Qiu Yunru was hit suddenly by a chilling wave of deja-vu.
Hadn't he received this quest a year ago, the day after the Dragon Boat Festival?
Hadn't that innkeeper back then said that it was "men in black" who had instructed him to poison Qiu Yunru and kidnap Li Chenyuan?
It had been almost a full year. Qiu Yunru would weep a little internally for himself if he wasn't so filled with horror.
If you're going to let a quest get dusty for a whole year, why do you have to pull it back out at the absolute worst moment?!
And there was that note, too--if failed, will result in tragedy. Who knew what kind of tragedy would arrive? Of course this game would never be specific! Perhaps the whole world would end!
Qiu Yunru waved the game menu aside, whirling around and gripping his sword tightly. Since there were at least six people, he was at a great disadvantage. If he had to guess, the reason no tournament officials had arrived yet was likely because these people were picking them off from the trees as they approached. They must also be the ones upholding the sky barrier. Qiu Yunru felt a ball of guilt crawl up his throat.
When Li Chenyuan had said he didn't put up that sky barrier, it was true!
Looking around at the trees, he attuned his senses to search for the presence of any remaining Demon Soul Idols. He could sense an aura of heavy demonic qi emanating from one of the people hidden there. There must be at least one more idol in these people's possession.
Not good, not good!
The was a sudden whooshing sound again. Qiu Yunru ducked to the ground, hiding in the tall, black grass. Quickly, he sliced his hand and began to draw an array of blood in the dirt. An arrow thunked into the ground just next to his head, and his hand shook. He had never come so close to death in this game.
Thankfully, he was able to finish the array quickly. A gust of wind rose from the ground beneath his feet, causing a dozen more arrows to veer off-course and embed themselves into the ground all around the array.
This was a Projectile Deflection Array. Though it was rather weak and couldn't deflect objects heavier than arrows, it would have to do for now. For all his alchemical knowledge, Qiu Yunru didn't know nearly enough about array magics. He kicked himself internally for not widening his studies. Assuming he made it out of here alive, he would absolutely have to grow his knowledge of arrays and talismans!
The arrow that had nearly pierced his skull glinted in the moonlight. There was a unique symbol carved into the wooden shaft: something like a spiral that resembled a cloud, or a gust of wind.
Whatever--he really didn't have time to collect clues right now. Hurriedly, he stepped out of the array. He needed to bring Li Chenyuan into the array at once. Even if the goal of these people was to kidnap him, who knew if they'd be willing to injure him as well? It seemed they had been willing to risk him nearly dying from Black Lip Leaf Poison last time.
However, as soon as he stepped out of the array, he was tackled back into it.
Li Chenyuan had jumped out of the darkness and bowled him right over!
Once again, Qiu Yunru's head hit the dirt, and the wind was knocked out of him. For a solid three seconds, he couldn't see properly: stars blinked across his vision from the pain in his head, and the world was blurry. What's more, he couldn't breathe.
He--he really couldn't breathe at all!
It became imminently clear why he couldn't breathe. When he blinked enough times to restore his vision, he saw Li Chenyuan's face hovering above him. His eyes glowed ominously, and his lips were curled into a crazed smirk. His hands were reaching down and gripping Qiu Yunru's throat, choking him.
Qiu Yunru gasped for air. He wanted to hit himself over the head with the game menu. In his panic about nearly being shot by an arrow, he had really forgotten that Li Chenyuan had just been touched by another Demon Soul Idol!
As Li Chenyuan ruthlessly squeezed the air out of his lungs, he reached into his alchemical pouch and drew out the last bit of Magnetized Qi Powder that he had.
He had used virtually all of what was left earlier, on that enormous Shadow Demon Puppet. If only he had saved a bit more...but how was he supposed to know that this kind of thing would occur? Taking down a puppet of that size required an appropriate dose of powder!
He threw the powder in Li Chenyuan's face.
Li Chenyuan's eyes widened. He coughed and released Qiu Yunru, clawing at his eyes and nose. Though the powder was light, it still had grains. Thus, having it thrown in one's face was not too different from getting a face full of sand. His eyes watered with redness, and he coughed and hacked, choking.
