YUE CHENQING'S SOUL was on the verge of dissolving. Only after Murong Lian gave him a few more kicks did he pathetically release him.
It was exactly like the tales of Li Qingqian's exorcisms at Maiden's Lament Mountain: a crowd of women in dark red robes and golden brocade shoes materialized endlessly out of the shadows, wearing miserable smiles and weeping tears of blood. More and more corpses filled the cave, emerging from the darkness, from behind stalagmites, and even rising from the water's surface.
Mo Xi and Murong Lian each dealt with their respective sides. As Yue Chenqing watched them draw farther and farther away from him, he found himself wanting to cry.
"Xihe-jun, Murong-dage, what should I do?" he asked shakily.
No new corpses were appearing near him, but he was surrounded by jagged and shadowy terrain. What if there were more evil, bloody eyes staring at him from the darkness?
Such is the nature of reality: what you least desire is most likely to occur. The dreaded hypothetical almost always comes true. Accordingly, just as this terrifying thought occurred to Yue Chenqing, he felt hairs rise on the back of his neck. He slowly turned and saw, hidden behind a stone outcropping, half of a deathly pale face with two bloody tear tracks.
The woman was leaning against the stone and staring right at him!
Yue Chenqing shuddered; he felt like his thrumming head had exploded. In times of great terror, people often call for the one they trust most. The words that tumbled from his quivering lips were: "Fourth…F-FF-Fourth Uncle!"
Yue Chenqing's fourth uncle wasn't here. Of course he couldn't save him.
Only after Yue Chenqing had sat quaking for some time did he remember this fact. Even if he kept shouting, "Fourth Uncle, save me!" his only companions in this cavern were the heartless Murong Lian and Mo Xi. He was free to choose either one.
He looked left and right and happened to see Mo Xi's long leg kick out from the left, knocking over a row of corpses. Yue Chenqing felt like a holy deity had descended to the earth and gladly made to rush to his side.
But at that moment, the woman hiding behind the stone grinned much too widely, baring eerily white teeth.
Once she laughs, face warped by hate; Twice she laughs, blood streaks her face.
As she slowly crawled out from the depths of the stone, she let out a third mournful laugh. "Hee…"
Thrice she laughs and forever seals your fate!
Seconds after the third laugh, the corpse's resentment erupted. Her eyes rolled, becoming bloodshot and flashing scarlet, and her fingernails shot out into long claws. She wailed at the sky and rushed Yue Chenqing.
"Ah!" Yue Chenqing hadn't the least idea how to fight back. Female ghosts wearing red robes and brocade shoes terrified him more than anything. As she pounced, all he could do was shriek miserably, close to tears, "Fourth Uncle!"
Suddenly there was a thunderous crash. A bolt of lightning struck right in front of Yue Chenqing, and a series of golden-red beams exploded from the ground and burst into raging flames. A silhouette leapt into the air and descended from the skies. Amid the hissing firelight, it landed firmly in front of Yue Chenqing.
The figure turned. Lit by the crackling flame, his profile was dazzlingly heroic, his pupils filled with icy blue light.
Gu Mang?!
Yue Chenqing was stunned. Only after a beat did he realize that no, it wasn't Gu Mang—it was the bamboo warrior. His uncle's bamboo warrior was here to save him. Gu Mang was merely tied to its bamboo limbs, immobilized. Yue Chenqing's thoughts were interrupted by the bamboo warrior waving its hand to unsheathe a blade of dark steel from its weapon compartment. Then, fierce as lightning, it charged the leering corpse.
Construct and corpse fought fiercely, becoming a blur of furious blows.
Yue Chenqing had finally recovered enough to move. He hastily gathered all his energy to shout, "Go, Fourth Uncle!"
Upon second thought, that didn't feel right, so he tried, "Go, bamboo warrior!"
Soon afterward, he saw the corpse's filthy blood spray Gu Mang's face. Gu Mang's expression was ferocious, as if he, too, would have killed that female corpse, if only he weren't bound. Yue Chenqing shouted, "Go Gu… Um… Go, Gu Mang!"
The bamboo warrior was extraordinarily strong; after the first fullforce exchange of blows, it swiftly swept backward. Blade flashing, it soared into the air. A swirling gale rushed past as it threw itself at the corpse, filthy blood spraying out.
The corpse stiffened once more before falling, bisected, to the ground.
"Wah, how gross…" muttered Yue Chenqing.
