Chapter 98: Do Not Speak Its Name (First of Two)

The Old Mountain Runner took a sip from his water gourd and continued: “The Snake Pole has nine bodies; no one knows where all nine are hidden in the mountains. Even if you cut one down, you must stay alert—it might suddenly burst out from the soil or the grass to bite you.”

“Its body is as hard as iron rod; it doesn’t coil around flesh, only around souls. Once it fixes its gaze on you, even if you flee beyond the mountains, it will slip into your dreams and slowly devour your soul clean!”

“The last one—the Sea Mouth Toad…”

Xu Yuan’s heart stirred—he’d finally reached the Sea Mouth Toad.

“This monster has four mouths and four tongues. One tongue coils a hundred and twenty ghost soldiers; one tongue spews five-colored poison mist; one tongue can slice through metal and sever stone; one tongue bears a blood-red eye—anyone who meets its gaze becomes rigid and paralyzed.”

“And whenever all four mouths utter the same phrase, it will inevitably come true!”

Xu Yuan now had a guess as to why the old fox wanted him to kill the Sea Mouth Toad.

Finally, Bai Lao Yan said: “As for their weaknesses…”

“The Locust Witch suffered an old wound from a fight long ago with another head monster in the mountains—it never healed.”

Bai Lao Yan sketched a rough outline of the Locust Witch on the ground and marked the location.

“The Ghost Temple Idol was slaughtered so brutally by the Shanhe Bureau that its boy and girl attendants now fear imperial talismans deeply.”

“As for the other two, I don’t know their weaknesses.”

Xu Yuan frowned—he couldn’t learn the Sea Mouth Toad’s weakness; how could he fulfill his deal with the old fox?

Xu Yuan set that aside and focused on the immediate problem.

The Drifting Master, seeing the tale ended, drifted lazily toward the exit: “I’ll go hang myself on a tree outside.”

“Master, wait,” Xu Yuan called out. “You know these four head monsters are tied to Qiao Zian—do you know what dealings he had with them?”

The Drifting Master stopped. “What do you want to ask?”

“Does Qiao Zian offer them blood sacrifices just to secure his footing at Qihetai? Or did he trade with them for things from the mountains?”

The Drifting Master stuck out his tongue. “Everything from the mountains passes through the village to the outside world—the head monsters won’t bother with the effort.”

Xu Yuan frowned. “What about cocoon food?”

“Cocoon food?” The Drifting Master looked confused, glancing at Bai Lao Yan.

The latter said: “There is no cocoon food in these mountains.”

Xu Yuan and the others stared: “No cocoon food?”

Yan Lao pressed: “You know what cocoon food is?”

Bai Lao Yan snapped: “Of course I know—I said there isn’t any, so there isn’t. Don’t you believe me?”

Yan Lao slipped his hand into his sleeve and pulled out a cocoon food.

It was a thing half like a pine nut, half like a cocoon.

“This thing doesn’t exist in Ghost Witch Mountain?”

Bai Lao Yan turned his face away, snorting, refusing to answer.

The Drifting Master drifted over, studied it closely, and shook his head: “I’ve never seen this thing in the mountains.”

“This…” Yan Lao was speechless.

Xu Yuan’s brow furrowed deeply: There is no cocoon food in Ghost Witch Mountain!

The Cleansing Office’s deduction was wrong.

Then what was Qiao Zian and Chen Liangxuan’s true purpose in targeting Ghost Witch Mountain?

“Tomorrow we capture Senior Qin—we’ll extract the truth from him,” Xu Yuan gritted his teeth.

Bai Lao Yan simply lay down and slept, unwilling to say another word to these people.

Before leaving, the Drifting Master said: “I do know one thing—Qiao Zian is truly searching for the greatest one on Broad Goods Street.”

“I don’t know what you’re investigating, but whatever Qiao Zian intends to do, it’s no small matter.”

Xu Yuan wanted to ask more, but the Drifting Master vanished with a flick.

He seemed afraid to speak even the name of “the greatest one” within the mountains.

