Night of the Broken Gliph

The silhouette in the air opened its mouth wide and let out a silent scream before turning into a black needle that shot into Chui Yim’s forehead, between his brows. 

This wasn’t a physical attack but a mental one. The Yellow Spring’s Lady chose to use this attack as the third silhouette had the strongest soul of the three, and nobody could defend themself from this attack effectively due to its speed. If she chose to use the sword energy or punch light instead, she might not even watch Chui Yim get hit. 

On her deathbed, she utilised her strongest gliphility that nobody present could identify. It was a gliph named “Ghost’s Crying Divine Needle”, which originated from the North and was created by a powerful, nameless gliphist in the past. This mental attack gliph was well-known in the North for surprising many people in fights. However, the Yellow Spring’s Lady had her eyes on the gliph, and she went after the gliphist, eventually making the gliph hers through necrogliphism. 

This attack which harboured all of the Yellow Spring’s Lady remaining energy, might even injure a five-chambered glipher if they lacked enough mental strength. 

She burst out in maniacal laughter when the needle entered Chui Yim. “Great! Great! Hahaha! Do you think this is over, kiddo? I’ll meet you in hell, which will be the start of your nightmare! We’ll be in hell together, and I’ll torture you until you wish you were dead! You’ll never reincarnate for the rest of your life! Hahaha!” As she laughed, black flesh and blood flowed out of her mouth. 

The intense hatred and resentment for Chui Yim made all the cultivator’s present tremble. Even if Chui Yim wasn’t related to them, all the cultivators were disgusted to hear what she said. They increased their rate of attacks to kill her as soon as possible, but all their efforts were in vain as none of them could stop her from laughing crazily. 

The black needle entered Chui Yim, where the Heaven’s Flame acted at lightning speed, sucking the needle’s energy like a whirlpool. Despite taking the form of a terrifying ghost, the black needle was no longer scary, as if it had met its nemesis. Shock was written across its face as it screamed and shouted. But no matter what it did to resist the suction force, an invisible hand kept dragging it down towards the Heaven’s Flame where it was absorbed. 

Chui Yim, who had expected this result, didn't show it on his face. He wore a mysterious look as he looked up at the Yellow Spring’s Lady. “Try again, old witch!” 

The Yellow Spring’s Lady stopped laughing and glared at Chui Yim like she had seen a ghost. She suddenly remembered how her connection with her treasure was forcefully cut, and she let out a scream of disbelief. “How could this be! What’s… What’s in your body!” 

Ping Chi smiled happily at this. He turned back to the Yellow Spring’s Lady, and his face fell when he remembered that she nearly took his newly acquired direct disciple’s life. “Suppress!” 

Boom! 

The illusion bore down on the Southern Mountain and joined together! 

“How?!” A pathetic ear-piercing scream rang out as the black gas around her dispersed. The last strand of black gas vanished, and she lost her life while drowning in bitterness. 

Cities formed the core of the South. There were small towns in the centre of villages that acted as the centre. It was like a spider net that spread outwards. 

However, it was different in the North. They preferred to depend on themselves, and every village had their own cultivator guardians, or hired cultivators to protect them. It could be said that the South was ruled by the Lam dynasty, while the North’s villages were all independent. 

Despite the powerful Blazing Skies Mountain, Four Seasons Mountain, and Imperial Sunset Palace, countless tribes scattered all across the North were unwilling to follow them. This characteristic was what made them fiercer than the South in combat.

The Northern style of living caused them to battle almost every day, be it with other tribes for resources or with gliphic beasts. Southerners were just like pampered children cultivated with a system that didn’t teach them determination. 

There was a tribe in the North called the Bloodsucking Tribe. It wasn’t a big tribe with only about a hundred members, but the countless smaller surrounding tribes dared not get on their bad side, as they had a two-chambered glipher guarding the tribe while the other tribes only had one-chambered gliphers. 

The North was filled with tribes, but they didn’t train cultivators systematically like the South. The Northerners might be stronger than the South in battle, but they lost in terms of the number of cultivators. Thus, having a two-chambered glipher was a big deal to small tribes. 

Currently, in a huge camp of the Bloodsucking Tribe, a glipher sat in the centre while many beauties served him. To them, this glipher might be lascivious, but he wasn’t as vicious as some they had met before; he wouldn’t force them to sleep with him or pleasure him. Therefore, they followed him willingly. It was common to see robbery, smuggling, murder and the snatching of beauties in the North. 

The two-chambered glipher took a sip of the wine, relaxing. He never thought that he would lead such a good life someday. After escaping from the forbidden area, he sold all treasures he got there and bought a gliph weapon that suited him. Now, he was considered a strong middle range two-chambered glipher. 

This glipher was Shu Sam, a famous corpse digger from the mouth of the Red River. He squinted his monolid eyes. “Where’s Little Mouse? Where did he go?” 

The beauty next to him laughed heartily. Northern girls all had their own beauty that was brought out by straightforwardness. “I think he went hunting.” 

“Hunting?” Shu Sam asked angrily. “Has he finished his work?” 

Hearing about his work, envy washed across the faces of everyone present. They envied Little Mouse, the twelve-year-old with a powerful glipher to teach him cultivation; to them, he was blessed by the heavens. It wasn’t easy for Northerners to learn cultivation, and luck played an even larger role. 

In the South, anybody could enter an institution as long as they had money. The knowledge of gliphism helped them in their careers immensely despite not having the talent to cultivate. It was the opposite in the North; even tribe leaders faced the difficulty of getting their children a master. Their only chances were the triannual enrollment of the three influential organisations, or hoping that an elite would find their child acceptable and take them in as a disciple. 

Little mouse was one of the lucky kids with a two-chambered glipher guiding him since he was young. 

At the outskirts of the Bloodsucking Tribe, snow was scattered atop the nearby trees. 

It was now late autumn, and the North experienced a longer winter than the South. Besides summer, it snowed during spring, autumn, and winter. In winter, it snowed the heaviest, so it was already snowing in late autumn.

Late in the night, a buck walked through the forest as it trod on the snow. It failed to realise that someone was staring at it.