Chapter 117

Flames surged from the great fish, forming a thick pillar of fire. Its mouth continued to bulge, yet it remained tightly shut.

Yu Xuzi struggled with all his might, but the great fish's resentment was boundless. It knew its end was predetermined, but it could choose the path to its demise. To take the bait willingly—that was its ultimate decision. As a fish, it naturally knew what it meant to be hooked and pulled from the water.

In its eyes, however, rather than being merged with and enslaved by this fellow, it would prefer to invite the Dragon King to grant it a swift end. He, at least, was the legitimate River-Walker successor of the Liu family, the future Dragon King. But you, you stinking Taoist who murdered your brother and destroyed your disciples, what are you?!

Yu Xuzi and his senior brother had both once admired that Liu family Dragon King. In fact, from another perspective, wasn't this great fish also an admirer? It might have regretted why, when facing that terrifying woman, it had gone to such lengths to escape, enduring centuries of suffering for nothing, leaving it now helpless. Having lain dormant for three centuries, at this moment, the great fish had only one thought: To perish together!

Li Zhuiyuan stood there, holding a newly opened can of Jianlibao. The firelight reflected on the young man's face. He finally understood why the smaller fish he'd released each had their own little schemes—it was genetic. This wave of events had unfolded smoothly, yet also fortuitously. The formations set up by the seniors Xue, Zeng, and Zheng for their descendants not only guarded against their master but also against themselves.

Ultimately, this time was also thanks to Binbin and Mengmeng's efforts. Not only did they succeed in their task, but they also brought the descendants along. If there had been even a slight problem or delay at any stage, it would have ultimately escalated into a bloody, fierce battle.

Runsheng, Tan Wenbin, and Yin Meng were also watching Li Zhuiyuan. While the young man was reflecting on his companions' dedication and efforts, his companions, in turn, looked at him with an even greater sense of wonder. From their perspective, ever since entering this sealed Zhengmen Village, the three of them had been unwittingly cooperating in this elaborate play. As the "play" continued, Yu Xuzi inexplicably offered himself up, lying still, seemingly begging to be beaten. After all his fish scales were knocked off, even his soul was burned to ashes. Immediately after, having transformed into a corpse demon, it inexplicably charged into its own freshly laid formation, only to be knocked to the ground by a punch from its own skeleton outside the formation. They thought they had already gained enough advantage and it was time for a serious, all-out fight. But then the young man said a few words, and the great fish immediately turned on the Taoist priest and swallowed him.

Watching Li Zhuiyuan drink his beverage, Tan Wenbin recalled a line from his high school Chinese textbook: "In pleasant conversation, masts and oars turn to ash and smoke." At this moment, within the team, both the leader and his companions viewed each other through a "filter," a truly win-win situation.

The great fire finally extinguished. Before them lay a small mountain of ashes.

Li Zhuiyuan took out his Seven-Star Hook from his backpack, extended it, and began to rummage through the ashes. This was the part he enjoyed. A-Li was still waiting for him at home; he needed to gather more raw materials for her crafts. The reward came quickly: a crystal-clear fishbone, like jade, was unearthed. He could take this back to make a "jade hairpin" for A-Li.

Li Zhuiyuan continued to search, hoping to find more items, ideally including the materials for his new bone ring next year. Soon, however, the tip of the hook touched something hard, and a force pulled back, contending with him. Li Zhuiyuan decisively let go. "If you want it, it's yours." Released along with it were Runsheng and Yin Meng.

Yin Meng swung her leather whip, striking the area. The ashes dispersed, revealing Yu Xuzi within. The Taoist priest's appearance was tragic; most of his body had melted away, with only his torso and one arm remaining. Li Zhuiyuan thought it was a rather good image and sculpture, suitable for display in an art academy's exhibition hall. The Taoist priest's hand still clutched the tip of the Seven-Star Hook, but his face showed no anger or malice, only bewilderment.

Runsheng stepped forward with his Yellow River shovel and, with one sweep, severed the Taoist priest's sole remaining arm. Just as he was about to strike the Taoist priest's head, the priest spoke: "Besides the stone tablets at the riverbed, I also left some notes in another location."

Runsheng stopped. Logically, he shouldn't have stopped to give the enemy another chance to speak. In the Hong Kong gangster films he watched, villains always paused at such moments, which always infuriated him. But the problem was, the Taoist priest was "dropping loot." It felt like when he used to live at Grandpa Li's house, and Binbin borrowed a Subor learning console from a classmate. The little characters inside would jump and hit things, making "ding-ding-ding-ding" sounds.

