Chapter Ninety-Five: Clearing Obstacles
It was a cold and quiet night.
Lin Jiu was the most inconspicuous and ordinary member of the Qing Shen Pavilion. Lacking the talent for cultivation, he resolutely chose to join the Qing Shen Pavilion as a menial disciple in order to live a comfortable and ordinary life.
As one of the many miscellaneous disciples, his usual work was not particularly heavy. After all, Qing Shen Pavilion was not a particularly large sect. In addition, there were many other miscellaneous disciples like him. Their usual task was to sweep the fallen leaves in front of the mountain gate. Although it was a boring job, for people like him, having a stable place to stay was enough. They did not ask for too much.
He thought he could work at Qing Shen Ge for the rest of his life without any worries, until one day, a strange new task was added to his job duties.
—Guarding the "cauldron".
He wasn't a cultivator, nor did he know what the term "cauldron" represented. However, both the more senior members and the cultivators within the sect unanimously told him that a cauldron was an object. Even though they also possessed human identities, their lives and circumstances were entirely determined by others. They could not and were not allowed to possess the most basic human rights. Guarding the cauldrons was a shift system, sometimes only rotating every few months. For Lin Jiu, this was an easy and relaxing job, because he didn't need to perform repetitive and tedious actions for long periods like other jobs. He only needed to ensure that no cauldron tried to escape, and the life and death of those cauldrons were easily in his hands.
He could beat and scold the cauldrons at will, and as long as they didn't kill him, no one would care about the inhumane things he did. Therefore, he lived a very successful life here. The fear and terror that each cauldron showed when facing him made him feel a sense of superiority from the bottom of his heart, as if he was not a mortal ant that could be trampled on, but a high and mighty emperor.
However, there were too many people in Qing Shen Pavilion, and it took a long time for Lin Jiu to get a turn to guard the cauldrons. He finally managed to get a shift. He glanced at the cauldrons inside the fence, which looked like walking corpses. It seemed that some familiar faces were missing, and some strangers were appearing. The cauldrons that had once struggled alive in front of him were now on their deathbed, but he didn't care. After all, few people would care how many ants they had stepped on, nor would they feel the slightest bit of guilt. Even though ants, like humans, are living beings.
He was supposed to patrol and monitor as usual, and once he made sure there were no abnormalities in any of the furnaces, he could go inside and rest. However, tonight a furnace that seemed to be a newcomer dared to challenge his supreme authority. He spent a little more time "educating" this newcomer, but it was still no big deal for him.
Back in the dilapidated cabin, he lay comfortably on the soft bed, ready to take a nap and finish his work for the day, when the sound of a baby crying outside the window interrupted his sweet dream.
Lin Jiu stood up in a fit of rage. He had previously warned those furnaces to keep a close eye on their young children, fearing that they might disturb his peaceful dreams one day. Now, one of them had a short memory and had just been ridiculed by the formal disciples of the Qing Shen Pavilion during the day, still burning with anger. Now that someone had walked right into his trap, he couldn't blame anyone else.
He stormed out of the cabin, but when he reached the backyard, he found it completely empty.
Previously, all those cauldrons were gathered here, making this already small space even more crowded, with almost no place to stand. Now, however, all the people have disappeared, leaving only an empty backyard... Are you kidding me?!
Coming to his senses, Lin Jiu was suddenly enraged. He hadn't expected these reckless cultivators to dare escape right before his eyes, and then vanish completely. His heart pounded wildly, but he quickly regained his composure, forcing himself to calm down. The Qing Shen Pavilion was heavily guarded; even highly skilled cultivators might not be able to enter or leave safely, let alone a group of unarmed mortals…
Only a few minutes had passed between his last patrol and entering the house, and such a large number of people disappearing couldn't have gone too far. Thinking of this, he initially breathed a slight sigh of relief, but then something else occurred to him, and his heart tightened slightly.
Just as he thought, these cauldrons couldn't have gone far. Such a large number of people wandering around Qing Shen Pavilion would definitely be caught. But at the same time, the higher-ups would think that he was incapable of doing a good job, that he could make mistakes even in such a simple task as guarding the cauldrons. In the future, they would not only question his abilities, but might even throw him out of the sect.
How could I lose such a secure job with room and board just because of my own momentary carelessness?!
