Immortalis

Death Hex Ten

They stripped the corpse of its clothing.

The back of the garment was already soaked black, and when they lifted it, several characters were crudely carved with a knife on the person's back.

Seventh Month, First Day.

Seventh Month, Seventh Day.

Eighth Day.

Tenth Day.

Shen Qingshi said, "Today is the sixth day of the seventh month. How can it be such a coincidence?"

Yang Wujian, recalling that Tian Ting could discern life and death through gold and silver, felt an ominous premonition. However, Zhang Buwei searched the entire body but found nothing else.

Sun Eryuan firmly believed that Zhang Buwei had already pocketed some items earlier. He stepped on Zhang Buwei's shoulder and snarled, "Speak! Did you already find the Meteor Star?"

Zhang Buwei shook his head repeatedly. "My Dragon Seeking Needle only detected something underground. When we dug it up, it was just a corpse. I was startled too."

Yang Wujian knew Sun Eryuan was a bully who preyed on the weak. He pulled him aside and said, "Can't you see Brother Zhang is about to wet his pants? We might still need his skills in dragon-seeking and gold-divining to find the Meteor Star later. Little monkey, harmony brings wealth."

The night was dark and windy, and none of them wanted to linger by the eerie corpse. They decided to rebury the body in the shallow pit, tied up the dust-covered Zhang Buwei, and resolved to return to Stone Village to sleep until daybreak before investigating further.

"Do you think that was Tian Ting?"

As soon as they returned to the stone house, Shen Qingshi lowered her voice and asked, "Gu Yun said the Stone Cicada is the sky-reaching medicine. If Tian Ting has always relied on this to connect with the Underground Heaven, then as long as we grind the inner core of the Stone Cicada..."

"Don't jump to conclusions yet."

Yang Wujian interrupted her. "It's already past the third watch. The seventh day of the seventh month is today. If Tian Ting truly has some ability, then something is bound to happen today... We'll know if we wait."

Afterward, the two leaned back against the corner. Perhaps worried that Yang Wujian might be haunted again, Shen Qingshi carefully counted his breaths. Fortunately, he slept soundly until dawn.

They all emerged from the stone house almost simultaneously.

After a quick wash, Dong Qisheng suggested they take another look at the corpse. But first, they needed to ensure Zhang Buwei was still securely tied up. So, Sun Eryuan went to the stone house where he was held, but to his surprise, he soon rushed out in a panic, carrying a monkey-like scent that was neither fragrant nor foul, and swept back to the group like a whirlwind.

"He's... not breathing."

Sun Eryuan pointed toward the stone house, his face pale. Shen Qingshi was the first to react, immediately running into the room. Sure enough, she found Zhang Buwei, whom they had tied up in the house last night, slumped over, his body already stiff.

Shen Qingshi wasn't foolish either. Seeing the suspicious manner of death, she didn't rashly check his pulse. Instead, she placed a strand of hair under Zhang Buwei's nose and observed it for a long time without any movement, clearly indicating he had been dead for some time.

"Did... did you beat him to death?"

Sun Eryuan immediately turned to Dong Dali. Last night, Dong Dali had slapped Zhang Buwei so hard he knocked out a tooth, and it was possible he had caused internal injuries.

Upon hearing this, Dong Dali coldly replied, "Maybe he was suffocated by your stench."

"You... This is just medicinal ointment on my arms for training!"Sun Eryuan’s monkey-like eyes widened, on the verge of an outburst, when Dong Qisheng and Yang Wujian pulled the two apart. Dong Qisheng said, “My brother knows his limits. Besides, internal injuries always show some signs. Last night, Zhang Buwei could walk and jump—we all saw it.”

Yang Wujian also laughed, “Little monkey, take a closer look. If someone suffers internal injuries, their organs are damaged, and they’d struggle in agony before dying. How could they just drop dead like that? In my opinion, Brother Zhang seems more like he was poisoned. Look…”

He picked up a twig and poked Zhang Buwei’s neck, but the twig felt as if it had struck a rock—so hard it didn’t even leave a dent.

