Ever since then, things had gotten out of control. In the hundred years since that incident, there
had been a total of seventeen brides who went missing in the Mount Yujun area. Sometimes
there’d be a couple of decades of peace, and sometimes two could go missing in the short span
of one month. A horrific legend quickly spread: a ghost groom lived on Mount Yujun, and if a
woman caught his eye, then he would kidnap her on the road and devour the marriage
procession.
Originally, this affair wouldn’t have been reported to the heavens. While seventeen brides had
gone missing, there were thousands more who were perfectly fine. Either way, the girls couldn’t
be found, and they couldn’t be protected even if everyone wanted to do so; everyone could only
make do with the status quo. The only thing was, there were now fewer families willing to marry
their daughters into this area, and the locals didn’t dare to make a big show of their weddings,
that was all. But it just so happened that the father of the seventeenth bride was a lord official
who doted on his daughter. When he heard of the legend, he meticulously selected forty valiant
and capable martial officials to escort the marriage procession of his daughter. But, the
daughter was spirited off anyway.
Now this ghost groom had really stirred up the hornet’s nest. Anyone this old lord official could
find in the mortal realm couldn’t do anything about it, so in a fit of outrage, he assembled a
group of official friends and conducted a round of crazed religious services. He even followed
the guidance of a great master and opened up his stores to feed the poor; something like that. It
was a huge uproar, and finally it alerted a few heavenly officials above. Otherwise, it was
practically impossible for the voices of insignificant mortals to reach the ears of gods in heaven.
“That’s the gist of it,” Xie Lian said.
Since those two still looked very uncooperative, he didn’t know if they had actually been
listening. If they didn’t listen, then he’d have to tell the story again. Nan Feng looked up though,
and frowned.
“Are there any similarities between the missing brides?”
“There are those who are poor and those who are rich, those who are beautiful and those who
are ugly, there are lawful wives and there are concubines, in short: there’s no pattern,” Xie Lian
said. “We can’t determine at all what this ghost groom’s preference is.”
Nan Feng mnn-ed and picked up his teacup to take a sip, seeming to be thinking now. Fu Yao,
on the other hand, never touched the tea Xie Lian had pushed in his direction, and had been
languidly cleaning his fingers with a white handkerchief this entire time.He said coolly as he wiped, “Your Highness, how would you know that it must be a ghost
groom? This can’t be certain since no one’s ever seen it before, so how would we know if it’s a
male or female, if it’s old or young? Aren’t you a little too quick to judge?”
Xie Lian grinned. “This scroll is a summary provided by a civil official from the Palace of Ling
Wen, the ghost groom is just the common way to call it. However, what you’ve said makes a lot
of sense.”
They spoke a bit more, and Xie Lian realized that the minds of these two junior martial officials
were quite clear. While they didn’t appear very friendly, they weren’t muddled at all when
discussing matters. Xie Lian felt relieved. Looking out the window, the hour was getting late, so
the three left the small shop for the time being. Xie Lian put on his bamboo hat and walked for a
bit before suddenly realizing the two behind him weren’t following, so he looked back, feeling
puzzled. Turns out, the other two were also watching him in bewilderment.
Nan Feng asked, “Where are you going?”
“To find some place to settle for the night,” Xie Lian replied. “Fu Yao, why are you rolling your
eyes again?”
Nan Feng continued his questions, still puzzled. “Then why are you heading to the wild
bushes?”
Xie Lian often camped out in the wild and slept on the streets, and could spread out a cloth
sheet and spend the night just like that. So naturally, he was ready to find some cave to start a
campfire as he’d always done. But it was with Nan Feng’s reminder that he suddenly realized
that Nan Feng and Fu Yao were both martial officials under a martial god; if there were any Nan
Yang temples or Xuan Zhen temples around, then they could enter directly, so what need was
there to sleep out in the wild?
