Half-Tried Deity-Chapter 64: A Living Corpse
By the time Xu Kong Zi found them, Qi Huan had already become a blood man. If he was a little later, the meridians all over her body would have been abolished, even now she was not far from death. As for Hua Gan Zi, he looked like something had dropped on his body. Although he didn’t look like he was severely injured, his eyes flashed with green light, and his body was slowly stiffening, as if he was transforming into a living corpse.
Seeing that it was too late to return to Qing Yun Mountain, Xu Kong zZi had no choice but to take Qi Huan and Hua Gan Zi to Yin Mountain. Although there were still a few days before the appearance of the celestial abode, many celestial cultivators had already gathered there. Because a high-grade celestial device was involved this time, the people that were sent here by various sects were all with a lot of background. Three or four of them were at the same cultivation level as Xu Kong Zi.
Of course, in addition to noble cultivators, Monster Sect and Devil Sect would certainly not let go of such a good opportunity as well. Nevermind that celestial devices did not work on them first, celestial devices were good products, so it was good to possess them, the more the better. The people present here all had the same thinking.
Of course, there were still many people who came to join in the fun, just like Xu Kong Zi’s old friend Kua Xu who lived in Yin Mountain. He had survived tianjie and could already ascend into a deity, but he suppressed his cultivation and stayed in Yin Mountain, planting flowers and grass. Although the top-grade celestial sword Was rare in the mortal world, it was of no use to him, so he came purely because of boredom.
Originally, Kua Xu and Xu Kong Zi were waiting for his apprentice at the entrance of Yin Mountain. Although Kua Xu had never left Yin Mountain, he had heard about his old friend accepting an apprentice in the past few years, and he also heard that he had accepted a naughty female apprentice. Unexpectedly, no one came at all after waiting for half a day. Then, Xu Kong Zi became worried that something might happen to Qi Huan and Hua Gan Zi, so he went to look for them by himself. Who would have thought that the two of them who were still alive last night, were half dead now.
By the time Xu Kong Zi took his two apprentices to the entrance of Yin Mountain, everyone there noticed that his expression was not right. Looking at Qi Huan, who had turned into a blood man, and Hua Gan Zi, who was green and vegetative, they knew that something was wrong. Of course, no one walked over to talk to Xu Kong Zi at this moment because it was obvious from his face that he would certainly explode in anger if anyone said anything wrong.
Who is Xu Kong Zi? In the eyes of the younger generation of cultivators, he is definitely a strange person. He is the first person in the cultivation world to practice ascetical cultivation, and he is a role model. But in the eyes of the older generation of cultivators, this old man is an unreasonable hooligan. If a dog bites him, he will definitely bite it back.
“Xu Kong, what’s the matter?” At this moment, no one dared to come within ten meters to Xu Kong Zi except Kua Xu. Seeing that his old friend came back with such a horrifying expression, Kua Xu hurriedly walked over to ask.
“My apprentice and Junior Nephew. They were resting in a small town a hundred miles away last night, I don’t know who did this to them.” After finding Qi Huan, Xu Kong Zi used his special intelligence to search within a hundred miles, but he couldn’t detect any living person.
“Hmm…your apprentice seems to be possessed by the devil. As for your Junior Nephew…” Kua Xu stretched out his hand and pressed Hua Gan Zi’s stiff body, his expression was not very good, “It seems that he has been cultivated into a living corpse by a ghost, unless that person is killed, he will soon become a zombie.”
Kua Xu knew more about ghost cultivators than Xu Kong Zi. Although he couldn’t prevent Hua Gan Zi from turning into a zombie, he could suppress the poison in his body and restore him to normal temporarily.
As for Qi Huan, she had just absorbed too much ling qi but couldn’t absorb it completely, thus almost breaking her meridians. Fortunately, the grounding mats and thunder net in her body were slowly recovering now, so although she looked a little dead on the outside, she was actually doing well.
With a few days of rest, Qi Huan’s meridians quickly recovered under Xu Kong Zi and Kua Xu’s restoration skill. One was a dacheng cultivator and the other was a deity, so even if Qi Huan wanted to die, it wouldn’t be that easy for her to do so. Not only were her meridians recovering, but the self-producing thunder function in her body was slowly recovering as well. However, after this time, Qi Huan found that the thunder from her Taiji pattern seemed to change a little, it looked a little red, but she didn’t have time to study it carefully. After she woke up, she stayed by Hua Gan Zi’s side all the time. He was still unconscious until now.
Qi Huan looked at the unconscious Hua Gan Zi with self-blame in her eyes. If she hadn’t insisted on finding a small town to sleep for one night, all of this wouldn’t have happened, and her Senior Brother would not be caught by that old witch.
“Qi Huan?” Dong Yuan opened the door and entered. He saw Qi Huan supporting her chin with one hand, sighing while sitting beside Hua Gan Zi’s bed.
Dong Yuan’s voice attracted Qi Huan’s attention. She turned her head and looked at him, with a wry smile on her face. Although she was very happy to see him, she really couldn’t smile now.
“Come, have a sit. Why are you here too?” Qi Huan pointed to the small wooden stool beside her and asked softly.
“Shifu asked me to follow him here to have a look.” Dong Yuan answered Qi Huan, but his eyes continued to stare at Qi Huan’s face. They hadn’t seen each other for nearly a year. Although her eyebrows were a bit tired, her temperament was different from before. She always had a kid-like attitude, but she was a lot more mature now, and she felt more stranger as well.
