"Dry bones in a tomb. You would do well to watch yourself..."
Great-Uncle stood in the clearing, his expression vacant. For a moment, sorrow filled his heart, leaving him feeling hollow, as though he had lost something precious beyond measure that he would never encounter again.
Yan Laojiu hurried forward. "Great-Uncle, wh-what exactly happened?"
Great-Uncle sighed blankly. "The methods of immortals. Their might is unfathomable."
He paused, his tone turning grim. "Back we go! Our Yan Household reached where we are today one step at a time. How could we sit and await death? At worst, we'll smash the whole thing to pieces!"
Leaning on his cane, he shakily climbed into the small black sedan chair and let the Yan Household's younger members carry him down the mountain.
Yan Laojiu hurried after him. He understood Great-Uncle's meaning, and a saying immediately surfaced in his mind: when the crops ripened, it was time to harvest...
"Ah! You Song brothers will die horrible deaths!"
Blood sprayed amid the screams, and the victim fell.
The two burly men immediately began rifling through their victim's backpack and bundles with practiced hands, soon finding quite a few valuables.
One man grinned savagely. "All that hard work gathering herbs, mining, and hunting earns you so little. How could it compare to killing people?"
The other agreed. "Exactly. Out here in these wild mountains, they'll just think some mountain spirit or wild monster killed them. No one will ever trace it back to us."
As they spoke, they suddenly sensed something and looked up almost simultaneously.
Under the faint moonlight, a figure appeared and strode toward them.
He wore a bamboo hat, making his features difficult to see for the moment. His clothes were rather strange, though-the longer they looked, the more they resembled the sort worn by the dead.
Looking more closely, they saw that his entire body was covered in red hair. He was indescribably eerie.
The two burly men exchanged looks, both chilled to the core, and hastily raised their broadswords.
The figure drew nearer, a longsword strapped to his back, like a wandering swordsman. Yet when he raised his head, he revealed a strange face, black tinged with blue.
"A zombie?"
One man cried out involuntarily.
The other suddenly remembered something and pointed. "B-big brother, doesn't he look like the zombie the Yan Household offered that huge bounty to capture?"
The elder brother's eyes widened, his gaze flickering. "He certainly does."
The two exchanged another look, unable to conceal their greed.
The Yan Household's bounty included not only ten thousand taels of silver, but also precious medicinal ointments, talismans, and magical implements.
As the saying went, a rich reward always brought out brave men. If they could claim the bounty, the brothers could immediately become wealthy local gentlemen, no longer needing to struggle in the martial world and lick blood from the edges of their blades.
The two were twins, of one mind and well coordinated. After exchanging a look, they moved in from either side to surround him.
Chen Jin had been breathing in and out the moonlight in his bird's nest when the sounds of pursuit and killing disturbed him. He came over to look, and sure enough, it was a case of murder and robbery.
It was hardly surprising. With more people entering the mountains, all sorts came along, dragons mingling with snakes. Naturally, there were people of every stripe.
Chen Jin found such conduct quite objectionable, and he disliked them causing trouble here and disturbing his cultivation even more.
So they deserved to die.
Then he heard the news that a bounty had been placed on him. The Yan Household truly haunted him like a lingering ghost.
"Kill!"
The Song brothers shouted in unison, swinging their blades at him together.
Chen Jin did not draw his sword. As he turned sideways to dodge, he opened his mouth and expelled a blast. The Yin Baleful Corpse Qi pent up in his chest shot out like black smoke, spraying the face of the man on his left in an instant.
Unable to dodge in time, the man inhaled quite a bit of Corpse Qi. "Ah! Poison..."
An unbearable itch immediately spread across his face. He hastily clawed at it, scratching it into a bloody mess within a few breaths.
His head lolled, and he collapsed, plainly beyond saving.
Chen Jin was quite satisfied with the lethality of his Qi-spitting technique.
Seeing this, the man on the right roared in grief and fury, "Little brother!"
He turned and fled.
But how could he possibly escape in time?
A tremendous impact struck his back, sending him flying. He crashed heavily to the ground, his vision darkening, unable to get up for the moment.
Thump!
A foot stamped hard onto his back.
The burly man gave a dry cough, coughing up blood outright. Struggling to turn his head, he saw an expressionless zombie face.
Yet that face had a pair of bright, lively eyes, dark and shining like stars in the night sky.
"What was that you said about the Yan Household's bounty?"
Chen Jin questioned him, his voice low and hoarse.
Hearing the zombie actually speak, the burly man froze in horror, a voice screaming inside him:
This isn't a zombie. This is already a demon...
How laughable that the brothers had actually thought of capturing him for the reward. They had simply been courting death.
When he did not answer, Chen Jin gave a "Hmm?"
The burly man shuddered all over in fright and hurriedly began to speak.
As it turned out, the Yan Household had posted the bounty some time ago, and several portraits had now been put up at the newly opened market.
The zombie in the portraits bore a vague resemblance to Chen Jin.
Of course, after an ordinary person was made into a zombie through numerous processing steps, their faces looked as though they had come from the same mold. With Corpse Qi eating away at them and livor mortis covering their skin, it was difficult to distinguish them clearly.
Thus, the Song brothers had not been entirely certain. They had only attacked on the principle that it was better to kill the wrong one than let one escape.
And ended up kicking an iron plate.
After listening, Chen Jin asked about the Yan Household Market.
Hoping to survive, the burly man answered every question, telling him everything he knew. "Spare my life, sir, I..."
He could say no more, meeting precisely the "horrible death" foretold earlier.
Naturally, Chen Jin would leave no loose ends. He carried the bodies into the secluded valley, dug a pit, and buried them all.
Before burying them, he first looted the bodies, stripping away anything useful and packing all the odds and ends into a leather trunk. Among them were two reasonably well-fitting changes of clothes.
Once that was done, he climbed the tree again and sat in the bird's nest.
Two groups had come near this place in just two short days. Clearly, more mountain foragers would follow.
There was no shortage of reckless daredevils among these mountain foragers. Seeking wealth, they might well enter the secluded valley to explore.
Though miasma filled the valley, such places could also contain ores, spiritual treasures, poisonous insects, and other local specialties.
As adventurers, they already lived with their heads tucked into their waistbands, unafraid of death.
Once they entered the valley, such a large bird's nest in the tree would certainly become a target for exploration.
When that happened, Chen Jin would be exposed.
It was not that he had never considered moving elsewhere, but given the current situation in the mountains, there was simply nowhere more suitable to go.
Wherever he went, things would be much the same.
It seemed he would have to speed up his cultivation progress and push it further.
Chen Jin's gaze grew resolute as he made his decision:
Perhaps doing that would entail certain unpredictable risks. But after thinking it over and weighing all the factors, only by doing so, smashing the cauldrons and sinking the boats, could he break the deadlock.
Then I'll do it.
A person could not spend his entire life scurrying like a fly and skulking like a dog.