Chapter 147: Can You Play the Suona?

"Going to Qinghe Mountain?" After handling the two corpses, Wen Xueshan acted as if she had just noticed him.

"Ah! Yes, I am going there."

Now all the occult masters were heading to Qinghe Mountain. The demons were trying to awaken, and the commotion caused this time was larger than any previous one.

Even if the young monk wanted to conceal his destination, there was no need to be so defensive. If he were to claim he was not heading to Qinghe Mountain, he would likely arouse even more suspicion.

"The two monks hunted down by the Esoteric Sect are your disciples, aren't they?" Wen Xueshan gazed into the void.

A wave of astonishment washed over the young monk. He was deeply grateful that he had covered his face when he sensed something was amiss, yet even so, he did not dare to look at the man before him.

"Who are you?" he asked, keeping his head lowered.

"I am speaking with your Master," Wen Xueshan shot him a glare. "You are truly out of your mind! What sheer delusional nonsense!"

"Master..." Ji Jing pointed up at the sky. "I smell the old man's aura. The spirit carriage is about to arrive, and the ghost energy is still inside your cub's belly."

Wen Xueshan snapped in anger, "I've told you repeatedly, it is not my cub! I cannot give birth!"

"Fine, fine, fine. It's the fruit you bore, how about that!" Ji Jing glared at her in dissatisfaction, walked over, pulled out her blade, and stabbed it back in. "In the past, your cub always made me kill it. Now I finally get to kill it for real. Hahaha, I'm so happy."

"Oh, it's dead!"

"Oh, it's alive!"

"Oh, it's dead!"

"Oh, it's alive again!"

"You..."

The old crone was not entirely dead to begin with. If that single blade hadn't pierced them both simultaneously, she wouldn't have passed out cold. Tossed about by Ji Jing's repeated stabbing and withdrawing of the blade, she and the old man were actually able to regain moments of clarity.

"Why do you..."

Before she could finish her sentence, she fainted once more.

After this happened a few times, the old crone seized the opportunity. She rushed against time to look at Wen Xueshan.

Anyone unaware might have thought Wen Xueshan had once done something unspeakable to this mass of flesh, considering how profound her gaze was, how enticing her appearance, and how varied her expressions.

"Betrayal..."

"I..."

"Us..."

"Master, Master, look quickly!" After spending these days together, Ji Jing was no longer as afraid of her new master, primarily because this master did not go mad.

She was just a tiny sprite. Before being kidnapped by that mad former master, she practiced cultivation in stealth; after being kidnapped, she survived purely by virtue of being timid. She had no grand ambitions, wanting only to live, live, and keep on living.

If a powerful master could shield her from the wind and rain, nothing could be better.

"Look at what?" Wen Xueshan opened her eyes with annoyance.

She had just figured out the origins of this master-disciple pair. These past few days, she had been clearing out the messengers sent down from the heavens—things that had once been taken from her own body.

Judging by her pace, she shouldn't have been able to catch up to Wen Jingge. However, ever since leaving that region, she had inexplicably established a connection with Wen Jingge. Whenever Wen Jingge had a need, she could transmit it directly into her mind.

Knowing that the demon elder in Wen Jingge's carriage lacked the strength to run and needed nourishment, they calculated their routes and headed this way.

Even she herself had noticed that the closer they got to Qinghe Mountain, the more messengers there appeared.

This trial prepared for demon extermination seemed far from simple.

Someone connected to the former Lord of Mang and that celestial being had actually appeared within a major sect.

"She... she actually..." Fearing that she had caused trouble and displeased her master, Ji Jing instantly wiped the smile from her face, her excited voice dropping to a low murmur. "She actually said Master betrayed her. Clearly, clearly Master is the true master, while they—they are merely fakes."

Hearing this, the young monk immediately took a step back, raising his Zen staff defensively. "My master was actually harmed by you people?"

"Huh?" Wen Jingge picked at her ear. What kind of Shura field was this group putting on right now?

She hadn't let the spirit carriage drop directly from the sky; smashing into flowers, plants, and trees was always a bad idea. While the spirit carriage was still mid-air, Wen Jingge grabbed Ling Yi and jumped down, storing the spirit carriage away into her spatial ring.

Consequently, Wen Xueshan had stared up into the sky for a long time without catching a glimpse of her ancestor's shadow.

"You killed their master?"

To be honest, Wen Jingge had already accepted this possibility in her heart.

Even though she had no idea what had happened.

Still, Wen Xueshan had a criminal record; she had once forced her to commit suicide, after all.

"This junior has no idea." Wen Xueshan shook her head in bewilderment, pointing toward the void. "Has the Ancestor ever seen a dying monk over there?"

"Can't see him," Wen Jingge shook her head. "But I can hear him."

This was probably some kind of special ability she was forced to inherit after walking out of that place.

She had managed to find Lu Wei's burial site from ten thousand years ago entirely by relying on this acute hearing.

Flowers, plants, insects, fish, birds, and beasts could all actually speak. Wen Jingge was once again reminded of this wondrous world, and once again considered imitating Yang Wennian—who, for the sake of his sword intent, simply chose not to use his eyes, perhaps going so far as to puncture her own eardrums.

"However, he doesn't have much to say anymore." As she spoke, she summoned the spirit carriage and patted its wall. "Hey! Old man, time to eat."

The demon elder glared at her with grievance and fury; venting his dissatisfaction toward Wen Jingge was all he could do now.

"Hey! Let's make a deal. I know there are quite a few old men like you waking up, and the survival methods of your demon race are exceptionally brutal. How about we cooperate?"

"Even if I starve to death, even if I can't run, even if I am tortured to death by you, I will never betray a single member of the demon race. They are my former comrades, and I..."

The old man sniffed, shed tears of emotion, and abruptly fell silent.

He began to frantically devour the ghost energy present in the area.

"Are you Wen Jingge?" The young monk looked toward the void. "My master said so."

"Oh, the senior brother of that young monk who laughed and cried in the span of ten years, and refused to acknowledge his debts after making a scene?"

"Yes, exactly." The young monk awkwardly smiled. "I wonder..."

"He thought I was dead and cried his eyes out over it. Do you know how to weep for the dead?"

"I can play music. This humble monk, unpolished though I am, happens to be a musical cultivator."

"I heard that you and your junior brother are not tolerated by the Esoteric Sect? Is your sect's tradition to treat you both kindly at home while hunting you down abroad, leaving you to die if your time comes?"

"Yes." The young monk lowered his head.

Wen Jingge had changed drastically from her former self; both her imposing aura in speaking and her style of action were like a completely different person. At first, he truly hadn't recognized her as the one who used to frequently visit the Esoteric Sect.

Yet Wen Jingge seemed to have forgotten that he used to call her Senior Sister.

"Perfect, we need talent like yours. Just stay here!"

"But I am a man of religion. If I enter the Xuanyun Sect, it might..."

"Just stay as an occasional guest, a guest!" Wen Jingge eyed him with a smile, as if appraising a precious treasure. "Can you play the suona?"