Encounter Again

After midnight.

Chen Xuan returned to the ruined temple, exhausted, carrying a hibernating black bear he had found in a tree-root den.

Snow had fallen continuously for three days, frost stretching a thousand miles. Few animals still stirred in the mountain forests now.

He had expended great effort to find such a large beast, weighing four or five hundred catties.

"This damn weather—can't even scrounge a meal in the wild without trouble."

Chen Xuan grumbled. Driven by gnawing hunger and the dim light, he grew careless. The enraged black bear, woken from its slumber, swiped a claw at him, nearly tearing a chunk of flesh from his shoulder.

Enraged, he first forced it out of its den, then raised fists weighing over two thousand jin and struck repeatedly, until the bear's skull split open.

The scene was brutal and exaggerated. A ferocious black bear that would terrify ordinary people had been beaten to death by Chen Xuan's bare fists.

Since he used no sharp tools, the bear's thick pelt remained intact, valuable whether for warmth or trade.

"Chi chi!"

In the ruined temple, Chen Xuan began processing the black bear with his rough wilderness survival skills.

Four or five hundred catties of meat couldn't be eaten all at once. He would save some to carry on the road to Peach Town, and even into the Southern Wilderness Mountains.

Peach Town was only a hundred li away, two or three days' travel. This meat would be enough for the journey.

An hour later.

Chen Xuan ate his fill. He consumed the precious bear gallbladder and tossed the inconvenient innards outside for passing small animals.

Dawn was still some time away. After eating and drinking his fill, he lay down and fell asleep.

Suddenly.

Chen Xuan felt a violent palpitation and jolted awake from his dream. The sensation was suffocating, like a boulder pressing on his heart, making him want to vomit.

"What's happening?"

His body tensed. He stepped out of the ruined temple and looked around. Then he saw it—in the deepest darkness just before dawn.

In the impenetrable blackness to the south, two golden lanterns appeared. Vast, oppressive, almost suffocating.

They were far away, over a hundred li in the night sky. A pair of golden lanterns emerged, like a giant beast cruising the deep sea, passing through the high heavens. The crushing pressure reached even Chen Xuan's location.

It was hard to imagine how enormous a being with such eyes must be.

"An ancient beast from the Southern Wilderness Mountains?"

Chen Xuan guessed. It might be a winged higher lifeform, blotting out the sky as it flew overhead. Or perhaps an ancient monster of immense height, rising from the Southern Wilderness Mountains on two legs, stretching its limbs.

"That's... a king?"

Chen Xuan narrowed his eyes. Above those massive eyes, on what seemed like the beast's forehead, a wrinkled "king" character suddenly appeared, glowing gold, then vanishing in a flash.

Soon, the golden-eyed giant beast, as if traveling through the night, quickly moved away and disappeared into the darkness.

"In three years, I've never seen such things. But in just a few days—Qi Refiners, the Small Underworld, a colossal creature traveling through the night..."

Chen Xuan gazed southward, a shadow settling over his heart.

He didn't know what was happening in the Southern Wilderness Mountains, nor whether continuing south was the right choice.

But soon, his resolve hardened.

Wang Chan had gone. How could he be afraid?

A martial artist must repay kindness with kindness, and grievance with grievance!

Then Chen Xuan returned to the ruined temple and went back to sleep.

After dawn.

Chen Xuan wrapped himself in the warm black bear skin, packed the remaining black bear jerky, tied the two black bear paws to his chest, and headed south.

The heavy snow was easing. Further off, the sky was clearing, a few rays of sunlight piercing the clouds.

The snow on the road was knee-deep, making travel difficult. But his physique far surpassed an ordinary man's. He moved like a leaping dragon or bounding tiger, covering several dozen li in that single day.

By afternoon, Chen Xuan left Willow Town's territory.

A tall boundary stele from the Ancient Chu Kingdom stood at the border between Willow Town and Peach Town. He rested there for the night.

The next evening, Chen Xuan arrived at the long-abandoned center of Peach Town.

"Eh, this smell."

He caught a faint bloody scent in the air. Gazing into the distance, he looked at the town named after peaches.

Three years ago, young and arrogant, he had boldly stayed there for a night and encountered nothing strange.

But today, it looked completely different.

A dozen wooden stakes, each over ten feet tall, were planted in the open ground outside the town. Their tips were hung with mutilated corpses—some dried, some still dripping blood.

