Chapter 90: Container
Qingwa was thin and dark, with many scars on his body, old injuries overlapping new ones.
He was the leader of those children. When they couldn't find food, he would take them to nearby towns to beg. If begging failed, they would resort to petty theft, and getting caught meant a severe beating.
At this moment, he was sitting in Kuang Cheng's small room, looking somewhat timidly at the person in front of him.
"Qingwa, there's something I want to ask you. Will you answer truthfully?"
Qingwa thought for a long time before finally nodding.
Children his age were already sensible, and having scraped by on the streets for so many years, he had long developed the ability to distinguish good from evil.
He could probably tell who was good and who was bad.
In recent days, he knew that Kuang Cheng had been giving out porridge to everyone and even found a doctor to treat him, so he wasn't very wary.
Seeing him nod in agreement, Kuang Cheng pointed to the beast bone pendant he was wearing and asked, "Where did you get this?"
Qingwa looked at the pendant, a flicker of panic crossing his face: "I picked it up, I picked it up—"
"Where did you pick it up from?"
"At the entrance of our old village."
Kuang Cheng couldn't help but ruffle his messy hair: "You saw your younger brother just now. His sister is missing, and your pendant looks very much like his sister's. He really wants to find his sister, Qingwa. I know you're a good child. You only get into fights because you want your little brothers to eat their fill."
After a long silence, Qingwa looked up: "That day, there were many, many carriages parked in the open space in front of our village entrance."
Kuang Cheng took a deep breath and slowly sat up straight: "And then?"
"We knew that such large carriages usually belonged to merchant caravans and would have food inside, so we thought of stealing some to fill our stomachs."
But we searched several carriages and found no food."
As Qingwa spoke, a profound fear was clearly visible in his eyes, and his thin shoulders trembled continuously: "Later, we reached the fourth carriage, lifted the cloth covering it, and saw many strange children..."
Ji You, who was guarding the door at this moment, couldn't help but turn his head upon hearing this.
If the pendant was indeed found by Qingwa, then this clue would be meaningless, but he mentioned children now.
And what they had been looking for were the missing infants.
Kuang Cheng glanced at Ji You, then said to Qingwa, "What do you mean by 'strange children'?"
"Their bodies were red, as if they had been steamed. Their eyes were wide open, their teeth were sharp, and black Qi was coming out of their nostrils. They didn't cry or make a fuss, like they were dead, but they were still breathing."
Qingwa had never attended school and didn't know much, so he could only describe what he saw with simple and pale language.
But even so, what he described was enough to send shivers down one's spine.
Ji You and Kuang Cheng exchanged a glance, then asked, "Was the pendant picked up from those children?"
"The other children were afraid, saying those infants were Evil Seeds born from the mountain, but I wasn't afraid. I was their leader. If I got scared, they wouldn't respect me. So I bravely pulled this pendant from one of the children to show them when I got back."
Kuang Cheng was silent for a long time, then asked, "Where did those carriages go?"
Qingwa thought for a moment: "The carriages only stopped at the village entrance for one night and were gone the next day."
Ji You remembered the trace of black Qi he had contracted, and turned to say, "Qingwa, when you took the pendant, did you touch any of those children's bodies?"
"Yes, I touched one for a moment."
"......"
Kuang Cheng was silently bowing his head at this moment, still bewildered by the sudden and eerie information, while Ji You had already begun to act.
He first sent Hu Wa back outside the city, then took Kuang Cheng to a bookstore to buy a map of Zhongzhou.
Because the Qiling Relic had previously revealed Immortal opportunities, such maps were everywhere and easy to buy.
The two then went nowhere else, sitting in the bookstore and examining the map.
After seeing the relative positions of the Qi Ridge entrance, Hongshan Mine, and Baishui River, Ji You's brow remained furrowed.
"Baihe Village is on the south side, separated by many mountains from where I entered the mountain. This is not a place one would pass through to enter the mountain."
Kuang Cheng was silent for a long time: "Could there be another path?"
Probably not, Ji You pondered for a long time, and an answer gradually formed in his mind.
When he and Yuan Chen went to rescue Yuan Caiwei, they saw a Yanhang Post Station carriage on the northern slope of the central mountain, so they must have entered from the north side when they brought the infants in.
