Corpse Retriever

At first, the cave was fairly normal, but the deeper they went, the more murals began to appear on the walls. They were crude, primitive murals, all smeared in fresh blood, depicting all kinds of monsters and curses.

From the middle of the ceiling ran a thick gouge that stretched all the way inward, likely something that had once been forcefully split open with a sharp weapon.

The greatest characteristic of sinister things was that, given enough time, they could always rise from the ashes. Even if they could not fully recover, they could still bring trouble.

Laughter, curses, and the roars of beasts kept pouring into everyone’s ears.

The things painted on the murals gradually shifted from still images into moving forms, as if they had come alive.

They had always been resentful remnants sealed here and used in place of reverse guardian spirits.

In the past, when faced with something like this, Li Zhuiyuan would have stopped first, set up a formation, then advanced little by little with the power of that formation, suppressing everything along the way and cutting off its influence.

But now, there was no time for that.

Tan Wenbin reached up and slapped both his shoulders, cursing, “What are you two laughing at?”

Everything outside was lively, and the two Resentful Infants started joining in as well, just like children who saw a group of other children playing and naturally wanted to go play with them too.But the moment he finished cursing, Tan Wenbin froze for a second. He had caught the look Little Yuanhou was giving him from Runsheng’s back.

Tan Wenbin immediately slapped both shoulders again. “Kids, quick, liven up and start jumping around! Call all those little friends and little animals over to play with you!”

After following Tan Wenbin for so long, and after Tan Wenbin had used the Ghost-control technique on them, the two Resentful Infants had, on the whole, gained far more than they had lost. They were already much more solid and substantial than when their mother had first entrusted them to him.

The murals here had been damaged before. What remained was already badly weakened. There were a lot of them, yes, but in terms of quality, they were nowhere near Tan Wenbin’s two adopted sons.

Urged on by Tan Wenbin, the two Resentful Infants began to use the Summon Companions Ritual.

The stronger quality naturally gave them authority, like the older children in a group of kids.

Gradually, the noise by Li Zhuiyuan and Runsheng’s ears faded, and their vision returned to normal.

Tan Wenbin kept retreating as he crooked his fingers. “Come on, all of you, come here. Uncle will tell you a story, the story of Snow Prince and the Seven Little Red Riding Hoods.”

“Let’s go.”

“Mm.”

Runsheng started running. Without any obstruction or interference, he quickly covered a large stretch of ground, and the cave walls around them no longer bore any murals.

Runsheng said, “Everyone’s different from before now.”

Li Zhuiyuan replied, “Everyone is growing.”

Li Zhuiyuan had always known the rational, measurable data on paper. In fact, he had been the one to formulate all of their development plans.

But only when things truly happened, when each of them became capable of standing on their own, did Li Zhuiyuan feel a strange sense of unfamiliarity.

Maybe this was what River walking was.

Wave after wave struck them, and within those waves everyone kept growing stronger. Everything happened quietly, without anyone noticing, like moisture soaking silently into the earth.

Runsheng asked, “Since he came here before, why didn’t he clean everything out completely?”

This was the question Runsheng had been holding back the whole time.

Since that Dragon King of the Zhao Family had come here before, why had he not cleared out every last corner, leaving more difficulty for later generations?

Li Zhuiyuan said, “You can’t blame him. From his perspective back then, he did clean it out completely.”

Of the twelve burial coffins, he had cleared nine and sealed the remaining three.

He had killed the biggest Gu insect in the insect pool.

As for the resentful curses on the murals, he had directly blasted open a trench through them.

An ordinary household might only do one major cleaning before the New Year. His cleansing had lasted at least a hundred years. It really could not be said that he had done a poor job.

But even a Dragon King could only handle his own era.

On the stele inscription, he himself had written: “The years stretch endlessly; human strength is finite.”

Sometimes, it was not that one generation did not want to finish everything completely. Trusting in the wisdom of later generations was, in truth, also a kind of helplessness.

The shrill screams grew more and more urgent. It sounded as though the thing had already reached the point of labor.

That meant their time really was running out.

But just as Runsheng was about to step out of the cave, a huge tail swept across.

Runsheng hurriedly retreated. With a thunderous crash, the tail swept by, sending rocks tumbling everywhere.

The thing looked like a snake, yet it had four legs.

