Although Gui Yin didn’t seem too out of sorts while they traveled to their targeted village, Gui Linghuo and Qin Siyui knew better than to pry into their shizun’s emotional state. The carriage remained relatively quiet, despite Gui Yin’s small attempts to ease the atmosphere.
Gui Yin stepped off the carriage and smiled at the villager, who was just returning from getting firewood.
“Hello, sir. Do you happen to know where the village head’s home is?”
The middle-aged man looked from Gui Yin to the demon beasts behind him. “Are you…that fancy cultivator that answered Master Jiu’s letters?”
“The person who received this mission was my sect master. I was assigned to investigate the supernatural attacks of your village. My surname is Gui, and I am from Yunjing Pavilion.”
Gui Yin didn’t think that a village so far south would know anything of the well-known cultivators, just as commoners in villages at the border towns knew little of their emperor. However, a flash of recognition passed through the middle-aged man’s eyes. He became a bit more skeptical. His eyes narrowed and he looked Gui Yin up and down.
“Yer…surname is Gui? And you’re from Yunjing Pavilion? Why’re you here then?”
“This area is still within the jurisdiction of Yunjing Pavilion. It’s our duty to answer the demands of the territories under our supervision,” Gui Yin patiently explained.
“Hm. If yer a cultivator, then prove it.”
“Prove…” Gui Yin’s voice trailed off. He glanced at the middle-aged man. How was he supposed to prove it?
He thought for a moment before reaching into his Qiankun sleeve. He pulled out a fire talisman. Under the middle-aged man’s skeptical gaze, the fire talisman exploded into a bright blue flame. The middle-aged man jumped, nearly dropping the firewood that he was holding.
“H-how does that prove anything? Ghosts and demons and spirits can do this too!”
Gui Yin looked at him speechlessly. He also knew that ghosts and demons and spirits could do this sort of thing, but how else was he supposed to prove his identity as a cultivator?
Just when he thought he was going to be shooed away by this ill-tempered man, a clear voice interrupted their conversation.
“Uncle Gao, what’s all this commotion?”
“Young miss!”
The middle-aged man hurried to the side of a teenage girl. He glared at Gui Yin. “This man here claims t’be a cultivator.”
Although the middle-aged man had lowered his voice, Gui Yin could still hear him clearly. Gui Yin suppressed a sigh.
He heard the curtain behind him shuffle.
“What’s the matter, Shizun?”
“You two sit tight,” Gui Yin said as he quietly fanned himself. “The villagers here are very skeptical.”
Qin Siyi sat back down. She met Gui Linghuo’s gaze. The villagers were skeptical?
“Hello, Daozhang,” the young woman approached Gui Yin amicably. “I heard from Uncle Gao that you are surnamed Gui and you have come on behalf of Yunjing Pavilion. Is this correct?”
“Yes, it is.”
“It has to be a fake,” the middle-aged man hissed. “Isn’t the only one surnamed Gui in that place that one lord immortal? Why would a lord immortal come to our tiny village?”
The young woman frowned at her companion. She turned back to Gui Yin. “As you have heard, Sir, this is why we are skeptical.”
“This is a bit troublesome,” Gui Yin sighed. He tapped his fan against his shoulders before perking up. “Oh my goodness. My old age must be getting to me! We have the letter Village Head Jiu sent to one of our branch offices. It was forwarded to our sect, since we needed some introductory cases to guide our younger disciples.”
“Introductory cases?” the young woman’s expression darkened. She accepted the letter nonetheless and read over its contents. “This truly is the handwriting of my grandfather. It even has his messy signature.”
Gui Yin waited patiently for the young woman to finish.
Finally, she turned to Gui Yin while still frowning. “However, if you’re looking for an introductory case, I’m afraid you’ve come to the wrong place.”
“Oh?”
“A village of a few thousand people has depleted to just four hundred. Is this what you call an introductory case?”
