Chapter 5
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“Sinister spirits cannot cultivate the golden core, hence they cannot refine immortal swords; although demonic cultivators can refine swords, the one who appeared last night definitely wouldn’t be a demonic cultivator.” Meng Yunfei frowned in suspicion, “Could it be that the mischief within Linjiang City is caused by a ghost cultivator? – In that case, we’ll have to go down to the twelve palaces of guiyuan to continue investigating, which could be troublesome.”
Before the Linjiang Prince could let out the relieved breath he was holding, he sucked it back in, “Ghosts, Guiyuan, what are those?”
Meng Yunfei explained, “The twelve palaces of the Guiyuan. It’s the underworld.”
No one died in Linjiang City last night for the first time in history. Once the news was confirmed, the entire city was in an uproar. Singers and actresses crowded in front of the immortal cultivation sects, clamoring. The poor wangye was even more overwhelmed with joy. Early in the morning, he rushed from his country villa outside the city, insisting on hosting a banquet to express gratitude to the immortal masters. However, as Yuchi Xiao and Meng Yunfei had both reached the stage of fasting, they surely wouldn’t eat, leaving only Gong Wei eagerly devouring a basin of saliva chicken, his chopsticks insufficient, his hands covered in chili oil.
“If we want to capture the ghost cultivator, we must descend to the netherworld,” Meng Yunfei sighed and said, “But how can living beings enter the netherworld? Unless it’s a figure like Sect Master Xu, the Alliance Leader, or the Three Sects and Four Saints, who can forcefully break through the gates of the netherworld at the cost of their own lifespan, otherwise it’s absolutely impossible.”
Linjiang Prince felt like a bucket of cold water had been poured over him, “Then what should we do now? Will the ghost cultivator come back tonight?”
“It’s hard to say. Ghost cultivators causing trouble is rare even in a century, and why he specifically targeted peerless beauties, I can’t figure it out… Yuanju? What’s wrong with you?”
On the other side of the round table, Gong Wei had buried himself in a mountain of chicken bones, which was still growing in height. Yuchi Xiao looked at him incredulously, then turned his head with a blank expression, “I’m very curious, Wangye. What is your opinion of the little immortal lord who is indifferent to worldly affairs?”
Linjiang Prince looked resolute as he faced the mountain of chicken bones, “He possesses an immortal demeanor! He transcends the secular world!”
“…”
“….”
Yuchi Xiao whispered to Meng Yunfei, “Should we send him back to Cangyang Mountain? Since the ghost cultivator only targets peerless beauties, he might not be interested in this kid anymore…”
Ever since the last life, Gong Wei had a special liking for worldly delicacies, especially chicken. Among the contemporary figures of the immortal cultivation world, only he refused to fast. For this reason, he had been ridiculed by various major sects and influential families for a long time – only by fasting could one cultivate into an immortal body, and the cycle of five grains was impure. Therefore, the first requirement for major sects to accept disciples was to endure the suffering of fasting. The respectable Grand Elder of the Punishment Hall didn’t have a proper appearance all day long. He could eat two pounds of braised chicken feet in one go, carry a bag of melon seeds wherever he went, even dragging down the contemporary Sword Sect. What else could he use to restrain the disciples of other families from making mistakes?
Gong Wei finally finished gnawing on the last piece of chicken bone, wiping his fingers regretfully, “Is there any more?”
This was too embarrassing. Was he only a fox in his previous life?
Yuchi Xiao was about to scold him when “Xiang Xiaoyuan” suddenly covered his right eye, weakly saying, “My eye hurts. The ghost cultivator from last night hit me so hard.”
“…” The heroic and valiant young hero Yuchi Xiao suddenly shrank by three inches.
Linjiang Prince hurriedly ordered the servants, “Kill all the chickens! Send them to the kitchen!”
Meng Yunfei, with a silver crown and tied hair, wearing a moon-white robe with silver-threaded arrow sleeves, personally checked Gong Wei’s right eye, which hadn’t even lost a single eyelash, feeling guilty, “Young Master Xiang, you helped us so generously, and we should do everything we can to protect you. We have involved you in such a dangerous situation, it’s our fault. We will never let it happen again.”
Gong Wei looked at him gratefully, thinking to himself that you seem like a modest gentleman, but in reality, you’re one of the main culprits who lured me here as bait. If it were to wait for you two to come to rescue, the little demonic body would have been cold last night. Next time, let this Grand Elder handle it himself!
