Chapter 2
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It turned out to be Xu Shuangce’s sect, it turned out to be… Cangyang Mountain!
Why here of all places?
In the vast Immortal Alliance, with two respected leaders, three sects, four saints, six major families, eight schools, not to mention the twelve mansions of Guiuuan and over a hundred sects of xuanmen—why Cangyang Mountain of all places?
Gong Wei’s ears were buzzing, unable to hear what Yuchi Xiao said, or how the others spoke. The wounds left by No Way Out Sword were directly engraved on the souls of the dead, never to be erased, and the intense pain almost overwhelmed all his senses.
In what seemed like only a few breaths of time, yet also felt like enduring for years, Xu Shuangce’s robe with gold threads finally passed by his side and walked towards the distance.
Gong Wei’s violently spasming heart finally eased a bit, trembling as he let out a long breath. He could only hear the tense voice of Yuchi Xiao coming from nearby:
“…This Junior happened to pass by Linjiang City, and just happened to receive a letter from Master Meng seeking help. Upon hearing about such a tragic event, I naturally couldn’t ignore it…”
After Yuchi Xiao cancelled the engagement, he was dragged away from Cangyang Mountain by his mother. Originally intending to return to Yejinmen to open the ancestral hall and ask the head of the Sword Sect to punish this rebellious son according to family law, they encountered strange events on the way in Linjiang City.
Linjiang City was a historic city in the Jianghuai region, known for its deep royal aura and eighty years of peace in the city. There had never been any rumors of evil spirits causing trouble. However, for nearly half a month, disasters had been frequent, with twenty-eight people dying in succession.
Twenty-eight stunning beauties.
The first victim was the top courtesan in Linjiang City, only twenty-nine years old, with extraordinary beauty that could charm even nobles. Half a month ago, she was invited by Young Master Wangsun to play the zither. After an elegant banquet, she apologized with a smile and went to change her clothes. However, she disappeared for most of the time thereafter. When Wangye’s men searched for her, they found her hanging in the inner room, having committed suicide. Her face was still wet with tears, and before she died, she had devoured bark and leaves, while her jewelry was scattered all over the floor.
On the night the courtesan died tragically, a wealthy family in the city was celebrating a wedding. With gold and precious jewels adorning her, the bride in her red attire was radiant for miles around. While the groom was entertaining guests in the main hall, the beautiful bride suddenly went mad, screaming in horror as she rushed out of the bridal chamber. In her hand, she held a sharp pair of scissors, indiscriminately attacking anyone she encountered, whether human or animal. When she saw the bewildered groom, she lunged at him with the intention to kill, seeming even more frenzied. The terrified groom was rescued by the crowd, but before they could restrain the bride, she screamed in despair several times, then thrust the scissors into her own throat.
The two murders did not end this bloody night. At dawn, a handsome young cultivator suddenly ran out of a local sect in Linjiang City, as if possessed by a demon, wildly slashing stones in his own training ground with his sword. His master and fellow disciples couldn’t get near him, and they watched helplessly as he exhausted his spiritual energy and then jumped into a cold pool, slashing his throat with his sword in the water. Blood poured out like a waterfall, and when he was rescued, he was already breathless.
These three bizarre deaths were just the beginning of the chaos in Linjiang City. For the next half month, there were daily, and sometimes multiple, tragedies in the city. Some cried in despair, some trembled in fear, some were completely lost in panic, and there was even a beautiful young maid who repeatedly knocked her head against the air, smashing her skull until she died.
Yuchi Xiao received a letter from his friend Meng Yunfei asking for help, and immediately led people to rush to Linjiang City. He was extremely experienced in dealing with demonic beings, personally opened twenty coffins to inspect the bodies of the beauties, and found that all the deceased had heavy Yin energy in their birth charts. Therefore, the real culprit behind the scenes must not have acted randomly but selectively. The evil spirit that had killed twenty people in half a month was showing signs of demonic possession. If not eradicated immediately, there would be calamity for a hundred years to come. However, strangely, no matter how many magic treasures Yuchi Xiao used, he couldn’t detect even a trace of Yin energy in Linjiang City, let alone any demonic, evil, or ghostly aura.
