Chapter 406 - The Voodoo Curse of the Three Corpses

“Oh, Gods in Heaven?! I’m sorry! I’m so, so sorry! Err… But I’m afraid I still can’t let you go.” Xiao Chen cleared his throat, his face blushing to full red as he moved his hand away from her chest to the shoulder, making full sure that he got it right this time.

Her face grew red with anger as she blurted, “HOW DARE YOU! Do you even know who I am!?”

“Of course not,” Xiao Chen replied, “I’m not a member of this bloody order.” His head swiveled to face the Black and White Supremes. “And what are you waiting for?! Let her go! Or are you waiting only for a corpse to collect?”

That made the Black and White Supremes shudder. They knew how terrible and excruciating a punishment would be in store for them if anything were to happen to this woman who clearly held a special position in the Sect. A frown formed on Mo Ran’s face. “Please be calm, my friend. We’ll do the exchange. Then we’ll decide if we’ll have to fight…”

“AS IF I WANT TO! NOW RELEASE HER!” Xiao Chen spat and his hand threatened to crush the woman’s larynx. He needed to leave with Su Lianyue quick before every single soul in the Ridge of the Fallen Drake discovers their presence.

Ashamed and flustered, the woman screamed, “What are you two idiots waiting for? Tell Ye Wuxin now! Ignore me!”

“Shut up!” Xiao Chen growled at her.

“Go!” She pressed, “Go NOW! Or I’ll make you suffer a pain so great that you’d wish for death!”

The final threat was enough to make Mo Ran move at last. Both the Supremes and the Black Supreme shuddered, darting towards the Rock to alert the others. “Oh, d*mmit,” Xiao Chen cursed, “This woman is a feisty one!” In a desperate and vain attempt to buy more time, he yelled, “Stand just right where you are!” Ye Wuxin must not hear about this, otherwise Su Lianyue and him will never be able to once again see the light of day.

Between his panic to stop Mo Ran and his vehement attempts to keep the struggling woman pinned, his hand inadvertently grabbed at the woman’s chest again. Su Lianyue watched with her mouth hanging open. The woman in red let loose a surprised Arggghh! which was just enough to make Mo Ran stop in his tracks. The Black Supreme muttered, seething with suppressed fury, “You are a distinguished mage learned in the sacred arts! Have you no shame!”

Even her tears were drying up now, but the woman never stopped doling out curses and threats for the humiliation she felt. Xiao Chen feigned a cough and said, “I’m warning you all, stay where you are. Otherwise… otherwise…” His voice broke as if he had forgotten what to say.

Su Lianyue turned her head away indignantly and spat under her breath, “Disgraceful and demeaning…”

The woman’s heart was racing as her lungs pumped for more air. The Black and White Supreme did not dare move an inch. Anymore damage to the Lady Ambassador already-battered pride, and they’d suffer a greater price for this travesty.

“You shameless pervert… You, you…”

“What!” Xiao Chen burst, his voice suddenly stern and steady, “I am a famous ravisher of fair and gentle maidens notorious especially in the South-eastern regions! Countless fair ladies I have defiled first by stripping them bare and dipping them into ice… Then… How about a taste yourself!?”

That seemed to frighten the woman as she looked visibly terrified beyond her wits. Even the Black and White Supremes did not expect Xiao Chen to be blurting something such bold and outrageous. Su Lianyue’s head lowered as she breathed something oddly along the lines of “immoral deviant.” All of a sudden, she flicked a wrist and there was a burst of purple flash. Caught off-guard, Su Lianyue delivered a magical bolt, sending the White Supreme careening backward for several yards. He crashed to the ground and struggled to his feet, only to catch a strange, sweet, floral scent and he collapsed, fainted.

Su Lianyue had exploited the chance to free herself from the magical restraints when the Supremes were distracted by Xiao Chen. Bai Yu was easily dispatched with the element of surprise and Mo Ran was drugged before he could even do anything.

Xiao Chen’s shameless words had provided the ideal diversion for Su Lianyue to plan her retaliation and operate unnoticed.

The woman looked absolutely despondent seeing both the Supremes falling. Her hopes of salvation were utterly dashed and she began dreading the worst. Su Lianyue added another soporiferous touch to her enchantment for good measure to make sure they remain unconscious while she magically pushed them off the banks of a stream with a wave of her weapon. She would have readily taken their lives if not for the fear of alerting Ye Wuxin.