Dong Qisheng gasped sharply, “This…”

Shen Qingshi said, “His manner of death matches that of the corpse from last night. He must have been poisoned by a venomous creature called the Stone Cicada. Its outer shell can drive people mad, while its inner part drains a person’s vitality and blood, leaving the body preserved after death.”

“Stone Cicada?”

Dong Qisheng froze, as if he had heard of it before, and said, “When I was prospecting for ores, I once heard of a strange insect-ore—stone on the outside, insect within—also called the Emerald Blood Cicada. It first appeared in the world after the great calamity at the end of the Crimson Gold era.”

Yang Wujian realized that this Dong Qisheng, though unremarkable in appearance, was quite knowledgeable, and asked further, “Brother Dong, you seem well-informed. Have you heard any other rumors about the Emerald Blood Cicada?”

Dong Qisheng thought for a moment, “The Northern Desert people revere the White Dog and the Golden Cicada as divine messengers. The Golden Cicada shedding its shell symbolizes rebirth into a new life. It’s said that the Northern Desert has a secret method—practicing it allows one to live two lives, like the Golden Cicada. Alive, they can fight; dead, they can still fight. Back when the Northern Desert Khan invaded the Central Plains, he relied on this method… The Emerald Blood Cicada is similar. It appears lifeless but is actually alive. Leave it in the soil overnight, and it will vanish, just as a cicada hides underground. The Emerald Blood Cicada seems to burrow deep into the earth, making it impossible for ordinary people to find.”

“Burrowing underground…”

Shen Qingshi then recalled Sun Eryuan saying that after the Meteor Star fell to the ground, it would burrow into the earth upon contact. Could it be that the Emerald Blood Cicada was related to the Meteor Star?

The matter was tangled and complex, impossible to unravel all at once. But Zhang Buwei had indeed died on the seventh day of the seventh month. Shen Qingshi said, “It matches the date on the previous corpse.”

Sun Eryuan’s face turned pale, “You mean… the date of death. There are two more after that.”

Dong Dali had long been disgusted by Sun’s stench and snorted, “There are only five of us left here. What do you think?”

Sun Eryuan was no fool. If Zhang Buwei was poisoned, then the poisoner must be among them in this desolate wilderness. Not daring to provoke Shen Qingshi or Yang Wujian, he turned his accusations toward the Dong brothers.

Sun Eryuan sneered, “Your brother seems quite familiar with the Emerald Blood Cicada. Perhaps he’s the one who poisoned him.”

But Dong Qisheng didn’t take the bait under such provocation and merely smiled, “Yet the one who first mentioned the Stone Cicada was clearly that Miss Shen.”For a while, the group argued endlessly, with everyone appearing suspicious. Ultimately, Yang Wujian stepped in to mediate: "I think we should stop suspecting each other... This mountain wilderness is full of hiding spots—who knows if someone is lying in ambush? Arguing like this only plays into their hands. Let's set this aside for now and thoroughly search the area. After all, tomorrow is the eighth—if it truly is the day of death, we must stay vigilant."

His words silenced Sun Eryuan, as Zhang Buwei's death was too bizarre, and no one dared touch the corpse, leaving it exposed in the room.

To avoid complications, they agreed to keep the matter among themselves, deciding it was better not to stir up trouble. Once they found the Meteor Star, they would burn the body to ashes and act as if Zhang Buwei had never existed.

The real trouble, however, was that Tian Ting had yet to appear, yet two people had already died at the Aconite Kiln—one materializing out of nowhere, and the other being Zhang Buwei, skilled at locating ore veins. With no leads, the remaining five wandered aimlessly around Stone Village and the ore veins like headless flies.

