Chapter 221: Visiting the Ancestral Tomb

“Yin Qing, why did you come so far to relieve yourself? It’s so dangerous in these mountains!”

Mo Xiu arrived, slightly out of breath, and saw Yin Qing standing there blankly.

“Are you done? I need to go too.”

As he spoke, Mo Xiu went behind a nearby rock and started unbuckling his belt.

“No, no, I haven’t started yet.”

Yin Qing replied and quickly moved closer to the mountainside. While unzipping his trousers to relieve himself, he scanned his surroundings. He couldn't see the strange, seemingly stuttering entity that called itself a mountain god, nor could he see the paper crane.

In fact, Yin Qing had only seen the paper crane two or three times before, and each time it had flown to Hu Yun and pecked him. He had only heard that Mr. Ji had written many words on the paper crane, but the paper itself still looked clean and blank.

By the time both Yin Qing and Mo Xiu had finished, Yin Qing had visually searched behind almost every rock and bush, but still found nothing.

“Let’s go. What are you still looking at?”

“Oh, right, let’s go, let’s go.”

Left with no choice, Yin Qing followed Mo Xiu back. As they walked, the paper crane flew back to Yin Qing and, to his surprise, burrowed into his embrace.

The paper crane wasn't particularly intelligent; beyond its instinct to seek good fortune and avoid danger, it could simply distinguish its master's commands and give clear answers. Its three pecks to Yin Qing earlier weren't because it understood metaphors, but because that's how it understood the facts: one peck meant "here," and two pecks meant "not here anymore."

When Yin Qing and Mo Xiu returned to where the group was resting, they were preparing to set off again. They had rested for about a quarter of an hour, sharing some interesting stories in between.

The group spent another half an hour bypassing this barren ridge, then the terrain began to descend, leading them to a large downhill slope.

“Great! We don’t have to climb anymore! Finally, it’s downhill, this will save so much energy!”

Lin Xinjie exclaimed excitedly, as if granted a great pardon.

“Heh heh, young man, there’s a saying: ‘It’s easier to go up a mountain than to come down.’ This section of the path is where we need to be careful. Huzhi, Li Yin, Chuanzi, keep a close eye on these three scholars later, to prevent any accidents.”

“Aye!” “Understood, Uncle Lu.” “Got it, Uncle Lu.”

The three scholars scratched their heads but didn’t ask why Yin Qing didn’t need protection. Anyone could see that Yin Qing’s stamina was just as good as any of the peddlers'.

Indeed, as Old Man Lu had said, descending was far more difficult than ascending. The physical exertion was immense; some people felt their legs ready to give out with each step downhill. Coupled with the slippery paths after the rain, everyone walked with extreme caution.

A strong fellow, whose leg had been bitten earlier, had been full of energy and hadn't felt much strain. But this time, as he stepped down, he landed on a loose rock.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa...”

“Careful!” “Got him! Got him!”

“Clatter...”

The rock tumbled straight down the mountain path. The man was startled, his feet slipping uncontrollably despite his attempts to regain balance. Just as he was about to fall, several subtle bumps suddenly rose from the path beneath his feet, giving him a foothold. He managed to steady his swaying body and grab onto a small tree nearby.

“Are you alright, Xiao Liu?” “Brother Liu!”

“Take a breath, take a breath!”

Several people around him quickly gathered.

“Phew... that was close. I almost fell. A tumble like that could have cost me my life!”

The man, Liu, sat down on the slope, looked down, and wiped cold sweat from his brow with his sleeve. The sweat he’d broken out in that single moment was more than he had produced in the previous half hour.

“Oh, Brother Liu, your pant leg is bleeding!”

Hearing this, the man rolled up his pant leg and looked at the spot where the fox had bitten him yesterday. Sure enough, blood had seeped through the bandage. He unwrapped it to see that the wound had reopened.

“Ouch, it’s starting to fester. That fox’s bite was quite venomous!”

“We’ll deal with it tonight. This isn’t the time to rest!”

Shaken by the incident, the group proceeded with even greater caution. For lunch, they made do with cool water from bamboo tubes and some flatbread and steamed buns. Before nightfall, the peddlers found a mountain cave along the path, about ten feet deep and forty to fifty feet wide.

The cave looked rather intimidating, as if a mountain rock had been miraculously split in two, giving the impression that the top might collapse at any moment. In reality, it was very stable, a long-standing shelter for this group of peddlers.

Some people busied themselves with cooking, while many others unwrapped their clothes and pants to check the places where they had been bitten or scratched last night.

“Hiss...” “Wow... that’s bad!”

“It’s all festering...” “Mine’s swollen, why didn’t it hurt or itch during the day?”

“Oh, now that you mention itching, I’m starting to feel it.”

“Don’t scratch!”

“Reapply the herbs!”

These people were now deeply worried. After all, their injuries weren’t from ordinary foxes, and the wounds weren’t healing well. However, they had been incredibly lucky to find many medicinal herbs along the way, and someone was now crushing the herbs, preparing to reapply the medicine to everyone’s wounds.

From behind distant bushes, three foxes watched the group of mortals with cold eyes.

“Hehehehe...” “How dare they defy us? They don’t know what death means!”

“We must eat these people!”

“Oh, let’s hold off on those scholars for a bit. We should spend a romantic night with them first, don’t you think?”

“Right, right, hehehe...”

They hadn't truly mastered shapeshifting; their human appearance was merely an illusion, much like inflating a balloon, and easily popped. Essentially, they lacked the ability to truly engage in sexual intercourse with humans. Their "romantic night" was merely to enchant the scholars and drain their vital essence while they were in a state of excitement.

Meanwhile, the peddlers and scholars, aware of the malevolent gaze from the creatures, felt a vague sense of unease. They huddled closer to the campfire, not daring to stray far even to gather firewood.

