This Venerable One Once Begged You...
Tianwen had a killing technique with no blind spots. Its name was simple, just one word, "Wind". Once activated, it obliterates everything it touches in the surrounding area.
Of course Mo Ran had personally tasted the ferocity of "Wind" before; he was also well aware of Chu Wanning's capabilities, and knew that there was no need to worry. He glanced one last time at that pale-faced man draped in wedding robes red like blood, and tossed out the last of his exorcism talismans to buy Chu Wanning some time. He then leapt to the side, holding Shi Mei in one arm and grabbing Mistress Chen with the other to take both unconscious people to hide at a distance away.
Chu Wanning, bearing through the searing pain, forced his other hand to move. Tianwen lit up immediately with a dazzling golden light, and Chu Wanning drew the willow vine back with a sharp movement.
Once released from the restraint, the ghost mistress's face twisted as it leapt up and headed straight for Chu Wanning.
Chu Wanning's robes danced like flames in the wind. With a fierce expression and blood soaking through half his robes, he raised his hand toward the heavens, Tianwen's golden light intensifying menacingly as he began to whirl it.
The willow vine suddenly grew in length by several dozen feet as it spun into a golden vortex, drawing in everything from its surroundings. The ghosts, corpses, golden boys and jade girls, and even the snarling ghost mistress, all of it was pulled into the center of "Wind" and instantly minced by Tianwen's swift ferocity!!!
"Wind" was indiscriminately destructive, even the grass and trees in the area were uprooted, nothing escaped its onslaught.
With Chu Wanning as its center, a resplendent golden storm of immense proportions blanketed the skies, and coffins and corpses alike were swept into the gale.
It consumed everything in reach, all of it drawn into the storm and torn apart by the swift whirling of Tianwen.
Shredded into so much debris…
When the dust had settled, Chu Wanning was left standing in the middle of a barren wasteland.
Other than his solitary figure standing amidst the ruins, shrouded in brilliant scarlet like a blooming red lotus, a fallen haitang blossom, there was only the ground, covered in shattered white bone, and a terrifying Tianwen with golden light still coursing along its length.
Looking at this, it was pretty clear that Chu Wanning really was being quite considerate when he whipped the disciples.
Considering the preceding demonstration, he definitely could have pulverized every single one of them at the Platform of Sin and Virtue in an instant if he felt like it…
The golden light gradually faded.
Tianwen turned into sparkling stardust and returned into Chu Wanning's palm.
He exhaled deeply, brows furrowed, and slowly walked toward his disciples in the distance, ignoring the pain in his shoulder.
"How is Shi Mei?"
Chu Wanning asked when he reached their side, still enduring silently.
Mo Ran looked down at the unconscious beauty Shi in his arms, still not awake. His breaths were shallow and his cheek cold to the touch. This scene was much too familiar, a nightmare that Mo Ran once could not escape in life or death.
That time, Shi Mei had also been lying in his arms, just like this, when he gradually stopped breathing…
Chu Wanning leaned down to press his fingers against Mistress Chen and Shi Mei's necks, feeling for their pulse. He murmured, "Hm? How is the poisoning this deep?"
Mo Ran's head snapped up. "Poison? Didn't you say it was nothing to worry about? Didn't you say they were merely hypnotized?"
Chu Wanning's brows were furrowed. "The ghost mistress uses the fragrance in its hypnosis, it's a kind of poison. I expected only minor poisoning, not something of this magnitude."
"..."
"Take them back to Chen Manor first," Chu Wanning continued. "It's not difficult to draw out the poison, what's important is that they're alive."
He spoke with a flat, indifferent tone. Even though this was how Chu Wanning usually spoke, in these current circumstances, it made him seem callous and dismissive.
Mo Ran was violently thrust back into his memories of the snowstorm that year, when he'd knelt in the snow holding Shi Mei in his arms as his life drained away bit by bit. His face had been stained with tears, and he'd screamed himself hoarse as he begged Chu Wanning to turn around, to spare his disciple a glance, begged Chu Wanning to lift a hand and save his disciple's life.
But what had Chu Wanning said then?
In a dismissive voice with an impassive tone, like so.
Just like this, he had refused the only time Mo Ran had ever knelt and begged in his life.
Amidst the falling snow, the person in his arms had gradually grown cold, like the snowflakes that fell on Mo Ran's shoulders and clung to his eyelashes.
That day, Chu Wanning had killed two disciples with his own hands.
One was Shi Mingjing, who he could have saved but had not.
One was Mo Weiyu, whose heart had drowned in grief as he knelt in the snow.
His heart was suddenly overcome with dread, with viciousness, with unreconciled malice and savagery that slithered like a snake.
For an instant he felt a violent urge to close his hands around Chu Wanning's neck, to shed this amiable disguise and bare his demonic appearance, to turn into a vicious ghost from the past life and tear into Chu Wanning's flesh, wring some answers, exact his revenge.
Revenge for the lives of those two helpless disciples in the snow.
But when he looked up, his gaze landed on Chu Wanning's bloodstained shoulder.
The bestial roar died in his throat.
He didn't make another sound as he stared at Chu Wanning's face with a gaze bordering on hatred, but Chu Wanning didn't notice. After a while, Mo Ran lowered his head to look at Shi Mei's pale face.
His mind grew blank.
If something happens to Shi Mei again, then…
"Cough cough cough!!"
The person in his arms suddenly let out a fit of coughs. Mo Ran startled, heart quivering… Shi Mei slowly opened his eyes and murmured in a hoarse, feeble voice.
"A…Ran…?"
