Chapter 65: Body Cultivation Part 1

The Divine Moon City City Lord had always been the Ji Clan’s puppet, and the spirit array layout was also arranged by the Ji Clan people. Although Ji Caiyan had not come to the City Lord Mansion many times, she had seen the mansion’s layout diagram at home before and knew the spirit array’s trigger key as well as the location of the array eye flaw. It was not difficult for her to lead them in sneaking into the City Lord Mansion.

Shen Yanting naturally had not listened to Feng Yingbo and Bo Xuenong and waited outside for real. She followed Bo Xuenong and the others into the City Lord Mansion, lingering at the end while keeping an eye on the surroundings.

Outside it was still broad daylight, but the moment they entered the City Lord Mansion, the sky suddenly darkened, and a fierce gale whipped up.

Feng Yingbo’s footsteps halted. “Caiyan, we haven’t been discovered already, have we?”

Before Ji Caiyan could respond, Bo Xuenong’s gaze suddenly locked onto a strand of dark red light. She stretched out her finger and pointed in the direction where the red light flickered. “Master, look.”

Everyone followed Bo Xuenong’s pointing finger toward that strand of red light, which resembled blood. It hung high up, almost like a red sickle perched at the edge of the sky.

The red light grew brighter and brighter from whatever it connected to, and the red sickle enlarged more and more, swaying gently with the wind as if it might plummet at any moment and cleave off someone’s head. It looked utterly eerie.

Feng Jin was the most timid. She clutched Feng Yingbo’s sleeve tightly, her body still swaying slightly.

Her shoulder bumped into something hard, and she let out a very low cry of pain.

Feng Yingbo hurriedly pulled her back and carefully checked her for injuries. “Where are you hurt?”

“I…” Feng Jin hadn’t finished her sentence when the dim environment suddenly lit up.

The source of the light was lanterns hanging one after another. Only then did Bo Xuenong and the others see clearly that they were now in the back courtyard of the City Lord Mansion. There wasn’t a single tree in the yard; instead, it was filled entirely with life-sized humanoid statues. Upon closer inspection, the faces of those bronze statues were all identical to Ji Caiyan’s.

There was a smiling Ji Caiyan, a teary-eyed Ji Caiyan, and even a Ji Caiyan kneeling and begging for mercy…

Each statue held a lantern in its hand. The lantern light was neither too bright nor too dim, just enough to illuminate the statue’s own face clearly, ensuring that anyone passing through the courtyard could see every subtle expression on each statue. It was as eerie as could be.

Feng Jin blanked out for a moment. “Second Senior Sister?”

Ji Caiyan herself felt somewhat dazed. She said nothing, only gripping Ye Zhiyao’s hand tighter.

Bo Xuenong stared blankly at the kneeling and begging Ji Caiyan statue. Its expression was twisted, its limbs curled into an extremely unnatural position. The lantern hung from her arm by a rope, and the forward-extending hand dangled in a bizarre pose, looking just like fingers that had been snapped off.

Bo Xuenong suddenly realized what was strange about the statue’s pose.

The degree to which those limbs were twisted and intertwined could only be possible if the bones inside were broken.

Feng Yingbo had not noticed the oddity of the statues. She muttered, “Caiyan, they’re all statues of you. This Xu Hongyong seems pretty devoted to you.”

Ji Caiyan remained silent, but Bo Xuenong spoke first. “Shishu Feng, take a closer look at those statues.”

Not just the one Bo Xuenong had stared at earlier—the other statues all bore different signs of damage. The smiling Ji Caiyan had her head drooping downward in a bizarre pose, her neck slightly twisted as if it had been snapped. The teary-eyed Ji Caiyan’s body arched backward, her arms twisted together like hemp ropes, looking as if someone had forcibly torn off her arms, shattered the bones, and deliberately bound them back together.

No matter how one looked at it, this was not a token of deep affection but more like an act of imagined vengeance.

The person who made these statues could not possibly be deeply in love with Ji Caiyan; they must have hated her to the bone.

Feng Yingbo fell silent. She looked at the statues, then at Ji Caiyan, her eyes full of heartache.

Even knowing these statues were not Ji Caiyan, the sight was still chilling.

Shen Yanting saw even more than they did. She stepped forward proactively to the teary-eyed statue that Feng Jin had just bumped into.

