Chapter 13
When Qin Youzhou followed the trail of malice and arrived, this was the scene that greeted him.
Four young cultivators lay on the ground, covered in mud. Beside them was a corpse more than two meters tall, its face blue-purple and lifeless. Even from a distance, it was obvious the person was dead.
Qin Youzhou had no time to worry about who the extra corpse belonged to. He immediately ordered the cultivators to guard the surrounding area, then approached with the medical cultivators accompanying him.
Fortunately, after a chaotic round of examinations, they confirmed that none of the four cultivators were seriously injured.
However, all four had purplish-black lips and showed varying signs of poisoning.
“…It’s nightmare poison. It can control a person’s movements without damaging their foundation. Fortunately, it hasn’t fully metabolized yet, or we wouldn’t have been able to detect it.”
The accompanying medical cultivator looked puzzled.
“This poison is uncommon. Where could they have been poisoned?”
Among ordinary people, anyone who wanted nightmare poison could only try their luck in the ghost market.
Within the sect, there were only two places where it could be obtained.
One was the medicine cottage.
The other was directly from Ying Weiye.
The fangs of a mirage flood dragon naturally secreted many different kinds of poison.
“Check whether any medicine is missing from the medicine cottage.”
Qin Youzhou naturally believed without question that this matter had nothing to do with Shizun.
“Yes.”
The medical cultivator agreed and did not suspect Ying Weiye either.
It was not because he trusted Ying Weiye’s character.
Rather, Ying Weiye had a mild obsession with cleanliness. Whenever the sect attempted to extract poison from him, he had never once cooperated.
Besides, there was no reason for him to go to such lengths and cause trouble for his beloved disciple merely for the sake of acting mad.
Before they began cleaning up the scene, Qin Youzhou noticed traces of a tattoo through the torn sleeve of the corpse.
He put on gloves and carefully widened the tear.
It was a strange and unfamiliar symbol. Parts of it had been rubbed away, but its outline vaguely resembled a coiled serpent.
The snake had rough scales and a pair of birdlike wings. There was only a single eye on its head.
When Qin Youzhou met the gaze of that wide-open eye, he instinctively sensed an extremely intense malice and hostility.
This was not a common tattoo design.
Could it have some deeper significance?
Qin Youzhou silently committed the symbol to memory, then smoothed down the sleeve and let it fall back into place.
Respecting the dead—even a dead person who might have been the culprit—was the first lesson every medical cultivator learned.
The unfortunate sword cultivator accompanying them pinched his nose, stuffed the corpse into a storage ring, and carried it away.
The other three cultivators were also moved back to their rooms.
But when it came to Du Xiao, his eyelashes trembled and he curled into a ball. He flinched away from anyone who touched him and refused to cooperate no matter what they did.
Yet the moment Qin Youzhou placed a hand on his shoulder, Du Xiao’s tense arm immediately relaxed slightly.
“He looks as though he’s about to wake. Moving him by force could cause the poison to flare up again.”
Qin Youzhou sighed helplessly.
“I’ll take some people to search the surrounding area and question him once he wakes. Then I’ll bring him back to the sect.”
“I’ll trouble all of you to take the other three back for treatment first.”
Because of his excellent innate aptitude, Du Xiao’s symptoms were also the mildest.
The cultivators had only just left when his eyelids slowly opened.
Upon seeing Qin Youzhou, momentary confusion appeared on his face.
In a hoarse voice, he asked, “…Where am I?”
Qin Youzhou loosely supported him and poured him a cup of water.
“There’s no rush. Catch your breath first.”
Du Xiao held the bamboo cup. The confusion on his face gradually turned grave.
Only then did Qin Youzhou explain everything that had happened.
“I remember going to sleep last night and smelling something like the fragrance of osmanthus.”
Du Xiao thought for a moment.
“I don’t remember much after that. I only vaguely felt myself following someone forward, though I didn’t know where we were going.”
He looked completely innocent.
“When I woke again, I saw you.”
“Do you recognize this?”
