Chapter 262
Chapter 262
Bai Songlan had always been a mysterious figure to me.
I knew of her, and I understood her position, but I had never met her face-to-face.
On Lunar New Year’s Eve, Bai Jingmo had stood at the East Street Entrance for a long time. Back then, I’d wondered if the Bai Family regretted their decision.
Did they regret not decisively returning to Wufu Town Pawnshop when Hui Moqiong tried to persuade them?
Wufu Town Pawnshop was indeed a Dragon’s den and a tiger’s lair, but anyone living in Wufu Town was already caught in the maelstrom. No one could stay out of it.
I just hadn’t expected Bai Jingmo to ask me out again — or to tell me something like this.
Bai Songlan had an inner demon?
After hedgehogs cultivated into spirits, their bodies would erupt in barbs once every hundred years, the spikes piercing deep into their own flesh. This, too, was a Calamity they had to endure.
If their state of mind wavered, they could make mistakes and fall prey to an inner demon.
And Bai Jingmo said Bai Songlan already had one… What was her inner demon?
A faint sense of unease crept over me.
“In truth, I’m sure you can see it too. The Immortal Lady is hardly the only member of the Bai Family with an inner demon.”
I remained silent.
Ever since I’d seen Bai Jingmo for the kind of person he truly was, every meeting between us seemed to go this way.
He spoke, and I listened, rarely offering an opinion.
“The Immortal Lady wanted to withdraw from the world a long time ago. She wanted to return to the Qinling Mountains, but she couldn’t bear to abandon the White Immortal Lineage. So she selected the five most promising descendants from among her people and personally trained them. To win the Immortal Lady’s favor, Bai Xian’er studied and cultivated tirelessly, attending to her every morning and evening. When the Immortal Lady was tormented by her inner demon, Bai Xian’er even drew blood from her own heart to use as a medicinal catalyst, all to ease her suffering.”
I was genuinely surprised. I had never imagined Bai Xian’er had once possessed such a side.
Bai Jingmo continued, “Moved by Bai Xian’er’s hard work and sincerity, the Immortal Lady entrusted the White Immortal Lineage to her.
“Perhaps Bai Xian’er got carried away after finally achieving her heart’s desire. Or perhaps she had encountered a bottleneck in her cultivation. Whatever the reason, six months after Bai Xian’er secured her position as Hall Master of White Immortal Hall, the Immortal Lady relinquished all authority and returned to the Qinling Mountains for secluded cultivation.
“Barely a month after the Immortal Lady left, Bai Xian’er began searching everywhere for a suitable Medium. Before she’d even settled on a final candidate, she’d already slept with three or four men…”
I could hardly believe my ears.
Bai Jingmo’s next words struck me like a bolt from the blue. “Every single man she slept with died. Supposedly, when they died, Flesh Thorn bristled all over their bodies, and blood gushed endlessly from their chests…”
I frowned. “Supposedly? So you never actually verified any of this?”
Bai Jingmo lowered his gaze and lifted his teacup, taking several sips in quick succession.
The tea was still hot, but he seemed not to notice.
Only after a long silence did he set down the cup and say with difficulty, “There was no need to verify it. It’s all true.”
Bai Jingmo was only in his twenties. He hadn’t personally lived through the events involving Bai Xian’er, yet he sounded absolutely certain. That meant whoever had told him was most likely an elder of White Immortal Hall.
I remembered the period when the Little Monster first appeared. Bai Jingmo had been completely under Bai Xian’er’s control then. I couldn’t help feeling sorry for him.
What had he gone through during that time?
Even then, I’d suspected Bai Xian’er had probably…
“Xiao Jiu, don’t look at me like that. I’m clean,” Bai Jingmo said bluntly. “I’m the most medically gifted heir the Bai Family has produced in generations. I had plenty of ways to make her hallucinate…”
So Bai Xian’er really had made a move on Bai Jingmo. He had simply used drugs to fool her.
“She’s filthy.” Bai Jingmo’s eyes held undisguised revulsion. “Who knows how many men she’s defiled — or how many have died at her hands?”
“Not long before her four-hundredth birthday, she collapsed on the road. My ancestor found her, brought her home, and saved her with acupuncture. He was an exceptionally skilled physician, and Bai Xian’er supposedly fell in love with him at first sight.
“He was young and hot-blooded. How could he resist Bai Xian’er’s advances? Before long, they were sleeping together and had become a couple. My ancestor was so blinded by love that he even willingly became a Male Medium for the White Immortal Hall.
“Bai Xian’er truly behaved herself during that time. She had eyes for no one but my ancestor — until she became pregnant.”
“Little Monster is their child?” I asked. “Then why does Little Monster look the way he does?”
“Because that child was brought into the world as part of Bai Xian’er’s scheme from beginning to end,” Bai Jingmo said. “Bai Xian’er obtained an ancient medical text that recorded a cultivation method. By practicing it, she could transfer her Centennial Soul-Piercing Calamity to her unborn child, thereby lessening the strain on her own body when it came time to Undergo a Tribulation.”
So Little Monster had been created from the start to help Bai Xian’er evade her Centennial Soul-Piercing Calamity.
Every abnormality on Little Monster’s body had been left behind by bearing the Calamity in Bai Xian’er’s place!
How vicious!
Bai Xian’er was selfish and vicious to the core!
“Little Monster’s birth was already a devastating blow to my ancestor. After he learned the truth, he had a huge fight with Bai Xian’er. She severed both his hands, and in the end, he killed himself by swallowing a lethal dose of medicine.”
For a physician who made his living by taking pulses, preparing herbs, and performing acupuncture, losing both hands meant the end of his career.
Blow after blow had driven him to a complete breakdown.
What a waste of such an exceptional physician.
After thinking for a moment, I asked, “You said you aren’t related to your ancestor by blood?”
“That’s right. My ancestor had a disciple whom he’d raised by his side since childhood. He taught the boy medicine personally, starting at the age when those skills truly had to be drilled into him,” Bai Jingmo explained. “The boy was nearly ten when my ancestor died. Later, he became the White Immortal Hall’s new Medium and took control of the entire Bai Family Medical Hall. That was how our line was carried on.”
So that was what had happened.
In other words, Bai Xian’er alone was responsible for turning the White Immortal Hall into such a mess.
I asked a few more questions about Bai Songlan.
Bai Jingmo said that Bai Songlan had previously lived in seclusion in the Qinling Mountains. It wasn’t until something happened to Bai Xian’er that she returned to Wufu Town and resumed control of the White Immortal Hall.
Bai Jingmo said, “The Immortal Lady has been in very poor condition. Her inner demon keeps her from calming her mind enough to cultivate, and all these years of torment from the Soul Piercing Calamity have left fresh wounds layered over old ones. At her worst, she even… harms herself.”
By then, I was starting to feel sorry for Bai Songlan.
But Bai Jingmo’s next words doused that sympathy with a bucket of ice water.
Staring straight into my eyes, he asked with utmost seriousness, “Xiao Jiu, after everything I’ve told you, why haven’t you asked what my Immortal Lady’s inner demon is?”
I wanted to say that I had been wanting to ask. I simply hadn’t dared.
“This year, my Immortal Lady happens to be facing a Centennial Soul-Piercing Calamity,” Bai Jingmo said. “The closer the date of the Calamity draws, the stronger her inner demon becomes. Since I tend to her personally, I often hear her calling out a name.”
I shot to my feet and turned to leave.
Bai Jingmo didn’t stop me. He merely said calmly from behind me, “The name she calls out is… Xingyi…”