Li Zhuiyuan walked towards the Taoist priest. The Taoist priest looked at the approaching young man and said, "In the house where my senior brother died, on the second floor, there's a study. It contains some of my insights and reflections on formations. They're not well written, so please don't laugh too hard when you read them."

Li Zhuiyuan nodded.

The Taoist priest asked, "Tell me, if I hadn't succumbed to greed back then and had teamed up with my senior brother to suppress this fish demon, would the two of us have met that Liu family Dragon King? Would we have had a chance to pay respects to the Dragon King? Even if we hadn't met her, if I had continued my cultivation and led my disciples, we could have left more stories in the martial arts world, couldn't we? Now, I think I regret it."

Li Zhuiyuan: "You're not regretting it; you merely failed."

The Taoist priest stared intensely at Li Zhuiyuan, the malevolence on his face reappearing. He was a dying man. He had expected some parting words of comfort after revealing his notes, but instead, the other person merely found a new way to twist the knife in his wound.

"I also want to ask you something. Can you tell me why you wanted to merge with this demonic creature?"

"Isn't it obvious? Do you even need to ask me?"

Li Zhuiyuan shook his head: "I just think, being a human is very difficult."

The Taoist priest: "Please do me one more favor."

Li Zhuiyuan silently took a piece of purple canvas from his pocket. Canvas was a consumable item, but A-Li had an endless supply from the ancestral hall. After Li Zhuiyuan became a disciple of the Qin-Liu sect, he had considered whether it was disrespectful to use ancestral tablets as tools. But then he thought, perhaps this was the ancestors lending their aid; "what an elder bestows, one dare not decline."

The Taoist priest: "Please look after the descendants of my three disciples. I hope they can live good lives..."

Li Zhuiyuan: "Disgusting."

The young man unfolded the canvas and placed it over the Taoist priest's head.

"Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle, sizzle, sizzle..."

It was like pouring a large bowl of water into a boiling oil pot; intense white steam rose from beneath the canvas.

"Aaaah!!"

This was an extremely cruel torture method for evil spirits. The Taoist priest had long ceased to be human. Even now, though he had lost the ability to retaliate, his vitality remained stubbornly strong. Runsheng had initially thought that it was a bit wasteful for Xiao Yuan to use such precious canvas to kill the Taoist priest; he could have just chopped him with the shovel, as strength was cheap. But as it burned, wisps of white smoke also began to rise from several corners of the ashes. Runsheng walked over and used his shovel to clear the ashes, discovering small fish being cooked. They had apparently been hiding there earlier, and judging by the traces in the ashes, they had been preparing to crawl out and hide, plotting a comeback. Now, thanks to the canvas, they were all caught and eliminated.

"Aaaah! Aaaah!"

The black canvas gradually thinned from the consumption, revealing the wooden slips inside. Amidst his screams and wails, the Taoist priest saw the inscription on one of the wooden slips: Liu Qingcheng. He thought he was hallucinating, but after seeing the name, the painting at the location where his senior brother died immediately appeared in his mind. In the painting, a woman in a green robe stood facing the fish demon in the river. Liu Qingcheng—that was her name. "Senior brother, I've seen her..." And then, he plunged completely into darkness.

The process finished. Li Zhuiyuan removed the black canvas; the Taoist priest had turned pitch black. Runsheng lightly poked the Taoist priest with his shovel, sending up a cloud of Yu Xuzi's ashes.

"Brother Runsheng, please go to the riverbed and retrieve all the stone tablets. Brother Binbin, you go and make rubbings of the inscriptions on the tablets. Mengmeng, you come with me to the second floor."

Yin Meng's lips curved slightly. It seemed this was the first time Xiao Yuan had used a diminutive for her name.

Entering the courtyard again, Li Zhuiyuan paused for a moment, looking at the skeletons of the yellow-robed Taoist priest and his disciples, then he went inside and upstairs. There was indeed a room on the second floor showing signs of use. The desk was by the window, and sitting behind it, one could simply turn their head to see the courtyard. Presumably, Yu Xuzi had spent countless days and nights sitting there, writing and watching his senior brother, whom he had caused to die, below.

Yin Meng noticed this too. She frowned and said, "I really don't understand what people like that are thinking."

Li Zhuiyuan, flipping through the notebooks on the desk, said, "Understanding them is a waste of time."

"Brother Xiao Yuan, Jiayi is a really nice person. After we return to Jinling, can I continue to hang out with her?"

"You don't need my permission to be friends with anyone."

"I'm just worried..."

"Don't worry."

"Okay."

"However, do pay close attention to whether Zheng Jiayi undergoes any changes after this incident, such as in her personality or habits. Please keep an eye on her and let me know after some time."

"Understood."