In the countryside, such creatures were common enough to be called “four-legged snakes” or “snake aunties,” though they were not actually snakes, but a kind of lizard.

Only this one’s size was absurdly enormous.

Fortunately, it had no head.

Its head lay in another corner, huge and reduced to white bone.

But where its smooth neck should have ended, there was instead a black fleshy tumor. The tumor wriggled, resembling both a nose and an eye.

The screams were coming from ahead. This creature was likely the final barrier blocking the entrance to the “delivery room.”

Runsheng understood. It was his turn now.

“Little Yuan.”

“Mm.”

Runsheng burst forward, leaping out of the cave and avoiding another whip-like sweep of that tail.

In midair, Runsheng raised his hand. Li Zhuiyuan reached out and grabbed it. As he left Runsheng’s back, Runsheng turned with the motion and threw the boy outward.

Li Zhuiyuan had never trained in martial arts, but years of steady, unrelenting basic practice had already made his physical condition far stronger than his appearance suggested.

Runsheng felt this most clearly. Every so often, when the boy climbed onto his back, he could tell that Li Zhuiyuan’s strength and balance had improved again.

If Little Yuan were still the same Little Yuan from when they had first met, Runsheng would never have dared throw him like this. He would have gotten him killed.

Even while airborne, Li Zhuiyuan had already chosen his landing posture. The instant he hit the ground, he shifted force sideways and rolled away in a continuous tumble.

By the time he got to his feet, the headless “snake auntie” tried to rush over to stop him, only for Runsheng to smash one of its legs with his shovel and forcibly hold it back.

The two exchanged a simple glance. Li Zhuiyuan nodded to Runsheng, and Runsheng nodded back.

If he fully opened his Qi Gates, Runsheng had a chance of directly killing this headless giant. But for now, there was no need.

At this distance, whether to do it or not was only a matter of a single word from the boy.

Just like Tan Wenbin’s Ghost-control technique, when Li Zhuiyuan was present, the authority to use Runsheng’s and Tan Wenbin’s secret arts naturally rested in the boy’s hands.

Ahead were three curtains of water. After passing through them, Li Zhuiyuan finally saw the true Zhao Jun Temple.

Compared with the one outside on the mountain, this one could only be described as much rougher and more makeshift.

It was obvious that local materials had been used and that it had been carved in haste.

Some places still retained clear cutting marks.

Above hung a stone plaque inscribed with the words: Zhao Clan Seal and Suppression.

Below stood two stone steles, one large and one small. Embedded in the smaller stele was a child, long since reduced to dry bones. It had clearly been hammered into the stone by force.

The larger stele had a hollow depression in it, faintly suggesting a human shape, but the center was empty.

Back then, Zhao Wuyang had probably intended to refine both the old witch and her Gu child into stone specimens together.

Unfortunately, he had managed to kill and suppress the Gu child, but he had failed to kill the old witch.

In the end, he had no choice but to build a temple and set a formation here, hoping to grind the old witch to death over time through the power of years and the formation.

But the formation had gone out first, allowing the old witch to survive and even break free.

From the remaining traces, Li Zhuiyuan could reverse-engineer some of the formation’s details.

He had seen too many strange formations. His horizons had broadened.

Yuxuzi’s insight into formations had deepened his understanding of their finer points, while Wei Zhengdao’s guidance in dreams had elevated his sense of the aesthetics of formations.

This great sealing-and-grinding formation of the Zhao Family Dragon King was, frankly, rather crude.

Most likely, the Zhao Family Dragon King was not particularly skilled in the art of formations.

That was not strange. A person’s lifespan was limited. Within such brief years, it was difficult for anyone to master every path.

The Zhao Family Dragon King had probably followed the path of crushing everything through sheer force. Ever since they entered this place, every trace he had left behind pointed to that.

But even a Dragon King, an outstanding genius of his generation, had needed his family’s support in the end.

The Zhao Family of Jiujiang had likely found it hard to provide that support, which only underscored how difficult and hard-won his rise had been.

If this world of the jianghu really had always been monopolized by Dragon King families, that would have been rather dull.

Continuing inward, the ceiling above was filled with crystalline stalactite-like cones, and fragments of them had fallen to the ground as well.

Underfoot, they crushed easily into powder.

The texture of that powder was exactly the same as when those fake figures had been shattered.