Qiu Yunru scrambled backwards, picking his sword up from the ground. He gasped for air, touching his throat. The strength of this kid's grip--it was inhuman. Although that was to be expected when affected by a Demon Soul Idol, it was terrifying to behold. He had the sense that, if he had remained in that position any longer, his windpipe would have been crushed to a pulp, and he would be dead.
Across from him, Li Chenyuan's hacking and clawing quieted. He glared at Qiu Yunru, seething. Though his eyes were now bloodshot, the purple glow in them hadn't dimmed at all.
Qiu Yunru's heart sank once more. If it was in the soles of his feet before, it sank right down into the crust of the earth.
Li Chenyuan had been touched by two Demon Soul Idols within a span of twenty minutes. Any human mind would begin to deteriorate at that point. Since he had already lost his mind before, there was virtually no hope of peacefully calming him down this time. Even the Magnetized Qi Powder had had virtually no effect!
A cold realization dawned over Qiu Yunru:
If I don't stop him, I'm really going to die tonight.
Thus, when Li Chenyuan lunged again, Qiu Yunru raised his sword.
There was the sickening sound of flesh tearing on metal.
Qiu Yunru had stabbed Li Chenyuan right in the gut.
DAMAGE +1270%!!!
The glow in Li Chenyuan's eyes flickered as a brief lucidness crossed his face. Blood spurted from his lips, so dark that it seemed black. It splattered onto Qiu Yunru's face and neck.
Li Chenyuan looked down at Qiu Yunru with horror. His own hands were once again curled around Qiu Yunru's throat, pressing in as if to strangle him to death. His shixiong's face was splattered with black blood. A sense of dread settled over him. He felt as though he was about to die.
When he looked down....
He saw that Qiu Yunru's sword was pierced straight through his stomach.
Li Chenyuan felt his mouth fill with blood. He stared down at Qiu Yunru, wide-eyed and terrified. "...Gege...?"
Staring back at him wasn't the kind and gentle face that he had become so enamored with. Qiu Yunru's beautiful face was cold now, and determined. His lips were set, and his hands shook with fear as they gripped the hilt of his sword. Briefly, Qiu Yunru turned his face away, as though he couldn't bear to watch.
Shnnnk!
With trembling hands, he pressed the sword further into Li Chenyuan's stomach. Li Chenyuan gasped in pain.
"No...p-please...I'm sorry..." Li Chenyuan's eyes filled with tears. Even now, he was crying and asking for forgiveness. "Are you going...to kill me?" The violet glow in his eyes dissipated once more, like smoke in the wind. He stumbled backwards with the sword still impaled in his gut, blood soaking through his white robes.
Qiu Yunru lay there, finding himself unable to speak for the first time in a long, long time. He had stabbed Li Chenyuan a little too close to his vital organs; though he'd meant to go a little more to the side, his hands had shook, veering off-course. Even though the wound shouldn't be fatal just yet, he had certainly caused a lot of damage. He opened his mouth, but only air came out.
He really wasn't trying to kill Li Chenyuan. If it had come down to that, then he probably would have. But in this moment, he truly had a plan--it just happened to necessitate stabbing Li Chenyuan to snap him out of it first!
One second later, as Qiu Yunru had expected, there was another heavy whistling sound. He was too weak to try to stop it, and so he watched it happen: for the third time this night, a Demon Soul Idol came in contact with Li Chenyuan's flesh.
This one smacked into Li Chenyuan's neck. It fell to the ground, immediately drained of demonic qi. Qiu Yunru didn't even bother to look; who cared what this one was carved in the likeness of? What mattered was that it was the last one!
If it was the last one, and he managed to calm Li Chenyuan down one more time, then there would be no more opportunities for these masked people to drive him mad again!
Li Chenyuan, realizing what had happened, stumbled backwards further, distancing himself from Qiu Yunru. He shook his head violently, tripping over his own feet as he backed away towards the cliffside.
"No..." He cried out hoarsely, tears streaming down his cheeks. "No...Gege--it isn't me! Please, believe me! Stay back!" His eyes flashed through a strange carousel of colors. In another situation, it might have been pleasant to look at: violet, red, black, violet.
Qiu Yunru stood up. His legs felt incredibly weak. It might have been from fear, or exhaustion, or from being tackled over and falling in a bad position--what did it matter? He staggered over to Li Chenyuan, reaching out for him determinedly.
