The source

Superhuman powers of observation.

He truly was a Hundred-Battle Veteran who had survived the battlefield.

Lin Feng recalled the high-ranking Daoist priest's downright luxurious skill panel during the beginner quest.

He suspected Hundred-Household Officer Zhu must also have similar passive skills—battlefield passives such as [Danger Perception] and [Life-and-Death Crisis] that heightened his senses in combat and helped him evade death.

Perhaps he had active skills, too.

"Let's go in. There's danger in these woods. Don't use a blade. Knock it away with a blunt weapon, and don't let it get close."

Lin Feng warned Hundred-Household Officer Zhu, who nodded.

"We'll do as you say, Daoist."

Hundred-Household Officer Zhu did not ask why.

He was a competent soldier who listened rather than spoke, a man of few words.

He indicated that he would take the lead and Lin Feng would follow. The two cautiously entered the deep woods.

The three who had followed them out watched the two Han men enter the woods with such solemn expressions, each lost in thought.

Peng Tianli was no fool.

He was merely a little arrogant.

The two Han men must have discovered something to be acting like this. Remembering his own mission, he drew his long-handled saber, his gaze flickering.

"Follow them."

He crept forward, muscles writhing beneath his skin like giant pythons. The black mist over his chest flickered in and out of sight.

He was clearly going all out.

Liao Chi took a white bone writing brush from his sleeve, painted a lotus mark on his forehead, and pressed his palms together.

Third Lady said nothing either. She took out the bamboo tube at her waist again, but this time she also produced a blowgun.

A strange odor drifted from the scented pouch at her waist.

The three followed Lin Feng and Hundred-Household Officer Zhu into the mountain woods.

No one paid the guide any attention.

Left alone behind them, the guide watched those important figures enter the deep woods. His face changed color with anxiety.

He wanted to call out to them, but dared not.

Staying here was too dangerous.

Following them in, however, might get him killed.

He paced anxiously in place, then stamped his foot and made up his mind.

Only the locals knew how terrifying a danger capable of wiping out an entire stockade truly was.

In these dangerous mountains, every stockade had priests and deities protecting it.

It stood to reason.

A calamity against which even deities and priests could offer no protection—

That was a heavenly disaster!

Under such a disaster, death was certain.

Seeing that he was the only one left and no one cared about him, the guide weighed his options, took several candles from his saddlebag, and sat on the ground.

He took out a waterskin as well, but when he opened it, what poured out was blood.

A white bone bowl, ox-blood wine, and human-fat candles.

Lin Feng had been right. This guide really was an expert in shady practices.

Even though Lin Feng's character had changed, all the other characters remained just as they had been when he entered the mountains. The guide leading him was still the same guide.

Who knew what the man had added to the blood? It remained a dark, almost black color.

The guide placed the white bone bowl of ox-blood wine in the sunlight, muttering under his breath. Finally, he cut his palm and let his blood drip into the bowl.

After a while, swarms of flies came circling over.

They clustered into a ball, making an irritating buzzing noise.

The guide's hands grew sweaty.

Something had happened to the important figures he had brought here.

He heard screams and sounds of fighting from deep within the woods, along with dragon cries, tiger roars, and deadly Buddhist chants.

The guide swallowed.

His eyes remained fixed on the white bone bowl before him.

Strangely enough.

Within moments, the ox-blood wine was filled with writhing white maggots. Dense swarms of black flies mixed with the white maggots, squirming inside the white bone bowl. The first flies to enter the bowl had already died, yet more kept swarming into it.

Soon, flies filled the entire white bone bowl.

The guide showed no disgust. At the sight, joy spread across his face!

There was a way to survive!

He lit the human-fat candles and arranged them in a triangle around himself.

One represented the fire above his head; the other two, the fires on his shoulders.

His hands formed a ritual seal, and a strange sound emerged from his mouth, like throat singing. It sounded guttural, yet did not seem to come from his throat.

Had Lin Feng been here, he would have recognized a slight resemblance between the man's voice and the sounds mixed into the suona in the background music!

Once he finished chanting, the guide dumped the flies and white maggots over his head and face. Within moments, he collapsed to the ground, covered in flies and maggots like a corpse left out for more than a day in the hottest summer weather, utterly dead.

Not a trace of life remained.

Even the swelling was identical to that of a corpse.

Even if a Yin God passed through, it would not see his three fires.

His three fires had all been replaced by the human-fat candles.

But while the guide could buy time through feigned death—

Lin Feng could not.

They were already fighting.

A narrow path ran through the deep woods. When he and Hundred-Household Officer Zhu first entered, it had been terrifyingly silent, without even an insect's chirp or a bird's call. Following it deeper in, they reached the foot of a cliff!

This was where Clear Spring Stockade drew its water. Water in the deep mountains could not be drunk freely.

Most water in the deep mountains was poisonous.

Having a spring like this was an incredible blessing for Clear Spring Stockade. Now, however, the deep pool where they collected water had turned an eerie blood-red.

A water buffalo's head, rotted and stinking from its time in the water, stared straight at them.

The once-refreshing breeze now carried a bloody stench.

Even Hundred-Household Officer Zhu instinctively frowned at the sight.

Lin Feng looked up. Above the deep pool, the water flowing from a crack in the mountain had dwindled to a trickle for some unknown reason.

The trickling water was all blood.

"Something's wrong upstream. Corpses might be blocking it. Head up!"

At his order, Hundred-Household Officer Zhu acted without a word. The two exchanged a glance, then charged up the mountain.

Just then, something stirred in the deep pool!

The culprit Lin Feng had encountered before—the thing that had killed him—lunged out of the pool like an anaconda lurking in the water to hunt its prey!

Just as he had expected, these water-swollen monsters all came from the deep pool. This time, Lin Feng's hands still moved faster than his mind. He did not thrust; he flicked, twisted, and swatted.

The monster, which looked as though it had been skinned, soaked in water, and drained of blood, was knocked straight back the way it had come by Lin Feng.

Lin Feng still relied on deftly applied force. After dying several times, his combat awareness had finally caught up!

He was fast, but Hundred-Household Officer Zhu was faster still. Swinging his arms, Zhu smashed several monsters into pulp with the low table. Red flesh and red threadworms flew everywhere, but none splashed onto them.

In the distance, Liao Chi hurried over and could not help remarking at the sight, "What exquisite swordsmanship."

"This young Daoist seems to know something. Stay closer to him!"

Peng Tianli shouted.

As he spoke, Liao Chi suddenly looked back. His eyes turned pure black, and blood drifted from his pores.

The windup for a spell.

Seeing this, Peng Tianli, the overbearing fat man, roared, turned, and cleaved the attacker behind them in two!

Red-Line Worms showered Peng Tianli's head and face and burrowed into his body. He screamed.

The black mist over his chest finally took shape, becoming a Striped Tiger.

Unfortunately, the Striped Tiger was little use against the Red-Line Worms and could not kill them. Peng Tianli, who seemed no weak fighter, was the first to die this time.

Behind Liao Chi, bloody mist billowed, and a Blood Buddha took vague shape.

Third Lady shrieked, and a mass of multicolored venomous insects leaped from her mouth!