Chapter Ninety: The Tornado

Daosan Sheng had not absorbed much spiritual energy into his body, and if he did not replenish it now, once the miasma entered him he would no longer be able to control himself. With a casual motion he took out a spirit stone and began absorbing it as he kept running forward.

At the front of the Big-Headed Short-Eared Rabbit herd ran one rabbit twice the size of the rest. It let out an angry roar.

“Woo—woo—woo!”

Along with the harsh grinding of teeth, the entire herd heard the call and suddenly surged in speed. In an instant they all accelerated and charged after Daosan Sheng.

Daosan Sheng, who had only just managed to shake them off by a small margin, looked back at the rabbits now gaining on him, the whole herd speeding up as one. Then he looked at the spirit stone in his hand, already drained and reduced to crumb-like fragments, and anxiety rose in his heart.

By rights, if his judgment had been correct, they should have stopped the pursuit once they reached the inner region. Yet they still clung to his trail, refusing to let up. If this continued, even if they did not catch him, they would wear him down to death sooner or later.

He took out another spirit stone. At this point, there was truly little spiritual power left within him. Daosan Sheng swept his gaze over the surroundings, searching for some place to hide, but no matter which way he looked there was nothing but open plain. There was nothing at all, and even the trees were scattered far apart.

Suddenly the miasma in midair stirred. A wild wind arose, and the miasma slowly gathered together, forming a tornado. Then the tornado grew larger and larger, linking heaven and earth, while the miasma that had blanketed the sky was gradually drawn into it as well.

Daosan Sheng looked up and saw, to his left front, an enormous tornado. Looking more closely, he realized it was a whirlwind formed entirely from miasma. Behind him, the Big-Headed Short-Eared Rabbits were drawing ever nearer. He was about to be overtaken.

Staring at the purple tornado ahead, Daosan Sheng made a decision. If he were caught, he would likely die at the paws of those spirit beasts; he might as well throw himself into the tornado and see what lay within. Perhaps there was still a sliver of hope. Having made up his mind, he changed direction and rushed toward the purple miasmic whirlwind.

The tornado, too, was slowly moving toward him, its speed increasing without pause. As it loomed before his eyes, Daosan Sheng threw himself into it.

The purple miasma corroded his body. The moment he entered the violet whirlwind, a piercing pain stabbed through him, and the poison Du Xuetao had planted in him unexpectedly flared up under the stimulation.

No sooner had Daosan Sheng rushed into the tornado than he was swept upward. The spiritual power in his body was draining away at terrifying speed; he was on the verge of no longer being able to hold on. On top of that, Du Xuetao’s poison had relapsed. After a bout of struggling, Daosan Sheng actually fell from the sky.

When he hit the ground, he slammed down so hard that he bit a mouthful of dirt. Spitting the mud out angrily, he then discovered that he was in the very center of the tornado. The place was hollow. There was no storm within at all, almost as calm and pleasant as ordinary fair weather, and there was no miasma either.

So his gamble had paid off. Daosan Sheng quickly took out a spirit stone to recover his spiritual power. Holding a supreme-grade spirit stone in his palm, he absorbed it little by little, his body moving along with the tornado.

When the leader of the Big-Headed Short-Eared Rabbits saw the miasmic tornado, it let out a roar.

“Woo—woo—woo…”

That long cry brought the herd to a halt. Every rabbit stopped at once, then immediately turned around and fled back the way they had come.

The rabbit leader sprinted to the front of the retreating group, but it was already too late. The tornado had drawn near the herd. More than a dozen rabbits at the rear were instantly sucked into it, then another dozen after them. In all, more than fifty were taken away.

The rabbit leader gave another mournful cry, and all the Big-Headed Short-Eared Rabbits burst into speed at once. Only then did they escape the range of the tornado. Looking back, they saw the herd had already lost nearly a third of its number. Every one of them gazed in fear at the tornado brushing past to their right, terror written plainly across their faces.

But Daosan Sheng was far happier. His spiritual power was slowly recovering and had almost returned to half strength. Then, at some unknown moment, a Big-Headed Short-Eared Rabbit fell from the sky. It had already been tortured half to death by the miasmic tornado. The moment such rabbits dropped into the eye of the storm, they would immediately try to run outward—only to be swept up again.

One after another, they died before Daosan Sheng’s eyes. His storage pouch already held more than twenty, yet they kept falling. Now he did not even bother absorbing the spiritual energy from the spirit stone; he simply stared at the ground, picking up every dead rabbit that landed there.

Only after more than fifty had fallen, and after he had waited a long while without seeing anything else drop, did he finally stop and take up the spirit stone again to continue absorbing it.

The leader of the Big-Headed Short-Eared Rabbits watched the departing tornado, then turned and ran back. All the remaining members of the herd followed behind it toward their territory.

More than an hour had already passed, and Daosan Sheng had traveled with the tornado for more than an hour as well. By now he no longer knew where he was, because nothing around him could be seen clearly; all around was still purple miasma.

Yet the center of the tornado was growing larger and larger, and the tornado itself was expanding as well. Now other things had begun to fall into it—various spiritual herbs and all kinds of ores. Daosan Sheng dodged while gathering them up, and felt that staying in this place was like sitting in the midst of an endless treasure trove.

By now he was almost tired from picking things up. If something was not especially good, he no longer bothered with it.

Three hours later, Daosan Sheng followed the tornado into a place filled entirely with rocks. The tornado’s force gradually weakened, and in the end it dispersed before his very eyes.

Looking around, he saw stones everywhere, twisted into strange and grotesque shapes. Yet the ground was covered with countless objects, layered thickly like a vast dumping ground. The sight was astonishing.

The rocks here had been polished smooth by the tornado. Their surfaces were full of scars and weathered traces carved by its grinding winds. There was only a single exit from this place, which must have been where the tornado had entered.

So this place must often give rise to tornadoes, and the things on the ground had all been swept here by them. He needed to search quickly and see what treasures might be found.

Ah! This was actually a three-hundred-year-old Jade-Green Tree.

And this was the skeleton of an eighth-rank spirit beast. It looked like a Fire Serpent Python. That was a spirit beast at the Golden Core stage, one capable of taking human form, yet it had died here.

Daosan Sheng kept rifling through the heaps of things, nearly forgetting the passage of time. Before he knew it, dawn was almost breaking. It seemed he had to return quickly. He could not keep these things in the storage pouch at his side; if Du Xuetao discovered them, things would be disastrous.

After sorting everything out, Daosan Sheng gathered up all the valuables, then loosened his hair and removed the hair ring binding it. He stored all the items inside it instead, then tied his hair back up and slipped the ring into place again.

Aside from the corpses of the Big-Headed Short-Eared Rabbits, he poured everything else from the storage pouch back onto the ground.

All right, time to go back. Once I’m able to get out, I’ll come and take all of you away.

Daosan Sheng stroked the things he had just put back with deep reluctance, murmuring to himself, his eyes full of unwillingness. But if he did not return soon, that fellow Du Xuetao would start suspecting him again, and then he would poison him once more. That kind of agony was something he had no wish to experience a second time.