Chapter 76 I Want a Home, I Want a Brother

It's one thing to dig up graves in Fangze Mountain, but to dig up the clan leader's grave is another!

Hearing the voice, he gritted his teeth, immediately drew the Tianxin sword from his waist, touched the ground with his toes, and flew towards the person.

"Stop it!"

The forest was overgrown with tangled branches. Hearing voices, two sword energies slashed out, cutting down a large area with a whoosh.

A mist suddenly rose from the forest, and the commotion caught the gravedigger's attention. He paused, about to turn around, when Tianxin landed on the man's neck with a cool touch.

Hearing the voice, he glared at him and shouted, "Who told you to touch this place?!"

With murderous intent fully revealed, the man's legs went weak and he collapsed to the ground, staring at Wen Rensheng with horrified eyes.

"I...I...I..."

"Killing someone is just a matter of beheading them. If you explain yourself clearly, you'll have a chance to survive."

Before the gravedigger could finish speaking, a voice descended from above, carrying a chilling pressure that sent shivers down one's spine.

He looked up and saw He Mu standing tall, his sword on his back, looking down at him.

He recognized the face immediately.

"Mountain, mountain god?!"

"Oh?" Mu Yi raised an eyebrow. "You recognize me? You're from the Guiyi Sword Sect?"

He rarely showed his face in Fangze Mountain. The only time he was recognized by a large group of people was when he spoke out for Wenren at Guiyi Sword Sect.

It's you guys again!

Hearing the voices and seeing the nearly destroyed cenotaph beside him, he felt both heartache and anger, and with red eyes, he shouted...

"You guys... how much longer are you going to keep harassing us? You won't even let the dead go?!"

Seeing Wenrensheng trembling with anger, He Mu jumped down from the bamboo tip, landed beside Wenrensheng, and patted his shoulder.

“Don’t worry, Shengsheng,” He Mu comforted, “If you’re still angry, I’ll kill him for you.”

Hearing voices, she took two deep breaths, tears welling up in her eyes.

They just happened to run into him this time, but what about before? Was the clan chief's grave dug up like this two years ago? While he was away from Fangze Mountain, did the clan chief... not even have the right to rest in peace?

Hearing the voice, he wiped his eyes twice, glared fiercely at the person, then threw down his sword and hurriedly ran to the cenotaph.

"Chieftain... don't be afraid, I'll drive him away right away."

He crouched down, cupping his hands around the soil, trying to fill the hole that had been dug open.

The culprit crawled on the ground for a couple of seconds, and when he realized that people were no longer paying attention to him, he struggled to get up and tried to run away.

But as soon as he pulled his leg back, it felt like a sharp wind pierced his ear, and then a sudden, intense pain shot through his thigh.

With a "thud," He Mu gripped the hilt of Se Sha's sword and pierced the man's thigh, pinning him hard to the ground.

"Ugh!!"

The man clutched his leg and screamed in agony.

"You said you could leave?" He Mu raised his boot and stepped on his head, grinding it down. "What's your name? Where are you from?"

The man's forehead was covered in cold sweat. He didn't answer immediately, but curled up on the ground and groaned in pain.

Seeing this, He Mu showed no pity whatsoever. He slightly moved the hand holding the sword hilt, twisting the Se Sha at an angle within his flesh and blood.

"Uh... I... I'll talk! I'll talk, I'll talk, I'll talk!"

The man shouted hoarsely.

"I...I'm called Chen Shou. Before...before I was a disciple of the Sword Sect..."

As he spoke, he struggled to crawl toward the source of the voice, trying to tug at the corner of his clothes.

"We've met before. Your name is Wenrensheng, right? I remember you. You're a little wolf demon. Could you please beg the mountain god... Ouch! That hurts! Please beg him to let me go. I'll tell you everything!"

Hearing the voices, he ignored them and smeared a handful of soil onto the hole that had been dug.

As soon as I touched it, I felt a sharp chill beneath the surface. Hearing a voice, my palm stung, and I instinctively pulled my hand back.

"hiss……"

Looking down, I saw a bloody scratch on my palm.

Hearing Wenrensheng's muffled groan, He Mu's expression shifted, and he stepped forward to grab Wenrensheng's wrist.

"How did this happen?" He Mu frowned, looking in the direction where he had just heard voices and heard the burial.

Something seemed to be buried beneath the loosened soil, with a pointed corner of gold peeking out, and a trace of ochre red remaining on it—the bloodstains from where human voices were heard.

