Chapter 163
Chapter 163
Yu Nian’s words contained a staggering amount of information.
She was telling me that behind the Hundun Evil Formation guarded by three generations of the Yu Clan lurked a person of monstrous evil.
If that person could control the Hundun Evil Formation, were they also connected to the Qiongqi Evil Formation on Niuhu Mountain?
Two of the Four Great Fiends had already surfaced. Were the other two, which had yet to be discovered, also under that person’s control?
Now that we had interfered with the Qiongqi Evil Formation, would that person make a move?
And if they did, Yu Nian would be the first to suffer the consequences.
At that thought, I took Yu Nian’s hand and asked anxiously, “Senior Sister, do you really have to go back to Huicheng? Can’t you move in with me?”
Yu Nian refused me again. “Xiao Jiu, everyone has their own post to hold. You and I each have a territory we must protect. If anything goes wrong with either one, the other will be dragged down as well. I’m not afraid to return to Huicheng, and I’m certainly not afraid to die. This is my mission.”
I wrapped my arms tightly around Yu Nian, reluctant to let her go. “Senior Sister, I don’t want you to leave.”
Yu Nian hugged me just as tightly. “Xiao Jiu, believe in me, just as I believe in you.”
Things here were already in their final stages. No matter how reluctant I was to part with her, Yu Nian still prepared to return to Huicheng. I sent someone to escort her.
Before leaving, she suddenly remembered something and said solemnly, “By the way, Xiao Jiu, there’s something I need to warn you about. These Buddha Eyes are extremely attractive to gu insects.”
Gu insects?
So all those dead insects inside and outside the courtyard had actually been gu insects?
Hui Moqiong had previously said that Gu Die, the owner of the Buddha Eyes, had probably come from the Miao Frontier.
Gu Sorcery had also once flourished in the Miao Frontier.
The Miao Frontier was well over a thousand kilometers away. Under normal circumstances, people from there should never have appeared around Jiangcheng or Huicheng.
But now… a Dalai Lama from the Tibetan Region had already been entrenched in this tiny town for more than a decade. What was so strange about gu insects from the Miao Frontier appearing here as well?
They had all come for these evil formations.
The appearance of these formations might even be inseparably linked to the arrival of these people.
After Yu Nian left, I sat alone in the Main Hall, unable to calm down for a long time.
I could still remember how panicked and helpless Gu Die had been when she came to the Pawnshop to pawn the Buddha Eyes.
She had truly been at the end of her rope.
Yu Nian said gu insects were strongly drawn to the Buddha Eyes.
When the Buddha Eyes were at the Pawnshop, they pursued them there.
When the Buddha Eyes were brought to this town, they followed them here as well.
That group of people, the gu insects, and the Buddha Eyes had to be connected by some kind of special sense.
Yu Nian had said she couldn’t protect the Buddha Eyes. Aside from Hundun, this was probably another reason why.
I had a powerful premonition that the Buddha Eyes would draw a vast number of factions into the open and even expose many secrets hidden in the darkness-such as the identity of that utterly evil person.
I put the Buddha Eyes away safely.
A little later, I received two pieces of news and ran into a major problem.
The first piece of news was that although the Qiongqi Evil Formation had been suppressed, the Fake Ascetic Monk had still escaped into the earth despite Liu Junyan and Hu Yulin closing in on him from both sides.
Hui Moqiong had excavated an underground palace beneath the Temple. It was filled with the corpses of death-row inmates.
They were the members of the Corpse Formation that had previously appeared around the Temple. However, by the time they were unearthed, all the Dragon Aura in their bodies had vanished, and the corpses were rapidly decaying.
In other words, the Fake Ascetic Monk had drained the Dragon Aura accumulated by the Corpse Formation before fleeing.
The other piece of news was equally shocking.
Among the death-row inmates who were still imprisoned or had already been executed, there were problems with the Birth Date and Time of many of them.
