Strange Senior Brothers and Sister

The Gravekeeper Lineage in the Great Emperor's Forbidden Zone had a long history. In this generation, there were only four senior brothers and sisters.

The Eldest Senior Brother was steady and taciturn. He always wore a clean, plain black robe, and rarely spoke or smiled. He was like a silent stone.

The Second Senior Brother was lazy and unconventional. He often wore a white brocade robe, a white cloud crown, and gold-patterned boots. He looked every bit like a wealthy young master.

The living in the Great Emperor's Forbidden Zone could be counted on one hand, and the two senior brothers looked completely different.

So even though Gu Baishui couldn't make out the black-clothed man's face beneath the tree, he could guess the man's identity from his clothes.

Besides, the man was holding an ancient, weathered Purple Ultimate Immortal Cauldron. He was the only one in the entire Emperor's Tomb complex who had one.

Gu Baishui was also puzzled about why his Eldest Senior Brother would be here. Half a month ago, his senior brother had already left the Great Emperor's Forbidden Zone after being invited to the Jade Lake Holy Land to attend the Jade Lake Saintess's Peach Banquet.

If his senior brother had returned early, Gu Baishui's Bronze Mirror would surely have alerted him as soon as he came within a thousand li of the Great Emperor's Forbidden Zone.

But even now, with his Eldest Senior Brother standing in the shadows of the woods across from him, he hadn't sensed a thing.

Could his senior brother have discovered the Bronze Mirror's existence, then used the Purple Ultimate Immortal Cauldron to deliberately block Gu Baishui's senses?

But why had Eldest Senior Brother secretly returned to the Great Emperor's Forbidden Zone without telling him?

Gu Baishui couldn't figure it out. What he found even stranger was that he could see his Eldest Senior Brother in the woods by following the claws of the Red-Haired Monster behind him, but his senior brother seemed unable to see Gu Baishui, who stood completely exposed on the muddy path between the trees.

His Eldest Senior Brother stood there holding the Purple Ultimate Immortal Cauldron, his gaze calm and deep as he looked in another direction without a word.

The moonlight was clear and bright. The night wind was cold.

That was... Gu Baishui's cave abode.

"Why do you think the only one trying to kill you is that monster behind you?"

The other self's eerie voice echoed in his mind. The clear moonlight turned a deep red, and the other "Gu Baishui" in the Bronze Mirror suddenly began to tremble and twist violently.

Fear and unknown, ominous foreboding completely tainted and shrouded his once-clear State of Mind. Threads of crimson seeped from deep within his pupils, then spread outward.

The Red-Haired Monster behind him didn't attack Gu Baishui again. It even silently took a step back.

When the night wind blew again, two or three pale red hairs struggled out through his flesh, writhing wildly beneath the moonlight.

Those red hairs that had emerged from his flesh coiled around Gu Baishui.

Eerie, mocking laughter echoed over the woods. The slender Green-Robed Youth stiffened, his body turning numb.

Like a pure land tainted and defiled by ill omen, tufts of red hair spread across his body, trying to drag him into the endless abyss.

The black-clothed figure in the distant woods gradually blurred and faded away. The silent, desolate forest grew more and more terrifying and sinister.

Gu Baishui could clearly feel something burrowing into his body, like another filthy consciousness fighting him for control of it.

The suffocating feeling of ill omen and calamity nearly sealed off his throat and mouth. Yet he was powerless to resist. He could only open his mouth in silence and feel each strange red hair sprout from his flesh and skin, wantonly devouring his consciousness.

The red hairs along the side of his face gradually covered the corner of his eye, and his vision slowly blurred.

He didn't know what the terrifying Red-Haired Monster behind him was doing. Perhaps its eyes merely glimmered with a bloodthirsty light as it silently watched this newly born "kindred" before it.

Gu Baishui weakly parted his lips. His eyes grew dim and murky, and his thoughts became sluggish and viscous, like those of an old man nearing death.

But just before the Green-Robed Youth's consciousness shattered completely, a calm, cool voice suddenly rang out at the end of the path.

"Third Senior Brother, are you... admiring the moon?"

The familiar, clear voice rang in his ears like a basin of cold water splashed over him, jolting the dazed Gu Baishui awake.

The Green-Robed Youth's eyes flew open. Without the slightest hesitation, he abruptly turned around and stared hard at the empty space behind him.

It was completely bare. There was... nothing.

The other Gu Baishui in the Bronze Mirror did the same. But at the moment he turned around, the furry shadow beneath his feet suddenly paused.

It seemed the monster hadn't expected its prey to turn around so suddenly, much less dare to stare straight at it.

The wind swept through the treetops. The night silkworms fell silent.

The very next moment, a furry monster's face, impossible to describe in words, abruptly appeared before Gu Baishui.

It had burst out of the mirror and into reality. It had red eyes, a black face, and fangs drawn back. Red hair covered its stiff, black furrows, and its nostrils were practically pressed against Gu Baishui's. There was barely a hair's breadth between them.

Gu Baishui stood frozen in place. The blood-red color drained from his pupils, leaving only a face caught between bewilderment and shock.

In the dead silence, the Red-Haired Monster took several more steps back, then... tilted its head and bared its wide mouth, silently mocking the young man standing dumbfounded before it.

How could this be?

Gu Baishui's lips trembled as his mind reeled. Before he could say anything, a surging darkness swallowed him, and he lost all consciousness.

"..."

"Senior Brother, are you sleeping by the roadside tonight?"

At the other end of the forest path, a cool-looking young woman in a long blue robe raised an eyebrow suspiciously. She stared in confusion at the Third Senior Brother who had suddenly fainted by the side of the road.

Ji Xu hesitated, then swept her vast Divine Sense across the entire forest and the back mountain. But she truly found nothing strange.

So, after a moment's silence, the little princess of the Ji Clan walked over to Gu Baishui step by step and lowered her head to look at the unconscious Green-Robed Youth.

The young woman pursed her lips, reached out with her right hand, and tugged lightly on her senior brother's belt. She lifted him up without the slightest effort, then carried him toward the cave abode in the distance.

"Third Senior Brother, don't tell me you're having another fit?"

The young woman's helpless voice gradually faded. The path through the woods sank back into its usual calm and silence.

Only where the Green-Robed Youth had fainted, a tall, strange shadow slowly raised its eyes. Its gray pupils were filled with deathly silence and ill omen.

The Red-Haired Monster silently watched the young woman pick Gu Baishui up right in front of it.

Its eyes glimmered red as it gently tilted its head.

Ji Xu, like everyone else, couldn't see it. If it remembered correctly, after Great Emperor Changsheng's death, that young woman had become the only Heavenly Source Master in the Forbidden Zone.

"Goo~ coo-coo~"