Past events
The Rebirth Curse is a spell that allows the caster to communicate with the consciousness of the target. However, this spell is far more harmful than beneficial and has long been listed as a forbidden technique. If a celestial lord in the Nine Heavens were to use it, they would be executed on the Heavenly Execution Platform. Yan Dan had never been so grateful that she was a demon.
Yan Dan didn't think these bloody cases had anything to do with Nan Zhao's background, so she turned to look at Liu Weiyang and asked, "Is this the beginning?" Liu Weiyang sat on a chair to the side, one hand on the armrest, and nodded slightly.
Yan Dan placed her hand on Nan Zhao's forehead, and a pale white halo slowly spread out. She closed her eyes and felt the surroundings vibrate, while the sound of pattering rain grew clearer and clearer. After a moment, the sound of rain grew louder, rushing and washing over the sky. The rain and mist blurred her vision, obscuring the stars and moon, and even the sky itself was a hazy gray.
Yan Dan felt a sudden jolt, the sound of rain mingling with the neighing of horses and the crack of the coachman's whip. A pair of gentle arms slowly embraced her, and a woman's soft, sweet voice echoed in her ear: "Zhao'er, just a little longer, we'll find a doctor soon..."
She was looking back on these past events through Nan Zhao's eyes.
Yan Dan said softly, "I saw... Nan Zhao and his mother traveling in the heavy rain. Nan Zhao seemed to be sick, and they were looking for a doctor."
"What time is it? What's the weather like that day?" Liu Weiyang straightened up slightly.
“It’s raining, it’s raining heavily, the sky is a gray haze, it’s around nightfall…” Yan Dan paused, “Someone came up behind us, and the carriage stopped.”
The moment she felt the carriage slowly come to a stop, the woman who had been speaking gently in her ear suddenly released her embrace and lightly touched her cheek. The woman's fingers were icy cold and trembling slightly. Yan Dan thought this was definitely not just because Nan Zhao was sick and her face was burning. She opened her eyes wide, trying to see the woman's face clearly, but her features were blurry and indistinct, as if buried in a fog. She could only make out that she was wearing a lake-blue silk blouse, with delicate gold lace embroidered on the cuffs and collar.
The woman seemed to smile sadly, and lowered her voice: "Zhao'er, you must remember, the people who chased after us today are the murderers who killed your parents. You must see each of their faces clearly."
Yan Dan felt her hair stand on end, and she barely managed to utter a soft reply. All of this was happening to Nan Zhao, and she was only temporarily using Nan Zhao's consciousness to observe the events, yet she still felt an indescribable chill.
"Zhao'er, you must live well..." After saying this, the woman suddenly lifted the carriage curtain, swayed her waist, and gracefully stepped down from the carriage. The curtain was hooked up in one corner, and Yan Dan, lying on the cushion, could still clearly see everything that was happening outside.
Suddenly, the woman spun around and crashed into a long sword. Her bright red blood, which hadn't even congealed, was immediately washed away by the rain. Holding the sword piercing her heart, she suddenly laughed fiercely: "You will all get your retribution! I curse you to never be able to rest in a coffin after death, to have your souls scattered and never be reincarnated! Your children will suffer the same fate as me today!"
Her hair was completely soaked, and her lake-blue silk shirt was so stained with mud and blood that it was unrecognizable. She looked like a vengeful ghost crawling out of the nameless flames of the underworld, her voice and expression fierce and every word chilling.
Suddenly, she took a step back, the long sword was drawn from her body, she swayed twice, and collapsed to the ground. Yan Dan looked through the gap in the carriage curtain and saw the woman struggling to raise her head and look into her eyes. Her once beautiful red lips were ashen, like withered flowers, and she used all her strength to silently utter two words.
revenge.
Yan Dan finally saw the woman's face clearly; it was exactly the same as the one in the portrait, with willow-leaf eyebrows like crescent moons and eyes as gentle as water. Yet, the expression on her face was indescribably terrifying and twisted. She mouthed to Nan Zhao, "Revenge." The last words she spoke to her child in this world were "Revenge."
“It seems this is their child…” A rough, large hand reached out. “They have a fever and look dazed; they seem to be delirious.”
