Chapter 28
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Meng Yingying froze, looking left and right. "This is..." She started to ask, but Zhou Xiuqi vanished before her eyes in a leap. In that instant, she felt a throbbing headache, fragments flashing through her mind. The pain made her close her eyes tightly, a sharp pain spreading from her heart as if a sword had pierced it. Meng Yingying tried to remember those fragments, but ultimately couldn't recall a single one.
As she clutched her forehead in pain, someone gently massaged her temples, which eased her headache somewhat. Glancing sideways, she saw Xiao Zheyu, his face cold, explaining, "When you have a headache, rubbing it will help."
Meng Yingying said weakly, "Thank you, Sister Xiao." She leaned back weakly, feeling extremely uncomfortable. Xiao Zheyu let her lean on her shoulder, gently massaging her with her hands.
A moment later, Zhou Xiuqi returned, clutching a white gauze in his hand. His white clothes were stained with blood. A gust of cold wind blew in, making Meng Yingying's headache worse, and she couldn't help but open her eyes.
Seeing her expression, Zhou Xiuqi frowned slightly, then looked at the other two people, his frown deepening.
Seeing him return, Xiao Zheyu stopped what he was doing and asked, "How is it?"
Zhou Xiuqi tucked the white gauze into her chest and said succinctly, "The coachman is gone, there's no trace of any ghosts, and there's a road ahead."
"No trace of the ghost? It seems this ghost couldn't wait to give us a hard time before we even got inside." Kong Fusheng's voice rang out. Meng Yingying looked at him and saw that his face was slightly pale, the red mole between his eyebrows was squeezed together, and he was pinching the bridge of his nose with two fingers, looking like he had a headache.
Looking at Cong Rong beside him, her eyes were closed, and she had obviously fainted.
Meng Yingying wanted to think, but whenever she did, she felt dizzy and lightheaded. However, the coachman had disappeared here, which meant there were only two possibilities: either they had already reached the territory of Xinghua Village and the coachman was too timid to go any further, or the coachman had been kidnapped.
Zhou Xiuqi remained silent in thought, his face showing signs of distress. Meng Yingying, unable to think at the moment, stared at Kong Fusheng and asked, "Did you also see a boy with blood on his hands?"
Upon hearing this, Kong Fusheng paused in his rubbing motion and said, "What I see is a merciless sea of fire, burning a group of people alive."
"Senior Meng, did you see a boy?"
Meng Yingying was startled. She got up from Xiao Zheyu's body, sat cross-legged against the board, and tried her best to say, "It was a boy, about twelve years old. He was crying on our oxcart, and kept calling out for his brother. I saw him break his own arms and legs in my dream."
Zhou Xiuqi turned his gaze over and asked, "Did you see a person?"
Meng Yingying nodded. If she could think, she could piece together a rough picture of what had happened, but her mind was in a mess, she was covered in cold sweat, and she felt utterly exhausted.
“Perhaps this ghost wants to tell us something,” Xiao Zheyu said. She lifted the curtain and observed the road outside. It was narrow, only wide enough for one person to pass at a time. They couldn’t see each other and could only barely make their way across. The cold wind blew against the oxcart. Xiao Zheyu’s gaze fell on the ox leading the cart, which hadn’t made a single sound.
Xiao Zheyu released her hand and stepped back in. Zhou Xiuqi withdrew his gaze from her and said, "Conserve your energy. The matter ahead will be difficult to deal with." After he finished speaking, he did not want to say anything more and closed his eyes.
Meng Yingying, fighting off the dizziness, asked, "Sister Xiao, why were you and Senior Brother Zhou unharmed just now?"
Upon hearing this, Xiao Zheyu shook his head slightly: "I wasn't sleepy at the time, but when I looked around, you were all asleep except for Zhou Xiuqi, who was still awake. The car stopped shortly after you fell asleep, and Kong Fusheng suddenly woke up, clutching his head and crying out in pain that it was so hot."
“Then came Cistanche deserticola, and finally you,” she said calmly.
Meng Yingying briefly absorbed the information, only to feel uncomfortable and frustrated. Now, she could do nothing but sit there, not even daydream.
"Why would someone who grew up in a Taoist temple be so easily entered into the Divine Sea by a ghost? This ghost is far too strange." At this moment, Kong Fusheng suddenly said, but no one noticed his muttering to himself. Only Meng Yingying glanced at him. Kong Fusheng was very direct in his thinking, and he had just summarized this point when Meng Yingying's mind was in turmoil.
They were all raised in Taoist temples, where ordinary ghosts couldn't enter their spiritual seas. Besides, wouldn't a ghost entering their spiritual sea be fatal? Why didn't it seem to intend to kill them? Killing someone in their spiritual sea would be the easiest thing in the world. As she thought this, a sharp, throbbing pain spread through her entire brain. She gritted her teeth, her veins bulging on her forehead.
This ghost must have its own purpose.
At this moment, she painfully wondered what Congrong had seen. If everyone saw something different, then what did Congrong see?
"Sister Xiao, why hasn't Congrong woken up yet?" she asked.
Xiao Zheyu looked at Cong Rong, a rare flicker of emotion appearing in his eyes: "She is different from you. She is not a Taoist. Her divine sea is being tormented by ghosts, and it will be a long time before she awakens." Upon hearing this, both people in the oxcart lowered their heads.
Kong Fusheng glanced at Congrong, then quickly looked away.
The group fell silent. Meng Yingying stared blankly, her mind blank, though she didn't pay attention to the occasional sharp pain in her abdomen.
About an incense stick's time had passed, and only an hour remained until dawn. Zhou Xiuqi opened his eyes; the others also had their eyes open, their faces not looking good. He hesitated, realizing that their condition was truly dire.
