Uncanny Immortal 52p1

Chapter 52 p1

Her tone was still serious, but with a hint of mockery.

The voice that came to her ear was low and magnetic. Her ear was a little itchy, a little numb. Xie Qingzheng rubbed her ear, was silent for a moment, and with a desire to test her, she asked Mo Jiangxue, “Master, for her to marry her own disciple, is that considered… immoral?”

She hoped that her master would, as before, say something like “it’s nothing strange.”

But Mo Jiangxue was silent.

In the silence, time seemed to suddenly slow down. Xie Qingzheng didn’t know what she would say, but she could vaguely feel that she did not approve of this behavior.

Her heart was open and magnanimous. She did not look at the black and white of the righteous and evil, or same-sex intimacy, with an either/or attitude, but with a tolerant heart to enlighten and guide. Her silence now actually represented a subtle attitude of opposition.

However, she rarely made negative comments about anyone or anything, even if the other party was on the opposing side, a demonic cult that everyone shouted to be killed.

Mo Jiangxue did not speak, so Xie Qingzheng did not press for an answer.

The country path was winding and twisting. Xie Qingzheng led the donkey by the reins, her eyes lowered, walking at a leisurely pace.

What was she expecting?

She had her own delusional thoughts, and not only had she not completely given up, but she also secretly hoped that the other would, like her, respond to her perverse and twisted feelings.

How despicable.

She was ashamed of her own thoughts.

But Mo Jiangxue suddenly said, “Look, there are sheep ahead.”

Xie Qingzheng looked up and indeed saw a few sheep grazing in a patch of lush green grass.

She led the donkey and was about to walk on, but the green donkey brayed a few times and refused to go any further.

“It’s hungry and wants to eat grass.” Mo Jiangxue got off the donkey’s back and sat down by a tree. “You can go and play too.”

Xie Qingzheng, on one hand, said, “Master, you look like you’re herding sheep.” On the other hand, she trotted over and led the donkey to eat grass.

The few sheep were probably raised by someone and were not afraid of people. Xie Qingzheng went over and petted them a couple of times, then walked back to the tree to accompany Mo Jiangxue.

Dark clouds rolled in from the horizon, as if it were about to rain again.

Before long, an old and a young villager came over to drive the sheep back to the pen.

The younger one said, “Serving these few sheep is like serving a master. When they’re hungry, you have to bring them to eat grass. When it rains, you have to personally come and take them home.”

The older one spat, “When you were a child and had no milk to drink, you grew up on goat’s milk. You should call them ‘Mother’!”

Xie Qingzheng, sitting under the tree, couldn’t help but smile when she heard this conversation.

She remembered that Sect Master Xie had said that when she was a child and had no milk to drink and was crying from hunger, she had gone and caught a goat to milk for her.

Although she didn’t remember these things, hearing the familiar conversation, the image of Sect Master Xie couldn’t help but appear in her mind.

She had known since she was seven or eight that she had no mother. Later, her aunty had taken care of her, and she had regarded her aunty as her own mother. And then her aunty had also left her…

After she had left the mountain and had seen mortal mothers and daughters, she would occasionally wonder what it would be like to be loved by a mother all her life. If her mother were still alive and saw her now, what would she feel?

When she had said her goodbyes to Xie Youke, she had really wanted to ask her, “Seeing the child you once raised grow up and appear before you, what do you feel in your heart?” But in the end, she was too embarrassed to ask.

Memories can be forgotten, but feelings for a person do not change.

Although she was very unhappy with Sect Master Xie’s indifferent attitude of “if you die, you die” towards her master, she still had a familiar and close feeling for Sect Master Xie…

Xie Qingzheng sat under the tree, pulled a blade of green grass, and wrapped it around her fingertip a few times. She asked Mo Jiangxue, “Master, why do you think Sect Master Xie wanted me to stay at the Xuanji Sect back then?”

Mo Jiangxue thought for a moment and said frankly, “The Tianshu Sect has a sect rule that the children of disciples who have been expelled from the sect cannot join the Tianshu Sect again.”

Xie Qingzheng shook her head. “What does that mean? On one hand, Sect Master Xie says that I have no blood relation with Xie Fuyun, and on the other hand, she sees me as Xie Fuyun’s daughter and won’t let me enter the Tianshu Sect. It’s a contradiction.”

