Chapter 1635 - 1482: Yin Yang Inn 38
Chapter 1635: Chapter 1482: Yin Yang Inn 38
As the golden talisman appeared, Young Master Chen’s figure gradually filled out, changing from a skinny, skeletal frame to a normal, straight-backed build.
After his body returned to normal, Young Master Chen’s deathly blue-white complexion also slowly turned into the healthy, ruddy color of a living person.
Aside from still lacking a heartbeat and body temperature, Young Master Chen now looked no different from an ordinary man, and in this restored state he seemed gentle in temperament, his appearance strikingly handsome.
Young Master Chen stared at his current appearance with some surprise and delight. Looking like this would make it much easier for him to walk among people without worrying about frightening ordinary folk.
Young Master Chen bowed his head deeply to Qi Shuangshuang, saying with immense gratitude, "Chen Sen kowtows in thanks for Your Excellency’s aid."
Qi Shuangshuang nodded, said little more, and took Li Yu and Feng Lin straight back to the Yin Yang Inn.
Of course, before Qi Shuangshuang left, she did not gather up the Yin Qi, resentful energy, and Ghost Qi that permeated the Chen Mansion. Those auras had been scattered by that Corpse Ghost earlier, full of malice.
Blanketed in these auras, Mr. Chen and his second wife were destined to be dogged by misfortune in the days to come, everything going wrong; the Chen Family’s decline was already inevitable.
This was also the karmic seed Mr. Chen and his second wife had sown themselves. Now they were merely tasting the bitter fruit.
If back then Mr. Chen had not ignored his second wife’s bullying of his original wife’s children, Chen Sen’s body would not have been ruined to the point of being bedridden just from trying to save his younger sister.
If Chen Sen’s body had not weakened to the point he could die at any time, Miss Chen would not have been tempted by the Corpse Ghost in order to cure her brother, doing all those harmful deeds.
A sip of water, a mouthful of food, all are heaven’s arrangement. Mr. Chen’s past inaction led to today’s consequences; he bears a share of the karma for those people Miss Chen caused to die. A ruined latter half of life is the punishment he deserves.
On the other side, after Qi Shuangshuang, Feng Lin, and Li Yu returned to the Yin Yang Inn, Feng Lin, rarely, fell a little silent.
As soon as he entered the inn, Feng Lin turned back into his tanuki-cat form and squatted on the windowsill, staring out at the sea of Manjushaka flowers for a long time without saying a word.
Qi Shuangshuang knew it was his first time going out to carry out a task, and it was inevitable he’d be shaken. Take Miss Chen this time, for example—was she a bad person? That much was beyond doubt. Yet she was also a little sister who felt deeply.
Faced with such a bad person, alongside hatred one would inevitably feel compassion as well. Pitiful and hateful at once—that’s exactly the sort of person Miss Chen was. Handling matters like this, it was certain one’s heart wouldn’t feel at ease.
As a member of the Yin Yang Inn, Feng Lin would encounter many such tangled affairs in the future. Sooner or later he’d have to face them and learn to adjust his own mood; in this, no one could help him.
Qi Shuangshuang watched Feng Lin, worry in her heart. At the side, Li Yu half leaned against the table, eyeing Qi Shuangshuang inquisitively. "Why were you suddenly so kind and full of mercy today?"
Qi Shuangshuang came back to herself, glanced at Li Yu’s probing gaze, and chuckled lightly. "How was I full of mercy? I merely followed the rules, that’s all."
Li Yu was quite displeased with Qi Shuangshuang’s attitude and couldn’t help raising his voice. "You know perfectly well what I mean, don’t dodge the crucial point. That talisman you gave Chen Sen earlier is anything but simple.
That talisman not only conceals the Yin Qi and Ghost Qi on him so he won’t unconsciously harm people from being around ordinary folk too long, it also carries the meaning of protection.
That talisman is telling all the Cultivators that this Corpse Ghost is under your wing, so they are not to lay hands on him.
