Chapter Eighty-Six: Tragic Upheaval

Cheng Jicai’s body lay sprawled on the ground, limbs and torso twisted together in a grotesque knot. His neck had been stretched to an unnatural length and bent around to the other side, while his eyeballs bulged from their sockets in a fixed, ferocious stare.

Cheng Suer stared at the miserable state of her father’s remains, her mind utterly blank. The half-broken mourning staff in her hand hung limp at her side as she murmured over and over, “Father... Father...”

Still dazed and not yet fully aware of what had happened, she suddenly felt her body lift weightlessly into the air. A nauseating stench of blood and rot rushed into her nose.

The headless blood-soaked corpse thrust out a huge hand and had already lifted Cheng Suer high above the ground. Its monstrous strength surged, and it seemed that in the next instant Cheng Suer would be dead beyond all hope.

“Suer! Suer!”

No one knew when, but her mother had regained consciousness from the ground. Seeing this scene, she went pale with terror, then scrambled and crawled to the side of the headless corpse. A mother becomes steel for her child; with her daughter’s life hanging by a thread, fear no longer mattered. She struck with fists and feet alike, wishing she could drag the devil before her straight back to hell.

Her strength was nearly spent, yet the headless corpse remained utterly unmoved. Cheng Suer’s mother went mad with desperation, wrapping both arms around the creature’s calf and biting down hard, pouring the last shred of her life’s strength into that bite.

At last the headless corpse seemed to notice. It flung Cheng Suer down to the ground with brutal force, then seized her mother by the hair with one hand, as if trying to wrench her away.

Who would have thought that her mother was truly fighting with her life on the line? No matter what, she would not let go, biting as if she meant to tear off a mouthful of flesh on the spot.

The headless corpse did not hesitate in the slightest. Its other massive hand closed around her mother’s throat and twisted with savage force.

Crack.

Her mother’s head tilted to one side. A thin line of blood oozed slowly between her teeth, and her whole body collapsed helplessly to the ground.

Mother! Mother! What happened to you!

Only moments earlier Cheng Suer had struggled to her feet after narrowly escaping death. Who could have imagined that the first thing she would see upon lifting her head was her mother’s body lying there, wretched and lifeless?

In order to protect her daughter, Cheng Suer’s mother had staked her very life. Even in death she still clung to her daughter’s enemy’s leg, her teeth and blood burning deep into the corpse’s muscle.

For all the brute strength of the headless blood corpse, it could not shake free at once from the grip of this thin, dead woman. Only after several more violent tugs did it finally kick her body aside.

The sorrowful cries of the wind swept through, carrying away the last traces of peace, but grief itself could not be carried off.

A world before her eyes now stained with misery beyond measure. What a cruel twist of fate. Heaven was unjust; good people did not reap good ends. So be it, then. Let it all end today. Why linger in this bleak world only to deepen the pain?

Cheng Suer, after such a calamity, felt as though the entire world of her life had collapsed. She could not even cry out anymore. Sitting there in a daze, she let herself bite her lower lip until it was raw and bloodied.

The headless blood corpse would naturally not spare her mother’s body. In the blink of an eye, it had sucked the woman’s spirit essence dry.

Still not satisfied, it turned and strode toward Cheng Suer.

By then Cheng Suer was still sitting blankly on the ground, as if she had accepted her fate. Her eyes no longer wished to look upon this despairing world. They lowered slowly. At that moment she only wanted to be buried in yellow earth together with her parents, to continue their bond on the road to the underworld.

Whoosh!

A tremendous force seemed to tear through the air, and that familiar stench of blood once again surged at the tip of her nose.

Cheng Suer felt her heart settle. Strangely enough, she grew calm, and simply waited in silence for fate’s final judgment upon her.

Carried in by the wind, carried away by the wind.

Then, from beside her ear, came several sharp cracks.

Swish! Swish! Swish!

A handful of copper pellets flew through the air and struck the headless blood corpse’s giant arm and chest. Stranger still, upon hitting the corpse’s skin, the pellets sent up tiny sparks and smoke, and the air faintly carried the smell of scorched flesh.

Caught off guard, the headless blood corpse flinched in pain. Its two massive hands slapped wildly, knocking the pellets away in all directions. Stung by the blow, it seemed both furious and humiliated.

Cheng Suer supported her head and waited a long while, yet there was no further movement. Had that evil spirit been playing some new trick? Still uncertain, she heard a deep, booming man’s voice explode beside her.

“What in the blazes is this giant walking corpse doing here? Let your Uncle Liu give you a taste of freshly forged copper beans. Well? Pretty good, aren’t they?”

In the center of the field stood a burly man in black. His whole body was coiled with muscle, powerful and imposing. A steel blade rested casually on his shoulder, and a scar across his face only deepened the fierce look in his eyes.

The scar-faced man craned his neck for a closer look and let out a surprised sound.

“Well now, after all these years of running north and south, this is the first time I’ve ever run into a walking corpse with its eating tools missing. Not bad at all. Damn if that isn’t a rare breed.”

Had she been saved?

Cheng Suer was dazed. She rubbed her eyes and confirmed once more that she was still alive, but when her gaze fell again upon her parents’ tragic state, sorrow flooded her heart anew. Fate had treated her so unfairly.

Her chest ached with such unbearable pain that tears began falling again and again from the corners of her eyes. Then, suddenly, a warm touch came to her shoulder.

“Girl, life and death are decreed by Heaven. The dead are gone. You must take care of yourself.”

Cheng Suer turned around. She did not know when, but behind her stood an old man in black. A pipe from the northeastern frontier was slanted at his waist, and one hand rested lightly on her shoulder.

“Wah... wah... Grandfather, I... I don’t want to live anymore. My mother and father both...”

After such a disaster in her home, she was so choked with grief that she could hardly breathe, her sobs turning into a tight, stifled cry.

“Girl, you must not think such thoughts. If you throw away your life so lightly, would you not betray your mother’s desperate sacrifice to protect you? Only by gathering your courage and living well can you truly honor her.”

The old man in black let out a sigh.

“If we had arrived sooner, perhaps your mother would not have died so miserably here.”

Looking at the old man before her, Cheng Suer suddenly felt a warmth stir in her heart, and the thought of dying slowly receded.

“Grandfather, are you the so-called mountain immortal people always speak of?”

The old man in black laughed despite himself, his weathered face flushing faintly as he hurriedly waved his hands.

“Girl, do not misunderstand. I am no immortal. My surname is Han, and that fellow is my disciple. We just happened to pass by here today on some business.”

Cheng Suer studied the old man for a while and grew certain that this must be some reclusive master of the world. Suddenly, she dropped to her knees before him.

“Han Grandfather, please stand up for me. Slay this beast and avenge my parents!”

Trembling with hatred, Cheng Suer pointed directly at the headless blood corpse in the field.

This black-clad old man and the scar-faced man were none other than Han Shizhong, the fierce outlaw of the outer passes, and his eldest disciple, Scarface. After their last failure in the general’s tomb, they had suffered severe losses and kept themselves in hiding for a long time. They should have continued lying low until their strength recovered before returning to the jianghu, but on the request of that patron of wealth, they were forced once more to take a dangerous gamble.

If Cheng Suer knew that the one she was kneeling before was not some otherworldly sage at all, but a ruthlessly cruel tomb robber, who could say what she would think?