Yan Dan tried hard to identify who the person in front of her was. The person was quite young, with calluses on his hands, broad shoulders, and a black mole between his eyebrows!
She slowly said, "There were three people who caught up with the carriage. One of them was Master Fayun; I saw the black mole between his eyebrows. The second was Yilan's father; his appearance then wasn't much different from now... The last one, I couldn't see clearly; it was too dark..."
Liu Weiyang had already stood up from his chair, his tone becoming somewhat urgent: "Look more closely, isn't it..." Before he could finish speaking, Yan Dan interrupted, "It's Shui Xing's father!"
Liu Weiyang was silent for a moment, then said calmly, "That's enough. It's enough to know that this happened."
Yan Dan withdrew the spell, her mind replaying the expression of the beautiful woman before her death. Suddenly, she saw Liu Weiyang walk over, wrap Nan Zhao in a blanket, carry him on his shoulder, and turn to leave: "Where are you taking him?"
“Send him back to his room.”
Nan Zhao had always lived with Shui Xing's family. She was unaware of this past, but now that she had witnessed it firsthand, she felt it was like sending a lamb to the slaughter: "How can this be? He's living under the same roof as his enemy!"
"We've lived here all these years without incident, and there won't be any more trouble now." Liu Weiyang's steps were light and quick, and in the blink of an eye, even his back was no longer visible.
Yan Dan glanced at Tang Zhou, then at Yu Mo, and couldn't help but ask, "You don't actually think Nan Zhao is the murderer who killed three people, do you?"
Tang Zhou stood up and walked out without saying a word.
Yu Mo put down his teacup and slowly said, "The night Fayun died suddenly, Nan Zhao was also at Fuyun Temple. And the only weapon he could access was an unsharpened sword used for martial arts practice. Now we've even found out the reason for his actions, isn't that right?"
Yan Dan briefly recalled the question and then asked, "But how do you explain that 'curse'?"
"Before that lady passed away, she said she cursed them to be utterly destroyed and never be reincarnated." Yu Mo stood up, walked closer, and reached out to stroke her profile, lowering his voice, "Yan Dan, there are many things that you can't control. The more you invest in something, the greater the disappointment will be."
Yan Dan looked up. His eyes were dark and unfathomable, and vaguely familiar. It was as if she had seen a pair of eyes before, a long, long time ago.
Some things are beyond their control; fate accounts for three parts, and human effort for seven. The more certain they are of something, the more regret they will ultimately experience.
Yan Dan understood this principle.
She paid the most painful price to understand this.
However, the location and posture of her current profound reflection on life were rather inappropriate. She parted the grass in front of her and peered ahead, only to see heavy candlelight flickering in the main room of Shui Xing's parents' house. A long, thin shadow was cast on the windowpane, its shape somewhat eerie. Liu Weiyang had hurriedly left after dinner, and she had followed him all the way, only to discover that he had come specifically for Shui Xing's family. He was now standing guard on the eaves of their house.
Yan Dan had originally wanted to bring Yu Mo or Tang Zhou along, but both of them insisted that doing something like eavesdropping in someone else's house was too shameful, and no amount of persuasion could change their minds. While valuing face a little is sometimes good, valuing it too much can rob you of a lot of enjoyment. For example, Liu Weiyang probably noticed her following him early on, but since he couldn't shake her off, he simply pretended not to see her and let her go.
As she watched the moon slowly climb to the top of the sky in the west, her legs grew tired from squatting. Just as she was about to move, she heard a rustling sound coming from behind her, and a faint figure swept past her about six or seven steps away.
It's here after all!
Yan Dan roused herself, focused her mind, and saw the slender figure from before, wearing a light lake-blue silk shirt that brushed against the grass, and in the blink of an eye, she was outside the main house.
Yan Dan was stunned. She clearly remembered that this dress was exactly the same as the one her mother, Nan Zhao, wore before she died, even down to the gold thread embroidered on the edges of the sleeves.
Before she could even freeze for long, the figure flung open the door and slipped inside. Almost simultaneously, Liu Weiyang leaped from the roof and burst through the door. Yan Dan couldn't help but think, "Has Palace Master Liu gone mad? He could have easily skipped the time it took him to leap from the roof and enter; he could have just smashed through the roof and descended straight in—how spectacular and eye-catching that would have been!" Because of this thought, she completely overlooked the fact that if he simply descended from the sky, it would be tantamount to openly telling the other party that someone had been spying on them from the roof for a long time.
