Poison of the Human Panacea

Chapter 22 : Shi Zun Mutated

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The sand pressed down from all four directions, as if the sky was crumbling. Bai Tan felt as though the entire world was spinning, and the only thing he could feel was being held tightly within another person"s arms whilst the sand washed them away towards the unknown.

His hand came into contact with solid stone, Bai Tan shook his head and collected his thoughts. It was only then he realized there was a cold, solid body beneath him. He opened his eyes, but he couldn"t see his whereabouts clearly because the surroundings were very dark. He reached out his hand and groped around, he touched Shiyue and Pori that were beside him, and it was only then he finally felt at ease. He held both of the weapons up in front of his face, and then, within the faint rays of light emitted from the gemstones on the handles of the hook and axe, he made eye contact with a pair of blue, squinting eyes. The long, slim and big hand that was covering the back of his head began moving, it brushed the sand off of his head and back, after its owner saw that he appeared unharmed.

"Ah-Chi?" Bai Tan lifted his body up and wanted to help the yao ren to his feet, but his body was sore, weak and hot, like boiling water. His arms suddenly gave out, and he fell on top of the yao ren again. Wu Yanfu flipped his body around and lifted up Bai Tan"s neck. Seeing that there was a blue, phosph.o.r.escent glow on his lips, he immediately reached his hand out to wipe it off. Then he pinched Bai Tan"s chin, forcing a gap in between Bai Tan"s lips with two of his fingers, he then fiercely swiped his finger pulp against Bai Tan"s sharp canine tooth.

"Master, you have been poisoned. Please do not swallow my blood, spit it out after you rinse your mouth with it.”

“Alright." Bai Tan sucked in a mouthful of blood, and spit out all the phosph.o.r.escence within his mouth. After he swallowed another mouthful of blood and relaxed himself, he felt much better than before. He had just consumed a nutritious item, but he was suddenly interrupted while he was cultivating, as a result, the movement of the zhenqi inside him was still in disorder. Once he moved his body, he could feel his blood rising and it became difficult to breathe.

Wu Yanfu crouched down after wiping the poisonous powder off of Bai Tan"s lips. He took a deep breath, held Bai Tan within his arms and the moment he straightened his legs, the four needles that had been placed within his bone, caused waves of sharp and unbearable pain.

It made him recall the year he was somewhere deep inside Tian Shan [1], back then he was also holding Bai Tan in his arms, in the same way as he was holding him now. He endured the blizzard in front of the Han Tan for seven days and nights, and as a result, his blood had frozen and more than half of his meridian lines mortified. Therefore, he had to rest in seclusion for three years. Now, he did something almost identical, out of instinct.

Hah, is this little fiend really his nemesis?

"Ah-Chi, can you stand up on your own?" Bai Tan looked at him with a surprised look, his heart began beating fast and nonstop when he recalled the vague words spoken by the person with the pair of blue eyes.

However, the yao ren didn"t respond. Instead, he raised his eyes and observed the surroundings while holding him.

Bai Tan gathered his thoughts together and observed the surroundings. He discovered that a new world actually lay beneath the quicksand, it looked like a collapsed city, one could vaguely see the outlines of the shattered walls and buildings buried underneath the sand. The two of them had fallen onto a stairway, the s.p.a.ce below the stairway was entirely filled with water, and the water level kept increasing.

An underground river lay beneath the stairway. Bai Tan noticed that the water was flowing into one of the stone gates within the remains. He thought the gate may be the exit to the outside world, and so, he relaxed, "Ah-Chi, let"s follow the underground river, maybe we can return to the surface."

Wu Yanfu nodded, walked down the stairway with Bai Tan in his arms, going into the water that was level with his chest, the demonic vines on his body spread out disjointedly, like a water snake that had long thirsted for water, increasing his bodies agility.

Bai Tan had become used to seeing how he looked in the water, so he wasn"t surprised. Instead, he embraced Wu Yanfu"s neck. He couldn"t help himself from moving his sight along Wu Yanfu"s arm to his hand. He stared at the scar on Wu Yanfu"s hand and his feelings became increasingly chaotic. Is he really his saviour, the person who rescued him from the underground prison back then?

Wu Yanfu didn"t kill him back then, he made him into a yao ren instead?

The saviour, whom he wished he could repay with his death, was actually right in front of him, and he didn"t even have a single clue? He couldn"t believe it and wanted to deny this thought, but the more he tried to deny it, the more he believed it.

He felt as though his chest was being torn apart. He grasped a handful of hair on the yao ren"s back, and leaned his head against the yao ren"s cold chest. When he heard the dull sound within the yao ren"s chest that was as heavy as a bell, his eyes became watery, as if he was about to cry, "Ah-Chi, about what had happened in the past, you really don"t remember anything?"

Wu Yanfu"s eyes darkened, and he shook his head, "Ah-Chi cannot understand what the master is saying."

Ban Tan tightened his grip around the strands of hair in his hand, and his eyes became wet.

Wu Yanfu heard him constantly sniffing, he knew that the crybaby was probably crying. The hostile thoughts within him grew, he held Bai Tan tighter and fell silent. Following the flow of the river, the two of them entered the stone gate, entering a dark, deep channel. The channel, unlike the external part, wasn"t as dilapidated, but relatively well preserved, the walls kept the blurry outlines of reliefs. How the place originally looked remained unknown, who knew how many years they had been buried beneath the sand.

