Chapter 881: Killer Zuo Wuji

In such cold, snowy weather, a child running around alone—aren't their family worried?

Zuo Wuji looked around. Compared to the rest of the county, this area was quite secluded. In such freezing weather, no houses had open doors, making it seem rather empty. What if something happened to a child running alone here?

With this thought, Zuo Wuji instinctively gave chase. To his surprise, the child was incredibly fast. Zuo Wuji had to use some of his movement techniques just to keep pace. However, as a stranger with an unusual accent, he couldn't immediately stop the child. Instead, he followed from a distance, curious to see why the child was in such a hurry. If the child were merely rushing home, they would have arrived by now, and there would be no cause for concern.

Li Feng was running at full speed when he suddenly had a strange feeling. He stopped and looked back, but the old street was empty, stretching into the snow-covered distance, with no one else in sight.

"Who's there?"

Li Feng was still a child, and he felt a pang of fear. He called out into the street. Receiving no response, he patted his chest and ran off even faster.

The child seemed quite sharp. A little further back, Zuo Wuji stepped out from behind the side wall of a house and continued to follow the retreating child. Although the distance seemed to have increased, Zuo Wuji, having already surpassed the limitations of martial arts, was confident that no matter what occurred, he could instantly reach the child and appear before him.

About fifteen minutes later, with the child still running ahead, Zuo Wuji grew puzzled. How could this child have such incredible stamina?

The path the child took grew increasingly remote, and the surroundings became more desolate and dilapidated. Zuo Wuji surmised the child was no longer heading home.

"Dong... Dong... Dong..."

A bell?

Zuo Wuji, trailing behind, was slightly taken aback. A bell? Could there be a temple-like building up ahead?

Soon after, the bell's chimes grew clearer. The child finally stopped outside a large courtyard with an impressive gate. Considering the location and the sound of the bell, Zuo Wuji concluded it couldn't be the residence of a prominent family; it was most likely a temple.

Li Feng arrived at the temple gate. Seeing it closed, he ran straight to the door and knocked repeatedly.

"Knock, knock, knock..." "Open the door! Open the door! It's Li Feng! Please open it!"

"Knock, knock, knock, knock..." "Reverend Masters, please open the door quickly!"

Li Feng's knocking was persistent. After a brief wait, just as he was about to knock again, the door opened from within. A tall, thin monk in an old padded robe appeared and, upon seeing Li Feng, first offered a Buddhist greeting.

"Amitabha. Young Master Li, you're here again?"

"Has Mr. Ji returned?"

Li Feng asked, brimming with anticipation. The monk sighed inwardly, his face betraying no emotion, and simply told Li Feng quietly:

"Mr. Ji has not returned yet. Would Young Master Li like to come in?"

Li Feng's face showed disappointment, but he nodded and entered the temple. The monk looked out at the snowy street, then closed the door.

A few moments later, Zuo Wuji also arrived at the temple gate. He looked up at the temple's plaque and softly read it aloud.

"Mud-Dust Temple... A leaking house on a quiet lane, Mud-Dust Alley; within Mud-Dust Alley, Mud-Dust Temple. This temple is rather intriguing. Could the 'Mr. Ji' the child spoke of possibly be...?"

Anyone who knew Ji Yuan couldn't help but think of him upon hearing "Mr. Ji." Zuo Wuji's heart had also just skipped a beat, and various thoughts swirled in his mind.

After a moment's thought, Zuo Wuji decided to investigate, so he also stepped forward and knocked on the door.

"Knock, knock, knock..."

His index finger gently rapped on the door. The sound wasn't particularly loud, yet it resonated with a penetrating quality, clearly reaching the ears of the monks inside. Soon, a monk came to open the door.

"Creak."

The door opened, revealing the same tall, thin monk. He saw a person standing outside, draped in a thick, grey cloak. The person's hair was somewhat disheveled, with loose strands at the temples and long hair at the back appearing untidy, yet conveying a sense of uninhibited freedom. Snow covered their head and cloak, but they stood steadily in the blizzard outside the door, not trembling in the slightest, their eyes exceptionally bright.

"Amitabha. May I ask, benefactor, what brings you here?"

As the monk returned the Buddhist greeting, he politely asked. Zuo Wuji cupped his hands and bowed to the monk.

"Master, I am Zuo Wuji, a traveler from a distant land. May I impose upon your hospitality and stay here for a few days?"

