"Are you really going out for a stroll with that kid?"
Master Ming squatted uneasily on the ground, with the big black dog lounging beside him.
"I'm afraid the Immortal Sect people will catch your scent... then we'll be in deep trouble. If that bastard Immortal Venerable brings the people from Guardian City to ambush you outside, we'll be trapped in Two Realms Village and won't be able to rescue you in time..."
The big black dog gave Master Ming a contemptuous glance and ignored him.
Master Ming sighed, hastily picked up his bamboo staff, and went to find Old Skeleton.
The next morning, Lü Bufan stood in the courtyard, brimming with swagger, and performed a fist routine he had just mastered. His fists whistled through the air, every move looking the part.
"Mm, good! You still couldn't beat a monkey, but handling eight or ten brothel lackeys and hired thugs should be no problem..."
Lü Bufan hated the words "monkey" and "brothel lackey" most of all, yet those two old bastards, Huang Jiu and Du Yuan, loved using them to tease him.
Mute ran over, lifted Lü Bufan by the neck, and pinched his back a few times... "Ah-ba, ah-ba!"
Lü Bufan hastily said, "Uncle Mute, stop pinching! I remember! I meditate for two hours every night and breathe the way you taught me to temper my muscles and bones!"
Mute nodded in satisfaction, dropped Lü Bufan, and went home to sleep.
Granny Yu did not come out, but she did not stop Lian'er from coming to see Lü Bufan off. Lü Bufan had barely flashed Lian'er a grin... when a huge iron ball fell from the sky!
Du Yuan shouted, "What the hell are you showing off for? Get back to training! You can't leave until tonight! You're acting like you placed first in the imperial examinations just because you're going out. What's there to be proud of?... Quit dawdling and get moving!"
With a miserable expression, Lü Bufan hoisted the huge iron ball and raced toward the back of the village.
Huang Jiu curled his lip. "Cripple... are you jealous of the little brat?"
Du Yuan the cripple snorted. "Yeah! Damn right I am!"
"Shameless old bastard..."
Deep in the night, the moon hung at the zenith.
The birdsong and insect cries on Two-World Mountain suddenly fell silent. From atop the sheer cliffs behind Two Realms Village, and from beneath the valley where the village stood...
Thick, uncanny white mist quietly spread once again.
The eerie white mist churned and spread before Two Realms Village, creeping along the valley toward the village entrance and north beyond the mountain...
Several cultivators sitting silently in meditation on a boulder opened their eyes and glanced at the distant white mist, then rose and drifted backward to avoid it.
A young cultivator stared at the roiling white mist and pondered with a frown... then quietly took out a blue-green Spirit Artifact gourd.
The leading Immortal Sect cultivator snorted coldly. "Still won't give up? That white mist is treacherous and ever-changing. It can devour any body of flesh and blood! It also contaminates magical treasures and Spirit Artifacts... in all these years, I've never heard of any immortal mountain successfully collecting it!"
The young cultivator gritted his teeth. "Senior Brother Wang, I refined this gourd with a hundred kinds of demon cores... it may not be a magical artifact, but it has some special properties! If... if I could really collect even a wisp of Two-World Mountain's white mist... that would be an achievement of monumental proportions!"
A peculiar gleam appeared in the eyes of the other cultivators at his words...
The cultivator surnamed Wang smiled coldly, neither agreeing nor objecting.
His face full of hope, the young cultivator stood a hundred paces beyond the boundary where the white mist always stopped, holding the Spirit Artifact gourd in one hand and forming a spell seal with the other...
The white mist churned. Everywhere it shrouded was deathly silent!
The young third-realm cultivator mustered his courage and pointed at the gourd with one hand... a brilliant light flashed, and a tiny vortex of spiritual power appeared at its mouth.
A strand of white mist, like a nimble snake, swayed as it quietly separated from the mass of fog, then slowly wandered toward him from a hundred paces away, like a puppy being lured over...
The young cultivator's face was taut with nervous excitement!
There were four groups of cultivators like this north of Two-World Mountain, belonging to the Four Great Immortal Sects. They guarded four great formations that sealed off Two Realms Village and monitored its movements...
Two Realms Village was terrifying. Inside were the mumbling, mysterious Old Skeleton and the Land God Temple, as well as that ferocious black dog whose strength stood at the very pinnacle...
But more terrifying still were the Wordless Stele at the village entrance and the uncanny white mist it summoned every night!
Wherever the white mist spread, all living creatures of flesh and blood were eerily devoured, disappearing without a trace!
Countless cultivators had tried to tame and subdue this mysterious power of the white mist, but none had ever succeeded!
Some said ninth-realm or even tenth-realm cultivators in the mortal world should be able to do it.
But upon reaching that realm...
They had plenty of killing methods even more terrifying than this white mist, along with offensive magical treasures bestowed by Immortals! Why go to all that trouble?
A slender wisp of Two-World Mountain's white mist slowly came to a stop three feet from the gourd, leaving all the cultivators holding their breath in anxious anticipation...
If this fellow succeeded, his Immortal Sect and his masters would undoubtedly reward him handsomely!
His own lineage would likely soar in status simply by using this white mist to bolster its offensive and defensive strength. It might even draw the attention of the Immortal Abode north of Capital City!
Once he won an immortal's praise, he might rise straight into the clouds... achieving fame and success in a single day!
The white mist was like a mischievous puppy drooling over a bone, eager to eat yet a little afraid... one end lingered, reluctantly probing toward the nearby Spirit Artifact gourd, while the other remained faintly connected to the mass of white mist dozens of paces behind it!
