Shi ZhenXian suddenly found himself with his back on the ground and that leg tied up in the air.
The outer layer of his clothing fell on his face, blocking his vision.
"Aah, I'm sorry!" Lin JingYu said guiltily and perhaps also regretfully, sitting down immediately.
How strong is this guy!? He could have easily lifted me off the ground!
Shi ZhenXian was able to sit down again in a composed manner.
"Ahem." He coughed slightly as he saw the
mess he had just made. He began to analyze the rope, which was therefore holding him and Lin JingYu tied up by one arm and one leg.
"There isn't much room to move, but at
least it stopped twisting." There seemed to be at least one positive aspect.
"It's getting too dark, we have to hurry,I'll try to purify it again"
A second attempt by Shi ZhenXian proved to
be again completely useless. The rope had the ability to seal spiritual powers.
But since it was tied to two people, both with highly developed martial arts powers, it didn't have the same nullifying power. Leaving them both with more or less half of their strength.
"You have nothing to try?" Shi ZhenXian asked.
Lin JingYu shook his head.
He didn't even have time to think of an
alternative solution that a cold shiver hit him from the darkness of the forest.
This killing intent!
The two exchanged a knowing look. That
killing intent wasn't something normal.
"We have to get away from here immediately, it could become dangerous"
As he said this, Shi ZhenXian stood up again. He looked around and saw that Lin JingYu was still on the ground with one arm hanging and after a moment he remembered.
"Ah"
"If you walk close to the ground, and I don't take too long strides, maybe we can move. If we go back to where we were before, the rope will probably untie on its own-!"
Before Shi ZhenXian could finish his sentence, he found himself staring at the treetops.
"Hey, no! Put me down!"
"I don't think there's any other way. Forgive my insolence."
Insolence? It looks like he's talking to one of his superiors, not his jailer! This man's so strange.
Shi ZhenXian tried to squirm and complain
some more but there was no way to move the other. He could only give up and remain silent, accepting his fate.
Once again, the strength of that young man
amazed him. He was definitely bigger than him, both in height and musculature.
However, Shi ZhenXian was neither short nor skinny. Lifting him up like a princess would not have been so easy for just anyone.
As the silence of the forest and that between the two became deeper and deeper, an eerie growl reverberated in the air, some leaves fell and a few remaining birds quickly took flight.
The killing intent from before was felt loud and clear again.
Shi ZhenXian and Lin JingYu stared at each
other for a second. The latter initially only increased his pace. Slowly, his pace turned into a run, since he was still unable to use his lightness skills as he was still half tied up by the rope.
While running in the opposite direction to
the roar, Shi ZhenXian made another attempt to purify the rope. The jolts of the run made the situation even more unstable and complicated.
After running away for a while, they finally stopped hearing that noise. Lin JingYu put the Taoist down, who staggered for a moment on his feet.
"Where did we end up?" asked the younger
one.
"I think we went even deeper into the forest."
Snif-Snif
"Do you smell this too?"
Lin JingYu, who had been crouching down
until now to allow Shi ZhenXian to stand comfortably, looked around, trying to analyze what was being illuminated on the ground by the dim moonlight.
With a thud, he suddenly fell to the side, colliding with Shi ZhenXian's leg, making him stagger as well.
"Hey, you can't even sit-"
"Look at this," Lin JingYu said with a weak
voice.
"What? Where?"
Shi ZhenXian turned in the direction the
other was pointing at. The blood in his veins and all the hair on his head froze. He had seen ugly scenes in his life, but one this grotesque was far from anything he had laid eyes on before.
Four skeletal limbs were sticking out straight from the ground. Like when a person lying on their back turns both arms and legs towards the sky.
Of the rest of the body, there seemed to be
no trace left, only the forearms and legs were sticking out of the muddy ground with an eerie look. The shins, radiuses and ulnae were the only pieces that seemed to be left, besides the bones of the feet and hands.
The palms of the hands were facing upwards, as were the soles of the feet. If one were to imagine the figure, one would have expected a person whose legs had first been broken and then rotated one hundred and eighty degrees.
Looking around more closely, they saw that
those four limbs were not the only ones. There were many hands and feet that emerged like dried plants from the ground. Some skeletal, others still in decomposition, emanating that pungent odor that Shi ZhenXian's delicate nose had noticed. Of the remaining body parts, there seemed to be no trace left.
"Perhaps that woodcutter was not just a madman"
"That noise..." Lin JingYu said, "Do you know what it was?"
"No, I have never heard of an evil spirit doing this to its prey, but..."
He took a break to inspect the remains more
closely.
Mud.
"Judging by the number of corpses and
their state of decomposition, it must be a fairly old creature." The Taoist noted.
"Had your people never heard of it while they were living here?"
"There had never been any reports of such
incidents"
"Those two in the inn also said that the
incidents had started in the last year, but some of the bones are definitely too old to belong to someone who died in this period of time"
"Perhaps it has become more ferocious
recently." Lin JingYu commented.