Chapter 33: Feng Sanniang!

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“Master, she’s here! Hurry and subdue her!” Meng Anren’s voice turned shrill as he stared at the graceful woman in ancient attire.

“We only met briefly last night, yet you seem to have changed quite a lot today, miss.” Chu Tian calmly regarded the woman before him.

It was obvious that the merit-bearing ghost fox had grown considerably stronger than she had been the night before.

For cultivators who possessed their own accumulated merit, if their cultivation fell and they began training anew, Heaven and Earth would lend them their strength. Had this ghost fox waited just one more night before acting, Meng Anren and Fan Shishi, caught unprepared today, would certainly never have escaped her grasp.

What Chu Tian had not expected was that the karmic grudge between them would drive the ghost fox to act with such impatience.

“You’re a rather peculiar cultivator.” The woman tilted her head as she studied Chu Tian. “You’re unlike the wandering Taoists I’ve met before. Not only do you keep little ghosts, you even keep little demons!”

“Who are you calling a little demon?” Chen Meng, standing nearby, immediately bristled at the ghost fox’s words.

She was, after all, a respected figure among the fox clan. Aside from those venerable elders who had secluded themselves to cultivate and no longer concerned themselves with worldly affairs, she, Chen Meng, was at least responsible for half of the fox clan’s affairs among the demon cultivators active in the outside world.

“Chen Meng, stay calm. She… is actually an elder of your fox clan.” Chu Tian looked at the woman as he spoke.

“Today, this is between me and them.” The ghost fox turned her gaze to Chu Tian. “Are you going to help them?”

“Master…” Meng Anren and Fan Shishi looked at Chu Tian, their eyes filled with pleading.

“Perhaps we can talk first.” Chu Tian looked at the ghost fox.

“You want to play the impartial mediator?” The ghost fox’s gaze grew cold.

Impartial mediators had never truly been impartial since ancient times. Whenever interests and emotions became entangled, the moment someone said, “Let me say a fair word,” they had already planted themselves firmly on the side they intended to support.

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“That is indeed what I had in mind. What do you say, Feng Sanniang?” Chu Tian calmly addressed the woman in ancient dress.

At his words, the woman’s face revealed only the faintest trace of surprise. Meng Anren and Fan Shishi, however, were struck dumb with shock, their pupils trembling as though an earthquake had erupted before them.

Feng Sanniang…

They had not heard that name in several centuries.

“You know me?” Feng Sanniang asked Chu Tian.

Chu Tian nodded and said slowly, “The fox spirit Feng Sanniang once met Fan Shiniang at the Ullambana Festival held at Water-Moon Temple. Struck by her beauty, she wished to befriend her. She later disguised herself as an ordinary woman and became sworn sisters with Fan Shiniang. Claiming to be skilled in physiognomy, she brought about the marriage between Fan Shiniang and the impoverished scholar Meng Anren.

“But Fan Shiniang, moved by the depth of their sisterly affection, wished to imitate the bond of the legendary imperial sisters Ehuang and Nüying. She drugged you and sent you to Meng Anren, causing you to break your vow of chastity and ruin your centuries of cultivation, leaving you unable to ascend to the First Heaven. Am I correct?”

“Where did you read that?” Feng Sanniang asked, her expression turning strange.

“In ancient times, scholars recorded the deeds of demons and ghosts and compiled them into books. There happened to be an account of this story. I imagine someone spread your tale, and that scholar later wrote it down.” Chu Tian spoke casually. He had read precisely this story in Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio a few days earlier.

Before meeting Feng Sanniang, however, he had never imagined that the tales of spirits and monsters recorded in that slim volume could actually be true.

“So… the world has twisted what happened between us into such a story?” Feng Sanniang let out a cold laugh. Looking at Fan Shishi and Meng Anren, she continued, “The only people capable of telling our story so clearly while mixing up every name and detail would be the two of you, wouldn’t they?

“Of course. Without a plausible story, how could you, Fan Shiniang, explain your resurrection? And how could you, Meng Anren, suddenly rise to the highest ranks and become a Hanlin scholar?

“But I never imagined that you two, with your corrupted hearts, would not only destroy my cultivation and take my life, but also defile a century of my good name!”

“Oh? So there is more to this after all?” Chu Tian glanced at Meng Anren and Fan Shishi beside him, then at Feng Sanniang, visibly intrigued.

Meng Anren, however, continued to cling stubbornly to his story. “Master, don’t listen to her nonsense! She’s a ghost, while we’re human. She’s nothing but lies. How can you believe a word she says? Master, hurry and subdue her. Don’t let her demonic lies cloud your judgment!”

Even now, Meng Anren and Fan Shishi were still trying to persuade Chu Tian.

“At that Ullambana Festival, it was clearly Fan Shiniang who noticed my beauty and came to befriend me,” Feng Sanniang said. “She went to great lengths to win my favor, yet now the story has been changed into one where I fawned over her?

“I thought she was innocent and carefree, a girl without guile, so I became her sworn sister. When she fell in love with Meng Anren, she asked me to tutor him in his studies. When she wished to marry him, I helped her. To save her from the wealthy gentry who sought her hand, I cast a spell that made her appear dead, allowing her to escape and eventually be united with Meng Anren.

“Who could have imagined that those two had already set their sights on me? They plotted against me while my cultivation was advancing, making Meng Anren swallow my demon heart so that he could turn to the art of rejuvenation through energy harvesting.

“Fearing that I might survive, they sealed me inside a plum vase and buried me in an ancient tomb. They even hired a Taoist to perform a geomantic sealing ritual, using Seven Baleful Demon-Sealing Nails to bind my soul. They wanted me to suffer day and night until my soul was utterly scattered!”

She turned to Chu Tian. “You cultivator… tell me, with such a grudge between them and me, would I be wrong to seek revenge?”

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“If what you say is true, then naturally not.” Chu Tian answered Feng Sanniang.

“He is obviously lying,” Fan Shishi said. “Master, we don’t know her at all. Who knows how many years this demon has cultivated? How old are we? How could we possibly have anything to do with her? Even if there were some connection, any wrongdoing would have been committed by our ancestors. What does it have to do with us?

“And besides, Master… you accepted our money!”

“The art of rejuvenation through energy harvesting must have been quite pleasant to use.” Chu Tian regarded the two of them with a hint of amusement.

“Master… what… what are you talking about?” Meng Anren and Fan Shishi both hesitated.

“I’ve been wondering how the two of you managed to live for so many years. There are all kinds of sinister methods for prolonging one’s life, of course, but I don’t know much about them.” Chu Tian looked at them. “Now that Feng Sanniang has mentioned it, I understand. By swallowing the heart of a merit-bearing fox spirit and stealing its demonic fortune for yourselves, you practiced the art of energy harvesting. That allowed you to seize the lifespans of young women and add them to your own. You could even reverse the technique and share your lifespans with others.

“Unfortunately, the two of you are still nothing but rotten wood that cannot be carved. Even after swallowing the heart of a merit-bearing fox spirit, you were unable to embark upon the path of cultivation. All you could do was commit these filthy acts of tampering with human life.”

Chu Tian gave a cold laugh.

“So you aren’t going to stop me?” Feng Sanniang had understood the implication of his words. She smiled as she asked the question.

At this, Fan Shishi and Meng Anren’s faces instantly turned deathly pale.

“If it were for their sake, I wouldn’t stop you.” Chu Tian rubbed his nose as he looked at Feng Sanniang. “But for your sake… today, I have no choice but to stop you.”

At his words, Feng Sanniang’s face turned livid, while Meng Anren and Fan Shishi immediately broke into ecstatic smiles.

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