"Yes! It's me!" Relief and joy washed away all his anxieties. Mo Ran's eyes opened wide as he pressed a hand to Shi Mei's cold cheek, eyes flickering over him. "Shi Mei, how are you feeling? Does it hurt anywhere?"
Shi Mei smiled lightly, expression soft. He looked around: "…How did we get here…did I pass out…Ah! Shizun…cough cough, this disciple was incompetent…this disciple…"
Chu Wanning said, "Don't speak."
He fed Shi Mei a pill. "Since you're awake, hold this poison-cleansing pill in your mouth, don't swallow it."
Shi Mei did so obediently, then startled, even more color draining from his already pale face. "Shizun, how did you get injured? You're covered in blood…"
Chu Wanning answered in that same infuriatingly flat and indifferent voice, "It's nothing."
He stood and glanced at Mo Ran.
"You, figure out a way to take them back to the Chen Manor."
Now that Shi Mei was awake, Mo Ran's dejection had completely dissipated. He nodded amenably. "Alright!"
"I'm going to head back first, there's something I need to ask the Chen family."
Chu Wanning turned and left. Facing the boundless night, with nothing but withered grass in all directions, he finally couldn't hold it in anymore, and furrowed his brows, letting the pain he felt show on his face.
His entire shoulder had been pierced by the five claws, the flesh and tendons torn. The ghost mistress's claws had cut deep to the bone. However much he might have feigned composure and endured it, sealing the veins so that he wouldn't pass out from blood loss, he was still only human.
He still felt pain…
But, so what if it hurt.
One foot in front of the other, wedding robes fluttering in the air.
All these years, everyone respected him, feared him, but never did anyone dare to stand by his side, never did anyone concern themselves with his well-being. He was already used to it.
Yuheng of the Night Sky, Beidou Immortal.
Unloved from head to toe, uncared for whether alive, dead, sick, or suffering.
It seemed like, from birth, he had never needed another's support, never needed anything to depend on, and never needed anyone for company.
So there was no need to say it hurt, and even less point in crying. He would just go back and wrap it up himself, cut off the torn and dead flesh, apply some salve, and it would be fine.
It didn't matter that no one cared about him.
He'd already come this far by himself anyway. All these years, it'd been fine. He could take care of himself.
He arrived at the gates to the Chen Manor, but before he could step into the yard, a burst of shrill screams came from within.
Heedless of his wounds ripping open, Chu Wanning rushed inside——only to see Madam Chen with a head of disheveled hair and both eyes closed, chasing her son and husband all over the place. Only the young daughter of the Chen family was spared; she stood nervously to the side, small body cowering in fear and shaking uncontrollably.
Seeing Chu Wanning, Landlord Chen and his youngest son threw themselves at him with terrified cries. "Daozhang! Daozhang save us!"
Chu Wanning shielded them behind himself, gaze sweeping over Madam Chen's closed eyes. He berated them, "Didn't I say to keep your eyes on her and make sure she doesn't fall asleep!"
"We couldn't watch her all the time! My wife's health is weak, so she usually sleeps early. After you left, she tried to stay awake at first, but then dozed off and started going berserk! Yelling something…yelling…"
Landlord Chen cowered behind Chu Wanning, shaking, and completely did not notice that the Daozhang was wearing wedding robes, or the gaping wound on his shoulder.
Chu Wanning frowned. "Yelling about what?"
Before Landlord Chen even opened his mouth to respond, the crazed Madam charged over with her teeth bared, but the mournful cry that came from her lips was in the voice of a young girl——
"Heartless and dishonest! Heartless and dishonest! Pay me back with your lives! I want all of you to die!"
"…Ghost possession," Chu Wanning said. He looked back at Landlord Chen and demanded in a harsh voice, "Do you know this voice?"
Landlord Chen's lips trembled, and his eyes darted this way and that. He swallowed nervously as he said, "I don't know, I'm not familiar, I don't recognize it! Daozhang please save us! Daozhang please exorcise the ghost!"
By this time Madam Chen was mere steps away. Chu Wanning lifted his uninjured arm and pointed at her, and a bolt of lightning instantly struck the skies and trapped Madam Chen inside a barrier.
Chu Wanning spoke coldly with a sidelong glance, "You truly do not recognize it?"
Landlord Chen cried repeatedly, "I truly do not! I truly do not!"
Chu Wanning didn't bother wasting any more words. He swung out Tianwen and bound Madam Chen inside the barrier.
He really ought to have bound Landlord Chen instead, it would have been both more convenient and easier to interrogate. But Chu Wanning had his own principles; he did not lightly use Tianwen to interrogate normal people. So he skipped over the easy target to interrogate the ghost in Madam Chen's body instead.
Interrogating ghosts was different from interrogating people.
When interrogating a person with Tianwen, the person would be unable to bear the torment and directly confess.
But when interrogating a ghost with Tianwen, a barrier would be formed with only Chu Wanning and the ghost inside, where the ghost would regain its appearance in life and divulge the information to Chu Wanning.
Tianwen suddenly ignited into flames, which surged along the vine from Chu Wanning's side all the way to Madam Chen.
The Madam shrieked and started twitching as the red flames on the willow vine suddenly turned into an eerie blue ghost fire that burned from the Madam's side back to Chu Wanning's side.
Chu Wanning closed his eyes. The flames burned along the willow vine to his hand, but the ghost fire couldn't hurt him, even as it burned up the length of his arm to his chest, and then went out.
"..."
The Chen family watched on with horror and apprehension, unsure what Chu Wanning was doing.
Chu Wanning's eyelashes fluttered lightly, both eyes still closed, but a beam of white light slowly appeared before his eyes, followed by a fair-skinned foot stepping out of the beam, and a young girl of about seventeen or eighteen appeared in his view.