Chapter Forty-Three: The Malicious Guests at the Gate

Yunqi pondered for a moment, then took out a jade slip—the very one given by Master Sukun before their parting. Five characters were inscribed upon it: “Scripture of the Azure Cicada Metamorphosis.”

This was a manual detailing the arts of corpse-seeking, corpse-identification, corpse-nurturing, and corpse-commanding.

Yunqi first glanced through the section on seeking corpses. There was no urgent need to find the Lord of the Lung Palace just yet, but it was best to familiarize himself with the methods so he could remain vigilant on his journeys.

The single-horned rhinoceros golden beetle was a gift from his teacher; its nature aligned with his own, and it was a rare specimen among insect corpses—his ancestors had even produced an immortal. Yet Yunqi did not intend to use it.

No matter how he considered it, an insect corpse did not seem an ideal choice. How best to put it? There was always a faint air of pettiness about it.

This creature’s talents lay mostly in commanding other dead things; as for its own abilities, apart from its burrowing skills and physical strength, there was little to speak of. To be honest, it lacked the aura of overwhelming might.

Though he favored the element of hard metal, the lung belonged to the west and governed slaughter; even though it was of the yin aspect, it ought to possess an indomitable sharpness and arrogance that soared to the heavens. If one were to go further, there should be an aloofness that conquered the orthodox with the strange, and eclipsed the yang with the extreme yin!

As for this insect corpse, it would be better to nurture it well and, in time, seek a more fitting host.

The section on corpse-seeking described that corpses, being of yin, corresponded in the five elements to: ethereal wood, ghostly fire, earthy soil, hard metal, and black water.

Black water was never to be chosen, for within the five elements, water was already yin; black water was the extremity of yin, and when combined with the body of a dead thing, the result would be so overwhelmingly yin that the corpse could hardly be raised, and if it did succeed, it became a great demon, an evil or monstrous corpse that must never be nurtured—at the very sight, one should eradicate it.

The jade slip specifically recounted that several centuries ago there had been such a monstrous corpse, named Gu Chen, who had been suppressed by the Emei Sect’s founder, Master Longbrow, beneath the earth in the fires of baleful energy, and had not reemerged to this day.

Ethereal wood produced living corpses. Since corpses belonged to earth and earth nourished wood, a spark of life gestated within death—thus, the living corpse. Once achieved, the living corpse was indistinguishable from ordinary people: the skin was fair, the joints supple, only lacking heartbeat and body warmth.

The famed beauty among the dead, Cui Ying, was said to be such a living corpse of ethereal wood, her appearance no different from that of the living.

Ghostly fire produced fierce corpses, often presaged by great droughts. The ancient drought demon was such a corpse, and in the present cultivation world, there existed a fierce corpse known as Red Corpse Wu Lao. However, this corpse seemed to fear extermination by the righteous, and so seldom revealed itself.

Earthy soil was the mother of all things, carrying the virtue of nurturing life; most corpses in the world were of this element—commonly called zombies.

Yet beyond ordinary zombies, when earthy soil reached its utmost, a corpse known as the Emperor Corpse could arise, but only if an emperor were buried in a dragon’s lair at the decline of a dragon vein. In the “Azure Cicada Scripture,” this was presented as mere conjecture; no true Emperor Corpse was recorded, and perhaps such a thing had never existed.

Hard metal produced the rare corpse. Metal was the essence of earth, born of transformation and strangeness—such a corpse could only be cultivated by exhausting every possibility for change. As for its capabilities, that depended on fate; ordinary ones were much like common zombies, though with tougher, thicker skin, called “golden-armored corpses.” At their peak, they might ascend to corpse immortality.

The single-horned rhinoceros golden beetle in his hand was lifelike, imperishable, and incorruptible, its texture like gold and jade—a superior specimen among hard metal corpses. If nurtured well, there was hope yet for it to gain sentience.

