"Sub-night brother!"
But soon, the mournful sobbing of Baili Luxun attracted the attention of Chu Yi. She had tears in her eyes and stretched out her hand to him from a distance as if only he could rely on: "Sub-night brother, save me!"
Chu Yi quickly teleported over and held the weak and exhausted her in his arms, his tone concerned: "What happened? Are you hurt?"
"You came, and I'm not afraid of anything." Baili Luxun didn't answer. She hugged him tightly around his neck and didn't let him leave her, sobbing: "Sub-night brother, don't leave me."
She closed her eyes and cursed in her heart, fiercely, "Idiotic system, you're not reliable at all. If it weren't for my good fortune as the daughter destined by fate, I might have died here!"
"I won't leave." Chu Yi couldn't hear Baili Luxun's heart, but could only see her trembling eyelashes and weak face, which made him feel compassionate and comforted, saying: "Don't be afraid with me."
Standing beside, Su Linyi feels a little toothache, moving a few steps to the side, only inwardly increasing the speed of spiritual power.
She doubts for the first time, could it be that the senior brother has something wrong with his mind as well?
On the other side, Wu Zhu Mian raises her hand and pulls the white silk cloth covering the face of the statue. Instant screams from non-human beings echo all around as she ruthlessly crosses the blazing flames and charges towards her direction.
He Ting Shuang reacted quickly, immediately went forward to ward off those things without any living spirit.
Su Lingyi hesitated for a second, then quickly drew the soft sword from her waist and, with her other hand holding a piece of talisman paper, blocked the other side.
Wu Zhu Mian no longer cares about anything else, continuing to fight against the invisible resistance. The talisman in her hand is slightly warm, and the white silk cloth illuminated by the red light finally flows down like water, piling up at her feet, layer upon layer, resembling the skin mask of a person who has shed it.
All the howling stopped instantly.
Those eerie ghostly things remained in place.
Everyone's gaze fell on the temple of the moon.
Wu Zhu Mian looked up at the statue. It stood silently atop the lotus pedestal, its entire body sculpted from white jade, with lifelike lines and elegant posture. The right hand was raised in a seal, the left hand twisted a flower, and a light gown-like robe cascaded down, flowing like water and piling up like blooming lotus flowers.
She had her hair styled in an updo, her face was ordinary, but her expression was compassionate and serene. A spot of vermilion was between her brows, her eyes slightly lowered, as if gazing down upon the myriad of sentient beings.
Under the bizarre human skin mask, however, there was a gentle face.
Su Lingyi was shocked: "The moon goddess is a woman?"
What about the story of the moon god getting married?
Seeing this scene, the screaming girls who were running in all directions stopped in their tracks and stared at the moon goddess statue, dumbfounded: "This... is the moon goddess? How can the moon goddess be a woman?"
Wu Zhu Mian's "sister" stared at the statue for a while. The woman's usually slightly harsh face gradually took on a calm expression. She put down the bamboo basket on her wrist and lit the few incense sticks in it, inserting them into the incense burner in front of the altar.
Wu Zhu Mian turned her head to look at her.
"Before, I was wrong," the woman said, smiling at her with her hands in a prayer gesture: "It is the moon goddess who has protected us from suffering."
Among the silent crowd, two other divine messengers were also staring at the moon goddess's compassionate face, with the lotus mask on their faces falling to the ground and revealing two young, surprised faces, twisted and broken.
Suddenly, one of the divine messengers emitted a howl that wasn't human: "Liar! They are all liars! The moon goddess is clearly a woman..."
Wu Zhu Mian jumped down from the altar and strode towards the divine messengers, bending down to ask, "Who is the liar?"
"Everyone..." The divine messenger laughed nervously, "Everyone, everyone is a liar..."
Tears finally fell from her eyes, and her voice was hoarse: "Including me."
*
People had long forgotten which year it was. At that time, Tonghu Village was still a small village, called Tonghu Village.
Although the place was small, it could not compare with other villages in prosperity. However, the people living here were still living in peace and prosperity. The hilltops were covered with Paulownia trees. When spring came, the blooming Paulownia flowers would stretch out like colorful clouds.
