Chapter 141: In the Mass Grave

The eleventh lunar month, Gu Yue, held the meaning of discarding the old and ushering in the new. As the old saying goes, the eleventh month was when the Yin is born, and all mortals should leave all negative issues aside and get ready to usher in the new and positive year…

…

The eleventh lunar month was a very special month. It was in this month, or to be more accurate, it was on the 18th day of the eleventh lunar month when Yan Liqiang’s life suddenly faced a great change and abruptly came to an end. Now that this month had arrived, Yan Liqiang would have to be more prudent of his actions. At the same time, the raging flames of vengeance burned even more intensely in his heart.

Around eleven o’clock in the evening, when it was bitterly cold on the night of the 12th day of the eleventh lunar month, Yan Liqiang crouched among the bushes of the mountain near Wuyang Village. He kept his eyes wide-open as he endured the cold, staring unblinkingly at a mountain cave two hundred meters away from him in the mountain valley. He’d been crouching there for more than two hours.

The place he was currently at was the unmarked graveyard of Pingxi City.

This was the most terrifying location in Pingxi City. Even if one came here in the daytime when the sun was high up in the sky, the atmosphere of this place was still extremely ghastly and gloomy.

Since this place was mostly deserted and even the woodcutters and herdsmen would take a detour to avoid this place, the hills and mountain valleys here were full of towering trees that brushed the sky. The shade from the lofty trees blocked the sunlight and the moonlight, making the area particularly dim. Weeds covered the entire place, and among the weeds lay the occasional piece of bone and skeleton.

From the public road to the west of Pingxi City, a barely walkable path connected the two, formed by people transporting unclaimed corpses to the site of this mass grave. The route to transport corpses didn’t pass through Wuyang Village because one would have to climb the mountain to do so. Not only that, there was no road on the mountain yet. Therefore, the people who transported the corpses would bypass the Wuyang Village and arrive at the graveyard via the small road branching off from the public road a few li away.

The small road had tracks made by wheelbarrows. All corpses sent here were wrapped in straw mats and then transported here in a wheelbarrow.

There were also rules to observe when sending the corpses to the mass grave. People only dared to come at noon, when Yang energy was at its peak. Past noontime, this mass grave was a forbidden area to a living person. By nightfall, this place was pretty much a ghostland.

Tonight, the moonlight was sparse as usual, and the mass grave was dimly lit. After one o’clock at night, a thin layer of fog started to form. As the fog formed, specks of lush green phosphorescent light started to float around the mass grave. The fog rolled alongside the flow of air between the mountain valleys while the phosphorescent light appeared to bounce around in the midst of the fog…

Yan Liqiang listened to the eerie howls that the chilly northern wind made as it blew through the treetops of the distant mountain ridges, and caught the faint scent of corpses hanging over the mountain valley air. Taking in this scene before his eyes, Yan Liqiang couldn’t help but shudder. In the darkness, he squeezed the Thunderfire Dragon Cannon in his hands and touched the two rows of flying needles he had prepared beforehand. The needles were dipped in poison and hung from his waist. Feeling the cold and solid texture of the Thunderfire Dragon Cannon as well as the flying needles, Yan Liqiang’s racing heart finally calmed down.

Although this wasn’t the first time he had snuck in here at night, Yan Liqiang still couldn’t help but feel a little frightened every time he saw the mass grave shrouded in darkness.

The only ways to make someone overcome their fear was to either face a greater fear or to invoke their hatred.

And the latter reason was why Yan Liqiang could still stay here with his teeth clenched. Since the day he settled in Wuyang Village, he had been waiting for this very night.

At this moment, Yan Liqiang silently kept himself hidden. He dressed himself in a black suit with his face once again covered by King Cobra’s mask, which he’d added a veil to.

The ridiculously strict inspections at the gate of Pingxi City resulted in its citizen’s complaints filling the streets. Conflicts had also frequently broken out over the past few days due to many cases of damaged goods during the inspection process. In addition to the deterioration of public security in the city and the increase in Wanderers from the Gan Province coming to Pingxi City, the Prefectural Governor’s Office had no choice but to repeal the inspections on goods leaving the city. This was also the reason why Yan Liqiang had managed to sneak the Thunderfire Dragon Cannon out by hiding it on a bullock cart leaving the city.

