TGM Vol.2 Chapter 37 – The Raid

When they arrived at the bottom of the hill, the rain became heavier and heavier, and hailstones the size of eggs were falling on them. The hailstones were so heavy that even though they were cultivators and couldn’t be injured by them, but the pain was so great that they couldn’t help but grimace in pain. They all huddled under a big tree, craning their necks to see if there were any ferrymen.

“What’s up? Anybody coming?” Zhong Minysn was hit by hailstones more than ten times, and his head was so badly bruised that he could hardly sit still.

Ruo’Yu strained his eyes to look, but sighed and shook his head, “No, it must be late at night, and its rainy and windy, so the ferrymen won’t come out at all.”

Zhong Minyan whispered a few curses and became even more restless.

Yu Sifeng looked at the sky and said, “I’m afraid the rain won’t stop for a day or two. It is useless for us to wait here. Why don’t we split up, two of us stay here and wait for Ting Nu, while the other two go to find out if there are any other ship owners and find Linglong as well?”

Zhong Minyan has been anxious about Linglong for a while now, but was embarrassed to show it on the surface, so as soon as he heard that, he jumped up, “I’ll go! I’ll go find Linglong and the boatman!”

After saying so, he was afraid that Yu Sifeng would refuse him with some reasonable excuse, so she turned her face away and ran away. Ruo’yu followed him, after taking a few steps, Ruo’Yu suddenly turned back and smiled, “Si Feng, take care of yourselves.”

Yu Sifeng was stunned by such a thoughtless sentence, and did not know what to say, so he nodded.

“I wonder if Ling Long is also getting wet…” Xuanji squatted on the ground, like a helpless puppy, and stared at the blanket of rain in a daze, “She hates rain, and is afraid of thunder. She is all alone here and must be scared and doesn’t know where to hide.”

Yu Sifeng leaned on the tree trunk, looked down and saw that half of Xuanji’s body was wet from the rain, so he took off his wedding dress and put it on her shoulders.

“Today, you have been a bride twice.” He laughed.

Xuanji blushed violently and stammered, “No, it doesn’t count… that was a disguise… not a new bride…”

Yu Sifeng smiled gently, and squatted down in front of her. Suddenly, he raised his hand and gently pushed away a tuft of wet hair stuck to her cheek, and slid his fingertips across her smooth jaw, saying softly, “If you put on a wedding dress you are a bride.”

Xuanji choked for a moment, but finally found something to retort: “Then… you’ve also put on your wedding dresses and become groom!”

Yu Sifeng coughed twice, pretending not to hear. It’s different for men, he said in his stomach.

She was draped in a wedding dress, squatting in the rain, the white face, dark eyes, looking like an pitiful abandoned creature, but the pity is tinged with a touch of charm because of the brightly coloured wedding dress.

He was suddenly stung by this charm.

In the past, a woman had to wear a red wedding gown with eight golden bù​yáo^[1] on her head and lotus petals stuffed into the soles of her shoes, and that was the only proper way to get married. But Xuanji had a man’s hair style tied around her head, not even wearing rouge or powder, and was wearing a nondescript wedding gown.

It’s incongruous, but in his eyes it’s more beautiful than anything else.

Perhaps he will never be so lucky as to see her get married. At least, on that pú​tuán they were holding hands^[2]. At least…for a moment, he had her completely and utterly, wearing a wedding dress in a ceremony before heaven and earth.

There was a strange noise in the woods behind them, like the cry of a man, or the cry of an owl.

And the two people, who were thinking their own thoughts, were startled, and turned back hastily, but there was nothing in the forest.

“What was that noise?” Xuanji asked doubtfully.

Yu Sifeng shook his head, took out his short sword from his sleeve, held it in his hand and said in a loud voice, “Who is it? Come out!”

Xuanji, knowing that he had been hit by the Crippling Sun Palm and had no strength, immediately stood up and blocked him, taking out the sword given to her by Yu Sifeng.

But after waiting for a long time, there was no sound from inside, and occasionally an owl hooted, and its voice sounded like a whimper. Yu Sifeng, relieved, put the dagger back, and laughed, saying, “We were all so nervous, but its simply an owl.”

Xuanji was about to nod her head, when suddenly she saw the slope in front of her, which was covered with green light, as if a thick veil of green had been laid over it for a moment. “What is that?”

