Chapter 53
Tonight, dark clouds obscured the sky, without a moon or stars. There were no pedestrians on the shore, and the lake was pitch black. A small boat was tied to a willow tree on the bank.
In the boat were two women. One, in a white robe and veiled hat, sat upright and proper. The other, in a light crimson dress, had her clothes half-removed to her waist.
Mo Jiangxue took off her veiled hat, lit an ever-bright talisman, and the firelight illuminated the dark little boat.
A gentle breeze drifted by. Xie Qingzheng saw the flickering light and shadows on the wooden walls, the faint stir of her hair, and the two of their figures almost overlapping. Her heart pounded.
The talisman fire swayed, and her shadow trembled slightly.
Mo Jiangxue stared at her back and asked, “Are you very cold?”
Xie Qingzheng shook her head, her ears so red they were about to drip blood. She said in a low voice, “Master, I’m not cold. Please hurry and see if I’ve been poisoned…”
Just the thought of her disheveled appearance being seen by that cold gaze made waves of heat roll over her face, ears, and neck.
Mo Jiangxue reached out and brushed her hair to her chest, her clear, bright gaze falling on that snow-white back.
A slender waist and narrow shoulders, skin as crystalline and white as jade. Under the light of the talisman fire, it was plated with a hazy, enchanting warmth. There seemed to be nothing unusual.
“Master, are there… are there any signs of being poisoned… I just held that Miao woman. She threw some things at me… I turned to avoid them. I don’t know if they got on my back…”
Xie Qingzheng clutched her clothes, recalling the flash of sabers and swords just now, trying to divert her attention and cool the heat on her face.
Mo Jiangxue turned her gaze away and said softly, “Let me see again.”
Xie Qingzheng’s red lips parted, as if she wanted to ask something more, but a cool, smooth touch suddenly pressed against her back. That ice-cold hand stroked the skin on her back, one by one—shoulder, shoulder blade, waist—as if it were using spiritual energy to probe her body…
She was so startled by this touch that her body trembled, and the words she was about to say unconsciously turned into a sound: “Mm…”
It was light and airy, like a soft, gentle moan.
For some reason, hearing herself make such a sound, the heat on her face intensified.
That hand suddenly paused. After a long time, a low reprimand came from behind her, “Don’t make such a sound.”
A cool tone, with a commanding air.
Xie Qingzheng bit her lip. Was it her fault? She hadn’t done it on purpose… Who was it that had reached out to touch her just as she was about to speak…
“You… you, I told you, don’t touch me… I’m very ticklish…” Xie Qingzheng defended herself in a low voice.
It was more than just ticklish. An indescribable, numb sensation surged through her body. The skin that had been stroked was burning hot. Her limbs were weak, so weak they felt as if they would turn to water. A strange and unfamiliar feeling instantly overwhelmed the heat and pain on her back and even made her recall that lingering, ambiguous dream. The image of her and her master, intimately close, whispering in each other’s ears, appeared before her eyes.
Wisps of an enchanting feeling, like a mist, spread through the boat.
Her master’s hand was still on her waist, and the skin on her waist seemed to be hotter than elsewhere.
Mo Jiangxue said, “Endure it.”
As her words fell, Xie Qingzheng felt a sharp pain in her waist, as if something small and fine was drilling out from her skin, dense, like a needle prick.
Something had indeed gotten into her body!
These Miao women were too terrifying, like walking poisonous creatures. With the slightest carelessness, one would fall for their tricks…
Cold sweat poured down from the pain. Xie Qingzheng lowered her head and gritted her teeth to hold back a painful moan. Beads of sweat dripped into the boat.
Gu worms the size of a hair drilled out from her back. Black blood seeped from her back. She couldn’t help but shiver, her body trembling even more, and her limbs were completely devoid of strength.
The black qi rose in her body. Mo Jiangxue pressed a few acupoints on her body, circulated her energy to help her force out the poisoned blood, then supported her by the shoulders, held her in her arms, took out a pill from the medicine gourd that could cure a hundred poisons, and fed it to her.
Only then did she free her hands, pull up her clothes, wipe the thin sweat from her forehead, and whisper a word of caution, “For the next half a shichen, do not circulate your qi.”
Xie Qingzheng only felt very tired. She hummed gloomily, her cheeks and ears still flushed red.
Mo Jiangxue looked down at her, and she also looked up at Mo Jiangxue.
Their gazes met. After a moment, they both, by tacit agreement, turned their gazes away.
Mo Jiangxue said, “Sleep for a while. You’ll be fine when you wake up.”
A cold fragrance filled her embrace, indescribably comfortable. Xie Qingzheng lay in Mo Jiangxue’s arms, closed her eyes, and fell into a deep sleep.
After she had fallen asleep, Mo Jiangxue dared to look down at the person in her arms. She didn’t look for long before she raised her head again, her gaze on the outside of the boat.
The lake and the mountains, the calm surface of the lake rippled in circles.
Suddenly, a pungent, fishy smell came. She quickly held her breath, pressed a few acupoints on Xie Qingzheng’s body, and then looked at the shore.
