Coming from the back door of Sun's house is a river called Changming.
The water of Changming River flows continuously, flashing cold light under the moonlight.
Yan Qing tossed the coin and went upstream, so he just let fate take its course and followed. There was a waterfall at the very top of the river, and there was a path up the mountain next to the waterfall. The steps were mottled and winding with blood, bright red and dazzling. It seemed that the bride must have escaped into the mountain from here.
"No matter how hard you try, you will never find it. But it comes to you without any effort." Yan Qing put away the copper coins and said with a smile, "See, my intuition is always accurate."
Xie Shiyi asked casually: "After you find me, what are you going to do?"
Yan Qing was very happy: "How come you say this? The demons who do evil should be punished when they are seen, right, leader?"
Xie Shiyi smiled without much emotion.
They saw the bloodstains, and naturally the disciples who came over to investigate also saw them.
The group followed the blood trail and finally stopped at a temple. On the plaque were three Chinese characters "Jiangjin Temple".
Yan Qing was familiar with this name, because this was the place where Mrs. Sun said that the seventh girl of the Zhang family was killed - why did Zhang Mushi run here
When he and Xie Shiyi walked in, a group of Wangqing Sect disciples led by Mingze had already formed a circle, looking vigilantly at the bride in her wedding dress who was kneeling before the Buddha statue.
After Zhang Mushi started the rebellion and killed people, he did not flee into the valley, nor did he hide himself deliberately.
She left all kinds of traces behind and stumbled to the Buddhist temple.
Jiangjin Temple was sealed off due to the incident in which the seventh girl was bitten to death by wolves, and is now deserted.
The cold wind blew the yellow paper on the ground.
The red candles gave the golden Buddha a scarlet blood color. The statue sat high on the shrine, holding a lotus in its palm, with compassion for all living beings.
After Zhang Mushi ate her husband alive, there was still blood and flesh on her fingernails. Her ten slender fingers had several cracked nails. She knelt in front of the Buddha statue, her wedding dress was blood-stained. Her phoenix crown and silver ornaments all fell off while she was running. All the people could see from behind was her thin waist that could not be bent and her long black hair that was winding to the ground.
It is hard to imagine that such a thin woman could cause such a bloody and tragic scene on the wedding night.
Mingze was a little skeptical and frowned, "Zhang Mushi?"
Zhang Mushi had her back to them, bent over, her fingers gently stroking something, and asked in a hoarse voice, "Are you the immortals who came here specifically to slay the demons?"
Everyone was stunned when they heard her voice. In their impression, the demons and nightmares would become crazy, ferocious and irrational after awakening. She was just a mortal, why was she still so clear-headed now
Zhang Mushi's voice was strange, hoarse and broken, like an old bellows. She said, "You don't have to rush to kill me. If I kill Sun Hebi, Sun Yu will not let me go, and I don't want to live anymore. If I take the medicine, I will die of rotten intestines tomorrow."
Zhang Mushi smiled faintly when she said this, and she stood up from the futon.
Everyone finally saw clearly what she was fiddling with.
A dead body.
The body of a girl who was rumored to have been eaten by wolves beyond recognition.
The skull and limbs were all clean, and the stains on them were cleaned away bit by bit by Zhang Mushi, restoring the girl's final dignity.
Mingze didn’t say anything.
Zhang Mushi turned around, and in the eyes of the people in Qingle City, Zhang Mushi, the fifth daughter of Zhang Yu, was both virtuous and talented, well-educated, proficient in calligraphy and painting, and a well-known young lady. But now she had disheveled hair, a withered face, sunken cheeks, and protruding cheekbones, looking like a female ghost walking out of a tomb.
Mingze subconsciously looked at Zhang Mushi's eyes. One very obvious feature when Yan wakes up is the eyes. But Zhang Mushi's eyes were red, without a trace of green.
Mingze said in a deep voice: "Zhang Mushi, are you a demon?"
Zhang Mushi smiled sadly, tears flashing in her eyes: "Immortal, I am not a demon. But if I didn't do this, how could you come. The real demon in Qingle City must be someone else. I have been waiting for you for three days, and you are finally here."
Mingze was stunned for a moment, frowning: "You mean there is someone else who created the demon in Qingle City?"
Zhang Mushi smiled desperately and sarcastically: "Yes, I'll take you there right away."
Everyone was stunned; they had just come down the mountain and had never expected to encounter something like this the first time they took on a mission.
The wounds on Zhang Mushi's feet were festering and scabbing, but she seemed to be completely unable to feel the pain and walked down the mountain numbly.
During the Qingle City Floating Lantern Festival, thousands of red lanterns were hung high. She was skinny and looked like a wandering soul as she walked on the streets.
