7: Chapter 7 Blood Bait Jade Slip, Insect Devouring Pursuers

Fresh blood trickled down his forearm, dripping onto the damp rocky ground with a soft "tap, tap" sound.

In this underground cavern, where silence was broken only by the sound of water, the noise was exceptionally clear, and exceptionally... alluring.

Hei Sha's charging stride faltered, his sneer freezing on his face: "Kid, are you trying to scare me by self-mutilating?"

Lin Ye did not answer. He stared intensely at the patch of ground where his blood was dripping, then quickly raised his eyes to look three feet beyond the skeleton—at the soil from which the Ghost-faced Leech had just emerged.

Sss, sss, sss—

A faint, scalp-tingling slithering sound came from beneath that soil.

It was even denser than before!

Almost the instant the scent of Lin Ye's blood permeated the air, the surface of the soil churned, and dozens, no, hundreds of pitch-black worms bearing pale, ghostly faces burst out frantically!

Their craving for the blood and Qi of living creatures far exceeded their interest in that scrap of blood-soaked cloth.

The swarm converged into a nauseating black tide, instantly locking onto the source of the strongest scent—the bleeding Lin Ye!

"Come on then!" Lin Ye gave a low roar. Instead of retreating, he swung his bleeding arm violently in the direction of Hei Sha!

A few droplets of scalding blood arced through the air, splashing down not far in front of Hei Sha.

The "tide" of the swarm turned immediately. A portion lunged toward Lin Ye, but the majority, attracted by the fresh and closer "blood bait," hissed and surged toward Hei Sha!

"What the hell is this?!" Hei Sha finally saw the ghostly face patterns on those worms, and his expression changed abruptly.

He recognized these things! Ghost-faced Leech. They appeared in swarms and were a headache even for those at the Late Stage of Qi Refining, let alone for him now, heavily injured and lacking spiritual power!

"You little brat, you tricked me!!" Hei Sha was both shocked and furious. He waved his hand, slashing out several streaks of black Saber Qi, shredding the dozens of leeches at the front.

Viscous, foul-smelling green bodily fluids burst forth, sizzling as they splattered onto the rocks, corroding small pits into them.

But even more leeches swarmed up, fearless of death, their speed astonishingly fast. Several were already crawling up his pant legs!

"Get off!" Hei Sha hurriedly circulated his spiritual power to shake them off, but the fluctuations of his spiritual power and the smell of blood from his wounds only stimulated the swarm to become even more frenzied!

Now is the time!

The moment Lin Ye had flung his blood, he had already endured the excruciating pain and dizziness to dash in the opposite direction—toward the location of the skeleton remains!

He narrowly dodged the portion of leeches lunging at him, but one still grazed his calf, instantly causing a burning, stinging pain and numbness.

It's poisonous!

He stumbled two steps, lunged to within three feet of the skeleton, and forced himself to stop abruptly.

This is the place; there are still insect eggs under the soil!

Behind him, Hei Sha's angry curses and the hissing of the swarm blended together.

Lin Ye could even hear the faint sounds of the leeches' mouthparts biting through flesh and sucking blood, as well as Hei Sha's screams of shock and pain.

He had no time to look back; his entire focus was on the dim Jade Slip between the skeleton's finger bones.

How to get it? If he reached out directly, he would inevitably trigger the insect eggs within three feet.

His gaze scanned rapidly and landed on the sharp stone shard he had just picked up and was still gripping in his left hand.

He then looked at the ground nearby, where there were several slender stalactites that had fallen from the cave ceiling, long dead and withered.

Got it!

He gritted his teeth and used the stone shard to quickly whittle a section of the withered stalactite, over two feet long, to use as a makeshift stick.

Then, he lay down, stretched his arm out as far as possible, and with the tip of the stalactite stick, trembling, reached for the Jade Slip between the skeleton's finger bones.

Can't reach it! Just a little bit more!

He inched forward another half a foot, his knees almost pressing against the edge of that dangerous circle of soil.

A faint, slithering sensation came from beneath the soil, as if something had been disturbed by his body heat and blood aura, and was about to break through the surface.

Cold sweat soaked his back.

"Come... to me!" Lin Ye growled. His wrist gave a sudden flick, the tip of the stalactite stick accurately piercing the small hole in the center of the Jade Slip, and he flicked it up with force!

The Jade Slip was flicked into the air, tracing an arc.

Lin Ye let go of the stalactite stick, his right hand shooting out like lightning, and he snatched the Jade Slip before it could hit the ground!

It felt ice-cold in his hand.

Almost simultaneously, the soil where his elbow was propped up suddenly churned open, and several newly hatched, slightly smaller Ghost-faced Leeches sprang up, lunging straight for his face!

