With a steady supply of fresh human blood every day, the Green-eyed Zombie’s condition stabilized for a time. In its leisure, it would often dive into the sea to gather all manner of shells for Qiao’er, or carry her on its back into the forest to find the wild fruits she loved.
On a midsummer night, the Green-eyed Zombie discovered a grove of lychee trees on a southern slope and carried Qiao’er there. Qiao’er was extremely fond of the tender white flesh of the fruit. Thus, an ancestral zombie possessing the bloodline of an ancient war god and the Perfected Master Gongxi—revered by countless faithful followers at Guantian Court—huddled stealthily in the woods to steal lychees.
At the foot of the mountain, a farmer who guarded the orchard had built a small thatched shack, but with their level of cultivation, there was no way he could detect them.
Qiao’er leaned against the Green-eyed Zombie’s shoulder. The zombie’s night vision was superior to hers, and besides, it had always been skilled at such "thievery." By the faint moonlight, it picked the reddest, largest lychees, peeled them, and fed them to Qiao’er.
Qiao’er accepted every one, eating until her face was sticky with sweet juice. Seeing that she truly could eat no more, the Green-eyed Zombie shamelessly shed its black robes, picked a large quantity of ripe lychees to wrap inside, and handed the bundle to Qiao’er. It then carried her to a nearby pond to wash up.
Regarding this blatant habit of "taking what you can't finish," Qiao’er had tried to persuade it otherwise many times to no avail. Fortunately, her skin was thinner than the zombie’s; she placed a silver ingot atop a tree branch and cast a minor spell on it so that it would shine brilliantly upon contact with sunlight. If the owner came to check the next day, he would surely find it.
On this midsummer night, the pond below was half-hidden amidst lush wild grass. The moonlight cast a silver glow upon the water, making the entire pond look like a shy beauty veiled in misty silk. Occasional ripples stirred, and a cool breeze drifted by, dispelling the sweltering heat of summer.
The Green-eyed Zombie trampled down a patch of wild grass by the pond and beat the surrounding foliage, worried that snakes, rats, or insects might jump out and startle Qiao’er.
Qiao’er crouched in the hollow it had cleared, washing her face with the pond water. After a while, lulled by the coolness of the place, she untied her hair ribbon to wash her hair as well. The Green-eyed Zombie crouched behind her, holding onto the hem of her clothes. Even though her cultivation and spells were now quite advanced, the zombie still felt uneasy, feeling that it needed to look after her in every possible way. It even constantly worried she might fall into the pond.
Seeing Qiao’er about to wash her hair, it stepped forward and slowly cupped water to pour over her tresses, gently rubbing her long hair. Qiao’er leaned against it for support, letting it wash her hair for her.
Qiao’er placed the bundle made from its robe into the pond to chill the fruit in the water. She then picked a lychee, peeled it, and fed it to the zombie; it gently took the fruit from between her fingers.
The mountains were deserted. At this hour, there was no sound other than the chirping of insects—only the splashing of the pond water, crisp as jade beads falling.
Qiao’er felt as though they had returned to the days of the past. There was no Fan Shaohuang, no Guantian Court, no Nüba, and no gods, ghosts, or demons. It was just an ordinary zombie, and she was still that simple, ignorant Qiao’er. A human and a zombie needed only a single coffin to endure day and night, through the passing of the four seasons.
One night in early autumn, Qiao’er was preparing steamed fish. Before leaving the room, she repeatedly instructed the Green-eyed Zombie to sit on the cushion on the steps and not move. However, by the time she brought the fish out, the zombie was nowhere to be found.
She circled the beach and discovered that the Red-clothed Zombie and the two Ancient Cave Zombies were also missing; only the Red-eyed Zombie was there, half-heartedly taking class notes. She returned to the side hall without a word and set up an altar to perform a ritual using a garment the Green-eyed Zombie had worn. Faintly, she perceived its location: it was at the cavern where the Underworld King Tu Su used to reside.
She only managed to spy for a fleeting moment before the Green-eyed Zombie suddenly looked up toward her. Clearly, it had sensed the weak fluctuation of the spell. But Qiao’er was extremely fast in withdrawing; before it could strike, she had already ended the scrying art.
