Chapter 514: then translation of chapter title

As we slowly walked into the village, I finally knew who QingSongShu was chasing.

Not far from the village entrance, I saw several familiar vehicles, all belonging to the Yang family. QingSongShu, it turned out, was chasing Yang Shouyi.

I was about to speak again to QingSongShu, but the moment I opened my mouth, I immediately shut it and cautiously guarded my surroundings. I smelled a strong odor of blood, a very thick blood stench, definitely not something that could be caused by just one person's death.

Following the blood smell, we found a relatively large but very shabby courtyard. After opening the courtyard gate and stepping inside, we were all stunned.

Describing the courtyard's carnage as being in utter disarray is no exaggeration; many corpses lay scattered across the ground, and the state of these bodies was gruesome—each face was mottled, with not a single patch of intact skin from head to toe.

However, from their clothing I still recognized these corpses' origin—they were the bodyguards who had pointed guns at us in the tomb ridge.

I was bewildered and shocked, not understanding why these bodyguards had died in such a short time. As I crouched down to examine them, my hand almost touching their faces, QingSongShu's voice suddenly rang in my ear.

"Don't touch." QingSongShu shoved my hand away, his expression growing even more solemn.

"This is the Yunnan scratching corpse worm; victims, besides suffering unbearable pain, also feel an unbearable itch, tearing off their own flesh until they self‑mutilate to death."

QingSongShu's words frightened me, and I quickly pulled my hand back. I don't know what the scratching corpse worm looks like, but I have heard its name. Even corpses cannot resist the pain and itch; they are tormented by the worm into scratching off a layer of skin—one can imagine how bizarre this thing is.

"Come on, let's go inside and have a look!" QingSongShu clasped his hands behind his back and walked step by step toward the house inside the courtyard. I saw his left hand, behind him, constantly rubbing—this told me he was extremely nervous. But I also didn't know what exactly he was nervous about.

He slowly pushed open the heavy wooden door, and the sight that met his eyes made me widen mine.

Yang Shouyi's head drooped, his knees on the ground facing the door. When QingSongShu and I checked his breath, we found he was already dead. Moreover, from the unfaded floral markings on his eyes and hands, we could tell he was killed while the Tong spirit was possessing him.

In other words, he was not ambushed; he was killed in a frontal attack.

Besides a bean‑sized black dot on his brow, Yang Shouyi bore no other wounds. From this we infer he was killed by a single swift blow, giving him no chance to fight back. To defeat him in the Tong‑possession stage in such a short time—such strength is truly formidable.

"Uncle… actually you already knew Yang Shouyi would be hunted, so you didn't resist in the tomb ridge and let him go so easily, right?" I stared at QingSongShu's face, feeling utterly confused and perplexed. He had been clearly tense before entering, but now, seeing no assailant, he relaxed and seemed relieved.

QingSongShu's demeanor suggested he wanted to catch the killer, yet he was also afraid to face him.

At that moment I suddenly recalled a person—the black‑robed worm master who had abruptly appeared at Chen Zheng's ancestral home. I clearly remembered that, although he had been about to kill me, he inexplicably glanced at the doorway, then left without even questioning the gold medal. Not long after, QingSongShu appeared.

In the hospital, QingSongShu's expression was strange; he told me not to get involved in this murky affair, merely speculating that the mysterious person's identity was not simple, yet he himself showed no doubt at all. Was he truly without doubt, or was he hiding it?

Earlier, a strange old woman had come to the Chan‑Yi Hall with an egg to cast a spell on us. After the spell was broken, QingSongShu and Lord Yang Qi both exclaimed in unison, "Could it be him?" Then, right after speaking, they simultaneously shook their heads.

Who could it be that puts QingSongShu and Lord Yang Qi at such odds? Why does QingSongShu refuse to reveal even a word, while now Yang Shouyi's bodyguards too have been killed by worm poison, and the ancient box unearthed from the grave that held the gold medal has also disappeared.

"Uncle… do you know that worm master who first appeared in Aomen?" I asked tentatively.

QingSongShu grunted, shook his head, rubbed my head, and sighed: "Uncle knows what you want to ask, but I won't tell you. Remember, no matter what treasure or gold medal, it's none of your concern. I only wish to live peacefully with you, Xiaoqiang, to marry and have children, and to spend this life in tranquility—that's enough."

