Chapter 7

Chapter 7

The sand sank beneath me like running water. Countless grains forced their way into my nostrils and mouth, clogging me up until I could barely breathe.

“Pah!”

I spat hard, formed a hand seal with one hand, kicked outward with both feet, and drove the Vajra Seal forward with all my strength.

My fingers felt as if they had slammed into cotton, sinking into a mass of exceptionally slick, rotten mud. Then that mud clamped around my hand in return, its ten fingers twisting tight. It felt like my bones were about to snap, and cold sweat burst out across my forehead.

With one hand trapped, I freed the other, formed the Thunder Seal, and struck forward hard. Who would have thought that the moment my hand touched that lump of mud, most of my force would be dispersed? The mud was slippery as jelly. The second my hand made contact, momentum sent it sliding forward, and a bolt of lightning fizzled uselessly inside the sand pile.

After two failed strikes, anger flared in my chest.

I bit open my fingertip, used it as a brush, and drew a Fire Cloud Talisman in front of me.

The fire talisman in my pocket responded to the call and shot out of my bag, bursting into a roaring blaze before my eyes.

I stared at it, my eyes nearly splitting with fury.

I distinctly remembered only bringing a few cheap Thunder-Fire Talismans. But this golden flame in front of me was clearly from a Li Fire Talisman worth hundreds of thousands apiece!

Something inside the flames shrieked:

“Stop burning me! It hurts-”

I reached into the fire and dragged out a pitch-black, strange little thing with a bird’s beak and a fish’s body, about the size of a duckling.

The moment that thing appeared, all the sand and water around us vanished. Even the dried-up well was gone. Hua Yuling and I were standing inside a deep pit, staring at each other.

Hua Yuling said, “What the hell is this thing?”

“No idea.” I tightened my grip around the monster’s neck, fingers digging in, my eyes fierce. “This bastard just cost me hundreds of thousands. Kill it first, ask questions later.”

“Mercy, hero! Mercy! I know where the person you’re looking for is!” The monster struggled desperately in my hand. Its mouth opened and closed, producing a very strange tone, but oddly enough, we could understand what it meant. “Ji Kang! I know where Ji Kang is!”

The moment I heard Ji Kang’s name, I was slightly stunned. The monster suddenly went rigid in my grip and spat out a huge mouthful of sand. Its aim was terrible, though. It missed me and sprayed my shadow instead.

The sand splashed up from the ground and bounced onto Hua Yuling’s face.

“Ah-”

Hua Yuling screamed and raised her hands to cover her eyes.

Jiang Haoyan looked frantic.

“What’s wrong?”

Jiang Haoyan reached for Hua Yuling’s hands.

“Let me see. Does it hurt?”

I rolled my eyes, finally unable to take it anymore, and clamped both hands around the monster’s neck.

“Cut it out already! What kind of crappy illusion is this? Pull this trick again and I’ll crush you to death!”

The monster was shocked.

“You saw through it again that quickly? Who are you? Where did I lose?”

I choked the monster until its eyes rolled back. Its tongue lolled out like a snake’s, forked at the tip. Hua Yuling curiously leaned in to look.

“What exactly is this thing? There are tens of thousands of insects and creatures in Miaojiang, but I’ve never seen this species before.”

“If I’m not mistaken, this should be a Yu.”

“You know the idiom ‘throwing sand at someone’s shadow’? That’s used to describe this thing. It hides in water, holds sand in its mouth, and shoots it at a person’s shadow. Whoever gets hit falls under an illusion and dies inside it.”

“An old Yu can manipulate sand and control water. Strictly speaking, it should be a type of mountain spirit. But after the founding of the People’s Republic, spirits aren’t allowed to become spirits anymore, so who knows how this thing survived until now.”

I grabbed the Yu’s slick fur with one hand and twisted it in a full three-hundred-and-sixty-degree Thomas flare.

“You bastard, pay me back-no, I mean, where exactly is Ji Kang?”

“That hurts! Let go! Hurry up and let go!” The Yu’s tongue stretched out longer than its entire body. It wasn’t communicating with us through its voice, either. It was more like some kind of brainwave that let you hear its meaning directly inside your head. “I’ll take you there! I’ll take you there right now!”