Beneath the Altar - Chapter 5

Before we left for the Northern Ridge, I noticed that our stock of talismans had dwindled. Apparently, I had used too many practicing.

Gu Changsheng had spent every day meditating and quietly reciting Daoist scriptures.

He said that although his spiritual power hadn’t returned, his internal energy had recovered to thirty percent.

“Qingyun is the greatest sword sect under Heaven. Even if I cannot defeat Lu Zefeng, I can still protect you.”

He said it with calm certainty. He wasn’t making an empty promise.

As someone at the level of a sect elder, his strength was naturally something I could trust.

But I firmly believed you had to fight magic with magic.

After some thought, I decided to visit the black market again.

Its door opened with a special jade talisman. It was as convenient as shopping on Taobao on my phone.

To protect the identities of customers and traders alike, everyone entering the market received a black robe and a mask.

I quickly bought a pile of supplies, then stopped by Tianji Hall to ask about the Northern Ridge.

The answer shocked me.

Perhaps because we were progressing so quickly, Lu Zefeng’s timeline had changed as well.

The disaster that should have struck the Northern Ridge much later had already been unleashed by him.

A drought beast occupied Mount Taifu. Plants withered, fields lay barren, and many people had already starved to death.

There was a Spirit Spring Cavern on the mountain.

Its waters were said to be sacred water from the Heavenly Pool, of immense benefit to cultivators.

I had planned to take Gu Changsheng there to recover in seclusion. Now it seemed the place had fallen.

Just as we were about to go to the Northern Ridge, disaster struck it. It was hard not to suspect someone was doing this on purpose.

I also asked where Lu Zefeng was.

That piece of information cost me a whole five hundred taels in silver notes?

The bastard certainly wasn’t cheap!

While I silently cursed, Tianji Hall gave an answer that chilled me to the bone.

The Western Sea.

I knew Lu Zefeng would follow. His obsession with Gu Changsheng had reached the point of madness.

But this was faster than I had expected.

No—perhaps we had simply spent too long by the Western Sea.

Still, if he wasn’t at the Northern Ridge, there was no harm in our heading there.

Getting Gu Changsheng’s spiritual power back as quickly as possible mattered most.

I left without another moment’s delay, brushing past a tall man in a black robe at the entrance.

The very next second, I heard him ask behind me,

“Where is Gu Changsheng of the Qingyun Sect?”

I watched the man receive his answer and leave Tianji Hall.

Then I rushed back to the inn.

Gu Changsheng was meditating on the bed. His face looked pale in the candlelight.

“Gu Changsheng, we have to leave the Western Sea right now.”

The man asking might not have been Lu Zefeng, but I couldn’t gamble on what he wanted.

Seeing how anxious I was, Gu Changsheng didn’t ask questions.

My original plan was to ride through the night and flee to the Northern Ridge.

The odds were poor, but it beat sitting here waiting to die.

Just before we left, an idea struck me.

What was the best way to hide a tree?

In a forest, of course!

Suddenly everything was clear. I grabbed Gu Changsheng.

“Come on. We’re going to the black market!”

The black market was mainly a place to trade goods, but inside, it was like a small city.

There were places to stay and eat, although the conditions were worse than in the mortal world and the prices were outrageous.

Most of the people who settled there were desperate outcasts with nowhere else to go. If they wanted shelter, they had to accept its terms.

I never thought Gu Changsheng and I would wind up here too.

“I’ve worked it out, Gu Changsheng. We’ll stay here for now. If we can find out where another customer’s door opens, and it isn’t by the Western Sea, we’ll ask them to take us out.”

We went to a room in a tavern. Being part of an underground operation, it had no windows. It was cramped, too, and felt terribly oppressive once we were inside.

My hands and feet were ice-cold. I hurried to light a candle.

With a flame in the room, the discomfort in my chest eased a little.

“Su Xi, are you all right?”

He must have noticed how pale I was. His face was full of worry.

I shook my head. “I don’t like dark, narrow places. But now there’s a light, I’m fine.”

Gu Changsheng nodded gently. His complexion was scarcely better than mine.

Humans, ghosts, demons, and other creatures mingled in the black market. The aura of evil beings had a considerable effect on a cultivator as pure in his practices as Gu Changsheng.

I remembered that an apothecary here sold mind-clearing powder.

I asked an attendant to buy some and had Gu Changsheng take it at once.

A quarter of an hour later, his suffering eased.

Once we had settled in a little, I decided to take him out for a walk.

The black market was full of people coming and going, each with their own business. Staying shut in our room all the time would only make us more suspicious.

Gu Changsheng usually wore pale colors. Suddenly seeing him in black gave him an unexpectedly stern air.

“What is it?”

He asked softly when he caught me staring.

I hurriedly put his mask on.

Damn it. Almost lost myself looking at him again.

There were all kinds of strange goods on the streets. With more time to browse, I hardly knew where to look.

When I tried to buy my twentieth useless but exquisite magical artifact, Gu Changsheng finally stopped me.

“It may be a spiritual artifact, but it was made in the demon realm. Aren’t you afraid it might turn against its owner?”

He was half serious, half joking, and sounded distinctly as if he were trying to scare me.

“Oh, honored customer, you can’t say that! Our Bright Moon Crossbow may have been made by a demon artisan, but it doesn’t have the unruly nature of ordinary demonic artifacts. Its arrows point only at enemies. Never at its owner—”

As he spoke, the vendor raised the crossbow and fired at a wooden target nearby.

“You can see its power for yourselves. It…”

He stopped halfway through.

The arrow had suddenly swerved in midair and was flying straight at me.

I couldn’t react in time. Gu Changsheng cut it in two just before it could strike between my brows. The look he gave the vendor was terrifyingly cold.

“Wow. That’s… quite a thing you’ve got there.”

Still dazed, I clapped in admiration. “Automatic enemy detection! And if there isn’t an enemy, it makes one. Brilliant…”

The vendor was just as baffled. By the time he recovered enough to ask whether I still wanted to buy it, Gu Changsheng had already pulled me off the street.