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Volume 2 | After One Stepped Down, Another Would Step Up

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The python was even taller than Zhou Zishu when it rose to full height. Opening its maw, it swooped in to bite Zhou Zishu’s throat. Flinging Zhang Chengling into a corner, Zhou Zishu bent and ducked, unsheathed the Baiyi sword in the same instant, and brought it down onto the back of this beast’s neck.

When Baiyi’s blade collided with that great snake’s skin, sparks of friction seemed to fly; the skin on the python’s neck was not broken in the slightest. Its tail flicked, and barely missed Zhou Zishu’s shoulder as it passed. Had Zhou Zishu not dodged quickly enough, this one move could have broken his neck. With a thump, the snake’s tail landed on the ground, stirring up a cloud of dust and debris.

Zhou Zishu retreated three steps in succession, his heart growing cold. He knew that if it had not been Baiyi, but any ordinary sword in his hand, it would have been snapped by this single strike.

Instantly, he sensed that something was amiss, and a thought suddenly flashed through his mind–when that python had opened its maw and struck out at him, he had not smelled the stench of blood! These animals ate their prey raw, with fur and blood whole, all year round. How could it not have the stench of blood in its mouth?

Curled up in a ball but with his neck outstretched, Zhang Chengling observed it closely for a while, before he suddenly exclaimed, “Shifu, this looks like an artificial snake!”

It would have been alright if he had only spoken; that great snake jerked with vigour, arched its neck, and turned towards him, hissing. But Zhang Chengling did not seem as scared as he had been earlier, and dumbly jumped from the ground to his feet. Not forgetting to dust his pants off as he pointed at that python, which was staring predatorily at him and ready to take a bite out of him, he said, “Shifu, look, this snake looks so real…”

Before he could finish his sentence, the python had already struck out at him.

Earlier, Zhang Chengling was terrified, but upon taking a look and realising it was fake now, he started to become negligent, as if he felt that since an artificial snake did not have to eat people, there was no danger. Zhou Zishu did not know what to tell him–was there actually any difference between the snake turning him into a sack, and swallowing him after he had been turned into a sack?

But Zhou Zishu could not simply stand aside and watch, as Zhang Chengling was about to lose his puny life. He jumped from the flat ground, leaping at the side of the snake’s head with his arms outstretched on either side of him like wings, and knocked the snake’s head askew with a single kick. That snake, made of some unknown material, was astonishingly sturdy beyond all comparison.

Upon landing, Zhou Zishu felt his calf start to vaguely hurt.

This time round, Zhang Chengling did not dare to say anything.

In the instant that Zhou Zishu had landed, he had glimpsed a dark passageway behind the python’s body. An idea had formed in his mind. Now, he instructed Zhang Chengling in a quiet voice, “A while later, I’ll distract it. You’ll run towards the cave over there, but don’t enter it. Wait for me by the entrance, do you hear?”

Zhang Chengling nodded his head obediently.

The great snake shook its head, as if it had gotten its bearings back. Zhou Zishu shoved Zhang Chengling hard. “Go!”

Closing his eyes, Zhang Chengling charged forwards like a headless housefly. Almost like he was demonstrating how mice scuttled, he nearly bumped right into the python. Heart palpitating, Zhou Zishu hastily thrust his sword. It struck the python in those eyes made of some unknown material and gouged one out. Unable to concern itself with Zhang Chengling for the moment, the great python sprung forward to battle Zhou Zishu to the death–of course, since it was not alive in the first place, it was difficult for it to die another time.

Zhou Zishu climbed upwards along the rock wall, sucked in a sudden breath, and leapt two, three zhang higher. That python chased after him in relentless pursuit. Out of the corner of his eye, Zhou Zishu glimpsed that Zhang Chengling had made it to the entrance of the cave and was looking in his direction with a face full of anxiety. Letting go of his worry, he kicked off from the rock wall hard, flipping through the air over to him. His body bent like he had been snapped into two, and he dived headfirst into that narrow, cramped space.

