Apotheosis Begins with Tai Chi

”Th-that… is that the… C-Cloth-Wrapped Demon… you were talking about?”

Du Wenshun’s legs gave out, and he collapsed onto the ground.

His eyes bulged as he stared fixedly at the massive tree ahead—one so thick it would take three people to encircle it.

The color drained from his face, and a warm wetness spread between his legs again.

’We’re done for...’

Zhang Wen stopped in his tracks and quickly set Wang Peng down from his back.

His right hand immediately clamped onto the hilt of the long saber at his waist. He crouched low, his spine tensed to the absolute limit. Every inch of his muscles coiled with power, bulging and knotting as if about to burst through his Red Armor. He was poised to strike, facing a monumental foe.

”Lad, you…”

Wang Peng, leaning against a rock, tried to say something, but it felt as if an invisible hand were choking him.

His brow furrowed into a tight knot. Breathing became incredibly difficult, and his heart hammered so violently it felt like it would burst from his chest.

The words he wanted to say turned into choked, wheezing sounds in his throat, ”Hhh… hhh…”

”This… This is the Cloth-Wrapped Demon!? HSSS—”

Shen Chun stood nearby, her eyes glazed over and her body trembling. She couldn’t help but suck in a sharp, cold breath. The chill shot up her nostrils and instantly pierced every corner of her being, making the hair on her body stand on end.

Before seeing the Cloth-Wrapped Demon with her own eyes, she had wished she could sprout wings and fly to the signal point.

But now that she was truly seeing it, she was terrified, her scalp tingling with fear. Even the hand resting on the saber at her waist grew weak, its fingertips trembling and palm slick with cold sweat.

’I’m not a coward,’ she told herself. ’I’ve seen my share of bloody battles more than once.’

But this monster before her was simply too terrifying.

The fear in her heart had been completely unleashed, like countless slimy, sticky tentacles crawling all over her body and soul, threatening to drag her into an endless, muddy abyss.

And now, reflected with unnerving clarity in her shrinking pupils, was the very source of her terror.

On a thick, horizontal branch of the massive tree ahead stood an ape-like figure about ten feet tall.

The branch, as thick as a water bucket, dipped slightly under its weight. Snow rustled down from it, landing silently on the ground.

Its back was hunched, its spine arched high like a burial mound. Its limbs were long and thick, the muscles bulging to a horrifying degree.

A sliver of pale moonlight leaked through a crack in the thick gray clouds, a single beam happening to fall right upon it.

The black cloths wrapped around its body were tattered and torn, hanging in strips like rotting grave shrouds.

Its head was enormous and crooked, like a swollen tumor.

The black cloth on its face had long since disintegrated, revealing a visage that looked as if it had been gnawed away, bite by bite.

Its nose had been sheared off, leaving only two dark holes with edges of necrotic flesh.

Its lips had rotted away, exposing two rows of sharp, bestial teeth of uneven lengths. The gums were swollen and purple. A viscous fluid trickled from between its teeth, forming long, stringy strands that dangled from its mouth, swaying so tenaciously that even the wind couldn’t break them.

The most terrifying part was its eyes.

Its eyeballs were the size of an adult’s fist, bulging out as if they hadn’t grown in their sockets but were forcibly stuffed into them.

A layer of eerie red light shimmered over their murky depths. The pupils were thin vertical slits, like twisted snakes crawling within.

Not one of the four people here dared to look it directly in the eyes.

Even a momentary glance made their skin crawl and a chill seep into their bones, threatening to shatter their very Heart Spirits.

Suddenly, the entire tree seemed to lurch downwards.

The thick, horizontal branch bent like a bow, and snow cascaded off it like a waterfall.

The monster’s legs stomped twice on the branch with heavy thuds. Its ten-foot-tall body compressed to the extreme, spine arched and long arms flung back, before it suddenly exploded forward.

The recoil sent shudders through the great tree, its leaves trembling and dead branches snapping and clattering to the ground.

The next moment, the moonlight was abruptly cut off by a black shadow. The people on the ground only felt the sky above them darken as if a mountain were crashing down.

A sharp wind howled, piercing their eardrums. It carried a foul stench—a mix of incense ash and something rotten and putrid—that slammed into their faces and flooded their mouths and noses.

”BOOM—!!”

Its massive body slammed into the ground, making the earth tremble. A chaotic shockwave erupted outwards, sending snow and gravel blasting in all directions, like ripples on water or a hammer striking a pile of flour.

The ground caved in, forming a crater. Cracks spiderwebbed out from under its feet in all directions. The shockwave kicked up powdered snow, which swirled into a white, hazy mist under the moonlight.

”Watch out!”

Wang Peng roared with all his might. Though it was his first time seeing such a creature, his experience and wisdom told him that the snow-mist was likely a deliberate smokescreen created by the monster.

The next instant, just as Wang Peng predicted, the monster in the snow-mist dropped to all fours. It scrabbled at the ground like a wild beast, its claws gouging four deep furrows in the frozen earth and sending gravel and clods of dirt flying backward.

In that single moment, its ten-foot-tall body compressed into an arc that almost scraped the ground. It moved so fast its form blurred, like a giant boulder launched from a catapult.

The moment it burst from the white mist, both its speed and power reached their Peak, its target exceptionally clear.

It was aimed straight at the person who posed the greatest threat.

’Fuck! It’s coming for me!’

Zhang Wen’s pupils contracted.

He didn’t even have time to think, drawing his saber in an instant, driven purely by instinct.

The Refined Iron Long Saber flew from its sheath, tracing a snow-bright arc in the moonlight.

He held the blade horizontally before him, blocking his face and chest. The spine of the saber rested against his forearm, his left palm braced against the flat of the blade, forming a standard defensive stance.

He planted his feet firmly in a horse stance, arched his back, and tensed every muscle in his body—not to counterattack, but simply to defend with all his might.