Having figured out the key to it, Lin Jiu decided to keep quiet for now. However, the moment he took a step, the sky and earth instantly changed from a deep indigo to a sinister blood red. He could clearly see the heavy dark clouds in the sky, and the pale moon cast a chilling light. Lin Jiu looked up unintentionally and glimpsed that on the once lush and leafy tree, there hung human bones. The blood seemed to have been soaked in cold water, losing its temperature in an instant and becoming completely cold.
From childhood, he had always been terrified of supernatural things. At night, even the slightest disturbance could startle him, let alone this real paranormal event unfolding before his very eyes. His hair stood on end, and he was caught between a rock and a hard place, unsure whether to run or walk.
But the strange phenomenon didn't wait for him. Suddenly, eerie blood-red marks appeared on the lawn beneath his feet, like human blood vessels or veins on a leaf. Gradually, the inconspicuous blood-red color turned incredibly bright red. Illuminated by the moonlight, it seemed almost real, as if the ground beneath his feet was alive.
Lin Jiu was terrified and stumbled to the ground, backing away repeatedly. After regaining his senses, he frantically turned the doorknob behind him. The lock on the old wooden door was rusty, making it difficult to open and close. He frantically turned the doorknob as if someone was urging him to his death until the wooden door opened. He quickly ran inside and slammed the door shut behind him.
...That way, we're safe...
Right?
Lin Jiu leaned against the wooden door and slid weakly to the ground. At this moment, he looked like a disheveled dog, panting with his mouth wide open without any regard for his image. His attention was completely focused on the strange phenomenon he had just experienced, and he did not notice the abnormality inside the house at all.
He calmed his throbbing heart, and only then did he come to his senses. In that moment, he realized something was wrong—
Inside the room, there was a faint smell of rust.
His eyes widened in astonishment, as if he understood something in that instant. He stumbled to his feet and looked back at the wooden door he had been leaning against—the blood-red veins on the lawn had now climbed up to the roof, the veins pulsating faintly, as if the house itself had been given life in that instant. His legs trembled as he walked unsteadily toward the source of the faint smell of rust in the air. He pushed open the door to a slightly hidden compartment in the house—it was used to store instruments of torture, with a small couch on it used for punishing those who disobeyed. Usually, anyone who disobeyed would be tied to it and subjected to endless abuse and pain.
At this moment, on the small couch that should have been empty, there was a person lying there.
Judging from his build, it was probably a young man around his age, rather thin and withered. The moment the door opened, the pool of blood on the ground seemed to find an exit, spreading outwards. At that moment, Lin Jiu's mind was completely blank, probably overwhelmed by fear and unease. Upon seeing the man, his only thought was, "With so much blood, this person must be a dried-up corpse by now."
Thinking this, as if his body were out of control, he took stiff steps forward, unaware of when the blood-red veins had started to wrap around his ankles.
The cubicle was isolated from the outside and had no specific light source, making it particularly gloomy and dark at night. Lin Jiu stood near the door frame and could not see the man's face at first. As he approached step by step, the man's appearance was like the moon hidden in the clouds, gradually revealed until the moonlight finally poured down.
"Aaaaaaahhhhhh!!!!" He let out a hysterical scream, trying to back away, but his legs were wrapped around blood-red veins. With that movement, he fell to the ground. The blood-red veins seemed like living vines, becoming even more excited as they realized their prey had fallen, binding him even tighter.
"Don't come any closer! Don't come any closer!" Lin Jiu tried to push aside the blood-red veins, his pupils shrinking in terror. "What are you all playing at? You'd better all get out here, or else, or else, Qing Shen Pavilion won't let you off the hook!"
As he spoke, he glanced at the lifeless man on the small couch—the "corpse" had a face exactly like his, without any difference!
He was an only child, with no siblings, relatives, or friends. Even if he did have relatives, none of them looked so much like him.
Lin Jiu struggled almost frantically, trying to escape, but the more he did so, the stronger the blood-red veins wrapped around him became, until he was almost suffocating and his face turned blue.
"Do you think Qing Shen Pavilion would care about a nobody like you?" A sarcastic voice sounded from behind. Lin Jiu looked back, only to have his chin grabbed by a hand with distinct knuckles.
Before the excruciating pain struck, the last thing he saw was a pair of clear, silver eyes.
"That's overestimating themselves."
The next second, a sharp pain came, and he felt as if his head and body were twisted into an extremely contorted arc.
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