"These people... are all foreign Qi Refiners!"

Chen Xuan's heart jolted, a chill rising within him. "I'd better take another route."

He had no idea what had happened here, but it was certainly terrifying. He had originally planned to stay the night in Peach Town, but now it seemed safer to keep sleeping in the snow.

But just then.

Chen Xuan's gaze suddenly sharpened. On those wooden stakes, he spotted a familiar old man's figure.

"How could it be him?"

At the very center of the stakes hung a black-robed old man in his fifties or sixties, with a head full of white hair, a goatee, and a small, thin frame.

It was none other than the old man Chu Huo Gun he had met in the ruined temple two days ago!

Chen Xuan's eyes darkened. He was silent for a long moment, then lifted his feet and circled Peach Town, making a full inspection... He found nothing unusual.

Finally, he chose to cautiously walk toward Peach Town.

"Old Chu, are you dead or not?"

Chen Xuan looked up and asked.

Chu Huo Gun was nailed to a ten-foot-high wooden stake, face upturned to the sky, his neck locked in a heavy iron chain. His condition was miserable—one arm had been torn off, both legs cleanly severed by a sharp weapon, blood dripping in a steady trickle. His remaining hand clutched tightly to a wine gourd... one that had once been in the hand of his strikingly beautiful granddaughter, Chu Qing Ling.

"Crack!"

Hearing the noise, Chu Huo Gun's neck turned stiffly, like rusted machinery, halfway around. His eye sockets were hollow, empty of anything.

"Little Brother Wang... I, I told you before, this road is hard to travel. Turn back..."

From those hollow sockets, wriggling black beetles tumbled out.

He wasn't even dead yet?

His eyeballs were gone, and he could still recognize people?

Chen Xuan clicked his tongue in disbelief. Sure enough, a Qi practitioner had terrifyingly strong vitality.

"Old Chu, what happened here?"

Chen Xuan had just opened his mouth to ask when, the next moment, he suddenly turned his head, furrowing his brows as he looked toward the cold, silent Peach Town.

"Rumble..."

The sound of wheels rolling came from within the town. A large flock of startled wild birds flew out in a dark, chaotic mass.

A ball of bright yellow fire gradually lit up from inside the town.

Chu Huo Gun said frantically, "That thing in the town... you've stirred it awake."

Chen Xuan immediately asked in a low voice, "Old Chu, can I save you?"

Chu Huo Gun coughed a few times, troubled. "Your strength is too low. If you get trapped here trying to save me, my heart would be uneasy..."

"Alright, I'm leaving!"

Chen Xuan nodded firmly, then decisively turned and ran. He moved incredibly fast, like a fierce wind speeding away from this place.

From within the small town, an immensely vast and eerie aura was rising.

Chu Huo Gun was stunned by Chen Xuan's decisiveness. Regret flooded his heart, and he quickly shouted:

"Hey, Little Brother Wang, I was just being polite! Come back and carry me out of here! Little Wang! Wang Chan! Hey!"

But Chen Xuan had already fled over a hundred meters away. Only when he heard the frantic shouting behind him did he look back in bewilderment.

Polite?

This old man was about to lose his life, and he was still putting on airs and being polite? Time was tight—why couldn't he just be straightforward? Had he never been through the jianghu?

Chen Xuan had actively approached Peach Town, and of course, he had intended to save him!

Chu Huo Gun's intestines were twisting with regret. He stared at the direction Chen Xuan had fled, his mouth letting out: "Hey! Hey! Hey!"

But behind him, the rising fire grew brighter and brighter, as if it were about to ignite the entire Peach Town.

"Rumble..."

Within the towering flames, a bronze chariot flew out from the town. On the chariot, an incense burner blazed with bright fire, white smoke drifting ethereally.

The driver wore bronze armor, his face resembling a human's yet not—withered and livid. He raised a bronze halberd, and from his four golden eyes shot dazzling divine light.

Behind him, many short, masked figures carried banners, beating drums and gongs as they followed, staggering and running across the snowy ground—a bizarre and grotesque procession.

"What the hell are these things?" Chen Xuan stared, dumbfounded.

The next moment, he saw the four-eyed divine being driving the chariot raise its bronze halberd and, in one stroke, chop off Chu Huo Gun's head.

A mo!