Chapter 239

Chapter 239

“Xiao Wu, these flying-head creatures are truly formidable, and this place is extremely sinister. Don’t take risks like this again.”

Old Cao spoke with concerned admonishment.

I gave a helpless, bitter smile.

“Old Cao, I may be young, but do you really think I’m the kind of person who loses his head and throws caution aside? That damned fat bird Roundy kept urging me to come explore, but I refused and said we’d wait until you arrived. It took one accident after another to force me to venture this far alone…”

I quickly gave him a concise account of everything that had just happened.

Old Cao was rather surprised after hearing it–probably because he had not expected my luck to be quite so terrible!

Accident after accident had left me no choice but to enter this strange underground cavern bathed in blue light ahead of them and alone.

“By the way, Old Cao, fat bird, do either of you recognize these flying-head creatures? What exactly are they? I’ve never seen or heard of them before.”

I was curious.

Old Cao pinched his chin and thought for a moment before answering.

“They look a little like the flying-head barbarians of Miao territory, and a little like the flying-head curses from the foreign lands of Southeast Asia, but they’re not quite the same as either… My guess is that some evil cultivator drew inspiration from both dark arts and devised this sinister method. Xiao Wu, ask Immortal Lady Qin when you get back. She may know.”

Unexpectedly, even the widely experienced Old Cao could not fully identify them.

Roundy pointed a wing toward the tunnel exit ahead.

“Enough idle chatter for now, Wu and Old Cao. We’ve already killed four of those disgusting flying-head creatures. There are five left packed into the tunnel exit. Why don’t we kill them all first?”

I nodded too.

“All right! The problem is that they won’t enter the cavern on their own, and the passage is narrow. Only one of us–Old Cao or me–can get close enough to fight at a time… Oh, I suppose there should also be room for one big fat bird.”

Old Cao merely smiled and patted the hemp rope tied around his waist.

“If they won’t come in, we’ll drag them in. Just like when the paper horse knocked three flying-head creatures in here a moment ago.”

Only then did I realize he had brought his phoenix rope!

Old Cao moved a little closer, then flung out one end of the rope.

Whoosh!

The hemp rope seemed alive, twisting and winding through the air like a venomous snake. It shot straight at the flying-head creatures, abruptly looped around one, then swiftly retracted and dragged it over.

Roundy and I exclaimed in unison.

“Damn, that works too?”

“What are you two standing there for? Kill it!”

Roundy and I moved forward, one on either side, and used our respective methods to destroy the flying-head creature bound by Old Cao’s phoenix rope…

After repeating the process twice and dragging over three flying-head creatures in total to kill, the remaining two grew more cautious. They learned to dodge, leaving Old Cao empty-handed several times.

I thought for a moment and told Old Cao to stop.

“Forget it. There are only two left, so leave them alone for now. We don’t want to expend too much strength and magical power, only to run into some other danger. Nothing else strange seems to be happening at the moment, so let’s rest for a while and talk.”

“That works.”

Old Cao drew back the rope and slapped his waist twice. The long rope wound itself around him, seeming to shorten as it did, without becoming the least bit bulky.

It was quite marvelous.

We found two large rocks and sat down, then discussed the situation here in detail…

First, we could be certain that this was a naturally formed underground limestone cavern.

At some unknown point, someone–most likely a powerful evil cultivator–had discovered it, then used it as a foundation to build an underground passage extending west to the rear mountain behind the student dormitory of Lianghe District Middle School. They had also built an empty grave above the entrance to conceal it from others.

The flying-head creatures and walking corpses I had destroyed were probably guards.

Poor Wang Xinren had likely died entirely by accident…

The flying-head creatures possessed some intelligence, but not much. They were basically on the level of ordinary wild animals such as wolves or foxes, and they certainly would not dare leave this place without permission.

One of them had probably happened to be as close to the outside of the abandoned grave as it could get, putting Wang Xinren’s soul within reach. It had simply swallowed his soul!

Though he had died without much pain, there was certainly not even a scrap of his soul left. He had lost even the chance to reincarnate and was utterly gone.

It was a miserable fate…

But as we spoke, even I found something strange.

“An evil cultivator went to such enormous trouble to create this eerie place and these powerful evil entities. What for? The most likely reason is to hide some object or treasure. Yet after coming this far, we haven’t found anything valuable enough to warrant such protection.”

Roundy stood on my shoulder and patted my head with a wing, striking a pose as though it were directing the course of the world.

“There must be something good! We just haven’t found it yet. Actually, even the glowing moss all over these walls is quite useful to evil cultivators.”

Oh?

I was startled and turned to look at the fat bird.

“You recognize those glowing blue mosslike plants on the cavern walls? I was just about to ask whether you or Old Cao knew what they were.”

Old Cao also looked at Roundy.

The stupid bird immediately brightened. It proudly raised its head, planted both wings on its hips, and smugly began explaining to Old Cao and me…
“See? In the end, you still need Lord Bird to explain things to you! This glowing blue moss is called Corpseglow Moss. It usually grows in dark, damp places. Supposedly, it forms from a combination of large numbers of wronged souls and earth baleforce.”

