Water Nymph of Laoshan

The moment the magical artifact exploded, a wave of magical energy swept forty zhang underground.

"Hmm?" In a hidden chamber and cave underground, Instructor Ma, who was sitting cross-legged in meditation, changed his expression and looked up in astonishment.

"Cultivators fighting? No, there is only one person's magical energy fluctuation."

"I told Zhang Xu to go back and fetch the treasure, yet he actually invited a cultivator here?"

"Troublesome, and I was talking about going into seclusion... Oh well, time to change into the jade robe and slip away, hehehe heehee..."

In an instant, countless streams of water burst out from Instructor Ma's left eye, converging into a six-foot-tall water person. Looking again, Instructor Ma's robust corpse had collapsed onto the ground, already withered and shriveled.

The water person had no feet, her lower body roiling and churning like a gushing spring as she flowed across the ground.

She had no face either, her features like a clear pool, shimmering with ripples.

The body of a natural demonic creature possesses vitality the very moment it is enlightened by the Heavenly Dao; this was precisely Shen Leling's true form.

The location where she resided was the second hidden chamber situated directly beneath the fort master's secret chamber!

Between the two chambers lay an underground river with water the color of yellow mud, flowing deep underground. This was the so-called Yellow Springs Water, the most common extreme yin and cold substance in heaven and earth, which easily damages the primordial spirit and is unsafe for a practitioner's spiritual sense to touch.

Therefore, when she came the first time, she did not discover that there was another chamber beneath the river.

When Shen Leling left in a huff last night, it was certainly because Yan Nu had angered her, but it was also to check a suspicious point.

The spring eye that Yan Nu spoke of... how could Shen Leling, as a Water Spirit Physique, not know of it?

It was only that when she discovered it, only Yellow Springs Water was buried there.

Thinking it had formed naturally, she gave it no further thought.

Yet Yan Nu said that ten years ago it was still a clear spring, and that the fort master had buried it... This was strange, why idle about and destroy a clear spring for no reason?

Coupled with the fact that there was also Yellow Springs Water beneath the fort master's secret chamber.

Shen Leling instantly realized that there was a second secret chamber, and that the stream of Yellow Springs Water had been intentionally channeled there by the fort master through heavy earthwork to conceal something, thereby destroying the original clear spring.

Sure enough, starting from the southwest mulberry grove and searching all the way down, she found this second secret chamber.

In the second secret chamber, there were finally good things: several bottles of pills that only cultivators could refine, as well as a set of extremely superior bead-woven jade boxes, also known as the Golden Jade Robe.

It was a specialized burial shroud for the imperial family of the Former Han, with entire gold threads connecting four thousand jade pieces of varying sizes, all ofing of top-grade white jade that was warm and crystalline. The jade robe was crafted with exquisite ingenuity, pieced together seamlessly. There was no telling whose tomb Zhang Xu had robbed to unearth it.

To mortals, this item was actually useless, serving merely to preserve a corpse for an extremely long time. As for seeking rebirth, that was all sheer delusion.

Many things are completely different concepts in the hands of mortals versus cultivators. For instance, cinnabar, mica, and Red Stone Fat are all fine materials for alchemy, but to mortals, they are virulent poisons.

One man's meat is another man's poison.

The jade robe could ensure that vital essence would not leak outward, and coupled with the item's extreme cold, it was instead an excellent thing for raising ghosts and corpses... and of course, it was also beneficial to demons. Wearing this item to absorb the Sun and Moon Essence would yield twice the result with half the effort, and it could also ward off many Evil Warding Items!

"This Zhang Xu can be considered someone who understands metaphysics, even specially burying the jade robe beneath the Yellow Springs Water to nurture it for several years, raising its grade to the next level."

"At least the trip wasn't in vain; it'll make just the right Righteous Body for me! Hehehe..."

Rippling streams of water drilled into the jade robe, and the jade robe immediately swelled, walking as though it were a living creature.

At first it was stiff, heavy as armor. Yet as she walked a few more steps and spun around twice, the jade robe wreathed in water vapor actually grew tender, watery skin, delicate facial features, and even magnificent jade-colored formal attire.

Her Water Spirit Physique provided a tremendous boost to transformation arts, allowing her to assume any appearance or countenance in the world with lifelike accuracy, making it very difficult to force her back into her true form.

Paired with the Golden Jade Robe, the effect was doubled with half the effort.

"Why has it gone quiet?"

Separated by the Yellow Springs Water, it was inconvenient for Shen Leling to use her spiritual sense to investigate the situation above ground. She was truly curious about what on earth that brief, hurried, and explosive flash of magical energy fluctuation was doing.