They swam for a while, before light began to emerge from the depths of the channel, but they discovered that the light was actually coming from below the water. Bai Tan looked down towards the bottom, there seemed to be a bigger s.p.a.ce that might be connected to a river or lake. They"d been floating down the Kashgar River that originated from the Tian Shan, and so, their current whereabouts wouldn"t be far from the river"s origin.

But his swimming skills were indeed poor. Why didn"t he think of paying a visit to the Cang Jing Ge at the last-minute to learn how to swim? He"s very talented in wushu, so learning some underwater kung fu (how to swim) would only take him about two or three days, right?

"Master, should I swim downwards?" whilst he was hesitating, the yao ren asked.

Bai Tan took a deep breath, placed the hook and axe inside the leather pouch on his back, then he held his breath and nodded. Wu Yanfu lowered his body and signaled for him to climb onto his back, he waited until Bai Tan settled before diving deep down into the water.

Before Bai Tan could react, his body was already sinking below the water, his arms involuntarily wrapped around Wu Yanfu"s waist tightly, and he was hanging onto Wu Yanfu"s back like a cuscuta. All of a sudden, he felt as though the yao ren, whose arms and legs were crippled, became extremely strong. The demonic vine on him began twisting like a snake, directing the water flow, making them swim at an extreme speed.

He opened his eyes wide as he glanced at the surroundings and discovered the area below the water was indeed s.p.a.cious, he had no idea how deep it was. Countless sparkling bits of unknown, glowing particles were floating in the water. With the light they emitted, Bai Tan could see a lot of blurry, gigantic, human-like shadows, which were scattered all over the place. Bai Tan wasn"t afraid of killing people, he wasn"t afraid of seeing blood, but he feared unknown creatures like ghosts. He was so scared, he burrowed his head into Wu Yanfu"s neck. On tenterhooks, he peeked downwards from the gaps in between the yao ren"s strands of hair, inside the circle of human-like figures, the water flow was forming into a whirlpool, which appeared to be the where the light was being emitted from and was obviously the exit of the underground river.

Wu Yanfu bent his body, tightly grabbed Bai Tan"s legs, and swam closer to the whirlpool.

The water flow accelerated, and they were drawn into the whirlpool, which then pulled them downwards. Bai Tan freed a hand to cover his nose, striving to direct his inner breathing to gather at his lungs. However, when he suddenly saw the pale and hideous faces that were about the size of a parasol, between the specks of light, his hair curled and he unexpectedly choked on a mouthful of water. Those specks of light were actually pairs of eyes, made of luminous pearls. Those gigantic statues, of which one couldn"t tell whether they were statues of G.o.ds or demons, had collapsed and sunk to the bottom of the water, in broken pieces, were like dead people who had fallen into h.e.l.l and were angrily staring at them…the two uninvited guests.

The torrential flow of water filled his mouth and nose. Bai Tan opened his mouth widely, and columns of bubbles dashed out from his mouth. A sense of suffocation that brought him closer to death overcame him from all directions, which made him blackout. However, at this very moment, a pair of hands pulled him downward, something cold and soft sealed over his lips, and pa.s.sed over a mouthful of life-saving oxygen.

Bai Tan immediately enlaced the other with his arms and legs, struggling to obtain oxygen. Wu Yanfu tightly embraced the troublesome kid in his arms with one hand, and held onto the stone statue on the side with the other hand. Then he stomped his legs with great force, endured the excruciating pain, and swam out of the whirlpool. The view in front of his eyes suddenly brightened, he could clearly see the refraction and distortion of light above him, it seemed like there was light from fire spilling down.

As soon as their heads appeared above the water surface, Bai Tan deeply inhaled a big mouthful of air, he blinked, and was stunned by the view in front of him. Countless burning lotus-shaped lanterns were floating in mid-air, above the water surface, he couldn"t actually tell what they were. The fire from the lanterns illuminated the surroundings, to one"s surprise, it was a colossal amount of stone temples, three or four Tian Zhu styled domes collapsed in disorder on the water surface. Although they had been covered with cracks and moss, severely dilapidated, but one would still be able to see about ten square stone pillars and multiple statues of human-like figures that were in different shapes and appearance, such a sight to behold.

Judging from how they looked, it seemed like they had sunken to this place due to an earthquake, for at least hundreds of years already. But from Wu Yanfu"s point of view, the sight before his eyes was most likely to have been caused by it being swept and carried here by water. The direction in which they were tilted was so uniform, hence, they must have collapsed from somewhere high above. The stone temples probably used to sit on the mountain which the underground river originated from, but after they were pushed down, destroyed and carried away by a long-lasting and large-scale avalanche, they eventually sank into the underground along with the water.

Seas changed into mulberry fields and mulberry fields changed into seas, the constellations moved and the stars shifted, with a hundred thousand years of time, for a mountain to transform into a desert, would not be impossible.

The mysterious land they accidentally fell into, could potentially be a part of the Heavenly Hall of Tian Zhu.