But Qingwa should not be lying.
Because under such sudden questioning, no one could fabricate such a perfect story, especially a child.
Based on this, the strange infants Qingwa saw were not being brought in, but rather being transported out.
If the infants were normal when they went in, and all turned into what Qingwa described when they came out, what would that mean?
After his trip to Qi Ridge, his biggest confusion was that everything seemed to have ended after that demon Daoist's failed Ascension.
But the matter of the infants always remained outside the main storyline.
He initially thought the infants were taken to be refined into medicine, but later found no bloody scent in Yuan Caiwei's Pill Furnace, and Yuan Caiwei had never seen any infants.
Only now did he realize that those infants were sent into the mountain and then sent out again.
There must be a Legacy in the Relic, perhaps it should be called by another name, originating from ancient times, from the Lasting Peace Race.
Otherwise, that demon Daoist, lacking a Dao Legacy, could never have possessed the power to assault the Immortal Gate.
The fact that those Worldly Family disciples broke through their Realm after entering also proved this point.
But later, everyone discovered that neither the Immortal Legacy nor the Spiritual Plants and Immortal medicines in the Relic could be taken out.
Just like the vermillion fruit Ji You brought out, even when stored in a storage gourd, it still burst open and turned into black ash.
But according to Qingwa's description, someone must have brought things out of the Relic through some method, and those missing infants were very likely the containers.
Ji You looked at the Zheng Family's location on the map, and the connections in his mind gradually became clear.
Before the Hongshan Mine was reopened by Tianshu Academy, it had always been controlled by the Zheng Family.
They accidentally opened the Relic due to the pierced mine tunnels, saw the mysterious Immortal Legacy, but found they couldn't take it out.
However, unwilling to give up, they kept trying, and after countless attempts, they discovered the wondrous use of infants—
He didn't know what these attempts specifically entailed, but he knew they were definitely beyond what an ordinary person's mind could bear.
In short, they succeeded.
Then these infants should have been sent to the Zheng Family—
Because Yan Shuyi said that the Zheng Family kept many Evil Seeds that could speak human language, but he didn't know how they were specifically used.
It was just that the infants used as containers were highly poisonous, and Qingwa, who went to steal things, happened to be infected.
Subsequently, because someone brought something that did not belong to this Qingyun World out of the Relic, the Evil Seeds lost control and were no longer bound by the Relic. Thus, great chaos ensued, attracting the attention of the Immortal Sect.
Seeing that it could no longer be concealed, the Zheng Family Old Ancestor set up the grand scheme of refining people with karmic fire, creating a shocking tragedy.
"Has Brother Ji thought of something?"
At this moment, Kuang Cheng's voice sounded in his ear.
Ji You shook his head after a moment of thought: "No, nothing at all."
"Do you think Hu Wa's sister is still alive?"
"Hu Wa's sister may already be dead. This matter should end here—"
Kuang Cheng looked up at Ji You when he heard his words.
He knew Ji You and knew that Ji You was definitely not this kind of person. Even if his Realm was low and he couldn't do much, he would surely curse a few words after hearing Qingwa's story.
But at this moment, he was extremely calm, even using the phrase "end here."
After a long hesitation, he did not ask.
He believed in his friend, believed in the Young Master Ji who had coughed up blood in Yuyang County but told him that death was inevitable for everyone since ancient times.
If he had something he didn't say, it meant that Ji You felt he shouldn't know about it.
In fact, Kuang Cheng's thoughts were correct. He was not foolish, and Ji You was also a smart person.
The idea that infants could be used as containers, even if just a guess, could not be known by anyone.
Because the allure of Immortal Legacy was too great. Seeing how those Worldly Family disciples still flocked despite knowing the dangers showed that they would do anything for Immortal Legacy.
Since one Zheng Family could appear in the Qingyun World, a second Zheng Family would appear.
And Kuang Cheng himself was a reckless youth, always meddling in others' affairs in Yuyang County.
If he knew about this, he would inevitably be drawn into the conflicts among cultivators, but he was just a Mortal after all, without cultivation to protect himself. Therefore, no one could know about this, not even him.
