Grudge Breaker

Chapter 365: The Mystery of Jing Zhe
In an unknown cave halfway up the mountain in Ghost Market, Qin Che saw Jing Lan sitting at the table with a sullen face and not saying a word, and quickly poured her some wine.

"Aunt, you haven't said a word to me these past two days, which makes me very uneasy. If you are really angry, will you scold me?"

Jing Lan stroked the broken badge in her hand and ignored the flattering Qin Che in front of her.

Two days had passed. The hope that had been burning in her heart in the Ghost Market Cave had long since died down. After all, eight hundred years had passed. She was still alive because she had married Ruan Beiming and entered the immortal register, so she could remain immortal forever.

But her father, Jing Zhe, although a great man, was ultimately a mortal. Even if he had managed to survive in the past, how could he have lived to this day? In other words, no matter who she was waiting for, it would not be Jing Zhe.

Today, although it has never been made public, Ruan Mianmian's disappearance is no longer a secret among the Meijie Immortal Noble. In fact, many people already knew about it during the night banquet at the Realm Lord's Mansion, but they pretended to be ignorant. After all, it was a girl's disappearance. If it were to be spread out, even if she was found, her reputation would be damaged, so they all pretended that it had not happened.

Therefore, there was a fear that some bad guys had heard about Mianmian's disappearance and happened to have obtained this badge, so they wanted to use it to blackmail the Ruan family and gain unexpected wealth.

As for Qin Che, how could Jing Lan not know his feelings for Ruan Mianmian? It was a pity that he had no ambition, no knowledge, and a dissolute and empty-named marquis, how could he be worthy of his own daughter. Humph, I'm afraid that bringing her to the ghost market this time would only do more harm than good.

Thinking of this, Jing Lan stood up and walked out of the cave. The agreed two days had passed, and he had wasted so much time in vain - this damn place was so chaotic that he couldn't contact anyone, and he didn't know if the evil formation in Mianmian's room had changed again.

"Aunt, where are you going?"

Ignoring Qin Che's anxious inquiries behind him, Jing Lan walked as fast as the wind and was about to leave the cave.

"NanNan..."

! !
The shout was like thunder, shocking Jing Lan to the spot. Although the sound was not loud, his internal organs felt pain.

"Lan'er, my daughter."

The person behind her called out again, and the voice sounded a little closer to her.

How can it be……

Jing Zhe...In this world, only her father would call her Nannan.

Jing Lan's lips were trembling violently. She wanted to turn around but didn't dare to. Her whole body was tense.

Suddenly, a pair of hands rested on Jing Lan's arms without warning.
"Aunt, the master is calling you. I have waited for two days and finally got here. What is this for?"

Qin Che didn't understand the principle of being homesick and feeling difficult to express.

"Young Marquis, let me talk to the master alone, okay?"

This was the first sentence Jing Lan had said to Qin Che in the past two days. Qin Che was startled and looked behind him.
"Oh, okay, auntie, then I'll go to the ghost market and come back in about two hours."

……

Qin Che left. Jing Lan took a few deep breaths, imagined countless possible appearances of the person behind him in his mind, and then turned around.

By the time Jing Lan realized it, she had already thrown herself into the arms of the person behind her like she did when she was a child.

"father!!"

Jing Zhe's appearance was almost the same as in Jing Lan's memory. He was eight feet tall, with sword-like eyebrows and deep eyes, slightly gray hair, broad shoulders and a thick back, dark and rough skin, and his palms were covered with thick calluses from years of using knives. All these things even made her feel that the clothes Jing Zhe was wearing were the same clothes she had prepared for him when he went to the foreign land to escort the caravan eight hundred years ago.

"Dad, they all said that you were captured by the barbarians and thrown into a bear cave, and were, were..." Jing Lan couldn't speak of those tragic things.

"My daughter has grown up."

Jing Zheng touched Jing Lan's head as he did when they were little, and pointed to the wooden house surrounded by the canal, "Let's go in and talk."
.
"Nannan, Daddy doesn't have much time, so I'll tell you the important things first."

"That little girl named Mianmian, is she my granddaughter?"

"Yes! Yes! Daddy, have you seen Mianmian? Where is she!"

……

"I met her at Shennv Peak."

"Goddess Peak?!"

Jing Lan was shocked. On the one hand, she was horrified as to why her beloved daughter would appear there. Goddess Peak was full of strange beasts, which were fierce and ferocious. How could a little girl like her be in such a place? On the other hand, she was horrified as to why her father, who had disappeared for 800 years, knew about Mianmian's affairs and appeared in Goddess Peak by such a coincidence - no! It must not be a coincidence!
"Daddy, what's going on? How is Mianmian?"

"Don't worry, Nannan. Daddy just wants to tell you that my little granddaughter is not in danger for the time being."

Jing Zhe patted Jing Lan's hand in a soothing manner and told her the truth about what happened at the Goddess Peak. It turned out that he was ordered to go to the Goddess Peak to set up a formation and secretly lay some means for the next warlock grading trial. At the same time, he was also ordered to see if there was anyone secretly following the "bait".

"The bait is my little granddaughter. She is just a faint shadow. The adults said that her real body is in another dimension and is safe. There is no need to worry. They also said that she will be allowed to go home as soon as the grading trial is over."

"Although I haven't contacted you for all these years, I know that my daughter has a promising future. She married into an immortal family and gave birth to a cute and well-behaved granddaughter."

"I recognized my granddaughter's head the moment I saw her. There's no doubt about it. She has the same look in your eyes as a child..."

"Wait." Although Jing Lan was extremely reluctant, she still had to interrupt Jing Zhe.