"It's...it's some jewelry..."

Chen Shou, panting, explained in a trembling voice,

"I buried him secretly myself... I hope he can rest in peace in the afterlife and won't come back to haunt us..."

A death sentence?

A look of confusion flashed across Wen Rensheng's face as he looked at Chen Shou, who was covered in blood on the ground and seemed to be in great pain.

The blade of the slasher has tiny serrations, which hurt a lot when it cuts. At this moment, Chen Shou is probably in a state of worse than death, and it is already quite good that he is still conscious.

"Explain yourself clearly," Wenren said coldly, "what exactly happened?"

Chen Shou stared at the cenotaph, his voice trembling violently: "You destroyed my junior brother Chen Lian's soul, but you spared my life..."

Only after he said that did the person recognize the voice and finally remember who it was.

The day before his tenth birthday, he smashed the bottle containing Chen Lian's soul at the Guiyi Sword Sect. The cultivator who protected that wisp of soul that day was the person in front of him.

He Mu held Wen Rensheng in his arms and wiped the blood off his hands.

“Go on.”

"Without Junior Brother Chen Lian's soul, I could only wander alone in Xiangzhou City. In the following years, I met several other senior brothers who were also homeless. We made a living by running a jewelry shop together and lived peacefully for several years until you left Fangze Mountain."

At this point, Chen Shou seemed to disregard the excruciating pain of having his flesh cut off his leg. His face turned pale, as if he were recalling something horrifying.

“I thought that once you left, all these things would be over, but… but for some reason, ever since the day you left Fangze Mountain, my fellow disciples and I have been falling ill and dying suddenly, and we are also constantly plagued by nightmares!”

He was breathing rapidly, his eyes unfocused, staring at the ground in terror.

"I heard that they often dream at night of a rabbit spirit gnawing at their flesh, saying something like... 'You'll pay the price for bullying those who hear human voices!' Every night they are devoured, and after their bodies are completely eaten, then... then their souls are eaten—this rabbit spirit doesn't even spare our souls!!!"

Hearing the voices and seeing him stammering in fear as if he were possessed, she couldn't help but furrow her brows.

He hesitated and asked, "You mean... the clan chief rebuked you in your dream?"

Chen Shou dug his fingers into the ground, crying out, "Yes, there's no mistake! All my senior brothers are dead, and now only my junior brother and I are left! He's still young and didn't participate in what happened back then; he's innocent!"

Chen Shou raised his trembling hand and pointed to the jewels buried in the cenotaph.

Hearing the voice, he realized that the man was extremely emaciated, with almost nothing but bones beneath his robes, and he looked terminally ill.

"I'm sorry, we really know we were wrong. This is all the money we've earned from running that shop over the past few years. I don't have a single penny left... Please, let me go. I'll never cultivate immortality again, I'm done!!"

"I'm sorry... I'm so sorry!"

As Chen Shou cried, he lowered his head and buried his face in his hands, his shoulders trembling.

"Tomorrow, tomorrow I will go to the temple with my junior brother to become a monk. I will spend the rest of my life worshipping Buddha to atone for my sins and chanting sutras for your clan leader. I'm sorry, Wenrensheng, it was all our fault that your spiritual root was cut off. It was all our fault. Please—"

The crying was shrill and unpleasant, like a broken string still trying its best to produce a hoarse sound.

Hearing voices caused a ringing in his ears.

In the two years he was away, so many changes occurred in his hometown, and his former enemies were gradually disappearing from the world, their families destroyed and their lives extinguished.

His pain had been buried under ice and snow for many years, until the spring tide began to thaw and the snow melted away.

The incident happened so suddenly that Wen Rensheng felt a little dizzy. He staggered two steps and almost fell, but fortunately He Mu caught him by the back in time.

"Are you alright?" He Mu patted his back, her voice tinged with concern. "Should we go back and rest for a while, and then come back to gather herbs tomorrow?"

Hearing the voice, he felt he couldn't move anymore. He held onto He Mu's hand, his breathing becoming more and more labored and erratic, until he almost suffocated.

"Brother..." Wen Rensheng used the last bit of strength to look up at He Mu.

"Could you... carry me back? I feel like..."

As they were talking, Wen Rensheng's moist eyes suddenly turned gray, and he quickly lost consciousness.

...

*

I feel so cold.

Hearing the voices, his fingers twitched slightly, and he heard soft whispers in his ear.

"It's just a weak little monster, how much loss could there be from killing it?"