"All right, find something to wrap these notebooks; we need to take them."

"Okay, I'll put them in my bag."

Yin Meng began organizing her hiking backpack. The task was complete, and it was time for the return journey, so the supplies inside could be discarded to make room for more valuable books.

"Brother Xiao Yuan, should I also pack the books on the bookshelf?"

"No, those books aren't worth anything."

"Then... can they be sold for money?"

"They could barely be considered antiques."

"Then I'll take them all. After we return to Jinling, I'll find a place to sell them and buy a pickup truck."

Runsheng's retrieval and Tan Wenbin's rubbings were highly efficient. When the two returned from the river, they also retrieved some door panels from the village, made a wooden sled, tied the six still-unconscious university students onto it, and Runsheng dragged them back with a rope. The ground was uneven, making for a bumpy ride, but getting them out was good enough; there was no need to expect comfortable treatment. They would have liked to find a cart, but after all these years, the wheels had long rotted away.

Li Zhuiyuan personally set up a new formation. When the formation activated, a distortion appeared at the barrier ahead. The group passed through it and emerged outside. On the stone altar, the offerings placed when they entered were now scattered on the ground. After all, the altar had been split open earlier, and the skeletons inside had walked out.

"Brother Binbin, please re-arrange the offerings; Mengmeng, wipe that stone tablet again."

The altar was re-arranged, and the stone tablet was wiped until it gleamed.

"Humans are multifaceted." This statement was literally embodied by Yu Xuzi. His own skeleton didn't recognize him, nor did his disciples. Therefore, this altar and stone tablet were not set up for him, nor were they commemorating him. He had simply shamelessly adopted the same name.

Li Zhuiyuan looked around. Yu Xuzi had said that the Liu family Dragon King had once come here and seen it. This was also why he had arranged the sealing formation to be so robust. But had that Dragon King truly been here?

"You're out?" Zheng Jiayi emerged from behind a large rock nearby, holding a bag of biscuits.

Yin Meng asked, "Where's Zeng Yinyin?"

Zheng Jiayi pointed behind her: "She's back there."

Zeng Yinyin was still securely bound.

Yin Meng: "I'll untie her legs and let her walk on her own." As she passed Li Zhuiyuan, Yin Meng heard the young man's instruction: "Loosen them up a bit." Yin Meng nodded.

The group arrived at the riverside. The mist on the river remained dense. This was a result of the formation's influence; ordinary people who entered without permission would become lost. Since there were still six unconscious university students, everyone except Li Zhuiyuan went to find some branches and clumps of grass nearby to add buoyancy to the wooden boards.

Just then, Zeng Yinyin suddenly broke free from her ropes and, without hesitation, rushed into the river. Li Zhuiyuan sat there, watching Zeng Yinyin run past him and leap into the river. At first, as she waded through the river, she kept looking back to see if anyone was pursuing her. Gradually, the mist obscured her view behind her. When she looked forward again, she found she couldn't see the opposite bank either. She continued forward, relying on her previous sense of direction, but after an unknown period, she was still surrounded by water. The water wasn't deep, only reaching her chest, but the riverbanks seemed to have become impossibly distant. She began to shout: "Fool! Fool! Fool!" No one responded, no one appeared. Perhaps, only a fool would continue to pay her any mind.

"Oh, she ran off!" Zeng Yinyin's escape only drew a gasp from Zheng Jiayi. But after her gasp, she realized that everyone else was busy with their tasks, and no one reacted.

Once the makeshift raft was ready, Li Zhuiyuan took out his compass, preparing to lead the way himself. But just as he entered the water, he saw the silhouette of the Fool emerge from the mist. The Fool happily waved his hands, hopping in the water and splashing. Li Zhuiyuan put away his compass and said, "Let's go. The Fool will lead the way."

After crossing the river, they began to head back. As they walked, Li Zhuiyuan realized this wasn't the way they had come. However, seeing the Fool running and picking wildflowers from the roadside to put on his head, Li Zhuiyuan said nothing and continued to follow him.

The mountain path was difficult, strewn with rocks and full of slopes. The six university students being dragged on the wooden boards were now all bruised and swollen. Other minor abrasions were one thing, but occasionally someone would hit their nose on the board or their classmate's head, causing nosebleeds, and Tan Wenbin had to stop the bleeding for them. Binbin, while rubbing a paper wad, grumbled, "Be good, be obedient. Next time, just go exploring in the park, don't run around recklessly out here." After stopping the bleeding, Tan Wenbin couldn't help but sigh, "The physical fitness of university students nowadays is really not good." To highlight his "kindness," Yu Xuzi had long ago released them from his control, and the small fish had left their bodies. Yet, even now, all six remained unconscious. This made Binbin, who was used to sending Runsheng and Lin Shuyou to the infirmary, feel quite unaccustomed.

