SWNOVELXO Chapter 10: chapter 10
In the depths of the southern mountain forest, the howling wind swept through the back trails, leaving the path in utter disarray.
A figure darted frantically along the uneven mountain road, leaping and stumbling. Zhang Fugui had never run this hard in his life. The pursuing corpse alternated between closing in and falling behind, its claws swiping dangerously close to his ears several times, nearly claiming his life.
"This isn't working, Daoist! I can't keep running!" Zhang Fugui gasped, panting heavily. "This thing is way too fierce."
Su Yu strained to refocus his vision through Zhang Fugui's body. The sprinting corpse grew clearer in his view, and his attention was drawn to the inky black dots inside its body. Since the chase began, these dots seemed to have become more animated, stirring the white aura of yin energy surrounding the corpse as if they were its source of power.
This wasn't like the undead Su Yu had encountered before, nor did it resemble Zhang Fugui's control of yin energy. As these thoughts surfaced, Su Yu couldn't help but glance inward at the yin energy that had settled within his own body, becoming more condensed and solid. His mind flashed to that familiar hand seal and the uncontrollable fall that had cast him off the cliff...
Before Su Yu could dwell further, the corpse abruptly closed the distance. With a lunge, it struck, sending Zhang Fugui flying. Zhang hit the ground hard and lay dazed, struggling to recover.
The corpse's crimson eyes swiveled toward Su Yu. It stomped on his injured leg and leaned closer. The corpse crouched over Su Yu's wounded limb, its fangs dripping with saliva. Suddenly, it bit down hard, greedily sucking the blood from the wound.
The sharp pain shot straight to Su Yu's mind. His yin energy sank abruptly, and his body reflexively lashed out, kicking the corpse's head to the side with enough force to twist its neck.
Zhang Fugui, just rising to his feet, froze in shock. "Golden Leg of the Vajra...?"
Su Yu struggled to his feet, gazing down at the yin energy coalescing around his other leg. His internal vision turned to his sea of consciousness, where the totem seemed to spin even faster.
Zhang Fugui snapped out of his daze and hurried over, hoisting Su Yu onto his back. "We've got to get out of here," he muttered, racing away.
But as he turned to flee in the direction they had come, his eyes widened in disbelief. The Mist River, which should have been behind him, was now inexplicably before him.
"Wait, what's going on?" Zhang Fugui muttered, his voice shaky.
"Zhang Fugui!" Su Yu's sharp voice broke through his confusion.
Zhang Fugui turned, only to see the corpse closing in again. It raised a hand, and Zhang felt an invisible force pulling him backward, dragging him and Su Yu toward it.
"!!!" Zhang Fugui gasped in panic.
The corpse grabbed Su Yu by the shoulder, its obsession with its prey palpable. With a clawed hand, it yanked Su Yu off Zhang Fugui's back, pinning him tightly to its waist. Then it began dragging him away.
Su Yu struggled in vain. His arms were restrained, and he heard a sharp crack as his shoulder gave way. His right arm went limp.
This time, the corpse had learned. It held its prey securely, ensuring no room for resistance.
Its blood-red eyes burned with a frenzied madness, and in mere moments, Su Yu was bound completely against its waist.
Zhang Fugui broke into a cold sweat, watching helplessly as the corpse dragged Su Yu toward the Mist River. His mind raced. Was it trying to take Su Yu back to its lair?
The river... If they reached that place, survival was impossible!
Zhang Fugui tugged desperately at the chains binding him to Su Yu, but they wouldn't budge. Fear shook his voice. "Daoist!"
The young man didn't respond. The corpse hauled both man and ghost closer to the Mist River.
Upstream, the lingering spirits that had scattered began to sense the commotion. Drawn by the scent of Su Yu's blood, they crept closer, only to be met by the corpse's feral roar. A burst of yin energy erupted, scattering the weaker spirits.
The sharp sting of wind blades tore at Su Yu's skin. The pain in his ears was unbearable, but he couldn't tell if it was from the corpse's roar or the searing agony in his mind. The mist of the river stirred the totem within his dantian, rousing the usually dormant yin energy.
As Su Yu drew nearer to the corpse, the inky black dots within its body became clearer in his vision. His gaze followed the movement of the dots, tracing their patterns. Unnoticed, the golden threads in his eyes stirred, swiftly threading into his pupils like needles piercing into the black depths.
The bone-chilling air of the Mist River rose to meet them. The river wasn't just shrouded in mist; its icy waters carried the stench of decay. The riverbanks were littered with skeletal remains. Each step into the uneven, bone-strewn bed sent sharp jolts of pain up Su Yu's injured leg.
Amidst the thick mist, it seemed to stir something deep within. From the depths of Su Yu's sea of consciousness, ancient voices began to echo.
"A soul born incomplete, yet you dream of practicing Daoist arts? You can't even defend your spiritual platform!"
"A blind boy, barely literate, abandoned even by his teacher."
"Fifteen years old and still stuck in the early stage of Qi Refinement—what a disgrace to the Su family."