She rode the Guiche out to search. By the time she reached the cave entrance, dawn was breaking, and the Green-eyed Zombie and the three Drought Furies had already departed. Qiao’er used a talisman to hide her aura and slipped quietly into the cave. The Guiche was ordered to wait outside. Since it was "day-blind," it feared it wouldn't be able to see Qiao’er if she came out during the day, so it huddled in a nearby mountain hollow to wait.
Inside the cave dwelling, Qiao’er found many skeleton soldiers sleeping, likely because dawn had arrived and they found it difficult to move during the day. She searched the secret rooms one by one. The further in she went, the higher the cultivation of the monsters became. By the time she reached the heart of the mountain, those residing within were already ten-thousand-year-old Great Demons.
Fortunately, Qiao’er was skilled in the arts of ingenuity and could conceal her presence. Otherwise, she estimated that with her current cultivation, it would be impossible to escape the cave if she were detected and surrounded by a horde of Great Demons.
She emboldened herself to go deeper. In the innermost stone chamber sat a coffin made of golden-thread phoebe wood. Her intuition told her this should be the Green-eyed Zombie’s residence here, yet she could not sense its aura at all. Amidst her uncertainty, she lightly pushed the heavy coffin lid. Inside, a pair of purple demonic eyes snapped open instantly. Qiao’er was struck with horror.
Reflexively, she slapped a Demon-Expelling Talisman onto it and turned to run. Inside was a Demon Spirit Fetus. Legend had it that the Demon Spirit Fetus was connected to the Demon Realm and was a creature born of the natural forces of heaven and earth. While its cultivation could not be compared to an ancient war god like Nüba, the current Heavenly Realm was still quite wary of it.
The Demon Spirit Fetus had also been completely off-guard. It had been sleeping soundly and never expected someone to suddenly barge in. Qiao’er was terrified to see it, and it was equally startled to see her. Qiao’er’s talisman did indeed hinder it for a moment, but once it reacted, it immediately gave chase.
The Qiao’er of today had improved significantly; she did not panic in the face of danger. As she ran, she pasted talismans on the cave entrances she passed, obstructing the Demon Spirit Fetus behind her. When she reached a three-way junction, she pasted her last Demon-Expelling Talisman on the left tunnel but ran into the right one herself. Though the Demon Spirit Fetus possessed great magical power, its intelligence was no match for hers. Upon reaching the junction, it broke the talisman without hesitation and chased after Qiao’er into the left tunnel.
Qiao’er exited the cave and woke the dozing Guiche in the hollow. Without telling it what had happened, she mounted it, using its headless neck as a steering lever to fly back to Guantian Court.
The next day, a divine general from the Heavenly Realm descended to investigate the Green-eyed Zombie’s condition. Seeing that the zombie still appeared mad and delirious, he did not look deeper and returned to the Heavenly Realm to report the truth to the Heavenly Emperor.
The Green-eyed Zombie began to spend less time at Guantian Court. Its frequent reason for leaving was to allow the spiritual energy near the court time to recover so as not to affect the rainfall. Beyond that, it never told Qiao’er what it was doing, and Qiao’er never asked.
She remained happy, occasionally inventing small spells. For instance, the latrine at Guantian Court: from a distance, it looked like a latrine; up close, it looked like a latrine; even if you walked inside, it was still a latrine. But the moment you dropped your trousers and squatted, you would find yourself on the main street of the town to the east or north. Initially, Yaoguang, Tianquan, and Kaiyang were not serious about their Daoist studies, so Qiao’er created this spell to train their mental power of "seeing through illusions."
Later, she created the Stealth Art, which could hide all traces of one's aura in an instant. Most monsters identified other creatures by their aura—not just scent, but their essence, spirit, and even the frequency of their breathing. Once the Stealth Art was used, the person was as good as transformed, fully capable of confusing a monster’s vision and memory. It was an excellent method for counter-tracking.
Eventually, she even created the Water Mirror. Through the Water Mirror, one could glimpse the movements and whereabouts of the person they held in their heart. For Yaoguang, the birth of the Water Mirror thoroughly ignited his determination to learn Daoist arts. In an era of inconvenient transportation and poor information flow, this premium item for peeping and surveillance could definitely be sold for a good price.
Sure enough, once this item was released, it was immediately sold out. Of course, Guantian Court did not care about the many affairs exposed or the couples who became enemies because of it.
The world always craves the truth, but the truth is rarely a beautiful thing.
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Lover's Tears: The End of Time | Chapter 52 | The Water Mirror | Novela.app | Novela.app