The young cultivator gritted his teeth and tentatively advanced a few steps.
The white mist shrank back slightly, eerily seeming to possess a will of its own.
Gradually, the white mist seemed to grow thinner and thinner. The young cultivator clenched his teeth, took another few steps forward, and gently tapped the bottom of the gourd...
The wisp of white mist actually drifted over, then followed the vortex's pull and quietly flew toward the gourd's mouth!
A layer of glittering, ice-cold white frost instantly covered the mouth of the gourd.
"It's going to work!"
The young cultivator was so excited he almost shouted! If this succeeded, he would probably have a seat in his Immortal Sect's council hall at once!
The cultivator surnamed Wang suddenly sensed something wrong. He had just opened his mouth... when the mass of white mist a hundred paces away abruptly surged!
"Retreat at once! Drop the gourd..."
Success was within the young cultivator's grasp. How could he bear to abandon the gourd?
The cultivator surnamed Wang kicked off the ground. A gale burst from his sleeves, carrying him soaring upward and backward...
Only then did the remaining cultivators realize something was wrong, and each unleashed their own methods to escape...
With a whoosh... the white mist instantly churned and spilled outward like hideous Ghost Mist, swallowing the bewildered young cultivator in a flash!
Of the cultivators who reacted a fraction too slowly, only two managed to escape! The remaining three were all touched by the white mist. Terrified cries rang out... and the three fell eerily downward, swallowed completely by the white mist!
Not even another wail escaped. Those three, together with the young cultivator, vanished without a trace.
Riding the gale, the cultivator surnamed Wang flew ninety feet into the air and only breathed a sigh of relief after reaching three hundred feet away. Looking back, he saw the two lucky survivors following in utter disarray on their Spirit Artifacts and magical treasures.
"Senior Brother Wang, what... what happened?"
"Exactly! Doesn't that Ghost Mist always stop at the edge of that patch of grass? Why did it go mad today?"
"It must be that death-seeking Li Wenlong's fault! He brought out that lousy gourd and failed to provoke the Ghost Mist, getting Senior Brother Song and Junior Brother Situ killed, their cultivation extinguished with them..."
His face filled with horror, the cultivator surnamed Wang steadied himself and watched the white mist still churning over the distant ground.
Many birds and small beasts were also fleeing for their lives through the woods, trying to escape this terrifying, uncanny mist that gathered and scattered without warning...
"Send word to the other three Immortal Sects at once. The Ghost Mist is restless tonight... they must be on their guard! And... do not mention that gourd again! Understood?"
The two cultivators exchanged glances, then nodded emphatically... "Understood, Senior Brother Song..."
On the distant ground, an indistinct shadow flashed through a gap in the white mist.
Huang Jiu swept his sleeve, scattering a drifting wisp of mist, and said quietly, "Heh... the thing Old Skeleton gave us really packs a punch! He said it can be used five times... kid, keep it safe! Otherwise, you won't be able to return to the village in the future..."
Master Ming had gone to Old Skeleton and begged an item for Lü Bufan: a short bamboo tube containing a little incense ash.
Carrying this thing allowed someone to enter the white mist safely for the time it took three sticks of incense to burn, without being devoured and vanishing.
As for Huang Jiu, he could evade the Immortal Sects' surveillance and slip in and out during the day... but how many eighth-realm experts in the world could conceal their presence, form, and strength as he did?
Inside Two Realms Village was the formation Master Ming, Old Skeleton, and the others had set up. Around it lay the formations established by the Great Jin Dynasty's Four Great Immortal Sects!
This was what it meant to stare at one another, big eyes facing small: if you didn't move, neither did I.
Anyone lacking sufficient strength who wanted to enter or leave Two Realms Village without alerting the Immortal Sects had only this unconventional route through Two-World Mountain's treacherous white mist...
Huang Jiu carried Lü Bufan in one hand, with the little bamboo tube hanging around Lü Bufan's neck.
The white mist brushed gently past. Its icy, sinister chill seemed ready to freeze Lü Bufan's very soul...
Several shadows swept past them, desperately raising their hands and struggling, screaming without a sound. Lü Bufan trembled, not daring to speak, and looked up at Huang Jiu, who seemed to be taking a leisurely stroll through a courtyard.
Huang Jiu said softly, "Stop looking. Just a few unlucky fools who sought their own deaths..."
Before Huang Jiu's words had faded, those shadows stiffened, then slowly sank to their knees... finally, their forms faded and swiftly disappeared into the thick white mist.
Lü Bufan closed his eyes. He could only feel the little bamboo tube against his chest releasing threads of warm spiritual power. When the white mist encountered him, it flowed around him as though he were an ordinary stone...
Soon, using the white mist to conceal their tracks, Huang Jiu took Lü Bufan past the Immortal Sect watchers outside Two Realms Village and into a valley.
Huang Jiu dropped Lü Bufan and stretched. "Ah... hauling the likes of you through these Immortal Sect formations is exhausting. In a moment, I'll show you just how brilliant your great lord Huang Jiu's movement and instantaneous shifting techniques are..."
No one noticed a big black dog trotting through the densest part of the mist...
The black dog's eyes gleamed as he comfortably breathed in the uncanny white mist that all living creatures of the mortal world fled from.
Even his great tongue lolled out happily...
The big black dog suddenly sniffed the ground, picked up a dull-colored cloth pouch with a hint of disdain, then followed the scent Huang Jiu and Lü Bufan had left behind...
At the entrance to Two Realms Village, Old Skeleton lay inside the cramped Land God Temple and suddenly grinned. "Heh... interesting! He even knows to pick up rubbish now..."