Farther back, under a chilling gust of wind, he was dragged by his clothes to the edge of a cliff. Someone whispered softly into his ear—"Pitiful… You can only blame your misfortune for being born in the wrong time."
What misfortune?
Whose misfortune?
The totem inside him sensed danger and desperately sought to seize control of his body. Yet just as it attempted to draw yin energy from his dantian, the resistance from its host severed the flow instantly.
Su Yu's eyes snapped open. Pain overwhelmed his mind, and the stench of corpse water flooded his nose. He reached out and grabbed the undead's wrist.
The eye totem within him seemed confused.
Su Yu remained still, his consciousness unnervingly calm. His gaze stayed fixed on the undead as an accelerated surge of yin energy coursed through his body. The flow expanded his already fractured meridians, and the scattered yin energy within his dantian began to stir violently.
Noticing the sudden change in its prey, the undead tilted its head in surprise. It saw the yin energy from the misty river rushing toward Su Yu, pooling into his body. Alarmed, it abruptly released him, but Su Yu reacted faster, gripping the creature's left hand just as it let go.
A surge of danger flooded the undead as it struggled to shake off the unexpected grip. But Su Yu's control over the yin energy within his body surged upward, traveling through his meridians to his hand. The force that erupted was even stronger than he had anticipated. With a firm grasp on the undead's wrist, he yanked it toward him, disrupting its attack.
At that moment, Su Yu caught a glimpse of the black dots inside the undead's body. As they gathered near its palm, his mind quickly made a judgment. Using the resistance in the undead's arm to propel himself forward, he dodged its strike with precision.
A higher-level cultivator observing the scene would have immediately recognized that the flow of "qi" within Su Yu and the undead mirrored each other exactly. From the dantian through the meridians, their energy cycles were nearly identical. Su Yu had mimicked the undead's energy flow like a reflection in a mirror, drawing on the yin energy from the totem inside his dantian.
Soon, the yin energy in Su Yu's palm condensed, taking shape as if an ink brush were painting it. The hand seal etched into his sea of consciousness was redrawn, stroke by stroke.
In the next instant, the undead let out a guttural roar in Su Yu's direction. A torrent of yin energy surged forward, its intensity so overwhelming that Su Yu's skin felt as though it were being torn apart. His head throbbed with pain, and he coughed up hot blood, splattering it onto the undead's face. Momentarily blinded by the blood, the undead faltered.
Su Yu's free hand didn't stop. A familiar hand seal took shape at his fingertips, glowing with a pale white hue. As he completed the last stroke, the seal solidified.
A piercing shriek erupted from the worms writhing on the undead's skin. Su Yu pressed his hand against the creature's face, muffling its roars by gripping its jaw shut. The undead's sharp teeth bit into Su Yu's palm, breaking the skin and drawing blood. The taste of fresh blood caused the undead's muscles to bulge, veins protruding across its body. But Su Yu didn't stop.
Zhang Fugui, braving the fierce wind, looked up to see a massive hand seal suspended above Su Yu and the undead at the end of the chain.
The undead's crimson eyes momentarily dulled, its frenzy giving way to an odd stillness. It stared at the hand seal, its madness ebbing away. But Su Yu didn't hesitate. He pressed his hand downward, and the seal above mirrored his movement, crashing onto the undead's face like a collapsing mountain.
With one bloodied hand clutching the undead's head, Su Yu forced it into the river, sending a surge of yin energy from his palm directly into its skull.
Pinned beneath him, the undead thrashed violently. Blood poured from Su Yu's orifices, but his instincts screamed at him not to relent. If he faltered, the undead would seize the moment to retaliate. Ignoring the fierce resistance from the totem within his dantian, Su Yu drew on his yin energy again.
Glancing down, he noticed the black dots within the undead's body still writhing. "Still not dead?" he muttered coldly.
As Zhang Fugui approached, he saw the young Daoist kneeling by the misty riverbank, drenched in blood. Su Yu gripped the undead's head with one hand, slamming it repeatedly against the ground. Blood stained the riverbank, mingling with the decayed blood of the undead.
After several strikes, the black dots in the undead finally stilled, though its body retained faint signs of life.
"Daoist…?" Zhang Fugui stammered, trembling as he moved closer.
Su Yu, drenched in blood, opened his eyes at the sound. His body screamed in pain, fractured bones protesting with every movement. Yet he rose unsteadily from the ground, blood dripping onto the still-twitching undead. Grabbing its neck, he hauled it up by its nape.
His body creaked audibly as broken bones shifted.
But he wasn't dead yet.
Su Yu turned his focus inward, examining his sea of consciousness. The totem in his dantian had weakened significantly, as if utterly drained. Even the eyes, which were perpetually open, had now closed.
He couldn't quite put it into words, but whenever he thought of being restrained by this totem, a deep sense of irritation welled up within him. Yet as the totem's eyes closed, Su Yu's own eyes grew sore, his eyelids heavy. Strangely, he didn't feel upset—if anything, a thought emerged: "So this thing has weaknesses too."
"…Can you move?" Su Yu glanced at Zhang Fugui.
