CHAPTER 4

One swift boat could only load a maximum of two hundred people at a time, and it would take at least two trips to send the entire Shangguan Clan out. Yet, Qin Yan did not have two sword tactics at his disposal.

Qin Yan sank into deep thought as Fu Changling swept a glance to the side. Again deciding to break away from Qin Yan, he hastily wrote, "Send some of them out first, then secure the enchantment to protect the other group, lure away the Wushi Luo, and then solve the problem."

Wushi Luo's main objective is to kill its enemies as well as to get its own corpse back. The best option would be to liberate the Wushi Luo's soul from its suffering. The other option, though, should this one fall short, would be to lure it away by taking its enemy and eluding it, allowing the others a chance to escape as the Wushi Luo pursued.

So Qin Yan nodded and instructed Yun Yu, "Take two hundred people out first."

Yun Yu responded, and then he addressed all of them, "Everyone split into two hundred people in a group on either side."

After the words were spoken but no one moved, Yun Yu froze. He turned to Qin Yan with a pleading expression on his face. Qin Yan frowned tightly, and next to him, Shangguan Yuan stepped forward with a grin, hurriedly saying, "I'll tell you what, we'll split them up based on bloodline affinity. The Shangguan family lineage, those related by blood, steps forward---the first two hundred to board!"

"Shangguan Zhuangzhu," Qin Yan said flatly. Everyone looked over, but Qin Yan's expression was unfazed. "I'm saving lives, not the Shangguan family."

Shangguan Yuan's face froze as Qin Yan stepped forward and looked at the crowd, "Those without cultivation, over the age of fifty are considered old, under the age of fifteen are considered young---the elderly, the children, the sick, the disabled, and pregnant women stand in the front row, followed by the women, and then according to their age, from the youngest to the oldest---are the first two hundred to board."

"Also," Fu Changling took a step forward when he saw that the timing was right, smiled at Madame Shangguan, and lifted his hand to write in the air: "The Wushi Luo will follow whoever it wants to kill, and for safety reasons, no one associated with the Wushi Luo is permitted to board. May I ask, Madame, as to who can and cannot leave?"

"Madame!" When Shangguan Yuan realised what Fu Changling was asking, he became somewhat anxious. He turned to Qin Yan and said urgently, "Qin Xianshi, we are all innocent, and we must all go together. You can't just leave the others behind."

"Madame," Fu Changling stared at Madame Shangguan as he raised his hand and then wrote, "You still have three children. Miss Yuemin has been devoured by the Wushi Luo, and it will be difficult for Miss to reincarnate until the Wushi Luo's soul is at peace."

"Xianshi, that's an evil thing out there, and I have no idea who its enemy is. But Xianshi, since it's an evil thing, you can just suppress it and get rid of it. Why should we, the innocent, die in vain?"

"Madame," Fu Changling persisted, "who can't leave?"

Madame Shangguan remained silent. Her gaze was drawn to the word "reincarnation" as she stared blankly at the golden characters in the air.

Her lips trembled after a while, and she uttered two syllables quietly.

Noticing that Madame Shangguan was speaking, Yun Yu took a step forward and asked, "Who are you talking about, Madame?"

"Me..."

"Xue Mei!" When Shangguan Yuan heard Madame Shangguan speak, he dashed back, yelling angrily, "Don't talk nonsense!"

"Me, and Laoye..." Madame Shangguan's voice trembled, and she appeared to have taken a lot of courage.

"Xue Mei!" Shangguan Yuan charged madly towards Madame Shangguan, ready to strike, but Yun Yu stepped forward, raised his hand to stop Shangguan Yuan, and bellowed, "Shangguan Zhuangzhu! Please calm down."

"It's all our doing..." Madame Shangguan froze and raised her head to look outside the enchantment at the black mist.

A blurred face appeared to be watching them in silence amidst the black mist.

Madame Shangguan's tears streamed down her cheeks. She closed her eyes and spoke very quickly, "Let us repay with our lives and let them rest in peace."

"Xue Mei!" Shangguan Yuan immediately went berserk upon hearing these words. He lunged towards Xue Mei, and Qin Yan glanced over. Yun Yu hurriedly threw Shangguan Yuan to the ground and tied him up tightly with a fling of the Immortal-Binding Rope in his sleeve.

"Shixiong," Yun Yu held down Shangguan Yuan, who was thrashing desperately on the ground, and looked up at Qin Yan, asking, "What next?"

"Get the people on board," Qin Yan instructed, then walked over towards Madame Shangguan.

Fu Changling was standing not far from Madame Shangguan when he spotted Qin Yan approaching and took a step back unconsciously. Qin Yan gave him a quick glance but said nothing else before looking at Madame Shangguan and saying, "Madame."

Madame Shangguan wiped her tears as she averted her gaze from the courtyard. Without daring to look at Shangguan Yuan, she said in a low, hoarse voice, "Xianshi."

