A Clash of Gods - Chapter 17

Chapter 17 The Cliff
Mr. Mu was lying on the ground without moving. Yang Ning felt that the old guy would sleep for a long time after hitting his head against the wall.

At this point, it was really easy for him to end Mr. Mu’s life. But his chest hurt before, so he was worried that he might as well lose his life if the old guy really died. On the other hand, he was afraid that he would fall into great danger if the old guy woke up. He was really in a dilemma.

In addition, he planned to take a short cut to catch up with the escort team first, so that he could find Xiaodie’s whereabouts. But now he was trapped in this mountain, getting farther away from her.

After a moment of contemplation, he finally turned his attention to the scroll painting on the ground.

This painting read “the Skills of Six Directions”, but Yang Ning really couldn’t see what its special point was, and he didn’t know what the red lines outlined.

However, being quite free and at leisure, he held the scroll painting, carefully looking at the pictures on it one by one and identifying every acupuncture point that the red lines connected.

In the first picture, sixteen acupuncture points were linked by a red line. Yang Ning took only a short time to figure out what these sixteen acupuncture points refer to one by one. He had already learned about how to identify acupuncture points, but there were many acupoints that were very close to each other which might be misjudged. Fortunately, Yang Ning’s memory was very amazing, so it didn’t take him much time to confirm these acupuncture points, and he even touched those acupoints on his body according to the picture.

When the acupuncture points in the sixth picture were all confirmed, Yang Ning suddenly heard a whisper. Yang Ning was alert and turned around. Seeing that Mr. Mu was moving, he immediately rolled up the painting and walked inside lightly. After placing the painting as it was before, he went back to the mouth of the cave.

It was not long before he heard the sound of rustling from behind. Yang Ning looked back again and saw that Mr. Mu had already sat up, so he immediately pretended to ask with care, “Mr. Mu, you… Are you okay?”

Mr. Mu was obviously much more clear-headed, staring at Yang Ning with a strange expression, and asked, “Why don’t you get in?”

Yang Ning answered promptly, “When I came back, I found that you were very painful. I wanted to help you, but…but you wanted to hit me, and I wasn’t your opponent, so I could only hide outside and dare not get in.”

“You’ve never got in?” Mr. Mu asked.

Yang Ning smiled bitterly, “The poison in you took effect just now, and I was totally scared. I… I really dared not get in.”

Mr. Mu snorts coldly without saying much. His face was dreadfully pale and ugly, and he asked with a low voice, “Have you picked wild fruit?”

Yang Ning immediately handed him the fruit. Mr. Mu picked it up to have a look, and then ate two of the fruit. Having eaten the fruit, he sneered and asked Yang Ning, “You have got a chance to leave. Why don’t you leave here?”

You asked as if you didn’t know the answer. Don’t you know why I don’t leave?

But Yang Ning still smiled outwardly and said, “You’ve got injured here. In fact, I once thought about walking away, but when I thought of leaving you alone, I was a little worried.”

“You boy is clever.” Mr. Mu said lightly, “Did your wound play up?”

Yang Ning gave a wry smile, “Mr. Mu, in fact, you don’t have to be like this. I respect the old and love the young, so I won’t leave you alone.”

Mr. Mu didn’t say much. He raised his hand and slapped it in Yang Ning’s chest. His act was extremely fast, so Yang Ning could not react at all.

“Mr. Mu, you…”

“Don’t be afraid. As I said, so long as I manipulate you for three days in a row, your wound will heal naturally.” Mr. Mu said indifferently, “Now you can go out, and if you step into the cave without my instruction, I won’t spare your life.”

He called this manipulation? Yang Ning shook his head helplessly and cast a glance at the cave at the same time, seeing that the scroll painting had disappeared. Apparently, it had been put away by Mr. Mu.

Yang Ning went out of the cave again. When it was at dusk, he heard Mr. Mu’s voice with extreme anxiety coming from the cave, “What the hell is going on? What’s wrong? What’s wrong?”

A little stunned, Yang Ning popped his head in, seeing that Mr. Mu was sitting on the floor and pulling his white hair with his head down. He seemed miserable, muttering, “Something must have gone wrong. What the hell is going on… Maybe…maybe I’ve been fooled by them? No, it’s impossible. If they really had fooled me, they wouldn’t have chased after me…”

He said to himself, obviously in a state of contemplation, even forgetting that Yang Ning was at the mouth of the cave.

Yang Ning was surprised at this moment, not knowing what Mr. Mu meant.

Since then, Mr. Mu didn’t make any sound anymore, but quietly sat in the cave. Yang Ning ate two fruit, but until midnight, Mr. Mu still sat blankly, like a stone sculpture, without saying a word.

Yang Ning was worried that the people in the Five Poisons Palace would search in the mountain. Fortunately, no one found them except the wolf howling from time to time in the mountain. It was just that Yang Ning felt a little anxious to spend time with this old man.

After midnight, Yang Ning sat outside the cave and drifted off to sleep. But in his sleep, his mind was circled around by those acupuncture points connected by the red lines. He was preoccupied with Zhongfu, Lingxu, Tianfu and Zigong now and Hegu, Pianli and Quchi then. So he failed to fall asleep completely.