"Stop!" Li Chenyuan wailed. "Stop there!"
Qiu Yunru didn't stop. He continued forward, his steps growing in confidence as he went. Li Chenyuan trembled with fear upon seeing this, closing his eyes. His expression twitched between wide-eyed terror and a blank hatred, resembling a glitching game asset. He grabbed the sword that was still stabbed into his stomach and shoved it in a few inches deeper, gasping in pain. He had begun to sob incoherently.
"It's not working...You need to run...I'm going to kill you...H-help..."
Seeing that Li Chenyuan had stepped dangerously close to the cliff's edge, Qiu Yunru put on a burst of speed and reached out, grabbing his sleeve.
Despite that fact that he knew this kid could kill him in mere moments, he felt...surprisingly calm.
He stepped forward and embraced Li Chenyuan tightly.
"I believe you, shidi," He said quietly. "Just stay still. In a moment, you should run and set off your flare. All right?"
"What?" Li Chenyuan croaked. As if on instinct, he wrapped his arms around Qiu Yunru in return.
Qiu Yunru closed his eyes. As he had read before in one of his favorite xianxia novels, he began to draw the demonic qi coursing through Li Chenyuan's body into his own meridians.
It was like the blood in his veins had suddenly grown spikes and turned solid: a pin-pricking pain shuddered throughout his body, creeping down his neck and into the rest of him. Within a second, his limbs began to shake uncontrollably, and his vision began to blur.
A small voice in his head scolded him:
Are you stupid? This kind of technique? What are you, in a romance plot? Is his life really more valuable than yours?! Just leave him and run!
Of course, leaving Li Chenyuan here in this state would only lead to more problems later. Qiu Yunru knew this. He might kill everyone within Heixi Gorge by morning if left to his own devices. Who knew if he would make it out alive if he turned tail and ran?
What's more...it pained him in a way that he couldn't put words to, to see Li Chenyuan like this. Hadn't this kid been told his whole life that he was nothing but a dog? Now, forced to kill and lose his mind for some unknown assailants, wasn't he being treated like nothing but a killing dog once again?
There was absolutely no way he could absorb all of the demonic qi in Li Chenyuan's body into his own. He would surely die long before that ever happened. To describe the amount of demonic qi roiling within Li Chenyuan at the moment, it was like a great mountain that one couldn't see the top of. The only thing keeping Li Chenyuan's meridians from shattering was that hereditary demonic skill that he had. Even so, it was driving him completely mad.
Qiu Yunru hugged Li Chenyuan tighter, allowing another wave of demonic qi to pour into his meridians. His legs wobbled, as though made of jello. His gut suddenly twisted in extremely pain, causing nausea to fill his chest.
No; he wouldn't be able to absorb all of it. What's more, he wanted to avoid dying, if at all possible. So, he would try to absorb a third of it. Even this was an unthinkable amount of demonic qi for a spiritual cultivator to interact with. He could only hope that he would be able to handle it, and that it might be enough to release Li Chenyuan from the qi's hold, allowing him to run...
As the pressure of the demonic qi in his head lessened, Li Chenyuan's eyes shot open.
Even though he hadn't even heard of a technique like this before, it was obvious what was happening. He suddenly pushed Qiu Yunru away.
"Stop it!" He roared, his voice thick with tears. "Stop that!"
Qiu Yunru ignored him, lunging forward again.
This kid--I was so close! Stop moving!
He only managed to catch Li Chenyuan's arm, but that was enough. Opening up his meridians, he drew in the rest of one-third of that mountain of demonic qi. It was clearly working; Li Chenyuan's eyes dimmed, and the humming of qi around his head reduced.
Seeing this, Qiu Yunru got a little too confident. His body was still handling it well enough. Perhaps he could make it to one-half! That would surely calm him down enough! He drew in a bit more qi.
Oh...fuck.
At once, his senses shattered.
What Li Chenyuan saw was this: Qiu Yunru holding his arm tightly, as though his life depended on it. A moment later, his body collapsed like a puppet whose strings had been severed all at once. His eyes closed abruptly, and he fell.
Oh, fuck, Qiu Yunru thought again.
He fell, right off the cliff!