As Wu Dao feasted at the Fragrant Pavilion.
Some thirty miles away, across the dusky yellow desert, two figures raced onward like savage beasts from the dawn of time, leaving a billowing cloud of sand in their wake.
At one moment,
the gale howled, and heaven and earth grew dim.
Their progress was impeded. They stopped and took shelter behind a mountain, pulling back their black robes' hoods to reveal two faces, one young and one middle-aged.
The young man was built like a bear, with a face full of jowls and rough, dark skin. Iron-hard muscles bulged all over his body, and his bell-like eyes glinted with brutal bloodlust from time to time. At a glance, it was clear he was no easy opponent.
"Uncle Ya, any reaction yet?"
After gulping down some water, the burly young man asked the short, thin middle-aged man beside him in a voice like rolling thunder.
The middle-aged man seemed unable to speak. He merely extended his long-knuckled right hand, black as a steel claw. A small green snake lay coiled in his palm, perfectly still.
"Heh."
Seeing this, the burly young man scoffed and shook his head. "People aren't stupid enough to kill someone and then wait around for us to take revenge. The world is vast. Forget a mile—even a hundred miles won't be enough if they really want to hide."
"..."
The thin middle-aged man remained silent.
"Foster Father cares only about his Four Seas Gang. Everyone else is just a tool. That so-called deep father-son affection is nothing but a show for the people below him.
"Such a huge pile of resources went to waste. Honestly, he probably wants to tear Lao Si to pieces himself."
The burly young man wore a self-mocking look, a touch of sorrow for a fellow doomed soul in his eyes. Though he spoke words of rebellion, the middle-aged man beside him simply watched in silence, offering no comment.
"But I have my dead little brother to thank for that."
As something occurred to him, the burly young man licked his rough lips, ambition gleaming in his eyes. "If I hadn't come out here, how would I have learned that an anomaly has appeared in Panshui Town?
"If I can obtain it, my Pan Mountain Technique will soon reach perfection. After Cocoon Breaking, my strength will be in a league of its own—not like the crooked tricks Foster Father and the others rely on!"
"..."
The middle-aged man listened to the burly young man's brazen words without reacting. He only stared at the sandstorm, dazed.
Look closely,
and you would see that his eyes were hollow and lifeless, devoid of any spark of intelligence, like a puppet that only knew how to obey orders.
A short while later,
the sandstorm died down, and the red sun sank completely below the desert's edge.
Starlight poured down like a waterfall, and cold winds swept through.
The two set off again, speeding onward until they soon vanished into the night.
They were headed for Panshui Town.
Crescent Oasis, Panshui Town.
The night was deep and still, the starry river brilliant overhead.
Splish, splash—
As the wind swept past, the forests undulated beneath the towering Canyun Mountain. The rustling of countless branches and leaves rolled over the town in layer upon layer, like the surging tide.
The bustle of the day had faded, leaving the air heavy with yin.
In the shadowy street corners and alleys beyond the reach of starlight, a few furtive silhouettes seemed to have appeared.
Fragrant Pavilion.
Creak—
The wooden door opening and closing sounded piercingly loud in the dead of night.
Blue robes, sword at his side, brows like blades and eyes like stars.
Yun Tianliu shut the door and glanced at Wu Dao's closed door beside him. He rubbed the hilt of his sword, then shook his head and strode away.
Inside the room,
the instant Wu Dao heard the noise, he awoke from deep sleep. His eyes snapped open, bright as lightning, without a trace of drowsiness.
The Stealing Heavenly Secrets Breathing Technique could lull the brain and body to sleep, ensuring deep rest and recovery of vitality and spirit without cutting off awareness of the outside world.
On the surface, he was sound asleep.
In truth, part of his mind had been keeping watch on Yun Tianliu in the room next door.
A genius famed throughout the prefecture wouldn't waste time for no reason. Yun Tianliu must have already found some clues about the anomaly in Panshui Town, which was why he had stayed here so long.
So
Wu Dao hadn't gone alone, blundering into Canyun Mountain like a headless fly. He only needed to follow Yun Tianliu, and he would naturally get the information he wanted.
Whoosh, whoosh—
The night wind roared, the silver moon shone bright, and the stars vied with one another for brilliance.
Panshui Town was as bright as day.
That made it difficult for Wu Dao to hide his figure, adding some difficulty to the pursuit. Fortunately, Yun Tianliu wasn't moving very fast and strolled along the streets, so Wu Dao didn't lose him.
"Is he waiting for me on purpose?"
Wu Dao's tall frame remained hidden in the shadows. He narrowed his eyes as Yun Tianliu occasionally glanced back along the pale street, and couldn't help licking his lips.
Clearly,
Yun Tianliu had already noticed him following, yet for some reason hadn't called him out.
Was he confident, or did he have another plan?
Still...
Wu Dao didn't know whether Yun Tianliu was confident, but he was. He simply stepped out into the open and followed him in plain sight.
Panshui Town was quiet at night.
Other than the cries of night birds in the mountains and the gentle trickle of water through the canals, not even a dog barked. The silence was unnerving.
Anyone ordinary who found themselves in such a place
would have grown suspicious and feared that sinister ghosts lurked in the dark beyond the starlight. They would have been on edge the whole time.
But neither Yun Tianliu nor Wu Dao was ordinary. One walked ahead of the other, both calm and unhurried, utterly unbothered by the eerie atmosphere around them.
After passing several streets,
they came to a deserted area. A charred old building came into view, its walls mostly collapsed, its beams rotten, and weeds growing thick around it. It had clearly been damaged by a fire.
"Xiangchun Garden..."
The fallen gatehouse.
Three weathered characters flickered in and out beneath the frost-white moonlight.
The Pear Garden?
