Chapter 38
Chapter 38
To be precise, what Qiao Ying had encountered was not a ghost, but merely a Wandering Soul that had lost its way.
Looking more closely, more and more Wandering Soul entities appeared ahead. They seemed to have been summoned by something, moving step by step in the same direction.
Qiao Ying waited, but no terrifying commotion came. Slowly gathering her courage, she opened her eyes and cautiously peeked half her face out from behind Shen Qingyu.
Shen Qingyu lowered his voice. “Qiao Ying, if they catch your scent, they’ll pounce on you and tear into your body.”
Qiao Ying shuddered as she clutched his arm, then promptly tucked her head back again.
Old Master Zhao walked over with the lantern in hand. “Those Wandering Soul entities know nothing and feel nothing. They have no will of their own. They’re like moving puppets, heading toward whatever is calling them.”
Qiao Ying asked, “They don’t bite?”
Old Master Zhao glanced at the silent Youth in Blue.
The youth’s white hair was pure and untainted, his smiling face the very picture of gentleness and kindness.
Old Master Zhao smiled. “Perhaps they do.”
Qiao Ying tightened her grip on Shen Qingyu’s hand, firmly deciding that unless absolutely necessary, she would not separate from him.
Then, seeing something unusual hidden in the old man’s smiling eyes, she asked, “Master Zhao, is something wrong?”
Old Master Zhao shook his head and said with some emotion, “I only thought of many years ago. My wife was clearly timid, yet she still insisted on accompanying me to catch Yaoguai. The way she looked when she was frightened back then bore a slight resemblance to you, young lady.”
That resemblance was not in appearance or temperament, but in the purest memories of youth.
Back then, he had been gravely injured. When he woke, he had lost all his memories. While he was uneasy and terrified of everything, it was Song Zhenzhu who stayed by his side. She chatted with him about everything under the sun and, mustering her courage, declared that she would slay demons and eliminate monsters together with him. Amid all that noise and bickering, several decades had passed just like that.
Qiao Ying knew the Old Madam was not an easy person to get along with, but Old Master Zhao and the Old Madam had been husband and wife for decades, and their relationship had never had any real problems. She supposed that even if there had been no affection between them at first, feelings would have grown over all those long years.
After hearing that Old Madam Zhao had gone missing, Qiao Ying figured Old Master Zhao must have followed clues about her whereabouts to this place. But she and Shen Qingyu had only reached this cursed place because Xiao Shao led the way.
How had Old Master Zhao known about this secret passage?
Qiao Ying had questions in her heart, but after glancing at Old Master Zhao’s expression, she felt it was inappropriate to ask. She moved a little closer to Shen Qingyu instead.
Shen Qingyu interlaced his fingers with hers and said, “We’re almost there.”
The Wandering Soul entities ahead had already quickened their pace. It was as if the existence drawing them in was not far ahead, and the closer they got, the more impatient they became.
The farther in they went, the stranger Qiao Ying felt. “Shen Qingyu, I think we’ve been here before.”
Shen Qingyu smiled. “The Water Yaoguai’s lair.”
Realization dawned on Qiao Ying. But when she looked around again, she grew even more puzzled. “Wasn’t that tunnel washed out by water back then? Why has it appeared again?”
Shen Qingyu said unhurriedly, “Someone restored this place to its original state.”
Qiao Ying sighed inwardly. In this world, it really was not a matter of whether those demons and monsters could do something, but only whether she could imagine it. She asked again, “Restoring a collapsed cave to its original state must take quite a lot of effort, right?”
“For others, perhaps it would take this much effort.” Shen Qingyu extended one index finger, giving Qiao Ying, who had no frame of reference, something to compare it to.
Qiao Ying glanced at him. “And for someone like you?”
Shen Qingyu gently waggled his index finger.
Qiao Ying asked, “You would need that much effort too?”
He brought his finger before her. “Blow on it.”
Qiao Ying had no idea what he meant, but she still did as he said and gently blew across his fingertip.
He asked, “Did you see any dust?”
She answered honestly, “No.”
Shen Qingyu lowered his hand and smiled faintly. “For someone like me, that is all the effort it would take.”
As easy as blowing away dust.
Qiao Ying understood what he meant. The corner of her eye twitched, and she muttered inwardly:
What a show-off.
The closer they got to the cave entrance that had originally been sealed by the black Talisman, the clearer the voices became.
“You deliberately provoked me and made me look like a mad old woman who wrongly accused her granddaughter-in-law in everyone else’s eyes.”
“If you want to kill me, then kill me. Now you’ve tied me up and dragged me to this hellish place. What exactly are you trying to do?”
“Mu Yunshu, I have no grudge against you. Why are you doing this to me?”
The woman stroking the sword marks on the stone wall remained silent. Only when she heard the words “no grudge” did she slowly smile.
Old Madam Zhao was now sprawled weakly on the stone platform. Not long ago, there had still been a woman’s skeleton on that same platform, but after a surge of water swept through, the bones had vanished without a trace.
A cut had been made on the Old Madam’s wrist. Blood trickled down, gathering beneath the stone platform into a pool.
Within the pool of blood, a blood-red bead was being nourished.
Every Wandering Soul that entered had its form twist and distort, turning into wisps of white light that merged into the blood bead.
Mu Yunshu suddenly turned back with a smile. “You’ve finally come, Zhao Fanhua.”
The instant the elderly man appeared, the cold, eerie atmosphere inside the cave was immediately diluted by quite a bit.
The Old Madam’s eyes lit up. “Husband! Husband, save me!”
Mu Yunshu paid no attention to the Old Madam’s cries. Instead, she said softly, “I didn’t invite anyone else to watch today’s play.”
The instant Qiao Ying, who was following behind the Old Master, set foot inside, she suddenly stepped into a pool of blood that had appeared out of nowhere. Then, in the next moment, all five of her senses were sealed.
Her vision went black. She could not hear the wind, nor could she feel anything at all.
Just as panic seized Qiao Ying’s heart, the world spun violently around her. Then came a soft drip. The instant she heard the sound of water falling, all her senses abruptly returned.
Everything around her was pitch-black. Aside from the occasional drip of water, there was no other sound.
Qiao Ying came back to herself and looked around in the darkness where she could not even see her own hand in front of her face. “Shen Qingyu! Shen Qingyu!”
She could not tell which direction was which. Only now did she realize, with a start, that the boy she had always thought of as a pervert was actually her sole source of security.
Suddenly, she bumped into a firm chest.
Qiao Ying tentatively reached out and felt around. “Shen Qingyu?”
The person said in a hoarse, sinister voice, “I am not Shen Qingyu. I am a man-eating Evil Yaoguai.”
Qiao Ying leapt up and threw her arms around him. “Shen Qingyu! I thought you had disappeared. You scared me to death!”
In the pitch-black surroundings, light slowly began to glow.
Looking more carefully, she saw that the stone walls on either side were giving off a faint blue, ghostly light. It was exactly the same as the patterned glow they had seen on the stone walls when they first entered the Water Yaoguai Lair.
The young man lowered his head slightly, his jaw brushing the top of the girl’s head. He let her hold him, seeming a little puzzled. “Qiao Ying, I said I was a man-eating Evil Yaoguai. You’re so timid, so why aren’t you afraid?”
Qiao Ying said in total surrender, “If I get eaten by an Evil Yaoguai as good-looking as you, then I’d say I came out ahead.”
Shen Qingyu could not help laughing. His chest trembled lightly, and the laughter spilling from his lips was pleasing to the ear.
Qiao Ying knew she had coaxed him into a good mood. That meant she could live a little longer again.