“Somehow you just know… Impossible. Did an evil god crawl into your brain?”
Yin Chen made absolutely no attempt to hide his scrutiny, his tone deeply suspicious.
He remained firmly convinced that Yin Wu Xue was a strange person who needed watching.
“Huh? Evil god?!” Yin Wu Xue was frightened too. “I thought I was just extraordinarily talented, some little cultivation genius…”
“Faith power isn’t necessarily a good thing. Tell me exactly what you experienced. I can only judge after hearing the details.”
Yin Chen stored away the clumps of hair, took Song Zang’s hand, and turned toward the octagonal pavilion beside the corridor.
The waiting maids quietly served tea and brought two plates of delicate pastries. Ning Ran casually gave them a look, and they withdrew silently, leaving the guests a private place to talk.
Yin Wu Xue followed too. Sitting nervously opposite Yin Chen, she immediately began describing her strange experience.
Song Zang understood almost as soon as he heard it.
Without realizing it, Yin Wu Xue had already taken half a step onto the path of Faith-and-Incense cultivation.
She had attracted enormous attention the previous night. The story of “the Daoist Master exposing a fox demon’s true form” quickly spread through the crowd that had witnessed it.
The farther the fox-spirit rumor spread, the more faith power Yin Wu Xue received.
As it happened, Anning Town held a small market after dawn today. Plenty of villagers had brought local goods into town to sell. When everyone gathered to chat and gossip, naturally the exciting story from the night before spread from ten mouths to a hundred until the entire town was buzzing with it.
The players did not even need to advertise her themselves. Yin Wu Xue could lie in bed doing absolutely nothing and still absorb faith power pouring toward her from every direction.
Winning while lying down brought Yin Wu Xue enormous benefits. She somehow learned many abilities she had never studied, almost as though Heaven were forcibly stuffing food into her mouth.
For example, Fiery Eyes and Golden Pupils capable of seeing through demons and evil spirits, allowing her to recognize other Daoist priests’ little tricks at a glance.
Then there were the Thirty-Six Tiangang Arts, the Seventy-Two Earthly Transformations, and even the Orthodox Five-Thunder Method. As long as she could imagine a technique, she seemed capable of learning it.
Even that mysterious power belonging to Heaven and Earth itself now seemed faintly perceptible to her.
Elio’s Notes: These names deliberately borrow from famous Daoist and mythological traditions. Fiery Eyes and Golden Pupils is especially associated with Sun Wukong, while the Thirty-Six Tiangang Arts and Seventy-Two Earthly Transformations belong to the broader repertoire of supernatural transformations and techniques popularized in classical fantasy.
It certainly sounded impressive, almost exactly like the protagonist of an overpowered wish-fulfillment novel.
Until Yin Chen voluntarily suggested fighting her.
Reality proved that no collection of flashy, miraculous skills could defeat overwhelming brute force.
Yin Chen took out a special long blade. In the previous instance, it had once brutally cut open his abdomen.
It was not his strongest permanent item, merely an ordinary enchanted blade.
Its only attribute was: 【Hardness】.
Yin Chen had never particularly liked using it, but ever since Song Zang personally cut open his stomach… for some incomprehensible, bizarre psychological reason, Yin Chen had gradually developed a certain fondness for the weapon.
This blade, which possessed absolutely no advantage other than being hard, sent Yin Wu Xue flying thirty meters with one strike and broke three of her ribs.
She spat out several mouthfuls of blood while sliding across the ground, completely unable to stop herself.
Yin Chen had even used only the flat of the blade. The sharp edge had not touched so much as one strand of her hair.
Three fractured ribs counted as a minor injury for players, practically an everyday occurrence.
But Yin Wu Xue had reacted extremely quickly. She immediately cast her strongest defensive spell, and yet…
The protective barrier resembled a paper napkin soaked in water. Yin Chen could tear through it casually.
Yin Wu Xue propped herself upright and sat where she had landed, staring at her peachwood sword, now broken into several pieces. Only belatedly did the terror of nearly dying begin spreading through her heart.
After experiencing it personally, she finally understood that the Yin Chen players normally saw had already been restraining himself tremendously.