“Wang, Wangye!” At this moment, a commotion came from outside the door, and shortly after, a steward rushed in as if mad, “Wangye, something bad happened again outside! Another person has died!”
The room instantly went pale, and Yuchi Xiao quickly stood up, “Where?”
“Outside the mansion, th-the group of young ladies!”
The vermilion gate of the mansion burst open, and Yuchi Xiao led a group of disciples hurriedly down the stone steps. They saw cries echoing on the bluestone street, with sedan chairs of the courtesans in chaos. In the middle, a large open space was cleared, with three or four women lying on the ground, their lives uncertain.
A woman in a lake-blue dress swung her golden hairpin wildly as if she had gone mad. Several frightened maidservants couldn’t restrain her. They only heard her crying out with a flushed face, “You wench! Am I someone you can bully?!” Then she wailed, “Zhen Lang, Zhen Lang! Since you don’t love me, why did you redeem me? You’ve ruined me!” With that, she fiercely stabbed the sharp tip of the blood-stained hairpin into her right eye!
She actually stabbed her own right eye!
Gong Wei’s suspicion arose, and in the nick of time, Yuchi Xiao waved his hand, and the hairpin flew out of her grasp, narrowly missing the woman. She didn’t stop there. She dashed towards the hitching post for horses in front of the palace gates, seemingly about to spurt blood on the spot. Yuchi Xiao stood a few steps away and pressed down with his hand, causing the woman to collapse instantly, still twitching uncontrollably with wide-open eyes.
Yuchi Xiao ordered in a low voice, “Stop her, she’s going to bite her tongue!”
The servants of the palace, fearing trouble happening right in front of their own doors, rushed forward to hold her chin. Suddenly, from inside the house, a “zheng—” sound of a qin string echoed. At first, it sounded like the moonlight in the pine forest, like the clear spring on the rocks, but then there was an undeniable sense of pressure in the air. The struggling woman, about to bite her tongue, instantly collapsed to the ground, and her precious hairpins, bamboo fans, and sachets were scattered all over the place.
It was Meng Yunfei!
Meng Yunfei held the qin in one hand and plucked the strings with the other, stepping out of the threshold of the palace. He was usually very gentle, but at this moment, his face was frosty. He listened carefully, seemingly distinguishing something in the invisible sound waves of the qin. Suddenly, he said, “Not good.”
Yuchi Xiao’s heart skipped a beat. “What’s wrong?”
“It’s here.”
—It’s here.
Behind Yuchi Xiao, Gong Wei seemed to sense something and slowly turned his head to look at the towering palace.
At this moment, screams erupted from the street. It was observed that several servants of the palace, who were closest to the woman, suddenly froze, and then their expressions twisted. One of them rushed towards a guard, snatched his waist knife, and committed suicide. The others didn’t even have time to stop him, and his head fell to the ground with a thud; the others rushed towards the crowd like mad bulls with their knives, causing chaos.
Everyone was fleeing in panic, trampling each other, but Gong Wei seemed to be outside of all the chaos, squinting his eyes and looking towards the high ground.
Far away on the roof of the palace, a figure in a gray robe, headless, faceless, holding a long sword, looked down from above, passing through the chaotic street, silently locking eyes with him.
No one could see it, and even the immortal talismans couldn’t sense it.
“…What exactly are you?” Gong Wei squinted his eyes in thought.
The countless crimson lights inside the hood of the figure flashed, like a mysterious smile.
With a loud bang, Meng Yunfei suddenly slammed the qin in front of him, plucked the strings heavily, and the tune suddenly changed, like a towering tsunami pressing down, and several men who were crazed and slashing suddenly went white in their eyes, halting in their tracks. The swords fell to the ground with a clatter. Linjiang Prince broke free from the guards’ blockade, rushed out of the vermilion gate in a hurry, and exclaimed, “Good!” Before he could finish, screams erupted from another side not far away!
—It was seen that with the fallen woman as the center, the people around suddenly seemed to have gone mad at the same time, some were kneeling and tearing at their chests, some were rolling on the ground in pain, some pulled out golden hairpins and stabbed their throats. In the blink of an eye, the situation changed drastically, and five or six people fell to the ground and died at the same time!
