MOF Chapter 16

Chapter 16: Viewing the Rain Flower Terrace and Offering Bones to the Heavens – Past Events are Too Sorrowful to Recall…

Gu Huanzhi’s face turned stiff, and he couldn’t help but take two steps back.

“You wouldn’t be like this.” Nangong Ci didn’t even look at him, only supporting Xie Yiling. “His body is different from ordinary people. He shouldn’t have touched anything in this town. It was my oversight. As a cultivator, the golden core in your body can dissolve this foul air, so there’s no need to worry.”

Gu Huanzhi nodded repeatedly, leaning down to ask, “Senior Brother Xie, are you alright?”

Xie Yiling’s brows were tightly furrowed. The piercing pain in his abdomen had subsided for the most part, but his energy seemed to have been completely drained. He couldn’t stand steadily and burrowed straight into Nangong Ci’s arms.

He struggled to extend a finger, pointing to the empty space in front of him, his voice as weak as a gossamer thread, “…Un… unscrupulous… profiteer.”

After saying that, his eyes rolled back halfway, and he fainted.

Gu Huanzhi: “…”

A Si cried out in fear, “Brother Xie Ci!”

Nangong Ci lowered his gaze and said softly, “I would like to trouble Gu Third Young Master to do me a favor.”

Gu Huanzhi was naturally very willing. He carefully placed Xie Yiling on Nangong Ci’s back. Even if he was slow-witted, he could sense that Nangong Ci was in a bad mood, so he wisely took A Si’s hand and silently followed behind.

“Third Brother Gu, what’s wrong with Brother Xie Ci?” A Si squeezed his hand tightly and asked in a small voice.

Gu Huanzhi explained, “The things in this town aren’t clean. Senior Brother Xie can’t eat them in the future, or he’ll faint like he just did.”

A Si looked at him, his eyes as black as ink, “Are things that A Si likes to eat things that Brother Xie Ci can’t eat?”

Gu Huanzhi recalled that only Xie Yiling had been affected among them, even this little ghost was unharmed, but Fufeng Daoren wasn’t surprised, so he probably knew what was going on. So, he said, “That should be the case.”

A Si didn’t say anything, only walking forward in silence.

Gu Huanzhi patted his head, silently comforting him.

When Xie Yiling woke up, the night was already deep. He opened his eyes, his head still a little groggy. He turned his head and saw a person holding a long sword sitting by the bed. A jolt went through his brain, and he flipped over to suppress the person.

The person beneath him didn’t resist. He quickly released his hands and said, “Master… Master?”

When Xie Yiling pounced on him, Nangong Ci subconsciously moved Azurefall further away. Knowing that he had scared him, he said, “Sorry, there was nothing to do, so I wiped Azurefall.”

Xie Yiling, clutching his stomach, breathed a sigh of relief. When he regained his senses, he said, “It’s really bad luck that only befalls the unfortunate. It’s killing me.”

He stretched out his hands and casually collapsed onto the person next to him.

Nangong Ci originally wanted to get up and pour him a cup of hot tea to warm him, but then he remembered that he couldn’t eat anything from the town. Just as the thought was dispelled, a force of restraint came from his waist and abdomen.

His movements froze. He lowered his head to look and saw a pair of hands with beautiful joints, recklessly hugging his waist as if borrowing strength.

“Hey, Master,” Xie Yiling stared at his expression from below. He knew in his heart that what he was doing was crossing the line, but he still smiled with a hint of mischievousness, “This time, I was lucky to have you save me, so I’m fine. If other people accidentally enter Peace Town and happen to encounter this kind of thing, what should they do?”

Nangong Ci’s Adam’s apple slid up and down. He gently pushed away Xie Yiling’s hands, got up without looking to the side, and turned up the wick of the oil lamp on the table.

The room became a little brighter. The shadows of the two people, one standing and one sitting, were cast on the wall.

The window was half-open. Nangong Ci stared at the oil lamp that was almost broken in half by the wind, raised his hand to protect it, “Peace Town has a barrier. Unless it wants outsiders to come in, ordinary people can’t see it. If a situation like yours occurs and there’s no way to solve it, then they will probably become a puppet in the town.”

Xie Yiling lightly twirled his fingertips, still savoring the faint feeling of the muscles he felt on Nangong Ci’s lean waist and abdomen. Hearing this, he sighed in confusion, “Lingyun’s dream dissipates, and then one realizes that everything is illusory. Why bother exhausting one’s mind to create this illusion?”

Nangong Ci said softly, “Perhaps the obsession is too deep.”

