"If you don't believe it, feel free to go try a mouthful yourself..." Under Feng Ling's treatment, villager Old Liu had gradually returned to normal, and the moment he woke up and heard Xu Banxian's shouting, he couldn't help feeling extremely irritated.
"That's right, why don't you go drink it and try it yourself? Some great immortal you are, pah..."
"Tch! And you call this the truth? The Vicious Ghost is gone now, so why is there still something wrong with the water?"
"Damn it, all you're good for is fooling us poor common folk..."
Xu Banxian's old face turned ugly. Goaded by the furious crowd, he gritted his teeth, gave a cold snort, stepped forward, bent down, and drank a mouthful of well water.
The jeering villagers fell silent at once. They stared fixedly at him, afraid he would show no change!
"Ah! How could this be?" Xu Banxian's old face twisted as he watched his hands turn into sinister claws. Panic seized him.
The sight of it frightened even his two disciples, Zhang Dan and the other, into stumbling backward in shock.
"That frozen corpse down there is the real source of the problem with the water quality!"
Feng Ling gave the final answer in a low voice. It had been too late yesterday to reveal the corpse's ghastly appearance; otherwise, the villagers would have had nightmares!
On the other hand, Feng Ling couldn't let Xu Banxian's arrogant certainty that he had won yesterday slide.
And so, his original plan to expose the truth and void the wager was itself voided!
A quarter of an hour later...
A horrifically mangled female ice corpse lay beside the ancient well, two rubies embedded in it. Strands of Black Qi coiled around the corpse, giving it an eerie appearance.
"Ugh..." The villagers' faces turned pale and blue, and they looked sick. Some ran aside, leaned against a tree, and vomited.
So it turned out that the well water they had all been drinking this whole time was... corpse water!
The moment this sank in, the several dozen villagers felt an indescribable numbness crawl over them, a sensation as unbearable as having swallowed a swarm of flies.
"Corpse Poison!" Feng Ling saw at a glance the state Xu Banxian was now in.
Everyone else had drunk the well water without undergoing such a drastic change. Xu Banxian was different.
Don't forget: the Water Ghost's Ghost Claws had eroded both his "reattached" ear and that wound. After he drank the corpse's Poison Water as well, it would have been strange if Corpse Poison hadn't been triggered...
"Hah! Reverse the flow, inhale, exhale... Pfft!"
The Bull-Nosed Daoist circulated his energy for nearly a quarter of an hour to purify himself. When he still couldn't eliminate the poison in his body, he unleashed a Divine Ability and forced the Poison Water out of his stomach.
Excellent control over expelling toxins!
Feng Ling watched in silence as Xu Banxian gradually returned to normal and nodded in approval.
But even so, Feng Ling could tell that this move of Xu Banxian's only treated the symptom, not the root cause.
Though the Ghost Claw's effects had dissipated, one could tell from his deathly pale complexion that he'd already developed a lingering ailment — commonly known as an aftereffect!
"Fellow Daoist, this method won't do. This old one has a Body-Refining Pill that will cure you completely!"
Feng Ling handed the pill to Zhang Dan and the other disciple. They hurried forward and offered it to the Bull-Nosed Daoist.
"Get lost!" Xu Banxian roared at Zhang Dan and the other disciple, slapped the pill away, then turned and spat through gritted teeth at Feng Ling: "Old bastard, I don't need your pathetic charity!"
A dog biting Lü Dongbin — failing to recognize a good person's kindness!
Feng Ling had hesitated over whether to save this disgraceful old daoist. After considering that the man's life was still a life, he swallowed his reluctance and took out a rare Spirit Pill from the Spirit Pill Pavilion—only for the man to reject it outright!
"Very well, suit yourself!" Feng Ling glanced at Zhang Dan as he chased after the pill, then gave the sullen Xu Banxian a cold look.
Then Feng Ling continued, "This old one has won the Betting Pool. Starting tomorrow, you may never set foot in Ancient Well Village again! I waive the rest of the punishment."
Unlike the Bull-Nosed Daoist, who had taken things too far, Feng Ling skipped the "calling him father" business and announced the final verdict.
"Hmph! Don't play the good guy with me. Wasn't that whole stunt meant to force me into submission? You're vicious!
