Has the City Lord Had a Nosebleed Today? (5)

Lin Qianshuang turned her head, and the red-clad female demon cultivator, identical to the mural, seemed to float before her through a gauze of mist.

The coffin in the hall stood open. Could it be…?

Chen Luoyun had risen from the dead?

Lin Qianshuang’s face was the picture of seeing a ghost. Without thinking, she waved both hands and backed away. “Y-you’ve got the wrong person. I’m… just passing by.”

“If that’s so, why does her scent cling to every inch of you?”

The woman in red drifted closer on a wave of cold. Spotting Lin Qianshuang’s bewildered panic, she let out a low, ghostly laugh. A mist blade flashed into her grip and she jabbed it at Lin Qianshuang’s throat. When the girl dodged, she slashed again, relentless. Everywhere the crimson edge passed, walls were gouged and split by scarlet scars.

Lin Qianshuang stared in bewilderment as the red-clad demon cultivator exploded into fresh rage. Skirting the wall, she dodged the wild swings. When the woman lunged again, mist blade carving crimson arcs, Lin dared not strike back. “Senior Chen,” she called while ducking aside, “let’s stop and talk, this is all a misunderstanding.”

The woman advanced another step, but a copper-coin sword flashed past Lin’s shoulder and sank into the stone beside her. Pure spiritual force blazed along its length; the ghost recoiled as though burned.

Mu Weiyin had intervened.

Lin sagged against the wall, damp with cold sweat. One more heartbeat and she might have injured Mu’s mother. If that had happened, Mu would have fought her to the death.

Chen Luoyun’s fury vanished the instant she recognized Mu Weiyin. She beamed at Lin as though they were old friends. “Little girl, you still claim it’s a lie? My daughter shielded you with her own body. If you meant nothing to her, I’d sooner believe the sea runs dry.”

Lin found herself at a loss for words. This senior’s mood swings were exhausting.

So the attack had only been a way to test Mu Weiyin’s attitude, extreme though it was.

Mu Weiyin motioned Lin Qianshuang to stand back, then studied the red-clad demon cultivator with unruffled eyes. “Long time no see. I’d wondered why, for centuries, there was no word of you. It seems you died in this underground tomb and were laid to rest beside Mother Xiao.”

At the name Xiao Linsha, the ghost’s form quivered. She forced a smile. “Ah Yin, leaving you and Xiao Chi behind… these hundreds of years I have regretted it. The quarrel between Linsha and me should never have pulled you in. Your mother failed you and caused you pain. After that day I searched the lawless wastes for any trace of you, but the scattered cultivators’ lands were chaos and I found nothing. I went to beg Linsha, only to learn she was under house arrest in her cave by the Penglai sect leader…”

Mu Weiyin gazed at the forlorn scarlet shade and said mildly, “Ancient history. Let it rest.”

The woman murmured on, pressing an embroidered handkerchief to her tearless eyes. “One wrong thought and I lost you both. Ah Yin, can you forgive Mother? It was my fault, all mine. You grew up without ever meeting Linsha. I let those Chen beasts sniff out our trail; Linsha and I were besieged in this palace by righteous hypocrites. She died in my arms, still longing to see you.

Ah Yin, forgive Linsha and me…”

Her face changed; her features suddenly twisted into the venomous mask of a ghost. She grinned hideously. “Still, I avenged her. Did you see the scattered bones? Each skeleton belongs to one of those animals who murdered her. While I remain, not one of them may leave.”

Lin Qianshuang watched Chen Luoyun mutter to herself and wondered whether the woman’s mind had already broken while she was alive.

Mu Weiyin’s voice sounded in the bottom of Lin Qianshuang’s heart. “This is only the lingering obsession of the dead. Before Chen Luoyun perished, a knot of resentment and a wisp of spirit fused into a ghost-awareness; it is not the true Chen Luoyun.”

No wonder Mu Weiyin had warned her, before bringing her into the legacy mansion, that resentment here ran deep. The resentment Chen Luoyun had carried in life, together with a shred of her soul, still clung to the coffin and had not been freed.

While Lin Qianshuang was still thinking, a death-white phantom face pressed against her own, startling her so badly she clapped a hand over her mouth. The red-clad demon cultivator looked her up and down with a grotesque smile, studying her face and figure in evident delight.

