Netherworld Painted Skin Scroll

Chapter 402 Master Zhou's Kind Heart

The valley looked close, but it was actually quite far to walk through. By the time the three of them came down from the ridge, the sun had already set behind the mountains, the forest had become dark, and the sky on the other side of the mountain was orange.

Kong Youxin's soles were already blistered, and now, even carrying Li Wuxiang's lantern, she stumbled and staggered, making the pain even worse. Seeing her wince in pain, Li Wuxiang's guess about Zhou Xiang's identity became more certain—at least for now, this person didn't seem bad, and was quite considerate of his servants. But this consideration only applied when Kong Youxin actively sought him out. If she didn't go looking for him, Zhou Xiang wouldn't suspect anything.

This only shows that this person has a high status within the parish and never needs to consider things from other people's perspectives. Moreover, he was born with a high status; otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to climb to that position based on that alone.

The situation within the Six Departments is different from that outside the sect. Sects outside the sect have fewer members, and even fewer with real strength. Therefore, a person can be promoted based on their high level of cultivation without being worldly-wise.

The six departments of the Xuanjiao sect are actually equivalent to six not-so-small countries. According to Lou He and what he learned from the Coffin City, the Xuanjiao sect's leadership is more like a bureaucratic system. Wasn't Wu Meng of the Coffin City the one who became the local tyrant after maneuvering?

Perhaps he is a descendant of a very high-ranking member of the sect, a top-tier version of Zeng Jianqiu. Only someone like that would have the possibility and the audacity to secretly slip away outside the sect using the sect's resources.

As Li Wuxiang thought of this, Kong Youxin let out a soft gasp. She had just stepped into a ditch; although she hadn't twisted her ankle, her shoe had slid to one side. Zhou Xiang turned around at the sound and asked, "What happened?"

Kong Youxin quickly said, "I accidentally stepped into the air, Master."

Zhou Xiang nodded, turned around and continued walking.

Li Wuxiang knew that the way her shoe twisted must have rubbed off the scabs on the soles of her feet. So he said softly, "Let me carry you."

Upon hearing this, Kong Youxin abruptly turned her face, her expression as if she had seen a ghost or hadn't understood at all: "Huh?"

“Let me carry you.” Li Wuxiang moved the package from his back to his chest and squatted down slightly. “We’re all people of the martial world, no need to be shy. If my sister were still alive, she would be about your age. It’s getting dark, let’s not delay your journey.”

Kong Youxin's "Ah!" wasn't because of the taboo against men and women touching each other. Within the Xuanjiao sect, kinship was viewed lightly, and so were the restrictions on gender relations. Her "Ah!" stemmed from not expecting Li Wuxiang to be this kind of person—no… it should be said that he was "actually similar to his fellow disciples within the sect." He didn't possess any of the savage qualities described in the sect's legends; he seemed like a perfectly normal person!

"Come on, senior, you've gone too far," Li Wuxiang urged again.

Kong Youxin tried to move her shoes, but the soles of her feet immediately started to ache as if she were going crazy. She could only sigh and whisper in the darkness, "Okay, thank you, fellow Daoist."

She cautiously tried to jump up, but her feet hurt, and she didn't jump very high. She ended up wrapping her arms around Li Wuxiang's neck, as if trying to strangle him. But Li Wuxiang wrapped one arm around her, pressing hard on her waist, making her press tightly against his back. Kong Youxin scooted forward again, pressing her hands against Li Wuxiang's chest—this position was rather awkward, requiring strength in her arms. But because his hands were supporting one of her legs, it was much easier than walking on her own.

After walking for a while, Li Wuxiang felt Kong Youxin's chin gently brushing against his hair with each step. She must have felt it too, and was trying to tilt her head back, but it was unlikely she could do so in her current position.

He could also smell the scent of her hair, the kind that hadn't been washed in a long time.

Kong Youxin also realized this. She hadn't felt anything when she left, but now, leaning against Li Wuxiang's head, she immediately noticed that his hair was coarse and stiff, but it had no smell.

Thinking of what his fellow disciples had taught him on the boat, his heart skipped a beat, and he asked in a low voice, "Fellow Daoist Li, are there many rivers and streams around here?"

"Not many. There are only two major rivers around here, the Yalu River and the Feng River. If we go any further, we'll reach the Feng River, but we've already crossed the Yalu River—I met you yesterday when we crossed the Yalu River."

Oh... he took a bath when he crossed the river. That makes sense, since that's what his senior brothers taught him. They would take a bath when they encountered water in warm weather.

