Chapter 143: The Moon Spirit Saintess of Wushen Mountain

Blue Fiend continued: "The field of facial camouflage is quite unique. Each of us can only make our disguise increasingly deceptive, yet none of us possesses the ability to pierce through the disguises of others. For instance, I cannot guarantee that I can see through you, nor can you guarantee that you can see through me. By the same token, neither you nor I can guarantee that we can see through him!"

"Understood! Even if we know for a fact that he is hiding somewhere in southern Xinjiang, finding his true physical form is simply impossible. That is the greatest hurdle of this mission!" Lin Xiaosu nodded.

"It is a hurdle, but not the greatest one!" said Blue Fiend.

"What is the greatest hurdle?"

"Witchcraft and Gu!" Blue Fiend stated. "As I mentioned earlier, the complete extermination of the Dong family carries the shadow of Witchcraft and Gu. The mystery and power of Witchcraft and Gu are such that even Hidden Dragon only comprehends the tip of the iceberg."

In this world, a certain terror is simply known as the "Unknown"!

Lin Xiaosu deeply agreed: "In this realm, who is the most powerful practitioner of Witchcraft and Gu?"

"A year ago, the most powerful and mysterious practitioner of Witchcraft and Gu in this realm was called Yi Gu, widely known as the Witch God of Miao."

"You said a year ago? What about now? Has anyone challenged his position?"

"This person died last year," Blue Fiend said. "Although the Nine Villages of Miao currently possess numerous techniques of sorcery and Gu, it is still difficult to say who truly represents the new generation of the Witch God."

Lin Xiaosu pondered and said: "The Miao Witch God Yi Gu... did he leave behind a successor?"

"Yes. Her name is Yi Xiang, the daughter of Yi Gu. She attended university and returned home after graduation. Although we investigated her entire college career and found nothing out of the ordinary, in the mere span of three years, she earned the title of 'Moon Spirit Saintess' and commands a fervor akin to religious worship throughout all of Miao. Presumably, she also inherited the true teachings of the Witch God."

Without breaking his stride, Lin Xiaosu walked past the mountain trail ahead. As the path curved, the beautiful and ancient city of Taichong unfurled before them like a scroll, presenting the facade of a border town where history mingled with reality, and dynamism coexisted with tranquility.

Standing at the end of the bend, he asked, "What are your plans?"

Blue Fiend replied, "When facing a straightforward battlefield, I prefer to form my own opinions. But when facing a convoluted and bewildering situation, I much prefer to hear your perspective."

Lin Xiaosu said, "For us, the current situation in Miao is shrouded in clouds and mist with unclear circumstances. I have a suggestion."

"Go ahead!"

"From this moment on, you will completely vanish from sight!"

Blue Fiend's eyes flickered: "Because if I appear, Chu Tiankuo will not dare to show his face, is that it?"

"Exactly! At his absolute peak, he was merely former Gold Medalist Number 37. Faced with a Heavenly King of Hidden Dragon, he wouldn't dare show his face even if his life depended on it."

"Very well, I shall go into hiding! ... And then?"

"And then, I will be the one investigating the case—the complete extermination of the Dong family."

Blue Fiend raised her gaze and stared right at him...

Lin Xiaosu gave a soft smile: "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Your investigation is essentially using yourself as bait to lure him into an assassination attempt. It is a good strategy, but..."

"But what?"

"But... you'll have to pay more!" Blue Fiend sighed softly. "The formatting reward of one hundred thousand yuan is truly insufficient to make you take such a massive risk. I personally decide to add another one hundred thousand for you!"

Money, once again!

One hundred thousand yuan could not buy my life, so you arbitrarily decided to raise it to two hundred thousand.

Can two hundred thousand actually buy it?

If my life is gone, what difference does one hundred thousand or two hundred thousand make?

Lin Xiaosu was utterly speechless. His gaze shifted slightly: "If... and I'm only speaking hypothetically... if this journey requires me to charm this Moon Spirit Saintess, will it violate your damn bottom line?"

What bottom line was that?

She had accepted the commission from Everlasting Night, obsessively determined to keep Lin Xiaosu chaste and pure amidst the mortal world.

