Chapter 53: Passing Through the Official Road (Part 4)
After Jiang Ji finished speaking, the carriage fell into an eerie silence once more. A chilling sensation crawled up everyone’s spines.
Among those who had been secretly eavesdropping, excluding Yan Yi, every single one of them broke out in a cold sweat.
Bai Chunsheng keenly sensed something was off.
…They had only just met, so why was this person telling Yan Yi all this?
Bai Chunsheng subtly shifted backward, practically burying himself in Yan Yi’s embrace. As he pondered, a suspicion slowly formed in his mind. He suspected that this encounter had been deliberately orchestrated. Narrowing his eyes, he raised his head and warily eyed the carriage door, fearing someone might suddenly barge in.
Yan Yi, intrigued, continued to ask, “Who was this benefactor?”
“He was…”
Jiang Ji suddenly snapped back to reality. She seemed to realize something was wrong. Stunned, she hesitated, scanning the carriage. Finally, her gaze landed on the wandering cultivator, who was still leaning against the window, seemingly lost in the scenery.
Then, an unsettling thought struck her.
Jiang Ji raised her hand and pointed at him. “Is this person… still alive?”
Almost immediately, the cultivator’s body split in half. His head fell out of the window, while his body slumped backward into the carriage. A fierce gust of wind slammed the open window shut. The only remaining light came from the starlight stones embedded in the carriage ceiling, casting a dim glow.
Blood splattered across the carriage, but the passengers, having been on guard, had already activated their defensive spells, preventing any stains on their clothes.
Seated beside the deceased cultivator were a rogue cultivator from the East Sea and the mother from a mother-daughter pair. The East Sea cultivator’s face was grim as he spoke slowly, “When he died just now, I didn’t sense a thing.” In other words, whoever had killed this man could kill him just as easily.
One of the three rogue cultivators at the back of the carriage immediately stood up and approached the corpse. “His Nascent Soul has been extinguished, meaning he died in an instant—he had no chance to let his soul escape.”
The corpse’s exposed skin was deeply wrinkled, resembling that of an ancient corpse. A foul stench quickly filled the carriage, as if he had been dead for a very long time.
Before anyone could react further, the sound of rushing wind echoed around them. Bai Chunsheng kept his beak shut, too afraid to even transmit his thoughts to Yan Yi, pretending to be nothing more than an ordinary white duck.
The carriage sped up, moving faster and faster.
“Stop the carriage!” one of the Daoist couple shouted. “What’s going on?! We need to go back and figure out how he died!”
The rogue cultivator from the East Sea grabbed the man’s collar and furiously said, “Are you stupid? Go back? That stretch of road was obviously suspicious! It could be a wild ghost that has cultivated for years. You managed to escape, and now you want to go back and deliver yourself to it?!”
The one controlling the carriage was Yan Yi. Since he had made this decision, it meant he shared the same thoughts.
But soon, Yan Yi realized something was off again. “We have to go back.”
“You—!” The rogue cultivator from the East Sea was clearly about to lash out.
Yan Yi interrupted him. “There’s no road ahead.”
“How is that possible!” Even the mother and daughter, who had remained silent until now to avoid trouble, gasped in disbelief. “I scanned the path with my divine sense. There was clearly a way forward.”
Yan Yi simply chuckled. He opened his right hand, revealing the magical artifact controlling the carriage. “If you don’t believe me, you’re welcome to step outside and see for yourselves.”
By now, everyone understood just how dangerous it was outside. No one was willing to leave the carriage. A few who had been considering seizing the artifact to move forward fell silent.
Tension filled the air. The darkness outside seemed to come alive, its oppressive weight growing heavier with each passing moment.
Jiang Ji sighed softly. “They might be coming for the four of us. We should step out.”
She directed the second half of her sentence at the three disciples of Tianqing Sect sitting beside her. They were wrapped in thick, face-concealing veils, making it impossible to tell who among them responded, “But…”
Jiang Ji smiled. “There’s no ‘but.’ They’re here to hunt us down. As cultivators, we must have the courage to face the consequences of our actions. We shouldn’t drag innocent people into this.”
She stood up and lifted the veil covering her face, revealing delicate and striking features. A bright crimson floral mark adorned her forehead, matching the deep red of her lips. Every movement she made exuded an effortless charm.
Bai Chunsheng couldn’t help but marvel inwardly. His earlier suspicions had been right—she was indeed from the Yuhan Peak of Tianqing Sect. What he hadn’t expected, however, was that she was none other than the peak master herself: Moon White Condensed Frost, the renowned Yuhan Jiang Ji.
Her story was nothing short of legendary. Jiang Ji’s fate had been filled with hardships. She was originally a scavenger girl from the western desert of the Grand World. When war broke out between two nations, she lost her parents as a child and became a refugee. Yet her breathtaking beauty caught the eye of a trafficker who specialized in selling young girls as concubines. She was eventually sold to a wealthy merchant from the Middle Realm.
