"You crow's mouth, stop talking."
Did Old Heavenly Master Fang fall from the sky? No way! Has my mouth been blessed? Why does everything I say come true?
Feeling as if I'd been electrocuted, I shivered and quickly picked up the binoculars to look. Indeed, only the black shadow remained in the sky. Old Heavenly Master Fang's figure had vanished. Only the lingering thunder in the air proved his previous might.
Putting down the binoculars, I ran towards the direction Old Heavenly Master Fang had fallen. Before I could take a few steps, Zhang Dabiao grabbed me.
"What are you doing?"
"Saving someone! He fell from such a height. If we don't save him, won't he be dead?"
"Why are you in such a hurry? Don't forget, Old Heavenly Master Fang entered Qingfeng Mountain with Sleepy Daoist and Hu Sixi. With them around, how could anything happen to him?"
I thought about it and realized he was right. Among their group, Wu Yun might have had the lowest strength, but that was only in dealing with evil spirits. In a real life-or-death struggle, Wu Yun with his蛊虫 (gu worms) might be the strongest.
"Then what do we do now? Just watch from here?" I asked, unwilling to give up.
"What else? They are all experts at the Dengtian realm. If we went over, we wouldn't even be enough to fill their teeth. It's best to stay put. If you went over, you wouldn't even know how you died," Zhang Dabiao pouted and continued to observe with his binoculars.
"Huh? Isn't that Sleepy Daoist? Is he also an expert at the Dengtian realm?" Zhang Dabiao's words drew my attention back to the battlefield.
Picking up the binoculars, I saw it was indeed Sleepy Daoist. His gray Daoist robe looked a bit dirty, but as he stood in mid-air, he exuded an aura of an immortal descending to the mortal realm.
Looking at the scene in the binoculars, I was immensely shocked. I knew Hu Sixi had reached the Dengtian realm, but I hadn't expected Sleepy Daoist and Old Heavenly Master Fang to have also reached this level. Of the four who entered the mountain, perhaps only Wu Yun hadn't reached this realm, but he should be close.
The two figures in the air did not rush to attack. Instead, they stood facing each other, seemingly exchanging words. After only a few sentences, the black shadow made the first move.
The black shadow's body trembled, and endless black energy spread out from him. The black energy grew with the wind, and in the blink of an eye, it transformed into numerous black evil dragons, biting towards Sleepy Daoist.
Sleepy Daoist still looked lazy, but his movements were not slow. With a flip of his wrist, a yellow talisman appeared in his hand. Without any visible action, the talisman ignited, transforming into a fiery red dragon that charged at the black evil dragons.
Instantly, thunder roared, and the dark clouds in the sky were scattered by the collision of the two. They fought to a standstill, with scales falling from the sky, transforming into Yin energy and talisman ash as they descended.
Just as I thought the outcome would be undecided for a while, the fire dragon controlled by Sleepy Daoist began to show signs of defeat. The black dragons controlled by the black shadow clawed and bit at it, tearing several wounds.
"Damn, who is this black shadow? He's actually suppressing Sleepy Daoist?" Zhang Dabiao watched with excitement, wishing he could join the fight himself.
Yue'er, who had been silent for a long time, suddenly spoke, "Doesn't that look like Hu Yuan?"
As I was about to put the binoculars back to my eyes, I almost poked my eyeballs with them. I widened my eyes and said in disbelief, "You said it's Hu Yuan? Are you kidding me! Hu Yuan is dead, buried in the ground! How could it be Hu Yuan?"
Yue'er put down the binoculars and said seriously, "I think it looks very similar. His height and build are about the same as Hu Yuan's. If you don't believe me, look closely."
After Yue'er said that, it was true. The black shadow did look a bit like Hu Yuan. However, he was shrouded in black ghostly energy, making it impossible to see his true face.
"It shouldn't be Hu Yuan. What was his strength, and what is the black shadow's strength? If he had reached the Dengtian realm, could he have been killed by a mountain spirit throwing rocks? Impossible, absolutely impossible," Zhang Dabiao objected. Even if Hu Sixi had died and become a ghost, he wouldn't have this kind of strength.
After all, becoming a ghost and reaching the Dengtian realm required time and accumulation. It was a dream to commit suicide today and become a ghost king tomorrow.
"Brother Zhang is right. That person cannot be Hu Yuan. I would believe you if you said it was Hu Sixi, but not Hu Yuan. There is a transformation process for a person to become a ghost, unless..."
I suddenly thought of a possibility and froze, unsure how to explain it.
"Unless what?" Wang Defa, who had only heard half of it, pressed.
"Unless, someone else's soul is inhabiting Hu Yuan's body."
"Someone else's soul inhabiting Hu Yuan's body? How is that possible?" Wang Defa jumped up, startled, like a spooked donkey. "Although I am not a true Yin practitioner, I have some understanding of this. A body and a soul are like a key and a lock. They must match, otherwise, the lock cannot be opened.
The Yin soul is like the key, and the body is like the lock. You are saying that Hu Yuan's soul is someone else's. I would like to ask how he managed to open the lock of Hu Yuan's body?"
Facing Wang Defa's doubt, I thought for a moment and asked, "Where did you bury Hu Yuan?"
"What for? Are you going to perform an autopsy?"
"Exactly! I want to see his body."
"What's there to see in a corpse? Isn't the most important thing now to figure out who that black shadow is and whether Old Heavenly Master Fang and Sleepy Daoist can defeat him?" Wang Defa seemed a bit impatient with my desire to examine the corpse, not understanding why I wanted to do it.
"If my guess is correct, Hu Yuan's physical body is no longer in the burial spot."
"Impossible. He was buried with everyone else. How could he not be there? I'll take you to see him now." Wang Defa picked up his flashlight and walked towards the place where Hu Yuan was buried.
Upon arriving, everyone was stunned. Wang Defa stumbled and almost fell to his knees. The grave that had been filled now had a large hole, and a bloody smell emanated from the opening.
"This t—"
"Don't believe me, look. There's no grave soil outside? Besides, in this desolate mountain, besides us, who else would come here? And there are traces of something climbing out..." He shone the flashlight, revealing several clear claw marks.
Wang Defa calmed down, grabbed some of the muddy soil with bloodstains, and crushed it between his fingers. "Indeed, something crawled out from inside. This soil carries a deathly aura." He paused, then asked, "Are we still digging?"
"We must dig. If Hu Yuan's corpse ran away, we'll have to make other plans."