(Please keep reading on Tuesday-it's crucial!)
"Where are the Yan Household disciples? Demons and devils are attacking! Come quickly and slay the demons! Exterminate the devils!"
Amid the urgent tolling of a bell, someone raised an arm and shouted from the gate tower.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!
Numerous Yan Household disciples in white hemp clothing swiftly assembled with weapons in hand. Some rushed onto the walls, others gathered at the stronghold gate, and the especially brave and capable leaped straight outside, charging at the wolf pack serving as the Demon-Ghost Alliance's vanguard.
In an instant, battle cries rose on all sides.
"These mountain spirits and wild monsters really have no idea what death means. They've actually delivered themselves to our door!"
As he spoke, a bare-chested, burly man charged forward with a spiked club, smashing several giant wolves into bloody pulp in the blink of an eye.
"All the better. Saves us searching for them one place at a time."
The speaker was a stooped, white-haired old woman, her face covered in wrinkles, her life a candle flickering in the wind. She followed behind the burly man as leisurely as if strolling through a courtyard, opening her mouth to inhale from time to time. Blood Qi rose from the wolf corpses on the ground in threads, which she sucked away.
Those wolf corpses quickly shriveled, becoming bare skeletons.
Still far from satisfied, the old woman called out, "Sun Meng, don't use so much force. You're smashing them too thoroughly and wasting so much good blood."
Sun Meng curled his lip. "Third Granny Chen, you can stomach even this inferior beast blood?"
"Keh keh!"
The old woman gave a strange laugh. "As long as it's blood, whether beast blood or human blood, this old woman likes it all. The more, the better."
As she continued absorbing Blood Qi, the wrinkles covering her face gradually smoothed out, and she actually seemed to grow somewhat younger.
The Chen Household of Chen Creek-the Bloodthirsty Gu Art.
"Roar!"
Suddenly, a tiger's roar shook the earth and mountains.
A striped tiger leaped out, its eyes gleaming fiercely.
A person sat upon its back, as composed as if riding a horse.
At that roar, the wolves were terrified. Their courage shattered, and they turned tail and fled.
Sun Meng said unhappily, "Wu Wei, you've scared them all off. How are we supposed to kill them now?"
Wu Wei, mounted on the tiger's back, wore an icy expression. He suddenly took down his great bow, nocked an arrow, and drew. The arrow flew like a shooting star.
With a sharp hiss!
It struck the leader of the pack-General Wolf.
General Wolf took an arrow without warning. Although he dodged in time to keep it from striking his vulnerable eye, it still hurt terribly. He no longer dared charge about recklessly and fled for his life with the pack.
"What a waste of a fine wolf pelt."
Wu Wei spoke regretfully.
At that moment, a group stood atop the stronghold's high wall. At their head was a handsome young swordsman dressed in blue robes. His sword-like brows were slightly furrowed as he watched Sun Meng and the others slaughter the wolves. He seemed somewhat disdainful and had no desire to go down and mingle with them.
As an outer court disciple of the Zhongnan Sword Sect, Liu Chen had grounds for pride. He had come to Yan Household Stronghold to join the Demon-Slaying Alliance entirely out of consideration for his senior sister Yan Hui. Otherwise, why would he have come to the mountains of Xi Prefecture?
The Yan Household of Man Creek, the Chen Household of Chen Creek, the Wu Household of Xiong Creek, and the Sun Household of Qing Creek all belonged to Xi Prefecture's unorthodox, miscellaneous schools. They possessed certain inherited skills, such as corpse driving, beast rearing, and Gu raising.
Ultimately, however, these were all petty tricks of the crooked path, unfit for the grand hall.
For Yan Hui, born here, to distinguish herself and enter the Zhongnan Sword Sect's outer court truly amounted to a golden phoenix flying out of a mountain gully.
Thinking of this senior sister with her myriad charms, Liu Chen could not help feeling his heart flutter. She had said herself that once they swept the mountain's Demon Beasts clean, she would thank him properly.
From the look of things now, these Demon Beasts were numerous but amounted to little. There was no need for him to draw his sword personally.
Meanwhile, General Wolf fled wounded, leading the few remaining giant wolves into a grove of old pines.
