Starting as pearl divers, they have endless jobs.

Chapter 116 Merlin's Medicine, Scholar's Bones

Although he had turned the tables in the illusion and killed the "Mountain Lord" badly, the guy did have some tricks up his sleeve. At the last moment, he severed a part of his own soul and managed to escape from the illusion.

That scream just now came from here.

"Take good care of her," Chen Ye instructed Qi Nana, who was standing beside him, before turning and leaving the room.

He went straight to the main hall, where Lu Dahu and Qi Shihao immediately surrounded him and explained the situation at the cave entrance.

Chen Ye nodded and walked to the entrance of the cave.

The coughing continued inside, but the person inside was clearly very patient, enduring the thick smoke for so long without coming out.

Chen Ye's lips curled into a cold smile.

"Go and get all the chili powder from the kitchen."

Lu was taken aback when he heard this, but he still quickly ran to do as he was told.

Soon, a large bag of pungent chili powder was thrown into the fire.

Stab it!

Then a thick cloud of smoke, enough to make one's eyes water, was poured into the cave.

The people inside finally couldn't hold on any longer.

"Cough cough cough... cough!"

With a violent cough, a dusty, dirty figure suddenly sprang out of the cave, trying to rush out.

But as soon as she showed her face, Qi Shihao, who was prepared, kicked her to the ground.

Lu, quick-witted and agile, stepped forward and placed a knife against her neck.

Everyone stared intently, and were all stunned.

The person who was snotting and tearing up from the fumes, looking utterly disheveled, was none other than the kind-faced, gentle-smiling Taoist nun from before!

At this moment, she no longer had any of her ethereal and otherworldly appearance. Her hair was disheveled, and her Taoist robe was covered in black ash, making her look like a beggar who had crawled out of a stove.

Chen Ye stepped forward and asked coldly, "Speak, what exactly happened?"

The nun coughed for a long time before finally catching her breath.

She didn't struggle or beg for mercy. Instead, she slowly raised her head, looked at Chen Ye with resentful eyes, and then laughed.

"Hehehe... Boss Chen is indeed a capable man."

“I have been running this dojo for more than ten years without ever making a mistake. I never thought that I would still fall into your hands in the end.”

Her composure sent a chill down the spines of both Lu the tycoon and Qi Shihao.

Is this sorcerer not afraid of death?

Chen Ye remained unmoved, staring at her expressionlessly, and coldly asked, "What exactly is this so-called Mountain Lord?"

"Hehehe..." Jingxin laughed again, her face, covered in black ash and tears, looking even more ferocious.

"Mountain Lord...Mountain Lord is naturally a deity, a righteous god who protects this land and water of the Western Mountains!"

She then changed the subject, her tone becoming incredibly admiring, "The Mountain Lord loves human life and all the vibrant life in the world. Whoever it takes a liking to is blessed!"

Enraged, Lu pressed his knife down slightly and shouted, "Nonsense! You sorcerer harmed my daughter and dare to spread your lies here!"

"I'm spreading heresy?" A trickle of blood seeped from Jingxin's neck, but she was completely unaware of it, and instead laughed even more wildly.

"Master Lu, do you think your daughter is some kind of precious princess? To be favored by the Mountain Lord is a blessing she has accumulated over eight lifetimes! As long as she obediently eats that 'Merchantment Pill,' she can merge her soul with the Mountain Lord's, and from then on, she will be immortal and forever young!"

"You!" The wealthy Lu was so angry that he trembled all over.

Qi Shihao asked in a deep voice, "What is that elixir? And who are you? Why are you aiding and abetting evil?"

"Aiding and abetting evil?" Jingxin glanced at him with disdain. "Look at my face!"

She straightened her back, a sickly pride on her face: "How old do you think I am? Forty or fifty? Let me tell you, I am seventy-three years old this year! The mountain god has bestowed upon me youth and made me as beautiful as a flower, isn't that an immense blessing?"

Upon hearing this, both Lu the tycoon and Qi Shihao gasped in shock.

An elderly woman in her seventies, in order to maintain the appearance of someone in their forties, willingly served as a vengeful spirit for over a decade for an unknown evil entity!
This is simply appalling!
"As for the true form of that Mountain Lord... I may tell you." Jingxin stretched out her withered fingers and pointed to the plum grove outside the hall that stood proudly in the wind and snow. "That's it."

"That plum grove is actually a single tree, which is the Mountain Lord."

Following her gaze, everyone saw that the plum grove outside the window, in the dim light, resembled an ancient behemoth lying on the earth, exuding a chilling aura.

A single tree can form a forest.