Qin Youzhou showed him the rough reproduction of the serpent-shaped tattoo.
Du Xiao stared at it for quite some time.
“I don’t.”
He shook his head.
“But I’ve heard that among ordinary people, many depraved cults and heretical sects make their disciples tattoo symbolic totems onto their bodies.”
He added as though casually, “Perhaps some evil sect has been abducting young demons. Such things occasionally happen in the mortal world.”
“According to what you’ve said, you were nearly abducted just now. Aren’t you afraid?”
Qin Youzhou stared directly into his eyes.
Du Xiao’s face turned pale.
“Of course I’m afraid. I’m terrified!”
Meeting Qin Youzhou’s obviously unconvinced gaze, Du Xiao finally dropped the exaggerated expression.
“To tell Senior Qin the truth, there is no need for me to fear death, and I do not fear it.”
He smiled again.
“Life and death are governed by heaven. Besides, with an immortal master like Senior Qin watching over me, it is clearly not yet time for my life to end.”
Qin Youzhou calmly withdrew his gaze.
As expected, this was not Shizun.
His Shizun did not believe in ghosts or gods.
He did not even believe in the immortal path.
He could never have said something like life and death being determined by heaven.
If they could not obtain clues from the person who had suffered the mildest poisoning, there was even less hope of learning anything from the other three.
Qin Youzhou searched the area but found no especially noteworthy clues. He could only collect some scraps of fabric and bloodstained soil to bring back to the sect.
During the journey, Qin Youzhou continued thinking about the strange events he had encountered recently.
He asked the system, “Could this matter be connected to Dai Yang?”
They already knew the plot would compensate Dai Yang.
And Dai Yang had conveniently witnessed several demons being abducted.
Dai Yang had revealed their movements to him. Although he had not reported it promptly enough, it still counted as a minor contribution.
【It’s possible, but creating an entire evil cult out of thin air would be fairly difficult.】
The system shook its not particularly intelligent head.
【No matter what, stopping Dai Yang from becoming a disciple is still the priority.】
Qin Youzhou gave a quiet acknowledgment.
Although one matter had been resolved, his mood did not improve in the slightest.
During previous mountain openings, he had only helped maintain order and stockpile medicine.
This was his first time overseeing the entire situation.
Now that he had seen it for himself, neither the Sect Master’s lack of caution when the wandering cultivators disappeared nor Li Minglu’s complete lack of restraint in transferring away personnel and obstructing the mountain opening seemed acceptable.
The sect did not value the lives of wandering cultivators as much as Qin Youzhou had imagined.
Nor was its selection of outer disciples particularly rigorous.
Thinking even further, the fact that such an important matter as the mountain opening—something crucial to every sect—had suddenly been handed to two young personal disciples merely as a training exercise already revealed the sect’s attitude clearly enough.
Since cultivators had accepted spiritual power, they should take it upon themselves to eliminate demons, defend the Dao, and seek immortality and divinity.
Qin Youzhou slowly closed his eyes and forced himself not to dwell on assumptions that might prove true.
After returning to the sect, he met Yu Jia again.
They remained silent for a long time before Yu Jia gave a bitter smile and sighed.
“A narrow escape.”
They had grown old enough to understand some of the wickedness in human hearts.
Even so, encountering one problem after another still chilled them deeply.
The Sect Master’s attitude when they met him the following day turned Qin Youzhou’s grim suspicions into reality.
“You acted far too quickly without making proper preparations. What would you have done if someone had been injured or something had gone wrong?”
Even though four wandering cultivators had disappeared, Lü Quechen showed no urgency at all.
He still wore the same kindly expression as he sighed in concern.
“I won’t punish you too severely this time. Once the mountain opening ends, both of you will return to your peaks and reflect for one month.”
“If something like this happens again, you must inform me before taking action.”
“But the situation was urgent. I had already—”
Qin Youzhou stopped halfway through.
Yu Jia, who had come to his senses, quickly interrupted him.
Because he often traveled beyond the mountain, Yu Jia understood social conventions better than Qin Youzhou.
