People Really Do Sigh and Rub Their Faces When They're at Their Wits' End

"Holy shit, Qi Yu! It's Qi Yu!" Yu Zhi's eyes flew open, and the words burst out of him. Fortunately, his voice wasn't loud, or it would have been bad if the people in the other rooms had heard him.

"What's wrong, A Li?" Zhang Qiling turned over and wrapped his arms around Yu Zhi, asking softly.

"I'd say he's taken a fancy to that kid Qi Yu. Otherwise, why would he be calling his name in the middle of the night instead of sleeping? And I've got to say, that kid really is something to look at. Like a lotus rising from clear water, beautiful without a trace of adornment. His eyelashes curl more than a woman's, his skin is so pale it looks like it's lit from within, and his long, slender fingers are as smooth as jade. And I've got to say, he has that cool, aloof air about him too."

He seemed to be recalling something. "He really is a lot like Mute. Mute, you ought to feel threatened."

The Blind Man gossiped in a voice no louder than a mosquito's buzz. He knew those two had sharp eyes and ears and would hear every word, and he was feeling pleased with himself for getting even for those two punches to the face.

"You're really something else. I should've beaten you into a pig's head back then."

Yu Zhi was furious, but he couldn't make a big commotion. Beside him was someone whose face had gone livid and who was giving off a chilly air, waiting to be coaxed.

With his lips close to Zhang Qiling's, he whispered, "Don't listen to his nonsense. I've been thinking this whole time and haven't slept. That Qi Yu-think about it. He was in the book, and although he didn't have many scenes, he was the template for Wu Xie. Wu Xie looks just like him, but he was deliberately raised to be simple and innocent, so he's very different from this Qi Yu. And if we're really counting, I should be the one who's angry. Wu Xie is your CP, and that innocent nature of his was deliberately cultivated to hook you."

"He isn't. You are. You can't think about him; you have to think about me." Zhang Qiling felt terribly aggrieved. He was already annoyed that they couldn't be intimate while they were out, and the damned Blind Man kept poking at his sore spot, hitting the mark every time.

"I'll think about you, I'll think about you. Go to sleep." Yu Zhi was out of options. He kissed Zhang Qiling hard on the lips, then buried his head in his chest and lay still.

The first hint of light had only just appeared on the horizon, and they still couldn't see very far. All they could hear were the occasional calls of various birds around them. The group had already gathered in the clearing outside.

"Third Brother, have they come out?"

"No, they're still in their room. It's quiet in there too, so they're probably still asleep."

"Let's go."

"Let's go. Leave them be." Wu Sansheng called everyone to set off.

"Have they left?" Yu Zhi watched Zhang Qiling stand at the window and lift the curtain just enough to make a narrow gap.

"They've left." After saying that, Zhang Qiling walked soundlessly to Hei Xiazi's bedside and gave him two solid punches to the head.

Although Hei Xiazi was awake, he had been resting with his eyes closed and hadn't heard any footsteps at all. He took both punches and clutched his face, crying out, "Ow, mother!"

So these two really were family. Their brutality was cut from the same cloth. Now he didn't dare run his mouth anymore. If the two of them teamed up to beat him, he wouldn't have the slightest chance to fight back. He just had a filthy mouth, not a body made for taking a beating!

"Hahaha, serves you right!" Yu Zhi covered his mouth and laughed.

"When are we leaving?" Hei Xiazi asked, rubbing his face.

"We'll go this afternoon. We didn't sleep well last night, so we'll leave after we've had some sleep. We're in no hurry. Let that bunch wear themselves out first." He had no habit of letting others tag along and reap benefits for nothing. They would travel at a different time to avoid running into them. Besides, it would be for the best if that whole bunch got wiped out inside.

"All right, then I'll go back to sleep." As he spoke, the Blind Man made ready to go play chess with the Duke of Zhou again.

"How can you have the nerve to sleep? You're such a noob. How can you even sleep? You're wasting such a fine stretch of time on sleep." Yu Zhi mocked Hei Xiazi.

"You, you, you..." Hei Xiazi was unable to retort, left choking on his words. "Fine, you're the boss. I'll do as you say." He then assumed a posture and began preparing to cultivate.

"That's more like it. If you're bad, practice more." Without looking at Hei Xiazi's expression, he pulled Zhang Qiling back to sleep.

Hei Xiazi decided that out of sight was out of mind. He closed his eyes and cultivated in earnest. Yu Zhi was quite right: he was still too weak. Even after swallowing the Corpse Bug King and the Corpse Charm, he had only just managed to enter the Qi Refining Second Layer.

When the two woke that afternoon, they saw that Hei Xiazi was still absorbing spiritual energy and didn't disturb him. They got up, gathered their things, and went downstairs to ask the innkeeper to prepare some food and bring it up.