It seemed that the almost miraculous mirror-based technique had relied on this as its raw material.

And to maintain its continued production, the environment here could not be allowed to change. That was why the old witch had been even more determined to stop the construction of that hydropower station.

“Ahhh!!!”

This was the most shrill and piercing scream yet.

After that cry, all that remained was short, ragged panting.

Li Zhuiyuan hurried forward. Up ahead appeared an altar. Many broken iron chains lay on it, and on the altar itself lay a disheveled woman.

“Hehehehe… hehehehe…”

The woman laughed. She raised her head, sat up, and looked down at Li Zhuiyuan from atop the altar.

Her left eye shone with vicious light, while her right eye was as gentle as a placid lake.

The moment their gazes met, Li Zhuiyuan first closed his eyes, then opened them again, interrupting the mental charm she had tried to cast on him.

A satisfied look appeared on the woman’s face once more.

She reached out and gently stroked her own stomach.

It was flat.

Li Zhuiyuan wondered, Has she already given birth?

But what the woman did next told him he was wrong.

Smack! Smack! Smack!

She began slapping her stomach hard. Her flat, normal abdomen quickly swelled, gradually turning translucent, and inside it was a child that absolutely should not still have been inside a womb at this stage.

From where Li Zhuiyuan stood, he could only see the child’s back.

But judging from that back, the child looked about five years old.

“Child, you were right. Just as you said, so long as I kept making screams like I was in labor, he would come rushing here at once. Look, everything happened exactly as you predicted.

What a wonderful child you are. Not even born yet, and already this clever, already able to scheme against people.”

After speaking to her own belly, the woman deliberately raised her head to look at Li Zhuiyuan and asked,

“Don’t you agree?”

Li Zhuiyuan’s right hand clenched slightly. Karmic fire was already burning in his palm. His left hand flipped downward, and the copper coin sword dropped into his grasp.

Whether it was right or wrong did not really matter. Compared with the possible gain, this bit of risk was worth taking.

Behind him came rumbling noises from Runsheng’s fight with the “snake auntie.”

All it would take was one call from him, and Runsheng would fully open his Qi Gates.

Which meant that Li Zhuiyuan’s current situation was not actually all that bad.

As for this woman... this was her lair. Why did she think letting someone come straight into her lair meant she was the one gaining the advantage?

The woman stood up, opened her mouth, and let out a shriek. The crystals all around began to tremble.

She walked down the steps. Her limbs started twisting in irregular ways, making cracking sounds, like scattered machine parts reassembling themselves.

Her aura grew stronger and stronger, and the resentment gathering around her thickened by the second.

The strength of evil beings could be judged from their presence alone.

The old witch had once been a sacred maiden of Miao territory. Those evil beings transformed from practitioners of the mystic arts were the hardest kind to deal with.

But just then, a thudding sound came from inside the old witch’s belly.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

“Ahhh!!!”

She screamed. The resentment she had been gathering immediately shuddered. Not only was the process interrupted, it even began to disperse.

The old witch sat down on the steps, clutching her belly with a pained expression.

“Child, wait a little longer, wait a little longer. Once Mother kills him and his people, once Mother frees up her hands, then Mother will give birth to you properly.”

But her soft, gentle words received no equal response from the thing in her womb.

The thumping only grew louder than before.

“Ahhh!!!”

The old witch screamed again.

At this point, even Li Zhuiyuan was no longer certain. Had his choice been wrong or right?

A moment ago it had clearly seemed wrong. Now it suddenly seemed somewhat right again.

Just as Runsheng had said... the old witch was in premature labor.

“Child, listen to Mother. Wait a little longer. Mother must prepare a blood sacrifice for your birth. Only then will you be strong from the moment you are born, just like your elder brother was!

Your elder brother was powerful the moment he was born. If not for protecting Mother, he would never have been slain by that Dragon King. He sacrificed himself only to save Mother’s life!

Wait a little longer. Don’t rush, don’t rush...”

What answered her was a harsh tearing sound.

Rip!

Her belly had been split open from the inside.

“Child, what are you doing? What are you doing? Stop, stop! Stop right now!”

Rip, rip, rip, rip...

The tearing only grew worse.

“Child, stop quickly, stop at once! Wait until Mother prepares the blood... blood...”

The old witch’s limbs began to shrivel. Her already messy hair gradually turned gray-white, as if she had suddenly aged decades.

