Chapter Eighty-Nine: The Outsider

Before Li Mu could examine matters closely, the figure hurried into the hollow.

The alarm of the warding array rang out. Shen Bingxue swiftly emerged from the place where she had been refining medicine, while Sun Qi, who had been sitting cross-legged in the hollow all along, activated the Three-Day Sword Talisman the instant he sensed an intruder.

Inside the cave, Sun Sanjiu, following Li Mu’s earlier instructions, used an array device for concealment and hid Li Ying off to one side.

Li Mu arrived at the hollow with great speed and looked inside.

The newcomer was not one of the demon folk, but a cultivator.

He appeared to be around twenty, at the middle stage of the Spirit-Building Realm. He wore sharp, flamboyant clothes, and his handsome, drifting features held a faintly wicked cast. Besieged by several treasure swords, he was clearly struggling, yet still forcing himself to hold out.

“Who set up this warding array? To seize the spirit-vein mine of the Great Wolf Plain here! Do you not know that everything on the Great Wolf Plain belongs to my forebear?”

As he shouted his accusation, he wielded a curved blade against the attacking swords.

Hearing this, Shen Bingxue and Sun Qi were both mildly startled. They stared at the cultivator within the array, but said nothing.

Li Mu also kept silent. Inwardly he thought: your family elder again? Could that be the Patriarch of Wolf Plain? This cultivator before him was likely one of that patriarch’s disciples as well. But why did he claim that everything here belonged to his forebear? In any case, the answer lay with the man in front of them.

From the vines above, the ape dropped down with a few quick bounds. At the outsider it let out several furious roars, pounding its chest and rushing forward with both arms raised.

The man’s face changed. He had already found the warding array troublesome enough; now, with that immensely powerful ape added to the fight, the danger grew even greater. He was on the verge of being struck down.

“Beast! Last time I let you escape by accident. This time you’ve come to seek death! I’ll tear you into pieces!”

At that desperate moment, he abruptly drew out a paper talisman.

“Golden Robe Protection!”

The talisman burst in the air, breaking into countless drifting ashes that rained down upon him like golden light.

In an instant, his body seemed to be covered in a robe of golden radiance; it was as though his entire form had been gilded, brilliant and shining.

“Forcing me to use a fourth-rank talisman bestowed by my forebear—you can all die! I’ll leave you with broken sinews and shattered bones, in utter misery!”

The moment the talisman took effect, his whole bearing changed. The several treasure swords struck and darted at him from every side, but he ignored them entirely. Each sword that landed against his body rang out like metal striking iron, accompanied by sparks of golden fire, yet he paid it no heed and was plainly uninjured.

Shen Bingxue frowned slightly and said, “So it is the Golden Robe Talisman. I have heard that when a cultivator uses this fourth-rank talisman, the whole body becomes like gold, and no treasure weapon below the third rank can injure it. It seems that is true enough. But after using the Golden Robe Talisman, the cultivator’s speed slows greatly, and even the spiritual sense is heavily affected. He should be dealt with now.”

Crack!

The curved blade suddenly slashed out, flying straight at Sun Qi with savage force. Sun Qi could scarcely even react; in another instant he would have been cleaved down.

At the critical moment, a wooden shield appeared in a flash and blocked the blade outside.

With a lift of her hand, Shen Bingxue sent Sun Qi retreating into the cave.

She held the Asura Sword Li Mu had given her, and as she thought of Li Mu still absent beyond, an inexplicable worry rose in her heart.

Just as she was about to attack, she saw Li Mu appear at the mouth of the hollow in a single instant. Her heart eased at once, and with something like instinctive reliance, she nearly cried out.

Li Mu waved a hand, telling her not to move, and immediately threw two array devices down toward the man.

He could tell that this cultivator was no ordinary figure, no common Spirit-Building cultivator. Surrounded by the Three-Day Sword Talisman array and the ape’s attacks, he remained unharmed. The curved blade in his hand was also a superior second-rank treasure weapon, and he possessed a powerful fourth-rank talisman. Every sign showed that he was beyond Shen Bingxue’s ability to face.