The monk frowned. The man spoke slowly and disjointedly, with a peculiar accent, clearly an outsider. In such heavy snow, he might have encountered difficulties. Furthermore, Zuo Wuji's dignified bearing made an excellent first impression, so the monk did not immediately refuse him.

"Please wait a moment, benefactor. I will go ask my master."

"Good! Thank you, Master!"

After nodding, the monk left the door ajar but not fully closed, then quickly headed back. Zuo Wuji waited a moment before the monk returned.

"Benefactor, my master said you may stay. Please follow me."

"That's wonderful! Thank you, thank you very much!"

Zuo Wuji's face lit up with pleasant surprise as he followed the monk into the temple. As the monk closed the door, a wisp of green smoke slowly emerged from the ground outside the temple, morphing into a short, elderly man.

"Who is this Zuo Wuji?"

The Earth God looked towards the inside of the temple, thought for a moment, then vanished underground.

Zuo Wuji was led to an empty monk's cell. He learned that the large temple had only a handful of monks, resulting in many vacant cells. Since the New Year was approaching, most cells, even those long uninhabited, had recently been cleaned and were therefore quite tidy.

After providing a bedroll and some instructions, the monk departed amidst Zuo Wuji's thanks, leaving him to look around the room.

"I even get two meals; that's great!"

After muttering to himself, he seemed to teleport out of his cell and headed in the direction the monk had forbidden him to go.

After exploring several areas, Zuo Wuji soon arrived outside a quiet courtyard. It had its own tightly closed gate, and he could vaguely hear sounds from within, like mice squeaking or kittens meowing.

Zuo Wuji stood outside a courtyard wall for a few moments, observing a large tree at that location. After glancing left and right, he pushed off the ground lightly, rising into the air like a butterfly gently fluttering its wings, then slowly drifting down onto the tree like a falling leaf, without making a sound.

Looking down, he saw a rectangular monk's cell with a wooden corridor in the courtyard. Its door was open, and the child was inside, clutching a white blanket. The sounds Zuo Wuji had heard, resembling mice or kittens, were actually the child crying with his head buried.

"It's been over a year, boo-hoo-hoo... Mr. Ji, you said you'd come back, boo-hoo-hoo..."

Li Feng, who rarely cried at home, usually only shed tears in this courtyard, and always very quietly.

"Oh, this child..."

Zuo Wuji sighed, then suddenly felt something and looked up sharply. The small paper crane instantly flew up and vanished from its spot. However, Zuo Wuji only saw a thin branch above him with a tiny bit of accumulated snow falling off, nothing more.

Was it a delusion? Zuo Wuji frowned. He glanced at the child again, then, with a light push, he floated out of the courtyard and sat down just outside the gate.

After waiting for another half an hour, with the sky already dimming, Zuo Wuji finally heard footsteps inside. He stood up, pretending to have just passed by, and happened to meet Li Feng as he opened the courtyard gate.

"Oh, this courtyard has someone in it after all. They just told me it was empty... So that master lied? Even a monk..."

Zuo Wuji showed a look of curiosity and amusement. Li Feng pursed his lips.

"The master wasn't lying! This courtyard is temporarily empty, but its resident will be back soon. I just came to check. Who are you, talking so strangely? Even a tiny child speaks more clearly than you!"

"Haha, yes, I can't help it!"

Zuo Wuji was speaking these short phrases with increasing fluency, and his accent was becoming clearer, as he looked down at Li Feng.

"You live here too? Are you preparing... to become a monk?"

As he spoke, Zuo Wuji reached out and pinched Li Feng's cheek, then patted his small shoulder.

"You become a monk! I'm leaving, and no one's allowed in this courtyard! Now go away!"

Li Feng, highly annoyed, pushed Zuo Wuji away. He had been momentarily careless and failed to dodge him, but the stranger's bright, keen eyes seemed to be mocking him.

Only when Zuo Wuji spread his hands and walked a few steps away did Li Feng turn back to close the courtyard gate before jogging off, with Zuo Wuji still calling after him.

"It's getting dark. Do you want me to escort you?"

"No need!"

Li Feng's voice came from what sounded like the front courtyard. Zuo Wuji smiled, then with a single step, he gave chase. From that brief face-to-face encounter, Zuo Wuji had already discerned that the child's bone structure was extraordinarily unique and rare, explaining his exceptional physique.

The child said he didn't need an escort, but it was truly dark outside. Zuo Wuji, feeling uneasy, still followed, though not through the temple gate, but by scaling the wall.

"Bastard, bastard, bastard! How dare he make fun of me like a child! I'm so mad, I'm so mad!"

