Chapter 270: Chapter Twenty-Six: Three Against Wu Fei

Holding five gold medals, I, Chen Zheng, Fan Wuchang and his men, seven of us in total, arrived before this haunted house.

Time was against us; Wu Fei chose the time after the hai hour, when lunar spiritual energy was at its peak, so we didn't choose to open the door and go in, but instead went to the side wall of the house.

"Go in……" Fan Wuchang twitched his fingers, ordering the four armed subordinates holding guns.

These four were stern in bearing, top-notch experts; Fan Wuchang lightly moved his fingers, and they understood the meaning—person stepping on person, a standard military climbing posture—and climbed up the left wall.

Fan Wuchang boosted me up with his shoulder, then he followed Chen Zheng up. But the moment we got onto the walltop, the sight before us made the three of us feel a chill, our hairs standing on end.

Those four bodyguards had just landed not long ago, hadn't even reached the haunted house's door, when the ground suddenly gushed out a large swarm of worms that crawled all over their bodies; before they could struggle a few cries, they covered their eyes and collapsed to the ground, white worms wriggling over them. In the end, they all turned into a pool of blood that seeped into the earth.

The first to act was Chen Zheng, who bowed his horse stance, let out a furious shout, leapt down from the wall, clenched his fist, and punched straight into the middle of that blood pool.

After the booming shockwave, a wave-like ripple spread across the ground, and it seemed as if a ring of gas surrounded Chen Zheng, shaking loose the white worms buried in the earth. Once his injuries healed, Chen Zheng's martial arts seemed to have taken another step forward. Having let go of everything, he appeared to be faintly advancing from the acquired to the innate realm.

I and Fan Wuchang had no hesitation whatsoever, following behind Chen Zheng as we went inside.

No sooner had we stepped inside than an ice corpse emanating cold air lunged at us; Fan Wuchang's eyes turned cold, and his saber flashed a chilling light in the air.

But the ice corpse was no ordinary corpse; Fan Wuchang's attack only nicked its skin, failing to penetrate to its marrow.

"Wrap him up……" I shouted at Fan Wuchang, went behind the ice corpse, slapped a prepared fire talisman onto its neck, then triggered the fire technique, slowly drawing out a strip of talisman.

This is what I devised last night after painstaking contemplation; I filtered Yang Qiye's process of subduing the ice corpse and from it formulated a method to deal with this ice corpse.

To deal with this ice corpse, one must use Magnificent Light's fire technique, the art of Magnificent Light Yin Mountain, which has always been incompatible like water and fire. To master this fire technique, I have long accumulated internal injuries.

But…… I had no choice.

After finding the ice corpse's weakness, I and Fan Wuchang used the same method to dispose of two more in succession, and just then Wu Fei slowly came down from the second floor.

I, Chen Zheng, and Fan Wuchang formed a three-sided formation surrounding him.

Wu Fei calmly glanced at me, extended a hand, and hoarsely said, "Hand over the gold medals, all of them."

"Even now, do you still think you have any advantage……?" Fan Wuchang looked at him; although his expression held a hint of contempt, his hands gripped the saber's hilt. None of us three dared to underestimate Wu Fei standing before us.

One a fellow Yin Mountain disciple, one an internal martial arts master, one a killer wielding a lethal weapon. I believe Wu Fei could tell our origins from the three of us' skills. Yet, despite this disadvantage, he showed no panic whatsoever, his eyes icy, still as calm as ever.

"Give me the gold medals, then you take them away……" Wu Fei repeated the words.

He seemed to have some unspeakable difficulty all along; I couldn't help but step forward and stare at him: "Wu Fei, can you tell me why you've become like this? We're all fellow disciples; maybe I can help you. Of course, the precondition is that you must confess everything to me and release Han Duo and Pangzi."

"Useless…… you can't help me"—what I didn't expect was that Wu Fei's expression wasn't as hard as before; he shook his head and said wearily, "Nobody can help me; I am now merely a puppet worse than death."

"Nobody is born liking to be a puppet; if it were me, I'd rather die than be controlled by anyone." Chen Zheng said coldly, his words implying that Wu Fei was basely clinging to life.

"Is that so?" Wu Fei gave a self-mocking smile; before we could react, a knife had appeared in his hand, and under our stunned gaze he resolutely stabbed it into his heart.

An even more shocking scene followed: the dagger that had pierced Wu Fei's heart turned into an ice sculpture within a second, while Wu Fei remained unharmed, showing not a trace of pain on his face.

"This……" came exclamations, gasps of cold air, and the three of us stared wide-eyed, utterly unable to believe this was real.

"Have you heard of the ice armor worm?" Wu Fei said calmly, with a hint of sorrow: "It's a silkworm chrysalis that grows on Tian Mountain, feeds on ice, and spins silk that becomes ice corpses." He stroked his neck, hoarsely saying, "I am now an ice armor corpse—neither alive like a person nor dead like a ghost."

