Uncanny Immortal 32

Chapter 32

The female cultivator postured to draw her sword. “So what if I bully you with my power? Who told you to do such a harmful thing first, and still be full of bullshit benevolence and morality!”

A junior sister behind her whispered a word of caution, “Senior Sister Feng Lan, Senior Sister Qing Luo, don’t waste your breath on them. Saving her is more important.”

Feng Lan said, “Junior Sister is right. I won’t waste my time with you country bumpkins!”

With a zheng, the sharp blade was unsheathed.

Feng Lan leaped a few times, deliberately stepping on the heads of a few villagers, flew over the sedan chair, and swung her sword down.

A flash of green sword light, and with a crack, the roof of the sedan chair split in two.

Xie Qingzheng, in the sedan chair, looked up and met a pair of clear, bright eyes.

The owner of those eyes was about seventeen or eighteen, with handsome eyes and brows, and a spirited look.

She floated down into the sedan chair, raised an eyebrow with a hint of disgust, cut the ropes, and tore off the phoenix crown and the cloth gag from Xie Qingzheng’s head. She then lifted Xie Qingzheng by the back of her collar like a chick, tapped her toes, and flew back to her original spot. Then she sheathed her sword and said menacingly, “Listen up! If anyone dares to harm the innocent again, I’ll throw him into the river to feed the fish! Now scram!”

The villagers scattered like birds and beasts.

The sky had already darkened. After the crowd dispersed, the group of female cultivators from Tianquan Manor led Xie Qingzheng through a forest to the edge of a cliff.

Below the cliff, the roaring waves crashed against the shore, stirring up a thousand layers of snow.

There were no moon or stars in the sky. Feng Lan lit a bonfire and said indignantly, “Tonight, we’ll stand guard by the cliff to prevent them from capturing another girl for sacrifice!”

The female cultivators sat around the bonfire, eating the offerings the villagers had left by the cliff and inquiring about Xie Qingzheng’s origins.

They were all girls of seventeen or eighteen, all with outstanding looks, at an age where they loved to talk, laugh, and make merry. For a moment, they were chattering away, creating a lively atmosphere.

Xie Qingzheng thanked them for saving her life and told them that she had been snatched in a sack.

The Xuanji Sect and Tianquan Manor had a long-standing relationship. Between them, they could actually call each other senior and junior sisters.

But Mo Jiangxue had not yet appeared, and Xie Qingzheng was still possessing the girl’s body.

She hesitated for a moment, not knowing if she should reveal her identity to them.

Mo Jiangxue had not come to save her in time. She couldn’t help but think: Where did Master go with my body? Did she encounter any danger? Did she run into someone from the demonic cult? She still has the curse on her. Although the heat and cold poison has been temporarily suppressed, it could act up at any time…

Her master not appearing in time must have a reason.

Xie Qingzheng was a little worried about her safety.

If the curse really acted up, and no one was by her side, what would she do?

Xie Qingzheng’s thoughts were in a turmoil. She looked down and saw that she was still wearing the wedding dress. The words of the villagers echoed in her mind. She felt as if this blood-red color was stained with the blood of women, and she grew even more agitated.

She quickly took it off.

The girl she was possessing was wearing a coarse, short garment with many patches. She was clearly the daughter of a poor family.

Xie Qingzheng touched the patches on the clothes and remembered her childhood in Wen Family Village. When she had accidentally torn her clothes while playing, her aunty would also mend them for her.

A piece of clothing, mended and patched, could be worn for many years…

As she was lost in her memories, a voice suddenly exploded in her ear, “Hey, you, stay away from me. What if the lice on you jump onto me?”

Xie Qingzheng was taken aback for a moment and looked at Feng Lan, who had spoken.

Feng Lan was like a firecracker that would explode at the slightest touch. “What are you looking at? You’re not convinced?”

Xie Qingzheng withdrew her gaze.

Considering that the other was her savior, she didn’t argue that she was clean and had no lice. She just good-naturedly moved a little further away.

She moved next to Qing Luo, who seemed easier to get along with.

Qing Luo said apologetically, “Little sister, I’m sorry. Senior Sister Feng Lan is not a bad person. She’s just a bit of a clean freak.”

The girls next to her also chimed in to explain:

“That’s right, a young lady’s temper!”

“That’s right, not very polite!”

Xie Qingzheng: “…”

They had said all the good and bad things. What else could she say…

Xie Qingzheng sighed softly.

At this moment, she didn’t care if her savior’s temper was good or bad. She had met people with worse tempers than Feng Lan.

