บท 22: Chapter 15: Sudden Attack by Monsters
Twenty minutes later.
"It's okay."
Watching the small town silhouette gradually take shape ahead of them, Tang Wan, who earlier had the look of utter despair, slowly let a smile creep onto her face. Finally, she turned to the silent Zhou Li, her smile almost reaching the roots of her ears, "Making mistakes is an inevitable part of life, Zhou Li, it's okay, I won't laugh at you."
Zhou Li stood still in front of the sign that read "Zongmu Town," hands on hips, lost in thought. After freeing herself from Zhou Li's devilish grasp, Tang Wan stood beside him with her hands behind her back, doing little tiptoe hops to get a better look at the distant town. After a moment, Zhou Li lifted his head and spoke with some gravity:
"Something's not right."
"Sigh."
Upon hearing this, Tang Wan immediately let out a sigh, stretched out a hand, rested it on Zhou Li's shoulder, shaking her head as she spoke, "Zhou Li, everyone makes mistakes, even a horse may stumble. You can't let a momentary error provoke you into rage and lead to even more misjudgments. Listen to me, let's calm down and head on···"
Seizing the small hand Tang Wan had laid on his shoulder, gripping it tightly, Zhou Li's gaze turned sharp. With a beautiful arc drawn through the air, Tang Wan found herself slammed onto the ground next to the signpost by a splendid over-the-shoulder throw from Zhou Li. Zhou Li crouched beside her, watching her struggle to stand up, ready to go down fighting with him, and spoke:
"Look at the dirt under this signpost."
Tang Wan and Zhou Li always had an air of whoever is right is arrogant. After Zhou Li said this, Tang Wan felt like she was losing the upper hand. She lowered her head, scrutinizing the mud beneath the signpost. After a moment, she frowned and said:
"The new mud is mixed with the old."
"Hmm."
Zhou Li nodded, stood up, and looked towards the distant town, squinting to take in its details, then continued:
"It hasn't rained recently, and there are no animal tracks around here, yet the mud under this signpost is mixed with both new and old, mostly new over old. It must have been tampered with."
As a member of the Tang Sect, Tang Wan also sensed something amiss about this place. She furrowed her brow, her body slightly bent, subconsciously on alert.
"Is someone planning to ambush us?"
Faced with Tang Wan's question, Zhou Li did not reply immediately. He stroked his chin, pondering, as if observing something. After a moment, he shook his head and said:
"It doesn't make sense. If someone really wanted to ambush us, there would be no need to tamper with this signpost, needlessly adding to the risk."
"So···"
Tang Wan looked at Zhou Li and asked, "Shall we go and check it out?"
Hearing this, Zhou Li, with a benign smile, patted Tang Wan's shoulder and replied, "Do you know, you're the kind of person who in a horror movie would be the trigger for a group wipeout."
"Eh?"
Tang Wan was stunned, then asked in confusion, "Why's that?"
"Who in their right mind would follow a path that's clearly problematic?"
"Oh."
Tang Wan, upon seeing Zhou Li's look of exasperation, suddenly realized what he meant and said, "So, should we take another way?"
"Obviously."
Zhou Li waved his hand dismissively, and then the two of them turned around and left the road without any hesitation.
Under the faintly luminous moon and sparse stars, as crows headed south, the moment Zhou Li and his companion departed from the road that led to the village, something unexpected happened.
"That's not right."
Not long after Zhou Li and his companion left, the sound of soil grinding against soil could be heard under the signpost. Along with the emergence of a somewhat smooth and round forehead, a "person" with a hunched body covered in scales crawled out from the dirt and squat next to the signpost, scratching his chin and muttering to himself, "Why didn't they keep going?"
He lifted his head and cocked it as he examined the signpost, his small eyes filled with confusion. Just as he was about to reach out and take down the signpost, a fierce whistling of cutting wind sounded from behind him.
Thump!
With a dull impact, the scaly man immediately stumbled, a look of terror flashing across his eyes. Instinctively, he plunged his hands into the soil, ready to use the Earth Escape Technique. However, at that moment, a white fog suddenly flickered before him.
Fuck! Lime!
Accompanied by a shrill cry, the scaly man immediately covered his eyes with his hands, and the Earth Escape Technique he was about to perform was abruptly stifled. Fear in his chest reminded him that if he didn't do something, he would end up like fish on the chopping block, completely at the mercy of others. Therefore, even with his vision obstructed, he made one last struggle.
The scales on his body tightened, their sharp edges flashing with cold light. The man covered his face, and the tight scales burst forth like blades in an instant, cloaking him in a storm of icy light and blood that shredded everything around him.
A moment later, the man collapsed to the ground, weakly. He breathed heavily, darkness gradually filling his vision. Slowly, the man lost consciousness, falling to the ground like a salted fish skewered from below.
"Damn, he even knows Blade Storm."
After a while, Zhou Li emerged from one side, patting the lime off his hands, and said with lingering fear, "Lucky I kept a trick up my sleeve and threw a bag of lime."
Crouched to one side, Tang Wan stuck out her little head. Clearly, she was the one who had kicked the strange man in front of Zhou Li, and she looked somewhat shocked, her little face pale as chalk. Had it not been for Zhou Li's reflexive pull, she would have become live sashimi.
"So, what exactly is this thing?"
Looking at the "man" sprawled slick and limp on the ground, Tang Wan took two deep breaths, walked over, kicked him, and then turned to Zhou Li to ask, "A Demonic Beast?"
"It looks like... no."
Zhou Li reached out, plucked a few scales from the other's body, examined them closely, and said, "There's no Demon Qi."
After finishing his observation, Zhou Li took out a dagger from his waist, casually made a cut on the strange man's body, collected a drop of blood with his finger, and after a brief sensing, he spoke up, "And there's no blood Qi of others, it must be a spirit being. But... there seems to be a restriction set by a Demonic Beast in his body."
Upon hearing the word "demon," Tang Wan's expression immediately became grave. In the world of Da Ming, all things were believed to possess spirits. Humans could communicate with spirits and cultivate Qi, while animals and plants could transform into human forms, and even achieve Becoming Immortal, through two different cultivation methods—"Demon Craving" and "Spirit Essence."
"Demon Craving" refers to animals or plants that kill living beings, devouring their blood Qi to supplement their own deficiencies, and eventually transform into humans through Qi.
This method is extremely bloody and cruel; even without causing slaughter, merely absorbing blood Qi would result in a vile temperament, eventually turning into a "Demonic Beast." Demonic Beasts tend to be bloodthirsty and cruel, taking pleasure in killing, with incomplete spiritual intellect.
On the other hand, "Spirit Essence" is another form of "cultivation." It involves animals or plants refining the Innate Qi within their bodies, sensing the "spirit" in the natural world, and using the Qi within their bodies to extract the Spirit of Nature to awaken their spiritual intellect. Beings that cultivate through this method are generally known as "spirit beings."
Spirit beings are not as bloodthirsty and cruel as Demonic Beasts, but they possess human heart and intellect, making them easy prey to worldly temptations and often becoming pawns in the hands of humans. The Snake Spirit, which was drained dry by the rogue immortal before, was one such spirit being.
Now, the being in front of Zhou Li and Tang Wan was precisely such a spirit being.
A spirit being controlled by a Demonic Beast.
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