The place they were taken to was actually the Sun Mansion—
After walking back and forth along the river, the sky had already turned white.
There were still colorful paper fireworks on the ground in the narrow alleys of Qing Street that had not been cleaned up yet, which were the remnants of the festive occasion on her wedding day. In the blink of an eye, the happy event turned into a sad one.
Zhang Mushi was originally very calm, but the moment she saw the gate of the Sun Mansion, she suddenly became excited and quickened her pace, walking faster and faster, stepping over the ashes on the ground and the bluestone road.
Because she walked too fast, she accidentally fell, but she climbed up with her hands, raised her arm to grab the door knocker, and knocked hard again and again, her eyes bloodshot and her voice extremely shrill: "Open the door! Liu Jinyun! Open the door for me! - Liu Jinyun! Open the door!"
The one who opened the door was Manager Sun.
The moment Guan Yu saw Zhang Mushi, he was so frightened that he fell to the ground, pale as a ghost, and screamed: "Demon seed! Demon seed! Ah, demon seed!"
None of the girls or grandchildren could sleep that night, and in the early morning everyone was startled by the noise and walked out of the room.
Sun Xizhu and Madam Sun walked together. Old Madam Sun and Sun Junhao walked together. Behind them followed a bunch of maids and servants.
The moment Madam Sun saw Zhang Mushi, her hatred even overcame her fear of the demons, and her eyes turned red in an instant.
He walked over and slapped Zhang Mushi in the face, asking in a trembling voice: "Zhang Mushi! How dare you come back! What on earth did our grandson owe you?!"
As she was cursing, she started to cry: "How did our grandson do anything wrong to you, Zhang Mushi, that you had to do this to me... you had to do this to me."
The Sun Master behind her turned pale with fright.
Zhang Mushi knelt on the ground, covering the red half of her face. She did not resist, nor did she go crazy. She just smiled faintly.
"Liu Jinyun, how dare you ask me such a question?"
When Madam Sun saw her smile, she was shocked to realize what she had just done. She staggered back two steps, but when she looked at Zhang Mushi's face, she couldn't help crying: "Zhang Mushi, I have always treated you as my own daughter. After the incident with Miss Zhang, everyone in the city talked about you and speculated about you, but I didn't. I trusted you and loved you because you were my future daughter-in-law, so I never doubted you - what about you? You treated me like this. Zhang Mushi -" She burst into tears: "You hid it from me so badly!"
"You are actually a demon! You are actually a demon! You hid it from me so badly."
Old Madam Sun stood under a locust tree with a cane, anger overflowing from every wrinkle on her face. She said to the disciples of Wangqing Sect: "What are you doing! Why are you still letting her live? Don't you immortal sects kill demons on sight? Why are you still letting her run wild like this?!"
Zhang Mushi leaned on the ground with her fingers, and raised her head suddenly after hearing the words, her teeth trembling: "Old Madam Sun, aren't the real demon seed Sun Hebi and your precious grandson!" She looked at Madam Sun again: "Liu Jinyun, you have the nerve to say that I have kept it a secret from you? Who is deceiving whom among us? Who knew that his son was a demon seed but concealed the news! Who is hiding the secret from whom among us!"
Madam Sun was frightened by her ferocious expression and trembled, not daring to say anything.
Old Madam Sun was so angry that her whole body was shaking: "Zhang Mushi, how dare you talk nonsense like this! Someone! Someone! Capture her for me!"
The servants of the Sun Mansion were trembling with fear, not daring to move. After the news of the demon seed spread in Qingle City, everyone was afraid to go out. They dared to come and take a look because of the people of Wangqing Sect, but they didn't dare to touch Zhang Mushi.
Zhang Mushi stood up from the ground. Her death was near, but there was only crazy hatred between her eyebrows and eyes. Her face seemed to be crying and laughing at the same time, twisted and crazy.
"Do you know why I want to eat your son, Liu Jinyun?"
Madam Sun kept backing away, holding her chest, and almost couldn't breathe.
Zhang Mushi just said, "Because I'm hungry. Liu Jinyun."
Zhang Mushi repeated, "Because I'm hungry."
When Madam Sun heard this, she was completely speechless. She stared at her as if she had seen a ghost, but her eyes were filled with more than just fear.
Zhang Mushi's tears dripped down: "Are you familiar with it, Liu Jinyun? I believe Sun Hebi and your youngest son have said this to you many times over the years."
"I'm hungry. Because I'm hungry."
"That's what he told me the other day."
"I saw them eat my seven-year-old sister alive. Sun Hebi knelt on the ground and cried and apologized to me. He said he didn't mean it. He said he was just controlled by the nightmare."
