Octuplets, There's Hope!

This time, it was the dead of night. Just at the zi hour, dark clouds and lightning filled the sky, and torrential rain came pouring down once more. At that exact moment, the Mountain Patrol Brigade's demon-catching compass suddenly sounded its alarm. Liu Zhen, captain of Third Squad, wore a look of utter misery. Tonight, it was Third Squad on duty again. Moreover, this torrential downpour was not one bit less fierce than the storm during the encounter with the triplets! It felt like time was turning backward. The sense of phantoms crowding the earth, demonic shadows descending from above, and heaven and earth colliding—the entire oppressive atmosphere was identical to that previous storm! Everyone truly sensed that something was amiss. While heavy rains had fallen in past years, they had never been this massive, let alone this frequent. What on earth was going on? Within moments, peering out from beneath the eaves revealed that the large compound had almost instantly turned into a lake, its surging waves so vast they could practically be called magnificent. "Move out!" Liu Zhen placed a broad, heavy palm on Xu Yao's shoulder. "Big Fatty, we're really going to have to rely on your eyes this time!" The seven burly men of Third Squad all gazed gravely at Xu Yao. Everyone understood: the last storm had struck during the day, but this time, it was the middle of the night! The danger had increased by far more than twofold. Although the two Sir Nings would accompany them, neither of them would lift a finger to fight. "I will give it my all!" Xu Yao promised with absolute sincerity. "Buck Teeth, bring a few extra ropes this time—let's make it one rope per man!" Liu Zhen frowned at the dark curtain of rain outside, his tone grim. "During the last downpour, we ran into a triplet set of mountain demons. Tonight's storm and lightning are even more sinister than before, so bring as many as we can! Seven will be enough!" "Understood." As the group set out, lightning wove a dense web across the heavens, relentlessly bombarding a radius of several hundred li. "This time it's White Birch Ridge! It's far—we have to cross Black Pine Ridge before we can reach it. Let's go!" The seven burly men did not put on their rain gear; instead, they bundled their rain capes tightly against their chests and charged directly into the sheet of driving rain. In weather like this, wearing a rain cape or not made virtually no difference. The true purpose of the rain capes was for the wait after reaching the mountaintop, when they would wrap themselves up for warmth to avoid dying of hypothermia from the relentless downpour. In such weather, the siblings Ning Weiyu and Ning Wuxia had no choice but to change into black night-travel robes, don rain capes, and wade through the pooling water behind the squad. Along the way, Xu Yao still stayed right behind Liu Zhen. Yet this time, he no longer needed anyone to support him. Even when torrents cascaded down like bursting waterfalls, he stood firm. Not only did he not lag behind by a single step, but he also helped Liu Zhen steer clear of countless hazards washed down by the storm. "Snake on the left!" "Ahead—a boulder rolling down, huge! Everyone dodge three chi to the left!" "Stone!" "Stump, tree roots..." A bolt of lightning crashed down, illuminating heaven and earth in blinding white brilliance. Xu Yao's gaze swept swiftly across the landscape. Between sky and earth, countless ghastly, face-blurred phantasms of wandering souls flickered in the storm; some detonated on the spot, vanishing into nothingness. Others shattered and sank into the earth, disappearing without a trace. Xu Yao began to understand why mountain demons and wood demons were unusually numerous after heavy rainstorms: the energy of these wandering souls was dispersed by lightning into the ground, and places capable of gathering this yin energy would rapidly absorb and concentrate it, swiftly giving birth to mountain demons and wood demons. What these countless wandering souls truly were, or how they had originated, Xu Yao did not know. Yet he could feel the deep malice these souls harbored toward the mortal world. Trekking through the depths of night amid torrential rain, flashing lightning, and flickering wandering souls, Xu Yao felt as though he were passing through hell itself, gripped by an inexplicable chill down his spine. Beside him, the heavy, raspy panting of the burly men became the only mortal warmth and companionship in the gloom. In the deluge, apart from Xu Yao's hoarse shouts of warning, no one spoke. They pressed on in silence through the