Dragon Tamer - Chapter 288
Chapter 288: Chapter 289 Mistress Ruoshuo
The mountains overlapped, and the fissures and deep valleys were like marks of the earth, splitting the many mountain ranges of Pear Blossom Gully and turning this place into a breeding ground for poisonous insects and evil spirits.
“That’s right, you’ve never told us your name,” Nan Yuso said with a gentle smile, turning to look at the young girl from the village who was guiding them.
“My family name is Shi, first name Ruoshuo,” the girl said in a quiet voice, as if afraid others might find something amiss with her name. After all, she hadn’t had much contact with the outside world and didn’t know if her name would be the subject of ridicule.
“Shi Ruoshuo, that’s quite a cute name. Who gave it to you?” Nan Yuso asked.
“Your family name is Shi? So Shi Hua is your grandmother?” Song Luo spoke up.
“Yes,” Shi Ruoshuo nodded.
“Then have you been living alone in the village?” Song Luo asked, sounding somewhat sympathetic.
Shi Hua was a woman of some stature in Pear Blossom Gully, but unfortunately, she had been accidentally injured in the chaos of a territorial conflict between different clans of the gully and had died due to delayed treatment.
Song Luo had heard it from his family’s clan elder.
“Has the old lady passed away?” Nan Yuso asked.
“Yes, it’s actually quite sad. Granny Shi Hua made many contributions to Pear Blossom Gully. When our various clans were on the verge of splitting, it was she who tirelessly mediated. She even sacrificed herself for this cause. The clan leaders of each village felt very guilty about it, and since then, there hasn’t been any further talk of separation,” Song Luo continued.
At first, Song Luo wasn’t very convinced by the young girl Shi Ruoshuo’s words, but upon hearing she was Shi Hua’s granddaughter, his attitude changed immediately.
After all, Granny Shi Hua was a hero of Pear Blossom Gully. Without her, Pear Blossom Gully would have fractured long ago, and it would not have been possible to be united as it was now against the Mourning Dragon.
“Once we get past Long Valley, we’ll be able to see that rift. Below the rift lies the Black Lake in the Cave,” Shi Ruoshuo said.
She seemed not to want to mention her deceased grandmother, as if that were the reality she was most unwilling to accept.
“Sister Shi, we owe you a lot this time. All the clans were able to catch a breath from the Mourning Dragon’s schemes because of you. Just like your grandmother, you are a hero of Pear Blossom Gully,” Song Luo said with a smile.
“I just… I only did what I could,” Shi Ruoshuo said.
Atop Stone Village, Zhu Minglang was circling around the village wall, reaching the back of the village.
He saw there was a graveyard behind the village, hesitated for a moment, but still walked into the graveyard.
Zhu Minglang still had some confusion in his heart, but there was much he couldn’t confirm. The one thing he could, however, was the story about the drowned Yin spirit.
At the time, the village girl described it very precisely, even saying under which tree it was buried.
Zhu Minglang walked to the old pear tree covered in white ribbons and stood in front of the grave of the drowned Yin spirit that Shi Ruoshuo claimed to have helped “rest in peace”.
There indeed was a grave here, but when Zhu Minglang saw the name on the gravestone, his expression changed.
Shi Hua!
This grave was that of a woman, and it listed many of her deeds. It seemed she was also a leader in Pear Blossom Gully.
This completely contradicted what the village girl had described!
She had not encountered any drowned Yin spirit!
Practically everyone in Stone Village was dead, with only her surviving.
At first, Zhu Minglang thought he had escaped because the dead people’s presence masked his own living scent or perhaps because, as a Yin Spirit Necromancer, the Mourning Dragon could not detect her smell. But now, the more he thought about it, the more he felt something was off.
“Maybe there was no enchantment on the Mourning Dragon at all, from beginning to end. She was controlling the dead, and as a Yin Spirit Necromancer, she can do more than just see and communicate with the deceased; she can manipulate them!” Zhu Minglang gasped.
The controlled villagers behaved exactly as they did when they were alive, simply because they were being manipulated.
And at that time, the girl was hiding in the well because she was controlling the people in the village and talking, yet she couldn’t be discovered by Zhu Minglang and the others.
“How vicious!”
Zhu Minglang’s eyes turned cold.
He had been deceived. This girl had been problematic from the very start.
The terrifying intellect demonstrated by the Mourning Dragons was mostly because of this Yin Spirit Necromancer girl!
She was the true leader of these Mourning Dragons!!
“They are in danger. The Yin Spirit Necromancer is luring them into the lair!”
Zhu Minglang dared not linger here any longer and immediately left Stone Village.
The problem was, Zhu Minglang had no idea where Yu Suo, Star Painting, and the others had gone. With Pear Blossom Gully being so complex and without clear guidance, it was impossible to find them deep in the mountains.
“What happened??” Mr. Jinli, seeing Zhu Minglang rush back in a hurry, asked puzzledly.
“I was deceived by that Yin Spirit Necromancer; she is the Mourning Dragon’s leader, controlling those who died in the village. Now, that Yin Spirit Necromancer is probably luring Yu Suo, Star Painting, and the others into a trap, but I don’t know where they are,” Zhu Minglang said.
“I know, I know. Even if my master went to the edge of the sky, the end of the earth, I could still find her. Hurry up and follow me, big dummy!” Chang’e jumped out and said to Zhu Minglang.
Zhu Minglang was stunned for a moment, watching the Immortal Rabbit Dragon that had leaped ahead of him.
This suddenly made Zhu Minglang recall a subtle detail from before — that it was not Yu Suo who had asked Chang’e to follow him, but Li Xinghua.
“Did the Prophet auntie make the Immortal Rabbit Dragon follow me, not because she worried that I needed healing, but to prevent this situation from arising? Had Star Painting realized something early on??” Zhu Minglang murmured to himself.
Regardless, he needed to find them as quickly as possible.
Yu Suo might be powerful, but she couldn’t hold on for too long and certainly couldn’t protect everyone in the team.
Following the Immortal Rabbit Dragon, Zhu Minglang crossed mountains and found the Yin Spirit Necromancer girl had led the others into a very deep place.
The more he thought about it, the more unsettled Zhu Minglang felt.
The only consolation was that Li Xinghua was on guard, so they shouldn’t have fallen into a desperate situation so quickly.
This could buy him some time for a rescue.
Black Lake in the Cave!
That place was not a source of water, but clearly the den of all the Mourning Dragons!
And it was very likely another entrance to the ruins in the valley, which Zhu Minglang had searched for a long time without discovering before.
Why would they do this?
Why would this fearsome Yin Spirit Necromancer want to massacre the entire village and even seek to destroy Pear Blossom Gully?
