Cursed Mountains and Seas

Chapter 65 Using a human as an oyster to harvest pearls and search for souls

Upon hearing Wang Cheng's questions, Xie He's pupils instantly contracted, even more shocked than when he learned that Wang Cheng had killed the Five Peaks Flag sailing warship unscathed.

"There's a mole! We have a traitor among us!"
Otherwise, how could this kid know so many secrets that only insiders know?
Or perhaps the talisman that supposedly kept secret accidentally broke?

It took Xie He a while to suppress his violently pounding heartbeat, and he continued to stubbornly insist:

"I really don't know anything about what you're saying. The Xie family has always been legitimate businessmen."

Master Wang, you should think this through. The Shan Hai Society and the Chief Official of the Imperial Court have always been impartial. If you make a move against me, it will be a taboo.

If things escalate and the officials in charge of the prefectural government come knocking, the Shanhai Society might not be able to protect you.

"Release me and the old servant immediately, and I, Xie He, swear to God that I will forgive and forget what you did today."

Xie He, after all, came from an official family and knew that if he didn't speak up, he would still have room to bargain, but if he did, he would probably be sent to the Western Paradise immediately.

Neither Wang Fugui nor the ruthless Pu Shouying would let him go.

Most importantly, he didn't know how the other moles leaked the information, but he was bound by the rule of "keeping one's mouth shut" and couldn't say anything even if he wanted to.

Xie was shocked, and A-Xiao was almost the same.

She had inadvertently discovered that the reason for the successive deaths of the major ship captains in the East China Sea was not simple, and guessed that someone was plotting to seize the dragon energy on the various sea god believers.

Later, this was indirectly confirmed by Xie and his gang's capture of their own temple keeper and interrogation of the dragon's true identity.

But she was able to sense something was wrong because she had personally experienced the horrific South Sea pearl harvesting.

She also stayed at the mouth of the Jiulong River, a place of great significance to her, and watched as one large ship after another was filled into the sea eye.

But how could Wang Fugui, a mere scholar who had only returned to Yuegang two months ago, know more than I do?

Why would he care about these things? He's even more enthusiastic about them than I am about them.

The mere presence of a senior official in the hall cannot explain this.

If someone truly works so selflessly for both public and private matters, then she would have to say, "Truly a chosen official!"

"Moreover, I always felt that he had a special aura about him. Even though I had only met him twice, it felt like we had known each other for a long time."

I didn't notice it before, but now that we're in the same room, it's become incredibly obvious.

Ah Xiao carefully observed "Wang Fugui" with her beautiful, cool heterochromatic eyes.

He seemed shrouded in mystery, his depths unfathomable, which stirred within me a strong desire to investigate.

Seeing that Xie He was stubborn and refused to reveal the information, the Zhang brothers, Wen and Wu, picked up axes, saws, and hammers, ready to bleed him and open his eyes.

A-Xiao raised her hand to stop her:

"Let me do it. The pearl divers' skills are perfect for dealing with stubborn people like this."

He ordered Zhang Wen to fetch another basin of water and place it next to Xie He, reflecting his anxious face.

Then a slender, almost transparent white hand reached out and made a grasping motion towards the basin, as if it had grasped something invisible.

Xie He trembled all over, his face as white as a dead man.

As the pearl diver demonstrated her skills, she explained to Wang Cheng and the Zhang brothers:
"The pearl-diving girl's pentad should be the second pentad of Cold Dew [sparrows enter the water and become clams].

Sparrow, a small bird, comes in many forms; this is the yellow sparrow. Great water, the sea. Clam, a type of mussel; this is a small one.

The Guoyu states: "Sparrows enter the sea and become clams. This is because when the cold wind blows, many birds enter the sea and transform into clams. This is how flying creatures transform into underwater creatures."

Birds certainly cannot turn into clams; the so-called transformation of a flying creature into a lurking creature is actually a transformation of yang into yin.

The spiritual responses we pearl divers receive are called "Yin Transformation," and all the unique skills and extraordinary abilities of this profession are derived from this fundamental spiritual response.

The Zhang brothers were completely confused, but Wang Cheng's foundation in cultivation was very solid.

Knowing that most things in nature are opposites of yin and yang, and can be distinguished by size, length, up and down, left and right, inside and outside, etc., big, long, up, left, and outside are yang, while small, short, down, right, and inside are yin.

This "yin transformation" symbolizes all changes of yin attributes.

The most representative skill, "pearl harvesting," is a direct manifestation of this.

A pair of skillful hands can pick a poison-avoiding pearl or a herbal pill from the yin wood, such as vines and grass; and pick a yin fire pearl from the ding fire, such as phosphorescent fire or candlelight.

