Kyushu · Endless Nagato

Chapter 23 The King (2)
Just thinking about it, there was a strange sound in his ear.It's a very, very subtle sound that's hard to hear without noticing, but once you hear it it's hard to ignore it.This sound is very similar to the low buzzing of mosquitoes on a summer night, or the explosion of a beehive a few miles away, but it is harsher and more rhythmic than that sound, and it seems to carry some kind of threat and attack. It means that people feel slightly dizzy after listening to it for a long time.

Another sound followed, that was Xue Huaiqing's footsteps.Xue Huaiqing, who had already returned to rest in the tent, ran out quickly, with an expression on her face that An Xingmian had never seen in the past few days: nervousness and excitement.

"There is a life-and-death duel between corpse dancers nearby!" Xue Huaiqing said, "Did you hear a small but piercing sound in your ears? That is a high-level application of corpse dance. When pure mind control cannot make the corpse servant perform to a sufficient level, it is necessary to cooperate with the throat sound to stimulate the power of the corpse servant. This guttural sound is called the "death song". Strong opponents, corpse dancers don't need to use death songs."

"But how can you be sure that this is a battle between a corpse dancer and a corpse dancer?" An Xingmian asked.

"Because I can tell that there are two different corpse dancers using death songs, and these two death songs are fighting each other," Xue Huaiqing said, "about two or three miles ahead, in the swamp, I have to go and see."

She issued an order, and the corpse servant immediately extinguished the torch and followed her. An Xingmian did not hesitate: "I will go with you."

two

This swamp was inaccessible and there was no map. An Xingmian could only follow the hunter's instructions and start looking for possible signposts left by the predecessors, and prayed that this thing did exist.Due to the extreme humidity in the swamp, it is easy to rot when using wood as a road sign, so it is said that people usually put down a round brown stone that can only be picked up outside the swamp on the walkable road.An Xingmian searched for a long time, finally found a piece, and felt excited, knowing that what the hunter said was true.It's just that this kind of stone is dark in color, and An Xingmian needs to be very careful to see it in the dark, but Xue Huaiqing almost only needs to glance at it to see which direction there is a stone.

"You Corpse Dancers have really good eyes," An Xingmian said with emotion, "It seems that your nose is also very good."

"If you have bad eyesight, you won't be able to find your target in the dark tomb." Xue Huaiqing said lightly.An Xingmian glanced at the tower-like corpse servant, and understood what she meant by the "target".

As Xue Huaiqing said, the place where the two corpse dancers fought was only two or three miles away from their campsite, but there were not many roads to walk in the swamp, and it took some effort to turn around.There was no shelter in the swamp, and the field of vision was very wide at first glance. Although An Xingmian's eyesight was not as good as that of the corpse dancers, it was not bad. Before he had gone far, he had already seen two corpse dancers fight together. The fighting scene was a strange scene that he had never seen in his life.

He saw about [-] or [-] people standing in the swamp under the cold moonlight, and most of each person was submerged in the muddy water of the swamp.But these people have always raised their hands to the sky, maintaining a motionless posture.

Above their heads, there are two more moving figures.Both of them were thin and small, but their footwork was very good. They stepped on the palms of the people below them with light feet, constantly changing positions, and waiting for the opportunity to attack each other.An Xingmian noticed that these two people did not move randomly, each of them only stepped on the palms of a dozen fixed people.In other words, although the 20 people below seemed to be mixed together, they were divided into two strict camps, each responsible for lifting one of the two.

If you observe carefully, you can find that every time the two people above their heads land, those people who are stuck in the swamp like wooden stakes will sink slightly downward.In other words, the 20 people didn't sink that deep at the beginning, but they sank a little bit later with the trampling of the two.

He looked further into the distance, and found that there were two other people on the dry ground a few feet away from the arena.One was a fat middle-aged woman, with her hands and fingers crossed in a strange order, she kept pacing up and down, and occasionally stomped her feet heavily, her expression was very irritable.The other one was a little boy who looked no more than eleven or twelve years old. His face was very handsome, but his whole face was pale and gloomy.Contrary to the fat woman, he sat on the ground in a leisurely manner, playing with a small rattle in his hand.

"I don't know that woman. The one who looks like a little boy should be the eldest son. These two are quite capable corpse dancers." Xue Huaiqing said.

"That is to say, those who got stuck in the swamp, and those who fought on top of those people, are all walking corpses manipulated by these two people?" An Xingmian asked.

"Yes, each of them controlled fourteen walking corpses at the same time, and one of them was doing a very complicated fight, which shows that these two corpse dancers are quite powerful and evenly matched," Xue Huaiqing explained, "The corpse dancer After getting started, start from manipulating one walking corpse, and gradually increase the number of simultaneous manipulatives. Every time one is added, the difficulty will increase greatly. I have practiced for eight years, and now I can only control five at most. My master can control ten. Seven."

