Second Mother Chi Hui’s tone of speaking turned flat but the corners of her lips were still lifted in a slight smile. It was as if she was telling another person’s story, “The prophecy of the Devil’s Incantation that came true could be doubted, but it was genuine when I realized that my witchcraft power increased exponentially. The Big Dragon’s Root and every other clansman truly thought it was due to the apparition of Mara the Devil so the worshipping became more and more devoted. But after some time, the Big Dragon’s Root suddenly discovered a queer occurrence…”
Halfway through her speech, the Second Mother suddenly diverted the topic of discussion, “Amongst the elders in the stockade village, there was a strange man who had loved to indulge in various fantasies and imaginations ever since he was young. He did not use bugs nor herbs to refine his potions; he refined with rocks and made rock potions. However, he did not manage to successfully refine his witchcraft in his entire lifetime. His witchcraft power was nothing out of the ordinary and his power was even weaker than those of the junior generation. However, his witchcraft power, when compared to those of us who refined our witchcraft potions with bugs and herbs, was generally slightly different from us.”
Wen Leyang’s group did not speak as they waited patiently for the Second Mother to continue her story.
Afterwards, the disciple of Miao Bujiao who had refined rock potions passed away. Not long after, the Big Dragon’s Root suddenly discovered that there was a stone-potion form of witchcraft power within his body. Due to his superior abilities in witchcraft, he had been able to discern that two forces of the same root and same source within him had a minute difference. No one else would have been able to detect such a small change within their body.
This was a cause for suspicion and the Big Dragon’s Root had recalled that ever since they had begun to worship Mara the Devil, their witchcraft powers would increase without a discernable cause. However, he also noticed that more of the older people in the clan were passing away than before. Since they had died seemingly of old age and disease, there was no cause for suspicion in their deaths. But he had noticed that not long after someone had passed away, the other clan member’s witchcraft power would increase by one point!
Following that, the situation then remained the same for a period of time. Every time the entire clan performed a group worship of Mara the Devil, some of the clansmen would die in a natural manner and a few days later everyone’s witchcraft power would increase a little bit more.
Wen Leyang’s expression gradually turned astonished and the Second Mother nodded towards him, “You were right, with the increasing number of dead people, the remaining living one’s witchcraft power would grow stronger and stronger. So what do you think happened in the end?”
Wen Leyang needed not to think about that question at all, “The last person or the last few people will receive the essence of the entire clan’s witchcraft power!”
The Big Dragon’s Root slowly became doubtful. The Third Mother’s actions became suspicious to him and he started to follow her movements and investigated the matter further.
Little Chili Pepper was an impatient girl, she frowned and interrupted when she heard that part of the story, “Since there had been a cause for suspicion then he should have just taken her down directly and cleanse the sect of this parasite!”
Second Mother looked at Little Chili Pepper. The flickering candlelight reflected in her eyes, creating a unspeakably eerie expression on her face as she replied, “If you were the Big Dragon’s Root, you would no longer be allowed to live in the Seven Maidens Mountain right now!”
The Big Dragon’s Root had his reasons for taking his time to begin the investigation. Firstly, he was unsure of the enemy’s intent and purpose. Secondly, it was important for him to clarify the situation between worshipping Mara the Devil and the increased mortality within the clan. He needed to know whether a spell had been cast during the worshipping process which would then take the life of one of the clansman and divide the witchcraft power between the remaining living clansmen, or whether the person had been targeted earlier and the worshipping ceremony was only a pretense to deceive the other clansmen.
The Big Dragon’s Root gradually found some truth through his investigation. The matter was even more terrifying than he had predicted, every clansman who had successfully cultivated their witchcraft practice had been bewitched by an unknown spell by the Third Mother. She would put any of them to death at any time.
The worshipping ceremony was also a part of the spell and every participating clansman would have a kind of soul-controlling spell cast on them. As long as they also received a share of the power, the Third Mother would only need to wish for anyone’s death and the person would die immediately!
Wen Leyang nodded as if he was deep in thought, he had come to the Miao Bujiao to deliver the letter but that had been his secondary purpose. His main purpose was to investigate the Mountain Coffin Spell and look for clues about the enemy. He had prepared himself in his heart that they might encounter cultivators who were engaged in evil practices at the stockade village of the Miao clan at the foot of the Seven Maidens Mountain. Since his trip to Mount Emei, his horizons had been greatly broadened and he was aware that there was a cultivator capable of supernatural powers who had been committing crimes in secret. No matter how strong the Miao Bujiao were, it was inevitable that they had been targeted. The only thing he did not understand now was that if the Third Mother had been living in the isolated stockade village all her life, how had she turned into a cultivator of evil practices?