"May I ask if you know the origin of this Wushi Luo?" Upon hearing this, Madame Shangguan pursed her lips and appeared to think. Fu Changling swung around to the back, behind Madame Shangguan, and wrote the word "children".

Madame Shangguan had her back to Fu Changling, and Qin Yan gave the word a quick glance before withdrawing his gaze without changing his expression. Fu Changling was unsure whether Qin Yan had grasped what he was trying to imply and was about to continue explaining when he heard Qin Yan say, "If we know where it came from, we can find its corpse and avenge its death, then your children will be safe."

Madame Shangguan's eyes reddened when she heard the word "children". She sniffled and finally said, "I'll take you there."

On the ground, Shangguan Yuan's eyes widened. He squirmed desperately, and his mouth, which was gagged by Yun Yu, made the sound of "umph-umph", as if to warn Madame Shangguan. Madame Shangguan turned away. She went forward, grabbed Shangguan Mingyan's hand, gave him a few quick instructions, then returned and said to Qin Yan, "Qin Xianshi, let's go."

Qin Yan nodded. By this time, everyone had already boarded the swift boat one after another, and the remaining hundred people were looking at Qin Yan with anxiety. Qin Yan was hesitating when he saw Fu Changling come forward with a smile on his face and then wrote with an upright expression. "I'm here, Qin Daoyou. You can rest assured."

When Fu Changling said this, he straightened his back and his attitude, indeed looking like a very reliable and good companion. Qin Yan, on the other hand, only gave him a quick glance before saying, "You can't."

Fu Changling's smile froze, then he heard Qin Yan say, "You're merely a Zhuji, so no way."

It stung his pride.

Fu Changling was enraged inside when he heard this "no way". He hadn't heard anyone say that about him in years. He took a deep breath, spread his hand in front of Qin Yan, and swiftly slashed his palm with the Qinggu fan, and blood dripped from it.

He spread his hand out in front, and Qin Yan frowned and said, "There is no need to self-harm."

Fu Changling: "..."

Self-harm? What self-harm?! He wanted to demonstrate to Qin Yan what he was capable of!

He inhaled deeply, swung his hand to the side, and then quickly drew a talisman in the air.

The talisman stained with his blood flew off to the side, hovered in the air, and then, within the barrier, another small one was instantaneously formed.

This barrier was barely large enough to hold more than a hundred people, but it was no less solid than the one Qin Yan had set up. After all, Qin Yan was a sword cultivator, and things like barriers were still something they, the spellwork cultivators, were good at.

Fu Changling had created a safe zone. He extended his hand to the side, bowed slightly, and motioned "please look". Qin Yan looked up to examine, and after a thorough inspection, he nodded and said, "Everyone stays inside. You come with me."

Fu Changling: "???"

This couldn't be right. Shouldn't Qin Yan's thought at this point be that he was so strong that he should stay and protect everyone?

He was somewhat befuddled. Why on earth would Qin Yan keep him tethered to him at all times?

As this thought occurred to Fu Changling, he felt a pang of fear as he finally realised that something wasn't right with the situation. This Qin Yan, no matter how he looked at it, didn't seem to be here to exterminate the clan; rather, he seemed to have come for him.

He dared not jump to conclusions and could only continue to observe. Qin Yan stood there watching everyone board the swift boat, handed the sword tactic to Yun Yu, and said, "Go now."

Yun Yu nodded, then took the sword tactic and boarded the swift boat, piloting it to the outside. Everyone watched as they broke out of the barrier, and as soon as they did, the dark Qi poured in furiously. Qin Yan's long sword slid from his grasp and landed on the crack, and the sword beam it carried filled the barrier's unsealing before flying back into Qin Yan's hand. At this point, the dark Qi began to surge towards the swift boat, as if to completely envelop them in the black mist, but just as it was about to do so, a thunderbolt shot down. The lightning-wrapped sword pierced the black mist in an instant, and the black mist let out a screeching, blood-curdling shriek. The swift boat suddenly accelerated at that moment and vanished in front of everyone's eyes like a burst of light.

Yun Yu had finally made it out.

Fu Changling put his mind at ease as he looked at Qin Yan, who appeared relieved as well, and turned to point to the barrier created by Fu Changling, telling the others, "Everyone get in there."

When the arrangements for the ordinary people had been made and it was nearly midnight, Qin Yan turned to look at Shangguan Yuan, who was on the ground, and his pretty brows furrowed tightly.

Fu Changling could tell right away from the look on Qin Yan's face that he despised Shangguan Yuan and didn't want to carry him.

Fu Changling couldn't help but sigh. He didn't want to delay any longer, so he could only walk up and carry the tightly bound Shangguan Yuan and raise his chin to signal to Qin Yan that it was time to go.

Qin Yan nodded and turned to look at Madame Shangguan, who appeared much more composed. She took the lantern from the servant and turned towards the backyard, saying to the two, "Let's go to the backyard."

