GB Chapter 8

In the year Zhuge Qingtian died, a new county magistrate named Zhu San came to Zhu Jiaji. Unlike previous magistrates, he was a Body Refinement stage cultivator who claimed his ancestors were from Zhu Jiaji. He had requested this post specifically to return to his homeland. The villagers saw that this new magistrate was kind to everyone, was from the same village, and even remembered the names of all the common folk in the town despite being an official. When they met, he greeted them warmly. They believed him to be a benevolent lord, quickly accepting and trusting him implicitly.

Therefore, when Zhu San claimed that Zhuge Qingtian, who had been frustrated his whole life, had turned into a vengeful spirit after death, the villagers, who had never encountered such supernatural events, panicked immediately. In their eyes, the county magistrate was powerful enough to shatter the hardest rocks on the mountain with a single hand. If even he couldn’t deal with the vengeful ghost, it must be extremely easy for it to harm them. Thus, they sent the most fiery young widow in the town to appease it.

Under the magistrate’s guidance, they grew accustomed to finding fault with other people’s daughters. Every time they sacrificed one, they would pin all sorts of crimes on her, comforting themselves that she was a bad woman, and it was her good fortune to trade her life for the safety of the whole village.

However, unlike the ignorant villagers, a merchant named Qi, who had moved from out of town, knew there were many powerful immortals in the world. Although he also believed in ghosts, he posted a notice seeking help when he went out to visit relatives. And this one cry for help was seen by Fu Hongye, a Xuanmen disciple who was undergoing training.

The Xuanmen elders had always told their disciples not to act alone when they were righting injustices, but this small town was so remote that it would take at least seven days for his fellow disciples to arrive. Fu Hongye, concerned that lives were at stake, entered Zhu Jiaji alone.

He found the inn where Qi was staying according to the address left on the notice, but there, he encountered the excited magistrate Zhu San. Despite the ghost sacrifice, the villagers still had not doubted Zhu San. When they saw the magistrate, whom the people loved, tearfully imploring Fu Hongye to subdue the vengeful ghost and save them from the disaster, Fu Hongye naturally went to the burial grounds immediately.

As a Xuanmen disciple, he did not believe a vengeful spirit would appear in such a small place. But he didn’t expect that the vengeful ghost would be so powerful that it could even resist the righteous aura of the Xuanmen. He could only return to the inn to recover, planning to wait for his fellow disciples to arrive before making further plans.

This was Fu Hongye’s first training trip since he turned eighteen. He had met pitiful villagers who had been harmed, a passionate and benevolent magistrate, and an opponent who required all his strength to fight, just like the stories he had imagined. Even though he knew that the vengeful ghost was extraordinary, he did not retreat. He only told the innkeeper not to send anyone for sacrifice and that he would try his best to eliminate the ghost and protect the people.

The innkeeper was very excited by his words and prepared a table full of good food to show his gratitude. Although Fu Hongye had reached the stage where he didn’t need to eat, he could not refuse the hospitality and happily ate it, even though the village food was much worse than the Xuanmen’s diet. He thought that this was only the beginning of his heroic journey, but he didn’t expect it to be the end of his road.

No one knew that this Zhu San was originally a child trafficker. In his early years, he would go to remote towns to abduct women and children to sell in other places. Later, he hooked up with several demonic cultivators and would find women to use as cauldrons for them in exchange for cultivation techniques. After He Huan returned to the Xuanmen, the demonic cultivators lost their backing and did not dare to cause trouble again. Zhu San’s cultivation had stagnated at the Body Refinement stage. He was very unwilling to accept this. After searching for a long time, he finally hooked up with a small demonic sect and obtained a disciple position by offering cauldrons. He then spent money to buy an official position and came to Zhu Jiaji, a place without cultivators, to find his prey.

In this era where the righteous path was flourishing, Zhu San’s ability to survive for so long was based on his skill in understanding people’s hearts. As soon as he heard about Zhuge Qingtian, he knew it was a ready-made cover. As the saying goes, “If you have done no wrong, you will not fear ghosts knocking at your door at night.” The villagers of Zhu Jiaji may not say it, but they knew in their hearts that they had not treated Zhuge Qingtian well and were highly likely to be retaliated against. When people felt guilty, they became afraid of ghosts. They were indeed frightened by Zhu San and obediently sent the girls to him as offerings.

