Chapter 39: Mountain Monsters and Forest Fiends
The sun had set behind the western hills, and night had fully fallen. After dinner, Li Yanchu and Bai Hongtu rode side by side on horseback, heading toward the gates of Wei City.
“Yanchu, if some evil spirit appears and attacks you, don’t act rashly. I’ll be waiting to support you at the forest’s edge,” Bai Hongtu said once they exited the city gates. He was clearly a bit uneasy and repeated his instructions as they would split up from here.
Li Yanchu replied calmly, “Don’t worry.”
Bai Hongtu wasn’t concerned that Li Yanchu might be killed by a malevolent being, he was worried he himself wouldn’t be able to resist intervening and stealing Li Yanchu’s moment of glory. With a light tug of the reins, Li Yanchu headed into the woods under the tranquil night sky.
Back atop the city wall behind them, a middle-aged man in official robes with a stern face was watching the pair intently. It was none other than Magistrate Xu of Wei City.
Behind him, the assistant magistrate and registrar stood silently, their postures tense and their expressions betraying undisguised anxiety.
“Clip-clop… Clip-clop…” Li Yanchu urged his horse forward into the forest, the sound of hooves echoing steadily.
The forest was deathly silent; only the rustling of the wind and the soft brushing of leaves could be heard, like the eerie sound of ghosts clapping their hands.
Li Yanchu rode along the narrow forest path at a calm, steady pace. He had dabbed a few drops of aged corpse oil on his body, masking his own yang qi. Tonight, he wasn’t wearing his usual Daoist robe, but a refined scholar's long gown.
After applying corpse oil, the vigorous blood and qi of a martial artist on his body were concealed. Li Yanchu had controlled the amount carefully, so he now looked just like someone down on their luck, with weak fortune and bad luck following him. And such people were the easiest targets for malevolent forces. He was using himself as bait, luring the evil out into the open.
Li Yanchu wasn’t entirely sure if this malevolent entity would be bold enough to strike in the woods just outside the city.
But he quickly realized that he had underestimated the situation. Wei City had indeed become a place of stirring darkness and hidden tides, drawing the attention of all kinds of malevolent forces.
“Whooosh...”
As soon as he entered the forest with his yang fire suppressed, the wind suddenly picked up, carrying a deep chill. With his heightened senses, Li Yanchu immediately felt a growing sense of danger, and his temples began to throb.
“Neighhh!” Even the horse beneath him began to grow restless, snorting and fidgeting nervously. Animals, when it came to sensing the unclean, were often sharper than humans.
“It’s coming!”
Li Yanchu’s eyes narrowed as he scanned both sides of the path with heightened alertness. With a swift tug on the reins, he turned his horse around to face the direction of the threat.
Swoosh!
A sudden gust of wind swept through, and Li Yanchu sharply heard a violent rustling of leaves overhead, as if some primeval beast had leapt down from above. Without hesitation, Li Yanchu threw a punch upward.
Bang!
The black shadow was knocked back by his strike, but the sheer force of the impact also forced Li Yanchu to stagger back. With a swift roll, he landed steadily on his feet.
“Neighhh!”
The horse he had been riding let out a tragic cry. Li Yanchu looked up and saw the horse collapsed on the ground, and atop it crouched a dark figure, neither fully human nor beast, with its four limbs pressed against the horse’s body. Suddenly, a pair of blood-red eyes locked onto him, filled with a chilling, eerie cold.
Whoosh!
The shadow flickered, and in the next instant, it appeared right in front of Li Yanchu. Its movement was lightning-fast, leaving behind only a faint blur.
“You're courting death!” Li Yanchu barked coldly, striking out with a powerful palm. The blow even brought a blast of wind with it.
Boom!
A muffled crash echoed through the woods. That strange creature, with its rock-hard body, took Li Yanchu’s strike without the slightest sign of injury.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
It lunged at him again and again, but each time, Li Yanchu managed to force it back, if only temporarily.
But not only did the evil creature show no sign of retreat, it instead became even more ferocious, its rage and resentment burning in its eyes as it locked onto Li Yanchu. At the same time, from its mouth came the sound of a child crying. In the depths of the shadowy forest, the scene appeared eerie and terrifying.
