Chapter 39: Out of the Cage

The scholar left the examination hall, his heart flying like an arrow, leading his donkey out of the city. Who would have thought that heaven would not be kind? Just as he reached the halfway point, a thunderclap fell from the sky, and rain began to pour.

This rain was neither big nor small; the scholar himself was fine, but a box of books was extremely precious. Just as he was anxious, he spotted a small pavilion ahead. The scholar was overjoyed and hurriedly led the donkey over to take shelter from the rain.

Arriving under the pavilion, the scholar unloaded the book box from the donkey, placed it in the center of the pavilion, breathed a sigh of relief, and turned back to find a seat.

However, this turn was not trivial; it almost scared him into a somersault—outside the pavilion behind him, a person was standing quietly!

It was no wonder the scholar was surprised; he had been walking alone the whole way, and in the time it took to bend over and move a book box, this person had arrived behind him, as if he had fallen straight from the sky.

The spring cold was biting, but this man was only wearing a thin black shirt, which was already soaked by the rain at this moment. His posture was upright, like a strong pine wrapped in a piece of black cloth.

Seeing the scholar turn his head, he nodded in greeting, took off his bamboo hat, and wrung out his wet hair, allowing the scholar to see his face clearly: thin lips, high nose bridge, thin cheeks, and a pair of long, bright eyes embedded under sword-like brows, with a pale red pattern the size of a thumb extending from the corner of his left eye.

Extraordinary, handsome, quick-witted, proud, steady, cold—

"Wait a minute, why is this part so detailed?" Pei Ye couldn't help but interrupt; he remembered that the writing style of "Green Luan in the Mirror" was very concise, only adding ink in the most important places.

Zhang Siche glanced at him: "Are you telling it or am I?"

"You tell it."

"This is the first appearance of the hero Xi Wu Chou; without being detailed, how could you appreciate his heroic posture? Do you know that with the hero Xi's ability, he could easily avoid getting wet in the rain; he was only doing it to avoid scaring the scholar..."

Pei Ye understood now; it turned out to be a character he liked, so he said: "That's not necessary; just tell it the way it was written."

Zhang Siche rolled his eyes and continued: "In short, the scholar was stunned by this appearance..."

The scholar and the man took shelter from the rain under the pavilion together; the man held his sword and leaned against a pillar, looking cold and aloof. The scholar did not dare to strike up a conversation, only sitting quietly.

Yet unexpectedly, the man took the initiative to ask him to look at a small note. The scholar hurriedly took it; it was a passage of ancient text, with very archaic wording and word order. The scholar read it several times before realizing that this text was describing a place.

However, as for what place it referred to, the scholar still found it quite difficult to understand. Only one sentence, "Ghost Cart descends north," was easily recognized by him; the ancient name of the Kuiju Mountain beside his town seemed to be "Ghost Cart Mountain," and descending "north" from this mountain was the direction of his town.

The remaining sentences, however, would require finding a local great scholar to flip through ancient books and carefully research them to be solved.

The scholar told the truth, and the man wanted to thank the scholar with a piece of jade, but the scholar felt it was too precious and firmly refused. Seeing that the rain would not stop, the two opened up a conversation.

The scholar had originally thought the man was a cultivator who studied martial arts deeply and did not ask about other matters, but after talking, he couldn't help but be amazed by his erudition.

Literature, books, music, chess, cooking, wood and stone, architecture, identifying horses, recognizing jade, etc. —there was nothing this man did not know, which simply made the scholar sigh in admiration.

The scholar couldn't help but feel a bit self-pitying; even if he passed the provincial examination, he only had some attainments in reading classics and writing essays. By comparison, he was just that kind of dull scholar.

The man said he was also a thorough roughneck, and these pieces of knowledge came from a learned friend. Later, the friend passed away, leaving behind many books and notes, and he often flipped through them because he missed his friend.

As the conversation warmed up, the man took out a pot of wine, and the two drank and chatted. The scholar poured out all the hardships of his life, the ambitions in his chest, the sentiments of his beloved, and the anxiety in his heart.

The man listened quietly, clearly having extraordinary experience; no matter what the scholar said, he could point out a thing or two from a high vantage point.

Thus, they exchanged names and formed a friendship. When they parted, the man said he saw the shadow of that friend in the scholar, and would come back to find him for a drink and a chat in two days after finishing his business.

Before leaving, he patted a bit of True Qi into him; the scholar immediately sobered up, feeling refreshed all over. Looking around, the black-clothed figure was no longer to be seen.

Zhang Siche stopped here.

"Continue." Pei Ye was still not satisfied.

"It's your turn." Zhang Siche looked toward the door, where a bloody shadow walked in.

Pei Ye raised his head, just in time to hear the black-robed man say in a cold voice: "【Twenty-one】 wins, next group 【Twenty-three】, 【Twenty-four】."

A massive shadow stood up from the depths of the stone cellar; it was a strong man about two meters tall. Pei Ye had noticed him before, but only when he stood up did he reveal the full appearance of his body.

Tough skin, large hands and feet, hard muscles, large primitive totems tattooed on his body... He walked over, grinned ferociously at Pei Ye, revealing two sharp tiger teeth.

A Wildman.

Pei Ye sighed silently and stood up from the ground.

"Listen when you come back." Zhang Siche's face, full of red scars, grinned.

Pei Ye walked out of the stone cellar, having his first opportunity to see the appearance of this mountain valley.

Although the night was deep, the moon tonight was as clear as washing, and the stars were full. Under the moonlight, the high cliffs on both sides were uneven, with sharp protrusions from time to time.

Coupled with the fact that the valley was long and not wide, Pei Ye looked up, feeling as if he were in the mouth of a giant dog.

There were fewer people outside than Pei Ye had imagined, only occasionally seeing scattered black robes; Pei Ye even suspected that more people had entered the stone cave than remained.

However, it was reasonable; firstly, the Candle World Sect had no space to vigorously develop believers, and secondly, those who entered the stone cave—except for himself and Zhang Siche—did not need to be guarded.

But turning past the dim mountain shadows, as the scene behind entered his eyes, Pei Ye opened his eyes wide, suspecting that he might have thought wrong—perhaps there had been quite a few people after all.

If this valley was a dog's mouth, then the scene before him was as if a hammer had been ruthlessly pounded into it.

The dog's teeth were shattered and fell off, and the flowing sand and stones were like a surge of blood.

The Candle World Sect had once set up high frames and tents here, but now everything had been ruthlessly destroyed by an unknown force, and it could be seen that the center of that force was not these buildings or mountain stones; they were just incidental.

Walking further forward, an even more heart-stopping scene appeared before Pei Ye—a corpse was lying beside the ruins; even though it was stained with blood, the color of the robe was still so prominent.

It was the purple of that mysterious, secluded Venerable.

This scene flashed through his field of vision; Pei Ye's mind was full of thoughts, and he had no time to think about what kind of blow this place had suffered. The black-robed man leading the way had already stopped, and a venue appeared before them.

Dark blue flames two people high were rising all around, enclosing a neat circle.

On the ground in the middle of the circle, that fire talisman he hadn't seen for several days was drawn with dark blue liquid, so huge it filled the entire venue.

Above the center of the venue, a dark blue-near-purple light bead was floating, and the residual blood left from the previous battle was constantly being extracted from the dust in strands, then flying into this light bead.

Without any greeting, the Wildman took the first step into it, beckoning to Pei Ye; his massive figure was distorted by the flame curtain like a yaksha. ===== CHAPTER 40 =====