Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
“Caw… Caw…” Deep in the woods, the piercing calls of an old crow could be heard. It sounded like a song for the dead.
In the distance, the odd laughter of the night owl could be heard faintly. Like the sound of a howling ghost, it made fear rise in the hearts of those walking in the middle of the woods. Unless you came in a group with many other people to bolster each other’s bravery, no normal person would dare to come here in the dead of night.
Not only did the Yin energy in this mass graveyard grow stronger, some ghosts were also lurking around and occasionally a demonic beast could be seen darting across the woods.
Going west beyond the graveyard would be the periphery of Qifeng Mountain. In the far reaches of Qifeng Mountain lived many demonic beasts. In a battle over territory, those demonic beasts that lost were chased out of the deep mountains and could only live around the periphery.
Every year, the three cultivator families of Kun City would organize groups of cultivators to enter the mountains and kill the beasts. That was to prevent those demonic beasts from wreaking havoc on the commoners of Kun City. Since the three families’ businesses accounted for most of Kun City’s economy, a disaster affecting the commoners would negatively affect their businesses.
Apart from that, there were only a handful of fearless people who would put on a show of bravado and enter the mountain to collect some precious wood and valuable mineral deposits. If they survived with what they managed to gather, it was enough for them to buy several acres of land, build several large houses, and even marry a beautiful maiden.
It was a shame that the death rate of commoners entering these mountains was too high, hence countless people were frightened out of the idea. In normal times, no one would venture to that area unless they were chased there by a demonic beast.
Qin Feng followed behind Qin Yang and took one step after another under the glow of the night moon. Qin Feng occasionally gazed around him, he was being cautious and careful. In his hand, he tightly gripped the Warrior Protective Talisman gifted to him by Li Tianchou. If he met with danger, he was ready to activate the talisman immediately.
The talisman was extremely valuable. It carried a steep price and would cost ten spirit stones at the very least. However, if his life was in danger, he would use it without a moment’s hesitation.
That was because his life was far more precious when compared to that talisman. As for what he would do once the talisman was used up, he would cross that bridge when he had to. However, if he was dead, nothing else could be done. Qin Feng could not believe that he was given another chance at life so he would not gamble away this second life.
Only people who have truly faced death would know how attached your innermost being is to staying alive and would be willing to forsake everything just to hold onto anything for the chance to keep living.
Gust after gust of wind blew past. It was already deep into the summer night. The wind brought out a feeling of coldness among the officers and they started to shiver in succession.
“This blasted weather,” a patrol officer called Chen Hu who was walking ahead, could not help but curse in a low voice. The words had barely left his lips before his foot tripped on something and he tumbled to land squarely on the ground. His head slammed onto a tree root that was sticking out in front of him. Stars appeared in front of his eyes, it was sheer luck that he did not faint right there and then.
“Careful!”
“Are you alright Tiger1?”
All Chen Hu’s colleagues hurried to ask about him while avoiding the place where he slipped to prevent a replay of the scene.
“Motherf*cker…” Chen Hu cursed angrily as he reached his hand out to carefully tap his forehead. He replied, “I’m fine, just got a huge bump on my head.” As he spoke, he did not rush to his feet but instead stretched his hand out to pick up the talisman that had dropped onto the ground.
However, he did not manage to find the talisman but felt something else that he never thought he would. Smooth and shiny, it felt round and a little slippery to the touch. Chen Hu curiously picked up the item to have a look and had the shock of his life, shivering, he nearly collapsed flat onto the ground.
It appeared that the item in his hand was a white human skull! The two eye sockets on the skull bone looked like bottomless pits that appeared to be staring directly at him. The worst part was the untidy teeth on the skull bone.
Chen Hu, as a patrol officer was not a timid person. If he was truly timid, he would not have been able to become a patrol officer. Yet, entering the mass graveyard in the middle of the night to hunt the evil cultivator was enough to strike terror in anyone’s heart. With the possibility of dying if he came face-to-face with the evil cultivator on his mind and seeing himself holding a chalky white skull, it was only normal for him to be scared witless.
