They're All Dead, They're All Dead
"Why didn't you dodge?" Li Baiyi asked as he turned a somersault.
"Why should I?" Xu Chunliang watched Li Baiyi's somersault and gave it a high score of 9.52 in his mind.
"Aren't you afraid of that black-haired eerie?" Li Baiyi was about to turn another somersault when he suddenly remembered the first time he had met Xu Chunliang: how Xu Chunliang had stood with his hands behind his back and shouted into the darkness, "Come at me!" Then he had let the black-haired eerie stab out of the darkness, only for it to burn in the light right before his eyes.
His sharp mind immediately reached a conclusion.
He stopped tumbling and stood still. Looking at Xu Chunliang, he asked, "It looks like that black-haired eerie won't hurt us anymore, right?"
Xu Chunliang was somewhat fond of this fellow, with whom he shared a bit of an understanding. He nodded and said, "That's what I think too. Follow me."
"My guesses have always been accurate."
With that, he led the way, still strolling with his hands behind his back. Li Baiyi hurried after him.
He couldn't help thinking of those legendary top geniuses blessed with the fortune of heaven and earth, whose heaven-defying luck always let them turn danger into safety. To them, the Ruin Realm that others regarded as a ghostly domain was like a grotto-heaven paradise. Not only could they emerge unscathed, they could casually pick up treasures that others couldn't obtain in a lifetime of striving.
For example, there was Jun Mo, the Many-Treasured Swordsman from the Ten Thousand Blessings Sect, who had recently risen to fame in the jianghu. He was said to be blessed with fortune. Not only did several women from prominent families favor him, but a Celestial Phenomena-level eerie was also said to have willingly submitted to him, declaring that it would become his eerie slave. Such a person truly inspired envy, jealousy, and hate.
He just didn't know whether Xu Chunliang was also someone blessed with such fortune.
Watching Xu Chunliang stroll leisurely ahead of him, Li Baiyi felt he was most likely right. He resolved to get on good terms with Xu Chunliang.
Being able to call someone blessed with fortune a friend was itself a kind of good fortune. There was no shame in it.
He hurried forward a couple of steps and walked beside Xu Chunliang, entering the darkness with him.
"Brother Xu, where are you from?"
"Brother Xu, are you married? I have a fifteen-year-old sister who's educated, courteous, gentle, and graceful, and especially sensible. Once we get out of this Ruin Realm, how about I introduce her to you as your wife?"
"Brother Xu, do you practice the saber? My family has a treasured saber passed down through generations. How about I give it to you, big brother?"
In the darkness, Li Baiyi addressed Xu Chunliang more and more intimately, looking very much as though he intended to swear brotherhood with him right there in the dark.
Xu Chunliang was noncommittal. He neither disliked it nor liked it.
Anyone who had gone through life and death more than ten thousand times as he had would likewise have lost any feelings about social interaction.
He only wanted to grow stronger step by step, and kill the eerie beings all over the mountains and plains, in the heavens and on earth, along with the Immortals and Buddhas, one by one.
Since you're all so undignified, I'll send you off with dignity.
No one knew how long they walked, but by the time Li Baiyi no longer felt like talking, starlight finally appeared in the sky.
The two walked out of the darkness and saw a dense grove of trees. A narrow path ran through it, leading who knew where.
Li Baiyi cocked an ear and listened, then said softly, "Someone's there! Let's be careful."
Xu Chunliang nodded and drew his small brass knife. Knife in hand, he entered the grove alongside Li Baiyi, who held his sword, one on the left and the other on the right.
Brother Dao sat on the ground with a dejected look, a pair of broad-bladed battle axes lying beside him. He paid no attention to the bowl of white rice in front of him, murmuring over and over...
"They're all dead, they're all dead."
His younger brother, Brother Axe, sat beside him with a saber, holding a bowl of white rice and eating with relish.
Behind them was a fresh grave, decorated with colorful soul-summoning banners. The offerings before it, however, were gone.
"Brother, stop going on about it. Death can't be avoided when we're roaming the jianghu. It's just a question of whether we die today or tomorrow."
"Eat when there's food, drink when there's drink. Why care about boring things like life and death? It's just death. How could it matter more than an empty stomach?"
He shoveled a mouthful of cold rice into his mouth, then muttered, "We still came too late. The white rice offered at this grave has already gone cold. If we'd come earlier, we might have gotten to eat it hot."
"Brother, are you eating or not? If you aren't, I will."
Rustle...
Rustle...
Rustle...
Footsteps came from the woods on their left, and Brother Dao and Brother Axe hurriedly picked up their weapons.
"Brother Axe, if I were you, I wouldn't eat that bowl of rice." Xu Chunliang's voice came from the darkness. Brother Dao's face lit up, and he called out happily:
"Brother Xu, you're still alive!"
He started toward the woods, but his younger brother, Brother Axe, grabbed him. Shielding his honest elder brother behind him, Brother Axe held his saber in both hands and watched Xu Chunliang and Li Baiyi emerge from the darkness warily.
"Brother Axe, if you're so cautious, why would you eat white rice in this Ruin Realm?"
Xu Chunliang looked at Brother Axe with regret. He knew that after eating that bowl of rice, Brother Axe most likely wouldn't survive.
"What? The Ruin Realm? Didn't we already get out?" Alarm crossed Brother Axe's face. No longer concerned about whether Xu Chunliang meant him harm, he glanced down at the bowl of white rice and hurriedly stuck his fingers down his throat.
But it was too late.
His stomach suddenly began to hurt. It felt as though something was burrowing around inside it.
"Little brother, what's wrong?" Brother Dao hurriedly supported his trembling brother, only to discover in horror that the skin of Brother Axe's face was rising and falling, as though many worms were crawling beneath it.
"Brother, it hurts!" Brother Axe clutched Brother Dao's arm and spoke in pain.
Countless blood-red veins suddenly appeared in his black eyes. Then... came the sound of a straw piercing a yogurt lid,
"Pop~!"
A snow-white worm crawled out of his eyeball, wriggling like a silkworm.
But on the worm's face was a monk's face, with ordination scars on its snow-white forehead.
Its eyes were shut, and its expression was serene, like a bodhisattva with lowered eyes. It looked very benevolent.
Immediately afterward, small bumps appeared one after another on his face and the skin of his hands, making him look as though his body were covered in chickenpox.
"Little brother, don't be afraid!"
"I'll save you!"
Brother Dao threw his arms around his brother, tears streaming down his face as he kept slapping him. He turned a deaf ear to Xu Chunliang and Li Baiyi urging him to get back.
"Pop~!"
"Pop~!"
"Pop~!"
As Brother Dao slapped him, the bumps on Brother Axe's skin burst one by one, and white worms as thick as little fingers crawled out of them,
Each bearing a monk's face,
Their eyes wide as they stared at Xu Chunliang and the other two.
"Back!"
Xu Chunliang and Li Baiyi retreated into the woods without hesitation.
"Amitabha!" Eerie Buddhist chants rang out one after another. The worms crawled out of Brother Axe's body, chanting "Amitabha" nonstop, then instantly covered Brother Dao...
A moment later, Brother Dao lay on the ground, his face riddled with holes and his eyes still open in death.
"Pop~!"