If this man genuinely fought seriously, he could probably whip every demon and monster away with a tree branch.
Yin Wu Xue wiped blood from her lips and weakly tested the waters. “Boss… still taking underlings?”
“No. You’re a little strange, and you’re not strong enough.”
Yin Chen rejected her cleanly and directly, without much malice.
A little strange?
Yin Wu Xue froze from head to toe. Then she met Song Zang’s half-smiling gaze, and her face instantly turned white.
She knew. Song Zang knew!
But Yin Chen had not investigated anything, meaning Yin Chen definitely still had no idea what she had done…
What a wonderful person!
All those malicious guesses about Song Zang on the game forums were definitely complete bullshit! One look at Song Zang and anyone could tell he was an unbelievably kind, wonderful person!
Song Zang knew nothing about the emotional storm raging through Yin Wu Xue. He tugged Yin Chen’s sleeve and exchanged a quick look with him.
After confirming Yin Chen had no objection, Song Zang suggested, “Forget becoming an underling. Yin Wu Xue, would you like to try the orthodox Faith-and-Incense Apotheosis Method? You can only become a god inside this instance, but it should still be extremely useful.”
Yin Wu Xue froze. “Do I still need a cultivation method now?”
“Of course. Otherwise you’re doomed. I might as well kill you right now.”
Yin Chen showed no mercy with his words and briefly explained the dangers of blindly cultivating.
Without an absolutely legitimate advancement method, if Yin Wu Xue continued absorbing faith power indiscriminately and without restraint, she would inevitably suffer cultivation deviation. Her meridians could easily rupture midway, and she would struggle to control a body that had become too powerful, producing countless accidents.
She might become a horrifying monster without reason, a grotesquely deformed, bloated figure, a ball of flesh and spirit simultaneously on the verge of exploding… or have her body seized by someone stronger and turned into an experimental subject for heretical techniques.
Every possible outcome would only cause her pointless suffering while giving the players an inexplicable new enemy.
Yin Wu Xue was thoroughly frightened and hurriedly nodded in agreement.
The skill book was a one-time item, but knowledge that had been thoroughly understood could still be taught orally with nearly the same effect. Players generally possessed very fast minds anyway.
Yin Chen dragged Ning Yan and Ning Ran over to listen too, ensuring that if they encountered a similar situation in the future, neither would be left standing around stupidly without knowing what to do.
“You really are wonderful!” Yin Wu Xue exclaimed again in excitement and even voluntarily proposed an exchange. “For fairness, I’ll give you two skill books too! Let me see… Boss, do you want something useful for daily life, or something for combat and survival?”
Yin Chen thought briefly. “Daily life. Give both of us daily-life skills.”
“Got it, Boss!”
They added one another as friends. Yin Wu Xue moved quickly and selected two skill books without hesitation.
Song Zang stared at the system prompt and fell into thought.
【Eighteen Techniques to Hook the Soul and Seize the Spirit – the masterpiece of an adult artist at the absolute peak of their craft.】
…Huh?
This genuinely struck directly inside his knowledge gap.
The instant he chose to read it, Song Zang suddenly learned a large amount of knowledge he absolutely should not have possessed.
For example, how to use one thin rope to bind a person beautifully into elaborate patterns and arrange them as different kinds of artwork, then release everything with one light touch.
There were also methods for making perfect portable handcuffs, ingredients for scented low-temperature candles, ratios for blending fragrance powders…
A dazzling collection of bizarre techniques blossomed in every direction, leaving Song Zang’s head feeling hot.
He had to admit, if someone ever kidnapped him, certain parts of this knowledge really could help preserve his life.
Song Zang exchanged one subtly meaningful look with Yin Wu Xue before cautiously turning toward Yin Chen. “What did you get?”
“Complete Skills Encyclopedia of Elite Housekeeping and Five-Star Hotel Management. Excellent. I like it. There’s a great deal of cultural knowledge about different countries and regions that I never knew before.”
“…Huh?”
Yin Chen was genuinely delighted, his mood visibly improving.
Seeing this, Yin Wu Xue could not help revealing a meaningful smile.
To avoid writing fanworks where the characters behaved out of character, she had replayed their clearing videos countless times.