Such a familiar feeling, ugh... could it be a magical artifact exploding?

Shen Leling recalled that she had tricked Zhang Xu into leaving not only to sneak into the secret chamber, but also because of the magical artifact from the Hua County Zhang family.

Things like magical artifacts were not magic treasures; she could use them the moment she got her hands on them, and she had already figured out how to swindle them away.

Yet if the fluctuation above was a magical artifact exploding, wouldn't that mean... the magical artifact Zhang Xu brought back was gone?

"I'll go up and take a look!" Shen Leling waved her sleeve and scattered a single bean, which landed near the earthen wall.

She chanted an incantation, and beads of condensed water vapor emerged all around, watering the bean like rain.

Upon absorbing all the water vapor, the bean immediately sprouted and grew with fierce momentum, transforming into a long, thick vine that drilled into the earth overhead.

The soil was continuously pushed apart, and in about half a quarter of an hour, a tunnel was dug out by the vine.

The tunnel was two feet wide, its walls completely covered by circle after circle of supporting vines. Shen Leling possessed a petite figure, and with a twist of her body, she slipped upward along the tunnel like a small fish swimming through the air.

Shen Leling quietly crept back to the surface, swept her spiritual sense across the area, and froze on the spot.

"Ah?"

She could hardly be blamed for her profound shock, for inside Tea Mountain Fort lay a scene of utter devastation. Fort Master Zhang Xu, along with Instructors Han and Hu, had all been beaten to death!

The martial artists they kept under their command had suffered heavy casualties, and the survivors, having lost their nerve, were hiding in various buildings and peeking outward, only to be swept by her spiritual sense.

"What happened?"

Shen Leling walked over to Zhang Xu's corpse, looked at the large crater blasted into the courtyard, and felt a blank wave of confusion.

How long had she even been gone? Tea Mountain Fort had turned completely upside down? She felt a dazed sensation, as if a day in the mountains meant a year had passed on earth.

At this moment, she discovered a trail of blood. Following the trail, she saw Yan Nu, bound in chains and bathed in blood!

Yan Nu could not move his hands, and was dragging himself forward inch by inch toward the outside of the fort, to the point that he had dragged out such a trail of blood.

This kind of steadfastness reminded Shen Leling of last night, when Yan Nu had said he would definitely escape.

This brat, he single-handedly upended Tea Mountain Fort?

You... you call this escaping?

Shen Leling's mind shook violently, never expecting that she hadn't seen him for just half a day, and Yan Nu had gone on a killing spree?

What on earth was going on? How had he pulled it off?

Zhang, Han, and Hu were, by all accounts, second-rate experts with exquisite martial arts and profound internal cultivation. How had they been beaten to death by a half-dead person?

Fine, those two were blown up by an explosion. Does that mean Zhang Xu was too careless, and the magical artifact he brought back was damaged during the fight, triggering an explosion that capsized the boat in the gutter?

What about the others, then?

Although Tea Mountain Fort wasn't much—there were two or three hundred such aristocratic fortified manors throughout Langya Commandery—for so many martial artists to be wiped out by a youth who had never studied martial arts and had only practiced the Great Emperor White Jade Scripture for a single day was simply too absurd!

Even if Yan Nu had a foundation of true qi, his cultivation after conversion would only be considered third-rate, and he didn't even know how to use it.

Moreover, Yan Nu was still injured and shackled in the execution ground. Shen Leling had no idea how this group of people at Tea Mountain Fort could have lost in such a situation. By all logic, so many people should have worn Yan Nu down to death!

"Hiss, these injuries are simply too terrifying!"

"Is his waist completely broken? Looks like he's going to be crippled..."

Shen Leling inspected Yan Nu, seeing that his injuries were severe to the extreme. Although his heart still had a faint pulse, he was already at death's door, his vitality practically severed, and yet he was still crawling outward like this? What kind of will was this?

"Spring water..."

Suddenly, Shen Leling heard a barely audible sound. It was Yan Nu quietly reminding himself that he still hadn't gone to dig up the spring water.

"..." Shen Leling was dumbfounded. Idiot, stop crawling!

"Hmph! If I had come a step later at night, you'd be dead!"

Although she felt that a crippled Yan Nu would be of no further use, Shen Leling didn't waste words. She still spat out a few pills, dissolved them with the living water of her Life Source Spring, and directly infused them into Yan Nu's viscera and organs, permeating his entire body at an extremely rapid pace.

Yan Nu had been crawling outward with steadfast determination, but as a result of this treatment, his whole body went limp. Immediately afterward, he felt a surge of divine sense urging him, Idiot, hurry and sleep, sleep, leaving him dizzy and causing him to instantly pass out and fall asleep.