A swarm of insects crawled on the shore—snakes, centipedes, scorpions, spiders, toads… all kinds of poisonous insects were in a threatening posture, swimming towards the small boat. A few of the larger toads at the front bent their bodies to gather strength and spat a stream of black liquid at the small boat.
Mo Jiangxue held Xie Qingzheng with one hand and plucked the strings with the other. With two zheng sounds, two sound waves spread out, blocking the black liquid and splashing it back on the swarm of insects. Many of the insects immediately let out a series of squeaks and then turned into puddles of bubbling black water.
The qin’s waves also cut the rope tied to the willow tree. The small boat quickly drifted towards the center of the lake, getting further and further away from the shore.
The spiders on the shore kept spitting out white silk, trying to stick the threads to the small boat. Mo Jiangxue played the qin with one hand, and one after another, the qin’s waves, like a sharp knife cutting through a tangled mess, cut the white threads.
The sound of the qin on the lake was cold. She was about to use a killing move when she suddenly remembered that to raise a gu, a gu cultivator needed to put hundreds of poisonous insects in one place and let them kill each other. The one that survived would be chosen as the “gu.” A “gu worm” needed to be fed with the gu cultivator’s essence and blood every day. It was not easy to raise an obedient gu worm. This trip to the Immortal Cult was to ask for a favor. It was better not to make the enmity deeper.
Mo Jiangxue, while playing the qin, said, “Everyone, don’t waste your efforts anymore. We will naturally go to your esteemed cult’s main altar to pay a visit tomorrow.”
She did not speak loudly, but her words were clearly transmitted to the ears of the Miao women hiding in the dark.
The ripples on the lake’s surface spread. Before long, perhaps seeing that they could do nothing to her, a few charming female voices came from the dark, “In that case, we await your esteemed presence.”
The sound of the qin stopped, and the poisonous insects on the shore gradually dispersed.
Mo Jiangxue blew out the talisman fire in the boat, took the boat across the lake, and gradually went further and further away.
The next day, when Xie Qingzheng woke up, the sky was already bright, and her body was much better.
The small boat had drifted on the lake all night. After dawn, Mo Jiangxue took the boat back to the willow tree, tied the boat again, and went ashore with Xie Qingzheng.
The moment they went ashore, Mo Jiangxue warned her, “Don’t eat anything here.”
She loved to eat, and the gu cultivators of the Immortal Cult were skilled at putting gu in food.
The city was full of new things she had never eaten before. Xie Qingzheng suppressed her appetite and said, “It’ll save money.”
The master and disciple returned to the Immortal Cult outpost for a look and saw that the bodies in the large residence had already been moved back to the main altar by the Miao women.
They asked the shop assistant for the location of the main altar and then hurried there.
On the way, Xie Qingzheng said, “The person who impersonated us seems to know us very well.”
Last night, that woman had looked at her face and said, “You’re back again.” This most likely meant that the person who had impersonated them not only had similar clothes and weapons, but their face was also disguised to be very similar to theirs.
Mo Jiangxue said nothing.
Xie Qingzheng said, “Master, you are very famous. There are portraits of you all over the Xuanmen. I am unknown, and not many people know what I look like. To know what we look like, and to know that our destination is the Miao region, besides Sect Master Xie, it can only be someone from the Xuanji Sect.”
Although they had been riding a donkey and playing for a few days on the road, from the north to the southwest, it was only a few short days. The person who had impersonated them had been able to reach the Miao region before them and stir up a conflict between them and the Immortal Cult. Their intelligence network was truly impressive.
Xie Qingzheng said, “What is the purpose of framing us? To kill us? Who hates us so much?”
Mo Jiangxue: “To be able to kill more than thirty gu cultivators in the outpost in one night, those two are not of low cultivation.”
Unfortunately, last night, she had not had time to carefully examine the wounds of those people before she was interrupted by the few Miao women.
Xie Qingzheng: “What if those two really dressed up exactly like us? Then if we summon their souls and are identified by the ghosts, we won’t be able to explain ourselves.”
On their way, they had ridden a donkey during the day and camped out in the wilderness at night, and they had rarely met anyone… except…
“Excuse me, where is the Immortal Cult’s main altar?”
As they were walking, Xie Qingzheng ran into a group of rogue cultivators, their voices and figures very familiar—weren’t they the group of gossipy rogue cultivators she had met at the inn a few days ago?
Mo Jiangxue crossed her arms and said coolly, “Go and catch one.”
Xie Qingzheng leaped a few times, grabbed one of the more clever-looking female cultivators, and brought her before Mo Jiangxue. She looked at her and asked, “Fellow Daoist, do I look familiar to you?”
The female cultivator had a melon-seed face and willow-leaf brows. She sized up Xie Qingzheng from head to toe and smiled. “Familiar, familiar. You’re quite pretty. You’re the one from the inn a few days ago who wanted to board a donkey! Hehe, these days, there are people who board their children and their old mothers, but it’s the first time I, A-Yan, have seen someone who wants to board a donkey!”
