Kyushu · Endless Nagato

Chapter 20
And An Xingmian had already guessed that this guide was probably the son of the old man mentioned by the swordsman.Sure enough, he came to the Illusion Forest, and deliberately wanted to take revenge on the corpse dancers.He has been thinking about his father's hatred for many years, so he has naturally done research on corpse dancers, and has the ability to identify their identities, and pretends to be a local hunter who earns money to lead the way, trying to murder the fooled corpse dancers in the dense forest.An Xingmian wasn't quite sure if this feathered woman was his first target, or if a corpse dancer had already been killed by him before, but this time, it seemed difficult for him to get a bargain.

Sure enough, Yuren sat on the spot without moving a bit.But the strong man who had lowered his head and said nothing before stood up with an agility that was not commensurate with his stature.He swung his right arm, and slammed at the sharp machete abruptly. After a blunt sound, the blade seemed to be chopped on a big hard tree, and it could only cut the skin.This is the corpse servant, the corpse servant controlled by the corpse dancer's thoughts anytime and anywhere, stronger and more powerful than the living, more obedient than the living, and will never rebel against his master.

The corpse servant's right arm shook, and the machete flew away, and then his left hand was stretched out. The huge palm grabbed the throat of the guide, and it was about to crush his throat.But suddenly, something unexpected happened.

——The movement of the corpse servant stopped.His right palm had just touched the neck of the guide, and his whole body seemed to have been petrified, unable to move.What was even more surprising was that at the same time, the originally indifferent Yuren woman's face suddenly moved slightly, her brows were tightly frowned, as if she was trying her best to endure some kind of discomfort.She stood up, but staggered, and fell to the ground again.

"Why are you doing this? At the cost of your own life, just to kill me?" Although her expression was painful, her tone was still calm.

"You are finally willing to ask questions, hahaha!" The guide let out a burst of laughter, but there was no joy in the laughter, and it was more of a relief-like madness, "My father! The bullshit workshop of your corpse dancers was killed by you!"

"So it was to seek revenge..." The woman nodded lightly, "But you are really persevering, you even learned the soul-breaking technique, and used my time to control the corpse servant to fight and invade my mind. This is indeed the only one. A method that can break the corpse dance technique. But in that case, your brain will also be infected by the corpse gas, and the corpse poison will attack and you will die soon."

"I don't care! As long as I can kill you before I die!" the guide shouted, his complexion really began to darken, "I have killed five corpse dancers over the years, and you are the sixth I’ve made a lot of money by exchanging the two lives of father and son for six of yours.”

"Human life is not goods or coins, and it cannot be weighed at the two ends of the balance," the woman said softly, "but I admire your persistence, please do it."

She turned her head away from him.The last ray of the setting sun shone on her blond hair, it didn't look dazzling, but it shone with a blood-red light. The scene was like a vivid picture scroll, which dazzled An Xingmian.But he quickly regained his composure and realized that if he didn't step forward to stop her, this beautiful female corpse dancer would be killed.

Later, An Xingmian kept asking herself, the reason why she acted so decisively at that time was because "this is a corpse dancer that I met after a lot of hardships, it is very useful to me, and I must not let her die"? , or just because "this is a beautiful girl, I can't bear to see her killed"?This question has always troubled him, making him feel that there is still a huge distance between his state of mind and a real long-door monk.

But at that time, he made a decision almost instantly.When the guide grinned and raised the machete, and swung it fiercely at Yuren's white neck, he jumped out from behind the tree, charged forward with a stride, and with a click, twisted the guide's right arm out of its socket.The knife fell to the ground with a heavy dull sound.

Suddenly, not only the guides were stunned, but even Yuren's face showed slight surprise for the first time.The guide took two steps back, the black air on his face had become very thick, his legs gave way, and he fell to the ground, black pus and blood began to emerge from his mouth and nose.

"Who are you? Why are you obstructing me?" He struggled to ask, with an expression of unwillingness, "Are you a corpse dancer too?"

An Xingmian shook her head: "No, but I have to ask Corpse Dancer for help, so I can't watch you kill her."

The face of the guide was distorted due to the pain, and the corpse poison was flowing through his body with the blood at an alarming speed, invading his heart and brain.He opened his mouth, but his tongue was so swollen that he could no longer speak. In the end, he could only write on the mud floor with his fingers, but he only finished writing one word, and died just after writing the second word. His bloodshot eyes were still wide open.

"He wrote a character 'Zhao', and the second character is already indistinguishable. He probably wanted to keep his or his father's name." An Xingmian said.

