don’t those evil demons kill people upon sight and many of the evil demons’ sense of smell are really keen, hunger for human meat, we only have to…”

His voice turned low gradually, the ingenious plan, little by little revealed to the audience, time, while the group was in discussion, quietly slipped past.

After the secret meeting ended, the group did not realize how much time had passed, Ghost King and Mr Ghost were the first to leave, YouJi glanced at Ghost Li and also quietly left. Soon, only Ghost Li and Taoist Cang Song were left in the room and they did not look like they were in a hurry to leave.

Looking around, in the gradually turning-silent stone chamber, his gaze drifted and finally back to that person’s face in front of him and realized, he was also looking at him. In the stone chamber, only silence, suddenly as if their breathings and heartbeats could also be heard.

Ghost Li suddenly said, “Do you have words to speak to me?”

Taoist Cang Song stared at him, after a long while, slowly said, “Yes but right now I don’t know what to say anymore.”

Ghost Li was silent, after a moment, indifferently said, “For the past ten years, have you visited Qing Yun?”

Taoist Cang Song’s face was composed but his eyes turned complicated, heaved a sigh and said, “Went but each time I have only taken a few glances from afar. You?”

Ghost Li slowly stood up, his lips moved, said, “I too went before, the mountain and rivers are still the same as ten years ago, only the people changed.” Taoist Cang Song smiled faintly, infinite bitterness in his smile, quietly said, “Yes! Only humans will change…”

Ghost Li turned and left, just when he stepped out, he heard Taoist Cang Song who was still sitting at his seat, muttering softly, “Qing Yun...Qing Yun...hee, Qing Yun ah…”

The next moment, he left the stone chamber and did not turn back anymore.

On the bridge above the blood pool, in the thick smell of blood, Ghost King and Mr Ghost who had came back here stood side by side and looked towards the blood water, the Yellow Bird and Kui Niu were still lying in the blood water dejectedly and that Hidden Dragon Cauldron was still slowly rotating in the air, ejecting red lights frequently.

Ghost King indifferently said, “Almost done with these two spiritual beasts?”

Mr Ghost nodded beside him, said, “Yes, Yellow Bird and Kui Niu’s spiritual energies are already totally controlled by the Hidden Dragon Cauldron, right now completely subdued, seemed like the inscriptions of the ‘Four Divinities Blood Formation’ on the Hidden Dragon Cauldron’s body is true.”

Ghost King nodded and said, “The Hidden Dragon Cauldron is an ancient object, its spiritual power is something not to be dismissed, even these two spiritual beasts are subdued by it, we only need to subdue the other two spiritual beasts and the important thing will be completed.”

Mr Ghost hesitated for a while, said, “Sect head, as for that plan by Taoist Cang Song, do you think this person can be trusted?”

Ghost King’s eyes flashed, he smiled, said, “Cang Song is already not that Cang Song ten years ago, now although the world is so big but only our holy sect is able to protect him, and that plan of his, only a few ordinary disciples will die, it doesn’t matter.”

Mr Ghost’s black veil moved slightly, suddenly said, “Since it is so, I have another idea instead, maybe it could allow sect head other than dealing with Wan Du Clan, even HeHuan Sect can be dealt with together.”

Ghost King was stunned, delight shown on his face, said, “What? There is actually such a thing, mister please advise me.”

Mr Ghost bowed slightly, said, “I dare not. My intention is, since sect head doesn’t mind a few ordinary disciples’ deaths, might as well go through with it to the end. After baiting the evil beasts to fight with Wan Du Clan, sect head in Ghost King sect’s name, send a letter to HeHuan Sect SanMiao Madame, claimed that as we are all holy sect disciples, couldn’t bear to be impervious to Wan Du Clan’s situation. And the evil beasts are running wild, killing people without discernment, if that goes on, our holy sect will be in danger, why not together with HeHuan Sect’s strength, maybe there might be a chance to win.”

Ghost  King  frowned  and  said,  “This  all  sounds  nice  but SanMiao Madame is also one cunning figure, most probably she will not believe it.” Mr Ghost indifferently said, “All words but no action, naturally she would not believe.”

Ghost King was stunned, said, “Mr Ghost’s meaning is…”

Mr Ghost said, “If half of Ghost King sect disciples were killed in the battle, their corpses littered everywhere, don’t tell me she still wouldn’t believe?”

Ghost King was taken aback, did not speak for a long while, then frowned and said, “Mr Ghost’s meaning, is to give up half of Ghost King sect’s disciples?”

Mr Ghost’s black veil obscured his face’s expression, his voice was calm, seemed like he was not affected at all while discussing about that many number of people’s lives, said, “Sect head, if you want to achieve great things, why bother about those people’s lives!”

Ghost King felt in a dilemma, greed for power and that hint of reluctant battled with each other repeatedly, the smell of blood in the air seemed to thicken. Mr Ghost stood silently beside, patiently waited. After a long time, the glint in Ghost King’s eyes slowly brightened, an indistinct red flush also seemed to appear on his face, as if the blood smell in the air had penetrated in. He inhaled deeply, suddenly with a long whistle, determinedly said, “Mister is right but how do we know SanMiao Madame will not hit a person when he is down and instead decided to attack us?”

Mr Ghost [he he] coldly laughed, said, “SanMiao Madame of course is someone who hits a person when the person is down, among the three great Evil Sect branches, which one will really attach importance to the holy sect fellow friendship?”

Ghost King was stunned and then his eyes brightened, exclaimed,  “Ah!  You  are  saying...brilliant,  brilliant!”   The praises, Ghost King couldn’t help but applaud and cheer, said, “Mister is really an exceptional rare talent, you actually have such brilliant strategy.”

Mr Ghost coldly said, “We will use half of the Ghost King sect disciples as bait, also might as well sect head you will personally lead the battle against the evil beasts, until almost nothing is left of our people, HeHuan sect will assume we and Wan Du Clan with the evil beast, neither side gains, and SanMiao Madame will surely lead a great number of people immediately to finish us up, and until then, sect head with your remarkable ability, naturally will find an opportunity to escape first and leave the remaining affairs to the evil beasts. Looking at the current scenes where those evil beasts swept across all obstacles, I’m afraid it will be difficult not to exterminate HeHuan sect.”

Ghost King nodded in succession, unable to suppress the delight in his heart but while he was excited, he was still able to maintain a composed face, suddenly turned and said, “But Mister, as such, my Ghost King sect will then be able to unite the holy sect but the holy sect will also suffer heavy casualties, if the evil beasts once again…”

Mr  Ghost  shook  his  head  said,  “Sect  head  have  you forgotten? Our holy sect at northwest wildlands, still have a temple? As long as once we unite the holy sect, then bring the remaining entire Ghost King sect disciples into wildlands and organize our holy sect there, even if the evil beasts are spreading unchecked but for the moment they will be wreaking havoc in the Central Plains and will not pursue over to the wildlands. And after which, those Good Faction taoists in Central Plains, isn’t it time to put them in good use?” Ghost King finally could put his heart down, let out a long breath, sighed and said, “Mister is really a good teacher and a helpful friend that the Heavens blessed me with!”