While Hui Moqiong and Li Qingying were telling me about this, footsteps suddenly sounded outside the courtyard. A moment later, someone knocked on the courtyard gate.
Hui Moqiong immediately grew impatient. “That old fellow must have come knocking.”
I was confused. “What old fellow?”
Hui Moqiong scratched his head. “Xiao Jiu’er, neither Seventh Master nor I can show ourselves. We’ll leave what comes next to you.”
With that, Hui Moqiong and all his disciples and granddisciples vanished and did not reappear.
Liu Junyan had gone after the Fake Ascetic Monk earlier and had yet to return.
Utterly bewildered, I went to open the door.
A man in his seventies stood outside the courtyard gate.
He wore a Chinese tunic suit, and his graying hair was combed meticulously into place. His small eyes gleamed with sharp intelligence, nothing like the clouding eyes of most people his age.
The moment the door opened, his face broke into a warm smile. He politely extended a hand. “Hello, Shopkeeper Xiao Jiu.”
I had no idea who he was, but there was no reason to be rude to someone who had come smiling. Besides, he had addressed me by my title right away, so he had clearly done his homework.
I reached out and shook his hand. “Hello.”
The old man introduced himself. “I’m Fang Chuanzong, administrator of the East China Region for the Huaguo Special Affairs Handling Office. Shopkeeper Xiao Jiu, could we find somewhere to sit down and talk about Niuhu Mountain and the prison?”
I froze.
His identity genuinely caught me off guard.
He was a government official backed by the state. Whether I wanted to or not, I had to show him due respect.
I nodded. “All right.”
Before long, we were seated in a private room on the second floor of a restaurant in town.
Everyone in the restaurant, staff and customers alike, had been temporarily asked to leave. A pot of tea was brought in, and Fang Chuanzong took it upon himself to pour me a cup.
I was extremely nervous. I knew why he had come, but I had no idea what he really wanted.
Fang Chuanzong set down the teapot and smiled. “There’s no need to be nervous, Shopkeeper Xiao Jiu. This is only an informal conversation. You may tell me whatever you wish and withhold whatever you don’t. I won’t pressure you.”
Despite his unassuming manner, sweat coated my palms.
I wasn’t afraid of him asking about the Qiongqi Evil Formation, the zombies, or anything of that sort. What I feared was that he would ask about the Golden Scale.
The Golden Scale belonged to Liu Junyan. There was no way we would hand it over again.
“We’ve been monitoring Niuhu Mountain for many years,” Fang Chuanzong said bluntly when I remained silent. “Not only is there a Qiongqi Formation suppressed beneath Niuhu Mountain, but a Dragon Aura is also sealed there. The Special Affairs Office has specific records concerning the origins of that Dragon Aura.”
I was stunned once again. “You even have records of where that Dragon Aura came from?”
Fang Chuanzong smiled. “Of course. Huaguo is vast and rich in resources, but whenever anything… unusual happens on any inch of the land beneath our feet, we do our best to learn of it immediately and record it. Even if we cannot resolve the matter, we make sure we are at least informed.”
My heart stirred.
If Fang Chuanzong was telling the truth, then could I also find answers from him about Gu Die and the Miao Frontier Gu Sorcery behind her?
Still, it was only a thought. This man had appeared far too suddenly, and I knew nothing of his true background. The matters involving Gu Die and the Buddha Eyes ran too deep. Revealing the cards in my hand to an outsider too soon would not be wise.
So I merely followed his lead and asked, “Then where did this Dragon Aura come from?”
Fang Chuanzong replied, “During the Tang Dynasty, a man named Chan Master Dahui emerged from the Mount Song Lineage. He was highly proficient in the Five Elements, Yin-Yang, Calendrical Astronomy, and many other disciplines. While traveling to spread the scriptures, he passed through Niuhu Mountain just as the Qiongqi Evil Formation was destabilizing. Using his own power, he drew the Dragon Aura into Niuhu Mountain to suppress it, preserving peace in this region for a thousand years…”