Ahead, three small hills appeared side by side. Zheng Jiayi excitedly pointed and said, "My family's ancestral grave is right there, on the leftmost hill!"

Li Zhuiyuan asked, "Whose families are the other two?"

Zheng Jiayi thought for a moment and replied, "The middle one belongs to the Xue family, and the right one belongs to the Zeng family."

Li Zhuiyuan nodded. It seemed that with the complete demise of the great fish and Yu Xuzi, the formation in Min'an Town had also ceased operating and returned to normal.

The flower-crowned Fool gestured animatedly in front of Li Zhuiyuan. Li Zhuiyuan understood what he meant, but the young man still beckoned to him. The Fool obediently bent down, bringing his face close to the young man's. Li Zhuiyuan looked into his eyes and asked with great curiosity, "Who exactly are you?"

The Fool straightened up and gesticulated wildly, saying, "I'm a corpse retriever, a corpse retriever, a corpse retriever!"

Li Zhuiyuan shook his head: "You are not."

The Fool paused, then jumped up and down, shouting, "I'm the village guardian, the village guardian, the village guardian!"

Li Zhuiyuan didn't press further but instructed:

"Mengmeng, you and Zheng Jiayi go to her family's ancestral grave;Brother Binbin, Brother Runsheng, you two go to the Zeng family's ancestral grave.Bring incense and paper, and pay your respects."

The four each took their respective items and headed towards the two hilltops. Li Zhuiyuan, meanwhile, prepared to head towards the middle one, which was the Xue family's ancestral grave. The Fool bounced along behind him. Li Zhuiyuan stopped, turned to look at him, and then pointed to the six still-unconscious university students on the wooden board.

"You stay here and watch them."

The Fool's face showed injustice. Then he quickly ran to the board, tiptoed between the six people, and with a butt-out posture: "Pfft!"

Li Zhuiyuan, standing at a distance, watched as the hair of the six university students was blown upwards. Useless. To his surprise, all six opened their eyes, slowly sat up one by one, and began to survey their surroundings with clear yet bewildered eyes.

Li Zhuiyuan turned and walked towards the hillside. The Fool followed him.

Because Father Xue had recently visited the grave, the weeds here had been cleared. The ancestral graves were arranged from high to low, with higher-ranking ancestors buried at higher elevations, much like the placement of offerings on an altar. Generally, when descendants pay respects, they only need to do so at the lowest point. Li Zhuiyuan walked past the other grave mounds, continuing upwards until he reached the uppermost tombstone. The tombstone was old, clearly ancient, but the characters on it were likely re-traced with paint by descendants every few decades.

The disciples of the three families had come here with their master, and later, to suppress the demonic creature, they had lived here under assumed names. Therefore, their family ancestral graves originated with them. Brother Liangliang's ancestor was named... Xue Erwu. Recalling Yu Xuzi's words, he had deliberately chosen his three most foolish and mediocre disciples to bring along. Indeed, the name itself sounded rather unintelligent.

Li Zhuiyuan lit the incense sticks and planted them in the ground. When he lit the yellow paper, the Fool clapped his hands excitedly, eager to try. So, Li Zhuiyuan simply handed it to him, letting him burn it playfully on the grave. Then, Li Zhuiyuan took two steps back and stood to the side of Xue Erwu's tombstone. He formally performed the Liu family's sect rites for it. He was currently undertaking the River-Walker's journey, with complex karma surrounding him. If he were to pay respects directly, the deceased inside might not mind, but their living descendants might not be able to withstand it.

The rites concluded.

"Crack!"

A crack appeared down the middle of the tombstone. Li Zhuiyuan couldn't help but be surprised: "Am I that powerful now?" However, Li Zhuiyuan soon discovered that the problem wasn't just with the tombstone; the earth behind it had also caved in, forming a hollow.

Approaching the hollow, he saw a completely faded coffin within. Its lid had split down the middle and slid open to either side. Inside the coffin lay the remains of an elderly person. Apart from some dehydration, the remains were remarkably well-preserved in appearance and features. This was not surprising. A fundamental requirement of geomancy for selecting burial sites is that the body must be protected from dampness and disturbance to ensure optimal preservation. They were people of the mystical arts, skilled in formations, and this was a propitious burial spot. It would have been truly strange if a body couldn't be preserved well here.

