The Fourth Volume Chapter 2 (Part 2) When the mountain is exhausted and the water is drained, one suspects there is no road.

  "What kind of place is this?" I exclaimed in shock.

  "This is my divine consciousness, your body is still trapped in the web of veins." The voice of Yuè Hún drifted up, and I only then realized that this round moon was actually Yuè Hún. It gently swayed, like a moon boat drifting in the vast expanse of the sky.

  I wanted to jump down from the Moon Soul, but unexpectedly, as soon as one foot landed, it slowly melted away, rippling out a circle of soft light halo around where I stepped. I quickly climbed back onto the Moon Soul, and my lost left foot reappeared bit by bit. I was both shocked and impressed: "Your divine consciousness is really freaking weird, it's simply an unadulterated freak! Cut the crap, hurry up and help me defeat the Sea Empress, otherwise I'll be totally humiliated."

  "Come with me." Moon Soul suddenly took me drifting towards the depths, just like a ship sailing into the vast unknown abyss. Milky white light flickered around, and splashed open in a dreamy way. I tentatively stretched my hand out to the distance, feeling empty and hollow, my palm disappearing under my eyelids, as if it had fallen into another world.

  In a very distant place, the moonlight poured down to form a curved archway. Underneath it, there was a dancing shadow. We were drifting towards that direction.

  I stared at the arch in amazement, it wasn't still, but kept flowing and flashing with an enigmatic light. No matter how close Moon Soul brought me to it, the arch was always far away from us.

  "Yuehun, hurry up!" I want to see the figure of the shadow under the archway clearly. It's very vague and mysterious, sometimes disappearing, sometimes appearing under the door, dancing out a strange posture.

  "As long as you can hear the sound of my music, we can get through." Yuelin said faintly: "Listen carefully, there are many voices here, but only one voice belongs to me."

  As soon as the voice fell, I heard countless strange sounds, some like thunder, some like gentle breeze, some like crying, some like joyful laughter, and some like pots and pans colliding. My god, thousands of chaotic voices, noisy to the point that I was confused, how could I distinguish? I anxiously shouted: "What are you doing, you little devil?"

  "Alas, you still can't hear." Yue Hun said in disappointment.

  I was confused: "You're a weirdo who's always speaking in riddles and annoying me!"

  "Let's talk about it later." Yuehun sighed, shattered into fragments of floating light and shadow, everything around her like a soap bubble vanished, the archway disappeared, the shadow also disappeared, and I was back in the pulse network.

  "What a big rascal fish!" I heard the soft laughter of Hai Ji by my ear, and the golden net line suddenly tightened, binding me into a tight knot. In desperation, I came up with an idea, "Whoosh", my ribcage suddenly protruded a dragonfly's red claw, which pierced through the net hole, grasped towards Hai Ji, and shot out a blazing fireball from its claw tip.

  Hai Ji blinked: "Still want to struggle?" She sidestepped lightly, easily avoiding the red claw.

  I remained silent, extending a blue dragonfly claw, carrying a chill of icy snow, and grasped towards Hai Ji's chest. She was startled and hastily retreated. My third dragonfly claw, which had been waiting for the right moment to strike, suddenly pounced out - this one was emerald green in color. Unlike the first two claws, it was soft as a snake, like a dancing vine entwining Hai Ji, its tip forcefully pinching down. Hai Ji let out a muffled groan, covering her left shoulder with her hand, and several drops of fresh blood splattered out.

  I hastily withdrew my claws and anxiously asked, "Are you okay? I'm so sorry, I shouldn't have hurt you." I nervously examined Haixiang's shoulder and fortunately the wound was shallow.

  Haiji tapped my forehead and scolded, "You're such a heartless little rascal! Never mind, I know you didn't mean to." She put away the pulse-checking web, her face full of delight: "Now that your magic is so powerful, nothing makes me happier than this."

  I let out a wry smile: "Just now if you had tightened the web of veins, I would have been cut to pieces. Alas, compared to you, I'm still one step behind."

  "Without the support of the meridian network, I wouldn't be your opponent. What you lack now is only magical power and experience. As long as you work hard to cultivate, you will surely surpass me in the future."

  I nodded and began to practice diligently. Haiji also often accompanied me to feed the birds, intentionally or unintentionally revealing a few phrases of the Jiaoyu technique's incantation. Unbeknownst to us, we had already stayed on Tangerine Island for seven or eight days. With a male-female partnership, our cultivation wasn't tiring at all.

  That night, I couldn't sleep, so I went out for a walk alone. Crossing the lake, passing through the mountain gap, and returning to the outer valley. The surroundings were quiet, with autumn insects chirping in the grass. The night sky was a deep blue, with the moon shining like a jade hairpin embedded in blue ice. Looking up at the bright moon, I let out a sigh.

  Yuè Hún Dào said: "You have something on your mind."

  I made a bitter face: "To be honest, I'm afraid that when the time comes, I won't be able to handle Yun Dalang. Remember what Master said, it takes many years to practice the secret book to the point of perfection, but I only have one month's time, and it's impossible to become an expert overnight. Now each of my spells is half-baked, what can I use to break through Yun Dalang's black package?"

  "It's a pity you can't hear the sound of my music."

  "So what if I heard?"

  "If you could hear, your Mei Wu would enter a whole new stage. How can things like black pouches and meridian nets confine the true Mei Wu?" Yue Hun said softly: "In your heart, Mei Wu is just a martial skill for killing enemies, but you are wrong. Only when you truly understand that Mei Wu is a passionate dance of life, only when your heart is filled with longing for beauty, will you hear my music."