That merchant, who had come to do business in the Western Region, was none other than Shen Fangxing, who at the time had not yet become the sect master of Tianqing Sect. He was undergoing a worldly tribulation, experiencing the mortal realm as part of his cultivation path.
Shen Fangxing fell in love with the beautiful orphan, and their relationship was one of passion, separation, and heartbreak. Years later, after completing his tribulation, he severed his mortal attachments and returned to Tianqing Sect. As a form of compensation, he gave Jiang Ji two choices: she could follow him back and become his one and only sect master’s wife—though he would no longer be able to offer her deep affection—or he could grant her the rarest of celestial treasures, reshape her spiritual foundation, and pave the way for a faster, smoother cultivation path.
Jiang Ji had chosen the latter without hesitation.
It was the right choice, for it led to her becoming the legendary Moon White Fairy, Jiang Ji.
There was always a faint smile on her lips. She raised her hand, gathering the mist in the carriage into a glowing lantern that emitted a cold, pale light.
Lifting the edges of her veil, she gracefully stepped out of the carriage, her movements as effortless as when she had first entered.
The remaining three disciples of Tianqing Sect exchanged glances before quickly following her lead and stepping down as well.
As soon as Jiang Ji left, Bai Chunsheng let out a long breath and immediately sent a voice transmission to Yan Yi. “That woman is Jiang Ji, the peak master of Yuhan Peak. She’s likely just one step away from reaching the Mahayana Stage.”
“I heard that half a month ago, Shen Fangxing, the sect master of Tianqing Sect, fell into the abyss of Yuren Mountain in the Middle Realm. His fate remains unknown. Now that I think about it, that must be true. Otherwise, Jiang Ji wouldn’t be here alone with only three disciples.”
“To kill someone right under the nose of a late-stage Dao cultivator on the verge of breaking through… these people are far from ordinary.” Bai Chunsheng felt a lingering fear. “Fortunately, we haven’t exposed ourselves. We should leave quickly.”
The carriage remained still. Bai Chunsheng turned to look at Yan Yi.
Yan Yi had closed his eyes at some point, lost in thought. When he sensed Bai Chunsheng’s gaze, he slowly opened them and said, “We can’t leave.”
“Someone has connected this space to the Drunken Death Sea, luring the Drunken Yin Sharks toward us in an endless stream. We are completely surrounded. Unless we eliminate the person who set up this array and sever the connection to the Drunken Death Sea, we won’t be able to escape.”
Drunken Death Sea?
Bai Chunsheng’s heart skipped a beat. Could it be the Yan family of the Taixu Sect?
If that was the case, why were they still sitting here? If Yan Jingqiu recovered, wouldn’t he end up being captured and turned into someone’s appetizer?
Yan Yi noticed Bai Chunsheng’s unease and reassured him calmly, “You don’t need to worry too much. The strongest among those hunting Jiang Ji is only at the late-stage Dao level. They dare act so boldly only because they can summon the Drunken Yin Sharks—creatures that can traverse space freely and devour life essence.”
Bai Chunsheng was puzzled. Everything had happened so suddenly. The Yan family members hadn’t even directly interacted with them. “How do you know all this?”
Yan Yi replied, “Because the moment I got on this carriage, a murmuring voice kept urging me to lure Jiang Ji into revealing something.”
“But they failed.”
Was Yan Yi referring to his earlier conversation with Jiang Ji? If so, it explained Jiang Ji’s unusual behavior at the time. Clearly, when they couldn’t manipulate Yan Yi, they switched to another strategy.
But if what they wanted Jiang Ji to reveal was what she had done at the Winter Banquet, hadn’t they already succeeded?
Bai Chunsheng frowned. “Since you knew, why didn’t you stop it?” He could have at least secretly given him a warning!
Thinking back on Yan Yi’s attitude just now, he had even looked entertained. Was this what it meant to be born a Yan family member and die a Yan family ghost? Even amnesia couldn’t stop him from helping them? Bai Chunsheng muttered to himself.
Yan Yi remained silent, staring straight at Bai Chunsheng.
Bai Chunsheng understood.
—He suddenly remembered that Yan Jingqiu had a habit no one could ever notice: he enjoyed watching chaos unfold.
Bai Chunsheng: “…” So the Yan family members who orchestrated this had no idea that their plan had succeeded only because their idle little Sword Sovereign was curious to see how things would play out.
Unable to hold back, Bai Chunsheng grumbled, “You really need to fix that habit. You didn’t have it before.”
Huge shoutout to @_nyanmaru_ on Discord for commissioning this! The chapter will be posted regularly, show your support for Ciacia at Kofi.
