Chapter 7
Never in my wildest dreams had I imagined the legendary mountain deity would be in here.
Once Lingyun learned that my friend was Ying Que, he stopped avoiding me. He even sat beside me and poured out his grievances.
Six months earlier, he said, a black snake demon had come to Mount Ling, intending to usurp him and rule the mountain.
Its cultivation had been too shallow. Lingyun defeated it in a single move.
The snake was badly wounded. Unable to bring himself to kill it, Lingyun had kindly let it go.
Instead of showing gratitude, the creature recovered and turned on him again.
Suspicious of its sudden increase in power, Lingyun took human form and followed it all the way to the county offices.
It transformed into a graceful woman and went inside.
Only then did Lingyun realize it had been feeding on human vital essence to strengthen its powers.
People had been disappearing from Xinyu Town repeatedly over the past two months. The snake must have been responsible.
“I’m the mountain deity. Protecting the creatures here is my duty. The Celestial Court forbids immortals to interfere with mortal destinies, but that snake attacked me first. I certainly wasn’t going to let it keep doing as it pleased.”
Lingyun heaved a long sigh.
He had still underestimated the matter.
The snake’s increased power didn’t come only from human essence. It was also receiving mortal worship.
“You were made to fill those plaques with copper powder before they locked you up, weren’t you?” Lingyun said. “That’s how they spread its religion.”
Thinking back, the carvings on the plaques had indeed formed a coiling pattern.
“But this black snake has no name or known origin,” I asked. “Who would worship it?”
“That’s the heart of the problem.”
Lingyun’s voice grew heavy. “It has help in harming people. From Lu Jingzhi, the magistrate of Lingshan County.”
I was too shocked to speak.
Lingyun went on indignantly. The snake had bewitched the magistrate, who not only required the people to burn incense before the plaques every day, but was building a temple and an idol for it. He’d ordered every tree on Mount Ling cut down for the purpose.
As the trees disappeared and the flowers and grasses withered beneath the woodcutters’ feet, Lingyun, already weakened by injury, had lost the last of his powers.
With fewer and fewer people left in Xinyu Town, Magistrate Lu had set fire to the mountain to conceal the truth and spread rumors of the mountain deity’s wrath.
“Then how did you end up here?”
The question made Lingyun bristle.
“I thought that corrupt official had been deceived by the snake into doing these foolish things. I took human form and went to the county offices to reason with him. Who knew he wasn’t under any spell? Everything he’d done was entirely of his own choosing!
“He took me for an ordinary commoner, knocked me unconscious, and threw me into the Heavenly Dragon Workshop to fill plaques.”
Growing angrier as he spoke, Lingyun sneered. “Heavenly Dragon Workshop? A filthy snake hiding underground because it can’t bear the light, and it dares call itself a dragon of Heaven!”
Later, Lingyun had resisted the guards and been thrown into prison. Meanwhile, the captive women began dying, one after another, of copper poisoning from the endless work.
So the captors had turned their attention to travelers.
“Mountain Deity, if the snake is as powerful as you say, isn’t Brother Ying in danger?”
I staggered to my feet. “We have to find a way out.”
“Don’t worry. Since I was imprisoned, the snake has been cultivating in my shrine. It probably won’t run into Ying Que.”
Lingyun thought a moment. “What he saw last night was probably an officer collecting plaques from the inn. A mere mortal. Ying Que still has his martial skills; that shouldn’t pose a problem.
“At worst, he’ll expose the magistrate’s scheme, like I did, and be thrown in here to work—”
“No. That would be even more dangerous!”
I broke in anxiously. “Ah… the magistrate is cunning and treacherous. He’s good at hiding his true face. Brother Ying might not realize.”
Panic rose despite myself. “I—I should have told him the truth…”
“Oh, don’t cry.”
Lingyun sounded flustered too. He tried to comfort me. “Ying Que may not understand worldly affairs, but he isn’t entirely without caution. Do you really need to worry so much?”
I shook my head and sank helplessly to the floor.
How was I supposed to tell Ying Que now…
That Ah Jin was Lu Jingzhi?