The Wang family residence had undergone a complete transformation.
The pavilions, covered walkways, rockeries, artificial ponds, and rare exotic flowers of the past were now shrouded in a chilling, horrifying ghostly aura.
Shattered wine jars littered the ground everywhere, fragments of broken porcelain mixing with spilled liquor that splattered haphazardly across the paving.
The distillery workers were all flushed red, looking thoroughly intoxicated as they sprawled haphazardly to the sides. Their heads and faces were entirely swathed in tangled masses of black hair.
A dozen or so burly men were piled on top of one another, making for a strangely comical sight.
At the heart of it all stood the pitch-black wine vat situated right in the center of the clearing—the vessel revered by the entire Wang household as the “mother vat.”
Hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of ink-black hair snakes crawled incessantly out of the mother vat, their numbers swelling with no sign of abating.
All the jars of Immortal Brew set outside in the distillery had been overturned. Clear liquor mixed with strands of hair streamed continuously outward, calling to mind an upstream migration of salmon.
The scent of alcohol hung thick in the air.
Even Young Master Wang and Manager Wang, who spent their days immersed in the distillery, could hardly endure it, staggering about as the heady fumes overwhelmed their senses.
A line of notification appeared before Nan Zhi’s eyes:
【Cultivator is slightly tipsy: Combat Power -10, Constitution -5 (Drinking wine is delightful, but do not overindulge!)】
Did I even want to drink this wine?!
Nan Zhi almost cursed aloud.
“Rustle, rustle, rustle, rustle...”
“Rustle, rustle, rustle...”
“Rustle, rustle...”
Countless tiny strands of hair slithered along the liquor toward her shoes, moving with incredible agility like tiny serpents woven from hair.
Nan Zhi was about to chant the incantation for the Thunder Curse when she belatedly realized where she was.
These hair snakes were emerging along with the alcohol; a single spark would likely set the entire distillery ablaze!
Having no handy weapon at the moment, Nan Zhi picked up a random bamboo pole from the ground. With a flick and a thrust of her wrist, she sent the hair snakes flying a zhang away.
These hair snakes possessed little offensive power, but they were endless, pouring forth as if from a bottomless spring. Dealing with them in such sheer numbers proved troublesome.
Nan Zhi wielded the long bamboo pole with great agility, effortlessly sweeping away the hair snakes that crept toward her. The two men behind her were not nearly so fortunate.
Young Master Wang was assaulted by the hair snakes and collapsed drunkenly onto the ground. His eyes were glazed over, yet his mouth continued to mumble the secret recipe for Immortal Drunk.
As for Manager Wang, disregarding his own safety, he fought desperately to tear the hair snakes off Young Master Wang, only to be overpowered in the end and collapse to the ground.
Apart from making people drunk, these hair snakes did not appear to cause any real harm.
Nan Zhi couldn’t help but turn her gaze toward the mother vat.
Just what was inside it?
If it kept spewing hair like this, the entirety of Dingyuan County would soon be submerged in a sea of hair snakes.
“Hehehe...”
“You shall be the solid rock, and I the tender reed; the rock never shifts, and the reed...”
Wanniang began singing once more.
Still clad in her linen mourning clothes, she drifted airily atop the eaves, her body translucent as smoke.
Meanwhile, Wang Fugui was bundled in thick clumps of black hair, hung upside down beneath the roof. His eyes were wide with terror and despair.
He could not even open his mouth to call for help.
A writhing mass of hair snakes had burrowed into his nostrils, smothering half of his face.
Seeing her enemy reduced to such a pathetic state, Wanniang was in high spirits, even playfully teasing Nan Zhi:
“It’s rare to see Sister Zhi look so disheveled. If you call me your good elder sister, I’ll tell you how to deal with what’s inside that vat. What do you say?”
Nan Zhi flicked away another bundle of hair snakes lunging toward her. Realization dawning on her, she called out loudly:
“Wanniang, what is inside that vat?”
Wanniang did not answer. She merely lowered her head, humming her little tune while giving Wang Fugui a gentle push, as if playing on a swing.
Nan Zhi already had an inkling.
To verify her suspicions, she strode toward the mother vat.
Dangling from the eaves, Wang Fugui suddenly became frantic. He thrashed wildly, letting out muffled, beast-like howls:
“Mmph! Mmph! No! Mmph!!”
“No! Mmph! You can’t!!”
Wanniang looked down.
Nan Zhi shoved the vat with all her might.
Boom!
Crack!
The heavy black wine vat hit the ground with a resounding thud.
