Chapter 118: The Parasitized Godmother
Ding Ding followed several girls up the stairs and soon reached the second floor. Keeping her head lowered, she walked forward but was tugged by the steward, who pointed off to one side.
Only then did she notice the band beneath the curtain, with an empty seat beside them.
The moment Ding Ding sat down, she nearly stepped on a foot on the floor. Looking down, she saw a headless corpse behind the seat—the last pipa player, whose head had been plucked off.
Her heart pounded wildly. At that moment, a gust of阴 wind blew in, parting the curtain to reveal several corpses strewn haphazardly behind it.
A girl beside her whispered:
"Quick, tune the strings. The previous pipa girl got her head taken because her pitch was off. She's right there watching us!"
Ding Ding looked where she pointed. The audience area was shadowy and dim, a blur of figures. All she could make out was a crowd of jujube heads avidly watching the show—she couldn't distinguish one from another.
She quelled the panic in her heart, adjusted the strings, and tuned the pitch.
She did this sort of thing all the time.
The pipa wasn't hers. It belonged to Madam Hua Li and had a name: Sudden Rain, taken from "the thick strings rumble like sudden rain." Madam Hua Li was renowned throughout the land for her pipa mastery. Ding Ding was merely her maidservant, frequently tuning strings and checking pitch for her mistress, picking up a few finger techniques in the process.
She had just finished tuning when murmurs rose from below—the jujube heads whispering among themselves, debating what play to watch.
A moment later, voices from the audience shouted:
"Fourth Son Visits Mother! Do a scene from the Yang Clan Generals—Fourth Son Visits Mother!"
"Order received!"
A theatrical voice rang out, and the ensemble of instruments struck up at once. Cold sweat slicked Ding Ding's palms. She had never learned *Fourth Son Visits Mother*.
Luckily, there was another pipa girl in the troupe. She fixed her eyes on the woman's fingers. When the girl began to play, Ding Ding immediately followed suit on the Sudden Rain pipa, matching the band's rhythm, planning to muddle through.
But as her fingertips fell, two crisp *zings* rang out. The tone was brilliant and clear, instantly brimming with killing intent—like charging cavalry and clashing iron horses bearing down. Her sound overwhelmed the rest, drowning out every other instrument!
The other instruments couldn't keep pace and abruptly dulled to silence.
The musicians froze in place, faces drained of color. The dan actor who had just taken the stage also stood rooted, helpless, inwardly moaning:
"I'm doomed!"
Ding Ding's heart skipped. She knew the reason:
"Sudden Rain is Madam's treasure—how could vulgar instruments compare? Its tone is too pure. It overpowered the other music and ruined the performance!"
Just then, the crowd of jujube heads below turned to stare, shouting:
"Bad play! Everyone stop! You there—the little girl—keep playing!"
Relief washed over the crowd. They hurried off the stage one after another.
Only Ding Ding remained on the playhouse stage. Panic surged as countless eyes fixed on her from below, silently awaiting her performance.
Steeling herself, Ding Ding kept her hands moving and continued to play.
She knew few pieces, only a handful she had learned. So she began with *Frontier Melody*.
The jujube heads swayed to the music, praising it one after another:
"So poignant! So mournful, brimming with longing. Fine tune! Fine tune!"
One jujube head said:
"This girl seems distracted. Her mind's on other things."
"Keep woolgathering, and we'll twist off her head!"
Hearing this, Ding Ding hastily cast aside stray thoughts and pressed on with her playing.
Chen Shi soon finished drawing over a dozen talismans. Actors came charging down from upstairs, ignoring makeup removal or gathering their belongings as they fled outside, crying:
"Three Harmony Village—we're never coming back!"
Chen Shi glanced at the hats atop the actors' heads and paused slightly. Those weren't opera crowns but black hats identical to the villagers'.
The actors fled until not a one remained.
Chen Shi hurried to the entrance and parted the black curtain a crack to peer outside.
Scholar Zhu anxiously said:
"Talisman Master Chen, what are you waiting for? Hurry and slay the evil!"
Chen Shi surveyed his surroundings.
"I'm searching for Godmother's divine image."
Scholar Zhu blinked in surprise:
"What's a divine image?"
"It's condensed from extraordinary power, bearing Godmother's magic and spiritual essence."
He added offhandedly:
"Chen Shi of Three Harmony Village keeps searching for the divine image's hiding place. Godmother has turned into a spirit, immensely powerful. If I can find her divine image, dealing with her will be simple."
His eyes were remarkably unique. They could see ghosts and gods, and even worlds invisible to ordinary folk.
He searched all around but found no trace of this jujube tree's divine image—only roiling black qi around the tree, its demonic taint growing ever heavier. A doubt stirred in his heart.