  "What is the black shadow under that arch?"

  "When you hear the music, you will naturally know."

  I glared at Yuè Hún with a bad temper, making up my mind that during the duel, if things didn't go well, I would ride the Blowing Wind and escape. I'm not going to be a fool who gets beaten up and still pretends to be strong.

  After thinking for a while, just as I was about to leave, I suddenly heard rustling sounds coming from the thicket across the way, like something was crawling. Through the gaps in the branches, I vaguely saw a black shadow swaying on the muddy ground.

  "Who?" I asked loudly, rushing over. The night wind blew the flowers and grasses wildly, but there was nothing in the thicket. I stood stunned, could it be that my eyes were playing tricks on me? But with my current eyesight, how could I possibly have made a mistake?

  I carefully searched around and found that the grass had been trampled, with many broken branches still remaining. Under the moonlight, a wild grass was slightly glowing, with several dark droplets clinging to its tip. They were dark red in color. I leaned in for a sniff, and it smelled like blood!

  I was startled, could there be someone else in this valley? Or perhaps some wounded beast? The blood hadn't dried yet, indicating that the other party had just left. I immediately searched the entire valley, busying myself for half the night, but still found nothing. Just as I was wondering, my eyes suddenly caught a glimpse of a tall shadow projected onto the ground, swaying slightly. The shadow took a step forward and reached out to put its hand on my shoulder.

  My heart tightened, pretending to be unaware of anything, I suddenly turned around and swung my fist. "Bang", the punch hit something hard, like a knife edge, and it hurt vaguely.

  "Hai Xi! How is it you?" I stared at the person in front of me, dropped my fist and let out a long sigh.

  "You little scamp, what are you doing?" Hai Ji's face was full of surprise: "I discovered that you were gone and was worried that something had happened to you, so I came to the mountain valley to take a look."

  I told Haeki about seeing a black shadow, and she said carelessly: "I've never seen any outsiders here, it must be an injured wild beast."

  I shook my head: "It doesn't seem like a wild animal, if someone really sneaked into the valley, it's probably Cloud Big Brother or He Ping's men coming to monitor and track us, let's be careful." I took her to that thicket and pointed out the bloodstain to her, but nothing was found.

  "Where's the blood?" Haki looked at me strangely.

  I was stunned, the bloodstains on the grass had vanished completely, and the broken tree branches on the ground were also gone. Hai Ji spoke softly: "Are you overexerting yourself from practicing? Rushing through cultivation can easily lead to hallucinations from exhaustion. Why don't you take a few days off and go have some fun in Da Qian City?"

  I shook my head repeatedly, pondered for a long time, and suddenly deliberately shouted loudly: "It must be me who is dizzy and sees wrongly, let's go."

  The second night, at the hour of the second watch, I quietly slipped out of the mountain seam and re-entered the valley. The night sky was overcast with dark clouds, without stars or moon, and all around was pitch black, so that I couldn't see my hand in front of me. I crept forward cautiously, parting the tall grasses that rose up to my waist, using my five senses to detect any movement in every corner of the valley. The strange disappearance of the bloodstains made me feel even more that there was something supernatural at work here; if I didn't find out who that dark figure was, I would always have a weight on my mind, feeling uneasy.

  About an hour later, a rustling sound came from beside my ear. I shook off my sleepiness and cast the Shuttle Technique, my toes gliding silently along the tips of the grass leaves as I pounced towards the source of the sound. The sound was coming from the north side of the valley, where there was a peach blossom forest, with a brook babbling within. I stopped in front of a sturdy peach tree, nimbly leaping onto its crown, and gazed into the forest. Under the Mirror Pupil Secret Path Technique, the dark night became as bright as day, everything clearly reflected in my line of sight.

  In the woods, there was indeed a black shadow lying! He was a big man with a pale complexion, long arms and legs, and a large skeleton, but he was so thin that only a thin layer of skin remained. The big man's belly had been cut open, revealing a pile of colorful internal organs inside. I almost cried out because I clearly saw the big man faintly gasping for breath, and he was still alive!

  Damn it, I rubbed my eyes hard and looked again. On the ground, a group of small grass men, about one foot tall, with noses and eyes, moved around in an orderly manner. They pulled out the big man's intestines, stretched them out, and washed them in the creek water. The intestines were almost rotten, broken into sections, filled with yellowish pus and blood, emitting a foul odor that made me want to vomit. The grass men cleaned the intestines, dried them, and put them back inside the big man's abdomen. The big man groaned, his body slowly moving, his eyes rolling, seemingly glancing at the peach tree where I was hiding.

  Damn it, his intestines can be taken out and washed, this is too evil. I took a deep breath and looked down, the big guy seemed to be half dead, if he found me, I believe I could also handle him.

  A strong bloody smell wafted up, and the villagers then took out the liver, spleen, and lungs of the big man, one by one, washed them in the creek water, and carefully put them back in place. These internal organs were either festering with pus or had poisonous sores, emitting a foul odor that was unbearable to smell. In just one meal's time, the clear creek water had almost turned blackish-purple, and the grass on the ground was stained with blood.

  Just as the villagers were about to put the giant's heart into the stream, a loud "whooshing" sound was heard in mid-air. A huge owl swooped down with the wind, its wings overturning the grass people, and its sharp claws grasped the heart, flying off into the sky.