Chapter 150

Chapter 150

The old woman had not only accepted her granddaughter’s one-sided story without giving us any chance to explain, she had turned utterly vicious and threatening.

No wonder she had raised someone as morally corrupt and ungrateful as Deng Liqian.

Wang Dachun was hot-tempered too. He had come here to seek justice for Yao Nan, only to have an old woman curse him to his face. His anger flared as well.

He immediately fired back.

“Hey, you old hag. Has your brain gone muddled with age? Do you believe everything your granddaughter says? If she called you an old bastard, would you believe that too?”

I tugged at him and said gravely, “Take it a little easier on an elderly woman. Otherwise, if she throws herself on the ground in a moment, you’ll have to–”

Before I could finish, a powerful gust struck my face as something swung toward Wang Dachun’s left shoulder.

Wang Dachun had no time to dodge.

Standing right beside him, I shot out a hand.

Thud!

My fingers closed firmly around a cane.

Deng Liqian’s grandmother had raised her cane without another word and brought it crashing toward Wang Dachun’s shoulder.

“Ah!”

Yao Nan cried out behind us. She hadn’t expected the old woman to be so irascible and unreasonable that she would start swinging her cane at someone over a single disagreement!

Wang Dachun’s words had admittedly gone too far, but the old woman had insulted us first.

He had merely snapped back, yet she had immediately resorted to violence.

If I hadn’t reacted quickly enough… The cane was clearly made of hard, solid wood. A blow to an unsuspecting Wang Dachun’s shoulder probably would have left him aching for days!

I gripped the cane tightly, and both my voice and expression turned icy.

Staring at her furious, aged face, I enunciated each word in a low voice.

“Respecting the elderly is a virtue. But you had better not use your age as a license to act outrageously, much less attack people. Otherwise, I won’t hold back. Your granddaughter used gu insects to harm someone today. Did you know that?”

At the words gu insects, surprise flashed through her eyes.

It vanished in an instant, but I still caught it!

“This old woman doesn’t understand a word you’re saying. Get out of the way. My granddaughter is normally quiet and well behaved. She doesn’t even dare kill a chicken, much less hurt anyone. You must have made a mistake. Get lost.”

As she spoke, she brandished the cane again.

This time, however, she didn’t dare actually hit anyone. She merely waved it through the air to frighten us.

Now Yao Nan and Wang Dachun became thoroughly enraged!

Both shouted that we should call the police and have officers from the station come speak to the pair.

But I shook my head.

“That won’t help. When the officers arrive, what are we supposed to tell them? That someone used gu on you? That she tried to destroy your voice with gu insects so she could replace you as our class’s soloist? Do you think the police would believe us? Even if they did, how would we find evidence? Gu are supernatural by nature…”

Wang Dachun asked urgently, “Then what do we do? Just let Deng Liqian go? She owes us an explanation!”

As he spoke, he glared fiercely at Deng Liqian.

Frightened, she backed closer to her door and hid behind her grandmother.

I continued.

“The gu arts aren’t inherently good or evil. They’re like a kitchen knife: it can be used to cook or to attack someone. But using gu to harm another person violates a fundamental taboo.”

At that point, I took a deep breath and looked at her with utmost seriousness.

“Ma’am, Deng Liqian must confess what she did and give Yao Nan an explanation. Otherwise…”

“Otherwise what? Those are some bold words for such a young man. From the sound of it, you know a little about these matters, do you?”

The old woman gave me a contemptuous look.

Then she turned to Deng Liqian. “Granddaughter, I’m asking you a question, and you will answer honestly. Did you do anything bad to that girl?”

Deng Liqian hesitated, then gritted her teeth.

“N-no! Grandma, don’t believe their nonsense. They’re only trying to bully me–your granddaughter.”

The old woman looked back at me. “You heard her. My granddaughter said she did nothing. Now get lost. If you keep blocking our door, I won’t be polite.”

I finally flew into a rage!

But outwardly, I became even calmer. I even smiled.

“Oh? Then I’d like to see exactly what you mean by not being polite. Could I truly be lucky enough to have stumbled across a powerful gu master hiding in plain sight?”

My voice was mocking too.

What a joke!

If she were truly a powerful gu master, I would have sensed her formidable aura long ago.

Besides, if she were really that capable, I refused to believe Old Cao–a local heavyweight among those in Lianghe Town who made their living dealing with the netherworld–would know nothing about her!

After speaking, I glanced over my shoulder and said softly, “Yao Nan, Dachun, both of you step back.”

The instant I finished, I turned my head and saw a vast black shadow surging straight at us, accompanied by the droning buzz of countless wings.

Well, well. Another sneak attack!

Like grandmother, like granddaughter. Did this old woman really love ambushing people that much?

But I had prepared myself long ago.

I flipped my right hand, revealing a paper talisman pinched between my fingers, and hurled it forward.

Whoosh!

The paper talisman flew out and collided directly with the black cloud. Then it seemed to release an invisible force of attraction that forcibly confined the tiny flying insects around it and lifted them into the air.
They rose to a height of more than ten feet and hovered there.

