Chapter 34

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In a state of hazy consciousness, he felt a deep, aching pain in the recesses of his mind, as if he were being drained.

Lu Liangsheng slowly opened his eyes from the darkness, seemingly lying on the donkey’s back. The night wind whispered past his ears, and through his skewed vision, he saw a floating figure beside him.

“Nie Honglian?”

In the dim forest, the figure was like a delicate mist, gradually taking on a graceful form. She turned her face towards Lu Liangsheng who had woken up, a faint dimple appearing on her cheek as she gave a gentle bow.

“It is indeed me.”

Lu Liangsheng tried to move but found his arms weak, almost falling off the donkey. He had to pull himself back, leaning heavily against the donkey’s neck and breathing heavily.

“…How did you end up in my house…”

“After you avenged me that day… I had nowhere else to go. I thought I might follow Gentleman Lu and perhaps repay some kindness.”

“Don’t call me ‘Gentleman Lu’, it sounds a bit awkward.”

Nie Honglian waved her sleeve to cover her mouth and laughed lightly, floating closer. “Shall I call you ‘Young Master’ then? I didn’t expect you to be so young, I had always called you ‘Sir’ before…”

“I’m only a year younger than you… call me as you wish.”

The old donkey descended the mountain path and finally found a stable footing. The gloomy clouds dispersed, revealing a cold crescent moon. The ground, overgrown with weeds and scarred by the chaos of the times, looked as if it was covered in silver frost.

Lu Liangsheng tried to channel his spiritual energy but was met with a pain like that of strained meridians, feeling as though he was empty inside, like a hollow clay pot.

Lu Liangsheng gave up trying to activate the shrinking-to-an-inch talisman attached to the old donkey, resigning himself to continuing his limp posture. It wouldn’t be long now before they returned to Lu Family Village.

As the moonlight illuminated the surroundings, Lu Liangsheng glanced at Nie Honglian’s delicate profile. After a moment of hesitation, he quietly asked: “My master once told me… if you kill again, you’ll turn into a Rakshasa ghost… Does that mean now… you’ll never be able to reincarnate?”

Nie Honglian lowered her head, silent for a few moments, before softly replying: “It okay…”

Then, she lifted her face again, as if she held back tears, and showed a beautiful smile.

“…Maybe Heaven will think I did the right thing?”

“I hope so… I just feel… that if you can’t reincarnate and become human again, then Heaven has been truly unfair to you…” Lu Liangsheng, struggling to stay conscious, managed to sit up for a moment before his vision darkened again. He slumped back onto the donkey, looking at Honglian: “…I can’t bear to see it happen…”

Nie Honglian floated closer, her pale white arms extending to stroke his back gently.

“If you can’t bear it… then let me stay. I could reside in your painting, it wouldn’t be so bad… If you add a few birds and trees, it would be even better.”

Lu Liangsheng chuckled and nodded: “Alright, I’ll paint it for you when we get back.”

“See, you promised me.” Honglian drifted lower, her form now level with the young man’s. She lifted her pinky finger, a playful glint in her eyes. “Pinky promise, no matter what happens, you’re not allowed to kick me out!”

Lu Liangsheng extended his hand, their pinkies hooking together. Her touch was soft and cold.

“It’s a promise,”

At that moment, Nie Honglian withdrew her hand, her gaze shifting ahead as she said softly: “Someone is coming.”

Lu Liangsheng turned his head and looked ahead into the distance. In the dark, scattered torchlights of about a dozen figures were approaching. He could hear faint voices among them.

“I hear my father’s voice… Uncle Pan and the others too…”

Sure enough, as the group drew closer, more than twenty people came into view, including some from the northern village. Upon seeing the old donkey and Lu Liangsheng slumped on its back, along with the floating figure of the ghostly woman, fear overtook them. Their faces turned pale, and no one dared to approach. Lu Laoshi lowered his hoe and called out softly: “Liangsheng?”

“Dad… everyone, don’t be afraid. This is Honglian. Uncle Pan should recognize her…”

Among the crowd, Lu Pan, who had one arm bandaged, nodded frantically. He had encountered this ghost more than once. But even though he was seeing her again now, it was still too frightening for ordinary villagers, especially for the rest who hadn’t seen her before.

The young man quickly realized why this group had rushed out here. They’d likely heard he went to confront the bandits, and worried for his safety, they came armed with hoes and hatchets to search for him.

Lu Liangsheng attempted to straighten himself and climb down from the donkey, but his body was still too weak, and he stumbled forward. His father, Lu Laoshi, immediately disregarded the fear of whether the female ghost was scary or not and rushed forward to catch his son in his arms.

“Climb onto your father’s back. I’ll take you home,”

Leaning against his father’s broad back, Lu Liangsheng reassured him to stay calm and not rush. He then turned his gaze toward Lu Pan and the others, speaking weakly: “Uncle Pan… the bandit camp is empty now. All our belongings are still there… You should take some people… and retrieve everything… there might be other things there too… bring it all back…”

“Yes!” Lu Pan nodded, eager to leave quickly. However, after taking a few steps, he awkwardly returned. “Uh… Liangsheng, Uncle Pan’s never been there… I don’t know the way.”

“I’ll take you there.”

The floating Nie Honglian, seeing that the young boy was now safe and being carried back by someone, naturally felt reassured. She tilted her head and said something to Lu Pan and the others, then with a flick of her long sleeves, she turned and rushed back along the path they came from.

Lu Liangsheng, on his father’s back, finished giving instructions before relaxing his mind and gradually drifting off to sleep. Lu Pan, Lu Qing, and the others exchanged glances, bid farewell to Lu Laoshi, stomped their feet, and gritted their teeth as they followed.

