Chapter Index

    “This young master will give you one more chance! Apologize to me right this instant!” The chains rattled as an effeminate young man, dressed as flamboyantly as a rooster, sat commandingly on a chair. His voice was stern and his threats were as arrogant as could be.

    He showed no awareness of his status as a prisoner.

    Lu Xiaoxiao furrowed her delicate brows, glanced at the fellow whose words made no sense, and then turned her gaze to Ye Cang, who was pushing the door open. “Senior Brother,” she asked, “this guy is a stubborn fool who won’t shed a tear until he sees his own coffin. Can I…” She made a fist and raised it slightly.

    Ye Cang, carrying his heavy blade, frowned at her words, also feeling troubled.

    They had spent all night verifying the identities of the people from Hundred Bows Manor and had nearly finished, but they were stuck on this young man who had appeared out of nowhere. This person had also been hiding underground at Hundred Bows Manor, and his movements were suspicious from every angle. Yet, from the very beginning, the man’s mind seemed to be in a completely different world from theirs.

    He kept spouting things like “ungrateful wretches” and “This young master is your savior…”

    He even delivered his condemnations with such genuine emotion that an uninformed observer might truly believe they had wronged him in some terrible way.

    “Hey! You three! Hurry up and apologize. For the sake of our shared understanding, this young master can overlook your rudeness!” Zhuang Jiuzhu rattled his chains, his heart full of grievance.

    He had grown up in the Beast Taming Sect! For so! long! And he had never suffered such treatment!

    He, Zhuang Jiuzhu, the great young master, was protected by his master, a Sword Saint of his generation, and looked after by his senior brothers and sisters, who were the prodigies of their time. When had he ever been tied up and interrogated like a criminal? Well, it wasn’t that it had never happened, but those times were when he had caused trouble for his seniors. This time, he was genuinely doing a good deed, risking life and limb to save a kindred spirit!

    “This is no way to treat a savior…”

    The more Zhuang Jiuzhu spoke, the angrier he became, perfectly casting himself in the role of a misunderstood and wronged hero from the many tales of the martial world. For a moment, his sense of grievance was as real as could be.

    Evidently, the great Young Master Zhuang had already forgotten that his rescue mission had been a one-sided affair that had also ended in failure midway through.

    Veins throbbed on Ye Cang’s temples as he listened.

    What the hell.

    Since when had they become this weirdo’s “kindred spirits”?

    “Senior Brother?”

    Lu Xiaoxiao rolled up her sleeves, revealing her slender wrists, and glanced tentatively at Ye Cang.

    Ye Cang clutched his heavy blade, thought for a moment, and nodded in agreement. He then added a warning, “Don’t be like last time, beating him so badly that even his own senior brothers and sisters from his sect couldn’t recognize him… Leave him breathing.”

    “Got it!”

    “Wait…” The great Young Master Zhuang, who was in the middle of his self-pitying moment, suddenly widened his eyes. He leaned back, a mixture of shock and anger on his face. “What-what are you doing?! Do you have any idea who this young master is? I am the final disciple of the Beast Taming Sect’s Sword Saint, Gu Qingshui! My eldest senior sister is Liu Qingjian! My eldest senior brother is Qianli Jing! If you dare to hit me, my master and my seniors will definitely not let you off!”

    “He’s from the Beast Taming Sect?”

    Lu Xiaoxiao raised an eyebrow at his words and exchanged a subtle glance with Ye Cang.

    The reason they were being so cautious and had been dealing with this person since early morning was not only because his motives for appearing in the stone grotto were unclear, but more importantly, based on his fragmented ramblings, this fellow had followed them all the way from Qianlai City to Plum City, and had even followed them down into the catacombs.

    But not one of the four of them had noticed anyone following them when they entered the catacombs of Hundred Bows Manor!

    It was one thing if Lu Xiaoxiao and the others hadn’t noticed, but Ye Cang’s awareness of his surroundings was considered the best among the current generation of Taiyi disciples; otherwise, he wouldn’t have become Taiyi’s chief disciple in just twelve years. The fact that even he hadn’t noticed was a huge problem. The four of them couldn’t help but suspect that this unreliable fellow was feigning madness.