Little Chili Pepper’s thinking was much more innocent than his thinking and she asked in hesitation, “Third Mother Chi Liang did not activate the spell to kill everyone all at once. Was it because she…could not have been able to withhold that much power in such a short moment of time?”
The Second Mother smiled incredulously, “Perhaps that may have been her plan all along. However, as we have never heard of this kind of spell, how would we understand her theory in operating it.” Upon saying that, she panted for a moment. Earlier, when she had used her abilities to divert the evil spirits and rescue them, the action must have consumed most of her energy.
Wen Buzuo, who had yet to interrupt finally could not endure it anymore as he heaved a heavy sigh, “Poor Big Dragon’s Root, he must have been in great danger at that time!”
Wen Buzuo was a talkative person whose worldly experience had taught him about the terrifying things a master cultivator can do. Even though he was unsure why Chi Liang would do such a thing, even if she had unknowingly planted such a spell into the master witchcraft cultivators of the Qing Miao clan, then her abilities must be shockingly powerful. It might be beyond his capabilities for the Big Dragon’s Root to try to deal with this kind of enemy.
As expected, the Second Mother gave a forced smile as she nodded, “Before he could share the results of his investigation, he was attacked by a spell which caused all of his five senses to be sealed. He turned into a living dead who could only think but could not speak! The wicked witch’s spell was exceptionally cruel but we had also inherited several excellent spells from the Grand Master. My brother had secretly made use of a Dream Visitation spell!”
Little Chi Maojiu held his half-eaten carrot and puffed up his little chest as he interrupted with a proud look on his face, “The Dream Visitation spell was one of the three spells inherited from the Grand Master’s legacy!”
The Big Dragon’s Root had used the Dream Visitation spell to inform the sequence of events to the Second Mother.
The Second Mother was quite shocked upon receiving the information. She then probed around a few times and identified some of the clansmen who still retained the inherent qualities of the Tuoxie Sect. The last person of prestigious reputation was Chi Shuilie. As the Big Dragon’s Root was completely under the Third Mother’s control, both Second Mother and Chi Shuilie were concerned for him and refused to leave the Miao stockade village. The Miao Bujiao’s personality was as its name had implied – they had no other friends in the world despite being in existence for over two thousand years. The only viable relationship they had was with the disciples of the Wen Bucao and Crow Ridge. Therefore, the Second Mother followed the guidance of the Big Dragon’s Root as instructed in the dream. She found the bamboo talisman which had been was passed down for generations and Chi Shuilie sent his four sons on a mission to secretly seek help from the Wen family. The Second Mother carved the word on each of the four sons’ hands in case of an emergency for they must deliver the message to the Wen family without fail.
“Why did they send the letter to Wen family and not to the Luo family?” asked Little Chili Pepper, who was feeling challenged.
The Second Mother answered logically, “The Wen family’s location from our stockade village was a lot closer than the Luo family’s village.”
Little Chili Pepper was turned speechless. Wen Leyang then asked his question, “But why did you carve the words ‘The Devil is Near(ly) Here’ instead of something like ‘Miao Family In Trouble’?”
The gloomy-faced old Qing Miao Chi Shuilie who had kept quiet since the beginning suddenly opened his mouth and said, “That’s a good question!” He then coughed and began to speak in choppy Mandarin. It seemed as if he was trying to explain the story on behalf of the Second Mother so that she could recover her energy. “To ask for help from the Wen family, we relied on our same ancestral origin from two thousand years ago with the code of our same origin brotherhood we…”
Wen Buzuo couldn’t stand it anymore as he laughed, “Hey uncle, do not show off your proficiency in the Chinese language anymore. You can speak in a direct matter with us!”
The old Qing Miao stared back at him, “The enemy’s devious spell was sophisticated beyond…”
“Beyond sophisticated!”
Mumu, Wen Buzuo and little Chi Miaojiu, the traitor, simultaneously corrected him. (Author’s Note: Haha, whoever had failed to notice the old Qing Miao’s mistakes in his speech, please report yourself to the book’s comment section.)