Just when the cultivators suspected that the evil spirit had fled, it suddenly revealed its hideous face again late last night. As if deliberately provoking these cultivators, eight people died overnight, and one female cultivator, who came from a prestigious family and was widely renowned, died in the room next to Yuchi Xiao’s—she drowned herself in a basin while washing her face. From beginning to end, not a single fellow cultivator noticed anything unusual, not even Yuchi Xiao himself, who was just a wall away, detected any trace of the evil spirit approaching!
Whenever an evil spirit harms people, it inevitably leaves behind Yin energy, just as living beings have vitality, ghosts have ghostly energy, and corpses have corpse energy. If there is no such energy, it can only mean that there was nothing harming people, and the twenty-eight deceased had simply gone mad and killed themselves. But how could this be possible?
The entire cultivation world knew that they were facing an extremely formidable opponent, and just as everyone was at a loss, Yuchi Xiao suddenly thought of a method that would surely lure the evil spirit out.
—The Four Pillars of Destiny all show complete Yin energy, with every aspect of the destiny being overwhelmingly Yin and with an exceptional appearance is Xiang Xiaoyuan.
“All the deceased to date have been eight men and twenty women, most of whom come from the Xuanmen, including four golden core cultivators. I have already ordered all the cultivators with heavy Yin energy in Linjiang City to be evacuated, but the situation is extremely urgent, and every moment counts.” Yuchi Xiao knelt on one knee, sincerely pleading, “It is said that ‘one men, two zun, three zong,’ and the Cangyang Sect is known as the number one sect in the world. Junior implore Sect Master Xu to lend a hand and save Linjiang City from the brink of disaster. I am deeply grateful!”
Xu Shuangce seemed to have heard nothing.
Everyone knelt down and bowed their heads, not daring to breathe aloud, and the air in the peach blossom forest was so quiet that even the sound of a falling needle could be heard. Only Xu Shuangce’s footsteps walked calmly among the rows of bowed heads, as if searching for something. Suddenly, he stopped in front of a disciple and said lightly, “Look up.”
The disciple trembled as he raised his head, and Xu Shuangce placed his hand on the hilt of his sword, calmly inspecting him for a moment before turning to another disciple:
“Look up.”
A sense of doubt and fear flowed in the air, and only Gong Wei could hear another hidden tremor—the sound of a sword humming.
No Way Out sensed the scars it had left on a nearby soul.
Gong Wei pressed his hands tightly against the ground, each breath causing intense pain, and he didn’t know how long it had been until he finally saw Xu Shuangce’s robe stop in front of him.
He said, “Look up.”
“… ” Gong Wei slowly raised his eyes, amidst the tearing pain in his heart, finally seeing the familiar face of Xu Shuangce sixteen years later.
Xu Shuangce’s eyes were terrifyingly black, like two lifeless ancient wells, striking fear in the hearts of those who looked into them. His ice-cold face seemed to have been frozen by the passage of time, especially when he stared at something, as if he were standing on a snow-covered peak, looking down on all living beings from a distant angle.
Gong Wei looked up at him with a mixture of confusion and fear through the innocent face of Xiang Xiaoyuan, but saw no trace of anything unusual.
After a long while, Xu Shuangce finally turned around, his tone cold and steady: “Anyone causing disturbance in this forest in the future will be severely punished.”
He walked away, passing by Yuchi Xiao, who was full of astonishment and suddenly raised his head, “Sect Master Xu! I implore you to lend a hand and save Linjiang City from the brink of disaster! Many lives are in imminent danger—”
Xu Shuangce passed by him without even a glance, his gaze sweeping down from above:
“Life and death have their fate, prosperity and decline have their time, this is the natural way of dao.”
Yuchi Xiao’s pupils contracted.
Xu Shuangce walked away with his hands behind his back, without casting another glance at anyone, and disappeared into the depths of the peach blossom forest.
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