Chapter 195: Master is the best

At the sound of someone calling him, Ye Wangxi turns around. She looks haggard, but her spirits are not as bad as Mo Ran would have expected.

When she saw Mo Ran, Ye Wangxi lowered her eyes and saluted him, still with the same male salute she could not break the habit, saying, "Sir Mo."

Mo Ran looked at her and then at Nangong Si beside her.

He couldn't help but ask, "Where did you guys come from, why is this covered in blood"

Ye Wangxi said, "We were on our way from Linyi, and we encountered evil spirits on our way, so I'm sorry for the lack of clothing."

Mo Ran was about to ask another question when Xue Zhengyong said, "It's good that Mo Ran is here, so come in and talk."

Chu Wanning entered the room, stopped looking at Mo Ran, and took his place, straightened his clothes and looked towards Nangong Si.

He looked at Nangong Si for a moment, his heart aching, but he simply said, "How are you all doing?"

It was the first time since the Confucianism School died that someone had met them and asked them how they were doing.

Nangong Si's eyes turned a little red and he dropped his head sharply, his palms balled into fists, and he closed his eyes for a long time before resisting the urge to shed tears in front of Chu Wanning and said hoarsely, "No, it's fine, we're getting by."

Chu Wanning, however, sighed softly and lowered his eyes without further ado.

He did not believe Nangong Si's words. Linyi was a long way away, and it was impossible for two young men to come through this without suffering.

Xue Zhengyong was very distressed and helped to explain, " Yu Heng, you didn't come to the party, it's like this, Duke Nangong and Aunt Ye Niang found some clues and rushed to tell us."

"I heard about it. It's about Xu Shuanglin."

"Hmm."

Chu Wanning said, "Sit down and speak."

Mo Ran went and brought chairs over, but Nangong Si and Ye Wangxi, feeling dirty and smelly, did not want to sit down. Chu Wanning didn't push them, and after a short pause, asked, "Where did you go after that day in Linyi?"

Nangong Si said, "Ye Wangxi and I were forced by the fire to take refuge on Vei Mountain, just across the river from each other." After a pause, he continued, "Vei Shan is a remote place where it is difficult to send messages, and Ye Wangxi was wounded, so after the fire was extinguished, we recuperated for a while before returning to the Confucianism School."

Now that Nangong Si has mentioned the sect he first joined, things have changed. Chu Wanning couldn't tell you what it was like, but after a long time, he sighed, "There must be no grass left."

"The patriarch is right, not an inch of grass is real, but something has crawled out of the ruins."

Chu Wanning looked up and asked, "What?"

"These bugs."

Nangong Si opens a bloodstained pocket in front of him, half open and half hidden, filled with small, buzzing insects, green shells with black spots, five spots in all, three large and two small, their tails smelling faintly of blood. Most of the insects are still huddled in their pockets, seemingly afraid of the light, but a few have already flown out, resting on the walls and pillars of the Loyalty Palace, blotting out a trail of blood where they have crawled.

Mo Ran knows this worm, the Soul Eater.

This worm, which lives only in the pools of blood near the Linyi Confucianism School, is a living, dead worm that feeds on human flesh and souls.

Almost all the elders found the worms extremely disgusting and Lu Cun even covered his mouth and nose with a handkerchief, as he could not stand the stench.

"We found these soul-devouring worms in the middle of the ruins." Nangong Si said, "I thought that the worms from the nearby blood pool were attracted and so flew some here, but then I found out that they were not."

"How?"

"There are too many worms. Ye Wangxi and I walked through the Confucianism School Seventy-two Cities and there were these soul-eating worms densely packed in the cracks of the bricks, in the mud and dirt, and in the ashes. We felt that something was wrong, and after a closer look, we found that not only were there adults, but also larvae. The patriarch should understand what I mean."

Chu Wanning, not knowing much about compulsions, was a little confused at first, but when he thought about it, he figured it out.

The blood pond is next to Mount Vai, separated from Linyi by a large river, and the soul-eating insects have weak wings, so it barely makes sense that the adults would smell the dead and pounce on them, but what about the larvae?

