novelraw Chapter 2 : The Third Party, Obsession Path
Chapter 2 : The Third Party, Obsession Path
Chapter 2: The Third Party, Obsession Path
Cheng Hua left.
She claimed she had urgent matters to attend to, leaving behind only a small jade pendant as a token, saying she would repay him another day.
Fang Chang did not stop her.
Watching her refined and indifferent figure disappear into the distance, he silently gnawed on his flatbread.
After an unknown amount of time,
with the moon high in the sky, he gathered the corpses and burned them.
Under the flames, the scattered sparks grew more numerous and surged upward, merging with thin smoke into a slow-moving vortex.
Though Fang Chang cultivated the Corpse Refinement Path, not all corpses were usable.
The 【Traits】 serving as the foundation of yin corpses were extremely important.
For example, the three yin corpses he currently possessed.
...
【Nickname: Jia-1】
【Status: Severely Injured】
【Trait: Strong and Healthy (Green)】
.
【Nickname: Jia-2】
【Status: Severely Injured】
【Trait: Night Vision (White), Grudgeful (White), Slightly Heightened Senses (White)】
.
【Nickname: Jia-3】
【Status: Lightly Injured】
【Trait: Slight Fortune (White), Tough Skin and Flesh (Green)】
...
Due to the existence of the Corpse Refinement Path system,
Fang Chang could easily see the trait entries of corpses. The quality and quantity of these traits directly affected the quality of the refined corpse.
This was also the confidence he had in killing those two Blood Demon Path cultivators.
Although all three of his yin corpses were injured.
As for the villagers in the village—
unfortunately, none could compare to the ones he already had.
Moreover, with his limited cultivation, Fang Chang could at most precisely control three yin corpses, so there was no reason to replace them.
Suddenly,
two terrifying auras erupted from the distant forest.
The collision of their auras produced a shockwave that startled birds and beasts into scattering, branches and leaves clashing violently.
Fang Chang’s hairs stood on end from the pressure, yet the corner of his mouth curled upward.
“They’ve arrived.”
Merely reminding Cheng Hua was clearly not enough.
Having finally encountered a capable NPC,
Fang Chang had no intention of letting the opportunity pass.
He dusted himself off, hoisted the coffin board covered in talismans onto his back, and rushed into the forest.
Following the source of the aura, he sprinted all the way.
Before long,
after passing through a battlefield littered with broken trees and craters, he arrived at a flattened pit.
Within it, two heavily injured women stood rigidly in confrontation.
One of them was Cheng Hua, whom he had met not long ago. A short sword was embedded in her abdomen, her face pale as paper.
The other was also a woman.
A skull hung at her waist. Her black robe was half-torn, revealing her snow-white shoulder and the soft curve beneath her chest supporting the fabric. Her fiery figure reflected an intoxicating purple glow under the moonlight.
Fang Chang froze for a moment, then immediately recognized her.
“Zhao Yuntong of the Obsession Path?”
There were the Twelve Orthodox Paths, naturally opposed by the Eighteen Demonic Sects and Thirty-Six Deviant Paths.
Though they sounded numerous, most were disorganized.
The Obsession Path was among them, believing firmly that “what is constantly remembered will eventually echo.” Their cultivation method involved repeatedly deepening and refining a certain obsessive emotion.
Its power was immense, but its cultivators’ personalities became severely distorted.
He had not expected Cheng Hua’s attacker to be her.
Zhao Yuntong had even higher discussion popularity on player forums than Cheng Hua.
Mainly because she was a famous “broken engagement” archetype.
Before joining the Obsession Path, Zhao Yuntong had been cast aside in a broken engagement. As a result, her temperament became explosive—she directly cut off the head of the one who rejected her and had carried it at her waist ever since.
Such a yandere-type character was especially popular among players, and many could not resist provoking her.
Fang Chang’s gaze steadied.
“The encounter quest should end after Cheng Hua leaves. Players cannot participate in what happens now. The quest details only mention in passing that ‘Cheng Hua escapes heavily injured.’”
“But now… what is going on?”
In a situation where both sides were heavily injured and locked in a life-and-death stalemate, it became a contest of recovery speed.
