Chapter 209: Was I Wrong?

The evil serpent swam to the front of the high ground and lowered its head to signal several times.

The villagers could not believe it, but staying here meant a dead end.

A villager plucked up the courage to climb onto the evil serpent's back.

The evil serpent signaled for everyone to come up.

Its seven-inch wound was fatal, spouting blood out like a fountain.

It had strength for only one trip.

All the villagers finally stood up, trembling with fear.

Carrying them, the evil serpent used its last strength to deliver them to the distant shore.

As the people climbed ashore one by one, it could barely hold on, its body swaying, causing several people to cry out in shock and fall into the water.

The evil serpent slowly used its claws to push them back up.

After the last person stepped onto the shore, its entire body went limp, sliding helplessly into the river water, never to surface again.

The old Taoist priest's eyes were already blood-red, his whole body grotesquely transforming into a terrifying monster, with black fur, black horns, and black scales growing everywhere!

"Exterminating demons will never be wrong!"

"Good disciple, I am entrusting this heavy responsibility to you!"

"You must always remember the purpose for which you learned the sword!"

Although the old Taoist priest had completely transformed, his figure was slowly fading, about to disappear from this world.

At the same time, the pine tree turned back into a whisk, and the evil serpent turned back into a turtle shell.

Reuniting with the old Taoist priest.

Xu Yuan immediately felt that in this void, some powerful constraint was transferring onto himself!

But when this transfer was halfway done, it suddenly stopped.

The old Taoist priest did not notice this; he transformed back into black wind and black sand, whooshing down toward the old elm tree in the backyard.

There lay his true form; the withered branch was merely one of its twigs.

Thus, the old elm tree became a bait.

The old Taoist priest was that fish.

He plunged headfirst into the cage.

The carriage closed, and beast-tendon ropes were wrapped around the outside.

Xu Yuan had already made this arrangement beforehand.

Inside the carriage, the old Taoist priest charged left and right, roaring and bellowing: "I have already attained liberation!"

"I have proven that exterminating demons will never be wrong!"

"Killing that evil beast by mistake was not my fault!"

"Anyone with ambition will make such a mistake!"

"No one could have imagined that such an evil beast would never do evil and would even save people in a flood!"

After seeing the evil serpent save people, Xu Yuan finally understood.

"You have not attained liberation."

Xu Yuan had already arrived at the backyard.

The carriage expanded to ten zhang in size, enclosing both the old elm tree and the old Taoist priest inside.

"You too are sword learners," the old Taoist priest roared inside the carriage, slamming against it until it shook with a thud-thud: "Facing such an evil serpent, did you not also use the Dragon-Slaying Sword to pierce its seven-inch point!

You made the same unintentional mistake as I did!

I have proven I was not at fault; why can I not attain liberation?!"

With a thought from Xu Yuan, the Dragon-Slaying Sword flew back from the water.

The sword pill flew back with it.

Under Xu Yuan's control, the sword pill and the Dragon-Slaying Sword pressed tightly together.

Xu Yuan said, "What pierced the evil serpent's seven-inch point was not the Dragon-Slaying Sword, but my own sword pill!"

After seeing the true form of the old elm tree, Xu Yuan had been thinking about how to break the situation and save everyone.

He gradually felt that ever since taking that path, especially after meeting the old Taoist priest, everything he had experienced was like... a play arranged in advance!

The old Taoist priest had always wanted Xu Yuan to control the Dragon-Slaying Sword.

Xu Yuan wanted to see the outcome of this play—to figure out the truth behind this bizarre scene, he could only do as the old Taoist priest wished.

But he could not truly do as the old Taoist priest wished.

The Dragon-Slaying Sword descended, piercing straight into the evil serpent's seven-inch point.

But in reality, the sword pill had been pressed tightly against the Dragon-Slaying Sword.

It was the sword pill that pierced the evil serpent's seven-inch point first.

After causing the so-called "fatal injury," the Dragon-Slaying Sword then followed into the wound.

In this way, he deceived the old Taoist priest.

Otherwise, the little boy and the villagers would not have appeared.

Nor would it have been possible to glimpse the truth behind it.

Inside the carriage, the old Taoist priest roared wildly, charging with all his might, trying to break out.

"Scoundrel! You unfilial disciple, how dare you scheme against your master!"

"I am about to attain liberation, about to attain liberation!"

Xu Yuan said coldly, "If you want to attain liberation, it means you want me to do exactly what you did back then.

Then I would replace you, forever trapped in this bizarre scene.

"Wait until... I can also find a scapegoat to repeat all of this."

The old Taoist refused to answer, only letting out continuous, mournful shrieks as he continued to batter the carriage, producing dull thuds.

"But you actually understand that you were wrong; your sins are heavy!"

Xu Yuan shouted.

The old Taoist roared through gritted teeth: "Where was I wrong!? I spent my life studying the sword, slaying demons and monsters for the people, saving countless lives!

I knelt before the mountain gate back then and made a vow! I have been fulfilling that vow ever since!

How could I be wrong?"

Xu Yuan said slowly: "If you felt you were not wrong, how could you leave behind such a powerful obsession?"

This eerie old Taoist was neither a zombie nor a yin ghost, but merely a strong obsession born of guilt.

After accidentally killing that dragon, he must have felt intense remorse in his heart.

A righteous man who spent his life slaying demons and protecting the common people, yet accidentally killed a good dragon.

This sense of guilt could not dissipate even after his death.

It lingered around this area.

That whisk was the object the Taoist possessed back then.

The tortoise shell was also left behind by the spiritual tortoise the Taoist raised after it died.

The Taoist was buried back then under the old elm tree.

All these things were buried with him.

The obsession seeped into the old elm tree, which quickly withered and died completely.

Who would have thought that over the years, this obsession, influenced by Little Yu Shan, would transform into a malevolent spirit.

This malevolent spirit took hold within Little Yu Shan and condensed into this eerie scene.

It constantly reenacted the scene of slaying the dragon that day, hoping someone would walk in and slay that dragon just as he did back then.

If others made the same mistake when facing such a situation, then it would prove—that this mistake cannot be blamed on me.

In this way, he could resolve this guilt, and the obsession would be released.

But excusing himself in this way was itself an admission that he was wrong back then.

"Nonsense!" Inside the carriage, the malevolent spirit roared, refusing to admit it.

Xu Yuan could not help but shake his head and did not argue with it.

A malevolent spirit is inherently mad and stubborn.

Its refusal to ever touch that Dragon-Slaying Sword was a manifestation of its fear of facing its own mistake.

The malevolent spirit roared again inside the carriage: "I cannot be released, and you shall not think of leaving either!"

"Stay here with me all!"

"Let us be trapped here together forever, hahaha..."

Fu Jingyu and the others had already broken free from the control of the pine needles and arrived beside my lord Xu.

Hearing the malevolent spirit speak thus, their faces immediately changed.

"The water has receded," Xu Yuan ordered: "Go out and try."

Fu Jingyu immediately led the group charging out of Qingxia Temple.

"Di Youzhi, you go to that small path."

"Qin Ze, Mao Dabin, and I, the three of us, will each choose a direction to see if we can walk out."

Everyone responded in unison.

(End of this chapter)