Chapter 1 - The Dream that Lasted a Thousand Autumns (2/2)
"The other spirit herbs are easy to find, but it's just this Five-Fragrance Lingzhi Mushroom that is giving me trouble. I really need some luck to find it."
He crossed over the mountains and traveled through the ridge. Suddenly, he could smell a unique fragrance. It was faint and vague, but as he walked closer, the fragrance of the spirit herb became thicker and stronger.
The fragrance was a peculiar mix of five different scents: sweet, refreshing, aromatic, mellow, and pungent. This was the unique smell of the Five-Fragrance Lingzhi Mushroom!
He followed behind and tracked the unique smell to the side of a cliff and he slanted his body to look down. The cliff was steep and filled with protruding rocks. The valley was so deep that not even his eyes or the light could reach to the bottom.
Approximately a hundred feet away from the cliff, there was a large rock protruding. Trickling streams of water seeped out from the cliff's body, irrigating several spirit herbs.
"Five-Fragrance Lingzhi Mushroom!"
Zhong Yue felt a surge of happiness as he meticulously climbed down the cliff. The cliff was steep, but his movements and skill were excellent, so it was not dangerous to him at all.
A few moments later, he was close to the large rock as he looked down and all he could see was a dark black valley. A breeze of cold air blew up from the bottom of the valley, chilly and frosty.
He immediately became cautious. Just as he finally reached the rock to harvest the Five-Fragrance Lingzhi Mushroom, the sky suddenly dimmed. He quickly raised his head to find out why, and his heart skipped a beat.
A huge bird that had wings that shone with golden rays was on the top of the cliff. Its wings were fully opened and its wingspan covered many yards. It also had two pairs of wings. The golden bird was flapping its wings as it rushed down toward Zhong Yue, its claws glittering and flashing like frost and snow!
"What creature is this?"
Before the four-winged golden bird reached him, waves of strong winds blew at his face, causing a burst of dull pain. It almost pushed him off from the big rock!
Hu—
The four-winged golden bird rushed down at Zhong Yue. Right at this critical moment, he swiftly grabbed a few Five-Fragrance Lingzhi Mushroom and quickly leaped down from the big rock.
The big bird missed its target, flying back into the sky and searching the perimeter. Zhong Yue did not fall down to the valley. Instead, he hung by a piece of ivy ten feet below the big rock.
The four-winged golden bird let out a violent trill as it soared into the sky and prepared to make its second assault. Left with no other choice, Zhong Yue grit his teeth and slid along the ivy down into the deep valley. The four-winged golden bird was still in midair when a surge of dark black haze swept through the mountain ridge. Zhong Yue looked up and saw that the sky was darkening as if there was a black curtain being drawn over it.
However, there was a faint light glimmering at the bottom of the valley, but he could not tell what it was. All of a sudden, he could hear winds blowing down from above his head and a huge skeleton falling from the sky, passing by him and spiraling down into the valley.
Terror seized his heart for a second. That four-winged golden bird!
It was only a few seconds, but the four-winged golden bird was left with only its skeleton. It was as if something in the dark black haze had eaten it away!
Zhong Yue was completely terrified, he looked up and he saw the dark black haze falling down the cliff toward him with great momentum. He slid down the ivy swiftly, but a few breaking sounds could be heard as the ivy was torn from the cliff. Zhong Yue fell down the cliff with the ripped vines.
In a state of panicked confusion, he frantically grabbed at anything, and finally stopped himself from falling after he managed to catch hold of the branch of an old tree that had grown out from the cliff. He looked up, finding that the dark black haze was only forty-some feet away from him.
Right at this moment, hissing sounds came from a hole with the diameter of a water tank beside the old tree's branch. A huge triangular skull extended out of the hole. It rose up and stared at Zhong Yue in delight.
It was a python that was huge beyond his imagination!
The giant python hissed. It was interested in him.
The constricting power of such a giant python would be immense, it was one of the beast kings of the Great Wilderness. It would be hard for even a Qi Practitioner to kill it, let alone him.
Zhong Yue grit his teeth again and let go of the branch, falling down toward the valley below.
The giant python hissed and stretched out its long forked tongue. It was about to pounce on Zhong Yue when the dark black haze consumed it.
Huala — A python skeleton that was hundreds of feet long dropped down from the haze of darkness, falling down the valley along with Zhong Yue. The both of them plummeted down towards the bottom together.
The bottom of the valley was cold and dark. A thick layer of dead branches and leaves that covered the ground cushioned Zhong Yue's fall so he didn't end up seriously injured. The youngster looked around, and in the faint light, he could see the countless bones and remains of beasts and a number of ghost-lights. The corpses should be the unlucky victims of the claws and teeth of the peculiar bird and the giant python.
"Even the giant python died, what is this dark black haze — Shit!"
His face changed drastically, the dark black haze was reaching the bottom of the valley and had spread out in all directions. One by one, the ghost-lights all disappeared into the dark black haze.
Zhong Yue looked around, seeing the dark black haze surge toward him, he sighed in his heart, This strange haze ate the golden bird and the giant python, I'm afraid I will have the same ending… what, why isn't it moving anymore?
The dark black haze stopped a dozen yards away from him, as if there was an invisible force that preventing its further advance. A dome-shaped barrier seemed to form around him that warded off the black haze from encroaching upon his immediate vicinity.
Zhong Yue saw a massive white bone claw come down and grip the barrier dome. The barrier gave off high-pitched creaking noises but did not break.
What monster could have such a massive white bone claw? Even a toe bone was bigger and taller than him!
One had to know that in all these years, Zhong Yue had spent his time training his physical strength so he was taller than ordinary adults. But just one of the phalanges of the white bone claw before his eyes was actually much taller than himself. It was unimaginable, way beyond the realm of conceivability – what a colossal titan this was!
"This…"
Zhong Yue saw that in the middle of this small guardian barrier sat a skeleton figure. The skeleton sat in the lotus position, with its right arm holding a lamp as if it was illuminating the way for people in the dark.
The light was faint, not much brighter than the ghost-lights. It seemed like it would be extinguished at any time.
Strange, this man has been dead for ages and only his bones remain. How is this lamp not extinguished yet?
Zhong Yue was curious. He stepped closer to have a better look at it, and realized something unusual. The skeleton was not from a human. It was also was not sitting in the lotus position, but coiled up.
It was seated, but not in the usual crossed-leg manner because the corpse did not have any legs. Instead, it had a long snake tail that was spiraled in a coil. But its upper body was humanoid, with a normal head, neck, hands, and arms!
This was a skeleton of a strange half-human, half-snake creature!
Could it be that this lamp acted as a barrier to the strange haze?
Zhong Yue paid his respects to the skeleton of the strange skeleton, and meticulously picked the lamp up. The light was feebly wobbling as if it would extinguish at any time. He promptly used his hand to shield it.
At that moment, he could hear a lazy voice saying, "A dream that lasted a thousand autumns, what year is this? Young man, how many reigns have there been, and what reign is the Fuxi in now?