That night, Wei Yuan drifted in and out of consciousness, waking and falling asleep over and over again.
Suddenly the door swung open, and the woman returned.
She carried a few sticks of firewood in her arms, and in her pockets were two items resembling potatoes. Her hands and face were pale and bruised with the bitter cold. Upon stepping inside, she rushed to the hearth to warm herself, shivering for quite a while before she stopped. After burying two logs into the embers, she climbed into the bed, burrowed into the straw and furs, and pressed close against Wei Yuan.
Despite the replenished fire, the room grew even colder; night had fully set in. On such a freezing winter night, only by clinging tightly together could they glean a little more warmth. For some inexplicable reason, Wei Yuan felt a touch of peace, and he fell into a deep slumber.
Before long, it seemed, the woman rose from the bed. She drew a bucket of water to moisten the earth, mixed chopped straw into the mud, and began plugging the cracks in the walls.
After a full day of sleep, Wei Yuan had recovered some of his mental vigor, but his body had grown weaker still. He knew very well that his injuries would never heal like this; he had to eat. Yet over the course of an entire day, the woman had given him only a single bowl of soup and had eaten little herself. Clearly, food was extraordinarily scarce in this place.
"Could you take me outside for a walk?" Wei Yuan asked.
Without asking any questions, the woman helped him out of bed, wrapped the bed's solitary old animal hide around his shoulders, and led him out the door.
The moment he stepped outside, a blast of freezing wind struck him in the face, nearly freezing him numb. He forced his divine sense outward, only to find that it was under powerful suppression here. The range he could perceive was minuscule—scarcely several zhang around his body—and so blurred that he could discern only vague outlines and material properties.
While stretching out a hand to feel his way around, Wei Yuan secretly probed the surroundings with his divine sense.
This was a small stone cottage built halfway up a hillside, enclosed by stone walls. Outside the house lay a small courtyard with perimeter walls piled from mountain rocks, crumbling and dilapidated, incapable of keeping out any wild beast. Beyond the courtyard, the only thing within the range of his divine sense was an old tree; there were no other houses nearby.
A thick blanket of snow rested atop the courtyard walls, though some of the snow inside the yard had been swept away. Outside, the hillside consisted mostly of rocky slopes, blanketed in snow this time of year without any vegetation in sight.
"Are there any wild beasts nearby, or maybe pinecones and ground potatoes?"
"There are beasts up in the woods on the mountain, but there are wolves, too. If you're lucky, you might find ground potatoes in the forest, but you can only go dig for them at noon. Aside from that single two-hour window at midday, no one can go near the woods, or the monsters will carry them off."
"Monsters?" Wei Yuan asked.
"They are terrifying. The village elders say they've actually been dead for thousands of years. But the longer they've been dead, the scarier they get. Luckily, they never come near the village, and they don't run very fast. If you run into one and sprint as fast as you can, you'll be safe once you make it back to the village."
*This place really isn't simple,* Wei Yuan thought to himself.
Any place where undead monsters could appear almost certainly harbored a cavern of supreme yin. For undead monsters to survive for thousands of years, the cavern here had to be extraordinarily formidable—perhaps even reaching the tier of an earth lung aperture. And the fact that the monsters dared not enter the village suggested the village likely held some supreme treasure capable of repelling them.
To Wei Yuan's knowledge, an undead monster capable of persisting for more than a century was already formidable indeed. Could there truly be thousand-year-old ones here? Then again, given how remote and desolate this mountain village was, there was a strong chance the villagers were exaggerating.
"What kind of beasts are in the forest?"
"Mostly wolves. I've heard there are snow leopards, too; a few years ago, a child from the village was carried off by one. Other than that, deer, wild boar, that sort of thing."
"Are there hunters in the village?"
"Two of the village elders used to be hunters, but they both fell ill and haven't gone into the mountains for half a month."
From the sound of it, Wei Yuan judged that the forest harbored only ordinary beasts.
Wei Yuan said, "Help me walk a couple of laps around the yard. I have a sharp nose; I can smell if any beasts are lurking nearby."
"You have that kind of skill?" The woman looked deeply skeptical, but she nonetheless supported him as they slowly circled the courtyard twice.
The yard was not large, but the ground was uneven. Wei Yuan's left leg still had no sensation, so he dragged it along step by step, resting half his weight against the woman.
Though lean, mountain women were surprisingly strong, and she actually managed to support him. After completing two laps, Wei Yuan had a general grasp of things. Then, casually, he gave her waist a pinch.
The woman was not offended in the least, saying, "What, can't wait already?"
"No, just checking your muscle and bone structure." Having felt her frame, Wei Yuan knew there was not a trace of Body Casting on her. Her muscle and bone were strictly mortal in strength. By extension, whatever roamed the mountain forest ought to be ordinary beasts.
By the time they returned to the courtyard, Wei Yuan was thoroughly exhausted. He sat down to rest for a moment before saying, "Do you have any tools? I can make a few hunting implements and traps, and we can go into the mountain to hunt tonight."
"There's a brush knife, and I can go borrow an axe. But hunting can only be done during that two-hour window at noon. The undead monsters come out at any other time."
"Tomorrow at noon, then. I'll need the axe."
"Wait here, I'll go borrow it." The woman hurried away.
Once she moved a few zhang away, Wei Yuan could no longer perceive her whereabouts. While waiting for her return, he picked up several stones and struck them rhythmically against one another. Relying on his precise bodily control and his understanding of material properties, he soon shaped two stone spearheads.