A short while later, the three found a broken-down tudi9 shrine, in an incredibly inconspicuous
little corner, that worshipped a round and small stone Lord of the Ground and Soil. With incense
residue and shattered platters, it looked exceedingly desolate. Xie Lian called out a few times;
this Lord of the Soil and Ground hadn’t been worshipped or called by anyone for years, so when
he suddenly heard the call, he snapped open his eyes and saw three people standing before his
shrine. The two on the left and right respectively were both enveloped in a sheen of spiritual
light like the nouveau riche, their faces barely visible at all, and the deity jumped in alarm.
His trembling voice said, “Do the three heavenly officials have anything to command of this
humble one?”
9 Lord of Soil and Ground is the tutelary deity of local communities.
Xie Lian inclined his head. “No commands. I just wanted to ask if there are any local temples
that worship either General Nan Yang or General Xuan Zhen?”
The Lord of Soil and Ground didn’t dare to affront him and replied, “Um um um…” Then in a
quick divination with the pinch of his fingers, he answered, “There’s a local town temple five
miles from here, and the one worshipped is, is, is the General Nan Yang.”
Xie Lian put his hands together in prayer. “Many thanks.”
However, that Lord of Soil and Earth was blinded by the two balls of spiritual power on both
sides of Xie Lian, so he quickly vanished. Xie Lian fumbled out a few coins and placed them in
front of the altar shrine, and when he saw there were fallen burnt-out incense sticks on the
ground, he picked them up. Throughout the entire thing, Fu Yao was rolling his eyes so hard Xie
Lian almost wanted to ask if his eyes were tired.
After walking five miles, they indeed spotted a local town temple standing fiery-red by the
roadside. While the temple was small, it had everything, and people were going in and out of it,
extraordinarily lively. The three concealed their forms and entered the temple; the one
worshipped within the hall was a clay divine statue of the martial god Nan Yang, donned in
armour with a bow in hand.
When Xie Lian saw this divine statue, he mhm-ed inwardly.
In a small temple in the countryside, the craft and paint of the divine statues could be expected
to be rough, but on the whole, this statue was still significantly different from Xie Lian’s own
impression of Feng Xin.
However, distorted divine statues were something that every heavenly official had gotten used
to already. Nevermind that their own moms wouldn’t recognize them, there were heavenly
officials who didn’t even recognize themselves when they saw their own statues sometimes.
After all, there weren’t many artisan masters who had actually seen the real forms of the
heavenly officials, so the statues were either distorted beautifully or distorted hideously. One
could only rely on the posture, spiritual device, attire, and crown to determine which heavenly
official this was.
Usually, the more affluent the area, the more the divine statue would please the heavenly
official. The more impoverished a place, the worse the taste of the craftsmanship, and the more
tragic the sculpture became. To speak of the present, there was only General Xuan Zhen whose
divine statues were in a better situation. Why? Because for everyone else, if their statues were
ugly, then whatever, leave it be. But when Mu Qing saw his statues were hideously-sculpted, he
would either secretly destroy them and then make people resculpt, or appear in dreams to
express his displeasure. This went on for a long time, and the grand believers had all learned
that they had to find an artisan master who could sculpt beautifully! All of the temples of Xuan Zhen were exactly the same as their general: particular and tasteful.
After Fu Yao entered the Temple of Nan Yang, for two whole hours he thoroughly criticized this
statue of Nan Yang from head to toe, something about how the design was deformed, the
colours tacky, the craftsmanship crude, the taste bizarre. Xie Lian watched as the blue veins on
Nan Feng’s forehead slowly popped out, and thought he best quickly find another topic of
conversation to change the subject.
It just so happened there was another girl who entered to pray, and she very sincerely knelt
down.
Xie Lian spoke up warmly. “Speaking of, Nan Yang Zhenjun’s main domain is in the Southeast,
I’d never imagine you guys would have such a following in the north too.”