She was only worried that her master hadn’t appeared in time. Had she encountered some danger…

Feng Lan was still throwing a tantrum at the side, like a string of crackling firecrackers. “So annoying! We can’t even really kill them! As soon as we leave, those vile commoners will capture a living person to sacrifice to the river again! The government officials don’t even care!”

When mortals did evil, it was the government’s business to handle.

Cultivators of the Xuanmen could only exorcise evil spirits and could not kill wantonly, especially not mortals. Otherwise, not only would they be rejected by the righteous path, but they would also accumulate karma and incur the punishment of the Heavenly Dao, and might even fall into the demonic path, never to be redeemed.

Qing Luo sighed. “The world is in chaos now. There are rebellions everywhere. The various forces are busy fighting for territory. Who has time to care about these things?”

Feng Lan said angrily, “Are we supposed to stay here and guard them forever?”

Qing Luo sighed again. “This is our first time out for training. No matter what, we have to stop them from sacrificing a living person so that we can have something to report to the Manor Lord when we get back.”

They mentioned the Manor Lord. Xie Qingzheng thought of her Shenshang Sword and Yanyu Xiao, which were personally forged by the Manor Lord of Tianquan Manor…

Thinking of her weapons, Xie Qingzheng grew even more worried about Mo Jiangxue.

No, she had to go find her master.

She stood up and was about to say goodbye to the female cultivators when a group of villagers came menacingly through the forest towards them.

Some held torches, some carried firewood knives, and some carried hoes.

The few men in the lead had ferocious faces and roared, “You’ve gone too far!”

“So what if you’re cultivators? Does that give you the right to treat human life like grass?”

“There are many of us! Let’s fight those women! Make them pay with their lives!”

“Push them all off the cliff and sacrifice them to the River God!”

Hearing the commotion, the group stood up and, with a series of swishes, drew their longswords.

Xie Qingzheng had no sword in her hand. She picked up a tree branch and held it for self-defense.

What was going on?

Feng Lan flashed in front of her junior sisters and said proudly, “What are you all going crazy for? If you have a problem, come at me!”

The firelight was bright, and the surroundings were as bright as day. The villagers carried a waterlogged, pale male corpse and, with a thud, placed it in front of them, shouting in unison, “A life for a life!”

Feng Lan said angrily, “Who killed someone?”

A young man dressed as a scholar, holding an iron sword, stood at the very front and roared, “It was you who killed my big brother!”

His voice sounded familiar to Xie Qingzheng. She stood on her tiptoes and poked her head out from behind the group of female cultivators to look. She recognized the scholar as the younger of the Wu brothers who had abducted the girl during the day.

By the bright firelight, she examined the corpse on the ground.

The one who had died was the middle-aged man, the elder of the Wu brothers who had snatched the girl in a sack during the day.

This man was already sturdy. After drowning, his body had bloated, making him look much larger than when he was alive. He was still clutching a piece of waterweed in his hand, and his fingernails were filled with sand and mud. A light red foam oozed from his mouth and nose. His eyes were wide open, his eyeballs protruding, and his expression was one of extreme fear and pain.

The female cultivators, being slandered so indiscriminately by these vile commoners, all had ashen faces.

Feng Lan glanced at the corpse on the ground, her anger flaring. She said angrily, “This person clearly drowned. Don’t frame us!”

The flesh on the clan leader’s face trembled. He pointed at Feng Lan. “It was you who said during the day that you would throw all the men in our village into the river!”

Feng Lan cursed, “To your grandfather! Did I throw them? Aren’t you all still standing here just fine!”

The scholar continued to roar, “Then how did my big brother die? Would we harm our own people?”

Feng Lan rolled her eyes. “How should I know? I didn’t go to your house! Maybe he drank too much horse piss and fell into the river and drowned himself!”

Qing Luo took a step forward and stood shoulder to shoulder with Feng Lan, saying calmly, “The few of us have been here all this time. We really don’t know how he suddenly drowned, but I can guarantee that we, the people of Tianquan Manor, will absolutely not kill mortals lightly.”

Hearing Qing Luo’s explanation, the villagers not only did not understand, but because of the phrase “will not kill mortals lightly,” they became even more emboldened and retorted loudly, “You say you won’t, so you won’t? You are all cultivators, with so many tricks up your sleeves. Who knows if you used some kind of sorcery to make him jump into the river himself!”

The few men in the lead became even more indignant, waving the knives and farm tools in their hands and shouting, “A life for a life!”

“We are not to be trifled with!”

“If you won’t pay with your lives, we’ll fight you!”

The flickering firelight made their faces look particularly ferocious, as if they were three parts more terrifying than demons and ghosts.

Xie Qingzheng felt a wave of nausea. She never would have thought that there were such ignorant and indiscriminate people in this world.

