Confrontation

"What a vicious woman. The child you bore must be evil seed as well. You mother and daughter can reunite in my belly!"

That day, after devouring Pan Chunping, the Four-Eyed Fierce Tiger casually swallowed the little girl Pan Chunping had been shielding behind her, trembling all over.

Returning from its recollections, the Four-Eyed Fierce Tiger did not answer. It merely breathed out a puff of green smoke over Pan Chunping.

After the green smoke seeped into Pan Chunping's body, she seemed to have forgotten something and thanked the Four-Eyed Fierce Tiger and Lin Chan again.

After that, she no longer dwelled on Xing'er. Her body slowly began to fade away.

Before her spirit completely dispersed, Pan Chunping smiled and murmured:

"Xing'er, you've grown into an adult now. Keep your eyes bright, marry a good husband, and don't be like Mother—mistaking the wrong man."

Lin Chan found it rather strange. He looked at the Four-Eyed Fierce Tiger and asked:

"What did you do to her?"

"I... I told her that her Xing'er had been adopted by a kind family and had grown into a fine young lady. Knowing her daughter was living well, her obsession dissipated, and she naturally entered reincarnation."

The Four-Eyed Fierce Tiger spoke haltingly, somewhat guilty.

Lin Chan did not readily believe it. He merely used [Karma Eye] and discovered that the Bad Karma on the Four-Eyed Fierce Tiger had increased by several degrees.

This hypocritical tiger truly had not spoken a word of truth.

Still, Lin Chan had no need to pursue the matter. Since it could fool itself, why should Lin Chan stick his nose into its business?

Lin Chan himself could not get away either. He was merely using the four Grief Ghosts to stall for time while he considered how to deal with the Four-Eyed Fierce Tiger.

Now that one Grief Ghost had broken free, Lin Chan only had the time provided by three Grief Ghosts left.

Seeing that Lin Chan's expression had not changed, the Four-Eyed Fierce Tiger assumed it had deceived him. It stopped dwelling on Pan Chunping and turned to the Head-Wrapped Old Woman.

"Do you have anything to say?"

Old Woman Liu had long prepared her defense. When the Four-Eyed Fierce Tiger asked, she immediately blurted out:

"Great King! I have nothing to say. Great King, you are a tiger and do not understand human customs. Marry a chicken, follow the chicken; marry a dog, follow the dog. Since my daughter-in-law married into my family, she became one of us. After my son died, I had the right to dispose of her, the right to marry her off to a hunter in the mountains. That hunter was diligent and hardworking, able to hunt in the mountains. Her days ahead would have been far better. Otherwise, if she remained in her husband's family, there would surely be gossip outside, and the clansmen would target and bully her."

"When I was young, my husband also died. But I bore a son, and with my son there, my mother-in-law did not marry me off. Had I not borne a son, I would instead have hoped my mother-in-law could marry me into a good family. Staying with my husband's family would only mean swallowing grievances. When one is young, one listens to one's parents; once married out, one listens to the husband's family. It has always been so. I truly do not know what I did wrong."

Old Woman Liu truly had no other way. She did not know how to explain herself, because by their moral standards, what she had done was not some particularly grave evil. It was something that could be understood.

But the Four-Eyed Fierce Tiger clearly would not understand.

"Your daughter-in-law did not say that!"

The Four-Eyed Fierce Tiger glared viciously at Old Woman Liu. Then it exhaled white smoke again, and the figure of a young farmwife appeared.

The farmwife was ugly as well. Grief Ghosts accumulated resentment and indignation; the face was born from the heart, and none of them could look fair.

"Great King!"

The farmwife hurriedly bowed to the Four-Eyed Fierce Tiger.

"You once said that your mother-in-law had always treated you harshly and even sold you to a hunter for nothing but a few taels of betrothal silver. Now I will let you confront your mother-in-law. Whoever lies will have her soul scattered and spirit destroyed!"

The Four-Eyed Fierce Tiger said to the farmwife.

"Mother-in-law!"

The farmwife jumped in fright upon seeing Old Woman Liu and could not help feeling guilty.

