Chapter 62: Legend of the Undead

( ) Chapter 73 Legend of the Undead

Sancha Valley campsite.

Wan'er and the others were standing outside the tent, guarding on one side while anxiously waiting for Li Bucai to return. Goblins are in this area, and they have far too few people; if they encounter them, they would likely be unable to resist. To avoid being discovered by Goblins, they extinguished all the lights, didn't even light a campfire, and packed all the food into bundles.

"Lord, is that you?" In the darkness, Wan'er hidden in a large tree at the edge of the tent heard footsteps.

"How's it? Nothing wrong here?"

Wan'er recognized Li Bucai's voice and, delighted, leapt down from the tree to meet him: "I didn't see you return until so late, Lord; I was worried I'd die. This place is fine, no Goblins encountered." At that moment she saw him cradling a person and exclaimed: "Is Rui Tong injured?"

Li Bucai shook his head and said, "Rui Tong hasn't returned yet."

Wan'er exclaimed, "So Rui Tong wasn't with you, Lord. Then please return to the tent to rest first; I'll go find her right away."

From her words it was clear Rui Tong couldn't return, so Li Bucai said, "No need. If I'm not mistaken, she was probably kidnapped by this person's companions."

"Who is this person?"

Li Bucai shook his head, saying he didn't know. He carried the person into the tent, laid her on the bed; Fragrant Red lit the lamp, and Xiaoxiao stepped forward to remove the black cloth wrapped around the person.

Wan'er wondered, "Strange, why cover her with a whole piece of black cloth…" It was a single sheet of black cloth covering her head, like a black sack draped over her.

Li Bucai said, "She was taken by Goblins. When I rescued her, a Goblin Priest was about to use corpse poison to dissolve her. I was also puzzled: if they only wanted to execute her without anyone knowing their whereabouts, they could simply blindfold her."

Wan'er pondered, "Priest? Could it be that…"

"What?"

"I've heard that among Priests there is a branch called the Poison Branch Priest. If one reaches a certain cultivation level, they wield terrifying power, but training this Poison Branch magic progresses extremely slowly. When I was very young, I heard of a great villain in Sky City who specialized in kidnapping noble offspring and using living people for training. Because noble blood differs from commoners', when he processed it he obtained something called 'Blood Mist Essence', which can be used to boost this kind of magic, and the purer the lineage, the more 'Blood Mist Essence' helps enhance the power. Later this person was discovered by the Emperor; it turned out he was the Emperor's beloved concubine. As for whether she was executed later, some say she was, others say the Emperor couldn't bring himself to harm his beloved and exiled her from Sky City. I think that Goblin Priest also wants her blood, because once 'Blood Mist Essence' is extracted from blood it evaporates upward like vapor, so they cover her with this black cloth."

This person, like those little girls, is also impervious to swords and spears. It seems the Goblins knew someone would rescue her; the earlier Goblin wielding a knife that swung at her was only trying to draw out the person hidden in the darkness.

As Xiaoxiao removed the black cloth bag from the person's head, the girls were startled; Xiaoxiao hurriedly tossed the black bag away and fled far away.

The girls blurted, "Undead—"

Li Bucai asked in surprise, "Undead?"

"They were born with big eyes, small mouths, and also have a tail; they must… must be people of the Undead…"

Li Bucai, seeing the horrified expressions, asked, "Are they very scary?"

Wan'er nodded vigorously and said, "Although they are born almost identical to us and share the same language, they are impervious to swords and spears, fear neither water nor fire; they can stay submerged for three days and three nights without surfacing, and even in raging flames they move freely, taking no damage at all."

"So they are natural enemies of us? Why are they impervious to blades and spears, does anyone know?"

Wan'er shook her head and said, "According to legend, the Undead were originally our ancestors. A poet's song once sang roughly: In the time before our ancestors formed a nation, when many tribes roamed this continent, there was a tribe whose chieftain's wife fell for a young chieftain of another tribe and fled to live with him. The chieftain, enraged, rallied his whole tribe, defeated that tribe, and in front of his wife, gruesomely executed the rival chieftain, then drove her into the wilderness to let the heavens punish her. Years later she didn't die; instead she returned to avenge the tribe, now impervious to swords and spears, resistant to water and fire. Though she was alone, she slaughtered almost all the tribe's thousands, captured the chieftain alive, hung him from a tree, gouged out his eyes, cut off his limbs, fed him broth daily so he wouldn't starve, and sliced him each day for a year until she finally killed him through relentless torment. Perhaps because of her cruelty, the heavens punished her by making her neither human nor beast, and a long tail grew from her back. The story spread to other tribes, who saw her as a demon and, together with dozens of tribes, came to hunt her, enraging her further. She fought tens of thousands alone for three days and nights, exhausted, she leapt off a sheer cliff thousands of meters deep—no one could follow. Everyone thought she died, but a decade later she emerged from the wilderness with a group of little girls who also bore tails. Strangely, they were all girls; no boys were ever seen. By then the tribe had been unified into a nation by Emperor Ke Laode I. After years of stalemate, because other threats remained, the Emperor found a way to Sky City and relocated everyone. Since then, whenever they see our people, they attack."

Li Bucai listened to this tale as if it were a myth, but on this wondrous continent, anything can happen.

"You mean there are other threats? Besides the Undead and Goblins, how many natural enemies do we have?"

"Very… many…"

Li Bucai was taken aback; many? So it's more than three or five types, even she can't fully explain.

"In short…" Wan'er said, "We should get rid of her first; they're very clever, otherwise they'll attract many of their kind."

The girls also spoke up, "Yes, Lord, get rid of her."

Li Bucai thought: Get rid of her? If Rui Tong truly was taken by their people and we just let her go, what could I trade for a person? Only this canyon looks like it might contain those two kinds of monstrous trees, and inside there are Goblins and Undead people. If I release her, with only these few people by my side, that would be tantamount to surrender—no way to enter this canyon again; this is my Territory. People, people, if I could muster a hundred or eighty men under my command now, I'd storm in overnight, wipe out the Goblins, and then make you Undead bow to me. Bow? Subjugate?

Li Bucai's eyes lit up: Their grudge with us dates back tens of thousands of years; after so many years without meeting, might they have forgotten it? Their current enemy is mainly Goblins, and I am currently in need of manpower; could I use the Goblins to somehow subjugate them?

"If I wanted to keep her, do you think that's possible?" Li Bucai asked, hoping to keep her nearby to observe the possibility.

"She… she's an Undead, born as our enemy…"