Chapter 76: This Venerable One Meets That Guy Again

>>little bit gory

Chu Wanning had never been a kindly teacher type, and Mo Ran wasn't a five year old at his first lesson either; a hammy question like that didn't even warrant a response, so Chu Wanning, lashes lowered, ignored it.

The haitang flower that he had sent off with a speed-boosting wind spell quickly scouted through the entire Peach Blossom Springs. Mere moments later,

a golden amulet drifted down from the sky into his hand.

"The Ancestral Abyss?" The Ancestral Abyss was where they went every day to pluck feathers from the angry owls that dwelled there. The feathered tribe people had said before that the bottom of the abyss was filled with roaring flames, and that anyone,

other than the angry owls that have lived there since ancient times, to slip and fall in there would get melted until there was nothing left.

Chu Wanning set a concealment barrier on both of them to avoid detection by the feathered tribe. They arrived at the Ancestral Abyss and looked down.

There was an eerie red light and no bottom to be seen, with thousands of owls perched along the walls of the steep cliffs, currently slumbering with their heads tucked into their wings, packed so densely that they looked like countless dots on the cliffside from this distance.

According to Chu Wanning's conjecture, if the Zhenlong Chess Formation was indeed set up within the abyss, then all this about fierce flames and getting burnt until not even ashes were left should all just be made-up.

"But how can we be sure that the fire down there isn't actually dangerous?" Mo Ran stared at the eerie light down below, murmuring, "Looks real enough to me." "Throw something in first." "I'll go grab a rabbit then."

"No need." Chu Wanning leapt up with a flutter of his pristine robes and disappeared into the forest of peach trees nearby. Then, a moment later, he fluttered back like an immortal exiled from the ninth heaven, a branch of peach blossoms in hand.

Mo Ran understood—peach blossoms were even more fragile than rabbits,

so if the peach blossoms could handle the supposed "fierce flames", then it would obviously pose no danger to people.

Chu Wanning ran a finger lightly down the branch as he mouthed a spell,

covering it with a soft layer of translucent blue light. He pointed toward the abyss and said: "Go on." The peach blossom floated gently down; one foot, two feet, ten feet, a hundred feet.

The branch was too far away to see now, but Chu Wanning could still sense the condition of the flowers from the spell he had cast. He waited with eyes closed for a while before opening them.

"The flowers are fine. Let's go."   Since Chu Wanning was this certain, there was no need to say anything else, so Mo Ran immediately leaped into the Ancestral Abyss alongside him.

Both of them were proficient in the martial arts, and nimbly arrived at the bottom with ease. But when he saw the scene down here, even though he was already mentally prepared, Mo Ran still felt a shiver run down his spine.

He knew what that eerie red light was now.

Thousands of crosses stood at the bottom of the abyss, with a member of the feathered tribe tied to each one, completely naked and drenched in blood.

There was a lingchi[2] fruit stuffed into each of their mouths, the fruit emitting a piercing red light. From above, the collective light of these thousands of fruits easily looked like flames burning deep in the abyss.

Chu Wanning's face looked terrible; he was well-learned, so of course he knew that this red colored fruit was the forbidden fruit that made everyone in the cultivation world go pale at the very mention of it. Putting this fruit into the mouth of a person on the verge of death would extend their last moment into three hundred and sixty five days.

In other words, that person would be denied their release and forced to suffer an excruciatingly slow death instead, extending the instant cessation of the heart into ceaseless torment, thus termed lingchi.

Staring at the throngs of feathered tribe living-dead, dense as a forest, Mo Ran murmured: "...Soul Locking Array." Using the still-living as human pillars, resentful energy could be confined therein and prevented from leaking out, even with thousands of souls trapped within a Zhenlong Chess Formation!

No wonder he couldn't sense the slightest bit of resentful energy indicating the presence of a Zhenlong Chess Formation.

Mo Ran couldn't help but shudder as he wondered if the fake Gouchen from Jincheng Lake truly was the person behind the scenes here at the Peach Blossom Springs.

