Chapter 20: Undercurrents
The rasping sound of the hatchet scraping bone came to a halt.
In the communal sleeping house, the silence was so complete that one could hear dust settling on the straw mats. Even the snores from the corner had vanished at some point, leaving only a few stifled, fear-laden breaths.
Lin Mo curled up on the cold straw mat, the wound on his back flaring with sharp pain under the extreme tension. He dared not open his eyes, yet could distinctly feel a cold, piercing gaze, almost tangible, scorching the exposed skin at the nape of his neck like a red-hot branding iron!
It was Zhou Xiaoxiao!
The words spoken by the menial earlier had struck his mind like a boulder plunging into a deep pool, stirring not ripples but a deadly vortex!
“Ghost Wailing Ravine… a massive section of the cliff collapsed… looked like it was struck by lightning…”
Each word was a needle of ice, stabbing into Lin Mo’s nerves! Collapsed? Struck by lightning? That was no lightning—it was a terrifying roar from the depths of the earth! It was that boulder, falling from the heavens, shattering Su Li’s spirit projection with uncanny precision! That desolation… it was the scene of his own struggle for survival, Su Li’s spirit’s collapse, and the fragments of the Void Heaven Scripture scattering in chaos!
A gigantic fear seized him instantly, greater even than when he had confronted the Rockbone Lizard at Ghost Wailing Ravine! Cold sweat streamed down his back like icy rivulets, soaking through the fresh, thin coarse tunic, clinging stickily to his skin, mingling with the warm liquid oozing from his wounds, creating a nauseating slickness. He bit his lip hard, tasting the metallic tang of blood, his body trembling uncontrollably as every muscle locked in tension, like a prisoner bound in invisible chains, being led to execution.
Zhou Xiaoxiao… he knows! He must know! He knows the strange events at Ghost Wailing Ravine are connected to me! He knows what lies hidden beneath the collapsed cliff!
That gaze… cold, sharp, filled with unapologetic scrutiny and a chilling omniscience! It was as if the most precise chisel sought to lay him bare from flesh to marrow! Lin Mo could even feel that gaze lingering deliberately at the spot below his left shoulder blade, close to his heart—the place where the faint dark mark and the fragment of the Void Heaven Scripture resided!
Time crept by in suffocating silence, each breath stretching into an eternity.
At last, that stifling, almost tangible gaze slowly withdrew.
Lin Mo heard an almost inaudible sigh, as if squeezed from the depths of a chest. Then came the dull thud of the hatchet tossed carelessly into the hay pile in the corner.
“Tch.” Zhou Xiaoxiao’s nasal, oily tone shattered the silence, though it seemed frosted over. “Those mountain patrol lords, they can do nothing but shout. A little landslide and they talk as if the world’s ending.” He stood, the battered wooden bucket creaking beneath him. “I’m going to the kitchen to see if there’s anything left to fill my belly. Lie here any longer and if the mist from the back mountain doesn’t eat me, I’ll starve into a corpse first, damn.”
Footsteps sounded, heading for the door, heavier than usual, as if by design.
The dormitory door creaked open, and a denser, wetter chill swept in, making the huddled menials shiver. Zhou Xiaoxiao’s figure vanished into the swirling gray-white fog beyond the threshold. The door was pulled shut behind him, cutting off some of the cold but leaving behind the heavy weight of dread pressed on every heart.
In the corner, the menial who’d brought the news exchanged terrified glances with the others, not daring to breathe. Wang Skinscraper had been summoned by an inner sect disciple for questioning and had not returned. Zhao Qing and his lackeys, rumor had it, were also detained by the elders. The little menials’ yard felt like a battered ship tossing on stormy seas, always one wave away from destruction. And the most ominous “thing” on board was now curled up on a straw mat in the corner, exuding a strong scent of blood and an indefinable, instinctively terrifying aura.
No one dared approach Lin Mo. Even their eyes avoided him with care.
Lin Mo remained curled up, his body no less taut after Zhou Xiaoxiao’s departure, but rather even more rigid from that brief, oppressive scrutiny. The agony from his back wound and the tearing sensation from the pulsing “stone” in his chest twined together, as if two dull knives were slicing him from within. Cold sweat soaked his brow, sticking his hair to his clammy skin.
Zhou Xiaoxiao’s final sigh… and those deliberately heavy footsteps… were utterly unlike his usual slick self. Was it a warning? A test? Or… was he hiding something?
Lin Mo dared not think further. Exhaustion and pain surged over him again like a tide, his consciousness wavering on the brink of cold and dizziness. All he wanted was to sleep, to escape, if only for a while, the suffocating fear and ever-present sense of being watched.
Just as he let go, his mind about to sink into darkness—
Buzz!
A faint yet unmistakably clear tremor suddenly emanated from deep within the cold “stone” in his chest!
It was no longer merely a pulse or a sense of sluggishness, but… a strange pull! Like a dormant seed stirred by spring rain, weak yet possessing an undeniable sense of direction!
Its target… was not the distant depths of the Immortal Burial Abyss. It was… close at hand!
Lin Mo’s scattered spirit was jolted awake by this sudden tremor! His eyes flew open, pupils struggling to focus!
The target… was the corner!
The darkest, most cluttered corner of the dormitory, filled with odds and ends and cobwebs! There, Zhou Xiaoxiao’s broken clay jar sat from when he’d boiled the fiery sun grass; inside, a few withered roots remained, drained of all vitality long ago.