Seeing him open his eyes, everyone turned to look at him. Zhou Xiuqi said, "You can go as far as you can, but we have no way back now." We've come this far; retreating is not the way of a Taoist.
He got off the oxcart first, followed by Meng Yingying. The cold wind around them felt like knives cutting into flesh, the chill biting to the bone. She exhaled a puff of white mist from her mouth. The wind made her feel cold all over, and her limbs stiffened.
Kong Fusheng also felt cold when he got off the car and shivered. Zhou Xiuqi looked at the road in front of him and said, "I'll go first, Fusheng will stay behind, and the rest of you will stay in the middle."
Cong Rong leaned against Xiao Zheyu, who carried her on his back and nodded in agreement.
The group stepped onto the road without looking back. Before they even started walking, they were hit by a pungent, fishy stench that enveloped them. Meng Yingying couldn't help but pinch her nose, and Kong Fusheng took a step back, saying, "The stench of corpses is so strong."
Meng Yingying's temples throbbed a few times, and a "what's the point of all this?" thought welled up in her mind, but she quickly dismissed it. She focused her attention on Zhou Xiuqi in front of her.
"The road is narrow, so stay close to me and try not to go more than a meter away from me," he said. Hearing this, Meng Yingying forced a smile, but quickly suppressed it. Just thinking about how Zhou Xiuqi looked like an old mother with four silly sons made Meng Yingying want to laugh for no reason.
The group moved slowly, like a centipede, segment by segment.
Meng Yingying was the second to last. As soon as her foot touched the ground, she was instantly sucked in and sank down. The feeling of being in a lump of soft mud made her feel very uncomfortable, but she endured it and did not look down to check. Who knew if there were any unseen limbs or strange things in the mud? So it was best for her not to look down.
All around was silent; even the wind had calmed things considerably, yet a lingering chill remained. A deathly stillness pervaded the air, making it feel like a tomb.
At the narrow intersection, the trees on both sides were so close together that the stench couldn't escape. Fearing that the stench might be poisonous, they covered their mouths and noses with handkerchiefs.
Zhou Xiuqi shouted from the front, "Keep up!" None of them dared to ignore him, and they moved in close step.
The further she walked, the worse the air smelled. Even with the handkerchief on, she could still smell it. Gradually, Meng Yingying began to feel strained. Her head throbbed, and her abdomen tightened with cramps, making it hard for her to breathe. She could only try to breathe more deeply and forcefully.
Suddenly, something slipped down her temple. She raised her hand to wipe it away, her eyes widening as she realized it was a drop of sweat. The temperature here had risen. Kong Fusheng, panting heavily, asked from behind her, "Senior Meng... why have you suddenly become so..." He paused, and there was no one in front of him. He had only blinked, and Meng Yingying had vanished.
"Hot..." He finished speaking after a long pause, then cried out in alarm, "Senior Zhou! Senior Zhou! Senior Meng is gone! Senior Meng is gone!" Xiao Zheyu heard him shout and turned around instantly, seeing a pair of fair and slender hands emerging from below, with only five fingers remaining, filled with despair and helplessness.
"Meng Yuan----"
Something pulled down her ankle with tremendous force, and foul-smelling mud filled her ears. She held her breath and felt like she was about to faint.
After a while, she couldn't hold on any longer.
After a while, Meng Yingying released her mouth, and dirt poured in, emitting a foul stench. Her mind went blank, and the suffocating feeling of lack of oxygen made her extremely uncomfortable.
Did she really just die like that? Why is it always her who suffers misfortune...?
Damn it—what bad luck!! Meng Yingying roared in her heart.
The next moment, her foot was suddenly grabbed and pulled down with great force, but she didn't even realize what it was.
I fell into a daze.
Zhou Xiuqi arrived a step too late, managing to grab a finger. His face tightened, while Xiao Zheyu stood there, his expression dark.
Kong Fusheng scratched his head anxiously, saying, "Senior Meng... Senior Meng..."
They all realized that this trip might truly be their last.
——
A soft, tinkling sound of bells rang in her ears, accompanied by some mournful howls. Meng Yingying felt as if she had entered hell. She felt terrible and kept her eyes tightly shut.
"Meng Yuan, don't sleep." The voice was cold and familiar. Meng Yingying thought to herself, "It's that acquaintance who came to see her off."
The next moment, the silver whip lashed out forcefully, shattering in the air and making the ghost grimace.
He said coldly, "You scum, get out of my way!" His shout made her ears ring, and Meng Yingying opened her eyes.
Shang Mang's face suddenly appeared before her eyes, and she was held in his arms with one hand while his other hand continued to fight.
The surrounding ghosts let out a few mournful cries and then disappeared.
Meng Yingying stared at him, her throat burning, perhaps from the dirt she had just swallowed; she couldn't utter a single word.
The moment his beautiful eyes met hers, Meng Yingying's heart skipped a beat. She blurted out, "It's you again?" Shang Mang met her gaze, a half-smile on his face. "You are my possession." His eyes were fixed ahead, his eyelashes drooping. He said, half-jokingly, "Life and death are in my hands. No one can take your life from me."
In Meng Yingying's eyes, a glimmer of light grew larger and larger. She swallowed repeatedly, "Thank you." Choking back tears, she felt even more grieved. A sob escaped her nose, "I really, really, really, really want to live." She lowered her voice, determined to live and see her grandmother no matter how much life and illness tormented her.
His cold hand covered her eyes. His throat bobbed, and his voice was hoarse: "No need to thank me. I just want to kill you." Under his hand, warm tears clung to the rough lines of his hand, finally dripping from his palm.
He could give up everything in this world; he could force her, but her hesitation would make it impossible for him to move an inch.
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