Out of curiosity, Bai Tan reached out his hand and touched one of the lotus lanterns close to him. Wu Yanfu wanted to stop him, but he was too late. The height of the fire on the lantern immediately escalated. Then, they heard a splashing sound coming from somewhere, it echoed through the entire empty temple, making it very noticeable.

Bai Tan glanced, following the sound, he saw something zig-zagging through the water towards them. Below the surface, there was a long, white shadow that looked like a snake and a dragon at the same time, its size was many times bigger than that of the stone pillars within the stone temples!

"Master, go up!" Wu Yanfu pushed Bai Tan with great force, towards the higher ground beside him. Then he immediately dived into the water and swam to the other side, the white shadow was attracted by him and turned around, its long body flipped and appeared above the water surface, leaving behind ridges of wave.

Shortly, Bai Tan was able to clearly identify the shadow, which turned out to be a gigantic, silvery, white python; and on its triangular head, there was a sparkling, blood red eye, which appeared extremely fearsome. In a split second, the python had already captured the yao ren with its body, it opened its big, savage mouth and was about to bite down on the yao ren, when suddenly the waves started surging! He immediately pulled out the hook and axe, and leaped like lightning, spun and cleaved down at the giant python"s heart, but it was as if he had cleaved into a diamond, causing a burst of bright fiery sparks, his arms were feeling numb, and his body was bounced backward a few inches!

His back collided heavily with the stone wall, a mouthful of blood rose into his throat, and he saw golden stars floating. As he saw the giant python turn its head, whilst keeping the yao ren entangled, its lone, b.l.o.o.d.y red eye stared at him fiercely and boldly, a killing intent escalated in his heart.

He ground his teeth, forced his neili, then held the hook and axe with a reverse grip and swept towards his arms, feeding the two ferocious weapons with his blood, and used the ultimate move within the "Di Yu Shi Jiu Bian" that would make its user perish, together with their enemy. Wu Yanfu witnessed Bai Tan"s action, with a loud cry, the demonic vine lengthened rapidly, then it pulled Bai Tan into the water. The silver python turned its head, wanting to bite, Wu Yanfu"s pupils constricted and he raised his arm to block the attack. The python"s head was pulled off track for a few inches, barely in enough range to bite at the arm that was delivered to it, and within a split second, blood splattered all over the place!

Wu Yanfu"s expression became twisted, he took over Pori from Bai Tan, and precisely stabbed it into the lone, blood red eye on the python"s head. With the sound of muscle and bone being ripped apart, his arm was badly mutilated. Wu Yanfu didn"t even bat an eyelash, instead, whilst the python loosened its body, he tightly embraced the person within his arms, and fiercely pulled off the crippled arm that had been bitten, then dived into the water, and squeezed into a narrow rift.

The giant, silver white python was stabbed, but it couldn"t fit into the narrow rift, so it rotated a few circles in the water with Wu Yanfu"s broken arm dangling from its mouth, and rammed its head into a stone statue. The python halted its movements after tightly entangling the statue with its long body.

Wu Yanfu squinted at the python, he vaguely identified the outline of the stone statue, and suddenly he understood something.

Vasuki, the Tian Zhu G.o.d of Snake. This proved his hypothesis, this batch of stone temples was indeed a part of the remains of the Heavenly Hall of Vishnu. In the legends, Vasuki was thrown into Samudra Manthan by Vishnu, so, the origin of this underground river, must be the Samudra Manthan Spring.

Bai Tan had just recovered from the shock. During the chaos just then, he couldn"t see what was happening clearly. When he saw the blood spreading in the water, he realized the yao ren had lost a portion of his forearm. He panicked, and in an instant, he pressed the main blood vessels on the yao ren"s arm with one hand, and caught a glimpse of a pair of narrow, blue eyes, between the strands of white hair soaked with blood, the eyes had turned into a mystifying purple-red, likely due to vascular congestion.

Bai Tan was shocked, he couldn"t care about other things, and took a look outside. Seeing the giant white python was no longer moving, he dragged the yao ren and swam onto a stone platform. He then tore off a small portion of his cape and bandaged the amputated arm.

Wu Yanfu lowered his eyes and looked at Bai Tan"s delicate actions, the blood colour in his eyes intensified. This little demon, could actually go this far for the sake of his saviour, he even used a movement that would cost his life while taking the opponent"s? How can one just perform the "Di Yu Shi Jiu Bian" of their own free will? This is totally just fooling around, Wu Yanfu thought. He raised the other hand, and wiped off the drop of water that was hanging on Bai Tan"s eyelashes. Bai Tan raised his eyes to look at him, his eyes were already reddened, after quite a while, he finally constructed a sentence, "Do you feel pained?"

"I can still endure this level of pain." Wu Yanfu squeezed out a few words from the gaps between his teeth. He felt how the section where his muscle and bone fractured, was swelling and itching, as if something was crawling, making its way out. He flipped open the cloth and looked, his bone and flesh were growing.

Bai Tan stared at his arm in surprise, discovering that a pale white embryonic form of forearm bone was growing at the amputated section, which was covered in blood. His muscle and skin were sprouting as if they were plants. Not long after, his palm grew back, and the place where the meridian lines were sliced off recovered, back to normal.