“…the enemy was cruel. If the Miao Bujiao’s disciples could not defeat the enemy, what more of the disciples of Wen Bucao. The wicked witch had cast a devious spell and enclosed the entire area to worship Mara the Devil. The Big Dragon’s Root had once tricked the wicked witch into telling him that when the day the Devil arrive would be the day her work was brought to a successful completion. Even though we did not cultivate in the Art of Devilry but after a long consideration, we concluded that the case would still be related to Mara the Devil ultimately. So, we had delivered the four words of ‘The Devil (is) Near(ly) Here’ to all of you and hoped that you could discover some useful clues and expose her flaws to defeat the enemy in one stroke. But we were also afraid that all of you would act like a crude and impetus wild boar and rush into the mountain at once seeking doom! The meaning hidden within the four words, the Second Mother took great pains into conveying them correctly!”
Old Qing Miao’s speech was originally sonorous and forceful but due to his strange intonation, though he had spoken affectively, the result was that he sounded strange and funny instead. The few survivors from Wen Leyang’s group had lowered their heads and their shoulders were shaking with suppressed laughter.
Chi Shuilie sighed heavily as he said, “This was quite unexpected! Your Wen family still truly remembered our code of brotherhood; the people they sent had taken four whole years to walk here!”
The three families of the Wen, Miao, and Luo had not contacted one another for the past two thousand years. Therefore, they would be insane to send over rescue troops the moment they received the peculiar message. However, Wen Leyang could feel his face burning as he blushed in embarrassment so he diverted the topic and solemnly described the state of the four Qing Miao master cultivators’ death. He then asked, “They were killed by an evil magic known as the ‘Mountain Coffin spell’. Had the wicked witch ever cast such a spell…” His final purpose of his visit to the Miao Bujiao was to investigate the matter of the Mountain Coffin spell.
The Second Mother had rested for a while and she looked better now. Ss she shook her head and answered, “The wicked witch never left the stockade village. The four elders would probably have been killed by an accomplice of the wicked witch.”
Back then, Second Mother’s actions were soon discovered by Chi Liang.
The second day after the four master cultivators had left the mountain, Chi Liang leveraged on her prestigious status in the clan as she gathered the young and old together. She then threw the Big Dragon’s Root’s corpse in front of the Second Mother. There were a few hidden clues on the corpse and they all pointed towards the misdoings of Second Mother and Chi Shuilie. Nobody believed in the Second Mother’s explanation for, in the eyes of a regular person, it was impossible for this form of unheard-of devilry to exist in this world.
Soon after, chaos broke out as those in support of the Second Mother were the master cultivators of the stockade village. Even though there were only a few of them, they were capable of protecting themselves against the wicked witch.
The wicked witch Chi Liang too refused to abandon her effort in extracting witchcraft power as she was one step short completing the ritual successfully. She did not activate the devilry spell or make a direct death threat, but she somehow managed to convince the Qing Miao clansmen to attack them with witchcraft power. What was even more frightening to the Second Mother and Chi Shuilie was that Chi Liang’s witchcraft skill had become exceptionally powerful. Her abilities surpassed the Big Dragon’s Root when he was alive. After several battles, the Second Mother and her few supporters were driven to desperation. They were forced to flee to the land of the dead and their original troop of a few hundred men had dwindled to only a few lucky survivors by the time they made it into the broken temple.
Though they were now trapped in the land of evil spirits their enemy was unable to enter as well. So the few of them continued their existence in this broken temple and persisted along until now.
Second Mother’s calm tone of speech turned puzzled as she continued, “In the end, I still can’t understand why the wicked witch didn’t cast any life-threatening devilry spell in these past few years.” She then shook her head and refused to elaborate about this matter anymore. She smiled as she concluded, “The people who had attacked you were all under the direct instruction of the wicked witch. Right now, the wicked witch has a prestigious status in the stockade village. I’m afraid that her status has become much higher than when the former Big Dragon’s Root was alive.”
Wen Buzuo was unusually amazed, “So all of you had held out over here for four years? What do you eat for sustenance?”
Little Chi Maojiu answered with a smile, “We have mushrooms! There’s an exceptionally huge cellar underneath this temple…” He used his hands to make a huge shape with all his might, “There are huge mushrooms everywhere. Each stalk of mushroom is bigger than a large tree.”