“Just four hundred?” Gui Yin echoed. He flourished his fan and fanned himself. “Well, this certainly does seem like a problem. In the letter, we were just told that a few people have gone missing recently. All were young women, such as yourself.”
“That is the most recent case,” the young woman corrected. “We sent several other letters, but they never made it.”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
Gui Yin’s eyes widened.
“Po sbe kjca ab ifjnf, kf ecvfgrajcv,” atf sbecu kbwjc rjlv. Vtf aegcfv, gfjvs ab gfaegc tbwf, bcis ab yf rabqqfv ys Xel Tlc’r mtemxif.
“Zlrr, sbe rffw ab yf wlrajxfc,” Xel Tlc rjlv. “P wjs tjnf ygbeuta ws vlrmlqifr jibcu obg j agjlclcu aglq, yea lo la’r remt jc egufca mjrf, rbwfbcf bo ws gjcxlcu mjccba aegc jkjs.”
“I’m giving you a choice.”
“And that’s kind of you,” Gui Yin nodded. “But my duty doesn’t.”
The carriage and the demonic beasts were brought to the village head’s stables. Servants and maids were sent to clean up the guest quarters.
The room in which Gui Yin and his disciples were received was small, but kept clean. Bookshelves lined the walls and included literature from various parts of the continent. It could be seen with one glance that the village head was a well-read man. When Gui Yin’s gaze fell on the old man, his eyes swept over him more than once.
His hair was graying and his robes were on the more worn side but he carried himself well, as if he were a member of nobility. When Gui Yin entered, the village head immediately said his greetings to the lord immortal, but Gui Yin merely smiled.
“There’s no need to be so polite, Village Head Jiu.” Gui Yin was quick to dismiss the niceties. He bowed in return, putting himself even lower than the old village head. He stood again and gestured to the two children behind him. “These are my disciples, Gui Linghuo and Qin Siyi.”
The village head looked at Gui Yin with a hint of surprise before smiling at the two children. “It is nice to meet you two.”
“The pleasure is all ours, Village Head Jiu,” Gui Linghuo and Qin Siyi bowed in unison.
“You’ve taught them well, Lord Immortal,” Village Head Jiu noted.
Gui Yin shook his head. “Not at all. They were born like this. As their mentor, I’m ashamed to say I’ve barely done a thing.”
The village head chuckled. He gestured for Gui Yin to sit down before taking a seat himself. He waved his granddaughter over and told her to bring in refreshments for him and the guests. Once the servants were gone as well, the village head turned back to Gui Yin.
“I assume my granddaughter has filled you in on what has happened.”
“Only partially. It seems that you’ve sent out multiple requests for help, but none of them had reached us,” Gui Yin said.
The village head nodded, a bitter smile taking over his face. “At first, we thought Yunjing Pavilion didn’t care for a small village like us, but then we quickly realized that the messengers we sent out never returned.”
Gui Yin frowned. His index finger lightly tapped the side of his folding fan. He looked at the old village head. “Sir, would you mind if my disciples asked you a few questions?”
The old village head glanced at the children. He smiled. “I wouldn’t mind at all.”
Gui Yin turned to Gui Linghuo and Qin Siyi. “What have you two noticed? And what do you want to ask Village Head Jiu?”
Gui Linghuo and Qin Siyi shared a glance.
Gui Yin pursed his lips to keep back his laughter. These two were like two Siamese cats, always mirroring each other’s actions.
“How did you get the letter to Yunjing Pavilion this time?” Qin Siyi asked.
The question was blunt and filled with a child’s curiosity. Village Head Jiu glanced at Gui Yin, but the lord immortal merely lowered his head to take a sip of his tea.
“We didn’t send one of our men this time,” Village Head Jiu explained. “In fact, this entire situation was quite curious.”
“Curious in what way?” Gui Linghuo asked. “Also, in the letter, it asked for our help to solve the disappearance of young women. Do you know what caused these disappearances? Were there any similarities between the young women, aside from their age?”
