Chapter 109 The Old Master
"Nezha..."
Unlike the terror in her dream, the boy's voice was so gentle it brought tears to her eyes. She desperately tried to grasp the crimson light, afraid it would slip through her fingers again: "Where are you? Where are you!"
He was no longer a boy. Pingyu knew that his soul had entered the lotus root and become a lotus flower. They had both experienced unbearable pain; one was in excruciating agony, the other was tormented by grief and mental anguish.
The pent-up resentment welled up when she heard a familiar voice, but she suppressed her sorrow with restraint. A tear drifted from the corner of the girl's eye, gently brushed aside by a water-repelling bead, and disappeared into the dark, icy well water…
Pingyu's response couldn't penetrate the Water-Repelling Pearl; Nezha's connection to the magical artifact was one-way. The Water-Repelling Pearl could only withstand magical power for a limited time, so Nezha connected it to his own vision. The pearl was like his eyes, and the longing in his heart compelled him to gaze almost greedily at the woman's curled-up body.
She was so small, like a pea in a pod, nestled in his arms, a figure of equal stature.
He thought:
Pingyu is still very young, but I'm already grown up. I'm a young man, a boy, and when I help people in villages, the aunties introduce their daughters to me. People throw flowers and fruit at me and call me a handsome young man.
She can no longer refuse me because I'm still young.
Time is a long road leading straight to a girl's heart. Those who grow up first are willing to wait for her to grow from girl to boy. Like the wolf Nezha, who is very patient in waiting for his prey, he walks forward steadily, appearing quite leisurely.
The water-repelling pearl couldn't withstand too much magical power, meaning Nezha wouldn't have much time to speak. He uttered a sentence and channeled it into the pearl, then severed the connection.
Now is not the time for a long talk.
Nezha's departure wouldn't leave Pingyu feeling lost, but his presence would bring her peace of mind. Like someone who had stood tall against the heavens and earth for a long time, suddenly knowing there was a cushion behind them. She could lean on it to relax when she was tired, but she wouldn't fall down. As the girl slowly descended with the bead, she suddenly felt a suction force.
It's a bit like the sound a swimming pool drain makes when it's working.
But why is there a drainage outlet at the bottom of the well?
Or rather...
She had landed at the bottom of the well, her feet on the dry ground. The water-repelling pearl's effect was working here, and Pingyu carefully sensed the fleeting anomaly she had just witnessed. She slowly, gradually, walked in one direction. The coolness there was different from elsewhere; it was fluid.
The girl raised her hand, feeling the coldness slide across her fingertips.
But how can there be wind in a well?
The movies and TV shows he had watched kept flashing through his mind, and a clear idea was born in Pingyu's heart: there must be an exit in the well.
She released the demon from the bracelet, and the headless and handless celestial maiden asked, "Why did you call me out?"
She asked, "Whether it's memory or strength, doesn't your increasingly perfect body allow you to feel anything? It's one thing if you can't feel anything in your head, but what about your other arm?"
"I don't know." Nüba waved her hand. "I'm not even sure if the head and the other hand still exist; they've always been invisible to our senses."
It's clearly just a body, yet it refers to different parts of that body as "we"...
The context of Nüba's words was somewhat subtle. Pingyu, in the process of figuring it out, bluntly said: "Each of your limbs has a different personality, but when they are combined, they are assimilated... How can this be? Aren't they your original limbs?"
"Green grapes." Nüba stopped what she was doing.
“Call me Pingyu,” the girl corrected, “Don’t confuse me with my past life.”
“Okay, Pingyu,” Nüba readily agreed. “With my memories incomplete, I probably know less about myself than you do about me. Although this is my body, my original body, I feel I should use ‘we’ instead of ‘I’ when I speak. Perhaps once my head and the other hand are back together, we’ll be able to remember what happened.”
"How can you be so sure that I can find them when I'm completely clueless?"
The area with the strongest airflow made the sound of gears turning, and the well was shaking. Pingyu subconsciously took two steps back.
The demon blocked her behind her and said, "Because you are Qingti, there is nothing Qingti cannot do."
Ping Yu remained silent.
