Estranged - CH 131

Proofread by Snake

By using a pearl as a cauldron and spirits as pellets, souls could be refined in a way that  could be used to  help a cultivator make progress in their cultivation. Monsters like nightmare demons or fox spirits would have never gone through all the trouble of refining a Juhun Pearl—instead, they would directly suck the souls out of a human and use them as they wanted.

In other words, Juhun Pearls were always made by cultivators.

To be more precise, it was a common technique among demonic cultivators.

As soon as Yao Wangnian had seen that Juhun Pearl, he had thought that it was obvious that a demonic cultivator was killing people for souls here. However, he decided not to beat the grass only to scare away the snake: he did not take the pearl away immediately and only killed the nightmare demon. He then concealed himself in the well and waited for someone to come for the Juhun Pearl.

Yao Wangnian waited for  three whole days, yet no one showed up. Just when he thought that he had made a mistake, a person actually appeared.

“Their level of cultivation was very high, and I was no match for them. After a short exchange of attacks, I was lucky enough to run away, albeit wounded. When I left, I started to feel that everything was too suspicious. Previously, I had set up a Three Enclosures Formation in the well.  This  formation is not especially difficult to set up, but it’s rarely used, so a common person would never be able to figure it out. However, my opponent solved it quickly, and even turned it into a Formation of Scorching Fire with a Talisman of Five Thunders.”

“So they are adept in setting up formations,” Chi Bijiang said.

She was also proficient in this art, so she knew well how difficult it was to change a formation in such a short period of time.

Jiang Li, in his turn, was more concerned with this person’s identity: “Who was that person?”

Yao Wangnian answered coldly: “They concealed their appearance, so I couldn’t even hear their voice. I saw nothing. As long as cultivators want to disguise themselves, they can find many ways to do so.”

Jiang Li said: “I’ve read a scroll about the Three Enclosures Formation in the Library of Scriptures of our sect. The third master of the Wanjian Immortal Clan came up with this formation. It  was originally set up on the three mountain peaks around the Wanjian Immortal Clan to prevent intruders from trespassing on our lands. After a long period of time, this formation was altered by the clan master’s successors, before gradually being forgotten. Few people know of it nowadays.”

Despite that, the texts in the Library of Scriptures clearly stated that the Three Enclosures Formation was unique to the Wanjian Immortal Clan and had never left its walls.

Yao Wangnian always was a persistent person. The more doubts he had, the more he wanted to get to the bottom of the matter. He returned to the village after recovering and, to his surprise, found out that no one of the one hundred and seventeen people of the village had survived. Everyone was lying dead in their houses.

Moreover, Yao Wangnian was able to vaguely pick up a faint scent. Although he had been prepared, his mind was slightly shaken.

“At that moment, several disciples of the Celestial Abode Shenxiao happened to pass through the village. We ran into each other and started fighting, and I killed one of their disciples. But I don’t quite remember what happened, as if something was clouding my mind.”

Jiang Li: “Was it that scent?”

Yao Wangnian: “Perhaps. I was wounded, apprehended by them and subsequently taken back to the Wanjian Immortal Clan to determine whether I was guilty. However, the severity of my wounds and my agitation was so great that I had already started to lose my mind and deviate.”

Jiang Li: “I also remember this matter. Afterwards, Shizun took several people to investigate that village and found out that these people were killed by a nightmare demon. So, even though their deaths have nothing to do with you, you started becoming obsessed because of your mistreatment. You happened to stumble onto people of the Wanjian Immortal Clan right at the scene, which led them to  mistake you for the culprit. However, after you were hurt there, you never recovered, and even your temperament changed compared to the past. That’s how it was until the night when the fire erupted in the Library of Scriptures.”

Yao Wangnian sneered: “Didn’t you think it was suspicious? Why did I start deviating right after I decided to return to the village for investigation, and why did I run into these disciples of the Celestial Abode Shenxiao? I couldn’t investigate anymore after I was captured by them. A mere nightmare demon actually was responsible for that, but did this demon also happen to be skilled at setting such difficult formations? Did Shizun take these people to the village to clear my name, or to get rid of the evidence?”

