Chapter 37 The Moon Palace Mirror: An unprovoked disaster, the world spinning around them...
Bai Yuan remained silent, meeting his gaze.
After a long silence, she spoke: "Zhou Yaren, isn't your paranoia a bit too much?"
"You've been waiting patiently by the river for the moon's spirit to enter the earth's gate, you know the Stone Mortar Immortal's Trail leads to the River Tomb, and you know exactly how to open the passage. Your purpose is as clear as those illusory beings." All this made him suspicious. "From the very beginning, the murder in Bei Qu was caused by the blood leech egg that Sun Xiuniang planted in Shen Yuanwen's body. And she was in the Ghost Bureau..."
Before Zhou Yaren could even finish speaking, Bai Yuan knew what he wanted to say, so he interrupted him without any politeness: "Just because Sun Xiuniang performed a suicidal blood sacrifice at the Ghost Bureau, causing the array set up under the foundation to respond to her and release a wisp of my divine consciousness, does that mean that all the murders she committed should naturally be attributed to me?"
Before the other party could speak, Bai Yuan proceeded with a clear and logical explanation: "Because I had a connection with Sun Xiuniang in this link, everything she did is inextricably linked to me?!"
Now, having followed the trail of the Stone Mortar Immortal to the River Tomb, I've just unearthed a basketful of Gu-inducing agents from the filthy soil. With conclusive evidence, you naturally conclude that the Gu-inducing agents she used to kill were given to her by me. By the same logic, I become the mastermind, manipulating Sun Xiuniang to plant Gu-inducing leech eggs in Shen Yuanwen, using Gu magic to kill in Beiqu, all to allow the Wangxiang to take their place, helping them acquire bodies to wreak havoc in the world—is that the logic?
Zhou Yaren's original questions were all cut off by the other party, leaving her speechless.
Bai Yuan sneered, his words laced with veiled barbs: "Indeed, how could a seemingly delicate and weak human woman possibly commit such heinous acts? In your eyes, Sun Xiuniang is more like a puppet controlled by evil spirits. As for me, I am an evil spirit that crawled out of the Taiyin/Dao body, lacking a human heart of flesh and blood, a scourge that has lingered for a thousand years. Moreover, locked in a prison filled with resentment and unable to see the light of day, once I am released, I will surely go mad and start a killing spree. Sun Xiuniang became my first weapon to unleash my killing spree."
Undeniably, Zhou Ya's thoughts were completely exposed by the other party.
Bai Yuan didn't pause: "Oh right, I remember you said before that in order to be free from the world, I brought all kinds of powerful cultivators to Beiqu to break through the Taiyin/Dao Body. Twelve years ago, I caused a well-known 'ghost' incident, but it didn't succeed. So twelve years later, I manipulated Sun Xiuniang to plant a Gu poison to kill people. This time, the incident was even bigger, so I achieved my goal. Thanks to you, I was able to get out of that ghostly place."
Zhou Yaren stated frankly, "Shouldn't I have these doubts?"
“I didn’t say it shouldn’t be done; it’s perfectly reasonable.” Bai Yuan finished speaking, suppressing his temper, but then suddenly couldn’t hold back any longer and immediately snapped, “But what she did has nothing to do with me!”
Zhou Yaren was taken aback, because her somewhat abrupt denial actually revealed a sense of uprightness and honesty.
Bai Yuanlei said frankly, "Stop racking your brains with suspicion and conjecture behind my back. Why don't you lay it all out now?"
Since that's the case, there's no need to beat around the bush anymore.
“Fine, you say it’s none of your business, then let me ask you,” Zhou Yaren said bluntly, “Sun Xiuniang didn’t offer a sacrifice at the Ghost Bureau to give up her own life, did she?”
Bai Yuan raised his eyebrows, not understanding where these words came from.
Zhou Yaren, who could discern the laws of nature from the wind, only fully deciphered the deathly sound of the flute played by the Ghost Bureau at the River Tomb a moment ago: "It was because someone told her that when a Taoist is ready, the Taoist gods will return to him, and he will escape the world and die in the Taiyin, and be reborn and not perish."
He stared intently at Bai Yuan: "Do you know what this means?"
Bai Yuan had never been stared at so intently before, and he couldn't help but frown and remain silent for a moment.
Zhou Yaren's stiff joints had not completely subsided. At this moment, enduring the bone-chilling cold and waves of pain, she emphasized in Bai Yuan's silence: "Born from the moon, it refers to being born from the moon."
Bai Yuan remained calm: "So what? So what if you were born in the moon? What are you trying to say?"