rain. According to the distance shown on the demon-catching compass, it normally took two shichen to reach the location. Liu Zhen had set out immediately upon receiving the notice, a full two and a half shichen ahead of schedule. Yet by the time they reached the cliff where the compass pinpointed the mountain demon at White Birch Ridge, three and a half shichen had already elapsed. They had less than a shichen and a half remaining. It was already early morning, yet heaven and earth remained pitch-black, devoid of the faintest glimmer of daylight. "Big Fatty!" Liu Zhen gasped, not even pausing to catch his breath. "Take a look... how many?" In the storm, the ground before the cliff was slick, sloping downward at a terrifyingly steep angle. Behind him, Buck Teeth and Zhang Sanping bound Xu Yao's ankles with ropes and lowered him down three zhang so he could lean his head out past the cliff face to see below. Amidst the rain. Below, faint blue light flickered. "Hiss!" Xu Yao sucked in a sharp breath. "Pull me up!" The men hauled together, reeling him back in like a landed fish. "How is it?" Liu Zhen saw Xu Yao's pale face and immediately felt a sense of dread. Bracing himself, he asked the question. "Captain, we've really seen a ghost this time." Xu Yao took a deep breath, accidentally swallowing a gulp of icy rainwater. Staring wide-eyed, he said, "Eight of them!" "H-how many?!" Liu Zhen felt as though struck by lightning, nearly stumbling off his feet. The other six burly men also turned pale in an instant. "How could there be so many?!" "Eight!" Xu Yao wiped the rainwater from his face and added, "There are exactly eight of us, so we have enough men, but we're still short one rope." Liu Zhen swayed dizzily, and everyone looked as if they were trapped in a bad dream. Their squad owned only five ropes to begin with; to leave nothing to chance on this expedition, he had borrowed one from Squad One and another from Squad Two. He couldn't borrow both from a single squad—what if another alert sounded after Third Squad departed, leaving the other squads empty-handed? Bringing seven ropes had already felt like making a mountain out of a molehill to Liu Zhen. Who could have guessed it still wouldn't be enough? Nearby, the eyes of the Ning siblings lit up: octuplets! If there wasn't an extraordinary treasure here, the mere yin energy of wandering souls in the mountains could never have produced so many at once. In other words... there was real hope here! "Get ready," Ning Weiyu whispered to his sister. "There might be danger. Stay alert." Ning Wuxia pressed her lips together and nodded, resting her hand upon the hilt of her sword. On the other side, after brief deliberation, Liu Zhen made a swift decision. "We can only use the method from when Big Fatty swung his blade the first time," Liu Zhen said. "The two of us will share one rope. I'll carry you down on my back." "All right!" This time, no one stayed behind at the top. There was no way to leave a lookout either. Everyone prepared to descend! "Buck Teeth!" Liu Zhen barked. "Go down first! Carve out footholds!" Buck Teeth swiftly secured his rope, strapped a piece of oxhide over his belly, grabbed the line, and slid down with practiced ease. A moment later, all seven ropes were in position. Once again, Liu Zhen strapped Xu Yao to his back like a trussed pig. "Do you need help?" Ning Weiyu finally asked. "We can slay mountain demons on our own. It is our duty, and we do not wish to rely on outside help. Our days ahead will be long, while Sirs cannot remain here forever. So... it is best you don't." Rainwater streamed down Liu Zhen's iron-hard face as he cupped his fists and bowed. "However... if we fail in our duty and a single demon manages to escape, we would ask Sir to intervene." Looking at this iron-willed man, Ning Weiyu understood their resolve and gave a slow nod. "Very well!" "Thank you, Sir!" With Xu Yao on his back, Liu Zhen slid down the cliff. Immediately after, Ning Weiyu and Ning Wuxia drifted down like feathers to the middle of the cliff face. Ahead, circling the cliff like a belt, was a recessed depression dozens of zhang long, riddled with hollows and pits. Growing there were eight small, crooked peach trees. Though their branches were slender, they were covered in aged, mottled bark. "There really are eight of them!" Even though they had already known, seeing it with their own eyes made everyone gasp. They felt as if a serpent were crawling along their spines, a chill rushing straight from their tailbones to the backs of their heads. "Eight mountain demons from a single birth—truly unprecedented!"