Chapter 254: What a Coincidence!

Chapter 254: What a Coincidence!

The sight of Feng Jiu holding a heavy wolf-tooth club should have been extremely eye-catching. Yet the woman acted as though she didn’t see it at all, greeting them both with friendly enthusiasm.

Beside her stood a boy of seven or eight, brandishing a wooden sword with vigorous energy. His eyes lit up with curiosity when he spotted the Jiaoslayer at Li Yanchu’s waist.

“Daoist Master, can I touch your sword?” the boy asked.

Li Yanchu smiled faintly. “This is a saber, not a sword.”

The boy froze for a moment, then gave an “Oh. Never mind then. I’m going to be a peerless swordmaster one day. Things like sabers and spears, none of them look as cool as a sword!”

The woman chuckled and scolded lightly, “Go, go, stop talking big. Isn’t it just because little Lian from the blacksmith’s house said she likes swordmasters? Now you carry that wooden sword around all day.”

A flush rose to the boy’s cheeks, but he laughed it off.

Meanwhile, Li Yanchu quietly attuned himself to the village’s aura, and reached out to discreetly snap off a corner of a wooden stool. It didn’t budge in the slightest.

He pressed harder, but the stool remained completely intact. The chopsticks and cups in his hands were the same; no matter how much force he used, they were utterly undamaged.

A solemn look crept onto Feng Jiu’s pretty face. She ignored the table piled high with fragrant, steaming dishes, making no move to eat. Without drawing attention, she shot Li Yanchu a sidelong glance, then exaggeratedly signaled to him with her eyes.

There’s something wrong with this place! What do we do?!

Li Yanchu gave a faint smile and returned her a reassuring look.

“Come on, there’s no hidden mystery here,” he said to Feng Jiu as he stood up.

Feng Jiu blinked, then obediently followed him out.

That decisiveness made Li Yanchu feel rather pleased; at least she wasn’t the type to nag, argue, or badger for answers when the situation was still unclear. If not for the thirty- to forty-catty wolf-tooth club in her hand, and the fact that two white-feather arrows earlier hadn’t so much as fazed her, she would really look like a gentle, well-behaved young girl.

The couple rose and tried to persuade them to stay.

Once outside, Li Yanchu raised a hand, and a massive, ancient-looking divine bow appeared in his grasp.

The Wind Divine Bow was once the killing weapon of Mount Mao’s young Daoist Master, Hong Baiwei. Of course, it was now Daoist Li’s magical artifact.

He set his fingers to the bowstring, and muscles bulged in his arms as he drew it into a full moon. The muscles across his back surged with explosive power, like a great dragon coiling to strike. An arrow of pure qi condensed into being.

With a sudden motion, he aimed it at the blazing sun above.

Whoosh!

The bowstring thrummed. The qi arrow streaked upward, detonating in midair with a ripple of white light.

The world suddenly darkened. That sun in the sky looked like a giant eye that suddenly shut, just like a person who, faced with a sudden threat, instinctively blinks.

Boom!

The sun in the sky transformed into a deep, black void.

From that black hole, cracks began spreading across the bright blue sky, like porcelain shattering.

Seeing this, Feng Jiu was slightly taken aback.

Was this following the path of the ancient human hero, the one who shot down the sun with a single arrow[1]!?

Crack!

Crack!

To their surprise, the crisp sound of breaking glass echoed around them again and again. The entire little world seemed to splinter apart into fragments.

Before their eyes, everything vanished and was replaced by the silent darkness of a mountain cave. In ancient times, people sometimes hollowed out mountains to make cultivation caves or tomb chambers. This was such a cave-dwelling.

However, instead of stone tables and stools, it was steeped in a strange, eerie aura. Dead bones lay scattered everywhere, and among them was one skeleton different from the rest, faintly glowing with a soft luminescence.

Beside it rested an ancient Great Xia sword, which was 1.3 meter in length and three fingers in width. The blade was gleaming cold and sharp, radiating a fierce, murderous intent.

Seeing this, Li Yanchu’s gaze sharpened.

Could it be...?

Feng Jiu couldn’t help but praise, “What a fine sword, its sword qi is cold as frost.”