“Sect Master, we were simply too anxious. We truly had no other choice.”
“There is no need to act that way next time.”
Lü Quechen’s brow relaxed.
“Nothing is more important than your safety. If something happened to you, I would have no way to explain it to your masters.”
“Sect Master, we still haven’t uncovered the truth behind the unexplained disappearance of those four cultivators.”
Seeing that Lü Quechen intended to let the matter pass, Qin Youzhou knew continuing would anger him, but he still spoke honestly.
“It should be thoroughly investigated.”
“Of course it will be investigated. But all matters have their priorities. You only need to focus on managing the mountain opening. I will choose someone else to investigate.”
Lü Quechen’s hand paused as he stroked his beard.
“As for the cultivator who neglected his duty and Minglu, who suddenly recalled his fellow disciples, both will be questioned and severely punished!”
As though afraid Qin Youzhou might have more questions, he made several empty promises, hurriedly claimed that he had important matters to handle, and sent the two of them away.
The moment they stepped outside, they saw Li Minglu waiting with a dark expression.
The Sect Master had barely punished Qin Youzhou and Yu Jia, yet he had punished Li Minglu severely—confinement, stripped authority, and more.
Naturally, Li Minglu had no pleasant expression for either of them.
They were only a few untalented demon cultivators.
Similar things had happened every year before, and the people in charge had always turned a blind eye.
Had Qin Youzhou simply swallowed the humiliation and kept silent, Li Minglu would not have been punished.
Once they drew near, he put on a false smile.
“My apologies, Junior Brother. Something came up unexpectedly, and I recalled some people to the peak. It caused trouble for you.”
Qin Youzhou saw through his thoughts and stared steadily at him.
“Second Senior Brother, whether you look down on me is ultimately unimportant.”
“But as a cultivator, do you truly not regard their lives as lives?”
“Junior Brother Qin, don’t place such a grand accusation on me.”
Li Minglu tugged at the corner of his mouth.
“A cultivator should naturally pity all living beings. I am deeply saddened that such a thing happened.”
“Then let us hope the cultivators from the other peaks find nothing incriminating when they visit Qingyue Peak.”
Yu Jia returned an equally cold smile.
“Otherwise, simple confinement will be the least of your worries.”
Li Minglu’s complexion turned faintly green.
He clenched his back teeth and strode away with a dark face.
As he passed, he deliberately slammed his shoulder hard into Qin Youzhou’s arm.
“Next time you encounter Li Minglu, when he speaks sarcastically to provoke you, answer him the same way.”
Only when facing Qin Youzhou did Yu Jia’s expression return to normal.
“And when the Sect Master talks in circles, just go through the motions and speak in circles with him.”
He lowered his voice.
“As for what you actually do, and whether you obey him, that’s beyond his control.”
Qin Youzhou remained silent for a long time without nodding.
He had always understood very little about worldly conventions.
Shizun had taught him to tell the truth.
Yet most of the people around him constantly spoke words that were half true and half false.
Everything was fine as long as one did not dig too deeply or examine it too carefully.
But Qin Youzhou could not do that.
Lü Quechen gave them one day off, and the two returned to their respective homes.
In the past, Qin Youzhou had exterminated demons for several days and nights without sleeping and never felt tired.
Today, however, he felt exhausted in both body and mind.
If he brought these upsetting matters back to the mountain, Shizun would certainly worry again.
As Qin Youzhou passed the temporary resting area for the cultivators, he found a quiet, empty patch of grass and sat down.
He wanted to lie on the ground.
But he felt that doing so would be improper, even though no one was nearby.
After thinking for a long time, Qin Youzhou only grew more exhausted.
The wind brushing his cheek became slightly cool.
The sky had already begun to darken.
“Youzhou.”
Hearing the voice, Qin Youzhou’s eyes snapped open.
A silver serpent skillfully slithered out from the grass.
It climbed from his ankle to his waist, then followed his side up to his wrist.
A tingling itch trailed in its wake.
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