    Ye Cang’s brow furrowed imperceptibly.

    …The Beast Taming Sect, the Sword Saint Gu.

    So the Beast Taming Sect was indeed involved in the affairs of Hundred Bows Manor.

    He nodded at Lu Xiaoxiao, signaling: You go ahead and beat him up. I’ll go out and report the situation to the Little Martial Ancestor.

    “What, scared now?” Seeing them fall silent, Zhuang Jiuzhu thought his master’s name had intimidated them. Like a rooster puffing out its colorful tail, he struggled to cross his arms despite being bound by chains and feigned composure. “Forget it. Ignorance is no crime. This young master won’t hold it against you… Ahem, how about this? If you critique the Western Continent Scenery Scroll, I’ll put in a good word for you with my master… Ahhh!!!”

    Lu Xiaoxiao slowly retracted her small fist from the flamboyant rooster’s face.

    She had been listening to this guy’s incessant chatter all morning and had long since lost her patience.

    “What are you doing?!” Zhuang Jiuzhu’s expression was one of utter devastation. “How dare you hit me! No… that’s not right, how could you possibly hurt this young master’s—Oww!”

    “I’m beating you precisely because you’re from the Beast Taming Sect.”

    Lu Xiaoxiao was swift and decisive, landing another punch on the fellow.

    “You-you dare!”

    Thump.

    “Wait—don’t hit the face!”

    Thump, thump.

    Ye Cang stepped out the door, shutting the clamor and shouting behind him.

    They had discovered early on that this chattering fellow’s cultivation was not high, but for some unknown reason, his body was incredibly resilient to beatings. When Lu Jing had pulled him out of the rubble, he had been hit by a massive rock weighing several thousand kilograms, yet aside from being knocked unconscious, he was completely unharmed.

    However…

    Lu Xiaoxiao was the Taiyi Sect’s famously freakishly strong girl, whose strength could uproot mountains and dominate the world.

    ***

    “Why is it so noisy over where Ye Cang is?” Lu Jing floated down onto the ruins of the catacomb and glanced back at the section of Hundred Bows Manor that hadn’t completely collapsed, frowning. “Young Master Chou, your Taiyi disciples aren’t very skilled at interrogation. You’re a bit behind the times. Look at our Medicine Valley. After this young master’s upgrades, one Itching Pill is all it takes to guarantee they’ll confess everything, right down to what age they were still wetting the bed.”

    “An Itching Pill… You’re always messing with these things. Your father hasn’t beaten you to death for it?”

    With a flick of his sleeve, Chou Bodeng sent the accumulated snow on the ruins flying to one side, completely re-exposing the entire catacomb.

    The blood pool at the bottom of the grotto had already evaporated completely.

    The City Divination Department of Plum City had removed most of the corpses from the blood pool, but some that they hadn’t had time to move lay crisscrossed on the dry pool floor. A faint smell of blood filled the air. The altar at the center of the pool was cracked and shattered, newly inscribed with glowing golden Sanskrit scriptures—clearly the work of Monk Budu.

    “My father, that old fossil, nearly scolded me to death over this last time… Forget it, let’s not talk about him,” Lu Jing shook his head and pointed to the wisps of black qi that continuously seeped out, breaking through the scripture’s seal. “It’s this stuff. It can’t be completely eliminated, nor can it be completely sealed… It just appeared last night.”

    Here, Lu Jing paused.

    “It appeared at midnight.”

    Midnight.

    It was the exact moment Chou Bodeng had guided Shi Wuluo’s soul back to the mortal realm.

    Hearing this, Chou Bodeng lowered his gaze to the stone grotto. After a moment of contemplation, he reached out, his index finger tracing several glowing patterns in the air before flicking them down onto the altar.

    As the light patterns fell, the black qi vanished.

