Chapter 199 It's time to fulfill the promise.
When Chu Xuanji set foot on the island again, she keenly sensed the unusual atmosphere.
Those evasive glances and forced smiles all reveal the changes in people's hearts.
She gathered the girls who practiced martial arts on the rocks by the sea.
The sea breeze was blowing, making their clothes flutter.
"I want you to make a solemn oath." Chu Xuanji's voice was more serious than usual. "If you teach the skills I have imparted to men, the descendants of the Zhong family will be disabled for generations."
The girls' expressions changed upon hearing this, and some subconsciously took a half step back.
Such a vicious oath is truly appalling.
"Is this... too much..." a timid girl murmured.
Chu Xuanji's gaze sharpened: "Absolutely necessary."
Silence spread through the crowd.
Finally, Zhong Ziyun strode forward and knelt on one knee: "I, Zhong Ziyun, swear to the heavens that if I pass on the martial arts taught by the goddess to a man, the Zhong family bloodline will be crippled for generations, and there will never be a healthy person!"
Her resounding vow echoed in the sea breeze.
Seeing this, the other girls also stepped forward to make their own vows.
Chu Xuanji's expression softened slightly, and she was about to speak when suddenly a piercing pain shot through her chest.
Her expression changed drastically.
Lu Yao is in trouble!
Chu Xuanji forced herself to remain calm, her fingers rapidly calculating the secrets of heaven.
Little Yao'er's cultivation level has surpassed her master's; there shouldn't be any major problems.
But as the calculations deepened, Chu Xuanji felt as if she had fallen into an ice cave.
It turned out that the Central Plains had suffered a three-year drought, with corpses littering the fields. And that foolish disciple, in his quest for rain to descend upon the world, actually severed three of his immortal bones!
“This girl…” Chu Xuanji’s throat tightened.
Xiao Yao'er often says that if you want to change the world, you can't just focus on your own well-being.
She loves to meddle in other people's business, which has helped many people, but has also offended quite a few.
Now that his immortal bones are broken, how could those enemies let go of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity?
We must return to the Central Plains immediately!
Chu Xuanji suddenly felt a chill run down her spine.
She couldn't fathom her fate, yet she had a strong premonition.
This journey may be one from which I never return.
Chu Xuanji slowly took out an ancient book from her sleeve. The five seal characters on the cover, “Earthly Fiends Reversing Heaven Book,” were as red as blood.
Her fingertips lightly traced the spine of the book, and the intricate sealing runes immediately lit up, swirling with a dangerous light between the pages.
“Zhong Lingshan,” she said calmly, “this seal can last for a hundred years. By then, your cultivation should have reached its peak, and you will need to reinforce the seal again. This book records seven heaven-defying evil arts, each of which is enough to wreak havoc on the world. It must not fall into the hands of bad people. Can you protect this book?”
Zhong Lingshan stretched out her hands, and felt a chill as soon as her fingertips touched the book cover.
The moment she held the ancient book in her hands, she seemed to hear the wails of countless wronged souls, so oppressive that she could hardly breathe.
"Disciple...will protect you with my life!" she vowed through gritted teeth, her arms trembling slightly from the weight she was bearing.
Chu Xuanji looked deeply at Zhong Lingshan, Zhong Ziyun, and the others, her gaze filled with unspeakable entrustment.
With one last glance at the sea, Chu Xuanji's figure transformed into a streak of light and disappeared into the horizon.
When Chu Xuanji rushed back to the Central Plains, the sight of Broken Soul Ridge tore at her heart.
We didn't see Lu Yao, but only the stone tablet and coffin used to suppress him.
A group of women sat in a circle at the foot of the hill, their brows furrowed with worry.
Of the nine human-shaped stone tablets, eight have already been claimed.
For the last one, it wasn't that no one volunteered, but rather that they all lacked the qualifications.
The last one, the Burial Immortal Stele, as the name suggests, requires the person who breaks the stele to have the qualifications to become an immortal.
In other words, a person who cultivates the Tao.
“But we…” the young woman smiled bitterly, “If we had such abilities, we wouldn’t have ended up needing A-Yao to rescue us.”
Chu Xuanji's gaze swept over the women.
