Immortal

Chapter 7 – A Monstrous Beast

Old man Zhong carefully placed the jade piece into his pocket and let out a long breath. His eyes exuded confidence.

With a wave of his hand, a black shadow appeared instantly in front of old man Zhong. The shadow was as tall as old man Zhong. Gradually, the black shadow began to form into a shape. It was the elderly form of old man Zhong before he had reached Xiantian. With a slight shake, its appearance began to grow younger, eventually taking the appearance that old man Zhong now had.

Forty years old. Originally, old man Zhong had the appearance of a forty or fifty years old man, but, without knowing why, he began to look even younger after that one night with Zixun Fairy. Now he looked like he was around 40.

Seeing this person who looked identical to him, old man Zhong exhaled a long breath.

“Shadow clone^[1]? Looks exactly like me. There’s two of me, I have two bodies.” old man Zhong said with a smile.

This was the special ability old man Zhong acquired when he travelled to this world. One man could control two bodies. The body of the shadow clone could turn into shadow and pass through a gap as tiny as the space under a door and hide inside another’s shadow. It was quite magical.

Certainly, this was a special power; under light, old man Zhong and this shadow clone could still cast shadows. This shadow clone was particularly unusual, it was similar to the clones in the novel on Earth from several decades ago, or the legendary Di-er Yuanshen^[2], or a treasure with special power. It was even more magical than all of those.

At this point, old man Zhong renamed his two bodies, body and shadow.

“This way, the shadow can stay at the Zhong resident. It won’t be good if it’s found out by the Kaiyang School. The shadow can’t practice Hongluan Tianjing, so we will wait till later when I find the techniques to practice. But, as long as the body does not die, the shadow will last. The red bead will be given to the shadow for safe keeping. The body will go to the Kaiyang School.” old man Zhong planned for the two bodies of his.

The two bodies hugged each other. The body stamped the ground, an entrance to the underground appeared on the floor. Tidying up his clothes, the body went down with the jade piece in his pocket. After he descended, the entrance closed again.

The shadow continued to sit on the cushion to meditate. The body had reached Xiantian and the shadow, without any restraint, would reach Xiantian in no time.

The body, old man Zhong, continued to walk deeper underground. There was a railtrack there, too.

If a crafty rabbit has three burrows, how many did old man Zhong have? The secrets of old man Zhong were not something his adopted sons could grasp.

Ten days on the train, he arrived at another villa.

This was another one of old man Zhong’s properties. This villa was also located next to a huge mountain range. The Kaiyang School was inside these mountains. It’s not that old man Zhong didn’t want to build the railroad into the mountain, it’s only because the mountains were made of hard rocks. It would take hundred years just to drill through a few mountains.

He rested for two days and readied all the things he needed. After giving some instructions to the housekeeper, Old man Zhong put on a backpack, grabbed a machete, and walked deep into the mountains.

From here, there were an endless number of big mountains and had few people. In addition, there were many poisonous insects and grasses, filled with miasma, and many dangerous animals. There were even demons here. Old man Zhong wouldn’t dare to venture in by himself if he hadn’t reached Xiantian.

The mountains here were tall, several thousands of meters high was the norm. In the distance there were a multitude of tall mountains that rose above the clouds; old man Zhong needed to climb over these mountains to reach the Kaiyang School situated inside.

He was much more agile now after reaching Xiantian. It only took a few uninterrupted jumps to get over a tall mountain. Old man Zhong avoided all the poisonous insects and grasses he encountered along the way.

But the location of the Kaiyang School was too far away. He had to find a place to rest at night.

In the evening, old man Zhong found a relatively clean valley. It was clean because there weren’t as many bushes and poisonous insects and grasses, with no miasma nor any large animals.

There’s a cave in the valley which could serve as a shelter. It was only large enough for one person. He cleaned it up, sprinkled some special drugs outside, and then sat cross-legged inside.

Start a fire? Old man Zhong didn’t dare. Fire would expose his position. Most animals back on earth were afraid of fire. But, the animals here, or should he say monstrous beasts, would they even be afraid of fire?

Old man Zhong merely sat inside and awaited daybreak.

He sat till midnight.

“Aowu ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~”

A high pitched howl pierced through the valley in the deep of night.

Old man Zhong frowned, opened his eyes and peered outside.

At this moment, the bright moon in the sky shone over the valley. The howl came from the top of the mountain. Old man Zhong looked up.

A large silver wolf, three meters high. A three meters tall wolf.

The silver wolf was howling towards the moon with his head lifted. While it was howling, its silver fur shone especially bright. It was not bright silver, rather it looked as if the moonlight was directed right at the animal. Was it absorbing moonlight?

A monstrous beast?

Old man Zhong’s pupils shrunk when he saw the scene. He recognized that it was a monstrous beast just from one look.

