Flirting with the Villain's Mother - Chapter 39

Deep into the night, a full moon hung among the branches, casting a thin layer of silver gauze over the entire courtyard. The tender, vibrant green vegetables were bathed in silvery light, appearing from a distance as if frosted with a delicate layer of white.

The village was eerily silent, not even the chirping of birds or the buzz of insects could be heard.

Shen Su pushed open the window and gazed deeply into the night.

Sister-in-law Lin lived at the edge of the village. During the day, when she had led Shen Su home, they hadn’t encountered a single person along the way. The only people they’d seen all day were Seventh Uncle and Aunt, who had come to deliver Immortal Fragrance. Though the village seemed deserted during the day, by nightfall, every household had lit their oil lamps, casting a dim, yellowish glow.

Just a little longer, Shen Su thought. Once the lamps are extinguished, I’ll make my move.

The room Shen Su occupied was small but impeccably clean. Sister-in-law Lin had enthusiastically made up the bed while Shen Su was washing the dishes. The pink and white bedding was embroidered with several lifelike butterflies, clearly the handiwork of Sister-in-law Lin herself.

Shen Su’s thoughts drifted back to the dying girl she had seen through the token.

She retrieved the token from her thumb ring. Since leaving the mountains, Shen Su had kept it stored there, and now she finally had time to examine it properly.

In the mountains, the token had appeared silvery-white. But now, resting in her palm, it faintly glowed with a greenish hue, resembling a leaf the more she looked at it.

It seemed the mountain possessed a powerful barrier that blocked the token’s master from imbuing it with power.

If the Little Mountain Bandits could communicate with her through the token while they were in the mountains, would that still be possible now that they were outside?

Thinking of this, Shen Su tentatively called out to the token, “A’Ling.”

Her voice vanished like a stone dropped into the sea.

Shen Su received no response from A’Ling.

This was to be expected, but the child was undoubtedly connected to Sister-in-law Lin.

Bang! Bang!

Two sudden crashes echoed from the main hall, startlingly loud in the quiet night.

Disturbed from her thoughts, Shen Su clutched Little Rabbit tighter, lifted the door curtain, and peered out. She had intended to check on Sister-in-law Lin, but froze in her tracks before even stepping out of the room.

Oil lamps flickered throughout the main hall, some resting on tables, others on chairs. Though already more than a dozen lamps illuminated the room, Sister-in-law Lin continued to retrieve fresh lamps from beneath the Buddhist shrine, lighting each one and placing them in the corners of the hall.

The earlier clatter had been caused by Sister-in-law Lin dropping a lamp.

The fallen lamp lay crookedly on the floor, its oil spilled across the ground.

Instead of bending down to pick it up, Sister-in-law Lin simply retrieved another lamp from the shrine.

“Sister-in-law,” Shen Su called softly. Sister-in-law Lin didn’t respond, not even glancing in her direction as she repeated her actions mechanically.

Normally a quick-handed and enthusiastic worker, Sister-in-law Lin’s movements as she lit the lamps were clumsy and slow.

Shen Su leaned against the door curtain, secretly observing the scene in the main hall.

During one of Sister-in-law Lin’s turns, Shen Su caught a glimpse of her eyes—staring blankly, just as Seventh Uncle and Aunt had looked when they brought her the Immortal Fragrance.

“Sister-in-law,” Shen Su called again.

Shen Su called out to Sister-in-law Lin again, even stepping right in front of her, but the woman seemed to be in a trance, completely deaf to her voice and blind to her presence. As if following some unseen command, she mechanically placed each oil lamp in its designated spot.

“Purple Star falls, Cypress Wind rises…” Shen Su silently activated her cultivation technique. As a faint purple aura veiled her eyes, the scene before her shifted.

The lamps weren’t filled with oil, but with chunks of raw meat. Within each piece of meat flickered the terrified, cowering phantoms of animals: toads, rats, rabbits…

Uneasily, Shen Su stroked the silent rabbit nestled in her arms and retreated behind the curtain with it.

Sister-in-law Lin continued lighting the lamps one by one. Gripping the curtain with one hand, Shen Su cradled the rabbit in the other. Since Sister-in-law Lin couldn’t hear her, Shen Su no longer hesitated to speak freely to Wei Nanyi. She described everything she saw to the Little Rabbit, slowly coaxing her out of her silence.

It was clear that, though Wei Nanyi rarely spoke of them, both the snake demon and Jiang An had become scars on her heart.

Little Rabbit’s fluffy ears twitched slightly as she listened to the sounds from the main hall. “Miss Shen, can you see if the arrangement of those lamps forms any kind of pattern?”

Little Rabbit had beautiful eyes, but she couldn’t see any light, leaving her dependent on Shen Su.

Shen Su had once promised to be Wei Nanyi’s eyes. At Wei Nanyi’s request, she obediently examined the oil lamps again. However, with their varying heights and haphazard arrangement, it was impossible to discern any pattern from any angle.

“Madam, the lamps are arranged randomly, as if they were tossed down carelessly. There’s no pattern to be found.”

Little Rabbit pondered for a moment before suddenly asking, “Miss Shen, what direction are the wicks facing?”

“The wicks…” Shen Su hadn’t noticed the wicks before. Following Wei Nanyi’s instructions, she examined them again and discovered that regardless of where the lamps were placed, their wicks all pointed toward the Buddhist shrine.

“Madam, the wicks are facing the Buddhist shrine.”

“What color is the smoke?”