Xu Yuan turned to ask Bai Lao Yan again, but the Old Mountain Runner rolled over and began snoring loudly, back to them.

Yan Lao pulled Xu Yuan back and whispered: “If it’s only the greatest one, our Cleansing Office knows.”

Xu Yuan slapped his forehead: The River Office’s Shanhe Bureau couldn’t handle the greatest one back then—that’s why the river diverted around Ghost Witch Mountain. Of course they’d know.

Such information would naturally be reported to the Cleansing Office.

“That thing… is the ancestral spirit of the old Chiao-Chih Ruan dynasty, which slipped into Ghost Witch Mountain and merged with the deposed mountain god’s lingering essence and the last sliver of dragon qi from the Ruan royal line, forming a monstrous aberration.”

“The outside world calls it ‘Grandmaster Ruan’! It is said…”

Yan Lao lowered his voice, leaned close to Xu Yuan’s ear, his eyes suddenly crimson, his mouth split to his ears, teeth sharp as needles, tongue dripping thick black saliva—he lunged and bit straight for Xu Yuan’s neck.

Crunch!

He bit down on Xu Yuan’s dagger.

Xu Yuan’s hand shot out—animal sinew rope slid from his sleeve and tightly bound Yan Lao’s head into a ball.

Yan Lao’s eyes filled with terror—he was still conscious, gesturing frantically for Xu Yuan to save him, yet his body kept lunging uncontrollably, trying to bite again and again!

Xu Yuan himself was immune to corruption, but he didn’t know how to save Yan Lao.

After dodging several times, a sudden insight struck him: “Senior!”

The Old Mountain Runner had sat up, but refused to move.

“Ten large iron pots!” Xu Yuan promised.

The Old Mountain Runner leapt up, seized Yan Lao by the nape of the neck, pinned him hard to the ground, then rummaged in his feather cloak, pulled out a crimson feather, snapped it in half, and with a hiss, drove it into Yan Lao’s tongue.

Purple-black blood flowed from the feather shaft—enough to fill a sea bowl—before finally turning red.

But Yan Lao’s eyes remained crimson, his mouth still full of fangs.

Bai Lao Yan pulled out three more black feathers and tossed them to Xu Yuan: “Burn them to ash in a bowl!”

Who the hell carries a bowl?!

Xu Yuan drew his dagger, carved a quick wooden bowl from a chunk of wood, and burned the feathers to ash as Bai Lao Yan instructed.

Bai Lao Yan smeared half the ash on Yan Lao’s face, mixed the other half with Liu’s Village Wine, and forced it down his throat.

After a stick of incense burned, Yan Lao vomited violently—spewing foul, stinking worms and rotting flesh—his body nearly collapsed, but at last he returned to normal.

Bai Lao Yan snapped: “Don’t speak that name in the mountains!”

Fu Jingyu helped Yan Lao drink some water; Xu Yuan’s eyes lit up: “Senior, you can purify corruption…”

Bai Lao Yan shook his head: “This is a mountain folk method—it only works for specific cases.”

Xu Yuan couldn’t hide his disappointment.

Yan Lao recovered, bowed to Bai Lao Yan and Xu Yuan: “Thank you. If not for you two, this old man would’ve died pointlessly in this mountain backwater.”

Though he could no longer speak, Xu Yuan, from what Yan Lao had revealed, now understood the origin of “the greatest one” and could infer some of its abilities.

“What’s the point of thinking about it?” Xu Yuan silently shook his head. “Even the Shanhe Bureau couldn’t handle it—we must never provoke it.”

“Even… if we can’t intercept Senior Qin and his group outside Broad Goods Street tomorrow, and they reach the street—I’ll turn and run, not a second longer!”

“Some things can be done. Others cannot.”

Xu Yuan spat out his “abdominal fire,” burning away the filthy blood and debris completely, lest they breed further calamity.

Lu Lao said: “You rest. I’ll keep watch over Old Yan tonight.”

Fu Jingyu said: “I’ll take the second half of the night.”

Only then did Xu Yuan lie down and sleep.

(End of Chapter)