TRYMBPIETM 87: Revival of All Things (8)

Fan Tao let out a terrified scream.

She staggered backward as if she had seen a ghost, her whole body swaying, barely managing to keep her balance thanks to her excellent dancing skills.

Chi Qingzhou stood there, like a shadow detached from time and space. His eyes glowed a deep red, and his lips curled into an almost exaggerated grin.

“Turns out you can dance.”

He watched Fan Tao, his gaze and tone calm. Yet his smile was unsettling, and his whole expression was bizarre.

“Was it the sacrificial dance taught to you by the old priests of Linxi Village back then?”

Fan Tao’s foot slipped, and in a panic, she fell to the ground.

She raised her head, her face full of fear, her arm trembling as she braced herself on the ground.

Chi Qingzhou tilted his head slightly. “Your expression is so interesting. When you look at me, it’s like you’re looking at some kind of monster.”

It was as if a bucket of ice-cold water had been poured over her. Fan Tao shivered violently, instinctively pushing with her legs to try and move away from Chi Qingzhou.

Chi Qingzhou immediately brightened up.

His voice lifted in a light, cheerful tone as he spoke words Fan Tao couldn’t understand: “I knew back then you could do the sacrificial dance, right? That’s really great!”

“No wonder Bei Shen was misled. Who would’ve thought a woman who can do a ritual dance knows nothing at all?”

A woman who mastered the sacrificial dance, but after fleeing the village early, ended up not becoming a shaman.

She didn’t even know any cultivation techniques—just the sacrificial dance was enough to intimidate people.

This is really…

“How interesting.”

Chi Qingzhou’s red eyes became even more dazzling.

“Does your husband know you learned the sacrificial dance?”

Fan Tao’s face changed drastically. Instinctively, she snapped, “Chi Qingzhou, shut up! We are your parents—Where are your manners?”

Chi Qingzhou wasn’t angry.

He looked at Fan Tao with a curious, interested gaze. After a few seconds, Fan Tao once again shrank back.

With a slight regret, Chi Qingzhou said, “I thought, since you had the courage to steal the key to Linxi Village’s tomb, you would also have the courage to break Linxi Village’s tradition.”

Fan Tao’s face turned pale, a vague memory resurfacing in her mind, and her fear intensified.

She gasped heavily, forcing her frantic heartbeat under control, and stubbornly said, “Tradition? What tradition in the village? I don’t know anything about it.”

Chi Qingzhou’s smile didn’t change.

“According to Linxi Village’s tradition, you shouldn’t call my name. You should refer to me as Da Yan.”

Fan Tao was so shocked she almost fainted.

“You—you’re truly not fully human anymore!”

The term “Da Yan^[1]” comes from the “Zhou Yi·Xici ^[2]” and should be read as “Tai Yan”.

The systems of the Danlin and Puluo clans were very different from those of the Central Plains, but since they initially didn’t have their own language, the ancient priests decided on this term to refer to beings that were different from the norm when communicating with outsiders.

In Fan Tao’s very vague memory, only those non-human, non-ghost beings, who were similar to the so-called “ancestors” of Linxi Village, could be called Da Yan.

Anyone who became Da Yan would also receive a very high status while bearing heavy responsibilities.

Even their biological parents and siblings couldn’t call their names anymore, let alone command them.

Fan Tao had heard her grandmother mention that anyone who didn’t show respect to Da Yan would face retribution.

Back then, she scoffed at such talk.

Linxi Village had a complete set of folk customs, and the whole village had very strict rules when it came to faith. The priests held a truly transcendent position.

Fan Tao had never seen anyone who didn’t respect the priests suffer retribution; instead, she had often witnessed them being scolded or punished by the village head.

At that time, she didn’t fully believe in the existence of supernatural arts. She was more inclined to believe that this was a means for the village head and the priests to control the villagers.

Although she didn’t think the system was overly distorted—after all, it was created to protect the interests of a certain group—when it didn’t benefit her, she deeply felt that Linxi Village was too twisted and repressive.

Fan Tao knew that if she had successfully passed the selection back then and became one of the priests, she wouldn’t have had much objection to the village’s rules.

But there are no “ifs” in this world.

She practiced dancing diligently, but in the end, she was not chosen.

She couldn’t accept the constant suppression. The only option left was to escape Linxi Village.

She was free.

But now she realized how wrong she was.

Retribution… maybe it really exists.

Fan Tao trembled, slowly raised her head, and fixed her eyes on the blurry shadow before her. It felt like a chunk of ice had been shoved into her stomach, causing waves of pain.

She wanted to scream, but her mouth wouldn’t open.

Her son was no longer human.

When did this happen?

Was it recently, something that happened when he was found, or did it happen earlier, when her youngest son had already crossed the boundary between life and death?

Fan Tao didn’t dare to think any further.

She wished she could just faint right then and there.

But this was a dream, and even if she wanted to faint, she couldn’t.

Chi Qingzhou took two steps forward, looking down at Fan Tao.

“Actually, I’m a little curious. After you got the key to Linxi Village’s tomb, did you really never think of going inside to take a look? Or… did you realize it was no longer effective after you took the key?”

“You… you…”

All the past was laid bare, and Fan Tao could only feel extreme horror, unable to speak a complete sentence.

Chi Qingzhou: “Seeing your reaction… you actually know the true purpose of the tomb in Linxi Village, don’t you?”

Cold sweat soaked Fan Tao’s back. Her lips lost all color, and she trembled as she lowered her head, unable to look her son in the eyes.