“Is your sect Head okay?” Qi Huan didn’t know what to say to him for a while. She felt guilty and sad at the same time, she really just wanted to cry.
“Yeah. How did you leave the Monster Sect? That Monster Sect Head let you go so easily?” Dong Yuan’s eyes twitched when he thought of the things he sent to the Monster Sect after their sect Head recovered. He thought Qing Se was a good person, but he didn’t expect that he would actually be a Zhou Papi afterall, no, even Zhou Papi was not as cruel as him. (TLN: Zhou Papi is basically a cruel man who imitated a rooster’s call in order to wake up his workers earlier in the morning to have them work more hours.)
“Yeah, he knows my Senior Brother.” Qi Huan took out her Air Cutting Silk and played with it in her hand, flipping it through her fingers, and in a short while, she folded the handkerchief-sized Air Cutting Silk into a small mouse.
“Then…Why did the Monster Sect issue a lore order?” Dong Yuan’s question was actually a bit inappropriate. He would never ask such a thing last time but after seeing Qi Huan, he seemed to have forgotten her identity as he eagerly wanted to know what happened to her in the Monster Sect and how she was wanted by the elders of the Monster Sect Sacrificial Hall.
Qi Huan raised her head and looked at Dong Yuan, “It’s nothing. I just offended some elders.” Although she knew in her heart that even if she told Dong Yuan the truth, he wouldn’t go out and spread nonsense, the truth only managed to come until her mouth, it was not spoken out loud.
“I see… Erm… I’ll go out first, see you another day.” Dong Yuan seemed to notice that Qi Huan had no energy to continue talking, so he suppressed the questions he wanted to ask and left.
“Alright, see you.” Qi Huan smiled reluctantly, watching Dong Yuan walk out of her makeshift house.
“Apprentice, the celestial abode is open, come, follow me, let’s have a look.” Not long after Dong Yuan left, Xu Kong Zi came rushing in, grabbing Qi Huan and dragging her out.
“Shifu, I…” Qi Huan turned her head and glanced at Hua Gan Zi. What if something happens to Senior Brother when she is gone?
“It’s okay, your Uncle Kua Xu won’t be following us. Everything will be okay with him here. I guess that old woman that attacked you two will definitely come back today. Point her out to me later and I’ll teach her a lesson.” Xu Kong Zi said as his face became more ferocious.
When Qi Huan heard that her shifu had made arrangements, she nodded and walked out together with him. The celestial abode left by Jue Jian was not as luxurious as others’. Even the entrance was extremely hidden, but the large formation at the entrance was not there as decoration.
Each sect had sent their best masters in formation, and yet, it took a lot of effort to finally break the formation, and drilled a hole more than one meter high. Qi Huan walked steadily in front of Xu Kong Zi, and the one walking in front of her was a casual cultivator, probably in the middle stage of yuanying.
Although everyone here could be considered as a competitor, no one made a move at the entrance. After all, if they accidentally made the entrance blocked then it wouldn’t be good for anyone.
After walking two miles away, Qi Huan’s eyes lit up, they were finally walking out of the entrance, bending down, they were led to a stone hall. Qi Huan glanced around and found that there were eight more black tall caves in front of her. It didn’t take long for everyone to walk into the stone hall one after another. Some people were waiting in the stone hall, and some others looked at the caves carefully, then picked one and walked in.
Xu Kong Zi did not rush in, but waited with Qi Huan. About two hours later, there were fewer and fewer people in the stone hall, and no one returned from the caves. Xu Kong Zi then only led Qi Huan into a cave that he picked simply.
“Shifu, we won’t accidentally die in here, right?” Qi Huan saw the eight caves and recalled the eight divinatory trigrams. It was something about life gates and death gates. She didn’t think she would be so lucky to directly enter a life gate, and immediately see the treasure in here, but she definitely didn’t want to walk into a dead gate, and go to the underworld to accompany the devil without getting anything.
Only
“No.” Xu Kong Zi replied very simply.
“How are you so sure?” Qi Huan tugged at the old man’s sleeve in doubt.
Xu Kong Zi paused for a long time before gritted his teeth and grunted, “That rascal Jue Jian doesn’t understand eight divinatory trigrams and the five elements at all! That formation at the entrance, he stole it from me! With his despicable character, he would definitely set up lethal formations in every cave!”
…So Jue Jian turned out to be her shifu’s “good old friend”, no wonder he would show such a strange expression that time when Hua Gan Zi invited them to go to the celestial abode left by Jue Jian. That person must have left a very deep impression on her shifu, otherwise he would not look like he wanted to kill him at his mention, especially in the dark cave now, Xu Kong Zi’s hideous old face was very scary.
After walking a few steps, Qi Huan suddenly was tripped over by a stone. When she finally found her balance, she looked up, and found that her shifu was gone.
She was the only one in the hollow black stone road that she could even hear her own heartbeat clearly. Fortunately, Qi Huan had entered the Conferred Spirit Tower last time, where the environment was absolutely a hundred times worse than the current situation. If she could survive that time, she could survive this small stone road.
Although she didn’t know how her shifu disappeared, according to her understanding about her shifu’s words, as long as she could safely pass through this stone path, she would definitely be able to reconcile with him in the end.