His little shrine could only collect spirits and divine images without physical forms. Embodied ones wouldn't fit. Thus, locating this tree spirit's divine image was the simplest way to resolve it.
Chen Shi observed a moment longer. On stage, only Ding Ding remained, *Frontier Melody* nearing its close. The girl dared not stop and switched straight to *Ambush from All Sides*.
But this piece was far more difficult, and her playing was rather rusty.
Jeers and boos erupted from below.
A jujube head shouted:
"Terribly played! Off the stage! Off the stage!"
Ding Ding's heart roiled with greater panic, her mistakes multiplying. The heckling from below grew louder. It wouldn't be long before the jujube tree plucked off the little maid's head—and then her head would join the jujube-headed audience below!
"Can't wait any longer!"
Chen Shi gathered the dried talismans and moved to head upstairs to rescue Ding Ding when a thought flashed through his mind anew:
"Incense fire qi sharply declined, letting Three Harmony Village's Godmother fail to suppress moonlight's evil nature, turning her into a spirit.
But Three Harmony Village's incense fire qi is so abundant. Why couldn't Godmother hold back the evil?"
He was on the verge of ascending when the realization halted his steps. He hesitated.
This village brimmed with incense fire. Under death's threat, the villagers must be utterly devout—their incense fire qi even stronger!
Scholar Zhu urged him:
"Talisman Master Chen, go slay that evil spirit! The girl on stage can't hold out much longer!"
A chorus of boos rose from below. Countless jujube heads heckled in unison:
"Off the stage! Off the stage!"
"Twist off her head! Let her watch the play with us!"
Just then, creaking sounded from beneath the wooden cart again. Chen Shi's heart stirred. He barked:
"Blackie Pot, under the cart!"
Blackie Pot shot beneath in a flash. The thing below couldn't escape in time and was clamped in the dog's jaws!
Chen Shi strode over to see Blackie Pot dragging a head out from under the cart.
The head belonged to an old man, face etched with countless wrinkles, an ill-fitting black tall hat perched atop.
From the old man's neck stump grew two hand-like appendages, each sporting ten finger-like legs that wriggled ceaselessly, clawing at Blackie Pot's eyes and nose.
This thing must crawl with blinding speed!
The creaking they'd heard entering the village was surely this creature burrowing under the cart to gnaw the axle!
"An evil spirit!"
Chen Shi was astonished. He seized the bizarre evil and examined it closely.
The old man's head, caught in his grip, opened wide to bite his palm. Chen Shi surged his vital blood into his hand, shattering the old man's teeth.
Grandpa never mentioned this sort of evil spirit. Was it a new kind? No, no! This was a head plucked by the jujube tree.
A thought struck Chen Shi. Was the jujube tree truly killing people?
Was this Godmother slaughtering folk, or exorcising evil?
"Talisman Master Chen, the girl on stage is fighting Godmother!"
Scholar Zhu reached the stairwell mouth and craned his neck to peer outside, anxious:
"Aren't you going up?"
On stage, Ding Ding clutched the pipa and trod uncanny footwork. The pipa sounds turned shrill and urgent, killing aura surging skyward. Stalks of jujube branches whipping toward her snapped one after another!
Sudden Rain pipa held extraordinary power. With each note came invisible sword qi—even a multitude of invading branches were all severed!
Heads lifted one after another from the jujube tree, black qi billowing toward the stage. Evil qi invaded Ding Ding's mind; she nearly toppled but steadied herself. Brilliant divine light bloomed behind her head. A Divine Shrine and Divine Embryo emerged. The embryo opened its mouth and spat a golden core, radiance exploding outward to repel the black qi.
The black qi acted with awareness, surging madly again and again—yet repeatedly driven back by the golden core's glow.
Gradually, the golden core's light dimmed and weakened, polluted by the evil qi, its power much reduced.
Ding Ding herself grew muddled and dazed, on the verge of corruption.
"The little girl is about to turn into an evil spirit!"
Scholar Zhu said anxiously.
Chen Shi didn't rush to save Ding Ding. He shoved open the playhouse door and walked out carrying the head, saying:
"I've finally figured it out. This village has so many people—why did Godmother still become a spirit?"
Talismans lifted from his hands, flying off in every direction.
On stage, Ding Ding stumbled through *Ambush from All Sides*, but her pipa faltered, the killing aura limp.
Because the people in this village were no longer people.
Chen Shi removed the hat from the old man's head. Lifting it revealed the skull beneath empty—the cranium pried open, housing a small worm with countless limbs. It had devoured the old man's brain and now sat inside, peering up at him.
