Chapter 186 His Tomb:
"Stop right there!"
A rustling sound came from behind Shen Bingsi. Someone stepped across the grass and walked towards him. The flickering torchlight was particularly bright in the dark night. Shen Bingsi saw one or two shadows flash by.
"Who are you? State your name!" The patrol guard's loud voice boomed behind Shen Bingsi like a thunderclap. Shen Bingsi trembled and slowly turned around.
The torchlight illuminated his face. The patrolling guard stared at him for a while, then his tone became irritated: "Old Wei, in this heavy rain, why aren't you staying indoors? What are you doing wandering around in the mountains?"
Shen Bingsi moved her lips, but said nothing.
The torchlight illuminated a face wearing a black mask, with messy, silvery-white hair peeking out from the edge of the mask and falling onto his gray shoulders. He looked exactly like Old Man Wei, the old handyman from the back mountain of Yunshan Sect whose face was burned by the fire.
"Alright, alright, stop arguing with me, get back to where you came from!" The patrolling guard lost interest in "Old Man Wei," waved his hand, and led his men to search elsewhere.
Shen Bingsi stood there, and amidst the sound of rain, faint voices drifted over: "In this heavy rain, where could that kid possibly run off to?" "I heard he's already at the Nascent Soul stage. Even if he's injured internally, we're no match for him!" "Don't boost his morale and dampen our own! Is our Yunshan Sect a place where he can come and go as he pleases?" "If he crosses the line, kill him immediately! The sect rules are as solid as mountains; everyone remember them well!"
These patrol guards were indeed there to search for him.
Shen Bingsi thought.
He touched the black mask on his face, never expecting it to come in handy.
Back when they were in the Yunshan Sect's courtyard, the servants who were responsible for sweeping and cooking wore masks like this. Shen Bingsi casually took one and left it in a corner. She never expected it would come in handy today.
With his completely white hair, he looked just like an old man doing odd jobs in the eyes of the patrolling guards.
Unexpectedly, upon arriving here, he found himself disguised as an old handyman again.
However, they could keep it a secret for a while. Sooner or later, the searchers would find out that they were not looking for a young man, but a man with completely white hair who looked like an old man.
Indeed, Shen Bingsi had already guessed that something had happened to Cui Xingmiao. Either Cui Xingmiao had reported him, or an elder in the clan had discovered something unusual about the hot spring. Shen Bingsi was more inclined to believe the latter, because it wouldn't benefit him if Cui Xingmiao reported him.
In any case, he had to speed things up.
Shen Bingsi pressed down on her mask and quickly walked towards the main road.
Although it was a rainy day and many years had passed, and the road leading to the courtyard had changed a lot, for some reason, Shen Bingsi still had a strong feeling that he had once again embarked on that road leading to nightmares.
He had walked this path countless times in the illusion. The ruthless path's illusionary trials would magnify the weakest points in people's hearts countless times. Shen Bingsi should have been indifferent to it and no longer be able to stir up any waves on this path.
But.
Many years ago, when he was still an ignorant child, he knew nothing, yet his heart was filled with intense love and hate. As he walked along this road, a stone, a blade of grass, and a strange lintel seemed to foreshadow a major turning point in his destiny. He was about to do something earth-shattering, to punish some people and make them regret it for the rest of their lives, to repay others and prove that he was not a powerless child. He was excited, as if he had grasped the laws of the world. He was absolutely convinced that what he was about to do was the right thing, and this would be the first sound he made to shake the world.
Many years later, he walked this road again, his hair completely white and his face unrecognizable. A sudden downpour in the mountains soaked him to the bone, and no one recognized him. He was glad about this, because he was about to clean up a mess left over from thirty years ago. Because he had messed it up so badly back then, he hadn't had the courage to turn back all these years. He had just numbed himself in his illusions over and over again, making himself believe that the matter was over and wouldn't affect his bright future.
However, just as his master wrote in his last will and testament, the Blade of Heaven-Severing was nothing but a self-deceiving act. After stealing the bell with his ears covered for so many years, he was finally going to hear for himself how the bell actually rang.
This made him quite upset.
"I'm not going to tell you how to get to Cui Yuqing's grave!"
Cui Xingmiao's voice echoed in her ears, and Shen Bingsi felt her heart clench again. Cui Yuqing was dead? So many of them, all medical cultivators, couldn't save him? When exactly did Cui Yuqing die? Was it directly related to him? He was indeed seriously injured, but it wasn't fatal, was it...?
Shen Bingsi repeatedly recalled that bloody scene, trying to find evidence that he hadn't hit Cui Yuqing's vital points. However, the large bloodstain on the left side of the blue medical robe didn't tell the whole story.
"Your father is getting married to someone else," Miss Shen said viciously. When she mentioned Cui Yuqing and cursed her, she never said Cui Yuqing's name, but rather "your father," as if Shen Bingsi was the one who had done wrong and should bear the sins for Cui Yuqing. "If you have any ambition, you should take the initiative to rip out his heart so that he can never be a heartless man for the rest of his life!"
“If you lack ambition, you’ll be just like your unambitious father.” Miss Shen said slowly, her beautiful eyes scrutinizing Shen Bingsi as if assessing something. “Shen Bingsi, I’ve noticed that you… are becoming more and more like your father.”