The village head hummed for a moment. “Well, first I’ll answer your questions first before I fully explain our circumstances. We’ve never seen the thing that spirits away our villagers; however, we do know it happens once a month. The entity acts almost like a god demanding sacrifice, but our village has never worshipped any god. As for similarities, there are few. Not to mention, it isn’t just young women. Whatever is taking our villagers changes every few months.”
“Do the corpses ever resurface?” Qin Siyi asked.
“They do. Just by the riverbank.”
“The riverbank?” Gui Linghuo frowned.
“It’s to the east of the village, where we get most of our water. Thankfully, so far, it seems that the water hasn’t been polluted. However, we’re worried that the thing taking away our villagers lives in the river’s depths.”
Gui Linghuo and Qin Siyi fell silent. They looked at each other and then at Gui Yin, who was still calmly enjoying his tea.
Upon sensing their gaze, he turned to the village head with a smile.
“The tea is fragrant.”
The village head returned Gui Yin’s smile with a bit of stiffness. “I’m glad you enjoy it, Lord Immortal.”
Gui Yin chuckled and set the teacup back down. “Is this all the questions you have?”
Gui Linghuo and Qin Siyi looked on embarrassingly.
“Then, how are you to gauge whether the entity is a demon, ghost, or spirit? How will you grade it? Where are your questions to know the answer to these things?” Gui Yin asked.
Qin Siyi pouted slightly. She looked to Gui Linghuo. She hadn’t memorized that far yet.
Gui Linghuo appeared sheepish. He spends most of his day studying the art of the sword or cultivation in seclusion. Since he was still young, he rarely read up on the books on how to conduct a case. But such excuses were useless. It was his own negligence.
Gui Yin let out a soft sigh. He turned to the village head. “My apologies. It seems like they still have much to learn.”
“No need for apologies,” the village head chuckled. “They’ve already done quite well.”
Gui Yin cleared his throat. “Village Head, please keep this in mind in case anything else is to happen in the future. And you two rascals, make sure you remember this for any future cases you cover.”
Village Head Jiu nodded, while the children straightened up to attention.
There are many paths in this world, not just for humans, but also for nonhuman entities. In this world, there were beasts, monsters, demons, ghosts, and spirits. In general, beasts and spirits got along best with the human kind. Beasts could become companions to cultivators and animals, nature, or inanimate objects who were lucky enough to fall onto the path of cultivation, would become what everyone knows to be spirits or spirit cultivators once they achieved sentience. Of course, in some instances, beasts could become corrupt. In those cases, they would be called corrupt beasts. Spirits who chose to cultivate the demonic path become known as demonic spirits. However, they are not to be confused with demons, monsters, and ghosts.
Demons were formed from living creatures—which was what demonic spirits were more often referred to as. This population also loosely included demonic cultivators. While some forms of demonic cultivation had slowly become accepted in this world, those of the righteous path still remained wary. More often than not, they stayed away from demonic cultivators. Their trust for demonic cultivators were reserved, but they could still get along in some cases.
Monsters were spirits who died and then became corrupt and caused mischief. Usually, they were easy to deal with, as they were usually lower level. In some cases, they could rise up the ranks and cultivate to become a demonic spirit. In that case, they could only be handled by those of Golden Core and higher.
Ghosts were formed from dead humans. The concept is simple enough to understand for the modern brain. There could be evil ghosts or wandering ghosts. Evil ghosts formed from a person’s resentment or unfulfilled desires and obsessions. A wandering ghost was a ghost that still had attachment to the mortal plane. If a wandering ghost remains on earth for more than several decades, they will eventually deteriorate to become an evil ghost. Evil ghosts had the chance of cultivating as well.
Monsters and ghosts could be ranked in the following categories: benign, moderate, aggressive, malicious, wicked, and demonic.
“But I had always I thought demons lived in the Demon Realm,” the village head murmured confusedly.