Only then did I see the black insects clearly. They resembled bees, except that their stingers looked longer and sharper.

A single sting would probably hurt even worse than one from a hornet!

I guessed they were also some kind of gu insect, perhaps cultivated from hornets.

But now the entire swarm of black, hornet-like gu insects had been bound within a tiny space by my paper talisman. No matter how violently they beat their wings, they couldn’t fly away!

I extended my right hand, formed a hand seal in the air, and said softly, “Burn!”

With a roar, the talisman erupted into flames.

Because it hung at the center of the swarm, the resulting ball of fire engulfed every gu insect. A rapid series of crisp pops rang out.

Within two or three seconds, the entire swarm of hornet-like gu insects had burned away.

I sneered and deliberately spoke in a contemptuous voice.

“You dare flaunt such petty tricks before an expert? How laughable.”

In truth, I was partly showing off on purpose.

I wanted to put the old woman under some psychological pressure. After all, our contest of magic had only just begun!

But never in my wildest dreams did I expect that after a single exchange and one boastful line from me, she would actually lose her nerve!

Before my eyes, the irascible old woman’s expression changed rapidly from vicious arrogance to shock and fear. Her voice trembled faintly.

“The talisman arts! Y-you’ve already cultivated qi? You can use different talisman techniques–and even perform talisman casting?”

I found her reaction baffling. Wasn’t that the most basic entry-level skill? What was so astonishing about it?

Outwardly, however, I continued to sneer.

“That’s right! Besides the talisman arts, I’m also skilled in feng shui, commanding a household familiar, formations, and plenty more… Do you still want to continue this fight? I never expected a gu master to truly be hiding here in Lianghe Town.”

As she listened, the old woman’s expression grew increasingly terrified.

Then she actually dropped her cane and repeatedly bowed to me with clasped hands.

“Oh! I-I had no idea you were such a gifted young prodigy, sir. I failed to recognize the expert before me and even dared throw my weight around. I don’t normally behave this way. I only love my granddaughter dearly and feared someone might bully her, so I lost my temper. Please don’t hold it against me, sir.”

Deng Liqian’s grandmother explained herself hurriedly, as if terrified that I might continue attacking.

I was dumbfounded.

Seriously… Wasn’t that reversal in attitude a little too dramatic?

It was so absurd that I hardly knew whether to laugh or cry.

Is she really this much of a bully who folds the moment she meets someone stronger?

I muttered silently to myself.

But since the old woman had begged for mercy so earnestly, there was no need for me to keep pressing her.

All we wanted was for Deng Liqian to explain exactly what had happened and give Yao Nan a reasonable accounting. It wasn’t as if we planned to kill her!

Deng Liqian was just as dumbfounded behind her grandmother.

She had probably never expected me to be this powerful–to throw a talisman, bind the gu insects, and burn them all away with a single blaze.

Nor had she expected her normally overbearing grandmother to bow her head and surrender so quickly!

“Grandma, I…”

“Shut up!”

The old woman spun around and glared fiercely at Deng Liqian, then turned back to me with an ingratiating smile.

“Young master, how do you think we should handle this? I’m only an old woman. I can’t earn any money, and raising my granddaughter hasn’t been easy.”

She began making an emotional appeal, describing how difficult life had been for her and Deng Liqian.

She said Deng Liqian’s father had died young, after which her mother had gone to work in the city and sometimes failed to return even once in several years. She sent very little money home, nowhere near enough for them to live on, so the old woman also had to take odd jobs to supplement their income…

Beside her, Deng Liqian played along, sniffling and wiping away tears.

In short, everything the woman said emphasized how hard their lives were and what a pitiful child Deng Liqian was…

Looking puzzled, Wang Dachun interrupted her.

“Wait, wait! I understand that your family is poor and life is hard, but what does that have to do with Deng Liqian poisoning Yao Nan with gu insects? Does being poor mean you can hurt whoever you want? Yao Nan isn’t the reason you’re struggling. It’s the exact opposite–she normally goes out of her way to help Deng Liqian!”

His words brought Deng Liqian’s grandmother’s endless monologue to a halt.

The old woman’s expression instantly froze, and she looked extremely embarrassed.

Anger flashed through her eyes, but with me present, she didn’t dare unleash it. She could only force an awkward smile to hide her embarrassment.

I found the sight amusing.

Wang Dachun could be pretty entertaining sometimes! He had confronted Deng Liqian’s grandmother so directly that she was left speechless.

I waved my hand and took the initiative to break the awkward silence.

“Deng Liqian, you need to own what you did. Since you used gu to harm Yao Nan, the least you can do is explain the whole story from beginning to end. Go on! You can’t keep making your grandmother take the blame for you, can you? I am not someone with limitless sympathy and no principles. What you did was extremely serious!”

Everyone turned to Deng Liqian and waited for her explanation.

“I-I…”

Panicked, she looked to her grandmother for help.

But with me there, the old woman could only shake her head helplessly, her face dejected, signaling that there was nothing she could do.