A wave of disgust, so strong it made him want to vomit, surged from young Shen Bingsi's chest. He wanted to prove to his mother that he was no different from his father. Apart from the unbreakable blood ties, he would never abandon his family like his father had. No, he could even sever those blood ties.
As a child, Shen Bingsi pulled a sharpened dagger from behind her belt. The cold light of the dagger illuminated the young lady's eyes. She looked at him encouragingly, hoping he would say the words she had said countless times.
"I will rip out his heart so he can never be a heartless man again!" A resolute look appeared on his tender face, and his childish voice expressed his determination to his mother.
Miss Shen smiled. Her smile was beautiful, and the marks left by time and hatred on her face had disappeared, just like when she and Cui Yuqing were deeply in love in the courtyard of Yunshan Sect.
Shen Bingsi stopped in her tracks; the familiar courtyard fence was now in sight.
The original owner of the Yunshan Sect courtyard is no longer here, but its location is, after all, the core residence of the Yunshan Sect. After so many years, it must have welcomed a new owner.
The new owner's taste is similar to the previous one, and the appearance of the courtyard has not been changed much. The fence is very neatly repaired, and you can tell that the bamboo strips are all freshly split bamboo. They have been repainted with waterproof paint and are shiny. They are nailed together in a row, which is very neat and beautiful.
In the rain, there was no one in the courtyard. Shen Bingsi thought that the people from Yunshan Sect had probably all run out to capture him.
Shen Bingsi carefully opened the fence gate and walked into the courtyard. The bricks and stones on the ground had been repaired, and each one was flat. The grass along the edges was also neat and tidy. She wondered who lived here. "He" must cherish this courtyard very much.
A sense of anticipation welled up in Shen Bingsi's heart. He was somewhat eager to meet this person; perhaps, "he" was...
The courtyard was quiet, and the main room was also dark. When it rained or the wind blew in the mountains, it was as dark as night outside. If there were people inside, there should have been lights on. It seemed that no one was inside.
Shen Bingsi slipped into the shadows of the eaves and walked along the windows under the corridor until she reached the small door leading to the backyard.
He stopped in his tracks.
He could no longer remember the layout of the back garden, but he could clearly recall a large rock, vibrant yellow flowers, and Cui Yuqing lying on the ground, covered in blood. To this day, he can still see that scene whenever he closes his eyes.
Shen Bingsi leaned against the cold wall, took a deep breath, and slowly exhaled.
When he opened his eyes again, his gaze became firm.
"The Tomb of Cui Yuqing".
On the bluish-gray stone, several bright red characters are carved, revealing the injustice of the tomb owner's untimely death.
Below are rows of small characters listing the names of prominent figures from the Yunshan Sect. They are all members of the Cui family genealogy and would naturally contribute to burying Cui Yuqing and erecting her tombstone.
However, none of these younger generations had children.
Shen Bingsi slowly bent down and reached out to touch the rain-soaked writing.
A surge of blood welled up in my chest.
Shen Bingsi closed her eyes, feeling as if her head had been hit hard by a heavy hammer. The facts were clear: Cui Yuqing was dead. The mess he had left behind had finally become an irretrievable past due to the passing of the person involved.
Shen Bingsi couldn't help but give a bitter smile. He had never been in despair before, but he couldn't help but wonder if it was really fate that was going to destroy him.
A faint commotion could be heard in the rain, and hurried footsteps rushed into the front yard.
Shen Bingsi turned around and saw the torchlight coming from the other side of the main room. The patrol guards had come again, and this time, they were probably after him.
Shen Bingsi looked around, his gaze landing on a familiar large rock in the northeast corner of the courtyard. If he remembered correctly, there was a shortcut behind that rock that led directly down the mountain...
Cui Yuqing once pointed out that road to him, but he didn't know if it was blocked off now.
Shen Bingsi walked over as if possessed and looked at the hidden tree hole next to the big rock. The tree hole was still there!
The commotion behind them grew louder and louder; some people had already noticed the footprints in the muddy soil after the rain and were shouting.
"He's here!" "Don't let that suspicious-looking masked old man get away!" "Search him thoroughly, don't miss an inch of bushes!"
Shen Bingsi looked at the tree hole, stopped, and slowly grasped the dark gold sword hilt protruding from the golden fish-patterned bag.
He decided not to go through the tree hole. Logically and emotionally, the people of Yunshan Sect would not let him go a second time using the same path.
This is definitely a trap.
Shen Bingsi composed herself and decided to hide in the woods behind the grave.
He was about to leave when he suddenly felt something catch his trouser leg.
Shen Bingsi looked down and raised her eyebrows in surprise.
When the patrol guards rushed into the backyard, their footprints in the rain were still clearly visible.
The guards surrounded Cui Yuqing's grave, staring at the last pair of footprints on the ground.
"That's it?!" "How is that possible?" "Did he jump into a grave?"
The footprints did indeed stop here. To the left and right, the ground was clean and flat, as if the person who had just come here had suddenly flown up and disappeared when they reached the grave.
With Shen Bingsi's original cultivation level, she could certainly have done this. However, according to the information obtained by the patrolling guards, Shen Bingsi suffered severe internal injuries and could not use any spiritual power. In terms of combat strength, she was not even as good as a Qi Refining stage cultivator.
"There's a ghost!"
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com