Chapter 94

Lin Du was now like someone who had just learned the 26 letters of the alphabet and was being forced to read specialized English literature. After much effort, he finally translated a section of text, all written in ancient seal script.

“Love Gu is raised with the heart’s blood essence of the Gu master. The person who is infected by the Gu, the worm parasitizes in their blood, and the blood of the two blends together. The infected person will gradually fall in love with the Gu master, unable to extricate themselves, and will be willing to give everything for them.”

“If they cannot see the Gu master, they will suffer unbearable heartache and gradually lose their sanity.”

“If the infected person falls in love with someone else, their heart will tear apart, and they will die.”

Lin Du tilted his head. Why does everything have to torment the heart?

When it comes to controlling emotions, shouldn’t the brain be the target? Why not stuff a few Gu worms into someone’s brain?

If they eat the brain, wouldn’t an empty mind just say whatever it’s told?

Lin Du chuckled to himself and said, “When it says ‘heart,’ I bet the focus is really on the blood essence.”

The essence blood of a cultivator is the core of their being, and if the blood essence merges, it would instinctively be seen as kin.

Whether this is really love is hard to say.

Lin Du continued to struggle through the next section when he suddenly heard a knock on the door.

Tao Xian opened his eyes abruptly. Lin Du, with one arm resting on two books, his fingertips gliding across the pages, didn’t move even when he heard the knock. “Go open the door.”

“… Who’s knocking in the middle of the night?” Tao Xian mumbled, a bit too afraid to open it.

“Middle of the night? Of course, it’s a ghost knocking,” Lin Du said, his gaze never leaving the book as his other hand scribbled some complex notes.

Tao Xian laughed awkwardly. “Lin, my dear Taoist, you just love joking with me.”

“I’m not joking. Haven’t you noticed? There’s a heavy Yin energy in this village. Today we only met the village chief and that pregnant woman. The pregnant woman looks older, but her bone age is only twenty-four. The village chief looks like an old man, but he’s only thirty. Isn’t that strange?”

Lin Du lifted his eyes and glanced at him. “Didn’t you notice?”

Tao Xian’s face gradually turned pale, and though he forced a smile, his lips began to droop in fear. “So, why are we still staying here?”

Lin Du finally remembered that Tao Xian had some issues with his spiritual consciousness, so perhaps he hadn’t extended his senses outward and hadn’t noticed. Besides, most Taoist cultivators are polite, unlike Lin Du, who lacked consideration and always overthought everything.

“The strangest thing is that these people, while having spiritual energy within them, seem to have no idea how to use it.”

If they were proper cultivators, they would use their spiritual energy to resist the Yin energy and prevent it from depleting their vitality. But in their current state, it’s more like they were just containers for the spiritual energy.

The knocking grew more urgent but remained light. Finally, a voice spoke from outside, “Is the Taoist from out of town present? I apologize for the late disturbance, but I, a humble woman, seek an audience regarding my unborn child.”

Tao Xian thought the voice sounded weak. “Sounds like a female ghost…”

Lin Du sighed and sent a swirl of spiritual energy towards the doorknob. With a creak, the door opened.

Standing outside was the pregnant woman, her belly slightly swollen. When she saw the door open and the people inside sitting calmly, she instinctively covered her belly.

“This afternoon you were crying. Why?”

The woman was startled and looked at the speaker. The young Taoist appeared very plain, wearing the simplest robe of a cultivator. Only the quality of his clothing and the simple white jade hairpin seemed out of place. He sat with his back to her, his spine straight yet thin, apparently absorbed in some serious reading. He hadn’t even turned around.

As if afraid she hadn’t heard, Lin Du turned a page and, with a patient tone, asked again, “You said you didn’t want to give birth to a daughter. Why?”

Tao Xian paused for a moment. For some reason, when Lin Du said this, his tone seemed colder.

The woman hesitated for a moment, then entered the room carefully, closing the door behind her. Suddenly, she knelt on the ground with a thud.

Lin Du paused his writing and glanced at Tao Xian. “Aren’t you going to help her up?”

Tao Xian hesitated, thinking it was inappropriate, but after Lin Du’s gaze, he obediently got off the bed and helped her up.

Just as he reached out, the woman froze, grabbed his wrist tightly, and remained kneeling. In a tearful voice, she said, “Taoist, I beg you, take me away. If not, at least give me some medicine to abort the child.”