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Yan Liqiang would have given his best effort in tonight’s encounter, even without the Thunderfire Dragon Cannon. However, having the Thunderfire Dragon Cannon in his hands made Yan Liqiang feel more courageous and also strengthened the killing intent he felt for his enemy.

…

Yan Liqiang waited patiently. It was nearly a quarter to midnight, and the people he was waiting for still hadn’t appeared. However, he heard a soft rustling noise coming from the bushes beside him. Unbeknownst to him, a big rat about a foot long in size had come out from the bushes and was approaching him.

The rats at the mass grave were completely different from ordinary rats. After all, most of the rats here had grown up feeding on human flesh. The eyes of that giant rat glowed green, like ghost lights in the darkness. There were two rows of sharp teeth filling its long snout, and a strange, reddish-brown color tinged its entire head.

The rat had also realized that Yan Liqiang was watching it. However, it was extremely brave. Since Yan Liqiang didn’t move, it continued to crawl towards him.

There was some movement over at the forest in the distance. Yan Liqiang’s heart jumped and immediately sent a flying needle out from between his fingers. It silently sunk itself into the body of that rat which was already within a radius of three meters from him. The moment the flying needle pierced into its body, the rat suddenly froze, and then all signs of its life vanished in the blink of an eye.

The moment that rat’s body went stiff, someone trod across the top of the big trees of the mass grave, their movements as swift as a nightingale. When the Yin energy at the mass grave had reached its peak, he jumped out from the sky and landed in the mountain valley below.

The person who had come to this mass grave at night had a head full of white hair. He dressed himself in black, and the corners of his eyes were dark. The sinister and evil aura he exuded revealed that he was none other than the person who had murdered both Yan Liqiang and Yan Dechang — Mo Leng.

Mo Leng worked as a private tutor to the Ye Clan of the Gan Province. At the same time, he was also Ye Xiao’s master and the right-hand man of Pingxi’s Prefectural Governor, Ye Tiancheng.

Seeing that Mo Leng had finally arrived, Yan Liqiang immediately held his breath and remained motionless. He didn’t even stare at Mo Leng’s face, in fear that the man would sense him. He only narrowed his eyes and concealed himself among the weeds as he stared below Mo Leng’s neck, focusing on his torso.

Mo Leng was a First Grade Martial Master; a vicious and merciless expert. To the current Yan Liqiang, the title of Martial Master was still a realm beyond his reach. Therefore, he had to be cautious and prudent in everything he did.

Mo Leng’s gleaming eyes scanned the mass grave. After ensuring that nothing was out of place, only then did he walk towards the nearby mountain cave and enter it.

After waiting for a full ten minutes, Yan Liqiang finally stood up from his hiding spot in the bushes and walked to the cave entrance at the mountain valley below. Without even a second’s hesitation, he followed him inside.

It was already very cold outside with all the ghostlights floating about. Yet it was even colder inside this mountain cave, where ghostlights filled the entire space, illuminating the cave with a miserable-looking shade of green. The bones of the dead were scattered almost everywhere on the floor of the cave. A careless step might result in him trodding some bones underfoot. A coward would probably piss themselves if they saw a place like this…

The spheres of ghostlights had become the natural lighting of this cave. Yan Liqiang’s Nine Palace Wind Shadow Steps technique silenced his movements as he immediately made his way into the depths of the cave. After advancing a hundred meters deep into the cave, Yan Liqiang suddenly slowed his pace.

There was a natural pit in the depths of the cave, filled entirely with skeletons of the dead. This was actually the original place where Pingxi City had buried the unclaimed corpses. Large clusters of ghostlights surrounded the pit. Mo Leng sat cross-legged on the edge of the pit with his eyes closed. Making a strange gesture, he faced both of his palms towards the pit full of skeletons. A faint green aura then floated out from the pit as they gathered towards Mo Leng, who then sucked it inside through his mouth…

If it weren’t for the fact that he had witnessed too many things while in his soul state in his previous life, Yan Liqiang wouldn’t have realized what Mo Leng was doing. The reason Mo Leng came here every year during the eleventh lunar month was to absorb the Yin energy from the dead amassed in this grave, all in order to cultivate an evil technique…

This was the best opportunity to kill Mo Leng!

The moment he saw that Mo Leng was fully immersed in his cultivation, Yan Liqiang instantly flung out a large bundle of poisoned flying needles without a moment’s hesitation. They flew towards Mo Leng like a torrent of rain…