Chapter 223
Chapter 223
By now, not a trace of resentment or baleful yin energy remained inside the enormous pit. Even the bleached bones no longer had the solid texture of ordinary bone.
I crouched down and lightly touched one with a branch. It instantly crumbled into powder.
The rain washed the powder into the mud, leaving no sign of what it had once been.
Holding the branch, I kept stirring through the remains, layer by layer.
The branch was long, but the pit was far too deep for it to reach the bottom.
With the rain constantly washing away the debris, I eventually managed to dig quite far down — and actually saw a few lingering sparks.
After a while, I lost patience. I tossed the branch into the pit and stood up. “Forget it. I’m done looking.”
Even if I found my corpse, what good would it do?
After all these years, how could it possibly have escaped decay?
And even if it had, the eight bolts of heavenly lightning that had just struck should have purged its baleful energy and destroyed it completely.
What worried me more at that moment was the Wutong Tree.
I got to my feet and walked toward where it had stood, but no matter how hard I searched, I couldn’t find it.
It was as though it had suddenly vanished from the face of the earth, without leaving so much as a single root behind.
Unable to believe it, I ran to the spot where the Wutong Tree had originally grown and began digging with my bare hands.
But the earth was tightly packed and riddled with gravel. I couldn’t dig through it at all.
The ground was so flat and undisturbed that it looked as if no enormous tree had ever grown there.
I stood, formed a hand seal, and chanted an incantation before shouting, “Fengwu, come forth!”
Nothing happened.
I couldn’t summon my own Lifebound Artifact.
Back in the underground palace, I had only been one of the Souls, and Feng Lishu had said she had set up a formation that kept Fengwu sealed outside.
But I was outside now. So where was Fengwu?
I must have looked terrifying as I broke down. Liu Junyan pulled me into his arms and tried repeatedly to soothe me.
The ground began trembling violently, and eerie noises rose from deep underground.
They were caused by violent movements in the earth’s crust.
“Xiao Jiu, we have to leave,” Liu Junyan said. “I’ll investigate the Wutong Tree and Fengwu and give you an answer as soon as possible. For now, we need to keep ourselves safe. Understand?”
His words restored a sliver of my reason, and I nodded.
Liu Junyan wrapped an arm around my waist again and carried me out of Tafeng Village.
Almost the instant our feet touched the ground, a deafening boom erupted behind us. A vast stretch of mountains and land surrounding Tafeng Village collapsed all at once.
Groundwater surged up in torrents. Combined with the relentless downpour, which seemed as if the sky itself had sprung a leak, it wasn’t long before the entirety of Tafeng Village disappeared beneath a vast expanse of water.
Liu Junyan put an arm around my shoulders. “Xiao Jiu, from this moment on, Tafeng Village is history. You never have to fear it hurting you again.”
My eyes instantly reddened. I buried my face in Liu Junyan’s chest, unable to describe what I was feeling.
Was I excited?
A little, perhaps.
But more than that, I felt lost and tormented.
Those villagers, good and bad alike, had seemed so vividly alive, yet every last one of them had been nothing more than a fleeting dream.
And the secrets buried deep beneath this land would likely remain buried forever.
I was soaked to the skin, and so was Liu Junyan.
The car sped all the way back to the Pawnshop.
The downpour had been confined to the area around Tafeng Village. Over in Wufu Town, the sky was perfectly clear.
Jiang Sique had already taken Jiang Bin home. Before leaving, he said that once Jiang Bin’s condition stabilized, he would come by in person to thank us.
Hui Moqiong had escorted Du Chan home as well.
Li Qingying had prepared clean clothes and cooked a meal ahead of time. As soon as we returned, she urged us to wash up and change.
By then, it was already mid-afternoon.
When Liu Junyan and I emerged after washing up, a fragrant meal was already waiting on the table.
Liu Junyan and I sat around the small round table, eating at a leisurely pace, while Li Qingying went out front to wait for Hui Moqiong.
“Something has changed inside me.” Once we were almost finished eating, I brought it up. “When my Souls left my body, I encountered Feng Lishu. At the critical moment, a face appeared inside my Soul Body. It had no features except for a mouth, and Feng Lishu called it the Grand Witch.”
Liu Junyan froze. “Are you saying the Grand Witch from Cangwu Mountain is now parasitizing your Souls?”
I nodded. “I suppose you could put it that way.”
Liu Junyan pondered for a long moment but apparently couldn’t come up with a reasonable explanation. Of course, he didn’t dare recklessly try to extract the face either.
In the end, all Liu Junyan could do was ask, “Xiao Jiu, do you feel any physical discomfort?”
I carefully examined how I felt, then shook my head. “Not at the moment.”
Liu Junyan relaxed slightly, then warned, “Be extra careful for the next few days. The moment anything feels wrong, tell me immediately. I’ll give this more thought and see if I can find a way to deal with it.”
After we finished eating and chatted for a while longer, Hui Moqiong returned.
Liu Junyan and Hui Moqiong went to the West Room to discuss something, while I blow-dried my hair and prepared to catch up on some much-needed sleep.
As I dried my hair, I deliberately used the vanity mirror to check the back of my neck.
The name “Du Chan,” which the yin rubbing had left there, had completely vanished.
I touched the spot. It didn’t even hurt anymore.
That counted as a good thing, right?
I smiled, lay down on the bed, and fell asleep soon after hugging the comforter.
But just as I settled into a deep sleep, I began to dream.
No, to be precise, it wasn’t a dream. My Souls were being summoned…
“Come back…”
“Return to Cangwu Mountain…”
“Come back. Return to Cangwu Mountain…”
Through the haze, I seemed to see that face again.
The mouth on it moved constantly, repeating the same words over and over.
“Come back! Return to Cangwu Mountain!”
It kept calling to me, and my consciousness slowly drifted away with its voice.
At last, I seemed to see Cangwu Mountain.
I saw the Nirvana Fire blazing fiercely within the mountain.
Amid the flickering flames, a human figure gradually took shape.
It seemed to be a woman. She stood silently in the midst of the Nirvana Fire.
Her entire body was wreathed in flames, and she was holding a Longbow.
I knew that Longbow all too well!
It was clearly my Lifebound Artifact!
Why was someone else holding my Lifebound Artifact?
Who was she?
Why had she taken Fengwu?
I strode forward, intending to charge into the sea of flames and retrieve Fengwu.
Before I had taken more than a few steps, however, an enormous butterfly flew straight at me.
With its wings spread, it was as large as my face. The instant it swooped down, I jolted awake.
It was already dark outside. I couldn’t believe I had slept for so long.
I raised a hand and firmly pinched the bridge of my nose as I recalled the scenes from my dream.
Cangwu Mountain, the Nirvana Fire, Fengwu…
And who exactly was the person who had taken Fengwu?!
More importantly, why had another butterfly appeared?
Butterflies… Paradise Beyond the World… Tang Xun…
“This is bad! Xiao Jiu, are you awake?” Li Qingying knocked urgently on my door. “Xiao Jiu, get up and come take a look! Something happened!”
Startled, I quickly rolled out of bed and opened the door. “Sister Qingying, what happened?”
Li Qingying looked utterly panicked. She pointed behind her and stammered, “Snow Phoenix… Snow Phoenix, she… she ate the Ice Silkworm…”