All of a sudden, a strange atmosphere took over. The black robed Priestess raised her hand, holding a stone sculpture. It was about the size of her palm. The minute she raised it up, the four men around her had fearful expressions on their faces.
She then smashed the sculpture on the ground, a black cloud immediately rose from fragments. When the wind had dispersed the thick, black smoke, an evil looking black wolf stood in its place. It had a shroud of black energy on it, and it was a terrifying sight.
When Pei Zi Yun saw this strange scene unfold before him, he felt a certain uneasiness in his heart as he rushed forward to kill them.
The black robed Priestess then raised a hand and commanded her three mountain warriors, "Kill him for me!"
The remaining warriors were the most skilled and had been specially picked out to protect the Priestess, and were willing to sacrifice their lives for her. At first, fear could be seen on their faces when they saw the sculpture. The minute the order was issued, their faces reverted to expressionless looks. They knew that they were sent to die, and gave a loud cry before rushing forward.
"Die!" The four of them entangled in battle.
The black robed Priestess was finally granted a rare buffer time. She looked at the black wolf, and looked at the warriors who were fighting before shouting, "I need a brave warrior to sacrifice himself, so that the wolf can use his energy to kill that man."
"Priestess, I"m willing to sacrifice my life for you." The last warrior then bent down before the wolf as he spoke.
"What"s your name? I shall remember your sacrifice." The black robed woman touched the top of his head as she spoke. The warrior was on his knees, "My name is Meng Ci Da!"
The mountain people have two names. One was their Han Chinese name, and the other was their birth, mountain names. The warrior gave his mountain name.
"I will remember you." The Priestess looked at the warrior. Without any further hesitation, the warrior raised his blade to his throat and slashed it across his throat. The blade was extremely sharp and fresh blood spurted out from the incision on his neck, and splattered across the body of the wolf. Under the moonlight, the blood glistened as it puddled up beneath his dead body.
The blood of the sacrifice had touched the body of the wolf and was absorbed instantly by it. In the next moment, it came to life.
"Die!"
"Pu pu pu!"
Pei Zi Yun rushed through the three warriors, as their groans could be heard before all three of them fell to the ground, defeated. Blood was dripping down from his sword, as he looked down at the three corpses, b.l.o.o.d.y and twitching.
Pei Zi Yun did not stop there and rushed forward to kill the Priestess.
When Pei Zi Yun was fighting with the three warriors, the black robed Priestess had enough time to finish her ritual. She placed a finger onto the forehead of the warrior who had sacrificed himself. Black Qi welled up within her hand as she absorbed a white shadow from the fallen warrior.
She then dragged the wisp of white shadow and pressed it down onto the head of the wolf. Immediately, the wolf became enraged and glared at Pei Zi Yun.
"Honorable Wolf, kill that man."
Following the Priestess orders, the wolf charged towards Pei Zi Yun, a faint black outline of Qi covered its entire body, and looked extremely demonic. Pei Zi Yun"s face fell when he saw the wolf rushing towards him, "Which sect or house did this Dao art come from? There was nothing like this within the original owner"s memories."
The black wolf charged across, as the black robed Priestess turned around to flee. At this moment, she felt her head spin in dizziness, "d.a.m.n it, there"s a backlash from the spell!"
She then gritted her teeth as she withstood the discomfort and pain in her body as she clutched herself tightly and ran in the opposite direction.
If the wolf wins, I will still need to be careful. If the wolf loses, I still have this window of opportunity to make my escape.
Behind her, a man and a wolf collided into each other. The claws of the wolf swiped across at Pei Zi Yun, who managed to dodge narrowly, but his robes had been ripped apart. Thankfully it didn"t manage to break his skin. At the same time, Pei Zi Yun counterattacked with a swing of his sword. He managed to stab the claw of the wolf, his sword piercing right through, before he twisted his sword, breaking the wolf"s claw.
However, the wolf didn"t seem to feel pain. Soon after, it raised its other claw and slashed across once more, a black light swiping across the air.
Pei Zi Yun clutched his sword as he jumped a step back and narrowly avoided its claws once more. His shadow turned into a blur as he swiftly moved to the right of the wolf. His sword struck as quick as lightning. He could hear the "pu", and saw that half of the wolf"s neck had been split open.
In the next moment however, Pei Zi Yun"s smile froze. He saw the wolf howling, before black Qi surged towards the wolf and into the wounds. The black energy was swirling about continuously. In the next instant, it had been completely healed.
Seeing something as strange as this, Pei Zi Yun"s pupils dilated. Is this a result of some special power, or could it be that he did not execute his killing move thoroughly?
