QT- I’m Almost Died
Chapter 285. Welcome To Purgatory (I)
TN:- Sorry for not updating yesterday. It was hard to concentrate with headache, everything was blurred during finalizing. !! 2 Chapters !!
While Xuan Chengzi was still caught in a dilemma, Lin Nianci slowly woke up.
“Shifu, where is this? Where is Fan Jialuo?” She looked at the scenery outside the window and touched the Dragon Curse on the back of her hand.
Xuan Chengzi stared at her coldly, offering no reply. He simply didn’t know how to face this person. If it were a matter of punishment, he should kill her, but tragically, he couldn’t bring himself to do it.
“I’ve lost my cultivation, what about you?” He asked in a low voice.
They were now sitting in an old village bus, surrounded by other passengers, making it difficult to talk.
Lin Nianci subconsciously circulated her dantian, then shook her head, her face pale, “I have no spiritual power left either.” She looked at her arm covered with black markings and said in a trembling voice, “Is it because of the dragon’s curse?”
Xuan Chengzi was also confused, but that didn’t stop him from feeling a tearing pain in his heart when he saw those hideous black patterns. He desperately wished that Fan Jialuo’s trial was just a nightmare, but reality told him that it had all really happened.
The child he brought up with his own hands ended up becoming a villain guilty of countless sins, yet the detested vile disciple he always hated protected this land with all his heart.
Xuan Chengzi closed his eyes and finally made up his mind, “Once the bus enters the town, I will take you to turn yourself in.” He couldn’t bear to hurt her, but the country’s laws would eventually punish her.
“Shifu, which way is this bus going?” Lin Nianci effortlessly deflected the topic. It was her preferred method of interaction——evasion
Xuan Chengzi frowned, revealing a stern expression, while Lin Nianci clutched her chest and groaned weakly, “Shifu, it hurts so much.”
Xuan Chengzi’s ears stirred slightly, showing a flicker of emotion, but his eyes closed in utter helplessness
This child knew all too well how to manipulate his emotions, because she knew she was her Shifu’s only weakness. But this weakness was now rotting within him, and one day it would drag him down to hell……
How could he cut out this weakness? Xuan Chengzi fell into the most difficult and painful dilemma of his life
Lin Nianci nudged the shoulder of the passenger in front and asked softly, “Where is this bus going?”
The man was initially very unhappy, but when he turned around and saw such an extremely beautiful face, his tone immediately softened several degrees, “This bus is heading to Xiaotang Town, didn’t you know, miss? Wait, did you get on the wrong bus?”
“No, we just hopped on a random bus and decided to go.” Lin Nianci waved her hand with a smile, but she was already thinking things through.
Nothing in this world could destroy a body forged from the spiritual essence of heaven and earth alongside dragon veins fortune. Fan Jialuo surely let me go only because he was utterly powerless against me. But would he really just watch me walk away? This bus was bound for Xiaotang Town. What’s so special about Xiaotang Town?
Did Fan Jialuo set up some kind of trap there?
Even if it’s a trap, so what? This body can’t be blown up, burned, or stabbed to death. Even if its head is cut off, it can grow back completely intact. What can it do to me? Although she thought this, Lin Nianci hugged her arms tightly, feeling a chill run through her body.
In fact, death is not the most painful thing, living a life worse than death is. And Fan Jialuo was precisely the most skilled at using methods that make a life worse than death to torment a person.
Lin Nianci, who knew this all too well, was afraid. In fact, more than two hundred years ago, when Fan Jialuo first stepped into the gates of the Tianshui Sect and stood before her as a Holy Child, she was already afraid.
A mystical resonance naturally exists between psychics. The more powerful side always radiates a certain pressure, and at just five years old, Fan Jialuo had not yet learned to restrain.
Little did he know that as his small figure entered the Hall of the Three Pure Ones and looked up, Song Enci looked down only to feel that she were facing not a young child, but a towering, majestic mountain
One day, this mountain will crush me to death——Song Nianci had this thought for no apparent reason at the time, and thus a wisp of inner demon was left behind.
Memories of Fan Jialuo were always dark and terrifying. Lin Nianci clutched her chest, unable to bear thinking about it anymore.
Just then, the bus slammed on the brakes and pulled over to the side of the road. Then, the driver’s curses rang out from the front, “Goddammit, Xianghuo Village is stirring up shit again!”
“What’s going on? Are they charging tolls?” Several passengers stood up and looked around.
“Yes, hurry up and take out your money, don’t argue with them.” The driver started rummaging through his wallet.
The other passengers also took out their change.
Before Xuan Chengzi and Lin Nianci could figure out what was going on, a burly man forcibly pried open the bus door with an iron bar, climbed in, and said, “Ten yuan each, hurry, pay up!”
“Why is it ten yuan now? Wasn’t it five yuan last time?” Someone protested.
“Pay up or get out and walk. What are you running your mouth for?” The burly man slammed the iron bar hard against the back of the seat next to the passenger’s head.
