The Tale Never Ends Chapter 163 Dueling Below the Hill

Knowing there was no time to lose, I uncorked my Spirit Gourd. Six tendrils of mist swirled out and materialized into snowy-white wolves snarling at my feet at the incoming hound. The wolves charged at the hound, white meshing into black, and their melee, savage and horrifying, began. Yet despite being outnumbered, the huge black hound held its ground. It attacked with a dogged decisiveness, all while defending itself from my wolfish minions with frightening composure. The sight of its valor, even though it was an enemy, made cold beads of sweat roll down my forehead as my mana began to drain; instead of wounding the black dog, my wolves were bitten, clawed, and mauled by it. The wounds that my minions suffered would cause a toll on my mana and I had lost almost half of it in just mere moments!

Suddenly, my wolves reared and pounced as one to overwhelm their black, furry adversary. With no way to evade cleanly, the ebony hound retaliated. It locked its jaws on the first wolf it could find as the other wolves brutally tore and ripped at its flesh until it collapsed on the ground, as dead as a log. Its carcass disintegrated in black soot and blew away in a wind! Then I realized, the dog was merely a figment of magic conjured by its master, just like my wolves. I quickly retrieved my wolves and tipped my gourd over. A pill fell out and I immediately swallowed it, feeling my mana restoring. I heaved a breath of relief. "What a powerful enemy," I reflected, "If that was a pack of dogs instead of one, the outcome of this battle would have been entirely different."

But that was hardly the last of it; another one of the three below stepped forward to join his comrade while extracting something out of his pocket. From afar, I saw him tinkering with it before a flurry of paper balls flew into the air. Only those were hardly ordinary blobs of papers smashed together, but a flock of paper cranes flying slowly into the air. Knowing better, we watched on warily whilst reminding ourselves to be ready. The paper cranes flew higher and higher but they were flying everywhere incoherently instead of heading towards us. But a sudden smell, fragrance but pungent, stung my senses; the floral and herbal scent of medicinal herbs registered in my mind and so did my companions. Lin Feng looked up and his eyes narrowed. "It's the paper birds! They must be carrying some poison or drug! He's using them to spread them around!"

Then I remembered the first time I met Aunt Ulan. There was a strange but sweet-smelling aroma in the room when we first met; the same smell that made me lose consciousness. I would later find out that the smell came from some specially-cultivated devil's snare. The dread filled me at the very instant. There must be something behind the strange, sweet smell! I barked to Lin Feng and the others, "Quick! Hold your breath! That must be poison!" I covered my nose and mouth with a hand while muttering a quick spell. A dark mist sprouted from the mouth of my gourd and enveloped around us, filling our nostrils with an acrid stench. This was the same black and noxious miasma that I had drawn into my gourd during our pursuit of the wicked foxes in the cave at Inner Mongolia!

Naturally, I did not release all of the foul-smelling smog; merely a layer of it, to ensure that we could still see everything around us. But it was unbearably putrid that we were becoming dizzy and nauseous, in contrast to the sweet redolence from the paper cranes flying around.

Only that instead of causing any harm to us, the entire side of the hill we were standing on had gone through a massive transformation! Every patch of weed grew into lush shrubbery when a paper crane flew over it and every bare and deaden tree, still barely clinging to life, immediately sprouted green leaves as if being rapidly revitalized! When we looked up, the characteristic pale yellow glow of the cold December moon was no more, being replaced by a soft green luster that cast a burning green blanket over the ground around us. We gaped with astonishment, hardly being able to believe what we were seeing. "How can we triumph against such a foe," I quaked with fear, "Here we have a foe who was skilled in rejuvenation magic! There's no way he's the same as any ordinary foes we've met before! This must be demigod magic instead!"

Just then, from the midst of the shifting pall of shadows of the woods, the last of the three strode forward to join the line of his two compatriots. He raised a hand into the air and waved as everything around him turned into a brown-yellow blur in an instant! The host of weasels behind the trio rushed past them like flowing water around stones and charged into the trees at the foot of the hill, rushing towards us! With no time to lose, I pointed my Spirit Gourd forward and muttered quick incantations. The rest of the noxious mist I had been keeping in the gourd gushed out like a broken dam in powerful jets and engulfed the entire hillside forest, keeping the innumerous weasels away. By then, the three men had rejoined the weasels. The man who cast ahead the army of flying paper cranes stepped nearer to the wall of black, putrid mist and carefully reached into the black fog. He waved his hand in the dark swirling smog and sniffed at his hand. Finally he rummaged in a box he was carrying on his bag like a backpack and retrieved three face masks.