Whoever recovered slower would die.
However,
both Cheng Hua and Zhao Yuntong would appear later in the storyline.
Cheng Hua would reappear as the guide for players entering Canglan Mountain, as long as the quest was completed.
And regardless of whether Cheng Hua died or not, Zhao Yuntong would become the Holy Maiden of the Obsession Path in the mid-stage of the story, with rumors surrounding her.
Since neither of them would die, then… could there be a third party?
Fang Chang pondered for a moment.
Suddenly, he recalled that when Zhao Yuntong appeared later, the head of her former fiancé was no longer hanging at her waist.
The reason behind this had been widely speculated among players.
After all, the Obsession Path would never easily let go of its “obsessions.”
“Could it be… because of this ‘third party’?”
He circled the forest.
Among the ruins, the sky had already begun to lighten with the pale glow of dawn.
Fang Chang kicked open the coffin board, and the three yin corpses stood upright abruptly, ignoring physical constraints.
“Go. Don’t let anyone approach.”
Watching the three yin corpses depart in different directions, Fang Chang slung the coffin onto his back again and slowly walked toward the crater where the two women faced off.
...
The pool of blood was thick, soaking into shattered stones and scorched earth.
The two bodies lay collapsed among the ruins, unable to move. Only the faint rise and fall of their chests, along with the intermittent, broken sounds of cold laughter and breathing escaping their lips, indicated they were still alive.
“Zhao Yuntong… if I remember correctly, we should have only met once from afar…”
Cheng Hua’s voice sounded weak yet clear amid the stench of blood.
The short sword piercing her abdomen trembled slightly with her breathing. Blood seeped down along her charred clothing, mixing with the thick mud beneath her.
A vague chuckle rolled from Zhao Yuntong’s throat, causing the fullness of her chest to tremble slightly.
She did not answer immediately.
Instead, with the hand she could still move, she brushed away a bit of dirt splashed onto the face of the head hanging at her waist.
“Once, that’s right.”
Her voice was somewhat drifting, her alluring eyes tinged with a crimson glow.
“At the appraisal gathering at Listening Wind Cliff, five months ago. Before the Reflection Glaze Pendant—the jade that could reflect the scene one cherished most in their heart—why… was yours completely blank?”
“What?”
Cheng Hua was startled, her memory forcefully stirred.
The Listening Wind Cliff appraisal gathering? She had indeed attended, following her elders from the sect, merely as a routine experience.
The details, however, she no longer remembered.
Zhao Yuntong lay sideways on the ground in a languid, seductive posture. Her blood-stained, disheveled hair clung to her collarbone and shoulders, falling into the mud.
Her slender waist was tightly outlined by a now blood-soaked sash, appearing so thin it seemed graspable in one hand.
The fullness beneath her clothing, impossible to conceal, pressed downward against the fabric, forming a rounded curve.
Her voice trembled with excitement, and she coughed up blood.
“I hate your so-called ‘purity of heart, clarity of Dao, unmoved by external things.’”
Cheng Hua’s brows knitted as she asked hoarsely, “Just because of this?”
“That’s right.”
Zhao Yuntong admitted openly.
“I want to see—when you are driven into despair, gravely injured, on the verge of death, with your Dao foundation about to shatter—whether you can still remain pure and detached.”
She actually recovered slightly faster than Cheng Hua, slowly propping herself up.
Though she had only regained basic mobility,
it was already far better than Cheng Hua.
Cheng Hua’s face was as pale as paper, her expression barely changing.
Facing Zhao Yuntong slowly approaching, she reached out toward the longsword on the ground, preparing for a desperate final battle.
But her right hand grasped nothing.
Just as she lowered her head to search for it, Zhao Yuntong froze in place within the corner of her vision.
And in the center of her sight, there were a pair of unfamiliar legs that had appeared at some unknown time.
Cheng Hua looked up in confusion, meeting Fang Chang’s slightly gloomy yet handsome face.
In his hand was her longsword, already thrust through Zhao Yuntong’s chest.
Fang Chang lowered his head and forced out a gentle smile he had practiced for a long time.
“We meet again, Fellow Cultivator Cheng.”