Chapter 104 Another wave rises: Get out of here! A life for a life. ...
A quarter past Chen Shi (7:15 AM).
Dianxing had just finished practicing his sword and was about to go eat with a few fellow disciples when they unexpectedly saw more than a dozen people rushing over as soon as they arrived at the foot of the mountain gate.
Most of them looked flustered and glared angrily. Some were not even properly dressed, just wearing a thin outer robe over their inner garments, with the buttons undone, when they ran over.
Today isn't an important day, and normally people rarely gather together, but for some reason, Dianxing and the others all came together.
The bluestone slabs leading up the mountain were covered with a layer of dust from the messy footsteps. Dianxing felt something was wrong, but she didn't know whether a monster had appeared somewhere or if there was some kind of irreconcilable conflict in the village.
But deep down, he always felt that things weren't that simple. He had lived in Qingyunti for a few years when he was a child, and later came to Shenwuke. After all, this place wasn't far from Qingyunti, so he knew more or less what days people would come.
It's a busy time right now, how could they all come together and pile up at Shen Wuke's door? If it were a small matter, perhaps the village chief could have solved it.
Dianxing's right eyelid twitched a few times.
He saw that Takano was walking at the front.
My uncle is the type who only comes to my door when he has something to ask, so why would he come at this time?
"Dianxing, where are Shen Jiuxu and Jiang Yu? I need to see them. Get them out here right now!" Gao Ye's voice was almost a roar. Even now, he couldn't bring himself to smile at his nephew, whom he had once doted on.
"Uncle, what happened? You can tell me first. What about Sect Leader Shen and the others—"
"What can you do? You left after Shen Jiu said a few words. What use are you? You better find them right now, or we'll stay here and see who's right." Gao Ye gets angry whenever he sees Dianxing. His whole family raised him with great difficulty, but who knew that after sending him to Shenwuke, he would become one of their people.
They have no conscience at all. Seeing their own family members turn out like this, they still protect Shen Jiuxu and Jiang Yu. They are truly ungrateful wretches.
“Uncle, you said you wanted to find the sect leader and the others, but you should have explained things clearly first. You just came up here and said so much, but I still don’t know what’s going on. Uncle, we have the same blood in our veins. I am a member of the Gao family, and that will never change, whether I live or die. Why don’t you believe me?”
Dianxing sighed. He knew that his uncle was indeed very good to him, but he was very stubborn. In the past, he often quarreled with his aunt and the others at home over trivial matters.
Therefore, Dianxing was familiar with his art of speaking: exaggerating small things and exaggerating big things to an extreme degree.
“Uncle, I have already sent someone to tell the sect leader and the others. They will probably be here in a while. Why don’t you just tell me first? How could I possibly lie in front of so many uncles and aunts?”
Dianxing sighed helplessly, but Gaoye persisted, completely lacking the respect he had shown when talking about Shen Jiuxu and Jiang Yu a few days ago.
He had completely lost his patience.
"Dianxing, stop dawdling and hurry up and call them out. Your aunt and two younger siblings are all unconscious in bed. What do you want to do and just watch them die?" Gao Ye remembered what happened last night. Because they had worked in the fields all day, they were all tired and ate some food quickly before going back to rest.
Takano drank too much tea that night and was unusually energetic. He lay in bed for a while without being able to fall asleep. He listened to the soft snoring of the person next to him and felt inexplicably stuffy, so he wanted to open the window to let in some fresh air.
Unexpectedly, just as he sat up from the covers and before he could even get out of bed, he heard a rustling sound, very similar to what Zhou Qingnu had described. However, Gao Ye didn't take it seriously at first, since he lived in the mountains and it was common for stray cats and dogs to occasionally appear.
But gradually, the sound grew louder and louder, making people's ears hurt. Takano was old, and sometimes people had to shout to be heard when they spoke to him, but now the sound was so clear that it was like someone was pulling two ropes and rubbing them against his ears.
"Old woman, old woman, wake up, there seems to be something outside."
He tried to nudge the woman sleeping soundly next to him, but couldn't wake her. However, his wife was always a good sleeper and was usually still sleeping when the sun was high in the sky.
Having no other choice, Takano dressed himself, grabbed a bamboo pole, and headed towards the door. He wasn't that brave; at first, he just peered through the crack in the door.
It was pitch black outside, and Takano was wondering why he couldn't see anything when he suddenly heard another loud noise, like the scream of a tanuki.
