Chapter 52: The Saintess at the Wind and Rain Mountain God Temple, 3 Disappearance Cases
Chapter 52: Chapter 52: The Saintess at the Wind and Rain Mountain God Temple, 3 Disappearance Cases
The night was black as ink, the cold moon a sliver in the sky.
Outside Tongzhou City, on the main road of Phoenix Mountain, the crisp jingle of bells rang out. The Shaking Light Saintess leaped between the treetops, the bells tied to her ankles with a red string chiming clearly, exceptionally distinct in the dead of night.
The wind blew, swaying the trees and bending the flowers and grass.
RUMBLE!
Along with the great gusts of wind, thunder rolled through the sky.
The Shaking Light Saintess stood atop a tall, straight cypress tree. She looked up and saw that the night sky had, at some point, become thick with dark clouds. A heavy downpour was clearly imminent.
However, she was still a long way from Tongzhou, so she decided to find a place to take shelter from the rain first.
The next second, raindrops began to fall from the sky.
From her high vantage point, she scanned the area in all directions.
She soon spotted the glow of a fire on a mountain to her front left.
Pushing off with her toes, she immediately flew toward it.
At the same time, the raindrops turned from scattered pearls into solid strings, pattering down and causing the leaves to rustle loudly.
...............
Inside an abandoned earth god temple, the dust-covered altar held no offerings. The incense burner had been knocked to the ground, and only the bottom half of the deity’s statue remained—its head had vanished without a trace, lending the place a sinister air.
A bonfire burned in the middle of the temple, with two pheasants sizzling as they roasted over the flames. Five men in mismatched attire sat around the fire. Nearby lay three unconscious young women, their hands and feet bound.
One of them, a clean-shaven, pale-faced, middle-aged man, complained, "What rotten luck! We just came in to rest our feet and grab a bite, and now it’s suddenly pouring. This is going to set us back."
"I’d say we’re pretty lucky. It only started raining after we got inside the temple. Some people are probably still out there scrambling for shelter," another, a portly man, said with a yawn.
Suddenly, a man who had been focused on roasting the chicken looked up and asked, "Did you guys hear something?"
"Hear what?" The other four exchanged glances and subconsciously perked up their ears to listen.
"JINGLE, JINGLE... JINGLE, JINGLE..."
A thin, scrawny young man said, "It’s bells!"
Everyone simultaneously turned to look toward the entrance, following the sound.
Outside, the wind howled and the rain poured, and it was pitch black.
The next second, BOOM! As a clap of thunder exploded and lightning streaked across the sky, a woman with a graceful figure and flowing sleeves stood silently in the doorway. The fierce wind and rain left not a single trace on her clothes, vanishing the instant they touched her.
The expressions of the five men inside the temple changed.
They all subconsciously tightened their grips on their weapons.
They didn’t let their guard down just because the woman outside was beautiful. On the contrary, they grew even more fearful.
Because for an exquisitely beautiful woman to appear alone in the deep mountains and old forests in the middle of the night, if she wasn’t a demon or a ghost, she had to be a master of Martial Arts.
"Greetings, miss." The middle-aged man, the eldest and the leader of the group, put away his weapon, stood up, and clasped his fist. "My four brothers and I are just taking shelter from the storm. The rain is heavy outside. Please, come in and warm yourself by the fire."
But in the face of his gesture of goodwill, the Shaking Light Saintess remained expressionless and silent. Her gaze fell upon the three unconscious young women beside the altar.
Seeing this, the five men exchanged a look.
"Miss, we are but strangers who met by chance. Surely you don’t intend to interfere in our Jianghu affairs," the middle-aged man said in a low voice, his tone carrying a hint of a warning.
The Shaking Light Saintess still said nothing. With an indifferent gaze, she stepped into the ruined temple, ignoring the men. She walked directly toward the three unconscious women and bent down, reaching out to check their pulses.
The five men’s faces paled. Two of them were about to step forward to stop her but were held back by their leader.
In response to his companions’ confused looks, the middle-aged man simply gestured for them to look at the Shaking Light Saintess’s feet.
Only then did they notice that she wasn’t wearing any shoes!