When people constructed temples and palaces, they were actually imitating the divine palaces
of the heavenly realm; as for divine statues, they were reflections of the heavenly officials’
venerable selves. The temples were where the believers assembled and attracted worship,
becoming an important source of spiritual power for the heavenly officials. And due to various
reasons - such as geography, history, and customs - people of different regions often
worshipped different gods. A heavenly official’s spiritual power would be unleashed to the max
on their own turf, and this was the main domain advantage. Only to a heavenly official like the
Great Martial Emperor, who had believers from all over the world and possessed temples
everywhere, was the notion of a main domain meaningless. It was a good thing that his own
general’s divine temple would be so popular even outside his main domain, Nan Feng should be
proud, but judging by his expression, this was very much not the case.
On the side, Fu Yao gave a light smirk. “Yes, yes, he’s deeply loved.”
Xie Lian said, “But, I just have a question that I don’t know if…”
“If you’re going to say ‘you don’t know if it’s appropriate’, then don’t say anything,” Nan Feng
said.
“No, I was going to say ‘don’t know if anyone has the answer’,” Xie Lian thought.
But, he had a feeling that it wouldn’t be good if he said it, so in the end he decided to change
the subject again.
Yet unexpectedly, Fu Yao languidly said, “I know what you want to ask. You must be wondering
why there are so many female believers coming to worship?”
That was indeed the question Xie Lian had in mind. There had always been fewer female believers than males in the martial gods’ stream; only he
himself was an exception, eight hundred years ago. However, the reason for this exception was
very simple, it was only two words: Good-Looking.
He knew very well that it wasn’t because he was distinguished, or because he had extraordinary
spiritual powers. It was merely due to the fact that his divine statue was good-looking, and his
palace temples were handsome too. Practically all of his palace temples were constructed by
the royal family, and the highest-skilled experts and artisans of the kingdom were summoned to
sculpt the divine statues according to his face. Besides, because of that phrase “Body in Abyss,
Heart in Paradise”, the artisans often liked adding flowers to his divine statues, and liked
planting a sea of flower trees in his temples. Thus, at the time, he had another title: “The Flower-
Crowned Martial God”. The lady believers liked that his divine statues were good-looking, and
liked that his palace temples were filled with flowers, and by that alone they were willing to walk
in casually to pray.
But the usual martial gods often had their faces sculpted to be serious, savage, and cold,
because their killing aura was too great. So when lady believers saw, they would rather pray to
the bodhisattvas instead. While this statue of Nan Yang had none of the killing aura, it was even
further from good-looking, yet there were more female believers praying than there were males.
Nan Feng didn’t seem to want to answer this question either, so it was making Xie Lian even
more curious. Just then, that girl finished her worship, rose to her feet to reach for the incense,
then spun around.
After this spin, Xie Lian nudged the other two. The other two were already very annoyed, and
after his nudge, they looked, and whoosh, both their faces dropped.
“Too hideous!” Fu Yao exclaimed.
Xie Lian choked for a moment, then chided, “Fu Yao, you can’t talk about girls like that.”
If he must be honest, what Fu Yao said was true. That girl’s face was incomparably flat, like
someone had slapped her face into a pancake. The five features were so plain it almost seemed
to be a mistake; if they must be described, then only “crooked nose and slanted eyes” could be
used.
However, Xie Lian didn’t register whether she was beautiful or ugly at all. The main thing was,
when she spun around, there was an enormous tear on the back of her skirt, and he really
couldn’t pretend he didn’t see it.
Fu Yao was startled at first, but he quickly calmed down. The popped veins on the corners of
Nan Feng’s forehead also instantly vanished.
Seeing his face change colours so drastically, Xie Lian quickly soothed, “Don’t panic, don’t
panic.”That girl took the incense and knelt down anew, and said as she prayed, “May General Nan
Yang give his blessings, this believer Xiao Ying prays for that ghost groom to be captured soon,
so no other innocents will be harmed by him…”
She was sincere and devout in her prayers and didn’t sense anything peculiar going on behind
her at all, nor was she aware that there were three men crouching next to the foot of the divine
statue she was praying to.
Xie Lian fretted. “What do we do? We can’t let her walk out like this? Everyone on her way
home will see.”
