Chapter 16 Ghostly Abyss! Oh God, this is a zombie siege!
As night deepened, only the crackling of burning firewood remained in the surrounding fields. Qiao Yanshen suddenly snapped out of his daze, looked at the campfire, and noticed that its light had dimmed considerably.
The group had gathered a lot of firewood earlier, and Tang Huairou seemed to really enjoy the intensely burning flames, making them burn very brightly, so much so that Shen Lixia sat a couple of inches further away from them. However, the night was indeed cold, especially in the mountains and forests.
Perhaps she should add some more firewood.
Qiao Yanshen lowered his head, about to look for the fire poker that Shen Lixia had just placed beside him, when he realized that she had opened her eyes at some point. A pair of dark eyes quietly gazed at him, the firelight flickering within them, illuminating half of her face, tracing her neck, and flowing into her clothes.
"Aren't you going to continue sleeping?" she asked softly.
Shen Lixia cleared her throat, sat up stiffly, and stretched. She didn't know when she had moved from her senior sister's shoulder to her lap, and when she felt the softness on the back of her head, she almost dared not open her eyes again, just like before, and was about to jump up to repent and apologize. But her senior sister didn't seem to mind, which reassured her somewhat.
"I'm a little thirsty." Shen Lixia shook her head, took out a water bottle from her storage bag, and took two sips. She drank carefully, making very little noise. Qiao Yanshen watched her throat rise and fall slightly from the side, then looked away.
After a moment of silence, Shen Lixia suddenly spoke up: "Senior sister, I think I see something in the woods."
She looked up and pointed to a spot in the woods ahead, and Qiao Yanshen followed her gaze. There was nothing unusual in her field of vision; even with a cultivator's senses being far more acute than an ordinary person's, she couldn't detect anything. However, Shen Lixia's expression didn't seem to be teasing her, so Qiao Yanshen didn't rush to respond. She patiently examined the area closely, scanning it with her spiritual energy.
When her gaze fell upon a gap in the trees, her pupils contracted slightly, and her hands, folded on her knees, clenched the clothes beneath her.
It seemed as if a faint, cold light flashed by.
Qiao Yanshen turned to look at Shen Lixia. She showed no fear, but was intently staring in that direction, her eyes slightly narrowed as if trying to see more clearly. She touched the longsword; the sound of metal scraping together was clearly audible.
Shen Lixia moved closer and pressed down on the back of her hand.
“No.” She stared at the flickering cold light and said softly, “It doesn’t seem to be coming any closer. Instead… it’s observing us, or rather, perhaps it should be said that it’s afraid of us.”
Or maybe it's just me.
"Let's leave it alone for now; I can sense that it doesn't mean any harm."
Qiao Yanshen couldn't help but look up at her again, her doubts deepening. She wanted to ask why she could sense the seemingly ghostly presence, but she swallowed her words. Just as she herself had concealed many secrets from Shen Lixia, she didn't need to be completely honest with her.
Shen Lixia sat cross-legged to one side, picked up a few twigs, and slowly began to whittle them with a small knife. Her bangs hung down, and her eyes were faintly visible through her hair, swaying with each whittling motion. Qiao Yanshen did not approach, but his gaze was drawn to her. He listened to the soft sounds and watched as she whittled the twigs into arrowheads, made a cut at the end, and inserted a leaf as fletching.
So she knows how to use a bow? No wonder I've seen her fiddling with a slingshot.
After shaving about ten branches, Shen Lixia put them into her storage bag without looking up, her fingers intertwined.
"Senior sister, along this journey..." Qiao Yanshen couldn't see her expression, but he saw her bite her lower lip, "Would I implicate you?"
Qiao Yanshen heard the unease in her voice, sighed, and said gently, "No. No one would think that way. Li Xia... you are a part of us, indispensable."
No matter how many times, she would say that.
You are important. I've thought so from the very beginning—thank you for choosing to call me back then, allowing me to find you. Qiao Yan leaned closer; the vigil in the middle of the night had left her somewhat weary, and her voice was as light as a wisp of smoke, becoming indistinct unless one listened carefully.
Shen Lixia separated her intertwined fingers, clenched them slightly, and said in a lighthearted tone, "Thank you."
"Tomorrow we'll go find a good quality green bamboo."
"good."
The next day, the four of them traversed the mountains and forests to the entrance of Kuizhou, where they saw a dilapidated plaque with the two characters "Kuizhou" somewhat blurred. Shen Lixia looked around and saw that it was clearly the entrance to a city, but unlike Changzhou, there were no guards here, and instead, it was deserted and extremely desolate.
“It really seems like a carefully planned scheme,” she shrugged.