"If... and I am only speaking hypothetically as well!" Blue Fiend blinked. "If it is absolutely necessary to touch her in order to complete this mission, I will pretend I saw nothing and would rather die than leak it to Everlasting Night."

"Understood completely. Your bottom line is actually made of rubber!" Lin Xiaosu was rendered speechless once more. "Tell me, on which mountain peak did the Dong brothers die?"

"The Peacock Valley beneath Witch God Mountain."

Lin Xiaosu's eyes widened: "Witch God Mountain, Peacock Valley?"

"What? Are you familiar with this place?"

"Familiar is definitely not the word; I have never been there before. It's just that when my older brother was hospitalized, I bought Black-bone chicken and Polygonatum for seven or eight days. The Black-bone chicken came from Witch God Mountain, and the Polygonatum came from Peacock Valley. Combining the two, my brother's injuries healed at a thousand miles a day..."

Blue Fiend rolled her eyes and gave him a single-word response: "Tsh!"

She then forwarded the files regarding Chu Tiankuo, the extermination case of the Dong brothers, and the intelligence gathered from Miao.

Lin Xiaosu possessed the Dragon Eyes, but the Dragon Eyes were subject to clearance levels. The access level Lin Xiaosu had currently unlocked was limited solely to "locating and searching for individuals within a vast sea of people." He lacked the clearance to view internal files concerning Hidden Dragon.

Naturally, Blue Fiend could not possibly know what the combination of Black-bone chicken and Polygonatum signified.

To a patient, these two nourishing tonics might simply mean physical recovery.

To the senior nurse and beautiful young woman Zhou, they might simply mean a folk remedy.

However, to Lin Xiaosu, they represented a baffling and astounding discovery.

In the kitchen of the beautiful nurse Zhou, utilizing his ultra-sensitive sensory perception, he had discovered that the Polygonatum contained otherworldly energy, as did the Black-bone chicken, though much weaker.

Ever since that discovery, Peacock Valley had become a very sensitive place in his heart.

Ever since leaving the outpost, his inner mind had wavered and tangled over whether he should make a trip to this place to investigate the truth.

And now, the execution site of his new mission happened to match and synchronize with this exact location...

"Let's go!" Lin Xiaosu strode forward toward the main road ahead.

This main road was the national highway leading from Taichong to the provincial capital of Biannan Province, bustling with endless traffic.

He hailed a taxi. As he got in, looking through the glass window, Blue Fiend was nowhere to be found on the hillside. In her place stood a village woman with a sunburned red face and rough cloth garments. Most noticeably, a pair of large rabbits sat proudly on her chest. This village woman waved goodbye to him, and the rabbits on her chest nodded in greeting.

Good grief!

Blue Fiend, what on earth are you doing?

Are you echoing what I said when we first met?

I told you that your most formidable features were twofold: first, your hair could grow or shrink, and second, your rabbits could vanish into thin air.

And now you've puffed your rabbits up high just to tell me they're still here...

What is this called?

The pride of a Heavenly King?

Fine then, let us begin this journey!

The taxi driver was an ordinary man in his forties, weathered by wind and rain, exuding a rough charm. He greeted Lin Xiaosu warmly, "Where to, sir?"

"Do you know Witch God Mountain?"

"Of course I know it!" the driver answered. "I'm originally from Witch God Mountain myself, but I've been driving a taxi in Taichong in recent years. With no one left at home, I rarely go back..."

Along the way, the journey was far from short.

The driver spoke at length.

To the outside world, Witch God Mountain was shrouded in mystery. But in the eyes of the locals, where was the mystery? Wasn't it just an ancestral homeland?

Born there, raised there—a place of barren mountains and treacherous waters.

True, the rocks there were a bit peculiar, the mountain terrain a bit precipitous, and the mists possessed a wider array of colors.

So what?

Could you eat them or drink them?

Poor was still poor!

Eight generations of ancestors had endured such poverty, yet the pace of modern society was forcing the people of the mountain village to confront the arrival of a new era.

Children needed an education, yet there was only a single elementary school deep in the mountains.

Could they let their children remain like their fathers, trapped inside the mountains for a lifetime?

If they were unwilling, they had to seek change.