Besides, judging by that tear on the back of her skirt, it was obvious someone had intentionally
ripped it with a sharp object. So she probably wouldn’t just be seen by a crowd of onlookers,
she would also be publicly laughed at, and that would truly be a round of considerable
humiliation.
Fu Yao was unconcerned. “Don’t ask me. The one she’s praying to isn’t my General Xuan Zhen.
‘One shall not look at impropriety’. I saw nothing.”
Meanwhile, blood was draining from Nan Feng’s face. He only knew to wave, not talk; a
perfectly fine, unbridled, strapping young man was forcibly rendered mute, completely helpless.
And so, Xie Lian had no choice but to take action himself, taking off his outer robe and throwing
it down below. That outer robe flapped in the air for a moment and drifted down onto the body of
that girl, blocking that very inelegant tear on the back of her skirt. The three sighed a breath in
unison.
However, this breeze truly felt wicked and startled that girl. She looked around, took off the
robe, and was confused for a moment before she placed it onto the altar. She was actually
completely unaware, and after she had stuck in the incense, she made to head out. If they let
her out to walk around like that, the little maiden would probably not have the face to look at
anyone ever again. The two on each of Xie Lian’s sides were either frozen or frozen, completely
useless however you wanted them, and he sighed. Nan Feng and Fu Yao only felt the space
beside their bodies empty all of a sudden, and Xie Lian had already taken form and jumped
down.
The lamplight inside the temple was dim, and a small breeze rose from his leap, causing the
firelight to flicker. That girl Xiao Ying only saw a blur before her eyes and a man suddenly
emerged from the darkness, reaching out to her with his upper body bare, and she was scared
out of her wits right then and there.
Just as expected, she screamed. Just as Xie Lian was about to speak, that girl’s slap already
struck out in a flash, and she yelled, “HARASSMENT!” PA! And Xie Lian was slapped just like that.
The slap was clear and crisp, and the two crouching on top of the altar both felt the side of their
face twitch at the same time.
Xie Lian wasn’t mad at the strike however, and only forcefully stuffed the outer robe into her
arms, swiftly whispering something. That girl was greatly alarmed, felt her behind, and suddenly
flushed red in the face. Tears welled up in her eyes; who knows whether it was anger or
indignation. She clutched that outer robe Xie Lian gave her, and dashed out covering her face,
leaving Xie Lian standing there half-bare. After she left, the temple was empty. A cool breeze
crossed through the hall, and all of a sudden, it was a little cold.
He rubbed his cheek, and with that red hand-mark on half of his face, he turned to the other two.
“Alright, everything’s solved.”
Nan Feng pointed at him. “Did…you tear your wounds?”
Xie Lian looked down and oh-ed.
After undressing, what was revealed was a body smooth and fair like jade. Except, his chest
was heavily wrapped by layer after layer of white cloth, firmly bound; even his neck and wrists
were wrapped in bandages. Innumerous small cuts crawled out from the edges of the white
bandages, truly somewhat startling.
He figured his sprained neck was pretty much recovered by now, so Xie Lian started unbinding
his bandages.
Fu Yao glanced at him, then questioned, “Who was it?”
“What?” Xie Lian asked.
“Who fought you?” Fu Yao demanded.
“Fought?” Xie Lian was confused, “No one?”
“Then all these injuries on your body…” Nan Feng was hesitant.
Xie Lian looked at them blankly. “I fell on my own.”
“...”
These were indeed the injuries from when he tumbled down from heaven three days ago. If it
was from a fight with another person, then he actually might not have been hurt to this level.Fu Yao grumbled something, but it wasn’t clear. Either way, it definitely wasn’t praising him for
his fortitude, so Xie Lian didn’t bother to ask, focusing only on taking off the heavy layer of
bandages from his neck. The next second, Nan Feng and Fu Yao’s eyes hardened and fell on
his neck.
A black collar was encircled around his snow-white neck.
TBC...
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