Seeing that he had finally stopped tossing about, Shen Leling nodded. At the same time, she pressed her fingertips together like a sword and swept them across the shackles. With a crisp chime, she unlocked Yan Nu's heavy cangue.

While she was continuously casting spells there to treat Yan Nu, a sudden puff of smoke rose not far away: inside the bosom of Zhang Xu's corpse, talisman paper had spontaneously combusted, igniting his embroidered gorgeous robes and causing the fire to grow increasingly fierce.

Knowing that this was due to the Divination Talisman Paper being catalyzed by demonic aura, Shen Leling paid it no mind. She then opened her palms and released countless streams of water that coiled around Yan Nu like tentacles, sweeping him up into her embrace.

"Hehehe, even if you're crippled, you belong to me now. Come with big sis!"

She found a warhorse for Yan Nu, leaped up, and mounted it.

Opening her mouth, she spat out a spirit pearl the size of a date, crystalline and translucent, wreathed in water vapor.

Shen Leling circled the courtyard a few times, absorbing all the vital breath and essence souls emitted by the dead.

Although the effect wasn't as good as living people, it was still barely acceptable.

She spurred the horse along the trajectory of Yan Nu's massacre, harvesting all the way. The water vapor lingering around the spirit pearl grew somewhat denser.

In broad daylight, Shen Leling acted with complete and utter unconcern!

Yet throughout Tea Mountain Fort, there were no longer any experts left. The remaining low-grade martial artists all hid in their rooms, not daring to come out, only secretly observing this woman who had emerged from who knows where.

With her riding and galloping about so brazenly, Uncle Hong naturally saw her. Catching sight of Yan Nu still on the horse, he hurriedly chased after her, cowering as he shouted, "May I ask who Your Excellency is?"

"Hmm?" Recognizing Uncle Hong and seeing him ask, Shen Leling gave a chuckle.

Suddenly, she drifted upward. Her water-blended gown was tightly bound with a silk sash, faintly wreathed in misty qi; every inch of her skin and every expression possessed the ultimate beauty and allure.

"The Ancestral Dragon on an eastern inspection tour eats longevity fruit, the immortal arrives here to drink the blessed spring."

"Laoshan has determined an extraordinary embryo since ancient times, miraculous water gave birth to me, Shen Leling!"

Her voice was as beautiful as rippling spring water, and even as she spoke, she had already spurred her horse up into the sky.

That red-maned steed trod upon dots of rippling light, galloping through the air as it crossed the high wall and sped away into the distance.

"An immortal! It's an immortal!"

Many house servants and martial artists rushed over, gazing up at this sight.

Uncle Hong shouted as he dropped to his knees. Knowing that Yan Nu had been taken away by the immortal, he no longer worried.

At night, the Zhang family head stared at the corpse covered in white cloth down in the hall and slammed the table in fury. "Bullshit immortal! An abomination! A damned abomination!"

No matter how carefree Shen Leling's departure had been, her demonic aura could not be concealed.

Only Zhang Xu's corpse had been burned at the scene, and the Zhang family members had already ascertained that it was caused by the self-combustion of the Divination Talisman Paper.

Furthermore, with the experts within the fort dead, Shen Leling had brazenly absorbed vital essence in broad daylight and ridden away through the sky on a horse, so by the time the Zhang family members arrived, many places at the scene still retained traces of her demonic aura.

However, precisely because of Shen Leling's arrogance, the Zhang family's attention was entirely focused on her, completely ignoring the reports concerning the commoner Yan Nu and assuming that everything was controlled from behind the scenes by an abomination.

"Father, third younger brother was murdered by the abomination. We must avenge him!" The Zhang family head implored anxiously toward a figure in the hall.

That person had loose, flowing hair, handsome features, and wore an exquisite white robe bound with a azure jade sash.

He looked about the same age as the Zhang family head, yet he was his father—truly a master of preserving his youth.

This person had originally been keeping his eyes closed, but at this moment he slowly half-opened them. "Finished ranting?"

The Zhang family head was startled, then steadied his nerves, bowed slightly, and said slowly, "Father, not only was third younger brother harmed, but the iron token left behind by the Old Ancestor was also destroyed. This matter cannot simply be let go."

"What would you have me do?"

"If this child remembers correctly, this Water Nymph of Laoshan... is she not that demon who murdered the Shen family's direct scion back then?"

"Mhm, that was twenty years ago."