No matter how intricately it had been constructed, that artificial python was still a puppet. It followed him over, but that space was truly too narrow, and its waist–which could even break a sword–was not as flexible as Zhou Zishu’s.

There was a “crack” in mid-air. Zhou Zishu landed, rolling to the side once he touched the ground–but he had worried unnecessarily, since that snake had only been shortened by half a segment. The half that was still connected was wedged in the narrow entrance, and its giant tail, wiggling in mid-air, looked slightly comical.

Zhang Chengling instantly sprung at him. “Shifu, you haven’t been injured, have you?”

Zhou Zishu looked at him without saying anything. Zhang Chengling was extremely worried, his eyes blinking. If it weren’t for the fact that his shifu’s authority was too mighty most of the time, Zhang Chengling would have pounced on him and felt him up and down to ensure that he wasn’t missing any parts.

Zhou Zishu sighed, and slapped him on the back of his skull, saying. “Internal injury–and that’s also caused by how you’ve angered me. Follow closely behind me.”

Zhang Chengling bobbed his head, and cautiously followed him into the entrance that the great snake had been guarding.

This was a very narrow segment of corridor with a door ahead of them. Zhou Zishu stopped at the door, stretching out an arm to halt Zhang Chengling in his tracks, and instructed him in a low voice, “Stand close to the wall, to one side.”–In such a narrow space, if there was indeed a hidden mechanism that sprung out once he pushed open the door, it would be truly unavoidable.

Zhou Zishu hesitated for a moment, and to err on the side of caution, he instructed Zhang Chengling again, “Hold your breath.”

Then he nudged open the small door with the greatest caution. The hinges squeaked, dust cascaded, and Zhou Zishu’s entire body tensed, but nothing happened at all.

He raised the luminescent pearl in his hand and gazed out, and saw that it was a small stone chamber shrouded entirely in dust. Two people stood in the corner, but they were not moving in the slightest. Zhou Zishu grabbed the front of Zhang Chengling’s robes and carefully edged closer to those two, just to discover when he neared that they were not people, but two human-like puppets.

They were about the size of actual humans and took the forms of a man and a woman. They had been constructed with precise detail down to every hair, and looked like they were alive: their eyes were gazing at the door, as if they were really eying these two trespassers.

Zhou Zishu frowned; no wonder this place was named Puppet Manor. This manor did not seem to have any sign of life, and had odd-looking puppets everywhere. With the prior lesson of the artificial snake, Zhou Zishu did not dare to be careless. Observing the joints of the puppets, he noted that they looked more flexible than that great snake’s. He was probably unable to reuse his old tricks. In a low voice, he told Zhang Chengling, “Walk ahead of me, slowly.”

Following his instructions, Zhang Chengling trod on cautiously as Zhou Zishu walked backwards with his back against Zhang Chengling’s, his eyes never leaving those two puppets even for a single second.

At the other end of the stone chamber, Zhang Chengling whispered, “Shifu, there’s a door ahead.”

Upon hearing this, Zhou Zishu held his sword horizontally in front of himself, told Zhang Chengling to make way, turned and pushed open that small, well-aged door. Before him was another corridor, the end too far away to be in sight. Zhou Zishu said in a low voice, “Let’s move.”

The two people entered the corridor one after the other. Before they left, Zhou Zishu hesitated for a second–those two puppets were like any other puppets in the world, lifeless and unable to move. Yet, for some unknown reason, he felt the hairs on his back stand on end, and reflexively closed the small door behind them, latching it shut.

Thus, he did not see that in the instant he closed the door, the eyes of the two puppets in the stone chamber darted at the same time, as if chasing after his retreating figure.

This tiny passageway seemed to throw sounds around; their footsteps echoed, making the place appear especially lonely and desolate, but also especially sinister and gloomy. Abruptly, inexplicably, Zhang Chengling’s goosebumps rose all over his body. He piped up quietly, “Shifu, I’m…I’m a little scared.”

