CH 45

The reaction of Cuilu made Qin Wanwan quite surprised, she thought that the Mingjing Daojun had been killed by Hua Rong, but looking at Cuilu’s reaction, she understood there were another hidden story.

Qin Wanwan was a little confused, but she tried to say clearly: “Hua Rong said to me personally, Mingjing Daojun was killed by him.”

“Impossible!” Saying this, Cuilu raised the scythe in her hand.

“Miss Qin!”

“Master!”

Xie Lutang and Nan Feng, seeing the situation, tried to rush to Qin Wanwan’s side. But all the surrounding people surrounded Xie Lutang and Nan Feng, Qin Wanwan was chased by Cuilu, she fought with her as she tired to convince Cuilu: “This is what Hua Rong said and not me, at least investigate the information before killing me ah.”

The huge scythe was directly above Qin Wanwan’s head, Qin Wanwan bent down and dodged immediately, all the while trying to speak some sense to Cuilu: “Think about it, Hua Rong was a Golden Pill staged cultivator back then, but he entered the Tribulation stage overnight. There’s clearly something wrong with it. He himself admitted that Mingjing Daojun was killed by him, why are you insisting it’s not?”

“You are lying.”

Cuilu just repeated the same thing: “City lord could never kill Mingjing Daojun.”

Hearing Cuilu keep repeating the same phrase, Qin Wanwan couldn’t help but sigh in her heart.

In Cuilu’s heart, Lin Yanzhi’s importance is far greater than Hua Rong’s.

Qin Wanwan dodged Cuilu’s attacks again and deliberated out loud: “Lord Cuilu, why are you so sure that Mingjing Daojun wasn’t killed by Hua Rong? Don’t you have any doubts? What if Mingjing Daojun really died at the hands of Hua Rong, you worked as a cow and horse for Hua Rong, but you are willing to side with him who killed Mingjing Daojun?”

“Shut up!”

Cuilu kicked Qin Wanwan hard in the chest. Qin Wanwan, who was viciously kicked out by her, had to retreat a few steps at the force.

Jian Xingzhi heard the movement of Cuilu and Qin Wanwan, but the thunder that he turned into spiritual energy exploded inside his sea of consciousness, making chaos inside his body. He couldn’t spare any energy to care about Qin Wanwan at the moment, he could only speed up the process of converging the thunder into spiritual energy and digest the spiritual energy in the body. As he began to sort his sea of consciousness, he strained his ears to hear the movement of Qin Wanwan and Cuilu.

Cuilu walked towards Qin Wanwan step by step while carrying the scythe. She pointed the scythe at Qin Wanwan and coldly asked: “Did you kill Hua Rong?”

Qin Wanwan didn’t reply immediately, she covered her chest and looked at Cuilu before gasping out a question: “Why do you trust Hua Rong so much? Why do you think he can’t kill Mingjing Daojun?”

“Because,” Cuilu thought for a few moments, and answered with a bit of hesitation, “Mingjing Daojun, committed suicide.”

When these words came out, Qin Wanwan froze. The two of them were far away from other people, only Jian Xingzhi was a little close to them but he was meditating.

Cuilu looked at Qin Wanwan, her gaze calm as she explained: “Back then I watched with my own eyes to see Mingjing Daojun going into seclusion in Huangcheng. A year later, the Nings send the news of the death of Daojun. He couldn’t seal the demonic energy in his body, and fearing that he was losing control, he took matters into his own hands. He destroyed the Devil Seed with his own hands. So that he wouldn’t have to die at the hands of Hua Rong.”

Qin Wanwan listened to Cuilu’s words, her mind took a moment to sort through the information before asking Cuilu: “But you’re not sure, are you?”

Cuilu didn’t answer, and Qin Wanwan asked again: “If you are sure, why are you telling me this now? You said that he went to Huangcheng for seclusion and that he killed himself. But did you see it with your own eyes, or did you hear it through someone?”

