The Immortal’s Poison

There were seventeen bodies in total. Most of them were already badly decayed, but they could still be identified as disciples from the Wen family based on their personal belongings and the fact that most of them were Wen Leyang’s brothers and uncles. All of them had a frightful expression on their faces and their seven orifices and fingernails were stuffed with soil before being buried vertically in the ground. It looked as if they were walking when they were hit with a spell that had caused them to sink into the earth and be buried alive.

Fortunately, none of the people from the Death Trademark or the four Grandfathers were amongst the bodies that were found. These people were very likely the disciples sent by First Uncle to Mount Emei to look for the four Grandfathers. After resting for a while, Wen Leyang began digging another hole to bury the bodies. He made a vow to the Wen families to bring the bodies back to the ancestral tomb once the issue had been settled and prayed for the deceased to protect the four Elders.

When the bodies have all been buried, Wen Leyang raised his fist and punched hard onto the ground. The solid ground looked like snow that had encountered hot, burning coals and the top layer of soil rose up like steam, with Wen Leyang’s right arm buried into the ground.

The Wen’s village at Nine Peaks Mountain is situated at the West of Chuan Region and just like Wen Leyang, the deceased had entered Mount Emei from the west side. The place where they were buried was a flat ground on a small hill that every one of them would have had to pass through in order to reach Zhanyan Peak. Ever since they lost communications with the four Elders and the people from the Death Trademark, Wen Tunhai had sent out groups of disciples to hunt for information and most of them had ended up being buried alive at this place.

Little Chili Pepper was relieved to note that there were no persons from the Luo family among the deceased. Yet she still felt that something was not right. “It’s like… someone waited here to ambush the Wen’s disciples as they passed through here…” she said as she saluted the row of new graves according to her family’s custom and comforted the spirits of the dead.

Having laid the dead to rest, Wen Leyang closed his eyes for a short respite. Once a glimmer of light showed in the morning sky, he woke up, carried Wen Xiaoyi on his back and continued to head towards Zhanyan Peak.

Mumu was left with bloodshot eyes and the undead toddler followed behind her dejectedly…

A day had passed before the little group found themselves standing at an unknown and perilously tall peak, looking upon a vista of vast mountain ranges emerging from the mist. Wen Xiaoyi consulted the map and pointed to a steep peak in the far distance which looked as if it had been hewn by a celestial ax and said, “That’s Zhanyan Peak!”

From afar, Zhanyan Peak was surrounded by rolling hills which were shrouded in mist. The sharp and imposing peak stood out from the serene hills like a wolf in a flock of sheep.

The landscape after the unknown peak gradually changed to a flat terrain. Although the land was still full of rocks and winter forests, the elevation was no longer as steep compared to when they first started up the mountain. The biggest surprise, however, was when the bleak winter landscape was gradually replaced by a rather lively scene.

From time to time, groups of people who had gathered here from all directions were crossing the valleys and the hills, heading towards Zhanyan Peak. These people were dressed in all sorts of outfits and were both young and old, male and female. An old lady with white powder and a red flower in her hair and a hunched-over old man with his chin almost touching the ground, contrasted with a few young people wearing Adidas and Nike branded clothes as well as a middle-aged man who was complaining as he looked for a signal on his cellphone. Some walked at a brisk pace while others took it slow and easy.

Nonetheless, all of their eyes sparkled with excitement without exception. Whenever they met each other, they would either greet each other in a friendly manner or stare each other down ferociously.

These groups of people had a bizarre appearance and a defiant temperament. If they were to appear at Wangfujing (a popular shopping area in Beijing), they would most likely have made the next day’s headlines in the newspapers as ‘Aliens Shopping in Beijing?’ with the sub-heading of ‘Beijing Welcomes You!’

The fact that this crowd had appeared in such an isolated mountain region was even more mind-boggling. It did not take long before a commotion broke out in the crowd. A man who appeared to be a reporter with a camera was confronted by a big, fat man with a low-cut shirt that revealed his chest hair. The fat man had walked over to the reporter and scolded him in a low voice, “Did you just take a photo of me? You’ve violated my privacy rights!” With that, he swept his huge hands out and knocked the camera from the reporter’s hands.

The reporter growled and threw a three-inch long knife into the air, which grew into a formidable blade against the wind and sliced towards the fat man’s head. The fat man made a strange shout and pulled a Wolf’s Fang Club out from thin air!

The surrounding people quickly came over to mediate between the two. The reporter saw that there was no chance of a fight and spat, “We have the right to interview and take photograph as a reporter!”

Mumu’s color came and went as she saw these people while Wen Xiaoyi simply hid behind Wen Leyang’s back.

Compared to these diverse group of outlandish people, Wen Nine and Wen Thirteen looked more qualified to the regarded as Earthlings instead.

The worrying part was that these people all seemed to the headed in the same direction as Wen Leyang’s group. Just as he was pondering whether they should avoid the crowd, he was interrupted from his thoughts. An old man who looked to be around sixty years of age with a goatish beard approached them and asked with a heavy Tianjin accent, “What are you doing here?”

The back of the old man was as straight as an arrow, his hair and beard were meticulously combed, giving him a sharp and severe aura. Wen Leyang felt as if it was not a person who stood in front of him but a sharp knife.

…

Standing at the top of a mountain ridge, Shui Jing was scanning around him with an ominous glint in his eyes. His golden inverted bell was suspended in the air and made a loud ringing sound. With every clang, the air seemed to vibrate and ripple in the sky. After searching for a while, the fat monk yelled to the old monk impatiently, “Where did he go?”

The old monk was picking his finger nails with a small flying sword as he answered, “Ran away, most probably.”

The fat monk stomped his feet in frustration and made to pull the prayer beads off his neck with the old monk, Ji Fei, yelled in shock and quickly stopped him, “Are you out of your mind?!”

Shui Jing’s anger was so fiery that the black ash on his face started to fall off continuously, “That depraved son of a b*tch! He dared to use the Mountain Coffin Spell! If I had not discovered it in time, the both of us, including those few kids as well would have been buried alive for sure! Get out of my way, I’ll flush him out with these magic beads…”

The old priest held on to his hand tightly, “Do you know what place this is? This is Mount Emei! Even if you turned the mountain around with those eighteen beads of yours, you might not be able to find that son of a b*tch! Instead, you’ll find yourself with tons of old fairies!” It was a pity that Wen Nine and Wen Thirteen were not around as they would have happily asked if they knew the Old Fairy as well!

Shui Jing was stunned by this revelation and let go of the prayer beads unwillingly and asked, “Then what should we do? Just let that son of a b*tch go?”

“The inside of that bald head of yours is all full of hair, is it? Why would that son of a b*tch ambush others in Mount Emei?”

Shui Jing waved his finger and commanded the inverted bell back to him and said, “You mean… it’s related to Zhanyan Peak?”

The old monk nodded his head slowly then grinned cunningly before saying, “Even if it’s the ghostly Old Wicked Phantom…”

The fat monk rolled his small eyes and said, “How could you say that?”

Not taking it to heart, a glimmer of slyness flickered in Ji Fei’s eyes, “Cut the crap and let’s get going. We’ll miss the show if we run late!”

A smile like a fox that had just cornered an old hen widened on the fat monk’s huge basin-like face.