"Oh."

"Senior, you and I were originally living in seclusion, weren't we?" Li Wuxiang asked.

"Huh? Why do you think that?"

"Oh, you two are so kind." Li Wuxiang had already caught up with Zhou Xiang and was only two or three steps away from him. The trees and bushes made a lot of noise as they walked in the forest, but he knew that Zhou Xiang must be listening intently. "I gave you my name yesterday just so you would know that I thought you might have found me. I was afraid that if I left, you would catch up with me."

"Senior's cultivation level is so high that I can't see through it. I knew I couldn't escape anyway, so I decided to take a gamble. I didn't expect that senior would actually ask me to sit down. You know what? When I said I wanted to exchange the medicine powder for food, I didn't expect there would actually be food. At that time, I was just thinking, 'Just accept the medicine powder and don't hurt me.'"

"So I guess you come from a family that practices cultivation in seclusion. If you were like me, running around in the martial world, even if I hadn't died yesterday, you would have had everything taken from me."

Kong Youxin almost laughed when she heard this, thinking to herself, "Who cares about the things in your bundle?" But now that she was lying on his back, she actually felt quite fond of him, and even a taboo thought popped into her mind—he wasn't a bad person in terms of temperament or appearance. If I told him that I was a Taoist disciple of the Xuanjiao Immovable Mountain, I wonder if he would be flattered when he thought about carrying me on his back.

"Sigh, I can't say this to you, but I want you to persuade Senior Zhou—that he shouldn't treat people like he treated me when he encounters them again. I'm not saying that it's bad for you to be kind to others, but that there are actually more bad people than good people in the world. If you're not careful and get ambushed, things will get complicated."

Kong Youxin's foot wasn't hurting as much now, so she was in a better mood and smiled: "Okay. But don't worry, ordinary people can't hurt my master."

"Of course, that's natural."

Li Wuxiang stopped talking and just followed Zhou Xiang.

Kong Youxin was indeed pitiful, but he didn't want to carry her because he felt sorry for her, nor was it to curry favor with Zhou Xiang. With his current supernatural powers, he could say he was Li Xiao or a wandering cultivator, otherwise his master and his companion wouldn't have let their guard down so easily last night.

He carried Kong Youxin's back precisely because of those last few words—"Don't be so trusting of anyone you meet again." He said this because they were about to encounter someone, and he needed to make Zhou Xiang believe that she was definitely not on the same side as that person.

After walking a few more steps, they finally emerged from the woods. The stream they had seen earlier was still twenty or thirty steps away. The moon had risen, illuminating the stream's surface like a winding jade ribbon. Zhou Xiang continued walking, and as she neared the riverbank, she suddenly heard a sound. It was a muffled groan, the kind of groan one makes while enduring pain. Zhou Xiang frowned, looked closely, and confirmed that the person who had made the sound was on the opposite bank of the stream—it seemed that they had been hiding among the tall reeds by the river, had discovered the three of them and were trying to run back, but had fallen to the ground and couldn't get up.

It was just a fall, there was grass on the ground, it shouldn't have been this bad, right?

At this moment, Li Wuxiang whispered from behind, "Senior, be careful, it might be a trap."

Zhou Xiang hesitated for a moment, then looked up at the valley in front of him and realized that what Li Xiao had said was true. Last night had been a bit risky, but now that they had a local guide, they no longer needed to deal with other independent cultivators.

But he still wanted to go and see. Not for any other reason, he just wanted to. It was like someone who had been cooped up in a room for too long wanting to go out for a walk and get some fresh air.

He stood by the river and saw the figure on the opposite bank still writhing on the ground. He turned and said, "Wait for me here."

He paused, then stepped across the river without leaving a ripple. Reaching the bank, he walked three or four steps away from the person on the ground, looked at them, and then waved to Li Wuxiang and Kong Youxin.

Li Wuxiang said, "Alas, senior shouldn't have meddled in other people's business."

They carried Kong Youxin across the river.

After crossing the river, I could see clearly that the person lying on the ground was a boy, about sixteen or seventeen years old, with dark skin. His right foot seemed to have stepped into a hole in the ground, and the hole wasn't shallow, reaching up to his calf. He must have stepped into it while running, and when he fell forward, his lower leg broke, the white bone fragments piercing through the flesh.

Upon seeing this, Li Wuxiang felt Kong Youxin on his back shudder and quickly turn her face away. He put Kong Youxin down, frowned, and stepped in front of Zhou Xiang, asking first, "Who are you?"

