ATAVID CH76

The abrasive, chaotic blare of suonas rang in his ears, swelling his brain until it throbbed. A tingling, itchy sensation brushed across his face as a soft, fine brush tapped against his cheeks time and again, bringing with it a faint scent of cosmetic powder that annoyed him beyond endurance.

Jiang Qunyu furrowed his brow. His muddled consciousness felt as though it were submerged at the bottom of freezing water. His entire body was weak and aching, his head splitting with a pain so severe that even opening his eyes required a monumental effort. He instinctively turned his head away, trying to dodge the irritating contact.

“Why is he still asleep? Hurry up and wake the Second Young Master! If the people from the Nether Abyss arrive later and take offense, we will all suffer alongside him. Let’s see if any of you have your lives left to return to the Jiang family!”

A sharp, caustic female voice suddenly erupted. Accompanied by the harsh sound of a sedan curtain being yanked open, a gust of cold wind rushed inside, making Jiang Qunyu shudder.

The speaking woman wore a green satin brocade skirt, her features sharp and severe. She was none other than Mother Yun, the manager of the City Lord’s estate. She glared furiously at the two helpless little maidservants inside the sedan, her tone laden with impatience and cruelty.

The little maidservants trembled violently in fear, almost dropping the cosmetics brush onto the floor. Hurriedly dropping to their knees, their voices shook with a sob as they reported, “Mother Yun, for some reason, the Young Master suddenly fell into a deep sleep. We shook him and called out to him, but there wasn’t the slightest response. We truly cannot wake him…”

“He’s just faking it.” Hearing this, Mother Yun instantly sneered. Her eyes swept over the unconscious Jiang Qunyu on the cushion with profound disdain, her tone dripping with mockery.

“Who knows if he’s intentionally pretending to sleep just because he doesn’t want to go to the Nether Abyss. After all, back at the City Lord’s estate, our Second Young Master threw plenty of tantrums—crying, screaming, and hanging himself—all to reject this marriage meant to counter a death-curse. Who is he trying to fool with such a petty trick now?”

Mother Yun continued indifferently, “Keep touching up the Second Young Master’s makeup. Be meticulous; do not miss the auspicious hour. I will go find a ghost cultivator skilled in medicine to stick a couple of needles into him. It’s highly refreshing; perhaps as soon as the needles go in, he’ll wake up instantly.”

With that, Mother Yun dropped the sedan curtain and turned to leave at a brisk pace, her sharp footsteps gradually fading into the distance.

Inside the wedding sedan, the two little maidservants finally breathed a massive sigh of relief. Their backs were already drenched in a cold sweat. Wiping the perspiration from their foreheads, they were just about to take a breather when they looked up—only to meet a pair of newly opened eyes.

Those eyes were as clear and translucent as glazed glass, bearing the grogginess of someone who had just awoken, yet completely devoid of his usual dullness as they stared straight at them.

“Ah! A g-ghost!”

The two of them were scared out of their wits, letting out sharp screams. The rouge box gripped in their hands fell to the floor with a clatter, splashing bright red rouge everywhere. Fine, fragrant powder billowed up within the cramped space of the wedding sedan, making their noses tickle.

“Cough, cough, cough—” Jiang Qunyu waved his hand before him, speaking in an irritated tone, “Who are you people?”

They were driving him mad with noise! And what on earth were they patting onto his face? It stung terribly!

Stunned by his roar, the maidservants’ screams ceased abruptly. They stared blankly at him for a long time before finally realizing that the person before them wasn’t some ghost or monster, but their Second Young Master.

The other maidservant, Ling’er, also snapped out of it. Looking at the bewildered young man before her, she swallowed hard, her voice trembling: “S-Second Young Master, you’re awake? This servant is Ling’er.”

Saying that, she hurriedly tugged at the still-dazed Xiao He beside her, whispering a reminder: “This is Xiao He. Young Master, you wouldn’t… you wouldn’t have forgotten us after waking up from this sleep, right?”

