IS Chapter 45
by VolareThe crying and cursing finally subsided. Zheng Niangzi and Song Shusheng sat on either side of a long bench in the shop. Zheng Niangzi stared blankly ahead, while Song Shusheng wiped away tears with reddened eyes.
“The one who cheated me out of the most money those few days was a ragged old Daoist. He carried a fortune-telling banner. I’d never seen him in town before, probably just passing through.”
“I passed by the porridge shop when I went to get medicine. He was begging for porridge there and called me over.” Song Shusheng’s voice was particularly hoarse. “He said I was surrounded by dark energy, meaning there must be some misfortune in my family. He also said he had an ancestral talisman that could bring the dead back to life and wanted to exchange it for my gold and silver treasures.”
“So I took the treasures from home and gave them to him. He gave me a yellow talisman, telling me to soak it in my own blood and bury it three chi three cun deep under the old locust tree in town.”
Zheng Niangzi: “You really are unbelievably foolish.”
“But I buried it the night before yesterday, and you woke up the next morning, madam. Maybe he wasn’t cheating me.”
Ye Zhuo remained expressionless.
Going down the mountain, he had already unwillingly watched a drama of a devoted man and his resentful wife. Now he had to dig in the dirt.
He had no desire to do it himself, so he watched Li Yuan, who, despite being a sword cultivator, showed no respect for the bones of the ancestors, digging under the locust tree with his dragon bone sword. Feng Jiang also grabbed a shovel and helped to dig.
At least, he had never used his Reverse Scale Sword for such a thing.
“Found it.” Li Yuan said quickly.
With that, the tip of his sword lifted a talisman into his hand. The bloodstains on it had already turned brown. When held up to the light, one could see strange talismans drawn all over it.
He showed it to Ye Zhuo.
The talismans were messy and complex, and he couldn’t understand their meaning, only sensing a bottomless depth.
Ye Zhuo’s fingertip ignited a flame, and the talisman “chī” was instantly set ablaze.
“Are you going to burn it?” Feng Jiang asked weakly, “Aren’t you going to take it back and show it to Wei Sheng?”
“I memorized it.” Ye Zhuo said.
Li Yuan: “I memorized it too.”
Feng Jiang: “…Okay.”
As they spoke, the entire talisman was instantly engulfed by crimson fiendish flames, turning into ashes and dissipating.
In that instant, Ye Zhuo felt that the town’s gloomy, turbid air seemed to dissipate a little.
With a clear ring, the Reverse Scale Sword was unsheathed.
But it wasn’t going to slash at anyone—the tip of the sword suddenly plunged into the ground, and the sword energy collided with the earth, transforming into continuous clear light, instantly rippling out in all directions.
At that moment, everyone saw a clear light like frost and snow swiftly pass through their bodies and rush into the distance.
The tangible sword energy passed through everything. The flowers and plants in the fields swayed slightly, and even the utensils on the shelves emitted a slight hum. Due to the different materials, there were slight differences in the humming sounds.
The sword energy stretched for a hundred li before dissipating.
Ye Zhuo leaned on his sword, his eyes slightly closed, his gaze seemingly following the sword light into the distance.
In the collision of sword energy and external objects, everything in the entire town and the distant, continuous mountains and fields, from the inside to the outside, appeared vividly in his mind.
Li Yuan watched this scene with great interest.
A sword cultivator in the Tribulation Transcending stage was not only stronger when he was cutting people.
When his sword was in his hand, even this world seemed to take him as its master. His limit was only at the farthest point that the sword energy could reach.
“Ten li southeast on the hillside, the ancestral hall in the northwest, and under the entrance archway.” Soon, Ye Zhuo briefly stated three locations.
They went to each location in turn and indeed found a similar blood-soaked talisman at each place. After burning them one by one, they immediately felt that the atmosphere in the town had become much clearer.
That a living soul, clearly dead, could reattach itself to a body must be the result of these talismans. A place where mortals gathered had births, old age, sickness, and death every day. If more of these were buried in the four directions of the town, who knew how many more ghostly incidents would be triggered.
With the Qingming Festival approaching, there were indeed people making ghosts.
But how much impact would the incident in the town have on Micro-Snow Palace itself?