Zhou Yaren took out the bronze mirror and pushed it in front of her: "Sun Xiuniang believes that what she is doing is not going to her death, but to be reborn. As long as she reaches the Taiyin/Dao Body, she can be reborn and not die."
Bai Yuan took the bronze mirror from his hand and stared at the moon reflected in it: "So you think I tricked her into dying in the moon so that she could be resurrected, and used this to guide her to offer a blood sacrifice at the Ghost Palace?"
"She was misled and had no idea that this was a complete dead end."
“So she wasn’t going to her death, but seeking immortality.” Bai Yuan turned the bronze mirror over and examined the patterns on it closely. “The symbolism of this Moon Palace Mirror is quite fitting. It depicts Chang’e flying to the moon in folklore. Chang’e ascended to immortality by eating the elixir of life. And the Jade Rabbit pounding medicine, it must be pounding the elixir of life. Hmm… so the Taiyin/Taoist body pressed under the river is the moon that Sun Xiuniang wants to ‘fly’ to?!”
Zhou Yaren asked, "Is it the same as yours?"
Bai Yuan didn't understand: "What do you mean, 'same'?"
"Is she following in your footsteps?"
Bai Yuan was truly confused: "What do you mean? Explain yourself clearly."
Zhou Yaren bluntly stated: "Actually—you were also someone who sought immortality, weren't you?"
"Huh?" This was quite a novel idea, and Bai Yuan was eager to hear it.
"Isn't the legend about Chang'e, who stole the elixir of immortality and fled to the moon, only to be imprisoned there forever?!" Zhou Yaren's sharp eyes boldly speculated, "Isn't it very similar to your situation? You too have been imprisoned forever in the Taiyin/Dao Body, confined in this 'Moon Palace' submerged beneath the great river, for thousands of years." The fact that it neither decayed nor vanished is practically irrefutable proof.
The moon reflected in the water and the moon in the sky are both the moon.
However, this "moon in the water" is actually a Taoist prison within the Ghost Bureau.
Bai Yuan couldn't help but nod in agreement: "That's interesting. Why don't you just say I am Chang'e?"
"Sure," Zhou Yaren immediately and decisively continued, "Legends are often fabricated and based on the strange deeds of some predecessors. And this legendary Chang'e might just be a story taken from you. It's just that you couldn't ascend to heaven, nor were you chasing after the Taiyin in the nine heavens. Instead, you dug yourself into the Daoist prison. Is this the price you paid?"
"What price?"
"The price of immortality." Zhou Yaren had never seen anyone as ancient as her before. "From the Qin Dynasty to the present, more than a thousand years have passed. You have taken refuge in the Yin and been reborn without dying."
Bai Yuan laughed: "Then please use those eyes that you've blinded yourself to see clearly, what kind of immortality do I have?"
"You didn't expect it to turn out this way, did you?"
"So now you think that this Taiyin/Dao body is the grave I dug for myself?"
Zhou Yaren nodded without hesitation: "It's practically digging your own grave."
Bai Yuan pondered for a moment, seemingly having carefully considered his reasoning: "You're quite the thinker. I don't even find it absurd, but do you believe it yourself?"
“Half and half,” Zhou Yaren said calmly. “So I’d like to ask you to help me clear up my doubts and dispel my concerns.”
Bai Yuan did not agree, but waited quietly for him to speak.
“This story is about immortality,” Zhou Yaren suddenly realized. “Since ancient times, when faced with death, from emperors to commoners, people have always harbored the delusion of immortality. For example, Qin Shi Huang spared no effort in employing sorcerers to search for immortal mountains and elixirs of immortality for him. And you mentioned before that those buried under the foundation of the Ghost Office were the Qin Dynasty sorcerers who sought the elixir of immortality for the First Emperor. The Ghost Office was built above the Qin prison, and the foundation of the Ghost Office is pressing down on the remains of these sorcerers. That’s why Sun Xiuniang brought the Moon Palace Mirror to the Ghost Office seeking immortality; there is actually a connection between the two. I actually have some vague guesses, but I can’t connect the dots, so I want to know how you were trapped in the Taiyin/Dao Body back then?”
He had asked this question before, even trying to subtly probe for an answer, but Bai Yuan had always kept his mouth shut. Now that the other party had asked him to lay it all out, Zhou Yaren naturally wouldn't miss the opportunity: "Chang'e ate an elixir of immortality to reach the moon, what about you?"
Now that things have come to this, there's really nothing to hide. Bai Yuan thought back to her distant past, which was so long ago that she even needed to try to recall it all from beginning to end.
