Chapter 141: Master's Wife

Chapter 141: The Master's Wife

As the elongated, mystical chant spilled forth, the surroundings instantly fell into a hushed silence.

Immediately after, the great shaman began to sing the incantation of the spirit soldiers, and unlike Li Zhi's shout-like cadence, her rendition was rapid and breathless.

"Boom, boom, boom! The sun sets behind the western hills, the sky grows dark! Every household bolts its door! Boom, boom, boom!

Travelers hasten to the inn, birds to the forest, tigers to the mountain..."

Accompanied by the rhythmic drumming, Bai Lingmiao's body began to tremble and hiccup, and the red veil on her head shook violently like a cascading waterfall.

Her body gradually hunched forward, and something resembling the outline of a beast's skull swelled beneath the red veil, stretching it taut.

"This disciple summons the celestial child today, for ill fortune lingers in the midst of this room."

"Doctors summoned from the south have failed, monks and nuns from the north have found no cure."

"With all options exhausted and nowhere else to turn, we beg the venerable immortal for aid."

"Yin and yang reveal the clash of fates, threading through the seven orifices and twelve meridians."

"Having examined the five organs and six viscera, we trouble the venerable immortal to speak the truth..."

Accompanied by the steady beat of the drum, Bai Lingmiao began to walk into the room.

Sensing someone approaching, the woman's eyes, hidden behind a curtain of white hair, began to reveal a gaze of terror.

In the next instant, that terror twisted into extreme hatred. "Give my son back!!"

She spread her arms to lunge forward, but her body was bound by chains, thwarting her attempt; she remained frozen in place, her muscles taut with strain.

A slender, beastly snout pushed against the red veil on Bai Lingmiao's head, sniffing continuously at the old woman, while guttural, animalistic growls emanated from below.

"My son~!!" The old woman's expression shifted from hatred to pleading. "My son, it was mother's fault, it was mother's fault!!"

Everything beneath the red veil swiftly retracted and began to tremble anew; a tail sprouted from the hem of Bai Lingmiao's garment, and outside, the great shaman shifted to a different incantation.

"Let the human soul return to the human body, let the horse's soul return to the horse's side."

"When a man regains his true soul, he eats his fill; when a horse regains its true soul, it frolics freely."

"Place the eight-immortal table upon the ground, and set the starry banners upon it."

"Banners of five colors, pennants of five hues, the five-colored banners in red, white, cyan, and blue!"

To the rhythm of the drum, Bai Lingmiao began to circle the old woman with measured, deliberate steps, thrusting yellow paper flags folded into the dry grass on the ground.

At this, the old woman suddenly went still, her body crashing heavily to the floor, trembling uncontrollably, her face contorted in sheer agony.

Watching this from outside the door, Zhao Qin felt a pang of heartache, yet in this situation, he dared not rashly interrupt.

Immediately after, the drumbeat quickened, and seven lit purple incense sticks appeared in Bai Lingmiao's hands.

With the smoking tips pointing downward, she thrust them directly down the old woman's throat.

"Hiss~" Gasps of shock echoed from outside; the escort guards were seasoned martial artists who wouldn't bat an eye at ordinary bruises and wounds, but to endure what they had just witnessed, they truly might not be able to bear it.

"Ugh~" The old woman tried to vomit, but her face was covered with a red handkerchief.

Just as everyone watched, waiting to see what Bai Lingmiao would do next, a deep voice rang out from the distance.

"Xiaoman!! Bai Lingmiao!" It was Li Huowang's voice.

The drumbeat suddenly faltered, and the mystical chant shifted once more.

"Before I leave, I send you three beats of the drum, sending you to the ancient cave to cultivate immortality!"

"I send you over ridge after ridge, I send you over mountain after mountain!"

"Do not make the spirit horse suffer the sting of the whip. If you do not leave, I will strike you! Boom, boom, boom!"

As the three beats of the drum ceased, the bizarre phenomena occurring to Bai Lingmiao immediately stopped.

Restored to normal, she clearly heard Li Huowang's voice and hurriedly removed the red veil from her head, stepping quickly out of the room.

Snatching the drum from the great shaman's hands and placing the red veil back over her head, Bai Lingmiao hurriedly went to greet Li Huowang, who was approaching from afar with a large entourage.

"Senior Brother Li, you've come down the mountain? Is everything settled?" she asked with a smile.

Observant as ever, she noticed that Senior Brother Li now carried two swords on his back.

"Yes, mostly done. I heard they say you came here to drive out evil spirits? How is it going? Is it finished?" Li Huowang said, pulling Bai Lingmiao to look toward the crowd in the distance.

"Well... no. I thought she was possessed by something else, but there was nothing. I've tried several methods, and I still don't know what exactly is wrong with her."

As they just returned to the side of the room, Zhao Qin was carefully helping his wife up.

After calling out to her softly a few times and receiving no response, Zhao Qin immediately turned to Bai Lingmiao with anxious eyes.

"Young lady, what exactly is the matter with my wife now?!"

His tone clearly carried anger, which was only natural; seeing his wife tortured like this only to end up exactly as before, it was natural for him to be upset.

Glancing at the old woman's dazed and vacant expression, Li Huowang, a trace of weariness on his face, said to Bai Lingmiao, "Let's go. Since we can't cure her, we won't bother. We don't lack those fifty patterned coins."

"Wait!!" As these two words instantly burst from Zhao Qin's mouth, the people of the entire escort agency began to surround them with hostile glares.

Li Huowang looked coldly at the scene before him, his single hand slowly grasping the hilt of the sword behind his back.

"Clang!" The blade slid an inch from its scabbard, and everyone around instantly felt their blood surge, as if they were standing in the center of a battlefield.

This abnormal sensation instantly drained the color from Wang Chengxing's face beside him; he knew they had run into serious trouble.

Having traveled far and wide for years, he had heard of a group of masters possessing unfathomable supernatural powers. These people were hard to judge as good or evil, and one had to be on full alert when encountering them; this time, they had likely met the real deal.

"Senior Brother Li! Don't be like this, we were in the wrong..." Bai Lingmiao hurriedly tugged at Li Huowang's sleeve with her hand.

The blade slid back into its scabbard, and the cold Li Huowang was about to turn and leave.

"My son... mother has failed you..." This voice suddenly made Li Huowang stop in his tracks, turning to look at the old woman once more.

Her state gave him a strange sense of déjà vu.

Seeing her hands mangled and bloody from the iron chains, a nameless anger suddenly flared in his heart.

The old woman's expression changed once again, her hands tightly strangling Zhao Qin's neck. "Give me back my son! Give me back my son!!"

Li Huowang pulled the child Yang and walked over.

"I'll give him back! I'll give you back your son!" Pushing Zhao Qin aside, Li Huowang shoved the bewildered child Yang into the old woman's arms.

The moment she embraced the child Yang, the old woman instantly fell silent, leaning her face close and repeatedly stroking the child's hair with her hands.

Li Huowang looked around the room, his tone laced with dissatisfaction as he said, "Why are there not even any windows? Wouldn't she be afraid alone in the pitch dark?"

Zhao Qin was momentarily caught off guard; everything had happened too fast.

"My wife is already like this, would she still be afraid of the dark?"

Li Huowang drew his other long sword and effortlessly severed the chains on the old woman's hands.

"Just because she's mad doesn't mean she feels nothing!! She can be afraid, she can feel pain! She can feel lonely when no one is with her!"

"Do you think she wanted to become like this? She didn't want to! But she truly can't help it!"

(End of Chapter)