Xie Yiling said “Oh” and couldn’t help but look at him, “Hearing Master say that, do you also have some kind of obsession?”

Nangong Ci raised his eyebrows slightly and glanced at him. He rarely made this movement. His constant seriousness made people forget that he was only twenty-eight or twenty-nine years old, an extremely young age in the Immortal Clan.

He didn’t continue on this topic, but said, “Gu Gongzi inquired from the people in the town that tonight is their town’s annual sacrifice.”

“Sacrifice?” Xie Yiling became interested. “Is it a sacrifice to that Rain Flower Goddess?”

Nangong Ci said, “It should be. Looking at the sky, it’s almost time.”

Xie Yiling no longer felt any pain in his body. Hearing this, he immediately perked up and jumped out of bed, “Master, let’s go take a look at what tricks they’re playing with this sacrifice.”

When the two went downstairs, the shop assistant greeted them with a smile, asking, “The two guests haven’t had dinner yet, right? Would you like to have dinner before going out?”

Nangong Ci blocked him with the hilt of his sword and said in a deep voice, “No need, thank you.”

The shop assistant took two steps back, nodding repeatedly with a smile, “Then I won’t bother you any further.”

Xie Yiling glanced at Nangong Ci. Nangong Ci saw what he was thinking and nodded.

After leaving the inn, Xie Yiling couldn’t wait to ask, “This shop assistant is indeed strange. Master, why did he avoid your sword just now?”

Nangong Ci said, “They’re just puppets. Azurefall’s spiritual energy is too strong. Getting too close might cause their bodies to rupture.”

Xie Yiling understood. He looked up, and Gu Huanzhi and A Si were standing on the long street, huddled together in the cold night air. Seeing him come out, Gu Huanzhi hurriedly asked, “Senior Brother Xie, are you alright now?”

Xie Yiling raised his chin proudly, “With my Master here, of course I’m fine. Don’t worry.”

At this time, A Si rushed into his arms, “Brother Xie Ci, A Si won’t give you anything to eat in the future.”

He casually patted A Si’s head and said, “I’ll treat you to something in the future.”

A Si nodded vigorously.

Suddenly, Xie Yiling realized something. His face stiffened, and the blood in his whole body turned cold in an instant.

He didn’t know when, but A Si had started calling him “Brother Xie Ci.”

But along the way, he had never told A Si the name “Xie Ci.”

Had Nangong Ci noticed that something was wrong? If he had noticed it long ago, what would he think in his heart? If he asked about this matter later, what reason should he come up with?

Xie Yiling frowned. He might as well say that before Nangong Ci found him in Nongfeng Mountain, he and A Si had already exchanged names.

As for why A Si had kidnapped him… he would leave it to himself to resolve.

Even if his heart was uneasy, Xie Yiling still calmly released A Si.

Gu Huanzhi said, “I found out that the sacrifice will be held on a high platform behind the Rain Flower Temple. It is said that the high platform is called Rain Flower Terrace.”

Hearing this, Xie Yiling couldn’t help but say coldly, “Since the Rain Flower Temple in this Peace Town is famous all over the world, there must be many people who come to find out. There must be some who are highly skilled in spiritual power. But we have never heard any rumors that something is wrong with Peace Town. Is it that those people didn’t notice, or did they notice but concealed it, or did they simply never leave the town after entering?”

Nangong Ci looked at him, quite agreeing.

Hearing this, Gu Huanzhi couldn’t help but be shocked. Thinking about it carefully, he felt a sense of fear.

“So that’s how it is. I only heard rumors and wanted to understand the actual situation, but no one knew. I thought it was because the town itself was quite mysterious.”

Without saying more, the group hurried towards the Rain Flower Terrace.

The Rain Flower Terrace behind the Rain Flower Temple was built on a mountain. Xie Yiling and the others took a shortcut up the mountain road and hid among the lush grass and trees. On the high platform, there were bright flames and green smoke. What they saw was actually much wider than the Rain Flower Temple.

The people of Peace Town were all dressed in red clothes and wrapped in red cloth, huddled together by the fire.

Xie Yiling lowered his breathing and wiped the sweat hanging from his brow. His current body was really too weak. Just climbing the mountain for a while made him feel like he was about to fall apart.

Looking at the situation below, Xie Yiling suddenly remembered what he had said in the temple before and asked in a low voice, “Master, doesn’t the As-You-Wish Red Lotus need to absorb people’s desires to be conceived? But this town is full of puppet shells, where do people’s thoughts come from?”

Nangong Ci turned his head slightly and said, “First, use the illusion of a full town to deceive more living people to come and pray. Second, this Rain Flower Goddess is indeed very powerful and has the ability to make puppets have thoughts.”