Mo Jiangxue saw it clearly. “It’s not a contradiction. She is protecting you.”

Xie Qingzheng: “Hm?”

Mo Jiangxue: “Sect Master Xiao and Peak Master Mu and the others can all recognize you as Xie Fuyun’s daughter. If you were to go to the Tianshu Sect, your situation would only be more difficult.”

Xie Qingzheng thought for a moment, and it seemed to make sense.

Sect Master Wangqing and Xie Fuyun were old friends. Sect Master Xie probably felt that with Sect Master Wangqing looking after her, her days in the Xuanji Sect would not be too difficult.

If it weren’t for the fact that the Tianxuan Sword had injured Elder Mu three years ago, the Sect Master would also have planned to take her as a disciple.

She raised her hand and touched the cinnabar mark on her forehead, and suddenly remembered the words on the Buddha statue in Qingjia Town:

[The one who refined the corpse poison is Xiao Wangqing.]

Xie Qingzheng said wistfully, “I wonder who left the words on that Buddha statue…”

Mo Jiangxue shook her head. “I can’t think of it either.”

Xie Qingzheng suddenly said gloomily, “It’s over. My thoughts are no longer pure.”

Mo Jiangxue glanced at her sideways.

She said, “Before I left the mountain, I only thought that someone was slandering the Sect Master. Now, I feel that the human heart is unpredictable. Could it be that someone is reminding us to be wary of Sect Master Wangqing?”

“And there’s another strange thing. When I saw Sect Master Xie this time, a sense of familiarity welled up in my heart. Later, Sect Master Xie came to see me and said those words, which confirmed that I had seen her when I was a child.”

“Then I remembered that when I entered the Xuanji Sect at the age of fourteen, I also had a strong sense of familiarity when I saw the Sect Master.”

“I must have also seen the Sect Master when I was a child, but from the Sect Master’s performance, it felt as if she had never seen me before, that that year was the first time she had seen me.”

Mo Jiangxue said coolly, “You suspect her?”

Xie Qingzheng said, “It’s not really a suspicion. It’s just that with Sect Master Xie as a comparison, there is a subtle feeling.”

If she had really met the Sect Master when she was a child, why had the Sect Master never taken the initiative to mention it?

Usually, when an elder saw a junior who had grown up, they would at least say a few words of greeting, like “you were like this when you were a child.” But the Sect Master had not said a word.

Xie Qingzheng: “Forget it. Let’s not talk about this for now.”

The more she said it, the more she felt that something was not right. But the Sect Master was clearly a very good person. She was gentle and elegant, and her dealings were measured. She pitied the poor and the weak and led by example. More than half of the orphan girls in the Xuanji Sect had been brought back by her. She taught the cultivators of the Xuanji Sect to exorcise evil for the people, but she never took a single cent from the poor…

Thinking of money, Xie Qingzheng touched her empty waist and was startled. “Master, all the money you gave me is gone!”

Mo Jiangxue was about to take out some more money for her, but when she touched her sleeve, her hands were empty.

She glanced at her sideways. “I have no money either.”

“It’s still more than a thousand li to the Miao region. Are we going to have to sleep in the wilderness again?” After sleeping in a soft bed for a few days, she really didn’t want to continue to lie in the wilderness. She rummaged through her brocade pouch and found a pile of talismans and pills. She then said with relief, “Good, good. I just got a lot of treasures from the senior sisters. When we get to a crowded place, I’ll go and sell some talismans and pills for money…”

“Let’s go. That donkey is full.” Mo Jiangxue stood up and, without waiting for Xie Qingzheng to chatter, leaped onto the donkey’s back.

Traveling from the north to the southwest, for three days, they rode the donkey and walked during the day, and camped out in the wilderness at night. On the fourth day, they passed by a town, and Xie Qingzheng sold the talismans and pills to some rogue cultivators in the jianghu in exchange for some silver.

Mo Jiangxue’s body had mostly recovered. Xie Qingzheng boarded the donkey at an inn and stroked its ears, saying, “We’re going to fly to the Miao region on our swords next. It’s not convenient to take you with us. When I come back from the Miao region, I’ll come and take you to the Xuanji Sect.”

There were a few rogue cultivators sitting in this inn. When Xie Qingzheng was discussing the matter of boarding the green donkey with the shop assistant, she heard the few rogue cultivators mention the name “Cloud Melody, Flowing Frost.”