Yu Sifeng hurriedly turns around, but he sees the green veil of light shimmering, tossing and turning, as if some great monster is hidden beneath it, gradually wrapping half of the mountain slope. It was both beautiful and eerie.

“Is it like fire?” Xuanji asked, “The irregular rhythm and jumping are very much like firelight, but where is the blue color of fire?”

“I think I’ve seen this kind of fire before! Master once said that it is called…”

“The demon called Bi Fang can breathe fire. You’re quite an informative guy, aren’t you?”

A voice from the forest interrupts him. The two of them turned back in horror, and saw five or six people slowly emerge from the forest, all of them were dressed in black, with a string of white iron rings around their waists, and all of them had black cloth over their faces, revealing only a pair of pale green or blue eyes.

Xuanji covered her nose and whispered, “It’s demonic aura… they are demons.”

Yu Sifeng squeezed his short sword tightly, his palms full of sweat. He has no Qi strength at the moment, even Xuanji alone can’t handle so many demons. Judging from their light steps, he knows they must be old demons who have attained enlightenment. Previously, just the Purple Fox was too much trouble for all of them, now facing five or six, it’s a dead end.

With these thoughts in mind, he gritted his teeth, put away his short sword, and said, “Excuse me, but are you all here to break the Dinghǎi Iron Chains? The iron chains are at the top of the mountain, not at the bottom.”

The demon standing ahead of the rest laughed. The head demon was holding a strange bird in his hand, shaped like a crane, but covered with blue feathers and with only one foot underneath.

Yu Sifeng knows that it must be the famous demon bird Bi Fang, whom he has only seen in pictures but never the real Bi Fang. Legend has it that almost no one who sees Bi Fang survives, and the fire it spews out is enough to reduce everything to ashes, making it a terrifying bird of disaster. If they run into each other now, it’s up to fate to decide if they can escape.

The demons laughed for a moment, and then one of them said, “I see that you two are wearing swords and have quick reflexes; you must be cultivators, right? Have you ever passed through the Haiwan Mountain area?”

They were both shocked, so these were indeed the demon’s accomplices, and must be looking for the murderer who killed their companions to take revenge!

Yu Sifeng immediately shook his head, “No, we came from the west, from Qingyang.”

The demon in charge laughed, “Young people, you know how to lie! Lying is a matter of death! You haven’t crossed the mountain, so why do you smell of Zhuyu grass?”

They were in the town for a while, and had eaten the Zhuyu grass. The scent of the herb was so strong that ordinary people could no longer smell it after a few days, but it could not escape the nose of the demons.

When Yu Sifeng saw that they were surrounded, he dragged Xuanji away and ran away.

A demon behind her laughed, “Now we’ve found the murderer who killed Old Seven! Boss, capture or kill?”

The lead demon whispered, “Kill! Avenge Seven!”

Xuanji ran for a few steps, but heard the wind whistle behind her, and instinctively swung her sword to stop it, but it caught onto a demon behind her. He had no armor or weapon on him, but the sword didn’t move. Xuanji was even more confused and ran away.

Only to hear a loud voice from behind, “Don’t run!”

Immediately afterwards, the Bi Fang bird roared like a whimpering bird, and the green light suddenly flourished. Xuanji only felt a great pain in her elbow and when she looked down, she saw that the strange fire had ignited her.

She screamed in fright and tried to put out the fire with her hands, but a demon rushed up behind her and kicked her right on the back, causing her back to hurt so badly that it almost felt like it was going to burst open, and she coughed up blood.

There were many people shouting behind her, but she couldn’t hear them, and all she could feel was the beautiful green gauze-like flames burning and spreading not far away.

It was a fire that could burn anything, even mud and sand.

Her vision started darkening, and she could not support herself as she began to faint. Suddenly, someone embraced her around the waist and she felt a sudden chill over her body, alerting her that she had fallen into the lake. This thought flashed in her mind before she fainted, and knew nothing else.

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[1]: 步摇 (bù​yáo) – is a type of Chinese women’s hair ornament. The jewelry dangles when the wearer walks, hence the name, which literally means “shake as you go”. Common materials for buyaos include gold, silver, jade, and agate.

[2]: A putuan is a Buddhist prayer mat made from woven cattails.

[3]: Yu Sifeng is referring to the events at the end of Chapter 26. When they were all brought before Zihu to be married.