w.a.n.g, w.a.n.g, w.a.n.g

"Wha? What is this?"

Hong Yi raised his head. He heard the barking of dogs coming faintly from outside.

"Ji ji, Ji ji! Ji ji!"

The three small, white foxes had more sensitive senses than Hong Yi. When they heard the sound of barking in the midst of a winter storm, they all jumped and called out "Ji ji" uncontrollably, looking very alarmed.

"Not good? Hunters entered the mountain."

Hong Yi understood immediately. On this very snowy day and in these deep mountains and forests there was no possible way there could be dog barks, which left hunters entering the mountain as the only explanation.

"What do we do, what do we do. Big Brother Yi, what do we do? Those are the sounds of mastiffs. Mastiffs are the things we are most scared of, they can even rip a tiger to shreds……"

At this time, the three small, white foxes–Xiao Shu, Xiao Fei and Xiang Sang–rotated around uncontrollably.

Xiao Shu was the most collected of them all. She tried to draw some words on the ground with her paw. Since it was during the day, they could not actually come out of their bodies to communicate, as their souls were not strong enough to endure the harm of sunlight, even when it was a snowy day with very little direct sunlight.

However, Hong Yi could sense the intense fear in the eyes of the three foxes. And he could clearly see the script on the floor.

"Mastiffs!"

Reading the scripture carved on the ground by Xiao Shu, Hong Yi almost felt his hair standing up because of the horror.

He had been born in a distinguished clan. Despite his low station inside of the family, he got to know the names of the mastiffs. Every single one of them was the size of a baby ox, very ferocious, suitable for guarding the gate. They were also very sensitive with naturally born spiritualism, making it possible for them to see the invisible beings, like souls or ghosts.

In other words, even if Hong Yi were to exit his body and approach with his soul, the mastiffs would be able to see him.

In a distinguished clan, a mastiff is raised to suppress evil influences.

"What should we do?" Disturbed by the rattled look of the three, Hong Yi began to feel nervous himself.

After living with them for a few days, he started to know what these foxes were capable of. They had started cultivation, but did not really possess a lot of ways to protect themselves. The foxes might have a shot with ordinary hunters, but against ones with Mastiffs at their disposal, they wouldn"t even have the chance to defend themselves. They"d be torn apart into pieces, with no chance to escape.

When a Mastiff was furious, it could almost battle tigers or lions. Three or four regular strong men wouldn"t be able to handle it. Not to mention the Mastiff"s ability to see spirits.

"I am afraid Elder Tu would not be able to stop them. I"d better go out and distract them. I will just say that I am a scholar who got lost in the deep mountain and I hope that they can bring me back. Then the hunters wouldn"t notice the foxes."

The barking from the mastiffs were getting close, and so was the dangerous situation.

Hong Yi clapped the table, stood up, and strode, whipping off the drapes and exiting the room.

"Wow, it"s freezing out here!"

As soon as he exited the room, cold wind blew in his face. He was shaking with chills. The snow acc.u.mulated on the ground was knee-deep. Pa.s.sing pedestrians sunk right in.

Hong Yi followed the sound, walked with difficulty, heading toward the outside step by step.

Outside the valley was a little hill. It was pretty high up. There was a little forest on the hill where he could hide himself and keep an eye on the situations down there at the same time.

"Oh my lord…"

Hong Yi climbed up the hill and saw from afar that there were dozens of dots coming from the end of the road.

The dots were barking. They were mastiffs.

"There are over a dozen of those?" Hong Yi felt lightheaded. His heart was pumping hard, like it was about to jump out of his body. He was afraid that the foxes might not make it today.

"Hong Xuejiao? …and who are those people?"

The running horses followed the hounds approaching. Now there was only a few thousand steps away. Hong Yi hid behind the forest, and he could almost see the shape of Hong Xuejiao.

"Oh c.r.a.p. It is these people."

Hong Yi was feeling even worse. Those were not easy people to deal with. Even if he could go out and meet them now, he wouldn"t be able to distract them. He might even cause more alarm.

"Just go to them and talk some sense into them? Doesn"t seem likely. Too bad, if I were a master of martial arts…" Hong Yi tried, but he could not come up with any good idea to stop them. He felt so weak and helpless.

"d.u.c.h.ess! There is something alive hiding in the forest over there!"

"What? Are those the foxes? Do not send the mastiffs for now. They might rip the good fur apart. I really need perfect intact fur from them. Xuejiao, you are pretty good at archery, why don"t you have the mastiffs push the foxes out, and you settle the deal and shoot them right in the eye? Again, be careful not to hurt the fur!"

"No problem, d.u.c.h.ess."

The bunch of people with the mastiffs and horses are the d.u.c.h.ess of Yong Chun, Hong Xuejiao, son of Prince Cheng Yangtong and Jing Yuxing.

The mastiffs were barking hard. The people followed the mastiffs, which lead them to closer to the foxes den.

"What? They spotted me."

When Hong Yi heard the minion yell out that something was  hiding in the wood, he suddenly became nervous.

"There is no way I am letting Xiao Shu, Xiao Sang and Xiao Fei suffer through this. They call me "Brother," and I should treat them as sisters. They treat me like a treasure, and I should rightfully return the favor as a martyr."

Hong Yi cleaned his clothes, and planned to walk out as calmly as possible.