The man immediately handed over ten yuan, and the others didn’t dare say anything more. After the passengers paid up, the driver did a quick headcount and handed over an extra sum himself. They called it an ‘operating tax,’ but honestly, how was this any different from highway robbery?
Everyone was angry but dared not speak out, except for Xuan Chengzi, who said coldly, “I have no money.”
Lin Nianci hugged her master’s arm tightly and leaned against him, looking timid.
Upon seeing her face, the burly man’s eyes lit up, but he didn’t show it on his face. He just grinned and said, “If you don’t have money, get off the bus and walk. You dare to act tough in front of LaoZi? Who do you think you are?” As he spoke, he reached out to grab her.
Although Xuan Chengzi had lost his cultivation, he was a true martial artist with much greater strength than ordinary people. He could handle not just one strong man, but even twenty more with one hand.
But a strange thing happened. When he tried to twist the strong man’s arm, the man easily subdued him, then grabbed his neck, shoved his head out of the bus window, and kicked him in the back.
Seeing her master fall headfirst out of the bus window, Lin Nianci couldn’t help but exclaim in surprise.
The burly man was surprisingly gentle with her. He grabbed her arm, pulled her down the aisle, and waved for the driver to continue.
The driver sped away, but the other passengers kept turning back to look, sighing, “What a pity for such a beautiful girl.”
“Once you fall into the clutches of those Xianghuo Village people, your whole life is destroyed forever.”
“They say the government is running an anti-organized crime campaign. When will they shut down Xianghuo Village for good?”
“It’s impossible to shut them down. Even a joint force of regular and military police couldn’t breach the Xianghuo village. The people there are freaky as hell, they have monstrous strength and are completely invulnerable. No matter how you shoot them, they just won’t die.”
“Is that really true?”
“I’m just repeating what I heard. Either way, I’m way too terrified to ever step foot in Xianghuo Village.”
“Me too. All the outsiders who went to Xianghuo Village have disappeared, but the police can’t even get into the village.”
The driver pointed to an asphalt road on the opposite mountain and chuckled, “Once that new road is finished, I’ll never drive on this road again.”
“Damn right, destroying this route is tantamount to destroying Xianghuo Village, let them all rot and die.”
The hatred these passengers harbored for Xianghuo Village was beyond reason, unfortunately, Lin Nianci and Xuan Chengzi, who had been left far behind, could no longer hear it.
Xuan Chengzi fell flat on his face after being thrown out of the bus window. It didn’t hurt much, but his pride was wounded, and he was quite astonished. He finally realized that this burly man’s strength far exceeded that of a normal person, it was as strong as an ox. No wonder he was involved in highway robbery, he had something to rely on.
Faced with these thoughts, Xuan Chengzi was compelled to rein in his deep-seated hubris and vanity, meeting this commoner with an attitude of utmost vigilance.
He quickly got up, pulled Lin Nianci behind him, and stared intently at the burly man’s vital points, thinking of ways to overcome his strength with skill.
But the burly man merely glanced at them with a half-smile before turning and leaving, taking large strides until he disappeared from sight in no time.
Lin Nianci hugged her master’s arm tightly and asked softly, “What do we do now?”
Seeing that the sun had already set and it would soon be dark, Xuan Chengzi pointed in the direction the bus had left and said, “Let’s walk a bit and see what happens.” Now is not the time to bring up past grievances, let’s find a safe place to stay first.
Having become a completely ordinary person, Xuan Chengzi’s mood became increasingly anxious.
Nodding deferentially, Lin Nianci doggedly shadowed her master, occasionally supporting his arm and murmuring warnings to watch his step. From her outward behavior alone, anyone would find it impossible to believe she was guilty of so many monstrous sins. How could she live with herself without feeling even a hint of remorse?
Xuan Chengzi glanced at her, his feelings extremely complicated.
Night descended rapidly, dropping the mountain temperatures below freezing. Bereft of warm clothes, the pair began to suffer an intolerable cold. They had known this icy bite once before, back when they were young and weak, but had gradually forgotten it as their cultivation progressed.
They once thought they had evolved into higher beings separate from common humans. Yet, when the dust settled, they realized that their supposed uniqueness was nothing but a grand delusion.
“Shifu, I’m so cold, so tired, and so hungry.” Having lived for over two hundred years, this was the first time Lin Nianci had experienced hunger, cold, and exhaustion.
“There are lights ahead.” Xuan Chengzi said excitedly.
The two quickened their pace toward the lights, only to find a village hidden in a mountain valley ahead, with only a few dozen scattered households, each filled with the aroma of food.
Xuan Chengzi walked towards the house closest to the road, knocked on the door, and explained his purpose.
“Come in, it’s cold outside.” The person who opened the door was a middle-aged woman in her thirties.
“Thank you. May I borrow your phone to make a call? Where am I? I’ll have my friend pick me up.” Xuan Chengzi tried to speak in a gentle tone, which made him feel very uncomfortable.
“Go ahead and make the call. This is Xianghuo Village.” The woman handed over a dirty and tattered cell phone.
“Which province and city?” Xuan Chengzi continued to ask.
The woman gave him a strange look.