Even though Jiang Li had readied himself, he still paled after hearing this question.

“You’re doubting Shizun simply because of these coincidences?”

Yao Wangnian spelled it out word by word: “That night, I smelled the same scent as what I sensed in that village. I went out, following the scent, and it led me to the Library of Scriptures. That was when the library caught fire.”

Jiang Li fell silent for a moment. Only after some time, he answered: “And yet, do you have any solid evidence against Shizun?”

Yao Wangnian: “The person who fought with me that night is the same person whom I encountered in the well in that village. When I was dying, I saw him coming closer to me. I would never mistake that figure for anyone else.”

It was not just Jiang Li who found this difficult to believe. Even Yao Wangnian himself suspected that that was a hallucination caused by his mortal wounds.

In the last few years, he had changed beyond recognition. Even if he begged for death, he could not die. The way he currently existed could not  be called living either, yet he strived to find the truth and did not give up. About seven years after he had started cultivating as a ghost cultivator, he decided that his cultivation was strong enough for him to try looking for his shizun, Immortal Luomei. Yao Wangnian hoped to learn something from the way his shizun behaved. However, Luomei’s cultivation was extremely powerful, so Yao Wangnian did not dare get too close and did not even cross the borders of the Wanjian Immortal Clan. He could only wander around the outskirts of the sect.

Finally, one day, Luomei appeared on the back of a mountain outside of the sect to pass someone a treasure. Yao Wangnian noticed this and followed him all the way till Luomei left the clan and arrived at Xiaoyang Village, which was the village that had been completely slaughtered.

The village was abandoned after everyone there had been killed and had been turned into a mass grave.

With his own eyes, Yao Wangnian saw Luomei descend  the well smoothly, as if following a familiar road, and felt as if something had burst in his heart.

“Did you follow him down there?” when Jiang Li asked this question, his hands in his sleeves were even slightly trembling.

“No, I couldn’t get any closer to him, so I waited outside. After a long time, he came back, and only then did I go inside the well. And guess what I found there?” Yao Wangnian was speaking in a mocking tone. He did not wait for them to answer and continued, “I saw many bones that were not there before and smelled that familiar scent.”

Jiang Li paled.

He did not even entertain the idea that Yao Wangnian could be deceiving him because Yao Wangnian had no reason to do that.

Back then, all of Luomei’s disciples were exceptionally talented. It was not just Yao Wangnian and Jiang Li, but he had many other gifted disciples as well. Despite that, Yao Wangnian was the best and the brightest among them and was supported by everyone. There was no doubt that he was going to inherit Luomei’s position. Luomei’s hopes and concern for him were also obviously greater than what he had for the rest of them. If it was not for that accident, Yao Wangnian would have surely still been the most popular dashixiong of the Wanjian Immortal Clan.

Likewise, Yao Wangnian’s gratitude towards his shizun was more sincere than that of the other disciples. Jiang Li could not even imagine what Yao Wangnian had felt back then, as he slowly moved towards his doom.

Yao Wangnian could not go back to the Wanjian Immortal Clan and accuse Luomei only because of a fragrance that had a familiar scent. Moreover, in the eyes of the public, he had already turned into a monster. He was now  a wretched renegade of the Wanjian Immortal Clan where he had lost all standing and reputation.

“I heard that Immortal Luomei went into seclusion and you’ve taken over after his duties. Soon afterwards, I noticed that  you were using a fake name in Hongluo. You didn’t introduce yourself as the master of the Wanjian Immortal Clan and had instead turned into a doctor at a medicine hall here. My old friends were also here, in Hongluo, and that was why I didn’t completely lose my mind and still aimed to uncover the truth. However, after I decided to warn you and tried to approach you, the murders began to occur. I started to suspect that whoever was plotting this behind the scenes was deliberately trying to put all the blame on me.”

Yao Wangnian knew that he should visit Jiang Li and tell him everything, but they had not seen each other for ten years, so he did not completely trust Jiang Li and could not confirm that Jiang Li would believe him after hearing him out. Perhaps, Jiang Li would  even choose to stay at Luomei’s side and cut all ties with Yao Wangnian, all while labeling him as a disgraceful traitor.

