12: Chapter 12 Elder Pu is Elder Pu

Standing at the fork of the stone path was a person.

He wore a gray robe that had been washed to a faded white, with frayed cuffs. He was around forty years old, of medium build, with a plain face, standing there like a stone with legs.

Outer Sect Elder Pu Huai.

Xie Feng's footsteps came to a halt.

He subconsciously wanted to take a step back because when the moonlight shone on Pu Huai's face, he saw Pu Huai's expression.

Pu Huai was smiling.

Xie Feng had seen Pu Huai many times over the past half year.

At the Martial Arts Arena, outside the Lingshu Pavilion, and at the entrance of the Affairs Hall.

Every time he saw Pu Huai, that face had no expression whatsoever.

But at this moment, Pu Huai was smiling.

The corners of his mouth turned up slightly, and his eyes curved into two shallow arcs.

That smile made all the hairs on Xie Feng's back stand on end.

The smile itself wasn't very terrifying.

But the fact that this smile appeared on Pu Huai's face was terrifying.

"Xie Feng." Pu Huai spoke, his voice not loud. It was exactly the same as usual, with the smile still hanging on his face. "Long time no see."

All of Xie Feng's words were stuck at the bottom of his throat, and not a single word could be forced out.

Pu Huai's eyes—the moonlight shone into those eyes, yet they didn't reflect any light.

Then Pu Huai moved.

He raised his right hand and waved at Xie Feng.

The movement was very casual, like an old friend running into someone by the roadside and casually greeting them.

The amplitude, angle, and rhythm of that movement were completely different from the Pu Huai in Xie Feng's impression. When Pu Huai waved, his arm was usually stiff, like a wooden stick.

When the "Pu Huai" before his eyes waved, his wrist was absurdly soft, and his five fingers opened and closed in succession. For some reason, Xie Feng felt that wasn't a hand, but rather a captured spider, with its soft abdomen as the palm and its struggling, curled joints as the fingers.

"Going to Kumu Village tomorrow?"

Pu Huai's voice was still Pu Huai's voice.

"That mission," Pu Huai bit the word "mission" very lightly, "is quite interesting."

At the same time, Pu Huai extended his hand, signaling a handshake.

Xie Feng didn't want to shake hands, yet he didn't dare to run. In the end, he stiffly extended his arm, closed his eyes, and shook it.

"It feels no different, am I overthinking it?" Xie Feng slowly sensed.

Four fingers pressed against the back of his hand, and two thumbs stroked his palm.

"Two thumbs?!"

Xie Feng turned his head and ran!

He didn't know how he ran back to the inn. The stone path rapidly retreated beneath his feet, the moonlight chased his shadow from behind, and the stone walls on both sides seemed to come alive, slowly writhing in his peripheral vision.

He didn't look back, not even once.

When the door was knocked open, Tu Ziguan was sitting on the bed wiping his ancient coin. He raised his head, saw Xie Feng's appearance, and the coin in his hand almost dropped to the ground.

Xie Feng leaned against the doorframe, his face pale, his entire body trembling, his forehead and back covered in cold sweat, his collar soaked through as if he had just been fished out of the water.

"Brother Feng?"

Xie Feng gasped heavily for breath, his lips trembling a few times before he squeezed out a sentence.

"Tomorrow... tomorrow at the hour of Chen, the mountain gate."

Tu Ziguan was stunned: "You?"

"I'm going," Xie Feng said.

He propped himself up against the doorframe, walked back to his room, closed the door, leaned his back against the door panel, and slowly slid down to sit on the floor.

Moonlight filtered through the window paper, casting a patch of ghastly white light on the ground. He stared at that patch of light for a long time, then closed his eyes. He knew who Pu Huai was, or rather, he knew what kind of thing was living inside "Pu Huai".

"Elder Pu, grayish-white robe, so it's Elder Pu!"

Xie Feng buried his face in his knees.

"I'm not playing anymore."

Tu Ziguan sat by the bed, lowering his head to look at the half-wiped ancient coin in his hand. He was silent for a long time, then put it back into his sleeve. He had heard Xie Feng's voice just now—after closing the door, those five trembling words transmitted through the door panel.

Yog-Sothoth is watching me.

Tu Ziguan didn't understand, but he remembered it.

The next day, at the hour of Chen.

When Xie Feng appeared at the mountain gate, Tu Ziguan and Mo Tang were already waiting. Behind Mo Tang followed a half-person-tall wooden mechanism Puppet with four legs and eight arms. Each arm was equipped with different tools: knives, saws, pliers, and a few items whose names Xie Feng couldn't call out.

She herself carried a bulging bundle on her back, from which faint sounds of metal collision emanated.

Seeing Xie Feng, Tu Ziguan didn't ask what happened last night, but simply glanced him up and down.

Xie Feng's complexion was slightly better than last night's, but the dark circles under his eyes remained, making it obvious at a glance that he hadn't slept all night.

"Let's go," Tu Ziguan said.

Xie Feng nodded and stepped forward to follow.

The mountain gate slowly closed behind them, like eyelids slowly shutting.

Xie Feng didn't dare to look back.

"Pu Huai" might be standing right behind some window, gazing at his retreating figure with those bottomless eyes, a cheerful smile hanging on his face.

Kumu Village was forty li north of Cangyun City. It wasn't far, yet not close either. After exiting the mountain gate, the three of them walked along the official road for about two hours before turning into a side road. The road surface changed from bluestone slabs to rammed earth, and the trees on both sides grew taller and denser, chopping sunlight into fragments and scattering them haphazardly on the ground.

Mo Tang's mechanism Puppet walked at the very front, its four legs alternately rising and falling, with its eight arms folded on both sides of its torso, walking like a docile giant spider. She herself walked behind the Puppet, occasionally reaching out to adjust the angle of a certain arm while muttering technical terms Xie Feng couldn't understand.

Tu Ziguan and Xie Feng walked side by side at the very back.

Along the way, Tu Ziguan didn't ask about last night's events. He only casually brought up an inconsequential remark every once in a while, such as how there was a rather uniquely shaped crooked-necked tree ahead, how Mo Tang's Puppet seemed to have a slightly crooked third leg, or whether Brother Feng was hungry since he brought sesame flatbreads.

Xie Feng didn't reply a single word, but Tu Ziguan didn't mind and continued talking.

When they reached a fork in the road, Tu Ziguan stopped to identify the direction, while Mo Tang seized the opportunity to squat down and check the Puppet's joints. Xie Feng stood in place, his gaze falling on a section of dead tree stump by the roadside.

"Brother Feng."

Xie Feng snapped back to his senses.

Tu Ziguan didn't look at him, keeping his head lowered to look at the map in his hand as he lowered his voice.

"That Yog-Sothoth you mentioned last night, what is it?"

Xie Feng's fingers twitched slightly.

"What Yog-Sothoth?"

"What you said after closing the door—Yog-Sothoth is watching me." Tu Ziguan folded the map and shoved it back into his sleeve. "I heard it."

Xie Feng was silent for a very long time.

Birdcalls came from the woods by the roadside, one long and one short. Mo Tang was tapping on the Puppet's knee a few steps away, the crisp sound of metal collision echoing around.

"A nickname," Xie Feng finally said.

"For what?"

Xie Feng stopped speaking.

"Stop asking."

Tu Ziguan glanced at him, then tucked the map back into his sleeve.

"Let's go."

Kumu Village had arrived.