Mr Ghost smiled and said, “Afterwards, those so-called Good Faction battle with the evil beasts, no matter who wins, most probably will also suffer, the evil beasts although are savage but I see that the world Good Faction are converging at Qing Yun, ten years ago Qing Yun ‘Zhu Xian Sword Formation’ might, sect head I guess you still remembered it?”

Ghost King nodded and said, “That’s right, it is indeed very powerful!”

Mr Ghost smiled and said, “Therefore for the evil beasts to gain victory, it is also not that easy. We will recover and recuperate at wildlands, once the Four Divinities Blood Formation is completed successfully, in this world, who will be able to resist our holy sect might?”

Ghost King was stunned, said, “What, is it that Mister has news of the other two spiritual beasts?” Mr  Ghost  said,  “That’s  right,  after  the  cauldron  has completely subdued the spiritual beasts, Yellow Bird and Kui Niu, there is already new inscription on the cauldron’s body, the next one is the beast, Aurora Dragon, which is keeping watch over our holy sect temple in the wildlands, after we return to the temple to subdue it, we will be left with only the ferocious beast in the south, ‘TaoTie’. And then once we find the TaoTie, wouldn’t the entire world be in sect head’s hands!”

Ghost King stepped forward, watched the blood pool below, the thick pungent smell of blood enveloped him, dimly, he seemed to feel the sensation of grasping the world underneath his hands.

He couldn’t help but lifted his head up and laughed, loud and clear and that laughter was that savage!

Chapter 149 - Alliance

Qing Yun Hill, TongTian Peak.

Outside the Crystal Hall, stood a large packed group of people, looking carefully, they were all Good Faction people, including Qing Yun sect head Reverend DaoXuan and FenXiang Valley valley master Yun YiLan. Behind the two of them, the other well-known elites of Qing Yun and FenXiang Valley were also all standing there, looking at this show of force, they seemed to be waiting for someone.

Who was it, that actually had such a big honour?

Not counting those smaller sects and clans, right now Qing Yun sect and FenXiang Valley important figures were all present, FenXiang Valley ShangGuan Ce, LuShun, the second generation of disciples, Li Xun, YanHong etc were standing behind Yun YiLan. Li Xun’s face was expressionless but he did not look good. In addition, people around him were whispering and casting glances at him every now and then, making his mood even uglier. And over at Qing Yun sect, Tian BuYi, Zeng ShuChang, ShuiYue Master, QiHao and the other branches’ leaders were also present, including Xiao YiCai and the other disciples standing behind Reverend DaoXuan, just that among the crowd, the most outstanding, famous figure recently in Qing Yun, Lu Xueqi, was not there. In addition, Lin JingYu was also missing, perhaps he might be at the Founders Ancestral Hall again.

That day the sky was clear and the air crisp, no clouds was seen for a thousand miles, the gentle mountain breeze, constantly blowing, made them felt relaxed and happy. If not for this mortal world with so many resentment and vendetta, endless worries, the place here really felt like a paradise.

In the crowd behind, many were in whispered conversations and vaguely hearing them, most of them were talking about the great catastrophe, Reverend DaoXuan heard it, his face solemn, could not help but gently sighed.

The sigh was not loud and the people around him did not notice but standing beside him at the front of the crowd, FenXiang Valley valley master, Yun YiLan, caught it, turned and glanced at him, quietly said, “DaoXuan senior brother why are you sighing?”

DaoXuan gave a bitter smile, slightly shook his head, said: "Have you heard the private words of these fellow brothers behind us, very few of them are optimistic.”

Yun YiLan smiled and said: "DaoXuan senior brother why bother about them, although the calamity is here, the people are plunged into an abyss of misery but we are now the world’s last hope, facing that kind of extremely vicious evildoers and monsters, senior brother you as the world leader, if you do not have the confidence, how will you face the earnest expectations of the common people?”

Reverend DaoXuan’s face changed slightly, a glint flashed in his eyes, he looked deeply at Yun YiLan and saw his calm face and he did not seem to imply otherwise, he smiled and said: "Yun patron is too kind, poor priest me, on what virtues and capability, to take on this ‘world leader’ four words? This time the calamity by this beast demon, tormenting the people, we as people who learn the Way and have always boast ourselves as the correct way, naturally we cannot stay out of this. Once Tian Yin Temple PuHong Master arrives, our three sects together with the heros of the world, sacrificing for the people, it will not make our studies of the Way in vain"

Yun YiLan nodded, said, “Senior brother is right.”

Reverend DaoXuan smiled and returned the politeness but a strange feeling flitted past his heart, FenXiang Valley valley master Yun YiLan in front of him, was always humble and had impeccable manners, however he couldn’t seem to read this person and felt that this person was hard to fathom.

While Reverend DaoXuan was contemplating whether to find a good opportunity to test out Yun YiLan and see exactly what he was scheming when the crowd suddenly stirred, Reverend DaoXuan and Yun YiLan became alert, looked down to the foot of the mountain and saw, deep within the white clouds covering TongTian Peak, golden light suddenly shone and then quickly became larger, in a blink was already approaching the peak.

The golden light floated, turning into a lotus bloom shape, floating above the white clouds, waves of Buddhist chants, echoed between Heaven and Earth, the dignified atmosphere, immediately made everyone felt revered.

Reverend DaoXuan and Yun YiLan went up at the same time, the golden lotus floated down, flickering and flashing, the golden light dispersed and Tian Yin Temple PuHong Master leading dozens of Buddhist monks appeared. PuHong Master, looked the same as that year, kindly and benign, golden-red Buddhist robes, solemn and dignified, holding a string of dark sandalwood rosary, a trace of smile on his lips.

Behind him, stood his tall junior brother, PuFang, holding the "Buddha Golden Alms" and followed by several Tian Yin Temple elite monks and second generation disciples, FaXiang, FaShan and other well-known Buddhist disciples among them.

Reverend  DaoXuan  smiled  and  went  up,  said,  “PuHong Master, you have finally come, everyone has been long awaiting!”

PuHong Venerable smiled and nodded, said, “We have made everyone and sect head DaoXuan waited for long, old monk me is ashamed.” Right then, Yun YiLan standing beside Reverend DaoXuan laughed and spoke in a loud and clear voice, “Master, do you still recognize me, we have not seen for many years, the old intimate friends, you better not forget them all!”

PuHong Venerable glanced at Yun YiLan, a shocked expression on his face, even the ever-smiling face also momentarily ceased then an admirable expression flashed past his face, said, “Don’t tell me this patron is actually Yun YiLan Yun elder valley master?”