He regretted his words the moment they left his mouth, thinking that Zhou Zishu was going to reprimand him. Yet, Zhou Zishu lifted a casual hand and placed his palm on his shoulder. His hand was so thin, but so warm; Zhang Chengling turned his head to the side, and by the weak light of the luminescent pearl, saw Zhou Zishu’s side profile. It put his heart at ease.

It was unknown how long the stone corridor was; just when Zhou Zishu was running out of patience, they finally reached the end of it. Zhou Zishu thought to himself that he did not know where Ye Baiyi and Wen Kexing had gone earlier, but he was not particularly worried either. If there were people who could survive even when the sky came crashing down and the ground collapsed, it would be those two. Rather, it was slightly more tough for himself, who was bringing Zhang Chengling, this little rascal who only made trouble at critical moments, along with him.

At the end of the stone corridor was another door. This time, it was an enormous door; it was like his visual field had suddenly been broadened. Zhou Zishu yanked Zhang Chengling behind him and pushed the door open–it looked to be a great hall, an empty great hall with not a single thing in it at all. Zhou Zishu’s gaze drifted downwards, and he noticed that the ground was in fact a dark grey colour.

Zhang Chengling stuck his head out to peer over his side, looking at his shifu with a questioning gaze, not knowing why Zhou Zishu stopped here.

Accustomed to operating cautiously, Zhou Zishu extracted a silver crumb from his robes and flicked it out. The silver crumb landed on the dark grey ground, rolled twice, and nothing happened–he let down his guard slightly, but right at this moment, a drop of water fell from the ceiling. Under the surveillance of two pairs of eyes, that drop of water landed right on the silver he had thrown out, and thereafter, dissolved where it was on the ground!

Then, something even more terrifying occurred–drop by drop, that corrosive water touched down on different spots, growing more and more concentrated, until it looked like it had started to rain.

Zhou Zishu understood then why the ground was that sort of ominous dark grey colour. If a person was doused by this sort of fatal rainwater, even their bones would be reduced to ashes

His heart sank–in this world, there were qinggong techniques one could use to traverse snow without leaving a mark, but there were definitely none a person could use to drift through rain and not have a single drop touch him.

Zhou Zishu took a step back, and said, “This road is impassable. We’re turning back.”

They had just turned around when they heard another set of footsteps coming from the long stone corridor.

Tap——tap——tap——

Zhang Chengling was nearly clinging to Zhou Zishu with his whole body as he stammered, “Shishishishi…shifu, is…is this a haunting?”

Zhou Zishu raised a finger, signalling him to shut his mouth. Turning to Zhang Chengling, he said, “Close that door, in case we accidentally enter it again. Quickly do so, then hide by the door, and don’t make a sound.”

Zhang Chengling instantly did as he instructed. Those footsteps were getting quicker and quicker, more and more tightly clustered, eventually morphing from a sedate walk into a mad sprint. All of a sudden, there was no sound at all. The light of the luminescent pearl could only illuminate a small patch of ground in front of him, so Zhou Zishu had no other choice but to concentrate and prick up his ears. However, in this cramped stone corridor, other than Zhang Chengling, he could not hear a second person breathing.

A flash of light sliced through the darkness. Reflexively, Zhou Zishu raised his Baiyi sword to parry. His opponent’s heavy sword slammed down, the force of it jarring the juncture of his thumb and forefinger numb. In the split-second, Zhou Zishu caught a clear glimpse of who the other person was, and cold sweat poured down his back–that person who was swinging the heavy sword in his hand at him was none other than the male puppet in that small stone chamber earlier.

Zhou Zishu’s mind whirred at high speed. Instantly, he realised that the person who had designed this place had a devious mind: if they had triggered a mechanism in the small stone chamber just now, the designer feared that he would immediately retreat with Zhang Chengling in tow. That area was vast and empty, and there was no doubt that the puppets could not perform qinggong. Even though it would have been tough, to an expert who could handle the artificial python, it would not have been a hopeless situation.

