Chapter 125

At last, night had fallen.

In the reception hall of the Zhao family’s rear residence, a round table had been set out. It was covered with a red cloth, with bowls, chopsticks, wine cups, and goblets neatly arranged all around it. In the center sat eight cold dishes and eight hot ones.

If the hot dishes and wine were left out too long, they would go cold, but that could wait until the guests arrived, at which point they could be taken back and reheated.

The Zhao family matriarch, Zhao Juanhua, sat in the seat of honor’s companion, her head slightly lowered and her expression dark.

There were other old women in the village her age, but every one of them was already bent and stooped with age, looking properly decrepit. Yet on her face, even the wrinkles were not especially deep.

Still, once a person reached a certain age, no matter how well they maintained themselves, they would inevitably carry the look of that age. If they forcibly went against it, the result would feel unnatural.

Zhao Juanhua’s face was too white. Her brow bones jutted out, her jaw protruded forward, her lips and nose were heavy and overbuilt. Her features were too sharply defined, making the whole face look mismatched and wrong.

She did not seem like someone who ought to remain among the living, but rather like something that should be placed in a temple and worshiped.

In her hand, Zhao Juanhua fingered a string of black prayer beads, reciting scripture from the Daoist canon. But the anxiety in her heart found no comfort in the chanting. If anything, it only made her more agitated.

Dinner time had already passed, and the person still had not arrived. That likely meant they had never intended to come eat or make contact at all.

Could it be that even if she wanted to kneel, she would not be able to find anyone to bow to?

Her son had now been missing for another full day. That person was most likely truly dead.

Silently, Zhao Juanhua looked at the pair of great-grandchildren standing beside her.

Zhao Xilu still stood there respectfully, barely moving at all.

The red and purple marks on Zhao Mengyao’s cheek had not yet faded, and her whole posture was sloppy and graceless.

Truthfully, this great-grandson was the one most like her.

In fact, even better than she was.

His heart had been dark since childhood. When he was young, his mother had once struggled up from her sickbed, skeletal and withered, gripped his hand, and told him, “It was your great-grandmother who killed me!”

He had immediately turned around, gone to call Zhao Juanhua over, and repeated his mother’s words to her.

Zhao Juanhua still remembered the despair on that woman’s face in that moment.

When his mother breathed her last, the child Zhao Xilu had even asked her, “Can Great-Grandmother teach me that longevity technique too?”

Just listen to that. At such a young age, he was already thinking about living a hundred years.

Unfortunately, this Zhao family had been drained too hard by her.

When the local warlords collected taxes during the Republican era, they sometimes demanded payment decades in advance. She had not been quite that outrageous, but not far from it.

The woman Zhao Xilu had taken had borne two children in succession, and both had died young. That was Heaven settling the debt with her.

Zhao Xilu knew this perfectly well too. He understood that as long as she did not die, he would never have descendants of his own.

He acted as though he did not care. After all, he was still young, though he already seemed far too mature for his age.

Zhao Juanhua both admired this great-grandson and felt a little wary of him.

She had not lived long enough yet, so she had to keep him suppressed.

As for this great-granddaughter, she had always been her hope, her hope that Zhao Mengyao could go out into the world and bring another stream of good fortune back to the nearly dried-up well of the Zhao family.

The Zhao family had come to this point. Relying on arranged marriages and parental authority no longer worked. Her own “parental authority” had no blessing attached to it anyway.

The only way was to cast the fishing line far away and rely on fate and opportunity to reel someone in from outside.

Before Zhao Mengyao submitted her university applications, Zhao Juanhua had deliberately fasted for three days and cast a divination.

The hexagram had spoken in three short lines, and seeing it filled her with wild joy.

Zhao Juanhua had nearly cried with happiness and immediately chose Jinling universities for her great-granddaughter.

The divination read:

Fortune lies in Jinling,

Luck rises in the Jianghu,

A flood dragon transforms into a dragon.

It could be said that once her great-granddaughter had gone off to school, Zhao Juanhua had remained at home in perfect peace, waiting for the day her great-granddaughter would...

bring home a fine son-in-law riding the dragon.

Boom!

A muffled blast rang out.

The beads in Zhao Juanhua’s hand scattered all over the floor. She jerked her head up and asked, “Where was that?”