Meng Yunfei was furious, “Who dares to come? How dare you!” With that, he suddenly stood up straight, slammed the steel strings with his five fingers, and the tune, which had been calm and vast, suddenly rose sharply, turning into the heavy killing intent of “Armor Light”. He strode towards the unconscious woman at the stone steps.
At this moment, the figure suddenly turned towards Meng Yunfei’s back, as if it had discovered something of great interest.
Gong Wei shouted abruptly, “Don’t go!”
—It was already too late.
With each step Meng Yunfei took, the melody rose in pitch, and the killing intent intensified. The crowd around, who were going mad, suddenly fell to the ground, as if they had been pressed flat by the sea. However, just as he approached the center of the crowd, a ray of sunlight happened to shine through the layers of clouds, and there seemed to be a glint beside the woman.
Meng Yunfei’s steps suddenly stopped, and he stood frozen in place.
Yuchi Xiao immediately noticed something was wrong, “Yunfei?”
Meng Yunfei turned his head inch by inch, his movements extremely rigid, as if he was resisting some terrible force with all his will. His gaze was at times scattered, struggling, and rigid, and suddenly his eyes were filled with bloodshot veins, and his sword was drawn with a clang.
The immortal sword emitted a brilliant blue light, like a dragon emerging from the abyss, and without hesitation, it slashed down towards the terrified crowd.
He was also ensnared!
With a deafening bang, Yuchi Xiao hastily drew his sword and firmly blocked Meng Yunfei, not even looking back as he shouted at the stunned crowd, “Why aren’t you running yet?!”
At the moment when the glint flashed beside the woman, everything before Gong Wei’s eyes blurred, and his mind went completely blank, followed by his heart uncontrollably pounding.
He was hit.
Although he knew very well that he couldn’t be controlled by this evil entity and must break free immediately, his consciousness was difficult to suppress and became muddled. The scene before him then became blurry like smudged colors under water, with dense fog spreading everywhere, and the cold wind sweeping in from the distant horizon—
Whoosh!
The wind tore through the fog, and Gong Wei’s pupils suddenly dilated.
What he saw before him was no longer the chaotic streets of the palace but a wide, high platform paved with white jade and surrounded by golden pillars, with distant wintry mountains and pine forests visible below.
—The Ascension Immortal Platform, in the twelfth year of Taiyi.
It was the day he died.
Gong Wei breathed heavily, lowering his head. Although he knew it was an illusion, the pain in his left chest suddenly felt extremely real again. Following the blood-stained sword unwillingly towards the sky, he saw a familiar hand gripping the hilt of the sword, and above that was the face of Xu Shuangce, looking down coldly from above.
It was all fake, it was all fake. In fact, I’ve been dead for sixteen years.
This was just an image created by the evil spirit. I died long ago.
Gong Wei felt like he was trapped in the dying body of his previous life. Suddenly, he felt his hand move involuntarily, and then with a “snap!” he firmly grabbed onto the sword that was still stabbing into his heart, letting the blood flow down his fingers: “…You… can’t…”
Xu Shuangce’s expression seemed shrouded in shadows, unclear.
In the illusion, Gong Wei heard his own heavy panting, mixed with a desperate choking: “I… I like you, Xu Shuangce. You can’t treat me like this…”
As if a heavy hammer struck his soul, Gong Wei couldn’t believe what he was saying.
He reflexively tried to struggle out of this body, but the version of himself in the illusion was so weak that even lifting his head to look at the other person was difficult to maintain. He could only despairingly watch as Xu Shuangce leaned down, and those familiar, cold eyes finally emerged from the shadows, with a barely noticeable hint of bloodshot.
“Gong Wei,” his hand holding the sword exerted force despite resistance, slowly and ruthlessly pushing down bit by bit, he said in a low voice, “You don’t like me, you’re just—”
Snap!
Suddenly, a loud slap echoed, and the intense pain brought Gong Wei’s consciousness back in an instant. His soul slammed back into the body of “Xiang Xiaoyuan”, almost stumbling and collapsing to the ground.
Yuchi Xiao grabbed him and roared, “Wake up! Aren’t you going to run?!” He was about to raise his hand for a second strike, but Gong Wei suddenly jolted, and without thinking, his arm swung round in a full circle, delivering a resounding slap—
Yuchi Xiao: “…”
Gong Wei: “…”
Half of Yuchi Xiao’s face quickly showed five red fingerprints, and he was left stunned in place.