Zhang Fugui was startled by the faint golden-red threads glinting in Su Yu's eyes. "Y-Yes, I can."
The scene was gruesome and terrifying. Zhang Fugui had seen wild ghosts disintegrate into ashes under Su Yu's hands, but nothing like this. He looked down at the chain wrapped around his own ankle, which was emitting a crimson aura. He had no idea how someone with no cultivation like himself had managed to survive in such an environment, but he knew it had everything to do with Su Yu.
Su Yu released his grip and collapsed to his knees, exhausted. Yet moments later, he forced himself back onto his feet, his golden-threaded eyes glaring sharply. "Drag it over here."
Zhang Fugui hurried to comply, hauling the undead along nervously. He followed the young Daoist as they moved toward the edge of the misty river.
In the chaos of their escape, Zhang Fugui had lost all sense of direction. He couldn't tell where they were anymore. The river of mist stretched endlessly before them, impossible to avoid. This time, as they approached, he noticed that the mist seemed different—thicker, more turbulent.
The water flowed faster now. Struggling to drag the undead, Zhang Fugui suddenly saw the mist ahead parting like curtains being drawn. A cacophony of sounds emerged, and as he focused, the scene grew clearer. Around the riverbank, pairs of eyes began to appear—belonging to ghosts drifting by the misty river.
"Ghosts!" Zhang Fugui yelped, panicking. "Big ghosts everywhere!"
Su Yu, despite his fatigue, followed Zhang Fugui's gaze. The white river of mist surged violently in his vision, and the noise around them grew chaotic. He tried to step forward but was abruptly pulled back by Zhang Fugui, who shouted urgently, "A waterfall! Daoist, there's a waterfall ahead!"
At the river's end, the water cascaded downward in a roaring torrent. The reason for the rapid flow became apparent—the river dropped sharply into a deep pool dozens of meters below.
Thick fog blanketed the pool, hazy and impenetrable, yet an oppressive aura emanated from it, halting Zhang Fugui in his tracks.
Rumors of ferocious spirits battling deep within Nawu Mountain had circulated for years, though Zhang Fugui had never seen them. Now, staring at the dozens of malevolent entities below the river, he felt a chill run through his body, freezing him in place. He couldn't muster the courage to take even a single step closer.
"Daoist, we…" Zhang Fugui stammered, his voice trembling with fear. The undead had already nearly cost them their lives. If the vicious spirits below noticed them, they'd be torn apart in moments. He had thought defeating the undead would mean safety, but now it seemed they had stumbled from one pit into another.
Su Yu said nothing. Blood oozed more slowly from his wounds as he observed the scene below. His sharp eyes took in the situation at a glance. Among the swirling mist, there were gaps where the "river of eyes" seemed to cascade directly downward, as if guided by an unseen force. He paused, his gaze fixed on the malevolent figures hovering above the pool—likely the "big ghosts" Zhang Fugui had mentioned.
At that moment, he noticed several streaks of strange light in the mist.
Unlike the white yin energy, these streaks resembled the aura of the cultivators they had encountered at the entrance to Nawu Mountain.
"There are people—" Zhang Fugui's eyes lit up as he spotted the figures below. "They're cultivators! The ones from the mountain entrance!"
Cultivators.
Su Yu's golden-threaded eyes narrowed as he coldly observed the figures moving below. He said nothing.
Just then, the undead beside him twitched again.
Su Yu turned his head slightly, noticing the black dots within the undead's body starting to stir once more.
Zhang Fugui, however, was thrilled. In a place teeming with malevolent spirits, relying solely on Su Yu wouldn't suffice. But having other cultivators around was a different story. Those were Su family cultivators, famed and powerful. If they could just follow them, they might escape this accursed misty river.
Excited, Zhang Fugui turned to Su Yu. "They're Su family cultivators! Daoist, we can get out of here!"
"You think they'll take you with them?" Su Yu asked coldly.
Zhang Fugui froze, stammering awkwardly, "...Maybe not, but we can follow them!"
"How do you think we got here in the first place?" Su Yu's golden-threaded eyes glanced briefly at the cultivators fighting below. His tone remained calm. "How does the wind from the depths of Nawu Mountain reach the mountain's entrance?"
Zhang Fugui had lived on the outskirts of Nawu Mountain for decades. He'd seen many fierce winds but none like the one that had swept them into this place. "But others were caught in it too—those cultivators…"
"Who knows? Maybe they ended up feeding the undead in the tomb," Su Yu replied nonchalantly.
Like them, those cultivators were merely pawns for the great families occupying Nawu Mountain.
A chill crept up Zhang Fugui's spine at Su Yu's words. Weren't cultivators supposed to be righteous and just, upholding the Dao? How could…
Before he could finish the thought, Su Yu moved suddenly. Without hesitation, he kicked the undead down into the misty river below.
"!" Zhang Fugui gasped.
"You're interested in my blood, aren't you?" Su Yu said coldly, watching the undead tumble into the river. A wicked grin spread across his face. "Let's see how interested they are."