So this female cultivator was called A-Yan.
Xie Qingzheng cupped her hands. “Indeed.”
A-Yan said casually, “To meet is fate. Fellow Daoist, what did you catch me for? Are you also going to join the Immortal Cult? But I see that the people on the street are all afraid of us.”
Xie Qingzheng said, “They’re afraid of trouble. Two days ago, two cultivators from the Central Plains came and killed some of the Immortal Cult’s members, so they don’t dare to talk to cultivators from the Central Plains much now. We know where the Immortal Cult’s main altar is. You can come with us.”
A-Yan said, “I see! Wait a minute. I’ll go and tell my companions. We’ll all go together, so we can look out for each other!”
She went over with a whoosh, and before long, she came back with a group of people.
Everyone chattered, asking about the identity of the master and disciple.
Mo Jiangxue found them noisy and walked ahead on her own, leaving Xie Qingzheng to deal with them.
Xie Qingzheng only said that they, master and disciple, were rogue cultivators who were going to the Immortal Cult to seek medical treatment, and then in turn asked about their origins.
They were all rogue cultivators. Their talent was not enough to pass the immortal examinations of the major orthodox Xuanmen sects, so they wanted to try their luck at the Immortal Cult in the Miao region to see if they could become gu cultivators.
A-Yan was cheerful and had a strong jianghu air. She seemed to like making friends. Before long, she was eagerly chatting with Xie Qingzheng, “Let me tell you, it’s still us rogue cultivators of the world who are one family! Those cultivators from the famous orthodox sects, on the surface, they are all righteous, but in their hearts, they look down on us rogue cultivators and secretly do some despicable things!”
Xie Qingzheng touched her nose. “For example?”
A-Yan: “For example, a few of us were just drinking some wine at an inn a few days ago and said some drunken words, and we were heard by someone from either the Xuanji Sect or the Tianshu Sect and were hung up for a whole night! Damn it! So petty, they can’t even take a joke!”
Being called “petty, can’t even take a joke” to her face, Xie Qingzheng thought to herself: You’re the petty one! Who told you to talk nonsense!
But in truth, Miss A-Yan was not petty at all. When she said those words, she had a smile on her face and didn’t seem to mind at all. Instead, she seemed to think it was an interesting experience.
Xie Qingzheng noticed this, smiled faintly, and instantly let go of all her reservations. She even looked at Mo Jiangxue a little guiltily and asked, “Did you all say something you shouldn’t have?”
A-Yan said, “I didn’t say anything I shouldn’t have! It was all news I had painstakingly gathered from other fellow Daoists! And what I said was very restrained. The rumors from the demonic cult are even more outrageous!”
Xie Qingzheng smiled and asked, “What rumors have the demonic cult been spreading recently?”
These rogue cultivators, who had traveled far and wide, were knowledgeable and unrestrained in their speech. Their information was indeed more reliable.
A-Yan laughed loudly. “The people from the demonic cult say that Xiao Wangqing of the Xuanji Sect likes Pei Shuxue, and because she likes her so much, she cut off her legs to keep her by her side forever! Oh, and that guest elder Mo Jiangxue has an improper relationship with her own personal disciple! And Xie Youke of the Tianshu Sect has a crush on her own senior martial sister, and later, because of love turned to hate, she destroyed what she couldn’t have and killed her own senior martial sister! Hahaha, don’t you think it’s outrageous? If they heard these words, wouldn’t they be so angry they’d turn into big fools!”
Xie Qingzheng couldn’t smile. She placed her hand on the Yanyu Xiao at her waist and said with suppressed anger, “Those people from the demonic cult, they can really make up any outrageous rumor!”
A-Yan patted her on the shoulder and smiled. “Little Fellow Daoist Xie, you are so righteous!”
Hearing this string of words, Mo Jiangxue suddenly turned her head and glanced at Xie Qingzheng, saying in a cold voice, “Watch your words.”
A-Yan shrank her neck and said in a low voice, “Your master is so fierce… she won’t let me talk nonsense with you.”
Xie Qingzheng didn’t dare to chat about gossip with A-Yan anymore. She met Mo Jiangxue’s eyes for a moment, and the words of that demoness on Green Pine Peak suddenly came to her mind—
“The master and disciple are exchanging glances in public…”
“You are master and disciple. It’s understandable to be a little closer, a little more affectionate. It’s just that I had originally thought that only we people of the wildlands didn’t care about ethics and etiquette…”
At that time, she had even seriously asked her what those words meant!
Xie Qingzheng’s heart chilled, and she was so embarrassed she couldn’t speak.
Mo Jiangxue turned back and continued to walk ahead alone.
Xie Qingzheng looked at her back and thought: I wonder if that demoness really sensed my feelings for my master at that time, or if she said those words to attack my master… If she really did sense it, then haven’t I tarnished my master’s reputation…
And… if her feelings were so obvious at that time… then, had her master noticed?
Did her master know, or did she not know? Or, did she know but pretend not to know?