Gong Wei, feeling like he had just woken up from a dream, quickly waved his hand, “…I’m sorry, I’m sorry…”
His ears were still ringing, and he saw the chaos on the street, with dozens of people lying haphazardly, unable to tell if they were alive or dead. Meng Yunfei was kneeling on one knee, covered in blood, his sword “Suqing” inserted into the ground to support himself as he struggled to stand.
Not far away was his deadly qin, which had been broken in the struggle by Yuchi Xiao, with two steel strings broken and still emitting a headache-inducing buzzing echo.
“Run! You’ll die if you stay here!” Yuchi Xiao didn’t have time to worry about that slap, shouting in a desperate state, “Yunfei is the direct disciple of the Music Saint, I can’t control him. Take your token from your waist and go to Yejinmen to plead for the Sword Sect’s help! Go!!”
On the roof of the distant palace, the faceless ghost seemed to have come closer, giving people a feeling of a smile that wasn’t quite a smile.
Gong Wei took a deep breath, managing to suppress the intense dizziness and nausea: “…I understand now.”
Yuchi Xiao puzzled, “Understand what?”
“It’s fear.”
Gong Wei rarely disliked anyone. He had encountered many unruly children from various families in the correctional facility in his previous life, and hardly any could make him angry. He hadn’t even truly hated Xu Shuangce, not even during the sixteen years he was killed.
However, the illusion had stirred up endless fear, anger, and despair within him. The desire for revenge burned in his chest like a raging beast.
Even now, whenever he recalled Xu Shuangce’s cold, bloodshot eyes in the illusion, immense hatred involuntarily surged in his heart.
How could you treat me like this?
I clearly — I clearly —
Gong Wei forcefully closed his eyes, and a bizarre thought suddenly surfaced in his mind: Was what I saw in the illusion real?
The despair and anger felt so real, could it be that they were the truth, and the memories I thought were clear are actually false?
Have I truly returned from the depths of the underworld, and is the person in this body Gong Wei or Xiang Xiaoyuan?
“Xiang Xiaoyuan?” Yuchi Xiao grew anxious. “Xiang Xiaoyuan!”
Gong Wei suddenly opened his eyes, forcibly pulling himself away from the chaotic emotions. Hoarsely, he said, “This is a kind of illusion that shows people their deepest fears. Once ensnared, it’s impossible to distinguish between illusion and reality. Some people die with resentment, some desperately fight, and ultimately perish from exhaustion. It purely depends on the different scenes each person sees.”
That’s why the courtesan filled her mouth with bark and cotton when she committed suicide, seeing herself aged and destitute, abandoned on the streets after losing her allure; the newlywed bride chased her groom with a pair of scissors, seeing her husband cruelly beating her and rebelling in desperation. As for the other victims who died by their own hands, their experiences were more or less related to what they were going through at the time of their ensnarement or their most unforgettable experiences.
And Gong Wei saw the Ascension Immortal Platform from sixteen years ago.
For a dead person, there’s nothing scarier than reliving death.
But one question puzzled him: the illusion requires a specific condition to trigger, such as saying the same sentence or doing the same thing. How did the previous twenty-eight victims get ensnared?
“The woman on the ground is holding something in her arms, the ‘trigger’ for the illusion. Once it emits light, anyone who sees it will be ensnared. Be careful,” Gong Wei took a breath, pushed away Yuchi Xiao’s support, and staggered to his feet, saying, “We can’t run. That thing has already arrived, it’s here, and we must deal with it here.”
Although Yuchi Xiao was arrogant, his moral standards dictated that he couldn’t let such a junior disciple risk his life. He immediately tried to stop Gong Wei, but at that moment, Meng Yunfei, on the other side, swayed to his feet, his face stiff and pale. In the blink of an eye, the sword aura of “Suqing” was right in front of him—
Gong Wei stared at the ghostly figure in the distance. In that critical moment, he didn’t look at Yuchi Xiao or even Meng Yunfei.
Just as the green sword light was about to strike, he casually waved his hand, and with a loud “clang!” like lightning, he deflected the sword blade with his fingertips. Then, with a snap, he grabbed Meng Yunfei’s arm and snatched the sword from him. With a swift kick to Meng Yunfei’s chest, catching Yuchi Xiao off guard:
“—-Hold him down.”
Then, with a flick of his sleeve, his face as calm as frost, he lifted the “Suqing” sword and leaped towards the looming ghost from afar!
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