    Just as Lu Jing was about to breathe a sigh of relief, he saw the vanished black qi rise again after a short while, wisp after wisp, like a swarm of black snakes dancing, like countless vengeful souls in the darkness reaching for the sky.

    “As I thought…” Monk Budu twisted the White Bone Beads on his wrist, his reaction expected. He sighed softly and looked at Chou Bodeng. “This is not the miasma of the Great Wilderness.” That was why he had to rush to ask Chou Bodeng to come and see for himself first thing in the morning. In truth, the person he wanted to invite was not Chou Bodeng, but Shi Wuluo.

    Chou Bodeng nodded, his expression calm.

    “If it’s not the miasma of the Great Wilderness, then what is it?” Lu Jing asked, suppressing the unease in his heart.

    Chou Bodeng didn’t speak, merely turning his head to look at Shi Wuluo beside him.

    Shi Wuluo stared at the altar, slowly raising his empty left hand, then suddenly stopping. The same black qi flowed from his fingertips and sleeves, and a cold energy condensed between his fingers, sharp as a blade.

    The sky suddenly turned grim.

    Lu Jing’s expression changed slightly.

    “Go on.”

    Chou Bodeng took the oil-paper umbrella from Shi Wuluo’s hand and spoke softly.

    Shi Wuluo’s blood-red sleeves billowed as he landed in the very center of the altar.

    The moment he landed, the countless streams of black qi in the catacomb immediately swarmed towards him as if they had found their source. In that instant, the pale faces of countless women appeared within the black qi—some young, some old, some beautiful, some ugly. They were all the vengeful souls who had died in the blood pool. For some reason, these dead souls had not returned to the wilderness miasma, but had remained here.

    The dead souls, like light smoke, continuously converged into Shi Wuluo’s sleeves.

    Amidst the thousands of black qi streams, Shi Wuluo’s blood-red robes were a deep crimson.

    Like freshly flowing blood.

    “This… this is…”

    Lu Jing’s voice was dry.

    Chou Bodeng stood in the wind and snow, his eyes lowered, gazing at Shi Wuluo absorbing the black qi. His hands were paler than the white birch handle of the umbrella he held, his fingertips translucent in the light. It was a scene of a natural beauty against a backdrop of mountains and rivers. Yet, where his gaze fell, was a vision of hell.

    “Amitabha.”

    Monk Budu pressed his palms together, his expression solemn as he chanted softly.

    The effects of the Heavenly Dao’s fall to a demon were laid bare before them.

    One person was focused, the other two were silent.

    After about half an incense stick’s time, no more black qi rose from the altar.

    The vengeful souls were all gone.

    Shi Wuluo’s face took on a sickly pallor.

    He rose from the catacomb, his eyes pitch-black, his blood-red robes flowing. The hem of his clothes swept across the snow, leaving a trail of filthy, bloody stains. The snow-covered ground cracked where he passed.

    Monk Budu and Lu Jing were forced back by the terrifying aura leaking from him.

    Just moments ago in the stone pavilion, seeing Shi Wuluo acting no different than before, quietly pouring wine and tending the fire for Chou Bodeng, they had been under a certain illusion… an illusion that nothing had changed, that Shi Wuluo, apart from a slight difference in appearance, was still the Head Shaman of the Witch Clan who accompanied Chou Bodeng.

    But at this moment, they finally knew they were wrong.

    What approached them was not the Heavenly Dao, but a Vicious Ghost from a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood, entangled with vengeful souls.

    His blood-red robes were defiled.

    Monk Budu gripped the White Bone Beads on his wrist, and Lu Jing subconsciously reached for the saber at his waist.

    Chou Bodeng stepped forward.

    The Vicious Ghost raised a hand, his pale fingers reaching for Chou Bodeng.

    “Benefactor Chou.”

    Monk Budu couldn’t help but call out from behind him.

    Chou Bodeng didn’t turn back. His black cloak billowed lightly, revealing a section of red sleeve and a plain wrist.

    He gently tilted the paper umbrella.

    Shielding the Vicious Ghost from the wind and snow.

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