The three sat around the fire.
Snake Woman Yu Kongqing chatted casually with Ye Huan for a bit and also greeted Liu Le.
At this moment, she looked just like an ordinary human woman.
Ye Huan was somewhat puzzled.
Yet Yu Kongqing simply sat there, seemingly waiting for something.
Roughly half a quarter of an hour passed.
"It's here," Yu Kongqing suddenly said.
She leaned to the side to make way.
Before the fire appeared an emaciated old man with a long beard and a face steeped in sorrow. He sighed and said, "This old man exhausted every trick just to barely win the Ether's recognition and obtain a human form—who would have thought that you, a snake demon, would so effortlessly become a human's dharma protector."
"Doesn't this mean I can fight side by side with you now?" Snake Woman smiled enchantingly.
"Let me lay down the ugly truth first: if you dare stab me in the back, I won't let it slide," the long-bearded old man said.
His beady eyes darted about, first glancing at Ye Huan, lingering on his shaven head and monastic robes with a slight shake of his head, before turning to smile at Liu Le. "Young friend, do you need a household immortal?"
"N-no need, thank you for the offer," Liu Le forced a smile.
Just as Yu Kongqing was about to speak, she suddenly turned her head to look into the distance.
Ye Huan heard it too.
—From the mountain across from them came a strange beastly roar.
A plume of yellow smoke surged into the air from the mountainside, looking as though the entire mountain were leaking vapor.
"The cave abode has opened! I'm going ahead, hurry up and follow!"
The long-bearded old man shouted, transformed into a weasel, and bounded toward the opposite slope, vanishing in a single leap.
Snake Woman, however, raised her hand and pointed a finger at Liu Le.
Liu Le instantly fell into a deep sleep.
"There is something I must tell you that cannot be overheard by others," Snake Woman said.
"Please speak," Ye Huan said.
"There is one more matter concerning you—or rather, humans—wait, I should say it is something you and I must face together."
"The truth is, this time we received word from the Dark Tide, inviting us to infiltrate the Lantie City mining area together."
"That ancient Ether ritual was triggered by us, causing the Ether world to descend."
"Only then did we discover that the ritual was a supreme ritual."
"What about the supreme ritual?" Ye Huan asked.
"The supreme ritual is exceedingly perilous. Someone initiated it with their life to break it open, which allowed us to reactivate it."
"The Ether will definitely pay attention to a supreme ritual, so even an entity like me must proceed with extreme caution."
Having said this, Snake Woman nodded to Ye Huan.
—In sharing so much inside information, she seemingly considered it a repayment for Ye Huan granting her an identity.
"Until we meet again, Zhikong."
With that, Snake Woman darted out of the small temple, turning into an afterimage that vanished into the forest in just two or three bounds.
Ye Huan hastily got to his feet and went to the temple entrance, gazing toward the opposite mountain.
A fissure seemed to have opened on that mountainside, continuously spewing yellow mist.
—From here, one could clearly see everything happening on the opposite mountain, yet the actual distance between the two peaks was vast.
This was the so-called "seeing a mountain can run a horse to death."
Suddenly.
An eyeball flickered within that cave, peering outward.
The eyeball was so colossal that it was nearly the size of the cave itself, perhaps even a few fractions larger than the temple on this side.
Its gaze swept across the mountainside; the entire forest on the slope withered completely, and the earth turned a dead gray.
In merely an instant.
The eyeball withdrew, sinking into the depths of the cave and disappearing.
Ye Huan stared intently, then suddenly felt a gust of mountain wind blow over him, chilling him to the bone.
Without realizing it, he had broken into a cold sweat.
Fortunately, that eyeball had not looked toward this mountain temple.
Otherwise...
"Damn it! Let's run, Ye Huan, this place is way too terrifying!" Liu Le panted heavily, shouting at the top of his lungs.
Just then, Ye Huan saw a carriage hurtling toward them along the mountain slope.
Why had the elder returned!
Snake Woman had already left.
Could it be—
Ye Huan's thoughts flashed, and he suddenly shook his head. "We can't leave."
"Why?"
"The elder instructed me not to move for two hours."
"That monk fled himself! Don't worry about them, we have to run for our lives, Ye Huan!" Liu Le said urgently.
Leaning against the inner wall, he could not see the carriage on the mountainside.
Ye Huan glanced at him.
—You are completely right!
I certainly don't want to stay here and be a scapegoat.
But the elder has returned; I must keep up my persona of someone who honors his word!
"Where would we run to?" Ye Huan asked.
Liu Le froze, momentarily at a loss for an answer.
"See? You don't even know how we'd escape. We'd better not leave," Ye Huan spoke in a reasonable tone.
"No way! It's too dangerous here, we have to go!" Liu Le yelled anxiously.
His volume was quite loud.
With the elder's martial arts cultivation, he should have heard it long ago.
Ye Huan said resolutely, "We cannot leave!"
"Without the demon-subduing pestle bestowed by the elder, we would have died long ago—I suspect the elder had a purpose in telling us to stay for two hours."
—His own volume was not low either.
The elder should have heard that too.
Liu Le sighed, and seeing that he could not convince Ye Huan, could only shake his head. "All right... I'm hungry."
That, at least, was easy to resolve.
Ye Huan opened his bundle, retrieved fresh water and flatbread, and handed them to Liu Le.
Liu Le began wolfing it down.
Although Ye Huan wasn't hungry, he forced himself to eat a little as well.
After all, he had no idea what lay ahead; replenishing a bit of nourishment was a sensible precaution.
Outside the temple, the sudden neighing of horses rang out.