A spirit is a god.

In its dreams, it forcibly marries a young woman, absorbing her essence and soul. Its accomplice is an old woman who is willing to sell everything to retain her youth.

Just then, Jingxin's smile vanished, and she stared intently at Chen Ye, her eyes filled with a venomous resentment that seemed almost tangible.

"Mr. Chen, you are indeed impressive."

“My good-for-nothing junior sister Jingxuan died at your hands, and now I have also fallen victim to your poison.”

Jingxuan!

That Taoist nun at the Tianhou Temple!

Chen Ye's heart skipped a beat. He hadn't expected that the crazy woman in front of him was actually Jingxuan's senior sister!
However, these two are truly birds of a feather, one using the Tianhou Temple in the city to collect resentful energy to refine ghosts, and the other using the Jingyun Nunnery in the mountains to raise plum blossom demons!
"But don't get too cocky." Jingxin's expression became incredibly twisted and crazed.

"You think you've won? Hehehe... You'll soon be laughing, I'll be down there... waiting for the day you die!"

No sooner had he finished speaking than a bizarre scene unfolded.

The nun's body shrank visibly, like a punctured ball.

Her once firm face was instantly covered with crisscrossing wrinkles, her skin became like withered tree bark, and her hair turned from black to gray, then from gray to white, and finally fell out sparsely.

In the blink of an eye, a woman in her forties transformed into a frail, elderly woman in her seventies.

Those venomous eyes lost all their luster, then he collapsed to the ground, his head lolling to the side, and he fell completely silent.

Jingxin is dead.

The hall fell into a deathly silence, with only the howling wind and snow outside the window.

Looking at the rapidly decomposing corpse on the ground, Lu felt a wave of nausea. He spat and roared, "This monster has harmed countless people; it deserves to die!"

Chen Ye remained silent.

Jingxin's last words cast a shadow over his heart.

Is there some even greater force behind her and Jingxuan?

What does the so-called "waiting for you to die" mean?
But he quickly suppressed these thoughts.

Since there are no clues at the moment, thinking too much is pointless.

The most urgent task is to nip it in the bud.

Chen Ye first crawled into the cave and found it to be very spacious. There were many corpses lying on the ground, which were the other Taoist nuns and boys of Jingyun Nunnery. However, they had all died from exhaustion of their vital energy.

Clearly, they had previously made illicit dealings with the so-called Mountain Lord.

In the center of the cave is a stone platform, on which is placed a sprig of red plum blossom. The sweet fragrance emanates from this plum blossom.

In addition, Chen Ye also found a booklet, which contained many names.

“Zhao family daughter, Wan’er, born on the third day of the twelfth lunar month of the Gengzi year.”

"The third young lady of Li's Silk Shop, born on the nineteenth day of the second month of the Xin Chou year."

"Daughter of the butcher Wang of the South City, born on the seventh day of the fifth month of the Renyin year." ...

Each name is followed by a precise date.

A cursory glance reveals that there have been dozens of victims in just a few years!

It turns out that this plum demon is extremely lewd and enjoys looking for young and beautiful women among those who come to offer incense. Once she has chosen one, she will ask her to find a way to keep her at home, while she herself will enter her dreams at night and forcibly take her away to have sex with her.

Seeing this, the wealthy Mr. Lu was filled with lingering fear.

If it weren't for Chen Ye, his daughter Lu Jinghong would probably have suffered the same fate.

Qi Shihao was even more furious. He kicked the altar to the ground and then suggested, "Boss Chen, what's the use of keeping this filthy place? We must get rid of it completely."

Chen Ye nodded, and then everyone got to work.

But things are far from as simple as they seem.

The blizzard had just stopped, but the ground was frozen solid, like a sheet of iron; a pickaxe could only leave a white dot when it hit the ground.

The group then tried to use fire, but the snow was deep and the forest was damp. When they threw torches in, they only produced a puff of white smoke before going out.

For a time, they were at a loss.

"Mr. Chen, what should we do?" Mr. Lu was extremely anxious.

Chen Ye seemed to be deep in thought, then suddenly turned around and went back to the main hall, disappearing into the hole.

The others, not understanding why, followed along.

Chen Ye observed carefully and indeed found that there were intertwined roots underground, which extended all the way to the depths.

"Dig from here."

The servants and grooms brought by Lu Dahu and Qi Shihao immediately began to work.

This time it was much easier to dig than outside. After a short while, dense roots and stems appeared below, intertwined in layers.

After being forcefully chopped off with an axe, a dark red, viscous liquid, resembling fresh blood, would flow from the cut.