Wu Yanfu moved the hand that had just finished growing, he felt like it was way stronger than the original one, then a thought rose up from within his heart, and he glanced at the sharp hooked blade Bai Tan was holding in his hand. Based on what had happened, one could say that he"d received something good out of his misfortunes. If he was to chop his legs and the other hand off… but he can"t proceed with this plan now, and he also can"t do it in front of Bai Tan.

Bai Tan looked at Wu Yanfu"s strong, newly grown hand incredulously, his tears turned into a smile. He rarely smiled in this way, and the smile he made was as soul-stirring as when the snow first started melting. Wu Yanfu was stunned, vaguely he recalled that Bai Tan had smiled like this a few years ago, when he was teaching him how to ride horses on the Yili Gra.s.sland.

"I"m glad, as long as your hand can regrow, all would be good… I didn"t know that the demonic vines were this incredible, and you too… " Bai Tan mumbled, he lifted his head up,  stared into Wu Yanfu"s eyes, and frowned, "What"s going on with your eyes?"

Wu Yanfu bent his body down and looked towards the water surface. His heart shivered at first sight, he thought, maybe it was because the pain he"d experienced just then was too severe, the demonic attributes of the demonic vine were triggered. Judging from the situation, he can"t yet amputate himself while he"s conscious, he"ll need to use medicines like Ma Fei San [2], and let other people do the job for him. He took a deep breath, scooped up a handful of water and drank it, then observed the reflection of his eyes on the water surface.

Bai Tan recalled what had just happened, and all of a sudden, he remembered something. He turned his head around and saw Pori was still on the white python"s head, and so, he wanted to get it back. But as soon as he stood up, he felt as though his blood was surging to his chest and the entire world was spinning. He collapsed, but before he could fall to the ground, the person behind him quickly grabbed him, and he feebly fell into the person"s arms. He could no longer control his zhen qi which was in disorder, thus, the zhen qi began moving wildly through his eight extraordinary meridians. Bai Tan quickly and shortly gasped, he felt like his entire body was feverish, it looked like the poison from the blood relic had broken out again.

"Blood, Ah-Chi, Blood……" He feebly moaned. He grabbed a demonic vine, and turned his head so he could lick the blood on Wu Yanfu"s arm, he looked like a starving cat, in an unbearable rush, but his body was trembling badly. After he swallowed a mouthful of blood, he lay down on the yao ren"s leg, his back was moving up and down, and his breathing weakened.

Wu Yanfu lowered his eyelashes emotionlessly, he grabbed one of Bai Tan"s hand, and read his pulse. Bai Tan"s pulse was in disorder, weak and extremely hot, he knew that Bai Tan"s neili was blocked, and so his blood flow reversed.

He grabbed the back of the youngster"s soft, thin neck, lifting the youngster out of his arms as if the youngster was a kitten. His movements were as quick as lightning as he quickly sealed the youngster"s Shen Cang [3], Ling Xu [4], Tian Shu [5] and  Xuan Ji [6]. Then, he flipped the youngster over and peeled off the gold undergarment. He took a puppet needle out from his other elbow, and precisely p.r.i.c.ked the needle into the Shen Dao [7], an acupoint on the youngster"s spine,the blood clot immediately surged out.

"Hah…" Bai Tan vigorously inhaled a mouthful of air at this moment; and his breathing became effortless.

Wu Yanfu removed the puppet needle and stored it within his hair, he stared at the youngster"s weak and bony thin spine, and squinted. You are so weak that you can"t even endure the breeze, and the kung fu you learnt was all over the place, but you are still thinking about partic.i.p.ating in the Great Wu Lin a.s.sembly? You are really clueless about the consequences. Does he not know how many people have laid their eyes on him, wanting to skin him and eat him alive?

If he was not on his side…

Wu Yanfu closed his eyes, raging torrents were surging within his chest, he couldn"t control himself any longer, he lowered his head and licked the youngsters fresh blood clean. The next time he opened his eyes, the narrow eyes had already become pure red and their shape turned into a beast-like diamond (rhombus) shape.

Bai Tan suddenly caught a sense of crisis that made him feel like dark clouds were pressing down on him, and at the same time, a body firmly pressed down on him, his chest was in great pain from being rubbed against the rough, solid stone ground. He lifted his body up instinctively, wanting to escape, but his waist suddenly tightened, it was firmly wrapped around by a strong and tough arm. The back of his neck was jabbed by the man"s hard chin, the man"s wet and cold lips and tongue aggressively invaded his ear, from bottom to top, kissing one of his earlobe over and over again… just like how that person did, before he died.

Although Bai Tan was in a daze, he still got scared and shivered. He withdrew his neck, attempting to get away, but his ear was ruthlessly bitten by Wu Yanfu, who did it on purpose so that he could remember the pain to the very depths of his heart, so he wouldn"t be able to escape from his nightmares, for the entire duration of his life.