I snickered at myself. "What do you think this is? An ordinary haze that you can protect yourselves with mere face masks?" But before I could hardly brace, the three men plunged into the dark hazy smog and darted up the hill! With great speed they covered much distance, coming closer and closer to the crest, clearly unperturbed by the noxious miasmic effects of the fog! Lin Feng brandished his whip, unable to sit still any longer. "Let's do this then, if that's how you want it," he said and breathed to no one in particular. "If only I have my rifle and my destrier with me, I would have come with you, Brother Lin," a fiery Edelweiss quipped. From where do you expect me to find you a horse and a gun, I grimaced silently. But to our astonishment, a voice squeaked from behind us. "We have a horse here, My Lady!" Edelweiss jerked her head back so quickly, leaving me wondering if she was surprised at being suddenly addressed as "My Lady" or the presence of a stranger in our midst. A little boy, a fox demon in human form, strode to us, leading a handsome stallion by its reins. "Where did you find him from?" I asked, my face contorted into a frown. "We have not only horses in our underground domain, dear Lordling, we have also weapons too!" I nodded quietly. I might not like the notion of my betrothed riding into battle like a medieval knight, but I feared that all hands were needed on deck by now.

With a reluctant nod of approval to Edelweiss, I cried to her, "You'd have to make do without guns for now. But you have your throwing weapons with you, do you not? But remember to only wound, not kill. We're not in Inner Mongolia now!" Edelweiss gave me a curt nod before she flipped herself gracefully up the saddle and reared her horse. But she paused for a heartbeat, remembering suddenly the golden dagger hanging from her waist. It was a gift from Old Man Shang Pei, a weapon with magical properties, but a dagger nonetheless which looked unsuitable for battle on horseback.

But she quickly dismissed any doubts and charged down the hill. I cast another spell and conjured a coat of translucent veil that enveloped around Edelweiss and her horse, protecting her from the black smog. Lin Feng gave me a nod as a signal and he lunged downhill as well, but not before I cast the same protective charm on him as well to keep him safe.

With me and Chongxi remaining on the peak, Chongxi jogged down eagerly, pulling me to come with him. He tested his slingshot as he moved down while crying loudly, "I'll be hiding to snipe anyone that comes near!" He released my arm suddenly and there were a couple of thuds and he was missing. He had climbed up a tree and was hardly visible in the near-zero visibility of the dark smog. I could hardly even see my own hands. In such conditions, Chongxi's gift with directions and divination magic might be most valuable. He would not need to rely on his sight to aim at the enemy, who were all running blind in the dark like the rest of us were.

I activated my Spirit Sight to see the flow of Qi around me. Almost immediately, I sensed an aura of malicious intent rushing at me from behind a tree nearby. With several hand seals I weaved frantically, the Shiyan Blade flew into my grasp and I gave it a swing. Just then, a huge saber sliced through the dark mists, hewing down at my head. I raised my weapon to parry it and whirled, using my momentum to hack my weapon at the enemy's hand grasping the weapon.

But the hand disintegrated and vanished, and so did the murderous aura I felt. It must be another figment conjured out of magic like the giant black hound earlier! I rushed to the tree, hoping to find the conjurer of the spirit familiar, but there was no one there. Disappointed, I crouched. And there I found a little man folded out of paper! The arms of the paper man had been cut off and it burst into flames, its magic having been destroyed by me, leaving on some smoldering ashes in the end.

I dug some of the ashes up with my finger and held it close to the mouth of my Spirit Gourd. With another spell, my spirit eagle materialized and it flew into the air, in pursuit of the scent I gave it. It circled in the air, searching for its prey before it swooped down suddenly. I got up at once. But before I could move, a deep growl came from behind me, before the deafening peal of ferocious barks of a vicious hound!

Chapter end