Yun YiLan laughed loudly, bowed and said, “It is indeed, greeting Master abbot.”

PuHong came forward to bow and return the gesture, smiled and said, “I have long heard of FenXiang Valley enigmatic skills, particularly ‘FenXiang Jade Volume’ Three Yang Realm which is even more mystical, Yun patron has strong determination, exceptional aptitude, don’t tell me you have already reached ‘Jade Yang’ realm already?”

Yun YiLan’s countenance changed slightly, he was startled, FenXiang Valley had always been known to be mysterious within the Good Faction and not as prominent as Qing Yun sect and Tian Yin Temple the two great sects, "Tai Ji Xuan Qing Way" or "Great Brahman Wisdom", not one would not know about it. But this time when he entered the Central Plains and met the two prestigious Central Plains sect leaders, one after another, Reverend DaoXuan and PuHong Venerable saw through his skills realm, the thought of the connections within, he could not help but secretly suspect: Could it be that there are spies in his sect?

Although he was thinking of such but his face was still composed, smiled and said: "Master has an discerning eye, my meagre skill is not worth mentioning.” Yun YiLan paused and then turned slightly serious, said, "But since Master is here, it is well. Now the world is in a misery, evildoers rampant, it is a catastrophe not seen for thousands and hundreds of years, hope that Master can lead the Good Faction, eliminate the calamity, as such it will be the utmost virtue."

Reverend DaoXuan standing beside, his countenance changed slightly.

PuHong Venerable modestly declined, said, “Yun patron flatters, the world facing a calamity, the evildoers indulging in wanton massacre, in Tian Yin Temple all of us are Buddhist disciples, how can we hide behind the people? Just that now the world Good Faction are all convening at Qing Yun and senior brother DaoXuan has always been a person of virtue and prestige, his skills are even more remarkable and exceptional, naturally senior brother DaoXuan should be the leader and lead the world Good Faction to fight the enemies as one.”

Reverend  DaoXuan  smiled  and  said,  “Master  is  too  kind, DaoXuan really don’t deserve it.”

PuHong Venerable put his palms together and said, “Sect head DaoXuan, now that the common people are pinning day and night, only for this calamity to end the soonest, you must not decline anymore.”

Yun YiLan [he he] laughed and said, “Both are cultivation masters and yet are all so polite, come come come, let’s talk inside, if not these fellow brothers will have to stay and watch us chat, wouldn’t we be neglecting the guests!”

Reverend DaoXuan and PuHong Venerable looked at each other and smiled, and then walked off together, on the way in, there were many who greeted and asked after PuHong Venerable and his Tian Yin Temple monks, it could be seen that Tian Yin Temple had a high moral prestige among the Good Faction.

On the way into the Crystal Hall, PuHong Master again praised Qing Yun sect newly built huge Crystal Hall, majestic and impressive. Reverend DaoXuan smiled and politely thanked, invited PuHong Master to take the main seat, PuHong Master refused and repeatedly declined, in the end Reverend DaoXuan sat on the main seat and PuHong Master and Yun YiLan sat on both sides.

The main hall at the moment held nearly a hundred or more people but because of the limited seats, other than a few highly reputable lone celestials, the rest were from the three sects, as such it could also be seen the three sects’ status and strength in the Good Faction, and discussions on the strategies etc. naturally were also mainly within the three sects.

After everyone settled down, Yun YiLan was the first to speak, he asked PuHong Master, “Master, on your way here, did you see those savage demonic beast monsters?” PuHong Master nodded and said, “Yes, we also eliminated a few monsters.”

A commotion went through the crowd, now that the disaster had already spread through the world, many had saw them too but these Good Faction people in Qing Yun Hill Crystal Hall, other than the three sects disciples whom were dispatched to scout for information, the rest of the sects, not many had seen.

Reverend DaoXuan’s countenance changed, said, “Oh, there is such a thing, Master why don’t you elaborate and also let everyone here know about this.”

PuHong Master placed his palms together and said, “I’m honoured. Actually we didn’t expect to encounter these demons on our way here. We have always heard that those evildoers are wreaking havoc in the south but in a small village seven hundred miles south of Qing Yun Hill, we found a dozen monsters attacking the village, however we were too late, the villagers were already all killed."

"Ah!" Reverend DaoXuan and Yun YiLan exclaimed out, seven hundred miles south of Qing Yun Hill, although it was not that near but it was not very far too. And the Tian Yin Temple monks who were standing behind PuHong Master, majority of them revealed disturbed expressions, several of them also placed their palms together and chanted, guessed that the scene must have been tragic and so left a deep impression on these monks.

PuHong Master at this moment sighed, said: "Those monsters are really as rumoured, they looked to be transformed from a few types of savage beasts from the southern border and they are cruel and vicious, not a single survivor from a village full of people. Encountering such evil, even if we break our prohibition against taking life and our cultivation will be reduced but to remove the evil for the people, we went ahead and eliminated them."

Reverend DaoXuan with a single palm upright, said, “Master is really righting wrongs in accordance with Heaven’s decree, what you did are merits and not killing with sins, Master should not be upset over it.”

PuHong sighed and nodded, Yun YiLan frowned and was concerned on another problem, said, “Master abbot, I have another matter that I wish to seek advice on.” PuHong Master said, “Yun valley master please speak.”

Yun YiLan said: "Earlier on we have not heard that these evildoers have already arrived here, now that Master has seen them, presumably very soon they will reach Qing Yun surroundings. I am not sure along the way, other than that village, has Master discovered any other demons?"

PuHong Master shook his head, "I did not, other than the village, I did not see any in other places, most likely it could be a small portion of the demons had travelled faster and just happened to be encountered by us."

Reverend DaoXuan exclaimed, "Those demons deserved their bad luck, unfortunately those villagers could not be saved." The monks heard that and all placed their palms together and chanted softly.

Yun YiLan nodded slightly, said, "Master, then from your opinion after fighting with them, how are their combat strength?” PuHong Master pondered slightly, said, "Those evildoers mostly were some ordinary monsters and only that their strength were great and their claws sharp, fierce and brutal, if to really compare, our cultivated Central Plains ordinary training martial artists will be able to overcome them."

Yun YiLan nodded his head, said, "It seems that most of those monsters were common demonic beasts and wandered off from the main group. “ after speaking, he paused and then turned to speak to Li Xun, “Xun’er, tell PuHong Master the news that we have heard over the past few days.”

Li Xun acknowledged and walked out, respectfully bowed to PuHong Master, PuHong Master smiled and said: "Li nephew do not have to stand on ceremony, please speak."