Oh no, oh no. The Young Master’s body has always been weak, and his intellect is slower than ordinary people. But no matter how muddled he was in the past, he could always recognize me and Xiao He. How could he not even know us after a single nap? Could something have gone wrong while he was unconscious?

Jiang Qunyu looked at their expressions blankly. Seeing their faces—which looked as though they would choose death if he failed to recognize them—he temporarily didn’t know what to say. His brain was still dizzy, as if shrouded by a thick layer of fine gauze. The fragmented shards of past memories were scattered, defying any attempt to piece them together. Too lazy to expend the effort to think, he simply stopped dwelling on it. Taking a deep breath, he looked up and asked, “Is there a bronze mirror?”

Ling’er hurriedly handed him the bronze mirror from her hands.

Jiang Qunyu took it and caught a glimpse. The face in the bronze mirror was only the size of a palm, with a complexion of a translucent, porcelain white. His brows were curved like crescent moons, the bridge of his nose exquisite and straight, his lips red and teeth white. Beneath the corner of his eye and under his lip sat two faint black moles. Between the lifting of his eyes and the lowering of his gaze, he possessed a heart-stirring beauty.

Jiang Qunyu stared at the face in the mirror, remaining silent for a long time as a strange sense of daze welled up in his heart. This face is actually my very own.

Perhaps because he had grown accustomed to using Wei Xun’s face, it still felt a bit peculiar.

Seeing him staring blankly at the bronze mirror without uttering a word for ages, his expression heavy, Ling’er’s eyes instantly turned red. Thinking he was contemplating suicide again over the marriage, she began to weep as she advised him:

“Second Young Master, please don’t be sad. Even though you threw yourself into the river last time, the City Lord remained completely determined to send you to the Nether Abyss to counter the death-curse for the Nether Lord… Let’s just obediently comply for now. Once we arrive at the Nether Abyss, if that Nether Lord truly is as bloodthirsty and tyrannical as the rumors say, we will quietly think of a way to escape, alright?”

Jiang Qunyu’s ears twitched as he frowned. “The Nether Lord? The Lord of the Nether Abyss?”

Startled, Xiao He hurriedly stepped forward to cover Jiang Qunyu’s mouth, saying in a frantic rush, “Second Young Master, Second Young Master, keep your voice down! If the people outside hear you, we will be put to death.”

“Oh dear!” Xiao He also started crying, turning her head toward Ling’er as tears cascaded down her face in sheer terror. “After the Young Master jumped into the Weak Water last time, he seems… he seems even less intelligent now. He’s even forgotten what is forbidden. Will we be dragged off to be beheaded before we even reach the Nether Abyss?”

Jiang Qunyu: “…”

He turned his head to dodge her hand, rubbing his throbbing temples. His originally chaotic mind gradually cleared up amidst the surrounding clamor. Fragmented memories flooded into his brain like a tide, section by section, scene by scene, slowly piecing together into a whole. Settling his mind to sort through them, he finally managed to recall about seventy to eighty percent of this body’s past.

The more he thought, the uglier his expression became.

Holy shit!

If nothing unexpected had occurred, he had been reborn. Furthermore, this time the body belonged to him, and the memories within it were his own—this wasn’t a case of body-snatching.

According to the timeline in his memories, the current year was the 125th year of Changning. This body was twenty-seven years old, and his original name was Jiang Yu, the Second Young Master of a small City Lord’s estate near the Nine Underworlds region.

However, his status as the Second Young Master was not honorable in the slightest. He wasn’t the City Lord’s biological son. Years ago, the City Lord’s wife had tragically lost her infant son, causing her sanity to become unhinged. The City Lord, deeming his wife to have lost her dignity, sent her to a suburban manor to convalesce. He was an abandoned infant whom the wife had picked up along the way.

The wife treated him as her deceased child, holding him in the palm of her hand and raising him with meticulous care, naming him Jiang Yu and regarding him as her own biological flesh and blood.