She suddenly remembered the scene of her master playing the qin to summon souls in Wen Family Village and asked Qing Luo in a low voice, “Do you know how to summon souls? Since they don’t believe you, why don’t you summon his soul and confront him face to face?”

Her master could even talk to ghosts. Perhaps these cultivators could also do it.

Qing Luo said, “I do, but he died a violent death. His resentment is too strong, and he could easily turn into a vengeful ghost. I’m afraid that after I summon his soul, he will lose control and harm people.”

With that, she looked at Xie Qingzheng again, as if curious why an ordinary little girl with no spiritual energy was not afraid of dead bodies and even knew about summoning souls.

At this moment, Xie Qingzheng naturally had no time to explain much.

Feng Lan, hearing their conversation, suppressed her anger and said to the clan leader, “There are too many living people here. The yang energy is too strong, and it could easily trigger a corpse transformation! Once a corpse transformation occurs, there are only seven of us. We can’t take care of so many of you! Some of you go back, and a few brave ones stay here. I will summon his ghost, and we can all confront him face to face and ask him how he drowned!”

Cultivators could communicate with ghosts. There was no such thing as a death without evidence.

Some of the villagers, hearing that she was going to summon a soul, were afraid and looked at the clan leader.

The clan leader said in a loud voice, “Everyone, don’t leave! There are many of us! They are afraid!”

Her kindness was taken for granted. Feng Lan sneered and pointed her sword at the clan leader. “You really don’t know what’s good for you! Do you think I’m afraid of your numbers? Do you think I really don’t dare to kill you? Let alone the seven of us, even if it were just me, with one sword, I could kill everyone in your village, not even leaving a chicken or a dog!”

The clan leader was intimidated by this aura and couldn’t help but take a few steps back.

Qing Luo was startled and said in a low voice, “Senior Sister, watch your words.”

Words like killing everyone in a village were really not something a disciple of a righteous sect should say.

A cultivator of the Dao should abstain from greed and delusion, from anger and killing, from theft and licentiousness, and from speaking evil words.

If these words were heard by the elders of the sect, they would surely be furious.

Feng Lan said no more.

She was clearly the senior sister, yet she was always being disciplined by this junior sister.

Suddenly, a gloomy wind blew, and the flames in the forest swayed left and right twice, then all went out.

“Ding-ling-ling-ling—”

In the darkness, the wind chimes on the waists of the female cultivators rang.

Everyone’s expression changed.

The female cultivators moved swiftly, forming a circle back to back, protecting Xie Qingzheng in the center, and looked around with their swords.

This wind chime was a magical artifact. An ordinary wind would not make it sound, unless there was a ghost in the wind.

But they hadn’t summoned any souls yet. Where did the ghost come from?

A villager, thinking of Feng Lan’s words, was suddenly terrified and screamed, “It’s a ghost! They’ve summoned a ghost to kill us!”

Screams erupted. The villagers thought that Feng Lan had really summoned a ghost to kill them all, and they all threw down their torches and ran around like headless flies.

In the chaos, some pushed, some fell, some were trampled, some accidentally swung their firewood knives and injured their companions, and some, in their panic, even ran straight to the edge of the cliff, leaped, and jumped down.

In the darkness, screams, wails, and the sound of trampling were a mess. The smell of sweat, blood, and water mixed together.

Even though she was being protected, Xie Qingzheng couldn’t help but break out in a cold sweat.

She could hear everything clearly, smell everything clearly, but she didn’t know what was happening.

Qing Luo shouted, “Don’t panic! We didn’t summon any ghosts!”

Feng Lan lit a talisman, and a faint firelight once again illuminated the forest.

By the faint light, the crowd looked around and screamed again.

More than a third of the people in the forest were lying on the ground. Most of those still standing were women and children, their faces either terrified, dazed, or astonished.

The turn of events had happened in an instant, giving no one time to react. When the women and children saw the tragic scene of bodies everywhere and blood flowing on the ground, they were so scared they collapsed to the ground.

Some had been trampled to death, their bodies unrecognizable. Some had been accidentally killed by their companions, their bodies still gushing blood. Some had jumped off the cliff and had been washed away by the river, never to be seen again…

The smell of blood filled the air. Xie Qingzheng looked at the bodies on the ground, and her stomach churned.

If only Master were here at this moment…

She turned her gaze away, leaned against a tree, and endured and endured before she could suppress the urge to vomit. With trembling lips, she whispered a reminder to Qing Luo beside her, “There’s an unusual smell of water here. It appeared suddenly when the fire went out…”

Author’s Note:

Xie: I miss Master… Why hasn’t Master come yet? Did she encounter some danger…

Mo: Watching the show…