Immortalis

Death Hex Fourteen

As Sun Eryuan's screams faded into the distance, Yang Wujian realized the person outside must possess martial arts far surpassing his and Shen Qingshi's.

Struggling, he grabbed the knife Sun Eryuan had dropped and cut the ropes binding his hands. After untying Shen Qingshi and Dong Qisheng and rousing them, Shen Qingshi immediately reacted, frowning as she asked, "Where's Sun Eryuan?"

"Driven off by someone."

Yang Wujian helped her up, letting out a cold laugh. "Seems he's done this more than once—smooth and practiced. Who knows which expert helped us this time."

Shen Qingshi tested her internal energy, but it lay stagnant and unmoving like dead water. She shook her head. "It's a potent drug. We can't pursue right now."

"Don't chase. The mountain forest is most dangerous at night. Better to stay here and see if we can dispel the drug's effects."

Meanwhile, Dong Qisheng remained unusually calm. After a glance toward the distant dark mountains, he sat cross-legged and began circulating his energy. Shen Qingshi and Yang Wujian exchanged a look but said nothing, simply following suit.

The energy-dispersing drug Sun Eryuan had used on them was not only subtle but fiercely potent. It seemed he had likely used the same method to betray his comrades back in the day.

As Yang Wujian closed his eyes to circulate his energy, he thought, This time we nearly capsized in a minor ditch. Luckily, an expert came to our aid—otherwise, we might truly have been buried in this desolate wilderness.

But... who was that person?

To blind Sun Eryuan with just a few stones—this person's skill was not to be underestimated.

Could it be the one who lit the fire in the village?

But if they meant no harm and even helped us, why hide? What purpose did lurking in the shadows serve—could it be to protect us?

The more Yang Wujian pondered, the more confused he became. Unable to hold back, he asked, "Qingshi, do you have any guesses about the identity of the one who just saved us?"

Uncharacteristically, Shen Qingshi hesitated before speaking. Gazing out into the night beyond the window as if searching for something, she finally shook her head. "Since they're on our side, perhaps when the time is right, they'll reveal themselves to us."

For the next few hours, the three remained in the stone house, hearing no movement outside. Just before dawn, they finally dispelled the drug's effects and stepped out. Sure enough, Sun Eryuan was long gone. The mountains were silent except for birdsong, with no trace of human presence.

"He must be dead by now, right?"

Yang Wujian studied the bloodstains on the ground. In a place like this, blinded in one eye and fleeing blindly into the mountains, even if no one killed him, Sun Eryuan would surely die in the jaws of wild beasts.

After a moment's thought, Yang Wujian seemed to reach a decision. Turning to the silent Dong Qisheng, he asked, "Chu Shi's man is dead too, senior. Will you meet with us now?"

Shen Qingshi's hand was already on her sword, but Dong Qisheng only asked, "When did you figure it out?"

Yang Wujian sighed. "It wasn't hard to guess. On the first day, you were the one who suggested we wait in the village for Tian Ting. That night, Zhang Buwei died. And if there was still some doubt then, from the moment the ghostly figure appeared to frighten Sun Eryuan, that person could only be you."Shen Qingshi said calmly, "You know these people very well. From the very beginning, you knew that Sun Eryuan was extremely cunning and wouldn't act rashly on the first night. Therefore, the one who went to dig up the corpse in the back mountain on the first night had to be Zhang Buwei, so you killed him first. Then, on the second night, when you wanted to kill Dong Dali, to keep Sun Eryuan occupied, you disguised yourself as a ghostly figure to scare him, making him stay in Stone Village. Immediately after, you took the blind Dong Dali to dig up the corpse..."

Dong Qisheng did not deny it. "Continue."

"I couldn't figure out why you left those death dates before, but I just realized it now."

Yang Wujian smiled. "Among these people, Sun Eryuan is the hardest to deal with, and those death dates were written for him to see... After all, with two people dead according to the dates, Sun Eryuan would unconsciously believe that someone must die on the next death date. To avoid dying himself, he would strike first and kill others... And what you originally hoped for was that Shen Qingshi and I would kill him for you, right?"

After a long silence, Dong Qisheng said, "But you two aren't as formidable as I thought."

Yang Wujian couldn't help but smile bitterly. He hadn't expected that both he and Shen Qingshi would nearly lose their lives to that monkey. He said, "Senior, if you were truly able to foresee things, you should have reminded Gu Yun when you wrote to her years ago that fifteen years later, when someone comes to Aconite Kiln, they should be careful of being poisoned."

With that, everything was laid bare. Dong Qisheng did not deny it but instead led them to the burial site behind Stone Village.

Using a handful of ore powder, Dong Qisheng had taken two lives.

At this moment, Dong Dali's body was still in place. The three of them waited for a while when suddenly, a faint rustling sound came from the distance. Yang Wujian initially thought it was the wind rustling the trees, but the sound grew louder, as if heading straight for them.

"Insects!"

Shen Qingshi immediately pulled Yang Wujian up onto a cliff wall. In the distance, a dense swarm of black dots surged toward them. The things were clearly moving, but no legs were visible; it was like a twisting mass of black sand, utterly bizarre.

The two initially thought Dong Qisheng intended to kill them as well, but Dong Qisheng merely took out a bottle and placed it on the ground. The swarm of black sand went straight into the bottle and did not come out again.

"Come down."

Dong Qisheng plugged the bottle's opening and added, "Sun Eryuan is dead. I don't want to kill you... I'm about to die myself, and I have some final words for you."

After a moment's hesitation, the two jumped down from the height. Shen Qingshi looked directly at the bottle in Dong Qisheng's hand and said bluntly, "Senior, the reason you can detect ore is actually because of that thing in your hand, isn't it?"

Dong Qisheng was taken aback, then laughed. "What makes you say that?"