Regrettably, because he had only just condensed his soul back then, he had been unable to thoroughly align with the body for a long time. Since childhood, he had been dull and foolish, slow to react. Everyone in the manor secretly mocked him behind his back as a simpleton missing a soul and lacking wits. Had it not been for the protection of the City Lord’s wife, he would have been tormented to death by the servants long ago.

But good times never lasted. The City Lord’s wife passed away the previous year. Left without protection, his days at the manor plummeted into misery.

Coincidentally, around this time, the seventeenth groom sent to counter the death-curse for the Lord of the Nether Abyss had just died. The entirety of the Nether Abyss searched through the Nine Underworlds and the Demon Realm, looking for a male born on the fifteenth day of the seventh lunar month in the 98th year of Changning to be sent as a groom to suppress the malevolent aura for the Nether Lord.

Jiang Qunyu still retained a vague impression of this Lord of the Nether Abyss. In the original plot of the novel, this Nether Lord possessed a strikingly magnificent appearance, but was unfortunately a sickly, short-lived ghost. Furthermore, his temperament was fickle, brutal, and bloodthirsty; every groom sent to counter his death-curse had, without exception, turned into withered bones along the banks of the Nether River.

Jiang Qunyu had only been picked up by the City Lord’s wife in the 99th year of Changning, so his birthdate didn’t match at all. Logically speaking, this death-sentence of a marriage errand should never have fallen onto his head.

Yet, as fate would have it, the birthdate of that pampered Eldest Young Master of the City Lord’s estate happened to be precisely the fifteenth day of the seventh lunar month in the 98th year of Changning. The City Lord had only this single root of a biological son, whom he had coddled and doted upon since childhood. How could he possibly send his own biological son to the Nether Abyss to throw his life away for nothing?

With a shift of his wicked thoughts, he remembered Jiang Yu, who was being raised out at the suburban manor. It just so happened that Jiang Yu was a simpleton. With the City Lord’s wife dead, no one in the estate protected him anymore, making him incredibly easy to manipulate. Having him substitute for the marriage was the most suitable option.

They had originally thought this fool would be easy to handle, but who could have anticipated that—perhaps because of something the City Lord’s wife had whispered to him before her death—the usually compliant little simpleton would unexpectedly refuse to agree to this marriage no matter what. Clashing to the bitter end, he had ultimately plunged headfirst into the freezing river water to seek death.

The City Lord was both furious and anxious, blowing his top, yet he couldn’t allow him to die just like that; after all, he still needed him to substitute for the wedding. In the end, he had to painfully bring out many rare spiritual herbs just to preserve Jiang Yu’s measly life. The moment the youth woke up, he was forcibly changed into the bright red wedding attire and thrown into the bridal sedan without another word.

When Jiang Yu opened his eyes again, he was the present Jiang Qunyu.

Jiang Qunyu fell silent. Jiang Qunyu wanted to kill someone.

He, a straight man, was actually about to marry a man? What kind of joke was this?!

He had only possessed a vague awareness during his first twenty-seven years, entirely unable to remember what had happened. Now that he had just woken up, marrying a man was bad enough, but it had to be a temperamental, tyrannical despot?

Jiang Qunyu: “…” Was this not just delivering his own head on a silver platter?

The corners of Jiang Qunyu’s mouth twitched, his heart filled with despair. He couldn’t remember the complete plot of the original novel either; back then, he had only read up to the point where Wei Xun was jointly slain by the protagonist top and bottom, before casually flipping through a few pages directly to the grand finale.

Regarding information on this Lord of the Nether Abyss, there were only those few points: exquisitely beautiful appearance, sickly and short-lived, brutal and bloodthirsty. There wasn’t a single useful clue for self-preservation.

Looking at the two little maidservants weeping and looking as though they were about to faint from terror, Jiang Qunyu took a deep breath, suppressing the frenzy in his heart. He spoke softly, attempting to comfort them, which also served as self-comfort: “We won’t die. Do you believe me? In truth, I am very strong.”