The tremor grew even clearer! The “stone” in his chest pulsed a fraction faster! A faint but ravenous suction, like a shark scenting blood, locked instantly onto the jar in the corner!
No! I can’t let it absorb!
Alarms blared in Lin Mo’s mind! He tried to resist, but as soon as the thought arose, the “stone” in his chest sank heavily! An even stronger sense of sluggishness and a cold will of resistance surged within! The greedy pull did not cease; if anything, it intensified slightly at his opposition!
No! He had no control at all!
He could only “feel,” helplessly, as an invisible, icy suction crept silently across the chill air of the dormitory, reaching straight for the broken clay jar in the corner!
Inside the jar, those shriveled, blackened roots of fiery sun grass, at the instant the suction touched them, gave a barely perceptible… shudder!
Immediately, faint streams of grayish air, imbued with a withered, deathly aura and nearly invisible to the naked eye, like souls struggling at the brink, were forcibly stripped from those desiccated roots and drawn away!
That aura was so weak it flickered like a dying candle, carrying the chill and despair unique to decaying plants. Wisp after wisp seeped through the cracks of the jar, slipped silently into Lin Mo’s body, and merged into the cold, pulsing “stone” in his chest!
With each inhalation of this deathly energy, the “stone” seemed to pulse with the slightest hint of ease? The heavy sluggishness felt ever so slightly lubricated, still burdensome, but the pulse grew a touch smoother.
This sensation… was exactly the same as last night, when he had absorbed the essence of dead grass on the dormitory mat! This cursed thing… was absorbing the “deathly energy” of the outside world again?
Horror seized Lin Mo once more! He remembered Zhou Xiaoxiao’s words—“The fog from the back mountain… it’s miasma, resentment, death energy!” Could it be… the fragment of the Void Heaven Scripture within him could not only absorb the essence of plants and the turbid qi of earth and stone, but even this force of decay and ending—“death energy”—was its food as well?
As his mind reeled—
Suddenly, a mutation occurred!
Inside the broken jar in the corner, those fiery sun grass roots, drained of their last drop of deathly energy, did not turn to dust as might be expected. Instead—
Pop!
A sound as faint as a bursting bubble!
On the thickest of the roots, at its tip, a speck of vibrant, demonic green, like a ghostly flame ignited in darkness, suddenly flared to life! At once, a sharp, equally bright green shoot, with a speed that defied reason and was visible to the naked eye, began to pierce from the severed, blackened end—growing madly!
That tender shoot was no bigger than a grain of rice, yet its green was so vivid and lurid it seemed to hold the essence of poison! The instant it burst forth, a faint yet incomparably pure aura, brimming with life yet tinged with a sinister chill, erupted outward!
The moment this aura appeared—
Buzz!!!
The cold “stone” in Lin Mo’s chest reacted as if an ice cube had been dropped into boiling oil, erupting with an unprecedented, nearly ravenous tremor of ecstasy! The heavy sluggishness churned violently, and a suction ten times stronger than before, filled with a destructive hunger, surged toward that speck of demonic green in the corner!
No—!!!
Lin Mo screamed in his heart! Instinct screamed of danger! The aura of that shoot was too sinister! He could not let the “stone” devour it!
Almost by primal reflex, he gathered the last vestiges of his will—not to forcibly stop the dreadful suction, but instead… to guide it! To redirect that destructive hunger away from the demonic shoot… and toward himself!
Just as he had done the night before in the dormitory, steering the suction to devour the earth’s turbid qi instead of his own blood and energy!
But this time, he was setting himself ablaze—offering up his own remaining blood and life to sate the “stone’s” ravenous hunger and shield that strange shoot from destruction!
This thought was reckless and absolute!
Boom!
Two forces clashed violently within him! One, the icy, tyrannical, all-devouring flood of the Void Heaven Scripture fragment! The other, Lin Mo’s desperate, self-sacrificing will, standing as a shield!
Agonizing pain ripped through Lin Mo’s consciousness—a thousand red-hot needles piercing him at once! Darkness engulfed his vision, blood seeping from every orifice. His body arched as if struck by an invisible hammer, then crashed back onto the straw mat.
Spurt!
A mouthful of hot, metallic blood gushed uncontrollably from his lips—but instead of falling, it was instantly seized by the invisible, terrifying suction from his chest, drawn back in a dark red stream that shot straight into his chest!
“Ah—!” A scream, inhuman and heartrending, tore from Lin Mo’s throat! His body convulsed and writhed on the straw mat like a fish tossed into boiling oil!
He had used his own will to force the destructive hunger onto his own remaining blood and energy, using himself as a vessel to bear the fatal blow of the Void Heaven Scripture fragment, sparing the demonic shoot!
The price… was the searing agony and utter weakness of having his own life force devoured in an instant, as though by a thousand cuts!
Darkness and the red haze of pain swallowed his vision. His consciousness teetered on the brink of collapse. In the final moment before losing awareness, his fading gaze seemed to glimpse—
In the broken jar in the corner, that speck of demonic green was trembling ever so slightly, freed from the threat of annihilating suction. Then, at a speed visible to the naked eye, ever so slowly—yet with unyielding resolve—it began once more to grow upward! That eerie green, in the dim corner of the dormitory, glimmered faintly… like a ghostly eye.