Chapter 360 - 359: The Lost Soul

Chapter 360: Chapter 359: The Lost Soul

Hee Lingchuan cut the ropes on his feet and set him on the ground. "Give me directions. Where are we going?"

"The west end of the county, by Mochou Lake." Third Master Gan glanced left and right. "Are we in the west of the county now?"

There were only a few abandoned thatched huts here, not far from the county center. Hee Lingchuan had conveniently brought him here.

"Let’s go, and no funny business," Hee Lingchuan said sternly. "Uncle Gan was right. This Divine Woman is bad news. A fool like you is bound to get taken advantage of when dealing with her."

The two mounted their horses and rode west.

A slanting wind and fine rain filled the air with the scent of early summer.

After the Official Road ended, Third Master Gan guided him onto a small forest path.

"Where does this lead?"

Before long, the path opened up. A small stilt house stood halfway up the mountainside, partially hidden by a bamboo grove.

Behind the house was a lake, which must have been the Mochou Lake that Third Master Gan had mentioned.

Living in a hut by the lake, listening to the rain rustling through the sea of bamboo, should have been a picturesque scene. But in the pitch-black, rainy night, the dancing bamboo shadows cast upon the walls of the lonely little house looked more like Evil Ghosts baring their fangs and brandishing their claws.

The small yard outside was enclosed by a simple bamboo fence. The yard was a riot of colorful flowers, and on the simple bamboo gate were two words:

Qingjing Residence.

Hee Lingchuan dismounted and gave Third Master Gan a shove forward. Steeling himself, the latter could only call out:

"Is the Divine Woman home?"

There was no reply but the sound of the wind rustling the trees.

Third Master Gan had no choice but to call out two more times, even adding the word "please."

CREAK. The bamboo gate swung open on its own.

The two walked through the empty, silent yard and climbed the bamboo steps. Hee Lingchuan pushed open the door and saw that the furnishings inside were very simple:

A table and a chair.

An oil lamp burned on the table, next to a Copper Mirror with a patterned border.

A middle-aged woman sat on the chair.

She sat ramrod straight, her hands clasped on her knees, her eyes fixed on the two guests who had just entered.

As the door opened, a gust of night wind rushed in, making the oil lamp’s flame dance wildly and casting flickering, uncertain shadows on the woman’s face.

She was good-looking, with a somewhat curvaceous figure, and seemed no different from an ordinary woman. She looked at the two of them and smiled faintly.

"Third Master Gan, what brings you here in the middle of the night? And who is this?"

"Luo..." Third Master Gan only got one word out before realizing his voice was hoarse. He coughed twice. "Has Luo Xunyi been here?"

"He has. He relayed your final request," the Divine Woman said. "Is something the matter?"

"I... I want to cancel the commission." Third Master Gan glanced at Hee Lingchuan. "Cancel it immediately!"

"It was not a commission, but a request," the Divine Woman said, her smile never faltering. "You’ve already made your three requests, Third Master Gan. If you wish to cancel, that would be a fourth request. I’m sorry, but I don’t accept."

"Hey! You can’t do that." Rebuffed, Third Master Gan’s face turned ashen.

"So you’re the target?" The Divine Woman looked at Hee Lingchuan and slowly stood up. "I was planning to look for you tomorrow. I didn’t expect you to deliver yourself to my doorstep. Excellent, excellent."

Hee Lingchuan grabbed Third Master Gan by the neck, squeezing until his eyes rolled back. "If you don’t cancel, I’ll kill Third Master Gan. Does that not matter to you?"

"Now that he has made the request, it must be fulfilled." The Divine Woman turned the Mirror on the table. "Whether he lives or dies."

On full alert, Hee Lingchuan instinctively flung out two Flying Blades—one for the Divine Woman’s throat, the other for the Copper Mirror on the table.

After months of arduous practice, he had finally grasped the essence of the skill, achieving what Hu Min had described as "where the eyes look, the blade and arrow follow."

However, a colossal beast charged out of the Mirror, instantly blocking both Flying Blades.

It was a sharp-horned bull. Once it was off the table, it was about the size of the Wild Bull Demon Hee Lingchuan had seen in Zhao Pan’s army. Its two horns pointed forward, as if they had been specially sharpened.

The fact that such a small Mirror could unleash such a massive creature was a stunning visual, and it gave Hee Lingchuan a huge shock.

The two Flying Blades stuck into its body like toothpicks in a person, doing nothing more than causing pain and rage, but no fatal harm.

So it lowered its head and charged at Hee Lingchuan and Third Master Gan, including the latter in its attack.

Hee Lingchuan had no choice but to leap into the air, hauling Third Master Gan with him.

The giant bull charged past beneath their feet and CRASHED through the doorway.

While the two were still in mid-air, a knight on horseback suddenly charged out of the Copper Mirror, ramming toward them.

With no way to dodge in mid-air, Hee Lingchuan simply used Third Master Gan as a human shield.

Amidst Third Master Gan’s terrified scream, there was a loud THUD. Both men were sent flying out of the broken hut.

Third Master Gan coughed up blood as he landed, while Hee Lingchuan did a backflip and landed on the flat ground outside the yard.

After landing, the knight changed direction and continued charging toward Hee Lingchuan. Then, a second, third, and fourth knight appeared. Clearly, the Mirror was still sending things out nonstop.

’What the hell?’ he thought. ’Is there an entire cavalry troop hidden in there?’

Furthermore, in Hee Lingchuan’s eyes, both the giant bull and the knights were shrouded in chaotic black energy, with several Evil Ghosts clinging to their bodies.

Yes, just like the things that had once possessed the Long-tusked Pigs.

It was obvious these Evil Ghosts were controlling their every move, like puppeteers pulling strings.