Ling’er and Xiao He turned their heads, casting a bewildered glance at him, their eyes filled with complete disbelief. Turning back around, they held each other tightly and continued to wail, their shoulders twitching. Clearly, they believed their Young Master had been frightened out of his wits, which was why he was speaking such nonsense.

Seeing this, Jiang Qunyu didn’t grow annoyed either. On the contrary, he sat up a bit straighter, adopting an air of profound mystery as he cleared his throat: “Have you two ever heard of the phrase ‘playing the pig to eat the tiger’?”

“Second Young Master, what… what does this mean?” Ling’er sobbed as she wiped her tears, her voice thick with a nasal tone, completely failing to understand this novel phrase.

Jiang Qunyu crossed his legs, looking down at the frustrating wedding attire on his body. Suppressing the urge to roll his eyes, he said in a jovial manner, “Mm, it means that even if we truly encounter that Lord of the Nether Abyss, I can still safely escort the two of you out of the Nine Underworlds region.”

He had just used his divine sense to inspect his meridians and spiritual palace; the Red Scythe had actually been reborn along with him. Although his cultivation had dropped from the Great Vehicle Realm back down to the Nascent Soul Realm, this body of his was surprisingly well-suited for cultivation.

It hadn’t been in vain that he had worked diligently for nearly a century to obtain such a body. Once he laid low and accumulated strength for a period of time, he estimated he could restore his cultivation to his days as an inner demon. As long as the person he encountered wasn’t Wei Xun, Jiang Qunyu still possessed plenty of confidence to trade a few blows with anyone else.

Xiao He, however, merely regarded his words as the ramblings of a madman. Wiping the tear tracks from her face, she picked up the cosmetic brush and said timidly, “Second Young Master, please don’t scare this servant anymore. Let this servant continue to touch up your makeup. In another half an hour, the wedding sedan will arrive at the boundaries of the Nether Abyss.”

Jiang Qunyu’s expression turned serious: “I’m being serious. Right, from now on, don’t call me Second Young Master either. Call me Eldest Senior Brother.”

Ling’er and Xiao He: “…?”

Right at that moment, a steady set of footsteps suddenly echoed from outside the wedding sedan. Accompanied by Mother Yun’s sharp and somewhat impatient voice, it abruptly rang out: “Master Witch Doctor, it is truly a trouble to have you make this trip. For some unknown reason, my family’s Second Young Master has fainted again. His body is exceptionally weak; I’m afraid you’ll have to administer a few needles to wake him up so we don’t miss the auspicious hour for the Nether Lord.”

The witch doctor nodded, just about to lift the curtain.

A handsome young man lifted the curtain first. The bright red wedding attire draped over his body looked like burning fire and flowing clouds. Jiang Qunyu’s eyes rippled with a smile as he spoke to the two of you, “Mother Rong, there’s no need for you to go to such great lengths.”

He paused, his smile deepening: “If you truly enjoy the pleasure of administering needles so much, after I arrive at the Nine Underworlds, I’ll speak a few good words to the Nether Lord on your behalf, letting him reward you with a thorough needling. What do you think?”

“You!” Mother Yun’s face turned a shade of pale and green alternately, her chest heaving with rage. The little simpleton who had usually been at her mercy actually dared to openly threaten her today. Yet, hindered by the reputation of the Nether Abyss, she ultimately didn’t dare to throw a tantrum outside the wedding sedan.

She directed a fierce glare at Jiang Qunyu, gnashing her teeth as she snorted coldly, “Hmph, since the Second Young Master puts it that way, then behave yourself. Stop throwing tantrums and go to the Nine Underworlds obediently.”

She wanted to see for herself once they arrived at the Nether Abyss—whether she would live longer, or whether Jiang Qunyu would live longer. Leaving behind these words, Mother Yun restored her usual arrogant demeanor, turning around to lead the witch doctor away without looking back.

