Chapter 243
Chapter 243
I had to admit, whoever created this damned place must have been a sick freak–exceptionally twisted even among evil cultivators!
Otherwise, why would there be so many evil monsters beneath the hill behind Lianghe District Middle School?
Flying-head creatures, walking corpses, humanoid spider creatures…
They made one’s skin crawl and stomach churn!
Cultivators as strong as us would not feel fear, but even we found the sight nauseating.
At that very moment, the humanoid spider creatures let out insect-like screeches and rapidly swarmed us…
“They’re so fast!”
I could not help exclaiming as I drew the other sharp short blade hanging at my waist and prepared to meet them. It was an ordinary machete, not a ritual implement or anything of the sort.
All the talisman paper in my pocket had gotten soaked in the underground river and could no longer be used.
As for my ritual blade… it possessed tremendous offensive power, but it also consumed an enormous amount of stamina and qi. It was mainly intended for one-on-one fights or battles against a small number of enemies.
There were more than a dozen humanoid spider creatures charging us now, so the ritual blade was not a suitable weapon. Since they were monsters rather than ghosts and had physical bodies, ordinary blades and swords ought to be able to wound them!
Why did I carry a blade to school?
Mainly because it made certain matters easier to handle… I usually kept it hidden on me. If I did not take it out, no one would ever notice.
In the blink of an eye, the humanoid spider creatures were already upon Old Cao and me…
“Xiao Wu, get ready!”
“All right!”
Facing the nearest two humanoid spider creatures, I clenched my toes and engaged the muscles and fascia of my calves. My entire body shot forward to meet them.
The creatures swung their hard, sharp palms, already partly covered in carapace, and chopped and thrust them at me.
I ducked low and passed straight between them at waist height!
As I swept by, I flicked the sharp short blade in my right hand upward. It severed the right creature’s arm at the shoulder from beneath its armpit, then curved across and cut down from the left creature’s shoulder.
Crack! Crack!
The two sounds came almost together, with scarcely a pause between them. My slashes flowed like water, smooth and effortless.
By the time we passed one another, two black arms had fallen to the ground, sticky green blood oozing from the severed ends!
Screech, screech, screech…
Even without looking back, I could hear the two humanoid spider creatures crying out in pain.
More of the creatures charged me head-on…
I drove force through the sole of my foot, extended the sharp short blade in my right hand, and spun like a top.
Swish, swish!
The blade swept across the necks of two creatures. Two hideous, savage heads flew high into the air as green blood sprayed out.
In the first exchange alone, I had severed the arms of two humanoid spiders and cut off two heads!
An excellent result.
Of course, simple as it looked, the feat relied on the Bagua saber art I had practiced so long and hard.
In truth, every internal martial art had evolved from ancient battlefields or combat with weapons.
Xingyi Boxing, for instance, grew from battlefield spear techniques, originating with ancient generals who charged on fine horses and thrust red-tasseled spears at one another. Bagua Palm developed from saber arts, while Taijiquan developed from sword arts.
Correspondingly, anyone who studied Xingyi Boxing had to learn to fight with a long spear, anyone who studied Bagua Palm had to learn saber techniques, and anyone who studied Taijiquan had to learn sword techniques!
Without grasping the essence of the weapon, one could never cultivate the corresponding boxing art to a profound level.
Xingyi, Bagua, and Taiji were also the three most famous internal styles in Chinese martial arts!
Both long spears and swords were difficult to obtain. Bagua sabers, however, came in shorter styles that were convenient for practice… That was why the internal martial art I was best at for now was still Bagua Palm, along with its corresponding Bagua saber.
The Bagua saber moved as swiftly as the wind. One saw the blade travel, but never the person move.
As the footwork rose, fell, swung, and hooked, the body turned left and spun right, producing chops, thrusts, rising cuts, hews, wipes, draws, spreads, pulls, and intercepting cuts. Combined with Bagua Palm’s principles of issuing force, the saber techniques continued without end, surging like a mighty river–now a swimming dragon, now a flying phoenix, changing in countless ways!
Gradually, amid this dangerous life-or-death battle, I entered a wondrous state…
It was as though I had forgotten the battle. All that remained was the path along which force traveled as mind and body fused.
Every muscle, every sheet of fascia, every bone, every pore… all seemed reflected within my mind. My control over my body seemed to rise to a new level.
By the time I emerged from that state, I had already carved all the way through the swarm of humanoid spider creatures!
In one sustained burst, I had slain seven spider creatures!
Looking at the severed monster limbs and green blood strewn across the ground behind me, even I found it hard to believe.
As for Old Cao…
He wielded the coffin-bearer’s phoenix pole, hard as steel, like a storm of thunderbolts and killed six spider creatures as well.
Roundy made a great show of things, darting back and forth through the air in spectacular fashion. Yet in the end, it killed only five spider creatures–and that count included the first one, which it had cut in half with a wing before it could hatch and break free of its cocoon.
Together, the two of us and one bird wiped out every humanoid spider creature!
We had all spent a great deal of strength and panted heavily for breath…
Old Cao patted my shoulder and shook his head in amazement.
“It really is just as the stories say–Chinese martial arts are arts of killing! In a direct, head-on clash like this, when the enemy doesn’t have too many bizarre, underhanded abilities, martial arts are frighteningly efficient at killing.”
The damned fat bird folded its wings, landed on my other shoulder, and muttered irritably,
“Hmph! Those humanoid spiders were pathetic. They had practically no supernatural abilities at all. They were just ordinary monsters, no different from wild animals. Otherwise, Wu never would’ve had such an easy time of it.”
I rolled my eyes at the stupid bird, speechless. Did it have to compete over everything?
After we destroyed all the humanoid spider creatures and rested for another ten minutes, my attention returned to the Yellow Springs pool.
That evil cultivator had gone to great lengths to create this small feng shui site of “three yin converging” deep underground. It had to be intended to nurture something strange.
Since we were already here, whether out of curiosity or a desire to rid the people of harm, we had to at least investigate a little, didn’t we?
So I discussed it with Old Cao and suggested that he lower his phoenix rope into the pool to see whether he could fish anything out!
Like his phoenix pole, the phoenix rope had accompanied Old Cao for many years and had bound more coffins than anyone could count. In addition, Old Cao’s own sense of qi had influenced it, making it exceptionally powerful.
It was practically a living thing. Old Cao could control it through thought and his sense of qi, making it automatically coil around and bind all sorts of objects. If there truly was some damned thing deep inside the Yellow Springs pool, the rope could drag it straight out…
Old Cao readily agreed.
His curiosity about this place had also grown intense. He wanted to see what the hell was going on here!
And so we returned to the muddy yellow pool.
He untied the phoenix rope from his waist. While chanting under his breath, he poured qi into it, then tossed one end of the rope into the water…