Shi Yue scrambled into the carriage. Pei Xuan followed closely on horseback, and the grand procession departed the capital, making its way toward Qingzhou.
No sooner had the carriage rolled past the city gates than Shi Yue flung open the curtain and called out to Pei Xuan, who was riding alongside them: “The weather’s quite nice today. Perfect for a spring outing.”
Riding tall in the saddle, Pei Xuan looked down with a nonchalant, unhurried air. “With thirty personal guards escorting your spring outing, it must take the Young Marquis’s immense prestige and thick skin to pull that off.”
Shi Yue nodded in agreement and said earnestly, “My face is indeed quite thick.”
Pei Xuan: “…”
Whether his face was thick or not was hard to tell, but his skin certainly was.
“I heard the mutton-fat pastries in Qingzhou are exceptionally delicious. I’m definitely going to try them this time,” Shi Yue said excitedly.
Pei Xuan let out a cold snort. “Pig.”
Shi Yue bickered right back: “Just make sure you don’t eat any when the time comes.”
When they first set off, Shi Yue had been brimming with energy, feeling as though the entire trip was a government-funded vacation. But after several consecutive days of bouncing inside the carriage, the young marquis had completely lost his will to live. Lying limply and sprawled across the carriage interior, he felt as though his entire body had been thoroughly beaten and battered.
Wielding his fan with listless, desultory waves to catch a breeze, Shi Yue whined, “How much longer…”
The commander of the personal guards replied, “Second Young Marquis, ahead of us is Lutai Mountain. Once we cross the mountain, Qingzhou is just a short distance away.”
Casting a sideways glance at Shi Yue, Pei Xuan spoke up abruptly: “Didn’t you say this was a spring outing? Second Young Marquis, your current state doesn’t look very promising.”
“My backside is about to flatten out,” Shi Yue replied miserably.
The wooden wheels ground relentlessly against the gravel road, producing a monotonous, rattling rhythm.
Leaning against the carriage window, Shi Yue looked outside. In the distance, Lutai Mountain resembled a giant beast crouching upon the earth, enshrouded in a blanket of pale, hazy mist.
Shi Yue intended to close his eyes and catnap for a while, but a sharp scent of moisture mingled with the crisp fragrance of grass drifted across his nostrils.
Frowning in puzzlement, he lifted his eyelids to gaze up at the sky. The cheerful, brilliant sunshine of moments before had somehow been blanketed by a heavy layer of ink-black clouds, and the surrounding foliage had already begun to condense tiny beads of moisture.
Shi Yue muttered, “How strange. The sun was blazing just a second ago.”
Pei Xuan knitted his brows. “Lutai Mountain is infested with mountain spirits and monsters. We must be careful.”
No sooner had his words fallen than a gust of mountain wind carrying heavy moisture swept over them. The distant peaks seemed as though they had been smudged with diluted black ink, their contours blurring into obscurity.
White mist billowed like sheets of silk, instantly swallowing up the carriages and horses.
Decisive on the spot, Pei Xuan commanded, “Move quickly! We must cross the foot of the mountain before the fog thickens!”
The sounds of pounding hooves and rolling wheels grew frantic in an instant. However, the mist expanded with terrifying speed; within moments, the entire surroundings dissolved into a blinding white expanse, reducing visibility to a mere meter.
Anxiously, Shi Yue peered out toward the personal guards, but their figures were rapidly swallowed and obscured by the dense fog.
“Pei Xuan, can you see the men behind us?”
As a demon, Pei Xuan’s eyesight was naturally superior to that of ordinary mortals. Under normal mists, he would have had no trouble seeing through it, but this fog acted like an impenetrable barrier, rendering vision useless.
Reining in his mount, Pei Xuan swept a piercing, sharp gaze across the surroundings. “The fog is too thick. I can only make out the few closest to us; the rear column has already been scattered.”
Suddenly, the chaotic sound of frantic hooves rang out nearby, punctuated by the sharp, startled shouts of several personal guards: “Who goes there?!”
Shi Yue’s heart skipped a beat. The next second, Pei Xuan yanked him out of the carriage by the sleeve.
Amidst the swirling, oppressive fog, Shi Yue caught a panicked glimpse of something erupting from the soil beneath their feet.
Thick, green, and serpentine in shape.
Not far away, a personal guard seemed to have been seized by the throat, emitting a series of short, blood-curdling shrieks.