"Hm!" Pei Zi Yun cleared his throat before rushing towards the black robed Priestess to kill her. Whatever power or weapon needed a person to control it. As long as he killed the person who owned the weapon, it would lose its strength and ability.
When he looked away, he noticed that the Priestess was quite some distance away. Just barely after taking a few steps, he saw the powerful tail of the wolf swinging in his direction. Pei Zi Yun dodged it before swinging his sword wildly, "Pu!" He had hit the tail of the wolf. Similarly, the wolf seemed like it was unable to feel any pain. It turned around and started charging towards Pei Zi Yun. The sound of its body rushing against the wind could be heard.
"No, it looks like the wolf had acquired the senses of the warrior who had sacrificed himself. Could there really be such sorcery of transferring the soul of a living person onto something else?" Pei Zi Yun thought hard. Without delaying any further, he shouted "Binding Technique!"
Using this fraction of a second, as a buffer, his sword started to bathe in white energy. This white energy was emanating from Pei Zi Yun, into his sword, combining his Dao energy with his sword, "Imbue Dao in Sword!"
"Pu!" The wolf had managed to shrug out of the binds and charged towards Pei Zi Yun. When they met, a white light ran through the neck of the wolf, as it was decapitated before collapsing to the ground. As soon as it touched the ground, black Qi started to shroud its wounds again, rejoining and healing its neck and head.
After witnessing something like this, Pei Zi Yun sucked in some cold air. He had even resorted to using his Dao arts, to no avail. He had never seen anything like this before.
"This world really has such strange sorcery?" He then extended a finger and pointed it in the direction of the wolf. A white ray of light then transformed the rocks that the wolf was standing on into quicksand, as it sank down under.
Pei Zi Yun then turned around and started chasing after the Priestess once more. The black wolf had been submerged under the quicksand and struggled unrelenting. Seeing that Pei Zi Yun was chasing after the Priestess, it let out a loud deafening roar. Black Qi started to leave its body and worked on the quicksand. Before long, the wolf managed to struggle free from it.
There was a sense of urgency and anxiousness within the black wolf, determined not to let Pei Zi Yun reach the Priestess.
Only after taking several strides, did he realize that he could hear the sound of something rushing toward him once more. When he turned around to look, he saw the black wolf dashing toward him, catching up very quickly.
"This can"t do. The wolf is too strong. I have to settle it once and for all." Pei Zi Yun then halted as the black wolf stopped in its tracks too, eyeing him closely.
"Hm, I don"t believe there"s such a thing as unlimited strength and power."
"Looks like I have to exhaust and diminish your black Qi."
A ray of white light begin to cover his entire sword once more. His shadow blurred as he charged towards the wolf. The wolf had a quick reaction and antic.i.p.ated the attack and raised a claw to counter the sword, "Zhng", The sound of the sword crushing bones could be heard as the wolf gave out a cold howl, its body went soaring into the sky before landing down with a thud. Instantly, it"s wounds started to mend once more.
The black wolf crawled back up before looking up into the sky. "Ahwooooooo" it howled loudly before looking at Pei Zi Yun with intense hatred and murderous intents.
"Come again, die!" They then collided once more.
They clashed and retreated more than ten times. Pei Zi Yun was panting in exhaustion. The white energy on his sword started to fade with each encounter, and was visibly dimmer now. There were many gaping wounds on the body of the wolf. Some of these wounds had been healed, others were healing, but at a much slower rate. Its movements were considerably slower as well.
"It"s indeed effective. Let"s see how many times you can heal yourself. Die!" Pei Zi Yun had used up most of his energy as well, and felt a sudden wave of dizziness sweep over his body. At that point, the wolf charged toward him. Pei Zi Yun pointed with a finger and the gra.s.s and twigs formed a trap to bind it temporarily.
The wolf was thus slowed down, and had to struggle to rid itself of the traps. At that moment, a bright white light burst forth and hit the wolf in the neck. There has initially been a gaping wound on its neck, but the white energy had widened it.
"Rest in peace." Pei Zi Yun then released another surge of white light, aiming it at its neck. "Boom!" The head of the wolf dropped off. The wisps of black Qi was thin and faint at this point and attempted to mend its fatal wound, but was too feeble to do anything. It then dispersed with the wind.
Pei Zi Yun knelt beside the wolf, he was breathing heavily from his mouth, and had exhausted most of his energy. He struggled to keep his eyes open, but saw the body of the wolf shrink rapidly until it became a sculpture before breaking into a thousand dust fragments.