Xuan Chengzi asked again, and the woman reluctantly gave him the specific address. It turned out that this place was far from the capital, in a remote mountainous area in a neighboring province.
With no cell phone signal, Xuan Chengzi tried making a call from several different locations but was unable to do so.
The woman offered kindly, “You might as well stay over tonight and call in the morning. Reception is awful around here, it’s completely hit-or-miss, so you have to get lucky. Have you guys had dinner? If you haven’t, come join us for a meal.”
The woman led the two into the living room and pointed to the half-eaten dinner.
Lin Nianci gasped in surprise when she saw two extremely ugly men sitting in the room. One was quite old, presumably the woman’s husband, and the other looked young, presumably her son.
Both of their eyeballs bulged violently out of their sockets, webbed with bloodshot veins like high-pressure spheres on the verge of exploding. Their lips were thick and could not close, exposing two rows of sharp, needle-like shark teeth. The shapes of their heads were completely irregular, dented here protruding there, looking even more distorted than a figure in an abstract painting.
Both of them were curled up on the low stools, with high humps on their backs and swollen and deformed finger joints. They were awkwardly using chopsticks to scoop rice, drooling as they did so.
Upon seeing the guests arrive, they chuckled twice, and their bloodshot eyes suddenly trembled as if they were about to explode.
Such utter hideousness was completely intolerable to Lin Nianci. Even Xuan Chengzi, a man who had seen his fair share of ghouls and ghosts, found himself deeply unsettled.
The woman warmly invited them to eat at the same table, but they had no appetite and said they were too tired and wanted to rest.
The woman then led them to a clean room, brought out two quilts and two bottles of mineral water, and told them to make do for the night.
Having determined that the family only had two bedrooms, Xuan Chengzi had no choice but to give the bed to Lin Nianci and sleep on the floor himself.
Both of them were very hungry, so they drank all the mineral water. Before they could even lie down, their eyelids started to droop, and they both fainted.
When they finally came to senses, they found themselves tied to separate wooden beds barely four or five meters apart, close enough to see each other with a mere turn of their heads. Looming around them was a dense circle of dark silhouettes, every single one of them a Quasimodo-like creature with bulging eyeballs, razor-sharp teeth, warped skulls, and severely hunched backs.
The middle-aged woman standing out among the few normal men was particularly noticeable.
The woman turned on the light above their heads and said coldly, “Who wants to go first?”
“I’ll go first!” The burly man who had collected the toll earlier raised his hand.
“Hey, it’s my turn now!” Another normal man cut in defensively.
“I, I, I……. want a turn.” The middle-aged woman’s son was already drooling all over his neck.
“I want to too.” His father gave him a hard shove.
So everyone raised their hands, clamoring that they wanted to be the first one there.
Lin Nianci looked closer, only to find that every single one of these misshapen creatures was male. They all seemed severely mentally impaired, and each bore some form of physical handicap. They were either crippled, missing an ear, unable to uncurl their fingers, or half-blind.
They resembled a pack of shattered puppets that had been haphazardly glued back together, moving with an eerie, uncanny stiffness. In stark contrast, the few normal men were exceptionally towering and heavily built. Even their faces were layered with knotted, sinewy muscles, standing among the crowd like solid towers of iron.
The only woman scolded, “Stop arguing, you all draw lots first, I’ll pray to the Holy Maiden.”
She carried a dirty box onto the table, had the dozens of men line up to draw lots, and then lifted the red cloth on the altar and knelt down in devout worship.
Lin Nianci, who was struggling violently, was stunned, while Xuan Chengzi looked up and stared in astonishment at what lay ahead.
The woman was not kneeling before any named bodhisattva or deity, but rather the Holy Maiden of Zezhou, the former incarnation of Lin Nianci. Her beautiful face, flowing gauze dress, and the willow branch held delicately between the fingertips were all things Song Enci had sketched stroke by stroke with her own hands before commissioning expert craftsmen to bring them to life.
She hoped her statue would be more sacred than any bodhisattva, and she succeeded.
Right now, the woman was kneeling before her sacred statue, bowing devoutly, and the men also knelt down, shouting, ‘Holy Maiden!’, and then eagerly drawing lots.
Xuan Chengzi was stunned when he discovered that these people were actually Song Enci’s followers.
Then, something even more unsettling happened. After the woman finished worshipping the statue, she took a black jar from the foot of the statue, took out a blue fruit that looked all too familiar, and fed it to Lin Nianci.
Lin Nian clutched her teeth together, refusing to open her mouth. One of the burly men stepped up and directly dislocated her jaw, allowing the woman to shove it inside.
Without a doubt, this is indeed the fruit of the demonic Bodhi Tree, because it melts in the mouth, leaving no room for refusal to swallow.
Lin Nianci seemed to realize something and began to struggle frantically.
Meanwhile, Xuan Chengzi thought to himself, his face deathly pale——Is this fruit a Fertility Fruit, a Longevity Fruit, a Potential Fruit, a Youth Fruit, or something else entirely?
Looking at this group of extremely excited men, the answer was self-evident……
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