The Heroine Made a Pact With Senior Sister (GL) Chapter 25

The village before them lay under a blazing sun. The stones on the ground had been baked burning hot, and anyone walking barefoot over them might be scorched. In the fields to the side, dazzling green flashed in rolling waves, but not a single person could be seen. The farmers most likely could not endure such cruel heat and had all run home to cool off.
“This is Reed Village.” Ruoying stood on tiptoe and looked at the stone tablet beside the road. She gave an oh. “This stone tablet is made… rather interestingly?”
Mu Yinfeng looked helplessly at Ruoying and quietly swallowed the sigh that had almost reached her lips. According to Ruoying, she had taken this form because no one would be wary of a seven- or eight-year-old little girl dressed so grandly while she was tracking someone. But thinking of the places Ruoying usually went, either wild mountains and empty ridges or ancient tombs and lonely graves, those unwary people probably thought Ruoying was the ghost of a little girl who had died young.
Ruoying’s investigation methods were also unusual. After receiving the dossier from the Mission Hall, she had tossed it straight to Mu Yinfeng without even glancing at it.
Mu Yinfeng could say nothing about this strange way of investigating. After all, on the cultivation world’s ranking list for success in removing evil beings, Ruoying sat firmly in first place, a full ten points ahead of the second-place master of Mirror Flower Hall. If Ruoying had not retired to Hanyou Valley and stopped taking part in the rankings, she would only keep breaking new records.
“Interesting?” Mu Yinfeng stepped forward to look. “What is interesting about it?”
“This is not only a stone tablet placed before the village to serve as a road marker. It should be a demon-suppressing stone tablet commonly used in the cultivation world, often placed before graves where a corpse may transform.”
“And there are bloodstains on it.” Mu Yinfeng recalled the plot in the book and recited, “The bloodstains on the stone tablet have already dried, but they are not old.”
Stop at the right point and say no more. This was Mu Yinfeng’s principle for handling matters in the cultivation world. Although she knew certain parts of the plot and could avoid dangers other people did not know about, too many words led to mistakes. If she stood out too much, she would only bring unnecessary trouble on herself.
Even if the person before her might know her past, she could not take the initiative to poke through that thin paper wall.
“Then the bloodstains appeared recently.” Ruoying nodded and looked at Mu Yinfeng. “Yinfeng, lift me up. Let me take a look.”
Mu Yinfeng’s face stiffened. “Martial Uncle Shadow, no one is watching right now. Can you not…”
“No.” Ruoying said decisively, “How do you know those evil beings are not secretly watching us?”
“…” That was true. A professional evil being should see in all directions and hear from all sides. It would be impossible for it not to notice the arrival of immortal masters.
Helpless, Mu Yinfeng could only lift Ruoying up so Ruoying could clearly see the bloodstains.
“The shape of this bloodstain is very unusual…”
“It looks like a face,” Ruoying said faintly. Her voice was pure and innocent, which made it even more chilling. Mu Yinfeng only felt that Ruoying in her arms was icy cold, like a corpse. Added to the blurry face formed by the bloodstains before them, the scene grew stranger and more sinister.
“It is indeed a face.” As Mu Yinfeng spoke, the bloodstain seemed to gain life and became clearer. It had been only a blurry mass a moment ago, but now even the features could be seen distinctly.
“Now the question is, whose face is it?” Ruoying pushed off the stone tablet and jumped down. She lightly placed her hand on the tablet and focused on probing it.
Seeing Ruoying’s expression, Mu Yinfeng concentrated slightly. She remembered that Ruoying and Hanyou Valley Master Bing Ling’er had the same teacher, and both had metal spiritual roots, the kind best suited for probing. But Ruoying’s relationship with Bing Ling’er did not seem as harmonious as it looked. When they went to the Mission Hall earlier, Mu Yinfeng had clearly felt the disciples there looking at her oddly. It was not surprise at seeing Ruoying bring someone along for a mission, but as if they were questioning why she was together with Ruoying. That was clearly not the normal gaze one gave a martial uncle.
After a long while, Ruoying withdrew her hand. Her expression changed from its earlier laziness. She pondered for a while before saying, “I think this should be…”
“A warning. A warning before revenge arrives. If it were done on a sudden whim, there would be no need to make it this troublesome.” Mu Yinfeng glanced at Ruoying. “But since it is revenge, Reed Village must have some secret we do not know about. This secret was not recorded in the dossier.”
