Ku Mu Valley
Alchemist Yao needed to report the elemental demons’ resurgence to Pill Cauldron Sect’s patriarch. Hence, he didn’t send Tian Ran back straight away. He assigned Cai Lie to watch duty so that she wouldn’t play hide and seek again.
Once he ensured Alchemist Yao was gone, Cai Lie climbed up a tree and took out a calabash from his Cosmic Sleeve. He had a refreshing glug, then remarked, “Bugger, I forgot something.”
“What’s the matter?” asked Tian Ran, joining Cai Lie on the tree.
“Mu Yu will come across Ku Mu Valley if he goes to Floating Celestial Island. He better not go in.”
“Ku Mu Valley? Seniors forbid us from entering. Will Brother Mu Yu be in trouble?”
Cai Lie scrubbed his head. “I don’t think so? He’ll be fine if he just flies over the top.”
***
Mu Yu went along the bank, which consisted of withered grass and cobblestones, of a clear river stream in the valley. He had lost track of the youth he tailed and had no idea where he was. There were no living entities residing in the area, but there crows flying past above every now and then; however, their echoing caws were creepy to say the least. It was still noon, yet it was practically as dark as night in the valley. He didn’t panic since he figured he could follow the river stream to find the exit if necessary. A little further up ahead, the fog was green.
Due to the unusual fog colour, Mu Yu suspected it was a poisonous gas, not that poison was a concern for him. He could’ve grown the plants he had on him and taken shelter inside to excrete the poison into the plant and exit unscathed.
Crack! Mu Yu looked down at his feet for the first time in a long while. He felt a chill down his spine when he recognised he had stepped on a skeleton’s toe bone. The clothing on the dead was damaged. Judging from the skeleton’s hands around its neck, the victim must’ve had respiratory issues prior to their death. Based off the damage to the bones, the victim was estimated to have died years ago. Surprisingly, their hair was still attached.
As he fanned the green fog away, Xiaoshuai commented, “I reckon they were poisoned.”
Mu Yu inspected the corpse to discover the throat and chest regions were blacker compared to other body parts.
“You think the mist is poisonous? Better safe than sorry.” Xiaoshuai climbed back into Mu Yu’s shirt, being more cautious than he probably needed to be.
“Judging from the colour, I don’t think there’s room for argument.”
Despite Mu Yu’s efforts to fly, he couldn’t propel himself up despite his spiritual energy still circulating as per usual. Nothing in the vicinity could seem to be the source of the issue. He muttered, “Please don’t tell me I waltzed into a wood elemental demon’s qimen dunjia. I pray it’s not that divination.”
“Didn’t that guy in yellow come through? What do we have to worry about if he’s not dead?” Xiaoshuai said whilst pinching his nose.
There were dark-green vines hanging off a cliff face adjacent to the stream. He wanted to take the vine to use as another source to dump poison, so he reached out for it. Once he extended his hand out, the vine sprung to life and wreathed around him.
“Ah, crap, a living vine that can migrate and move!”
The hidden spikes poked out from the vine as they wreathed around Mu Yu. The procedure was two-fold: puncture the target full of holes and then drain their blood out. This hunt played out differently, however. Mu Yu quickly brought it under control before it could puncture him. He chopped off a chunk and wrapped it around. Finished, he patted it and commanded, “Good boy. Go back. Be careful next time.”
After the vine receded, Mu Yu queried, “Xiaoshuai, poison is useless against you, isn’t it?”
“I’m such a stud that I turn poison into medicine.”
Upon entering the green mist, Mu Yu felt a tad lightheaded. He pressed the vine up to his nose to pass the poison over to the vine. That, unfortunately, wasn’t enough to remove the thick mist that hid even his feet. As he carefully treaded deeper in, he came across more skeletons on the long journey. Eventually, the mist turned back to white.
Mu Yu removed the vine from his arm. The fact that it was black indicated the poison was venomous enough to be lethal. He got rid of it since he had other forms of backup and griped, “Bloody hell. I was thinking of catching fish from the river to eat, but there goes that idea.”
Following fifteen minutes more of walking, Mu Yu discovered a skeleton that, unlike the previous skeletons, didn’t show signs of poisoning. The victim died sitting upright against the cliff face. An ominous feeling jumped into Mu Yu’s mind as he thought about the number of skeletons he had come across.
“How did a Golden Core Realm cultivator get in here?”
Mu Yu jumped back, mistaking the skeleton spoke to him. The speaker, a middle-aged Primordial Infant Realm man, jumped off from the cliff and landed before Mu Yu.
Mu Yu straight up questioned, “Who are you?”
“Relax. You couldn’t stop me if I did want to kill you,” the man replied with a grin.
The man’s black daoist robe was closer to fragmented cloth than clothing. His hair and beard were unkempt.
“You look as if you’ve never been out in the sun,” Mu Yu stated as he took a step back for safety reasons.
“Well, the sun can’t penetrate the dense fog. It’s been half a year since I last saw sunlight.”
“So… why don’t you leave?”
“I need to be able to leave in the first place, haha.” The man swept his gaze around him and added, “Progressing to Golden Core Realm Ninth Layer at your age shows you’re talented. You shouldn’t have come in here.”
“We have our own goal,” Xiaoshuai climbed out and said.
“Goal? Haha, who doesn’t come into Ku Mu Valley with a goal? Do you want Ku Mu to exact a vengeance for you or raise your cultivation to exact it yourself?” The man leaned onto the cliff face.
“You make it sound as if that’s the only motivation in the world,” Mu Yu responded.
“We came for food and to grab a tonne of money while we’re at it for food,” Xiaoshuai asserted.
“Food? In here? Do you know where you are?”
“Ku Mu Valley. You just told us,” Mu Yu responded with a shrug.
The man fixed his gaze on Mu Yu. Mu Yu didn’t appear to have a cloudy mind, nor did he seem to be kidding. Perhaps Mu Yu accidentally wandered in, he proposed.
“By the way, were you insinuating you can’t leave?” Mu Yu inquired.
“It’s impossible to leave or go back.”
“Why?
“Continue down this path, and you’ll find out why.”
Though Mu Yu didn’t get it, he gave it ago. The path was straight, so it didn’t make sense if they couldn’t just follow the stream to find their way out. Fifteen minutes later, Mu Yu exclaimed, “Someone used the same trick as me with the vine.”
“Back, are you?”
It was the middle-aged man. Next to him was the skeleton they saw fifteen minutes ago.
Xiaoshuai questioned, “How did you arrive before us? What did you bring the skeleton with you for?”
Mu Yu: Wait a second. This is giving me déjà vu. We’re going in circles. Don’t tell me I really did waltz into elemental demons’ territory.
Glossary
Qimen dunjia – An ancient form of divination that is considered one of the three most powerful divination methods, the other two being Tai Yee and Liu Ren.
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