The stone she had pressed down had created a dent in the previously smooth well surface, and the well stabilized after a short while. With a "thump," the well wall was pushed to the left by a mechanism, revealing a black passage large enough to accommodate an adult.
How could there be such a mechanism in the well that the villagers use for drinking water? And it's in Widow Zhang's house.
She now possessed numerous magical artifacts, including the Immortal-Slaying Flying Knife taught by Lu Ya, and the bracelet contained ample food. Even if trapped, she could survive for at least a month. With her thorough preparations, self-preservation seemed assured. Ping Yu took Nüba's hand and resolutely stepped into the well.
The well shaft was long, but not entirely dark. At intervals along its top were beads that emitted a faint purple glow, casting a chilling light on the path. Ping Yu tiptoed to reach them, finding his fingertips within reach. With a slight pressure from his spiritually imbued fingers, he easily pried the beads off.
It fell off so easily!?
Pingyu was startled and tried to put it back. But by the light of the purple light, the bead in his hand looked somewhat similar to the water-repelling bead given to him by Nezha, only much rougher.
Who on earth built this well, with such wealth and power? No ordinary person who isn't a cultivator could obtain so many water-repelling beads. The beads can deflect the cascading well water, stopping those without magical artifacts.
Thinking of this, Pingyu stopped trying to obediently put the beads back. She went back to the original entrance and started prying the beads off one by one. Pingyu's morality was at odds with her actions, so she could only tell herself: If there is no danger, I will return the beads; if there are bad people inside, I will confiscate them.
Since there's no name written on it, I can keep it since I found it!
Thanks to the water-repelling beads, the path was so quiet that there was no sound of dripping water, only the sound of their footsteps. The path was clear until Pingyu arrived at a door. She grabbed the door knocker and pushed it open, the door instantly swung open. A blinding light burst forth from the crack, so intense that Pingyu couldn't open her eyes. Her eyes, long accustomed to darkness, took a while to adjust to the light behind the door. Stepping through the door and towards the back, the girl belatedly felt a wave of heat.
This is a huge, secret room.
Her skirt seemed to have brushed against something, and she vaguely heard the sound of something heavy falling to the ground. She looked down and saw a candle lying on the ground. The wax was white, and the oil-soaked wick hadn't gone out even after hitting the ground. As the flickering light spread, the candle emitted a pungent, unpleasant odor. But there was more than one candle on the ground…
The entire floor was covered with candles, and when Pingyu's pupils reflected the candlelight, they seemed to be pierced by burns. They were densely packed towards the center, making the room feel like summer, making it hard to breathe. She looked up and saw that the central table was a level higher than the floor.
A bright red coffin was placed on top.
The coffin was larger than usual, two or three times the size of any Pingyu had ever seen. Red ribbons were tied to the coffin, and the character "囍" (double happiness) was written on its surface.
Upon seeing this, Nüba and Ping Yu exclaimed in unison: "A ghost marriage!?"
How could there be such a place at the bottom of Widow Zhang's well!
In the blink of an eye, the plane rose up, transforming into a silver thread that slashed towards the girl. Ping Yu's pupils contracted, and Nüba pulled her behind her to block it.
Knock knock.
Immediately afterwards, the heavy object landed.
The sling that Nüba had just had reattached yesterday fell to the ground, and she turned and kicked the person who had come. Although the celestial maiden had lost her divine power, her physical functions were still intact.
Her light kick landed on the person's soft abdomen. The person froze for a moment upon impact, and the next second, they were swept away by the strong wind and slammed heavily against the nearest wall.
The room was brightly lit by candlelight, and the sudden crisis was easily averted. Nüba knelt on one knee, waiting for the severed hand to reconnect with the wound. Pingyu took two steps forward and saw the attacker's face clearly.
She exclaimed in surprise, "Auntie!?"
The visitor was none other than Widow Zhang!
Widow Zhang, a mere mortal, her flesh and bones crumbling from the direct attack of the celestial maiden, was beyond repair. Her hands, like maggots, writhed as she reached for something. Ping Yu glanced at her; the weapon that had struck her was a kitchen knife. Widow Zhang's veins bulged, her eyes flashing with ferocity. Ping Yu, thinking she was about to do something, conjured a talisman between his fingers. But Widow Zhang merely raised her head, her voice almost cracking as she cried out, "Grandpa, they're here!"