Zhao Xilu said, “It seems to have come from the ancestral hall.”

“Go check immediately!”

“Yes, Great-Grandmother.”

Zhao Xilu ran out at once.

“Mengyao, come here.”

“Great-Grandmother?”

Seeing her great-grandmother return to her usual kindly demeanor, Zhao Mengyao instantly felt wronged and stepped forward on her own.

The next moment, her neck was seized by an immense force, and her whole body was lifted into the air.

Carrying her like that, Zhao Juanhua darted out of the hall. She was just about to pass through the moon gate into the front courtyard when the ground beneath her feet suddenly turned slippery, and the scenery itself began to shift.

Shock filled the old woman’s eyes.

Who was it

that could make the formation she had laid in her own home turn against her?

Since she could not advance, Zhao Juanhua immediately changed direction, clutching Zhao Mengyao as she leaped westward. Pushing off the wall with one leg and grabbing with one hand, she hauled herself and her burden above the courtyard wall.

But the instant she glimpsed the fields outside, her vision shifted again. The wall seemed to rise from the earth and once more block her inside.

Thud!

Zhao Juanhua crashed to the ground and released Zhao Mengyao. Zhao Mengyao rolled several times across the dirt, scraping both elbows bloody. Clutching at her torn skin, she began to whimper and cry.

Zhao Juanhua cried too.

One of her own household had already died first, and it had even been her own biological son. Not only had she not pursued the matter, she had even prepared a full table of food and drink in advance, intending to offer proper apologies.

But how could they be this unreasonable, this inhuman?

They would not cross the threshold, would not sit at the table, had seized control of the formation first, and meant to catch the turtle in the jar. It was obvious there was nothing to discuss. They were determined to wipe out the Zhao family completely!

After moving so much, Zhao Juanhua had begun to sweat. But her sweat was not like an ordinary person’s. It was black and thick, carrying a fishy stench.

She turned her head and glared furiously at Zhao Mengyao, who was still crying beside her, and cursed,

“You little jinx, just what have you brought down on this family?!”

...

Tan Wenbin drove a wooden stake into the ground, then raised the Yellow River Spade and smacked it three times.

After the third strike, the stake burst into flame on its own, scattering sparks.

At the same time, a booming sound came from the Zhao family’s rear compound.

Glancing over at where Zhao Yi sat cross-legged, Tan Wenbin saw ghostly luminescence rise from the tops of the eighteen wooden rods around him. Zhao Yi’s hands moved nonstop, so fast they almost left afterimages.

Tan Wenbin had at least traveled enough with Brother Yuan to have seen some things. Watching Zhao Yi work, he could not help exclaiming, “Damn, Hostage Bro’s got some real skills!”

Seated there, Zhao Yi heard that and allowed himself a reserved smile.

Though he had ended up reduced to a hostage just for the sake of tasting roasted sweet potato and was now under someone else’s control, the mutual probing between both sides had never actually stopped.

The other side was clearly hiding their identities, but the more they hid, the more worth there was in digging those identities out.

His own methods had just earned a crude exclamation of admiration from the one most proficient in formations on their team.

It seemed this team’s level with formations was only so-so after all.

Zhao Yi withdrew his hands. The ghost flames around him vanished, leaving only the thickest stake still crackling as it burned.

Tan Wenbin trotted over and helped Zhao Yi to his feet. Zhao Yi smiled and said, “Zhao has merely shown off a minor skill before an expert.”

Binbin replied, “Good enough. Very flashy.”

Zhao Yi did not immediately understand what “very flashy” meant, but... it was probably praise.

In truth, it was just because Tan Wenbin was used to watching Li Zhuiyuan set formations, which were usually plain and unadorned. This was the first time he had seen someone build a formation complete with visual effects.

Zhao Yi looked at Li Zhuiyuan and continued smiling. “Fortunately, I did not fail the task.”

Li Zhuiyuan merely nodded calmly. It had been the Zhao family’s own formation to begin with. If Zhao Yi could not even alter two nodes without making mistakes, then he really ought to choke himself to death on a sweet potato.

Zhao Yi said, “I’ve destroyed the ancestral hall and sealed off the entire rear compound. Time to go in and scoop up the fish.”

As he said this, his gaze fell on Old Tian.

Old Tian grunted in acknowledgment, flicked both hands, and daggers appeared once more in his palms. He leaped over the courtyard wall ahead of them.