"We'll see some people if we go a little further in, but they're quite strange. Don't be frightened later, fellow Daoist." Simmons led the three into the city, her sandalwood scent stronger than yesterday. Shen Lixia found it hard to adapt, feeling the scent was chilling, so she slowly moved to the back of the group.
She felt a tugging at the corner of her sleeve. Looking down, she saw Qiao Yanshen's hand gripping her sleeve. He then moved to walk beside her and took her hand.
Shen Lixia couldn't help but feel a little uneasy—she wasn't going to suddenly disappear.
However, having already experienced the feeling of unknowingly losing his junior sister once in his dream, Qiao Yanshen didn't care about her. When he noticed Shen Lixia pulling her hand away, he simply held it even tighter without being able to resist.
As she walked onto the street, a few scattered figures appeared around her. Farmers carrying loads passed by, and adults hurried along with their children to the market. Shen Lixia's gaze casually swept across the area, but unexpectedly met someone's eyes. She saw that the person's eyes were wide open, the pupils extremely pale, and the edges were already starting to blur, staring straight at her. The relaxed feeling she had just experienced due to the lively atmosphere instantly vanished. Looking elsewhere, she saw that others were also staring at her, and even behind the curtained attic, there seemed to be a pair of eerie eyes.
Shen Lixia's hand trembled almost imperceptibly. She quickly looked away and followed her senior sister's footsteps, getting much closer to her.
Meanwhile, the other three were also communicating with each other using their spiritual power.
"The bucket the farmer was carrying was empty." Simmons transmitted her thoughts to the other three with her spiritual power first.
"Don't look around. Although the people here are silent, they've been watching us closely, probably plotting something," Tang Huairou warned.
"Why are they all men? Where have all the women in the state gone?" Qiao Yanshen asked.
“That’s exactly what I found strange. But the people in Jingzhou told me that they’ve seen quite a few women with Quebec accents recently,” Simmons replied.
Listening to their conversation, Shen Lixia lowered her voice and said to Qiao Yanshen, "Perhaps they escaped, leaving only this group of filthy things behind... Senior Sister, is it possible to find out anything about these people?"
Qiao Yanshen shook his head: "It's very strange. It's as if they are covered by a thin film, making it impossible to feel what's inside. It's like... like soulless walking corpses."
Shen Lixia stared at the ground, not daring to look anywhere else. Normally, she would have glared back long ago, but the menacing expressions of those people were truly terrifying; just looking at them felt like something dirty was stuck in her eyes. Thanks to that earlier glance, she now felt uneasy, as if everyone's gaze had turned into tangible needles, piercing their bodies.
As one turns a corner and explores part of the market, the situation becomes even stranger. The market is crowded with people, vendors and shoppers alike, but some stalls are empty, others are piled high with muddy grass, and still others have swarms of tiny, black insects crawling across the discolored surface of rice. The shoppers stand before the stalls, merely glancing down to examine the goods, offering no words of conversation. Aside from a faint, almost imperceptible stench of decay, the air is thick with an oppressive silence—in such a vast market, not a single person utters a sound, as if a grand silent drama is unfolding.
Just then, Shen Lixia, unaware of the danger, kicked a pebble. It flew a short distance and struck a metal object held by someone, producing a sharp, ringing sound. The piercing sound shattered the silence, a certain order crumbling. The group of people, who had been motionless, suddenly turned their heads in unison, all looking towards the source of the sound. Some even twisted their heads at unusual angles, emitting a sickeningly loud "crack." The man holding the metal object stared blankly down at the object in his hand that had made the sound.
Then, Shen Lixia instinctively pulled Qiao Yanshen aside, and Xi Mengsi, as if sensing something was wrong, quickly led Tang Huairou to a more open area. The instant they moved aside, a strange flow of people surged forward, engulfing the stiff figure. The sounds of tearing and biting, the chewing and swallowing of elastic leather, and the soft splattering of blood all reached their ears.
Shen Lixia immediately bristled, gripping Qiao Yanshen's hand tightly. Tang Huairou, pale-faced, quickly sent a telepathic message: "Let's find a place to rest first; these people have lost their minds..."
It was practically a ghost town.
"Follow me." Simmons quickened her pace, ignoring the chilling commotion behind her, and led them out of the market before the stench of blood filled the air. They turned into another street and finally stopped in front of an inn, where she strode inside.
The shop owner was a man in a long robe, who seemed different from the others. He had the life of an ordinary human being on his face. When he saw people coming, he smiled and got up to greet them: "Are you all staying on the second floor? How many rooms would you like?"