Without a prepared blood sacrifice, the fetus had turned the mother’s body itself into blood food.

Li Zhuiyuan suddenly realized that the Mother-and-child linked-heart curse recorded in Wei Zhengdao’s writings had gone wrong in the old witch’s case.

The old witch had not wanted to give birth to a second self.

She had truly wanted to give birth to a child of her own!

It was intense selfishness and ambition that drove practitioners of the mystic arts onto crooked paths. No matter how noble their words sounded, in the end it was always for themselves. Yet this old witch had stirred up such a huge disaster... all to give birth to a child she herself regarded as perfect?

What kind of terrifying obsession was this? To what extent had she twisted and polluted the very meaning of the words “motherly love”?

At the same time, this also explained why, back then, Zhao Wuyang had dealt with both the Gu child and the old witch together. Logically, when the Gu child had been born, the old witch should already have died, only to be reborn through the Gu child.

But when danger had come, her first child had sacrificed itself to save her. That, in turn, had only deepened her obsession with giving birth to another perfect child.

Only this time, something seemed to have gone wrong.

This second child did not seem willing to listen to his mother.

Li Zhuiyuan frowned slightly. Just what kind of monster was the thing the old witch was carrying now?

The old witch was in total panic. Her body was growing older and older, while her life force continuously poured into her womb. If this continued, she would die. She would die!

Several times, she raised a hand as though wanting to thrust it into her own belly and strangle her child to death.

But every time, she pulled her hand back.

She could not bear to do it.

She believed this second child of hers was even more perfect than the first, that it would absolutely satisfy her. She could not bear to destroy the painstaking result of all her efforts.

Crack!

Her belly finally split completely open.

A child stood up from inside it.

When he had been in the womb, he had only looked five years old. Now that he had been “born,” his back made him look nearly eight.

And the price of that growth had been a mad plundering of the mother’s body.

The old witch lay on the ground, terribly weak, but she was not dead yet. The little life force remaining in her was enough to let her continue clinging to existence.

She had once survived, with immense difficulty, through the Dragon King’s attack and suppression. This time, too, she could endure.

Smiling, she looked at the child standing before her and with great effort raised a hand, wanting to touch his face.

But the child raised his own hand and slapped away that affectionate touch from his “mother.”

Then he lifted one foot and stepped on his mother’s neck.

Crack!

The sound of something breaking rang out.

Then he bent over and reached down. There came a long, dragging, tearing scrape, and finally, with a wet pop, he ripped the old witch’s head clean off her body.

Then he casually tossed it aside as though throwing away a piece of trash.

The old witch’s head rolled far across the altar like a ball. When it finally stopped, the expression frozen on her face was one of utter disbelief.

No one could have imagined that this figure from folk legend, so often used by parents to frighten children into obedience, would die in such a way.

What even the Dragon King had failed to accomplish back then had now been done by this child who had only just been born.

“Heehee...”

The child laughed.

He turned around to face Li Zhuiyuan below.

This was the first time Li Zhuiyuan had seen the child from the front, the first time he had seen his true face.

In that instant, Li Zhuiyuan felt as though he were once again his eight-year-old self, staring into a mirror years ago.

Even ignoring the few years of age difference, the child looked almost exactly like him, as if they had been carved from the same mold.

Then the boy stuck his right hand into his mouth and sucked on it, a shy smile on his face, and in a childish voice he called out to Li Zhuiyuan:

“Big Brother, look, I helped you kill her.”

Fresh from the womb, sticky fluid kept sliding down from the boy’s head. He took a few steps forward, walking over the old witch’s corpse with squelching sounds.

Seeing that Li Zhuiyuan gave no reaction, the boy’s face showed three parts confusion, three parts grievance, three parts panic, and that final all-important one part expectation.

Li Zhuiyuan could see the pie chart plainly on the boy’s face.

Because he himself had once been very used to performing emotions that precisely.

The boy spoke again:

“Big Brother, do you not like me?”

Li Zhuiyuan drew a deep breath. At this moment, deep in his heart, a strong sense of revulsion rose up.

Because of Ah Li and his own efforts, the illness he had long suppressed, the one that had not surfaced again for a very long time, now showed signs of returning.

Li Zhuiyuan said in a low voice:

“You disgust me.”