Li Zhuiyuan looked toward Runsheng, Yin Meng, and Lin Shuyou. Runsheng and Yin Meng immediately turned and vaulted over the wall as well.

Lin Shuyou was still pointing at his own face, as if asking: Me too?

Tan Wenbin strode over and kicked Lin Shuyou square in the backside.

Only then did Lin Shuyou realize he actually had a role in the fight too, and he promptly scrambled over the wall in high spirits.

Zhao Yi looked at Tan Wenbin and asked, “You’re not going?”

Tan Wenbin lifted the Yellow River Spade and rested it against Zhao Yi’s neck.

“It’s too dark. Fighting gets noisy and chaotic. My job is to keep the hostage safe.”

A little frightened, Zhao Yi carefully pulled his neck back and reminded him, “Easy, easy.”

Tan Wenbin lowered the Yellow River Spade, turned around, and slung it onto his back.

This hostage had to stay with him at all times.

Li Zhuiyuan climbed up onto the wall first, then leaped from the wall to the roof on the other side. Finally, he walked out to the eaves and surveyed the entire situation below.

He still had the build of a boy, but he had always kept up his breathing techniques, so his foundation was especially steady. In the past, because Runsheng had been around, he could simply put a hand on him and let that save him the trouble.

But if he truly relied on himself, then while running over walls and roofs might be an exaggeration, his agility and sure-footedness still far exceeded that of a normal adult.

After hoisting Zhao Yi onto his back, it was already hard enough for Tan Wenbin to climb the wall. Jumping from there onto the roof opposite proved nearly beyond him.

Zhao Yi might look sickly, but he was still an adult man with full adult weight.

In the end, Tan Wenbin needed a short running start before he barely managed to make it onto the roof.

Zhao Yi directed him, “There’s a bead at the eastern corner of the roof. It needs to be broken open. Only then will the formation above fully take shape. Once that happens, we’ll be safe up here and nothing unexpected will happen.”

Tan Wenbin said, “I don’t think that’s necessary.”

Zhao Yi replied, “Better to be cautious. Even though I destroyed this family’s ancestral hall, they should still have cursed objects on hand.”

“That’s not what I meant.” Tan Wenbin carried Zhao Yi over toward the eaves on that side and saw a stone crane with a bead in its beak, except the stone bead had already been broken open.

Tan Wenbin said, “See? Told you it wasn’t necessary.”

Zhao Yi’s gaze immediately landed on the boy.

The Stone Table Zhao branch was an offshoot of the Jiujiang Zhao family, and the formations in their home had come from the main branch. That was why he himself understood them so well and could control them so easily, even more skillfully and effortlessly than the people of the Stone Table Zhao household.

But this boy had seen through it at a glance too?

Tan Wenbin carried Zhao Yi over beside Li Zhuiyuan. Below them were two separate battlefields.

On one side, Old Tian was facing Zhao Xilu.

On the other, Runsheng, Yin Meng, and Lin Shuyou had Zhao Juanhua and Zhao Mengyao surrounded.

Since Old Tian wanted to be the knife, then he could handle one front by himself.

No one on this side had any intention of sending reinforcements over, and from the look of things, there really was no need.

In truth, the moment the formation was broken and their group stormed in, the Stone Table Zhao family’s fate had already been sealed.

What remained now was only to see whether, in the process of being destroyed, they could still stir up a few more waves and make things a little more entertaining.

It could not be helped. The lineup assembled to destroy this family was a bit too extravagant.

To begin with, the mission had not been all that difficult for Li Zhuiyuan’s side, nowhere near as dangerous as River walk. And along the way, they had even conveniently picked up two extra helpers.

When Heaven wanted you overturned, not only would it leave you no chance, it would even stomp down on the accelerator for you.

“Uncle Tian, what are you doing?!”

Three gruesome wounds had already appeared on Zhao Xilu’s body.

When he had come to inspect the ancestral hall, he had been shocked to find it collapsed, and then a razor-sharp chill had come from behind him.

If he had not dodged quickly enough, the first wound would have opened across his throat.

Old Tian was also somewhat surprised. “Never thought a little brat from a branch family would be hiding skills this deep.”