Cuilu became silent, she seemed to be thinking. After a long time, she nodded to herself as if she was sure of something and coldly spoke: “back then, it was me who sent him away. Before Mingjing Daojun died, Hua Rong didn’t leave Guicheng. So, it can’t be Hua Rong, it must be you who is lying to me.”

“But ……”

“Hua Rong wants to resurrect the Mingjing Daojun by the sacrifice of the lives of the people in the city, which is considered a rebellion against heaven, and he should be put to punishment.” Cuilu interrupted her, not giving her a chance to speak at all. She seemed to have thought everything through and decided not to entangle with Qin Wanwan anymore as she declared, “but he is after all the city lord of my Guicheng, but you killed him. It’s considered an insult to my Guicheng, I shall kill you to avenge the city lord.”

“Calm down first!”

Qin Wanwan shouted in alarm, but Cuilu ignored her cry and raised her scythe again. Her scythe mixed with majestic spiritual power came down to Qin Wanwan. Qin Wanwan immediately drew a formation and tried to defend herself.

However, the moment the scythe and formation met, they were surprised to find that the two had very similar spiritual energy flow, which could be considered from the same lineage. Even Qin Wanwan clearly discerned that the spell formation at the tip of the scythe was a unique technique belonging solely to Silent Mountain!

Qin Wanwan and Cuilu were both stunned, when the light collided, Cuilu shouted at her: “Where did you learn the spell formation?”

“I should ask you this question!”

Qin Wanwan spoke anxiously, the spell formation was obviously a Silent Mountain technique, how can she know this technique? Why would there be a Silent Mountain technique in this small world?

“Who taught you that?!”

Hearing this, Cuilu obviously sensed something unusual and retreated back in a hurry. She raised her hand to stop everyone and shouted: “Stop!”

Everyone stopped. Cuilu looked at Qin Wanwan, and thought for a moment before ordering her men: “Take all the people back.”

Saying that, she looked at Qin Wanwan: “You come with me.”

Qin Wanwan glanced at Jian Xingzhi, who was still meditating. He had obviously encountered something unusual and was still stuck on meditating. But thinking of Cuilu’s Silent Mountain technique, Qin Wanwan found it hard to not follow her out and know the truth. She thought left and right for a while before hesitantly speaking, “My master is still meditating, I don’t want you to capture him.”

“I won’t capture him,” Cuilu glanced at Jian Xingzhi, who was busy fighting with his rampant Qi. Touching her face, she hesitated for a moment, her tone softened as she said, “I’ll have someone carry him away.”

After Cuilu finished speaking, she ordered someone to bring a stretcher. Then Qin Wanwan saw with her own eyes, Jian Xingzhi, was lifted onto the stretcher like a living Buddha and carried away by the soldiers.

But Qin Wanwan was still feeling uneasy. After instructing Xie Lutang and Nan Feng to follow the soldiers, she finally turned her head to Cuilu. The two began to think of it, as if they were carrying a secret together, and glanced at each other. Cuilu pursed her lips before saying: “Let’s go for a walk by the river.”

Qin Wanwan nodded and strolled away from that cave with Cuilu.

Cuilu’s green dress was now a mess, her neat hair now resembling a bird nest. She and Qin Wanwan walk together by the river, holding her hands behind her back. She seemed to be thinking how to start.

Qin Wanwan couldn’t tolerate the suffocating silence anymore and spoke out, “The technique you just used belongs to my family.”

Cuilu looked stiff as she nodded, “Mm, I know.”

“Who taught you that?”

“About a hundred years ago,” Cuilu pondered before slowly starting, “when the Devil Seed were still roaming the world, and the Mingjing Daojun was running around to save the people of the world, two people from the Upper Realm came to Guicheng. The woman’s Daoist name was Shangsui and the man’s Daoist name was Taiheng.”

Hearing these words, Qin Wanwan suddenly got nervous.

“And then what?”

