I Need To Find A Way To Make Her Love Me Again - Chapter 58

The invisible, oppressive force in the air shattered the joyful mood of the pedestrians. Sensing the nameless horror lurking beside them, the crowd fell into a chaotic panic, no longer daring to linger.

Several rogue cultivators in the city noticed the anomaly and arrived on their swords. Seeing civilians being lifted into the air, spun around, and dropped, they were struck with terror and recoiled.

At the city gate, they saw a woman in a green robe with her eyes covered by white gauze. She held a command token, her plum-blossom sword rising to form a formation. Beside her, a red haired woman stood as her protector. In the distance, soldiers guarding the gate were rushing in from all directions.

A female rogue cultivator with a kind face, narrow eyes, and three moles at the end of her brow, dressed in dark green cloud brocade, looked closely at the person by the gate. Her eyes flashed with surprise as she said, “Everyone, the one ahead is the Young Palace Master of Lingluan Palace!”

“Suiniang, are you serious?”

Hearing the doubt, Liu Suiniang rolled her eyes slightly before saying solemnly, “‘A green robe to quell demons, white gauze and falling plum blossoms leave no rugged path.’ That describes Young Palace Master Guan.”

“Besides, who would dare to impersonate her?”

The surrounding cultivators found this logical. Seeing the soldiers surrounding the pair, one asked, “Should we go and lend Young Palace Master Guan a hand?”

Liu Suiniang thought to herself that Fucheng was under the jurisdiction of Lingluan Palace. Since the soldiers failed to recognize the Young Palace Master and were turning against her, if she helped now, she might catch the Palace Master’s eye in the future.

With this in mind, she responded, “The Young Palace Master’s presence here means a demon must be at work nearby. As fellow practitioners of the Dao, we should naturally assist her.”

Following her lead, the group nodded and moved forward.

Amidst the frantic pushing and shoving of the crowd, Guan Fei heard the disciplined sound of approaching footsteps. She turned her head and whispered to the person beside her, “These soldiers are carrying demon dispelling talismans. Yuyu, don’t get too close to them.”

Jiaoyu’s phoenix eyes scanned the surroundings. Hearing the warning, she hummed in acknowledgement. She exhaled a breath that turned into a gust of wind, pushing forward. A flame rose into the air, intending to form a circle on the ground, but it was intercepted by a sharp sword and extinguished with a flip.

Jiaoyu looked at the woman who had suddenly appeared and the group of cultivators behind her. Her instinct was to be displeased, but then she heard the stranger speak: “Getting your clothes wet is one thing, but don’t play with fire, girl.”

Liu Suiniang turned to Guan Fei and said, “Young Palace Master, do not worry about the soldiers interfering. We shall assist you.”

As she spoke, her followers surrounded the two women in a circle, drawing their swords outward.

However, before they could clash with the soldiers or Liu Suiniang could strike up a proper conversation with the Young Palace Master, a creature with a human body and a spider’s head crawled down the city wall, its body twisting grotesquely.

Liu Suiniang wasn’t the only one to notice. The citizens who hadn’t fled far enough were paralyzed with fear before running even faster. The soldiers who were about to arrest Guan Fei stopped in their tracks, immediately turning their blades toward the monster.

Guan Fei hadn’t expected the Human Ghouls to arrive so quickly. Yulan Palace was not close. Was this creature buried nearby all along? The thought sent a chill down her spine.

Jiaoyu, seeing that these newcomers were not enemies, ignored them. She needed to save her strength for the monsters to come. Looking back, sure enough, after the spider headed creature came another with a short body, a chicken’s head, and massive bear paws.

The piercing crow of the chicken headed monster sounded absurdly surreal amidst the chaos.

Searing flames brushed past her ears. Liu Suiniang snapped out of her daze to see the red haired woman breathing out fire like flying willow silk, weaving a net across the sky.

“Close the city gates, quickly!” Guan Fei shouted.

But the soldiers at the front were too preoccupied to listen. Seeing this, Liu Suiniang signaled her companions to fly up to the battlements and forcefully drop the gate’s heavy beams.

Following that, two heavy thuds echoed as something was hurled over the wall, kicking up a cloud of dust. Upon closer inspection, someone had physically thrown the monsters that broke into the city back outside.

Liu Suiniang and the others watched as the Young Palace Master flew up to the city tower. Her fluttering hair nearly merged with the flames in the sky before she drifted down. Around Guan Fei, the wind rose like blades, flying toward the outskirts of the city one by one.

Jiaoyu followed her to the tower. She watched the Human Ghouls, even when their limbs were severed by wind blades, they recovered almost instantly and continued to move with incredible jumping power. Fortunately, the fire net blocked them temporarily, giving the women time to react and knock them back down.