Corpse defeated, the bamboo warrior hefted its bloody blade as if still unsatisfied and stomped toward Yue Chenqing. With a whoosh, the tip came to rest at the hollow of Yue Chenqing's throat.
"Big brother… Wait, no, Fourth Uncle… Um, or Gu Mang?" Yue Chenqing tried a few different forms of address but felt that none of them were quite right, so simply decided against addressing him. He carefully waved his hands. "You're pointing the blade in the wrong direction. I'm not a ghost. Don't stab me…"
Gu Mang's blue eyes lowered to gaze down at him. The bamboo warrior swiveled its sword to the side. With the still-dripping flat of the blade, it clumsily patted Yue Chenqing's face as if to scold a junior.
Right then, a strong wind gusted down from above, and red robes fluttered before their eyes. Yue Chenqing jumped in fright. But before he even had the chance to speak, the bamboo warrior shoved him away.
Yue Chenqing fell to the ground with an undignified plop and avoided the strike. Gu Mang, however, was still tied to the bamboo warrior —the ghost's claws raked across his face.
Gu Mang could neither move nor speak, but his expression made clear that he was enraged. Those eyes of a white wolf flashed with hatred as scarlet dripped from the wound on his cheek.
The ghost whose sneak attack had succeeded was grinning hideously before them, as if overwhelmed with joy by her victory. But seconds later, she seemed to sense something, and lowered her head to stare at her bloodstained left hand in a daze.
In the next instant, her features twisted into a mask of alarm and horror. She cried out, holding her hand and wailing unintelligibly, yet piteously, at Gu Mang.
She seemed to be begging Gu Mang for something.
Yue Chenqing's astonishment hadn't yet sunk in before an even more shocking event occurred. When Gu Mang remained unresponsive, the ghost fell to her knees with a thump. Reaching out with the sharp nails of her right hand, she snapped off her left.
"Oh…my…god…" Yue Chenqing didn't know whether he should be disgusted or bewildered. The pungent stench of rot and blood rushed up into his nose, nearly making him vomit.
The corpse, however, was undeterred. She picked up her severed limb and offered it to Gu Mang with a shaking hand, the very image of someone preemptively punishing themselves in a plea for leniency. All the while, soft sobs of, "ah, aah," issued from her mouth.
Gu Mang's blue eyes moved, fixing upon that bloody limb. Yue Chenqing wasn't sure if it was a trick of the light, but his eyes seemed to become paler.
"Eh? What's with this breeze…?" Yue Chenqing was stunned. "Is it getting windy?"
The wind rippled outward from beneath the bamboo warrior's feet— beneath Gu Mang's feet. Despite the malice in Gu Mang's expression, his killing intent wasn't especially potent, so the wind wasn't terribly strong either. Nevertheless, as soon as it blew past them, the corpses were struck dumb. At length, they began screaming and shaking as they knelt unsteadily on the ground with their heads lowered, unmoving.
In the blink of an eye, all the corpses had fallen to their knees, facing Gu Mang.
Yue Chenqing hadn't yet realized what was happening, but Murong Lian's eyes were wide. The color drained from Mo Xi's complexion, but he was looking not at the corpses, but at Gu Mang's face—
Swarming corpses and the like had an extremely strong hierarchical instinct. The only things that could scare them were, by and large, other corpses, vengeful ghosts, or resentful spirits of greater power. Somehow, these women who had died tragic deaths were all submitting to Gu Mang, all wailing in audible pleas for mercy… Why was this so?
Was it merely because Gu Mang harbored such high levels of malevolent qi in his body?
Gu Mang seemed incredibly irritated, his blue eyes darting to and fro. Though he made no sound, the direction of the wind changed. The ghosts emitted ululating shrieks, black qi rising from each of their bodies to coalesce over Gu Mang's heart.
He was absorbing their malevolent qi!
As Gu Mang took in more and more of the qi, the female corpses convulsed like dying fish, quickly crumpling. With the resentment pulled from their bodies, they became ordinary corpses. Some, who had died long ago, rotted and withered upon the loss of their resentment, turning into blackened, putrid piles of bones. Some, who had been murdered recently, retained visible hints of the beauty they had possessed in life.
Yue Chenqing endured his disgust to peek at the corpse nearest him. It seemed to be the woman named Yu-niang, who had gone missing from the first brothel…
When Murong Lian saw what was happening, he strode forward and grabbed Gu Mang by the neck, gnashing his teeth. "I knew it… You liar! You were colluding with that man who escaped from Liao! What are you planning?!"