It was as though the designer had predicted it exactly. All he had to do was to lead them into this hopeless situation where they could not advance even one step. In this cramped corridor, even if one had godly, world-shaking martial prowess, it was difficult to fully utilise it; his aim was to block off all the avenues available to a person.

Zhou Zishu inwardly bemoaned the situation, withdrew his strength and then slashed forward. Baiyi’s blade collided with the puppet’s arm, but it could not make a dent–whether it was made of the same material as that great snake had been or not, the puppet was undoubtedly just as tough. Without waiting for Zhou Zishu to react, that puppet mechanically swung its sword at him again.

Zhou Zishu timed it exactly right, made a light sound of exertion, and executed a brilliant maneuver. Gracefully, Baiyi twirled in a dexterous flip, blade parrying blade. Exerting great strength, he channelled his continuous flow of internal energy onto the hallowed weapon, and cleaved the heavy sword in that puppet’s hand right into two.

Zhang Chengling had never seen this level of technique before, and held his breath as he fixed his eyes on it.

However, that puppet did not care at all. His fingers opened mechanically to abandon his heavy sword, and then he swung his arm over–he did not fear pain or death, his whole body available for use as a weapon. Mind boggling at this situation, Zhou Zishu grabbed that arm swinging at him. If it were a normal person, their arm would have been dislocated by Zhou Zishu’s single tug, but this puppet was extremely sturdy. Instead, it pushed at Zhou Zishu, forcing him to retreat until his back was pressed up against the door to that stone chamber behind him.

Zhou Zishu withdrew his hand and shrunk back. With a boom, the puppet had punched a huge hole in the door. He could not have been more thankful that he had prepared for any future problems earlier and told Zhang Chengling to close this door, but at the next moment, he could no longer bring himself to rejoice–behind this male puppet, he saw a female puppet. This thing looked like she was unable to turn, and could only walk forward.

So she walked forward, gliding directly towards Zhang Chengling, who had retreated to the other corner earlier in order to get out of Zhou Zishu and the male puppet’s way.

Alarmed, Zhou Zishu ducked the horizontal arc of the male puppet’s arm, and threw himself at Zhang Chengling. The female puppet appeared to be moving faster than he was; he had only just managed to shield Zhang Chengling when the long flute2️⃣4️⃣⭐ in the puppet’s hand swept towards him like a stick. The place was too small, and with no way to avoid the blow, Zhou Zishu absorbed the brunt of it with his back, instantly coughing up a mouthful of blood.

➖⭐2️⃣4️⃣
It’s a 箫, you know, the one Lan Xichen plays.
➖

Arms braced against the wall, the fresh blood in his mouth dripped onto Zhang Chengling’s shoulder. His body pitched forward involuntarily and nearly squashed that youth underneath him. At this point in time, Zhang Chengling ignored his own fear, and hurriedly extended his hands to support him. Pressing Zhang Chengling down, Zhou Zishu laboriously dodged to the side, and the female puppet’s second strike zoomed past his head, narrowly missing his scalp.

His Baiyi nearly slipped out of his hand. The seven Three-Autumn Nails of the Seven Acupunctures in his chest tremored violently, and his vision went momentarily black.

Zhang Chengling raged, “You dare to hurt my shifu? I’ll fight you!”

He threw himself at that puppet without care. This tyke was always timid when he should have been daring, but daring when he should have been timid; Zhou Zishu was a beat too late to hold him back, and watched as Zhang Chengling ferociously leapt at that aloof female puppet. Unarmed, it was as if he was going to bite her with his teeth.

“Little tyke…” Zhou Zishu wanted to say something, but his own blood choked him once he opened his mouth and he could not stop coughing.

Right at this instant, the wall of the stone corridor next to the female puppet suddenly toppled with a crash. Unable to dodge in time, the female puppet was crushed underneath it, still waving the metal flute around in hand. A hopelessly dishevelled person barged in coughing, dusting himself off as he said, “What is this godforsaken pla…A-Xu!”

Zhou Zishu let out a breath of relief, and very nearly failed to inhale the next breath. This was the first time in his life that he was this glad to see Wen Kexing.

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