“The two Shenjuns* stayed in Guicheng for a while, assisting Mingjing Daojun in his works of saving people. It was also when I had been rescued by the two Shenjuns and was instructed by them to learn some small spells.”

[T/N: ‘Shenjun’ means ‘Divine Monarch’. Qin Wanwan’s parents were born in the Immortal Realm so their titles are a bit different from Cultivation Realm.]

“What about the two Shenjuns?” Qin Wanwan asked, Cuilu shook her head and replied, “I don’t know. After the death of Mingjing Daojun, the two Shenjuns left the city. I don’t know where they went.”

Qin Wanwan was stunned, loss and worry immediately came pouring over her. But she quickly calmed herself and asked another series of questions, “What exactly happened back then? Why did the two Shenjuns come to Guicheng? When was the last time you saw them again? Has anyone else seen them?”

“What is your relationship with the two Shenjuns?” Cuilu suddenly turned her head at Qin Wanwan and asked.

Qin Wanwan hesitated for a moment, she thought for a long time before answering truthfully, “They are my parents.”

Cuilu froze, and after a moment, she opened her mouth in surprise: “Then you …… you ……”

She hesitated for a moment before asking, “How is your body now?”

“They told you about this too?” Qin Wanwan asked in embarrassedly, “I came here by chance, but don’t know how.”

“Back then, the two Shenjuns said they had a beloved daughter who was not in good health, and said they came here to seek medicine for their beloved daughter.”

Qin Wanwan listened to Cuilu explaining about what happened that year: “At that time, the Devil Seed was running rampant in the Cultivation Realm. People of the Cultivation Realm were killing each other like domestic animals, many innocent people died because of this. The two Shenjuns then saved the people from the chaos together with Mingjing Daojun, and also helped Mingjing Daojun establish the Mingjing city.”

“What is the Devil Seed?”

Qin Wanwan asked curiously, Cuilu raised her hand, and something appeared in her hand with a flash: “The owner of the Devil Seed was called the Demon King by everyone. We don’t know the origin of his, no one has seen his appearance. He masters on gathering the evil thoughts of people on earth, devouring people’s evil thoughts to live. He will sow the seeds of evil, a kind of parasite in the human body. Once the heart starts having evil thoughts, it will be multiplied and magnified, and eventually become the nutrients for the Demon King to suck up.”

“This is the Devil Seed?” Qin Wanwan looked at the seeds in Cuilu’s hands. Cuilu smiled and took the seeds back into her palm before explaining, “Yes, but a dead one. The scary thing about the Devil Seed is that as soon as a person is planted with a Devil Seed, his body will become a host and produce another devil seed by itself. And then it will be sown to the next person without him knowing. So at that time, all the cultivators of Cultivation Realm were killing all those who were found planted with the seed. But even so, it was difficult to resist the overflowing number of the Devil Seed. All the sects at that time formed an Immortal Alliance to kill the Demon King, but the Demon King doesn’t have a fixed body. No one has seen his appearance either. It was already hard to find him, but each time we did, it would turn out to be a puppet.”

“And then?”

“Then…… actually I am not very clear.” Cuilu shook her head, “I only know that about five years before the death of the Mingjing Daojun, when the Devil Seed was spreading across most of the Cultivation Realm, I was saved by Mingjing Daojun. I was almost killed by the hands of the people who were planted with the Devil Seed, but they saved me on the way to their journey of finding the Demon King. They told me to cultivate properly, since I was on the verge of a breakthrough, I went to seclusion cultivation. After spending five years in seclusion, everything became very different when I came out.”

“How different?”

Qin Wanwan became curious, Cuilu recalled the scenes of that time: “At that time when I was in seclusion, I suddenly perceived a strange movement. I forced the breakthrough, and came out as quickly as possible. But what I saw was the city full of hanging white flowers, Hua Rong was preparing to give Mingjing Daojun a funeral. Mingjing Daojun was born in the Ning family, so to speak, his bones should be gone back to the Ning. I rushed up to question what happened, Hua Rong then pulled me to the side, quietly opened the coffin for me to take a look. I looked inside, only to find that in fact Mingjing Daojun actually did not die, but he was surrounded by demonic energy. I have never seen such strong demonic energy, so I didn’t dare to impede. I watched Hua Rong sending the coffin to the Ning family, and taking him back to Huangcheng.”