As if he had fallen into a nightmare, Bai Tan whimpered and his entire body trembled like a small beast that was spooked. The whimper went into Wu Yanfu"s ear, which made a cl.u.s.ter of ghost fire blaze in his lung, he recalled how hard Bai Tan tried to save "him" without regards for himself and his nasty thoughts worsened. He forcefully pulled Bai Tan"s face around, then brutally sealed his lips. His tongue forcefully and brutally entered straight into Bai Tan"s mouth, opening the gap between Bai Tan"s teeth, as if he was trying to crack open an oyster with pearl inside of it, that he had been searching for, for many years. He captured Bai Tan"s soft, little tongue and sucked his saliva, almost wanting to even take his breath as well, wanting to devour Bai Tan into his stomach with one bite. The demonic vine sensed its host"s desire and so began rapidly spreading, growing long very quickly, firmly wrapping around the soft body that was lying under its host.

A ravenous vigor suddenly gushed out from the inside of his body, his bones and muscles were cracking, the redness in his eyes deepened, his kiss was becoming more intense and fervent, his thoughts were all jumbled up, as if everything was fake, only the person inside his arms was real.

Bai Tan was unable to breathe properly from being kissed so aggressively, he could only feel that countless little snakes were crawling along his skin, people born with alluring bones are the most sensitive, and so, how would he be able to endure this kind of hara.s.sment? In that instant, as though his spine had shape-shifted into a fox tail, his spine was totally softened, to the point that he felt like his spine was shapeless. But he was still scared and wanted to escape, his hands were groping around blindly, and he touched a chilling hook blade.

Shiyue sensed something, so it made a sharp sound, which made Bai Tan feel like he had just awoken from his dream.

His mind froze for a moment, then he ruthlessly bit the tongue inside of his mouth, and flipped his body over, as if fire was burning his b.u.t.t, to push away the heavy body of the man lying on top of him. As soon as he raised his eyes, he met a  pair of long, narrow eyes that were b.l.o.o.d.y red, like a demon"s, as if they belonged to a dangerous beast. He shivered, then he grabbed Shiyue and held the back of the blade against the yao ren"s neck. He lifted his body up and bent his legs, then he saw the eye-catching sight below the other"s stomach.

"You, you…!" The yao ren locked his eyes on him, his hand on the ground, and leaned forward, as if he was a beast that smelt the scent of blood, there was nowhere for Bai Tan to hide, so he was embraced by the yao ren again, who buried his head in his neck, smelling up and down like a male beast in rut encountering a female beast. Bai Tan felt like his head was about to explode, he lifted his hand up, wanting to slap the yao ren, but then he recalled that this person was his saviour, so he hurriedly withdrew his strength, his palm lightly swiped across the yao ren"s face, as if he was caressing him. The next moment, he felt a heat coming from his earlobe, the yao ren took advantage of him and licked him, the yao ren"s wet tongue moved down along his neck, like a slithering snake.

Bai Tan was angered and shocked, he turned his head away, broke free from his arms and backed off. However, the demonic vines tightly wrapped him up again, for the moment his body was still weak, he couldn"t avoid the incoming demonic vines, thus, his arms and legs were entangled. The vines dragged him back, underneath the yao ren, he immediately became creeped out and almost cried, his eyes became watery and he loudly roared, "Ah-Chi!"

Wu Yanfu was muddle-headed, and unbearably furious, his movements halted when he heard the voice that sounded familiar. Bai Tan took the advantage and escaped, the yao ren fell into the water after his kick landed on the yao ren"s chest. With his entire body soaked in cold water, Wu Yanfu was finally able to recover some of his consciousness, he blinked his eyes, the b.l.o.o.d.y colour in his eyes had faded, returning his eyes back to their original colour.  Bai Tan glanced at the figure in the water while he trembled with fear, he started guessing that maybe the reason why the yao ren went berserk was because he was bitten by this strange python, and so, he was afflicted by some kind of strange, bizarre poison.

Bai Tan was panting hard, he stood up, and in an instant, his undergarment slid down to his waist. He was embarra.s.sed and felt awkward, it was only after he covered his body with his hand, that he sensed a slight trace of pain coming from his back, it looked as if he"d been p.r.i.c.ked by something. He felt his back with his hand, discovering the pain was coming from the spot where the Shen Dao acupoint is, he felt strange and began wondering. Could it be that the yao ren helped him to treat his wounds?

He bent down to find out Wu Yanfu"s conditions, who was still in the water. Splash! Wu Yanfu popped out of the water, his sanity had already returned back to normal, he spoke with a low voice, "Master."

Bai Tan felt relieved, and dragged him onto the stone platform. When he was about to retrieve Pori, his wrist was grabbed by Wu Yanfu, "Master, please let Ah-Chi go take Pori back."

"No! You don"t even know any wushu!" Bai Tai recalled what had just happened, fear was still lingering in his heart.

"Ah-Chi"s body is able to regenerate, master doesn"t have to worry," after he finished the sentence, Wu Yanfu swam towards the stone statue, around which the giant python was wrapped. He reached out his hand and took hold of Pori"s handle, removing it from the sole eye on the giant python"s head, then he swung his arm, with a spin, the entire lone, blood red eye was scooped out of the python"s head.

