Chapter 125: The Five Pasts of Nine Mountains
The girl's delicate arm reached into the bloody mess, searching expressionlessly, her face as calm as if the only thing in front of her was a torn skin.
What was even more bizarre was that because of the tear made by the girl, the corpse drooped like a deflated ball and was actually just an empty shell.
Bones, heart, liver, intestines, nothing.
"We can't go forward," Xiuxiu stood up, her arms stained red. She wiped the blood on her clothes and said, "Let's take a detour."
Someone scolded, "Where did this little girl come from? How dare she touch a corpse? Whose child is she? And you don't care."
Chen Rongqing bravely stepped forward and took out a hand towel to wipe Xiuxiu's hands. A hint of fear welled up in his heart, and he asked cautiously, "Xiuxiu, why do you say we can't go any further?"
Xiuxiu wiped her hands and spoke calmly, "Oh, these people were eaten by the Ba ghost. Ba ghosts are born in drought, and they love to eat people's lungs and livers. After eating so much, it can't go far. If you go any further, you should encounter it."
Although Chen Rongqing didn't understand everything, he vaguely guessed some of the meaning. His face turned pale and his heart beat faster.
Others were frightened and frowned, not because of this so-called "Drought Demon", but because this girl was so young but could speak nonsense. Could it be that the place was filled with corpses and the violent atmosphere was so strong that the girl was possessed by a ghost?
If ghosts really exist, they might just possess girls with weak yang energy, point them astray, and seduce people to die in their place.
Isn’t this what the older generation calls a lackey?
"We can't listen to her. We're about to enter the city. This is the official road. If we want to take a detour, we can only go through the direction of Langang. That's the lair of bandits and horse bandits!"
People quickly divided into different teams, some continued to enter the village, and some hesitated to move forward.
Chen Rongqing held his wife Zhang Yanfang's hand and stood firmly beside the girl.
Out of some special intuition, he felt that following Xiuxiu was the right thing to do.
But if he took the small road, bandits and horse bandits would indeed be a hidden danger. After hesitating, he decided to retreat back to the outside of the village and set up camp in a secluded place to rest for the night.
Some people chose to follow Chen Rongqing. At night, they took out their few dry food supplies, lighted a campfire, and chewed their food tastelessly.
In the middle of the night, heart-wrenching screams rang out again in the village.
Xiuxiu, who was stirring the bonfire with a branch, raised her head and looked in a certain direction. She sighed softly, but there was no sympathy in her eyes. It was as if she was just sighing for something that was bound to happen: "The ghost is coming."
People felt a chill down their spines and quickly put out the bonfire. They hugged each other and hid in the bushes, covering their mouths and not daring to make a sound.
In this dead silence, a hunched shadow slowly moved out from the direction of the village entrance.
The shadow shone an unnatural green, and its precise description was unclear. It resembled a human, but it walked in an extremely unnatural manner, its limbs as thin as dead branches practically dragging on the ground. It was clearly not alive.
It stopped in front of a curled up corpse and slowly bent down. In the blur, there was a vague chewing sound. After a moment, it stood up again and continued to stagger forward.
Xiuxiu said, "It smelled us."
The crowd was shocked.
Ancient legends say that in years of severe drought, where corpses litter the land, this ominous creature breeds. Unexpectedly, they actually saw it with their own eyes!
Chen Rongqing felt a chill rising from his feet and clutched his wife's hand tightly. The Ba ghost, sensing the presence of a living being, paused and slowly, inch by inch, twisted its body towards the direction where everyone was hiding.
However, just as the shadow was about to approach, it suddenly froze for some reason, as if it had suddenly discovered something. It quickly took a few steps back and finally disappeared as if escaping.
Everyone's hearts were suddenly relieved. Just as they were crying with joy and feeling lucky to have escaped the disaster, the fear in Chen Rongqing's heart became even more intense.
He swallowed and looked at Xiuxiu who was fiddling with the ashes as if nothing had happened. He felt a chill on the back of his neck.
Didn’t the Ba ghost that just fled in panic encounter a more powerful predator?
Xiuxiu, who is she...
After setting off again, Chen Rongqing quietly took his wife's hand and told her not to offend the girl in front of them, to treat her as more precious than their daughter and to respect her like a god.
Zhang Yanfang was a little puzzled. Although she felt that there was indeed something unusual about Xiuxiu, she thought that it might be a natural ability brought by growing up in the mountains.
Chen Rongqing shook his head and sighed deeply. His fears were suppressed by greed. "Just do as I say. She's an incredible treasure. Our Chen family is going to be prosperous..."
The team was getting closer to Crane City.
The famine in the south was not as severe, and there was still order in the towns. There were more peddlers and carts passing by.