When it came to giving gifts, she would never strike one of Yin Chen’s land mines!
Naturally, pleasant moments never lasted long. It was time to return to serious business.
Flying-Head Art.
This was a sinister method of murder originating from villages in the southern Lin Dynasty.
Exactly as the name implied, the practitioner separated head from body, controlled the head as it flew out to kill other people, then returned it successfully to the neck. The sight was horrifying and the power tremendous.
But if the head could not return within the required period and the body died, the practitioner would also meet an exceptionally miserable death, with absolutely no possibility of recovery.
Elio’s Notes: 飞头蛮 (fēitóumán) is an old Chinese strange-tale motif in which a person’s head separates from the body and flies at night before returning. The novel reimagines that folklore here as a lethal occult art.
A flesh-body Buddha, meanwhile, was a Buddhist method specifically used to preserve the bodies of eminent monks.
Strangely enough, it bore a certain resemblance to the present emperor’s wicked divination ritual.
The corpse of an eminent monk or Buddhist disciple would be placed inside a large vat with lime, charcoal, and other preservative materials, sealed for at least three years, then opened again for examination.
If the body still had not decayed, if its facial skin remained smooth as though alive, and especially if it continued developing or growing hair by itself, that would prove the deceased had been an enlightened high monk. The corpse would then be gilded into a sacred body and carefully enshrined inside a temple or palace.
But practitioners of the Flying-Head Art and flesh-body Buddhas should have belonged to two completely unrelated groups. How could both appear in one person?
Even Yin Wu Xue herself could not explain how a few severed strands of hair had somehow allowed her to perceive so much about the woman’s past.
Even stranger, all of this black hair originating from the flesh-body Buddha had once parasitized the brooms woven by Grandfather Song.
By all logic, Grandfather Song had merely been an ordinary farmer.
Fortunately, Yin Chen had already taken several of the brooms away earlier. He brought every one of them out and had Yin Wu Xue inspect them separately.
“Let me see… Oh my god!” Yin Wu Xue took one glance and then refused even to touch them. “These aren’t good things either. They’re ghost bamboo used to attract demons and spirits!”
“What’s ghost bamboo?”
Yin Wu Xue lowered her head, counted silently on her fingers, then answered seriously, “It’s a special plant native to this instance. It’s born surrounded by dense yin energy and is extremely attractive to demons and ghosts. Plant enough of it, and you have a chance of running into ghosts every single day.
“Adult men with strong yang energy don’t need to be too afraid. At worst, frequent exposure might cause impotence. But if children or pregnant women keep coming into contact with ghost bamboo, they can easily become sick, lose part of their soul, or become possessed by malicious ghosts… They may even give birth to stillborn children or mutated ghost infants.”
As she spoke, she looked worriedly toward Song Zang. “You’re still young, and your sister-in-law is preparing for pregnancy too, right? Then your grandfather absolutely had malicious intentions. He wanted all of you dead so the Song family line would end completely!”
Song Zang remained stunned for a long time, unable to understand the motive.
“Why would Grandfather do that? What reason could he possibly have?”
Could the mysterious circumstances surrounding Grandmother’s death while they fled during the war be part of the answer?
Yin Chen thought briefly and declared decisively, “Either he didn’t know it was ghost bamboo and someone maliciously used him, or he was mentally disturbed.”
But if anyone in the Song household was most likely to become mentally disturbed… it should not have been Grandfather. It should have been Song Wei Yi, who had lost his ability to father children.
Thinking of that, Song Zang’s eyes widened. “Wait. Father lost his fertility after being attacked by a wild boar in the mountains. Could Grandfather have been involved in that too?! The two of them went up the mountain together to gather firewood!”
Ning Yan’s face twisted with sympathetic pain. “Fuck. Just hearing that makes me hurt a little. And honestly… it’s possible.”
The players inspected every broom. All of them were made from ghost bamboo, and the combined yin energy was extraordinarily dense.
During the inspection, Yin Wu Xue conveniently killed two small ghosts attracted by the scent.
Fortunately, Yin Chen had brought back all of Grandfather Song’s bamboo supplies, allowing them to trace the material and find where it had been planted. Combined with the “system formatting” that deleted and replaced Grandfather Song’s personal possessions, the Song household had actually become exceptionally safe.