Li Xun nodded, "Reporting to Master, we have in many ways sent our fellow brothers to scout in the south over the past few days and found out that the great calamity of the demons was that devastating, mainly there are three reasons. One: most of the monsters seemed to be variations of savage beasts, although we do not know what is the cause of the mutations but these creatures are indeed much more ferocious than the original beasts, and also much more cruel, the common people definitely cannot defend against them; second, the demonic tribes coming out from the south this time, the numbers are innumerable, our disciples had repeatedly saw swarms of demonic beasts from the sky and the numbers are at least more than tens of thousands, under such circumstances, no matter how highly skilled you are, it will be to no avail; Third, among

these ordinary demons, there seems to be an unknown number of exceptional ones, those are different from the ordinary demons, their evil skills are higher and surpassed most of the cultivated martial artists, and to date, no one has seen the legendary "Beast Deity" and don’t know what kind of figure he is but looking at the way he is able to manipulate those monsters, most likely he is also an extremely difficult character!"

PuHong Master’s white eyebrows tightly wrinkled, the monks behind him were also looking at each other, the calamity this time, was something not seen before, looking at Li Xun’s expression while he was talking and Qing Yun sect, FenXiang Valley members’ solemn expressions, obviously everyone’s moods were heavy.

The hall temporarily sank into a silence, after a long while, Yun YiLan heaved a long breath, smiled and said, "If those monsters are not powerful, how would it be a great calamity! Anyway, things have come so far, it is useless to think more, why don’t we have a good discussion on how shall we defend against these evildoers."

Reverend DaoXuan nodded and said: "Yun valley master is right, let’s do it this way! I also have a collection of some mediocre tea for many years, will both of you please come to the inner quarters, we will discuss over tea.”

PuHong Master and Yun YiLan agreed and stood up, both left some instructions to their sect members and then followed Reverend DaoXuang into the inner quarters, the three highly respected figures left together, the ambience of the hall slowly relaxed, Xiao YiCai, QiHao, Li Xun etc. together with Tian Yin Temple FaXiang, FaShan all knew each other and so came together to chat. Taking opportunity of this rare time, Xiao YiCai proposed to bring FaXiang, FaShan around to admire TongTian Peak scenery, FaXiang and the rest agreed and Li Xun happened to be free, and so came along.

It was already the summer season, the climate had already gradually turned hot but on this towering peaks through the clouds, TongTian Peak, it was still very cool. Walking to a cliff bordered by railings which was a distance from the peak, gazing from the railings, the sea of clouds and vast blue sky, they could not help but feel to withdraw from the worldly affairs of the world.

FaXiang praised, "I have long heard about Qing Yun Hill paradise on earth, the visit a decade ago was already an eye- opener, to see it again, it is still as spectacular and soul- stirring, it is really a wonder of the world ah!”

Xiao YiCai laughed, "FaXiang senior brother is too polite again, comparing scenery, the Mt Meru Tian Yin Temple’s ‘Wordless Jade Wall" and ‘Mt Meru Way, Mustard Seed Mountain’, isn’t them even more famous?"

FaXiang smiled and said, "Those are minor sceneries, how can it be comparable to Qing Yun magnificent view." At the corner of his eyes, he suddenly realized standing behind him Li Xun and YanHong. YanHong was still fine, only Li Xun looked to be somewhat unconvinced but he was not the person he was few years ago, now that he had more self-control and so did not express it out. FaXiang was a thoughtful person, his facial expression did not change and then carrying on the conversation naturally, said, "But if we really want to bring up these sceneries, I think in the whole world, only Li senior brother FenXiang Valley Inferno Fire reaching up to the sky can be placed on par. Right, Li senior brother?"

Li Xun was startled, a trace of smile shown on his face but instead he still politely declined, "FaXiang senior brother flatters, FenXiang Valley is just a small little place and in addition located in a remote area, we do not dare to be compared against the Central Plains sceneries."

Xiao YiCai’s eyes showed his comprehension, glanced at FaXiang, his mouth showing a trace of faint smile expression and then laughed, "Alright, alright, we don’t have to keep praising, anyway each place has its own unique scenery, the world is so vast, wonder if we are able to see all of it in our lifetime?"

Everyone felt touched at the same time, replied together, “Exactly.” After which they burst out laughing together. After they laughed and chatted a while, Li Xun seemed to recall something, slowly walked to Xiao YiCai and when nobody was watching, quietly said, “Xiao senior brother, will like to ask something.”

Xiao YiCai was startled, said, “Li senior brother, please speak your mind.”

Li Xun hesitated for a moment and eventually still said it, “This...these few days, especially such an important day today, why didn’t we see Small Bamboo Valley Lu XueQi Lu junior sister appearance?”

Xiao YiCai’s face slightly changed, he glanced at Li Xun and said quietly, "Li senior brother, Lu junior sister because she had talked back to our venerable teacher sect head DaoXuan, is now ordered to reflect on herself at Small Bamboo Valley Full- Moon platform, till date it has been several days already."

Li Xun made an [ah] cry, his expression complicated, somewhat sad but also seemed ashamed and angry, after a long while he instead heaved a sigh and smiled bitterly to Xiao YiCai,said, "Thank you Xiao senior brother for telling me, I am grateful, later I will plead with my teacher, see if my teacher can speak a few words to persuade teacher uncle DaoXuan, sigh, it is also considered doing my part. "

Xiao YiCai nodded but did not speak, only patted him on his shoulder.

Among the group of people admiring the scenary at a distance, FaXiang slowly looked away from the two of them who were speaking quietly behind, suddenly heard someone spoke in a low voice beside him, “Master do you know Li senior brother has proposed marriage to Lu XueQi Lu junior sister?”

FaXiang smiled and looked at QiHao who was standing beside, said, “I have heard a little.”

QiHao nodded and did not speak further, FaXiang suddenly sighed with sorrow. QiHao felt surprised, said, “FaXiang senior brother, why do you sigh so?”

FaXiang with a faint smile, resumed his normal expression, said, "Nothing, I thought of an old friend suddenly." QiHao was curious, said, “Old friend, what old friend?”

FaXiang slowly said, "An old friend who had once braved life and death with us, with us, with that Miss Lu, has a deep relationship..."

QiHao became silent, after a long time, also heaved a sigh, in his voice, it also carried regret.

The headquarters of the Evil sect Wan Du Clan, was located at a place southwest of Central Plains called ‘Venomous Serpent Valley’. Geographically, the valley and Ghost King sect Majestic Fox Mountain, HeHuan Sect’s Carefree Ravine, formed a large triangle, each keeping a watch and confronting each other, making up the sturdy balance of forces in the Evil sect today.

But right now, the balance had already reached a precarious point, especially in Wan Du Clan which had been the largest force in the Evil Sect, with the old clan head, God of Poison’s death, occupying them now was the issue of the new successor, Wan Du Clan was already in a mess, the headquarters at Venomous Serpent Valley was at a swords drawn and bows bent situation, ready to explode anytime.