The unexpected came when no one was aware.
First, it was the grandson of Liu Lao Han on the east street who developed a high fever and was burning with fever. Then, the neighbor Wang Chen began to cough, coughing so hard that it seemed like she would cough out all her internal organs. In just a few days, people began to fall sick one after another.
The symptoms were identical, with fever that refused to go down, uncontrollable coughing, and red, creepy, and repulsive spots appearing on the skin.
The lively chatter under the purple Paulownia tree vanished, replaced by low coughing sounds and painful moans.
The old doctor was at a loss and said, "This epidemic is the only one I have ever seen in my life. It seems that ordinary medicines may not be effective."
The epidemic seemed like an invisible net, enveloping the entire village. The county government advocated for quarantining the village to avoid the epidemic and sent people to seal off the village, allowing entry but not exit. They also invited several doctors to study the epidemic, but none of them were willing to enter the village or get close to the patients. Thus, no prescription was developed.
The villagers could only keep their gates closed all day, and panic spread like wildfire. They knew that if the epidemic could not be controlled, eventually, all of them would die.
Until a woman's arrival, everything changed.
The woman was named Yue Niang, born into a family of medicine. She was born with a compassionate heart and had made the vow since childhood to study medicine to save people. However, she was hindered by her gender, and her elders were unwilling to pass on their medical skills to her.
Yet Yue Niang never gave up. She secretly learned to read, studied medical books, watched her elders practicing medicine, and practiced her hands over and over again.
After adulthood, she refused the arranged marriage her family had for her and left with a medical kit, becoming a traveling doctor and traveling around for ten years.
In the ten years, Yue Niang had been to many places, saving a lot of people. Upon learning that the people in Tonghu Village were infected with an unknown epidemic, she entered the village alone with her medical box.
She walked along the winding mountain path, just as she had on the day she chose to leave home and practice medicine. Her dress fluttered, her steps light, never looking back, never regretting.
Yue Niang was an extremely talented doctor. She walked around Tonghu Village, caring for patients day and night without rest, studying the epidemic. She worked tirelessly to find a way to save the people in the village. After three months of trial and error, she finally developed a cure and saved the lives of everyone in the village.
But she herself fell gravely ill and passed away.
But she said, "It's worth it to save a hundred or a thousand people, to use my own flesh and blood as a boat, and help people reach the shore of life!"
People commemorated Yue Niang's life-saving contribution by carving a statue of her and offering her incense and fire.
But gradually, it seemed from nowhere, the statue of Yue Niang had transformed into an image of the Moon Goddess.
They deliberately forgot the woman who cured diseases and saved lives in the river of time, erased her name and achievements, covered the face of the statue with white cloth, and announced to the world that this was a male moon god involved in marriage.
The wedding of the moon god, supreme honor, will elevate any woman who becomes his bride above the mundane world, free from suffering.
The most beautiful young girls were carried one after another into the Temple of the Moon God. The ones who were not chosen could still stay behind and become divine messengers, serving the Moon God closely to convey the Moon God's oracles.
Behind the mask of the Moon God, there were twisted and dirty desires, endless nightmares, and humiliation.
The bride died before the next wedding could take place, and the persecuted divine messengers, unwillingly participating in the deception of the next group of innocent girls…
*
The woman's voice was very calm, but echoed throughout the hall.
It turned out that the so-called "Moon God's Wedding" was a complete scam from the beginning.
The air inside the hall was distorted and deformed by the heat, as the flames lapped at everything within reach. The wooden beams groaned under the strain, then snapped with a "crack" and plunged into the flames, waking everyone present.
Wu Zhu Mian noticed that the surrounding scenery was falling apart, and the twelve girls' new bridal clothes were gradually becoming spotted with blood, with their bodies full of wounds, almost unrecognizable as human forms.
They blankly stared at each other, their tearful eyes filled with earth-shattering hatred,
Yes... How could we forget?
They... were the newlywed brides who had died!
The pain and resentment of the twelve girls were magnified infinitely at that moment. They had completely lost their sanity, their figures gradually twisted into resentment, emanating a dark, blood-stained blackness, tightly intertwined with each other. They soon shattered the divine messengers and those inhuman ghosts.