Su Lianyue walked calmly to Xiao Chen when she was done and saw, to her annoying revulsion, Xiao Chen still struggling against the woman with a hand on her chest. Her face turned to stone. “Are you developing an affinity to women’s chest?”

“Err… Ahem…” Xiao Chen realized finally what was wrong and he withdrew his hand, releasing the woman in red finally. Despite steaming with anger, the woman knew full well she was no match against the two intruders. “Who are you people?!” She hissed at Su Lianyue. “What is your purpose here!?”

Su Lianyue walked near her, circling her like a lioness. “I believe the status quo now affords us the right to ask questions, not you! Now tell me why is the Corpse Refinery Sect abducting girls born on the seventh day of the seventh month? Where are they now?!”

That somehow flipped a switch. The woman looked neither angry nor flustered; instead, she uttered a scaldingly cold remark, “I see. This is purpose of your visit.”

Ice flashed in Su Lianyue’s eyes. “So you refuse to admit…” She jabbed a hand at the woman and the woman sneered suddenly. “A hypnotic spell? You’re welcome to try.” She accurately predicted what Su Lianyue was trying to do to obtain more information.

Su Lianyue’s hand stopped in its tracks, barely inches away from grazing the woman’s head. Then she realized it: the woman wielded at least the powers of the Nascent Soul Realm. That made her able enough to defend herself or even redirect the hypnotic enchantment back at its caster.

Xiao Chen walked up to the woman and muttered with a frown, “Please, my lady. I would urge you to be frank and honest to spare yourself from suffering.” “Spare me from your nonsense instead,” the woman screeched with complete lack of fear in her voice, “You’ll never stop us. Too dead to stop us instead…” And she began to cackle viciously.

Listening to the woman cackling made Su Lianyue felt a shudder crawling down her spine. She pried open the woman’s mouth and waved her other free hand, conjuring something that Xiao Chen could not quite see clearly before she shoved it into the woman’s mouth. Then she gave her a slap and forced whatever it was down the woman’s throat.

Xiao Chen frowned. Su Lianyue acted so quickly but he realized what it was that she fed the woman: a little red pill looking almost similar in size to the shrinking elixir he just took before. “What is that pill you fed her?” He asked.

“The pill for the Yin-Yang Voodoo Curse of the Three Corpses!” Su Lianyue admitted coldly.

The name sounded so ghastly that Xiao Chen could hardly suppress a shiver himself. Su Lianyue snorted and began weaving her fingers, making hand seals while muttering a long litany of incantations. Then she tapped at the woman’s forehead with a finger and the woman winced as if she was hit by a stroke and she was no longer in control of herself.

“Go! To the Rock!” Su Lianyue growled a command and the woman nodded, much to Xiao Chen’s amazement, so obediently that he would have mistaken her for a puppet. Clearly, the Voodoo Curse was taking hold of her.

Su Lianyue and her mind-controlled woman began heading out of the forest before the former stopped and turned back. She saw Xiao Chen still rooted to his spot and barked, “What are you still waiting for, you pervert?!”

“Ah… Yes, of course,” Xiao Chen jerked himself back to the present and kept up. They walked to almost five kilometers and arrived before the mouth of a cave. There were no sentries outside; the guards were only inside, watching the Rock.

They entered the cave and walked down a long stone passage which was lighted at intervals with flaming flambeaus. As they traveled down the barren, rocky tunnel with the wavering glow of the flames displaying the strange images and runes chiseled into the walls of the cave passage. They looked very ancient and the runes were nothing Xiao Chen could recognize, looking hardly like the scripts of the common tongue used this age.

After 15 minutes, they finally arrived before a set of tightly-shut doors. This must be where the Rock was kept, Xiao Chen wondered. A squad of eight guards watched the door and greeted the woman in red politely, “Lady Ambassador!”

Su Lianyue, with the effects of the Voodoo Curse, controlled the woman, allowing her to speak on her behalf, “The High Chieftain wishes to see them.”