"Go on, the farther the better—I don't want to fight, I don't want you to turn into ice blocks; my mission is simply to obtain these five gold medals." Wu Fei waved at us, gesturing for us to leave.

"Why let me go?" I wondered, because our strengths are not on the same level; Wu Fei could easily freeze Pangzi and Han Duo, and naturally could just as easily kill me.

"No particular reason; perhaps it's because we're both from Yin Mountain, and the inheritors of Yin Mountain's lineage are few—I don't want to see another fellow disciple die miserably at my hands."

It seems Wu Fei has no intention of stopping me from taking Pangzi and Han Duo away. The gold medals mean little to me; even boundless wealth would be fine—I'm just an utterly ordinary person.

After placing the gold medals on the table, I, Fan Wuchang, and Chen Zheng walked toward the corner of the house, preparing to take away the two ice sculptures of Pangzi and Han Duo.

However, at that very moment, an abrupt change occurred……

A pained howl echoed through the air; I turned in surprise to see Wu Fei writhing in agony on the ground, while a strange cold light radiated from his neck.

"Go, hurry—he's planted a rune on me. My spirit can't resist him; if we don't leave now, I'll end up attacking you." Wu Fei clutched his neck and shouted in pain.

I, Fan Wuchang, and Chen Zheng had no hesitation, hoisted Han Duo and Pangzi, and immediately ran toward the house's exit.

However, just as we were about to dash out the door, a strange screech like a dying mouse rang out, a chill wind swept over our skin, and looking up we saw Wu Fei already standing at the doorway.

Those were eyes like frost, emitting a cold light that made one's whole body shiver; Wu Fei had taken off his black robe, and now a thin layer of ice covered his body.

"Hah……" Chen Zheng hesitated not, instantly raised his fist and struck at Wu Fei's face; Wu Fei merely lifted a hand to block, and Chen Zheng was sent flying backward.

Even more strangely, after Chen Zheng steadied his feet, a layer of white frost coated both his hands; even this internal martial arts master couldn't help but tremble and shudder twice.

In the instant Chen Zheng retreated, Fan Wuchang circled behind Wu Fei, raised his saber and viciously stabbed at his neck—but the moment the blade touched Wu Fei's neck, Fan Wuchang quickly turned into an ice sculpture and collapsed to the ground.

How to describe this eerie sensation? The ice sculpture's spread was visible to the naked eye; in the blink of an eye, it engulfed Fan Wuchang's entire body starting from the saber.

"I'll hold him off; you take Pangzi and Han Duo and go"—seeing the situation turn sour, I could only choose to stay and buy time; although I know some techniques, I'm still not as agile as Chen Zheng in action.

I pulled a fire talisman from my waist, gripped it in my palm, and hurled it at Wu Fei. Perhaps sensing the opposing force, Wu Fei didn't dodge this time but raised both hands to meet it.

Chen Zheng is no fool; he knows not to linger in battle. Even as I shouted at him to go first, he had already lifted the frozen Han Duo and Pangzi. While his palms thundered, Chen Zheng had already seized the moment to run out the doorway.

A cold feeling surged from my palm, permeating my five viscera and six bowels; at the instant our palms clashed, the fire talisman burst into brilliant sparks—but they were so feeble and fleeting they could not harm Wu Fei at all.

Fortunately, the power of the talisman blocked the encroaching frost, giving me a chance to catch my breath.

I kept stepping back a few steps, shivering with cold, warily watching Wu Fei as I pulled out a stack of fire talismans. His hand was already raised, it seemed he was preparing to attack me.

But just then, a muffled groan came from outside the door, and shortly after, Chen Zheng—who had left the house—clutched his chest and turned back.

"Someone's outside the courtyard……" Chen Zheng re-entered the house, leaned against the doorframe, coughed and squatted down. And just then, Wu Fei attacked me with lightning speed; in my moment of distraction, panic left me only able to meet his advance passively.

Another boom— I flew backward like a snapped kite. Not long after hitting the ground, a crackling sound rose from my body as a thin layer of frost rapidly spread up from my arm.

Chen Zheng saw Wu Fei approaching me, clenched his fist and struck at the back of his head—but Chen Zheng's fierce attack only produced the same result as before, a powerful rebound that slammed him into the wall and knocked him down.

Could it be that today we truly are doomed to perish here…… Inside the house there's the strange Wu Fei, outside someone has repelled Chen Zheng; we're like a spent crossbow—how could we possibly escape today's peril?

I had already despaired, and could only let the frost slowly cover my body while watching the now-puppet Wu Fei slowly walk toward me.

The frost spread quickly; before long it had reached my neck, and Wu Fei had come to stand beside me, his hand poised to strike down upon my crown.

"Hah, stop……" Just then a thunderous shout rang out from the air, making me involuntarily shiver with cold and causing my eyes to light up with delighted surprise.