Accompanied by a crisp shattering sound, the round vat broke into pieces, finally exposing what had been hidden within its double wall to the light of day.
From within the shattered vat rolled a long-decayed human skull.
The flesh on the skull had long withered away with the passage of time, leaving only a full head of black hair clinging to the bone.
Inside the mouth of the white bone nestled a plump, crimson, jade-like worm, encircled by squirming hair snakes.
The worm seemed to have grown as one with the skeleton. It was fat and hairless, resembling a piece of fine jade upon closer inspection, faintly shimmering with a soft luster.
It was over.
Everything was over.
Wang Fugui closed his eyes.
Young Master Wang snapped out of his drunken stupor as if waking from a dream.
Manager Wang was left dumbstruck.
Only Wanniang gently swung her legs, speaking softly:
“This immortal treasure... I refused to let that vile Wang Fugui have it even in death. So before hanging myself, I swallowed it whole.
“When Wang Fugui stole my remains and couldn’t find the worm, he guessed part of the truth.
“Yet who could have predicted the whims of heaven? Hahaha! That worm actually made its home on my bones.
“Unable to extract it by force, he concocted a lie about some ancestral secret recipe, crafted a ‘mother vat,’ and ordered the brewers to draw water from this vat on the first and fifteenth of every month to brew his wine.”
To climb the social ladder, he had framed the Qu family and poisoned innocent commoners.
And for wealth and glory, he had steeped Wanniang’s bones in water for decades.
How could a human be so vile?
How could someone do such a thing to their fellow human being?
Every day he walked past this place and looked upon the vat, was he thinking of Wanniang’s fierce defiance, or was he secretly gloating over the flawlessness of his scheme?
A violent churning rose in Nan Zhi’s stomach, bringing tears to her eyes. She dashed to the bathroom to vomit her guts out.
Seeing Nan Zhi standing stock-still with a stunned expression, Wanniang thought she had been frightened. She floated down from the eaves, gently stroked Nan Zhi’s cheek, and comforted her:
“It only looks terrifying; this worm isn’t dangerous at all.
“Besides, it’s my bones soaking in that wine. Why are you the one crying?”
Coming back to her senses, Nan Zhi’s hands trembled as she held Wanniang.
Grit-toothed, she glared at Wang Fugui, feeling a genuine desire to kill someone for the very first time.
“He deserves to die.”
Such a beast could no longer be called “human.”
He ought to be sent straight to Yama so the Underworld Judge and the Ten Kings of Hell could bear witness to every sin Wang Fugui had committed!
“You can’t kill me! Lord Qi of the Bureau of Military Affairs is my in-law! My son is a scholar! He is exempt from kneeling before officials!
“I have accumulated good deeds all my life! Even the Bodhisattva speaks of laying down the butcher’s knife and becoming a Buddha on the spot!”
Seeing that Nan Zhi truly harbored killing intent, Wang Fugui desperately spat out the hair snakes in his mouth and shrieked hysterically:
“Mmph! No! You cannot kill this old master! It is a capital crime for a demon suppressor to murder a mortal!
“If you dare stand by and let her kill me, you will be condemned by thousands tomorrow!
“Everyone in the Demon Suppression Division under heaven will know that you, Nan Zhi, consort with ghosts and collude with wicked demons!!”
—There were many witnesses present today. If word got out, it would inevitably implicate Sister Zhi.
Wanniang suddenly stopped, her gaze resting upon Nan Zhi.
For decades, her only thought had been vengeance.
Yet now that vengeance was finally within her grasp, Wanniang hesitated.
“Are you done speaking?”
Nan Zhi exhaled softly and slowly turned her back to Wanniang:
“I didn’t wear my Demon Suppression Division uniform today.”
So make it quick.
Wanniang let out a laugh as tears of blood streamed from the corners of her eyes.
Just moments ago, she had truly intended to burn the entire distillery to the ground.
When villains held sway and the gods and Buddhas closed their eyes, what justice was left in this world?
Yet now, Wanniang felt that the world was not entirely filled with scoundrels like Wang Fugui.
She released her grip, and the hair snakes binding Wang Fugui writhed, hoisting him three cun above the ground beneath the eaves.
“Wanniang... you... can’t... my fault... save... Wanniang...”
Wang Fugui’s face turned the color of pig liver, his eyes bulging as the sound of his throat cartilage snapping echoed in his desperate struggle.
Slowly, he ceased moving.
Wang Fugui was dead.
Rate on N.U.