The movement made by Wu Yanfu was smooth but sharp, Bai Tan"s breath tightened, and his heart rate suddenly rose, it was just like the year when he was thirteen years old, the exact feeling he had when he saw Wu Yanfu using "San Fan Po" for the first time. Why would he think about that demon? He shook his head, and ignored this strange, abnormal feeling, then sat down and began directing his zhen qi to adjust his breathing, unblocking the meridian lines. His zhen qi had just pa.s.sed the midpoint of a loop, when he suddenly heard the sound of water being disturbed coming from somewhere, he looked towards the origin of the noise, and saw a few human figures leaping out of the water, their upper bodies were all naked, and they all had a dark bronze skin colour. The man who appeared to be the leader had a tattoo of a wolfs head, which looked very strange and wicked, on his chest. The man"s eyes were glowing blue, he glanced at Bai Tan with ill intentions.

Surprisingly, they were the people of Yu Yin Palace whom they had just met! Bai Tan stood up and leaped into mid-air, he moved the yao ren behind him as he held the Shi Yue hook firmly in his hand.

"Sect Leader Bai, what a coincidence, you are also at this place? Lian Jiu swung his arm, the Soul Hooking Claw in his hand began to emit chilling lights, revealing its sharpness. He was not in a hurry to deal with Bai Tan, so he only looked at Bai Tan with staring eyes, "wondrous beauty, such a wondrous beauty, a beauty has just finished taking a bath, how fascinating  and amorous!" with the way he spoke, the other people began laughing weirdly. At the moment, Bai Tan"s entire body was soaked with water, his silk skirt was glued to his skin, the skirt was almost transparent, it no longer hid Bai Tan"s jade coloured body. If Bai Tan wasn"t holding a weapon in his hand, and releasing a sharp, murderous aura, then he would truly look like a weak waterlily just risen from underwater that couldn"t withstand wind, which would only cause l.u.s.tful thoughts to rise in one"s mind.

Bai Tan saw every single one of them were displaying a villainous expression on their faces, their looks made him feel as if they were going to rip off all his clothes, he could no longer withstand the humiliation, which had reached its peak, anger quickly surged in his heart, and he almost vomited a mouthful of blood. Immediately, he began charging neili secretly, only wanting to kill Lian Jiu with a single move. However, he was wounded, yet to recover, and he also needed to protect the yao ren, the situation was against him, so he needed to use defensive moves as attacking moves, escaping was the best solution. Since they had appeared from underwater, then the exit must also be below the water surface.

"What? Is Sect Leader Bai angry? I said the Sect Leader"s a beauty, is the Sect Leader not happy with it?" Lian Jiu sneered as he leaped onto a rock that was sitting in the water, "could it be that the Sect Leader didn"t rely on his beauty to take the life of "Mara" Wu Yanfu, the Overlord of the Western Wu Lin, did you not rely on the arts of enchantment to ascend to the throne of sect leader? You really do have some skills, the two Grandmasters, both of whom could dominate the Wu Lin easily…both died by your hand."

"So what, since ancient times, winner takes all, who cares about means? Bai Tan spoke, coldly. Although he spoke such words, but, in his heart, he was ten thousand times unwilling to be looked down upon by someone. He lifted his head up at a slight angle, "I* killed Wu Yanfu, with the "Shi Yue" in my hand. I* ascended to the throne of sect leader also by stepping on countless dead bodies. If you aren"t convinced, then don"t confront me in numbers, why don"t you challenge me by yourself, to see if I* am actually relying on the arts of enchantment?"

Lian Jiu got provoked, but he was unable to say anything back to Bai Tan, because he really dared not challenge Bai Tan on his own. He stepped back, and the people behind him pounced towards Bai Tan at the same time.

Bai Tan suddenly swung the Shi Yue hook, the hook"s blade was dancing in mid-air quickly, which caught the attackers off guard. Meanwhile, he grabbed Wu Yanfu"s wrist, and lowered his voice, "Ah-Chi, do you still have enough strength the carry me and swim towards the bottom?"

"Master please rest a.s.sured." Wu Yanfu replied with a low voice, but he was already holding a puppet needle in between his fingers, he raised his eyelids, and looked towards the person on the other side.

Bai Tan"s five fingers spread open, withdrawing the Shi Yue hook, he was casting the hand sign of Mei Dun Zhou with one hand, and dragging Wu Yanfu onto his back with the other. He dashed behind Lian Jiu"s back like a hurricane, then held the Shi Yue Hook against the back of Lian Jiu"s neck. Lian Jiu couldn"t avoid the attack in time, so he held up the broken Soul Hooking Claw and blocked the attack, then, with a Sparrow Hawk Turn Over [8], he leaped onto a stone pillar.

Bai Tan had no intention of continuing the fight, he firmly embraced Wu Yanfu and jumped towards the water. Suddenly, he felt a wave of pain coming from the back of his neck, his body lost all of its energy and he fell unconscious, then he flipped over and fell into the water. Wu Yanfu flipped the unconscious youngster over in the water and carried him in his arms.

Bai Tan only knew that the Mei Dun Zhou was originated from the j.a.panese Ninjutsu, it allowed its user to temporarily hide their body from other"s sight, it"s a type of illusion enchantment used for surprise attacks, but after all, Bai Tan hadn"t yet mastered the art, he only knew the basic effects of the art, ignorant of the art"s hidden effects. In fact, it"s quite dangerous to cast Mei Dun Zhou, if someone else broke the enchantment, then the caster would be immobilized for a while, falling unconscious, becoming a turtle that got trapped inside a pot (easily falling into another"s hand).