Simmons held up one finger, tossed a silver ingot onto the counter, took the key, and before the three could speak, went around to the back and hurriedly pushed them upstairs to the second floor. She even let out a soft shush after they entered the room, took out a few incense sticks, lit them, and placed them in the four corners of the room, setting up a protective array before finally letting out a sigh of relief.
“Alright, it’s cramped for us to share a room, but it’s safer. Please bear with us.” Simmons breathed a sigh of relief. “The situation here is worse than when I first came. It seems they’ve eaten quite a bit. The streets are much quieter…”
Shen Lixia frowned, recalling the strong sense of unease she felt when she saw the innkeeper earlier, and said, "How was that person able to maintain his sanity? Are there different categories of these kinds of monsters...?"
“He’s probably just slower to adapt than others, or maybe he’s under some kind of protection.” Simmons glanced out the window. “When I came here before, there were people I could communicate with normally, but now I can’t find them.”
Several blockbuster movies flashed through Shen Lixia's mind. She tugged at Qiao Yanshen's sleeve and cautiously leaned closer to whisper in her ear, "This is totally zombies, isn't it..."
Hearing her mutter, Simmons retorted, "Zombies bite living people. These things can eat each other, so they're more like ghouls."
Shen Lixia looked at her with surprise, clearly not expecting that she understood the meaning of the words she had said.
“I’ve met the other ‘me’ in my dream.” Simmons said smugly, arms crossed. Tang Huairou, sitting next to her, was completely bewildered. She looked at Qiao Yanshen, only to receive a meaningful smile in return.
I feel like I'm being isolated.
Tang Huairou thought silently, a strange sour feeling welling up in her heart. She decided to memorize these unfamiliar words first and then ask her master for guidance when she got back.
Seeing her dejected expression, Qiao Yanshen asked, "What are our plans going forward?"
“The situation in the state is worse than I thought. We are fully prepared…” Simmons looked at the bolted door. “I’m afraid there will be a fierce battle tonight. But moving forward in this situation is also very passive. Let’s take it one step at a time. If it really comes down to it, we can leave first.”
The group fell silent. For Tang Huairou and Xi Mengsi, this was not the first time they had faced danger, nor was it their first real-world experience; but for Shen Lixia and Qiao Yanshen, the current situation was far too difficult.
Qiao Yanshen began cultivating Qi first. Shen Lixia glanced at her senior sister, who had already closed her eyes and was immersed in her sea of consciousness, and busied herself sharpening arrows and searching through her storage bag for items that could be used in the battle.
Tang Huairou went over to talk to Simmons.
"By the way, what is your cultivation level, fellow Daoist? No offense intended, but I simply cannot see through it and find it quite intriguing."
“I am a Dream Cultivator, separate from the laws of Heaven, and my path of cultivation is not that of ordinary people. Naturally, I do not rely on cultivation level as a foundation.” Simmons nodded. “Compared to spiritual energy, I need a strong will more.”
“The cultivation process involves gradually purifying the body until it is completely unified with the Great Dao and merges into the world…and one’s lifespan changes accordingly. In that case, wouldn’t you be…”
Tang Huairou suddenly stopped. She realized that this was a cruel question, but for a moment she didn't know how to change her answer.
Simmons simply smiled and casually continued her unfinished words: "My lifespan is indeed no different from that of ordinary people. But so what? Over the years, I have become inseparable from dreams. For me, death is merely a cycle of a single thought. 'If I hear the Dao in the morning, I can die content in the evening!' Fellow Daoist, there is no need to worry. If there is a next life, I would like to experience being a mayfly, free from worries about the future, born in the morning and dying at dusk—how delightful!"
The previously stagnant air seemed to begin to flow again because of her words. Tang Huairou breathed a sigh of relief and smiled, "Yes...yes. Fellow Daoist Mengsi is absolutely right."
Just as some people in the world pursue eternity while others only strive for the present, all living beings have their own paths, differing from one another before achieving unity, and those who hold fast to their original intentions are even rarer.
All she needs to do is respect the other person's choice.
The two of them also began to prepare for their training, leaving Chen Lixia alone to trim tree branches, occasionally thinking about what material to use for the bowstring.
After an unknown amount of time, the sunlight gradually dimmed, and the rich colors streamed into the room through the window lattice.
With a thought, Qiao Yanshen slowly opened his eyes, which shone with a bright blue light, like a small yet profound ocean that could contain all rivers.
On the outer side, clouds slowly gathered, the sky turned gloomy, and a faint rumbling sound could be heard hidden within them, ready to unleash its power.
Qi Refining Great Perfection, Breakthrough in a Breath.
She is about to establish her foundation.
A note from the author:
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Li Xia: (Without explanation) Anyway, that's it!
Senior sister: Okay, I believe you.
Others: What kind of encrypted communication are you guys doing?
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