Once Mother Yun and the witch doctor had departed, Ling’er finally patted her chest, looking at Jiang Qunyu with immense admiration as she stumbled over the change in form of address: “Se… Eld… Eldest Senior Brother, this servant feels that you are quite different today compared to before.”

Jiang Qunyu casually bent his legs, leaning against the soft cushions of the wedding sedan. Hearing that pleasant sounding “Eldest Senior Brother,” the corners of his mouth couldn’t help but curve upward, his mood turning excellent: “Your feelings are correct. In the past, I simply couldn’t be bothered to argue with them. Right now, of course it’s different.”

Xiao He also asked with stars in her eyes, “Eldest Senior Brother, why did you call Mother Yun ‘Mother Rong’ just now?”

Jiang Qunyu tilted his head, his tone airy: “It can only be understood, not explained in words.”

Xiao He seemed to understand partially: “Oh!”

Amidst the clamorous suonas and the beating of gongs and drums, the wedding sedan proceeded all the way toward the Nine Underworlds region, traveling for a full seven days and seven nights. Finally, the swaying body of the sedan slowly came to a halt, and the surrounding commotion settled into dead silence along with it.

During these seven days, whenever the wedding sedan stopped midway to rest, Ling’er and Xiao He would huddle inside the sedan, telling him various pieces of gossip regarding the outside world and the Nine Underworlds.

For instance, they mentioned that the Immortal Alliance’s Immortal Respect, Shen Peiqiu, had reorganized the order of the immortal sects. Shedding his former gentleness, his actions had become resolute, managing the Immortal Alliance in an exceptionally organized manner.

They also mentioned that the Nine Underworlds region was bleak and sinister, with the Nether Abyss being a forbidden zone that ordinary ghosts and monsters didn’t dare approach. They even whispered secretly that the Nether Lord only desired males to counter the death-curse and refused females because this Lord originally favored men—he was a cut-sleeve.

Jiang Qunyu uniquely refrained from inquiring about matters regarding the Demon Realm.

Counting the time, from the moment his soul dispersed to his rebirth now, a full one hundred and thirty-some years had already slipped past. Wei Xun disliked him so much; perhaps he had long since forgotten who he was. After all, the day before they parted, he had still been speaking ill of Wei Xun to Taixu. He had said that Wei Xun had a terrible temper, took things too seriously, and wasn’t cute in the slightest. Just as the words left his mouth, he had caught sight of Wei Xun standing a short distance away with a cold face, the atmospheric pressure around him terrifyingly low.

He had felt a bit intimidated in his heart, yet his mouth refused to yield. Casually plucking a piece of foxtail grass from the roadside, he had sidled over to scratch the back of Wei Xun’s neck, asking him in a deliberately casual manner what gift he wanted for his birthday.

Wei Xun had turned his head slightly, lifting his eyelids to look at him, his ink-black eyes reflecting the illumination of their surroundings. His tone had been flat and ordinary, yet carried an indescribable seriousness: “I don’t want anything.” Pausing, he had added softly, “I already have what I want.”

Jiang Qunyu had spat internally, thinking it must have been given to him by Shen Peiqiu. Keeping a wooden face, he had said, “If you don’t want it, then forget it. Don’t regret it in the future.”

Wei Xun hadn’t spoken further, merely staring fixedly at him. The flickering bonfire had reflected the youth’s somewhat sullen profile at that time, his thin lips bearing a faint, near-indiscernible smile that was uncharacteristically gentle for him.

“Young Master,” Ling’er’s voice echoed from outside the wedding sedan, snapping Jiang Qunyu out of his reverie. The young girl kept her voice exceptionally low, carrying a touch of tension and terror: “The Nether Lord has arrived. He’s right outside the wedding sedan. Hurry up and compose yourself, sit properly, and do not lose your etiquette.”