Lian Jiu jumped down, and looked at him with his eyes sparkling, "Thanks… big brother acted just in time."

Wu Yanfu remained silent for a moment, then he spoke in Huns, "Speaking of grat.i.tude, it should be me, your brother, saying thank you. Lian Jiu, I haven"t seen you for four years, but you still haven"t changed at all."

"It"s true that your little bro hasn"t changed at all, but big brother you…" Lian Jiu"s eyesight landed on Wu Yanfu"s white hair, his eyes darkened, but then they immediately became hostile, he stared at the youngster in Wu Yanfu"s arm, and the Soul Hooking Claw in his hand was heading straight for the youngster"s face, "It"s all because of this fiend…!"

Wu Yanfu blocked it with his hand, protecting the tiny body in the crook of his arm, his expression was somber, "Do not touch him!"

Lian Jiu retracted the sharp claw, and ground his teeth, "Could it be that big bro isn"t planning on killing him, and is going to keep the life of this fiend that would only cause crises to the world? Do you not know how the old palace master and Wu Yanfu died?"

Wu Yanfu sneered, "He"s the only person who knows where the treasure map is. If we kill him, then the treasure map would be gone for good."

"Then we"ll take him back to the Yue Yin Palace, torture him with cruel punishments. Would we be worrying about him not confessing then? Lian Jiu smiled, coldly, "Speaking of which, this little fiend"s very stubborn , back then in the underground cell, his entire bone structure was beaten up and fractured, he was poisoned until he could no longer speak, and he became blind from being smoked. We even pierced through his humerus, he only had to tell us where we could find that cold-hearted shizun, Wu Yanfu, but he refused to tell us a single thing."

Wu Yanfu"s expression was calm, but his blood vessels popped at the corner of his forehead.

"However, I know what this little fiend is most afraid of." Lian Jiu gazed at the youngster"s face, "he"s scared of other people humiliating him. Back then, in the underground cell, a warden became attracted to him, and snuck into his cell at night. Tsk! That night this little fiend was scared and committed suicide by biting his tongue, he came back to life after we wasted a Hun Xi Dan [9]. After that, didn"t we tell him to carve that mud statue and cast the shaman spell to summon Wu Yanfu back, and didn"t he end up following our orders meekly? From what I see, if we find ten or eight burly men, let them rape him one by one, then he will spill anything we ask."

After Lian Jiu finished speaking, he noticed Wu Yanfu"s expression had suddenly become extremely fierce, and so he laughed evilly as he spoke, "What do you think, big bro? Staying with this little fiend, you must have endured a lot of torments, a tooth for a tooth is a must."

"A tooth for a tooth, how is this enough?" Wu Yanfu"s hand-bone crackled, "I should repay him with ten times the pain I have suffered. However, I will not be returning with you this time," he spoke each word and sentence slowly.

“Why?" Lian Jiu spoke in a shock.

"Your brother has his reasons. One is because this little fiend sees your brother as his saviour, the benefits outweigh the disadvantages for me to stay with him. And the second reason… has Fu Lu already departed to partic.i.p.ate in the Great Wu Lin a.s.sembly?"

Lian Jiu nodded, "Big bro, do you have some business that requires you to go and find him? But…" his face expressed displeasure, "after the palace master died, Fu Lu started coveting the position of the palace master, he killed Feng Fu and Mo Chou, saying he"s going to compete for the position of the Wu Lin Overlord. Conflicts and disagreements kept occurring between him and I, so we started growing further apart from each other. Now, we have fully parted ways with each other and formed our own party."

"He killed Feng Fu and Mo Chou, is it because he wants to take over their weapons?"

"Big brother also heard about it?"

"This is the reason why I need to go and find Fu Lu. Legend has it that Shanka, Kaumodaki, Pori Axe, and Shi Yue Hook are all of the ritual instruments held by Vishnu, not a single one can be omitted."

"Big brother also wants to go to the Heavenly Hall to retrieve the Sudarshana Chakra?" Lian Jiu"s eyes were wide open.

Wu Yanfu shook his head, he pulled up his sleeves, and showed the demonic vines that were wrapped around his arm to Lian Jiu, "I only wanted a cup of Samudra Manthan Spring Water to save myself. In the past few years, I was continuously tortured by Wu Yanfu and this little fiend, which made me suffer from several illnesses, I could die at any moment. Lian Jiu, would you be happy to a.s.sist your big brother from the dark?"

"Of course I do. Big brother, things must have been rough for you." Lian Jiu bent his waist, he wanted to give Wu Yanfu a hug, but because Bai Tan was in Wu Yanfu"s arms, he only reached his hand out in the end, he patted Wu Yanfu"s shoulder and helped Wu Yanfu to stand up.

But Wu Yanfu suddenly grabbed his hand and moved very close to him on purpose, then he ambiguously lowered his voice, "Lian Jiu, your brother has one thing that requires your a.s.sistance."

Lian Jiu dazed off for a moment from looking at Wu Yanfu, his face turned slightly red, "What is it?"

"The b.u.t.terfly of Hypnotism that you brought along with you, could you lend it to your big brother?"

