Chapter 66 A Master of Unique Skills
Pei Yuan couldn't help but feel uneasy. It seemed like a long time had passed when he didn't hear a response from the other side, but it was only a moment. Then he heard her gentle laughter: "Okay, Yasheng."
Bang bang bang—
His heart stopped for a moment, then pounded relentlessly, so fast that his palms were sweating, his mind went blank, his fingertips trembled slightly, and his voice trembled as he responded to her: "Mmm."
Pei Yuan's rapid breathing was filled with joy, and Duobao nuzzled its master's face, also feeling this joy.
After explaining everything, they waited quietly for tomorrow to arrive.
Pei Yuan walked out of the dark room, walked to the main hall, and joined the flow of people who came to offer sacrifices and pay homage. A figure in blue and white cloth flashed behind him. Pei Yuan turned his head slightly and walked on with an ordinary expression.
Bypassing the bustling crowds, he deliberately walked into a quiet, deserted bamboo forest. The footsteps following behind him stopped; as soon as he stepped on them, the dry branches and leaves would make a "crunching" sound, and he would be exposed in no time.
Seeing that the person had walked away, I could only tiptoe and bravely follow.
In the blink of an eye, the person who was clearly right in front of me has vanished without a trace.
"What are you looking for?"
The young man's indifferent voice sounded from behind him. The man was startled and turned around to look at him. He saw the young man, dressed in white, leaning against a green bamboo, looking at him with eyes devoid of any emotion.
"Are you the inn's waiter?" Pei Yuan squinted at him.
"Who are you?!"
Pei Yuan straightened up and walked closer, forcing him to take several steps back: "Who am I? You don't know me and you're still following me?"
Yao Fugui swallowed hard and stammered, "I... I wasn't following you! I just wanted to use the restroom here!"
"Oh? Is that so?" As his voice fell, strands of thread wrapped around him, binding him between two lush green bamboo stalks. The bamboo was extremely resilient, and as he slumped down, it also undulated upwards, reaching a great height that frightened him into not daring to move.
"What...what do you want to do!?"
"Your name is Yao Fugui."
Yao Fugui: "!!!"
He exclaimed in shock, "How do you know my name?! Have we met before?"
Pei Yuan tugged at the white silk thread between his fingers, pulling him closer, and said casually, "Was it you who got Cui Mingcan drunk and then kidnapped him?"
"!!! You know him!?" Yao Fugui nearly lost his voice. Facing the person with sorcery before him, he trembled with fear. He vehemently denied it, "No! It wasn't me! I didn't harm him!"
Pei Yuan chuckled and said, "Then why did he disappear after drinking with you?"
Yao Fugui hurriedly said, "No! I really didn't! After I drank with him that day, I couldn't find him anywhere! Even his baggage was gone. I thought he had gone back to Jiangzhou! Really! I'm not lying to you!"
Knowing in his heart that he might be a member of the Tianyan Sect and had come specifically to find Cui Mingcan, he told him everything that had happened: "If you don't believe me, there's nothing I can do, but if he really has disappeared, I do have someone to suspect!"
Pei Yuan listened to his entire explanation without expression, and then followed up by asking, "Who is it?"
"Xu Huaji! He's the priest of the Sea God Temple!"
Why?
“He’s done so many harmful things! Nana told me the other day that he was commissioned to capture four people, cultivators from the Tianyan Sect. Nana said he saw with his own eyes that the people in the painting were them!”
Pei Yuan remained expressionless, and Yao Fugui couldn't guess what he was thinking. Seeing his indifference, he pleaded urgently, "Really, I absolutely didn't lie to you! Immortal, please release me! I definitely didn't capture them!"
"Then why are you following me?" Pei Yuan asked instead of answering.
“I was dozing in the Temple of Poseidon when I saw you come out of that dark room…” Yao Fugui’s voice trailed off. “I thought you were a thief, so I was curious and wanted to follow you to see what was going on…”
"You know about that secret room too?"
"...Yes, I know. I accidentally ran in there when I was a kid and almost got caught. When I ran out in a hurry, I accidentally fell off the cliff behind it and damaged my brain. I have seizures from time to time..."
He suddenly raised his hand and swore: "What I said is absolutely true. If I have uttered a single falsehood, may I be struck by lightning and die a horrible death!"
"..."
Pei Yuan didn't speak, but instead opened his palm, conjuring a plump, wriggling insect. A smile flickered across his lips as he said to him, "I only half believe what you say..."
Before he could finish speaking, Yao Fugui interrupted him, tears streaming down his face, his eyes filled with fear, "Immortal! Immortal! What I said is all true! Absolutely true!"
Seeing that he still didn't believe her, she burst into tears, wishing she could take her heart out and show it to him.
"How about I let this thing called the Western Region Maggot make you talk? It's a treasure. It grows in the driest and wettest places, sucks the essence of the human body, and can make the disobedient obedient, and can also make the liar die instantly."
Yao Fugui swallowed hard, wondering how he realized he had lied. For so many years, everyone had believed him…
He gritted his teeth, then caught sight of the plump worm still wriggling close at hand. Suddenly, he let out a sigh of relief and said dejectedly, "I'll talk, I'll talk... What do you want to ask? I'll tell you everything..."
"Did you contact them to arrest Cui Mingcan? Tell me everything you know."
"No, this really isn't it. I knew Xiao Can, who is also known as Nana, when we were young. He once saved my life and helped my family. I would never harm him. That day, after we drank, I was in a daze. My father came to ask me to mind the shop. After I went out, I was scolded. Later, I fell ill and lay in bed all night. When I woke up, Nana was gone."
