【Extra Chapter · Ancient IF Timeline】
The Bright Moon of Bygone Years (4)
East Mountain was close at hand.
Fu Lianxue and Ye Zhaoqiu stood at the foot of the mountain, looking up.
The green trees were vast and boundless, stretching as far as the eye could see. The mountaintop was hidden in the mist, as if in the clouds, majestic and spectacular.
A place that could make one feel oppressed just by looking at it.
Ye Zhaoqiu looked back in the direction they had come from.
This place was some distance from Yunshui Town, and no one was passing by.
She withdrew her gaze and raised her hand, materializing her longsword magical artifact.
“Let’s go, into the mountain.”
Without hesitation, she strode resolutely towards East Mountain.
Fu Lianxue seeing this had no choice but to follow, her mouth not idle.
“Can a blind man really carry such a large person back by himself?
“How did he find the way, and how did he dare to turn back to find Liao Muchen in such a dangerous situation?
“Ye Zhaoqiu, don’t you think this whole thing is truly incredible for a blind man?”
Ye Zhaoqiu stopped.
Fu Lianxue also stopped.
The two faced each other.
Fu Lianxue said, “Don’t forget, you humans also have good and bad among you.”
The customs of Yunshui Town were simple and honest, but she was not from this place. She didn’t even belong to the human race, so she was not bound by their constraints, daring to think and guess more than them.
Ye Zhaoqiu asked, “Why did he do all this?”
Fu Lianxue said as if it were a matter of course, “For his eyes, to regain his sight, obviously!”
Ye Zhaoqiu asked again, “You also said just now that he is a blind man. If he’s blind and couldn’t find a corpse, how could he dig out the eyes of Young Master Liao, a living person?”
Fu Lianxue continued to hypothesize, “He actually knows magic techniques too!”
Ye Zhaoqiu shook her head, “Proprietor Liao said he was just an ordinary person.”
There were too many contradictions in this matter.
She knew Fu Lianxue’s conjectures were not without reason, but how could these conjectures be verified?
It was indeed difficult for a blind person to bring back a corpse, but how could an ordinary blind person with no magic techniques dig out his friend’s eyes?
“Let’s go,” Ye Zhaoqiu lifted her leg and continued walking forward, “Since we’re conflicted, let’s first verify whether the tree yao actually exists.”
Fu Lianxue watched her back and hurriedly followed.
“You’re too serious]!”
“Subduing demons and eliminating devils is my duty.”
“Alright, alright, alright, I really can’t stand you bunch of cultivators.”
Ye Zhaoqiu suddenly looked at her, “You don’t want to become an immortal?”
Fu Lianxue said nonchalantly, “Never thought about it. Am I not living well like this now?”
Ye Zhaoqiu said nothing more.
They walked deeper into the mountain.
Strangely, the deeper they went, the more they could feel an abundant spiritual energy entrenched in this place, nourishing all things.
But the deeper they went, the lower the temperature became, and the quieter it grew, as if every silent tree at this moment could suddenly erupt, revealing a ferocious, baring-fangs-and-brandishing-claws appearance.
As a yaoguai, Fu Lianxue liked this abundant spiritual energy but didn’t quite like the gloomy environment.
She unconsciously moved closer to Ye Zhaoqiu, secretly pinching her dangling sleeve.
“This place is a bit uncanny, ah…”
Ye Zhaoqiu felt it but didn’t point it out, merely slowing her pace to ensure Fu Lianxue could keep up.
“It seems the inn owner was right.”
“What?”
“This place has abundant spiritual energy.”
They were a human and a yao who needed spiritual energy, and they were most sensitive to it.
And abundant spiritual energy often represented… the birth of spirits1.
In this way, it could actually confirm Lin Lan’s words.
This place, I’m afraid, really does have a harmful tree yao.
“Be careful.” Ye Zhaoqiu’s brow furrowed, and she whispered a warning.
“En.” Fu Lianxue nodded obediently.
Following the information given by Liao Yueting, they carefully made their way to the riverside.
Lin Lan said that he and Liao Muchen were sitting at the front of the carriage at that time.