Wen Leyang hastily pulled out another two carrots and stuffed it into little Chi Maojiu’s hand. The poor child had been munching on four years’ worth of Dog’s Pee Fungi (Author’s Note: A form of commonly known fungi, inedible, purely used as an entertaining metaphor. Fellow food-fanatic readers please pay special attention to this…). No wonder he had enjoyed munching on the carrot so much.
Little Chili Pepper’s expression changed abruptly and her chin dipped twice with great effort as if she was trying to suppress her gag reflex. Her agonized gaze also held surprise as she asked, “The ghost’s flesh…are these mushrooms abundant?”
Little Chi Maojiu nodded his head exuberantly, “These mushrooms are abundant and huge, are you hungry?”
Little Chili Pepper was no longer interested in the Miao Bujiao’s past events, her huge eyes were brimmed with a bright hope, “Bring me to the cellar, quick!”
The Second Mother spoke no further and led them with slow steps around the ferocious huge Buddha statue then to an endless stretch of underground tunnel. The tunnel twisted and turned downwards all the way as if they were walking straight into the eighteen levels of hell.
Mumu’s expression was excited but at the same time disturbed. She shouted at Wen Leyang, “Follow me!” She then retrieved a torch and ran down the underground tunnel with quick strides.
The tunnel wound and slanted diagonally downward. Wen Leyang did not let her out of his sight as he followed closely behind her. His skin relaxed and tightened continuously as he gradually sensed his surroundings. The rest of the people followed behind with the Second Mother who had a relaxed manner. Even though she appeared sickly, her footsteps never slowed down as she led the rest of them behind the two youngsters.
Wen Buzuo’s skill was unreliable and his legs were equally disappointing, he was gasping for air upon running for a short while and he asked with his tongue hanging from his mouth, “How deep is this tunnel?”
The Second Mother chuckled as she answered, “It’s rather deep and the total length is about a hundred feet. It’s not dangerous as long as you are careful and don’t trip.”
The rest of them laughed when they heard this. Other than Wen Buzuo, everybody else was a master cultivator in the mortal world and they wouldn’t trip even if they were to run on a steep glacier.
The tunnel started to widen further down and the narrow path gradually turned into an alarmingly spacious space. The stone walls by the side soon disappeared into the gulf and the air became scorching hot. Every inhalation felt like puffs of flames burning through their lungs.
Finally, they walked around a jagged piece of protruding rock and the vision before their eyes brightened suddenly. Little Chili Pepper and Wen Leyang yelled in alarm and stopped abruptly.
A gigantic mushroom forest appeared impressively before all of them.
No one had ever seen such a huge mushroom before, much less a forest made up of these gigantic mushrooms!
The smallest mushroom in front of Wen Leyang’s eyes was taller than an electric post. The mushrooms grew in layers which resembled gigantic umbrellas supporting the sky. They squeezed and pushed onto the people’s heads. Every gigantic mushroom was a pretty and striking red color but on the outside of each mushroom’s body was glowing lightly with a white light. The overall effect was a ghastly one in such a gloomy atmosphere.
Little Chi Maojiu, with a smile on his face, squeezed out from behind Second Mother and said, “This is what we eat but there’s not much taste to it.” He then reached out to the stalk of a gigantic mushroom and tore off a piece before passing it to Wen Leyang.
Wen Leyang suddenly growled as he took a step forward and blocked everyone behind him. His body was slightly arched and he looked like a black leopard which had sensed danger. His gaze was vigilant as he stared at the injured gigantic mushroom. Only he had sensed that during the exact moment when little Chi Maojiu tore off the mushroom’s flesh, a gust of ghastly air had bloomed and enclosed all the pores on his body. The air coiled around him and refused to disperse.
Second Mother’s body swayed as she pulled little Chi Maojiu to her side. At the same time, a few other Qing Miao clansmen moved up and formed a guarding formation around them. Chi Shuilie spoke in his strange intonation once again and asked Wen Leyang, “What happened?”
Wen Leyang shook his head as he looked at Little Chili Pepper who was standing by his side, “You know about these mushrooms right? Are they…alive?”
Mumu nodded gently, “These are not mushrooms; they are ghost’s flesh! Perhaps…there’s a way out!” She looked at Second Mother and asked, “The land of evil spirits above us, how was it formed?”