Of course he knew who they were. He had been accompanying Zhou Xiang and Kong Youxin all the way, while his spirit wandered around the area—that's how he discovered the two of them last night.

When they wandered to the vicinity of this valley ahead of time, they knew at a glance that there must be people here. Zhou Xiang could tell that the feng shui here was good, and the other rogue cultivators weren't blind; it would be strange if they didn't take it over. And if they took it over and managed to hold onto it, their cultivation level wouldn't be shallow.

Now, there are two groups of people on the rock face at the top of the hill, each occupying a cave.

The one who occupied the North Cave was an old Taoist priest with six "disciples," including the one lying on the ground now. However, these six disciples were not recruited by him, but rather subdued by him. In layman's terms, the six recognized him as their leader and joined forces to do business.

The one who occupied the South Cave was a woman, who looked to be around forty years old. She had two subordinates, both of whom were women. The fact that they could still stay here to cultivate despite being outnumbered three to seven meant that this woman's cultivation was slightly higher than the old Taoist's.

His divine sense probed briefly, and that was all he knew. However, seeing how comfortably these two groups were living there, he realized this valley was like a seemingly attractive trap, and the two groups were like spiders caught in its web. If they encountered mosquitoes or other insects, they would devour them. But if they encountered a tough opponent who insisted on staying, they had to wisely step aside—the two from the North and South Caves were like the tough opponents the former cave masters had encountered.

The man on the ground was the old Taoist's apprentice. He was sweating profusely from the pain. Li Wuxiang questioned him again before he finally said, "I...I...my master is on the mountain!"

Li Wuxiang remained calm: "I'm not asking about your master, I'm asking you. Who are you, and what are you doing here?"

"This is my home territory, my master's temple... Hiss... Do I need to tell you I ran out to play?"

Li Wuxiang took two more steps forward, threw the lantern onto the edge of the pit, and looked inside.

Only then did they realize why he hadn't moved after falling—it wasn't a pit, but rather a trap set by someone, with sharp, thin wooden stakes stuck upside down inside. The boy's right foot had been pierced by one of the stakes, and his lower leg was broken, so naturally he couldn't escape.

She's really ruthless to herself.

Zhou Xiang also noticed the scene and frowned. He walked over from behind Li Wuxiang and asked kindly, "Young friend, we are not bad people. Don't be afraid, let us get your leg out first."

The boy froze. Li Wuxiang knew his feelings all too well—where did this idiot come from? What was going on? Shouldn't they have searched him and then left immediately?

In that brief moment of surprise, Li Wuxiang had already walked over and said, "Senior Zhou is kind-hearted; you've hit the jackpot. Don't move around; let me see what's going on."

He walked to the edge of the pit and looked at it. First, he used his strength to dig away the soil on one side, revealing the wooden stake at the bottom. Then, he grabbed the section that had pierced the instep with one hand and drew the short knife from his waist with the other: "You'd better bear it. Don't make a sound, or your master will think we've done something to you. I'm going to cut the stake in half. I'll count to two—"

With a flash of light, the wooden stake was sliced ​​off cleanly. The boy was still in a daze, and when Li Wuxiang asked, "Where is your master? Should we call him?" he seemed not to have quite grasped the situation. After being asked again, he stammered as if in a daze, "My...my master is in that cave on the mountain...you guys wait for me...ah, you guys have helped me a lot, could you please escort me back? My master will surely repay you handsomely."

Kong Youxin leaned closer to Zhou Xiang and whispered, "The savages here seem different from what my senior brothers described."

Zhou Xiang smiled and said, "Different strengths lead to different perceptions. When you were a rogue cultivator at the mercy of others, everyone wanted to harm you. But now that you have cultivation, others naturally become wary of you. A person has many faces, but only this one can be shown to us."

He then asked the boy, "What's your name? Who is your master?"

"...My name is Deng Yuan. My master cultivates Taoism on the mountain. I was in a hurry to run back because I didn't know if you were good or bad. If you send me away—"

“Take him up,” Zhou Xiang said to Li Wuxiang. “I also want to pay him a visit. You guessed right, I’ve lived in the mountains for a long time and don’t often come out to see the world. This is a good opportunity for me to see the local customs and people. There used to be people living here, so it will be more convenient for us to rest.”

"Alright, sigh." Li Wuxiang sighed, lifted Deng Yuan up, and put his arm around his shoulder. "Let's walk ahead. If there are any more traps here, we'll both fall in!"

(End of this chapter)