Amidst the sound of the carriage wheels rolling forward, a sound of water suddenly reached their ears, and Liao Muchen told him there was a river beside them.
And then, they ran into trouble.
At that time, Lin Lan, who could not see, suddenly heard a loud noise, followed by several sounds of something tearing through the air. Many destructive sounds rang in his ears one after another, and he himself fell heavily to the ground.
The incident was urgent. He hurriedly searched for Liao Muchen, “Ah Chen! Ah Chen, how are you! Are you alright!”
He heard Liao Muchen’s pained voice, and then Liao Muchen shouted urgently, “There’s a tree yao! Run! Turn around, run!!!”
Fu Lianxue looked at the river, then at the line of trees beside it.
“No way, this riverside is full of trees all the way. How are we supposed to find the location they mentioned, ah.”
Ye Zhaoqiu said calmly, “Look for traces.
“East Mountain is rarely visited. After this incident, even fewer people would dare to enter. Since no one deliberately concealed the destruction, some traces from the scene that day might still be preserved.”
Fu Lianxue: “…”
She couldn’t help but say, “You’re like someone from the authorities2 now.”
Cultivating is one thing, but now you’re even investigating a case.
Ye Zhaoqiu said, “Thank you for your trouble in helping me look. When we get back to town, I’ll buy you lotus pastries.”
Fu Lianxue raised an eyebrow, “What are you doing? Am I that easy to deal with?”
Ye Zhaoqiu looked at her.
Fu Lianxue crossed her arms, “Not just lotus pastries, I want to eat other things too. Your money pouch is under my control for now.”
Ye Zhaoqiu withdrew her gaze, “It’s settled then.”
Fu Lianxue immediately beamed with joy, and was finally willing to turn her head to help find things.
Perhaps even Heaven3 pitied Liao Muchen, so it gave them a hand. They soon found it—bloodstains.
At first, it was a small patch of dried blood on a stone.
Then more and more appeared, large patches falling on the grass. It wasn’t hard to imagine what kind of torture the two had suffered that day.
Especially Liao Muchen, whose eyes had been gouged out.
Ye Zhaoqiu’s expression immediately became extremely solemn.
She couldn’t imagine why the culprit would inflict such a cruel act on Liao Muchen.
If it was truly the work of the tree yao… then the meaning of their subduing demons and eliminating devils lay here.
Seeing that large pool of long-dried blood, Fu Lianxue couldn’t help but frown.
She opened her lips, wanting to say something.
Just then, a heaven-shattering loud noise suddenly erupted by their ears!
Followed by a sound of rumbling and the sound of the earth moving and mountains shaking.
In an instant, a tree came alive right before their eyes.
It was tall, its canopy obscuring the sky and sun4 when spread. Thick branches extended in all directions, like ferocious, sharp claws.
The endlessly extending branches attacked them without a word, peng! smashing onto the ground, raising countless dust.
The two quickly flew up to evade.
The tree yao roared again, striking out with twisted branches, like ghostly hands lunging for their eyes.
Their eyes narrowed. They immediately entrusted their backs to each other. One wielded a sword, the other formed blades from qi5, and they hacked away all the ferocious branches trying to gouge out their eyes.
Being unable to get close seemed to enrage the tree yao. It frantically sped up its attacks, each move aimed straight for their vital points6, as if it had a blood feud7 with them and was determined to have them buried here today.
Fu Lianxue just found it inexplicable.
They weren’t familiar with it, hadn’t even done anything to it yet, so how could it inexplicably hold a grudge against them.
“Attacking before even speaking, that’s enough, ah! Even if you’re a yao, you can’t just randomly attack other demons!”
Fu Lianxue got angry.
But the tree yao, as if it couldn’t hear, remained unmoved.
It mechanically repeated its attack movements, looking as if… it had no consciousness of its own.
If it had no consciousness of its own, no matter how much Fu Lianxue cursed, it would be like playing a lute to a cow8, to no avail.
If it had no consciousness of its own…
Realizing this point, the two looked at each other in dismay.
