"Human heads growing on trees?"
"On a vine!"
"Could the heads of all those headless skeletons back there have become part of the vine?"
"All I know is, if we don't haul ass right now, there'll be two more heads hanging from it in a minute!"
...
Li Weiyi bolted through the dense woods with Gao Huan slung over his shoulder. Behind them in the canopy came the relentless, rushing rustle of something weaving through the branches, accompanied by eerie, humanoid rasps of laughter.
Reaching a canyon, he risked a glance back.
Against the dark greenish-blue sky, a massive vine surged over the cliff like a flood dragon, swaying clusters of human heads dangling from it as it thrust straight up into the hundred-meter misty dome.
"Run!"
They dashed across creeks when they found water and leaped across chasms when the ground gave way.
Even when the sounds of the vine faded, neither dared to stop.
When Li Weiyi's strength was thoroughly spent and the vine had not yet caught up, Gao Huan took over, carrying Li Weiyi on his back. While being carried, Li Weiyi circulated the Yuxu Breathing Method, replenishing his qi and recovering his stamina as swiftly as possible.
Switching back and forth or scrambling side by side, the two fled for their lives through the entire night.
By the time they burst free of the gloomy, sunless mist and the choking woods, their bodies could bear no more. One after the other, they collapsed onto the grassy slope of a hill, limp and paralyzed with exhaustion.
Every drop of sweat had run dry; every ounce of strength was depleted, as though their very souls had been scooped out.
"Can't run... can't take another step... Lord Li, you go on ahead... don't worry about me... let it string me up. One more step and I'm a dead man." Gao Huan lay sprawled on his belly, utterly spent, longing for nothing more than to sleep until the end of time.
"Then let it string me up too!"
Li Weiyi was just as exhausted. All he felt was how soft the earth beneath him was, and how warm the sky felt.
He drew in a deep breath...
"Wait!"
The foul stench of rot and mold from the forest was gone.
Li Weiyi snapped his eyes open, rolled over, and sat up. Smacking Gao Huan across the backside, he burst into boisterous laughter. "Gao Fish Soup, get up! Get up! That vine monster didn't follow us! We're back in the human world! Blue skies, white clouds, green grass, wild flowers... Hahaha!"
A gentle morning glow spread across the horizon, brushed by a mountain breeze.
These sights, ordinary beyond measure back on Earth, looked to Li Weiyi in this moment like a paradise found only in dreams.
To two men who had just endured darkness, slaughter, ghosts, monsters, starvation, and endless dread, the simplest mortal realm was more precious than any immortal land.
Li Weiyi closed his eyes and took a deep, lingering breath.
The soil, the fragrant grass, the wild blossoms... even the blue sky and white clouds smelled sweet and intoxicating.
In an instant, all his exhaustion vanished into nothing.
Gao Huan finally dragged himself up. Taking in his surroundings, he broke into the same silly grin as Li Weiyi. Scrambling on all fours like a madman, he lunged toward a pale yellow wildflower, plucked it, and held it to his nose, sniffing hard. "That's the scent... that's the scent!"
After fleeing all night, their faces, hands, legs, and clothes were covered in thorn scratches. Their sweat had soaked through and dried again and again, leaving them in a wretched state.
Once their excitement gradually subsided, however, the pain, fatigue, and hunger returned with a vengeance.
The food and water they had carried had long since been lost to some ravine or stream. In contrast, the inedible items—the Yellow Dragon Sword, the evil camel bell, and their coin pouches—were still firmly intact.
The two collapsed onto the grass once more.
Gao Huan stuffed the flower into his mouth and chewed, murmuring weakly, "We can't just lie here... We could dig up some grass roots to eat, then find a stream and drink our fill."
"Yeah. If we can find a human town, take a hot bath, and get a bowl of noodle soup with coriander, I wouldn't trade it to be an immortal," Li Weiyi said.
A spark returned to Gao Huan's eyes at Li Weiyi's words, and he swallowed hard against his parched throat. "No coriander for me... I want braised beef..."
Suddenly, a deep, resonant voice boomed above their heads: "What are you two muttering about?"
Exhausted, drowsy, and starved as they were, both men shot upright as if struck by lightning.
They turned their heads slowly, following the shadow cast upon the ground upward.
A powerfully built man in his early thirties stood on the slope not far away. He had thick brows, large eyes, and a broad face framed by long, slightly curled hair, his weathered skin rugged and firm.
Gao Huan could not understand a word he said, but he could feel the terrifying aura radiating from him.
Li Weiyi felt it even more intensely.
This man's abilities far surpassed his own; otherwise, he could never have appeared there so soundlessly. Even in his state of extreme exhaustion, Li Weiyi had never fully lowered his guard. While joking with Gao Huan on the ground, he had continuously circulated hot and cold currents to nourish his drained body and recover his strength.
What was terrifying was not just the man's cultivation and aura, but the ruthless disregard for life in his eyes. A gaze like that could only be forged by slaughtering countless lives.
Shi Jiuzhai chuckled with mock annoyance. "Were you two sent out as scouts? How did you end up in such a sorry state? Did you run into a fiendish demon or a departed spirit?"
Li Weiyi grasped the general meaning of Shi Jiuzhai's words and instantly understood.
It was the clothes he and Gao Huan were wearing that had led to the misunderstanding.
The garment the man wore also closely resembled monastic robes, though theirs were brown while his were holly green.
How could they explain this?
Could it even be explained?
