Chapter Thirty-Eight: The Identity of the Gentleman

At the same time, fist-sized bubbles began to rise again from the water in the reservoir, as if the entire body of water was boiling over a raging fire. Beside the Taoist nun, I caught sight of the Bus Uncle, now shackled by an iron chain locked around his shoulder blade, barely clinging to life.

“Taoist nun, what are you trying to do?” I shouted toward the center of the reservoir, where she was deftly steering the small boat toward us. Her eyes, eerie and devoid of pupils, scanned the three of us, finally settling her gaze upon Lu Li.

“Are you from Mount Shu?” Her voice quivered with agitation, her brows furrowing deeply.

“Master aunt, don’t you recognize me?” Lu Li replied earnestly, looking straight at her.

The Taoist nun studied him in silence for a while, then said, “You’re the child Ding the Drunk picked up in Lu Family Town all those years ago?”

“That’s right!” Lu Li answered. “Master aunt, you stole the forbidden Yellow Springs Tome from Mount Shu and descended the mountain to cause chaos, your crimes immeasurable. I have been sent by our sect to capture you and bring you back!”

Listening to Lu Li’s speech, both Wang Feiyang and I were left speechless. He was clearly here to take her life, yet insisted on phrasing it so elegantly. Shouldn’t he be cursing and shouting instead?

The Taoist nun was amused by his words, but her expression quickly turned fierce. “You think you alone can do it?”

No sooner had she spoken than she glided from her boat toward us. My heart tightened; hurriedly, I drew a talisman in my palm and recited, “Heaven’s circle and earth’s square, nine orders of law, thunder and fire in my palm, all ghosts subdued!”

I struck out with my palm, but she dodged with supernatural speed and drifted toward Lu Li instead.

Lu Li’s expression grew stern; he unleashed nine yellow talismans, chanting, “By order of the law, act swiftly!”

Four talismans struck the nun, crackling with the sound of thunder and fire. She shrieked, ripping the talisman from her face, leaving her right cheek a mangled mess of flesh and blood, exposing the sinister white bone beneath.

“A mere junior dares injure me?”

Furious, she radiated a powerful aura of darkness. Under its oppressive force, I felt myself trembling uncontrollably, unable to move.

Wang Feiyang was just as petrified, rooted to the spot with terror. Lu Li, however, frowned deeply, then drew his long sword and recited loudly, “Heaven’s origin and supreme unity, commander of spirits, guardian of the earth, preserver of life essence, Azure Dragon to the left, White Tiger to the right, bearing the Dragon Sword, blessed by five fortunes, leading the divine officers, generals of three and five ranks, all evil must be cut down, all monsters destroyed, with one sword’s resolve, by order of the law, decree!”

As soon as he finished, Lu Li’s sword soared through the air, flying straight at the Taoist nun. Her face changed, and she retreated rapidly. The sword circled her, stabbing seven or eight times. Just as its tip was about to pierce her brow, she suddenly pinched it between two fingers, snapping it in half with a sharp crack.

Lu Li’s face turned pale, and he spat out a mouthful of blood. The nun’s eyes were cold as she said, “Indeed, Mount Shu has fallen. Even a fool like you can become their chief disciple and learn the Sword Resolve!”

With that, she ceased her attack, turned back to the boat at the reservoir’s center, and plunged both halves of Lu Li’s broken sword into the Bus Uncle’s shoulders.

He howled in agony, then shouted desperately toward us, “Run, Wu Dao, run!”

Seeing the Bus Uncle suffering so, my heart felt as if it were being torn apart. How could I possibly flee now?

I stared fiercely at the Taoist nun, demanding, “What exactly are you trying to do?”

She sneered, pointing to the water beside her boat. “Do you know why I went through so much trouble back then, slaughtered the entire Dongmen Village, and completed a blood ritual for the Yellow Springs?”

The three of us stared at her, utterly confused by her words.

She didn’t care whether we answered, continuing, “There’s a secret in the Yellow Springs Tome. When I discovered it, I learned that a precious artifact lay hidden beneath this reservoir, but it can only be summoned through a blood sacrifice, and only someone with the Nine Yin Fate can unlock the mechanism below. Do you understand?”

My heart seized. Was it true that she massacred the whole village just so, when I was born, she could use my Nine Yin Fate to open the mechanism and seize this so-called treasure?

“Yes!” The nun’s excitement intensified. “I was willing to betray my sect and endure endless hardship for this thing, only to have my plan ruined at the crucial moment by this old fool beside me and Zuo Daoyin. Not only that, they killed me and sealed me in that half-dead body for twenty years. But heaven is just; after twenty years, what is destined for me will finally be mine.”

“What did you say? What did you just say?” My mind exploded. She said that, at the critical moment, her plan was thwarted by the Bus Uncle and Zuo Daoyin? Could it be...?

The nun laughed loudly. “You still don't understand? You’ve already witnessed what transpired in Dongmen Village twenty years ago—haven’t you wondered why this old fool beside me never appeared in the scenes you saw, yet seemed to know everything about the matter? Don’t you find that strange?”

No sooner had she spoken than the Bus Uncle shouted again, “Run, Wu Dao, hurry! Don’t listen to her lies—she wants to use you!”

“Could it be... are you really...?” I gazed at the Bus Uncle, chained and wounded, tears already welling in my eyes.

The Taoist nun cast me a mocking smile. “Perhaps you won’t believe my words, but I can show you direct evidence. To prove its authenticity, let me give you a hint: the Yellow Springs Tome contains a forbidden spell called ‘Borrowing the Corpse, Returning the Soul.’”

“Borrowing the Corpse, Returning the Soul?” My heart trembled. Before I could think further, darkness swept over me, just like the experience I had in the courtyard at Dongmen Village. When I opened my eyes again, the world had changed.

I found myself standing inside a double-decker bus. I recognized it at once—it was the Bus Uncle’s vehicle before it was modified.

Night had fallen outside. The bus was packed with passengers, traveling from a neighboring county to ours, a journey of about forty kilometers. The two counties were separated by a mountain, so the bus had to cross it to reach its destination, prolonging the trip. I’d taken such a double-decker bus once—it took about three hours, and so the second deck was fitted with bunks.

The passengers displayed various moods: some stared numbly out the windows, some played with their phones, others dozed, and a young woman at the front was soothing her wailing baby.

The bus driver was none other than Bus Uncle. In the last row, I saw a familiar figure—my grandfather, Wu Zhenlong, sitting at the back, deep in conversation on his phone, his brow tightly furrowed as if discussing something urgent.

Instinctively, I moved closer to him and overheard him say, “Wu Dao, this unpainted coffin—where did the bright red color come from? Even coffins made from rosewood are only slightly reddish!”

“And red coffins have two meanings: first, 'joy coffins,' used when elders over ninety pass away peacefully. But have you ever heard of seven elders over ninety dying at once? The other is a blood coffin, used only for those who died tragically!”

My heart began pounding fiercely. What I was witnessing was the scene from the third day after that woman came to our house asking for seven bright red coffins, the very conversation I had with my grandfather!