They searched until dusk, scouring the surroundings but finding only a few footprints and trampled dry branches. Shen Qingshi, with the best lightness skill, circled the area but returned empty-handed.

As a last resort, they dug up the ground near the unidentified corpse but still found no trace of the Meteor Star. At one point, Dong Qisheng suggested Shen Qingshi release her ore-sniffing rabbit for a try, but she refused, citing the rabbit's pregnancy.

Soon, the sun set, and the forest grew too dark. Fearing ambush, they returned to Stone Village and lit separate fires.

"You know, Xue Qiu is clearly a male rabbit... You're being overly protective," Yang Wujian complained, chewing on a hard baked bun and eyeing the thick grass bedding laid out for Xue Qiu. "And I'm eating worse than a rabbit... Might as well be reborn as one."

After refreshing the rabbit cage's padding, Shen Qingshi asked, "Don't you find it strange?"

"Strange?"

"The Taoist claimed he dug up the corpse because his Dragon Seeking Needle reacted, but when I tested it today on the body, there was no response."

"You mean the needle was just his excuse?"

"Exactly. Zhang Buwei wasn't honest with us. I suspect he had clues we didn't know about—he was so confident he could find the Meteor Star that he used knockout incense on us without leaving himself an escape route."

Having served in the Zhaoming Division for years, Shen Qingshi was sharp. She had noticed that Zhang Buwei's apparent submission last night—kowtowing to the Dong brothers and Sun Eryuan—might have been a calculated act.

But under their watchful eyes, what could he have done?

Yang Wujian remarked, "Zhang Buwei's death is also puzzling. Neither of us heard any movement in the latter half of the night—how could he have been silently poisoned?"

Shen Qingshi shook her head. "Not only that, but there were no obvious signs of poisoning. It seems the toxin acted instantly—he died the moment it entered his system."The two exchanged a glance, simultaneously recalling the events at Immeasurable Manor that day. Shen Mian of the Fangqiong Sword had once said that although the Colorless Powder could drain a person's vitality, it didn't cause sudden death immediately. Instead, it would induce high fever, claiming lives like a plague.

"Surely even the Colorless Powder couldn't achieve something like this, could it?"

Yang Wujian let out a cold laugh and asked again, "When you walked around the area today, did you truly not see anyone? The branches we found today had fresh breaks, and there were faint footprints nearby—they must have been left very recently."

Hearing this, Shen Qingshi merely gazed out into the silent, dark night outside the house. After a long pause, he shook his head. "I didn't see anyone within my line of sight... The vegetation here is too dense. If someone were truly hiding outside the village, we'd be utterly defenseless."

"Even if the deaths were caused by the Emerald Blood Cicada, that shouldn't be a poison one encounters easily. Otherwise, the Green Rain Sword wouldn't have gone to such great lengths to find just a few back then... Why were both corpses killed by the Emerald Blood Cicada? Could this actually be some kind of clue?"

There were too many peculiarities in this place, and Yang Wujian's head throbbed from overthinking. Afraid that excessive worry would lead to nightmares again that night, he planned to rest early after eating. But just as his eyelids closed, a sharp cry from nearby jolted him upright.

It was Sun Eryuan's voice.

Shen Qingshi reacted swiftly, darting out of the stone house in an instant. He saw Sun Eryuan scrambling out of his room, trembling as he pointed inside and said, "I just saw a face outside the window!"

Shen Qingshi, unafraid of such things, strode directly into the room. He noticed a small vent window on the back wall of Sun Eryuan's stone house, but aside from swaying tree shadows, there was nothing outside—let alone a person.

Yang Wujian, who had rushed over, saw Sun Eryuan shaking with fear and chuckled, "Little monkey, you're supposed to be the Gold Splitting Hand. How can you be so timid? A single face scared you like this?"

But Sun Eryuan's next words made everyone's expressions change.

"That was no ordinary face... It was that paralyzed man who died near the mine shaft before!"