But after swallowing the malevolent qi from all those corpses, Gu Mang was like a wild beast that had eaten its fill. His head slumped, and he closed his eyes and fell asleep on the bamboo warrior, entirely insensible to Murong Lian and his wrath.
"You—!" Murong Lian grew enraged, but as he was about to tighten his grip, a hand stopped him.
He whirled to see Mo Xi's face in the shadows of the dim cave. Mo Xi grasped Murong Lian's wrist, not saying a word as he slowly moved it down.
Mo Xi looked quite courteous and said nothing inappropriate. Only Murong Lian knew the strength he was exerting—practically enough to shatter bones through flesh.
"What are you doing?" Murong Lian asked darkly.
"Let go of him."
Murong Lian's nose wrinkled in rage. "He's an accomplice!"
"He isn't," Mo Xi said.
"Isn't?! How isn't he? Didn't you see how a drop of his blood made that corpse snap off her own arm? Didn't you see how a single glance from him made them all kneel?! Didn't you see how he took all their corpse energy for himself with even moving an inch?!"
"If he really knew how to control them," Mo Xi angrily retorted, "and was working with that man from Liao, would you still be standing here, safe and sound?!"
This rendered Murong Lian instantly mute. He still wanted to speak, but he couldn't get a single word out, and his pale face slowly reddened. After a long pause, he smiled mirthlessly. "Very well… Heh, you're the reasonable one. You're defending him. I think you've wholly forgotten what he's done—how cunning he is, how skilled he is at…at…" Murong Lian spat his last word: "lying!"
"His character," Mo Xi said, "is nothing you need remind me of."
"No need for me to remind you?" Murong Lian burst out laughing. By the end, the expression on his face was distorted. "Even if I reminded you, you wouldn't listen! And you still dare to say you're not harboring any personal motives. What a good Xihe-jun you are. Go ahead and keep protecting him, then… I see you've forgotten how your father died!"
The color drained at once from Mo Xi's pale and elegant face as he glared daggers at Murong Lian.
But Murong Lian was thrilled. No one dared mention this sore spot of Mo Xi's, the reason behind his father's death—except for Murong Lian, the only one who could. He was fully aware that though Mo Xi's temper was usually irritable, at critical junctures, he was more clear-headed than anyone.
So Murong Lian snickered, his predatory peach blossom eyes flicking to Gu Mang before landing back on Mo Xi's handsome face. He lifted his chin and crooned, "Xihe-jun is so righteous, so deeply devoted to brotherhood. May you swiftly follow in your esteemed father's footsteps."
Mo Xi's rage seemed to flare, but just as Murong Lian expected, he wasn't the sort of person who lost sight of his priorities because he was upset. He stared into Murong Lian's eyes for a long moment before pushing him away. With both boots and weapon clanging, he strode deeper into the cave with scarcely a backward glance.
"Murong-dage…you… You…" Yue Chenqing sighed. He was practically speechless after watching this scene unfold. He had no wish to speak to Murong Lian any further, and scampered after Mo Xi's retreating back with the bamboo warrior tottering loudly behind him. "Xihe-jun, wait for me! It's dangerous to go alone…"
The sound of their retreating footsteps echoed within the cave.
Murong Lian remained standing in place, tilting his head back to stare into the endless dark of the cavern before closing his eyes. A cruel and mocking sneer appeared at the corners of his mouth. Then, slowly, he followed after the others.
When they arrived at an area glowing with green light, they came to a stop.
This was the last large cave within the system, hidden behind an expanse of stone formations. The green light flickered bright then dim—it turned out to be a protective barrier placed at the entrance of a cave.
Mo Xi only needed one glance to identify it. "It's the God-Repelling Array."
The upright countries of the Nine Provinces cultivated the righteous immortal path, so they usually named spells things like "DemonRepelling," "Ghost-Repelling," or "Malevolence-Repelling." Any protective formation described as "God-Repelling" was almost certain to be from the Liao Kingdom.
"Is it hard to break?"
"No," Mo Xi said. "But it takes time."
The release incantation for the God-Repelling Array was extremely long and complicated. Mo Xi lifted his vambraced left hand and closed his eyes, soundlessly reciting the words. Only after a good stretch did the green light gradually dim under his hand as the array slowly retreated…
As the glow dimmed to nothing, soft laughter came from within the cave. That phantom's voice resounded from the deepest recesses. "You broke through my final defense…" Pausing, he continued in an eerie tone. "Then, honored shenjun, welcome in."