Fu Changling carried Shangguan Yuan and walked behind Madame Shangguan alongside Qin Yan. The lantern in Madame Shangguan's hand swayed gently in the wind, and her voice rasped as she drawled, "Her corpse is in the secret chamber, as is her enemy."

"Who is the enemy?" Qin Yan looked at Madame Shangguan's back and asked the question Fu Changling had been dying to ask. Shangguan Yuan said "umph-umph" twice as he flipped him over on his shoulder like a coolie.

Madame Shangguan turned back to look at Shangguan Yuan. She turned her head away after a brief pause in her gaze, and her wandering eyes shifted elsewhere as she continued, "It's the Shangguan Clan's Laozu, Shangguan Hong."

Shangguan Hong...

Fu Changling thought about it and gradually remembered that this person should be the Jindan cultivator of the Shangguan Clan, whose Spiritual Roots had been damaged.

"Who is it then?" Qin Yan continued to inquire, and everyone knew that this "it" was referring to the Wushi Luo outside the enchantment. Madame Shangguan remained silent. She walked ahead with the lantern in her hand, her slender frame looking unusually frail in the cold wind. When they both thought she would not speak again, she suddenly uttered, "It's my daughter."

"Daughter?" Qin Yan's tone finally had some ripples, and Fu Changling couldn't help but show an expression of surprise.

He knew that the Shangguan Clan had been visited by an evil spirit back then, but he had no idea that this evil spirit was actually the Shangguan family's Young Miss.

There were a total of five children in the Shangguan family: a pair of twin sisters, Shangguan Yuemin and Shangguan Yuehua, and the remaining three sons, who had just boarded the swift boat and left first.

"Her name was Yuehua," Madame Shangguan said, her voice tinged with guilt. Shangguan Yuan was still struggling, but after hearing this name, he finally stopped moving and thrashing.

"She and Yuemin were twins, with Yuemin being the older of the two. They were both born in the year of Yichou, and according to their birth dates, they were both born with water Spiritual Roots in a Yin month on a Yin day, except that Yuemin had both water and wood Spiritual Roots, whereas Yuehua had pure water Spiritual Roots."

"They were both my first children, whom I raised, and I love them dearly. However, during those years, Laozu's Jindan was damaged, and he was in a state of decline. As a result, he was unable to protect the Shangguan Clan, which was being bullied by the Immortal Sects. Laozu must restore his Jindan and revive his reputation for the sake of the Shangguan Clan, so we searched everywhere for a method to do so. Finally, one day, Laozu was given a formation that, while it couldn't restore the Spiritual Roots, could replace them and channel spiritual energy into Laozu's body after purification."

"There is such a thing?" Qin Yan frowned.

The main function of the Spiritual Roots, as was known to all, was to extract the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, purify it for use by the human body, and then store it in the Jindan. Now, a formation that did exactly that?

"The Shangguan Clan spent a large amount of spirit stones to build this spell formation. Only after its completion did our Laozu inform us that this spell formation required a human to serve as its eye---and that the formation's eye was to be a female with water Spiritual Roots born on a Yin year, in a Yin month, and on a Yin day."

Fu Changling and Qin Yan both understood at this point, and Qin Yan pursed his lips and said, "A human being as a formation? Is there actually such a formation in the Immortal Sects of Dao?"

"The Immortal Sect of Dao is merely a name." Madame Shangguan's expression was solemn. "Back then, when the Lin Clan's leader used humans to refine her spiritual energy core and Yue Sinan's Blood Pond to offer sacrifice to the heavens, weren't they all from the Immortal Sect of Dao?"

Qin Yan remained silent for quite a while before asking, "What happened afterwards?"

"We gave Yuehua to Laozu when she was only four years old at the time. I never saw her again after that, and Laozu had regained his ability to keep the clan together. After many people who had come to the Shangguan Clan to pick a fight had been taken care of by Laozu, it became clear that, despite the damage done to Laozu's Spiritual Roots, the Shangguan Clan was not in decline. For many years, we lived in peace."

Madame Shangguan looked into the distance, her eyes filled with guilt. "I always assumed that child was dead, and for years I have chanted scriptures for her, hoping she can rest in peace. Until two years ago..."

"Two years ago?" Qin Yan then inquired, and Madame Shangguan pursed her lips and nodded, "A woman suddenly broke into the estate two years ago. She charged in, destroyed Laozu's formation with her high-level cultivation, and then she left. Laozu could no longer use the Spirit-Gathering Formation, and for a time, he was unable to find someone with water Spiritual Roots born on a Yin year, in a Yin month, and on a Yin day to recreate the formation, so he searched around for a new method---and he did find one. He met someone who gave him the Gong method, and Laozu has always asked us for people since then. We scouted Baishui Town for him, looking for alone and unaccompanied youths and reporting them as missing."

"Who was that woman?" Fu Changling had a feeling something was amiss and raised his hand subconsciously to write down the sentence: "And who gave you the Gong method?"

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