He had not gone all out in his first attack, but he had not intended to hold back either. Even so, the other party had managed to avoid the fatal strike, and despite the two follow-up stabs, he still had not gone down.

Zhao Xilu asked, “Uncle Tian, where is Young Master Yi?”

Old Tian lifted his head and looked toward the roof.

Zhao Xilu followed his gaze upward.

Zhao Yi had just climbed down from Tan Wenbin’s back. Seeing this, he felt a stabbing pain between his brows.

He was trying to distance himself from the Stone Table Zhao family as quickly as possible, and yet this idiot was taking the initiative to drag him into it!

Tan Wenbin said darkly, “Oh ho, looks like you’re pretty close.”

Zhao Yi looked at Li Zhuiyuan and explained, “For Grandpa Tian, loyalty is all that matters.”

For retainers like him, loyalty was the most important thing. Everything else came second. In fact, if they were too clever, their masters often could not fully trust them.

“Young Master Yi!”

The moment Zhao Xilu shouted, Uncle Tian in front of him disappeared.

A sharp dagger thrust toward Zhao Xilu’s throat.

Zhao Yi sighed inwardly. Grandpa Tian was deliberately using him as bait to draw Zhao Xilu’s attention, all to create an opening for a sneak attack.

But right now, was the issue whether or not they could wipe out the Stone Table Zhao family? Everyone had already moved on to comparing family backgrounds.

Grandpa Tian, if you keep looking this dim-witted, how am I supposed to score high marks in this boy’s eyes?

“Heh heh...”

The next moment, Zhao Yi actually laughed aloud.

Because Old Tian’s dagger still failed to pierce Zhao Xilu’s throat. A filthy, disheveled woman had appeared in front of Zhao Xilu and caught the blade in her teeth.

Zhao Xilu pulled a talisman from his sleeve and slapped it onto the woman’s back.

The woman instantly let out a shrill howl, her strength surging as she slammed forward.

Bang!

Caught off guard for a moment, Old Tian was actually knocked flying backward. Fortunately, he landed without losing his footing, so he did not look too pathetic.

But compared to the orderly, steady progress of the other battlefield, along with the endless shrieks of the two women there, the fact that his own side was still trading blows back and forth was embarrassingly shameful.

Li Zhuiyuan became interested in that woman.

Zhao Yi hurriedly explained, “That’s a living cursed object, a cursed object refined using a living person as the vessel. The success rate is extremely low, and it’s very easy for it to backfire.”

Li Zhuiyuan shook his head. “It’s more than that.”

“Hm?” Zhao Yi pulled off the strip of cloth from his forehead. The seam of flesh there twitched twice before he cried out in shock, “How did he do that? Two infant resentments have actually been attached to that woman!”

This was no ordinary living curse anymore, because she was both the cursed object and the one casting the curse. Logically speaking, something like this should have been impossible.

Li Zhuiyuan said, “A mother-and-child linked-heart curse. He made that woman eat the two dead newborn infants.”

Hearing that, Zhao Yi felt his scalp crawl. Even the seam of flesh between his brows tightened slightly. More than the sheer inhumanity of such a method of curse refinement, what frightened him was that this boy could state the principle behind it so directly.

“Your Excellency is skilled in curses as well?”

“Not really. I’ve never cast one.”

“Then how did Your Excellency...”

“I told you. There are a lot of discarded books in my basement back home.”

Zhao Yi let out a helpless sigh. Ah, there you go brushing me off again.

Li Zhuiyuan silently pressed his fingers to the space between his brows.

Seeing this, Zhao Yi at first thought he was mocking him. But when the other boy closed his eyes, Zhao Yi began to sense that something was off.

Was this... Walking the shade?

But what would he be Walking the shade for at a time like this?

Below, the woman had gone completely berserk, launching attack after attack at Old Tian. No matter how Old Tian dodged or struck at her, she showed no fear at all and felt no pain, caring only about blocking his path.

Every time Old Tian tried to break past her and go after Zhao Xilu, two cries like those of infants would come from the woman’s body. The sound made Old Tian dizzy and threw off his balance. With one side weakened and the other strengthened, that woman had actually succeeded in hemming him in.

Zhao Xilu’s first reaction was to climb the wall and run, but the formation in the house had already been altered. Right now, it allowed entry only, not exit.

Seeing escape was impossible, Zhao Xilu turned and ran to find his great-grandmother.