“The Demon Realm houses the lineage of those who participated in the Great Celestial and Demonic War. In modern day, we are more concerned about demonic spirits who cultivated in the human realm,” Gui Yin replied honestly. He turned to the children. “If an entity has been deemed demonic, you must not try and handle it yourself even if you were in Golden Core. You must contact an elder of Nascent Soul or higher to handle the situation.”
“Yes, Shizun,” the children nodded.
“The rankings seem quite vague. Is there a scale to determine what it is?” the village head frowned.
Gui Yin nodded. “Monsters will eat flesh and drink blood to cultivate. Ghosts will slaughter and absorb their essence. If the corpses that turn up are in one piece, no matter how gruesome, it’s usually the act of a ghost. If the corpse looks as if it’s been torn apart by an animal, or only a skeleton shows up, it’s normally a monster.”
The village head’s frown deepened. “Then, the thing spiriting away our villagers…is most likely a monster.”
Gui Yin took note of the hypothesis. “Then, next is the degree of this monster. We measure it by how many people they’ve killed in the span of ten years.”
“Monsters who are benign and moderate pose no threat. The most a moderate ranked monster can do is mess with a few people. These are normally just nuisances that normal people can shoo away. ‘Aggressive’ ranked generally target one person at a time. Malicious ranked can generally wipe out entire households at a time. ‘Wicked’ can wipe out small populations and demonic ranked can topple nations. Creatures ranked ‘demonic’ are normally the ones that cause wars or famines and plagues. The longest war in the history of cultivation was started by a demonic spirit.”
The village head listened intently. “So, this monster…is most likely just an aggressive rank?”
“Very likely. However, we shouldn’t say ‘just’,” Gui Yin said. “Even an aggressive ranked monster is quite a threat. I wouldn’t dare hand it over to a Core Formation disciple. Not to mention, this monster obviously has enough intelligence to intercept messengers. The fact that it is sentient makes it even more dangerous.”
Gui Yin tapped his fingers against the arm rest. He turned to Gui Linghuo and Qin Siyi. “I will make a formation over this village. You two just have to maintain it.”
Gui Linghuo frowned. “What will you be doing instead, Shizun?”
“I’ll make an illusion and lure the monster in. It doesn’t come out unless it needs to feed, right?”
The village head nodded. “That is correct.”
Gui Yin was about to give more instructions, when Qin Siyi interrupted. “Sir, you never told us about how the messenger this time around got the letter to us.”
“Oh, that’s right. There was a man who stopped by the village. He was followed by a few attendants—I think a young woman and two young men? They were just passing through, but when they heard what was happening in the village, the man offered to deliver the letter.”
Gui Yin paused. “A man, a young woman, and two young men?”
The village head nodded.
“The man—did he happen to be wearing a cloak that obscured his face?”
“He…yes, he did.”
“And was he sickly? Almost on the verge of death?”
“Perhaps not on the verge of death, but he was definitely gravely injured.”
“Did you happen to catch a glimpse of his eyes?”
The village head shook his head. “I didn’t. He was always behind his attendants.”
Gui Yin fell silent.
Gui Linghuo glanced at Gui Yin. “Shizun? Do you think it’s that man we met before?”
Seeing his silence, Gui Linghuo continued. “But that wouldn’t be possible. They said they traveled on foot.”
Gui Yin agreed. It wouldn’t have made sense.
If they traveled from the south on foot, then it would have taken them another few months in order to arrive in Feiyin City. The cases sent to Yunjing Pavilion’s side branches would be sent to Yunjing Pavilion once every week and then sorted. With the number of cases they received, some would be filtered to the lower end, while some to the upper end. The process took about another week, depending on how quickly the current listings were snatched up. In order to have Gui Yin to receive this case now, Er-ye and his companions would have had to be in Jiu Village the same week that they were in Feiyin City.
The only explanation Gui Yin could think up was that they had lied about traveling on foot or…it really was just pure coincidence.
Still, Gui Yin couldn’t shake the odd feeling he had. The golden eyes appeared in his mind again and he felt his heart hammer against his chest.