Ji You had few friends in this world, and Kuang Cheng was one of them. He was indeed stubborn at times, but his stubbornness was admirable.
Thinking back to that autumn day last year, he, who had no relation to the Qiu Family, kept running around, finding him and then asking the Fang Family for help. If he knew his guess, what would happen?
This matter was too big; he didn't want him to die because of it.
The only good news was that there had been no cases of missing infants in the capital for the past six months.
Ji You only hoped that the Zheng Family Old Ancestor's failed Ascension was the final outcome, burying everything, and that no one would covet the Relic again.
Then this world could be a bit more stable.
"Is Immortal Ascension really that good?"
Ji You listened to Kuang Cheng's murmur and, after thinking, said: "Immortal Ascension can grant eternal life. Once you've tasted power for a long time, you'll have the desire for eternal existence."
Kuang Cheng looked at the gloomy sky: "Why don't they cherish this world they already have?"
"Because they can achieve Immortal Ascension, Ascend to the Immortal Realm, and gain great freedom. People in the village are all like this; they always want to go to the city."
Ji You stood up: "We said before that we'd have a meal together after returning safely."
Kuang Cheng came back to his senses and looked up at him: "Today?"
"Today it is. Call Young Miss Wei and Yuan Chen. We'll all go together."
"Young Miss Wei and we are merely chance acquaintances. It might be rude for three men to invite her to dine with us, and it wouldn't look good if others saw us."
Ji You thought to himself, 'You're quite cautious, kid.' "Then ask Young Miss Wei to invite a familiar female friend to come along."
Kuang Cheng looked at the pendant he had taken from Qingwa, holding it in his hand, and said, "I'll go see Hu Wa first, then I'll go tell Young Miss Wei to invite a friend."
"Never mind that, I'll have Yuan Chen's elder sister come with her."
"?"
Kuang Cheng was stunned for a moment: "Brother Ji really wants to marry two, but this is quite normal in the Qingyun World. The Dan Sect's daughter has noble status, she can be the main wife, and that Fairy who came that day can be the concubine, allowing the Alchemist to also treat Mortals."
Ji You glanced at him, thinking, 'You don't know a thing. If we're talking about status, there might be no woman nobler than Yan Shuyi in this world; even Yuan Caiwei can't compare.'
Let her be my concubine? Good heavens, my seven-foot male body wouldn't be enough for Lingjian Mountain to stick into.
Besides, do you think Yan Shuyi is the kind of person who would be a concubine? She'd kick me to death.
However, he thought it best not to tell Kuang Cheng Yan Shuyi's identity, otherwise this scholar would again ask him to open his orifices for the sake of the common people.
In his understanding, Ji You marrying these two would be equivalent to gaining the assistance of two great Sects. He would only need to contribute his body, without even having to wait for the Sect master to die of old age.
The reason Ji You changed his mind was actually another one.
Wei Rui was likely Wei Li's granddaughter—
Because a few days ago, when he came outside the city to find Kuang Cheng, he had seen a group of Worldly Family disciples from the capital and heard their discussions.
The one in the carriage was a Princess from Prince Chong's Mansion, and the man he knocked off his horse was the son of the Minister of Revenue.
Considering Wei Rui's surname, her identity could naturally be confirmed.
Kuang Cheng was currently working in the Immortal Supervision Department, and he was a sworn enemy of the pro-Immortal faction. If they were to meet like this, it would probably not end well.
This guy didn't even dare to ask her name, so he probably hadn't realized it yet.
In the past, Wei Xiang was at his peak, representing a thorn inserted by the Immortal Sect into the Great Xia court. Ji You was afraid he would be too reckless and get into danger, so he let him pursue a girl to offset the threat from the pro-Immortal faction.
But now, the Immortal Sect and the Worldly Families were mutually suspicious, and the pro-Immortal faction also felt like it was on the verge of collapse, so it no longer had any meaning.
But it was his first love after all, and Ji You didn't know how to tell him about it.
(It's almost the end of the month, please give monthly votes!! Also, I recommend a book: "Great Ming: Emperor of Longevity? Please, Your Majesty, Call Me Crown Prince")