Those who fled were all people with family assets. Their journey of thousands of miles was worth it. At this moment, they were so excited that their eyes were filled with tears. They ran to find their relatives for refuge.
Chen Rongqing and his wife took great care of Xiuxiu along the way. They treated her as their adopted daughter, provided her with food and clothing, and taught her calligraphy. Gradually, her thin body recovered and her face became much whiter. She no longer looked like the sallow face she had before.
When she was learning to read, Chen Rongqing took the opportunity to write his own family genealogy poem and showed it to her.
Xiuxiu was stunned for a moment, then turned around and looked at Chen Rongqing very seriously. At that moment, Chen Rongqing felt that the girl's gaze could pierce through his bones, and his despicable soul hidden in his skin had no place to hide under her gaze.
"…poetry and literature are passed down from generation to generation, bringing prosperity and prosperity to all generations."
Xiuxiu raised her head: "You are a descendant of Chen Yongnian."
Chen Rongqing said bewilderedly, "Chen Yongnian? I've seen this name in the family tree, but that was hundreds of years ago..."
His voice stopped abruptly.
Did Xiu Xiu exist hundreds of years ago?
Is she a ghost, a demon, or a fairy?
"What a shame." Xiuxiu stared at him and suddenly said without context, "In two generations, the Chen family will be extinct."
Chen Rongqing and Zhang Yanfang looked at each other, their faces pale. "W-What do you mean?"
Xiuxiu held the book and said nonchalantly, "I guessed."
Based on a person's facial features and the strength of his spiritual energy, she could vaguely see some information.
"However," she suddenly changed the subject, "I can repay Chen Yongnian a favor."
Chen Rongqing suddenly pulled his wife to her knees and pleaded nervously, "Xiu... Immortal, you are an immortal, please, I beg you, I have been the only heir for three generations, and I don't want my family business to fall into the hands of others in the future!"
"I will help you resolve this calamity. You don't need to beg me." Xiuxiu leaned her head on the ground, flipping through the book in her hand with one hand. "The world has been unstable in recent years, and the spiritual energy has been disordered. I originally planned to sleep until then, but something went wrong along the way."
Chen Rongqing didn't quite understand what was said, but seeing the other party agree, his heart was already blinded by joy and profit: "From now on, I will do good deeds and never do evil again. I will make a statue for you and build a temple to worship you!"
"That's not necessary," Xiuxiu said with a gloomy expression, "You lack good karma, so I won't accept the incense you offer."
Chen Rongqing and Zhang Yanfang smiled sullenly, looking very guilty.
Suddenly there was a loud noise next door, and a series of heavy footsteps were heard, startling the entire inn.
It was still some distance to the south before they reached Hecheng. The small inn they were staying in was a bit shabby and not very soundproof.
Zhang Yanfang listened intently for a moment, then lost her mind with fear. She quickly pulled Chen Rongqing up and said, "It sounds like they're arresting someone."
Chen Rongqing also became nervous. He listened through the crack of the door for a while, then turned back and whispered to Zhang Yanfang, "It's the people of Marshal Zhao in the south. They might be arresting the rebels."
"Tsk, the soldiers and bandits think everyone is a traitor," Zhang Yanfang pursed her lips. "Should we hide for a while?"
"What does arresting the rebels have to do with us?" Chen Rongqing retreated back into the house. "Don't make a sound. Wait until they're arrested."
He thought that with Xiuxiu around, they would be safe.
As soon as I turned around, I found that the little girl who was sitting at the table reading a book was gone.
A group of people in gray military uniforms surrounded the backyard of the inn. They were holding a young man in a red suit hostage. The man had his head hung down and seemed to be dying from torture. A closer look revealed that his suit was originally white, but it was stained red with blood.
Opposite this group of soldiers and bandits, there was a young woman with long curly hair and wearing a Western dress. She wore forearm-length gloves and had a cold look between her eyebrows. Although she was alone, her aura was more overwhelming than the dozens of people opposite her.
"Your commander-in-chief is so cunning! If you want my things, why don't you come and get them yourself?" The woman sneered, her eyes sliding over the injured young man. "I don't even know him, and you're using him to blackmail me? Haha."
The bearded leader, riding on a tall horse, grinned with a sinister look on his face. "You said you didn't know him, then who did you turn down the engagement with the Meng family for? Stop pretending, Miss Song! Hurry and take out the things. There's no point in keeping them. We have plenty of time to waste with you!"
"You!" Song Zhen gritted his teeth and clenched his hands unconsciously. The spiritual energy on his body seemed to be running wild, but he was hesitant because of the young man in the white suit.
"Go!" The bearded man gave an order, and several figures rushed forward. Their skills were different from those of ordinary people, and there was a bit of strangeness in their moves. They were all the mysterious and unique people raised by Zhao An.