A black water thunderbolt was obtained from the Gui water, which is like rain and dew.
However, it cannot draw upon any of the elements representing the yang aspect, such as Jia wood (representing towering trees), Bing fire (representing the sun), or Wu earth (representing mountains).
Ah Xiao was clearly treating Xie He like a living pearl oyster, viewing his intangible spirit and memories as pearls, and directly extracting the "pearls" from his mind. "Spare me! I'll confess! I'll confess everything!"

Xie He, trembling violently, realized something was terribly wrong and hurriedly begged for mercy to buy time, but it was already too late.

Bang!
He collapsed to the ground, lifeless.

His loyal servant Qiu Zhushui's "Butcher's Dissection" had long since ended, and he hadn't been able to take the medicine to repair his liver. He was already on the verge of death. Seeing this, he struggled violently for a couple of moments, but to no avail.

A-Xiao opened her fair palm, inside which lay a colorful bead.

Then they stuffed it into a small figure simply woven from straw.

Xie He's self-awareness has collapsed, leaving only dull memories and instincts. In theory, he can answer any question asked by others.

But the very first problem made Wang Cheng and A Xiao realize that something was wrong.

"I don't know the true identity of this important person. Among the gentry, only *** knows, and he is the one who makes contact with him directly."

However, the orders conveyed by the nobleman were always carried out by the local officials, so we never doubted the nobleman's promise of promotion and titles.

Normal conversations about trivial matters are fine, but when a certain name is mentioned, it's automatically skipped over, as if someone has placed a curse on him to prevent him from touching on taboos.

Wang Cheng secretly added Pu Shouying's name to the list in his mind.

I deeply felt that this smiling tiger was meticulous in his work, and even if the bait was caught, the information obtained would be very limited.

If I hadn't accidentally discovered a "Dragon's Blood" from the Yunmeng Empire, I would never have been able to access the core secrets of their plan.

"However, Xie said that the officials obeyed the nobleman's orders without question?"
This news serves as further evidence.

Wang Cheng's initial suspicions were directed at the powerful princes of the Han clan who had close ties with Emperor Shaozhi; otherwise, local officials and gentry would not have cooperated so readily.

However, after referring to the spiritual name of the Heavenly Official [Dragon's Blood] as [Law and Decree], the scope of this suspicion also expanded dramatically. As long as the official rank of that noble person is high enough, it is possible to achieve the same effect.

While the central government accepted the royal family's offer of amnesty, it makes perfect sense that local authorities would obstruct the process and seize the opportunity to surround and kill them.

Wang Cheng also shared information about the Dragon's Blood with A Xiao.

Everyone added with regret:
"I received a fragment of the inheritance."

Unfortunately, only descendants of dragons and the rulers of the land are qualified to hold this position; otherwise, it would be one of the most powerful official posts in the human world. What a pity, truly a pity.

But he didn't notice the fleeting strange look in Ah Xiao's eyes.

Continue asking Xie He:
"Continue with the uses of the dragon's energy."

This time, the scarecrow opened its mouth but couldn't make a sound, probably because it had touched another taboo and couldn't utter a single word.

Even Ah Xiao was helpless this time; her rank was simply no match for the ability to keep quiet.

"I'll try."

Wang Cheng stepped forward and had already seen through his short-sighted obsession with the idea of ​​"hoarding rare goods":
"Take Yuegang, capture the sacrificial offering of Prince Jinghai, help the nobleman collect all the dragon energy, and complete the ritual."

There is also a fundamental obsession: "To accomplish something great and bring honor to one's ancestors."

So, yielding to his obsession, he silently said:
"Tell me the information, and I will grant you the same glory as our ancestor Xie Wenzheng."

Once a deal is made, it cannot be reneged on.

One is the "trading" of "Sihai Tongbao" (a type of currency), and the other is the "spell" of "keeping one's mouth shut".

When the two conflict, it essentially comes down to which talisman has a higher level of protection!

As for the traded item being "bringing glory to one's ancestors," that's not a lie either.

Wasn't the Xie family patriarch posthumously honored with the title Wenzheng?
The title "Wenzheng" is the most beautiful posthumous title, and there are only 32 such titles in the entire history of China.

Wang Cheng planned to spread the news that Xie He and some insightful people had been moved by the deeds of "Xie Wenzheng Gong" and had repented, abandoning darkness and turning to the light, thus shaping Xie He into a role model for the times.

To earn a reputation for the Xie family's unworthy descendants—who monopolized the huge profits of maritime trade, encroached on the imperial court's tax base, blackmailed the government, and colluded with Japanese pirates—that they were pure and untainted, and that a prodigal son who had returned home was more precious than gold.

He let the gentry send him to be suspicious.

At that time, Wang Cheng won't need to personally go to the Xie family to cause trouble; Pu Shouying, that smiling tiger, will be happy to do it for them, making their whole family "worthy of their name"!
(End of this chapter)