Just then, the woman returned with the borrowed axe. Wei Yuan took it, fumbled through the woodpile in the courtyard, drew out two long poles, trimmed away the excess branches with the axe, and lashed the stone spearheads onto them. That night, the two squeezed together to sleep once more, having eaten only a single meal all day.
At noon the following day, Wei Yuan and the woman arrived at the edge of the hillside forest. Wei Yuan immediately caught the rank scent of a beast. Before long, a lone wolf emerged from the trees and lunged at the two of them.
Wei Yuan raised his left arm to block. The wolf clamped onto it in an instant, and Wei Yuan thrust the spear in his right hand, cleanly impaling the beast. The wolf tore and gnashed desperately, but it could not pierce even the skin of his left arm.
Wei Yuan then found a sapling as thick as a rice bowl. Channeling the tiny sliver of Dao power he had regained, he sliced through it with a light flick of his hand, felled the tree, and dragged it back.
That afternoon, the two gained a large pot of meat broth and a half-cured wolf pelt. A few extra logs were added to the embers that night, and when they huddled together to sleep, it was no longer so cold. Wei Yuan slept deeply that night, feeling profoundly at ease.
With the wolf meat replenishing his strength, sensation returned to Wei Yuan's previously numb limbs, and the Dao power he could wield increased somewhat. Using the sapling he had felled the day before, he stripped it down to its core to make a straight four-foot wooden staff, then carried it as he headed up the mountain with the woman.
This time, the two ventured a little deeper, proceeding several dozen zhang into the woods before crouching down.
What emerged from the depths of the forest this time was a pack of wolves. As the pack charged, Wei Yuan shoved the woman face-down into the snow, then raised a hand to manifest a gleaming, razor-sharp bayonet atop his wooden staff.
This had been conjured using the sliver of Dao power he had recovered; it possessed no supernatural properties, merely transmuting the material into steel.
Though the wolves were numerous, they were only ordinary beasts, unable to pierce Wei Yuan's skin. Having fitted the bayonet, Wei Yuan struck by feel, felling one with every thrust. In the blink of an eye, he had skewered a dozen wolves.
Upon returning, the woman took several wolves to the village to distribute among the other villagers. While she was away, Wei Yuan manifested a sharp short blade and processed the seven or eight remaining wolves in a single breath.
For dinner that evening, Wei Yuan ate two whole wolves, while the woman devoured two full wolf legs.
That night, the fire blazed merrily as the two slept curled against one another, a faint sheen of sweat glistening on the woman's brow.
At dawn, Wei Yuan woke.
After eating his fill the previous night, he felt his condition improve further. His left leg could now bear his weight, and sensation had returned to his left hand. No longer forced to drag a dead leg behind him, Wei Yuan moved far more swiftly.
When midday arrived, Wei Yuan and the woman entered the mountain forest once more. This time, Wei Yuan held the wooden staff in his right hand and held the woman's hand with his left, letting her lead the way.
As they ventured deep into the woods, they encountered two lone wolves, but the moment a wolf stepped within range of Wei Yuan's divine sense, death was inevitable.
Their search bore fruit as well; they found a patch of ground potatoes. While the woman dug, Wei Yuan stood guard beside her. Just then, he caught the rustle of leaves overhead. A ferocious beast leaped through the canopy, circling above them.
Its position lay just beyond the reach of Wei Yuan's perception. "Which direction is it?" he asked.
"Upper right—no, right—now it's left!" the woman yelled in a panicked jumble, but Wei Yuan could not discern its position from her words at all. In that split second, the beast pounced—aiming straight for the woman and pinning her down!
Wei Yuan threw his entire body onto the beast at once. A sharp dagger appeared in his grip, stabbing viciously into its flesh!
As the beast thrashed in agony, Wei Yuan seized the opening to roll, hauling it off the woman. With a series of sharp tears, its claws ripped open her clothes.
The beast weighed several hundred jin and possessed immense strength, testing even Wei Yuan's grip. With a violent heave, it flipped around and sank its jaws into Wei Yuan's throat!
Four razor-sharp canines pierced his skin, parted his muscle with great difficulty, and lodged against his throat bone. As it clamped down with all its might, the tips of its teeth cracked with several audible snaps, and it let out a pained whimper.
A short iron tube appeared in Wei Yuan's hand. He pressed it against the beast's body, and with a deafening bang, a gaping hole was blasted clean through its chest.
On the way back, Wei Yuan dragged the snow leopard with one hand and cradled the woman with the other, shuffling forward step by step until they finally reached the courtyard.
Four bloody gashes were scored across the woman's back by the snow leopard's claws. External injuries of this sort were trivial for Wei Yuan to treat. He had her lie face-down on the bed, took some wild herbs she had gathered herself, crushed them, and scattered them over the wounds.
The herbs looked useless, and in truth, they were completely ineffective. Wei Yuan sealed the wounds with his own Dao power, then drew a trace of the life-force from the treasure tree atop Jade Mountain and sprinkled it onto the lacerations.
Though he drew only a negligible wisp of vitality, when applied to a mortal like her, it was no different from raising the dead and regrowing flesh from bone. As Wei Yuan applied the medicine with one hand, his other hand swept across the woman's back.
A mountain woman's body was naturally robust; the curve of her spine was exquisitely sculpted, capable of unleashing tremendous power with every bend and spring. Suddenly, the woman spoke: "Stop!"
Wei Yuan did not stop.
The woman promptly reached out, caught the tenderest patch of flesh at his waist, and twisted with all her might! Wei Yuan sucked in a sharp breath of cold air from the sheer agony!
No matter how formidable his Body Casting was, he could not withstand such an arcane technique: pinching a tiny patch of flesh and twisting it a full one hundred and eighty degrees.
Chapter 356