It was a rainy night, with heavy rain stretching on and on.
Inside a cave, a red-haired corpse monster sat cross-legged in the lotus position beside a campfire, cultivating.
What he refined was the Yin Baleful Corpse Qi pent up within him.
As he continued, black Qi curled and spread, obscuring even the firelight.
Yin Qi truly billowed, its sounds a mournful moaning, as though a demon were emerging into the world, striking terror into the heart.
Fortunately, the surrounding area was uninhabited and no travelers passed, sparing him a commotion.
The night passed without incident.
The next day, the rain cleared and the sky brightened, and a ball of fire leaped into view.
Chen Jin stood at the cave entrance, practicing his Cultivation Method and opening his mouth to draw in the rising sun's purple Qi.
He had gone a long time without obtaining Yang Fire. His entire body felt cold and damp with Yin, and even his consciousness and thoughts had grown moldy. He needed sunlight to shine over him, to give him a thorough airing.
After absorbing the purple Qi, he took his sword and left, following the winding ancient path back toward Banyan Tree Slope.
In Chen Jin's mind, Banyan Tree Slope held an extraordinary significance.
That was because it was the first home he had settled in after escaping from his coffin.
As he walked, he heard voices.
The voices were noisy, as though quite a few people were traveling together.
Instinctively, Chen Jin slipped aside and hid among the mountain woods.
Before long, he saw a group pass by. Judging by their clothing and appearance, they were clearly mountain foragers heading in to dig for herbs and seek treasures.
As they walked, they talked loudly and freely about dealings in the jianghu and what they had seen and heard in the mountains.
Come to think of it, this was Chen Jin's first encounter with so many people under normal circumstances. On the one hand, he found it fresh and intriguing, and very much wanted to hear their conversation so he could learn more about the state of the outside world;
On the other hand, he instinctively felt a sense of unfamiliarity and estrangement, utterly out of place.
He followed along like this for a while.
Along the way, a man who seemed to be the group's leader appeared to sense something and abruptly looked up toward the trees beside the path.
He felt that something was hiding there, spying on them.
But he could make nothing out and dismissed it as his imagination.
From their scattered conversations, Chen Jin did indeed learn quite a bit. The situation in the mountains, in particular, could be said to have undergone changes that overturned heaven and earth.
Previously, this had been a land of barren mountains and treacherous waters, where Demon Beasts ran rampant. Now, the Demon Beasts had dwindled and were rarely seen. As winter gave way to spring, the scenery all around seemed to have become one of verdant mountains and clear waters.
Thus, wandering heroes and traveling merchants set out into the mountains in group after group, exploring secluded places and seeking hidden wonders in search of fortuitous opportunities.
Quite a few among them had gained something.
Some had dug up precious medicinal herbs, some had found lightning-struck wood, and others had discovered treasures left behind by Demon Beasts...
Rumors of every kind abounded.
Once word spread, it quickly drew even more people into the mountains. They practically scrambled to get ahead of one another, afraid that arriving late would mean missing their chance.
As more and more people came, all kinds of demand rose like boats on a rising tide. A marketplace had even formed somewhere in the mountains, effectively providing the mountain foragers with food and lodging, as well as a place to cooperate, trade, and so on.
Hearing this, Chen Jin felt as though a lifetime had passed, as though he had spent not merely one bitter winter underground, but many years.
He could not help worrying about the situation at Banyan Tree Slope.
At noon, the slow-footed corpse monster finally returned to the outskirts of Banyan Tree Slope, but he saw no monkey king. Instead, he saw another group of people.
They had gathered beneath the old banyan tree, pointing here and there and talking among themselves.
With his keen hearing, Chen Jin caught what they said. It turned out that these people intended to tidy up and reorganize Banyan Tree Slope, tear down the original shrine, and build a larger one to worship a new mountain god.
In their view, as long as they remade the divine statue and kept the incense burning, this stretch of streams and mountains would remain peaceful forever and regain its former bustle and prosperity.
As Chen Jin listened, an inexplicable agitation rose within him. He even developed the urge to kill, to reveal himself and slaughter every one of these people.
That way, he could preserve Banyan Tree Slope.
But in the end, he suppressed this bloodthirsty impulse, for it was all a delusion and could not possibly solve the problem.
He waited in hiding, all the way until dusk and sunset.
Those people left one after another, withdrawing.
After all, this place had not yet been formally developed, and no camp had been established.
Moreover, it was not far from Savage Ford.
A mutant toad occupied Savage Ford. This demon had not been exterminated and had instead grown ever more ferocious. It had reportedly injured quite a few people who had tried to take over the old ferry landing, making it a real headache.
The toad was extremely cunning, appearing and disappearing like a ghost. The moment things turned against it, it jumped into the Nether Passage River, leaving anyone who came helpless against it.
Only after everyone had left and night had fallen did Chen Jin walk up Banyan Tree Slope and return to the familiar shrine.
After standing there for a moment, he began to dig and soon unearthed a bundle.
These were the belongings Chen Jin had buried in advance. All sorts of odds and ends were inside, the most valuable naturally being the talisman brush made from the fine hairs at the tip of the weasel's tail.
He slung the bundle onto his back, thought for a moment, then leaped into the tree.
Sure enough, the lightning-struck wood in the crown had long since been chopped away. Looking up, it seemed to have left an enormous, ugly scar.
After looking around, he jumped down.
This was no place to linger. It was time to move elsewhere.
But where could he go?
Chen Jin wandered at will and, before he knew it, arrived at the ferry landing.
His arrival disturbed the Demon Beast lurking there.
A toad as large as a wicker basket hopped out, its bulging eyes gleaming fiercely.
Yet the moment it saw clearly that this was Chen Jin, it turned and fled, jumping into the river in blind panic and sending up an enormous splash.
A red-haired corpse monster was an ill-omened being. Nothing good ever came of running into one.
This was a shadow branded into the toad's heart, impossible to erase.
Chen Jin was taken aback. Meeting it on this narrow path, he had been preparing to focus and stand ready, only for it to turn and flee.
It fled with clean, decisive speed.
This was just as well, sparing him a fight.
Without lingering, he headed upstream along the bank.
Croak, croak, croak!
Ripples churned on the river's surface, and an enormous toad's head emerged.
It watched Chen Jin's receding back and realized that this corpse monster was leaving. For a time, its feelings were complicated; it did not know whether it was happy or sad.
The reason it felt sadness was that there were fewer and fewer mountain spirits and wild monsters in these mountains.
But when all was said and done, the departure of a corpse monster that represented ill omen was naturally something worth celebrating.
Farewell, then.
No, may we never meet again...
Chen Jin walked beneath the faint moonlight, his steps slow but firm.
Reeds covered the banks of this great river, and weeds grew thickly. Originally, there had been no path to follow, but after he passed, a crooked trail formed on the ground.
The trail wound onward, reaching all the way upstream.
Upstream stood a towering cliff, its sheer face rising as though hewn by a blade, exposing slabs of blue-black rock.
Chen Jin stopped and looked up, only to discover with a start that the densely packed hanging coffins originally scattered across it had vanished without a trace. Not a single one remained.