At one of the forest’s exits, hearing the crashing sounds coming from within, Bai Hongtu’s expression instantly turned serious.
It’s here!
With a flick of his body, Bai Hongtu shot forward like an arrow. Meanwhile, Li Yanchu fought as he retreated, leading the monster in the direction of Bai Hongtu’s position.
On the city wall, Magistrate Xu and the others suddenly changed expressions. Hearing the booming sounds from the forest and the eerie cry of a child, they couldn’t help but feel a chill creep into their hearts.
“The creature has appeared.”
Deep in the woods, the monster hunched over and suddenly lunged toward Li Yanchu, leaving behind only a shadow in mid-air.
Bai Hongtu arrived just in time. Forming hand seals with his fingers, he shouted as he rushed forward, “Get back!”
Li Yanchu moved instantly at the sound of his voice, dodging to the side.
He saw Bai Hongtu’s expression grow stern as he unleashed a beam of golden light from his hand, slamming directly into the monster.
The monster’s body went rigid at once, letting out a howl of pain, “Aaargh!”
“Heaven and Earth without bounds, Dragon and Tiger converge… Strike!” Bai Hongtu shouted, forming another set of hand seals with both hands.
At that moment, the sword on his back rang out with a sharp metallic cry, unsheathing itself and transforming into a streak of white light, which sliced toward the vicious creature.
Shing! The sword pierced straight through the monster’s chest, stabbing clean through.
The creature’s cries were cut short, and its body collapsed powerlessly to the ground. At this time, it was completely motionless, apparently dead.
“It’s done,” Bai Hongtu called out toward Li Yanchu.
Li Yanchu walked over from the side and watched as Bai Hongtu, fingers still forming a seal, summoned the sword embedded in the creature’s chest, which flew back into its sheath on his back with a clang.
“Controlling a sword to slay evil... now that’s straight out of a xianxia story,” Li Yanchu said with a trace of admiration in his voice.
Bai Hongtu gave him a sly wink, doing his best to hide his pride.
His martial skills weren’t as good as Li Yanchu’s, but in terms of Daoist techniques, he clearly had the upper hand, and that gave him a strong sense of satisfaction when standing beside Li Yanchu.
“Among the heroes under heaven, only you, and I are worthy of the title.[1]”
Clad in a dark Daoist robe, with a long sword on his back and striking features, Bai Hongtu truly looked like someone from a world beyond the mundane.
“This thing’s really dead, right?” Li Yanchu glanced at the corpse, a bit uneasy.
The evil entities he’d slain before, like the paper effigies and malevolent spirits, had all vanished without a trace, and their souls were destroyed. But this creature was of a different kind: it was a mountain demon, a flesh-and-blood fiend, the sort that physically existed rather than purely spiritual.
“Don’t worry,” Bai Hongtu said with a confident smile. “It was hit by my Golden Light Talisman and pierced through the heart by my flying sword. No way it survived.”
Just then, a commotion came from the direction of the city wall. It was Magistrate Xu and a group of officers and soldiers, rushing toward them after witnessing the fight from afar. Hearing the sounds, both Bai Hongtu and Li Yanchu instinctively turned their heads toward the city gate.
And in that instant, disaster struck! The creature that had appeared to be dead on the ground suddenly snapped its eyes open, and its blood-red pupils gleamed with a terrifying cold light. With a burst of power, it sprang from the ground and lunged straight at Bai Hongtu.
Seeing this, Bai Hongtu’s expression drastically changed. He staggered back, hands hastily forming a new seal, but at such a close distance, the sneak attack caught him completely off guard. They hadn’t expected this creature to be so cunning, to feign death and lie in wait.
The demon, which could mimic the cries of an infant, was upon him in the blink of an eye. Bai Hongtu didn’t manage to counterattack in time.
“I’m done for!” His face turned pale, as he was certain that he was going to die here tonight.
However, a flash of movement zipped past like lightning. Soon after, Li Yanchu appeared at Bai Hongtu’s side and slammed a fist directly into the ambushing monster.
1. This line originates from Chapter 21 of Romance of the Three Kingdoms (三国演义), during the renowned “discussion of heroes over warm wine” (煮酒论英雄) between Cao Cao and Liu Bei. ☜
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