Without delay, Yan Dan stood up and rushed to the main room door. She saw Shui Xing's father slumped to the ground, clutching his chest. Blood seeped from between his fingers, but not much; there was no sign of the previous horrific gushing of blood. He lowered his head, his face ashen, staring blankly at the painting before him. In the painting, a woman in a light lake-blue silk dress smiled gently, her expression lively, as if she might leap off the paper at any moment.
The window opposite opened, and Liu Weiyang and the mysterious man from before had vanished without a trace.
Yan Dan frowned, walked up to the elder, and asked, "Where is he?"
The other person seemed not to hear, still staring intently at the painting, muttering under their breath, "They've come back after all... They really did bring the curse..."
Yan Dan felt angry when she thought of the severed limbs and mutilated bodies she had seen in this room before. She grabbed his collar and pulled him up, saying, "You should have thought this day would come when you drove people to desperation and caused their families to be destroyed."
Shui Xing's father shuddered, clutching the painting tightly, and repeatedly said, "How could we, the people of Luo Yue, possibly look down on mortals? Yu Ling must have been deceived. Her mind has been clouded..."
The blood from his hand flowed onto the painting, slowly spreading across the yellowed Xuan paper. The person in the painting was clearly still smiling, yet there was an indescribable strangeness about them. Yan Dan picked up the painting and examined it carefully by candlelight. The person was clearly so beautiful, yet there was a sinister and eerie look between their brows.
She remembered Tang Zhou saying that the painting was somewhat eerie. But she hadn't taken it seriously at the time.
Suddenly, there was a click on the windowpane. Yan Dan looked up and saw Liu Weiyang, holding a jade flute, leap into the room from outside. For the first time, he showed a look of weariness and said in a low voice, "That person still got away." He slightly raised his hand, and a thin trail of blood flowed from his wrist to his fingertips, and there were also faint traces of blood on his sleeve.
Yan Dan was extremely surprised: "You're injured?"
She knew Liu Weiyang's abilities; this time, not only did she fail to catch him, she also injured her wrist, which showed just how formidable he was.
He casually tore a piece from his sleeve and loosely wrapped it around the wound: "It was my carelessness. I thought it would be easy to stop, but I missed the sword by half a point when I blocked it." After he finished speaking, he sat down on the round stool by the table, propped his chin up with his uninjured hand, and said softly: "Yan Dan, fetch a basin of water and wake this person up."
Yan Dan responded and picked up the copper basin from the shelf in the corner of the room, scooping a basinful from the water vat outside. Since she had known Liu Weiyang, she had never seen him moved by anything, except just now, when the weariness and gloom on his face, under the flickering candlelight, seemed to be seen through a layer of mist, hazy and unreal.
Yan Dan carried the basin of water into the main room and splashed it on Shui Xing's father with a splash.
The elder was jolted awake by the cold water, and his senses gradually returned.
After a moment, Liu Weiyang said in a deep voice, "What do you plan to do with the corpse in the hidden compartment?"
Sensing his unfriendly tone, the other person spoke cautiously, "According to the rules of Luoyue, it should be burned before being buried."
Liu Weiyang stood up, walked past him, and casually said, "Then let's deal with it tonight."
Yan Dan had more questions for him, but Liu Weiyang just walked away on his own. She quickly put down the copper basin and chased after him: "Did you see what that thug looked like? Who was that person? Could it really be Nan Zhao?" Actually, she wanted to say that Nan Zhao's kung fu was terrible, and his voice didn't sound like that thug at all. Besides, he had a fever and was seriously ill the night his mother passed away, so he might not remember what happened back then.
Liu Weiyang continued walking, saying calmly, "Pack up and prepare to leave. As for the outcome, you'll find out soon enough."
Feeling aggrieved, Yan Dan said angrily, "Then when exactly do you mean by 'later'?"
Liu Weiyang remained silent once again.
She clenched her fists, unable to suppress her gritted teeth: "I really want to punch you..."
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