"Later I asked my father, and he said he saw a man leave. I really thought he had left and gone back to Jiangzhou."
"What do you know about Xu Huaji?"
“…” Yao Fugui sighed. “My father joined forces with him to make money by using sea monsters. Originally, it was just a simple offering to save people and keep them safe. Later, he met a mysterious person called the Painted Skin Immortal. I have never seen him, but I have overheard them talking. The Painted Skin Immortal never shows himself. It is his subordinates who give my father and the priests the tasks.”
Pei Yuan pinched the plump worm, which spat out a mouthful of dark red liquid that splashed onto the bamboo leaves beside it. With a "hiss," the emerald green bamboo leaves instantly withered and decayed, eventually falling apart. Yet, he casually asked, "What method did they use to make the sea monsters obey them?"
Yao Fugui's heart trembled as he recalled that night—
His father, Yao Rong, was a well-known widower in the village and a famous blacksmith in the town. All the ironware used in the village and town was made by his father. He was warm and talkative, and many people in the village would help him take care of him when he was still an infant. Xu Huaji was the complete opposite of his father. It was said that he drifted over from the sea and was adopted by the villagers. Because of his reclusive personality, he rarely interacted with others, but he and his father got along well.
That night, Xu Huaji, who had suddenly become rich, came to drink with his father. When they got into a good time, his father pressed him on how he got rich.
All that could be heard was Xu Huaji, his eyes glazed over with drunkenness, his cheeks flushed, laughing heartily: "Hahaha, that's because I have a special skill!"
His father pressed, "What is it?"
Xu Hua hummed proudly, "I can understand what underwater creatures are saying! And recently I've met a few benefactors..."
"Those people—no, they shouldn't be called people, they're sea monsters! They have eight claws, are several meters tall, and have eyes as big as lanterns!"
"How did you come up with these words? Did they help you catch fish?"
Xu Hua shook his head, smugly saying, "I don't know, hiccup, I understood them as soon as I heard them speak..."
"Because I saved them and helped them, they rewarded me with the brightest pearls from the seabed."
After saying that, he took out a piece of cloth from his pocket, which was covered with symbols that Yao Rong could not understand, but he knew that this was not their local script.
He took it and humbly asked, "What is this?"
"I overheard this..." Xu Huaji's eyes were glazed as he took the wine Yao Rong handed him and drank it all in one gulp. "They are guards of the Merfolk clan. The orders written on them are the Merfolk's commands. Once recited, they will control them like a spell..."
His father made him read it aloud when he was drunk and unsuspecting. Xu Huaji didn't know if he was really drunk, but he read it out in the local dialect, not according to the symbols on the screen.
“My father was later discovered. Xu Huaji found out that he had stolen what my father had written. He was very angry and wanted to break off his relationship with my father, but for some reason, his anger subsided later.”
Yao Fugui stared blankly at the corroded bamboo leaf and said, "Actually, my father had already engraved the rune on the cauldron, the one that was placed in the dark room."
"Later, Xu Huaji somehow found out, and my father encouraged him to subdue the two sea monsters and use them for his own purposes..."
"They would arrest those who disobeyed, stage their deaths at sea, and lock them in dark dungeons. Then, they would blind those of ordinary status and sell them to slave traders or disguise them as pirates to extort money..."
"That's all I know, I don't know anything else..."
His father believed that his son's many misdeeds over the years had caused him to become a madman, occasionally going insane and even turning into a fool. One day he could speak normally, but the next day he would say that he was a dog and wanted to fight with dogs for excrement... He had also lost his fertility and could no longer have children, so in recent years he gradually withdrew from Xu Huaji's business, opened an inn, and only provided him with suitable candidates, no longer participating in any major business.
Pei Yuan nodded and removed the silk threads binding him. Yao Fugui suddenly collapsed and fell to the ground.
Pei Yuan looked down at him, and under his gaze, the insect in his palm turned into dust.
The latter was dumbfounded.
Pei Yuan gave a cold laugh.
It was just to scare him.
Looks like he was terrified.
Before Pei Yuan turned to leave, he made a hand seal, trapping him in the bamboo forest so that he wouldn't be able to get out until at least tomorrow.
*
The night was dark, and the sea breeze was gentle.
Rows of people were slowly pulled onto the ship by ropes and sat on the deck, surrounded by huge wooden crates, each large enough to hold two adult people.
Xu Huaji also boarded the ship. Normally, he wouldn't need to handle such delivery matters, but this matter concerned his official appointment, so he had to personally deliver the goods to the Painted Skin Immortal to show his loyalty and sincerity.
A bad feeling welled up inside him, compelling him to go along.
And so, with the sea breeze blowing, a huge merchant ship set sail.
From Penglai Island to Jiangzhou, they would arrive around dawn. At that time, there were few people at the ferry, and few people would notice them unloading their goods, making it easier for them to carry out their business.
The journey was smooth, and at the edge of the sea, a touch of orange-red light dispelled the darkness, and dawn broke.
The sea breeze gradually grew stronger, and Xu Huaji woke up from his dream. He glanced at the window that was rattling in the wind, and got up to wash up.
"Splash—"
A wave of moderate size crashed over the ship, causing the once stable vessel to rock violently, making everyone dizzy and nauseous.
A long, fleshy, pinkish-white beard, studded with ink spots, suddenly surged from the calm sea towards the horizon.
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