"That is to say, your master is stronger than these two... What about Xu Mizi? Can there be more than twenty?" An Xingmian asked.

"Xu Mizi...he is different from others," Xue Huaiqing said, "he has created a unique method that is not known to the outside world, which can transform the corpse dance into a formation. The spiritual transmission between the corpses controls more corpses. According to my master, she has personally seen Xumizi control forty corpses at the same time, which is more than twice as many as her. So it is said that Xumizi has controlled more than [-] corpses in the past few hundred years. It is not an exaggeration to say that he is a genius who is not born in the world."

"It's amazing," An Xingmian admired, and I don't know if he was talking about Sumeru or all the corpse dancers, "By the way, just now you said that the Changshengzi 'looks like a boy', but he actually Isn't it?"

Xue Huaiqing shook his head: "This person extracts some kind of medicine from the corpse oil of children to help him look youthful on the surface, but he is actually over 70 years old. Usually when he walks in the town, he is always surrounded by He likes to bring two corpse servants, one male and one female, and it looks like a family of three, making it even more difficult for people to be wary of him, so that it is convenient for him to find out which family has a newly dead child."

So how many children's corpses did he have to spoil?An Xingmian wanted to ask, but held back, feeling that it would be provocative to ask a corpse dancer such a question.He changed his mind and said, "Ask which family has a new dead child", at least it shows that he is just stealing dead corpses instead of killing living people and turning them into corpses like Xu Mizi, which is considered very kind up.

He threw away those uncomfortable associations and changed the subject: "What does their current competition mean? Who will win?"

Xue Huaiqing looked at it carefully for a while: "They are competing in the most subtle operation of the corpse dance. Have you seen it? Each person first manipulates his thirteen corpse servants to make human stakes in the swamp, and give No.14 A corpse servant stepped on the feet, and then No. 14 corpse servants competed in martial arts. This kind of competition not only tests the level of martial arts, but also tests the school..."

"Qinggong. Whoever uses the corpse dance technique a little bit poorly will have heavy footsteps, and the corpse servants who step on the feet will sink faster, isn't that right?" An Xingmian said.

"Yes, such competitions are not uncommon," Xue Huaiqing replied. "Generally, there are two rules: the person who is knocked down by the human pile loses; the person whose pile is submerged first loses."

"But couldn't they step on each other's corpse servants to make the opponent sink faster?" An Xingmian asked again.

"In that case, the opponent's corpse servant only needs to use some ingenuity to throw him directly." Xue Huaiqing said.

An Xingmian was amazed, and became more interested in this strange competition.Xue Huaiqing told him that judging from the situation in front of him, it is not the eldest son who looks very leisurely, but the fat woman who looks restless.

"Her corpse servants are generally an inch or two higher than Changshengzi's corpse servants, and they are not inferior in fist and kick skills. If the fight continues, Changshengzi's corpse servants will soon be wiped out." " Xue Huaiqing said.

"Then why does she look like she's about to lose?" An Xingmian was puzzled.

"If she really expresses such eagerness in the fight, then it is impossible for her to have the ability to control [-] walking corpses at the same time," Xue Huaiqing said, "The most important quality of a corpse dancer is emotional Stablize."

"You mean, she's just pretending?" An Xingmian understood a little.

"Actually, the expressions the two of them made on the surface were just to disturb each other," Xue Huaiqing looked at the two corpse dancers who were fighting, "That woman clearly has the upper hand, but she still has to make an anxious gesture." The purpose of the appearance is to make Changshengzi feel her emotions and become more irritable; and Changshengzi also understands her intentions, so he must remain calm and calm, and at the same time tell the other party: I haven't surrendered yet, so don't be complacent."

"It's a pity that you are just corpse dancers, not emperors and generals." An Xingmian said with emotion.

The fighting ahead gradually entered the most tense stage, because the corpse servants used by both sides as stepping posts had been sunk deeper and deeper, gradually only the head and neck were still exposed.And according to the agreement before the war, whoever has any corpse servants who are drowned by the swamp first will lose.Now it seems that Changshengzi is really at a disadvantage. The two corpse servants who are fighting are about the same strength. The corpse servants of human beings have just been submerged up to their chins, but several of the Changshengzi's have already covered their lips. The advantages and disadvantages are obvious.

No matter how ruthless and ruthless Changshengzi cultivated, facing the imminent defeat, his face still looked a little stiff, and his eyes gradually had a fierce light.On the contrary, the fat woman still looked like she was about to lose, and continued to stimulate the eldest son even more.

"Looks like the Changshengzi is going to lose," Xue Huaiqing said softly, "His corpse servant sank faster."

"That's not necessarily true. If the Changshengzi is ruthless enough, there may be a chance to save the defeat," An Xingmian said suddenly, "Didn't you say that there are two rules?" Those who are overwhelmed over their heads are considered losers.’ These two items can actually make a fuss.”

