Chapter 58: Drawing the Enemy, Dividing the Blade of Waves

The upheaval happened far too quickly—everything transpired in the span of a single breath. No one had time to react, save for Ji Ming.

The moment he noticed the incomplete, tampered illusion array, he realized at once that he was facing a cultivator of the second realm: seasoned, cautious, and rational.

"Go, run!" Ji Ming shouted at the golden-armored monkey.

To be honest, there was only one thought in his mind at that moment—escape! Get as far away as possible! Flee from the Crimson Lord.

"No, I have to rescue the monk!" Bursting with righteous zeal after narrowly escaping the ambush, the golden monkey declared this with resolve.

He opened his mouth and spat out a murky, serpentine jet of water. At the end of the stream, there was a knife hilt with a lotus-shaped guard—an unusual design, unmistakably the very artifact, the Wave-Splitting Blade, he had mentioned earlier.

Armed with the blade, the monkey’s courage swelled. With a powerful leap, he turned back toward the cave.

In front of the cave, the monk Dayou was impaled and lifted high by several slender, blood-jade spikes, utterly immobilized. Blood streamed down from the wounds where the spikes had pierced him through; he was on the verge of death.

"Namo... namo... World-Honored One..." The monk, murmuring a Buddhist chant, instinctively tried to join his palms, only to discover one hand was pinned beneath his ribs—he had to give up, unable to complete the gesture.

"Golden child, this is no place to linger. Go! Go!" The last two words were shouted with the monk’s final breath.

"Help me, I’m not dead yet!" Wen Daoyu, still flailing, his feet clamped tight by the blood-jade spikes, shouted desperately.

A wave surged beneath Wen Daoyu, sweeping away the spikes that held his legs. He shot up into the sky like a bird just freed from its cage.

Ji Ming’s thoughts were in turmoil, his antennae whipping about as he strained to catch the scent of the Crimson Lord.

The enemy was hidden while they were exposed—a situation no one ever wanted. Though Ji Ming had already used his Minor Wish Art to conceal himself nearby, he had little faith he could avoid the Crimson Lord’s detection.

"Go!" The golden monkey, having freed Wen Daoyu, called out at once.

"Where to?" A calm voice echoed from the serpent’s head that had emerged from the earth, clear to every ear—including Wen Daoyu, now airborne.

"Your mother’s house!" the golden monkey snarled, spinning the water blade in his hand. A surging wave rose from its edge, sweeping toward the serpent’s head. Though the blade had no edge, the force of the wave far surpassed any mortal weapon.

The wave crashed over the serpent’s head, water splashing against the darkened scales with a harsh screech that made the monkey’s face darken.

"Centipede brother, you should—" The monkey braced the Wave-Splitting Blade defensively, about to urge Ji Ming to escape first, but realized he could no longer sense his comrade’s presence.

My brother always seems to foresee what’s coming, the monkey thought, marveling to himself.

He had feigned information out of Wen Daoyu before; now, seeing through the altered illusion array, he was again proven right—the monkey was thoroughly convinced.

He cast a last glance at the dying monk before the cave, sighed inwardly, and retreated swiftly. But just then, the airborne Wen Daoyu plummeted back down.

"Golden Lord, the illusion array has been altered and reactivated. We can’t get out."

"You didn’t make it out?" the monkey asked in surprise.

"I’m badly wounded and the lingering poison hasn’t cleared. I dare not use my Feathering Art to force my way over the mountain."

The monkey understood: Wen Daoyu was proposing they join forces to break through the illusion array, with himself as the main attacker due to Wen Daoyu’s injuries.

Ji Ming darted about within the illusion, surrounded on all sides by clouds of phantom mist pressing in on him, forcing him to retreat from the array and return to the cave entrance.

Seeing the monkey and Wen Daoyu there, Ji Ming landed quickly.

"Do either of you have a plan?" he asked.

"No!"

"Do you?" The first reply was the monkey’s, the second, Wen Daoyu’s.