"Think about how your master entrusted you to me, and in the blink of an eye almost ten years have passed." QingSongShu rubbed my head, gazed into the distance, and let out a faint sigh.

"Okay, Uncle, I understand—I won't ask." I nodded obediently, burying my doubts deep inside. Since the elders don't want me to know, I won't inquire. If I were to pursue my curiosity, it would only worry them more. I have followed my master since childhood, then QingSongShu; he is like a half‑father to me—how could I dare be unfilial and go against his wishes?

"Uncle… what should we do now? Yang Shouyi is already dead," I asked.

"Actually, even back when we were with the Yang family, I noticed something following Yang Shouyi. I just didn't expect that I would ultimately still be a step behind." QingSongShu was unwilling to elaborate, merely hinting at it. But I could sense he had been trying to confirm something.

He gazed at the dead Yang Shouyi, slowly shook his head, and said, "Forget it, Hai Sheng, let's go; Yang Shouyi, too, got what he deserved."

I followed QingSongShu back the way we came; as the sky darkened, the mountain village had no bicycles, so we walked on foot. Practitioners of the Dharma travel the world by foot; many come from rural backgrounds, naturally unafraid of hardship, and walking does not tire them.

"Uncle, did you actually know all along that Yang Shouren and Ye Qi would meet such a fate?" I asked while walking, because I felt QingSongShu had always been overly nonchalant.

If he knew, why didn't he speak up sooner?

QingSongShu did not answer me directly; instead he shook his head, then nodded, giving me another ambiguous reply.

QingSongShu said, "I know, but I also don't know; I merely happened to catch a glimpse of some traces. Yet this is all karma, all fate—the truth will eventually be revealed. We are both intermediaries and outsiders."

"Remember, as practitioners of Yi, we often end up suffering from knowing too much yet being unable to change anything. But since heaven has willed it to happen, if we can teach others to avoid it, we do; if we cannot avoid it, you must never rely on your temperament to act rashly—do not go against heaven."

QingSongShu rubbed my head and earnestly instructed: "Especially you—you have now entered the realm of Ming Tong (Fate Perception). Although this exceeded my expectations, you must always remember: no matter whether you see a person's future events, or witness the trajectory of someone's fate with your own eyes, no matter how painful or unwilling you feel, even if you try your utmost to change it and help others avoid it, you must never reveal what you have seen."

"Otherwise… you will die." At the end, QingSongShu's face was covered in a deep solemnity; he wanted me to forever remember his words tonight.

"Yes, Uncle, I remember!" At that moment I understood why QingSongShu wanted me to stay and accompany him. Perhaps, as he said, all this is karma, predestined. Yang Shouren and Ye Qi have been bound by ill fate from the start; maybe we could intervene. But having risked our lives to conceal something once, we are powerless the second time—what is destined to happen will happen.

This Yang ancestor was erudite and ingenious, using the earth to form a Three‑Slaughter formation, yet in the end his lifetime of effort was altered by human hatred. Though I never met him, I feel pity for this Yang forefather. He left the Yang family a century of fortune. But he never imagined that the maggot worms' sprouting growth came not from external forces but from within the Yang household itself. It was not enemies that drove the Yang family to ruin, but the Yang family themselves. In wealthy mansions, there are countless unfathomable grudges, and often there are seeds of hatred that split kin.

The grudge between the two Yang brothers actually began in the previous generation: the Yang family killed Yang Shouyi's mother, and Yang Shouyi had lived in the Yang family, suffering injustice and humiliation—this is the karma between him and the Yang family. The Yang family owes him, and Yang Shouren owes him; these debts must always be repaid.

Gazing at QingSongShu's receding back as he walked ahead, I fell into contemplation.

Perhaps there is more than one person who has comprehended Ming Tong besides me. QingSongShu is a transcendent figure, yet he is also a man of the secular world. In his heart he already has bonds. I recall him saying: "I hope to see Xiaoqiang marry and have children, living out this life in peace and simplicity."

He is old now, yet he still has an attachment he cannot let go—my brother Pangzi. Perhaps now there is also another me!