Thousand Dusts Ferry Me - Chapter 44

About a dozen demons surrounded Golden Hair, with one or two hundred smaller demons sitting below and serving them. These demons swarmed forward, howling and chattering, as weapons flashed and killing sounds shook the heavens.

Yun Qing sensed that Golden Hair’s cultivation was no lower than her own, and it wielded its steel knife with considerable skill.

While fighting, she asked, “What connection did you have with immortals in the past? Were you some immortal’s household servant? Or perhaps a mount?”

“Utter nonsense!” Golden Hair howled in anger. Suddenly, it jumped back and pulled something from its waist.

The object quickly expanded in its hand. Only then did Yun Qing see clearly that it was a waist drum.

The drum body was red, painted with a fierce beast in gold. The drum surface was yellowish like aged paper, with a beast’s head painted on it in dark brown pigment.

The beast had wide-open eyes with pupils rendered in pure gold, appearing even more ferocious in the moonlight.

Golden Hair put away its knife, gripped the waist drum, and struck the drum surface heavily several times while silently reciting incantations.

Boom, boom, boom.

Ancient, distant drum sounds echoed, like morning bells from an old temple deep in the mountains. Yun Qing felt her spirit jolt as the drum sounds became almost tangible, drilling into her brain through her ear canals.

She shook her head and immediately regained clarity.

However, Fu Xue and Cheng Suiyan began showing signs of confusion due to the drum sounds, and their movements slowed.

Seeing this, Jiang Baiyu abandoned his opponent, leaped into mid-air, and hovered there with his steel sword angled before him. His left index finger tapped the blade in various places as his lips moved slightly.

Ding, ding, ding.

The sound was like metal and jade resonating, like tinkling jewelry. Fu Xue and Cheng Suiyan felt as if a cool breeze had passed their ears and sweet dew had sprinkled their hearts, immediately restoring clarity to their eyes.

Golden Hair was greatly shocked and asked, “Who are you?!”

Jiang Baiyu did not answer, maintaining a solemn expression as he descended to continue fighting, not even sparing it a glance.

His dismissal enraged Golden Hair. It threw back its head and roared, then suddenly its body began to change.

It started swelling like a rising bun, its clothes unable to withstand the pressure and tearing into pieces.

Then its form began to transform, no longer human-shaped, gradually growing fur and four limbs. Finally, it became a fierce beast the size of a small mountain.

This fierce beast was covered in golden fur, shaped like a male lion, though its head was much smaller than a lion’s, its body longer, and its tail resembled that of a dragon.

Yun Qing sneered, “So it’s a golden-haired hound.”

“ROAR!!!”

The golden beast roared at the moon and raised its foot to step on Yun Qing. That foot came down like a building. Yun Qing leaped to avoid it, but two small demons couldn’t dodge in time and were crushed into meat patties.

Jiang Baiyu drew symbols in mid-air, with golden talismans quickly forming then swiftly disappearing into the golden beast’s body.

Yun Qing thought that since the golden beast was so massive, more symbols would be needed for the spells to take effect. Fortunately, Baiyu’s cultivation was good enough to support his lavish talisman-casting.

Cheng Suiyan summoned the Colorful-Robed Beauty.

As soon as the Colorful-Robed Beauty appeared and saw the golden beast attacking Yun Qing, she floated forward to help without waiting for Cheng Suiyan’s command.

In the moonlight, red petals emitting a faint, gentle glow drifted toward the golden beast like a dream.

The golden beast straightened its back, raised its head and shook its body. Roar! With this howl, its entire body instantly rippled with golden light, shattering the red petals.

Although it blocked the attack, it seemed to be quite wary of the Colorful-Robed Beauty and angrily questioned Cheng Suiyan, “Who are you?!”

“I’m your father, satisfied?”

“ROAR!!!” Now it was thoroughly enraged.

The Colorful-Robed Beauty had used all her strength in that attack. Cheng Suiyan felt as if his cultivation had been completely drained, like an elephant had sucked it all out with its trunk. The Colorful-Robed Beauty then returned to the fan.

Yun Qing knew this golden beast would not be easy to deal with, especially since there were far more demons present than they had anticipated. She turned and said, “Fu Xue, Suiyan, retreat first.”

Cheng Suiyan, though drained of cultivation, still had his brute strength. He swung the Beihai Sword and replied, “No, if we leave, we all leave together!”

Fu Xue scolded, “Don’t make things worse—let’s go first.”

As the two turned to run toward the valley passage, the golden beast roared, “None of you will escape!”

It raised its front paw and swept it down, slicing off a piece of the mountain wall as easily as cutting tofu. The piece crashed down heavily, blocking the exit from the valley.

The golden beast continued roaring, its voice shaking heaven and earth. Fu Xue and Cheng Suiyan were rocked by the sound, their sea of consciousness wavering, causing extreme mental distress. Jiang Baiyu had to pause his talisman-drawing and again tapped his sword.

Yun Qing dodged while looking for opportunities, then thrust her sword toward the golden beast’s hind paw.

The dark sword pierced its flesh like a black nail. The golden beast yelped in pain and violently kicked its hind leg. Yun Qing retreated with her sword.

The golden beast then began wildly swinging its front paws, scraping the surrounding mountain walls and sending rocks flying everywhere, killing countless small demons with the rapidly flying stones.