Ji Ming knew none of them had the confidence to win a direct fight. The only thing he could count on was a single Bone Heart Pearl–but with no target in sight, he couldn’t use it.

He and the gravely wounded Wen Daoyu were essentially negligible in combat.

If the monk Dayou were still alive, they might have been able to make a reckless attempt to probe their enemy’s strengths and weaknesses.

The only path Ji Ming could think of was to do the unexpected, to act contrary to the enemy’s expectations—perhaps it might yield some unforeseen advantage.

"Cover me. I’ll charge into the cave and draw him away."

"No," the monkey objected reflexively.

"Good," Wen Daoyu agreed at once. "The Crimson Lord cares most about the celestial within the cave. You have the Minor Wish Art—unlike my two junior brothers trapped inside, you’re hard for him to detect. If you fly into the cave, he cannot ignore you; perhaps you can even learn the truth about the celestial."

Ji Ming sidled up to Wen Daoyu, who had agreed, and said, "If I’m making such a sacrifice, shouldn’t you, disciple of Crane View, offer me something in return?"

Wen Daoyu’s pale, bloodless face showed no reaction to Ji Ming’s tone. "Of course, I’ll repay you—handsomely. If you survive, I’ll petition the master of Crane’s Repose to accept you into our minor paradise, where you’ll enjoy its blessings and good fortune. If you should die, I’ll invoke the Lord of Earth to appoint you as a guardian ghost general in the underworld beneath Crane’s Repose."

Such a promise meant little to Ji Ming. "Let’s be practical. First, I need something to help me mask my presence—and…"

Wen Daoyu nodded, showing his full agreement. Without waiting for Ji Ming to finish, he slapped the pouch at his waist; four small talismans and a jade pillow flew out.

"The talismans are for breath-concealment, to help you move swiftly. The jade pillow is a Millet Dream Pillow, a gift from a Daoist brother of Grand Pure Yang Palace. I’ve treasured it dearly, but now I give it to you in compensation."

"A dream of golden millet!" Ji Ming thought, knowing this world always had its strange echoes of his homeland—the seal script was proof enough. Now he encountered a dream pillow as well.

There was no time to ponder. Ji Ming took the talismans and the jade pillow, about to exchange a few more words with the monkey when waves of illusionary smoke surged around them, sweeping him with a chill wind into the cave.

As Ji Ming entered, the serpent’s head that had emerged from the earth reacted, withdrawing swiftly into the ground.

Within the cave, shrouded in smoke and flame, the Crimson Lord himself stood silently, cloaked and armored, sensing the centipede spirit who had just burst in—his own chosen centipede immortal.

Beneath his robe trailed a long snake’s body, slithering rapidly back into the earth and stone until the serpent’s head rose high again.

Hiss-hiss.

The serpent’s head and body swept back and forth beneath the robe’s hem, as if the Crimson Lord possessed a tail, which, in truth, he did.

"Looking for something?" Even with all his formidable perception, the Crimson Lord could not pinpoint Ji Ming’s location, only vaguely sensing his presence at the cave’s entrance—sometimes even feeling as if he had left entirely.

He can’t possibly be circling the cave entrance just to put on a show for me, the Crimson Lord thought, an absurd notion flashing through his mind.

The serpent’s head flicked its tongue, gathering scents, its eyes just as perplexed.

"What an interesting centipede spirit," the Crimson Lord mused, intrigued. He strode from the cave’s depths to the entrance to sense more closely. "He must have some method of masking his presence—that’s why I can’t sense him clearly."

Hiss-hiss-hiss.

The serpent’s head at his tail lifted and whispered in snake-tongue by the Crimson Lord’s ear.

"You’re right—he’s probably trying to mislead us. In fact, he may already have ventured deep into the cave to seek out the celestial. After all, he’s far sharper than the others."

Glancing once at the world outside, the Crimson Lord’s figure shot into the cave like an arrow loosed from a bow.