Chen Hu still had a measure of self-control as he tried hard to avoid wetting himself. It took him all he could to stop himself from peeing his pants and becoming a joke to his colleagues. That would have spread throughout the entire patrol office like wildfire.
Qin Yang called out exasperatedly, “What’s so interesting about that skull. There aren’t that many skeletons here, if you want, you can rush over to the mass graveyard and find a few more to admire at home. If not, quickly get up. If you continue to disrupt official business, watch out for the wrath of Master Li. You won’t stand a chance against his flying sword.”
“Yes, yes. Don’t worry Leader Qin. I’ll get up right now,” Chen Hu replied as he recovered from his surprise and tossed away the skull in his hand. After feeling around him, he picked up the fallen talisman and stood up to return to the team.
However, he still had the huge bump on his forehead and it hurt like hell. The rest of the team would not let him take the lead. Instead, they decided to put him in the rear. The surrounding area of the graveyard was sizable with quite a distance to travel and one could even continue walking into the depths of the mountains.
The group went round and round in circles. After countless miles of exploring around the area, they found nothing. In desperation, they had no choice but to go deeper into the forest.
“Hahahahahahahaha…” suddenly the laughter of a night owl could be heard coming from the left side of the woods. As soon as they entered the forest, they would hear the laughter of the night owls intermittently permeating the air.
However, the previous owl calls sounded like they were a distance away so they paid no attention to it. At that moment, it seemed so close and in an instant, everyone was suddenly startled by what sounded like manic laughter. Two of them turned into nervous wrecks and were so frightened that they peed themselves.
Chen Hu who was bringing up the rear cursed inwardly, raising the bow in his hands to aim in the direction of the sound, he shot an arrow.
“Ahhhhh…”
From the direction where the arrow was shot, an old, shaky cry of pain rang out, and instantly an angry voice could be heard scolding, “What type of person hides in the dark, shooting arrows at people? If you have the guts, come out and see if I’ll beat you into a pulp!”
The group was stunned and turned in the direction of the voice to see an old Daoist standing on a large tree about twenty feet away, shouting angrily while he held onto his butt. The old Daoist was holding a long, black banner and a faint sound of evil spirits and ghost roaring could be heard from it. Several feet away from the old Daoist was an area measuring about 100 feet in circumference completely covered by a clump of dark fog, making it hard for people to see anything beyond it.
Chen Hu who had just shot that arrow started to feel gloomy and depressed, he felt like the overpowering sound of laughter was not the sound of night owls but that old Daoist. The more perplexing thing about it was how human laughter could sound so cold and terrifying?
As soon as Qin Feng saw the old Daoist, his complexion changed drastically. That was the black-robed old man that he saw earlier in the day. He could not stop himself from silently taking a step back and tugging at Qin Yang.
Qin Yang turned about and once he saw Qin Feng’s expression, he understood in that instant, this was the target that they had been searching for. With a gleam of his eyes, he sneakily cast the Spirit Eye spell and glanced at the area shrouded by the dark fog. Even though he could not see clearly due to the dark fog, he could vaguely make out the figure of a couple of people being restrained.
As soon as he saw that, he immediately activated the talisman in his hand without hesitation. The talisman rose into the air and exploded in a ball of bright flames. Once he did that, Qin Yang grabbed Qin Feng and started running. He did not forget to call out to his fellow officers, “Split up and run, hurry!”
The rest of them heard his words and took another look at the old Daoist who had started to rise into the sky and fly in their direction. None of them wanted to stay there and await death. They immediately started running out of there fast and furious.
“You think you can escape?”
The black-robed Daoist wore a dark gloomy expression as he felt the sharp pain coming from his rear end. Feeling embarrassed to death, he suddenly waved the long banner in his hand, and several jets of black mist rushed towards everyone.