The text further explained:

Black water lay in the northeast, sunken in lakes and marshes;
Ethereal wood in the southeast, hidden among tree roots;
Ghostly fire in the southwest, buried in fiery pits;
Hard metal in the northwest, concealed amid metal and stone;
Earthy soil was found in all directions, beneath the earth.

Thus, before opening the Lung Palace, he might yet need to venture to the northwestern lands.

A deep growl suddenly came from the dog guarding the entrance. Yunqi put away the jade slip, extinguished the fire, and set aside his thoughts. In a flash, he darted to the cave entrance, eyes fixed on a certain direction.

“Toad, let’s see where you can run this time!”

A harsh shout rang out from afar.

Yunqi was speechless. Why did he keep encountering such scenes? But this time, judging by the voices, the pursuers seemed even fiercer, while the one fleeing was silent.

It wasn’t long before the “Toad” burst into Yunqi’s sight.

In the heavy snow, the man’s green robe was strikingly conspicuous—no wonder he was called Toad.

He wasn’t riding on clouds, only dashing forward on foot. Still, with the aid of some talisman or spell of swiftness, he ran fast enough, leaving no trace upon the snow. Yet his face and clothes were smeared with blood; he looked utterly desperate.

“Whoosh! Whoosh!” The sound of two arrows came from behind the Toad.

Yunqi’s brows rose—it was the sound of talisman arrows.

The Toad twisted aside; one talisman arrow struck the ground before him, dissolving into a cloud of poison to cut off his escape.

The other arrow was intercepted by a pebble flung by the fugitive, bursting into a fireball in midair. The fire washed over him, burning away some locks of hair and making him appear even more wretched.

Now the pursuers appeared in Yunqi’s view—two of them.

Their clothing struck Yunqi as oddly familiar, reminiscent of the Miao people, though their hair was a flaming red, which was peculiar.

One was about twenty, tall and burly, with a shock of wild, matted short hair. The other was around forty, short and thin, with shoulder-length hair.

“So you’re not running anymore? Used up your magic, ready for a desperate fight now?” said the younger, bristling man.

Now that the Toad had stopped fleeing, the two pursuers kept their distance, not daring to approach. Far smarter than that young hero from the Sect of Golden Aspect.

The Toad looked to be still in his twenties, yet his features were savage, and three fingers were missing from his hands.

“If it weren’t for you two scabby snakes ganging up on me, would I, your grandpa, need to run from the likes of you?!”

In the midst of the snowstorm, a filthy green-robed man and two flamboyant red-haired men hurled insults at each other. Yunqi truly couldn’t tell who was the villain here; it wasn’t as easy to judge as with the young hero from Jiangnan or the gaunt Daoist.

With the situation unclear, Yunqi remained hidden, suppressing his breath in the cave. The dog needed no reminding—even its breathing was inaudible.

“Your grandpa is right here! Do you scabby snakes dare to come closer? You’ve already shot thirteen talisman arrows—do you have any left? If your Redwood Ridge is so rich, I’ll die here without complaint!”

The Toad shouted loudly. Now that he’d stopped, his momentum seemed stronger than when he had been running.

The two scabby snakes only watched him intently, maintaining a distance that allowed for both attack and retreat.

“Yes, yes, you’re formidable, the most formidable. We were just wondering—this heavy snow, did your ancestor summon it? Did he ever consider his descendants might freeze to death in it? Oh, but perhaps he wouldn’t care at all!”

They both burst into wild laughter.

In the cave, the Daoist was stunned to learn that such a snowfall could be summoned by human means, and suspicions formed in his heart: one side in green, the other in red, locked in mortal enmity within the southern wilderness, and just now someone had mentioned Redwood Ridge.

Wasn’t this the feud between Redwood Ridge and Hundred Barbarian Mountain?

Did their disciples and followers really have to imitate their ancestors’ preferences so closely, even in their appearance and attire?

Time passed, and in the end, it was the Toad who could no longer restrain himself.

To Yunqi’s surprise, the man bit down on one of his few remaining fingers.