In name, by the God of Poison’s last will, the rightful successor was God of Poison’s last disciple, Qin WuYan, a pity that in the Evil Sect, especially in Wan Du Clan this kind of branch where martial arts and real skills were more important than anything, just by the God of Poison’s will, it did not amount to anything.

Not long after the God of Poison’s death, his other disciples rushed back to the valley, their demeanours menacing, displaying their desires to take over the clan head position. And although Qin WuYan had received the God of Poison’s true skills and his abilities far exceeded those senior brothers but for one, he did not have much experience in Wan Du Clan, the important elites honoured were almost all taking his senior brothers’ sides; secondly, that time in the death marsh, he was ambushed by Ghost King sect Xue GongZi Ghost Li and sustained heavy injuries. Even though he had mostly recovered but that evil weapon, Sinister Orb, in Ghost Li’s hand, really made him suffered, that evil power like a maggot in the bone, leaching in his blood and energy channels, greatly reducing his cultivation and also allowing the others the opportunity to glimpse the throne. Fortunately, at the critical juncture, Qin WuYan finally, using God of Poison’s true skills, including the five types of poisons within the [Seven tailed centipede], forcefully cleared this unusual Sinister Orb’s evil power from his body. And this important thing had only happened several days ago, Qin WuYan had always been scheming and so kept this secret, he knew that he was now the target of everyone and so willingly to bear it down.

His patience was soon paid off, his three senior brothers who had joined hands to form a coalition in order to take over the treasured position of the clan head, FanXiong, Cheng WuYa and Duan

RuShan, after discovering that their youngest junior brother whom they feared the most, was already wounded with internal injury, a semi-invalid with illness, and in addition, also sincerely conveyed that although teacher had passed the clan head position to him but he had no intention of taking it and there and then, handed over the clan head official seal and placed it before the God of Poison’s spirit tablet, clearly indicating that only the person who took over the clan head position could obtain it, and then the coalition started to swiftly breakdown. The honoured elites in Wan Du Clan and sect disciples, right now was also divided into three, with Bai DuZi leading one group over at the eldest senior brother, FanXiong; And the Blood Sucking Demon who had enmity with Zhang Xiao Fan for killing his disciple, with his good friend, Elder DuanMu, stood behind the second disciple, Cheng WuYa; as for the remaining number three, Duan RuShan, although his abilities was ranked the last among the four disciples but he had always

been proficient in scheming, had long plotted, right now it was his force which temporarily was the strongest, a lot of Wan Du Clan’s senior evil monsters which had not emerged for a long time, were all won over by him, almost half of the sect disciples were also at his side.

And right now in the Venomous Serpent Valley, it was the last day of the seven days of offering for for God of Poison. The news of the God of Poison's death was already released, white banners decorated the mourning hall like mountain but rarely one or two crying sobs were heard. Although most of the disciples were wearing a white damaskin on their heads, their bodies covered with sackcloth but not even a trace of sadness or grief were on their faces, on the contrary, many stared with anger at the other factions. If not for the fact that they were giving the last bit of face to the mourning hall, most likely here would have become a fighting hall instead of a mourning hall. The four disciples of the God of Poison, were all wearing mourning dresses, kneeled before the crowd but other than Qin WuYan, the other three only kowtowed three times and stood to the side, behind them stood many people too, each facing off each other and the numerous stares, intentionally or unintentionally, looked at the spot before the coffin, a green small box, four words written on it ──

God of Poison Seal.

It was indeed the official seal that since ancient times, only the clan head could have it.

The offering table was placed with fruits and three sacrificial animals, a bronze basin on the ground in front of the table, burning with fire, after Qin WuYan finished his kowtows, different from the three senior brothers, he quietly kneelded by the side, took the paper money and placed it in the copper basin, one piece by one piece, for the deceased. And his three senior brothers did not look at him, no matter who eventually become the clan head, this invalid would not be able to escape his fate of being poisoned to death. Their attention, were on that small box.

A ugly and ferocious looking FanXiong suddenly snorted, took a step forward to that offering table but Cheng WuYa and Duan RuShan who were already prepared, darted out at almost the same time, Duan RuShan sneered, "Big senior brother, the seventh day of Master’s death is not over yet, what are you trying to do?"

FanXiong glared, murderous glint on his face, said: "I am the eldest senior brother, of course this seat is mine."

Cheng WuYa [pei] a sound, said, “Where do you get it that says this position is for the eldest senior brother?”

Duan RuShan also mocked, “You are talking about seniority rules I guess, if you really want to talk about rules, teacher passed down his position to the youngest junior brother, when did it involve you?”

FanXiong’s eyes glint fiercely, turned abruptly to Qin WuYan, Qin WuYan did not raise his head, his voice sounded weak, after coughing once, said trembling, "Three senior brothers, when all of you returned recently ... cough, cough cough …, I have already immediately handed over the seal and clearly stated that that I am not interested in this position. You ... cough cough ... you all joined the clan earlier than me, your prestige is higher than me, naturally you all should take the seat, teacher with his advanced age, guessed he was muddled headed when he left therefore carelessly said the words. Just

who should sit in this position, you all decide, just don’t involve me."

His tone, was deep and trembling, like there were some feelings of fear and guilt, where was the previous arrogant and reserved demeanour. FanXiong sneered and turned his head with disdain, said, "So what are you all exactly planning?"

Duan RuShan [hei hei] sneered, said: "Needless to say, like what we have agreed, let the seventh day of teacher’s passing passed first, let the old man leave in peace, tomorrow we will decide in this mourning hall who will sit on this position!"

FanXiong glared fiercely at them and both of his junior brothers did not look kindly at him too. After a moment later, FanXiong abruptly turned and strided out, a large group of people immediately followed behind him. Cheng WuYa and Duan RuShan also led their men out, in the hall, very quickly only Qin WuYan was left silently kneeling on the ground and keeping watch over the coffin.

Not knowing how much time had passed, the stack of paper money in Qin WuYan’s hands was completely burned, he then slowly lifted his head up, his eyes below the white damask, indifferent and lifeless.

"Master ..." His voice was only light enough for himself, "Master ah! Did you see, those people are your disciples, your men ah…"

Qin WuYan’s indifferent lips, a hint of sneer slowly surfaced, cold and without any emotions.

Chapter 150 - Internal Conflict

The night gradually darkened, the Venomous Serpent Valley which was immersed in the invisible tension throughout the day seemed to have slowly enter into deep slumber, the dim lights slowly

extinguished, other than that cold lonely mourning hall.

The mourning hall’s doors were still opened, the bleak night wind [hu hu] blowing past, causing the candles which were still burning to flicker between darkness and light, casting strange shadows on the ground. In a distance outside the door, within the quietness, there seemed to be a whisper, like the sound of crying, like laughing quietly, yet it seemed just only the wind rustling the trees, the sounds sounded so unreal, making one have shivers.