How could Zhu San be willing to leave such a good place? As early as when Fu Hongye arrived, he had already tied up Qi’s wife and children, using them as a threat to make Qi drug the Xuanmen disciple with sleeping pills. Then he took the opportunity to kill this troublesome righteous path disciple, sending even his corpse to the demonic cultivator sect, dealing with it without leaving any trace.

Afterwards, Zhu San told the villagers that the chivalrous man had left because he couldn’t beat the ghost, so the vengeful spirit was very angry. If anyone leaked the news, he would kill their whole family first.

At that time, he acted as if he was always concerned for the people, and pleaded, “The righteous path heroes cannot stay in Zhu Jiaji forever. Once they leave, the vengeful spirit will return and the ones who suffer will be us ordinary people. We should endure it. Anyway, women can’t do much farm work or earn money. When a family sacrifices their daughter, each family will contribute some money as compensation, just treat it as if the girl is married off.”

In recent years, the Xuanmen had sent out a large number of disciples to travel the world. Many young people were worrying that they could not find a way to make a name for themselves. Therefore, if a woman went missing in a big city like Gusu, seven or eight righteous path young heroes would probably appear the next day to rescue her. Zhu San did not dare to provoke those powerful figures.

Fortunately, Zhu Jiaji had been closed off for many years and didn’t know the changes happening in the outside world. Their world was still stuck in the past. They believed that their own people were the only ones they could trust, and those powerful figures in big cities would not sincerely do anything for them. Under Zhu San’s persuasion, they were all afraid that the vengeful spirit would cause trouble for their families, so they focused on protecting themselves and told the Xuanmen disciples who came looking for Fu Hongye that this young hero had left after eliminating the ghost, thus burying everything.

After that, Zhu San colluded with bandits from outside the city and completely blocked off Zhu Jiaji, using the place as his base for producing cauldrons. Ten years passed silently like this.

That was the whole truth. In fact, Zhu San was also a formidable character. He had been able to understand everyone’s thoughts so thoroughly. Even though he was only a half-way Body Refinement stage rogue cultivator, he killed Fu Hongye, who came from a prominent family, without a fight.

Perhaps this was why the Xuanmen required their disciples not to act alone. They had spent many years acting righteously in the world and had long seen through people’s hearts. They clearly knew that the people you wanted to save with your life might not be willing to risk their lives to save you. Most of the time, the people they wanted to protect would only hide fearfully behind the Xuanmen cultivators. Even though it was a matter of their own lives, they were unwilling to make any sacrifices, hoping that someone else would solve everything for them. When danger arose, they would retreat. This was the majority of people in the world.

The praise and offerings of mortals were of little use to cultivators. Qian Ren still didn’t understand why righteous path cultivators would fight for these useless things. Even when he was eighteen, he would never have taken such a risk as Fu Hongye, to save an extra mortal woman. However, he also didn’t need to understand the righteous path cultivators. All he had to do was complete his mission.

Lowering his eyes to look at the blood letter in his hand, which clearly wrote down all the truth, Qian Ren casually raised his hand. The county magistrate, who had been kneeling at his feet begging for mercy, was completely torn apart. Blood stained the entire wall red. Only his head was looking at this black-clad man who seemed to have just swatted a mosquito with resentment, “You tricked me…”

“Oh right, I seem to have said that I wouldn’t kill you if you wrote this blood letter…”

Casually sticking the blood letter on the wall, Qian Ren paid no attention to the resentful gaze from the corpse. He stepped on the head and crushed it. A wisp of demonic energy surged from his fingertip, instantly devouring the person’s soul completely. Only then did he coldly smile, “You believed a demon cultivator’s words? Idiot.”