“Oh.” Jiang Qunyu sat without any proper posture, only feeling irritated upon snapping back to reality. Why did I think of Wei Xun again? He had finally managed to part ways with him. Once he arrived at the Nether Abyss, he would rid himself of these people who kept staring at him, find an appropriate opportunity, and take Ling’er and Xiao He to find a large sect to become disciples.

As he was thinking, the surroundings suddenly turned freezing cold. It was an aura that was deathly silent to the absolute extreme, carrying a damp, sinister chill that heavily enveloped them from all directions. Even the sounds of the suonas and footsteps outside the wedding sedan vanished instantly. The air felt frozen, terrifyingly still.

Jiang Qunyu’s heart suddenly tightened violently. An inexplicable sense of panic swept through his entire body, causing his limbs to turn a bit rigid. He could clearly hear the sound of his own heartbeat, growing more rapid with each thud.

Thud.

Thud, thud.

The pounding of his heart made his eardrums ache. At the same time, a slender breeze quietly drifted past, blowing up the tassels on the upturned corners of the wedding sedan. Within the subtle sounds, a crisp ringing of silver bells was mixed in. One chime after another.

Jiang Qunyu felt an groundless sense of unease.

In the next instant, a pale, slender hand lifted the bright red sedan curtain. The dark light of the sky peeked inside, reflecting that hand to be entirely bloodless, while also revealing the appearance of the person outside the sedan.

It was a face Jiang Qunyu recognized to the very marrow of his bones.

The man was taller and more imposing than he had been a century ago, with broad shoulders and a narrow waist, his posture magnificent. His originally handsome silhouette had shed the youth’s childishness, becoming increasingly sharp and harsh, like carved cold jade. His entire aura was as frigid as ice, carrying a deathly pressure. Those ink-black eyes of his were currently staring straight at him without blinking, so deep they seemed bottomless, looking exactly like a malicious ghost that had crawled out from hell.

The string inside Jiang Qunyu’s brain snapped completely.

Holy shit. Was he dreaming? Why did it feel like he was looking at Wei Xun?

Jiang Qunyu’s heart drummed wildly. His entire body was somewhat rigid, his limbs and bones feeling as though they were frozen solid; he didn’t even dare to breathe too heavily. His brain operated at lightning speed, frantically comforting himself: Wei Xun has never seen my true appearance. Even if we are face-to-face right now, it is absolutely impossible for him to recognize that I am the inner demon who pestered him for a century.

Yet he inexplicably recalled those wooden puppets Wei Xun had carved back then.

Right at that moment, Wei Xun outside the sedan suddenly bent forward. His tall figure loomed over, blocking the cramped wedding sedan so tightly that not a shred of light could pass through, completely enveloping him in a deathly chill. He instinctively wanted to retreat, but his spine had already pressed against the sedan wall.

A bone-chillingly cold palm lifted, the pads of the fingers bearing slight, cool calluses as it lightly caressed his cheek.

Jiang Qunyu shuddered all over, feeling as though a sinister, cold venomous snake had crawled across his face. The chill drilled through his skin into his bones and blood. Frightened, he instinctively wanted to turn his head to dodge, but he was firmly held in place by that hand, unable to budge in the slightest.

“Ha.” A very light chuckle escaped from Wei Xun’s throat, sounding like a soft sigh.

He watched Wei Xun’s thin, crimson lips part and close, curling into a smile as he murmured softly and gently: “Ugly thing.”

Jiang Qunyu froze completely.

Wei Xun, however, slowly lowered his eyes, quietly scrutinizing his pale, panicked appearance. His lowered eyelashes concealed the surging emotions within his eyes, the corners of his lips curving deeper bit by bit. His smile was gentle yet dangerous, as if he were about to thoroughly consume the person before him in the very next second.

Within the depths of his heart, where no one else could know, the string that had been tightly strung for so long suddenly snapped loose, vibrating with a faint, weak hum.

Wei Xun called out silently and with complete satisfaction—

Jiang Qunyu, Jiang Qunyu, Jiang Qunyu, Jiang Qunyu, Jiang Qunyu…

I’ve caught you.