Chapter 136: The Master is Gone

"If your Master were with them, nothing would have happened, and you wouldn't need to worry about this."

"Master..." Qiao Yu kept his head down, his voice choked with sobs, "Master is gone."

"Gone?" Yuan Qingling was stunned. "What do you mean by gone? Speak clearly!"

"It means exactly what it sounds like. He's just gone," he repeated.

Yuan Qingling found it bizarre. He recognized every single word, yet when strung together, what sort of sentence was this? He simply could not comprehend it.

"Wh—what do you mean? Is it... is it the meaning I'm thinking of?"

"Yes. Master... he slit his own throat." Qiao Yu took a deep breath. "I could sense it. After we came out, the Eldest Senior Brother's aversion toward me grew stronger and stronger.

The Junior Sister was out of her wits at the time, and both the Junior Brother and Senior Brother Yang needed the Eldest Senior Brother's care. Then... there was also that rambling, eccentric Monk of Sorrow and Joy from the Esoteric Secret Sect...

Back then, the most useless one was me, so I volunteered to go scout the way.

To find out why Qianyan Capital had become a ghost town yet no one knew about it.

At that time, the city still existed. It wasn't... it wasn't flat like it is now."

"Calm yourself." Seeing that Qiao Yu's vital energy was unstable and he looked on the verge of breaking through to a higher rank again—anyone on Wen Jin'ge's mountain could casually advance in rank, but he certainly could not—Shan Hongxing hurriedly barked a stop, "Hold your breath!"

After pausing to compose himself, Qiao Yu continued, "Master Uncle, this city... this place is strange."

"Why did your Master slit his throat?"

"We went to a very bizarre place. There was a wizard in a black robe who called Master 'Old Ancestor'."

"Old Ancestor?" Shan Hongxing frowned.

Wen Jin'ge had been taken in by his master, the Diviner, entering the sect when he was still just a child. Shan Hongxing had practically watched Wen Jin'ge grow up. What kind of strange realm could possibly call Wen Jin'ge "Old Ancestor"?

"Yes. At first, they were somewhat polite to us, and in the end they remained polite to us, except... the only one they showed disrespect toward was Master."

"Did your Master stir up trouble?" Shan Hongxing had a rough idea.

"No!" Qiao Yu defended him. "Right from the start, they intended to make Master be buried alive as a sacrifice. They said they were having Master attend a Myriad Ghost Festival. They dressed Master up like a bride, and he died under a very large tree.

After Master died, those people didn't give us a hard time, and we returned to reality through a well.

A monk—yes, the Monk of Sorrow and Joy from the Esoteric Secret Sect was the first to mention the well. At first, nobody could see that there was a well there. After we came out, the Monk of Sorrow and Joy went mad as well."

"What about the demon residing within you?" Shan Hongxing raised an eyebrow.

A fiend who had walked out of the ancient demon-sealing battlefield of the Wuxiang Illusionary Realm—even if its glory days were tens of thousands of years ago, it shouldn't have kicked Wen Jin'ge when he was down!

If it had lent a hand, how could Wen Jin'ge have been driven to slit his throat?

"Chased... chased away."

"Your Master is certainly kind-hearted, showing off what brave stunts at a time like this!"

"No, it's just... in the end, he wanted to stay behind. I was driven away, and he... he stayed. That wizard said he was a sinner who had to face punishment."

"A sinner?" Shan Hongxing grew even more perplexed.

"Yes, an escaped sinner. They said Master is a god. They said that once Master dies, a heavenly ladder will descend, and gods will step down from the heavenly ladder to cleanse the sins of the mortal world. There were four entrances, and Master and I took the path of Peak Mountain."

"What place did you just say?" Yuan Qingling doubted his hearing once more.

"Peak Mountain! Could Junior Brother Yuan know of it?"

"Let me ask." Yuan Qingling shook the Golden Crow dozing on his shoulder. "Hey! Wake up! What are the four places for asking the gods? You mumble about them every day before going to sleep."

"Peak Mountain, Green Hill Lake, Flat River Valley, and Mogan City. Those four—where on earth does this young master expect me to find them? That cripp—" He suddenly snapped awake, realizing that Shan Hongxing was still present, and his feathers fluttered in a flurry. "Achoo! It's extremely difficult for Fairy Ai to find the places of asking the gods; you simply can't find them at all, right?"

"Peak Mountain is the present Profound Cloud Sect's Seven Peaks, and Flat River Valley I've been to; it's at Clear River Mountain, where we are headed next."

"Clear River Mountain..." Qiao Yu only knew about the demon invasion and had no idea about any trial trip. "Why... why go there?"

"Originally, it was meant to be your Master going," Shan Hongxing sighed. But now, "Never mind all that for now. Let's find your senior brothers first. Along the way, you can talk to us in detail."

"Can we really not discuss this any further?" In Yang Wennan's mind, this was something that simply had to be done; he did not want to come into conflict with Wang Xi.

"I have already discussed it with you." Wang Xi's arrows never stopped flying.

Just as Yang Wennan dimly knew that destiny could not be defied, Wang Xi, untainted by the world, had since childhood vainly fantasized about defying the heavens and altering fate. Yet things constantly went against her wishes, and not a single thing she encountered turned out the way she wanted...

She was extremely irritated now, and the consequence of her irritation was that the thirteen shadows in the pavilion by the lake were forced by her arrows to surround and intercept Yang Wennan.

"Senior Brother, why don't you ever know how to be flexible?"

"Then what about Master..."

"How do you know Master is definitely dead!" Wang Xi roared at him. "Get over here! You said destiny cannot be altered, right? The Soul Clan is the Thirteen Moon Clan—you were the one who said that."

"Yes, the Thirteen Moon Clan."

"Then... do you know..." Wang Xi exhaled a turbid breath, her bow fully drawn, "My clan has another name."

"Wh—what?"

"Shooting the Moon..."

The arrow released, piercing clean through one of Yang Wennan's arms.

The White Deer clan had been exterminated, its branch being the Moon Shooters. The Eldest Senior Master had some resonance with her bow...

Wang Xi wasn't even certain whether this was true or false; it was simply the only way she could think of to make Yang Wennan believe that destiny could be changed.

"Thirteen Moons, Shooting the Moon..."

"Twelve moons is normal; shoot one down..."

"Senior Brother, do you still remember? You promised me you would go to the Treasure Pavilion to carefully select a suitable weapon for me. Does Senior Brother want to go back on his word now?"

"I wouldn't dare." Yang Wennan collapsed.

The monsters scrambled and swarmed toward his body, seemingly exceedingly satisfied with this corpse.

"Mine, it's mine..."

"Mine... mine..."

"Scram!"

"I'll handle it." Liang Si pressed down on the hand she was using to grip her bow, and pulled out a weapon he hadn't used in a long time and found rather awkward—a hammer. Because of this weapon, Wen Jin'ge used to call him "Little Thor."

And wasn't he just like Thor?

Now that Master was gone, and the Eldest Senior Master was gone, the only one left on the entire Towering Peak capable of shouldering responsibilities was him alone.

His Master truly trusted him deeply!

Why hadn't he ever seen it before?

Rumble!

Because of these thoughts of his, the thunderclouds in the sky gradually gathered toward this side. Wang Xi frowned slightly, "Eldest Senior Brother, when did Master pass down the thunder-summoning spell to you? Teach it to me as well!"

"...Just think more often of Master's kindness, and you'll naturally learn it."

Thunderclouds possessed the power to banish evil spirits, and right at this moment, the wandering souls that had walked out of the Myriad Ghost Feast were precisely the targets of its wrath.

"Is that so?" She clearly didn't believe it.