“Both its origins and growing environment could be considered extremely cold and gloomy, and you won’t feel any heat even if you approach it. In truth, however, the nature of Corpseglow Moss itself is extremely yang and fiery.”

“After harvesting Corpseglow Moss and air-drying it in moonlight, you mix it with centipedes, scorpions, and other poisonous creatures, then grind it all into powder. The powder can then be controlled through dark arts.”

“Whether it’s scattered or suspended in the air, once someone inhales it, the evil cultivator who cast the spell can make it ignite inside their body at any time with a mere thought, burning them to ash from the inside out! It’s extraordinarily cruel and wicked.”

“Of course, that’s only the most common use for Corpseglow Moss. There are other sinister techniques involving it too, but Lord Bird never looked into them in detail, so I won’t say more… Well? Isn’t Lord Bird widely learned and knowledgeable? Hurry up and clap for me. Clap, clap, clap!”

Smack, smack, smack!

I clapped my palm against its head.

Roundy glared furiously at me.

“Wu! I’m teaching you knowledge of the supernatural, and you dare hit me?”

“Didn’t you ask for clapping? I’m just borrowing your head to clap against.”

Roundy: “…You truly have no shame.”

Me: “Right back at you. I learned it from you. But seriously, fat bird, how do you know so much about Corpseglow Moss?”

“None of your business!”

It was still angry. It folded its wings and refused to acknowledge me.

Old Cao watched us bicker from the side, merely smiling without a word.

In his eyes, we were probably just two immature juniors.

“Wait!”

Something suddenly occurred to me, and I frowned as I asked Roundy a question.

“You just said that besides wronged souls, Corpseglow Moss also requires nourishment from earth baleforce to grow.”

“That’s right.”

“But this place should clearly be an auspicious feng shui site. How could it contain earth baleforce?”

I instinctively felt that something was wrong.

The inner reaches of Three Stars Attending the Moon, combined with a water dragon vein… Both were highly auspicious feng shui sites!

Earth baleforce should arise only from an inauspicious feng shui formation. It should not exist here.

This was entirely different from the creation of the flying-head creatures and walking corpses!

An evil cultivator could artificially create those evil entities and monsters through their own methods and spells.

But earth baleforce was malignant energy from the earth’s veins, born naturally from inauspicious feng shui terrain. I could not imagine what level of power would be capable of artificially producing it.

I feared even Master could not do so!

That meant I could essentially rule out artificial creation.

Could Roundy have remembered incorrectly?

The stupid bird immediately bristled beneath my doubtful gaze and began cooing and shouting.

“Wu, you can question my character–no, wait, my birdly character. But you can’t question my knowledge! That glowing blue plant is definitely Corpseglow Moss. There is no mistake. And Corpseglow Moss absolutely requires earth baleforce to grow. It must exist in this cavern. As for why earth baleforce would arise in such an auspicious feng shui formation, you’ll have to investigate that yourself. I don’t understand feng shui arts…”

When Old Cao saw me turn my gaze toward him, he repeatedly waved his hands as well.

“Xiao Wu, although I’m a coffin bearer, my expertise is limited to choosing somewhat better burial sites for ordinary families or the rich and powerful. Your attainments in feng shui already surpass mine, so there’s no point asking me. I can’t make sense of this either.”

All right…

Helpless, I could only puzzle over it myself.

At the same time, I felt that if I found the reason behind this contradiction, I would uncover the truth of the strange underground cavern behind the school!

“All right, Roundy, Old Cao, keep watch for me. I’m going to concentrate fully and examine the feng shui formation here in depth again!”

As I spoke, I took out the golden compass once more.

When I had calculated the course of the water dragon vein through the mountain’s rock layers earlier, I had not dared concentrate too deeply or examine it too closely. This place could be extremely dangerous. If I focused all my attention on the compass and some ghostly thing emerged to ambush me, I would be finished!

Now that Roundy and Old Cao were here, I no longer had to worry about my surroundings or my own safety.

At a thought, the qi in my dantian surged and flowed through my meridians into the golden compass in my hand.

Amid a faint hum, the golden compass shone. Its light formed a large three-dimensional phantom compass around the physical object. The scales of the Twenty-Four Mountains and the directional divisions of yin and yang, the Five Elements, and the Eight Trigrams instantly appeared before my eyes, without any need for deliberate calculation on my part.

“The golden compass Master gave me truly is a divine instrument for reading feng shui!”

Marveling inwardly, I began analyzing the formation in earnest without overlooking a single detail…

Then my expression abruptly changed, and I could not stop myself from blurting out,

“How is this possible? Why… why does the combination of this water dragon vein and its surroundings form a Yellow Springs Baleforce Formation? Impossible. It shouldn’t be possible. This is unbelievable.”

A Yellow Springs Baleforce Formation?

Old Cao and Roundy both froze when they heard me.

“Xiao Wu, what do you mean by Yellow Springs Baleforce Formation? Is there really an inauspicious formation hidden within this auspicious feng shui site?”