Yun Qing was about to continue when she glimpsed Fu Xue fighting with a tiger demon, while behind her, a stone the size of a millstone was hurtling toward her.

Yun Qing’s heart tightened—there was no time to form an air wall to block it, and she dared not call out for fear of distracting Fu Xue.

Fortunately, Fu Xue heard the wind and shifted to avoid the stone. Yun Qing sighed in relief.

However, that momentary distraction cost her dearly. In the next instant, the tiger demon seized the opportunity and drove its knife into Fu Xue’s chest.

Yun Qing felt as if time had stopped.

She saw her junior sister with a knife embedded in her chest, slowly falling backward, her face blank and bewildered.

“No!!!” Yun Qing screamed heart-rendingly, rushing toward Fu Xue without regard for anything else.

The golden beast, seeing her panicked, swung a paw at her.

Yun Qing’s world no longer contained the beast. She was knocked to the ground, rolled several times, her face covered with dirt and tears, and struggled up to continue running.

The tiger demon raised its knife to fight, but she ran it through with one thrust. The tiger demon looked down at the wound in its abdomen in disbelief.

Yun Qing picked up her blood-soaked junior sister, her heart shattering. She called out “Retreat!” and carried Fu Xue into the vast mountains.

****

Jiang Baiyu stayed behind as the rear guard, retreating while using spells to clean up the blood trails on the ground.

Without blood traces to follow, the demons pursued for a while but eventually lost track of them and had to spread out to search the deep mountains.

The golden beast, with its enormous body, trampled around the mountain for a while without any results, and finally reverted to human form.

Yun Qing ultimately carried Fu Xue into a cave.

This cave appeared to be a bear’s den—spacious, tall, and relatively dry, with some bear footprints on the ground.

The cave was filled with the odor of an unwashed furry animal, but it wasn’t too strong and remained within tolerable limits.

Outside, the moonlight made everything appear white. Inside the cave, the light was dim. Cheng Suiyan lit a torch and gathered some dry firewood to start a fire.

Fu Xue had a knife stuck in her chest. The handle was dirty, and blood was still seeping from the wound. Yun Qing cleaned it for her from time to time.

Fu Xue’s face was now pale, her breathing weak. Noticing that her senior sister had been continuously transferring cultivation to her, she struggled to shake her head and whispered, “Senior Sister, don’t waste your cultivation. It’s useless.”

“Don’t talk.” Yun Qing’s face was equally pale. She wiped away her tears and took out a medicinal pill from her pouch, bringing it to Fu Xue’s lips while saying:

“Don’t overthink this. The protective jade turtle should have guarded your heart meridian.”

Hearing this, Cheng Suiyan’s expression changed. He pulled out an object from his chest that Fu Xue had given him and asked, “Is it this?”

Yun Qing’s fingers went slack, and the pill fell to the ground. She looked at the protective jade turtle, then at Fu Xue, and the tears she had barely managed to stop flowed again.

“How could you be so foolish, Junior Sister? How could you be so foolish!”

Fu Xue looked apologetic. “Senior Sister, I’m sorry. I underestimated the enemy.”

“I don’t want you to say sorry!” Yun Qing picked up the pill and pushed it into her mouth again. “Don’t talk anymore.” After watching Fu Xue swallow the pill, she resumed transferring cultivation to help repair her blood vessels.

The cultivation energy was like a cup of water poured into a desert—once transferred, it disappeared without a trace.

Yet Yun Qing refused to stop, continuing to pour water into this desert.

Fu Xue shook her head again, struggling feebly to avoid it. “Senior Sister, it’s truly useless. My heart meridian is shattered. I won’t live much longer.”

“Nonsense! Master said you would live at least two hundred years!”

“Master was wrong this time…”

Cheng Suiyan, red-eyed, said, “I’m sorry, I didn’t know this was your protective talisman. I…”

Yun Qing cried until her eyes blurred. “It’s my fault. I shouldn’t have brought you here. I’m the one who harmed you!”

Fu Xue laboriously shook her head. She wanted to wipe her senior sister’s tears but found she had no strength to raise her hand and had to give up.

She said, “Don’t say that, Senior Sister. I also enjoy being a heroic warrior with you. My current state is entirely due to my insufficient skills. None of you should blame yourselves.

Senior Sister, do you know what my biggest regret in life is?”

“What?”

“All along, it’s been Senior Sister protecting me. I’ve never protected Senior Sister, not even once. I really, really wanted to protect Senior Sister just once!”

At this point, Fu Xue finally couldn’t hold back her tears, which silently slid down her pale cheeks.

She was only eighteen years old. She had thought the future would be long, that she would eventually have a chance to protect her senior sister, but never imagined she would be dying so soon.

She truly couldn’t bear to part with this world, couldn’t bear to leave master, senior sister, and good friends. And there were still so many delicious foods in the world she hadn’t tried, yet she was about to die.

“Junior Sister…”

Fu Xue stared at the ceiling of the cave and murmured, “It’s a pity I couldn’t see Master one last time.”

Yun Qing cried devastatingly, holding Fu Xue tightly. “You cannot die. I won’t let you die! I want you to witness me killing all of them!” She gritted her teeth, her eyes filled with hatred.

The two people closest to her in this world—one missing, one dying—how could she not hate? At this moment, her hatred was like an ocean, wanting to destroy heaven and earth.

Just then, a warm voice came from behind her. “Move aside.”