The sentries showed no signs of deferment nor disobedience, only dipping their heads in complete capitulation. Realizing that they were feeling suspicious, Xiao Chen produced the pass he had stolen and showed it to them. The eight men withdrew, allowing entry for Xiao Chen and his companions. Xiao Chen placed the pass into a cavity in the door and that undid the sealing enchantment that kept the doors locked. The large stone gateway opened with a shaking rumble and opened to admit them.

The stone slab for the entrance was at least a few yards thick, Xiao Chen observed, and it was almost unbelievable that another 8 sets of doors of similar strength awaited further inside. Xiao Chen and his companions passed through the Rock and came to a desolate gorge. The way leading up would bring them to the upper echelons of the Corpse Refinery Sect stronghold.

Yawning cave entrances and dark buildings lurked in the shadows of the gossamer moonlight streaming from above. With the woman in red now controlled by the Voodoo Curse, Xiao Chen and his companion have readily dispensed with their former plan of sneaking in quietly in favor of walking in openly. They needed to look for where Yu Yangzi’s soul was kept and Su Lianyue said to the woman with steel in her voice, “Bring us to where Yu Yangzi is kept. And avoid all patrolling guards, mind you!”

The woman shuffled in her steps then she stopped. Creases formed on her brows as she gritted her teeth and she recoiled a little, obviously struggling to fight against the influence of the Voodoo Curse, Su Lianyue realized. With a few hand seals and another spell, Su Lianyue tapped again on the woman’s head, strengthening her enchantment and the woman’s befuddled expression changing to one of polite indifference, bending once more to Su Lianyue’s will and she continued forward obediently.

The Voodoo Curse governing her actions and speech was hardly the only enchantment on her; she would have not been so easily cursed by Su Lianyue if not for Xiao Chen’s magic seal on her powers.

“Your voodoo curse is as impeccable as always, my lady,” Xiao Chen observed dryly as he walked abreast with his companion. Su Lianyue narrowed her eyes and peered at him dubiously. “And what’s it to you? Are you interested to learn some too so that you can have her strip in front of you and dip herself in iced water?”

“Ah!?” Xiao Chen stuttered, surprised to hear his own words coming from her, “What I said earlier was merely to distract the Two Supremes. Surely you understand what I was doing? I’ve never defiled any woman before…”

That earned him a scoff from Su Lianyue. “That is knowledge only you yourself are privy to, I’m afraid. Not that it mattered to me anyway.”

Xiao Chen could only giggle weakly. “Is she really taking me for a real pervert?” In a vain attempt to mask his embarrassment, he chuckled. “I know a friend who is also skilled in voodoo curses too.”

“Is that so? So who is the better user of curses? Your friend or I?”

“Err…” Xiao Chen could not resist a shiver. The reminiscences of Shangguan Yan and her witcheries never stopped filling him with dread and creepiness even after he achieved the powers of the Nascent Soul Realm. “I’d say you’re both good at your crafts,” Xiao Chen allowed.

Su Lianyue raised a finger to her lips suddenly. They were nearly out of the gorge and the glows of flames were flickering in the distance, heralding the arrival of a troop of patrolling guards. In spite of having the woman under their control, but they were nearing the sanctum of Ye Wuxin and they could never be too careful.

They hid and waited for the guards to pass by before they pressed on stealthily. The frostiness in the air only grew thicker the more they progressed, but the chill and foreboding dread did not seem to emanate from the mountain that loomed before them, but rather the rear of it.

The journey went on uneventfully for another hour with numerous brushes past scores of patrolling troops. They finally arrived at a strange and relatively hidden cave entrance. The ghastly chill of deathliness gushed relentlessly from the yawning mouth of the cave. Two rows of guards lined the passage leading deep into the bowels inside and Xiao Chen could feel the strengths of the Nascent Soul Realm radiating of each of them. As if it could not be any worse, there were even century-old Corpse Puppets watching the way in. The infiltration they have been doing before this seemed more like a walk in the park suddenly to Xiao Chen.

“This must be where Yu Yangzi is held,” Xiao Chen whispered and Su Lianyue responded with a tacit nod.

They were still contemplating their options and their attention had drifted off the woman in red. She shook herself in bewilderment and finally succeeded in wrestling herself free from the Voodoo Curse. She darted out of the forest and ran towards the cave, her arms raising frantically to catch their attention.

“WHO GOES THERE!”