He inspected it closely. This worm closely resembled a Wire-Pulling Worm, the markings on its belly structured like talisman computations.
Scholar Zhu emerged from the playhouse, astonished:
"Why is there a worm living in this man's head?"
Chen Shi glanced at the other villagers in the village.
"Not just this old man's head—every other head likely harbors a worm too.
The people of Three Harmony Village have probably all been corrupted.
Incense fire qi here is so abundant, yet Three Harmony Village's Godmother couldn't resist moonlight's evil and became a spirit. That's because she couldn't absorb this incense fire qi.
The villagers are no longer her children—they're evils.
How could she absorb evils' incense fire?"
Scholar Zhu came to his side and peered doubtfully at the old man's head in Chen Shi's hand.
"You're saying that's why Godmother became an evil spirit? Our village's hat-wearers—they've actually all turned into evils, parasitized by these worms?"
Chen Shi nodded:
"Godmother became a spirit but retained some of her former awareness, still intent on guarding the village. That's why she slays the parasitized villagers.
Not that it's truly slaying them. Those villagers died long ago."
He stood there silently. The entire village actually held no living souls.
The sole survivor was the deranged jujube tree Godmother.
Even with her divine might, the jujube tree Godmother had failed to detect this novel evil—and thus couldn't protect her people.
In the air, sheets of exorcism talismans and Five Peaks Home-Towning Talismans reached Three Harmony Village's every corner, golden light flashing as the papers ignited midair.
Once the papers burned away, only dazzling golden talisman patterns lingered in the sky, as if etched into the void itself!
From Three Harmony Village rose countless shrill screams as villagers burst from their homes, howling as they charged Chen Shi.
Leading the pack was the opera troupe that had mounted the stage earlier.
They bellowed, black hats askew—clearly corrupted by the evil as well!
*Pa!*
One hat exploded off a head, the body collapsing.
*Pa pa pa!*
Bodies dropped one after another. In an instant, every street in Three Harmony Village lay strewn with corpses every which way.
At the same instant, towering Five Peaks True Form diagrams glimmered to life, bearing down to suppress the jujube tree. Earth-shaking rumbles deafened; in a blink, the spirit-corrupted tree was crushed to splinters, its black qi utterly refined away!
On the stage, Ding Ding lay spent, eyes closed awaiting death. After that fleeting burst of light, she opened her eyes to corpses carpeting the ground—the spirit jujube tree reduced to nothing!
This was a talisman master's power?
Ding Ding's legs trembled as she leaped from the stage, nearly tumbling.
Chen Shi raised his palm. A wind talisman slid from his sleeve, drifting aloft. Gentle breezes arose, gradually dispersing the pall of greenish mist hanging over Three Harmony Village. The wind toyed with the red silk ribbon atop the youth's hair bun.
Sunlight poured down from above, purging the village's evil pall.
Grief shadowed Scholar Zhu's face. He said mournfully:
"I never imagined they'd all died. The whole village... and I'm the only one left alive..."
Chen Shi turned, his gaze settling on him.
Scholar Zhu hurriedly said:
"I have no hat on my head! I'm not parasitized! I'm still human!"
Chen Shi smiled:
"You're human, of course.
You released the Wire-Pulling Worms on my Qianyang Mountain too, didn't you?"
Scholar Zhu paused in mild surprise, puzzled:
"What Wire-Pulling Worms?"
Chen Shi clapped his hands. Blackie Pot trotted over with paper and brush in mouth. Chen Shi took the brush and sketched the Wire-Pulling Worm's talisman structure, saying:
"Does this look familiar to you, sir?"
Scholar Zhu eyed the talisman structure on the paper and shook his head.
Chen Shi sketched the structure from the worm that had burrowed into the human head, his gaze profound:
"And this structure? Familiar?"
Scholar Zhu shook his head once more:
"Talisman Master Chen, I'm just a down-on-his-luck scholar. I didn't even pass the lowest exams—how could I draw talismans?"
Chen Shi smiled warmly:
"My error—I misjudged you.
If it's not your talisman beast, then it must be mine.
With talisman beasts like these, I could run rampant too, dominating the jianghu."
He turned his back on Scholar Zhu and walked toward Ding Ding.
From behind, Scholar Zhu let out a derisive snicker. Head bowed, he shook it while laughing:
"Chen Shi, you've stolen my rune patterns. Think you can just walk away?"
Chen Shi halted his steps.
Scholar Zhu laughed:
"Not unworthy of the child scholar trained by the West Capital Butcher. Pity the West Capital Butcher's dead. He can't shield you anymore."
Chen Shi turned back, a faint smile playing on his lips:
"Do you know? The greatest wish of my life is to protect my elderly, frail grandpa."
End of chapter.