“Ah Yin, you’ve chosen this girl well. Treasure her.”

The red-robed demon cultivator turned to Mu Weiyin, then clasped Lin Qianshuang’s hand. Icy ghost aura crawled up Lin’s arm to her jaw, chilling her teeth with a dull ache. The ghost-woman smiled, cold and creepy. “Child, once you marry my daughter, if she bullies you or ever betrays you, you needn’t be afraid.”

“I’m only one of City Lord Mu’s retainers, senior, you—”

Lin Qianshuang hesitated and started to explain, but the demon cultivator’s hand covered her mouth.

The ghost spoke with a mother’s earnestness. “I’ve lived it all, I can see my daughter likes you, but the stubborn girl will never say it. I also know your feelings for her are no ordinary thing. Since you are true partners, why hide it until loss leaves only regret? Xiao Linsha and I let too many chances slip; I won’t let you young ones repeat that sorrow. Child, I owe Ah’yin so much. More than anyone, I want her to find happiness.”

Lin Qianshuang met the ghost’s stare. The ghastly pallor no longer terrified her; she read complicated human emotions there: regret, loss, hope, and a thread of maternal warmth.

But the next sentence drained the color from her face and made her whip her gaze toward Mu Weiyin, who stood to one side.

The ghost murmured at her ear, “I once tried to bind Linsha. Here I laid a Heaven-certified array that weds two lives into one, offered a hundred vile demon cultivators as sacrifice, and now the pattern wakes. Fear nothing: once the bond is sealed you will share every breath. If she learns to love you she can never betray you; treachery calls down thunder to shatter bone and soul. Nor can you forsake her. I entrust Ah’yin to you, cherish her. While Heaven stands you two will be the only true dao companions whose life and death are inseparable.”

Before the last echo faded, the ghost shoved Lin Qianshuang straight toward Mu Weiyin. Mu did not step aside; instead she reached out and steadied Lin’s back so she would not fall. The moment her feet were firm, Lin summoned a sword of swirling demonic qi and let her full cultivation blaze. She caught Mu’s hand.

“City Lord, we must leave. An array is active here; if we stay, both of us die.”

Mu Weiyin studied her, puzzled. Beyond Chen Luoyun’s resentful aura she sensed nothing amiss.

“Heavenly planet Chen, the nine stars keep the watch, the Purple Heaven Palace swears by the Dao of Heaven: I offer your hundred souls as sacrifice and knot here a marriage vow, one life, one death!”

Before Lin Qianshuang could step out of the Underground Palace, a ribbon of golden light yanked her back; she slammed into Mu Weiyin, back to back.

Brilliance burst the coffin apart. The crimson demon sword leapt up and drew a circle in the air. Hidden inside it, hundreds of wronged souls wailed, turned to ash, and drifted down like black snow. Yin-yang soul talismans rose from the floor, streaming across the hovering rune-walls of the array.

From each woman’s invisible thread of fate a red strand stretched, met, and began to twine together, slow and inexorable as climbing vines.

Mu Weiyin glanced at the golden Rule-of-Heaven sigil beneath her feet, then at the red cord now looped around her little finger and Lin Qianshuang’s. Understanding flashed across her face, followed by a flicker of shock.

If this life-and-death marriage sealed, how could she ever court Junior Sister Xiao? Worse, the bond would bind only her; if she truly fell for Lin Qianshuang, the consequences would be disastrous.

Would I still choose to betray my conscience and become a heartless wretch?

Lin Qianshuang, now grasping how dire things were, lifted her sword and tried to force her way to the Crimson Demon Sword. A lash of fiendish light hurled her to the floor; had the dark aura cloaking her body not blunted the blow, the blade would have skewered her chest. She lurched upright, but Mu Weiyin caught her wrist and held her back.

Mu Weiyin pressed her lips into a thin, grim line. Seeing the raw panic on Lin Qianshuang’s face, she said, “Stay calm. Don’t rush.”

The very steadiness in Mu Weiyin’s eyes made Lin Qianshuang’s own brighten with a spark of hope. She whipped her head around. “City Lord, you can break this array?”

Mu Weiyin answered in a level voice. “Heaven is my witness: the matter is already irreversible. Only by bowing to Heaven’s will can we go forward. The ending is fixed; no amount of haste will change it.”