And so they dug in inch by inch, following the root system.

As the soil was continuously dug away, a huge underground space gradually came into view.

The tree roots here are intertwined more densely, almost forming a wall.

Finally, one of the servants' pickaxes seemed to hit something hard.

"Dig it!"

Everyone perked up and quickly sped up, clearing away the surrounding soil and tangled tree roots.

Soon, an astonishing scene unfolded before everyone's eyes.

At the heart of the tangled tree roots lay a man's corpse!

The body had been buried here for who knows how many years, yet it was lifelike and showed no signs of decay.

He was dressed in a faded scholar's gown, but his appearance was quite ugly.

Countless plum tree roots of varying thicknesses, like grotesque blood vessels, pierced deep into his body, then drilled in and out of his seven orifices, chest, limbs, and bones, forming a bizarre and terrifying symbiotic relationship.

He is both the nourishment and the master of this plum grove.

It turns out that this so-called Mountain Lord was not a plum blossom spirit at all.

Instead, he was a scholar who, long ago, was tormented by love and hanged himself in this plum grove.

His resentment and unwillingness miraculously merged with this plum grove, transforming into a monster that was neither demon nor ghost.

Chen Ye stared at the bizarre corpse with a cold gaze.

"Qi Tou, I'd like to trouble you to make a trip to the city and get some explosives."

The snow had stopped and the sky had cleared. Although the roads were still very slippery, at least it was passable.

Qi Shihao was taken aback for a moment, then nodded emphatically: "Okay!"

This harmful thing should be blown to smithereens and never be reincarnated!

Therefore, Qi Shihao turned and left without hesitation.

Half a day later, Qi Shihao returned with several constables, carrying several boxes of explosives.

In this day and age, explosives have also made great strides, and their power is much greater than that of black powder.

Under Chen Ye's personal command, explosives were buried in batches throughout various areas of Merlin, with the most explosives placed around the scholar's corpse. The fuses were then stretched far apart.

Just as he had finished setting everything up and was about to light the fuse, a sudden change occurred.

Suddenly, the entire plum grove began to move without any wind. Countless tree roots surged wildly underground, forming mounds of earth, as if making a final struggle.

The plum blossoms on the tree began to fall softly, their red and white petals dancing in the air like weeping lamentations, creating a poignant and melancholic atmosphere.

It was as if the monster was crying and begging for mercy.

The Lu family and their companions were terrified and instinctively took two steps back.

Only Chen Ye's eyes remained unwavering.

When it forcibly marries those innocent women in its dreams and turns them into playthings, does it ever think about their despair and tears?
Such a bewitching monster that harms living beings must not be allowed to live!
Without further hesitation, he brought the torch closer to the fuse.

With a hiss, the fuse was lit, and sparks flew rapidly into the depths of the cave.

"go!"

Chen Ye gave a low shout, and everyone immediately rushed outside.

Just as I reached a safe area, a deafening roar came from behind me!

Rumble!
The earth trembled violently, and a terrifying shockwave erupted from the cave entrance, ripping the roof of the main hall off.

Everyone felt a buzzing sound in their ears and could hear nothing more.

In a daze, they seemed to hear a mournful howl that was not human, filled with endless pain and resentment, echoing throughout the entire Western Hills.

Then came a series of explosions.

The ancient plum grove, covering more than ten acres, was completely blown into the sky by gunpowder detonated from underground.

Countless broken tree trunks and shattered flesh were mixed together, blown to pieces, and thick black smoke rose into the sky, obscuring the sky that had just cleared.

It took a long time for everything to settle down.

Looking at the once breathtaking plum grove in Xishan, it has now become a huge, charred pit, still emitting wisps of smoke.

The wicked mountain lord was also utterly destroyed, both in body and spirit.

Qi Shihao and Lu Dahu were stunned by the enormous power.

They had previously assumed that exorcising demons and catching ghosts must be done by Taoist priests with a dignified air and compassionate monks using various magical methods, but they never imagined it could be done so violently.

What kind of mountain tiger is he anyway? In the face of the power of explosives, he'll just obediently become a barbecue.
Lu Da Hu was unfazed, but Qi Shihao suddenly felt invigorated, as if he had seen a broad road to vanquish demons.

What demons and monsters? At worst, we'll just blast them with a cannon first. If that doesn't work, we'll just fire another one.

Just as a "dynamite mage" suddenly appeared, Chen Ye was watching quietly, but there was little joy on his face, because the words Jingxin said before his death still lingered in his ears.

Don't get too cocky, you'll soon be laughing all the time.

So... when the hell did I get cocky?

(End of this chapter)