Song Zhen raised his hand to block, but suddenly, a dangerous aura spread behind him. The vanguards who were rushing forward were caught off guard and bounced out by this invisible force. They hit the wooden pole hard and spit out blood.
The crowd was in chaos for a moment. The bearded man roared to calm the situation. He looked over like an eagle and saw a little girl in ordinary cloth clothes who appeared behind Song Zhen at some point and continued to walk towards him slowly.
"Whose child are you from?" The bearded man asked, and immediately felt something was wrong. He glanced to his left and right, and his men immediately understood, took out their pistols from their waists, and pulled the trigger quickly without any hesitation.
At the critical moment, the girl raised her hand slightly, and the two bullets actually stopped steadily at her fingertips.
Everyone was stunned.
In a moment, the girl flicked her fingers as if playing with marbles - the bullets actually traced back along the same trajectory, piercing the muzzles of the two men's guns and exploding. After two bangs, they fell heavily from the saddle on both sides, unconscious.
"She is also from the Xuanmen!"
The soldiers and bandits panicked. After staring at her for a moment, one of them cried out, "No, no! She's not human!"
The bearded man was horrified and shouted, "What are you all standing there for? Kill her!"
For a moment, these people each used their own trump cards, and dozens of moves were launched at the same time, but the girl didn't even raise her eyelids. An invisible and powerful spiritual power suddenly spread out from her thin body, like an eternal mountain or a bottomless sea, suddenly pressing heavily on everyone.
At this moment, they suddenly realized what a terrifying existence they were provoking. The guns in their hands became scrap metal, and their arrogant murderous intent seemed absurd and ridiculous, and they overestimated their own abilities.
No one could see clearly what was happening. Everyone's legs were trembling and they fell to their knees. Their pupils gradually became lighter, as if their souls were being squeezed out of their bodies inch by inch... When the terrifying pressure dissipated, those Xuanmen eccentrics who boasted of their extraordinary skills were already dead.
Song Zhen woke up as if from a dream, ran over and helped the young man in the white suit up: "Huai Jin, Huai Jin? How are you?"
She looked up and saw the girl tilting her head, with her finger between her lips, staring at the bag in the young man's hand with a somewhat innocent look.
She smelled a very sweet scent.
Song Zhen seemed to understand something. She hurriedly opened her handbag and took out several incense towers shaped like birds, beasts, and gourds. She held them up and motioned the girl over: "Do you... like this?"
That was the incense tower she made in her spare time as a gift to Bai Huaijin. It was mixed with her own spiritual power and could barely serve as a talisman.
Without saying a word, the girl squatted down, grabbed the incense tower from Song Zhen's hand, stuffed it into her mouth voraciously, and began to chew it with a crunching sound.
All of this was seen clearly by Chen Rongqing and his wife from the window of the corner room on the second floor...
…
…
"...After that, your great-grandfather knew that this girl named Xiuxiu was no ordinary person. They returned to Hecheng with Song Bai. During that time, they got to know each other and learned about the existence of Xuanmen from each other."
"Xuanmen?" Chen Songling came back to his senses in a daze: "Xuanmen...! I know, isn't that the Dragon Bamboo..."
"After that, the girl disappeared, and your great-grandfather began to occasionally come into contact with people from the Xuanmen sect. Twenty years later, he met a young lady named Zhao. That lady possessed extraordinary skills and helped our Chen family rise steadily, eventually accumulating the wealth we have today." Chen Deyin raised his head. "The expert I'm talking about is that young lady Zhao."
Shen Fang's face turned pale. "She was born in the fifties, so she must be around a hundred years old now, right? She...she..."
"She's no longer a 'human' in the literal sense," Chen Deyin said in a deep voice, "She's going to become an immortal!"
Shen Fang grabbed Chen Songling's hand, her voice trembling: "What does that have to do with us? You don't want Xiaojun to get involved, do you? Your son's career is developing well now, you, you must not push him into the fire pit!"
"Stupid!" Chen Deyin stood up suddenly, his face filled with a look of disappointment. "That's a blessing you couldn't even hope for, how could it be a hellish pit? If you had seen those scenes, you would never say such words..." He suddenly lost his strength again and fell heavily on the sofa, his eyes blank and he muttered, "Being an ordinary person, living and dying every day, living for decades, running around for money, what's the point... You don't understand, you will never understand."
He was tired of the scenery on the mountaintops of the mortal world. Compared to the ethereal and vast existence of "immortals", what was he? He was just an ant or mayfly, unaware of the true spring and autumn.
Chen Songling's heart was pounding. "Dad, what's the connection between that Miss Zhao you mentioned and our old house's ancestral hall?"
Chen Deyin's eyes suddenly became a little strange. He rubbed his fingers and said, "You'll understand when you get to the ancestral hall."
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