Consequently, more and more people were stepping out of the mountains, settling down in Taichong, in the Biannan provincial capital of Qingtian, in Guangzhou, and across the entire country, leaving the ancestral lifestyle further and further behind...

Of course, there were exceptions—people who stubbornly clung to the choices of their ancestors.

Some individuals could have lived prosperous lives in the metropolis yet still chose to return to their homeland.

These were all personal choices, bound to life, bound to pursuits...

"Do you know the Moon Spirit Saintess?" Lin Xiaosu threw a question at him.

The driver chuckled: "Ah, her? She's precisely the kind of person I mentioned who could have lived in the metropolis yet chose to return to the deep mountains. And I must say, she commands profound admiration. Leaving everything else aside, just look at all she has done for Witch God Mountain—she fully deserves the title of Saintess..."

Through this explanation, Lin Xiaosu formed a preliminary impression of the Moon Spirit Saintess...

Moon Spirit Saintess, Yi Xiang.

Twenty-four years old, she had graduated from Southwest University in the provincial capital three years ago.

She had abandoned urban life and returned to her hometown.

In the brief span of three years, she had utilized her medical skills to treat as many as a thousand villagers, charging not a single cent.

In the eyes of the driver and the local villagers, she was a living, breathing "Saintess"!

What were her medical skills like?

They could only be described as miraculous.

Among the bizarre and wondrous herbs scattered across the mountains, even when veteran Miao medicine practitioners failed to find them, she could locate them.

As for how those herbs should be paired, others remained clueless, but she knew precisely. Many of her combination methods caused veteran Miao doctors to shake their heads in disapproval, yet under her hands, they invariably worked wonders—miraculous wonders.

Furthermore, she was proficient in treating illnesses using Gu sorcery. Last year, she demonstrated a Gu technique where three Gu insects crawled directly into a patient's body, enabling someone paralyzed for over a decade to stand up and walk on the spot—a feat passed down as a miracle...

They had now arrived at the foot of Witch God Mountain.

Witch God Mountain—a mysterious realm in the eyes of outsiders, a impoverished mountainous region in the eyes of locals—still carried a trace of shock when it fell into Lin Xiaosu's vision.

A colossal mountain enveloped in thick fog.

Even though it was nearing noon, the heavy fog had yet to disperse entirely.

Faintly and vaguely, it reflected the endless mountain ranges undulating behind it.

The colors of these mists matched the external legends—they were truly multi-colored.

However, as the driver had specifically warned: "Don't you go imitating those overly curious tourists who blindly poke around inside these multi-colored mists for no reason. Some of these multi-colored mists concentrate the pollen of rare mountain flowers, while others are purely miasmas. Taking a single breath can prove fatal. Only the locals can accurately determine which mists are poisonous and which are safe. As for you, just stay far away from all mists, poisonous or not."

In addition...

The driver offered a special caution: "Best not to enter the Inner Village unless necessary."

He pointed toward a mountain ridge ahead, which resembled a stone bridge connecting the mountain road on this side to the boundless mountain ranges on the inner side.

"Why?" asked Lin Xiaosu.

"Because that area is the territory of the Gu Miao. The women of the Gu Miao are exceptionally passionate. A fine young fellow like you, once you step into the Inner Village, stands a very high chance of catching their eye. And once you catch their eye, they might plant a love Gu in you, and you'll likely never be able to leave the mountain village for the rest of your life."

This sounded awfully familiar.

Nurse Xiao Zhou had said something very similar.

Lin Xiaosu burst into laughter: "That's fantastic! I was just wondering if someone as dirt-poor as me would even be able to find a wife. If there's a ready-made wife waiting for me in this beautiful mountain village, why should I struggle any longer? I'll just settle down here for the rest of my life and have not a single thing to worry about!"

The driver chuckled as well: "If you're genuinely of that mind, little brother, it works out quite conveniently. I happen to have a cousin who is Gu Miao—how about I have her bring you a bowl of sweet wine..."

"Many thanks, many thanks, I appreciate the sentiment. Big brother, bye-bye..." Lin Xiaosu stepped out of the vehicle.

With a hearty laugh, the driver executed a U-turn and drove back down the mountain.