Chapter 183
Chapter 183
Hearing the Vengeful Ghost’s screams, no one inside the hall dared come out to look.
Only after all sound disappeared did Yan Zhengchu reach the doorway first and glance outside.
Beneath the clear, gentle moonlight, everything was still. Apart from a few specks of black ash floating in the air, both the woman in red and the Vengeful Ghosts had vanished without a trace.
Yu Lang and Axia followed him out.
“Those Vengeful Ghosts just now… so quickly…”
“They are gone.”
It appeared they had been dealt with.
Yan Zhengchu relaxed slightly, then looked toward the secret chamber atop the peak. He said to the two men, “It is safe here now. Wait here. I need to return to the secret chamber and check on my martial uncle…”
Yu Lang said, “I will go with you. Let Axia stay and look after your junior brothers.”
Axia: “…”
Yan Zhengchu was about to refuse, but Yu Lang gave him no chance to say more. He grabbed Yan Zhengchu and started up the peak.
Just then, a familiar figure appeared in their line of sight.
Yu Lang saw her and cried out in delighted surprise, “It is Miss Xia!”
At the sound, Xia Ximo turned and gave them an indifferent glance.
Yu Lang hurried forward. “Where did you go just now? Daoist Yan said you were nowhere to be found.”
Xia Ximo remained perfectly composed. “I walked around.”
“Do you have any idea how dangerous it was just now? Fortunately, you weren’t there, or it might have frightened you.”
“…”
Daoist Yan, standing beside them, was speechless. He could only clear his throat and say, “There is no time to explain. We have to get up there quickly.”
The stone door to the secret chamber had been destroyed by the Vengeful Ghosts, and sounds of fighting could still be faintly heard from within…
The three entered and found the chamber in utter ruins.
Yan Zhengchu rushed ahead. Seeing “Ren Yao” locked in battle with Master Tianji, he immediately raised his Jade Sword and joined the fight.
“Martial Uncle, I will help you!”
“Ren Yao” glanced at him and deliberately teased in an easy tone, “Look at your master. He is growing older and older. He will run out of strength soon.”
When Yan Zhengchu looked at his master again, his eyes no longer held their former respect. They had gradually turned sharp and cutting.
Master Tianji was indeed bent with age now.
He looked even older than his true years.
He had believed that after the Ghost-Commanding Art released the Vengeful Ghosts hidden in the cauldron, he could use them to slaughter everyone on Mount Yunhe.
Never had he expected his chief disciple to return completely unharmed…
With two others following behind him.
Yu Lang and Xia Ximo, walking at the rear, both looked at Ren Fengjue.
Afraid that Xia Ximo did not understand, Yu Lang quietly explained, “The one fighting that old Daoist isn’t the Young Marquis right now. It is the soul of the Young Marquis’s Little Uncle.”
Xia Ximo gave a mild acknowledgment, but her gaze swept over Ren Fengjue as if by chance, seemingly checking whether his body was intact.
Under Yan Zhengchu and “Ren Yao’s” combined assault, the pressure on Master Tianji surged. He lasted only moments before defeat loomed.
Lacking strength, he leaned against the cauldron in the secret chamber and used his Jade Sword to support himself, panting and coughing softly.
When he lifted his head again, a thread of blood had appeared at the corner of his mouth.
He suddenly sneered at Yan Zhengchu. “I knew it. Your martial uncle found you and brought you back. Even after you became my disciple, your heart was never truly loyal to me.”
Infuriated by the way his master turned the accusation back on him, Yan Zhengchu was about to argue when “Ren Yao” spoke first.
“Senior Brother, I still understand Xiaochu’s character.”
“He respects me, and he respects you. He remembers the kindness I showed him, just as he has never forgotten that you raised him all these years.”
“You, on the other hand, used his trust to commit these atrocities. Now you can only reap what you have sown.”
Master Tianji showed no remorse whatsoever.
He even sneered heartlessly. “Then consider this the final lesson his master teaches him.”
“When judging a person, never look only at the surface.”
Yan Zhengchu thought of how he had been kept in the dark all these years, never even seeing his master’s true face, and a chill of disgust went through him.
Just then, however, a woman’s furious voice rang through the secret chamber.
“Bai Qingyan, you are right. When judging a person, one truly cannot look only at the surface…”
The voice visibly startled Master Tianji.
When he looked up, he found a female ghost floating in midair, glaring viciously at him with blood-red eyes.
“It is you…”
“It is me.”
He recognized the female ghost he had personally sealed inside the mirror all those years ago…
Master Tianji slowly recovered from his surprise and asked, “Was living inside that mirror not pleasant?”
The ghost grew even more enraged. She swept closer and seized him by the throat, nearly shrieking every word. “You deceived me! How could you deceive me that way?”
Master Tianji showed no fear. In an indifferent, callous tone, he said, “In truth, I did not really deceive you.”
“You always understood the difference between us. I could never abandon the work of more than half a lifetime to become an ordinary mortal couple with you…”
At those words, grief and fury filled the ghost’s face, and a bloody tear slid down her cheek.
Yan Zhengchu was utterly confused by this female ghost who had appeared from nowhere.
But from her conversation with Master Tianji, he could at least guess that they shared some history.
Then “Ren Yao” suddenly called out a name.
“Miss Taoxi.”
The ghost turned, but did not recognize him at all. “Who… are you?”
“Ren Yao” smiled faintly. “We met only once, when I first arrived at Mount Yunhe.”
“So it was you… that young Daoist from all those years ago.”
Only then did the ghost slowly remember…
Yan Zhengchu could no longer resist asking, “Martial Uncle, who exactly is this female ghost? Why is she here on Mount Yunhe?”
“Ren Yao” also seemed to search his memories before answering, “It would be better to let Miss Taoxi tell you herself…”
Taoxi looked again at Master Tianji before her. Her expression turned briefly distant before she slowly began to speak. “It was the tenth year of Great Qi…”
Twenty-five years had passed since then.
At that time, Mount Yunhe still possessed some renown. Every day, many people climbed the mountain to request talismans to protect their homes, catch ghosts, and expel evil.
Taoxi had been one of them.
But unlike those people, she had not believed in ghosts or evil spirits.
She had agreed to climb the mountain and request a protective talisman only because strange crying could always be heard at night in her family’s old house.
Her mother was timid and fell ill from fright. When medicine did no good, her father decided someone had to make a journey to Mount Yunhe.
But the family ran a medicinal-herb shop, so her father could not leave, while her younger brother was still a child.
As the eldest daughter, Taoxi decided to make the trip alone.
She had accompanied her father on long journeys to purchase medicinal herbs since childhood. The distance from Kaiming County to Yunxia Town was nothing to her.
But she had never expected her horse to bolt midway that day.