Liu Dashao felt a surge of curiosity in his heart: “So much yin energy must have accumulated from the resentment and grievances of thousands, maybe even tens of thousands of people. Could it really be that there are this many corpses here? But how is that even possible?”
As Liu Dashao pondered this, his head grew heavy and his consciousness began to blur.
He immediately sensed something was wrong and quickly turned around. Sure enough, Su Yougui and Hu Beikang had already closed their eyes, their mouths wide open, and thick streams of yin energy were rushing wildly into their mouths.
“No good!” Liu Dashao shouted loudly, tore off a large bunch of garlic from Fan Debiao’s neck, and shoved it into the mouths of both Hu Beikang and Su Yougui before tightly sealing their mouths shut.
Ugh.
Soon enough, both men began vomiting violently.
Meanwhile, Fan Debiao, completely unaware of what had just happened, curiously stared at the two vomiting men and couldn’t utter a word for quite some time.
“What’s wrong with you two? Hey, Master Liu, what exactly happened to them? Why did you stuff garlic into their mouths just now?”
“Just now, they were possessed by evil spirits. Luckily, your garlic brought them back to their senses,” Liu Dashao explained.
“Hehe, I’ve been saying all along that my garlic can ward off evil spirits. Those two kids secretly mocked me, look at them now! Without my garlic, they’d probably already be dead!” Thinking of this, Fan Debiao couldn’t help but burst into laughter.
Liu Dashao didn’t say anything further. The facts were right in front of them. If he tried to explain it away as coincidence, Fan Debiao probably wouldn’t trust him. It was better not to waste effort on thankless explanations.
They hadn’t walked far when the mist ahead grew increasingly dense. However, this was merely a low-level fog, capable only of unsettling one’s inner calm. What truly caused discomfort was the oppressive feeling in their hearts.
Liu Dashao had already given each of them protective talismans. With these talismans, each person could maintain inner peace and avoid being overwhelmed by the chaotic energies around them.
No one could tell exactly how long they had walked or how many obstacles they had overcome, nor how many cloves of garlic they had consumed to survive the journey to this point.
Going further in, the cave ahead was no longer a trivial matter like the earlier sections. The previous encounters with giant centipedes, bats, and dead infants had already shown the cave’s deadly mechanisms. Carrying something like garlic, which attracted evil spirits, would be even more dangerous. Therefore, at the cave entrance, Liu Dashao sternly told Fan Debiao: “Throw away your garlic.”
Fan Debiao naturally refused to part with his garlic. His reasoning was simple: his garlic had already saved two lives on the journey.
Liu Dashao tried to explain: “Garlic can only deal with harmless ghosts and help maintain consciousness. When facing ghosts capable of harming people, garlic is completely useless. Worse, it will draw your yang energy into the garlic, increasing your yin energy and making you more vulnerable to evil spirits.”
Fan Debiao naturally didn’t believe Liu Dashao’s words alone. Actions spoke louder than words, and he wasn’t about to throw away the very thing that had saved his life.
Despite Liu Dashao’s repeated pleas, Fan Debiao refused to let go of the garlic. With no other choice, Liu Dashao allowed him to keep the bundle, hoping that some future experience would make Fan Debiao realize the garlic’s dangers and discard it himself.
Sure enough, when they passed the spot where they had previously encountered the centipede, there was a sudden thud—Fan Debiao had collapsed to the ground. Looking at his back, a centipede as thick as a human thigh was clinging there. It didn’t bite Fan Debiao; instead, it went straight for the garlic on his neck. As the centipede, its mouth resembling a human’s, bit down fiercely, Liu Dashao quickly thrust his peach-wood sword forward to intercept it.
Since the centipede was neither ghost nor zombie but a bizarrely mutated creature, the peach-wood sword had no magical effect on it. With a loud crack, Liu Dashao’s sword shattered completely.
Crack after crack echoed out, and in an instant, the sword turned to dust, all of it swallowed by the giant centipede. After finishing the sword, it turned its attention back to Fan Debiao.
Liu Dashao’s heart raced. If Fan Debiao were eaten by the centipede, he would surely face another round of criticism. At the mere thought of being reprimanded, Liu Dashao shuddered involuntarily.
