The Rebirth of the Cultivation Leader Qin Zhao as a Celebrity
Chapter 48 - 45 Successor of the Heavenly Master Sect

Chapter 48: Chapter 45 Successor of the Heavenly Master Sect

Qin Zhao had entered the mountain forest, and it was getting late. As a cultivator, she could see in the night, so the darkness didn’t affect her.

Feeling someone following her, she couldn’t help but slow down, "What are you doing here?"

"Why then are you coming to take risks?"

There were oddities in the mountain, and dangerous places often held treasures. Naturally, Qin Zhao had come to explore.

She frowned and said impatiently, "Hurry back. If you encounter any danger, I won’t help you."

Chu Yan didn’t respond, but when Qin Zhao continued walking forward, he still followed behind.

The light in the dense forest was very dim, and it was unclear how he could accurately follow Qin Zhao.

Until a certain moment, he could no longer feel Qin Zhao’s presence and couldn’t tell where she was.

"Zhaozhao!"

A panic suddenly appeared on his cold and indifferent handsome face.

The place where the two were was shrouded in dense fog at the mountain top.

Here, there wasn’t even the slightest sound of insects or birds, only endless silence. Besides his own hurried footsteps, there were no other sounds; she seemed to have suddenly disappeared from the spot, nowhere to be found.

The moonlight struggled to pierce through the thick fog, managing to cast a patch of light on the flat ground not too far away.

A person holding a flashlight emerged from the fog.

"Qin Zhao!"

Chu Yan hurried over, but it wasn’t her.

The person with the flashlight was a middle-aged man, but his hair was graying, and he looked older than his peers. He said to Chu Yan, "Dr. Chu, there are many wild animals in the mountains at night. It’s better for you to descend the mountain."

Chu Yan stared at him for a while before he remembered who he was.

Half a year ago, he had treated two disabled people, a woman with congenital deaf-mute syndrome, and a man with a condition caused by medication that induced muteness; they were husband and wife.

He had treated many patients, but he remembered them because the woman had brought a metal box that day filled with money she earned from handicrafts. She counted only two thousand on the spot, asking him if it was enough to cure them.

Two thousand wasn’t even enough for the initial medication.

However, the way that woman counted the money with the metal box reminded him of when he was preparing for university; his mother took out all her savings, counted each bill, and then sewed them into his pocket without keeping any for herself.

He had come from the barren Northwest, and just stepping into the big city of Imperial City had exhausted all of his mother’s efforts.

So that day, Chu Yan told them, "It’s enough."

Two thousand was enough to cure their conditions.

The man’s muteness was acquired from drug toxicity, so the surgery was straightforward. Chu Yan first performed his surgery. However, during the recovery period, the man suddenly disappeared from the hospital and never returned.

His wife’s surgery was never performed.

Chu Yan didn’t expect to encounter him here and couldn’t help but ask, "Why did you leave that day? How’s your recovery? And your wife..."

"I’ve recovered very well."

Shen Dongdong answered, showing a smile.

But this smile seemed a bit bitter, a bit strained.

"Better leave now," Shen Dongdong advised him. "It’s not safe here in the mountains at night."

Chu Yan shook his head, "My wife went in there. I need to find her."

The middle-aged man paused and said, "I am the mountain guard here, and I am quite familiar with this area. How about I help you search for her? You can rest at my house for a while."

"I’d better go with you. I won’t feel at ease until I see her."

Shen Dongdong furrowed his brows, but in the end, he nodded.

"Alright, follow me."

The two men walked deeper into the mountain.

On the way, Shen Dongdong suddenly said to Chu Yan, "Dr. Chu, do you know why I was poisoned to become mute?"

Chu Yan, worried about Qin Zhao’s safety and somewhat distracted, thought that talking with him might ease some tension, so he followed the conversation and asked, "Why?"

"My ancestors were descendants of the Heavenly Master Sect. After the lineage was broken, the sect gradually declined, and we could only make a living by telling fortunes and checking Feng Shui, earning just enough to get by.

Fate is most playful, glory one second can turn into the Abyss the next.

At that time, I read the fortune for a ’big brother’ who was too powerful to believe that he would face hardship. He thought I was spouting nonsense and had people poison me to mute.

He also said that if he saw me telling fortunes again, he would have me killed. I had no choice but to flee to this secluded area of Mang Mountain to scrape by a living, and later I encountered my wife, Qu Donghong.

She was naive to think that two thousand yuan would be enough for a surgery to cure me."

Shen Dongdong fell silent for a long time.

"The Heavenly Master spies on fate, but reading too much leads to a bad end. Dr. Chu, you’re a good man. How about I tell your fortune?"

"There’s no need. I don’t want to decrease your lifespan."

Chu Yan believed he could control his fate, and even if he couldn’t, he would certainly defy the heavens.

After all, he had always done so from a young age.

Shen Dongdong gave a hoarse laugh, which in the dimming sky seemed eerily sinister.

"I’ve been to hell already; what’s one more reading? Dr. Chu, you will have a blissful life ahead, with your wife and children by your side, never leaving."

Shen Dongdong’s voice seemed to come from the edge of the sky, the flashlight’s light suddenly dimmed, the thickening mountain fog enveloped him, and his consciousness plunged into chaos.

He dragged the unconscious Chu Yan under a tree, then suddenly looked toward the mountain peak.

"Dr. Chu, I’m sorry, I’ll try not to harm her."

Shen Dongdong’s figure vanished from the spot. He rushed to the mountaintop and found Qin Zhao had already broken through the maze and entered the altar.

Earlier, Qin Zhao’s sudden disappearance in front of Chu Yan was not intentional but was caused by Shen Dongdong’s trap. She had just escaped it.

The thick fog on the mountain peak was all a cover. Within lay chilling winds.

There was an extremely eerie altar permeated with yin energy and resentful energy, resembling a miniature pyramid, draped with corpses.

Each corpse was gruesomely disfigured; some had arms severed, some had eyes gouged out, and others were twisted into bizarre forms like Shi Yunkai.

It was barely discernible that these were the villagers who had followed the village head to drive away the disabled, and of course, the two female celebrities who went with Shi Yunkai to watch the sunrise, all of whom had their tongues cut out.

On the ground beside the altar, strange symbols were drawn in fresh blood.

"Ooh, hm!" "Help!"

Two living people, tightly bound, were carelessly thrown to the side. Seeing Qin Zhao, they couldn’t help but struggle vehemently, casting pleading looks at her.

These two were the bodyguards sent by Li Zhen to search the mountain for Shi Yunkai.

As Qin Zhao stepped forward to untie them, they suddenly widened their eyes, desperately staring behind her with pupils dilated and filled with terror.