Chapter 4: Someone Comes Knocking
Old Bai’s brainwashing went on for a full seven days, the mountain gales raging just as long. Day and night blurred together, heaven and earth thrown into chaos, until finally the winds began to quiet.
It was Yun Jiao’s first time seeing such bizarre winds. The forest turned pitch black, like sudden nightfall. The only sound was the ceaseless swish swish of the gale, mixed with loud crashes as trees fell. Through the darkness, she could faintly see towering trunks snapping as if sliced clean through.
This wasn’t mere wind—it was knives.
Seven days of it left Yun Jiao with no illusions. Now she was certain: there was no place on Earth with weather like this. She truly had crossed into another world.
She couldn’t help thinking she must have owed that old lady a great debt in her previous life—for the curse to be this effective.
“Girl, how about today? Any interest in staying and joining my Qingyang Temple?” The old man smiled with his eyes nearly shut, his grin like that of a child-trafficker.
Yun Jiao glanced at him expressionlessly, then picked up a book and began reading.
She still didn’t know what was wrong with him. Since the day she dragged him back, she had only been able to use the most basic method—inducing vomiting—to rid him of the poison. She thought that with his age, even if he survived, his body would be gravely weakened, and it would take days to recover.
Yet after vomiting and purging for an entire day, he’d been sprawled out like a pile of mud, but the very next morning he sprang up vigorous, bouncing around as if he weren’t pushing sixty.