Chapter Eighteen: Kunlun Summit

  Chased to the edge of the stream, that sturdy fellow was fetching water over there. With a ball of flame in his hand, he sneered: "You're helping tyranny and deserve to die."

  The farmer turned around, his face filled with terror, and slowly backed away. The giant swung out a flame, instantly cutting down a large tree, and said, "If you don't want to die, listen to my orders."

  A sturdy man suddenly knelt down and said: "Great immortal, spare my life! My family has an 80-year-old father above and a wife and children below. If I die, how can they live?"

  Seeing the robust man with a sorrowful face, Da Yu couldn't help but secretly sigh and say: "Then take off this set of clothes."

  The burly man hesitated and took off his outer garment, begging for mercy nonstop, but his voice grew louder. Da Bi asked again where the mouse demon and the black-clad man were now. The burly man's eyes darted back and forth, saying he didn't know. Da Bi thought to himself, I wanted to spare you, but you're asking for death yourself. With a wave of Da Bi's hand, a flash of flames appeared, and the burly man fell backwards instantly.

  He picked up the farmer's clothes left by Hanzi, put them on his body, and threw Hanzi's corpse into the bushes. From a distance, he checked those several houses, didn't see anyone coming out, and slowly went around from behind. Dabai recognized that one of the grass houses was where he was caught, and he approached quietly, seeing no one noticing, and slipped into the grass house.

  The house was empty and unguarded, and the package was thrown into the bright place, with all its contents turned out. Dahai went forward and took a rough look, only to see that his accumulated gold was gone, and the broken sword of the Qinghong Sword had also been taken away. Fortunately, his short sword was still there. Dahai put the short sword in his sleeve, and didn't care about the rest of the things anymore.

  Out of the thatched cottage, Da Kei again checked several thatched cottages, only to see two or three ordinary people, but did not see the mouse demon and the black-clothed man. Just as Da Kei was hesitating, he suddenly saw someone emerge from the backyard of a thatched cottage, and Da Kei hastily hid in the corner of the wall.

  That man was the black-clad man who was with the mouse spirit. The black-clad man walked towards the dungeon with a relaxed face, whistling. Da Yun dodged the black-clad man and went around to where he appeared, only to see a hole in the ground behind the thatched hut, with no one guarding the entrance. After carefully observing for a while, Da Yun walked in.

  The cave wasn't damp, but the air had a strange smell. Before they'd gone far, they heard voices coming from inside. The cave grew wider and wider, and after turning a corner, there was a bedroom in front of them. Under the light of the lamps, they saw that the room was furnished with tables, chairs, beds, and wardrobes. There were people moving around on the bed, a woman moaning and occasionally letting out muffled cries of pain, and another woman sobbing softly.

  Dai Yun saw clearly that the mouse demon was on the wooden bed, oppressing a woman and venting its anger. Another woman sat aside with her head down, crying. Dai Yun infused his magic into his short sword and quietly walked over from behind. As he approached, the woman sitting on the bed saw him and looked at him in astonishment. Dai Yun hastily signaled to the woman to be quiet, and she seemed to understand, not making a sound.

  Dai Wei took two more steps, holding his sword and stabbing it into the back of the mouse demon. At this moment, the mouse demon suddenly felt something, turned its head, and saw Dai Wei just in time to twist its body, causing Dai Wei's sword to miss and only wound the mouse demon's shoulder blade. Dai Wei let out a loud shout and stabbed twice more, but the mouse demon was now on guard and dodged both attacks. Unprepared for the mouse demon's agility, Dai Wei was momentarily at a loss when the woman sitting nearby suddenly shouted and pounced on the mouse demon, tightly embracing it. Dai Wei quickly exerted himself to stab again, this time striking true into the mouse demon's ribs. The mouse demon let out a shrill cry, grasped the sword blade, and with another twist, snapped the short sword in two.

  Unexpectedly, the mouse demon was so powerful that Da Yi was shocked and lost his color, retreating several steps in a row, taking off the magic pendant and holding it in his hand. The mouse demon jumped down from the bed, one claw inserted into the woman's neck, hanging in mid-air, the woman's face twisted in pain and hatred, with fresh blood gushing out of her mouth, her body twisting as if she was about to die. The mouse demon let out a sharp cry, throwing the woman at Da Yi, while pouncing towards him, Da Yi hastily retreated backwards.

  The mouse demon chased for over a dozen steps, and suddenly spat out a mouthful of blood from its chest. The mouse demon covered its wound and turned to run back. It was still severely injured by itself. Da Yun coldly smiled and swung the Exorcism Token at it, hitting the mouse demon's back with one strike. Seeing the mouse demon fall to the ground, its body no longer agile, Da Yun took a few steps forward, stepped on the mouse demon, and raised the Exorcism Token to heavily strike the mouse demon's brain. After several strikes, the mouse demon let out a few shrill cries, and suddenly broke free from Da Yun, running away with an unsteady gait. Da Yun followed slowly behind, condensing a ball of flames in his palm and striking it at the mouse demon. The mouse demon was severely injured and didn't dodge, and the flames ignited on its body as soon as they hit. The mouse demon took a few more steps before falling to the ground, struggling for a while before no longer moving.

  Seeing the mouse demon being burned to a crisp, Da Yi turned around and returned to the mouse demon's bedroom, searching all around. At this time, the woman on the bed got out of bed, walked naked in front of Da Yi, and said: "Great Immortal, the good things of the demon are all hidden in the dark cave under the bed."