After this battle, his pack had suffered devastating losses and a grievous blow to its strength. Without twenty or thirty years, it could not possibly recover.
Overcome with grief and anguish, General Wolf looked up and saw the black bear spirit sitting boldly in the woods. He immediately went forward and cried, "Lord Bear, please uphold justice for me."
The black bear spirit's eyes flickered as he asked, "Venerable, what do you think?"
Venerable Fire Crow perched on a branch, his red eyes especially uncanny. "Madam Ghost has already slipped inside. Let's wait until she returns."
The black bear spirit asked again, "What about Mr. Corpse?"
Venerable Fire Crow replied, "Still on the way. He should be here soon."
The black bear spirit snorted. "He's moving far too slowly. Could he be deliberately stalling because he doesn't want to fight?"
Venerable Fire Crow said, "He's an outsider. His heart must lie elsewhere."
The black bear spirit asked doubtfully, "Venerable, in your opinion, just what is his background?"
Venerable Fire Crow shook his head. "I can't see through him. Otherwise, I would have subdued him long ago."
The black bear spirit grinned. "There's no need to rush. Our great enemy now is the Demon-Slaying Alliance."
The two traded questions and answers, leaving General Wolf completely out in the cold and making the wolf itch to grind his teeth in fury.
As they spoke, rustling sounded, and a corpse and a monkey walked in. It was the late-arriving Chen Jin, with Yuan Bai following behind him.
It was not that Chen Jin had deliberately dawdled. His three foot yang meridians and three foot yang meridians had yet to connect all the way through, so he truly could not walk very fast-unless he simply hopped.
But the thought of a corpse monster hopping along on its journey made for such a comical, ridiculous posture. Why bother?
As for Yuan Bai, his legs were exceptionally swift, and he could run like the wind. Yet when he saw the immortal master walking slowly, though he did not quite understand, he asked no questions and followed close behind. In any event, he could not possibly walk ahead of the immortal master.
He understood basic etiquette, at least.
Upon entering the grove and seeing General Wolf with an arrow lodged in him, bleeding incessantly, Yuan Bai first froze, then understood:
So the immortal master had indeed taken such pains in walking slowly.
Earlier, while studying the four lines of verse with Huang Yu, the monkey king had finally listened to advice and changed his mind, unwilling to serve as the vanguard commander.
With no alternative, the black bear spirit had sent General Wolf instead.
Now, General Wolf was severely wounded, and his pack was scattered and shattered, with heavy casualties.
Had Yuan Bai led his monkeys into the opening charge, they would probably have fared even worse. They might even have been wiped out.
He secretly rejoiced at his good fortune, feeling he had learned a trick.
At the sight of him, General Wolf immediately roared in fury and lunged at him.
Why would Yuan Bai fear him? He brought his staff down on General Wolf's head.
Bang!
This time, the blow sent stars dancing before General Wolf's eyes. He rolled to the ground, whimpering, trying to play on the black bear spirit's sympathy.
The black bear spirit barked, "We're all on the same side. No more fighting!"
Hearing this, General Wolf lost all hope. He clambered up. "Lord Bear, you're biased! I'm going back to Wolf Mountain."
He made to leave.
Smack!
The black bear spirit reached out a huge paw and pinned him down, grinning savagely. "Deserting in the face of battle warrants death!"
With a wrench of both claws, he tore General Wolf alive into two halves and tossed the bloody pieces onto the ground.
At the sight, the remaining wolves were so terrified that they flattened themselves against the ground, not even daring to flee.
Seeing General Wolf die horribly on the spot, Yuan Bai's heart jolted. When he had attended the banquet at Black Wind Mountain, he had thought the black bear spirit warm, hospitable, and approachable. Now he saw it had all been a facade.
By tearing General Wolf apart with his bare paws, the black bear spirit was undoubtedly killing a wolf to warn the monkey... no, killing a wolf to warn the corpse was more accurate.
Chen Jin stood to the side, his gaze indifferent and his face expressionless.
His current face was incapable of showing much reaction or expression to begin with.
"Watch out!"
Suddenly, Venerable Fire Crow shouted, "They're charging this way!"