Chapter 177 The Eight-Foot Heiress (Seeking Subscriptions and Monthly Tickets)
Previously, Li Ming had killed the scarred man at Huangquan Ferry and rescued Shao Siming.
Li Ming then asked her to help him investigate the incomplete map of Yunmengze. Shao Siming immediately relayed the information to Huang Muyu.
Huang Muyu was the Left Prime Minister of the Great Martial God Dynasty, leading the intelligence organization Bai Niao Que, whose network covered Dong Sheng. She quickly relayed the information back.
Finding the incomplete map in such a short time was truly impressive.
Li Ming immediately rushed to Shao Siming's location.
However, he was puzzled as to why Shao Siming had invited him to the outskirts. A moment later, he understood, seeing Shao Siming burying something with a shovel.
Shao Siming turned her head, her eyes flashing, and said calmly, "You've arrived so quickly. Wait for me a moment."
She continued shoveling soil to bury the object.
A human hand that had been exposed was quickly buried by the soil.
Li Ming, Green Ivy, Black Dog, Yaochi Saintess, and Linglong Saintess felt a chill run down their spines. This seemingly calm Shao Siming was burying someone.
She could have easily killed them, turned them to ashes, but instead, she chose to bury them.
This kind of hobby was a bit creepy.
In just a few swift movements, Shao Siming had completely buried the person, even using a shovel to flatten the soil and cover it with grass again.
Her movements were so practiced; it seemed this wasn't her first time doing something like this.
She put the shovel back into her storage ring, a broad smile on her face, seemingly quite satisfied.
"Done." Shao Siming's eyes trembled with laughter as she approached Li Ming, handing him a fragment of a map, saying, "This is a fragment of a map that I had the Left Prime Minister find."
"Thank you."
Li Ming took it, then took out the fragment of a map left by his Taoist master and the fragment he obtained at the auction, piecing them together.
"Now that we have three fragments of the map, do you have any other information?"
Shao Siming nodded. "Of course. If it were just this one fragment, I wouldn't have called you here. The Left Prime Minister also passed on other information to me: one fragment is in the hands of the Jade Cauldron Master, one fragment is in the hands of Lady Eight Feet, and one fragment is on the body of the Goddess Yao Ji. I know the other two, except for the Jade Cauldron Master. It's not a big problem. Now we can find the Jade Cauldron Master and talk to him."
This was the only way to the Jade Cauldron Master's place.
She had brought people here to bury it, but she hadn't expected Li Ming to be so fast and see something he shouldn't have.
But it didn't matter; they were all on her side.
Suddenly, Shao Siming noticed something, her face turning ashen as she stared at the Holy Maiden of Yaochi and the Holy Maiden of Linglong. Why did these two fools follow us? Were they really that bored?
Now she was certain that the two fools were interested in Li Ming, and she had to think of a way to get rid of them.
Shao Siming glanced at them, then looked away and led the way: "Let's not delay, let's set off immediately for Yu Ding Temple."
Yu Ding Temple was a small but quite famous Taoist temple in Yunmeng Kingdom. Despite its small size, it was full of hidden talents, especially the abbot, whose strength was unfathomable.
Shao Siming was afraid she wouldn't be able to defeat him, so she asked Li Ming to come along.
Actually, she was overthinking it.
The abbot of Yu Ding Temple was a very kind and benevolent old man, easy to talk to, and without any airs, though a bit stingy, always complaining about not giving anything.
Yu Ding Temple's signature move was the Heaven-Splitting Palm, and the abbot wanted to challenge Li Ming.
Li Ming countered with the third form of the Tathagata Palm, Buddha Moving Mountains and Rivers.
After just one move, they quickly reached an agreement.
The abbot of Yu Ding Temple didn't want any money or gifts from Li Ming, on the condition that he wanted to go on a trip to Yunmeng Marsh.
Li Ming thought about it; his main goals for going to Yunmeng Marsh were Shennongjia and Tianting Lake, the rest didn't matter, as those two places held what he wanted.
One contained the secrets of himself and his Taoist master, the other recorded the method to break through to the Great Perfection of the Heavenly Book, *The Qi Refining Technique*.
Why was the *Qi Refining Technique* a Heavenly Book?
He found it a bit far-fetched. He
had to figure it out.
Having confirmed it was a fragment of the Yunmengze map, Li Ming and the Abbot of Yuding Temple reached an agreement that he would be notified on the day of departure.
"Thank you," the Abbot of Yuding Temple bowed respectfully. Li Ming was stronger than him; if he had tried to seize it by force, there would have been nothing he could do. He hadn't expected Li Ming to not use his strength to bully the weak, and he admired him even more.
Li Ming waved and left.
Shao Siming said, "Our next stop is to meet Madam Bachi. You should remember her. When I gave her the bracelet at the auction, I mentioned the fragment of the map to her. She said she insisted on meeting you before handing it over."
Li Ming asked, "What does she want with me?"
Shao Siming replied, "I don't know, but you must be careful. Madam Bachi is a wealthy woman from Yunmeng Kingdom and an ally of the Great Martial God Dynasty. However, her temperament and methods are not simple. She is an extremely terrifying figure, a hundred times more difficult to deal with than the Jade Cauldron Abbot. She is a woman with a very legendary life." Li Ming was somewhat curious,
"So there's a story behind it. Tell me."
Shao Siming slowly began to recount the story.
When Madam Bachi was young, her father died unexpectedly. Her mother remarried, taking her and her younger brother with her, becoming a concubine.
Her mother thought she had found a good match, but after marrying into the family, she discovered that the master of the second household preferred married women. Besides her mother, there were more than a dozen other women who were even more beautiful.