The old man's hands were clasped over his lower abdomen, and a thin book lay on his chest. Other than that, there were no burial objects in the coffin, making it appear simple and unadorned. Li Zhuiyuan jumped into the hollow, went to the coffin, and reached in to take out the book. There was no need to feel awkward; this was the Xue family ancestor's manifestation, actively showing it to him. Li Zhuiyuan was curious about the book's contents that would make Xue Erwu go so far as to split open his own coffin just to show it to him.

The book was very thin. Though it had a cover, the actual content was just a few pages. It wasn't a secret manual, a cultivation technique, or a formation diagram; it was more like a memoir. Being buried with only this indicated that the experience recorded in the article was the most significant and precious of his life. After reading it, a smile appeared on Li Zhuiyuan's lips. He found it very interesting.

Yu Xuzi had said that the Liu family Dragon King had been here. Indeed, that Liu family Dragon King had come. When she arrived, Yu Xuzi's three disciples were kneeling outside the formation, facing the altar and stone tablet, mourning their master and weeping bitterly. A Dragon King was not a god; she couldn't be omniscient and omnipotent. When Li Zhuiyuan first saw this formation, he only thought its sole flaw was "suppression without attrition." Had he not discovered Yu Xuzi's extremely high formation mastery after entering, he wouldn't have realized the formation's original intention was problematic. That Liu family Dragon King was the same; she couldn't discern the problem. After all, if the three disciples were so foolish, it was quite reasonable for their master to have set up such a clumsy formation. Furthermore, this Liu family Dragon King apparently wasn't skilled in formations.

In short, she came and was so moved by Yu Xuzi's "fearless dedication and sacrifice" that she actually considered taking the three of them as unranked disciples. This was exactly what their master had always yearned for! However, the three of them, citing their existing master-disciple lineage and their master's recent self-sacrifice in defense of righteousness, refused this immense opportunity. It must be said, these three disciples were truly straightforward and guileless in nature. From this, it was also clear that Yu Xuzi's selection criteria were problematic. If he had chosen a few clever and quick-witted disciples, they might have stayed loyal for two or three years, then felt they had repaid their debt, grown tired or annoyed, and left. But he specifically chose the three most foolish and earnest ones. They genuinely adhered to their master's instructions and obediently listened, not only guarding for their entire lives but also taking measures to ensure their descendants would continue to protect their greatest master.

Although her offer of discipleship was rejected, the Liu family Dragon King wasn't angry. Instead, she took them in as "retainers," which was essentially equivalent to servants. During the Dragon King family's heyday, many individuals or entire clans and sects voluntarily joined as retainers for various needs, such as secret manuals, cultivation methods, or favors. Here, it was a flexible compromise to circumvent certain protocols. This type of retainer meant, "I can send you on errands and teach you things, but outside, you cannot claim to be a Liu family member or reveal that you have learned anything from the Liu family."

The Liu family Dragon King imparted the "Liu Clan Qi-Gazing Art" to the three of them and also gave them multiple sets of the Liu family's secret formation texts. From this, it was evident that the Liu family Dragon King was indeed not skilled in formations; otherwise, she wouldn't have just given them "textbooks" when teaching her disciples. One could only say, "An orange grown south of the Huai River is an orange, but grown north, it becomes a trifoliate orange." This idiom implies that circumstances change things. These three disciples were clumsy dullards under Yu Xuzi, yet with the Liu family's mental cultivation methods and secret texts, even just studying by themselves behind closed doors, they achieved great results. No wonder Yu Xuzi, sealed inside for so many years, could never overcome his own disciples; their levels were already different.

Furthermore, when the three disciples suddenly spread the news forty years after their master's death, they might have already detected that their master had changed and gradually discerned his true intentions. However, they chose not to cooperate but continued to set up arrangements to permanently suppress their master. One reason was that the "master" in their hearts had long been the image on the stone tablet; and secondly, perhaps a corrupted master was even more agreeable to them, as it allowed them to identify more strongly with their status as Liu family retainers in their hearts. Look, even in death, they wanted to take this experience or this identity into their coffins. This inner inclination couldn't be more obvious.

Li Zhuiyuan shook the notebook in his hand and said with a smile to the old man's remains in the coffin: "All right, all right, I understand. You, like me, are a retainer of the Liu family."

"Buzz!"

From the three ancestral graves on the three hilltops, green smoke rose. This time it wasn't a green glow, because the glow was too fast to manifest. The green smoke curled upwards, and though there was no wind, it formed intricate twists and turns as it ascended into the air. Furthermore, the twisted and turning directions all pointed towards where Li Zhuiyuan was standing.

In the ethereal realm, three faint, aged voices seemed to echo in his ears:

"Xue (Zeng, Zheng) of the Liu Clan, respectfully greet the Dragon King!"