vstars Chapter 19 Nephew
Chapter 19 Nephew
Shen Gui stood at the cave entrance, his gaze sweeping back and forth between the white wolf and the boy, already having some guesses in his mind.
This boy has an inseparable relationship with Zhao Laowu.
And that white wolf was probably not some kind of monster that plagued the village.
She was just a mother animal searching for food for her cubs.
Whether the "child" it was protecting was a human or a wolf was no longer important.
Shen Gui glanced at the strange "mother and child" in the cave, then turned and chased after Zhao Laowu in the direction he had fled.
With his cultivation at the second level of the embryonic breathing stage and having not learned any movement techniques, Zhao Laowu's speed was naturally far inferior to Shen Gui's.
However, after running for about a hundred feet, Shen Gui caught up with him.
"Fellow Daoist Zhao!"
Shen Gui called out.
Zhao Laowu ignored him and continued to stagger forward, muttering to himself incoherently, as if possessed by a demon.
"Fellow Daoist Zhao!" Shen Gui called out again, but there was still no response.
He frowned, pushed off with his feet, and flashed to Zhao Laowu's side. At the same time, he drew his long sword with his right hand and slammed the blade down heavily on Zhao Laowu's cheek.
"Snapped!"
A muffled thud.
Zhao Laowu was sent flying by the sword, crashing heavily to the ground, rolling twice, and spitting out a mouthful of blood mixed with two broken teeth.
Shen Gui used a clever technique with this sword strike, applying just the right amount of force to make him feel pain and regain his senses, but not to actually injure him.
Zhao Laowu lay on the ground, stunned for a moment, before finally snapping out of his dazed state. He covered his swollen cheek, and his eyes gradually regained their clarity.
"Fellow Daoist Shen..." his voice was muffled, trembling with tears, "Why did you hit me..."
"If I don't hit you, will you wake up?" Shen Gui sheathed his sword, looked down at him, and said indifferently, "Tell me, who is that child?"
Zhao Laowu trembled, his eyes darted around again, his lips quivered, and he stammered, "That...that's my family matter..."
"Family matters?" Shen Gui sneered, turned around and left. "Fine, since it's a family matter, I'm leaving. You don't need to ask me for help with your family matters anymore."
"No! Fellow Daoist Shen, please wait!" Zhao Laowu scrambled to his feet, grabbing Shen Gui's sleeve. "Don't go! Don't go! I'll talk! I'll talk, okay?!"
Shen Gui stopped and turned to look at him, her face expressionless.
Zhao Laowu gritted his teeth, as if he had made a major decision, and lowered his head, his voice extremely low: "Fellow Daoist Shen, as you know, my Zhao family of Jimingtun is divided into three branches. I am from the third branch, the fifth in line. Above me are the eldest branch and the second branch."
Shen Gui remained silent, waiting for him to continue.
Zhao Laowu rubbed his hands together, his face displaying an extremely complex expression, a mixture of regret, guilt, and an indescribable inner turmoil.
"I've been married for many years, and... I've never had a child." His voice trailed off. "How can a family of cultivators... be without an heir!"
"A few years ago, the eldest brother of the eldest branch of the family had a son, a chubby and fair-skinned boy named Zhao Yunluo. He was only three years old but already had a clear understanding of the world; he was a promising talent for cultivation." As Zhao Laowu spoke, his eyes gradually reddened. "I... I don't know what I was thinking at the time. Looking at that child, it felt like a cat was scratching at my heart..."
His voice trembled: "I stole the child under cover of night and abandoned him in the woods outside the village..."
Shen Gui's eyes darkened.
This fifth son, though said to be ruthless, wasn't truly ruthless; though said to have a conscience, he still committed such a heinous act of harming his own family.
"Why didn't you just kill him?" Shen Gui asked coldly.
Zhao Laowu trembled and waved his hands repeatedly, "Kill him, you can't kill him... that's my nephew..."
"So it was lost?"
"I...I..." Zhao Laowu stammered, "I thought there were wild animals in the mountains, and the child was so young, he wouldn't survive the night. It was...it was fate..."
Shen Gui sighed inwardly.
He's definitely a compromiser.
