Chapter 54: Exhausting All Schemes Part 2

Zhang Qingshui fell silent for a long time after hearing this before saying slowly, “If possible, I still want to protect Wang Ya.”

Zhang Han gave Zhang Qingshui a “you’re dreaming” look and asked, “Why protect her?”

Zhang Qingshui said, “I have my concerns. If we don’t leave Wang Ya a way out, any slip-up and she’ll go all out against us—I’ll be the first to suffer, along with Little Qi. Little Aunt, you haven’t seen her methods or that evil streak. I still shudder thinking about it now.”

Zhang Han asked, “Isn’t she evil enough like this?”

Zhang Qingshui scoffed lightly and said, “Not even close! Before she had this Demonic Power, she forced Ghost Granny, who was possessing the Underground Yin Vein, out and beat her physical body to destruction, leaving her Divine Soul clinging to the Ebony Staff to escape. The night Ghost Granny abducted Little Qi’s soul, Wang Ya demanded Little Qi’s Birth Chart and summoned her soul right back. After stepping into the Yellow Springs and gaining the Yellow Springs Other Shore Flower Demon’s Demonic Power, she became utterly evil. Everyone she dragged into the Yellow Springs with her died by her hand except me, Old Tang, Little Qi, and Wang Cheng’an. In the Underground Palace, all those fierce ghosts and vicious souls from hundreds or thousands of years old—she devoured them all.” She briefly recounted the experiences in the Yellow Springs and Underground Palace to Zhang Han, whose face paled as she listened.

Zhang Qingshui said, “So Little Aunt, that’s why I insisted you come take Little Qi back—it’s too dangerous.”

Zhang Han exclaimed, “No way, I need to get Big Brother to pull you back.”

“Little Aunt! I’m already riding a tiger now—there’s no one more suitable than me. If I withdraw, they’ll send someone else after Wang Ya, capture Wang Cheng’an, seize the Yin Spirit Scroll, and the Zhang Family will still be the vanguard breaking the Feng Family’s setups. Without Wang Ya leading, we’ll take the brunt, with casualties we can’t even imagine. Wang Ya has demonic traits, but she’s still human for now, with her human consciousness dominant. In the Underground Palace, even in her demonizing state, she protected us to leave and stayed alone to deal with that Ferocious Creature in the Ink Jade Coffin. Whether for the Corpse Dan in it or not, she could have ignored our lives or avenged the Feng Family by killing us there—but she didn’t. Protecting Wang Ya now is protecting ourselves. Withdrawing now costs too much—we can’t afford it.” Zhang Qingshui said, “Little Aunt, I can’t withdraw, but Little Qi doesn’t need to risk it with us.”

Zhang Han thought for a moment and said, “Let Little Qi stay with you two sisters—you can look out for each other. Without her, I won’t feel easy about you.”

Zhang Qingshui said gravely, “Little Aunt!”

Zhang Han’s attitude was firm, unyielding.

Zhang Qingshui knew her Little Aunt’s temperament and that she couldn’t persuade her, so she muttered sullenly, “Should’ve never called you—should’ve just sent Little Qi straight back to the Zhang Family Old Residence.”

Zhang Han ignored Zhang Qingshui’s muttering completely; she knew these two little ones too well. If Qingshui could send Little Qi away, she would have already—no need to drag her here. Having come this trip, she had a measure in her heart. She told Zhang Qingshui that after seeing Old Tang, she’d go find her big brother. Her big brother wasn’t at ease with the situation here and had specifically sent her to check. Wang Ya’s situation was thornier than expected. She suspected that child from the Wang Family had been gone since birth—Feng Yuqin had raised the Yellow Springs Other Shore Flower Demon after her Body Seizure and rebirth. The hardest part was that this flower demon was a Twin-Born Demon; that Yellow Springs Other Shore Leaf Demon rooted in the Yellow Springs and connected to the Three Realms was the real big trouble.

Wang Ya came straight back to her room from Zhang Qingshui’s. What Zhang Qingshui said carried too much information; she couldn’t digest it all at once and couldn’t tell what was credible or not. Zhang Qingshui’s every sentence had basis, impossible to refute but not fully believable either. Regardless of truth or falsehood, as long as she found Grandma, everything would have answers. How long had she even known Zhang Qingshui? The Zhang Family had a blood feud with the Feng Family—would Zhang Qingshui risk so much just for a Ghost Pill? Though unskilled in divination, her grandma had taught her from childhood that actions required input-output ratios; there was no free lunch in the world, no one pays without reason. Wang Ya believed Zhang Qingshui wanted the Ghost Pill to save Huang Qi as a side matter; what they truly sought was in the Yin Spirit Scroll, including the Xuanmen Orthodox Sects Zhang Qingshui mentioned. They weren’t moving against her now because they wanted to use her, the inheritor of the Feng Family Inheritance, to vanguard for them.

Wang Ya thought the two most important things right now were: first, figure out what exactly the Feng Family hid in the Yin Spirit Scroll that so many coveted; second, find her grandma, and all doubts would resolve.

Wang Ya took the Yin Spirit Scroll from her small carry-on bag. She figured with her current full body of Demonic Power, she might suppress the evils in the Yin Spirit Scroll, and since the ancient bronze coin suppressed her anyway, she didn’t use it to suppress her body. She placed the Yin Spirit Scroll on the desk and slowly unrolled it.

From the outside, the Yin Spirit Scroll still swirled with faint Yin Qi as before. With her current body full of chilling Demonic Aura, touching the Yin Spirit Scroll didn’t feel as cold as before.

As the Yin Spirit Scroll unrolled, Wang Ya noticed something unusual: the Yin Qi inside didn’t thicken with the unfolding, no shadows of Yin Spirits appeared, and even after fully unrolling, not a single Yin Soul emerged. The Lost Souls and Ghosts inside seemed to have vanished entirely; the scroll’s surface had changed too, becoming a vivid ink landscape painting. Mountains rose and fell in the painting, great rivers wound like a hidden dragon with majestic momentum. Scattered artistically were markers resembling palace buildings, each with tiny characters beside them—so small Wang Ya had to nearly lie on the scroll to make them out, barely larger than pinpricks; they seemed to be place names. Wang Ya spotted “Myriad Coffins Azure Dragon Palace” next to one palace marker. She saw several paths connected to the “Myriad Coffins Azure Dragon Palace”; carefully discerning, one was the path they took from underground to leave. Above the “Myriad Coffins Azure Dragon Palace” was another path, its direction depicted with patterns extremely like the Yellow Springs Road. Directly below the Myriad Coffins Azure Dragon Palace was another path leading to a simple house marker, with one path to its left painted with people and one to the right with ghosts—the people and ghosts on the painting going opposite ways.