In the dim forest, the occasional mournful cry of a wild fox could be heard. The sound of ten or so footsteps shuffled along the mountain path, yet the eerie atmosphere of the forest didn’t instill fear. After all, there was a real ghost above them, and it was even leading the way. If they told this story, they could boast about it for a lifetime.

Not long after, they took a turn at a fork in the mountain path, entering a narrow gorge and arriving in the valley. When they saw the ground littered with corpses, they were startled.

The death of the mountain bandits wasn’t gruesome, most had their vitality drained, leaving their faces contorted and limbs twisted oddly. Still, the sight sent chills down Lu Pan and the others’ spines.

This female ghost is incredibly powerful… Good thing Liangsheng could suppress her.

However, when they entered the fort and saw the corpses of Liu Erlong and several other mountain bandit leaders, they couldn’t help but gasp. The bodies were hanging from the beams, twisted like pretzels, swaying gently.

“Stop staring and start searching!”

Suppressing his discomfort, Lu Pan called out to the villagers and the group of fellow villagers from North Village led by Chen Tai. The latter group, shaken, hesitantly entered the back hall and upstairs, rummaging through cabinets and boxes in search.

Eventually, the initial fear subsided, and one by one, people emerged with flushed faces, carrying their loot. Aside from the stolen goods and food, the valuable items stored in the fort were carried into the main hall by the crowd.

Lu Pan pried open three large wooden chests, and under the torchlight, gleaming white silver ingots were revealed. The hall filled with the sound of gasps. Two of the chests were neatly stacked with three layers of silver ingots, some gold pieces glimmering conspicuously among them. The third chest contained fine silks, furs, and some jewelry.

“This… this is a damn fortune!”

Nie Honglian, who was floating in the hall, cast a glance over at them. Only then did the group suppress their overwhelming joy. They rushed out of the wooden building, found some carts in the village, and together loaded the three large chests onto them. The people from North Village even stripped the dead mountain bandits of their clothes, taking the loose copper coins and silver ingots, and stuffing them into their own pockets.

Lu Pan swung Liu Erlong’s steel saber a couple of times and then, looking regretfully at the twisted corpses, realized that the cloaks and leather armor on the bodies were now unwearable.

“What’s this book? So careless, leaving things behind. We’ll take it back for Liangsheng.” As Lu Pan walked out of the building, his foot stepped on a yellow-thread-bound book. He brushed off the footprints, walked over to the group, and casually tossed it onto the cart along with the other loot.

He then waved his hand and shouted: “Let’s head back!”

The group, excitedly guarding their newly acquired riches, hurried down the mountain.

The glow of the torches gradually faded as they descended through the woods. The stronghold, now plunged back into eerie silence, suddenly echoed with rustling sounds. In the pitch black, a mound in the ground started to rise, moving rapidly towards the stronghold. A figure emerged from the earth in front of the building.

It was none other than the young Daoist priest, Sun Yingxian, who had left earlier. He patted the dust off his head and quickly strode into the main hall.

“In my haste, I forgot to check what the bandits took from me… Where’s that Daoist text my master gave me?”

He muttered to himself while searching around. When he got upstairs, he realized the place had already been ransacked, and most of the valuable items were gone.

“Curse all of you… This is bad. Could it have been taken by that group earlier?”

After searching around frantically, he hurried downstairs, but just as he reached the entrance, a series of rapid hoofbeats echoed from outside. Sun Yingxian paused, glancing toward the sound, just as he heard a sharp “Whoa!”.

A figure on horseback, with twin blades strapped to his back, turned to meet the Daoist’s gaze and then… the corpses on the ground.

“You damn demonic Daoist!”

A furious shout erupted. With a ‘clang’, a blade was drawn, and the figure leaped from the horse, sending a cold gleam flashing through Sun Yingxian’s vision.

“It wasn’t me who killed them!”

The Daoist hurriedly dodged as the wooden pillar under the eaves was split with a loud crash, sending wood chips flying. The entire beam collapsed in an instant, and tiles rained down, raising a cloud of dust.

More than ten riders, holding torches aloft, quickly arrived and dismounted, drawing their swords as they surrounded him.

Sun Yingxian continuously evaded the swift blade strikes, frantically waving his hands. “It really wasn’t me!!!”

Seeing himself encircled, he had no choice but to employ his escape technique. He dove into the ground and fled rapidly into the distance, burrowing away from the group. The surrounding figures, now illuminated by the firelight, revealed the large character “捕” (captor) on their chests, marking them as constables.

These men were the very constables from Fushui County who had rushed here without rest. Earlier, gate guards from the city had reported seeing someone using spell techniques. Zuo Zhengyang had led his men to seek permission from the county magistrate and began chasing after the suspect along the roads. When their search yielded no results and they were about to return to the city, they encountered the village chief rushing toward the county, reporting that bandits had attacked Lu Family Village.

As the head constable, Zuo Zhengyang was well aware of the mountain bandits in the area. Since they hadn’t found their original target, they still had to fulfill their duty of protecting the people, so they hurried to the stronghold, arriving just in time to witness the chaotic scene.

Glaring at the now-vanished Daoist, Zuo Zhengyang gritted his teeth, sheathed his weapon, and mounted his horse again.

“Let’s see if his escape technique is faster or my horse is!”

He yanked the reins, then turned to the mounted constables shouting: “Keep chasing him with me!”

With that, he spurred his horse forward, charging ahead.

“Hyah!!”

More than ten constables snapped their reins and followed closely behind.