Within six months, unable to endure the beatings from the other concubines and the empress, and with the master of the house neglecting his duties, the mother, heartbroken, took her and her younger brother to a desolate wilderness, intending to commit suicide.
She tied three eight-foot-long white stalks to a tree, bound their hands and feet, placed them on the stalks, and strangled them. No matter how much they struggled, they remained unmoved.
Then she hanged herself.
The mother intended to take her and her brother with her to leave this world.
But she miscalculated; the stalks she sold were too cheap and of poor quality, and all three broke.
She wept uncontrollably.The cries attracted the snakes. The mother, terrified, abandoned her and her younger brother and ran away. No matter how much they cried, she didn't stop or look back, only weeping as she said,
"Mother is sorry. If I could, I would be your mother again in my next life."
She kept running forward.
One of the snakes chased after her, bit her, and she quickly died. The
eight-foot-tall woman and her brother cried incessantly, but to no avail. Although the white bridle was of poor quality and had broken, they were still bound hand and foot, unable to escape.
The snakes kept crawling towards them, crawling onto the younger brother's body. The younger brother kept crying, "Sister, save me, save me!"
The eight-foot-tall woman, like a worm, kept wriggling and climbing, finally reaching her brother's side. At this moment, the snake opened its blood-red mouth, biting at the younger brother's neck.
In desperation, the eight-foot-tall woman leaped up and bit the venomous snake with her mouth.
The venomous snake struggled incessantly, but she held on tightly, finally killing it. She coldly stared at the swarm of snakes beside her, who, frightened by her gaze, slowly retreated.
The siblings were rescued, and from then on, they depended on each other for survival.
Working odd jobs in the docks and ship cabins, they slowly saved some money. The older sister started a small business and quickly made a fortune.
The younger brother loved to draw, and the older sister felt she shouldn't waste his talent, so she sent him to school.
As the older sister grew, she became increasingly beautiful.
The younger brother, studying, wanted to cultivate relationships with powerful people to pave his own career path, but he had no connections.
One morning, seeing his sister combing her hair, the soft sunlight bathing her, the younger brother suddenly realized how beautiful she was.
He discussed with his sister the idea of giving her to a powerful person.
The older sister remained silent for a long time, saying she would think about it. She went back to her room and cried uncontrollably, her pillow soaked with tears.
After much deliberation, she finally made a decision: for her brother's future, sacrificing herself was nothing; after all, a woman's life in this world was worthless.
She planned to go out and talk to her younger brother, but before she could even knock on the door, he knocked her unconscious.
When she woke up, she found herself lying on a soft, large bed, with a man staring at her from the side—it was her brother.
He had his legs crossed, a drawing board in front of him, and a pen in his hand.
At that moment, the door opened, and four men entered. It was her brother, trying to curry favor with the powerful.
They patted his cheeks and laughed, saying, "Remember to draw well. Draw the scene of us and your sister enjoying ourselves. If you draw well, your future will be bright."
Her brother didn't speak, only nodded.
The sister roared, "Brother, what are you doing?" There were four men there, and they were even demanding that her brother draw the whole thing!
The brother couldn't meet his sister's gaze. His eyes were red, and he held the pen, saying, "Sister, for my sake, please bear with this. Things will be easier for us from now on."
"You beast!" the sister cursed.
"Hehehe..."
The four men had already approached the bed, and one of them reached out and began to untie the sister's sash.
The sash slowly came undone.
The older sister collapsed, her eyes lifeless, her face ashen. What had she done wrong? Why was fate so cruel to her?
When another man's fingertips touched her skin, she shuddered in terror. Was her innocence about to be cruelly trampled upon today?
Thinking this, her eyes turned bloodshot, she became like a madwoman, a venomous snake.
The next day, someone came to clean the room and found four men dead, their deaths gruesome, as if they had been bitten to death with their throats locked in a maw.
Yes, it was the Eight-Foot Lady who had bitten them to death.
At that moment, she truly broke down, because her innocence was about to be violated. She didn't know where the strength came from, but she used her teeth to bite the four strong men to death.
After killing them, the older sister glanced at her younger brother, her face filled with sorrow, and ran away. But she never expected to hear that her brother had also died.
The cause of death was wrist-cutting, excessive bleeding.
The older sister collapsed again, because with her brother gone, she truly had no family left in the world. She didn't know why, but she felt no motivation to live.
So she returned to the place where her mother had once wanted to send her and her brother away, overwhelmed with emotion.
She felt life had no meaning.
Returning to her home, she found a fine white sapling and, choosing the same tree again, attempted to hang herself.
However, she was saved by a passing scholar.
The scholar was the young master of a wealthy family, a kind man who didn't mistreat her because of her humble origins.
From then on, she became the young master's maid. However, in the family's infighting, the young master died as a sacrifice, and the blame was shifted onto her, making her a scapegoat.
In a fit of rage, she hanged all 43 members of the family with an eight-foot-long white sapling.
From that moment on, she became ruthless and vicious, untouchable, like a venomous snake, a truly formidable figure born.
Hearing this, Li Ming, Black Dog, and Green Ivy remained silent, their eyes slightly reddening.
The Holy Maiden of Yaochi and the Holy Maiden of Linglong rubbed their eyes repeatedly, trying to hide their tears, but it was clear they were weeping.
Because Shao Siming had told the story of the Eight-Foot Lady, everyone remained silent on the way, until the black dog broke the heavy atmosphere with a question.
"How could such a weak woman possess such power?"
Shao Siming replied, "Good question."
(End of Chapter)
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