Ning Dao Covered with Snow

Chapter 354 Ambition
Soon, Sparrow Girl learned what hell was.
The shaman was researching how to use datura to make medicine. Datura can cause mental excitement and hallucinations, and if taken to a greater extent, it can cause a person to fall into a deep sleep. However, the dosage must be carefully controlled, as a slight mistake could cause the person to fall into a deep sleep and never wake up.

The people locked in the cave were used for drug testing.

The man in black would bring the latest elixirs to the cave every day.

Sparrow Girl didn't want to eat, but because she hadn't eaten for a long time, her limbs were weak, and the man in black easily pried open her mouth and forced her to swallow the pill.

There is no food or water here; the only thing we can eat each day is elixirs.

The effects of these semi-finished pills were unclear. Some people fell into a deep sleep after taking the pills and never woke up. When the men in black found out, they would carry the body out and dispose of it. However, one person was not discovered in time, and the body lay in the iron cage for three whole days. The stench of the rotting body permeated the entire cave.

The dead person was the woman who had spoken to Que Niang earlier. Now, Que Niang only needed to turn her head to see the woman's emaciated and ashen corpse.

Sparrow Girl was terrified. She didn't know how much longer she could hold on, or if she would end up like that woman, her body rotting and no one would care.

When the men in black returned to the cave, Que Niang watched as they carried the woman's corpse out of the cage next door. She could no longer hold back and asked in a trembling voice.

"The village chief sent me here to serve the moon goddess, why are you treating me like this?"

The man in black glanced at her and said coldly, "You can only blame yourself for being useless. You can't even learn the basic rules, and your body is weak. With your qualifications, you are not worthy of becoming a divine servant. Being able to test medicine for the divine shaman is the only use for you good-for-nothings."

After saying that, he and his companions carried the body away from the cave.

Sparrow Girl leaned weakly against the iron cage, looking at the people locked in the iron cages around her, muttering to herself absentmindedly.

"The village chief praised my talent and chose me to be a divine servant. Why is he saying I'm not talented enough now? Waaah, Mother, I was wrong. I should have listened to you and stayed home to take care of my younger siblings. I want to go home so badly..."

Yan Ciwan looked at the other people locked in the iron cages; it seemed that these were all chosen to become divine servants.

She found it strange from the beginning. Although people were selected to become divine servants every month, there were only a handful of divine servants in Hengqing Temple.

It turns out that most people are eliminated during the training process and then sent here to become drug test subjects.

The scene before Yan Ciwan's eyes gradually disappeared, and the next moment, she appeared inside the underground altar.

Before her stood the familiar circular platform, where the sorcerer stood in the center, still wearing his large white cloak, but the black mask on his face had been removed.

Yan Ciwan looked at his face clearly and realized that she had seen this face before!

Back in Yizhou, Yan Ciwan and Xiao Wang stayed overnight in the mountains. They saw through the Five Gods Sect members who were disguised as mountain folk and rescued a grandfather and grandson who were locked in a woodshed. The white-haired old man claimed to be surnamed Jia. His son and daughter-in-law had gone missing while they went to the city to sell mountain products, and he asked Yan Ciwan and Xiao Wang to help find them.

At this moment, the shaman's face was exactly the same as Old Master Jia's!
Yan Ciwan was shocked. It turned out that Old Master Jia was the sorcerer. She had spoken with the sorcerer so closely back then. If she had been able to see through his identity then, she could have subdued him on the spot, and none of what followed would have happened.

Unfortunately, time cannot be turned back, and there are no "what ifs" in this world.

The shaman lowered his eyes to look at the circular platform beneath his feet. The surface of the platform was engraved with mysterious and complex patterns. He squinted slightly and murmured softly.

"Everything is ready, all we need is the east wind."

The iron gate was knocked on, and Danxiazi's voice came in: "Master, Senior Brother is back!" The shaman took out a black mask from his sleeve and put it on. He walked slowly over with his cane, opened the iron gate with a key, and stood outside the gate. It was Danxiazi, who was wearing a Taoist robe, and the Venerable Envoy, who was wearing a red mask.

The envoy bowed to the shaman and said, "Disciple greets Master."

The shaman asked, "Have you found Yan Ciwan?"

“We found her, but she is already dead. She was killed by her older sister, Yan Tingyu.”

Upon hearing this, the shaman was speechless for a long time.

Danxiazi cautiously advised, "Master, I know you have always been looking forward to finding Yan Ciwan, but things have come to this. The dead cannot be brought back to life. Please take good care of yourself. Even without Yan Ciwan, we can still revive the Heng Dynasty."

After a long silence, the shaman sighed, "Yan Ciwan is the last bloodline of the Heng Dynasty royal family. With her joining us, we can gather more righteous men, and our uprising will be more justifiable. Now that she is gone, things may change!"

The envoy said in a deep voice, "Disciple has a plan. Since Yan Ciwan is dead, the Princess Leyou who is now married to the Crown Prince must be an imposter. As long as we expose her identity, we can stir up conflict between the Emperor and the King of Xizhou. Then we can add fuel to the fire by bringing up the treason case from twenty years ago, letting the King of Xizhou know the truth about the murder of Crown Prince Renxian. The King of Xizhou will definitely not let the Emperor off the hook, and a fierce battle between them is inevitable. After they are both exhausted, we can reap the benefits. What do you think, Master?"

The shaman stroked his beard: "This plan is good, it will work!"

"Disciple, I will take care of it right away."

"Go."

After the envoy left, Danxiazi asked, "Master, now that Yan Ciwan is dead, Nie Xiayun, who is imprisoned in the dungeon, is no longer useful. Can we get rid of her?"

The shaman nodded: "Yes, let's also deal with those eight divine servants. Originally, we wanted to keep them to serve Yan Ciwan, but now that Yan Ciwan is dead, let them go with their master."

"Yes."

Upon hearing this, Yan Ciwan finally understood the purpose of the shaman's selection of the divine servants; it was actually prepared for her.

Seeing how they so casually decided the lives of so many people with just a few words, as if human lives were nothing more than pebbles and fallen leaves at their feet, which they could trample on at will, Yan Ciwan felt utterly chilled.

The shaman closed the iron gate, turned around and returned to the round platform. He stretched out his thin, aged right hand and gently stroked the patterns on the platform, choking back tears as he sighed, "Little Princess, I will definitely kill Yan Tingyu to avenge you!"

Instead of being moved by these words, Yan Ciwan wanted to slap the old man across the face.

What's this talk about avenging her? Actually, the old man just wanted to use her death to disrupt the entire Daye Dynasty.

Even through the mask, she could feel the immense, restless ambition in his eyes.

The shaman took a deep breath and spoke in a restrained voice.

"Young princess, if you know this from beyond the grave, please bless us so that our uprising may succeed."

Yan Ciwan sneered, "Ha, you think you can bless me? You old geezer, you're ugly, but you've got a pretty dream!"