The rain didn't let up until Chóng Fēi reached the smallest bottom of the narrow way. It started to soak all the plants into shinier green, the path slippery, making the slide feel annoyingly muddy.
"I'm gonna look like a mud guy for this man's sake.." Chóng Fēi muttered to himself.
But stubbornly he didn't slow his pace either. The open lock of hair soaked down like a broken tail of a crow over his face, his robe tight around his body, making it impossible to move properly.
And this mud.
He hated it as much as his 'those' disciples who had been mocking him with his father till now.
He couldn't help but pity his dear robe. It was his too favorite because it looked similar to Hùa Yìng. But he couldn't even get the time to whine about it. Not when his soul was screaming to have some explanation from Lìngxiāo about what was happening to him and why.
This guy kept getting addictively interesting. Not only by the strange threads of Xiǎo Lìng but also lots of unknown things and forgotten legends.
He wasn't sure—yes.
But he wasn't going to disbelieve it if not seen by his own eyes. He thought they were going for a normal secret meeting but it turned out to be going elsewhere. He didn't even know if he should focus on stopping this guy from discovering the grave of the skull mummy or just focus on his identity which was spreading everywhere like water.
And this place—this was not even the road towards queen stone. It might be but the twisted road which brought nothing but confusion. The Mèi Xùe restaurant was much more far—where the peak of the queen stone could be seen from above.
But this was the backward path which he had no clue of where it was going. There were only bushes so strong and deep, wild.
'What the—what's on my shoulder??'
He gasped when he felt something chilling was on his shoulder. It made his slide almost go wrong. He stopped himself by a tree. He didn't look at it—who knows what he would see and then faint right here. It wasn't about the tiny possible insect but the one which it could be 'instead' of it.
He hissed when he felt a light bite. He couldn't take it to his mouth too. He finally looked at it with silent fury of being bitten this tiny yet this hard.
A zombie spider.
But this one was a real alive one. Not the skull mummy.
Since the time the mummy exorcist had been buried here, mysteriously those spiders—Zombie spiders—had started to live around here like his more tiny symbols with eyes always watching this mountain.
Even at some places of his clan where nobody went. And he could never forget the disasters he got personally by it to ever try to act overpowering here even if he had something more at his highest priority.
"Y-yeah, who would this be more than you..?" Chóng Fēi's voice lowered immediately by seeing the insect.
This time he really moved slowly and gently. His fingertips brushing at the soft fur of the spider's feet. It didn't bite this time and stepped up on his finger.
"There you go. Just..stay here, okay?" He put it properly over another better branch of the tree he was clinging to.
The spider tilted its head and carefully looked at him. Its black eyes almost wide as if both confused and impressed. It was preparing to jump back over Chóng Fēi's hair.
"No. No, don't." He quickly moved away, holding his hair, not wishing to lose more of his dignity. "I'm in a hurry. M-maybe next time."
And then he started to leave quickly, hoping he wasn't late for a nonsense which wasn't a nonsense and he couldn't even ignore it.
He barely made it a few steps before the sky shattered.
His one leg lost its balance when a really loud thunder roared into the sky. Almost too close, too loud then it had ever been in years.
It felt too ruthless.
Chóng Fēi couldn't help but kneel down while gripping his ear, eyes shut. There were a lot of trees around him. If anything caught fire, it wouldn't take too long to spread.
He knew his eyes might feel like going blind, but he looked up slowly when the light dimmed a little. The sound was still echoing over the mountain and light—striking golden light was still spreading around like roots going deeper into the dark clouds.
It just rumbled more and more like the sky was overflowing with energy—three times stronger as if not only the natural one but something more with the original one already swallowing down the mountain.
He only managed to see the middle peak of this whole because he was still holding the sides of his eyes. It felt like forcing his eyes to shut if he wasn't holding them like this.
"Fucking big..thunder." He muttered. His voice clipping at parts in pure awe.
His mind which had been tangled around the mummy exorcist for a couple of long times—seemed to influence him enough without his will to think what he would have said if it was him right now seeing this condition of the sky.
It made him flush and silently fear.
'Perhaps..he would have said..it like..a strong wave of pleasure of something..'
Just like a bad reminder, the faint chuckle of the skull mummy rang into his ears. But this time more strangely fond more than revenging as always.
"Damn right, Lil prince. You remembered me so well. Hope to watch you remember other things too."
Though Chóng Fēi's soul was shaken from both fear of such a big, cunning way the thunders were rumbling, leaving no room for him to move forward and look after Lìngxiāo for whatever he was doing—no, hiding.
And also this old fear of ghosts which had just gone deeper into his bones. But curiosity wasn't anything short of it too.
So he breathed out the question to the ghost with hopeless hope that maybe he could answer whatever was happening behind his back. "Do you..know what is wrong with..him..?"
The ghost silenced.
But then his voice came back, silently bitter again like this was the wrongest thing Chóng Fēi could ever ask. He seem hate this topic like a deadwish. "You think I would have left him alive till now if you were not begging to me—poorly?"
Chóng Fēi didn't answer. He didn't even get the time for it too.
A shooting thunder slashed from the sky, piercing through the earth of the mountain like cracking bones.
It burned. Then broke into pieces from being weak already by the rain, then slid down, heading towards the queen stone border which later connected to the Mèi Xùe Lake before unionizing with the Liánlěi Tān ocean.
The struck place slid downwards too like a fall of earth, blowing down the fire but leaving the mountain shaken.
"Can't stay here longer either!" Chóng Fēi cried out, forgetting about the ghost for a while too.
He slid down with crazy twists and turns, using his snake webs to get down. The webs felt extra sticky and thick—ensuring his safety enough without breaking his bones. He even twisted it three times around his arm when gripping it, not keeping it attached to his body this time.
His mind raced with whatever he had seen and what he might see. This was getting more struggling than any ghosts—or just simply the rumors from there would offend him.
'Why isn't he responding in any way?'
'Is he even conscious? Or did he faint again?'
'What if the soil reaches the lake too hard while this is already stressful here?'
He swallowed hard while pausing temporarily on one tree trunk with his snake web, watching the soil run downwards.
'It's going to be too hard to go down without the flow.'
He looked around searching for something to hold onto. His gaze fell over a solid banana tree which was following the flow.
"Got you." Chóng Fēi took out his sword and threw it over to the tree.
It spread too large than a usual sword and cut half from the middle of the tree, creating solid space to stand on and then got hooked over to the middle.
Chóng Fēi didn't waste any time and jumped over it. He gripped the sword handle like he was driving any ship.
"Yeah. Now that is called satisfaction." A shaky but sure, small and proud smirk at his lips—as if this stunt was also something he had been practicing to accomplish...