"Daughter-in-law, if you had not appeared in my dream that day and told me you were suffering in the mountains, I would never have gone up the mountain to look for you and ended up in the Great King's mouth!"

Old Woman Liu said, her face filled with resentment.

Old Woman Liu had long regarded her daughter-in-law as her own daughter. If not for the fact that the young woman could not endure being a living widow and had always wanted to remarry, she would never have married her off.

Who could have imagined that her daughter-in-law had wanted to harm her?

"You're lying! You're lying! Great King, don't believe her! She was the one who sold me to an old hunter. If not for her, how could I have been eaten by the Great King?"

The farmwife immediately retorted.

"I ate you because you had an affair with your husband's younger brother. Your second husband asked me to eat you!"

No longer willing to trust the farmwife so easily, the Four-Eyed Fierce Tiger finished speaking and performed a Soul Search on her.

Very quickly, the Four-Eyed Fierce Tiger found the memories of the farmwife's time with Old Woman Liu.

Although Old Woman Liu was an evil mother-in-law, after the farmwife entered the household, she had not made her suffer any grievance. Lighting the fire and preparing meals were all handled by Old Woman Liu alone.

Even after her son died, Old Woman Liu had initially wanted the farmwife to remain chaste and preserve her good reputation.

The farmwife both despised the family's impoverished life and did not wish to remain a living widow, so she persuaded the old woman to marry her off.

That way, they could gain money to subsidize the household while she would no longer have to remain a living widow.

Old Woman Liu initially refused, but under her daughter-in-law's relentless coaxing and pleading, she eventually agreed.

Upon seeing this, the Four-Eyed Fierce Tiger did not wish to watch any further.

With a swipe of its tiger claw, the farmwife scattered into a cloud of smoke and dust. Her shrieks echoed throughout the Broken Temple.

"Old lady, I wronged you!"

The Four-Eyed Fierce Tiger took the initiative to admit its mistake and restored Old Woman Liu's freedom.

As her resentment dissipated, Old Woman Liu returned to the form of a kindly old woman. She wanted to say something, but looking at the Four-Eyed Fierce Tiger's ferocious face, she ultimately only lowered her head and said:

"Many thanks, Great King!"

Then she drifted toward the temple entrance.

As she went, Old Woman Liu murmured:

"Tiezhu, Mother is coming to find you."

Tiezhu was her son's childhood name. Her spirit still had some time before it completely dispersed, and she wanted her soul to return to its homeland.

After mistakenly eating two people in a row, the Four-Eyed Fierce Tiger began to feel guilty.

But of the two remaining, it had personally witnessed one murder his own sworn brother, while the other was a notorious landlord and local tyrant. Surely it could not be wrong again.

"Everyone makes mistaken judgments sometimes. I only ate two people by mistake. It is no great matter."

With that thought, the Four-Eyed Fierce Tiger steadied itself and looked toward the Brocade-Robed Magnate, Wang Yunji.

"Your turn."

Wang Yunji's expression did not change. He only said:

"In reply to the Great King, I do not know what I should say."

"Explain why you mixed sand and stones into disaster-relief grain, or tell me of the good deeds you did in your life that could offset your evil acts."

The Four-Eyed Fierce Tiger said.

Wang Yunji assumed a thoughtful expression again. After a long while, he still could not sort out his thoughts and said:

"Great King, why not let Brother Zu speak first?"

"Such a nagging old woman!"

The Four-Eyed Fierce Tiger cursed, but it still indulged Wang Yunji and allowed him more time to remember.

Wang Yunji's hemming and hawing was also a good sign. It showed that this man had committed evil after evil; even recalling a single good deed was difficult.

The Four-Eyed Fierce Tiger looked at Zu Moyan and said:

"I saw you betray your friend with my own eyes. I fear there is no arguing your way out of that, is there?"

"What the Great King saw was true. I did indeed kill my junior brother, but there was a reason behind it."

Zu Moyan had possessed cultivation in life and was far clearer-headed than the other Grief Ghosts. He had long thought through the full sequence of events.