seattlejaycees Chapter 88 : Did You Once Save Someone on a Snow Mountain...
Chapter 88 : Did You Once Save Someone on a Snow Mountain...
Chapter 88: Did You Once Save Someone on a Snow Mountain...
The trembling did not last very long.
Nor was the shaking particularly severe.
The house did not collapse, the beams did not fall, and even the water inside the teacups failed to spill over.
Fang Chang pulled out a talisman.
With a surge of Spiritual Essence, it instantly exploded into a small burst of sparks and began burning.
Purple-black aura coiled around the flames.
“Oh ho, that’s pretty dense.”
After thinking for a moment, Fang Chang decided not to wait until tomorrow after all.
He drew Little Tai Sui into the Black Tortoise Square Cauldron and kicked open the room door.
The puppy... no, the child was still young. Better to raise her properly first.
Not long afterward,
he found the medicinal garden owner hiding in the woodshed, his head buried in the corner while trembling violently.
Fang Chang dragged him out and imprinted a miniature version of the Heartless Mantra onto his forehead.
The burning mark seared painfully.
It stood out glaringly upon the medicinal garden owner’s forehead.
It looked rather like some kind of charm tattoo placed in the wrong location.
“......”
Fortunately, the mantra worked quite well. The medicinal garden owner managed to suppress the fear in his heart.
He forced out a stiff smile that did not reach his flesh.
“A-As expected of an Immortal Master from Canglan Mountain! Broadly studying secret arts without adhering to convention. As the saying goes, know yourself and know the enemy, and you will never be defeated. For Immortal Master to personally study such lowly methods in order to combat evil paths like the Corpse Refinement Path is truly... truly...”
Fang Chang smiled.
“I am the Corpse Refinement Path.”
The medicinal garden owner’s entire body shook violently.
Suddenly shutting his eyes in anguish, he cried:
“Oh no, oh no! This old man got firewood ash in his eyes and has gone blind. I absolutely cannot recognize anyone I met today! This... Rogue Immortal Master, you seem to have dropped some Tai Sui Flesh earlier, yes? This old man shall return it immediately!”
He made as though to stand.
Halfway up, he noticed Zhao Yuntong blocking the doorway in her crimson robes.
Not far away stood a nun with palms joined together, wearing loose monk robes.
The moonlight was bleak, illuminating both women’s skin in a bluish-white hue like frost, while their crimson eyes resembled blood-filled holes.
Amid faint scripture chanting, their voices echoed hollowly atop one another, creating a scalp-numbing eeriness.
He jolted violently and collapsed back onto the ground.
“The thing dropped... s-seems to have been... Tai Sui Green Flesh, M-My Lord... My Lord... look—”
Yet the gloomy man before him merely smiled silently.
The old man’s heart skipped.
Was it still not enough?
“T-Truly no more... My Lord...”
Zhang Su stepped closer from outside the door.
She appeared somewhat unable to bear it, seemingly wanting to say something.
Zhao Yuntong shifted sideways to block her path, frowning as she glared her back.
Fang Chang ignored them both.
He patted the dust from the old man’s shoulder.
“Some time ago, did you perhaps save someone upon a snow mountain... ah bah, did a monk happen to pass through here?”
“A m-monk...?”
The old man’s eyes shifted away as he shook his head like a rattling drum.
“Think carefully. I’ll give you one more chance.”
“Truly no, My Lord! I have never seen any monk pass through here...”
“Then fine. You’re useless.”
Fang Chang shook his head.
“It just so happens my Yin Corpses have never tasted the organs of an old thing like you before. Presumably they’d have quite a bit of chewiness...”
“No! No!! Immortal Master!”
After struggling for a moment, he finally made up his mind.
“I’ll speak, Immortal Master, I’ll speak... But after I tell you, can you please not eat me? And don’t tell others it was me who informed you...”
“The weak have no diplomacy. Little old man, do you think our statuses are equal?”
The effects of the weakened Heartless Mantra were beginning to fade.
Looking toward the nun and the crimson-robed woman in the distance, terror slowly spread through him.
Gritting his teeth, he said:
“A monk did pass through here. But he’s already dead.”