Feng Jiang: “These must have all been buried by that fortune-telling Daoist to deceive the townspeople. Do you want to investigate his whereabouts?”
Ye Zhuo’s gaze was extremely calm.
“Just a pawn, he’s already escaped.” His voice was crisp and neat. “Return to the mountain and wake Wei Sheng up.”
An ordinary closed-door cultivation wasn’t a death seclusion; a few shakes would wake him up.
Wei Sheng Xian was really busy. Li Yuan followed Ye Zhuo as he turned around and walked out of the town.
—They saw Zheng Guanyin and Song Shusheng holding hands tightly, waiting for them on the only road out of town.
Song Shusheng stepped forward and bowed solemnly, “Thank you, three Immortal Masters, for clearing away the clouds and mists for my wife and me, allowing us to see the truth.”
Zheng Guanyin also smiled and thanked them, “Thank you, Immortal Masters, for leaving me my remaining body and telling me my time limit.”
Song Shusheng: “In the next ten days, my wife and I will only stay behind closed doors, loving and cherishing each other, properly arranging our own affairs, and we will never bring disaster to our neighbors. Immortal Masters, please rest assured.”
The two of them were blocking the road, and Ye Zhuo couldn’t go any further.
Quietly looking at Song Shusheng, Ye Zhuo said to him, “She will rot.”
Song Shusheng tightly grasped Zheng Guanyin’s right hand, which had already begun to show faint blue spots, and solemnly said, “Immortal Master, my predestined relationship with her was originally exhausted in life, but now, after death, being able to spend a little time together is the greatest happiness of my life. She is my wife, and no matter what she becomes, I will regard her body as my own. I will hold her hand and accompany her to the end of her days.”
The sorrow in Zheng Guanyin’s eyes disappeared in an instant, and she returned to her cheerful smile, “If that Song guy dislikes me, I’ll scare him to death in the middle of the night.”
After hearing this, Ye Zhuo didn’t say anything, but drew his sword and, in the next moment, lightly flicked the blade with his knuckles.
A stream of frosty spiritual power entered Zheng Guanyin’s forehead.
He sheathed his sword, walked straight past the two of them, and headed towards Green Mountains.
Zheng Guanyin touched her forehead in a daze.
In fact, from just now, she had already been able to feel that her soul was ethereal and could not stay in this world for long. Roughly as the Immortal Master said, being able to stay in this world for another ten days was the limit.
But this chill…
Song Shusheng looked at her with concern, “Is something wrong? —Your hand is so cold.”
Zheng Guanyin shook her head.
Feeling the icy cold in her limbs, she seemed to realize something.
“My corpse… maybe it won’t rot so quickly.” She said blankly.
All that could be seen within the four fields was a vast, boundless mountain mist, with no trace of the Immortal Master, only the continuous Green Mountains, looming in the clouds.
—On the mountain road, Li Yuan walked beside Ye Zhuo, holding his sword, deep in thought.
He was still thinking about the mortal couple.
The predestined relationship between the two of them was clearly broken, but because their love was sincere, they were able to stay together even after the end of their fate.
“—When love reaches its limit, the living can die for it, and the dead can live for it. So that’s how it is. You humans are interesting.” Li Yuan said.
“If you have nothing to do, you can cultivate,” Ye Zhuo said, “Listen to less lewd songs and ditties.”
Li Yuan: “What, have you listened to them too?”
Only Feng Jiang was walking with difficulty, carrying his yellow catfish, while also having to listen to them talk.
The yellow catfish could be put in a storage ring, but that would make the taste strange.
“May I be so bold as to ask you a question?” Feng Jiang finally couldn’t hold back and had to spit out the doubts in his heart.
“Hmm?” Li Yuan said, “Fourth Palace Master Feng, please speak.”
Feng Jiang: “What exactly is the relationship between you two now?”
“Hasn’t Feng Jiang already known?” Li Yuan vaguely felt that he and Feng Jiang had discussed similar questions. “I have some unresolved grievances with your Second Palace Master.”
“Then what about you, Ah Zhou?”
Dragon Li Yuan had already made it very clear. Ye Zhuo said briefly, “Yeah.”
Feng Jiang: “Okay.”