Don’t tell me you pity him. In all this time you’ve seen plenty of people more pitiful than him, and I’ve never seen you make such an exception. Why, exactly, are you treating him with such special favor?"
Li Yu’s brows knitted tightly, and by the end his tone already held a trace of interrogation. The look he gave Qi Shuangshuang was extremely displeased; he just couldn’t stand Qi Shuangshuang being good to others.
He could barely tolerate that pampered, useless cat Feng Lin, and only because Qi Shuangshuang was raising him like a son. But now if any random thing could make Qi Shuangshuang break the rules for it, that made him feel awful.
Foxes like them are naturally possessive. Any person or thing that’s been drawn into their circle, they don’t like seeing that person be good to anyone—demon, ghost, or otherwise—outside themselves.
Qi Shuangshuang lifted her round fan to cover half her face, looking at the obviously disgruntled Li Yu without speaking. After a while she suddenly let out a soft laugh. "Why, you ask? I suppose it’s because I was struck by a sudden impulse."
Finishing, Qi Shuangshuang shook the round fan in her hand, turned, and went upstairs, leaving Li Yu standing where he was, so angered by such a perfunctory answer that even his eyebrows were about to stand on end.
At some unknown point, Feng Lin had already changed back into human form and was sitting at the table. He tilted his head, looking at Li Yu, and spoke with pure innocence. "Li Yu, are you stupid? It’s not that the Shopkeeper is making an exception for Chen Sen.
It was clearly because you were looking at Chen Sen with such a sympathetic face earlier that the Shopkeeper decided to make an exception and give him a hand, okay?
Now you’re even asking the Shopkeeper why she broke the rules for Chen Sen. Has your brain been corroded by the Corpse Ghost’s Yin Qi and gone dumb?"
Feng Lin’s words stunned Li Yu for a moment. He had indeed felt a great deal of sympathy for Chen Sen earlier, finding Chen Sen very similar to himself.
Back then, he had signed a contract with the Yin Yang Inn and given up his freedom for the sake of saving his elder sister; whereas Chen Sen, for the sake of his younger sister, had willingly become a Corpse Ghost, forsaking reincarnation.
Precisely because of this similarity, he’d originally wanted to help Chen Sen out. He hadn’t expected Qi Shuangshuang to beat him to it; after that he had been busy being angry, forgetting his earlier thoughts entirely.
So it was for his sake? The stubbornness in Li Yu’s heart suddenly eased, and he felt all that displeasure vanish without a trace, his mood turning excellent.
Though he’d figured it out inside, Li Yu refused to concede with his mouth. He shot Feng Lin a look. "What does a little brat like you know? Don’t go guessing at adults’ business."
With that, he turned and went upstairs. Only, he couldn’t help the corners of his mouth from curling up, leaving Feng Lin staring dumbly after Li Yu’s clearly lighter steps, utterly baffled.
Had he said something wrong? It was so obvious. And why had that damned fox snapped at him again? He was aggrieved; he was going to find the Shopkeeper and complain!
Feng Lin never got the chance to complain, because Qi Shuangshuang and Li Yu received an urgent mission from the Underworld: they were to head to Qionghua State to capture a Fierce Beast.
Qionghua State has a mild climate, abundant mountains and waters, and Spirit Veins aplenty; it’s a favorite place for Cultivators. But what Qionghua State is most famous for is that it suppresses a single Fierce Beast—Taotie!
That’s right, Taotie, not the usual Taotie written with the other character. "Taotie" originally appeared as a mistaken character people wrote when they misspelled the word for Taotie.
Yet three thousand years ago, a warlike race planned to take Taotie as their clan’s Holy Beast to worship. As fate would have it, during the offering ceremony they wrote the name wrong, writing Taotie with the mistaken character instead.
Their method of worship was always to use fresh living humans: they’d cut off the human heads, scoop out the organs, and mix human blood with wine for the offering.