Chapter 103 The Reunion

Wei Yuan looked rather disheveled.

His hands and feet trembled slightly from the exertion just now, his body was刺痛 (ci tong, stinging pain), and each breath caused the Crouching Tiger Formula and the baleful aura to fight within him. The ghost king he had just encountered was truly a great enemy that Wei Yuan had never faced before. By this point in the battle, he was already exhausted.

Now, sitting on the ground, his mind and body were weary, and he didn't want to move a finger.

As the ghost completely vanished into thin air, the Crouching Tiger Waist Token vibrated softly.

Words flowed through his spiritual platform, indicating the merits he had earned.

Perhaps because Wei Yuan had only delivered the final blow, the merits were not as many as he had imagined, but they were still considerable. Combined with the妖鬼 (yao gui, demon ghosts) he had killed when stealing the 羽衣 (yu yi, feather garment), he barely managed to reach a hundred. Killing a small ghost earlier had only yielded two or three merits, and Qi Niang had dissipated her戾气 (li qi, resentment) on her own, earning him only seven merits.

These were already rare and substantial figures.

Wei Yuan exhaled a breath of stale air.

After recovering his breath for a while, he forced himself to get up and turned around, seeing the ruins of the mountain. He thought of the evil Daoist he had just seen, and wondered if the storm summoned by the heavenly maiden had turned the Daoist into dust, and whether any trace of his soul remained for driving ghosts.

The spread of evil arts in Quan City, and who exactly had caused the revival of demons in this ghost domain.

All of this was likely inseparable from that Daoist.

Wei Yuan took out a Thousand-Mile Tracking Talisman, shook his hand, and ignited it. His perception increased dramatically, and everything around him became incredibly clear. Soon, he saw that the Daoist's aura had not dissipated. Instead, he had somehow avoided the near-catastrophic storm and was fleeing towards a hidden place at the foot of the mountain.

………………

The black-robed Daoist was in a sorry state, running straight down the mountain.

His face was pale, and he was panting like a bull.

Just recalling the scene that seemed like the wrath of the heavens made his scalp tingle and filled him with unspeakable fear. If it hadn't been for the disaster-avoiding talisman passed down by his ancestor, he would have undoubtedly died. But even though he had managed to escape with his life, his cultivation had been shattered by the wind and thunder, and even his talismans were exhausted.

The Daoist lost his footing and fell to the ground, rolling twice.

He could already see the village hotel built in imitation of the human world at the foot of the mountain in the distance. Gritting his teeth, he struggled to get up and continued to walk towards it.

He only needed to hide inside, to hide among those living people, and he could sneak out.

Then he would spread the word about what he had seen today.

The revival of the Qin-Han heavenly maiden, and the reappearance of the ancient Crouching Tiger.

He had to spread all of this news.

He faintly heard a low, crazed roar from the other side of the mountain, knowing that the Crouching Tiger and the heavenly maiden were currently facing the本体 (ben ti, true form) of the demons in this ghost domain and had no time to worry about him. He took a breath and quickened his pace, but just as he was about to reach his destination, a chill arose.

The Daoist almost instinctively rolled to the side.

Then, a chill ran down his spine, followed by a burning sensation of pain.

He had been wounded.

He groaned softly in pain. The black-robed Daoist struggled to turn around and saw a figure walking out of the shadows of the forest, dressed in gray and brown clothes, with a thin body and an expressionless face, like an old man, yet also like a young man. If Wei Yuan were here, he would have recognized him as Wu Liu, the owner of the 民宿 (min su, guesthouse).

He was now staring fiercely at the Daoist, his teeth grinding.

His thin, almost muscle-less arm dragged a ghastly鬼头刀 (gui tou dao, ghost-head saber), leaving a mark on the ground.

The storm had subsided, but it had drawn in the clouds, and now the mountain was clear, while the surrounding area was suddenly hit by a torrential rain, soaking the clothes of the two men. Wu Liu's eyes were red as he stared at the Daoist who had tricked him into the water, sealing his soul in his flesh, neither man nor ghost.

Clenching his teeth, his voice was squeezed out from between them.

"You treacherous Daoist!!"

"I've finally waited for you..."

The black-robed Daoist looked at Wu Liu, who had come for revenge. His eyes showed astonishment, followed by absurdity and anger at being looked down upon. He sneered, "A mere corpse ghost, what nonsense are you spouting here!"

Wu Liu's eyes widened, his originally expressionless face becoming crazed and painful.

He stepped forward and charged towards the black-robed Daoist in the rain.

The ghostly鬼头刀 (gui tou dao, ghost-head saber) rose with the force of his twisting body, carrying the anger of an ordinary man, breaking through the rain.

