Daomu Biji: The Mystic Nine - Book 2: Chapter 5

Zhang Qishan used a tree branch to move the soil away from the corpse. They saw that the head had no skin or flesh, and there was a big hole in the top of the skull.

“The brain was sucked away,” Zhang Qishan said. “Old Ba, tell me what might cause this.”

“The ’Classic of Regions Within the Seas: North’ (1) mentions that Taoquans look like dogs and are green in color. When they eat people, they start from their heads. Qiongqis look like tigers and have wings. They also start from the head when they eat people, but they’ll also eat the hair. Qiongqis live further north of Taoquans. Some say that when Qiongqis eat people, they start from their feet,” Qi Tiezui said. “The ‘Classic of Mountains and Seas’ says that both Taoquans and Qiongqis start from the head when they eat people.”

Zhang Qishan looked back at him. “So you’re saying that I ate it.” (2)

“It’s also possible that a Taoquan ate it.” Qi Tiezui started to hide behind Zhang Xiaoyu.

Zhang Qishan cut the vine and the corpse fell to the ground.

Qi Tiezui continued, “There’s also a kind of monster in ‘Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio’ (3). We only know that it looks like a wild dog and eats human brains.”

“Why is the human skin gone?” Zhang Qishan asked. “Does this monster only eat skin and not meat?”

“When monsters take skin, they take it in order to wear it instead of eating it,” Qi Tiezui said. “We have to be careful. Maybe the thing we’re hunting is dressed in human skin and looks like a human.”

“Maybe that’s your love affair.” Zhang Xiaoyu laughed. “Don’t shy away from it, Ba Ye. It is a mountain god after all.”

This place was far from the area that the leader had mentioned, so Zhang Qishan felt that things were a little weird. Why did they see such a sight here? The leader had said that wars had been going on for years. Was it true that the mountain god had been disturbed, left the depths of the mountain, and began hunting near the villages?

He took a moment to think things over, but at this time, a liquid suddenly dripped onto his face. He looked up and saw blood falling down from the branches. His eyes tracked the bloodstains and found that there was blood on the branches of all the trees here. There was even some blood on the vines and branches that formed a bloody line.

It was obvious that this corpse had been dragged along the branches and vines before it was finally dragged here.

Zhang Qishan moved forward to follow the blood and waved his hand, letting the others know to stay alert.

He was puzzled. At first, the scene looked like the hunter had been attacked by an underground monster, but now he seemed to have been attacked by something in the trees. Why did two such strange traces appear at the same time?

“Take a little bit of this soil with you. It doesn’t look like the soil around here to me. Let’s keep moving,” Ba Ye said to Zhang Xiaoyu before following after Zhang Qishan.

They made it less than a hundred steps before Zhang Qishan stopped again. There was another dead body. This one was also skinned and covered in flies.

But this thing didn’t seem to be a human being. Zhang Qishan slowly approached it and found that it wasn’t a beast, either. He had never seen such a carcass before. It seemed to only have two limbs and a very long body.

He looked back at Qi Tiezui, who was also very surprised. Qi Tiezui slowly approached Zhang Qishan, who was leaning against his horse with a solemn look on his face.

This was a monster.

Qi Tiezui looked at the carcass and said unconfidently, “Fo Ye, if I’m guessing right, this is an Erfu. It’s a kind of snake.”

“It has a human face.”

“This thing is very fierce. It eats human brains and lives underground. The corpse just now should’ve been eaten by it. But it—” Qi Tiezui paused. “Why is it dead as well?” He wondered.

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TN Notes:

(1) It’s the 12^th chapter of “The Classic of Mountains and Seas”, which is known as “Shan Hai Jing”. It’s a Chinese classic text and a compilation of mythic geography and beasts. Wiki link here.

(2) Zhang Qishan’s tattoo is a Qiongqi.

(3) “Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio”, or “Liaozhai Zhiyi”, is a collection of Classical Chinese stories by Pu Songling, comprising close to five hundred “marvel tales”. Wiki link here.

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Tiffany’s Notes: Well, it seems like Fiddlefire isn’t the only one who thinks that maybe Ba Ye will have a love affair with the mountain god lol