“Wouldn’t that be very difficult to deal with?” Gu Huanzhi whispered from the side.

Before Xie Yiling could answer, he suddenly heard a loud noise from below. It turned out that someone was shaking a large drum.

The drum surface was like skin, and the palm struck it, making a “dong dong” sound, like thunder. Listening carefully, it seemed like someone was sobbing and crying. The flames were originally burning in a dark gray cauldron. Now, the fire was borrowing the wind and pouring out of the cauldron, spreading on the high platform.

Everyone surrounded the fire cauldron, bowing their heads and praying. They only heard a person shouting not far away, “The auspicious time has arrived, welcome the Rain Flower Goddess—”

A group of people all bowed and said, “Welcome the Rain Flower Goddess!”

Xie Yiling and the others looked carefully. Four people were following behind that person, staggering and carrying a golden statue, walking towards the crowd step by step. The golden statue was exactly the same as the one Xie Yiling and the others had seen in the temple before, but it was larger and more lifelike.

The golden statue was placed squarely on a circular platform on the Rain Flower Terrace.

Another voice rang out, “Bring up, the Red Lotus Child—”

Hearing this, the people in the bushes all looked over.

Four red-clothed people carried a Red Lotus Throne onto the high platform. On the throne was a naked child, about three years old. His eyes were half-closed, as if he was drowsy. His red lips were like dripping blood, his white face was like a pearl, there was a black dot between his eyebrows, and his body was covered with cinnabar.

Seeing this, Gu Huanzhi had a bad feeling and said, “This Red Lotus Child, could he be a sacrifice?”

That group of people carried the Red Lotus Child up and placed him in front of the Rain Flower Goddess. The golden statue actually moved in front of everyone.

The golden statue raised its right hand, and the child on the lotus seat opened his eyes, his eyes as black as night with not a speck of white. The Rain Flower Goddess continued to raise her hand, and everyone surrounded her, holding the child on top of their heads and throwing him into the fire cauldron.

Nangong Ci frowned and clenched his hands unconsciously.

The sound of a crying child came from the fire, and Xie Yiling’s expression changed, “Damn it!”

That was a living child!

Seeing that he was about to get up, Gu Huanzhi hurriedly said, “Senior Brother Xie, what are you doing? Calm down!”

Nangong Ci covered his hand and said softly, “From the moment that child was chosen as a sacrifice, he was already dead.”

He didn’t say the following words. The child’s current crying was probably a kind of magic, called painful soul. Even after death, the soul body would feel pain, so it would make the same crying sound as when it was alive.

Knowing that Nangong Ci had no way to help, Xie Yiling nodded slowly and asked softly, “So, their so-called sacrifice is just to find a nicer excuse?”

“It should be.” Nangong Ci’s voice was very close to his ear. “What’s more, only a few of us have entered Peace Town these past two days. That child was probably abducted from somewhere else and prepared long ago.”

On the Rain Flower Terrace, first a red figure jumped into the fire, as if receiving some kind of order. Then, one red figure after another kept jumping into the fire.

The child struggled in the cauldron, disappearing into the flames.

Xie Yiling frowned uncomfortably, suddenly feeling a piercing pain. The fire was clearly a hundred meters away, but it was as if it was burning on his body, melting his skin, scorching his bones, and drying up his blood.

Past events were too sorrowful to recall.

Just as he was in pain, Nangong Ci, who was next to him, seemed to notice that Xie Yiling’s expression was not right. He placed his fingers on his pulse and slowly input a strand of spiritual power.

Xie Yiling breathed a sigh of relief and said softly, “Thank you, Master.”

At the moment the spiritual power entered his body, he felt warm all over for a moment, and even his spiritual veins became hot, but this feeling disappeared extremely quickly, and Xie Yiling didn’t have time to capture it.

As the green smoke became thicker, the sound of the drums became more urgent. When the sound of the drums suddenly stopped, the wind on the high platform was quiet. The fire in the cauldron gradually extinguished, vaguely revealing a human bone.

The same person shouted again, straining his voice, “Please, Rain Flower Goddess, hold the bones—”

“Hold the bones?” Gu Huanzhi seemed to have remembered something. “I once accidentally saw this term in a book, it seems to be talking about the cycle of life and death.”

Xie Yiling asked curiously, “Junior Brother Gu, do you remember what the name of the book was?”

Gu Huanzhi frowned and thought, “It seems… to be called something-lu.”

A flash of inspiration flashed in Xie Yiling’s mind, and he blurted out, “Record of Strange Contracts?”