……………………

When Wei Yuan found the evil Daoist, relying on the effectiveness of the Thousand-Mile Tracking Talisman, the Daoist had already turned into a corpse, his eyes wide with anger, lying in the mud. A large gash had been cut in his waist, and his intestines, mixed with blood, were flowing out and soaking in the mud.

Wu Liu was sitting against a rock.

His entire arm was gone.

He had just used this arm to trade for the Daoist's life.

A person who prides himself on being superior and racking his brains to escape will never understand what a person who is willing to give up his life for revenge is thinking. The Daoist didn't know, so he lost his life. Wei Yuan lowered his body and felt that the evil Daoist's soul had dissipated as soon as it left his body.

It seemed that a curse had been placed on him in advance, making it impossible to search his soul and drive ghosts.

However, he found a yellow talisman on his body with his Daoist name and surname written on it, like an identity certificate. He put it together with the Daoist's belongings and looked at Wu Liu. After his revenge, the latter was like a walking corpse, sitting against the rock with a dazed expression.

After a long time, he looked at the sky and sighed, half-crying and half-laughing:

"I want to bask in the sun..."

……………………

The ghost domain itself existed with the ghost king as its core, accumulating the baleful aura of the Luo River, forming a place different from the human world. Now that the ghost king had been killed and the river had been diverted, the foundation for the ghost domain's existence had disappeared.

Soon, this world would be connected to the human world.

In the place where the 反弓煞 (fan gong sha, reverse bow evil) had originally been located, everyone who was still in the ghost domain suddenly appeared.

And the original restaurants and客栈 (ke zhan, inns) turned into paper objects when they appeared in the human world, and then they were burned by the human world's Yang energy and disappeared. Zhang Hao and others, with dark circles under their eyes, saw that the innocent tourists were all right, just unconscious, and they felt relieved when they saw Wei Yuan.

Zhang Hao put out his cigarette and went forward to greet him, relieved and said, "Curator Wei, you're safe and sound, that's great."

"How's the ghost domain?"

Wei Yuan originally wanted to say that the ghost king had been dealt with with the help of the heavenly maiden, but when he turned around, he saw that the white-clothed heavenly maiden had disappeared at some point. He was slightly stunned, knowing that she didn't want to appear, so he smiled and replied:

"It was broken by a passing expert."

"You don't have to worry about it in the future."

A passing expert?

Zhang Hao and Shen Jifeng exchanged strange glances, but they didn't pursue the matter. Instead, they organized people from淋漓柯 (lin li ke) to move the unconscious tourists to a safe place. Wei Yuan saw that Wu Liu wanted to say something but stopped, so he said to Zhang Hao on his behalf, "This is Wu Liu. He was trapped in that ghost domain for some time. I wonder if you can help find his family?"

Zhang Hao was surprised and nodded, "Of course, there's no problem."

He looked at Wu Liu again and said, "I wonder which city is Mr. Wu's home in?"

Wu Liu hesitated for a long time before giving a name that no one had ever heard of.

Liu Village.

Finally, after going around in circles and with Wu Liu's vague descriptions, they found the right place. The village that Wu Liu mentioned was actually the real rural疗养 (liao yang, recuperation) center, but that name was very, very old, so old that only some elderly people with all their teeth missing in the village remembered it.

The car slowly stopped at the entrance of the village.

Perhaps due to the residual influence of the baleful aura, the clouds in the sky were very low today, gloomy and without a ray of sunlight.

Wu Liu, with his severed arm, staggered out of the car, looking at the bustling village with unfamiliar eyes, somewhat afraid to recognize it. The village chief came forward, and after Zhang Hao and Wei Yuan explained the situation, the village chief, who was only middle-aged and full of energy, cooperated by finding all the people with the surname Wu in the village.

But none of them recognized Wu Liu, or at least had no impression of such a person.

Just as everyone was looking at each other, wondering what to do, a young man in his twenties slapped his forehead and suddenly said:

"Does that count as the Wu family who had their line cut off?!"

Everyone looked over. The middle-aged village chief glared at him, and the young man was taken aback. His voice lowered, but he still said, "I remember, the old lady under the willow tree over by the old village head said that her husband died, and his surname was Wu."

Wei Yuan was thoughtful, looked at the excited Wu Liu, looked at the village chief, and said politely:

"Please take us there."

The village chief opened his mouth, but still nodded and said:

"It's okay to go, but, that old lady, alas, you'll know when you get there..."

………………

Wei Yuan and others soon saw the old willow tree and the old man sitting under the willow tree.

Along the way, from the village chief's rambling narration, they learned that the old man was very old and had Alzheimer's disease. He didn't remember anything anymore. The village chief shook his head and said, "This old lady is already in her seventies. Her husband went missing sixty years ago. Everyone said he drowned in the water, but she didn't believe it and kept waiting."