How could the larvae have grown legs and crossed rivers and mountains on their own, how could they have come to the scorched earth of the School of Confucianism on their own?

Chu Wanning frowned: "Someone placed it here in advance."

"Well, I do think so."

As Elder Greedy Wolf listened on the sidelines, it dawned on him, "This soul-devouring worm can store spiritual energy, after the calamity, grievances are everywhere, and Linyi cultivators are numerous, the worms eat the souls of cultivators and become seeds that store spiritual energy of different attributes one by one. With these thousands of seeds, even without using their own spells, they can drive most formations."

So who would have released the worms? Who could have foreseen it, Linyi? Who would have needed outside spiritual energy for this disaster?

No one answered, but the answer was self-explanatory.

Only the originator, Xu Shuanglin, or as he was originally known, Nan Gongxu, is known.

Xue Zhengyong said, "So the Upper Fairy World has been relying on spell trails to find Xu Shuanglin this whole time, and it turns out that he's not using his own power at all, but the bugs'"

Nangong Si said, "Well, indeed."

Xue Zhengyong mused, "Well detection spells can only detect human beings, and indeed cannot detect the traces of beasts and demons. If Xu Shuanglin used this method, he could indeed cover his tracks for a long time."

He then asked Greedy Wolf, "Can we find Xu Shuanglin's whereabouts by tracking the bug?"

Greedy Wolf said, "Impossible, the soul-devouring worms go down to the underworld, and after they have eaten their fill of soul fragments, they all go underground, so there is no way to find out where they go."

Hearing this, Xue Zhengyong suddenly remembered something and said, "Since we are going to the underworld, why don't we ask Master Huai Zui who should be able to know about the ghost world?"

But Chu Wanning immediately said, "Don't bother asking him."

"Why?"

"It's useless to look for him." Chu Wanning said, "He doesn't want to meddle in the red, he won't say anything."

Chu Wanning had been Huai Zui's personal disciple, and at this moment, when he spoke in such a categorical manner, the crowd was confused but could not say anything more, and the hall fell into silence again in an instant.

After a long time, Xue Zhengyong murmured, "Then what should we do? Since Xu Shuanglin can use the spiritual power of the parasite to evade the search, it is useless for us to investigate any further, should we just let him go?"

Chu Wanning suggested: "Let's change the idea of search and seizure, shall we?"

"How?"

"Your Holiness, when Xu Shuanglin left, he took three things with him, do you remember which ones they were?"

Xue Zhengyong broke off the count one by one, " Luo Fenghua's spirit core, Nangong " he looked at Nangong Si for a moment, sighed in his heart and softened his voice, " Nangong Master, and a Shenwu . "

Chu Wanning said, "Well, a person always has a purpose for what he does, and when he was in a hurry to escape, he still insisted on taking these three things with him. Then, in your opinion, Xu Shuanglin, what did he do with his brother?"

"Well revenge."

"And what did he take Shenwu for?"

Xue Zhengyong thought for a moment, "Rely on the five pure clear spiritual powers to tear open the ghost world rift."

"The reason for tearing open the ghostly rift was to get Luo Fenghua's spirit core." Chu Wanning said, "He didn't have to rip it open a second time."

"What was that for?"

Chu Wanning said, "I think there's a possibility that he's in it for the rebirthing technique."

Xue Zhengyong froze for a moment: "But the Rebirth Technique can be performed without the five supreme spiritual powers, didn't Master Huai Zui perform it once?"

Chu Wanning shook his head, " Huai Zui had said that the methods of rebirth were not identical in the world, so your Holiness did not need to use what he performed as a reference."

When Greedy Wolf heard this, he laughed coldly, " Elder Yu Heng has no evidence, how dare he presume that Xu Shuanglin is doing this to cultivate the Rebirth Forbidden Art"

Chu Wanning said, "With the last thing he took with him, Luo Fenghua's spirit core."

In the middle of the hall, Chu Wanning's voice was smooth and low, methodical.

"Many years ago, I tried a girl who died in vain in Butterfly Town, who, as a young girl, had met a madman covered in blood, who slipped her an orange and said that her eyes looked like those of an old friend of his, and the madman ended with the words Linyi has a man, twenty hearts are dead."