For the first time, Song Zang felt grateful he had decisively stabbed Grandfather to death and quietly relaxed.
No one else mattered. As long as Tian Yue Xiang remained safe.
Yin Wu Xue was still busy.
After receiving the cultivation method, she became slightly bolder and directly attempted a divination, wanting to determine exactly who this flesh-body Buddha had been.
“Strange. This woman’s body is completely dead, but her head is still half-dead and half-alive. She should count as a vegetative patient. No… a vegetative head. No wonder it keeps growing new hair.
“Her consciousness has already completely disappeared, but her resentment before and after death was too powerful. So the hair itself became a spirit. It has nothing to do with the woman anymore.”
Yin Chen became thoughtful. “Then where is her head right now?”
“It’s difficult to find. Let me look again…” Yin Wu Xue tightly pinched her fingertips. Fine sweat appeared on her forehead as her voice gradually became strained. “Inside… deep inside the imperial palace!”
The instant those words left her mouth, Yin Chen suddenly overturned the table. It struck Yin Wu Xue’s clasped hands and forced them apart.
He stared intently into her gradually distorting eyes and said coldly, “Stop. Someone is tracing you backward through your eyes. You’re about to expose your location.”
Yin Wu Xue sensed the problem too. She hurriedly ended the divination and collapsed onto her back, gasping with lingering fear. “…I’m apparently not the only person cultivating through faith power. There’s an unbelievably powerful expert inside the imperial palace. What do we do?!”
Song Zang remained calm and said seriously, “You have the orthodox cultivation method now. Work hard and eventually you’ll become stronger than them.
“We also control the Eldest Princess’s resources. We can accelerate your growth and pile resources onto you without relying on heretical techniques.”
“Yes, yes! Our Ning family has money and resources too. I’ll have people write several storybooks about you and send them into teahouses so they can spread rumors like crazy!”
Ning Yan became excited. “Every excellent combat team needs an excellent long-range mage!”
“…Fine.”
Yin Wu Xue’s lips twitched as she lay weakly on the ground and agreed.
Now that they had confirmed the hair monster’s origins, Emperor Yongjia’s list of crimes gained another entry.
Yin Chen briefed the other players on the rebellion.
Soon, the teahouses across the surrounding towns and counties began telling not only The Tale of Wu Xue Slaying Demons, but also increasingly audacious stories in the category of Royal Secrets.
＊
After eating a lavish lunch at the Ning residence and resting briefly, the players prepared themselves again and drove a carriage toward the county seat.
Ning Ran remained behind to guard the corpse and the unconscious county officers.
The carriage exterior had been slightly disguised to conceal the Ning family’s distinctive markings and avoid drawing attention. After all, the accusation that the Ning household was sheltering rebels had not yet been completely cleared.
Naturally, their designated attention-grabber would not be absent.
Yin Wu Xue stood atop her black-and-gold ritual ruler and “rode the clouds” at low altitude, her robes fluttering magnificently.
She had reset her broken ribs and was already lively again. She even changed deliberately into an ornate purple Daoist robe so she could attract the attention of every passerby.
“Someone’s flying?!”
“An immortal! A living immortal!!”
“Look at that black-and-gold wooden thing! Does anyone remember last night… Yes, yes, that’s Daoist Master Yin! An enlightened master like a banished immortal!”
With Yin Wu Xue around, the little carriage became practically invisible. Ning Yan cracked the whip, and the fine horse surged forward, kicking up a cloud of dust.
On the road, Yin Chen briefly explained some basic information.
The Hai County magistrate was named Li Zhi. Much like his name suggested, he was a middle-aged man of great ambition.
Yin Chen had specifically investigated his background and discovered that Li Zhi was actually the illegitimate son of the former Deputy Minister of the Court of Judicial Review and a kept mistress. His life had been exceptionally miserable.
Unable to endure the humiliation, his mother hanged herself, leaving behind a half-grown child.
The principal wife possessed a fierce temperament and refused to suffer silently. She poisoned her husband for secretly keeping a mistress.
