Immortalis

Death Hex Nine

"Child... child?"

When Yang Wujian opened his eyes, he heard someone calling him. Dazed, he looked up to see a woman watching him with concern.

"Are you alright?"

Without minding his filth and stench, the woman helped him up from the ground and pulled out a cold pancake from her bosom, offering it to him. "Are you too hungry? You're so thin, how long has it been since you last ate?"

Yang Wujian's lips were chapped and dry. Catching the long-missed scent of food, he lunged forward like a starved beast, snatching the pancake from the woman's hand and devouring it in large bites.

"Slow down... here's some water, have a few sips."

The woman patted his back as she watched him wolf down the entire pancake. Yet even after that, Yang Wujian's stomach continued to growl incessantly.

It had been too long since he last ate.

So famished that he couldn't even crawl, unable to beg for even a mouthful of food—at most two more days, and he would surely starve to death on these streets.

The woman recognized his desperate situation. After thinking for a long while, she finally extended her hand to him. "I know a place where you can eat your fill. Would you like to come with me?"

Remembering the children who had previously disappeared from the streets, Yang Wujian hesitated before placing his hand in hers. In a blur, he found himself led before a stone gate.

The woman smiled. "Once you're here, you'll never go hungry again. You can even practice martial arts... Watch—if you train, you can become like me."

With that, she placed her hand on the stone gate.

Though she appeared frail and small, she pushed open the massive thousand-pound stone door as if it weighed nothing. Yang Wujian widened his eyes, eager to see what this place of plenty looked like. But when the door opened, what met his eyes were corpses lying in pools of blood, their eyes wide open in death.

"Ah..."

Meeting the unblinking stare of one of the dead, Yang Wujian broke out in a cold sweat. Instinctively, he reached for the woman's hand beside him, only to grasp something warm and wet.

Looking up, he saw Gu Yun's moon-white robes soaked through with blood, her smile sorrowful.

"Wu Jian, was it you who brought her back to Longevity Palace?"

"Gu Yun!"

As if doused with cold water, Yang Wujian jolted upright, his hand still tightly clutching a cold one.

"What's wrong?"

Shen Qingshi had been sleeping lightly and woke the moment Yang Wujian moved. Seeing him trapped in a nightmare, she endured the pain of his grip without pulling away, soothing him softly, "It's alright, it was just a dream."

"I... just now..."

Drenched in cold sweat, it took Yang Wujian a long moment to realize he was still in the dilapidated house with Shen Qingshi. As Shen Qingshi moved to light a fire, he grabbed her in the darkness, his voice hoarse. "Don't..."

Shen Qingshi frowned. "But your breathing is heavy."

Though the dream was strange, as the saying goes, day's thoughts become night's dreams. Yang Wujian knew all too well why he was like this and sighed. "I must look terrible. It's better if you don't see."

Leaning gently against Shen Qingshi's shoulder, he said, "Don't move, I just need to rest against you for a moment... It must be because this haunted place isn't clean, that I had such an unlucky dream."The two fell silent for a long while. Only when Yang Wujian's breathing steadied again did Shen Qingshi speak: "I heard you calling Gu Yun."

Yang Wujian truly didn't want to recall the scenes from his dream and sighed helplessly: "Yes... I miss her. Haven't you ever missed someone?"

Shen Qingshi knew he was evading the topic and gripped his hand tightly: "...Then once we find Tian Ting, we'll return immediately."

Noticing Shen Qingshi's clumsy attempt to comfort him, Yang Wujian couldn't help but laugh: "You make it sound so easy to find Tian Ting. Six people came at once, and the Aconite Kiln affair is strange. I'm afraid it won't be that simple."

Yet the dream had been truly ominous. After some thought, he decided that once the Tian Ting matter was resolved, he would immediately rush back to Longevity Palace to check on things. But just then, Shen Qingshi suddenly covered his mouth and nose with one hand while writing with the other on his palm: "Bewitching Smoke."

In terms of hearing, Yang Wujian was no match for Shen Qingshi, but with his Night Eyes, he could see movement beyond the branches and tall grass outside the stone house—likely someone blowing Bewitching Smoke into their dwelling.

How bold... He hadn't even gone looking for trouble, yet they came knocking on their own.

Yang Wujian and Shen Qingshi silently took out cloths to cover their mouths and noses. They expected the intruder to enter and finish them off, but instead, the person walked away, footsteps heading toward the mine behind the village.

Yang Wujian sneered coldly: "Pursue."

Shen Qingshi needed no reminder. Quietly moving aside the debris at the door, they saw by the dim moonlight that the person was none other than the pockmarked Taoist Zhang Buwei.

"This old thief still lacks courage. If it were me, I'd probably have to eliminate everyone to feel at ease."

Yang Wujian checked the other stone houses and found the three inside already unconscious. Shen Qingshi asked: "Should we wake them?"

"Not yet. Let's see what he's up to first... Later, we might use others to do our dirty work."

Frustrated by his earlier nightmare and with pent-up anger, Yang Wujian wasn't about to let this target slip away. He and Shen Qingshi followed from a distance and saw the Taoist holding a compass, searching for something as he looked around.

Yang Wujian lowered his voice: "This Taoist does have some real skill. He must have noticed something strange about this place long ago and waited until deep night to claim the spoils alone."

"He's starting to dig."

Shen Qingshi watched Zhang Buwei closely as he began digging not far from the ground fissure. Despite his frail appearance, the Taoist worked with surprising efficiency, wielding shovel and hoe with swift movements. Soon, he seemed to find something and stopped.

Could he have discovered a clue they missed, revealing the Meteor Star's location?

While Yang Wujian pondered what they might have overlooked, Zhang Buwei suddenly gasped and fell to the ground as if he'd uncovered something terrifying underground.