He opened the door a crack, just enough for a head to peek out. A gust of wind blew in, making him shiver with cold. Takano kept looking outside, but saw nothing. Even the sound from before had vanished the moment the door opened.
"What is it? Honestly, disturbing people in the middle of the night."
Takano didn't take it seriously and slammed the door shut. Then he heard his wife's voice, "What are you doing? Making such a racket in the middle of the night instead of sleeping."
"I thought there was a cat meowing outside, so I went out to check. I guess it's run away now."
"Come on over and go to sleep, don't dawdle."
The woman's voice was slightly hoarse and languid, sounding somewhat unfamiliar to Takano, but perhaps because he had just been woken up from his sleep, he went to bed.
That was the last time he heard a woman speak that night. Once in bed, he completely lost his sense of wakefulness and began snoring loudly.
The person next to him slowly opened their eyes.
With a ghostly green light in her eyes, she stared at the yellow talisman behind the wooden door and laughed.
It wasn't until he woke up the next morning that Takano realized the person on his right was ice-cold to the touch, with no body temperature at all. He panicked and checked the woman's breath, but still found nothing.
It's as if everything has returned to nothingness.
On the white wall, there was a bright red pattern. When Takano Sadaharu looked at it, he realized that it was exactly the same as the pattern on the talisman.
“Dianxing, tell me, should I have gone to see Young Master Jiang and Sect Leader Shen? He came to me a couple of days ago to gather information, and I told him everything without missing a single word. But he saw this talisman with his own eyes. He said there was nothing wrong with it, and that's why I believed him. Who knew I would end up harming myself? How come this thing didn't kill me?”
Gao Ye burst into tears. The man's rough hands were displayed in front of Dian Xing, which inevitably added to his sadness.
"uncle--"
“Yes, Brother Gao is right. Quickly call them out. When Zhou Qingnu’s family had their accident, we were so sure that Young Master Jiang’s talisman paper would be fine. We trusted Shen Wuke so much, but we never expected that last night we would be left helpless.”
"My wife and two children are all unconscious. Isn't it because of this talisman that's the problem?"
Dianxing frowned, unsure of what to say. However, he couldn't be entirely certain that Sect Master Shen and Young Master Jiang were completely alright, so he could only ask his fellow disciples to call for help.
"I threw away all the talismans, but who knew they would come back by themselves and stick to the back of the door? I can't tear them off. Could it be that you guys are behind this?"
"It's talismans again. Didn't I tell you to throw everything away?" Dianxing's head was about to explode when he heard this word. If he had known it would turn out like this, he would have personally led all of Shen Wuke's disciples to find all the talismans one by one and burn them all.
“We paid for those talismans with our own money. If you just tell us to throw them away, then all our money will be wasted. Besides, since Jiang Yu drew them, he should be responsible.”
"If you don't come out, believe me, we'll smash up Shen Wuke's place."
As soon as these words were spoken, the scene became like boiling water, as if everyone's passion had been ignited, and all their malice poured out, no longer even bothering to hide it.
"Why is it that our family members are the ones who suffer? They're just sitting here peacefully, dreaming of ascending to immortality. I think they're just using our lives to boost their path to godhood."
"Yeah, hurry up and make them both come out, get out here."
Seeing that no one had come out yet, Dianxing had no choice but to continue to appease them. "Uncles, aunts, and grandmas, I grew up in Qingyun Ladder. You all know my character and how I treat people. When Master Baiyue was still alive, you all know exactly what kind of person he was and how he treated you."
"Do you really not trust the disciples he chose? Sect Master Shen was selected by True Person Baiyue from among thousands of candidates. Even if you don't trust me, you should trust True Person Baiyue's judgment."
"What's so strange about that? Master Baiyue has plenty of disciples. Elders Lianfeng and Liangu are also his disciples. Why don't they cause any trouble? Shen Jiuxu and Jiang Yu are both men, yet they became Daoist partners. This is already unacceptable to the world, but they celebrated their marriage in front of so many people. If you ask me, they really don't care about morality and righteousness."
The speaker was an old man from the village. Many people in Qingyunti listened to him, and Dianxing felt that things were getting worse because of his commotion.
“Yes, Brother Wang is right. Men and women should be together. It’s the proper order of heaven and earth, the pairing of yin and yang. But what are they doing? By doing this, they’ve completely ruined the reputation of Shen Wuke and Qingyunti.”
"Well said. If you ask me, Shen Jiuxu and Jiang Yu should get out of Shen Wuke and Qingyunti. Haven't they harmed enough people?"
"Get out! A life for a life."
"Get out! A life for a life."
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