Tell him they had stripped the clothes off dead men?
He would sooner believe they had murdered his men and made off with the money.
Not daring to gamble on the man's temperament, Li Weiyi nodded vigorously, putting on a terrified, shell-shocked act. Gesticulating wildly, he babbled, "Fiendish demon! So many heads... vine... this thick..."
Though he had studied the language of this world, he had not used it in years and was terribly rusty. Conveniently, that only made his panicked stammering all the more convincing.
"You encountered the Thousand-Headed Dragon Vine?"
A flicker of wary dread clearly crossed Shi Jiuzhai's eyes. Striding down the slope, he thrust a palm toward Li Weiyi from a distance.
The palm wind roared.
Li Weiyi felt as though a tempestuous wave were crashing down upon him, leaving him like a lone boat tossed upon the open sea. Assuming he had slipped up and been seen through, he gritted his teeth, channeled the hot and cold currents from the spring orifices beneath his feet, and threw both palms forward in response.
He would fight for his life!
*Boom!*
Li Weiyi was flung backward, the impact making him feel as though his internal organs were shattering, leaving him unable to get back up.
"Haha! No wonder you managed to escape with your lives. You little wolf cub, you've already opened three spring orifices, haven't you? Not bad at all for your age."
Shi Jiuzhai walked over to Gao Huan, seized his cheek in a massive hand, and examined him closely before murmuring in surprise, "A Pure Immortal Physique? Why isn't there a shred of magic power inside you? Did you just finish shedding?"
Li Weiyi had no idea what he meant by 'little wolf cub' or 'three spring orifices.' He had only opened two spring orifices in his feet—where did three come from?
Even so, he understood that the man had not been suspicious, but merely testing his strength. Afraid that Gao Huan would give them away, Li Weiyi hurried to say, "That's right... he just completed his transformation..."
"The Thousand-Headed Dragon Vine must have already had its fill, or you never would have gotten away."
Shi Jiuzhai released his vise-like grip and asked, "Whose banner do you two ride under?"
Li Weiyi guessed that the robes they wore belonged to some faction, and that the man before them was likely an important figure within it.
Myriad thoughts flashed through Li Weiyi's mind before he smiled and said, "Why, we follow you, of course, my lord!"
"Haha! Quick-witted little rascal! Good, from now on, you follow this King!"
Shi Jiuzhai walked back up the slope, his fierce eyes narrowing as he gazed down into the narrow, sun-shielded river valley nestled between two mountains. On either side, majestic, sheer peaks rose over a thousand meters into the air.
A dirt road had been cleared along the riverbank, where a massive procession bearing coffins was steadily emerging from the mist-shrouded side of the valley.
Dragging their exhausted bodies, Li Weiyi and Gao Huan scrambled up the rise and took their places beside Shi Jiuzhai.
The vantage point was high, offering an expansive view.
Beneath the morning sun, ancient ridges and great mountains lay blanketed between white morning mist and warm rosy glow, stretching toward the horizon like the spine of an earthen dragon before fading into the distance.
The heavens were vast, the earth boundless. The wind billowed their robes like banners, inspiring a surge of wild ambition.
Down along the valley, the coffin-bearers resembled ants, all clad in off-white hemp garments. Four men bore a single coffin, thousands marching in unison like a sprawling white serpent winding through the pass.
Work chants echoed across the mountains, mingling with the drumming hooves of mounted beasts patrolling back and forth.
Paper money carpeted the dirt road, some of it whipped up by the breeze and drifting down to both banks of the great river.
The foremost coffin was forged from a silver-like material and bound tight with hemp ropes. As large as a grand hall, it looked capable of holding over a hundred people. Mounted on a cart, it was hauled by a massive blue ox larger than an elephant, the rumble of its wheels echoing clearly across the valley from a thousand meters away.
Li Weiyi asked, "Were these all salvaged from the Blood Sea?"
"Where else?" Shi Jiuzhai chuckled. "The Jiuli Clan relies on the Blood Sea Coffin Dock to salvage otherworldly coffins and sell them across the Twenty-Eight Prefectures of Lingxiao, raking in fortunes. Such a lucrative trade without any upfront cost, yet they're the only ones allowed to run it—who wouldn't covet that?"
Starting today, the Earth Wolf King's Army would have its cut.
The world was already in turmoil; how could Lizhou remain untouched?
"Let's go. We're heading back to the main camp first, then we'll wait for them up ahead at Dragon-Slaying Pass."
Shi Jiuzhai exhaled a mouthful of gray mist. Driven by a fierce wind, the mist expanded dozens of paces outward, engulfing Li Weiyi and Gao Huan within it. Then, leaping across cliffs and bounding over stone faces dozens of paces at a single stride, he rushed down the other side of the mountain.
Suspended in the gray mist, Li Weiyi and Gao Huan felt enveloped by dense clouds, weightless as they were swept along behind Shi Jiuzhai.
*Exhaling clouds, crossing precipices in a single stride... Is he even human?*
The same thought surfaced in both of their minds.
Li Weiyi was fraught with anxiety. A man of this status clearly held high rank and might not remember every scout below him, but once they reached the main camp, they were bound to be exposed.
When that time came, how would they die?
They had to find a way to escape as quickly as possible.
By now, any thought of tracking down the white-boned demon to rescue Cai Yutong had vanished from Li Weiyi's mind. All he knew was that he and Gao Huan were already standing on the precipice of death.
Chapter 28