"Of course." Lian Jiu stroked his sleeves and took out a b.u.t.terfly. Wu Yanfu smeared a finger with phosphorus powder, and then, he swallowed the powder. Lian Jiu paused, just when he was about to stop Wu Yanfu, he saw him lifting up "Pori", his hand moved and the blade dropped, with one strike, he chopped off his right arm, and in an instant, he was bleeding like a raging torrent.

"Big brother!" Lian Jiu touched his amputated arm, and glanced at the section where the arm muscles disconnected, he lamented, and believed it was because big brother thought his arm was crippled, so he simply decided to chop it off. Seeing Wu Yanfu panting, and his face pale white, it was obvious that the pain was hard to endure, but he was still tightly embracing that little fiend, Lian Jiu couldn"t resist clenching his hand tightly, his fingernails penetrated his flesh.

He heard some noises coming from behind him when he was about to tear off his clothing to bandage Wu Yanfu, he turned his head around and looked, he saw vague traces of fire flashing behind the batch of stone temples, which cast light on two human-like figures.

"Sect Leader!" surprisingly, it was Li Wuzhang.

Then, a woman"s voice also echoed, "Sect Leader Bai!”

Wu Yanfu pushed away Lian Jiu, "It"s the Demon of Obscuration, you can"t beat him, hide yourself before he arrives."

Li Wuzhang"s kung fu was the best out of all his students and the Four Bodyguards, even his first student, Ji Du, can"t beat him. However, Lian Jiu wasn"t convinced by his words, Ket is the most bellicose tribe among the Huns, they can"t stand others saying they can"t win fights. He immediately picked up the Soul Hooking Claw and was about to go and fight.

At this moment, Li Wuzhang and Gui Yu"er followed the direction the voice was coming from, one after another, they leaped across the batch of stone temples, when they discovered this sight, they were in great shock. "I* will hold them here, go and save Sect Leader Bai." Gui Yu"er smiled glamorously, her long, skinny arms spread out, her long, cerise sleeves were like the afterglow, with a leap, she swiftly flew towards the people who were surging towards them.

Lu Wuzhang saw Lian Jiu charging forward with a ferocious aura, he shrank his body, his entire body shrank inside of the black robe, Lian Jiu"s attack missed, his arm became entangled by the black robe, as if he had been wrapped in a cloud of fog. Then he heard a gloomy laugh, the next moment his back was pounded, and a chilling air pierced through his bone.

He immediately turned around and swiped his claw, but his attack fell upon a stone pillar, which crumbled into dust upon impact. His claw stance was like a sprinting tiger and a charging wolf, leaving the sound of roaring wind echoing along the path. However, none of his attacks touched Li Wuzhang, and in the end, he received a few heavy blows from Li Wuzhang. He vomited blood, he had no other choice but to release the b.u.t.terfly of Hypnotism, he distanced himself, and jumped into the water, but, before he made his escape under the water, he grabbed the amputated arm that Wu Yanfu had just chopped off.

"How foolish of you to fight against me with that s.h.i.tty kung fu of yours." Li Wuzhang revealed his body from the inside of his black robe, with a few hits, he killed all of the b.u.t.terflies of Hypnotism. Then he looked at the remaining enemies, they all became captivated by Gu Yu"er"s charm, they were either lying unconscious on the ground or floating in the water, he couldn"t resist laughing. But when he saw one of the yao ren"s arms was covered in blood, and Bai Tan of whom the yao ren was embracing in his arms, was unconscious, his smile vanished and he leaped next to the two people.

"Shidi?"

Wu Yanfu heard Li Wuzhang"s call, who crouched and reached out his hand, wanting to lift up Bai Tan from his arms, but before he could do that, Wu Yanfu firmly grasped his arm. Li Wuzhang stared at Wu Yanfu, unknowing of the reason, he frowned…this yao ren, when he tries to protect his master, why does it feel like he is protecting his food?

Translator: Crispyfry

Proofreader: Grumpykit

QC: Xiao

Xiao"s Comments:

Is Lian Jiu in love with the guy"s whose body Wu Yanfu is using?

Did you guys catch the clue that was given in this chapter…about who Bai Tan"s savior was on that freezing night?

If Wu Yanfu"s body parts can regenerate, does that mean…that can also too?

Translator"s Notes:

[1] Tian Shan (天山) – name of a mountain

[2] Ma Fei San (麻沸散) – ancient Chinese anesthetic

[3] Shen Cang (神藏) – an acupoint located in between the gap of the second chest rib on the human body

[4] Ling Xu (灵墟) – an acupoint located in between the gap of third chest rib on the human body

[5] Tian Shu (天枢) – an acupoint located two inches away (horizontally) from the centre of a human"s belly b.u.t.ton

[6] Xuan Ji (璇玑) – an acupoint at the center of a human"s manubrium

[7] Shen Dao (神道) – an acupoint on the back of the human body

[8] Sparrow Hawk Turn Over (鹞子翻身) – a wushu move used to turn or flip one"s body over while one is in mid-air

[9] Hun Xi Dan (魂息丹) – a type of medicinal pill (sphere-shaped), the author didn"t explain the effects of the pill in detail, so far the known effect of this pill is to secure the vital signs of those who are at death"s door.

                                                                                           Chapter 23