Staying here wasn’t a permanent solution. Guan Fei realized this and turned to the woman who had followed them up.

Liu Suiniang’s face was pale as she looked at the relentless monsters below. She was terrified but feigning composure. Sensing Guan Fei’s gaze, she turned around.

Before she could speak, Guan Fei anticipated her: “Lady, thank you for your help. These monsters are ‘Human Ghouls’, they feel no pain and cannot die. They are extremely difficult to handle.”

“We can only trap them outside for now, but these two aren’t the only ones. Creating a ‘prison’ here isn’t a long-term plan.”

“Could you please send a message to Lingluan Palace to bring reinforcements?”

This request aligned perfectly with Liu Suiniang’s original goal, yet she replied with feigned hesitation, “Why would the Young Palace Master trust me with such a task? If I fail and delay matters…”

Guan Fei interrupted her quickly. “Do not overthink it. Take this emerald bird to Lingluan Palace; someone there will receive you.”

“Moreover, time is of the essence. Please, no more pleasantries. Go quickly.”

Liu Suiniang watched as the emerald bird perched on her shoulder. “Then I shall accept this commission and take my leave.” Before departing, she instructed the remaining cultivators to stay and assist.

Jiaoyu, knowing Guan Fei’s complicated feelings toward her mother, asked, “Are you okay with this? Should we wait for Yan Xingyu and the others to return?”

Guan Fei replied, “We are outnumbered, and we don’t know how many more Human Ghouls will appear. Right now, the priority is protecting the people.”

Jiaoyu nodded and looked toward the horizon. The clouds were heavy and the sky was dark; a storm was coming.

At Yulan Palace

The sound of clashing weapons and heavy impacts echoed through the mountain forest. As the mist surrounding Yulan Palace dissipated, a woman in black silk moved fluidly among dozens of Human-Ghouls. Despite multiple cultivators lunging at her with swords, they couldn’t land a single blow.

Yan Xiaoling, seeing so many people fail to capture one woman, screamed in a rage, “You useless trash! All of you!”

“Are you all just eating for free? You can’t even touch her clothes! What good are you?!”

“Do you even deserve to be inner disciples of Qingding Mountain?!”

Her shrill insults stung the cultivators, who looked like heroic figures but were now flushed with embarrassment and anger. However, due to their sect’s teachings, they endured in silence.

To their annoyance, another voice chimed in: “They really are quite useless, aren’t they?”

Wei Yao looked at the crowd surrounding her. They weren’t doing anything earth-shattering; they were just circling her. This wasn’t the “show” she wanted.

She tilted her head and said, “You youngsters need ten more years of training to catch me.”

“Stop wasting my time here.”

Yan Xiaoling’s fury peaked. “Who are you, you little brat, to interfere with my grand plans?”

Wei Yao looked at the woman’s darkened, angry face and guessed she was the one controlling the Human Ghouls. Evil energy was clearly affecting her. Although she possessed the Yunyìn Heart Method which kept the darkness from her core, her personality was inevitably warped.

Wei Yao didn’t care about the insults. She smiled. “If a ‘grand plan’ can be so easily delayed, it probably wasn’t that important to begin with.”

Knowing she couldn’t win a war of words, Yan Xiaoling charged. But Wei Yao’s movements were eerie; she moved through the encirclement like a fish in water.

Wei Yao used concentrated bursts of qi to weave through the Human Ghouls. Her qi hit like invisible fists, knocking the monsters aside so she could slip through the gaps. When the cultivators attacked, she retreated behind the monsters, whom the cultivators were afraid to get too close to. The mindless creatures unintentionally served as her shield.

As Yan Xiaoling swung her sword, Wei Yao repeated her trick, dodging through the monsters. Suddenly, she spotted a flash of crimson falling from the sky.

Her eyes shifted. She immediately turned to flee. Yan Xiaoling, thinking Wei Yao had finally run out of tricks, chased after her relentlessly.

Wei Yao had no interest in a prolonged fight. She was faster than a rabbit, but her pursuer wouldn’t let go. With a contemptuous smile, Wei Yao dived into a dense thicket of needle-leaf trees and vanished as if merging with the wood.

Yan Xiaoling stopped, sensing something was wrong. She looked at the thick Casuarina trees, unable to see where the woman had hidden. Suddenly, the ground trembled. She raised her sword in a defensive stance, scanning the area.

The following cultivators arrived just as the ground erupted. Massive roots burst through the soil, impaling several disciples before they could even speak.

The scent of blood drew more Human Ghouls, but they too were pierced by the rising roots and hoisted into the air.

Yan Xiaoling looked at the cage of roots rising around her, draped with the bodies of both cultivators and monsters. Looking at the few terrified survivors, she realized that she was the one who had become the trapped beast.