42. Wandering the Mountain

After being teleported, Gui Fang Wu Di's face turned ashen, his breath came out weakly, his eyes were tightly closed, and he was half-dead.

Qinglong was speechless. Although he didn't say a word, his eyes clearly said: How could someone get dizzy from teleportation?

Gui Fang struggled for a moment, trying to stand up straight by supporting himself on the tree trunk to show that he was not seriously injured. After enduring it for two seconds, he turned his head away and gagged, then slid down the tree trunk like a puddle of mud.

Tang Xi couldn't stand it anymore. "Bei Chen, why don't we just give him a quick death?"

Bei Chen immediately rolled up his sleeves. "You're right, it would be better if we knocked him out."

"No! That's not what I meant! Wait a minute!"

Suddenly, Qinglong noticed something, looked up, and couldn't help but smile.

Is he here too?

Is this really Wandering Mountain?

Bei Chen cautiously looked around. "It's similar to the Graveyard Forest, except there's not much fog, and the visibility is suddenly much clearer. I'm not used to it."

“Then get used to it slowly,” Qinglong said to the two of them. “Walk sixty steps up the mountain and you will see the entrance to the inn. Farewell.”

Before the three could react, the Azure Dragon transformed into a wisp of pale light and flew away in an instant.

Beichen took a deep sniff of the air and listened carefully.

The lingering, exotic fragrance in the air disappeared, replaced by a damp feeling, mixed with a faint salty and fishy taste.

The bright full moon illuminated the dense forest, casting swaying shadows. With the help of fireflies and moonlight, Tangxi and Beichen followed the mountain path and looked up.

The path meandered, with nothing in sight except for the layered shadows of trees hidden among the bushes as it rose.

"Sixty paces?"

Bei Chen followed, puzzled, and stepped on the grass. "Sixty steps is only about a hundred meters. This place is full of trees. Where is there an inn? Qinglong is mistaken?"

and……

Beichen held his breath and listened intently.

How could there be such a sound of water in the forest?

It doesn't resemble a babbling brook, but rather a mighty ocean wave.

Bei Chen's brows furrowed as he tried to listen again, but the strange sound of the waves had already faded into the distance.

Tang Xi sighed, "Let's go. Maybe if we follow Qinglong's lead, we'll find some clues... We're in such a hurry, we haven't even thanked her yet."

Bei Chen shook his head, ignoring the "auditory hallucinations," and asked, "Tang Xihe, do you know what Senluotai is?"

"Similar to the Tianxian Court, but more severe in its trials."

Tang Xi turned to look at the dying Gui Fang Wu Di, "See? From now on, if Gui Fang has a sharp tongue, just tear off a teleportation talisman, and it'll cure him in no time."

Gui Fang Wu Di leaned against a tree, listlessly raising his middle finger at Tang Xi, his eyes tightly closed. Bright moonlight shone on his pale, ashen face. Usually, he was always quick to insult people, but now he couldn't utter a single word, looking both pitiful and comical.

Bei Chen asked, "Are you going to wait here? I'll go scout the area."

"OK."

Tang Xi was also a little worried about Gui Fang's awful state, so she simply sat cross-legged next to him.

Bei Chen hesitated for a moment, glanced at the winding mountain road, and then started walking uphill.

Sixty steps.

The dense bushes on both sides almost completely covered the path. The path was uneven, with occasional crystals peeking out from the ground. It was barely wide enough for two people to walk side by side. Beichen followed and squeezed onto the uphill path, which suddenly made the mountain path seem narrow.

He climbed up step by step, taking in everything around him. Although he was very tired, he still carefully and cautiously surveyed his surroundings.

Did I really hear wrong?

The rustling sound of the bushes gradually faded into the distance.

Tangxi rested against a tree trunk, silently counting the walking speed and pace of Beichen's companion.

They should be arriving soon, right?

Suddenly, a scream echoed from the dense forest.

It was the voice of Beichen's companion. He seemed to have been startled by something, and after a short shout, a large number of flying insects and birds were startled in the forest, and then suddenly there was no sound.

The two people who were resting against the tree trunk suddenly opened their eyes. Gui Fang tried to get up, but Tang Xi pressed him down, saying, "I'll go take a look."