Qian Ren was not like Fu Hongye, a novice in the world. Once he struck, he would cut the weeds and eliminate the roots, leaving no future trouble. After confirming that this place had been cleaned up, he looked up at the mourning bird that was perched on the official government gate plaque, “Fu Hongye, your enemy is dead. Give me the head.”

Fu Hongye’s corpse had been offered by Zhu San to the demonic cultivators. Fortunately, he was somewhat of a Golden Core stage cultivator, so although he could not escape, he had turned his spirit into a mourning bird. He had flown back and was waiting for a new cultivator to arrive while roaming outside Zhu Jiaji daily. At this moment, the large bird covered in blood-red feathers was holding Zhuge Qingtian’s head, its pair of bloodshot eyes still staring at Qian Ren. In its sight was a road flowing with blood, which set off the four large words “Bright Mirror Hanging High” on the plaque behind it in an inexplicably ironic way.

Looking at the mourning bird with confusion, which was still flapping its wings at him despite the death of its enemy, Qian Ren finally followed it. With his cultivation level, as soon as he touched the ground, he realized that something was wrong. He struck downward and indeed discovered an underground chamber with several young women with terrified expressions inside.

It was at this moment that Qian Ren suddenly remembered Zhuge Qingtian saying that he had killed a lot of bandits. He guessed that Zhu San must have sensed the presence of the vengeful spirit and became afraid, not daring to go out alone. He had been keeping the girls he had collected these past few months here. But seeing that the mourning bird had finally obediently put Zhuge Qingtian’s head at his feet, Qian Ren still couldn’t help but ask, “You led me here just to save them?”

What kind of ghost a person becomes after death completely depends on the resentment they felt when they died. It wasn’t unexpected that a righteous path hero like Fu Hongye would turn into a harmless mourning bird after his death. Qian Ren just didn’t expect that, after experiencing such exploitation and betrayal, this young man’s obsession after death was still to save the victimized women of Zhu Jiaji.

“I just think that if the oath I was willing to defend with my life had become empty words before it had even started, then I wouldn’t be able to rest in peace.”

As if guessing his doubts, with a light sigh, the feathers on the blood-red bird gradually fell off, turning into a young boy in white with a naive face. This was Fu Hongye, the most talented outer sect disciple in the Xuanmen.

Fu Hongye’s journey in the martial world began with his ambition to be a hero, saving people all over the world. However, it had ended as soon as he had taken the first step. Such things were common in the martial world. No matter how ambitious and talented you were, with just one accident, a life that could have broken through the sky and roamed freely in all corners of the world would end midway. The early years of venturing into the world were the most beautiful memories for a cultivator, but they were also the period when it was easiest to die. Fu Hongye was just one of the unlucky ones.

His kindness and trust had killed him, but even so, he still wanted to use this ugly mourning bird form to bring a perfect ending to his first attempt at being a hero.

At this moment, the young man, who had died at the best age, firmly clasped his fists towards the black-clothed man in front of him, just like how he had looked when he left his sect, “Thank you, for fulfilling what I couldn’t do.”

Qian Ren had killed many people over the years, but it was the first time anyone had said words of thanks to him. But he was not like this young man. He was not doing it out of chivalry. He only didn’t like Zhu San’s behavior, so he removed the person who had gotten on his nerves. However, it was somewhat abnormal that he, a demonic cultivator, would be dissatisfied with such behavior.

It was only at this moment that Qian Ren suddenly understood the true intention of He Huan sending him here. Perhaps more than Zhu Jiaji, he wanted his disciple to meet Fu Hongye.

This master of his, even now, was still thinking of making this demonic cultivator believe that there was still a beautiful side to the world. He was really a headache of a willful elder.

The author has something to say:

He Huan: In order to save my disciple, I have decided to send him a pure and upright wife.

Zhuge Qingtian: Father-in-law, are you talking about me?

He Huan: Wait? Who are you? Where’s the Fu Hongye I arranged? What the heck happened to my righteous and demonic marriage plan?

Zhuge Qingtian: I don’t care, I am the protagonist, and the wife is already mine!

Qian Ren (coldly): The eligible demonic cultivator who has been single for sixty-eight years and was tricked into going on a blind date does not want to speak.