Li Feng ran, cursing, as tears welled up and streamed down his face. He wasn't one to cry, but the accumulated sadness in his heart, combined with the recent indignity, overwhelmed his emotions. The more he ran, the stronger his negative feelings became, even disturbing the aura-concealing method Ji Yuan had left on him.

The strange thing, however, was that no malevolent or peculiar aura emanated from Li Feng. Ji Yuan's protective edict was still active, yet a sinister wind spontaneously gathered overhead. However, a faint clear light also shimmered above him, dispersing the evil wind.

Far below ground, the Earth God groaned in distress.

"Oh my little ancestor, what strange trouble are you stirring up!"

Zuo Wuji followed from a distance, faintly sensing an evil aura. In his understanding, this indicated the potential presence of malevolent spirits nearby, so he watched Li Feng even more closely, remaining highly vigilant.

Meanwhile, within the city, a dark shadow moved through the dim twilight just before sunset. It seemed to have caught a whiff of that strange, evil aura. After a slight pause, it darted quickly in one direction, as if drawn by an unusual scent.

Simultaneously, a clear crane call echoed high in the sky, though to ordinary people it sounded very distant. Zuo Wuji looked up, but saw no cranes flying past.

Inside the blacksmith's shop, Jin Jia vanished almost instantly upon hearing the crane's call. The old blacksmith had just emerged from the back room to call him for dinner, only to find him gone.

Li Feng was still running blindly forward. When his negative emotions were strong, he longed to find a deserted place to calm down. Now, somewhat regaining his senses, he suddenly felt a chilling dread. The path ahead seemed too dark to see.

The sky darkened so quickly? Li Feng looked back to see the path behind him growing increasingly murky.

In his fear, Li Feng's first thought was Ji Yuan, but Mr. Ji wasn't there. His second thought, surprisingly, was the bright eyes of the stranger from earlier; he remembered the man had offered to escort him.

"Hey, are you following me?"

Li Feng cried out frantically, acting on a desperate impulse. But the thought that he was calling out to a stranger made him feel even more desolate, and he couldn't help but start to sob.

"Hoo-hoo-hoo... This feeling, hoo-hoo..."

A terrifying sound emanated from the darkness ahead, startling Li Feng, who immediately stopped crying and continuously retreated.

The Earth God underground was terribly anxious. He had initially thought it might be a minor evil spirit, but now the situation seemed dire. He nervously prepared to intervene, yet he had little confidence in his own spiritual cultivation.

"Who's talking? Don't come closer! There's someone behind me! Hey, are you there?"

Li Feng called out frantically again.

"Hoo-hoo-hoo..."

The terrifying laughter from ahead rang out again, but was suddenly interrupted by a powerful response.

"I'm right here!"

Zuo Wuji's voice was steady and strong, conveying a reassuring feeling. He disregarded the encroaching darkness that seemed to push him away and slowly walked forward from behind. As he passed a corner of a house, his left leg lightly tapped something, and a flat farming staff spun up, bouncing into his hand.

Li Feng was both surprised and instinctively felt this stranger would be useless. He quickly ran back but saw no sign of Zuo Wuji following. He unconsciously paused, looked back, and found the stranger still slowly advancing.

"Let's run! That might be a monster!"

"Hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo... This vitality, a mortal martial artist? Hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo..."

The laughter in the darkness seemed to come from all directions. Li Feng had shrunk into a corner, terrified, while Zuo Wuji stared straight ahead and also began to laugh.

"Heh-heh-heh-heh... Hah-hah-hah-hah-hah..."

The laughter was soft at first, then grew louder and louder, eventually buzzing in Li Feng's ears and seeming to make the surrounding darkness itself vibrate.

The next moment, the laughter stopped. Zuo Wuji flung his cloak and spun the flat staff.

"Demon, the martial artist who will kill you is named Zuo Wuji!"

As his words fell, a terrifying aura of malevolence and internal energy erupted from Zuo Wuji, his martial vitality blazing like a fierce flame.

"Boom!"

The ground seemed to tremble slightly. Zuo Wuji vanished from his spot, a blur shooting forward. The surrounding snowflakes burst apart as if struck by a shockwave. In Zuo Wuji's hand, the flat staff moved like a spiritual snake, resembling both a sword and a spear, twisting for an instant before straightening once more.

"Boom!"

The sword-like strike resembled a white rainbow, the spear-like thrust a dragon's point. The flat staff precisely struck a spot in the darkness, producing an explosive sound like a firecracker, and at that moment, the darkness swiftly receded...