Those few candles which were struggling on whilst at death’s door, in their light which spilled outside the house, this night at the mountain valley, faint mist drifting past the house, like a light smoke, in the darkness and shadows, drifting past and moving over, transforming into a variety of shapes.

In the mourning hall, that person who had been keeping vigil beside the coffin all night, was still Qin WuYan.

He was still kneeling before the tablet, head bowed, his eyes roving, it seemed like he was looking at some unknown place. The bronze basin in front of him was full of black paper ashes from burning the paper money, trembling with the night breeze that blew in time to time and occasionally one or two pieces of the ashes were scattered by the wind, leaving the bronze basin, floating slowly within the house and most likely would quietly land on the offering table in front of the coffin, among the three sacrificial animals.

In the unseen world of spirits, was there still a pair of eyes, watching all of these?

Footsteps suddenly rang, stepping onto the levelled floor and into the hall. Qin WuYan’s body shook, no matter who it was, the footsteps behind, would not be a pleasant matter. He looked back, frowned, looking a little surprised, apparently the person who came was out of his expectation.

Reflected in his eyes was a tall but dressed differently from the common Evil sect disciples, a body-length robe, solemn angular face, it was Evil sect Wan Du Clan’s honoured person, Taoist Cang Song.

.

Qin WuYan looked at Cang Song, Cang Song also looked at Qin WuYan, both of them did not speak and then Cang Song walked straight to the offering table, picked up the thin incense sticks placed on top of the table, lighted it up with the candle beside, facing the spirit tablet, respectfully bowed, stepped forward and inserted the incense into the incense burner.

Qin WuYan patiently watched Taoist Cang Song’s every move, from the start to the end, when Taoist Cang Song once again turned around, Qin WuYan slightly bowed, returned the gratitude as the disciple, although he had no expression on his face but his voice was still calm and politely said, "Thank you Priest."

Taoist Cang Song nodded his head and said, "I with the elder was once host and guest, although this offer of incense is slightly late but it is my regards."

Qin WuYan still kneeling, looked to the spirit tablet, lightly said, "No worries, as long as priest has the sincerity, I guessed teacher’s spirit will be very gratified."

Taoist Cang Song stared at Qin WuYan, after a while, suddenly smiled and said, "Qin GongZi, you don’t seem to like me."

Qin WuYan raised his eyes slightly, he did not expect that Taoist Cang Song would suddenly asked such a question, felt puzzled but after glancing at Taoist Cang Song for a moment, his reply was still calm, “Priest you have misunderstood, your distinguished self is honoured as guest by my teacher and is also considered a venerable senior in Wan Du Clan, WuYan dare not be a poor host. But right now teacher has unfortunately leave his mortal frame, I am in grief and pain, if I have been disrespectful, senior please be magnanimous to forgive."

Taoist Cang Song was still wearing a smile, his gaze slowly shifted to God of Poison’s spirit tablet in front of him, before the tablet, the box containing Wan Du Clan seal was still quietly lying there. Taoist Cang Song glanced at it and then suddenly from his body, low and strange sounds emitted out, like some insect cry, Qin WuYan’s face slightly changed, Taoist Cang Song was also startled but then suddenly smiled and said, “Old clan head ah old clan head, you should be able to go in peace, look at your teachings, there is still such an exceptional disciple, it is really not easy!"

Qin WuYan’s face turned heavy, a sharp glint indistinctly flashed past his eyes, in a deep voice said, "Priest, what did you say?"

Taoist Cang Song turned his head, smiled but did not speak, he only gently pulled his sleeve from his wrist. Qin WuYan’s eyes pupil shrank, saw a small box tied closely to Taoist Cang Song’s wrist, that series of strange cries again emitted from inside, clear and audible. Taoist Cang Song’s face had a mysterious smile, he slowly extended his hand to the tablet in front of him, once the box which was tied to his wrist went slightly near that box containing the seal, from the box before the tablet, a deep but clearly audible insect cry was heard, that cry was exactly the same from Taoist Cang Song’s wrist box.

Taoist Cang Song slowly retracted his arm, turned around and looked at Qin WuYan, lightly said, "Seven-tailed Centipede?"

Qin WuYan inhaled deeply, closed his eyes, when he opened them again, the eyes were gleaming, his demeanour suddenly from that silent dejected figure turned sharp and keen-witted, he slowly stood up, a pair of eyes staring intently at Taoist Cang Song, repeating again slowly, "Seven-tailed Centipede!"

The dim gloomy hall, after he stood up, suddenly seemed brighter, the cold crisp air also disappeared, what remained now was only harsh murderous air.

But Taoist Cang Song did not have any fear, instead as if he did not detect the changes in his surroundings, he looked unperturbed at Qin WuYan and asked, "Say, if your teacher knows that those disciples of his are creating trouble before his coffin shortly after his death, he should be very angry right?"

Qin WuYan snorted, said, "Teacher was wise and farsighted, he had long disregarded these so-called ceremony and propriety, not to mention being disrespectful before his spirit tablet, even if we fight and kill each other here, he would probably only laugh and watch the show."

Taoist Cang Song nodded slowly, suddenly sighed and said, "It is indeed the case, staying with the old clan leader these past ten years, with his character, I’m afraid it is really the case." After speaking, he glanced at Qin WuYan, smiled and said, "Didn’t expect that you who was with him the shortest but is the person who knew him best among his disciples."

Qin WuYan’s expression did not change but he instead stepped forward, coldly said, “Priest, don’t you also knew him very well, not only you saw through teacher but even every move of mine, also cannot escape your eyes!” Taoist Cang Song’s smile froze slightly, his eyes glanced at Qin WuYan’s step, suddenly said, “Now is already past your teacher’s seventh day?”

Qin WuYan was stunned, was bewildered at the intention of Taoist Cang Song’s question but this night this person was acting really odd and unpredictable and furthermore he had seen through the trick which he had placed in the box, most likely he would have to go. While Qin WuYan was going through such thoughts, he lightly said, "Right now is the time of chou, just passed, why, priest has some advice to give?" Speaking, he took another step towards Taoist Cang Song.

[Translator note: Chou time is 1am to 3am)

.

Taoist Cang Song immediately took a step back, nodded and said, "That's good, your teacher is able to pass the first seven days peacefully, it is also my regards." Qin WuYan was stunned, before he could realize, Taoist Cang Song suddenly moved and in a blink, was at the entrance of the hall, he spoke loudly, "Hey, the official seal...ah..." His first few words sounded surprised, halfway through, while he was clearly standing there unharmed, like he was ambushed with a heavy attack, cried out in pain.

Qin WuYan immediately turned pale but was too late to stop, Taoist Cang Song’s voice had already, in the tranquil air of the Venomous Serpent Valley, reverberated, the next moment, like echoes from the distance, the valley was filled with indistinct [ah] sounds.