Based on what happened at Jincheng Lake, it seemed that the fake Gouchen only knew the bare basics of Zhenlong Chess Formation, just enough to control the creatures of the lake. But this time, all of the fake feathered tribe folks out there in the Peach Blossom Springs, other than being a bit dumb and emotionally stunted, were practically indiscernable from the original, even being capable of using the unique magicks of the feathered tribe—it was clear that the grasp of the forbidden technique this time was at least comfortably adept; could the fake Gouchen truly have become this proficient this quickly?

Chu Wanning walked into the center of the Soul Locking Array, where there stood a crystal pillar.

There was a feathered tribe person tied to the crystal pillar as well, only this one was dead, the lingchi fruit in her mouth long since withered, her body in the beginning stages of decomposition. But her identity was clear enough from the yellow robes she wore, embroidered in golden thread with a phoenix, and the star-shaped mark between her brows.

"This is..." Mo Ran, startled: "This is the real Elder Immortal!" "Correct." Chu Wanning looked at the forest of human pillars, stretching out as far as the eye could see, and said quietly, "So many of the feathered tribe were captured for use in the Soul Locking Array, at least eight hundred, if not a thousand. The Elder Immortal definitely wouldn't have tolerated this were she still alive. I thought it was odd earlier, when I exchanged blows with that Elder Immortal on the outside, that she didn't even seem to be as strong as the ghost mistress of CaiDie Town. If I'm not wrong... it seems that the feathered tribe of Peach Blossom Springs has already been wiped out, and all those outside right now are merely walking corpses under the control of Zhenlong Chess Formation."   "!!!" Sure enough! Chu Wanning had come to the same conclusions as himself! Mo Ran turned to leave as soon as he recovered from his shock, but Chu Wanning blocked his path with a wave of his sleeve.

"Where are you going?" "I have to go tell Uncle and the others. If this is the case, then it's far too dangerous here."   "Don't be too hasty." Chu Wanning shook his head, "Right now, we're out in the open, but the enemy is hidden in the shadows. There are many cultivators at the Peach Blossom Springs, and we don't know who's the one pulling the strings, acting rashly might make things worse." "Hehe. Long time no see. Chu-zongshi is still so cautious." A small giggle came from above, but the sound was no different from that of thunder striking the depths of the Ancestral Abyss. Both of their heads snapped up as blood drained from their faces, only to see a mangled child of the feathered tribe sitting on a branch sticking out from the cliffside, kicking his legs.

The dead child tilted his head, a pair of eyeballs soaked in bloody tears rolling around in their sockets, and grinned brightly at them.

Mo Ran: "Zhenlong Chess Formation!" Chu Wanning cursed under his breath: "Another white chess piece." "Ehehe, that's right, another white chess piece." The child clapped gleefully,

terrifyingly, "What, did you think I would come here personally? I'm not dumb." Mo Ran: "So you are that fake Gouchen from Jincheng Lake! What do you want, you madman?" "Hehe, who do you think you are, some no-name sproutling, you aren't even fit to speak to me. Tell your master to do the asking himself."

"YOU——!" Chu Wanning's slender fingers came out from his wide sleeve with a sweep to hold down a Mo Ran who was so pissed off there was practically smoke rising from his head. Looking up with a lifting of his eyelashes, he asked coldly: "What are you trying to accomplish?"   The child continued to kick his legs. He was clearly already dead, but under the control of the forbidden technique, he moved nonstop, making all kinds of gestures like a puppet on a string.

"Oh, nothing much, really." Chu Wanning's voice dropped several degrees in temperature: "Then why do you keep coming after my disciple?"   "My plan is nothing too important, but I just so happen to need your little disciple's spiritual core for it." The child said, beaming, "He can only blame himself for having such a fine core. It's even better than yours by far. I already noticed back at Jincheng lake that he's a superb wood elemental spiritual essence; if not for that, I might be more interested in you instead, Chu-zongshi."   Mo Ran was about to gag at the way he spoke in a child's voice but all greasily and with such an adult tone. He snapped: "If I'm ever so god damn unlucky as to get caught by you, I'll immediately self-destruct my fucking core, so don't even think about touching me!"   "It's not like I want to touch you." The child continued to speak in that infuriating, honey-sweet tone, "I'm only chasing you around cause I have to. All men love beauties, your Shizun is much prettier than you, I'd rather touch him." "YOU!!!!!!" Mo Ran bristled, "Some ugly thing like you, hiding behind white chess pieces all day long too afraid to even show your ugly mug, think you have any right to touch my Shizun?"   The child only rolled his eyes at him, as if tired of acknowledging his existence, and turned back to Chu Wanning:

"Chu-zongshi, back at Jincheng Lake, I already advised you to leave things alone, but you just wouldn't listen. I'm so hurt~'   "Since this matter has come to my attention, even if you stop coming after Mo Ran now, I still intend to get to the bottom of things." "Pfft, I knew you'd say that." The child was quiet for a moment, then grinned again, "Why are you righteous zongshi types all so stubborn? …...Fine, since Chu-zongshi won't leave well enough alone, we'll just have to wait and see then.

I wanted to see which is stronger, anyway: your Tianwen, or my forbidden techniques."   Chu Wanning's brows furrowed as he said darkly: "Must you slaughter so many innocents for your ends?" "The people of the world are like the oranges from HuaiNan." "What do you mean?" "Sour." The child started giggling, "Super sour. All these worthless people are sour, I hate them, I want to crush them, step on them." Mo Ran: "..."   Chu Wanning's voice was filled with killing aura: "You are truly irredeemable."

"Zongshi deems me irredeemable, but I think Zongshi is just as incorrigible.

Our justice differs to start with, why sweat the details." The child tilted his head to and fro, "Just think of our little spat as a game of chess. You won the match last time at Jincheng Lake, and, as for this one here at the Peach Blossom Springs,

since Zongshi has already found the Ancestral Abyss and seen my white chess piece, and I've run out of tricks to acquire your little disciple, let's just say you won this one too." He paused, then squinted his eyes in a smile, but only squeezed out more blood in so doing.

"But you better watch out. You may have protected him this time, but I wonder if you can protect him his whole life."   "..." "As for the secret down here, I suggest you keep it to yourselves." The child said, holding a red and gold feather between his fingers.

Mo Ran noted with alarm: "The golden feathers used as currency in the Peach Blossom Springs?"   "That's right." He smiled, "These feathers have circulated everywhere by now. If the two of you keep quiet and leave by yourselves, then nothing will happen. But if you don't behave and try to reveal me... these feathers are imbued with the resentful energy of the feathered tribe; they won't kill those cultivators, but they can dissipate the better part of their cultivation."   Mo Ran said with anger in his voice: "You planned this from the start?!" "Well of course?" The child said, incredulous, "Did you think everyone was a dumb brute like you?"   Mo Ran: "..." He was so, pissed, off!!!! He'll admit that he was rather straightforward when doing things, and that he didn't know much about schemes and strategies, but to get so overtly called out by this little bastard, he really wanted to summon Jiangui and give him what for, teach him what it means to be a real dumb brute.

"Chu-zongshi, I'm sure you know what's best for everyone involved. Even if they learn the truth, with their cultivation greatly damaged, I'm afraid they won't thank your righteousness." Chu Wanning replied coldly: "And I'm sure you've already heard earlier when you were eavesdropping, I wasn't planning to alarm them to begin with for the time being."   "For the time being? Haha, so Zongshi was planning to say it later then. But there's no point to that, either." The child beamed as he spoke, "Once these people leave, I'll destroy the Peach Blossom Springs just like I did Jincheng Lake. Good luck getting anyone to believe you with no evidence." Chu Wanning's gaze was icy: "I'm impressed that you had the nerve to call Mo Ran a dumb brute when you conduct yourself thus." The child didn't mind Chu Wanning's derision in the least. He got up and twirled in place a couple times, then a flame suddenly flared to life at his feet and slowly burned through his flesh and bones.

"Why don't you save that for when you catch me? Chu-zongshi, out of respect for your character, I'll remind you one last time: stay out of this. If you still refuse to listen, then we…... will certainly meet again..."

The flames roared into the sky in an explosion.