The two of them could store things in their spaces, but time didn't stand still inside them. Food left in there would still go cold and grow moldy and spoil.

After eating, the three set off. Yu Zhi took two more backpacks out of his space and packed a few things in them, mainly to keep up appearances in case they ran into anyone.

"Are we following behind them, or going in the way the book described?"

"How do you know they aren't taking that same route?" Hei Xiazi argued from the side.

"We'll take a shortcut. I know the way." Zhang Qiling was as reliably dependable as ever.

"No wonder you never get your final payment. Have a good think about yourself." After saying that, Yu Zhi even patted him on the shoulder.

Dressed in dark clothes, the three advanced in single file, with Zhang Qiling leading, Yu Zhi in the middle, and the Blind Man at the rear.

Before long, the three went around two peaks through the mountain pass. Although the pass was difficult to traverse, it was quicker. If they went over the mountains, even at their current speed, it would take them at least most of the day.

"How much farther?"

"Not far. We'll be there once we get around this mountain. Are you tired?" Zhang Qiling asked Yu Zhi with concern.

"No. I can sense very concentrated wood-element energy, more than ten times stronger than that Corpse-Scented Konjac. I thought we must be getting close."

"Impressive, Xiao Yu. The Nine-Headed Serpent Cypress is below that cliff up ahead, but the cliff face is too high. Ordinary people can't get down from here. Anyone who accidentally fell either died from the fall and became nourishment, or was killed outright by the Nine-Headed Serpent Cypress," Hei Xiazi explained.

"You know about it too?" Yu Zhi asked curiously.

"I do. The last time I didn't get my final payment, I barely escaped with my life and climbed out from here. Come to think of it, it really gave me a fright." Hei Xiazi had now begun saying irritating things in a calm voice, his face expressionless.

Anyone who couldn't hear him would surely have thought he was discussing some serious matter.

While the three talked, they reached the edge of the cliff. Yu Zhi looked down. Calling it a cliff wasn't accurate at all; it was more like a cave hollowed out of the mountain, with its opening facing upward. He estimated it was a thousand meters across and around two hundred meters deep. He could just make out a huge tree below, its trunk over twenty meters thick, possibly even thicker; the view from above wasn't all that accurate. Vines crisscrossed its branches and had climbed the surrounding cliff walls, digging into them as if taking root, like a gigantic net.

"What do you think?" Zhang Qiling asked.

"This will be tricky, Xiaoguan. Looks like I'll need you and the Blind Man to work together. This tree is probably several thousand years old. It was most likely a cypress to begin with, and the dense spiritual energy gave rise to a little spirituality. But later, it was tainted by corpse qi and slowly mutated, beginning to hunt other living things. Add to that the people who died here over thousands of years, whose resentment condensed, and it evolved into a Nine-Headed Serpent Cypress. But the Heavenly Dao doesn't allow evil things to develop intelligence, so it should be driven by instinct to devour life."

"Still, maybe someone deliberately raised this Nine-Headed Serpent Cypress. Look, this entire layer beneath our feet is Heavenly Heart Stone. You both know that stuff is the Nine-Headed Serpent Cypress's natural bane. The walls below are Heavenly Heart Stone too, all the way down for more than ten meters. What a grand undertaking. Maybe someone wanted to raise the Nine-Headed Serpent Cypress here and keep it from getting out, to use it as a tomb guardian?" Yu Zhi pointed it out to the two of them.

"Amazing. If you hadn't said anything, I wouldn't have noticed," Hei Xiazi said. He looked at Zhang Qiling's expression and added, "He didn't know either."

"What a grand undertaking. Who was it that built this tomb again?" Yu Zhi couldn't quite sort it out for the moment.

"King Mu of Zhou's tomb was seized by King Shang of Lu, and in the end the Nine-Eyed Fox got the benefit." Zhang Qiling really was blunt and to the point, summing it up perfectly in one sentence.

"Speaking of that, what are you going to do about that ancestor in there who made you kneel? How about leaving him to me?" Hei Xiazi gestured at Zhang Qiling.

"Do as you please." Zhang Qiling looked as though it had nothing to do with him.

"Oh, come on, that's not what the book said. To save Wu Xie, you dropped to your knees with a thud." Hei Xiazi was at it again.

"You're fucking talking out of your ass!" Zhang Qiling was so angry that he swore. Then he turned to look at Yu Zhi's expression and explained, "That wasn't me."

Yu Zhi truly regretted taking the convenient route and letting the two of them read the whole book. He was exhausted. He let out a sigh and couldn't stop himself from rubbing his face and running his hands through his hair.