If it happened once, it was a coincidence. If it happened three times, then it was fate. If it happened five times, then it was a calculated plot.
Gui Yin wasn’t sure if this counted at their second time, but he hoped that there wouldn’t be a third or a chance for there to be a fifth. He wasn’t sure what it was about the sickly man, but Gui Yin felt that he shouldn’t become involved with that person.
This, however, was the least of his worries.
After hearing news that there was a lord immortal who came to help them, the village head’s home was crowded with villagers who had questions. Village Head Jiu looked to Gui Yin helplessly.
“My apologies, sir. They haven’t seen much of the world, so they’re curious about you all.”
“It’s nothing to apologize about,” Gui Yin replied gently. He turned to Gui Linghuo and Qin Siyi. “You two return to the guest quarters first. We’ll begin setting up the arrays tonight, after I’ve told everyone what they should do.”
“Does Shizun need help with anything?” Gui Linghuo asked with a slight frown.
“I just need you two to keep the formation active while I’m away,” Gui Yin said. He rubbed at the children’s heads again. “I’ll take you two to deal with some low-level ghosts after this, okay?”
Qin Siyi and Gui Linghuo looked as if they had something to say, but after meeting Gui Yin’s gaze, they reluctantly nodded and left to prepare the materials.
By the time Gui Yin answered everyone’s questions, it was already sunset. The villagers quickly rushed into their homes and the three cultivators hurried to seal their doorways.
The entire village seemed to be asleep by the time the moon sat high in the sky.
Gui Yin rested in the courtyard of the guest rooms and lazily sipped the wine in his hand. His mind drifted to Er-ye again briefly. His thumb lightly rubbed against the side of the cup. The pair of golden eyes seemed to be staring right back at him.
He lowered his head with a soft sigh and drained the rest of his cup. He stood, left the courtyard, and decided to take a walk around the village.
Just as he left the village head’s manor, a flash of movement caught his attention.
“Lord Immortal?”
The familiar voice made Gui Yin frown. He shifted and watched as a young girl emerged from the shadows. She tightly clutched her cloak around her and stared at Gui Yin with round, hopeful eyes. The attractive face was pale, especially in the moonlight, with various cuts littered across her visage. Gui Yin’s gaze drifted downwards and noted the way her hand pressed against her abdomen.
“…A-Qi?”
The girl smiled excitedly. “Lord Immortal, you remember me?”
Gui Yin took a few steps towards the tattered girl and quickly stretched out his hands when she swayed in front of him. “Of course, I do. What are you doing here? Weren’t you and your master looking for Doctor Zheng?”
A-Qi’s excitement faded slightly. She bit on her lower lip and lowered her gaze. “We were but…”
The fair hand Gui Yin was holding suddenly flipped and clutched onto Gui Yin’s forearm tightly. “Lord Immortal, you have to help us. Not only did Doctor Zheng refuse to help my master, we were also accused of stealing and they began to pursue us. They were obviously discriminating against us from the beginning, since we’re not from around here, and now even my master is…”
“Is he hurt?”
A-Qi nodded, her eyes reddening at their corners. “Lord Immortal, please, you must help us!”
Gui Yin pursed his lips. He glanced back at the manor and then turned to the disheveled girl. He finally sighed and nodded. “Take me to where your master is.”
OHOHOHO!!!!!! (aware this aint great time for villagers but im still excited akxbskdh)
thinking bout “third time” but isnt it like the “fifth”? (rhetorical question really. also not that Gui0 Yin would know, since i’m assuming mysterious fellow at play and the gift delivery were by Er-ye… but how would sick guy move so secretly… hm…)
hehehhe >:3 thanks for reading!
I think it is his lover dude that supposedly was cheating on him. It would explain the weird familiarity and memory of his eyes, along with the body not being willing to let him fully understand and remember
oooo, looks like Gui Yin and Er-ye shall meet again 😮
Thanks for the chapter!! =0