The resentment surged towards Wu Zhu Mian and her companions.
Countless voices merged together, screaming, "Die! Die!"
At this moment, Chu Yi, who was entangled, finally moved. He tore away Baili Luyun from his body and pushed her outwards while channeling spiritual power and using Kunyu Sword to block the attack.
"No, no, Zǐ Yè brother, don't leave me alone!"
Seeing Baili Luyun still crying and making a fuss, finally unable to tolerate it, Wu Zhu Mian walked over and placed her hand on the back of her neck, pinching it, and the world finally became quiet.
She handed the unconscious Baili Luyun to the reluctantly accepting Su Lingyi and turned to ask He Ting Shuang, "What did you find under the bodhi tree?"
The nine people missing from Tonghu County were thrown to the ground, and He Ting Shuang blocked in front of them, looking slightly embarrassed: "I and my senior brother probably fell under a spell, always wandering around under the bodhi tree, not even realizing time passing."
So that's it, no findings.
Wu Zhu Mian had a suspicion, though she wasn't sure if it was correct. As she turned to run out, she shouted loudly at Su Lingyi, "Help me with something."
Su Lingyi casually threw Baili Luyun into the group of nine people and followed her out with her sword, asking, "What are you doing?"
"Dig this land." Wu Zhu Mian pointed to the empty space under the Bodhi tree, her dark eyes gleaming with a cold glint: "If I'm not mistaken, the bodies of those twelve women should be down there."
Su Lingyi's pupils trembled, but without saying a word, she immediately formed hand seals and began to dig up the empty space.
The screams inside the hall seemed to be even louder.
The rapidly expanding resentment exploded, and Chu Yi, who was hit directly in the face, flew out of the wall. In the cloud of dust, he wiped the blood from his lips with his hand and looked even more ruthless.
Wu Zhu Mian estimated the situation and flipped her wrist, drawing a blood-stained talisman from her sleeve and throwing it towards Chu Yi as he charged forward.
The moment the sword light collided with the resentment, a bright stream of light shot up into the sky, emitting a roar like dragon's breath piercing through the sky. The resentment howled and retreated nearly one hundred steps. Under the moonlight, the lush foliage of the Bodhi tree undulated like waves and fluttered like snow.
Chu Yi was startled and caught a glimpse of a faint, natural flame in the periphery, but before he could take a closer look, the flame was engulfed by the fire in the hall.
Chu Yi focused his attention back on the resentment, giving a forceful squeeze on the handle of his sword, and couldn't help but feel a little pleased in his heart.
It's amazing to be able to execute such a move, it seems that he has a chance to break through the true essence and become a transcendent being!
Here, Su Lingyi finally dug up the twelve skeletons. She was born into an immortal family and rarely interacted with ordinary mortals, and she rarely left the mountain for practice. This was the first time she had encountered such an event, so she couldn't help but show sympathy. She used spiritual power to clean the mud, decaying leaves, and writhing worms on the bones and carefully arranged them to one side.
The roaring of the resentment suddenly stopped.
Wu Zhu Mian ordered Chu Yi to put down his sword, pulling Su Lingyi to one side. The resentment stumbled over its own remains, turning in a circle, emitting the sound of a girl crying softly.
At the same time, a different figure was expelled.
It had no specific shape, constantly changing, resembling putrid slime, exploding blood mist, or the fangs of a abyss.
Wu Zhu Mian's eyes instantly changed, her thin back tightened, and her black pupils flickered with terrifying killing intent.
Demon!
Chu Yi and the others also sensed it and immediately attacked with their swords.
Wu Zhu Mian soon found that the demon separated from the resentment was much weaker than it was a hundred years ago, and even an elementary stage cultivator could kill it.
She slowly relaxed her body and sent another talisman from her sleeve to the twelve sets of dried bones.
In the instant the seal broke, a gentle, dim white light shone, and all the girl's resentment trapped in the area were sent by Wu Zhu Mian on their way to rebirth.
May they have joy and freedom in their next life, forever.