Twenty was the age when Nan Gongxu was planted and lambasted for eternity.

That year at the Lingshan Mountain Conference, he was a man of high spirits and arrogance, thinking that with his talent and a lifetime of hard work, he could have fairness and justice and all that he deserved.

But he gave it all he had, and all he got was a lifetime of cursing.

The sharp blade in his hand and the ambition in his heart are no match for his brother's tongue.

He hates.

There was nowhere to redress his grievances, everyone was laughing at him, accusing him and spitting on him.

Eventually the living become dead and the dead become evil spirits.

The stern ghost has crawled out of the blood of the crumbling mountain of hate to seek the justice he deserves from all the righteous people of this world.

"This madman is now, needless to say, Xu Shuanglin, so who is the late Luo Xianxian's eyes like?"

"They look alike and both have the surname Luo," Xue Zhengyong said, aghast, "It can't be Luo Fenghua, can it?"

Chu Wanning said, "I think it was Luo Fenghua. At the bottom of Jincheng Lake, Xu Shuanglin tried both the Zhenlong Chess Game and Rebirth. The Zhenlong Chess Game was to manipulate others, and Rebirth was for whoever he took two bodies for.

Xue Zhengyong murmured, "But what is he doing resurrecting Luo Fenghua? Isn't Luo Fenghua the man who once framed him?"

"It's hard to tell what people will do." Chu Wanning said, "But he took Luo Fenghua's body and I can't think of any other use for it than to bring it back to life."

The crowd fell silent, and on reflection, they all felt that Chu Wanning's analysis was good, but still unsubstantiated. In the end, these were only their inferences, and the answer to this question could only be answered by Xu Shuanglin himself, who was currently in hiding.

After the meeting, Mo Ran thought long and hard about it, and that evening he went to the Nuan Court to find Xue Zhengyong.

Xue Zhengyong was looking through the canonical texts for something related to the Soul Eater, hoping to get some clues to trace Xu Shuanglin's descent.

"Uncle."

" Mo Ran It's late and you're not going to bed"

"I couldn't sleep, and there was something I wanted to ask my uncle."

Xue Zhengyong lifted his chin and gestured for him to sit down. Mo Ran didn't bother asking, "Does uncle know what kind of person Luo Fenghua, Xu Shuanglin's master, was?

" Luo Fenghua." Xue Zhengyong frowned, thought hard for half a day and shook his head, "I had very little contact with him, so I can't say exactly, but I think he was upright, firm, fair, not talking much but actually very good-tempered. When he was head of the School of Confucianism, he also sent his disciples to Lower Fairy World to fight demons."

Mo Ran said, "So all in all, there's nothing to criticise about him except that he usurped the Nangong family's headship, is there?"

Xue Zhengyong sighed, "Yes, it's more than no criticism, he's simply a good man. I can't even understand how a man like him could put such a heavy curse on his own disciple."

Mo Ran pondered for a moment and then suddenly said, "Uncle, did you feel that your description of Luo Fenghua just now was a bit like a person"?

Xue Zhengyong froze for a moment: "You want to say Yu Heng, come on, where is Yu Heng's good temper?"

"No, it's someone else."

"Who is it?"

Mo Ran said, "Ye Wangxi."

"Ah" Xue Zhengyong slowly, his tiger eyes rounded, three words chewed soundlessly between his lips and tongue before he slowly spoke, " Ye Wangxi "

This man was generous and resolute, tough and unyielding, very similar indeed to the Luo Fenghua he remembered as the head of the school for only a year or so.

"Like?"

"Like." Xue Zhengyong was gradually surprised, because Ye Wangxi and Luo Fenghua were different in gender, age and status at the School of Confucianism, so he had never compared the two men together. He had never compared the two men before.

The more Xue Zhengyong thought about it, the more astonished he was, and the more his long-held memories came back to him. He could even vaguely remember when Luo Fenghua was a guest of the School of Confucianism, and the clothes he wore were very similar to those worn by Ye Wangxi.

There is also the mannerisms of the two men, the tone of their speech.