Initially, the valley appeared to be startled by something, the air was even more still than previously but only for a moment, clamour sounds rang out from every corner, like waves, the people who had long been prepared and waiting, leapt out, different kinds of questions, scoldings, beratings, commands mixed together, turning into an invisible wave, from all directions gushed towards the mourning hall.

Taoist Cang Song turned and smiled, facing the livid Qin WuYan, he waved and said, "My fair nephew, as uncle, I have lend you a hand, if ever in the future you manage to sit on the clan throne, do not forget today’s favour!" Then without further ado, his figure moved and before Qin WuYan pounced to the door, swiftly flew into the darkness outside and disappeared in a flash.

Qin WuYan panted heavily, his eyes full of anger, it was obvious that Taoist Cang Song’s sudden visit had completely disrupted his plans, like a seething cauldron, the people would soon surround the mourning hall, Qin WuYan hatefully stomp his feet, made a decision and like Taoist Cang Song, submerged into the darkness outside and disappeared.

The next moment, countless holding torches, sharp knives, the Wan Du Clan disciples, led by the three elite disciples of God of Poison, charged into the mourning hall.

And in the next moment of silence, fury shouts rang out in Venomous Serpent Valley under the night sky, sweeping through the valley.

. Night, had turned deeper.

When the first ray of sunrise touched earth, Taoist Cang Song sneakily flew out of the valley and was already wielding his sword in mid air, appearing at northeast of Venomous Serpent Valley, four hundred miles outside a small city, from the sky he scanned the city carefully and then as if he had found something, immediately landed at a hill north of the city.

The nameless hill had mostly wild maple trees, looking down from the sky, a sheet of red, glorious. Before the maple tree forest, three men and one lady stood there, it was Ghost King, Mr Ghost, Ghost Li and YouJi.

Watching Cang Song coming down, Ghost King’s face revealed a smile, went up to receive him, said, "How is it, is it successful?"

Taoist Cang Song nodded his head and said, "It was what sect head predicted, Qin WuYan indeed has recovered and did something to the box containing the official seal, most likely has placed the Seven-tailed Centipede in it, so no matter who opens the box, as long as Qin WuYan manipulates it secretly, no one can escape the bite of the Seven-tailed Centipede. With the Seven-tailed Centipede’s amazing venom, that person would very likely die."

Ghost King laughed loudly, turned and spoke to the rest, “See, all of these old tricks which has been used numerous times, is still being used by some people!”

Ghost Li’s face was indifferent, did not say anything, YouJi also remained silent, only Mr Ghost said, "The method is indeed outdated but as long as it is useful, it is a good method."

Ghost King nodded and said, "That’s right, God of Poison senior was still considered a formidable man in his generation of our holy sect, why is it that his disciples are of such quality, really disappointing."

Taoist Cang Song laughed said, "But that Qin WuYan is really not bad, such a pity." Ghost King looked at him and could not help but laughed out, for a moment nobody spoke, Ghost Li quietly looked at Ghost King, frowned, for some reason, he felt there was something strange with Ghost King today.

But that thought did not sink in because in a short moment, the city which had just woken up in the early dawn in front of them, wails of astonished cries burst out suddenly and soon, numerous piercing screams rang out everywhere, people could be clearly heard screaming, "Evil beasts, the evil beasts have come…"

The piercing and cruel sharp cries, travelled over from the small city, columns of smoke burst out in the distant fields, like frontier soldiers forming into a mighty force, charging with full speed. That from far and near, the shouts mixed with excitement roars, carried bloodthirsty desires, the five people from Ghost King sect at the other side of the city, flew up and towards the small city.

When they were near, even though they had seen countless of battle scenes but the scene before them still changed their countenances. Numerous monsters and demon beasts, roaring and charging out from the fields, their huge sizes, strong bodies, sharp teeth and claws, giving off a thick meaning of death in the early morning. And the residents in the city were panic-stricken, frantically running around but no one knew where would be the safest?

The thick galloping sounds came closer and closer and finally to the point of deafening, more and more demon beasts from the south charged into the small city. The great lands of wilderness on both sides the road and ancient path, had became the beasts’ playground, the evil beasts with red eyes surrounded this city with deafening roars, the pitiful people who could not escape in time, in a blink were swallowed up by the dust generated by the evil beasts, flashes of blood could be seen in the grey haze, screams were heard and then disappeared.

And above the small city, some who were struggling to survive desperately pulled up the suspension bridge of the city gates, temporarily kept those vicious cruel demons outside the city, after which the endless number of beasts gushed down from the south, totally besieging this city.

The five people in the sky, all sucked in a breath of cold air. In the distant above the wilderness, a sharp cry was heard, that cry was piercing and sounded slightly sonorous, traversing through the sky full of dust over. Ghost King’s countenance changed, quietly said, "It is coming, should be the evil beast, everyone be careful, we will act according to the plan."

The others nodded slightly and then dispersed, only Ghost King remained in the air, took a few more glances to the sharp cries, a trace of smile on his lips and then he flew higher and disappeared into the clouds.

Following the approaching sharp cries, the monsters which had besieged this small city, raised their heads and roared at the same time, all different kind of piercing sounds mixing together, with the smell of the beasts and indistinct blood smell in the wind, raising hairs.

Within the dust of smoke, suddenly a loud sound, that sharp cry halted, a colourful figure moved in the air and a huge body, an evil beast, like a tiger, pounced out from the smoke. From the distance, the beast resembled a tiger, even its forehead indistinctly had a "King" word but its body was so much larger than a tiger, with sharp teeth and claws, multicoloured fur, the strangest thing was it had an extremely long tail, looked to be even longer than its body. Comparing those ferocious monsters to it, they looked like kittens and puppies.

Ghost Li who was concealed outside the city, frowned and quietly said one sentence, “Chu Wu!” (Note 1).

The city which was besieged by the monsters was only a small-sized city, this evil beast which was five or six zhang high, stood before the city and its tiger’s head was almost at the top of the city. Thick pungent smell of the beasts blown over by the wind, the people at the top of the city were terror-stricken and escaped for their lives.

Chu Wu growled softly twice, murderous glints flashed in its eyes, it savagely made a sharp cry, raised its thick front foot and smashed down directly onto the city doors. The sharp tiger claws easily pierced through the thick wooden doors and before the civilians behind the city door realized what had happened, a few were already stabbed by the sharp claws, the rest of the people panicked and fled in all directions. Chu Wu roared loudly, pounded down with its sharp claws, [boom, boom, boom] after a few loud crashes, the destroyed city doors collapsed, wails rang out the whole city in that instant and the excited roars outside the city were heard at the same time, the numerous beasts rushed in, turning into a scene of blood immediately.

Chu Wu opened the door for the other monsters but it did not enter with them, it seemed disdained of such matters and also at this moment, it seemed to discover something, its tiger head turned, its huge body slowly twisted over, with its nose to the air constantly sniffing, as if trying to determine something.

