Immortal

Escape From the Jaws of the Undead

Book 2: The Golden Lock of the Eight Gates

Chapter 26: Escape From the Jaws of the Undead

One hand making the hand sign while the other held an eerie heart?

Zhong Shan decided to retreat the moment he saw everything. It was so out of ordinary that it was undoubtedly danger.

He turned both girls\' heads towards himself and jerked his head back for a speedy retreat.

Both girls nodded and quietly backed away.

Zhong Shan kept his eyes fixed on the jiangshi as they slowly moved away.

On their third step backwards, the black robed man suddenly opened his eyes. Zhong Shan saw a faint blue light flood out of the man\'s eyes directly at him.

That same moment, all 25 jiangshi turned towards Zhong Shan, their arms pointing straight at him.

"Run~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~"

Zhong Shan shouted and sprinted out with Yinglan, Tianling-er rushed into the air on top of her red silk.

The man widened his eyes and one of the jiangshi began jumping towards the three.

Though Zhong Shan could see what was happening in the valley, the jiangshi were a sizable distance away. Yet, it moved at a terrifying speed, covering fifty meters in one leap, and was slowly gaining on them.

The man who was holding the heart slowly closed his eyes after seeing the jiangshi dash after them, as if he needed to finish the ceremony.

"Zhong Shan, those blue colored ones are Copper Jiangshi. The one chasing after us is a Copper Jiangshi. My dad told me they\'re as powerful as someone in the early stages of the Gold Core Stage. Any contact with its poison will be certain death. What should we do?" Tianling-er yelled from the air.

Equal to someone from the Gold Core Stage?

Zhong Shan\'s heart skipped a beat while running. Earlier, he was relieved that the black robed man and all the jiangshi hadn\'t come after them. But just one jiangshi was unexpectedly powerful.

Yinglan was able to keeping up with Zhong Shan thank to the Wind Chaser Boots, but compared to the jiangshi\'s speed, they were too slow. It was single-mindedly hunting them down.

They went over a large mountain, the jiangshi still close behind. What to do?

"Yinglan, separate. Ling-er, distract it." Zhong Shan shouted and abruptly sped up.

Understanding his instruction, Yinglan broke off and sped away.

Tianling-er was up in the air out of the jianghi\'s reach.

After they went their separate routes, the jiangshi, as expected, hesitated before jumping after Yinglan.

When Zhong Shan and Yinglan reached the second mountain, the jiangshi was already less than a hundred meters away from Yinglan, it would catch up in no time.

"Ling-er, hit it with your red silk." Zhong Shan shouted.

"Bang~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~"

One end of the red silk hit the face of the jiangshi caused it to slow down. Zhong Shan also threw a huge rock from some distance away at it.

"Bang~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~"

The rock wasn\'t as strong as the red silk and shattered on the jiangshi\'s arm. Though it didn\'t cause any damage, it successfully distracted the jiangshi. Yinglan had increased her distance from it and the jiangshi changed directions towards Zhong Shan.

Zhong Shan turned around and dashed away. He was quite happy to find the jiangshi, though power and poisonous, wasn\'t very intelligent. This was a flaw of the jiangshi and it was all Zhong Shan needed. He was best at using other\'s flaw to his advantage.

Zhong Shan quickly ran towards another big mountain with the jiangshi following closely. When it was about a hundred meters away, they repeated the same tactic as before, but with their roles reversed. The jiangshi then began chasing after Yinglan.

"Zhong Shan, should I use my jade rune?" Tianling-er called from above.

Her father had given the runes to her to protect herself. She had used one against Zhong Di and another one when they were defending the Zhong Estate; there were only two left. Zhong Shan naturally didn\'t want to waste any of the two here.

"Don\'t use it for now. I have my own way to take care of it." Zhong Shan called back while running.

Take care of the Copper Jiangshi? Tianling-er doubted it; even she wouldn\'t fight a jiangshi face to face. How was Zhong Shan going to do it? Zhong Shan had a big machete, but the machete was useless against the jiangshi\'s arm. A Copper Jiangshi had copper skin and copper bones, the machete was no match to it.

However, Tianling-er believed in Zhong Shan. If he said there was a way, then there must be a way.

