Chapter 55 Chaos in the Three Realms of Beiyuan
The Central Plains were already lush with lush grass and chirping birds, a breath of spring. Yet, beyond the Great Wall, snow still blanketed the land, and the winds blew cold. Looking around, I saw endless snowy plains, withered trees, save for the winter pines that remained green. A dilapidated pavilion, blanketed in thick snow, seemed abandoned at the end of the world.
Cang Ming felt as if she were in another world, and murmured to herself, "Forgotten Immortal Source." The place Wei Ci brought her to was exactly the former site of Forgotten Immortal Source.
Wei Ci snapped his fingers and conjured up a cloak that he draped over her. The two of them walked through the ankle-deep snow, one foot deep and one foot shallow. After walking a long way, they finally saw a section of city wall. Cang Ming was so excited that he shook Wei Ci's arm and said, "This is where you and I first met!" Wei Ci looked at her softly and nodded.
As he entered the city gate, he saw a deserted city. Dark clouds gathered, and heavy snow fluttered down. All he could see was a flurry of snowflakes, making it impossible to see far into the distance. Wei Ci said, "Far beyond that, the buildings are deserted too. There's not much of a human here."
Cang Ming felt terrified, unconsciously moved closer to Wei Ci's arm, and asked, "How did the outside of the pass become like this in just ten years?"
Wei Ci looked around at the swaying houses that resembled a ghost town, and seemed to recall the time they had visited the temple fair together a thousand years ago. The streets were bustling with activity then, Wei Ci holding Cang Ming in one hand and carrying large and small bags in the other. They would often compete in martial arts and poetry competitions, winning strange little trinkets that he would happily give to Cang Ming to play with.
Seeing no one around, Cang Ming resorted to his old trick, stabbing his sword into the snow, the blade gleaming coldly. He silently chanted the summoning spell for a long time, but the white earth remained motionless.
Wei Ci stood with his hands behind his back, calmly brushing off the snow from his shoulders, looking elegant and graceful: "General, are you calling me?"
Cang Ming wiped the loose hair on his forehead with his sleeve and explained, "I'm summoning the local demons here."
"Really?" Wei Ci pretended to be surprised, and his voice was so bewitching that Cang Ming was at a loss for words. "But here, I'm afraid there is only one demonic ghost under my command."
Just when Cang Ming was about to give up, a dark figure appeared from afar behind the snow curtain. The dark figure walked wearily on the snow, but did not leave a single footprint on the snow.
After seeing that it was an old ghost, Cang Ming almost regretted calling him out. The ghost looked up and asked, "Who is looking for me?"
Cang Ming said apologetically, "I'm back to an old place, and everything has changed so much. I don't know what to do, so I wanted to ask a local for some advice."
"I am a local ghost, a real one, born and raised here." The ghost answered woodenly with his hands in his pockets.
Cang Ming asked, "I wonder what happened in this area? Why has it become so desolate?"
The ghost sighed and said, "This place is getting more and more evil. People are living in poverty. Nine out of ten houses are empty. All the long-legged people have run away."
"Where did they run off to?" Cang Ming didn't know what to say. "Although the land outside the Great Wall is bitterly cold, the soil is fertile and there are few disasters. Why are they all running away?"
"Those who run far away go south to seek a living in the interior of the country. Those who run closer go to the mountains to hunt and gather." The old ghost replied weakly, "The outside of the Great Wall is no longer the same as it used to be. Ghosts like us who died outside the Great Wall are discriminated against in the underworld and have to wait for our reincarnation."
“…”
The local ghost glanced at them and warned, "Are you two planning to die here? Take my advice, old man. Don't die here. If you can die somewhere else, die somewhere else. The farther away, the better."
“…”
Wei Ci laughed unkindly from the side. Cang Ming clasped his fists at the local ghost and said, "Thank you for your advice, old man. So, why has this place become so dilapidated?"
"Why, don't you know?" The local ghost pointed in a certain direction. "Ever since the evil demon opened its temple, the resentment in this place has been growing. Those who can make a wish under the demon's seat, of course, must keep their wishes secret."
"And their resentment is an offering to the demons!" Cang Ming's face was stern, and he continued, "But I clearly remember that this kind of evil temple has been abandoned. How strange..."
"General, do you remember Xie Ning?" Wei Ci reminded him, "Those things were born from these kinds of dojos, and then roamed all over the world."
After saying these few words, the local ghost was already panting with exhaustion, and Cang Ming hurriedly asked him to do as he pleased. Wei Ci paid him some underworld silver notes as a fee for asking him for directions.
Before leaving, the ghost said meaningfully: "I'm afraid that the Three Realms will undergo a drastic change."
Cang Ming and Wei Ci stepped onto the Ice Blade Sword and flew through the snow towards the dojo. Wei Ci was worried, and Cang Ming noticed it. He turned back and comforted him, saying, "Don't worry, I won't run around this time."
Wei Ci stood behind her, shielding her from the cold wind with his broad back. He said quietly, "Outside the Great Wall, there's no grass growing, no one is living. Have you ever thought about who sent the fireworks signal?"
"Maybe it's a Taoist priest in the mountains? For example, a famous and upright sect like the Lao Can Sect." Cang Ming said thoughtfully, "But I also thought, could it be a demon or ghost sending a signal to lure us here? After all, in this chaotic world, there are still so many crazy people at large..."