Just when Chu Wu was searching, suddenly on the city wall in front of it, a loud bang and the wall cracked opened, Taoist Cang Song appeared out of the hole and just right in front of Chu Wu, a yellow sword light with lightning speed hit Chu Wu’s chest.

Chu Wu uttered an earth-shattering roar, its entire huge tiger body flew out backwards, Taoist Cang Song was after all a well- known figure for many years, moreover he came from the current world’s number one famous sect Qing Yun, how would his skills be trivial, the Chu Wu flew back out and a sound of silk tearing was heard, on its chest, a wound of about four chi long was slashed opened.

If it was some common monster, the wound would be fatal but Chu Wu evidently was different from the common monsters, as one of the thirteen demons under the Evil Beast, its vitality and magic far exceeded the other ordinary monsters. Although blood gushed out like fountain from its chest but Chu Wu did not even look at it, roaring furiously, it instantly pounced back, looking at its movement, it was no less slower than before its injury.

Taoist Cang Song’s countenance changed, his figure flashed and escaped the Chu Wu’s claws, he swiftly wielded his sword and left the group of beasts, flying towards the north, Chu Wu with a loud roar, both eyes looked as if fire was about to spurt out, in hot pursuit.

Taoist Cang Song initially intended to fly as fast as he could to the nameless hill and combined forces with the rest against this beast, unexpectedly he had only flew less than half the distance, he felt a strong wind movement behind him, the hot heavy smell of animal almost at the back of his head. Taoist Cang Song was shocked and hastily looked back, the speed of Chu Wu was inconceivably fast, after it was injured, the four legs like flying, like swift wind and lightning, it caught up with Taoist Cang Song.

It did not hesitate while behind Taoist Cang Song, opened its mouth wide to bite, as if it would not be appeased if it did not bite Taoist Cang Song into half. But Taoist Cang Song had trained for many years, he did not panic at the critical moment, his body abruptly sank, by a hair’s breath, narrowly escaped the adversity of being buried in the tiger’s mouth. Even it was so, Taoist Cang Song also broke out in cold sweat.

After which, Taoist Cang Song dared not be careless, he wielded the sword up and down, left and right, preventing Chu Wu from unleashing its incredible speed of running in straight line, this then allowed him to reach the maple tree forest and by now, Chu Wu had also been lured some distance from that herd of monsters.

Watching Taoist Cang Song scurrying into the red forest, Chu Wu was even more infuriated, charged straight to the forest. However just before it entered the forest at that empty ground, Mr. Ghost’s black figure suddenly emerged, chanting softly, a moment after his entire black clothes drifted up, a strange spiritual power emerging slowly out from his body.

Chu Wu screeched to a stop, the impact forcing it to slide forward a few zhangs and knocked down several trees. However Taoist Cang Song who had disappeared into the forest under the Chu Wu’s body suddenly did not care, in his eyes, only that black figure and that strange power exuding from his body.

This time, Chu Wu did not charge forward, the enormous tiger head tossed, opened its mouth and gave a deafening roar, three streams of black smokes came out of its mouth, swiftly congelated into three hideously skeletons wielding huge swords, brandishing and heading for Mr Ghost.

Mr Ghost’s body shook slightly, not only this evil beast was savage and fast, it actually knew the southern border shaman skills, it really could not be underestimated.

. But Mr Ghost did not stop his magic to avoid the witchcraft skeletons, and sure enough, when the three skeletons was before it, human figures flashed, YouJi and Ghost Li flew out from beside and blocked in front of Mr Ghost. YouJi wrapped her hands around, holding a strange mudra, her palms one upright and the other down, different from the Central Plains Buddist mudra, the next moment a beam of silver light shot out from her palms, swiftly enlarged and blocked a skeleton, that

skeleton like being burned, shook violently and when it charged over, its bone structure suddenly dispersed, the spell broken by YouHi’s [Scarlet Seal].

And on the other side, Ghost Li’s face was indifferent, facing the two fierce skeletons, his right hand flipped, the Soul- absorbing Stick appeared in the hands but this time he did not as usual, wield the Sinister Orb head-on, instead he turned the stick over, using the green black stick and charged out.

The two skeletons at the same time brandished their swords but before they reached three chi of the black stick, under Ghost Li’s strange skill, the black stick’s body violently shone red, black gas surged out, even more sinister than those two skeletons, when both sides collided, Ghost Li's black stick, like cutting a tofu, sliced through the two skeletons, black gas surrounding, the next moment the two skeletons with their mouths opened but could not emit any sound, quietly dissipated, the remaining small amount of black gas, was also sucked in by the black stick.

Other than the Sinister Orb on Ghost Li’s evil stick, the stick was originally a soul-absorbing object, and also these ghostly evil magic’s ancestors, so it was a natural nemesis, when Blood- Sucking Evil used the skeleton magic to ambush him when he was still Zhang Xiao Fan, he also suffered a big disadvantage due to this.

Chu Wu obviously did not expect these people to be able to so easily break its witchcraft and was stunned for a moment, also at this time, Mr Ghost’s magic was already completed, both of his arms suddenly shook, a red light descended from the sky, it was the cauldron, the entire sky turned red, in it, indistinctly cries of birds and cows, their cries mournful, its power much more stronger than before.

Under the red light blanket, it immediately enveloped Chu Wu. Chu Wu felt as if a great mountain was pressing on top of it, almost could not breathe but the southern border evil beasts had always been savage, Chu Wu in his dire, became even more enraged, roared loudly and struggled with its might. And at that moment, a human figure appeared on the cauldron, Ghost King descended from the sky, like lightning flew down in the red light.

Chu Wu seemed to be aware and angrily lifted its head, but Ghost King was already on its head, a long whistle, red light flickered, dazzling, from the outside the interior was fuzzy, Ghost King was seen moving indistinctly, an object suddenly in its hand, struck down onto Chu Wu’s head.

Chu Wu’s body shook violently, from the top to its feet, the next moment red light gradually settled down, the mysterious object in Ghost King’s hand also disappeared but Chu Wu’s colourful fur abruptly turned dull, blood flowed from the seven apertures on its head. Ghost King gave a long laugh, his right hand stabbed down, into the sturdy skull of Chu Wu.

Chu Wu made an earth-shattering roar, shook a few times and then finally collapsed.

Note 1: [Classics of Mountains and Seas. Inner Sea North Classic] Chu Wu: Lin Shi Country has valuable beast, huge like tiger, colourful body, tail longer than its body, named Chu Wu, travels thousands of miles during the day.

Another note: [Divine and Evil The strange. Evil Beast Chapter] Chu Wu: The Divine Land southern border has strange beast, appearance like tiger, its fur colorful and has long tail, commands hundred beasts, named as King of Hundred Beasts.