Li Zhi survived on meals provided by one household after another and grew up with great difficulty. He inherited none of the family wealth, only the stain attached to his birth.
He studied desperately, attempted the examinations three times before finally becoming a juren, then successfully passed the metropolitan examination as a second-class jinshi. Soon afterward, he was assigned outside the capital as the seventh-rank magistrate of Hai County.
That sounded ordinary enough, except Hai County bordered the sea on two sides and maintained a military garrison. During emergencies involving foreign attack, those troops could temporarily fall under the county magistrate’s command.
Li Zhi therefore possessed somewhat greater authority than an ordinary magistrate and equally greater responsibilities.
More importantly, Hai County also lay within the Eldest Princess’s fief.
The princess could not interfere politically with appointments and dismissals, but she was entitled to half of the tax grain and tribute. Officials assigned inside her fief likewise would never dare ignore her personal opinion completely.
Yin Chen added, “Li Zhi is ambitious. I had my subordinates audit the storerooms and gift registers. When he first took office, this man secretly sent me a deep-sea luminous pearl. It never appeared in the official accounts. He hid it inside a restaurant food box and had it delivered privately.”
Such a rare treasure capable of illuminating the night was exquisite beyond description, its principle unknown. Even the present emperor had never received one, yet Li Zhi had given it to the Eldest Princess without hesitation.
Going to that much trouble to present an enormously valuable treasure meant either he wanted to serve the princess or he wanted to become her prince consort… Whatever the reason, Li Zhi clearly possessed intentions beyond ordinary loyalty and was worth investigating.
Until now, the Eldest Princess had never responded. Li Zhi had remained patient anyway, performing his duties obediently and pretending to be a completely loyal supporter of the emperor without revealing a single flaw.
Ning Yan listened with fascination and could not resist sticking his head inside the carriage. “I guarantee he’s absolutely not loyal to the emperor!”
“…Get out. This area is unsuitable for minors.”
Yin Chen sat perfectly upright with a dark expression, while Song Zang lounged lazily in his arms, half asleep, with both hands positioned somewhere Ning Yan absolutely did not want to investigate.
Ning Yan stiffened from head to toe and immediately closed the curtain.
【Ning Yan: Amitabha Buddha, Immeasurable Heavenly Venerable, Great Sage Equal to Heaven, Lady Shiji! Please bless me and keep gay men far away from me!】
【Ning Ran: …?】
Hai County remained calm and peaceful.
When the fox-spirit rumor reached the county government, Li Zhi was working at his desk.
He was not a brutal man. He had never mistreated the Ning couple, much less been bewitched by some monster.
The real problem was the mad and tyrannical Emperor Yongjia, who had recently begun another inexplicable episode and repeatedly ordered Li Zhi to perform filthy work without evidence, falsely accusing innocent people while demanding that he locate the previous emperor’s supposed posthumous son… Li Zhi could not refuse and was mentally exhausted.
The Eldest Princess had remained completely silent for a long time. Her estate was sealed and refused visitors, leaving him no one to beg for help.
Even though Li Zhi considered himself righteous, he now had no way to explain himself and no way to prove his innocence.
That seemingly immortal Daoist Master clearly possessed genuine power. Without losing even one soldier, she had somehow caused an entire armed unit sent from the county seat to disappear without explanation. Merely thinking about it produced a cold sweat.
If the Daoist personally arrived at the county office and accused him of wrongdoing before attacking, Li Zhi had absolutely no confidence he could survive.
His head throbbed. Li Zhi threw aside his paperweight, leaned back, rubbed his brow, and remained silent in thought for a long time.
The room stayed quiet until perfectly unrestrained footsteps suddenly sounded across the roof. A group of strangers climbed directly through the window and invaded his office.
“Who goes there?! Ah, E-Eldest Princess!”
Li Zhi jolted so hard he nearly fell.
He hurriedly rose and prepared to kneel. “Greetings, Your Highness. This subject has been discourteous…”
Yin Chen waved him off and calmly sat in the magistrate’s chair. He pointed at Ning Yan, who was pretending to look furious. Song Zang stood behind Yin Chen disguised as an attendant, likewise wearing an expression of righteous anger.