“He’s alright,” Gui Fang said in a hoarse voice, pointing to Tang Xi’s hand.

Tang Xi paused, looked down at her fingers, and was surprised to find that a pale gold, extremely thin thread had been wrapped around her little finger since some time ago.

So dizzy he couldn't tell north from south, yet he still knew to secretly tie silk threads around his neck?

Tang Xi sighed, "Don't move anymore. If you two both fall, I'll abandon you and wander into a hotel alone."

While joking, Tang Xi and Ye carefully followed the path that Bei Chen had just taken uphill.

"Bei Chen?"

He walked and called out, silently counting in his mind.

Four, five, six, seven... three two, three three, three four...

"...Beichen?"

There was no sound for a long time, and Tangxi felt a little nervous. The only sounds on the way up the mountain were the rustling of the fabric of their clothes and the rustling of the leaves in the bushes on both sides.

It's strange, only sixty steps, such a short distance, with Beichen above and Guifang behind, Tang Xihe actually had a bizarre thought that "I am the only one left in the world".

It's too quiet; something's not right.

Five-three, five-four, five-five...

The mountain path beneath my feet became increasingly flat. Pushing aside the branches, my view suddenly opened up to a small flat area ahead. There was a familiar figure standing blankly in the center of the flat area against the moonlight, looking up at something I couldn't tell what.

Tang Xi's furrowed brows finally relaxed, and she strode forward. "I called you, why didn't you answer me?"

Bei Chen stiffly turned around little by little, gestured for Tang Xi to be quiet, and pointed to the sky.

Tangxi and Moming looked up up the slope.

Above them floated a massive fish, about three meters long, its body plump and slowly undulating in mid-air, its body swaying gently as if swimming in the air. It was so still, like a ghost fish, and the moonlight seemed to penetrate its scales…

wrong.

Tang Xi froze. Now that they were closer, he could see clearly and understood why Bei Chen had suddenly shouted.

What's neatly arranged on the "ghost fish" isn't scales, but skulls. Countless skulls are embedded in the fish's body, tightly interlocked and inseparable.

The holes in the bones revealed a variety of expressions: crying, laughing, sad, resentful, hateful, angry, blank, melancholy, and so on. With the slightest movement of the large fish, the dense skulls swayed slightly, rubbing together to produce a harsh, teeth-grinding sound, as if they were living human heads.

Tang Xi was a little dazed. He blinked hard and realized he wasn't mistaken; those heads weren't fish scales, they really were skulls. Moreover, the few steps he had taken up the mountain were incredibly quiet; he couldn't hear the sound of the "scales" rubbing together at all.

"Shall we...shall we go back?"

Bei Chen said in a trembling voice, forcing a pitiful smile, "I don't really like fish."

Tang Xi raised an eyebrow. "Don't you like it?"

Are you scared?

In the original novel, Beichen Suixing particularly dislikes fish, for a somewhat childish reason: when he was a child, he ate fish too quickly and injured his throat with a fish bone.

Bei Chen sensed something was wrong from the two emotionless laughs. He turned to Tang Xi and spoke to her in a serious and solemn manner, his eyes not daring to glance at the skull fish.

"Tang Xihe, you've been corrupted by Gui Fang Wu Di. I need to talk to him properly. Let's go down now..."

call--

The skeleton fish suddenly swung its tail, turning 180 degrees, its sharp spines sweeping up a gust of wind like a fan.

Bei Chen, accompanied by his companion, shouted and waved his arms wildly, "It's alive! It's alive! Is it looking at me?! Oh my god!"

"..."

Tangxi calmly said, "It has no eyes."

"What are you yelling about! It's so noisy!"

Before you see the 'demon,' you hear its voice. A huge octopus "swam" out from behind the skeleton fish, cursing and swearing in a sharp, piercing voice, "We have distinguished guests resting in my house. What time is it? What are you making such a racket! Your shouting scared my dog ​​to death!"

Dog? Where's the dog?

Bei Chen, still shaken, saw the talking octopus affectionately stroking the skeleton fish's bald head, saying, "Baby, be good, Mommy's here, Mommy's here."

"Hey!" Tang Xi whispered, her voice hoarse, her eyes shining, as she nudged Bei Chen with her elbow. "This is a monster that wasn't mentioned in the textbook! A really peculiar octopus!"