This Great Xia sword truly exuded a cutting edge so sharp it felt as if just looking at it might stab one’s eyes.

It was a pity that the swordsman who once wielded this saber had also perished here in the abyssal cave of the Thousand Corpses Ridge, leaving not even his name behind.

Li Yanchu stepped forward and drew the Great Xia sword. At once, a clear, ringing dragon’s cry echoed through the air. He cupped his fists respectfully toward the skeleton. Then, without hesitation, he took the ancient, simply-made Great Xia sword with him.

The skeleton seemed almost sentient, and it inclined its skull slightly toward Li Yanchu.

And then, the resentment clinging to its bones dispersed. The faint luminescent glow vanished as well; though it no longer had its former supernatural aura, it now gave off a sense of deep peace.

“Master, what’s so interesting about a pile of dead bones?” Feng Jiu frowned.

Earlier, she hadn’t yet figured out what was going on with that Peach Blossom Village when she saw Li Yanchu draw his bow and shoot the sun.

It had been like watching the heroic feat of an ancient powerhouse brought to life, so bold and magnificent that it commanded her respect.

Now, seeing him staring at a skeleton, she couldn’t help but feel curious.

Li Yanchu gave a small shake of his head. “We weren’t bewitched just now. What we entered was a fragment of someone’s memory within this cave, or perhaps more accurately, a lingering obsession.”

“Obsession?” Feng Jiu asked.

“That’s right,” Li Yanchu said. “That Peach Blossom Village carried a certain special feeling, it had no evil aura or ghostly yin qi, because there were no actual spirits or monsters there.”

The idea of “obsession” still felt vague to Feng Jiu, but under Li Yanchu’s explanation, she began to grasp it. The two of them searched the cave dwelling of this unknown master, but found nothing else unusual.

Suddenly, a terrifying aura surged from outside.

ROAR!

The sound was so clear it seemed to shake the air itself.

This aura was not from some common mountain spirit, ghost, or beast, but from a presence of overwhelming power. It was the owner of the narrow, peering eye that Li Yanchu had shot down earlier with the might of the Wind Divine Bow!

The only thing he didn’t know was if he struck within that lingering obsession, would it have any effect on the outside world? He hurried toward the source of the sound.

***

The one making the sound was a strange beast with the body of a cow and the tail of a serpent, and it had only a single eye. Around it spread an desolate and ancient aura of lifelessness, and at its feet lay three corpses.

They were all burly men dressed like barbarians, their bones strong and robust, but now their bodies were withered and shriveled, as if their very essence and blood had been drained away.

On closer inspection, it wasn’t quite the same.

The manner of death of these three men looked more like poisoning, as if they had been struck by some virulent toxin that drained the vitality from their bodies.

Nearby, several people stood staring grimly at this mythical beast from the

Classic of Mountains and Seas

.

One was an elderly man with hair white as snow. Another was a brawny giant whose qi and blood surged like a blazing river. There was also a mysterious figure in a black robe, and a tall, refined young gentleman with handsome features.

This young man looked to be just over twenty years old, but his eyes were slightly vacant, as if he had been caught in some puppet-controlling or substitution spell.

When Li Yanchu arrived at the scene with Feng Jiu, his brows furrowed at once.

His gaze swept over the creature recorded in the

Classic of Mountains and Seas

, the Fei, and finally settled on the refined young man.

“Hongtu!” Li Yanchu couldn’t help shouting.

The young man gave no reaction, and his eyes remained empty and lifeless.

1. In Chinese folklore, there is such a tale: In the ancient age, ten suns rose together, plunging the world into chaos. Under their scorching blaze, all things between Heaven and Earth withered. Grass and trees dried up, people and beasts alike lost their spirit. To save creation, the human hero Yi raised his divine bow and shot down nine of the suns, sparing all living beings from the torment of tenfold fire. But in doing so, he incurred the wrath of the Heavenly Emperor, for those ten suns were the children of Emperor Jun and the goddess of light, Xihe. In gratitude for Yi’s great deed, later generations honored him as the ‘God of the Bow.’ This is the legend of ‘Yi Shoots Down the Nine Suns.’ ☜