MOF Chapter 71
by VolareXie Yiling approached and took a closer look. The lacquer…
The man in the ink robe spoke first, “I am Mo Lian, courtesy name Nanyi. May I ask for your esteemed name?”
Xie Yiling replied, “Nan Gui Xie Ci, courtesy name Yiling. Are you the eldest son of the Mo family?”
A disciple beside him said, “Indeed, this is our Water-Ink Immortal Estate’s Young Master Nanyi.”
“Many thanks, many thanks.” With Young Master Mo’s permission and someone leading the way, Xie Yiling smoothly entered the Book Collection Pavilion.
The Book Collection Pavilion had five floors, with an openwork ceiling and wooden stairs spiraling upwards on both sides. Xie Yiling looked around and said, “As expected, it’s different from our Nan Gui. It truly has a unique style.” He clapped his hands twice, “Excellent, wonderful.”
Mo Nanyi walked beside him, and seeing his actions, couldn’t help but say, “Young Master Xie’s words and actions are also quite unique.”
Xie Yiling smiled and said, “Do you have any books to recommend?”
Mo Nanyi thought for a moment, “I once read a book with lively and interesting content. I’ll go find it for you.”
Although he had only climbed the stairs briefly with Xie Yiling, he believed in judging a person by their actions. He guessed that Xie Yiling wouldn’t enjoy reading those obscure and difficult ancient texts.
Mo Nanyi quickly found the book and handed it to Xie Yiling. Just then, a disciple outside said, “Young Master Nanyi, the Sect Leader has something to tell you!”
“Alright.” Mo Nanyi replied and turned to Xie Yiling, “Apologies, I must take my leave. Young Master Xie, please make yourself at home.”
Xie Yiling nonchalantly said, “Go ahead with your business. Thank you, Young Master Mo, for finding the book.”
Mo Nanyi smiled faintly and quickly went downstairs, leaving the Book Collection Pavilion.
Without anyone else around, Xie Yiling felt much more at ease. He opened the book Mo Nanyi had found and read a few pages, finding the content indeed interesting. It mainly consisted of strange tales and anecdotes from a hundred years ago, including many stories of lingering romance.
He became engrossed in reading and unconsciously began to move around. First, he leaned against the bookshelf, then simply sat cross-legged on the floor. Switching locations, he unknowingly moved from the outermost section to the innermost.
Walking again, Xie Yiling suddenly heard a sound from above. He looked up at the ceiling, his brow furrowed.
There were four more floors above. Xie Yiling closed the book, placed it on the shelf, and went up to the second floor, finding the position corresponding to the first floor.
“Could it be that it was built too long ago?” Xie Yiling knocked on the bookshelf and listened closely. A faint and crisp sound came from the other side of the wall, like the light clinking of chains or the wind chimes.
But the Book Collection Pavilion was tightly constructed, with windows only on the first floor. Where did the wind come from?
Xie Yiling walked over and was about to reach out when he hesitated and stopped. If he accidentally broke something, Nangong Ci would have to deal with it.
He turned around, and the horse-lantern on his body suddenly trembled against his clothes. Looking down, he saw the evil qi swirling inside the lantern, as if sensing something and wanting to come out.
Xie Yiling controlled it and looked at the wall again. There must be something behind the wall. He drew a spiritual incantation and attached it to the wall, but the incantation immediately failed.
Just as Xie Yiling thought it wouldn’t work, the wall cracked open, revealing a gap. He slowly raised his hand and pressed it against the wall. The evil qi in the lantern became even more agitated.
Behind him, a book on the bookshelf fell down with a “thud”.
In an instant, speculations of peerless secret manuals and unique techniques of immortal sects emerged in his mind. Xie Yiling approached and saw three bloody characters on the black cover: “Record of Strange Contracts”.
The exterior looked extremely strange and evil. The content inside was bound to be bizarre. But how could such a thing exist in an immortal sect? And it was hidden away.
Xie Yiling rubbed his fingers, glanced outside, and carefully opened the first page.
*
After returning the Immortal Binding Rope to the Water-Ink Immortal Estate, Nangong Ci intended to leave but was persuaded to stay by the Mo family’s Sect Leader. Unable to refuse the elder’s kindness, he agreed.
Thus, for the Seven Days of Gathering Righteousness, Xie Yiling and Si Wumian happily played in Mo City for two days.
During the day, he watched various folk acrobatics and tasted local delicacies. After meeting the three young masters of the Mo family, they practiced swordsmanship, archery, and spellcasting together.
At night, he and Nangong Ci stared at the horse-lantern, trying various methods to dissolve the evil qi. But the evil qi was very cunning, pretending to be dead and motionless every time.
On the day of departure, Xie Yiling went to appreciate the ancient maple trees at Mo Nanyi’s invitation. Si Wumian specially searched for a few beautifully shaped maple leaves, wanting to bring them back to clip in a book.
Not long after, Nangong Ci came looking for him. Xie Yiling bid farewell to Mo Nanyi and suddenly remembered that he had left the horse-lantern in the room. He returned to his room but found that the lantern hidden at the head of the bed was gone. He searched the room, and Nangong Ci saw him from the doorway.
“What’s wrong? Is the lantern missing?”
Xie Yiling nodded. “I put it on the head of the bed before I left. Someone must have taken it.”
“The disciples shouldn’t move other people’s belongings casually,” Nangong Ci said. “The evil qi in the lantern must have taken advantage of our absence, like it did with Si Yuan before, and controlled a disciple to take it away.”
Xie Yiling’s heart sank. “I wanted to bring it back to Nan Gui to study it carefully, but it was clever and found a chance to run away.”
Nangong Ci said, “Let’s go find it.”