"He said he was also a victim. He said he was just hungry."
"Sun Hebi said that the ancestor of Sun's family found out that he had a nightmare in his body and gave him a bead to swallow. The bead was able to control the nightmare in his body, and he lived for twenty years without any problems. On that day at Jiangjin Temple, the bead simply lost its effect. When he returns, he will ask the ancestor for another bead. He wants me to pity him and forgive him."
When Zhang Mushi mentioned that day, she was still in a daze and despair.
Her teeth chattered as she laughed, "Sun Hebi said that he was controlled by a nightmare and that he ate my sister because he was too hungry."
—"Mushi, I'm hungry. If I don't eat, I'm going to die."
—"It's killing me, it's coming, ah! It's telling me. Mushi, I'm hungry! Mushi, save me!"
On the eerie and bloody night at Jiangjin Temple, the eight hundred Buddha statues remained silent and quiet.
Sun Hebi knelt on the ground, her hands covered in blood, grabbing her skirt and crying bitterly.
Not far away was a seven-year-old boy who was the same age as her sister. He was the youngest of the Sun family, Sun Guangyao. Sun Guangyao sat on the girl's body, licking the blood between his fingers. There were still blood-red flesh strands between his teeth. He smiled at her with an expression full of mockery and provocation.
Sun Hebi begged her, scolded her, and finally threatened her directly.
He said that if she dared to spread the news that he was a demon, he would have Zhang Xian wipe out her entire family and leave her dead without a burial place.
He said that his ancestor was the supreme elder of the Fuhua Sect, and even if he was a demon, no one in the world dared to touch him.
He said he loved her and begged her to forgive him.
Actually, that day was a good day.
The peach blossoms in the mountain temple were in full bloom, and she went up the mountain with her sister to pray for a suitable marriage and a long life together. She had only met the man she was marrying a few times, but it was her parents' order and the matchmaker's words, and she was willing to use her lifelong tenderness to maintain this marriage.
Her younger sister held her hand and went up the mountain with her. Her voice was clear and pleasant, and she recited a poem with a smile: "The thin clouds are playing tricks, the flying stars are conveying hatred, the Milky Way is far away and dark..."
Tenderness is like water, and the good time is like a dream. Every night since then, she seems to be awakened by this voice. Something cold falls to the corner of her mouth, like the cold blood of Jiangjin Temple. She wakes up and finds that it is her own tears.
Zhang Mushi pulled herself away from the memories, blood welling up in her throat, and said in a stern voice: "Where is Sun Guangyao, Old Lady Sun, Madam Sun! Where is Sun Guangyao, where is your precious grandson? Why doesn't he come? Ask him to come and see me!"
Old Madam Sun was so angry that she had difficulty breathing and almost fainted. She hit the ground heavily with her cane: "Are you sect just going to let a demon cause chaos?!"
Sun Junhao sighed and was about to stop.
Mingze stopped him with a loud voice: "Wait a minute."
He looked at Old Lady Sun, and said in a neither humble nor arrogant manner: "Don't worry, Old Lady, we won't let her harm anyone. Please answer truthfully whether what Zhang Mushi said is true."
The old lady immediately retorted: "Of course she is talking nonsense and slandering me. How can a demon-born person count?"
Mingze said: "Then please let Sun Xiao's young master come to see us."
The old lady was silent for a moment.
Madam Sun bit her lip and said, "My fellow immortals, Master Guangyao has been ill since returning from Jinguang Temple. He is now bedridden and cannot see guests."
The old lady's face suddenly turned cold at this time, and she said indifferently: "Zhang Mushi has been found, you can leave now. Jun Hao, close the door and send the guests away."
Sun Junhao: “…”
Sun Junhao had a headache for a moment.
Sun's ancestor was a supreme elder of the Nine Sects, so this old lady has always been arrogant and lawless.
Qingle City is a large mortal city, and disciples of the Nine Sects rarely come here.
She had a low level of education and limited knowledge. The only cultivators she met were independent cultivators from no sect or school. They treated her with great respect for the sake of the Fuhua Sect, which made her feel that cultivators were nothing more than that.
Therefore, the old lady didn't know that the group of monks standing in front of her were not people they wanted to provoke, nor were they people they could send away whenever they wanted.
Sun Junhao sighed helplessly to the old lady, "Mother, why don't you go back and rest first."
After that, he said to Mingze, "I'm sorry, my mother just lost her son, so she's a little upset. If I've offended you, I hope you won't blame me."
Mingze did not accept the apology, and only said: "Fellow Daoist Sun, let your Sun family's young master come in."