All of a sudden, the mastiffs heading toward the hills stopped, like they just sensed some terrible threat.

"What"s going on?"

A serious look appeared in eyes of the four people.

At the same time, the minion guards stepped forward.

At just this moment, the sound of songs came from afar. Meanwhile, in the blizzard, the light aroma of wine accompanied the songs.

"Good wine…..Good wine came out of my hand…

Drink my wine, clear your throat and never cough…

Drink my wine, be healthy and your mouth smells nice…

Drink my wine, and dare to walk to Qing Sha Entrance alone…

Drink my wine, and don"t kowtow when you see the emperor…"

"Nice song. So simple, but there is something special about it. Walking proudly to Qing Sha gate alone and not even bowing down to the emperor. This guy"s got some b.a.l.l.s."

Qing Sha Gate is the stop that separates the Great Qian Dynasty and the Yun Meng Empire. War happens there round the clock. So many soldiers died there, the dead bodies are piled up like a mountain. Rumor has it that every inch of its dirt is soiled with blood and flesh.

That was a scary place. People saw ghosts fighting during the day. No ordinary people dared to walk there alone.

The song could be heard with the lovely aroma of the wine.

Suddenly, changes happened.

One of the ten mastiffs suddenly turned around, like something"s got its body. It"s eyes shined with cruelty; it barked ferociously, and came at Jing Yuxing hard.

The loyal mastiffs were barking at their own master!

"En?"

Jing Yuxing was not at all bothered by the sudden situation. He jumped off the horse, quick as a thunder, like a jaguar, and hit the mastiff right on the head. The mastiff was. .h.i.t so hard it flew 5 steps out. Just as it was trying to come back up again, Jing Yuxing stepped forward and directly crushed its skull.

The two stunts were clean, concise, hard and fast. The young Duke was clearly gifted.

"That"s the method of body stealing from a Spiritual Immortals! Such a powerful demon! Who is it! Manifest yourself!"

Jing Yuxing just killed his mastiff, and he was not smiling at all.

When the spirit enters the stage of Reincarnation, it can be called a Spiritual Immortal (Gui Xian).

At this level of transcendental techniques, the spirit can fly out and just possess someone else"s body. The mastiff earlier had been possessed by someone else, and had been used to attack its own master.

"Very impressive for recognizing my transcendental techniques. However, you are not powerful enough to make me manifest myself. Though Martial Saints like Hong Xuanji and Yang Tuo, might be."

Suddenly, one of the mastiffs started talking.

"Bang!"

An arrow was fired and landed right between the eyes of the mastiff. The mastiff turned, and stayed on the ground dead.

It was Hong Xuejiao.

"Doesn"t hurt. Your arrow, doesn"t hurt."

Just when the mastiff died, another started talking.

The situation had gotten weird.

"Who are you?"

Hearing the name of Hong Xuanji and Yang Tuo, the four immediately straightened their faces. The son of Prince Cheng, Yangtong, stepped forward and asked.

"So your surname name is Yang. Royal family? Go back and tell Yang Tuo, say that I, Bai Ziyue, will come to him and challenge him to a duel. Tell him to wait for it."

"Bai Ziyue!"

Upon hearing the name, Yang Tong was suddenly astounded, like he just sensed something terrible, and he stared at the talking mastiff.

"Let"s go!"

Suddenly, Yang Tong turned and ran away on his horse.

Seeing Yang Tong like this, the others were all shocked and turned with him as well.

All of a sudden, all the horses and mastiffs ran all over the place returning to where they had come from. In a few seconds, the entire valley was empty, with only the two bodies of the dead mastiffs and the one manipulated by Mr. Bai.

"Hong Yi?"

Just when Hong Yi breathed a sigh of relieve, the big mastiff calmly walked up the hill and started talking, querying.

"I am sorry, who are you?"

Hong Yi asked the talking mastiff.

"I am Mr. Bai. It is cold out. Follow me to the cave," The mastiff said.

"OK."

Hong Yi followed this mastiff down the hills back to the cave in the valley.

He saw a very young man sitting in the middle, dressed in white like the moonlight. He had very long hair, scattered around his face like bobs.

This young man had his eyes tightly closed. He immediately opened his eyes as Hong Yi entered. His pupils emanated gentle light, like warm jade.

At his side, there was a purple, two-foot long gourd. He was carrying a long sword on his back, looking like an immortal out of this mundane world.

"Please, sit. Yuan Fei has mentioned you. This is my decade-old monkey wine; it"s very good for the health. Please, have a try."

The young man laughed and invited Hong Yi to sit down.

"So you are one of the Eight Demonic Immortals? Mr. Bai Ziyue?"

Hong Yi asked, and walked over and picked up the wine gourd and had a drink. As soon as the wine entered his stomach, he felt a warm breeze coming up, like every single one of his forty-eight thousand pores opened up, emitting fragrance.

"Great wine. Wine for the immortals! Nice song too. Dare to walk the Qing Sha Entrance all by yourself; dare not to kneel facing the king. Scare off the talents without manifesting yourself, and you are truly the hero."

After some wine, Hong Yi felt the heat on his body, "I couldn"t have Mr. Bai"s drink without giving anything in return. How about I write you a poem?"

Hong Yi stood up, walked a few steps, and chanted out loud, "My sword crossed the nine fields, my crown touched the clear cosmos; walking on the world alone, the four seas know me as a hero."