“Forget the empty formalities. Daoist Master Yin is one of my people. I brought the Ning family’s eldest young master here for you. The Ning family was falsely accused of treason without cause. Was that my imperial father’s order?”
Now Li Zhi genuinely broke into a cold sweat. He did not dare ask why Yin Chen had entered secretly while hiding his identity. Instead, he obediently knelt on the ground, wiped nonexistent tears from his eyes, and immediately began complaining.
“Your Highness, this humble official truly had no choice… If Your Highness does not disdain me, I beg you to grant me some protection…
“In the old dynasty, there once stood a female emperor beneath sun and moon. Your Highness likewise possesses the bearing of a dragon among humanity, renowned prestige, and talent and courage no weaker than hers…
“This humble official asks only that one day, I may personally witness the sun and moon rise again!”
Elio’s Notes: Li Zhi’s “sun and moon” language is a coded allusion to Wu Zetian, China’s only female emperor. The character 曌 (zhào) that she adopted for her name famously combines imagery of the sun and moon shining in the sky. In other words, Li Zhi has just found a very literary way to say, “Please usurp the throne.” 😭
Li Zhi’s final words amounted to openly supporting Yin Chen’s seizure of the throne. It was treason of the highest order and, if repeated outside this room, enough to have his head removed.
Yin Chen listened silently. Only after thinking for a moment did he ask suspiciously, “What gives you the confidence to say this?”
“…My birth mother was a mermaid from beneath the sea.”
To prove it, Li Zhi retrieved an enormous box of priceless pearls from the bottom of a bookcase, along with many mysterious, dreamlike iridescent scales.
There were even more than ten luminous pearls that looked almost supernatural. Wrapped beneath several layers of black cloth, they still leaked a dim glow.
“Your Highness, in recent years, the mermaid silk supplied to your estate has actually come as tribute from my mother’s clan. If Your Highness wants further proof, this humble official will provide it at any time.
“Mermaids are naturally freedom-loving, yet members of our clan are frequently captured and raised by fishermen. Mermaid women, pure and kind by nature, suffer the worst fate. My birth mother was the same. Even as an adult, she was easily deceived by a human man…
“Cutting away their tails and stealing their precious pearls is not enough. Once they lose their tails completely, they can never return to the deep sea, yet they are still forced to drag their weakened bodies around and serve humans sexually…
“Your Highness, you are a woman. Only with you as sovereign can anyone understand the suffering of mermaid women.”
Li Zhi wept uncontrollably, his voice miserable as he tried to awaken Yin Chen’s sympathy.
No wonder. No wonder Li Zhi had deliberately sought assignment to Hai County and immediately attempted to win favor with the Eldest Princess.
Those so-called luminous pearls were miraculous objects cut from mermaid tails. Every precious pearl carried the blood and tears of one suffering mermaid woman.
The mermaid race was not weak in combat, but physical limitations prevented them from surviving on land for long periods, much less ruling the vast territory of the Lin Dynasty. Forcibly destroying the country would only create more lawless opportunists and even greater hidden dangers.
Therefore, the mermaids could only endure for the time being, rationally hiding in the deep sea while secretly planning and contacting mixed-blood children like Li Zhi who had been left behind in the human world, gradually interfering with human society and reform from within.
They believed that only a female emperor ruling this world could rapidly weaken humanity’s endless exploitation of mermaid women.
…The people beneath the sea really were too innocent, every player thought at almost the same time.
Yin Chen did not expose his true identity, nor did he explain another cruel reality to Li Zhi.
An equal relationship could never truly exist between rulers and the exploited.
As long as the chain of profit built upon mermaids grew large enough, personal conscience and empathy would become the most fragile, useless obstacles imaginable to anyone standing in power.
Someone at the very top might have ideological preferences and sympathies, but when everything was stripped down to its final core… power always weighed the most.
Aside from absolute idealists and people devoted completely to justice, almost no one would voluntarily risk destabilizing their own power and interests merely to help vulnerable “commodities” and “treasures.”
Fortunately, this was only a game instance.
At least before the instance reset, they still possessed the ability to uphold the ideals and justice the mermaids desired.
Rebellion had already entered the agenda.