“Everyone, be careful tonight. We don’t have walls to protect us. Besides wild beasts, those three fox spirits from last night might come back!”

After so many years as peddlers, they had encountered strange and supernatural occurrences more than once. Most of the time, they either couldn’t or wouldn’t delve deeply into them, preferring to leave things unexplained for peace of mind. But this time was undoubtedly the strangest, as they had encountered real demons.

“Awooo!”

“Awooo!”

After nightfall, wolf howls suddenly echoed through the mountains, making everyone even more tense. After a brief silence, they sounded again.

“Awooo!”

Many people pulled out their hatchets and huddled behind the fire.

“Uncle Lu, those wolf howls sound like they’re getting closer?”

The man who spoke, like the others, had a thin sheen of sweat on his face.

“Hmm... we need to be even more careful tonight. Starving wolves might be more dangerous than those fox spirits. As the old saying goes, ‘a pack of starving wolves is fiercer than a tiger’...”

However, at this moment, the three “fox spirits” they spoke of were clearly more nervous than the peddlers. About a hundred yards away, in a small mountain hollow, the three foxes were huddled together.

“Ergh...” “Woof-ho...”

“Awooo!”

Wild wolves began to appear nearby, their numbers growing, gradually forming a surrounding circle from far to near. Many bared their fangs and snarled at the foxes, saliva dripping from around their teeth.

“Wh-what’s wrong with these beasts...?” “Why are these beasts coming for us?”

“S-sister, what do we do?”

“So many wolves! Have all the wolf packs from Mount Datong come?”

The eyes of the wild wolves glowed green in the night, some on high slopes, others closer, all staring intently at the three foxes.

A hundred yards away, the humans had lit a fire. Although many bushes and rocks obscured the view, the light was visible, but the wolf pack clearly had no intention of bothering the humans.

As if receiving a signal, one of the alpha wolves howled, “Awoo...!” and all the wild wolves, baring their fierce fangs, charged towards the foxes.

It is said that every creature has its natural weakness. Although the three fox spirits had refined their forms and gained supernatural abilities, their cultivation paths differed. Their inherent spiritual power and capabilities were insufficient to overcome their natural disadvantages. Moreover, wolves and dogs possess some inherent ability to ward off evil, making them a natural nemesis for these creatures.

“Awoo-hoo...” “Er-hoo...”

“Woo-woo-woo...”

“Hiss-roar...”

“Ah...” “Roar...”

“Sister, save me!”

The howls and screams of the fox spirits and wild wolves clearly startled the distant human group. The terrifying sounds of wild beasts fighting were chilling, and they sounded incredibly close, sometimes even seeming to be right outside the cave.

“Sigh... I think I just heard someone calling for help. Did someone get...”

“Stop talking nonsense! I didn’t hear anything!”

“Shh, everyone be quiet. Be careful not to attract them. Keep the fire burning bright!”

“Right, right, keep the fire blazing!”

The whole group trembled with fear. The wild wolves tonight seemed to have gone mad, and wolf howls, tearing, and fighting sounds continued for a while outside the cave, then extended to even farther places.

Anyway, no one dared to go out and check the situation before dawn.

The next morning, the group, having not slept all night, cautiously set off with weary bodies. After much hesitation, they finally moved towards the place where they had first heard the sounds of beast fighting the previous night.

Upon reaching the small mountain hollow, they saw some gruesome traces.

“Hiss... so much blood!” “Yeah, and lots of fur matted with blood!”

Old Man Lu walked behind a bush, poked it with his hatchet, and pulled out a bloody, red-furred leg and paw.

“This... looks like a fox leg?”

“Looks like... it is, doesn’t it?” “Phew... could this be from one of those fox spirits from the night before last?”

“You really can’t say for sure!”

“Oh my... this Mount Datong is too dangerous!”

Old Man Lu’s face also flickered with uncertainty, and he was thinking about whether he should reduce his trips along the trade routes through Mount Datong in the future, or just abandon them altogether.

“Come on, come on, hurry up! We must get out of the mountain before dark today. It’s too dangerous here!”

“Right!” “Uncle Lu’s right!”

“Quickly, quickly!”

No one in the group dared to hesitate anymore. Even the scholars didn’t complain about being tired on the way; better to have exhausted legs than to lose their lives.

By late afternoon that day, as the sun began to set, nearly twenty exhausted people finally emerged from the uninhabited wilderness of Mount Datong.

As soon as they turned off the small path, they saw a large, still active post station on the mountainside ahead, and everyone breathed a collective sigh of relief.

Yin Qing felt a movement in his embrace, looked down, then turned back to gaze behind him. Behind a large, earthy-yellow rock beside the mountain path, the hunched, grotesque mountain spirit was bowing to him from afar.

Seeing this, Yin Qing suddenly understood what had happened last night. It was probably the mountain god who had intervened, so he quickly bowed in return.

“Scholar Yin, what are you bowing to?”

“I am thanking the spirit of this mountain. If there is a god in these mountains, it must have been he who protected us and allowed us to leave safely this time!”

“Yes, yes, that makes sense!” “Then I’ll bow too.”

“Me too!”

After this incident, the entire group, still shaken but truly grateful, bowed together towards the mountain.

This mountain spirit, rather than a full-fledged mountain god, was more like a being cultivating towards becoming a mountain god, barely having crossed the threshold. It usually paid no mind to the beasts in the mountain or the people entering it.

Furthermore, there was no mountain god temple in Mount Datong. It wasn’t that this spirit didn’t wish for one, but it lacked the ability to gather incense offerings, or perhaps it hadn’t grasped the essence of how to do so. Yet, at this moment, the mountain spirit hiding behind the rocks suddenly felt the convergence of human devotion.