“What did Hua Rong say to you?”

Qin Wanwan finally understood why Cuilu was certain that Lin Yanzhi was not dead.

“He said to me that the entire Guicheng was infected by the Devil Seed. The people were killing each other, so Mingjing Daojun ordered the city to be sealed, but on the night of the sealing, Mingjing Daojun couldn’t bear to let so many people to be restricted of their freedom and seal them inside. So he discussed it with the two Shenjuns of the Upper Realm. Taiheng Shenjun told him a method of using his body as a container to trap the Demon King in his body, and then use his power to take out the Devil Seed seed from the body of people all over the city, and then would suppress the demonic Qi into his body to seal it. If he can suppress these demonic Qi and completely seal the Demon King in his body, then everyone will be saved. But if he can’t do that, he would have to be killed together with the Demon King. Before doing this, Mingjing Daojun transmuted all his cultivation to Hua Rong and appointed him as the next city lord of Guicheng. Then with the help of Shenjun Taiheng, he managed to seal the Demon King inside his body, saving most of the people. But while doing so, he couldn’t ……”

Cuilu finished sadly: “He killed himself.”

“So,” Qin Wanwan concluded, “Mingjian Daojun wasn’t the one who slaughtered everyone in the city, but it was the people who were carrying the Devil Seed. Why don’t you reveal the matter to everyone? Why do you tell everyone that it was the Mingjing Daojun who killed everyone?”

“Because the Devil Seed has scared the Cultivation Realm,” Cuilu explained, “If everyone knew that the people in Guicheng had carried the Devil Seed once, they wouldn’t care if these people had regained their sanity or not, they would still hunt them down.”

Anyway, the body of Mingjian Daojun is indeed sealed with the Demon King inside, and will probably be trapped in Huangcheng for the rest of his life, so people didn’t care about the facts anymore.

Qin Wanwan didn’t comment too much, she only asked, “What about the two Shenjuns, Shangsui and Taiheng?”

“Haven’t seen them.” Cuilu shook her head, “No one knows where they went, nor when they left. But they are people from the Upper Realm, they came quietly, and went without saying goodbye. But seeing you here,” Cuilu frowned, “It seemed they didn’t go back?”

“No.”

Qin Wanwan shook her head, and both of them fell silent. After a while, Cuilu asked again, “Did Hua Rong really tell you that he killed Mingjing Daojun?”

Qin Wanwan nodded her head and told everything that happened in the cave.

Cuilu didn’t say much as she smiled and thought: “Go back to rest first, I’ll think about it.”

“Okay. But Lord Cuilu, before I leave, I would like to ask you to do me a favor.”

Cuilu raised her eyes and Qin Wanwan smiled shyly as she said, “No one else knows about my identity, so I hope you can conceal my relationship with the two Shenjuns.”

“Okay.”

It was not a big deal, Cuilu nodded at once.

Qin Wanwan bowed and said goodbye, her heart was hung up on her parents’ well being and she didn’t want to talk to Cuilu anymore.

She went back to the city lord’s residence, found a servant to ask where Jian Xingzhi was taken, and then went to look for him.

As she walked on the road, she began to think about the thing heard by Cuilu along the way. From her parents leaving, to her coming here, the changes after she met Jian Xingzhi, and now having a glimpse of what her parents did to help Guicheng. She vaguely felt that there was a thread that kept connecting everything together, but couldn’t find it.

T/N: This marks the end of Guicheng Arc. The next chapter will be the beginning of Huangcheng Arc. But I’m thinking of editing the previous chapters before posting new chapters. It can take months, since my exams are coming soon too. Hope everyone will stay tuned.