"I don't understand what opportunity you are talking about." Xue Huaiqing thought for a while, but still shook his head, "But Changshengzi, according to my master's description, has always been vicious and ruthless for the sake of victory. Maybe he will It might even come up with some strange tricks."

"Look, if the Changshengzi really wants to win, you will see him soon." An Xingmian said confidently.

His words were quickly fulfilled.When the turbid muddy water had already started to flood the eyebrows of Changshengzi's corpse servant, the corpse servant he was in charge of the competition suddenly made a movement that surprised Xue Huaiqing - he jumped towards a certain person's stake, but did not As before, he controlled the strength and lowered gently, but stepped down heavily, and the man pile did not raise his hand to lift it up.With a click, the upper half of the dummy's head was crushed by this foot, and the disgusting blue-black liquid scattered in all directions.

And that's just the beginning.The ghoul completely abandoned his opponent, crushing the heads of all thirteen human piles in one swift movement.After completing this inexplicable move, the human stakes that had lost their heads raised their hands again, and the contestant stood on one of them in a defensive posture.

Changshengzi sneered twice, shook the rattle in his hand and stood up: "Sister He Qi, you lost."

The fat woman named He Qi shook her head: "I lost? Why didn't I see where I lost?"

"Repeat again, what exactly is the bet between the two of us?" After the two sneers, Changshengzi quickly controlled his complacent mood, and when he said this, his tone was as usual, without No waves.An Xingmian thought, corpse dancers are really good at controlling their emotions, if it were an ordinary person, after using such tricks to win, their tails would probably go up to the sky.That extreme pursuit of rationality is somewhat similar to Nagato Monk's pursuit of "self-control".

The corpse dancer and the Nagato monk, the evil and the good, are they essentially the same kind of people?
When An Xingmian had these weird thoughts, He Qi had already begun to repeat the bet between the two: "The one who gets knocked down will be considered the loser; the one who is first submerged above the head will be considered..."

She suddenly stopped talking, the fat accumulated on her chubby round face trembled slightly, and she had already guessed where the trick was.Sure enough, Changshengzi said coldly: "The person who is submerged above the head first loses. But if my corpse servant has no top at all, it will never be submerged."

"This is your calculation, then you will never lose," He Qi looked at him with the same cold eyes, "but in this way, the thirteen corpse servants you have worked so hard to cultivate will be lost." All destroyed, it will take you at least three years to find thirteen useful corpses again? Just to beat me, you will not hesitate to give up your hard work, is it worth it? At least I am willing Even if I lose to you, I will be reluctant to part with my corpse servant."

"I don't care, let alone three years, I have to do it even in 30 years," Changshengzi smiled slightly, "Ever since I lost to you in that battle ten years ago, I have been thinking about how to avenge you all the time. I am willing to pay any price to defeat you with my own hands. Now, are you going to admit defeat, or continue to fight with me?"

"I admit defeat." He Qi didn't hesitate, "I'd rather admit that I lost to you than give up my thirteen outstanding corpse servants who have followed me for many years."

Changshengzi nodded lightly: "In this case, thank you, my wish can finally come to an end, and this seminar is no longer meaningful to me. I'm leaving." He turned around and couldn't see it. Glancing at the thirteen corpse servants who had lost their heads and were destined to be useless, they walked towards the distance.The only remaining corpse servant obediently followed behind him.

"If you see old acquaintances, say hello to them for me." Changshengzi was in the shape of a child, and his steps seemed not fast, but his movements were extremely fast.When these words floated from a distance, both he and the corpse servant had disappeared.

"Didn't you say that corpse dancers have to practice to the point of abandoning emotions and human desires? Why is this eldest son so obsessed with this victory? Isn't this contradicting the purpose of your cultivation?" An Xingmian said a little Puzzled, she asked Xue Huaiqing in a low voice, "And judging from the tone of their speech, these two people should not have any particularly serious enmity, it seems that they are simply fighting for a victory or defeat."

Xue Huaiqing thought for a while: "Most of the time, corpse dancers try to avoid unnecessary disputes with outsiders, and rarely seek revenge after the fact, but...fights among themselves are always very difficult. Powerful, and always attaches great importance to simple victory and defeat. Every seminar is almost a moment when countless old accounts are piled up and liquidated. Actually, I didn’t really understand the root cause of this in the past, but after the death of Master, it seems that I understand a little bit."

An Xingmian looked at her, Xue Huaiqing bit her lips lightly: "Corpse dancers are probably the loneliest group of people in the world. They are only accompanied by dead corpses all their lives. They often don't see the first person other than themselves for many years. Two living people. I think, whether it’s a seminar, or the obsession between comrades in winning or losing, they’re all just to relieve loneliness. Isn’t loneliness what people fear most in this world?”

(End of this chapter)