Ascending Towards the Sun

Chapter Ten The Demonic torso

They had already walked past the Chang Residence, toward a cemetery nearby. Hua Ying saw the dark-red character of "Chang" on the pailou

Then, why did Chang Ping die afterward? Who killed the remaining members of his clan? Asked Hua Ying

Before Lan Zhan could answer, a series of bangs came from amid the blue-tinted dusk. The noise sounded a lot like slamming on doors, but it wasn't. The bangs were carried out with force and at a fast pace, without a moment of rest. They sounded somewhat muffled, as if there was something separating them from the outside world.

Their faces immediately changed. The fifty-or-so people of the Yueyang Chang Sect were currently lying in their coffins, slamming on their coffin lids from the inside. It was at night they were frightened to death, they madly slammed on the doors, but there wasn't anyone to let them out. This was the slamming on coffins in the Chang Clan's cemetery that the liquor shop's waiter talked about! However, the waiter said that the haunting was ten years ago and stopped long before now. Why would the slamming happen to start again when they came? Without passing any words between them, Hua Ying and Lan Zhan both softened their breathing, stealthily moving without making a sound. Propping themselves against the pillars of the pailou, they both saw that, in the center of the cemetery, there was a hole amid the tombstones.

It was a deep, recently created hole with piles of dirt surrounding it. Faint noises came from within the hole. Someone was digging out a grave. The two of them held their breaths, attentively waiting for the person in the hole to come out on their own. Before an hour passed, two people hopped up from inside the opened grave. Hua Ying and Lan Zhan could tell that these were two people only because they had good vision. These two appeared as if they were conjoined twins. One carrying the other on their back, they were tightly connected together. With both of them wearing entirely black clothes, it was extremely hard to tell the two apart. The person that hopped up had long legs and long arms, standing with his back toward them. The one that he carried seemed lifeless, their head and limbs hanging down. This was only natural. Since the person was dug out from a grave, then it must have been dead. Lifeless was what should've been expected of it. As he thought, the gravedigger suddenly spun around and saw them.

There was a mass of thick, black mist over the man's face, making it so that nobody could see how their face and features looked! Hua Ying knew that he must have casted some sort of spell that he had created to block his face. Lan Zhan had already unsheathed Bichen, darted into the cemetery, and started the fight. The gravedigger's reaction was extremely quick. Seeing the attack of Bichen's blue sword glare, he made a hand seal and also summoned a sword glare. The sword glare was the same as his face, surrounded by dense mist, and made it so that it was impossible to see what its color and style was, that was to Hua Ying something new and he had not created that but as he looked, he thought that it was very clever. With a corpse on his back, the gravedigger fought in a strange way. The two sword glares clashed a few times. Lan Zhan summoned Bichen back and held it in his hand, a layer of frost climbing over his face.

Hua Ying knew why his face suddenly turned cold. It was because, during the fight, even an outsider like him could tell that the gravedigger was extremely familiar with Lan WangJi's sword moves! Lan Zhan said nothing. Bichen's attacks were deeper and deeper, attacking with tremendous force. The gravedigger fell back a few times. As if he knew that, with a dead person on his back, he wouldn't be able to win against Lan Zhan and, if they continued to fight, he'd be captured alive, he suddenly fished out a dark-blue talisman from his waist.

A Transportation Talisman!

This type of talisman could instantly transport someone to hundreds of miles away, but it also expended a great amount of spiritual energy. It would take a long time for the user to regain their energy. Those with spiritual energy that wasn't powerful enough wouldn't be able to use them. Thus, although they were of very high quality, it was rare for anybody to use them. Seeing that he was about to escape, Hua Ying hurriedly clapped twice, got down on one knee, and slammed his fist on the ground. The strength of his punch passed through layers of dirt, reached the depths of the soil, and penetrated the thick coffin lids, provoking the corpses trapped inside. With crackling noises, four bloodied arms shot up from the ground, grabbing both of the gravedigger's legs! The gravedigger seemed as if he didn't care at all. He poured his spiritual energy toward the bottom of his legs, blasting the four corpse hands away. Hua Ying pulled out his bamboo flute. A shrill, piercing melody ripped open the curtain of darkness that had fallen. Two human heads emerged from the ground along with their bodies, climbing upward from the gravedigger's legs and winding around his body as if they were snakes. Opening their mouths, they prepared to bite down at his neck and arms.