As the array devices were cast out, they swiftly transformed into several drifting clouds.

Having used the Golden Robe Talisman, the man’s spiritual sense was already restricted. With two more array devices repeatedly interfering with him, he was nearly blind and senseless, unable to perceive anything at all.

Only then did true fear seize him, and he cried out in panic, “Who are you people, to set up wards here against me? Do you not know I am a direct disciple of the Patriarch of Wolf Plain? If you dare treat me like this and still do not fall to the ground begging my pardon, then no one in this world will be able to save you!”

The opportunity was rare. Without a word, Li Mu took up the flame gourd and cast the Earth Armor Art upon him.

A great cocoon of earthen color enclosed and trapped him within.

Used on oneself, the Earth Armor Art served as protection. But used on another, so long as Li Mu sustained the spell, it was exceedingly difficult for anyone to break free from the earthen shell.

The man struggled for a time, then at last gave up, standing stiff and dull within the cocoon, unable to move.

“Who are you?” Li Mu asked slowly as he drew nearer.

The man believed that with the Golden Robe guarding him, he had little to fear even while trapped. He stiffly endured in silence, giving only a muffled snort.

Li Mu sighed. “Your golden robe seems to be fading little by little. I have heard that the Golden Robe Talisman lasts only the time of one incense stick, and half that time has already passed. If you still refuse to speak, I will return later.”

How could Li Mu possibly know how long the Golden Robe Talisman truly lasted? But the man had never used it before either and was no clearer on the matter. Already uneasy, he grew all the more unsettled upon hearing Li Mu’s words.

“If you know what is good for you, let me go. I am the fourth disciple of the Patriarch of Wolf Plain—Wood Tiger!”

Though his voice was loud, his bearing had already weakened.

Li Mu gave a slight nod. So it truly was the Patriarch of Wolf Plain. “Heh. And just what great figure is this Patriarch of Wolf Plain you speak of?”

“What? You do not even know who the Patriarch of Wolf Plain is?” Wood Tiger was astonished. “On the Great Wolf Plain, every cultivator is either one of the Patriarch’s disciples or his fellow daoist. Who exactly are you people?”

Shen Bingxue frowned, displeased. “Suppose we do not know. What of it?”

“If you do not know, then I shall explain it to you.”

Wood Tiger was delighted, as though afraid others might lose patience and refuse to listen. His voice rose even higher.

“The Patriarch of Wolf Plain is named Wood Dragon. He is the greatest figure in all the Great Wolf Plain. He came here decades ago, rose from the Qi Condensation Realm to the Meridians Refining Realm, and now rules the entire Great Wolf Plain. Who does not revere him? He has countless disciples beneath him. And yes—only gifted men such as myself are granted the surname Wood by Patriarch Wood.”

Though his original family name was gone, he spoke of it with obvious pride. At the thought of it, Li Mu let out a scornful smile.

Yet Wood Tiger kept talking without pause. “In former days, life on the Great Wolf Plain was harsh. The tribes were constantly harried by spirit beasts. Now, so long as they present their tribute to Patriarch Wood in due time, he sends his disciples to help defend them. Ha! From the Stone Mountain to the End-Sand River, what tribe is there that does not praise the goodness of Patriarch Wood?”

“What a nuisance,” Shen Bingxue said, somewhat irritated by what she heard. In her heart, she did not much believe him, and merely cast him a sidelong glance.

Li Mu gradually understood. This was a Qi Condensation cultivator who had come to the Wolf Plain, where there had once been no cultivators, and seized the place for himself over the years.

Had he arrived several decades earlier, would the patriarch here now have been Li Mu?

He considered it for a moment, then at once shook his head. Setting himself up as some patriarch, granting disciples his own surname, subjugating tribes, and feeding himself on the lives of mortals—such a thing he would never do.

From the conduct of that so-called Disciple Number Eighty-Seven, and from the pain in the Bai clan pair’s voices when they spoke of Patriarch Wood, one could already tell that this Patriarch of Wolf Plain surely enjoyed no true honor among the tribes.