Some of them were women who were trafficked and abandoned by their families, some were wives who had escaped death and were sold into servitude, and some were foreign princesses who had been taken prisoner...
That silly girl, Xiaoyao, really hasn't been idle at all.
She stepped forward slowly, saying, "I'll take this last piece of the monument."
At the summit of Broken Soul Ridge, nine women slit their wrists, their crimson blood dripping onto the ancient altar, transforming into an indelible mark of their vows.
After the ceremony, the eight women departed with their respective missions, but Chu Xuanji's figure remained forever on this desolate mountain.
From then on, her figure became indistinguishable from the clouds and mist swirling among the mountains.
She used her magical powers to set up numerous restrictions to protect this land.
She laid out a winding, bewitching maze along the mountain path, making those who stumbled upon it feel as if they were in a dream.
The Heart-Eating Vines planted around the stone tablet will bloom with bewitching red flowers on the night of the full moon, and the vines will entwine those with ill intentions as if they were alive.
At midnight, she used her spiritual power to conjure up a terrifying scene of a hundred ghosts roaming the night, frightening the visitors.
The curse of the Burial Monument slowly manifests.
Chu Xuanji's immortal bones melted away in the oath, and her once ageless face withered at a visible speed.
In less than a hundred days, her jet-black hair turned completely white.
Only those eyes remained as clear as ever.
Not long after, Chu Xuanji passed away peacefully on Broken Soul Ridge.
Her soul has undergone a thousand years of reincarnation. Although she has no memories of her past life, she has always pursued the path of cultivation.
The Zhong family, to whom she entrusted the Earthly Fiend Book to turn the world upside down, has long since changed beyond recognition.
Zhong Lingshan and Zhong Ziyun's generation upheld their vow until their deaths.
But three hundred years later, the beliefs of Zhong Qionghua's generation began to waver.
Zhong Qionghua's son is exceptionally intelligent and possesses spiritual roots.
Whenever she sees the longing in her son's eyes for Taoist practice, Zhong Qionghua feels as if her heart is being pricked by needles.
Finally, she secretly taught her son the method of guiding qi into the body.
"Are you insane!" Upon hearing the news, Zhong Qionghua's mother was so angry that she vomited blood on the spot. "Have you forgotten the goddess's solemn oath?"
"Foolish!" The First Elder slammed his hand on the table, his finger trembling as he pointed at Zhong Qionghua. "You're going to implicate the entire Zhong family!"
The clansmen looked at each other in bewilderment, some of them already secretly calculating their wives' pregnancies.
In the days that followed, the cries of each newborn made everyone's hearts clench.
However, three years later, the Zhong family had seventeen babies born in succession.
Each of them had all four limbs intact, and their cries were loud and clear.
"Hahaha!" The old man from the third branch of the family laughed loudly, slapping the wine jar. "What oaths? They're all just empty threats!"
The atmosphere inside the ancestral hall gradually changed.
The memorial tablet that once enshrined the goddess was covered with a thick layer of dust and no one wiped it anymore.
The younger generation is even more unscrupulous.
"I think that so-called goddess is probably using some kind of illusion."
"Our ancestors were just like that, completely fooled by a charlatan."
"If you ask me, that marksmanship should be passed down to men. Women don't have the strength of men."
Zhong Qionghua's son proudly demonstrated his magic at the banquet.
The elders of the clan sat around, and instead of scolding him, they nodded and praised him repeatedly.
Thus, the Zhong family completely broke their vow and gradually forgot their former benefactor.
...
Lu Yao's gaze swept over the Zhong family members like frost, and a mocking smile appeared on her lips: "The oath has not yet come true. Do you all think it's nothing but a joke?"
Her voice was soft, yet it sent chills down the spines of everyone present.
The usually aloof and composed Lu Yao now had a faint redness at the corners of her eyes: "If it weren't for Master sacrificing his entire cultivation to the Burial Immortal Stele to save me..."
Her voice trembled slightly, "Your Zhong family should have been either dead or crippled, and extinct, the moment you broke your oath."
The elders of the Zhong family changed their expressions drastically, and some of them began to tremble uncontrollably.
Lu Yao looked up at the sky, a tear silently sliding down her cheek. "That vow, it's time to keep it."
She slowly raised her hand. "Because she's back."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