He did not care about her at all. If that old monster had not always hoarded the true family arts, especially the life-borrowing method, instead of passing them on to him, he would have long since found a way to get her killed.

But now that the household had descended into chaos, the “family” could only huddle together for warmth.

But the moment he emerged through the moon gate into the front of the hall, he saw two piles of black ash on the ground, clearly the remains of two Cursed-wraiths that had been smashed apart.

As for his great-grandmother herself, she was being beaten back and forth by a powerfully built man and a tall young man with an eerie aura.

This was no longer a matter of resistance or no resistance. The other side was clearly tormenting her for sport, planning to torture her to death.

In that case, her situation was even worse than his.

And as for his sister Zhao Mengyao, another woman wielding a whip was lashing her again and again while she rolled on the ground howling.

Zhao Xilu turned and ran back. Dropping to his knees before the family ancestral hall, he clawed desperately at the rubble. The hall had originally stored many cursed objects, and they were now buried under the debris. If he could just dig them out, he might still have a chance.

There was no helping it. He could not flee, and he did not want to die, so all he could do was seize with all his strength at whatever sliver of survival remained nearby.

Up above, Zhao Yi’s face had already darkened.

Old Tian below seemed to sense it too and realized he had utterly lost face. At last, he stopped holding back. The veins in both arms bulged as he angled his daggers downward, sliced open his own wrists, and stained the blades with blood, the two daggers linked in the middle by a chain of blood.

The aura around Old Tian changed as well as he thrust forward.

The two masses of infant resentment on the woman’s shoulders were cowed by the blood-smeared daggers and let out terrified shrieks. The woman herself was forced to retreat again and again.

Old Tian had not wanted to use this move. He fought with daggers. If his wrists were ruined, his combat ability would drop for a long while afterward, so how was he supposed to continue protecting his young master?

But at this point, he had no choice but to use something vicious.

“Your life is mine!”

Zhao Yi finally let out a sigh of relief and said to the person beside him, “At last, this is going to be resolved.”

Li Zhuiyuan also opened his eyes and nodded. “Mm. Resolved.”

Old Tian pressed forward with overwhelming force, intending to hack the woman and the two infant resentments on her body into pieces and recover the face he had lost during their earlier struggle.

But to his surprise, the woman suddenly turned away from him, abandoning him entirely as she lunged at Zhao Xilu, who was still kneeling there digging through the wreckage of the ancestral hall.

Hearing the familiar presence behind him, Zhao Xilu did not even turn around. Still clawing through rubble with bloodied hands, he said impatiently,

“Go stop him. Even if you die, stop him. I’m about to dig out—ahhhhhh!!!”

Zhao Xilu screamed.

The woman had sunk her teeth deep into his neck.

Then she jerked her head.

Rip!

A large chunk of flesh was torn straight from Zhao Xilu’s neck.

“You...” Blood gushed from his throat, but he could not force the words out.

The woman threw him to the ground beneath her and began biting and tearing at him in a frenzy, devouring him with all her might.

The two masses of infant resentment on her body also shrieked excitedly without pause, pouring mental torment deep into the man before them.

This was her husband in name, their father in name, yet at the same time the most utterly bestial creature imaginable.

In that moment, Zhao Xilu was suffering torment in both body and mind.

Old Tian froze awkwardly.

He had just cut his wrists, shed blood, and used his trump-card move. He had been just about to wash away his humiliation, so how had it suddenly become none of his business?

Come on, this would mean his wrists had been cut for nothing, making him look like a fool, and by extension making his young master up above also...

Old Tian drew a deep breath. Fine. Then he would just cut all of them down together and be done with it.

On the rooftop, Li Zhuiyuan said, “Tell him to stop.”

Zhao Yi called out, “Grandpa Tian.”

Old Tian looked up toward the roof.

Zhao Yi waved his hand, signaling him to withdraw.

Dejected, Old Tian trudged back, tearing strips from his own clothes to bandage his wrists as he muttered, “Damn it, I really embarrassed the young master this time.”

Li Zhuiyuan said, “Don’t bite so fast. Take your time.”

“Hm?” Zhao Yi looked at Li Zhuiyuan again. Was he talking to him?

Li Zhuiyuan said, “Chew slowly. Death by a thousand cuts.”

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