“Dossiers are made and organized according to the client’s oral account. If the client hides something for some purpose, there is nothing we can do. That is the reason I basically do not read dossiers.” Ruoying smiled lightly. “I did not expect you to break open the Linglong Heart Method just now. What layer have you cultivated to?”
“The sixth layer.” Mu Yinfeng was not surprised that Ruoying had discovered her secret. This had happened by chance when she was probing the seals inside her body in Hanyou Valley. The seal near her heart meridian had been the Linglong Heart Method.
In truth, it was the tenth layer, the highest level of the Linglong Heart Method.
This was also what Mu Yinfeng could not understand no matter how she thought about it. It had completely overturned her understanding of the plot. The present Mu Yinfeng could not possibly possess the strength she had at her peak, yet what she could feel was indeed the highest state of the Linglong Heart Method: unity of heart and words. Even if she only heard a voice without seeing the person, she could peer into the true thoughts behind that voice.
And as long as she fixed her eyes on someone’s eyes, that person’s entire life would appear before her. In plain terms, the current Mu Yinfeng was like a human encyclopedia entry, and even more accurate than an entry.
But she remembered that even at the Immortal Sects Assembly one month later, Mu Yinfeng had only suddenly gained enlightenment during a duel and broken through to the seventh layer of the Linglong Heart Method. That meant the current her should not exceed the sixth layer. For some reason, however, the Linglong Heart Method had fast-forwarded straight to the tenth layer.
Of course, no one would dislike having higher strength. Mu Yinfeng was no exception.
“Sixth layer? No wonder. Above the fifth layer, you can see through a person’s thoughts when they are completely unguarded.” Ruoying patted the stone tablet. “This works out perfectly.”
Mu Yinfeng was surprised. “What works out?”
The Linglong Heart Method basically worked on people. The trigger condition was that the target had to have eyes. If there were no eyes, even if the Linglong Heart Method reached perfection, it could do nothing.
“When the time comes, you will judge the evil being. That will keep it from lying at random.” Ruoying said briskly, “But for now, we should first go meet our client. Yinfeng, tell me what this case is about.”
The client in this case was Squire Xu of Reed Village. In his early years, Squire Xu had served as an official in the capital, and his family had quite a bit of money. His first wife was the daughter of a famous wealthy merchant family from the South Lake area, but she had fallen ill and passed away a few years ago. Afterward, Squire Xu married a new wife. He had two daughters and one son, all born from his first wife. His eldest son had taken first place in the imperial examination and entered the Hanlin Academy as an official. His second daughter had married into Duke Ping’s noble manor in the capital as a second wife. His youngest daughter had not yet been promised in marriage. This time, the evil being had targeted that youngest daughter.
At first, the youngest daughter always heard strange sounds patting against the window in the middle of the night. But her personal maids could not hear anything at all. Squire Xu and his wife thought the young lady was having nightmares, so they only invited doctors to treat her and did not take it to heart. Days like this continued for half a month. Then a servant strangely disappeared while cleaning the garden. Three days later, he was found hanged from a tree. But the tree he hanged from was extremely tall, and the branch holding the rope was extremely thin. In theory, it could not possibly bear the weight of a grown man.
Later, a strange fire broke out in the back courtyard. The servants who fought the fire all said they saw a figure dancing lightly within the flames. For a time, everyone panicked and feared for themselves. Although Squire Xu ordered the servants not to discuss the matter, the strange events continued. Soon, maids cleaning the back courtyard saw a badly burned dance costume. The housekeeper went mad the moment he saw that dance costume. He muttered, babbled, and danced about, then suddenly went berserk, picked up a shovel nearby, and injured many people.
Only then did Squire Xu grow uneasy. He invited nearby wandering cultivators to perform rites, but all those wandering cultivators died overnight. Their deaths were extremely gruesome, yet the magical tools they had set up showed no signs of damage. Squire Xu refused to believe in this evil and invited another group of ritual masters. In the end, those ritual masters met the same fate as the wandering cultivators. Only then did Squire Xu harden his heart and spend a great sum to invite immortal masters from Hanyou Valley to remove the evil being.
“That is all?” Ruoying leaned against the stone tablet, thoughtful.
“That is all,” Mu Yinfeng answered.
Ruoying thought for a moment. “What rating did Guiyuan Tower give it?”
“The rating says Earth-grade Chen rank, but…” Mu Yinfeng glanced at Ruoying and bit her lower lip. “But it may not be accurate.”