“Blue!” Shen Su replied repeatedly, but out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Sister-in-law Lin had stopped arranging the oil lamps. This time, she retrieved the Immortal Fragrance given by Seventh Uncle and Aunt from her room, lit it, and inserted it into the incense burner. After completing this ritual, Sister-in-law Lin knelt before the Buddhist shrine, chanting incomprehensible words. “Madam, Sister-in-law Lin has lit the Immortal Fragrance. I suspect the fragrance is altering her memories. Should we stop her?”

Lacking experience in cultivation and accompanied by a seasoned cultivator, Shen Su naturally turned to Wei Nanyi for guidance.

Wei Nanyi didn’t answer immediately. Instead, she asked, “What color is the smoke from the fragrance?”

Shen Su glanced quickly and replied, “It’s also blue.”

As the Immortal Fragrance burned, the entire hall filled with a blue mist, as if Sister-in-law Lin were about to be swallowed by it.

Shen Su was about to step forward when Little Rabbit called out, “Miss Shen, don’t touch the fragrance! Disturbing it will alert the demonic creature controlling the Spirit Division Formation. Sister-in-law Lin will be fine. This formation can only alter her memories and temporarily control her mind. Once we kill the demon controlling them, everything will return to normal.”

This was another formation not recorded in the books. Hearing about it for the first time, Shen Su was confused. “Spirit Division Formation?”

Wei Nanyi hummed softly. “The Spirit Division Formation is actually a basic-level formation with limited offensive capabilities. However, it can permanently trap sentient beings within its spiritual matrix, turning them into puppets controlled by the caster. Demonic creatures, born with innate skills and cultivation techniques, often possess weaker talents in other areas compared to human cultivators. Formation mastery is one such area. Even the most gifted demon cultivators struggle to master formations, and most Demons simply don’t waste their time on them.”

“The Demon manipulating this situation likely has a poor grasp of the Spirit Division Formation. That’s why she must wipe everyone’s memories anew each night to ensure complete control. Her imperfect mastery also explains why she uses animal corpses as conduits to amplify the formation’s effects.”

Shen Su found this odd. “Madam, do you mean all of them?”

While Seventh Aunt’s condition resembled Sister-in-law Lin’s, they hadn’t yet seen the other women in the village. Shen Su knew Wei Nanyi wouldn’t make baseless claims, but she couldn’t fathom how Wei Nanyi had deduced that everyone’s memories had been altered by the Spirit Division Formation.

“No matter the ultimate goal, Demonic Creatures that approach living humans invariably devour their flesh and bl00d to enhance their own power. If a snake demon is truly behind this, she would likely control all the women in the village.” Wei Nanyi paused, then added specifically for Shen Su’s benefit, “Snakes prefer cold-blooded prey. For a snake demon, women are the perfect nourishment.”

Shen Su still felt something was off. “But if she only wants flesh and bl00d to increase her power, wouldn’t it be more efficient to simply devour the entire village? If she prefers women’s flesh, why not just consume that? Why go through all this trouble?”

“There must be more than just flesh and bl00d. What else she desires, I can’t yet guess. Perhaps the answer lies in the temple.”

Wei Nanyi couldn’t definitively say what sinister plot lay hidden beneath the surface. However, she had encountered countless cases of Demonic Creatures manipulating living humans in the past. Some sought to steal faces, others coveted spiritual roots, and still others… But regardless of their motives, living humans invariably became unwitting food sources during their schemes. To Demonic Creatures, human flesh and bl00d were a delectable delicacy.

Shen Su wasn’t the only one who found this place strange; Wei Nanyi felt it too.

The strangest part was the children. Based on the clues they had gathered, and if Wei Nanyi’s speculation was correct, the village women were being controlled, while the men remained conscious, serving as slaves to the Demon. But what role did the children play in all this? How had they managed to escape into the deep mountains?

They still had so many unanswered questions. Wei Nanyi sighed deeply. “Miss Shen, I can’t fathom what the Demon intends. But if it hasn’t devoured the delicious prey it has captured, it must be waiting for an opportunity. What kind of opportunity, I don’t know. But the Demon manipulating all this is far less formidable than my old acquaintance.”

This wasn’t just a wild guess on Wei Nanyi’s part.

Demonic Creatures have limited aptitude for mastering Formations. Yet even with poor Formation skills, a Demon with sufficient demonic power can compensate for this deficiency using spiritual power, eliminating the need to borrow strength from other animals.

This demon was maintaining its daily formation by draining the power of its own kind, suggesting it might not be as formidable as Shen Su had initially feared.

Wei Nanyi finally felt somewhat reassured about Shen Su’s investigation of the Divine Temple.

They would definitely have to go to the Divine Temple.

Shen Su glanced back into the room. The fleshy mass sizzled as it burned in the oil lamps. Sister-in-law Lin knelt rigidly on the floor, no longer making strange noises. Her body swayed slightly, as if she were asleep.

Seventh Aunt’s words from earlier that day echoed in Shen Su’s mind: “Ruan Yao, once you light the incense, don’t rest in the main hall, understand?”

Now that Shen Su understood how the Immortal Fragrance worked, she knew she should keep Sister-in-law Lin as far away from it as possible. But…

She glanced at the incense wrapped in yellow cloth on the Buddhist shrine.

Never mind. Better not alert the enemy yet.

If they were waiting for the right moment, then Sister-in-law Lin would be safe until then.

Shen Su lowered the curtain, opened the window, and vanished in a blur.