Chapter 33 p1
Cultivators’ senses were more acute. Although Qing Luo had already noticed this abnormality, she still nodded to Xie Qingzheng to thank her for the reminder.
Feng Lan’s expression was grim. She relit the bonfire and arranged for the junior sisters to count the bodies and treat the injured.
A female cultivator, after examining the bodies, reported, “Senior Sister Feng Lan, Senior Sister Qing Luo, these people all died in an unusual way. Their bodies are soaking wet, and there are several puddles of water on the ground and on the trees. I think it’s… the work of a water ghost!”
The female cultivators’ expressions grew solemn.
Although it was said that good advice is wasted on those determined to die, to encounter such obstinate villagers and a powerful water ghost on their very first training trip was truly unfortunate.
Feng Lan frowned and thought for a moment, her gaze sweeping over the living people present. She asked, “Did any of you touch the water-suppressing talisman that Tianquan Manor sent?”
The water-suppressing talisman could suppress both water and water ghosts.
In the river of Dutou Village, there was no River God, but there were resentful spirits.
The women who had been innocently sacrificed and drowned in the past had resentment in their hearts. Their souls lingered in the river, unable to enter the cycle of reincarnation. They had to wait for the next person to drown in the river and become their “scapegoat” before they could be freed.
In the years when no living people were sacrificed, people in Dutou Village would often drown by accident. Over time, the villagers came to believe that the River God was angry.
Later, the village would sacrifice a living person every two or three years. The resentful spirits in the water only needed to wait patiently for the next “scapegoat” and would no longer forcefully drag the living to the bottom of the water to drown.
In truth, it made no difference to the resentful spirits whether a man or a woman was sacrificed, as long as it was a living person. But the villagers of Dutou Village believed in the story of the “River God’s marriage” and had always only sacrificed women.
After the sacrifice, the villagers saw that people were no longer drowning in the river as frequently, and their belief in the “River God’s anger” and the “River God’s marriage” became even more firm.
Two years ago, the village held a sacrifice ceremony as usual. The girl chosen by the shaman was unwilling to die in vain and fled to Tianquan Manor for help.
In those chaotic times, with lives devastated, the cultivators of the various sects were exhausted and had no time to deliver the souls of the resentful spirits in the water. The Manor Lord of Tianquan Manor had sent someone with an extremely rare water-suppressing talisman, using this talisman in exchange for the girl’s life, and had temporarily suppressed the resentful spirits in the water. He had also explained the reason to the clan leader and the shaman.
At that time, the people of Tianquan Manor had repeatedly warned them not to sacrifice living people again and not to remove this talisman, otherwise the consequences would be endless.
But the clan leader, shaman, and gentry of Dutou Village were unwilling to let go of this opportunity to extort money and held another sacrifice ceremony this year.
Tianquan Manor had sent disciples this time both to stop the villagers from sacrificing living people again and to deliver the souls of the resentful spirits in the water once and for all.
Unexpectedly, before they had time to deliver the souls, the resentful spirits had gone on a killing spree.
Now, it was no longer something these juniors could handle.
The young man dressed as a scholar knelt on the ground, stunned for a long time. The muscles on his face suddenly twitched uncontrollably, and large beads of sweat rolled down his forehead.
He seemed to have remembered a lifelong regret and muttered to himself, “It was me… it was me! I was the one who removed the talisman from the underwater stele… I killed Big Brother… I killed everyone… Jiang’er is here… It’s Jiang’er, come to take revenge on me!”
Everyone looked at him.
After he finished speaking, he held his longsword to his neck, intending to commit suicide to atone for his sins. But his hands trembled like a sieve, and he couldn’t bring himself to do it.
Feng Lan had already formed a hand seal, ready to stop him from committing suicide.
Seeing that he didn’t dare to do it, Feng Lan sneered and mocked, “What a man, who dares to act and take responsibility!”
Qing Luo cast a spell and knocked the longsword from the scholar’s hand. “I advise you to explain yourself clearly before you die.”
The scholar murmured, “I… I didn’t mean to… I just wanted to let Jiang’er be free…”
Xie Qingzheng asked, “Who exactly is Jiang’er to you?”
In the sedan chair earlier, she had also heard this scholar mention Jiang’er.
“Jiang’er… she was my fiancée. We were engaged since we were children. A year ago, a Daoist passed by our village and said that Jiang’er had an immortal fate. He gave her a wooden token and told her to sever her worldly ties and go to the Xuanji Sect to cultivate. Jiang’er was a weak woman. What did she know about cultivation? I have been familiar with the Four Books and Five Classics since I was a child and was preparing to take the imperial examinations. But my big brother said I had a better aptitude for immortal cultivation, so he had Jiang’er give the wooden token to me and let me go to the Xuanji Sect to become a disciple in her place.”
Feng Lan rolled her eyes and couldn’t help but curse, “Why are you so arrogant and shameless? You think you can replace someone, steal their chance at immortal cultivation, and still have the audacity to say that others don’t understand immortal cultivation and you have a better aptitude?”
The scholar’s face was pale. He lowered his head and continued, “I went with the wooden token, but the people of the Xuanji Sect said my worldly ties were too heavy, my six roots were not clean, and they chased me back.”
Everyone secretly thought: Serves you right!