As the Second Mother heard the two words ‘way out’, her eyes immediately brightened as she answered in a serious manner, “This place was originally an ancient battleground thousands of years ago. Two troops of barbarians had fought each other to the death. Their sorcerers had cast spells continuously yet unexpectedly, at the end, the spells were too strong and it called in a deluge. It was said that the floodwater poured out from the ground suddenly and as this was low terrain, many were drowned in a flash. After the flood had receded, all the corpses which were buried under the mud slowly decayed and turned this place into the land of death. The story goes that more than a thousand year ago this old temple had suddenly appeared here, no one from the clan knew what happened really…”
Little Chili Pepper nodded her head in excitement, “I don’t care about the old temple, this place has been a vitality point in the land of evil spirits all along whether the temple existed or not! Millions of people above had suddenly met with violent deaths. The dead air was trapped there and could not be dispersed. It then gradually turned into evil spirits that cause disturbances while the world was supposed to be filled with vitality…”
The Luo family had been dealing with corpses for the past two thousand years. They have a high priority in dealing with the art of yin and yang energy in the cosmos. All the master cultivators of Luo family were highly proficient in this skill. From their point of view, the world was supposed to be filled with vitality so for example, even though this stretch of ancient battleground had been turned into the land of evil spirits, the vitality of the land should not have dispersed. Instead, it had slowly condensed and shrunk until it finally formed into a vitality point in the middle of the ground. It was the only place with living force in the entire land of evil spirits.
When a person dies, their corpse would retain some level of unwillingness to part with its vitality. More often than not the corpse would be filled with so much yang energy that it would turn into a walking dead. The corpse demon from most folklores was also resurrected by converging the living being’s vitality. As for these corpses here which had been buried alive in mud, they would have slowly gravitated towards the yang energy and would gather around at the spot with the most vigorous vitality.
Finally, all those corpses would be refined by that vitality into a small piece of unperishable fleshy stone, known as the ghost’s flesh.
Little Chili Pepper at towards Wen Leyang and said, “The ghost’s flesh is not a rare object, as long as there’s a vitality point there will surely be ghost’s flesh. But if the ghost’s flesh was transformed into a mushroom and to slowly grow into such a wide stretch of mushroom forest, then that means there’s an endless stream of vitality! Since the floodwater had gushed out from underground, there must be a humongous underground river or underground lake here. In other words, the outside world is connected to here, if only we can find a way out…”
Before she could finish her sentence, however, a roaring laughter suddenly sounded from behind her without any warning.
Wen Buzuo was holding his stomach while laughing maniacally, “So these mushrooms were transformed from dead people?”
Little Chili Pepper nodded her head in confirmation, “Almost!”
What! As the Qing Miao clansmen found out that they had been consuming dead men’s flesh for the past four years, they started vomiting vigorously. Only the elder Chi Shuilie remained unmoved though the expression on his dark-skinned old face was gloomy.
Wen Buzuo raised a thumbs up sincerely at him, “Good lad! You’re strong enough to endure this!”
Chi Shuilie huffed, “I’ve had no appetite during the past few days so I haven’t eaten anything since…”
Wen Leyang’s body sped around as he rapidly swept past every Qing Miao clansman’s side and applied a dash of green-colored powder under their noses. Wen Buzuo advised anxiously from the side, “Be careful not to get vomit on yourself.”
As Wen Leyang’s shadow flashed past them, the disciples of Miao Bujiao could feel a jet of cool and refreshing sensation seeping from their noses into their hearts. Their nausea was then reduced by half in the blink of an eye.
The Second Mother ruthlessly suppressed the nausea in her heart as she looked at Little Chili Pepper, “How do we find the way out?”
Little Chili Pepper pointed at the gigantic mushrooms ahead, “By digging. The ghost’s flesh had drawn in the vitality from outside and slowly transformed into mushrooms before accumulating into this wide stretch of mushroom forest. All the mushrooms are joined together under the soil so eventually, their roots will lead to the first ghost’s flesh demon. The way out should be underneath the first mushroom’s stalk!”
Wen Buzuo stared at the vast horizon of the boundless mushroom forest before him and inhaled a cold breath ferociously, “So…so how long would it take to dig through all of this?”
Wen Buzuo was still pondering on the difficulty of the task while the rest of them, other than little Chi Maojiu, had each selected a stalk of gigantic mushroom. Some used their bare hands while others used their swords to begin to dig rapidly.