Hidden around a street corner dozens of meters away, Wu Dao glanced at Yun Tianliu, who was likewise waiting quietly in the shadows nearby, showing no reaction. He felt a little puzzled.
But then,
he noticed something strange.--
The Pear Garden wasn't quiet at all!
Though well concealed, the Beast King Peak Physique gave Wu Dao senses as keen as those of a wild animal, and he still detected the presence of quite a few people.
Some had breaths as robust as tigers and bears; others breathed long and slow, like tortoises and whales. If he concentrated, he could even hear heavy heartbeats.
Clearly, quite a few martial artists had hidden themselves around the theater. Judging by their auras, none had a cultivation level below the Inner Strengthening Realm!
What were they waiting for?
Was there a connection between this abandoned theater and the anomaly?
Wu Dao narrowed his eyes and stared at the theater, which seemed to carry a strange, eerie air beneath the pale moonlight. His thoughts stirred.
Still,
he didn't want to alert anyone. He simply adjusted his vitality and spirit, then lay low and waited to see how things unfolded.
Whoosh, whoosh—
The moonlight was cool as water, and mountain breezes whispered through the night as time slowly passed.
About half an hour later,
the silent, lifeless Pear Garden finally changed.
Yi-ya, yi-ya—
A nameless opera tune rang out without warning, mournful and plaintive enough to make listeners weep.
Mixed with the sinister wind, it wailed eerily.
In an instant, it sent a chill down the spine and raised goosebumps, as if a coldness from deep within the soul had seeped out.
Wu Dao, however, perked up!
He abruptly looked toward the center of the Pear Garden, where a charred, dilapidated stage stood amid overgrown weeds.
At some point,
a young dan performer in green, face painted with theatrical makeup, had appeared onstage. She danced gracefully, gazing at her own shadow as she sang a sorrowful, nameless tune.
In the dead of night, in an abandoned garden beneath the moon.
A young dan performer in green, mournful and forlorn!
No matter how one looked at it,
it was a scene of such sinister, eerie horror that it was almost impossible to imagine!
Was this...
a ghost?
Wu Dao frowned at the young dan performer in green, her face thick with makeup. He didn't find her frightening, only strange.
She was completely different from the invisible, formless spirits at the Red Fire Mine, whose influence on the real world had been limited.
If one ignored her eerie nature,
she was a living, breathing person. Her voice rang clear, her movements carried force, and she could truly affect the real world.
There was no doubt about it: this was an old ghost with real power!
She was far stronger than the spirits at the Red Fire Mine, and was connected to the anomaly inside Canyun Mountain!
Otherwise, martial artists like Yun Tianliu wouldn't have wasted their time waiting here!
Wu Dao's eyes flickered as all kinds of information flowed through his mind. He had already guessed most of what was going on.
But, as he'd said,
if the enemy didn't move, he wouldn't move either. Until he knew the true intentions of Yun Tianliu and the others, he wouldn't rashly act.
Yi-ya, yi-ya—
The young dan performer in green, her face heavily made up, sang with increasing fervor. Her voice echoed through the silent moonlit night, growing more and more eerie.
"Hehehe..."
Suddenly, a dazed, intoxicated laugh rang out, accompanied by unsteady, frivolous footsteps.
At one end of the street,
three men with vicious, ruthless faces appeared. Their expressions were vacant, and from their clothes, they seemed to be low-level martial artists who had come to Panshui Town for the excitement.
As if their souls had been hooked, the three men closed their eyes and followed the tune into the Pear Garden, strange smiles on their faces as they swayed along.
There's something wrong with that song...
Watching them, Wu Dao couldn't help narrowing his eyes.
The young dan performer's singing seemed to carry a bewitching, mind-washing magic that made people lose themselves in it.
The longer it went on, the heavier the breathing of those hidden nearby became. Clearly, they were struggling to restrain themselves.
If even martial artists, with their strong bodies and resilient minds, were affected this much,
then ordinary people had no chance.
These three men were only at the Nurturing Strength level, not much stronger than ordinary people. Their dazed, soul-lost appearance made it clear they had fallen under the spell.
But no one cared.
No one intended to play the hero, either.
Even Yun Tianliu, famed for his chivalry, frowned slightly at first, then stepped back and did nothing. It seemed the three men weren't worth saving.
All the martial artists remained still, quietly watching the three men shuffle like walking corpses into the Pear Garden and approach the stage.
Then...
Something even stranger happened.
As the young dan performer's singing grew more mournful, the three men began moving to its rhythm, dancing awkwardly and clumsily.
Beneath the pale, icy moonlight,
the three men imitated the green-clad figure onstage with stiff, jerky movements. Before long, their motions matched perfectly, making them look like three puppets on strings.
The song grew more mournful still...
The green ghostly figure onstage began moving in increasingly strange, contorted ways. Her body was astonishingly supple; it looked far less like dancing than doing yoga.
Splits, folding in half, head touching feet...
As her body twisted, she made a series of inhuman, reverse-jointed movements, like some bizarre mutant.
The most horrifying thing was
that no matter what the green ghostly figure did, the three men below copied her exactly!
This led to a very bloody outcome...
Crack! Crack!
The sounds of bones breaking and flesh and muscle tearing rang through the Pear Garden beneath the moon.
Those three fine, strapping men
had become three bloody bundles in no time at all--
Broken bones jutted out, all four limbs were shattered, and their bodies were twisted into knots. They looked like three red-and-white braided twists writhing across the ground.
That man had been twisted into a knot...
Li San's description of the strange happenings in town that day surfaced in Wu Dao's mind.
Before, Wu Dao hadn't known what a person twisted into a knot looked like. Now, he had a clear and vivid understanding.
Before you continue