The two left the residence and went straight to the main hall. Nangong Ci raised his hand and set up a barrier outside the Water-Ink Immortal Estate.
Immortal sect members cannot leave the sect casually. If the disciple was being controlled and tried to force his way out of the estate, he would be stopped by other disciples.
So now, he must be hiding somewhere in the estate.
While Nangong Ci was setting up the barrier, Xie Yiling created more than a dozen Evil-Tracking Charms and sent them in all directions. Si Wumian was waiting for them outside the hall and immediately realized something was wrong when he saw this.
“Wumian!” Xie Yiling said, “Use the Evil-Tracking Charms to find where there is evil qi nearby.”
“Okay.” Si Wumian nimbly chanted the spell, and three spiritual talismans flew from his hands.
The actions of the three naturally alarmed the others in the Immortal Estate. Mo Nanyi hurried over and saw the barrier rising in the sky and the spiritual talismans darting around. He said, “Immortal Lord Fufeng, has something happened to my Water-Ink Immortal Estate?”
Xie Yiling apologized and explained the reason, promising to find the hiding place of the evil qi.
After hearing this, Mo Nanyi ordered all the disciples of the Immortal Estate to track down the evil qi together. They soon discovered the presence of evil qi near the ancient maple trees in the courtyard.
When Xie Yiling and the others rushed over, the controlled disciple was already ice-cold, his eyes bulging as he lay under the roots of the tree, still clutching the horse-lantern in his hand.
Si Wumian wanted to go forward to check, but Xie Yiling stopped him, “Be careful! The evil qi is hiding in his eyes!”
Everyone’s expression changed, and they all took a step back.
The disciple’s eyes were bulging abnormally. Xie Yiling could even clearly see the evil qi freely moving around in his eyeballs, swimming like fish in water.
Si Wumian pressed his violently trembling heart, relieved to be alive, and said, “Thank you, Senior Brother Xie.”
Nangong Ci drove a spiritual talisman over, and the evil qi immediately hid deep in the eyeballs. A line of bloody tears slowly flowed from the disciple’s eye sockets.
Everyone showed a look of compassion.
Xie Yiling said, “It’s betting that we dare not destroy the disciple’s corpse. Daoist Master, let’s try a different approach.”
While they were discussing, the evil qi suddenly rushed out of the disciple’s eye sockets and fled towards the sky.
Xie Yiling said, “You stupid thing, see where you can escape to.”
The spiritual talismans in the air neatly surrounded it one after another. Nangong Ci tightened the barrier, forcing it to approach.
Xie Yiling was on tenterhooks, staring intently at the ball of evil qi. The surrounding people also held their breath, worried that the evil qi would suddenly erupt.
When the evil qi was three meters away from Nangong Ci, Xie Yiling seized the opportunity to control a spiritual talisman to approach the evil qi. At the moment of contact, a chilling coldness entered his flesh and blood, reaching deep into his bone marrow.
He sharply shook his hand and pointed his fingers an inch before the area where the Yin energy was flowing. A bone-breaking pain made him frown and groan.
This evil qi could actually use the spiritual talisman to attach itself to the talisman drawer!
Hearing Xie Yiling’s cry of pain, Nangong Ci’s Azurefall sword vibrated at his waist and flashed out of its sheath. However, he dared not go forward, only circling around Xie Yiling, protecting him in the sword vortex.
Xie Yiling’s right hand was shaking like a sieve, his teeth chattering. When he opened his mouth, a sentence was shattered into several pieces, “D-D-Daoist Master, it’s…in, my, h-hand…arm.”
Nangong Ci said, “Don’t be afraid, I’ll negotiate with it.”
Upon hearing this, a disciple felt a little unbalanced, “Negotiate with a monster? Our Water-Ink Immortal Estate’s disciple lost his life. What’s there to talk about? Is it only the people of your Nan Gui who are precious?”
Mo Nanyi scolded, “Mo Zhong, don’t talk nonsense.”
Although Mo Zhong was impolite, his words were not unreasonable. Many other disciples had the same thought.
The tragic death of their fellow disciple was still vivid in their minds, but Immortal Lord Fufeng was now going to negotiate with a monster. That’s right, even if Nangong Ci carried the title of “Daoist Master,” he was only sixteen years old, not much older than them. He couldn’t possibly have extremely rich experience in exorcism or superb demon-catching methods.
In this moment of thought, Nangong Ci’s untouchable image in their hearts was greatly shattered.
Xie Yiling quickly and accurately swept his gaze across the faces of those disciples. Lowering his head, he gritted his teeth and drove a spiritual talisman into his flesh. The “sizzling” sound of burning echoed in his arm. He drew his sword with one hand, intending to cut off his right arm at the spot of the evil qi!
Nangong Ci almost instantly flashed to his side, forcefully gripping his left wrist to stop him, “Xie Ci, stop!”
The sword blade cut through flesh and bone. The evil qi seized the opportunity to rush towards Nangong Ci’s face from the wound. Fortunately, he reacted quickly and swiftly dodged.
The evil qi missed its target, but at the same time, it was also free from restraint. Mo Nanyi flew to chase, but couldn’t match the speed of the evil qi streaking across the sky. He could only see its dust. Soon, the evil qi disappeared without a trace.
Si Wumian retrieved the spiritual talismans and said, “Senior Brother Xie, how are you now?”
Xie Yiling’s face was as usual, but beads of cold sweat poured out of his forehead, like broken beads when he shook his head.
He slowly raised his hand, wiped the blood from the sword, and said, “It didn’t hurt the tendons or bones. It’ll be fine once the bleeding stops.”
Nangong Ci’s expression was slightly gloomy. He broke the fingertip of his thumb and drew a blood curse, attaching it to Xie Yiling’s wound.
The blood gradually solidified, and the blood curse dissolved into his skin.