Old man?
The face beneath the veil and the hands below, resisting their restraints, cried out together, "We're here! Help!"
The demon raised her single hand and pointed in the direction of the coffin, saying, "My head and hands are there."
After saying that, she thought for a moment and added, "That one next to me isn't human. Can you kill it? Or you can leave it for me to kill. I don't want an old man as my husband."
"Isn't this the thing we should be worrying about right now?"
However, putting himself in her shoes as her best friend, the Grape Fairy, in a past life, Pingyu agreed, saying, "I don't want you to marry an old man either. You should stay single and enjoy your beauty!"
The two spoke without regard for those around them, causing the old man, who had been keeping his eyes closed, to bulge veins on his face. He appeared to be furious, his open eyes bloodshot: "Nüba, when I was young, I was deeply in love with you, and you said you wouldn't marry a mortal. Now that I've escaped mortal life, you say you don't want to marry an old man! A thousand years have passed since then, and I've guarded your head and your hand for a thousand years. Is your heart, as a celestial being, truly as cold as a rock, unshakable in the slightest?!"
Ping Yu looked the enraged old man up and down.
An old ox isn't a Ferrari, why would it eat tender grass?
"You're the old man from the village chief's family?" she said. "That saves me the trouble of looking for you. Since you've trapped the head and body of the demon so that she can never be resurrected, why do you have to kill a woman every now and then for human sacrifice?"
"So you are Qingti?"
The old man, enraged, laughed bitterly: "It's all your fault! If you hadn't descended to earth and given Nüba hope, she would have already submitted to me and become my loving wife! Watch me kill you, and devour your flesh and blood in front of her to extinguish her hopes. Only then will Nüba willingly become my wife!"
The old man shouted, and the strange phenomenon began.
Pingyu watched as his skin lost its color and turned pale, and his entire body grew thick white fur at a visible speed, resembling the fur of a silver rat. His ears elongated and became pointed, and terrifying, ferocious fangs sprouted from his mouth.
Red eyes, pointed ears, and fangs—in the book Lu Ya gave her, these were signs of zombification. A zombie with white fur was a "flying zombie"! Ping Yu was about to release the talisman from her finger when she suddenly felt a sharp pain in her wrist. The storage bracelet Lu Ya had given her kept changing size, seemingly malfunctioning and repeatedly opening and closing. Just as she channeled her spiritual energy into it, a handkerchief was spat out.
Pingyu held it in his hand; it was the handkerchief Nezha had given him. Tong'er, Xiao Bei, and their mother were cultivating inside… Oh, right!
Speaking of zombies, she has them here too!
With a thought, the three flew out from the handkerchief. Du Ruohua, a flying zombie also covered in white fur, knelt on one knee with the two children.
"Master," she said, "I sensed the presence of a fellow being as soon as I broke through my cultivation barrier, and I wondered if you were in danger. This person is a flying zombie like me, so why don't we, mother and son, deal with him?"
Ping Yu nodded: "Help me buy some time."
Du Ruohua, carrying the child, darted out in an instant and immediately began fighting with her great-grandfather.
Pingyu took out the paper figures and exhaled. She then took out the thick book of talismans, and all the paper figures began to draw according to the patterns on it.
The place where the old man and Du Ruohua, the two flying zombies, were fighting was too close to the head of the female demon. Seeing that she had nothing to do, she walked up to the widow Zhang.
The woman stared at the ground, her breathing labored and labored. The demon, Nüba, knelt before her, asking in bewilderment, "You should know he's imprisoning my body if you're working for him. Since your daughter died unjustly, why are you working for him?"
"Why did you come to our village? Why our village of all places!" Widow Zhang suddenly lost control. She roared madly, her eyes filled with hatred as she looked at the demon: "The dead are used to nourish you, and the souls of the dead are all trapped in your head. If I don't help him, he will make my daughter's soul disappear!"
Author's Note: This chapter is almost finished, and the synopsis will be collected soon.
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