More creatures kept emerging from the Mirror—fox-wolves, birds, even two hungry tigers—all pouncing toward Hee Lingchuan.

Even if he could evade the ones on the ground, he might not be able to dodge the ones in the sky.

Worst of all, they surrounded the bamboo house, forming a living barrier that prevented Hee Lingchuan from getting close.

But just then, the Divine Woman inside the house caught a flash of a shadow on the rafters out of the corner of her eye.

She was also on alert. She grabbed the Copper Mirror from the table and started to retreat.

However, the person from the rafters was already upon her. Moving faster than a darting swallow, the glint of a blade appeared while he was still in mid-air.

The Divine Woman, along with the Mirror in her arms, was sliced in two!

It was Hee Lingchuan’s Clone who had landed the successful strike.

Just moments before, while using Third Master Gan as a human shield, he had also secretly summoned his Clone and had it leap onto the rafters. But at that exact moment, the knight and his horse had jumped high, completely blocking the Divine Woman’s view of what was behind them. She never even saw the other "Hee Lingchuan" become a thief in the rafters.

When dealing with Demons like this who summoned underlings, Hee Lingchuan had long known the principle of "to catch the bandits, first catch the king." If he didn’t take out the leader, the stream of monsters and Little Demons would be endless.

As expected, with that one slash, the Divine Woman screamed and fell to the ground, the Mirror in her arms splitting in two.

Clean and decisive.

She glared at Hee Lingchuan’s Clone, her face full of venomous hatred. "You won’t escape! You’ll soon die without a burial place!"

With that, her body turned to ash, leaving only the two pieces of the broken Mirror on the ground.

Hee Lingchuan picked up the Mirror and found it had lost its power. It was just a broken mirror now.

Looking outside again, the Evil Ghosts clinging to the beasts and men had vanished. They all stared at each other for a long moment, the air thick with tension.

But in the blink of an eye, the beasts scattered, the birds took to the sky, and even the two tigers darted into the mountain forest and disappeared.

Scattered like clouds in the wind.

The seven or eight knights, however, just looked around in a daze, as if they had no idea where they were.

Third Master Gan was lying on the ground. When he saw Hee Lingchuan approach, he started cursing him out, but after a few words, his chest tightened, and he had to cough several times before he could continue his tirade.

’Damn you to a thousand cuts! He actually used me as a human shield!’

Seeing that Third Master Gan, though his face was covered in blood, still had a strong voice and seemed to be fine, Hee Lingchuan picked him up and jumped into the rickety bamboo house. He pointed into the main room and asked:

"The Divine Woman turned to ash after I cut her down. Is there some other connection between you and her?" Why else would a dying Demon so confidently declare that Hee Lingchuan would soon die too?

’Damn it.’ The ominous words reminded him of the Old Turtle Demon’s prophecy.

"How should I know?" Third Master Gan retorted, then started cursing again. Hee Lingchuan grabbed a rag from the next room and stuffed it in his mouth.

When he went back outside, the few knights were still there. Neither horse nor rider had moved much, and the men on horseback seemed somewhat dull-witted.

Hee Lingchuan walked over and asked, "Do you gentlemen have nowhere to go?"

One of them responded, "Where is this?"

"Fu Kingdom, Wuze County. How did you get possessed by Evil Ghosts?"

The men looked at each other. The same man who had spoken before said, "We were on official business when we were suddenly overcome by a Demon. We don’t seem to remember anything after that."

Seeing their wooden expressions, Hee Lingchuan frowned. "The Evil Ghosts are gone. Have you not come to your senses yet?"

"For some reason, my head feels foggy, and it’s hard to focus my thoughts." The man thought for a moment before adding, "Our mission... is it still incomplete?"

His companions all nodded.

Faced with these living men who acted like string puppets, Hee Lingchuan felt a mix of exasperation and vigilance. "Can you first tell me who you are?"

’The Divine Woman is dead. Could it be that the Divine Technique that trapped these men has not yet been dispelled?’

The men did not hide anything. Taking turns, they pieced together a rough story for Hee Lingchuan. The matter was connected to Sha Cong, Grand Tutor to the Beiga Kingdom’s King of Treasure Tree. His son, Sha Xinghai, had been listless and unwell ever since returning from the Fu Kingdom.

An investigation revealed that Sha Xinghai had actually lost a part of his soul.

The Grand Tutor’s Mansion was shocked and sent this group of men to investigate, tasking them with recovering what Young Master Sha had lost at all costs.

These men tracked the issue to the vicinity of Wuze County, where they encountered the Divine Woman and ended up being captured themselves.

Their memories of the time they were possessed by the Evil Ghosts were almost a complete blank. They couldn’t recall a thing.

Hee Lingchuan sized them up. "Never mind Young Master Sha. It looks to me like you’ve all lost a part of your souls, too."

’Why do I get the feeling that Sha Xinghai is the "honored guest" that Uncle Gan had the Divine Woman deal with?’

’Look, he’s also from the Beiga Kingdom. What’s so strange about the son of a great Grand Tutor looking down his nose at people in a small county in Fu Kingdom?’

The leader of the group was named Wu Jingsong. He himself said, "You’re right. We can move freely, but our perception of the outside world is as if through a thick veil. We can’t feel joy, anger, sorrow, or happiness. Though the Divine Woman is dead, our lost souls haven’t returned. Could they be hidden somewhere?"

The others all said, "Let’s search by the lake again."

It was the middle of the night, and Hee Lingchuan had no intention of staying to help them find their souls. He picked up Third Master Gan and started the journey back.

Wu Jingsong and the others still remembered to bow and thank him. With that, they parted ways.

After walking a few dozen yards, just before re-entering the bamboo forest, Hee Lingchuan glanced back. He saw the collapsed fence, the half-demolished little house, and the bamboo gate lying on the ground.