"For a person who harbors hatred, hatred is the whole world," the woman from Yuren said softly, "but how many other people would care about his hatred and his name? The corpse dancer has killed more than just adults. Tens of thousands, it is destined that no one will remember him."

An Xingmian nodded, and then realized that she should introduce herself: "My name is An Xingmian. I came here without any malice. I just wanted to find a corpse dancer and ask him for some information."

"Who are you looking for?" Yuren asked.

"I want to find Sumeru." An Xingmian replied.

The other party was slightly startled again, and after a long time, he said, "That's really a coincidence. I'm here to look for him too."

"Can I ask you how to address me?" An Xingmian said, "I can't always call you Miss Corpse Dancer or Miss Yuren, can I?"

"Xue Huaiqing." The woman said, "I am not a Yuren, but a human-feather hybrid."

four

After burying Master's body, Xue Huaiqing immediately left Tianqi.On the same night when Xing Wanteng waited for his fate, Xue Huaiqing also came to Jiuyuan City.Historically, Jiuyuan was the capital of leaving the country in troubled times. Whether it was in wartime or peacetime, it was a place of fierce folk customs.And the style of the whole city is similar to the character of the people here: majestic, vigorous, rough, and informal.

But Xue Huaiqing never cared about such a city style. In her eyes, a city is nothing more than a place that can provide food, hot water and beds, no matter whether it is big or small, prosperous or dying, as long as it can provide These three things are the same, Jiuyuan and Tianqi are the same, and Nanhuai, Qiuye, Beidu, and Ningnan are the same.Because there is only one thing on her mind, and that is the hatred of her adoptive father.

Taking hatred as the driving force of life was originally very boring. Fortunately, the practice of corpse dance originally required abandoning human desires and restraining emotions, so in fact, she didn't feel any hatred in her heart.To be more precise, in fact, the hatred of her adoptive father is not necessarily the hatred of Xue Huaiqing, it is just a way she chooses to pass the time when she has no plans in her life, and more importantly, with For this goal, she can temporarily put the other goal—finding her biological parents—at the back, so as not to feel fear in the face of this goal.She can't help but imagine what it will be like when she finds her parents, but that kind of imagination always has no happy ending: who are they?Are they alive or dead?Will they accept themselves?Would they have long forgotten about this baby who was abandoned in the human world...

Every time she thought about it, she felt out of breath, and in the end she could only rely on meditation to calm her mind.So she needs to find something to do for herself, exhaust her body with a busy schedule, occupy her mind with complex thinking and reasoning, so that those unpleasant thoughts will disturb her as little as possible.The vengeance of her adoptive father Shen Zhuang is not so much a burden on her back as it is a panacea for her to temporarily unload the burden and forget her troubles.

She put down her luggage at the inn, ate something briefly, and went out with the corpse servant regardless of the fact that it was late at night.The master's body can no longer be used, so she can only use the spare corpse servant. This is a strong and sturdy man, full of strength, but it does not have the poisonous characteristics of the master, so it is not very suitable for use.But time was running out, and she didn't have time to change it.

According to the address that Xu Fengzhang told her before she died, Xue Huaiqing found Xing Wanteng's home, but as soon as she walked to the corner of the small street, she found another group of people in front of her, also heading towards Xing Wanteng's home.This group of people looked to be strong warriors, and they were divided into three groups. One group walked through the front door, another group went around the back door, and the other group directly jumped onto the roof using the light body technique.Obviously, they intend to make Xing Wanteng nowhere to go.

I'm still a step late, Xue Huaiqing thought, she can only play by ear.She waited patiently aside, until the three teams had poured into the yard—this meant that Xing Wanteng was already a turtle in the urn and could not escape—then she approached quietly.She heard a lot of footsteps in the yard, but it didn't seem noisy. It sounded like Xing Wanteng didn't make any fierce resistance. Of course, he might have been subdued as soon as he made a move.

The courtyard was filled with the fragrance of flowers and plants, and there was another slightly pungent smell, Xue Huaiqing didn't pay much attention to it.She activated the corpse dance technique, using the corpse servant as a special microphone, using the corpse servant's body to absorb the sound, and then listening with her own ears.This is also a very unique trick in the corpse dancer's use of corpses. Only corpses can withstand the shock of sound in the body. If it is replaced by a living person, it may cause mental disorders.

"You are so calm, I really didn't expect it," the speaker had a very high-pitched voice, which made people feel uncomfortable. "Your companions are all very frightened."

"Maybe I have experienced more things than them," another deep voice said, and it sounds like this person should be Xing Wanteng, "Or maybe I am tired of this kind of life, and death is also a relief."

(End of this chapter)