The scholar’s voice suddenly became shrill, as if he were pinching his throat to imitate a woman’s voice. Even his eyes and tone became very strange:
“After I came back, it happened to be the time for the village to hold the River God’s marriage ceremony. That time, the shaman had his eye on Jiang’er’s younger sister and wanted to sacrifice her to the River God. In my heart, I never believed in that nonsense about the River God’s marriage, but how could my words win against those old diehards? Fortunately, Jiang’er and I were already engaged. If I married her, she wouldn’t have to suffer that kind of hardship.”
Xie Qingzheng’s hair stood on end. She couldn’t help but think: Has he been scared mad? Why is he suddenly talking like this?
Just as everyone was about to interrupt him, they saw him return to normal and continue, “But at that time, I had just returned from the Xuanji Sect. In my disappointment, I thought of what the people of the Xuanji Sect had said about my ‘worldly ties being too heavy,’ so I broke off my engagement with Jiang’er and let her be dressed up as a bride, pushed off the cliff, and drowned in the river, to prove that my Dao heart was firm.”
After saying these few sentences, he pinched his throat again and imitated a woman’s tone, “When I came to my senses and thought of how deeply Jiang’er’s younger sister had loved me in the past, I was filled with regret! I heard that the soul of a drowned person needs a new soul to take its place before it can return to the cycle of reincarnation. I had been hoping for another sacrifice in the village so that Jiang’er could be freed. But you people from Tianquan Manor interfered time and again and even put a talisman in the water to suppress her. It’s really hateful!”
The last word, “hateful,” was just like a coquettish woman.
Everyone looked at each other.
The man’s voice, the woman’s tone, was originally very funny, but the atmosphere at this moment was too gloomy and strange. Not only could they not laugh, but they also got goosebumps.
The scholar pointed at Xie Qingzheng, his face contorted, sometimes terrified, sometimes coquettish. His tone of voice also switched between a man’s and a woman’s:
“Today, you took her away again, not letting her be sacrificed!”
“So I had to go and remove the talisman in the water myself…”
“She shouldn’t be alive!”
“She has to die in Jiang’er’s place!”
Hearing this, the female cultivators tightened their grip on their swords, exchanged glances, and confirmed one thing: he was possessed by a water ghost!
The water ghost instantly sensed the change in the female cultivators’ eyes. In a flash, it leaped up, grabbed Xie Qingzheng, and rushed towards the bottom of the cliff.
Feng Lan shouted, “Stop her!”
Xie Qingzheng’s head buzzed. She only felt herself being pulled towards the cliff by a huge force, and then her whole body fell headfirst.
The cliff was dozens of zhang high, and the river at the bottom was churning.
The wind howled in her ears, and the rocky cliff face flew past her eyes. Every inch of her skin felt as if it were being cut by the wind. In her fear, she screamed, her wails echoing through the cliff.
At the critical moment of life and death, she suddenly heard the clear sound of a xiao, and a figure came on a sword.
An ice-cold hand wrapped around her waist, stopping her fall.
“I have divined a hexagram for you—” A cool breath came to her ear. “Your life is not in danger today.”
The female cultivators who had chased after her only saw a white light flash upwards. In an instant, the two people and one ghost had returned to the top of the cliff.
Xie Qingzheng was still shaken. After landing, her knees went weak, and she hugged Mo Jiangxue’s legs, refusing to let go.
Mo Jiangxue held her jade xiao and casually threw the scholar she was holding in her left hand to the ground. She then threw a copper coin at him.
The copper coin hit the scholar between the brows. The scholar cried out in pain and rolled on the ground. In a moment, a black shadow separated from his body and turned into a girl dripping with water.
The girl prostrated on the ground, trembling all over, as if in great pain.
The female cultivators of Tianquan Manor also flew back to the top of the cliff. The moment they landed, their gazes were all irresistibly drawn to the woman in the white robe with the long qin.
Feng Lan, seeing that the water ghost had revealed its true form, was the first to react. She flashed over and slapped a talisman on the water ghost’s forehead, then looked at the woman in the white robe.
Among the group of young girls, she was the most experienced. She immediately recognized who it was, sheathed her sword, and bowed. “Junior Tianquan Manor Feng Lan pays her respects to Senior Mo.”
The guest elder of the Xuanji Sect, Mo Jiangxue.
The attire of the Xuanji Sect was mainly black and white, with cranes embroidered on it. But the guest elders were not bound by this. It was rumored that Elder Mo liked to wear a white robe with red patterns, a perfect blend of coldness and brightness.
Feng Lan had always been arrogant and unrestrained in her speech, but in front of an elder from another sect, she knew to restrain herself so as not to bring shame to her own manor.
A female cultivator murmured, “Senior Mo? Is that the Cloud Melody, Flowing Frost, Mo…”
She didn’t dare to say any more. It was too rude to say her name directly.
The group sheathed their swords and saluted Mo Jiangxue according to the rules.
It was their first time out for training, and although they had never seen Mo Jiangxue in person, they had all heard of her name. Seeing her attire, with both a qin and a xiao, they guessed her identity.
It was rumored that she had a solitary and aloof nature and disliked it when people praised her looks, so she often wore a white veiled hat to cover her face, preventing those around her from seeing her appearance, with only her front occasionally revealed.