"As for me, we have to start with the sorcerers of the Qin Dynasty." Bai Yuan simply sat down on the pebble next to Zhou Yaren, watching the surging river water flowing down from above, carrying mud and sand, constantly washing against the riverbank.
Bai Yuan's unfocused gaze was lost in the murky river, as if looking through it at that bizarre and fantastical past. She placed herself in the position of an observer and slowly began to speak.
"Back then, these sorcerers offended the First Emperor and were imprisoned in the Qin prison, facing certain death." The whole story is long, but to cut out the details and keep it brief, "Of course, they were unwilling to sit idly by and wait to die, to become unjustly killed ghosts. They were no pushovers in life, how could they possibly accept their death peacefully? Moreover, to suffer injustice and humiliation, they certainly couldn't let it end well. Sorcerers, after all, practiced all sorts of things, and inevitably resorted to crooked methods. When they were desperate, they simply used their blood to make talismans, sacrificing their lives to set up a ritual in the death row to seek a way to clear their names."
"The Way to Clear the Name of the Victim?"
Bai Yuan's lips curled into a faint, mocking smile: "When people are truly at their wits' end, they always tend to rely on heaven and earth and spirits in desperate situations, believing that heaven does not tolerate evil and earth does not tolerate wickedness, and that heaven and earth will always be just. They will never be more devout than at this moment, hoping that heaven will have eyes, that snow will fall in June, and that strange celestial phenomena will appear to prove this injustice."
Upon hearing this, Zhou Yaren subconsciously pursed his pale lips. He, too, had prayed to heaven and earth in death row to clear his name of this injustice.
"Then..." Then she was like a live fish, suddenly caught in a huge net and pulled into a blood-soaked array, to respond to the justice that these dead people sought from heaven and earth. "I was trapped in their blood array where they sacrificed their lives."
Bai Yuan couldn't even remember when or where he was before he was caught in the net, or what he was doing at the time.
Like an unexpected disaster, he was captured alive by Qin Yu in a dizzying manner.
Zhou Yaren asked in surprise, "Were you summoned by their blood array?"
"It's also because they died unjustly," Bai Yuan said. "The injustices of these sorcerers' deaths have turned into shackles in the formation, binding me tightly. Only by clearing their names can I be freed from these fetters."
Zhou Yaren involuntarily sat up straight, staring at Bai Yuan's profile, which was covered in shackles, and found it particularly shocking. The shackles stretched from her forehead to her neck and down to her collar, and these shackles, which bound her and had not been removed to this day, were enough to show that "the injustice done to these sorcerers has not been redressed."
Therefore, she could never break free from this shackle meant by "fairness of heaven and earth".
"Those who have been wronged and suffered injustice want their grievances to be redressed, while others want to bury the truth deep within."
Zhou Yaren's heart jumped into her throat instantly.
"When that person learned of my origins, he used the Qin Prison Formation to imprison me in the Taiyin/Dao Body." Bai Yuan seemed unwilling to elaborate on this experience, glossing over it in a perfunctory manner. "It's the same principle as wanting to kill someone to silence them, except that person had no other way to get rid of me, so he could only resort to this method of sealing and suppressing, burying the truth underground forever."
Zhou Yaren couldn't help but ask, "Who is that person?"
Bai Yuan shook his head, whether because he didn't know or because he didn't want to reveal it.
She said to herself, "It's hard to say how long a seal can last. Even the most fortified city will eventually collapse. Who knows when I, this living ghost, will break free of the seal and crawl out from underground? Who knows what kind of chaos will ensue then. To prevent this from happening, that person came up with this foolproof method: to build an office on the ruins of Qin Prison, and to add a divination array to the blood array that the sorcerer used to bind me. From then on, all the wronged souls who died under judgment will sink into the Taiyin/Dao body, becoming shackles that bind me."
As the years went by, more and more people died unjustly in the Beiqu government office, and the shackles on Bai Yuan's body grew heavier and heavier—the seal was layered upon layer, brick by brick. If this continued, there was no way he could ever get out, and Bai Yuan even thought that he would never see the light of day again.
"So that's how it is," Zhou Yaren couldn't hide his shock, suddenly recalling the scene he saw when he entered the Taiyin/Dao body—the crisscrossing iron chains were like a woven net, one end firmly tied to countless death row inmates, and the other end bound to Bai Yuan's body.
The iron locks were covered with dense ancient inscriptions, like layers of superimposed confinement, covering the Circular Mound Altar.
She looked as if she were wearing a garment covered in inscriptions.
It turns out that it was actually the shackles forged by the grievances of countless people, creating one shackle after another for the innocent.
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