Even the way the bow is drawn

He had seen Luo Fenghua draw a bow when he was young. On that occasion, the Confucianism School had invited the two Xue family brothers to celebrate Nan Gongliu's birthday. A snow demon rabbit fell to the ground a hundred paces away.

Luo Fenghua smiled gently as everyone around him complimented him on his skill with the bow, casually pulling it back and slinging it over his left arm, his fingertips subconsciously rubbing the string.

It was a flowing set of movements, free and easy, and the final finish was different from the imposing and vocal kind of others.

Xue Zhengyong looked at it from the side and found it stunning, so he remembered it in his mind.

At this moment, I suddenly remembered that Ye Wangxi and Nangong Si both used bows and arrows together during the Battle of the Sky Split, but Xue Zhengyong was not impressed by Nangong Si's powerful arrows.

I couldn't help but look at it more than twice myself then, as if I thought that gentle and fluid, suave and self-possessed stance resembled someone.

He snapped his head and said, "Gee, it's really, really, really, really just like that"

Mo Ran raised his eyebrows and said, "What's the same?"

"The way he shoots the arrow, Luo Fenghua is so much like Ye Wangxi, exactly the same, exactly the same."

Mo Ran looked at Xue Zhengyong in awe and couldn't help but smile, but he said, "That's not quite right, uncle."

"Ah where is wrong"

Mo Ran said, "Karma is wrong."

"Cause and Effect"

"Well, it's not Luo Fenghua, it's like Ye Wangxi." Mo Ran sighed. Mo Ran sighed, "It's Ye Wangxi, like Luo Fenghua."

As he said this, the lustre under his eyes shone brightly, and he felt that he could finally be sure this time that he must have guessed correctly: Xu Shuanglin's art of rebirth was to resurrect Luo Fenghua.

Although he did not know how many secrets were hidden in the Confucianism School's past, but in two lifetimes, Xu Shuanglin could die for Ye Wangxi in his last life, and in this life, he could only let her down after the Confucianism School, why?

He did not think Xu Shuanglin could not bear to do it simply because Ye Wangxi was his own righteous daughter.

Xu Shuanglin is a man who seems to be very liberal, saying that "there are men in Linyi, but 20 hearts have died", naming his place "San Sheng Yuan", and acting as if he wants to forget all about his past. He even gave his daughter a name that was so naked.

Forget the past.

Forget your former selves, your deceased friends, your past hatreds, your favours.

But Xu Shuanglin has unwittingly nurtured Ye Wangxi into that reflection that cannot be forgotten, raising this abandoned orphan into the likeness of another human being.

The man who so desperately wishes he could forget all about his past, but perhaps has been living in a quagmire of memories since the beginning.

At this point, Mo Ran had a vague suspicion that, because he himself had gone mad in the dark, he should be more accurate than others in his prediction of Xu Shuanglin's behaviour. However, he was not at liberty to share these thoughts with anyone else, so he could only make his own guesses and wait and see what happened.

The next day, Xue Zhengyong, who had searched through the canon to no avail, summoned the crowd again and said, "Poisonous insects and beasts are Lonely Moonlit's forte, and the soul-eating insects were found at the old Confucianism School site.

Xuan Ji agreed, "The world's number one pharmacist, Cold Scale Sage, is under Jiang Xi's command, so if he can find a way to check it out, there should be no mistake."

But Chu Wanning frowned and asked Ye Wangxi: "Aunt Ye Niang, have you ever seen your father breed any poisonous insects and beasts since you were a child?"

"Not ever."

"What about healing and animal training?"

"He has only ever kept a parrot, and he has no desire to take in any other beast, not to mention a strange beast, or an ordinary puppy, and his medical skills are even weaker."

After hearing this, Chu Wanning said to Xue Zhengyong, "Don't tell Lonely Moonlit about the soul-devouring insects yet."

"Why?"

" Since Xu Shuanglin was not skilled in the art of healing, nor in the art of taming beasts, it was not necessarily he who fed and drove the parasites, but more than likely the hand that reached out from the last rift."

"You are doubtful Lonely Moonlit "

"It's important not to jump to conclusions." Chu Wanning says, "But it's always right to be cautious."