The two exchanged a look and spoke in unison:
"They're back?"
"They're back!"
A novice monk strode into the temple.
"Senior Brother Zhikong, have any demons attacked here?" the novice monk asked.
"A snake demon tried to enter the temple, but fortunately we had the demon-subduing pestle bestowed by the elder," Ye Huan said.
"Thank you for your hard work, Senior Brother Zhikong. The elder told me to give you this." Having said that, the novice monk handed a bronze medallion to Ye Huan before running back outside.
Ye Huan picked up the small bronze medallion and saw a few small characters engraved upon it:
"Great Compassion Temple, probationary warrior monk."
Probationary warrior monk!
Ye Huan's heart slowly rose in anticipation.
—Could the "opportunity" have finally arrived, meaning he was about to achieve an identity advancement?
His identity was about to transform!
"Why would he give me a medallion?" Ye Huan asked Liu Le in confusion.
Liu Le opened his mouth, unable to say a word.
You're asking me? Who am I supposed to ask?
Yet in front of a newcomer, he could not show weakness.
"Ahem. According to my guess, you probably didn't have this medallion before, which is why they gave you one," Liu Le said.
Nonsense.
If I already had this medallion, would they issue me another one?
A convinced expression appeared on Ye Huan's face, and he nodded. "So that's how it is."
Probationary warrior monk.
Right, previously I was a bhikshu.
Ye Huan looked up at the tag above his head.
"Bhikshu" had already vanished, replaced by the words "probationary warrior monk."
Indeed!
His identity had changed!
But why such an abrupt promotion?
"...Before sending someone to die in your place, you must always grant the scapegoat extraordinarily generous treatment..."
Those words surfaced in Ye Huan's mind once more.
Could it be—
The snake demon Yu Kongqing just now was merely an appetizer.
The big one was still to come?
Ye Huan forced himself to remain calm and looked up at his identity tag.
The small characters behind "Identity Achievement" turned into blazing flames, burning away into nothing.
Immediately after.
New lines of text appeared:
"You have assumed the post of 'probationary warrior monk' and enjoy the corresponding identity benefits."
"Within the Ether, completing a single identity advancement fulfills the minimum requirement."
"In this opening of the Ether, you are the first person to complete an identity advancement."
"You are entitled to the following generous rewards:"
"During this opening of the Ether, you may leave at any time and choose one object or entity from the Ether world to take with you."
So that's how it was!
Does the Ether encourage humans to advance their identities?
Ye Huan thought to himself.
Right then.
Two novice monks entered the temple carrying a peach-wood coffin and placed it before the idol.
The old monk hobbled in leaning on a walking stick, his face somewhat dark.
"Elder, what is this?" Ye Huan asked.
"Strange anomalies have been frequent in this place, all caused by demons running amok. Today, this old monk exhausted his full strength and has suppressed the demon lord of this mountain." The old monk sighed in exhaustion.
The moment his words fell.
A shrill laugh came from inside the coffin, and the peach-wood lid jerked violently.
The old monk and both novice monks turned pale simultaneously.
"The demon-subduing pestle!" the old monk barked.
Liu Le immediately hurled the demon-subduing pestle over.
Catching the pestle, the old monk thrust it forcefully into the coffin and shouted, "Zhikong, run! Go to Azure Dragon Temple and deliver the warning!"
At that very moment.
A series of rattling clacks and giggles came from inside the peach-wood coffin.
The two novice monks each held a ritual implement and pressed down on the coffin.
Yet dark-green tree roots sprouted from the bottom of the coffin, piercing through the floor and boring deep into the earth.
A corpse transformation?
The term popped into Ye Huan's mind.
Demon lord...
Just what level of existence was that?
He couldn't afford to ponder any further. Roaring wildly, he charged forward, grabbed Liu Le, threw themselves out of the temple, leaped onto the carriage, and lashed the whip.
Glancing back.
The peach-wood coffin had rapidly transformed into a massive tree, from which hung a long-haired woman clad in white robes.
A hanged ghost?
Just as Ye Huan was thinking this, he heard the woman let out a soft, giggling laugh.
With her laugh.
The entire hall was filled with the fragrance of peach blossoms.
The entire tree bloomed with peach blossoms, dreamlike and ethereal.
The old monk roared in fury, leaped into the air, and struck at the woman with the demon-subduing pestle.
A crack of thunder streaked across the sky.
Lightning channeled into the demon-subduing pestle, turning into a tempestuous sphere of blue-white light.
Yet the woman covered her mouth, giggling without pause.
A long, sharp vine sprouted from her back and sliced the demon-subduing pestle cleanly in half with a single stroke.
The lightning vanished in an instant.
The entire hall went pitch-black.
—I can't watch anymore!
Ye Huan gritted his teeth, turned his head back around, and cracked the whip with all his might.
The demon-subduing pestle that even the snake demon Yu Kongqing feared had been cut clean in two by the hanged ghost on the tree with a single strike.
The Ether world was simply—
giving people no way out!
The whip cracked sharply, and the horses whinnied shrilly, throwing out their hooves as they hurtled down the mountain road.
"Look!" Liu Le cried out in terror.
Vines bulged up from the ground like octopus tentacles, spreading rapidly in all directions.
All around the carriage, the woman's layered voices echoed:
"You want to go report to Azure Dragon Temple? In your dreams!"
Just as expected.
Ye Huan couldn't help but sigh.
With the elder shouting that out, this hanged ghost was bound to come and butcher him and Liu Le.
The elder, naturally, could take the opportunity to flee.
—Truly a grandmaster in the art of running for one's life!
Chapter 67