"Waiting and waiting, she waited from seventeen years old to now."

"Look, now she's demented, and she's still waiting."

"If it weren't for the village's help, how could the old lady have survived? Now, she doesn't even recognize the people in the village..."

The village chief saw the one-armed man open his mouth and then walk towards the old man. The village chief, who had just spoken impolitely, became a little anxious and raised his hand to pull Wu Liu. Wei Yuan raised his arm to stop him, looked at the trembling Wu Liu, and sighed silently.

Under the willow tree, the old lady with silver hair was neatly dressed, quietly looking at the entrance of the village.

Wei Yuan stepped forward with Wu Liu.

Wu Liu walked forward step by step, looking at the old lady, self-deprecatingly said:

"It's her, I can recognize her at a glance. She's my wife. Our village is remote, and our families are across the street. We naturally played together from childhood to adulthood, and naturally got married. My family was poor. On the wedding day, I carried two bags of rice and noodles and took her back to my house. She didn't dislike me at all, but I had a grudge in my heart, thinking that what others had, my family should also have."

"That day I went out to buy her a hairpin, and I saw the Daoist falling into the water, and I went to save him..."

He squatted down, looked at the old man, half-crying and half-laughing said:

"Do you remember me?"

Without much hope, but the old man, who didn't even remember the people in the village, looked at the crying, thin man and naturally stretched out his hand and asked, "You're back?"

Wu Liu's body trembled, and tears couldn't stop flowing down.

He seemed to finally let go of the most worried and most feared thing. He sat down on the ground at once and grinned:

"I'm back."

He and the old lady sat together, seemingly wanting to bask in the sun as he had said before, but today the weather was too gloomy. Leaning against the old willow tree, looking at Wei Yuan, he murmured:

"I really want to bask in the sun again..."

Wei Yuan looked up at the sky. The baleful aura hung low in the sky and refused to dissipate. He suddenly thought of the heavenly maiden's vast and magnificent control of the storm. His heart stirred slightly. Wei Yuan joined his palms like a knife and made a void slash towards the baleful aura.

Relying on his previous experience in controlling the baleful aura, the remaining baleful aura was immediately stirred.

In fact, he just stirred the baleful aura on the ground.

But the baleful aura was connected to the wind in the sky, and the wind was connected to the clouds. All things in the world were connected. So the wind suddenly rose in this place, and the wind swirled upwards, causing the extremely low clouds to reverse and then slowly shatter in the sky. Warm sunlight, which was impossible to see in the ghost domain, fell down.

Everyone was just surprised by the sudden change in the weather and muttered that the weather was really like the face of God, changing as soon as it changed, and didn't take it to heart. Wei Yuan felt that the little bit of法力 (fa li, magical power) he had finally recovered was instantly empty, and he almost fell. After finally recovering, he saw Shen Jifeng staring at himself with wide eyes.

Wei Yuan remembered Shen Jifeng's special ability to find the weak points in the ghost domain, and knew that he couldn't hide it.

He could only raise his index finger and press it to his lips, smiling and shushing.

Shen Jifeng seemed to know some amazing secret.

He covered his lips with both hands, widened his eyes, and nodded heavily.

The sunlight representing the至阳 (zhi yang, utmost yang) energy of heaven and earth fell on Wu Liu. He was already a corpse ghost, and he felt the part of himself that was a ghost being dispelled. A burning pain appeared, as if he was about to turn into ashes, but he squinted his eyes and showed a smile as if he was enjoying it.

He carefully reached into his arms and took out something, a small package.

Inside the package, the grayish cloth wrapped a rough hairpin.

Wu Liu gently placed the hairpin in his wife's hand, waiting for his own annihilation, but it was only a刺痛 (ci tong, stinging pain), and this刺痛 (ci tong, stinging pain) was slowly disappearing. Instead, there was the warmth and gentleness of the sunlight. His body became weak and powerless, and there was severe pain in his shoulder. He opened his eyes, already with a full head of white hair.

On his palm, a wisp of pure energy entangled.

Wu Liu's eyes widened, and he suddenly looked up.

But he only saw Wei Yuan's back.

Love arises unknowingly, and deepens with time.

Obsession becomes a demon, a thought becomes a Buddha.

Do you still remember me…

I walked a long way, across thousands of mountains and rivers, across life, across death, to return here.

To see you.

Wei Yuan stopped and looked at the heavenly maiden hidden in the mountains and forests: "Thank you, Miss, for helping Wu Liu."

"This matter is over."

"I wonder, Miss, where do you want to go?"

PS: Four thousand word chapter~