Between sleep and wake, a shrilling scream woke him up. He opened his eyes with a start, hearing the strange sound of Mr. Mu from the cave again. Yang Ning frowned and craned his neck to peer into the dim cave, only to see a shadow running around, mad and terrifying.

Mr. Mu’s beast-like hiss echoed with the wolf howling in the mountain, complementing each other perfectly.

“What’s the matter with this old guy?” Yang Ning became more suspicious and felt that the whole thing was queer, thinking in his mind, “It seems that this guy is not simply poisoned.”

After a long time, Mr. Mu fell to the ground violently, but still did not move. Yang Ning called him twice, but he did not make any response, so he entered the cave, and found that the scroll painting was at Mr. Mu’s feet. Yang Ning thought that Mr. Mu must sleep again for several hours, so he took the scroll painting in his hand and walked out. He was thinking to himself, “When he went mad during the day, the scroll painting was next to him. And this time he went mad, it was still beside him. Maybe, it is related to the painting?”

When he was thinking about it, he suddenly heard the movement coming from behind him. He hurriedly turned around and saw that Mr. Mu had stood up already, walking towards the mouth of the cave step by step. His eyes were like the wild beast in the dark night, full of coldness and murderous look.

“Hand it to me!” Mr. Mu stared at the scroll painting in Yang Ning’s hand. “You are asking for death. It’s mine. No one can take it…” He uttered a growl and lunged at Yang Ning.

Yang Ning secretly groaned, not expecting that during such short time Mr. Mu would wake up. Seeing that the old monster intended to kill him and would not show any mercy, he did not hesitate, turning around and running away to save his life.

Mr. Mu shouted harshly, “Stop, I’m going to kill you…”

It would have been much better if he hadn’t said that. Since he had said that, Yang Ning would not stop, holding the scroll painting in his hand and desperately running forward. He knew that this old man was good at using vines to roll people, so he was determined to keep distance with him. He must make sure that he would not be caught by this old guy, otherwise, with this old guy’s current state of mind, he would definitely die.

Fortunately, when he was looking for the wild fruit before, he had been quite familiar with the nearby terrain, so he managed to keep distance with Mr. Mu. But Mr. Mu was like a mad devil in the dark, dogging his steps.

However, the Niutou Mountain had a circumference of tens of miles and it was in the midnight, so Yang Ning got lost after running for a while. There were giant trees reaching to the sky everywhere. Hearing the increasingly close steps of Mr. Mu, he dared not slow down a little and dived into the dense forest without thinking.

After running for some time, his legs began to ache, and his body was scratched by branches of thorns, forming many small cuts.

Suddenly, he heard the water in front was roiling and rumbling, like rushing torrents. Yang Ning kept sprinting out for a while, and then his heart sank. He saw that not far from him there was a waterfall, like the Milky Way hanging upside down, cascading down from the opposite high cliff. There was no road ahead.

Less than ten steps ahead, there was a cliff facing the opposite one, with a wide abyss in between.

“I’m done!” Yang Ning felt coldness in his back. The Niutou Mountain rose and fell in an unbroken line, but he just ran to the cliff unluckily.

He ran to the edge of the cliff and looked down, not seeing the bottom of it in the dark night. But from the waterfall that poured down from the opposite side, he guessed that under the cliff there should be a river between two mountains.

“Hahaha…” A burst of laughter came from behind. Yang Ning turned his head and saw that Mr. Mu had already caught up, just over ten steps away from him. The gray robe on his body was ragged, which was obviously torn by the leaves and thorns in the forest, and his hair was ruffled. He was like an old maniac.

Yang Ning took a deep breath and secretly calmed himself down. Seeing that Mr. Mu was approaching him, he said in a cold voice, “Stop!”

Mr. Mu ignored him, and said ghastly, “I planned to keep you alive a few more days, but you are asking to die, so I just have to fulfill your dream.” He reached out a hand. “Give it to me!”

“You are an old liar. I knew that you never had good intention.” Yang Ning sneered and scolded, “Stop now! If you dare to take a step forward…” Suddenly he stepped back, standing on the edge of the cliff and stretching out his left hand with the scroll painting hanging over the cliff. Seeing that, Mr. Mu’s face changed greatly, and his voice was out of tone, “Don’t…” He took two steps forward and extended out one hand, but then he stopped suddenly.

Yang Ning immediately understood that this painting was extremely important to Mr. Mu. He kept calm and smiled, “Mr. Mu, I know that it is very easy for you to kill me. But you can see. It is also a breeze for me to throw this scroll painting…the Skills of Six Directions down the cliff. It’s endless. And if I really throw it down, I’m afraid you won’t find it again.”

Mr. Mu’s face twitched and his eyes were cold, “Bunny, who are you?”

“I have told you that I’m a refugee in distress. I have no enmity against you.” Yang Ning said with hatred, “I saved you, but you just bit the hand that fed you. You have lived a long life. How can you be so faceless?” Shaking the scroll painting in his hand, “It is in my hand, and if you want to kill me, I will choose to die with it!”

“No, you are not an ordinary refugee.” Mr. Mu’s eyes flashed, “You…you know the characters on it, so you must have attended school… Bunny, did you deliberately dress like this to win my trust and then plan to steal the Skills of Six Directions?” He looked at him sharply and said, “Who sent you here?”