  The woman pointed to under the bed, seeing Da Yun look at herself, and with a flirtatious expression, she twisted her waist and gently stroked her chest and abdomen. Da Yun walked over and moved the wooden bed, and indeed saw a hidden door underneath, which was still locked. The woman had already cleverly taken out the key from under the bed and knelt down to open the hidden door.

  In the dark cave, there were hundreds of taels of gold, and some jars and bottles, but it was impossible to distinguish what kind of medicine was inside. What moved Dabai's heart most was that there was also a pretty good long sword inside, and the broken Qinghong Sword was also in it. Dabai didn't hesitate, packed everything up, and carried it on his shoulder. Having lingered below for quite some time, he thought about the black-clothed man outside, wondering if he had discovered something by now, and hurriedly walked towards the exit of the cave.

  Before he even reached the entrance of the cave, he heard light footsteps approaching from outside. Da Yi stopped in his tracks and quickly activated the Demon-Repelling Bead, throwing it to the entrance of the cave, while he himself hid in the dark shadow behind the bend. After a moment, that person entered the cave, seemingly in a hurry, loudly saying: "Senior brother, senior brother, that Daoist has escaped, we must quickly chase after him."

  The big hand grasped the demon-subduing jade pendant, which was now stuck to the black-clad man's chest. The black-clad man was shocked and shouted: "Who is it? Brother, brother, someone has snuck in, come quickly to help me."

  He raised the corner of his mouth and walked out of the shadows, coldly sizing up his opponent. The black-clad man's face turned pale as he saw that it was Da Yun, constantly looking behind him. Da Yun knew he was waiting for the mouse demon, so he calmly said: "Is that mouse demon your senior brother? I've already killed him."

  The man in black immediately turned pale and said, "Let me go, and we'll consider today's matter settled."

  With a big smile, showing a mocking intention, he laughed and said: "Is this reasonable? What's the basis for this?"

  The man in black proudly said: "Do you know what kind of people we are? We are disciples of the Bottomless Cave of Trapped Emptiness Mountain."

  He let out a loud "Oh!" and suddenly asked: "I have a friend named Sanzhi, is he also your fellow disciple?"

  The man in black frowned and said, "Sanzhi? Isn't that the junior brother who is called San Yan, I heard he has been wandering outside all along."

  He had known long ago that San Zhi was from the Bottomless Pit, but he didn't know his nickname was Three Eyes. He thought that if the disciples of the Bottomless Pit were doing evil outside, it's no wonder the people of Shu Mountain hated them. He also thought that Hong Chui might have been taken away by San Zhi to the Bottomless Pit and hoped nothing bad would happen to her.

  The man in black saw Da Biguo hesitating and urged: "Brother Dao, let me go, since we are all friends, I will never pursue my brother's matter again."

  "Alright, wait for me to cast a spell."

  As he spoke, Da Yun pinched his hands together and activated his magic power. The Demon-Beheading Awl suddenly shrank back, and the black-clothed man was caught off guard, immediately letting out a pained scream. Then, the sound of breaking bones kept coming, and the black-clothed man rolled around in agony, his face twisted, screaming while spitting out blood. After a moment, when they looked again at the black-clothed man, his chest and abdomen had caved in to the point where he was no longer human in shape, convulsing all over, clearly on the verge of death. Da Yun then put away the Demon-Beheading Awl and exited the cave.

  When leaving, the woman followed behind Da Yun with a twisted expression, until Da Yun gave her a cold stare, and she was so scared that she retreated several steps. Da Yun released the villagers from the dungeon and then left the place.

  After this encounter, Dajin became even more cautious and hurried along the road day and night. Two days later, he finally arrived at Kunlun.

  Kunlun is the gathering place of the Xianjia Daoist sect. Da Ye followed the path indicated by Xiao Meng's old Dao and climbed up the mountain, walking northwest along the mountain road. After a while, he turned back down, then headed south, and after about an hour or so, he turned east again, repeating this pattern of going up and down without knowing how many detours he had taken. Although the path was strange, Da Ye knew that it couldn't be judged by ordinary reasoning; the Daoist methods were profound, and what seemed like a wrong turn was actually not so.

  On this road, the mountains and rocks are beautiful, the trees are lush, and at a glance, they are elegant and refined, floating out of the dust. Walking further, I see that not far from this mountain peak, there is another green mountain, faintly visible, hidden in the clouds and mist. It's hard to know how many peaks Kunlun Mountain has, hiding how many hermits and sages, my heart is deeply moved.

  After walking for another half day, there were more flowers and grasses in front of me. The fragrance was overwhelming, and I felt a surge of spiritual energy. When I looked up again, I saw that the mountain top was just above me, with an extremely large ancient tree that stretched straight into the clouds, its branches and crown hidden in the clouds.

  Dai Yun walked closer and found that the tree trunk was not only several feet thick, but he didn't feel like looking at it for a while. At this time, he faintly heard someone's voice, Dai Yun immediately dodged behind a giant rock, listening carefully. He only heard a man's voice from the ancient tree side saying: "Immortal maiden, I have no evil intentions, please let me go up."

  A soft feminine voice said: "I've already told you, it's no use, please leave."

  After a while, a middle-aged monk with a helpless face walked down. Suddenly, Dabai remembered that Xiaomeng Lao Dao had lightly mentioned that to get to the Osmanthus tree, take the small path on the left and you'll arrive at the place. At the time, Dabai didn't pay attention, but now he knew that someone was taking care of this tree.