Chapter 20: Striving to Save Themselves
The Li family had once mentioned, when they went searching for Suniang, that they had scoured the mountains nearby, even specifically talking about the north. Their words implied that there was something unusual about that place. It was very likely Suniang had died there in the end.
Yun Jiao didn’t know what was in the north, but Bai Yu did. To the north of the Lis’ home lay a rarely visited forest. Hunters whispered that it was shrouded year-round in poisonous mists, so even the most seasoned never dared venture close.
But for those of the Xuan Sect, it wasn’t just miasma. The entire forest was thick with ghostly qi, cloaking the land in shadows—a veritable nest of spirits. Its other name was the Pit of Resentful Women.
Legend said there had once been a large village there. Life was harsh, the villagers ignorant and poor. To lessen their burden, they had a cruel tradition—abandoning newborn girls. As the years passed, fewer and fewer women remained. Most men could no longer find wives and had to buy women from traffickers, or acquire slave girls. Male infants were allowed to live; female infants were discarded. The women brought in this way met terrible fates.
The murdered girls and abused women became vengeful spirits. At first, the villagers asked cultivators to suppress them. But they never stopped their cruelty. The resentment only grew, birthing more and more fierce ghosts, until the village was overrun. One night, countless spirits rose and wiped out the village completely. Not a single survivor remained.
The north became a cursed ground. Anyone who entered perished. One sect once tried to cleanse it with their entire force. None came back. Since then, no one dared approach.
Bai Yu’s master had told him of this place. He himself was never strong in Daoist arts—he couldn’t even resist ordinary miasma, let alone fierce ghosts—so he had never gone near. Until now, he thought it nothing more than rumor.
But when that ghost threatened to summon a hundred spirits—though Mount Kui held no such number—the Pit of Resentful Women certainly did. Hundreds, even thousands, lay within, and it was less than a hundred li away.
A single ghost had nearly ended them. What about a horde…