If he were truly wicked, would a cultivator really care about a mortal's child? At worst, he could simply kill him with a spell, leaving no trace.
But he chose to throw it away anyway.
They wanted to eliminate the scourge, but were unwilling to take action themselves, thus pushing the blame for the killing onto God.
"And now?" Shen Gui looked at him calmly. "What do you want?"
Zhao Laowu opened his mouth but couldn't say a word. His expression kept changing, clearly indicating that he was having an internal struggle.
Shen Gui didn't urge him, but simply stood with his hands behind his back, waiting.
After a long while, Zhao Laowu seemed to have made up his mind, and sighed heavily: "Let's go back and take a look... let's go back and see..."
Shen Gui nodded slightly and turned to walk towards the cave.
Zhao Laowu followed closely behind, but this time he didn't run away. However, his steps were unsteady and his face was pale.
The two returned to the cave entrance.
This time, the white wolf was lying at the entrance of the cave, its eerie green eyes fixed on the two of them, and a low growl was coming from its throat.
Instead of retreating into the cave, it stood guard at the entrance, using its body to block the boy inside.
Upon seeing Zhao Laowu, the white wolf's ears perked up, it bared its teeth, its fur stood on end, and it let out an even more ferocious howl.
Shen Gui stopped and pulled Zhao Laowu along, whispering, "Don't panic, this wolf demon doesn't seem to want to attack first."
Although the white wolf showed its ferocity, it never pounced, but simply stood guard at the cave entrance, motionless.
Shen Gui looked at Zhao Laowu and said calmly, "But have you thought it through? Now that we're leaving, the harassment won't stop."
Zhao Laowu trembled all over, his lips quivered a few times, but he couldn't say a word.
Of course he knew.
Now that the white wolf has found Chicken Crowing Village and knows that there are spirit chickens here, it will never leave easily.
Unless all the chickens are eaten.
The number of chickens that can be raised is limited. What happens when they are all eaten?
It will start by eating regular chickens, and after it finishes eating the chickens, it will start eating people.
Zhao Laowu dared not think about it anymore.
The veins on his hand gripping the rattan whip bulged, and his expression was extremely conflicted.
Kill? He dared not.
If we don't kill them, the village will never have peace again.
Just as Zhao Laowu was struggling with his decision,
A unique fragrance wafted over.
The fragrance was very distinct, like the scent of some kind of fruit wood, or the aroma of some kind of melon, sweet and tempting.
It wasn't the scent of flowers, nor the scent of medicine; it was more like... the aura of some kind of magic.
Shen Gui's heart skipped a beat.
The next second, he felt a strong wave of dizziness.
The Mingtian Bell in the sea of consciousness trembled slightly.
Shen Gui instantly regained his senses.
Zhao Laowu, standing beside him, was even more direct. His eyes rolled back, the rattan whip clattered to the ground, and he collapsed limply, unconscious.
The white wolf at the cave entrance was the same; it struggled to stand up, but its limbs were too weak. Its huge body swayed and finally fell to the ground with a "thud," its eyelids closing heavily.
Deep inside the cave, the boy who had been eating raw chicken collapsed on a pile of straw, still holding half a chicken in his arms.
Without hesitation, Shen Gui's legs gave way, his body swayed twice, and he collapsed to the ground with a thud, his eyes closed and his breathing becoming long and even.
Pretend to faint.
A deathly silence fell over the surroundings.
The chirping of insects and birds all disappeared, as if even the entire mountain forest had been subdued by that strange fragrance.
Shen Gui lay motionless on the ground, even his breathing was deliberately slow and light, just like someone who had really fainted.
After a moment, Shen Gui quietly opened his eyes a crack.
A gaunt, long face was right in front of me.
It was an old woman with a face full of wrinkles like cracked tree bark, sparse white hair so thin you could almost see her scalp, and tiny eyes that looked like two shriveled beans, yet they shone with an indescribable eeriness.
She squatted down beside Shen Gui, her withered hands tucked into her sleeves, tilting her head to look at him, a slight upturn at the corners of her mouth revealing a set of uneven, yellow teeth.
"Young fellow Daoist, how long are you going to keep up this act? I've been watching you for ages."