Chapter 15: Turmoil in the Shadow Mountains, Winds of Despair

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Seeing Zhao Yu agree, Tieshi smiled and extended a hand. “Please.”

Zhao Yu immediately set off with Tieshi.

After walking only a short distance, Tieshi hesitated. “Brother, at our current pace, I’m afraid even three to five days would not be enough to reach the Bear Tribe.”

Was he really planning to walk there with him at an ordinary person’s speed?

Zhao Yu felt rather embarrassed. “I’m just an ordinary man, and I don’t know any shortcuts to your tribe.”

Tieshi’s lips moved slightly before he suggested, “Then shall I carry you there with my magic power?”

“Gladly.” Zhao Yu agreed at once.

He remembered how that rotten old man Lingxuzi had taken him flying yesterday. The speed had been astonishing.

Tieshi spoke up. “In that case, forgive the offense. Please do not resist.”

With a wave of his hand, magic power wrapped around Zhao Yu and lifted him into the sky.

Yet they had barely risen and flown any distance when Tieshi stared around them in horror.

Mountains stretched in every direction.

Faintly, Zhao Yu could see gusts of black wind sweeping through the valleys.

“The Black Wind? Substantialized Black Wind... Could this be the Wind of Despair?” As he murmured, Tieshi continued ascending in alarm.

When they had risen to a great height, they could see that across the endless mountains, the black wind was sweeping through many scattered regions.

Tieshi’s expression grew even more horrified. “It really is the Wind of Despair... How could it have descended early?”

Zhao Yu looked down at the ground. “That thing is called the Wind of Despair?”

He had always simply called it the Black Wind.

Then Zhao Yu suddenly shuddered. “Wait, brother, put me down quickly. I have to go home.”

“Friend, in that case, we shall part ways here. After this calamity has passed, we shall drink together again!”

As soon as he finished speaking, Tieshi controlled his magic power and lowered Zhao Yu toward the ground, preserving the latter’s disguise as an ordinary man. He then turned and sped back toward the Bear Tribe.

On the ground

Zhao Yu rubbed his head irritably. “What a nuisance. What a terrible nuisance...”

“Tieshi really isn’t much of a friend. He could have dropped me at the entrance to the underground passage. Now I have to run there myself...”

He continued running.

.....

The Bear Tribe

Moving at top speed, Tieshi returned to the tribe in no more than forty or fifty breaths.

The tribe’s experts were overjoyed.

“Chief, you’re finally back!”

Tieshi shook his head slightly and spoke in a grave voice. “On my way back, I saw the Wind of Despair. Spread the word at once. Raise the grand formation and erect the stone walls. Without permission from me or the High Priest, no one is to take even a single step outside the tribe.”

Everyone’s expression changed drastically.

“The Wind of Despair? The Abyss of Despair descends only once every three hundred years. According to the cycle, shouldn’t there still be another three years?”

Though they were all shocked that it had arrived early, quite a few of them hurried away to carry out the orders.

Tieshi turned to the High Priest. “High Priest, ask the gods whether something has gone wrong—or whether those people from the Great Qian Dynasty are plotting some new scheme. Otherwise, there is no reason for the Abyss of Despair to descend ahead of time.”

Whenever the Abyss of Despair descended, countless Winds of Despair would run rampant through the mountains.

The Wind of Despair was given its name because once it touched someone, regardless of their level of cultivation, they would be dragged into the Abyss of Despair. Even the peerless mighty beings who, according to legend, stood only one step away from ascension were no exception.

It was practically impossible to resist. Hence, the name Despair.

Fortunately, “practically impossible” did not mean truly impossible. The Wind of Despair had, in the end, left living creatures a way to survive.

Although no profound art or wondrous technique could withstand it, the Wind of Despair could not pass through stone. As long as one hid inside a completely sealed space, the wind could do nothing.

But the descent of the Abyss of Despair brought more than just the Wind of Despair.

It also brought countless evil entities.

.....

Elsewhere

Zhao Yu was still running across the ground.

Back in the sky, Tieshi had flown nearly twenty miles. Now, running on foot was exhausting.

After covering several miles in one breath, Zhao Yu stared at what lay ahead and could not help cursing.

“Damn it!”

Not far away, a mass of substantialized black wind was blowing toward him.

Without hesitation, Zhao Yu drew the woodcutter’s knife. “Woodcutter’s knife, you know I’m afraid of pain. How about helping me block it for a while?”

There were two things Zhao Yu feared in this life.

The first was being eaten by man-eating evil entities.

The second was the Black Wind.

His fear of the Black Wind was not exactly terror. He simply disliked it, because when the wind blew against him, it caused a sharp, needle-like pain.

Being blown by it once or twice was nothing, but if it kept blowing...

He was not a masochist.

He had to hurry home. As long as he remained inside the house, the wind naturally could not reach him.

The woodcutter’s knife manifested a human face and sneered. “If you want me dead, just say so!”

Zhao Yu blinked, shameless as ever. “You can withstand it for quite a while. A gust or two won’t hurt.”

The knife’s expression was resolute. “When it blows on you, all you feel is a little prickling pain. But if the wind from the Abyss of Despair touches me, my already meager origin will be polluted even further... No! Absolutely not!”

“So stingy...” Zhao Yu muttered a few times before closing his eyes.

In any case, it could not kill him. A little pain was nothing.

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But then he suddenly felt movement in his chest.

He opened his eyes and looked down.

The parchment at his chest had grown arms and legs and was crawling out.

What was it trying to do?

The parchment bearing the contract suddenly began gesturing frantically with its limbs.

Zhao Yu was utterly puzzled. “What are you saying? Can’t you make a sound?”

He could not understand it. He truly could not understand it.

The parchment’s limbs halted, and it seemed to droop in dejection.

The woodcutter’s knife suddenly spoke. “It says that the contract you signed with Lingxuzi earlier has no time limit, but Lingxuzi ran away. That can be considered a breach of contract.”

“If you have no objection, it intends to enforce the penalty for the breach by drawing Lingxuzi’s spirit into itself, then using Lingxuzi’s soul to help you temporarily resist the Wind of Despair.”

Zhao Yu urged it instinctively. “There’s such a good thing? Hurry, hurry! Help me block it!”

The writing on the parchment suddenly began to melt.

In a daze, Zhao Yu heard a shrill wail come from within it.

“Ah...”

Then he saw a semitransparent barrier appear around his body.

The black Wind of Despair swept over.

Every gust was blocked outside the barrier.

Zhao Yu praised it without reservation. “I never expected you to be so much more useful than the woodcutter’s knife.”

The parchment began waving its arms and legs excitedly.

The woodcutter’s knife flew into a rage. “If you think I’m useless, then don’t take me out with you anymore!”

Zhao Yu immediately consoled it. “You misunderstand. I mean that when it comes to facing the Black Wind, the parchment is more useful than you.”

He cursed himself inwardly for his mistake. He had never imagined that the parchment possessed such an ability.

So many times in the past, whenever the Black Wind approached, he could only hide at home and tremble in fear. Now that he had the parchment, he would no longer have to hide from the Black Wind.

Only after receiving this reassurance was the woodcutter’s knife satisfied. Then it muttered, “The parchment also said just now that Lingxuzi’s cultivation... Well, compared with the Wind of Despair, Lingxuzi’s cultivation is far too insignificant.”

“Because your blood is part of the contract, it can forcibly use Lingxuzi’s entire cultivation and soul to resist the wind temporarily. Even so, it cannot hold out for long. This barrier can last only a quarter of an hour.”

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