This poor daoist won't utter that word today, no matter what—let's see what you can do to me!" Defiant and furious, Xu Banxian brazenly declared before everyone that he was breaking the wager.
Betraying one's word like this,
and still managing to sound so righteous about it!
Feng Ling had already been generous, yet this shameless old man still failed to appreciate his kindness!
Xu Banxian himself had proposed these excessive wager terms... Justice lives in the hearts of the people!
Before Feng Ling could speak, someone else spoke up and hurled scornful curses.
"What a heartless, ungrateful wretch—turning kindness into malice!"
"Trash... scum... degenerate... the Old Bodhisattva was broad-minded with you, and you throw it back in his face without shame!"
Xu Banxian's eyes turned bloodshot as rage took hold of him. His icy gaze settled on the white-haired old man walking away in silence.
A meaningless squabble, nothing more —
Feng Ling couldn't be bothered with such trivial matters.
After tonight, he would leave. The Bull-Nosed Daoist and the others were nothing more than insignificant passersby in his life.
"Thieving Daoist, I want to make a Life-and-Death Wager with you!" With the curses ringing endlessly in his ears, Xu Banxian gnashed his teeth so hard his nails dug into his own flesh.
Yet he did not retort. Instead, he directed all his hatred at Feng Lin!
The moment those words left his mouth, the whole scene fell into deathly silence; even the stooped figure who had turned to leave couldn't help but freeze in his tracks.
"For a man without honesty,
this old one could well disregard him.
For a man without righteousness,
this old one could well slay him on the spot.
The Life-and-Death Wager... this old one accepts!
The outcome is already decided — you shall die... and I shall live!"
Feng Ling spun around, a cold glint flashing in his eyes. His voice remained calm but resolute;
it wasn't loud, but it cut clearly through the villagers' cursing and reached Xu Banxian's ears with perfect clarity.
Led by Old Wang, many villagers raised their voices anxiously: "Old Bodhisattva, are you really going to wager your life against this old fox?"
Old Wang?
Old Wang? Something stirred in Feng Ling's mind, and he recalled the object in question. A cold smile formed in his heart: since this fellow was so tactless, Feng Ling could use the thing in Old Wang's courtyard to teach him a lesson!
This time, Feng Ling had resolved to kill. But he would not do it with his own hands; in this lifetime, he did not want to incur too much blood debt from those who were not truly wicked.
"Old Wang, later, go back and remove that beam again. At the hour of the rat tonight, Xu Banxian and this old one will settle the Life-and-Death Wager by slaying the monster in your home!"
His booming voice faded into the distance, leaving several dozen people standing there dumbstruck.
"Let's go! Follow this master back to the Daoist Temple to prepare. Tonight, this master shall invoke the Nine Heavens Demon-Severing Curse!"
"The Nine Heavens Demon-Severing Curse!?" Zhang Dan and the other disciple cried out in shock. They stared at the distant figure radiating killing intent, their hearts churning like stormy seas.
They hastily chased after him, abandoning even the scattered ritual tools on the ground!
"Everyone, I must trouble you all to help this old man take down the beam together!"
"No need for such courtesy, Village Chief Elder Wang. Let's get moving." The Li Family couple led everyone in a respectful bow to Old Wang. Then Elder Wang, brimming with excitement, led them away, leaving the place empty!
Beside the rippling ancient well, a lone, cold corpse lay beneath the open sky.
As time passed, the surface ice melted under the warm sunlight, and the blackness dispersed, revealing the woman's peerless beauty in life!
"Whoosh!" A gust of wind blew past, and a pale gold streak of light danced and scattered, drifting into the bright sunlight.
Two crisp thuds struck the ground. When the villagers looked again, the woman was nowhere to be seen beside the ancient well!
"Tap, tap..."
A series of soft footsteps approached and stopped at the spot where the female corpse had vanished. Someone slowly crouched down.
A pair of fair, jade-white hands scooped up those two flawless, pure rubies.
The next instant, that figure vanished as well!
Almost no one noticed the change. No one noticed the extraordinarily handsome man standing in the ancient tree beside the well, either.
"So it wasn't her?" Doubt flickered in the man's eyes as he murmured to himself. Several leaves drifted from the ancient tree, and then the man vanished as well...