More importantly, despite being barefoot, her jade-like feet were still fair and delicate, without a single speck of dirt.
’An expert!’
The two men who had been about to stop her broke out in a cold sweat.
"Senior, we will leave this place to you. We will find shelter elsewhere," the leader said. The moment the words left his mouth, he turned to leave, paying no mind to the three young women.
Seeing the tide had turned, he was getting out while he could.
His four companions scrambled to follow him.
Suddenly, a cold glint of light flashed. A long, thin Soft Sword had appeared in the Shaking Light Saintess’s hand, its tip dripping with blood. The five men, their backs to her, had been decapitated before they even had a chance to resist. Their bodies fell to the ground in disarray as blood began to pool around them.
With a flick of her wrist, the Shaking Light Saintess made the Soft Sword dance like a silver snake, flinging the five heads onto the altar as if they were offerings to the god.
She then conjured a chair out of thin air, sat down, and took out a handkerchief to meticulously wipe the blade. Once the blood was cleaned off, the Soft Sword vanished from her hand.
Clearly, she also possessed a Storage Magical Treasure.
The rain didn’t stop until dawn. The Shaking Light Saintess, who had been resting in her chair with her eyes closed, opened them to find that the three bound women were still unconscious.
She went over, cut their ropes, and woke them up.
"Ah, HISS... what happened? My head hurts so much."
"Where is this? Who are you?"
"AHHHH!"
The three women were dazed upon waking. They sat up, and as they turned their heads, they came face-to-face with the heads on the altar.
They all turned pale with fright and screamed in terror.
The Shaking Light Saintess frowned slightly, annoyed by their noise. She had no interest in asking them why they had been kidnapped and simply turned and left without a backward glance.
After all, she didn’t need a reason to save someone. She had saved them simply because she had come across them. Who they were and why they had been taken was none of her business.
By the time the three women calmed down from their terror, the Shaking Light Saintess was nowhere to be seen. One of them frantically ran outside to look but saw no one.
"I remember! Last night, I was at home embroidering a handkerchief when someone suddenly broke through my window. Then I lost consciousness. I was kidnapped!"
"M-me too! Where are we?"
"I know this place. It’s the old abandoned earth god temple in Lijia Gully, outside the city. We have to get back quickly."
...............
Back in the city, someone had already gone to the County Government Office to report a crime.
"Your Excellency! You must help me! I woke up this morning, and my daughter was gone!"
"Your Excellency, my daughter too! There are footprints on her bedroom window. She must have been abducted!"
"And... and my daughter! I don’t know which goddamned thief did this! My poor girl is still an unmarried maiden, she’s not even betrothed!"
The three sets of parents whose daughters had gone missing threw themselves to their knees the moment they entered the County Government Office, wailing and crying.
Hearing it was a missing persons case, County Magistrate Wang frowned. These cases were the most troublesome. Once someone left the city, how were they supposed to find them in the vast wilderness?
But he couldn’t just do nothing. An investigation was required!
He had to pursue even the slimmest of chances.
County Magistrate Wang took a deep breath. "Alright, quiet down, all of you. Speak one at a time."
"Your Excellency, let me speak first!!" A portly man dressed as a wealthy merchant stood up and scurried forward a few steps. "My daughter was still here at dinner last night. After the meal, she went back to her room to embroider a handkerchief and never came out. This morning, when she still hadn’t appeared, my wife went to her room to check on her.
But the room was completely empty! There were footprints on the window and more on the courtyard wall. It must have been a thief who can scale walls that kidnapped my daughter! Your Excellency, you must catch this person and save my daughter!"
After hearing this, County Magistrate Wang suddenly no longer felt the case was troublesome. Judging by the man’s clothes and appearance, he was clearly a man of considerable wealth, which meant the walls of his courtyard would not be low.
For a thief to be able to climb over that wall, get inside, and then carry a grown person back out without making a sound...
...it meant they were very likely a ranked Martial Artist.
’This case should be a headache for the Jing’an Guard.’
His mood instantly lightened. "Please, try to remain calm. I will first arrange for a constable to inspect the scene."