“Stay close to me,” Pei Xuan’s low voice carried a heavy weight of gravity. Drawing his sword while pulling Shi Yue behind his back, a flashing arc of cold steel cut through the fog.
Only then did Shi Yue get a clear look at the terrifying visage of these “monsters”:
Countless dark-green vines writhed with ghost-like malice, slithering across the ground with the rapid agility of venomous snakes.
“What the hell are these things?!” Shi Yue cried out in panic, frantically dodging the snapping vines, only to accidentally step directly onto one of them.
The trapped section of the vine reacted like a startled living creature, instantly coiling itself tightly around Shi Yue’s ankle with the icy, repellent touch of a striking viper.
“Don’t move!” With lightning reflexes, Pei Xuan channeled his demonic energy into his blade and swept it across in a fierce horizontal slash, severing the vine.
The severed end of the vine immediately oozed a thick, dark-green juice that gave off an overwhelming, pungent stench.
Shi Yue shouted a warning: “Don’t let that sap touch you! There’s something wrong with it!”
Another vine lunged forward and wrapped itself tightly around the arm of the personal guard commander. Veins bulging and eyes bloodshot to the point of splitting, Mo San’s face flushed a deep, alarming crimson while his lips turned a bruised black-purple. Terrifying black spots materialized across his exposed skin at a visible pace.
In a matter of breaths, Mo San fell into a state of violent frenzy. Seizing his broadsword, he began slashing wildly in all directions, completely heedless of whether anyone stood in his path, letting out incoherent, animalistic roars from deep within his throat.
“Commander Mo!” A nearby personal guard rushed forward with desperate concern, trying to pin him down, but Mo San suddenly possessed monstrous strength. Having lost all conscious reason, he lunged recklessly and brought his blade down upon his own comrade.
The personal guard fell lifelessly under his blow.
With blood-red sockets, tears of blood streaming down his cheeks, and struggling fiercely to regain control over his limbs to no avail, Mo San used the very last shred of his fading consciousness to roar out a final warning:
“It’s poisonous! Don’t touch the vines! They make you lose your mind!”
With that final roar, as though every ounce of his lifeblood had been drained dry, Mo San slumped heavily to the ground, convulsed a few times, and fell completely still…
The vines multiplied with every stroke of the sword, surging endlessly from every conceivable direction.
In the span of a single incense stick’s burning time, over half of the personal guards who had formed their protective perimeter had already fallen, their bodies marred by horrifying black spots. The remaining men had been severed from one another by the thicket of vines, fighting for their lives in isolated pockets within the fog.
“Pei Xuan! Watch your back!” Sharp-eyed, Shi Yue spotted a thick vine as wide as a rice bowl lunging in a sneak attack straight toward Pei Xuan’s blind spot.
Narrowing his phoenix eyes, Pei Xuan pivoted to evade the strike, a chilling flash of sword light infused with his purple demonic aura severing the vine in a single stroke.
While slicing through the encroaching flora, Pei Xuan took scrupulous care to avoid any contact with the toxic sap.
Even so, a few stray droplets of juice splashing from a severed cross-section landed directly on Pei Xuan’s sleeve, instantly scorching several tiny, smoking holes through the fabric and emitting wisps of foul black smoke.
Shi Yue grabbed his arm in alarm. “You’re injured!”
“Get away from me!”
Pei Xuan hissed through gritted teeth, clenching his jaw. He could feel a searing wave of numbness spreading up his arm, cold sweat beading across his forehead while the hand gripping his sword trembled uncontrollably.
Fortunately, possessing the formidable inner power of a powerful fox demon, Pei Xuan did not manifest the violent frenzy seen in the human guards; nevertheless, the wound looked horrifyingly severe.
Standing behind Pei Xuan, Shi Yue was suddenly struck by a baffling realization.
Why were these vines attacking indiscriminately without sparing anyone else, yet leaving him completely untouched?
The vine that had coiled around his ankle moments earlier hadn’t even secreted any venom.
Glancing at the pale, spreading black spots gradually appearing along Pei Xuan’s neck, alongside the corpses of the fallen guards strewn across the ground, Shi Yue felt his heart burn with anxious panic.
Why on earth is this happening?!
Suddenly, another vine lunged forward through the air.
Too late to dodge, Shi Yue squeezed his eyes shut in terror.
Yet the expected pain never arrived. Trembling, Shi Yue forced his eyes open, only to see the vine halt abruptly right before striking his chest, as though colliding with an invisible wall of defense.
His mind snapping to sudden clarity, Shi Yue reached down and snatched the jade pendant hanging from his neck.