She placed her hand on the statue’s shoulder. Golden light emerged from her palm and enveloped the statue. As the golden light descended, the statue’s outer shell began to tremble faintly. Seeing this, Shen Yanting increased the force in her hand, and denser golden light wrapped around the statue. The trembling shell started to peel away.

The golden light grew brighter and brighter, and the shell peeled off faster and faster, revealing pieces of blood-red beneath.

Shen Yanting stepped back a bit from the statue, but the shell’s cracking did not stop.

The instant the statue’s shell completely fell away, Bo Xuenong and the others saw blood spray out uncontrollably. Inside was actually a living person.

The faint breathing rapidly faded as the statue was destroyed. The person who had been alive just a second ago became a corpse in the next instant.

Everyone present understood. Someone had beaten living people into cripples, leaving them with only their last breath, then sealed them inside the statues. They struggled in agony within but clung to that final breath. Yet if anyone tried to rescue them, they would die the moment the statue was destroyed, without even time to reveal any information.

The perpetrator had even transformed these half-dead people into Ji Caiyan’s likeness, making a bunch of Ji Caiyans kneel, weep, and linger in twisted poses in this courtyard.

It was almost like a delusional form of atonement.

Without a doubt, this person not only had vicious and ruthless methods but also harbored peak resentment toward Ji Caiyan.

Feng Yingbo’s brows furrowed lightly. She asked uncertainly, “Caiyan, does Xu Hongyong hate you this much?”

“It wasn’t Xu Hongyong.”

Shen Yanting formed a hand seal, and a strand of golden light floated from her fingertip into the air. When Bo Xuenong and the others looked up again, a dense web of red ropes had appeared in midair, crisscrossing to form a massive net that perfectly framed the City Lord Mansion.

After the red net appeared, Shen Yanting gently placed her hand on Bo Xuenong’s shoulder, signaling her to look toward the sky in the right front direction.

Bo Xuenong looked where Shen Yanting pointed—right where the red sickle hung.

The red sickle had dipped lower and grown much larger at some point, as if it would destroy the City Lord Mansion in the next instant.

The City Lord Mansion now resembled a massive prison cage, with a blade hanging overhead. Hearts raced, and anxiety followed.

Bo Xuenong did not quite understand why things had turned out this way. She raised her hand to touch the back of Shen Yanting’s hand. “Master, I’ve been wandering near the City Lord Mansion these past few days and clearly sensed nothing unusual. Clearly…”

She felt annoyed with herself and did not even want to explain further.

Bo Xuenong bit her lip and pulled Shen Yanting’s hand toward her cheek. “Master, hit me. It’s my failure that put you in danger.”

Shen Yanting did not panic at the appearance of the cage’s exterior. Her expression remained composed as her palm gently stroked Bo Xuenong’s face. “It’s hardly a dangerous situation yet.”

She cut off all of Bo Xuenong’s words, calm and unhurried. “Xuenong, this isn’t an array but a technique unique to the Demonic Sect. Their people arrived even earlier than you and are naturally skilled at concealment. I only had you watch from outside, so it’s only natural you didn’t detect anything unusual. Even I only noticed the anomaly after arriving here today.”

Shen Yanting’s tolerance made Bo Xuenong’s chest tighten slightly, feeling she had let down her master’s trust.

Bo Xuenong instinctively moved toward the red sickle. “Master, I’ll go find the exit.”

She had just taken a step when Ji Caiyan grabbed her arm. “Senior Sister, we don’t need to find an exit. We can just follow the secret passage to the Ji Clan.”

Bo Xuenong’s brows furrowed slightly. “I’ve watched the City Lord Mansion and the Ji Clan for three days without finding any issues. Now that the City Lord Mansion has become a cage, the Ji Clan’s situation probably isn’t good either.”

“No.” Ji Caiyan shook her head firmly. “Senior Sister, over these years, the Ji Clan has forged ties through marriages with many big shots in the Cultivation World. Those connections are all in the hands of the Elder Clan Leader and the Young Family Head. As long as the Elder Clan Leader and Eldest Sister are alive, the Ji Clan absolutely cannot fall under someone else’s control. The City Lord Mansion turning into a cage is very likely because the Ji Clan abandoned Xu Hongyong.”

That was indeed the case.

In the Original Book plotline, the Ji Clan only completely collapsed and perished after Ji Caixi and the Ji Clan Elder Clan Leader died.