Shen Qingshi said, "These insects eat ore. You used this method to lure them onto Zhang Buwei and Dong Dali, killing them. And with these insects, you can detect whether there is an ore vein underground, correct?"

Dong Qisheng stared at her for a long time before finally saying, "You're smarter than it said."

"It?"

"You're right. My ability to detect ore relies entirely on this thing... You call me Tian Ting, but that title should belong to it, not me."

Dong Qisheng looked calmly at the two, then revealed the entire cause and effect of the matter.

As Yang Wujian had suspected, the real Dong Qisheng had died several years ago.After being released by the authorities, Dong Qisheng fled northward with the blind Dong Dali, intending to escape beyond the Great Wall. Unexpectedly, they were intercepted midway.

That night, Dong Qisheng was killed in the cold darkness, his body chopped into countless pieces and thrown into a lake to feed the fish. Yet the next morning, someone wearing Dong Qisheng’s clothes appeared before Dong Dali.

Although Dong Dali was not completely blind, faces appeared to him as blurred white patches with a few dark spots. Combined with the newcomer’s voice, which bore some resemblance to Dong Qisheng’s, he had no way of discerning that the person standing before him was no longer his elder brother.

"Why did you target Dong Qisheng?"

Yang Wujian found it peculiar. According to this person’s account, it seemed as though he had known in advance that the Dong brothers would head north to cross the border and had been waiting for them along the way.

Moreover, killing Dong Qisheng was as ordinary to him as breathing.

But how did he know all this?

Hearing the question, the fake "Dong Qisheng" did not answer but instead smiled faintly and said, "I simply needed to kill him."

"Then why didn’t you kill Dong Dali right away?"

"Because the time was not yet right. I still needed his brute strength to forge a sword for me."

Ever since "Dong Qisheng" had revealed his true identity, his tone had become as still as stagnant water. At one point, Yang Wujian even felt as though the person speaking before him was already dead.

"Dong Qisheng" said, "I must wait until the other three appear. Then, I will write to them, asking them to come to the Aconite Kiln to seek the Meteor Star."

"What exactly is the Meteor Star?"

"It is no ordinary object."

"Is it the thing you saw in the mine shaft?"

"Yes, and no."

"Then what you’re holding in your hand…"

"You will know soon enough."

"Dong Qisheng" looked at him. "Or would you prefer to see it now, like Sun Eryuan?"

Although "Dong Qisheng" did not seem to possess any profound martial skills, his hand remained firmly on the bottle the entire time. Sensing danger instinctively, Shen Qingshi grabbed Yang Wujian’s arm. Yang Wujian, however, was not so impulsive. Having witnessed the object’s power earlier, he forced a dry laugh and said, "Seeing it won’t be necessary. Just tell us about it, elder."

Fortunately, "Dong Qisheng" did not press the issue.

Holding the deadly bottle calmly, he recounted how he had found someone who, like him, had been betrayed in the mines, left with broken limbs, and forced to lie on a bed for years, living a life worse than death.

"Dong Qisheng" said, "It told me that only by killing myself and three enemies could I see it. The first corpse you encountered was the 'self' I found."

It was easy to imagine that a person bedridden for years would not resist. Upon hearing his intention, the man even welcomed death as a form of liberation.

As "Dong Qisheng" spoke slowly, Yang Wujian watched his smiling face and felt a chill creeping up his spine.

What… is this person talking about?

And the "it" he referred to, no matter how one listened, did not sound like a living being."Dong Qisheng" said: "Sun Eryuan drugged and framed twelve brothers for wealth; Dong Dali revealed the names of seven brothers in prison out of fear of death; as for Zhang Buwei, he secretly reported to the authorities after reading veins to monopolize a private mine. These three are my enemies, and I must kill them."

Yang Wujian couldn't help but ask: "These matters should have been kept extremely secret, and they wouldn't have told anyone. How exactly did you come to know all this?"

"Dong Qisheng" still didn't answer, merely gazing at the distant forest and the birds in the sky, whispering: "Back then, I was betrayed and thrown into a well to die. Fortunately, all my limbs were intact... I kept crawling in utter darkness, searching for an exit, but I couldn't tell direction and crawled deeper and deeper. Eventually, I heard it there."

Shen Qingshi frowned: "Heard what?"

"Dong Qisheng" wore a strange smile: "Not something mortals can see. And it told me everything—how heaven and earth are, how all things are, how I would live and how I would die, how I came here and how I would meet you. It said everything, and also told me that if I wanted to hear it all again, I could bring this item and seek it out."

Speaking of this, "Dong Qisheng" seemed entranced, his eyes widening with excitement. He shook the bottle in his hand, the contents rustling inside.

"It once told me that as long as I kill myself and three enemies, my mortal affairs would be settled. Then, all I needed was to return before it, meet you, and I could go to see it... From then on, for millennia, I would live long and worry-free."

The smile on "Dong Qisheng's" face grew increasingly bizarre. Finally, he actually handed the bottle over: "Take it. If you accept it, everything will be settled... Don't worry, this bottle is made of metal and very cold. As long as it's inside, nothing will happen."

Yang Wujian felt uncertain, hesitating for a long time, but still took the bottle.

Such a deadly thing was safer in his own hands than in the other's.

However, Yang Wujian hadn't expected that the moment the bottle left his hand, "Dong Qisheng" would spread his arms like a bird. He closed his eyes: "My Death Hex has arrived. It's time to go see it."

"What..."

Before the two could react, accompanied by the whistle of an arrow cutting through the air, a dull thud followed, and a long arrow had already pierced "Dong Qisheng's" shoulder. Shen Qingshi instantly recognized the mark on the bloody arrowhead, his back instantly soaked with cold sweat.

This was... a Zhaoming Division arrow.