Wei Ci suddenly put his arms around her and whispered in her ear, "Be careful."
The heavy snow was like a natural cover, hiding hidden things. After trying hard to identify it, I found a gently rising mountain in the distance, and at the foot of the mountain there was a pale ruin of broken walls.
The two quietly landed at the base of a barely intact wall and simultaneously lowered their knees. Cang Ming, a seasoned dodger, led the way. In the center of the yard was a shabby house with its roof removed, its walls uneven.
I moved to the window of the dilapidated house without being noticed, and heard some sharp voices talking to each other inside.
Cang Ming held his breath and listened carefully. He heard someone inside say, "How are the land tax, salt tax, and miscellaneous taxes in the southeastern coastal areas going?"
Another man croaked and replied, "Everything that needed to be done has been done. Our master's plan was brilliant, and silver flowed into the imperial treasury like water. The emperor was so pleased that he rewarded our master with a large amount of gold and silver, and also allowed many demons to serve as officials in the court!"
Cang Ming was shocked and suspicious, and he exchanged a glance with Wei Ci. Wei Ci frowned and shook his head, indicating that he had not previously known that the emperor was inseparable from demons and ghosts, working together to exploit the common people.
The man who had spoken earlier chuckled smugly and said, "If you ask me, the master is much more powerful than the emperor. We are his subordinates, and our status is almost the same as the emperor's."
The last person echoed, "Of course, the master is sworn brothers with the gods, so he's a household name."
Happy laughter rang out from the house. The heavy snow had just stopped, and the two men said, "Let's go. We still have a lot of errands to do."
Cang Ming looked around quietly, but saw no ghost, only a pair of crows flapping their wings and flying by. No one could tell that this abandoned dojo was used by the minions as a place to transmit information and communicate between the three realms.
"Between the current emperor and the evil spirits and demons," Cang Ming stood up and looked into the empty room, "there's been collusion and entanglement, and they've been working together for a long time!"
"That's right." Wei Ci said calmly, his hands behind his back, "It seems that this alliance is not intended to reach a contract and exchange for peace in the world, but quite the opposite."
Cang Ming felt a chill on his back, his mind racing. After a while, he remembered, "Oh, right? How come those two little devils who were working just now disappeared without a trace?"
Wei Ci suppressed his laughter and said, "Didn't you see their backs?"
Cang Ming was stunned for a moment, then he understood: "Could it be the two crows from before?"
Wei Ci corrected, "Crow spirit."
"..." Cang Ming said blankly, "I know, it was the sound-transmitting earrings that allowed me to understand their bird calls!"
Wei Ci gently lifted the loose hair from her ear and stroked the sound-transmitting earrings, smiling without saying a word. His fingertips brushed across Cang Ming's earlobe, the touch warm and slightly rough, causing a tremor in Cang Ming's heart.
Under Wei Ci's gaze, Cang Ming turned his slightly pink face away and said anxiously, "Then, let's use this dojo as the starting point and search the surrounding areas for that big devil."
Wei Ci chuckled softly through his nose and finally stopped teasing her ears. The two of them looked at the mountains in the distance with awe-inspiring expressions. They nodded to each other and headed straight into the snow-capped mountains.
In order to conceal their tracks, Cang Ming suggested disguising themselves and walking into the mountains, pretending to be a village girl or farmer collecting fruits. Wei Ci coughed lightly and said coldly, "What kind of village girl would go into the mountains in the snow?"
Cang Ming became angry and humiliated, twisting his arm and saying, "Can't we go into the mountains to hunt?" Then he listed many reasons such as there was no rice at home and the urgent need for food, which made Cang Ming laugh, and finally he had to surrender.
Without quizzing, Cang Ming, sword in hand, watched closely for any movement around him. All was in a state of complete silence, as if even a whisper could trigger an avalanche. The two continued to communicate in their minds as they walked.
He had just reached the peak, then descended into the valley, not knowing where he was in the mountains. Cang Ming was disoriented, but the mountains seemed completely deserted. As he turned a corner, his vision darkened, as if the sun had suddenly vanished.
Looking up, I saw a towering Buddha statue standing on the top of the mountain, covered with white snow, as if it had been standing there for several years.
The sheer size of that body stirred within Cang Ming the fear of giants. She quickly covered her mouth with both hands, barely managing to calm herself down and not let out a scream that would unleash an avalanche.
Wei Ci's voice came into his mind: "Don't be afraid."
The big Buddha noticed someone coming and slowly bent down, staring at the two of them with eyes as big as lakes. Cang Ming shuddered again.
The Buddha slowly extended a clenched hand, and opened its fingers one by one. When the last finger was extended, a small figure that had been previously blocked suddenly appeared.
The Buddha's hand stretched out, lingering in mid-air. Only then did Cang Ming finally see clearly that it wasn't some little person, but Old Ghost Lotus's original form. A tattered, life-sized rag doll, wearing blood-red embroidered shoes, staggered in the Buddha's palm, its paper-made head tilted to one side.
Old Guilian was transformed into an embroidered shoe zombie, just like the corpse-like subordinates he had once created. He was finally destroyed by his own sinister creation.
Cang Ming swung his sword diagonally downward, stirring up a blanket of flying snow. Wei Ci even had the leisure to praise, "So this is the real Flowing Wind Returning Snow."
Just as the fierce battle was about to break out, a golden body fell from the sky, accompanied by a hysterical scream: "Get out of the way!"
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