Like the old saying goes: once bitten by a snake, even a well rope looks like a serpent for ten years.
Without regard for his own safety, Liu Dashao aimed his hands directly at the centipede’s Tianyin acupoint and struck hard. The centipede must have cultivated some strange power, for its body was covered in a hard shell. Liu Dashao’s fingers went numb on impact, while the centipede continued to open its mouth and lunge toward Fan Debiao’s neck.
“Damn it, I’ll take you down with me!” Liu Dashao had no weapon left, so he opened his mouth wide and bit down hard on the centipede’s head.
Of course, such a massive centipede’s head couldn’t be easily subdued. Liu Dashao only managed to bite the area between its antennae and eyes. But luck was on his side—this spot happened to be the centipede’s weakest point. With a crunch, a bitter, thick liquid flowed into Liu Dashao’s throat and down into his stomach.
This nearly made Liu Dashao sick to his stomach. He immediately stood up and began vomiting violently, as if he wanted to expel his own intestines.
Fortunately, the centipede had lost its fighting ability. It weakly flipped over and lay motionless on the ground. Fan Debiao, his face pale, stood up slowly, staring at Liu Dashao for a long time without showing any expression. He had just narrowly escaped death.
He looked at Liu Dashao and said, “Master Liu, thank you.” Then, Fan Debiao threw away everything he was carrying and stomped twice on the centipede’s head to vent his anger. But as he did, the wound on the centipede’s head oozed out pus and blood. Thinking back to how he had bitten that very spot and swallowed the foul liquid, Liu Dashao felt another wave of nausea and vomited again uncontrollably.
After an unknown amount of time had passed and Fan Debiao had more or less regained his senses, he felt a growing sense of unease throughout his body.
As for Su Yougui and Hu Beikang, they seemed fine, each holding a large iron shovel, feeling relatively at ease and unafraid.
Crack, crack, crack, crack—sounds of breaking wood echoed from the cave. Instantly, everyone tensed up, eyes widening in fear. The cave was filled with white mist, visibility barely reaching ten meters, making it impossible to see what lay ahead.
Su Yougui whispered, “Hey, buddy, are you okay? We’ve come to see you.”
Hu Beikang nudged Su Yougui: “Who are you calling out to? Do you even know who made that sound?”
Hu Beikang replied, “Don’t you remember? It was that Taoist priest we met last time, right here. I wonder if he’s happy to see us again.”
Liu Dashao glanced around and indeed found that this was the exact spot where they had encountered the Taoist priest before. He immediately grew solemn. This was a senior practitioner, and he couldn’t afford to be disrespectful. He also signaled the others to quiet down. Last time, they had encountered those dead infants alongside the priest. The sounds they just heard might have come from those same infants.
“Keep your voices down. Those might be the sounds of the dead infants. If you encounter them, close your mouths and stop breathing. Got it?” Liu Dashao warned them seriously.
But this time was strange—there were no dead infants. They only saw the Taoist priest.
As Liu Dashao looked at the peculiar priest, he suddenly noticed a small detail: the last time they met, the priest had been sitting in meditation with his left hand supporting his right. This time, however, it was the opposite—his right hand supporting his left. As Liu Dashao puzzled over this, the priest’s eyes suddenly flew open. Liu Dashao was startled and quickly stepped back.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Three beams of red light shot out in succession. Luckily, Liu Dashao dodged in time. Otherwise, he would have been struck. The rocks behind him exploded with a loud bang, sending up thick clouds of smoke.
Seeing the smoke spreading, Liu Dashao felt a bitter taste in his heart. He cursed the unknown bastard who couldn’t even leave a senior practitioner’s corpse in peace, going so far as to place a powerful magical formation on it.
Meanwhile, Hu Beikang, Fan Debiao, and the others were already stunned, staring blankly at the scene, unable to say a word. The priest was clearly dead, yet now… damn it, he could attack people!
As Su Yougui was about to bring his iron shovel down on the priest’s head, Liu Dashao quickly stopped him: “Stop! Don’t strike. Someone has already beaten us to it. We need to investigate carefully and act swiftly. I feel something strange about this place—it might be the site of many deaths, or perhaps the tomb of some noble or royal figure.”
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