"I'll distract him. You knock him out."

Unwilling to reveal themselves, Yang Wujian picked up a stone and created a diversion. Zhang Buwei, no match for Shen Qingshi in skill, looked up like a startled bird. Shen Qingshi, who had silently circled behind him, delivered a swift chop to the neck, and the Taoist collapsed headfirst to the ground.

"Yang Wujian, come here."For safety's sake, Shen Qingshi wafted more Bewitching Smoke under Zhang Buwei's nose. When Yang Wujian approached to look, he discovered that what Zhang Buwei had dug out from the ground was actually a completely rigid corpse.

"Good grief, digging graves in the middle of the night."

Seeing Shen Qingshi about to crouch down and examine the corpse, Yang Wujian pulled her back: "This corpse looks like it died under suspicious circumstances. It might be poisonous. Let someone else handle such unpleasant work."

Before Shen Qingshi could understand his meaning, Yang Wujian gave a cold laugh and directly activated the Longevity Heart Sutra. He dragged the unconscious Zhang Buwei from the ground and threw him into the shallow pit with the corpse.

Afterward, Yang Wujian and Shen Qingshi wiped away their footprints along the way back to Stone Village. To avoid suspicion, Shen Qingshi woke Sun Eryuan by throwing stones at him, then quickly returned to her stone house and pretended to be unconscious. It wasn't until Sun Eryuan discovered the scattered Bewitching Smoke outside the door that his curses immediately echoed through Stone Village.

"Young heroes... young heroes?"

Sun Eryuan showed some conscience by being the first to come "wake" Yang Wujian and Shen Qingshi.

"What's wrong?"

Yang Wujian looked "dazed": "What time is it?"

Sun Eryuan urgently said: "That damned Taoist Zhang Buwei drugged us all! He must have gone looking for the Meteor Star! You two young heroes need to get up quickly!"

He then went to wake the Dong brothers. Yang Wujian said as if casually: "Brother Zhang seemed quite interested in the ore vein behind the village... Could he have gone there?"

At these words, the group immediately headed toward the back of the village. Yang Wujian and Shen Qingshi followed at the rear, watching as the others discovered Zhang Buwei lying in the corpse pit from a distance. Yang Wujian chuckled lightly: "Let them fight among themselves."

Shen Qingshi had given Zhang Buwei a strong dose, but it couldn't withstand Dong Dali's brute strength. One slap was enough to make Zhang Buwei's mouth bleed, and the man woke up coughing. Before he could react, Dong Dali delivered another slap, this time knocking out one of the Taoist's teeth.

"Damned Taoist, trying to keep everything for yourself?"

Sun Eryuan's eyes bulged like an enraged monkey as he rushed forward to attack, but Yang Wujian stopped him, smiling: "Don't beat him to death. We still haven't figured out what's going on with this corpse."

He crouched down and asked knowingly: "Brother Zhang, why are you sleeping with a corpse in the middle of the night? Who is this person?"

"I..."

Zhang Buwei trembled from the beating, seemingly still wanting to make excuses, but Shen Qingshi's sword was already pressed against him.

Though she carried a fluffy rabbit on her back, her words showed no mercy: "You drugged us. Who's to say you weren't planning to silence us? In that case, wouldn't killing you be justified?"

"Exactly, Brother Zhang. Using Bewitching Smoke on us is hardly honorable."

Dong Qisheng now chimed in, glancing at the narrow Meat Well nearby as he said ominously: "Or should we put you in there before you'll tell the truth?"

"No... don't!"

Being put in the Meat Well was no joke. Zhang Buwei finally became truly frightened, his face wretched as he said: "I... I used the Dragon Seeking Needle earlier to detect something underground, so I came here. Who would have thought it would be a corpse!"Yang Wujian clicked his tongue, glancing at Zhang Buwei and then at the corpse, feigning surprise. "Brother Zhang, how did you end up collapsing on this corpse while the rest of us were knocked unconscious in the room... Could it be that this corpse came back to life?"

"Him..."

Zhang Buwei's face turned pale as he belatedly realized he had been struck from behind earlier—and at that moment, only the corpse had been behind him.

This damned Taoist seemed thoroughly fooled.

Seeing the man's legs trembling like a sieve, Yang Wujian finally vented his pent-up frustration and stood up contentedly to examine the corpse. Under the firelight, they now noticed the man was around forty, with a long beard, dressed in coarse cloth. Most crucially, when poked with a branch, his skin was as rigid as stone, and with enough force, the branch even snapped.

"This manner of death..."

Yang Wujian and Shen Qingshi exchanged a look, both recalling almost simultaneously that they had only seen this condition once before—on Yu Xiahe.

What was going on?

Yang Wujian frowned. Judging by the corpse's clothing, it should be from their dynasty. But now that the Colorless Powder had been completely destroyed, could it be that he was poisoned by the Stone Cicada?

By then, the others had also noticed the strangeness of the corpse and dared not touch it lightly. Finally, Dong Dali pulled Zhang Buwei to his feet and said gravely, "You dug it out—you handle it."

Though the situation was bizarre, the bloody tooth still lay on the ground. Zhang Buwei, facing the towering Yunli Jingang who stood two heads taller, had no choice but to comply. Trembling, he began examining the corpse's limbs.

To their astonishment, upon inspection, they found scars on the man's hands and feet, and they were much thinner than those of an average person—indicating his bones had likely been broken for a long time.

"He's a paralytic."

Shen Qingshi immediately concluded. For some reason, she and Yang Wujian both felt an intensely peculiar suspicion stirring within them.

"Wait... why would a corpse with all four limbs crippled suddenly appear?"

Yang Wujian said in disbelief, "This person... could it be Tian Ting?"