“How so?”
Fang Chang was unsurprised.
“There’s a man in Twin Su Manor named Xue Dali. He runs a tea stall along the nearby trade road. Three months ago, he encountered a monk and saw that the monk’s bundle was bulging, so he assumed there was wealth inside and planned to lure him back to the stronghold and kill him. Unexpectedly, the monk sensed something midway and refused to continue. So Xue Dali killed him on the spot. The location was right within my medicinal garden.”
“Oh? Sounds like you were present.”
“The Xue Family holds great influence within Twin Su Manor. If I wished to continue operating this hard-earned medicinal garden, I had no choice but to endure humiliation...”
His face filled with shame.
“Yes! I saw it all. But he threatened to kill me if anyone found out, so I had no choice but to pretend I saw nothing. Xue Dali isn’t human! He even buried the corpse within my medicinal garden. He was probably trying to frame me... Please uphold justice for me, Immortal Master!”
“And the monk’s belongings?”
“There were no valuables, My Lord, none... The monk merely carried a vajra in a wooden box. It was made of wood, ordinary in appearance, worthless.”
“Where is it?”
“Buried together with the monk’s corpse inside the medicinal garden...”
Fang Chang stood up and looked toward the medicinal garden.
Several patches of medicinal fields lay arranged beneath the walls. In the corner stood a stone well mottled with moss stains, while the air carried a bitter herbal scent.
Not bad. Not too far away.
The corpse burial location for this quest would randomly appear in several different places.
If unlucky, there was even a chance the corpse would have been thrown off a cliff.
That would have been rather troublesome.
The moment one rappelled down the cliff, a small dungeon at the mountain base would immediately trigger.
The rewards were decent, but it was too annoying.
As for Fang Chang—
he was never the type to pursue absolute completion anyway.
There were quite a few quests within Twin Su Manor. Aside from this trip’s ultimate objective, Fang Chang had little interest in most of the rewards.
Of course,
hidden quests were another matter.
For example, the reward for the Ghost Monkey medicinal garden quest before him—
that worthless vajra, as well as a certain cultivation technique essential for showing off.
Fang Chang kicked the nearby hoe and shovel toward the medicinal garden owner.
“Dig.”
“Y-Yes.”
He dared not disobey.
The houses beside the medicinal garden were not large. Aside from a storage shed for fertilizer and tools, there was only a single small dwelling.
At this moment, candlelight flickered dimly within.
The two girls who had earlier been chased out were peeking through the window at them, their eyes filled with fear.
Fang Chang winked at them.
The two girls immediately forgot their fear, blushing shyly as they hid back inside.
Then—
Zhao Yuntong’s gloomy, dazzlingly beautiful face with its terrifyingly oppressive aura suddenly appeared before Fang Chang, blocking his line of sight.
Alright, alright. You’re prettier.
“Benefactor Fang.”
Zhang Su slowly approached, looking at the limping medicinal garden owner ahead with pity upon her face.
“Martial Aunt Zhang, what is it?”
“This elderly benefactor carries no sin. He was merely coerced by that Xue Dali. Benefactor need not treat him so harshly.”
“And you believed him just because he said so?”
Zhang Su froze.
Zhao Yuntong mocked from the side:
“You’re not young anymore, yet you’re still this naive. Taiyi Talisman Palace truly knows how to raise people, producing a fool like you.”
“This poor nun does not understand...”
“If you killed a random passerby and some weak old man witnessed it, would you not only spare him but even leave the corpse buried at his home?”
“This poor nun has never killed anyone...”
“Furthermore, Xue Dali supposedly robbed the goods, yet this random old man somehow saw them clearly enough to know the material and appearance in detail. What, did Xue Dali share them with him?”
“...You mean... the passing monk... was killed by this elderly benefactor?”
Zhao Yuntong sneered and could not be bothered responding further.
Zhang Su blankly looked toward Fang Chang.
“Benefactor Fang... is it truly like this?”
Fang Chang smiled faintly.
“Why ask someone as vile and sinful as me? Figure it out yourself.”
“......”
Benefactor Fang was truly petty...