Free Web NovelChapter 201: Chapter 194: Oh, Mr. Lin, Please Take Back Your Divine Techniques!!
Shen Jieye’s figure went rigid for a moment, then melted into a pool of shadow, seeping into the cracks in the ground and vanishing in an instant.
A corner of Lin Qingfeng’s mouth curled slightly, his "good deed" now done.
’Mr. Wa will surely be delighted when he wakes up to this sight!’
He then put away the Ten Thousand Souls Banner, lay down on the cold jade bed, and logged off.
...
「The next day, before the break of dawn.」
Something liquid seemed to splash onto Wang Xiedi’s face.
His eyelids twitched. A blast of frigid air washed over his cheek.
A single drop of liquid slid slowly down his cheek, leaving a sticky, viscous trail in its wake.
He instinctively reached up to wipe it away, his fingertips brushing against something slick and greasy.
At the same time, a chilling stench of blood and rot assaulted his nostrils.
Wang Xiedi froze.
He opened his eyes.
The first thing to enter his vision was a thick curtain of hair, obscuring almost all light.
And through the gaps in that hair...
Two eyes were staring right back at him.
They were a pair of pupilless eyes, leaving only two orbs of murky white. The flesh around the sockets was bloated and waterlogged, reeking of death.
At this moment, those eyes were less than three inches from his face.
Wang Xiedi’s breath caught in his throat.
The blood in his veins froze.
A thought that should have been long forgotten now surged from the depths of his mind, a waking nightmare.
’Where... where is this?’
’Did I... did I never escape from that haunted mansion?!’
’Could it be that everything I experienced before was just a dream?’
’Have I actually never left that haunted house? Am I still facing those cursed wraiths?’
Just as fear threatened to consume Wang Xiedi’s mind, he saw a talisman float off the waterlogged, fleshy head.
The talisman burst into flame without a spark, and Lin Qingfeng’s unique voice drifted out, his tone drawn out and lazy, as if he’d just woken up:
"Well hey there, Mr. Wa."
"My apologies, I was being inconsiderate earlier. I helped you ’reassert your authority as a husband,’ but then I came back and completely forgot to arrange for your wife to keep you company."
"Now, this Shen Jieye may not be much of a looker, and her hair has seen better days, but once you turn off the lights, it’s all the same, right? You can establish her as another ’Pathmarker.’ It’ll be a great boon for your Cultivation."
"However, your tastes are, after all, a bit... unconventional. So I won’t be throwing a grand wedding for you.
This is the most I can do."
"No need to thank me. Just remember to treat her well. I’m entrusting her to you."
"Of course, I’ll still need to borrow her back when there’s work to be done or a fight to be had. By the time I see you again, I hope you’ll have set her as a ’Pathmarker’ and your Cultivation is no longer stuck at the peak of the fifth layer of the Qi Refining Stage. Don’t let all my hard work go to waste, you hear!!!!"
The talisman turned to ash, and Lin Qingfeng’s voice faded with it.
Inside the wooden cabin, everything fell silent. A deathly stillness descended once more.
Wang Xiedi remained frozen in place, his brain completely shut down for a full ten breaths.
Then, he snapped.
"WHO THE HELL WANTS A WIFE LIKE THIS—!!!"
"That whole ’reassert your authority’ business last time was already outrageous enough!
When did I ever say I wanted to marry her?!
You really sent me a ghost for a wife! Are you trying to scare me to death every morning?!"
His gaze fell, uncontrollably, back to the form of Shen Jieye before him.
Her waterlogged, fleshy face was expressionless, but her eyes—the pupils and sclera merged into a single, murky color—were locked onto him. They oozed with the naked greed one has for prey.
A constant "GUR... GUR... GUR..." and "HURGH... HURGH..." squeezed out from between her parted, rotting lips, a sound like thick phlegm being worked by a bellows deep in her throat.
A trail of viscous fluid, thick with the stench of decay, dripped in a long string from the corner of her mouth.
Wang Xiedi could clearly sense an invisible force tightly binding Shen Jieye, preventing her from making any move against him—she couldn’t so much as stir a breeze.
But this did not bring him the slightest shred of comfort!
’Eldest Brother! Can you please take her back!’
’I just know that one day, if you get careless or I let my guard down, she’s going to pounce and devour me!’
’I really, really don’t need Shen Jieye as my wife!’
’I appreciate the thought, but please, I’m begging you, take her back!’
’Oh, Mr. Lin, please, call off your Divine Techniques!!!’
’And... a grand wedding... and treat her well... what am I supposed to do to her?!’
’She’s a Core Formation Stage Cursed Wraith! I’m just a Qi Refining Stage grunt! Am I supposed to be the one dishing out domestic abuse in this relationship?!’
’I feel like I’m the one who’s going to be on the receiving end of it! AAAAAAH!’
However, no matter how he screamed in his heart, reality remained unchanged.
The last spark of rebellion in Wang Xiedi’s heart flickered and died.
He took a deep breath. Facing his "new bride," he adopted a humble posture and began to speak in a pleading, deliberate tone, choosing his words with the utmost care:
"Uh... Ms. Shen... Ms. Shen? Could you... could you perhaps stand a little farther away?"
Shen Jieye’s head tilted slightly, as if she were trying to comprehend his words.
After a moment, her body slowly drifted backward, coming to a stop in the corner of the room.
But her eyes remained nailed to him, the desire for a meal overflowing from them, completely undisguised.
The gurgling "GUR... GUR..." and "HURGH... HURGH..." never ceased.
Wang Xiedi glanced at the figure in the corner, then at the puddle of drool on the floor—which had somehow expanded—and felt his very life force draining away.
"Sigh..."
He exhaled a long, turbid breath, as if expelling every last ounce of his strength with it.
But... to become stronger, to no longer be so helpless...
He closed his eyes and once again sat down cross-legged.
’Whatever... so be it...’
He began circulating the Ten Thousand Forms Red Dust Scripture. Within his sea of consciousness, he sketched Shen Jieye’s contorted face, setting it as a Pathmarker. He began to cultivate.
His cultivation began.
...
Meanwhile, on a vast plain, a single thatched hut stood alone amidst countless other strange dwellings.
Ye Longtao’s eyelids fluttered. His consciousness struggled free from the chaos and drifted upward.
He opened his eyes. The first things he saw were a few dry, withered stalks of thatch and a single ray of morning light filtering through the cracks.
Countless motes of dust danced in the beam of light.
He blinked, his mind a blank.
’Where... where am I?’
He tried to push himself up, but a searing, tearing pain shot through his entire body, forcing him to suck in a sharp breath of cold air.
He looked around. His eyes fell on four cracked, earthen walls and the wooden plank bed beneath him. It was so hard his bones ached, covered only by a thin layer of thatch so sparse he could see the boards underneath.
A musty smell, mixed with the scent of damp earth, filled his nostrils.
Ye Longtao’s brow instantly furrowed into a tight knot.
’How... how did I end up sleeping in a place like this?’