Jiang Li did not answer immediately: “The Yao Wangnian I knew is a talented person, but he was never arrogant. He is bold and straightforward, and very kind to his fellow disciples. Even after ten years have passed, I still believe he is like this. Dashixiong, after this is over, will you return to the clan with me and talk to Shizun?”

Yao Wangnian: “Do you believe me?”

Jiang Li: “I believe in the  friendship we developed as we grew up together, and even more so in your honesty.”

The two of them stopped talking, but Yun Weisi suddenly whispered: “I got it!”

He did not want to interrupt Jiang Li and Yao Wangnian’s reminiscing at all, but when he heard Yao Wangnian say that, he suddenly felt as if he understood what happened, as if all clues had finally been linked back together like a string of pearls—

Luomei must have colluded with demons way earlier than what they had guessed.

Before he failed his ascension and occupied the body of his disciple, Luomei must have run into another bottleneck in his cultivation. He had long since suspected that ascension meant death for him, so he had started to prepare to take another path in advance. He cultivated and strengthened himself with refined Juhun Pearls, and got ready to take over his disciple’s body. No one would have suspected that  the master of the grand Wanjian Immortal Clan would be hiding such a side to himself.

However, Luomei could not have anticipated his first disciple would uncover his secret by accident while passing through a village. So, Luomei decided to kill him and set up a perfect trap for Yao Wangnian, tarnishing his name and then finishing him off. But Yao Wangnian’s posthumous  resentment turned out to be too intense, and was even strong enough for him to become a ghost cultivator through his own effort. He had still been looking for the truth after all this time.

Just when Luomei realized this, Yao Wangnian met his fellow disciple, Jiang Li, in Hongluo, due to an unexpected turn of events. Luomei was afraid that Yao Wangnian would tell his shidi the truth, so he arranged for the murders in the town to take place, just like he did back then, all in order to frame Yao Wangnian.

Had Yun Weisi and Changming not appeared, Jiang Li would have thought that Yao Wangnian used human lives to advance in his cultivation, which would have only confirmed his suspicion that his shixiong had gone crazy back then and decided to refine Juhun Pearls for himself. It was likely that the two of them would have never met face to face and would not have a chance to explain everything. The murder case of Hongluo would have ended with Yao Wangnian’s death. Jiang Li would have thought he had found the answer, and returned to his sect, distressed. He would have never learned what was actually going on here, and perhaps, in this life, he would not have even known that the one who killed him was a person so close to him—his shizun, whom Jiang Li respected and loved.

Yun Weisi’s gaze settled on Chi Bijiang.

She was closely observing everything from the beginning, so perhaps, she knew what was going on at least in part, or maybe she just happened to learn some of that by chance. But she was not Luomei’s opponent, so she could only change the Liuhe Zhutian Formation a bit to have a chance to make things right.

This small change was what allowed Yun Weisi and Changming to travel through time.

So, some things were fated to appear, and some things were fated to perish—everything was interlocked and preordained.

The formation they were caught in was probably set by Luomei for Yao Wangnian.

Then what about Luomei?

He had not appeared. Was it because he was waiting for them to die here, or did he have some other plans so he had no spare time?

Yun Weisi suddenly thought of Jiufang Changming—

Could it be?!

His expression changed in a flash and his heart fell. He folded his hands into a seal, and his spiritual powers flowed out like a sandstorm, pushing away the black mist around the golden threads!

Yun Weisi could not dispel the fog completely and only managed to open up a narrow path. With a loud wail, a black shadow leaped up from nearby and swiftly pounced towards the gap. It broke through the encirclement and quickly disappeared without a trace!

“Find Shizun!” Yun Weisi shouted after him.

The dog wailed, but it was soon too far away to hear it.

If Zhou Keyi could speak, he would have definitely roared: So now you remember to call him Shizun, hah?! Weren’t you deceiving him by calling him “shidi” earlier! You’re an utter disgrace! Just wait till I come back and teach you a lesson!