The corners of the Zhang family head's mouth curved upward. "In that case, we can report this news to the Shen family and ask their cultivators to step in and kill the demon, while our clan assists them. Not only will this avenge third younger brother, but we can also use this opportunity to befriend a true cultivator."

Though he spoke of revenge, as for his third younger brother, he was merely born of a concubine—did he care at all? What he desired most in his heart was to befriend a profound cultivator.

After the Old Ancestor perished, the Zhang family's situation became very delicate. Only a few clansmen were still cultivating in seclusion on Mount Jiuhua, and their Daoist attainments were low. Living under someone else's roof, they would not produce any mighty figures, at least not for the next few decades.

Yet nowadays, demons and monsters ran rampant across the land, while the forces the Zhang family could readily deploy at any moment consisted entirely of martial artists, making it very difficult for them to establish a foothold.

Back then, Gou Xi lacked this kind of foundation, and during his campaign against wandering rebels, he had been played in circles by a 'Celestial Righteous Immortal' of the Mystical Stage. That person hadn't used spells to control anyone at all; they had merely used transformation arts to sneak inside, spread rumors, and burn the granary, resulting in Gou Xi's crushing defeat.

By the same token, if a powerful cultivator truly wanted to mess with them, the Zhang family would undoubtedly be driven frantic.

Now that news of the Water Nymph of Laoshan had appeared within their Zhang family's territory, it was a prime opportunity to rope the Shen family into a conspiracy.

Yet his father said indifferently, "Oh, you already have a plan, then go handle it."

The Zhang family head was utterly speechless. He knew his father's temperament was aloof and indolent, utterly obsessed with martial arts and completely indifferent to worldly affairs.

He hadn't expected that even with his own biological son dead, his father still wasn't the least bit anxious.

"Father, I am merely a junior before the current head of the Shen family. To meet an immortal, it would be much better for you to step forward," the Zhang family head sighed.

He watched as his father rose to his full height, a gentle breeze stirring his robes and skirts into flight.

"Too troublesome..."

With those words, the man had already drifted away, leaving the Zhang family head with a messy expression.

"Sigh..." The Zhang family head sighed bitterly, yet he had no way to deal with his father either.

His father, Zhang Suwen, was a Famous Scholar of Langya known as Mr. Sleep Talker...

Just hearing the name made it clear why the clan elders had bypassed the father and made the son the family head.

Yet although Zhang Suwen was indolent, he was exceptionally dedicated to sword techniques, as though all his thoughts were immersed within them.

His swordsmanship was so high it shocked the world, and he had once slain evil spirits, making a famous name in the pugilistic world.

One could say that even without turning to cultivators, he could avenge them himself so long as he was willing to make a move.

"Forget it, I still have to do it myself... Zhang Quan!" The family head called out toward the doorway.

An elder flashed inward and bowed respectfully. "Family Head."

"You saw it too; my old father is unwilling to make a move, nor is he willing to show his face... This matter still relies on you. As for me, I can only make a personal trip to the Shen family," said the head.

Zhang Quan immediately accepted the order. "This old servant will certainly accomplish this, to avenge the Third Young Master!"

"Wait a moment!" The Zhang family head hurriedly called out to stop him. "Don't rush. I know you are loyal, but you truly are no match for that demon."

"The Water Nymph of Laoshan obtained many Daoist scriptures and pills from the Shen family's direct scion back then, and is long past being some wild-path cultivator... Coupled with her Spiritual Elegance, twenty years have passed; she is probably already at the Spiritual Sense Stage!"

"This..." Hearing that it was the Spiritual Sense Stage, Zhang Quan's expression turned bitter. Even if the opponent didn't fight back, he might not be able to kill her, and if she fought back... he would die.

The Zhang family head continued, "The clan's talisman papers are already scarce, making it difficult even to find her... Therefore, I will hand the Old Ancestor's Bronze Contract over to you. Burn incense and offer a raw sacrifice, then use your vital essence as a guide to summon the old ghost within the Bronze Contract to assist you."

"Take a few more men with you; you should be able to encircle and suppress this demon..."

"Hmm, if the old ghost in the contract demands anything else, you may decide as you see fit."

Zhang Quan was overjoyed. The family head had entrusted a magical artifact to him, which gave him certainty. Although it wasn't an Iron Token specially used for subduing demons, the Bronze Contract was not bad either; the old ghost inside was knowledgeable and well-versed in Daoist arts, making him quite formidable.

He hurriedly said, "Rest assured, Family Head, this old servant will certainly live up to your heavy trust."

The Zhang family head added, "Listen well, revenge is not the main point. Even if you fail, you must keep your eyes glued to this demon! I want to use this opportunity to invite Shen Wuxing."

p.s: Apologies.