Lin Du turned his head, surprised, and looked at the woman.

Tao Xian, unsure of what to do, whispered, “Please get up. Can’t we talk while you’re standing? Besides, kneeling to me won’t help. You have hands and feet—who’s stopping you from leaving? The healer is next door; you knocked on the wrong door.”

The woman lifted her tear-filled eyes. “I didn’t knock on the wrong door. If you could return, surely you have a way to take me away, right?”

Lin Du paused, and Tao Xian also froze, utterly confused. “What are you talking about?”

“I won’t mistake it. Only the children born in this village bear the mark left by the Moon God. You have a scar at the base of your palm.”

Lin Du’s spiritual sense, which had been focused on the woman, immediately moved to the hollow at the base of Tao Xian’s palm, and sure enough, there was a scar.

Tao Xian was taken aback for a moment and quickly pulled his hand back. “What nonsense are you spouting? This is clearly… clearly…”

He wanted to say that it might have been from when he was a mischievous child, just like Lin Du, always at the age where even cats and dogs disliked him, and he might’ve been hit on the hand. But for a cultivator, having a scar that doesn’t fade was definitely abnormal.

Lin Du withdrew his spiritual sense and then turned around, pretending to still be reading. In reality, he was using his spiritual sense to poke at the strange spiritual presence residing in his mind that didn’t belong to him.

After a few pokes, the presence finally responded.

“What’s the matter?” Yan Ye’s voice echoed in her mind, sounding ethereal and distant.

“Master, I’ve got a question. I encountered someone—a cultivator over four hundred years old at the Tengyun Realm. His mind seems to have been seriously injured or is missing parts. My spiritual sense can easily invade it, and sometimes it feels like he’s a completely different person, as if someone is watching me through his eyes and ears. What could this be? A puppet? Or is his mind being controlled?”

Yan Ye’s voice became more focused. “Does he have any other symptoms? Like memory loss? Incomplete recollections?”

“I think so. He has memory gaps and doesn’t seem to recall when he was being used as a vessel. Also, when I withdrew my spiritual sense, I felt a power that didn’t belong to him.”

“He’s likely had his memory erased, and because it was done roughly, his mind was left damaged. As for the change in personality, it’s possible that a stronger spiritual presence is temporarily taking over. It’s something like a split-soul imprint.”

Yan Ye paused for a moment. “For instance, I’ve left a very tiny portion of my spirit in your mind right now, but I’m just a guest, not forcibly imprinting myself. I’m polite, respecting your privacy—”

Lin Du cut him off, “Get to the point. Have you been in isolation so long that you’re bored? Talking too much?”

The cold white wisp of spiritual energy in Lin Du’s mind suddenly transformed into the shape of a hand and flicked her mental space.

Lin Du clutched her head, the veins on the back of her hand bulging, as she gritted her teeth. “You’re a lonely, empty-nest elder, and I’m about to reenact a horror scene from ‘Mountain Village Corpses.’ Please, spare me.”

Yan Ye: …

“The person who performed the ritual must have used a large portion of their spiritual consciousness, likely the main soul. Because their spiritual power is strong, they set up a master-servant imprint, allowing them to take control of the person’s five senses or even their body. But based on your description, it’s limited to the five senses for now. This kind of thing isn’t done by decent people, even among demons it’s rare—definitely lacking in virtue. Anyway, stay safe, I’m going back to my isolation.”

Yan Ye’s words sped up, and with that, the white light in Lin Du’s mind balled up again and went quiet.

Lin Du suddenly stood up, gathering the books and writing materials from the table. “I’m going next door to find my junior disciple. You two chat.”

Tao Xian, a bit frightened, stammered, “Little Taoist, you’re just going to leave? When are you coming back? Are you really going to leave me alone here? It’s not proper for a man and woman to be alone in the same room.”

The village woman was still just holding his hand and crying, but seemed unwilling to say anything, which made things really difficult for him.

She kept crying without speaking, and saying strange, incomprehensible things—who wouldn’t be scared?

If her husband came looking for trouble, who could he turn to for help?

Lin Du glanced at the village woman, then left without looking back, thoughtfully closing the door behind him. “I’ll be quick, just going to get the abortion medicine.”

Tao Xian: … Of course, it’s Lin Du. Always lacking any decency, no matter the time or place.