The three continued to repeat the same tactic until they crossed the second mountain top. Tianling-er landed back down and tried to lure the jiangshi towards her. The jiangshi, though not very smart, seemed to know that it was impossible to catch Tianling-er and quickly turned towards Yinglan.

After the second big mountain, they were facing the same cliff they had ran into before.

Tianling-er was terrified to see the deep canyon. She took out a jade rune, prepared to use it if the situation demanded it.

Zhong Shan, on the other hand, was happy to see the cliff. He yelled, "Yinglan, come over."

The jiangshi was only two hundred meters behind Yinglan. Yinglan, though nervous, was far from scared. She trusted Zhong Shan and believed that no harm would come to her as long as he was there.

Yinglan ran over without any hesitation. The jiangshi came closer and closer; Yinglan could feel the tremor every time the jiangshi landed on the ground.

"Zhong Shan~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~" Tianling-er warily called out from the air.

"It\'s alright." Zhong Shan fixed his eyes on the jiangshi, a strange smile graced his face, and drew his big machete, \'Nightmare.\'

Watching Zhong Shan, Tianling-er became more anxious. Could the big machete handle the more powerful jiangshi?

"Hit its face." Zhong Shan suddenly called out.

"Hu", the red silk struck its face once more. The jiangshi paused for a moment allowing Yinglan time to reach Zhong Shan\'s side.

Zhong Shan smiled and used his left hand to hold her waist. His right hand still pointing the machete at the jiangshi.

Tianling-er grew ever more anxious, yet, Yinglan felt relieved. Now that she was besides Zhong Shan, she was perfectly safe. This had nothing to do with Zhong Shan\'s strength, but the trust she had in Zhong Shan.

The jiangshi, irritated by the red silk, became even more agitated from the machete pointed right at it. It leapt towards Zhong Shan, with only three leaps left between the two.

Zhong Shan, with machete pointing forward, squinted and carefully followed the jiangshi.

Zhong Shan didn\'t move after the first leap, or the second. He moved only when the jiangshi landed its second leap. The jiangshi, seeing that Zhong Shan had moved, hurriedly jumped for the third time.

As the jiangshi rushed at Zhong Shan, Zhong Shan backed away slightly and jumped down the cliff with a victorious smile on his face.

"Hu~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~"

Zhong Shan with Yinglan in his arm disappeared right in front of the jiangshi. Tianling-er was horrified; he just jumped off the cliff?

"Zhong Shan~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~" Tianling-er flew over in fright.

The jiangshi began to hesitate in the air, but wasn\'t able to stop itself, then flew over where Zhong Shan had been and followed after them.

When Tianling-er flew to the edge of the cliff, she was happily surprised to see Zhong Shan. Zhong Shan, holding Yinglan, was dangling in the air with the big machete firmly thrusted into the wall of the cliff.

Tianling-er laughed hysterically with tears still in her eyes. When Zhong Shan had jumped, Tianling-er felt as if the sky had turned dark. But now it was fine, Zhong Shang was just fine.

Zhong Shan looked up just in time to see Tianling-er\'s expression. He showed a warm smile.

"Dong~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~"

A loud echo came from the bottom of the cliff.

The three of them looked down together. It was too deep, dark, and foggy to see clearly. They didn\'t have to see it to know the result.

"Ling-er, pull us up." Zhong Shan spoke.

"En." Tianling-er excitedly landed at the edge of the cliff and let down the red silk to pull the two up.

"Yinglan, let\'s go up." Zhong Shan told Yinglan.

"No, the view is so nice. Let\'s stay here a while longer." Yinglan acted like a spoiled child.

Zhong Shan was speechless, then said, "Hurry! The machete is slipping."

"Alright." Yinglan then let go of Zhong Shan and grabbed the red silk to let Tianling-er to pull her up.

Zhong Shan was the next to be pulled up.

Once all three of them had their feet firmly planted on solid ground, Tianling-er felt like she had come back from hell. Zhong Shan and Yinglan were just happy that they had come out unscathed. It seemed as if Zhong Shan and Yinglan had been in the air while Tianling-er had been chased on the ground

"Granduncle, which direction should we go now?" Yinglan looked around and asked.

"To the southeast. Aren\'t there just a few mountains and rivers ahead of us? With Tinaling-er in the sky, we can overcome any terrain no matter how tough it is." Zhong Shan answered after giving it some thought.

Tianling-er smiled happily from his praise.