"He has no parents, no friends, who will remember him?"

"Mountain God? You'd be better off kneeling down and begging me now than worshiping such an unknown person."

He couldn't open his eyes because of the voices, and he felt as if his entire back was soaked in blood, surrounded by a cloyingly sweet scent of perfume.

As soon as I tried to sway my body slightly, I heard the clanging of chains in my ears.

He remembered that smell very clearly.

In the cramped space of the Dust-Collecting Room, she heard voices, her neck and wrists were tied, and her young body endured the pain of having her spiritual roots cut off.

It was at this moment that I first realized how sharp my teeth were, capable of biting through iron chains.

Having lost all sight and too lazy to struggle even when hearing human voices, he simply lay down and let himself melt into the blood.

Memories flashed by like a fast-forwarded revolving lantern, and I saw myself, barely half a person tall, running away from Chen Lian's grasp, all the way back to Fangze Mountain, where I hid alone in an empty rabbit burrow.

Young Wenrensheng lacked the ability and strength to do so. He could only curl up and hug the storybook in his arms, turning the pages one by one, choking back tears, reading the stories little by little, using this method to cheer himself up.

At that time, he couldn't even recognize all the characters. He could only read a little about the biography of Fangze Mountain. When he heard voices, he would slowly decipher the words in the storybook by moonlight, sobbing as he did so.

I still remember the storybook saying that Fangze Mountain is protected by the God of War. All living beings under the protection of this God of War will lose all their magic power and become mortals as soon as they enter the territory of Fangze Mountain. All the rare and precious materials will become common things.

As long as you stay obediently on the mountain, the God of War will forever protect this land and the home of all the monsters here.

Hearing people's voices, I deeply believe in this statement.

What was he thinking at that time?

I wonder, if the gods in the storybooks came into the world, would they be able to protect him from all disasters and suffering throughout his life?

I'm still thinking...

From now on, can he also have a small family, a place to stay?

Hearing the voices, he slept for four or five hours before waking up from this long dream.

When he first opened his eyes, he heard voices and felt his eyelashes were covered in tears. He couldn't help but raise his hand to wipe them away, but someone gently pulled his hand back.

Through the misty tears in his eyes, he noticed that Mu was lying beside him, staring intently at him.

"elder brother."

Hearing a human voice, she called out obediently, turned her face, and rubbed her palm against He Mu's.

But after this action, he clearly felt Mu's breathing tremble slightly.

Hearing the voice, he looked surprised.

Is my brother unhappy?

...Was it because of him? He was talking strangely in his sleep?

Hearing that there were too many tears in her eyes, she couldn't see He Mu's eyes clearly, so she could only try to blink and drive the tears out of her eyes.

“Brother, I’m fine,” Wenrensheng forced a smile to comfort He Mu, “I was just a little dizzy, so I fell asleep.”

As soon as he finished speaking, he felt a strong embrace pull him in, and warmth instantly enveloped his entire body.

"Ugh..." Hearing the voice, she hurriedly pressed her hand against He Mu's chest and mumbled, "Brother is hugging me too tightly, I'm going to suffocate."

“Sheng Sheng,” He Mu pressed his forehead against his, his voice hoarse with pain, “I…”

He only managed to utter one word before Mu choked up and stopped.

There are so many things I want to say, but when I get to the point, I don't know what to say.

The child's sleep-talking tonight was so vivid, and during the time the child fainted, he also managed to get details of what happened back then from that Chen Shou. He could almost imagine what kind of nightmares the child had.

He waited anxiously for Wenrensheng to wake up, eagerly anticipating that he would tell him everything and then ask him to personally kill these people to avenge him.

But no.

All this pain was wiped away by a layer of calm water. Wen Rensheng chose to let go of himself, not to be consumed by hatred, just like before.

After a moment of silence, He Mu finally lowered his head and gently kissed away the tears in Wen Rensheng's eyes.

"I missed you, Shengsheng," he whispered, then kissed her lips again. "Tell me slowly, okay..."

Hearing voices, she huddled under the covers, half-asleep, and continued kissing He Mu, wondering what He Mu wanted to hear from her.

Is this the dream?

Or is it his past?

Regardless of the option, for Wenrensheng, it was like peeling open her own oyster shell and revealing her inner self to Hemu without reservation.

This requires immense courage.

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Author's Note: My little bitter gourd, my silly little dog, my little puppy, my little country bumpkin.

May you always be happy with your brother! T^T