Too fast! Can't dodge!

In that split second of life and death, Lin Ye had no time to think and, purely by instinct, blocked his face with the right hand that had just grabbed the Jade Slip.

Puff, puff, puff!

Several leeches slammed hard into the palm of his right hand—the very spot where the pale golden markings had previously appeared.

The expected excruciating pain and corrosion did not come immediately.

The imperceptible golden markings on his palm, the moment they were struck by the leeches, suddenly lit up with a faint, yet real, golden light!

"Sss—!"

The leeches, as if they had collided with a red-hot branding iron, let out shrill hisses. Their bodies instantly curled, blackened, and began to smoke before falling to the ground, twitching twice before lying still.

Lin Ye was stunned, looking at his palm.

The glow of the markings had faded, but the searing heat and the miserable state of the leeches from just a moment ago were definitely not a hallucination.

These markings... can they suppress these sinister, poisonous insects?

He had no time to dwell on this, because the battle on the other side was nearing its conclusion.

After all, Hei Sha was once at the sixth level of Qi Refining. In his desperation, a burst of black Qi exploded from his body, shaking off all the dozens of leeches clinging to him, many of which were shredded by Saber Qi while still in the air.

But he himself was teetering, his body riddled with dozens of bleeding punctures, his complexion turning black—clearly, he was deeply poisoned.

"I... will have you... buried with me!!" Hei Sha rasped, his blood-red eyes locked onto Lin Ye. Ignoring the remaining leeches, he stumbled forward, brandishing his short blade in a final lunging posture!

Lin Ye's heart tightened. Gripping the Jade Slip, he was about to roll toward the pool.

Suddenly, out of the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of the skeleton that had been quiet all along. At the very moment Hei Sha erupted with his final burst of spiritual power, a faint glimmer seemed to flash within its empty eye sockets.

Immediately following this, a very faint "click" of a mechanism came from beneath the flat boulder where the skeleton was sitting.

Hei Sha's final step happened to land on a slightly darker stone slab.

Rumble—!!

Directly behind the skeleton, the rock wall, which had appeared seamless, suddenly recessed inward, revealing a pitch-black opening large enough for only one person to pass through!

A gust of wind, even older and carrying the scent of dust, blew out from the cave.

It's a mechanism! Before this Foundation Establishment Cultivator passed away, he actually left an escape route?!

Hei Sha was also stunned by this turn of events.

Lin Ye reacted extremely quickly. Almost the instant the opening appeared, he used his remaining strength to lunge toward it!

"Don't even think about it!!" Hei Sha roared, staking his last bit of spiritual power to throw his short blade!

This time, there was no sword box spirit of Zhao Hansong to save him.

The short blade turned into a streak of black light, arriving in an instant.

Lin Ye only had time to barely twist his body in mid-air.

"Splat!"

The short blade slammed into the area below his right shoulder blade, piercing right through! It brought out a spray of blood!

The excruciating pain almost made Lin Ye faint, but his momentum into the cave did not stop; carrying the short blade stuck in his back, he rolled into the dark passage.

"Ah—!!" Behind him came Hei Sha's roar of despair and unwillingness, which was immediately drowned out by the hissing of more Ghost-faced Leeches swarming him and the teeth-grinding sound of chewing.

Lin Ye rolled several times in the dark passage before coming to a stop. The wound behind his shoulder burned with pain, and blood quickly stained a large area of his clothes.

He gritted his teeth, reached back to grasp the tip of the blade that had pierced through, took a deep breath, and yanked it out with force!

"Urgh—!" With a muffled groan, the short blade was pulled out, bringing flesh with it. His vision went black in waves, and he hurriedly used a torn strip of cloth to press firmly against the wound.

Temporarily... safe?

He leaned against the cold, damp wall of the passage, gasping heavily.

His right hand was still tightly clutching that cold Jade Slip.

The Jade Slip seemed to have been soaked by his blood and began to emit a faint fluorescence.

Cliffhanger

The fluorescence illuminated the space within arm's reach, and also lit up a few lines of ancient, simple characters that appeared on the surface of the Jade Slip:

"To those who come after: This cave leads to seclusion, but the path ahead is unpredictable. I am trapped here, wounded by 'mystic yin true water'. The pool of true water is at the end of the dark river, guarded by the monster 'Water Essence of Gui'. The method to obtain the water is in..."

The handwriting became blurred here, as if the person who recorded the Jade Slip also lacked the strength to continue.

And finally, there was a line of even more scrawled blood-red characters, as if carved with the very last of his strength:

"Do not trust... Chen... Mo..."