Witch God Abyss (Lily) - Chapter 15

Eight hundred years ago…

Nan Yuanxi’s father was the chief of Nanjian Village, and her mother was the great shaman.

Nan Yuanxi’s mother was frail, said to be weakened by overusing witchcraft.

From childhood, Nan Yuanxi bore the burden of inheriting the great shaman’s role.

At six, her father sent her to Wujian Village to study sacrificial rites, altar arrays, and gu witchcraft under the great priest.

Every year, the five villages held a coming-of-age ceremony for all sixteen-year-olds.

After the ceremony, boys and girls split into groups and went into the mountains to hunt for seven days.

The size of the prey they brought back determined their future status in the village.

Nan Yuanxi wanted to win. She sought help from her master, the great priest, to bring back the biggest prey.

The great priest told Nan Yuanxi about this cave’s location, saying, “If you can complete the coming-of-age ceremony alone in the mountains, you’ll graduate and return to Nanjian Village as the great guardian. If you succeed this time, in five years, I’ll join the other four villages’ great shamans and priests to nominate you as my successor, the chief of the Five Jian Villages.”

From childhood, Nan Yuanxi aimed to inherit Nanjian Village’s great shaman role.

The great priest said, “If you surpass your father and become the chief of the Five Villages, he’ll be very pleased.”

After the ceremony, dozens of youths set off into the mountains.

Nan Yuanxi didn’t team up with anyone, heading alone to the cave her master described.

Shujuan, beside her, sneered coldly, “Her coming-of-age ceremony was to find me and kill me.”

Nan Yuanxi said, “My master said a demon had plagued this land for over a century. Every July, without a human sacrifice, it would trigger a flood. She sent me to slay the demon.”

Shujuan said angrily, “This despicable woman brought a human sacrifice, found my cave, cut open the girl’s abdomen at the entrance, and pulled out her heart to lure me out.”

Nan Yuanxi sneered, “Despicable? If I hadn’t caught you off guard while you ate that girl’s organs and sealed you with witchcraft, you’d still be wreaking havoc.”

“Despicable? Was that noble? The girl you brought was only seven! You gutted her alive and sealed all my demonic power in her body!” Shujuan spread her flesh, revealing a cluster of organs wrapped in demonic energy, marked with a sealing talisman. “You wouldn’t undo the seal even before you died, trapping me here for eight hundred years!”

“If you hadn’t caused floods every year, why would we prepare human sacrifices?”

“Nan Yuanxi! You spent six years in Nanjian Village, ten in Wujian Village—did you ever see a flood?”

Nan Yuanxi said, “Never. That’s because my master said as long as we sacrificed a girl under ten each year, you wouldn’t cause floods!”

“You’ve been trapped in this cave for eight hundred years—have you seen a flood?”

“That’s because I trapped your demonic power in that girl’s body, so you couldn’t act!”

“‘Master said, master said,’ everything’s ‘master said.’ Nan Yuanxi, are you blind? Eight hundred years, and you still don’t see? When you brought my body and that girl down the mountain, don’t you remember your master’s excited, twisted expression? You thought she was happy for you, didn’t you?”

Nan Yuanxi, somewhat guilty, muttered as if to herself, “Yes, I was my master’s best disciple, the most outstanding priest in centuries…”

Shujuan said, “Stop dreaming! Your master only saw my corpse behind you! She wanted to eat my body to gain immortality!”

Shujuan’s body slumped, elongating, revealing her true form—a blue-white salamander over two zhang long, with three pairs of white horns behind her ears and neck.

Reverting to her tailed girl form, Shujuan continued, “We salamanders regenerate entirely—limbs, even a head cut in half. But not all achieve immortality. Only those like me, who break through the ninety-nine-year barrier at the critical moment, can live forever or even cultivate into a dragon. Back then, I was just over a hundred, hiding in this cave to cultivate. Why did you provoke me?”

Nan Yuanxi said, “But you did eat those human sacrifices.”

“I’ve explained for eight hundred years—why won’t you believe me?! No matter my cultivation, I’m a demon. You brought people to my cave, cut out their hearts, and placed them before me—how could I resist?”

Nan Yuanxi fell silent.