This pendant had been a parting gift from A-Yao, who had promised it could ward off evil and avert disaster.
At that exact moment, the jade pendant was radiating a soft, gentle golden halo.
Although the surrounding vines weren’t outright destroyed by it, they recoiled in absolute terror, trembling violently and refusing to advance another inch.
“They’re afraid of your pendant! Tear it off!” Pei Xuan shouted over the chaos, having spotted the scene.
Shi Yue immediately pressed the pendant directly into Pei Xuan’s hand. Pulling Shi Yue safely behind his back, Pei Xuan gripped the pendant and stepped slowly forward.
True to expectation, the frequency of the vine attacks plummeted drastically; trembling fearfully, the serpentine plants dared not close the distance.
Leaning heavily against a tree trunk to catch his breath, Pei Xuan watched as the blood on his arm slowly turned black, causing the circulation of his internal demonic energy to grow sluggish and stagnant.
Worried sick, Shi Yue asked, “How are you holding up?”
“I’ll live,” Pei Xuan spat out a mouthful of dark, foul blood with a harsh grimace. “I’ve suppressed it with my demonic power, but I’ll need to channel my internal Qi to force the poison out.”
The fog around them seemed to thicken further, and while the sheer volume of vines remained immense and kept a fearful distance from the pendant, they wove themselves together into a dense, sprawling barrier that trapped the two of them within a stifling, confined cage.
“We have to get out of here and find a safe place for you to detoxify,” Shi Yue said through gritted teeth, supporting Pei Xuan’s weight as he tried to maneuver toward an opening.
No sooner had they taken a single step forward than vines lashed in from both flanks. Though forced back by the golden light of the pendant, their advance was hopelessly stalled.
“Head up the mountain,” Pei Xuan instructed, gesturing weakly toward the slope behind them. “These vines are rooted at the foot of the mountain; higher up, the primordial Yang energy is stronger, and their power will wane.”
Nodding firmly, Shi Yue threw Pei Xuan’s arm over his shoulder and began hauling him up the steep incline.
Holding the jade pendant high above his head, he cast a protective circle of faint golden radiance around them to suppress the surrounding flora’s aggressive onslaught as much as possible.
Despite the barrier, numerous vines continued to launch desperate ambushes, trying to blindside them from the shadows, only to be sheared apart by Pei Xuan’s relentlessly swinging sword.
Yet Shi Yue could acutely feel that Pei Xuan’s movements were growing sluggish, his breathing ragged and heavy, and his complexion steadily shifting toward a frightening, translucent pallor.
“Pei Xuan! Hang in there just a little longer, we’re almost at the summit!”
By now, Pei Xuan’s entire weight was slumped against Shi Yue. As an ordinary mortal who had never undergone rigorous martial training, Shi Yue found his knees buckling under the crushing load, relying entirely on sheer willpower to keep them moving.
Yet seeing Pei Xuan’s bloodless lips, Shi Yue dared not slow his pace for even a fraction of a second, gritting his teeth as he dragged them forward.
Suddenly, a thick, arm-wavy vine burst out directly from beneath the soil. Utterly unintimidated by the golden light of the pendant, it whistled through the air with a bone-chilling shriek, whipping straight toward Pei Xuan’s unguarded side.
Caught in a semi-conscious haze, Pei Xuan was entirely unresponsive and lacked the reflexes to dodge.
“Watch out!”
Acting on pure, unthinking instinct, Shi Yue shoved Pei Xuan forcefully out of the way.
Crack!
The heavy vine lashed down unhindered across Shi Yue’s back.
A muffled groan escaped his lips as a searing wave of agonizing fire erupted across his back.
Fortunately, since Shi Yue still clutched the jade pendant tightly against his chest, the vine failed to secrete any of its flesh-melting venom upon impact.
Though pain wracked his frame, Shi Yue let out a silent sigh of relief—thank goodness he hadn’t been poisoned.
Stunned by the sudden shove that sent him crashing against a tree trunk, Pei Xuan snapped back to momentary lucidity. Glaring at Shi Yue’s blood-soaked back, he roared in fury, “Are you out of your absolute mind, using your own flesh to block that?!”
Trembling uncontrollably from the agony, Shi Yue forced a pale, reassuring smile across his face. “I’m… I’m fine. It’s just an external wound.”
If not for Pei Xuan shielding him all along the journey, his life would have ended long ago; taking a single blow in his stead was the least he could do to settle the debt.