Bei Chen then saw the octopus that was speaking and slowly widened his eyes.

By the moonlight, his trembling pupils reflected the shape of the enormous octopus, which wore a pale yellow lace apron and had clean white "sleeves" on each of its tentacles.

On the translucent light blue head, two heads, one large and one small, are nested inside. On the second layer of heads in the middle, the dark blue veins are clearly visible. In the third layer of heads, a bright red, fist-sized "brain core" is pulsating, like a human heartbeat, with a very steady and slow frequency.

Bei Chen knew it was strange to use "layers" to describe an octopus's head, but this octopus's head really did look so bizarre! It looked like a balloon nested inside another!

Whether it's a bizarre head or numerous tentacles, three, six, nine, twelve... wait a minute!

"Twenty-four tentacles?" Bei Chen's companion asked in a trembling voice, looking down at Tang Xi in disbelief, "Don't you find it terrifying?"

Tang Xi looked at him strangely instead, "What's so scary about it? It's normal for anything to appear in a blessed land, right? Besides, this kind of monster that has never appeared before might be a good subject for a graduation thesis!"

Can you use any kind of monster or demon as material for a thesis?

"Hey, what are you doing here? Looking for a hotel?"

The octopus seemed displeased by the scrutiny, its voice becoming even shriller than before. Though it spoke in a question, the tone clearly implied that it wanted the octopus to leave.

Tang Xi quickly asked, "Hello, we'd like to ask where the Wandering Inn is?"

"Wandering Inn? I am the owner of Wandering Inn, Nine-Headed Chapter."

The nine-headed octopus slid stickily onto the skullfish's head, looking down at the two of them. Its already enormous body overlapped with the skullfish floating in mid-air, making the octopus and the fish appear even more majestic under the moonlight. Their shadows were cast down, enveloping the two of them.

The Nine-Headed Octopus raised three tentacles. "Stay at the inn? Sure, three hundred immortal coins per immortal for each immortal."

"Three hundred!" Bei Chen gasped. "This is robbery!"

"Take it or leave it!"

The nine-headed octopus snorted softly, its tentacles gently stroking the skullfish's head. "Doggy, let's go home!"

The skull fish's head was also made of bone, so you couldn't see any expression at all. It turned around and, with the nine-headed octopus on its head, started to swim up the mountain.

"Wait!" Tang Xihe said hurriedly, "There are three of us, can we get a discount, 800 immortal coins?"

Where are the three people?

The skullfish stopped, and the nine-headed octopus turned around strangely, "My hotel has a curfew; prices go up after midnight!"

"Even blessed lands have shady shops, Tangxihe!" Beichen immediately turned around. "Before the owner raises prices, I'll go and drag him over!"

"Need not."

A hoarse, cool voice echoed softly, "I've come to see if you're dead yet."

Tangxi and Jiejie were startled: "Do you have some kind of weird hobby of scaring people?!"

"..."

Bei Chen followed, his heart pounding so hard it nearly stopped. He gritted his teeth and decided to put aside his anger towards Gui Fang for the time being.

"Boss, boss, can we get a discount for three people?"

Gui Fang Wu Di originally thought the two had been missing for too long and it was a bit suspicious. He didn't expect that the young master accompanying Bei Chen would be able to bargain. He glanced at Bei Chen strangely, and then looked up.

There was a big-headed monster that looked sticky and dressed in gaudy clothes, standing on the head of a large fish covered in skulls, looking down at it.

"……boss?"

Gui Fang pointed at the big-headed monster and looked at Tang Xi with a puzzled expression.

"The owner of the Wandering Inn calls himself Nine-Headed Zhang," Tang Xi said softly. "You know him?"

"No." Gui Fang shook his head. "Even you haven't seen him, so it's even less likely for me to have."

Nine-Headed Chapter remained silent in the face of Bei Chen's bargaining, seemingly lost in thought.

Gui Fang instinctively felt that the giant octopus was staring at him, its gaze direct and intense. He gradually frowned. "What are you looking at? Haven't you ever seen a chuunibyou (delusional) boy before?"

Suddenly, the nine-headed octopus jumped off the skull fish with a splatter sound, and one of its tentacles pointed at the ghost.

"you!"