The feathered tribe child used as a puppet was burnt into nothingness. A translucent white chess piece fell from the sky, twirled a couple times on the ground, and stilled.

There was nothing but silence for a while.

"..." Mo Ran knew that person wasn't just spouting empty threats, but he also didn't want to just take it sitting down, so he asked, "Shizun, are we really just going to leave like this? Do you have any other ideas?" "Best not to take any chances for now. Let's leave the Peach Blossom Springs first." Chu Wanning's expression was dark as well, "Since that person went to the trouble of putting down a Soul Locking Array to prevent others from noticing his use of the Zhenlong Chess Formation, that means he still wants to keep things under wraps, at least for now. I will send word to the Sect Leader to take Xue Meng and Shi Mei and leave as soon as possible, without alarming the enemy. As for you..." Chu Wanning paused, then continued: "He was after you, both times. This time around, he planned to frame you with the hopes of isolating you from help.

You don't have to do anything further in this matter, the Sect Leader can step in and take care of it."   "What should I do, then?" Mo Ran asked, "It wouldn't be right to make others take care of my mess while I sit on my hands and do nothing."   "What are you trying to prove at this juncture? It's obvious what that person is after—the holy tree at Jincheng Lake fell, so he's been looking for a replacement. You are a wood elemental spiritual essence, suitable for his purposes, but if he can't get to you, then he'll go for the next best thing, and look for something else as substitute." Chu Wanning paused before continuing, "And once he finds that something, it will only be another massacre. He must be stopped."   "That's not wrong, but Shizun, it's not like spiritual essences are all that easy to find. If he wants to find a substitute, he'll have to..." Mo Ran suddenly stopped talking and lifted his head, staring at Chu Wanning for a while before continuing: "If that little bastard wants to find other spiritual essences, he'll have to check sect by sect. But cultivators don't release their spiritual foundation without cause, the foundation is only let out when choosing a new weapon or refinement crystal in order to check for compatibility.

So the simplest way to test for the essence is to sell weapons and refinement crystals. Which means, if we just keep watch on the weapon markets near the sects in the coming days, we'll have a pretty good chance of sniffing that bastard out." After saying all that, he noticed Chu Wanning looking at him thoughtfully, and couldn't help second-guessing himself.

"Uh... I guess?"   "It's a good guess." Chu Wanning said slowly, but then, a moment later, felt like he knew a little too much, and narrowed his eyes in suspicion, "Mo Ran. Is there something you're not telling me?" "Wh-what would I even have to hide from Shizun?" Mo Ran said, but the hairs on his back were standing on end, and he felt as if Chu Wanning's eyes,

clear as glass, were staring right through this reborn body of his, directly at the soul cowering within.

A moment passed in silence, and Chu Wanning thankfully didn't press the subject.

Lowering his eyelashes, he said: "Starting now, you will go with me to covertly investigate the major sects. We will not be returning to Sisheng Peak for the time being."

Author's Notes:

Peach Blossom Springs BOSS: I'm someone who looks at appearances.

Your shizun looks better than you, so my attitude towards him is nicer.

Mo Ran: MMP*, didn't the author say I'm the best-looking?

                *[abbreviation of Sichuan vulgarity 妈卖批, meaning "Your mom whores herself out"]

Meatbun: Yes, but, firstly, you're still physically a youth, and haven't grown into your looks. Secondly, the boss may be a straight dude, but if he were gay,

his nature is similar to yours. Do you think he'll find your type more appealing, or Shizun's type more appealing?

Mo Ran: Is there no boss who's full of bottom energy?

Meatbun: There is.

Meatbun (turning her head) : Xue Meng Meng, your cousin's inviting you to be the boss!!!

Up next, Shizun's and Dog's main plotline is going to begin~ There are no knives for the moment, but be careful regardless when you see flashbacks, whenever there are flashbacks there are only two possibilities:

One, flying daggers.

Two, street racing. (TL note: smut = car) I won't put any more warnings for the 0.5 timeline, once you see that timeline, just be mentally prepared for these two things.

[2] 凌迟 a form of punishment in which a person is sliced alive, piece by piece;

indicates similar cruelty in the case of this fruit, but not what the fruit is actually doing