"What kind of magical weapon is this? Why didn"t the original owner have any memory of this?"
"However, this gives me an additional reason to ensure she doesn"t live any longer." Pei Zi Yun thought to himself, his face was determined and resolved. Gritting his teeth, he stood up and started running after the Priestess once more.
Forest
The black robed Priestess was standing within the forest. Some distance away, several fleeing warriors gathered together before kneeling, "You Excellency Priestess."
The leader among the group noticed that the Priestess was alone, and felt it strange. He then asked, "Priestess, what happened to the group of fearsome warriors defending you?"
The Priestess paused for sometime before saying, "They had…"
Even before she could finish, she choked and spat out a mouthful of black blood. Her entire face turned pale as she fell over.
The warriors turned into confusion and shock. Some of them helped her to her feet, others started shouting, some rushed to fetch her some water, and others did not know what to do but kept shouting, "Hurry! hurry save our Priestess!"
The mountainous roads were rough and b.u.mp. Pei Zi Yun kept pushing himself forward to seek out the priestess. He turned into a smaller road and looked down from atop. He could see several small strongholds from afar. Although it did look small from where he was standing, he saw many torches together. After taking some time to count, he realized that there were more than a hundred people.
The people were placing tree trunks around their strongholds, as if to create a barrier to prevent the snakes from coming in. In actual fact, this was so far away from where the snakes originated from. Alas, the snakes were not an organized army. By the time they reached such a distance, they would"ve split up a thousand times over. It would thus be easy to deal with several snakes.
Someone was shouting in the distance, the person who had discovered the Priestess was walking toward the torches.
They then ignited a fire in the middle, and placed a mat, allowing the old woman to lie down on the mat. Many people gathered around her.
"Yi Lai Duo, don"t you know healing arts? What"s the situation with the Priestess? Why isn"t she awaking?" The people who were around the Priestess seemed like they had statuses within their tribes. A warrior was examining the Priestess.
"Strange, it doesn"t seem like she had been wounded physically. I can tell that she"s unconscious as a result of a backlash from using her dark powers." A warrior spoke out, "Although I do not know any magical arts, I"ve seen such cases before, and it"s similar to the symptoms she"s exhibiting."
"Then we"re in trouble. Only Priests understand the ways of sorcery and how to heal the backlash from using dark powers. Under such circ.u.mstances, we have no ways to help." The warrior, Yi Lai Duo sighed.
"It can"t be cured by us. Do you have any solutions to wake up the Priestess?" A middle aged warrior asked.
"No, the most I can do is healing wounds and illnesses. I do not dare to touch her under such circ.u.mstances. If anything happens to her, all ten of us will lose our lives. In fact, we might even implicate our clans and tribes." Yi Lai Duo sighed.
Just as they were talking, they heard the sound of someone coughing.
The Priestess had been roused. She spat out some phlegm and woke up, her face was pale as sheet. She opened her eyes and looked at her surroundings, but had no energy to sit up, "I have a red vial in my robes. Take it out for me and empty the contents in my mouth."
"Yes, your excellency." With an instruction, the nearest warrior to her retrieved the vial and fed it to her. After sometime, her face started to regain some of its color, "Find me a room. I need to recuperate."
"Yes, your Excellency Priestess." The warrior shouted loudly.
Pei Zi Yun watched from afar, as the night remained calm and still away from the torches that were burning in the distance. Many of the warriors had been fighting the entire night, and had not eaten enough to sustain themselves. They laid down on the straw mats and fell into a deep slumber.
"This is a small tribe, and there are about three or four hundred people living here. Among them, there will be about two hundred to three hundred young men. Of these, about a hundred are fit and good fighters."
"But that"s scary as well. Under such circ.u.mstances, it was not suitable for me to barge through. People"s energy fluctuates occasionally, much less myself after having to deal with the black wolf and its dark magic. I"ve depleted my energy and strength. Even if I rest here for some time, I don"t have much Dao energy left.
Pei Zi Yun then thought deeply, as he scrutinized the area and realized that it was in fact not a mountain tribe stronghold. In fact, it was just an ordinary stronghold hosting normal mountain folks. There was a wall used to keep out intruders, and it wasn"t particularly high. It was probably built as a result of thieves and wolves attacks.
There were wooden houses, straw houses with gra.s.s used to patch up the holes in the ceilings. The holes in their walls were covered up with mud. The living situation here was extremely poor and low. One of the rooms looked the most well ornamented. It seems like this was the room belonging to the Chief of the stronghold.
He then formulated a plan within his mind.