Shujuan continued, “Your master tried catching me multiple times and failed. Not for lack of power, but fear of ruining her immortality plan with the wrong method.”

Shen Yuan asked Nan Yuanxi, “Did your master eat her?”

Nan Yuanxi lowered her head, ashamed, and said nothing.

Shujuan said, “She took you, her proudest disciple, and had eight other witches parade my body on the Five Jian Villages’ altar for seven days, notifying the other four villages to come see. On the eighth night, without telling anyone, she eagerly took pieces of my flesh, stewed a big pot, and ate it secretly in her bamboo tower…”

Shujuan laughed sinisterly.

“Pity, she didn’t have the complete bamboo slips and didn’t know my flesh is poisonous and inedible.”

Nan Yuanxi said, “My master turned into a pool of bl00d…”

Shen Yuan shook her head, without sympathy. “Your master’s skills were lacking; no one else to blame. She should’ve used salamander bl00d with prunella, honeysuckle, and five other detoxifying herbs to make antidote pills. The salamander’s body must be sun-dried for seven sevens, forty-nine days, uninterrupted. If it rains, dispel clouds with spells, or it’s all for naught. After drying, mix with cinnabar and grind into powder. On the fifteenth of the seventh month, at the third quarter of the 子 hour, take it with yellow wine, after consuming the antidote pill an hour earlier. Even then, success depends on her cultivation.”

Nan Yuanxi said, “That morning, we witches arrived at my master’s bamboo tower. A bl00d rain fell from above, dripping through the tower’s cracks. On the second floor was a pool of un-coagulated bl00d…”

Shujuan said, “You saw the uneaten pot of meat and my mutilated body on the altar.”

Nan Yuanxi said, “But that only proves your flesh is poisonous.”

“You’re so stubborn! It was clearly your master…”

Shen Yuan interrupted, “Alright, stop arguing!” She looked at Nan Yuanxi. “How did you end up here? You look long dead.”

Nan Yuanxi said, “Her demonic power was sealed in that girl’s body, so I didn’t trust anyone else to carry her. I kept her with me always. After my master died, I took her to Nanjian Village, pretending she was my attendant, named Shujuan.”

“For five years, I was cautious, diligently performing all sacrifices, protecting this land’s peace.”

Shujuan interrupted, “Using my demonic power to summon winds and rains, ward off evil! Look at me now—not human, not demon.”

Nan Yuanxi said, “You can’t blame me for how you are! You were fine in Shujuan’s body, no tail, no strange things growing behind your ears or back, hands and feet normal. But you kept trying to escape to wreak havoc!”

Shujuan’s tears fell like broken strings. “I just wanted to escape, to hide and cultivate quietly! I don’t want to be trapped in this body! I don’t care about your human greed! April for more rain, June for more sun, August for no pests, September for fruitful trees and livestock… Every day, every month, every year, endless, endless…”

“Since last year, I deliberately rained for months to force monthly sacrifices, hoping a guardian, priest, witch, or wizard—anyone—would come with a staff to slay me, and destroy me completely! Eight hundred years—I’ve had enough!”

Nan Yuanxi said, “Eight hundred years, and witchcraft is mostly lost. The younger generation’s skills are lacking; not one dared come up the mountain to catch a demon. They come in groups of twelve, deliver the sacrifice, and flee. They… don’t even know how to use the ancestral silver staff on the altar…”

“The monthly sacrifices finally alerted the authorities,” Shujuan said. “Last month, I ate the county official who came to investigate, hoping the court would send troops. If they couldn’t kill me, they’d destroy the five villages, so she’d no longer need to protect them, and I’d be free.”

Shen Yuan said, “But instead of troops, you caused a flood with your rain, destroying the five villages below?”

“Yes.”

Shen Yuan looked at Nan Yuanxi. “You still haven’t said how you died.”

Nan Yuanxi said, “Because I used her demonic power, my sacrificial prayers were very effective. The people revered me. In my fifth year back, when the Five Villages re-elected a chief, I was chosen.”

“In my third year as chief, she somehow tempted my junior sister Weilan. On the fifteenth of the seventh month, when demonic energy peaked, Weilan tried to break my seal to claim her demonic power.”

Shujuan said, “Lies! Weilan pitied me! You killed her! She only wanted to free me! Claim her power? Nonsense!”