Mutated Tao

“Lu Juren?” Yang Xiaohai was shocked to see the man in front of him.

He recognized him as one of the troupe members who had followed him and Senior Li throughout their journey.

But didn’t he follow Troupe Leader Lu to Shangjing to enjoy their lives? Senior Gao even gifted them a theater. Why is he here alone underneath Qing Qiu?

“Why… Why are you here?” Yang Xiaohai took a step back carefully. He wasn’t sure if the Lu Juren in front of him was an illusion conjured by an evil entity.

“Why am I here?” Lu Juren was confused too. “I don’t know. Yang Xiaohai, where am I?”

“How would I know?” Yang Xiaohai suddenly remembered something and panicked. “Wait, have you seen my wife? Zhao Xiumei, the woman that kept following me around.”

They had fallen into the hole together, but now he was alone. Yang Xiaohai was worried about her safety.

But Lu Juren stood still as he stared blankly at Yang Xiaohai and tried to think.

“Do you know how to get out of here? Where is the exit?” Yang Xiaohai scanned the darkness with fear.

Lu Juren remained still and couldn’t provide an answer. However, Yang Xiaohai considered it good luck since the “Lu Juren” before him hadn't attacked him yet. At least “Lu Juren” wasn’t an evil entity.

Even so, as happy as he was that “Lu Juren” was harmless, Yang Xiaohai was still racking his brain to figure out how to escape the pace.

“Wait, I remember Senior Li also got stuck here before. How did he get out last time?”

Yang Xiaohai stuck his thumb into his mouth, then raised it up high to feel the wind. He had to tiptoe before he felt a cold breeze coming from the south. He then started to make his way towards that direction.

He took a few steps and tore off a piece of his clothes. He wanted to leave a message for Zhao Xiumei in case she passed by, but then remembered she couldn't read, leaving him stumped.

I should find the exit and then find someone to help me locate her. Maybe she didn’t fall in. Yang Xiaohai decided and walked towards where the wind was coming from.

He turned around and saw Lu Juren standing still. “Do you want to follow me?”

“Follow you? Where?”

“Out!” Yang Xiaohai felt that Lu Juren had turned into someone like Gao Zhijian. He didn’t know what had happened to Lu Juren to make him act like a simpleton.

“Out? Alright.” Lu Juren nodded and followed him.

Yang Xiaohai took shallow breaths as he followed the direction of the wind using the saliva on his finger.

They stumbled through the dark cave and Yang Xiaohai felt that they were heading downwards.

He didn’t know if this was good or bad news. He only knew that this was the same method Senior Li had once used to escape Qing Qiu’s subterranean caves. He just had to follow suit.

The other thing that made him feel better was that even though the place was dark, no evil entities were harming him. He started to think that his wife might be alive after all.

Just as he felt that, a sound came from the distance. He carefully made his way towards the direction of the sound. The closer he got, the louder the sound was. But he felt it was weird because those sounds were made by humans. What is this place? Why are there so many people walking underneath Qing Qiu?

Five minutes later, Yang Xiaohai finally saw what was making the sound. It was a group of people wearing various lengths of cloth.

They were very tall, to the point that Yang Xiaohai could only see the lower half of their bodies, with the upper halves hidden in the darkness above. They moved in unison in the darkness.

As Yang Xiaohai focused on the darkness above him, it somehow receded a little, revealing the silhouette of the strange giants. They were holding something that Yang Xiaohao could only describe as an umbrella. He still wasn’t completely sure about what he was looking when he saw a horrific scene. The giants were dragging something…

Humans! The giants were dragging humans of all ages, but all of them were stabbed with a mourning staff[1] just like a kebab.

The giants dragged the mourning staves wrapped in white tassels as they walked. The humans wailed in pain every time the staves were dragged on the ground. Some of them planted their hands on the ground in pain and begged for mercy, but the giants ignored them even as the humans’ fingers were ground from being dragged.

What is this?! What is going on?! Yang Xiaohai didn’t know what to do.

Just then, Lu Juren suddenly regained his vigor and snapped out of his stupor when he saw one of the impaled humans was his wife, Luo Juanhua. “Juan’er! Run!”

The giants stopped when they heard Lu Juren shouting. They turned around and moved towards Yang Xiaohai and Lu Juren. Lu Juren charged towards the giants while Yang Xiaohai felt his entire body had been plunged into icy water. Fuck.

Just as Lu Juren tried to free Luo Juanhua from the mourning staff, one of the giant’s hands shaked in the darkness. A new mourning staff was conjured from the darkness and then impaled Lu Juren’s chest.

But it was not over. The mourning staff started flying towards Yang Xiaohai after it impaled Lu Juren.

Yang Xiaohai started running out of fear. The sound of whistling wind neared him, and he started to despair. Just as he thought he was going to end up like Lu Juren, a sudden gust blew from the back, and there was a loud thud. Yang Xiaohai was safe.

His entire body was trembling from fear when he slowly looked back. He saw a familiar face standing on top of the giant’s corpse.

“Senior Li?!” Yang Xiaohai was dumbfounded when he saw the familiar face.

It was none other than the Senior Li he knew, who wore a red Daoist robe with a bronze coin veil.

“Yang Xiaohai? What a special treat.” Li Huowang walked down the giant’s corpse as if he was walking down a set of stairs. He stared at Yang Xiaohai with glee.

1. A wooden staff covered in white paper, feathers, or completely white in color. It’s used to signify the holder’s sadness during a funeral. Also helps the user to vent out their sadness and as a warning to passersby to not disturb the funeral ☜