Chi Qingzhou’s blood-red eyes finally filled with a smile.

He softly said, “So, when I was ten, that cultivator who found me and taught me how to summon the Ghost King of Jingming Mountain, indeed got the information from you.”

“After all, you’re the only one who knows that Linxi Village is a tomb-guarding village, and that a small part of the people’s bloodline is special, specifically cultivated as offerings for the Ghost King of Jingming Mountain—”

“Stop talking!”

Fan Tao’s heart shattered, and she screamed mournfully.

“I am not wrong! I just want freedom!”

Chi Qingzhou ignored her shouting, his tone light and unhurried as he unveiled the truth that Fan Tao most wanted to avoid.

“You’re scared, aren’t you, mom?”

“After the fire destroyed the village, you weren’t completely at ease.”

“You feared that those who died in the fire would turn into vengeful ghosts to come after you, you feared that the moving tomb under Linxi Village would never leave you alone.”

“You feared someone would discover that all the offerings used to keep the Ghost King of Jingming Mountain rational had died early because of you, and you feared they would turn on you.”

“You tried your best to forget everything from before, pretending that you knew nothing.”

“But you won’t admit your mistakes.”

“You’ll only tell others that it was an accident, and that it was lucky you left the village early, or else all the offerings would have died.”

“You and big brother don’t meet the conditions of the offerings, but you still have your youngest son, wandering outside.”

“You firmly believe that your youngest son will fulfill his mission.”

“This is how you’ve been deceiving them, right?”

Chi Qingzhou found it quite amusing and couldn’t help but laugh.

“You just wanted to use me to send them off, but didn’t expect that I truly meet the standards of the offerings.”

This was the reason why, at the age of ten, he successfully completed the ritual with himself as the offering.

Back then, he was very weak, and though Xing Shuangzhan lost half of his ghostly energy, allowing him to hear his plea, he knew nothing at that time. With only a few words from a passing cultivator, he completed the ritual. If it was all just luck, no one in the Cultivation world would believe it.

Moreover, his fate was “favored by the heavens but abandoned by fortune.” Saying he had good luck would be pure nonsense.

Chi Qingzhou’s shadow on the ground rapidly expanded, with long tendrils curling around him, lifting him up.

“Mom, I should thank you.”

“Without you and that master with ulterior motives, I would never have had the chance to meet Brother Su.”

Although Fan Tao and the celestial teacher weren’t good people, his meeting with Xing Shuangzhan really was due to them.

The shadow slowly wrapped around Chi Qingzhou.

Before leaving the dream, he spoke softly, “As a thank-you, I’ve prepared a small gift for you, mom. I hope from now on, you’ll always have good dreams.”

The black mist engulfed Chi Qingzhou’s figure, leaving behind a cryptic phrase.

“Maybe that moving tomb will fulfill that wish?”

…

“Ah!!”

Fan Tao screamed as she woke up from the dream.

She jumped out of bed, clutching her chest, her nerves still frazzled as she anxiously looked around.

The modest hotel suite looked just as it had yesterday. The white sheets vaguely smelled of laundry detergent, and the cushions on the chairs were a bit worn, with a few frayed spots visible under the morning sunlight.

Everything was so ordinary, so mundane.

Fan Tao stared at the water kettle on the tea table for a moment, slowly exhaling a breath of stale air.

“It was just a dream,” she muttered to herself. “It’s okay, dreams aren’t real.”

“I wonder what’s going on with Xiaoyuan. He better not let that little brat find out where I am.”

She sat on the bed for a while, waiting for her emotions to settle before getting up to wash up.

Fan Tao always paid attention to her appearance. Even now, she didn’t forget to do her makeup and get dressed.

After fixing herself up, she boarded the bus to Linghe Village.

Fan Tao had some impression of Linghe Village.

When she had been frequently plagued by nightmares, she had someone investigate the places in her dreams, and Linghe Village was included in the search.

She couldn’t be sure if this village was her old home, but she knew clearly that it wasn’t the place from her dream.

She had once been troubled by this result, but now, thinking back on the investigation, she felt a sense of peace.

It was good that it wasn’t the place from her dreams.

If it were, who knew what she would encounter!

Fan Tao closed her eyes briefly, suppressing the bitterness in her heart. When the bus stopped, she quickly disembarked and hurriedly walked toward the village.

Passing the sign at the village entrance, she was about to search for the location of the ancestral hall when, in the blink of an eye, she noticed something happening in the southern part of the village.

Her heart skipped a beat, and an ominous feeling surged.

Instinctively, she took a few steps southward, raising her head to carefully observe.

It seemed to be a new construction site that had been enclosed in recent months. The scaffolding inside was particularly tall, but the overall width of the building didn’t seem large. It was easy to tell that what was being built wasn’t a regular house.

Fan Tao’s expression soured.

She had a vague sense that things were heading in the direction she least wanted.

She clenched her fingers tightly and took a few more steps forward.

This time, she clearly saw the bottom of the tall “building”—the part visible outside the scaffolding was a very solid-looking rock.

These rocks, unknown where they came from, were smooth and delicate, with a peculiar light green color.

The surface of the stones was carved with flying birds and beasts, the stars of the Great Dipper^[3], and the lines were ancient and simple. At a glance, it seemed indistinguishable from a real antique.

Fan Tao stared in horror, her teeth chattering uncontrollably.

The stone gate in front of her looked exactly like the one from her nightmare!