Chapter Seven: Corpse Demons
While leisurely gathering herbs over the past few days, Bai Qiuran had also kept tabs on the Yao Mo's movements with his Spiritual Sense. If it went out to harm people again, he planned to catch up and kill it before it could hurt anyone. That left only one option: gather the martial artists and have them hunt down the Yao Mo.
Standing amid Mang Mountain, he spread his Spiritual Sense in every direction like a carpet. It was easy to locate the herbs he needed in the vast mountain range.
Noticing something seemed amiss, Bai Qiuran stopped and watched for a moment. It was possible. He had been monitoring the Yao Mo with his Spiritual Sense, but after finding it, he'd gotten lazy and withdrawn the field that had covered the entire mountain. He'd left only a single tendril fixed on the Yao Mo.
A violent clanging of metal rang out from the cave ahead. At the sound, Bai Qiuran quickened his pace and raced inside.
But over the past few days of observation, he'd noticed something strange.
Bai Qiuran glanced at several mangled corpses in the Withered Leaf Forest. A heap of bones lay at the cave entrance, but as he raced past, he caught a glimpse of what looked like fresh blood near the mouth of the cave.
Bai Qiuran sped up. In an instant, he'd crossed from the edge of the Withered Leaf Forest into the cave. In the vast underground chamber, which spanned several hundred square meters, he saw two Corpse Demons, filthy and battered, their bodies mangled and wreathed in wisps of black qi. They were closing in on the cave's only survivor—and their target was Tang Wei, just as Bai Qiuran had suspected.
Bai Qiuran had thought he'd kill the Yao Mo before Tang Wei could act, but he hadn't expected the sheltered young master to have such an impressive knack for rallying people and taking action.
Meanwhile, he'd even encountered a gigantic Black Snake on the verge of becoming a Yao Mo in a mountain ravine. The man-eating serpent had tried to swallow him, so he'd killed it with a single palm strike. He'd even gotten a rather fine inner core out of it, which he planned to toss into the pill furnace later to boost the medicine's potency.
On a sheer cliff, Bai Qiuran plucked a peculiar herb shaped like a human heart from the rock face and slipped it into his Storage Bag. Then he drifted lightly down to the ground.
This was a sparse patch of woodland. The trees and plants had been ravaged by resentment, and most had withered away. The few that remained had taken on a ghostly cast, making the whole place seem eerie and sinister.
Not far ahead of the Withered Leaf Forest stood a barren peak bristling with strange rocks. Beneath it lay the Yao Mo's lair: a deep cave slanting straight down into the earth.
When he'd scanned Mang Mountain with his Spiritual Sense earlier, he'd found the Yao Mo's lair as well. Before leaving, Bai Qiuran had decided to make a detour and kill it, so it couldn't keep preying on the people. The place was steeped in Yin energy, and it had several herbs needed for the Longevity Pill, so he could gather those too.
The first time Bai Qiuran had picked up the Yao Mo with his Spiritual Sense, it had seemed to have just finished a hunt and was on its way back to its lair. But for the past few days, it had stayed holed up in its den, digesting its previous prey without going out to attack anyone. That was completely at odds with the rumors describing it as a greedy Taotie whose desires knew no bounds.
And just moments ago, Bai Qiuran had briefly withdrawn his Spiritual Sense so he could hurry at full speed.
The young master seemed to harbor a deep hostility toward Cultivators, yet felt some inexplicable sense of responsibility for the people of Shangxuan Kingdom, who were suffering terribly. He wouldn't seek help from Cultivators, but neither would he abandon the common folk to the Yao Mo's depredations.
Most likely, sometime in the past few days, people outside the mountain had gathered a band of martial artists and entered Mang Mountain from another direction. They'd found the Yao Mo's location, then clashed with it during the brief moment Bai Qiuran had withdrawn his Spiritual Sense.
Someone was still alive, but from the sound of it, they were in grave danger. Bai Qiuran felt a twinge of worry.
He drew in a breath of True Qi, purer than True Essence, and stopped dawdling. His figure became a Mirage Shadow, and in the blink of an eye he'd crossed more than a hundred li, reaching the vicinity of the Yao Mo's lair.
"Someone went inside? And there was a fight?"
If they'd won, Bai Qiuran wouldn't need to go in.
Still, even if he grumbled about it, he needed to make the Longevity Pill for the sake of his dream of Foundation Establishment. The Underworld might not be able to do anything to him, but it was still one of the realms responsible for keeping the world's Order running smoothly. He couldn't afford to slight them. Besides, his mentor, Daoist Qingming, was still in the Immortal Realm. It wouldn't do if Bai Qiuran's recklessness hurt Daoist Qingming's prospects there.
Bang! Bang!
Mang Mountain stretched for hundreds of li in every direction, making it a sizable range. According to Bai Qiuran's Spiritual Sense, the Yao Mo was hiding more than a hundred li from here.
He remembered the young man he'd shared drinks and laughter with along the road. Back at the roadside tavern, when Tang Wei had brought up the Yao Mo in Mang Mountain, Bai Qiuran had already sensed his intentions.
Bai Qiuran pictured Xue Ling's corpse-white face, and his good mood turned gloomy.
The place where the Yao Mo was hiding reeked of resentment and blood. The creature itself was steeped in the same stench, and it had clearly eaten plenty of people. But it didn't seem to feed as often as the rumors had claimed.
"Mm. That's the last herb."
With that thought, Bai Qiuran stopped dawdling. He tidied his Storage Bag and left the cliff. But before leaving Mang Mountain, he still had one place to visit.
After a careful look, Bai Qiuran noticed traces of battle on the tree trunks in the withered woods. Some trees had even been chopped clean through and broken in half.
"What's this?"
Yao Mo were rampaging through Mang Mountain, devouring the living and bringing disaster to the people. As a member of the Azure Nether Sword Sect, whatever people thought of them, Bai Qiuran couldn't just stand by and do nothing.
Bai Qiuran had parted ways with Tang Wei only a few days ago, and the young man had already gathered a crowd of martial artists and led them into the mountains to kill the Yao Mo.
He hoped Tang Wei hadn't been killed. That would be a real shame.
"Tsk. This is so unfair. Why can other people live for three thousand years and transcend the Five Elements, enjoying eternal life and freedom, while I've lived three thousand years and still have Soul Reaping Emissaries hounding me year after year? What an unjust world."
Though he hadn't achieved Foundation Establishment or cultivated True Essence, and couldn't form a Nascent Soul or let his soul leave his body, three thousand years of constant tempering had made Bai Qiuran's Spiritual Sense incredibly powerful.
"That should be all the materials for the Foundation Establishment Pill. Now I need to find the herbs for the Longevity Pill."
He didn't need to let his soul leave his body. His Spiritual Sense was already strong enough to launch tangible attacks by sheer force of will—more terrifying than that of ordinary Immortals.
Bai Qiuran suspected there was more to the story, but he wasn't in a hurry. After killing the Yao Mo, he could ask around on his way out and find out whether any nearby villages or towns had been attacked in the meantime. That would tell him the truth.
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