Lin Qianshuang’s mouth twitched. For a moment she had actually believed Mu Weiyin had a way to shatter the formation. She kept forgetting that the woman’s serene expression was simply the face she was born with.

Within the red sword a remnant soul flickered in and out of the golden light. As the array slowly completed, Chen Luoyun’s ghostly soul was being purified and lifted toward Heaven.

Mu Weiyin had dismissed the so-called marriage-and-life-death contract. An impossible-to-break pact it might be, yet riddled with loopholes. Once this subordinate’s life was locked safely in her grasp, the contract would be nothing but scrap.

She watched Chen Luoyun’s ghost fade away, a ripple of feeling disturbing the well-like emptiness of her eyes. Her lips parted:

“Live well in your next life.”

Sitting inside the array, powerless to stop its forging, Lin Qianshuang slid into a hush, her face blank while her mind worked.

She and Mu Weiyin were now bound by a life-death pact, yet Mu Weiyin loved Xiao Lanle.

The plan had been simple: make Mu Weiyin cry, seize the Tianshu Mirror, and let Xiao Lanle and Mu Weiyin tear each other apart in a tragic romance.

Now there was a second condition.

Lin Qianshuang wrestled with it, then gave up—she would improvise.

The city lord looked unconcerned, yet she might already have a scheme: keep her like a rare beast in a cage, drug her to extend her life. A terrifying thought.

She ventured a test. “City Lord, you and Junior Sister Xiao are the true dao companions. How could someone of my station share a life-death pact with you? I serve you loyally, no second thoughts. The Heavenly Dao may seem unchangeable, but this world always finds a way. If need be, we can replace that Dao.”

Mu Weiyin answered, “This is not your fault. If Chen Luoyun’s dying wish remains unfulfilled, her resentment will gather inside the coffin until she becomes a vengeful ghost. A proud woman of a great clan would never allow that.”

“This city lord only wishes her to rest beneath the Nine Springs¹ and re-enter the wheel of rebirth. Instead, I have dragged you into this.”

Lin Qianshuang’s heart lurched. Fearing that Mu Weiyin would jail her next, she bowed low and answered with meek devotion, “Your servant serves the city lord of her own free will.”

Mu Weiyin studied her for a long moment. “Jieyu,” she said, voice low and deliberate, “the Heavenly Dao rules this realm. Rash words or deeds can shorten a cultivator’s allotted life. Replacing the Dao is possible, yet no mortal power can accomplish it alone. The Dao is woven through every living creature; to change it, the Treasures of the Four Realms must be wakened, the Upper Realm’s true sight opened, and the Heavenly Eye that gazes upon us all shattered. Then the Dao will turn, the preordained children of fate will be erased, and the realm itself will re-draw its karmic lines upon the old foundation.”

Lin Qianshuang drew a sharp breath. Mu Weiyin, the Dao’s staunchest guardian, was calmly reciting a step-by-step plan to overthrow it. For an instant Lin felt she stood before a hidden quest NPC planted by the system.

Her pupils narrowed. As long as the Dao endured, Liang Jingxuan would remain an immortal terror; once the Dao fell, the erasure of the so-called son of destiny would reset the world’s karma, and Liang Jingxuan would vanish with it.

The Treasures of the Four Realms are the key to every clue.

“Jieyu, from now on you may not stray half a step from this city lord, nor leave the range of my sight.”

Mu Weiyin bit the tip of her finger; a drop of blood fell into Lin Qianshuang’s palm and condensed into a red mole. “If you are in danger, I will come to you. If the situation is urgent, do not act rashly.”

No matter how she heard them, the words sounded like something lovers would say.

Lin Qianshuang felt awkward all over. While her hand was still held, a loud cough cut the two of them off.

She turned her head. Du Shuang stood not far away leading the group, her eyes practically popping out of their sockets and her expression comically exaggerated. Behind her, a large number of Tianshu City cultivators had already arrived and gathered outside the Legacy Mansion.

Du Shuang shot Lin Qianshuang a look of amazement, then dropped to one knee before Mu Weiyin.

“City Lord, the cultivators outside Penglai Immortal Sect have been driven off. Acting Sect Leader Xiao Lanle has safely emerged from the Sect Leader’s trial; you may return to the city.”