Ye Zhaoqiu raised two fingers, softly chanted an incantation, and tapped her fingers on the sword. The sword’s body suddenly erupted with a strange golden light.
The next moment, she tapped her feet lightly, using an incoming branch to leap into the air. Simultaneously, she raised the longsword in her hand high, her eyes firmly fixed on the frenzied tree yao, and swung down hard!
The golden light took shape, like a sword, like a blade, instantly splitting the tree yao in two.
The tree yao crashed to the ground with a hong9, its swift and violent attacks instantly collapsing and disappearing, like an extinguished fire.
A mountain-splitting strike10 that could shake mountains and rivers11 cleanly resolved the battle.
Ye Zhaoqiu landed lightly.
She saw Fu Lianxue suddenly walk towards the fallen tree yao, then bend down and abruptly pull something out from under the layers of branches.
It was a talisman paper, yellow with black characters.
This is a human thing.
What was drawn on it, what it represented, Fu Lianxue couldn’t understand.
Pinching the talisman paper with two fingers, she walked up to Ye Zhaoqiu, “Take a look, what does this talisman mean?”
Ye Zhaoqiu fixed her eyes on it for a look.
Fortunately, she could indeed understand it.
The bad thing was—
“This is a control talisman, it can make things without consciousness serve our purpose.”
Her words paused there. The two slowly turned their heads to look at the tree on the ground, split in half.
So, Liao Muchen’s death was not an accident.
Someone in this place knew magic techniques.
They returned to Yunshui Town with their discovery and went to the Liao Manor again.
When Liao Yueting saw them return safe and sound, she immediately breathed a sigh of relief. She hurriedly ordered someone to prepare tea to entertain them, then said expectantly, “You’re back so quickly! Did you find something? Did you see my elder brother, ma?”
Ye Zhaoqiu shook her head and asked, “Proprietor Liao, are there any cultivation practitioners in Yunshui Town?”
Liao Yueting thought for a moment, then also shook her head, “There really aren’t any. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have had to invite people from outside.”
As a merchant, she had keen intuition. She immediately realized that what the two had discovered was likely not simple.
“What did you discover?”
Ye Zhaoqiu and Fu Lianxue looked at each other in dismay.
Ye Zhaoqiu took out the talisman paper, extended it in front of Liao Yueting, and said calmly, “After we entered the mountain, we were also attacked by a tree yao. This talisman paper was stuck on its body. This is a type of talisman paper that can control unconscious objects.”
At this point, the meaning was clear.
As intelligent as Liao Yueting was, how could she not understand?
What she didn’t understand was how someone could plot to harm her brother.
“Who is it? My brother is usually amiable and has never made enemies with anyone. How could someone inflict such a malicious blow12 on him!”
Seeing this, Fu Lianxue put down her teacup and boldly asked, “Forgive my bluntness13, but have you ever suspected a certain person, that is… Lin Lan.”
Liao Yueting was stunned for a moment, her brow furrowed slightly. After a long silence, she said, “It’s not that I haven’t suspected him, but I just feel he couldn’t possibly do such a thing.
“He cannot see, has difficulty moving, and is unarmed and defenseless14. Like me, he’s an ordinary person who doesn’t understand magic techniques. How could he plan so much?
“And he…”
Her words faltered, and Liao Yueting didn’t continue.
Fu Lianxue, with the intention of getting to the bottom of the matter15, said, “And what?
“Proprietor Liao, you must tell us truthfully so we can help you.”
Ye Zhaoqiu calmly acknowledged with an “En.”
If the person involved conceals something, it will only hinder the progress of tracking down the culprit.
Hearing this, Liao Yueting sighed softly, as if she had compromised.
“I will tell you two about this matter. It’s enough that you know. Please don’t spread it outside.”
“Actually, Young Master Lin and my elder brother… were mutually devoted16.”
The author has something to say:
Today I went online to help a close friend make equipment.
I repeatedly confirmed the equipment she needed with her several times, afraid I would make a mistake.
Then I really made a mistake.
Great, so hot I’m about to faint, no brain 【Kneeling on the ground, bursting into tears】
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