Realizing it, old man Zhong became alarmed. He quickly retreated into the cave and started to practice Guixi Dafa^[3]hoping that the big wolf would not notice him.

Old man Zhong knew that the so called monstrous beasts were a league beyond ordinary animals. Even the lowest level of monstrous beast had reached the abilities of a human who had reached Xiantian. Xiantian? Old man Zhong had just entered Xiantian, the weakest of Xiantian. In addition, he did not know any supporting techniques, only those of Houtian. If he had known some Xiantian techniques, maybe there was a chance to fight it. But, now, obviously, he could only hide and hope that the wolf did not see him.

Old man Zhong was in the middle of Guixi, but, did a wolf only sense the breathe of its prey? The nose of a wolf is especially sharp. After howling to the moon and absorbing the moonlight, it turned to stare at the direction of the valley. A chilling look was in its eyes.

This place was the silver wolf’s usual hangout. It naturally could sniff the smell of a stranger. In addition, the drugs to keep away poisonous bugs that the old man Zhong had sprinkled in front of the cave also gave out an odd odor which instantly attracted the wolf’s attention.

Just a few jumps and the silver wolf had jumped into the valley where old man Zhong was and gazed at old man Zhong in the cave.

Old man Zhong knew he was in danger when he saw the wolf jump down and fixed its eyes at him. He could not hide, he had been discovered.

Old man Zhong frightfully shrunk to the back of the cave.

In the eyes of the wolf, old man Zhong’s actions were laughable. It hadn’t eaten a human in a long time.

Without a sign, the wolf suddenly jumped at old man Zhong.

Old man Zhong had no choice but to take out the machete to defend himself.

“Hong long long^[4] ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ “

The silver wolf kept tearing at old man Zhong inside the cave. Maybe old man Zhong had picked a good spot, the large body of the silver wolf could not squeeze in.

The silver wolf stretched its sharp claws and with its huge head squeezed towards the inside of the cave. It seemed that it could take a bite at old man Zhong at any time.

The situation had turned grave; the rocks on the surrounding mountain were shaking. Apparently, it would not take long for the wolf to widen the cave entrance and bite him.

Old man Zhong quickly filled Zenqi into the machete and raised the machete to stab the wolf.

“Zi ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ “

It barely scratched its skin.

“Wu ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ “

The silver wolf cried out from the pain and raised its claws to strike the machete.

“Dang ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ “

Old man Zhong’s hand lost all feeling and the machete flew away. No more machete?

The sting brought on by the machete pushed the silver wolf into a fit of rage. Both eyes turned red, it kept squeezing its body into the cave. Many rocks began to fall, it seemed the wolf could gnaw at old man Zhong at any moment.

Backed against the wall, old man Zhong could already felt the horrid smell of the mouth of the silver wolf. The mouth of the wolf was right in front of him and could bite him soon. It was getting closer and closer.

The feeling of death. Old man Zhong very quickly sensed that death was near.

If the entrance widened anymore, he would die here for sure by the hands of this monstrous beast. What to do? What to do? Dagger? He still had that dagger which he had exchanged from the hands of a practitioner. Maybe it would do. But, the dagger was inside his pocket; he could get killed by the wolf once he moved.

A dagger wouldn’t do. Zenqi. What about a Hongluan technique?

He took the risk.

He moved Zenqi into his hand and poured in some Hougluan energy.

Inside his palm, a large amount of pink mist instantly shot out. With old man Zhong’s movement, Hongluan Mist instantly filled the small cave.

The silver wolf continuously bumped into the cave but it began to feel strange and its breathing became rapid.

Its red eyes turned even redder, but now it was thinking of different things.

At the moment, there were images of many female wolves flashing in its brain. What had happened? It was going to eat a person and now it had begun thinking about female wolves?

The silver wolf couldn’t stand it anymore after a while.

The silver wolf turned around and sped away with red eyes. It ran into who knew where, deep in the mountains.

The crisis had been resolved.

“Xu ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ “

Old man Zhong exhaled a long breath; his eyes filled with fright.

He grabbed the machete, put on the backpack, and quickly left the place. It was not a suitable place to stay the night; it was better to leave as soon as possible.

[1]: 空间影子, pinyin: “kong jian ying zi,” literally: “space/void shadow,” TL: not sure since he’s talking about like a shadow clone, we’ll be calling a “shadow clone” for now.

[2]: 第二元神, pinyin: “di er yuan shen,” TL: no clue what this means… we think it’s a term from a game with something that might be related to Daoism, but that’s about it

[3]: 龟息大法, pinyin: “gui xi da fa,” means literally “turtle breathing method.” A Daoist breathing technique or exercise. It’s believed that a turtle’s breathe is unnoticeable, so this exercise allows you to make almost no sound while breathing.

[4]: 轰隆隆, pinyin: “hong long long,” a sound effect, it appears to be the sound of the wolf clawing at the cave and cause rocks to fall down