After listening intently for a moment, she found that those people were not talking about her master, but about her and Mu Zifu:

“That first disciple of hers, she’s something. She went with Lady Yunshao to offer condolences to the Manor Lord of Tianquan Manor, and she ended up getting into a dispute with their young manor lord and cut off his head!”

“Tsk, tsk, so fierce and aggressive at such a young age. What will she become in the future!”

“That’s not right. I heard it wasn’t her who killed him, but Mu Qingdai’s biological sister.”

“It was the two of them who killed him together! I heard that their senior and junior sister relationship is good, and they teamed up to kill him! That day, the people of the Xuanji Sect and Tianquan Manor started fighting! Xiao Wangqing of the Xuanji Sect rushed to Tianquan Manor overnight to rescue them!”

“Lady Yunshao is as clear as the wind and as bright as the moon. How could she have taught such a disciple?”

“This is a bad shoot from a good bamboo!”

Xie Qingzheng was not wearing the black and white Daoist robe of the Xuanji Sect today. She was wearing a new, light crimson dress she had bought. She stood at the counter, her hand on her forehead, her face turning red and then white.

How could the rumors be so outrageous?!

She had gone to Tianquan Manor and had not gained a single good reputation, but had instead shared the reputation of being a fierce and aggressive murderer with Mu Zifu!

And they even said that she and Mu Zifu had a good relationship. Bah! Who wanted to have a good relationship with that kind of person!

The rogue cultivators continued to chat:

“If it weren’t for the massacre that happened at Tianquan Manor later, who knows how it would have ended.”

“Could it be that the massacre was also the work of the people of the Xuanji Sect?”

“That’s not it. Now that Tianquan Manor has been taken over by the Tianshu Sect, can’t you guess who did it?”

“Maybe the people of the Xuanji Sect killed the young manor lord under the orders of a certain sect master. It’s not impossible for the two families to have teamed up.”

“Sect Master Xie’s ambition is as clear as day!”

“A snake trying to swallow an elephant. There will be more excitement to watch in the future! Today it’s Tianquan Manor. Who knows who will be next?”

…

She and Mu Zifu had shared the reputation of killing Yun Tang, and the mastermind behind the massacre of Tianquan Manor had been pinned on Xie Youke.

Xie Qingzheng flicked her sleeve and returned to her room. She found Mo Jiangxue and cried with grievance, “They’re talking nonsense!”

Mo Jiangxue listened quietly and hummed in acknowledgment. “They’re talking nonsense.”

Xie Qingzheng asked for instructions, “Can I go down and teach them a lesson?”

Mo Jiangxue raised an eyebrow slightly. “A cultivator of the Dao should not be fierce and aggressive. Go back to your room and rest.”

Xie Qingzheng let out a soft snort, swallowed her anger, and went back to her room to meditate and practice.

When she woke up the next day, she heard a clamor of voices in the inn’s hall.

What happened?

She opened the door and looked down at the hall. She saw that the few rogue cultivators who had been gossiping yesterday had been hung from the beams of the hall by someone. Their hands and feet were tied behind their backs with immortal-binding ropes, and they had been put under a silencing spell, unable to say a word, only staring with wide eyes, swinging back and forth in mid-air.

The onlookers whispered, “How did they get hung up here?”

“I don’t know. They must have offended someone.”

“Who did it?” A cultivator said, “They said bad things about the Xuanji Sect and the Tianshu Sect yesterday. The one who retaliated is either from the Xuanji Sect or the Tianshu Sect!”

Xie Qingzheng felt a secret joy.

This was a quick retribution for their loose talk. She wondered which righteous person had done it.

The door to the next room opened, and Mo Jiangxue walked out.

She was dressed in white, with a white veiled hat. Her Ninth Heaven Qin and Flowing Frost Xiao were both wrapped in white cloth, concealing her identity.

Xie Qingzheng pulled her to watch the excitement. She glanced at them and said lightly, “Let’s go. We still have to travel.”

Xie Qingzheng followed behind her, her tone joyful. “Master, Master, who do you think did it?”

Mo Jiangxue: “In any case, it wasn’t you.”

Xie Qingzheng smiled brightly, her eyes flowing. “But I guessed it was you.”

Mo Jiangxue glanced at her, did not reply, and flew into the sky on her sword.