"Master? What master? Who is the master you are talking about, Daddy? And why did you kidnap Mian Mian?"

Jing Zheng opened his mouth, but in the end said nothing. He just patted Jing Lan's head lovingly.
"Nannan has grown up and needs to learn to protect herself. Daddy, Daddy can't protect you anymore." "Daddy, who is the adult? Please tell Nannan!"

"Your Excellency is..."

"Yes……"

Jing Zhe's face suddenly became ferocious - not completely ferocious, but his facial features were twisted uncontrollably. He seemed to be in pain, holding his head with both hands and sobbing uncontrollably. Seeing a thick layer of black bristles growing on the back of the familiar, calloused hands, Jing Lan was so frightened that she subconsciously stood up and stepped back.

No, this is not her daddy.

Intellectually, Jing Lan knew that she should leave, should leave here immediately, but she just couldn't move her legs - she was afraid that after leaving, she would never have the chance to see her father whom she had missed for hundreds of years again in this life, and she would have no one to tell her secret and long-lasting love for his family.

Apart from Ruan Mianmian, the "monster" in front of her who calls her Nannan is the only one who may be closest to her bloodline.

……

After an unknown amount of time, the pair of hands covered with black manes finally returned to their original state. Jing Zhe raised his head with an indescribably sad look on his face.

"Daddy, you are so bad. You must have scared my daughter..."

"Nannan, the name you want to know is not because Daddy doesn't want to tell you, but because he can't. You also saw that as long as I think about it, it will become like what I just did."

……

"Sealed Deed."

Jing Lan murmured two words. For some reason, the scene before her reminded her of the beast taming technique that Jing Zeng taught her in her early years, which was a hand seal contract that would be used on rare and sentient beasts.

The master uses his own blood to "cast a spell" and brand the "master's name seal" on the spirit beast's Baihui, larynx, and Mingmen, forming a sealed contract.

Different from the unilateral enslavement of ordinary beast taming techniques, the "Sealed Contract" is a two-way binding contract between the master and the spirit beast, with the master's "real name" as the "contract" - if the master breaks the oath, the beast can retaliate; if the beast breaks the contract, it will be difficult to escape unscathed.

This contract can not only greatly enhance the magic power and combat capability of the master and the spirit beast, but also protect each other's lives - as long as one party does not die, the other party can live forever.

However, the spirit beast that has signed a "sealed contract" must never express the master's name in any way - this is the most important part of the contract. Not to mention actually revealing it, just thinking of the name and having the desire to say it will risk violating the rules of the contract, which will result in fractures and extreme pain.

……

Jing Lan was a little dazed. It was obvious that her father Jing Zhe was the king of beasts in the past, but now he seemed a bit like a beast that had been bound by a "sealed contract" by its master.

"Nannah."

Jing Zhe waved his hand, motioning Jing Lan to sit back.

"Daddy didn't look for you for all these years because—"

"Daddy and the adults have made a sealed contract."

! !
"How can it be!"

Jing Lan was horrified. Her father was a human, not a spirit beast. How could he form a "sealed contract" with another beast tamer?
Seeing Jing Lan's appearance, Jing Zhe struggled but still lifted up his sleeves. His right arm looked normal and there was nothing unusual about it, but his left arm was covered with the same black hair that he had just seen, which made Jing Lan's scalp tingle.

"Back then, the barbarians tied me up and threw me into a cave. There was a huge black bear hibernating with its cubs in the cave. Those people shot the cubs and sealed the cave entrance. The black bear was forced to wake up from hibernation and was already violent. With its cubs killed, it became extremely crazy."

"I fought with the bear in the cave for two days, and gradually I was at a disadvantage. If I dragged it on, I would die. After much thought, I could only reluctantly use the 'Mind Stealing Technique' to control the beast. It was innocent, and so was I. If it were possible, why would we kill each other?"

"It's just... Nannan, you know this method well. Each step requires a great deal of mental strength. If you are not careful, it will fail and backfire on the beastmaster."

"The first step is blood attraction. Feed it with your own blood essence to form a blood contract. The second step is devouring thoughts. Follow the blood contract to enter the beast's consciousness and suppress its madness with magic to achieve temporary control. Everything has been going smoothly up to this step."

"But I still underestimated Black Bear's grief over the loss of his son. When it came to the third and most important step of the contract, 'Eternal Mark', Black Bear's anger and pain instantly broke through control, and he was determined to destroy me even at the cost of self-destruction."

"Although I managed to survive in the end, half of me was eaten by the mind-stealing technique. Black bear mane grew on my body, and my habits became the same as a black bear..."

"It eventually became a half-beast."

How ironic that the beast tamer who was famous throughout the world eight hundred years ago became a half-beast.

Jing Zheng looked at the black mane on his arm, his eyes calm as if he was talking about the daily life of an unrelated person.

"Now that you've become this horrible state, I dare not go back to find you, for fear of bringing disgrace upon you. I'm even more afraid that the fact that I'm still alive will affect you and your status as 'Princess Zhonghui'."

Hearing this, Jing Lan couldn't hold back any longer. She covered her face and cried like a child.

"Don't cry, Nannan. Daddy is fine."

"Daddy was afraid of getting you into trouble, so he quietly found this cave and hid there."

"This cave is called the Hero's Tomb. Don't be fooled by its current appearance. It used to be a mass grave. Eight hundred years ago, during the fierce battle with the barbarians, not only this place, but the entire Pingyang was a huge cemetery and armory. The cave was full of corpses and weapon fragments. Later, an earthquake buried them all underground."

"Military spirit can suppress the beastly nature. This is why I chose to hide here."

"I don't know how long I hid. Just when I thought I was going to die quietly here, a tall man with a mask and a shrill voice appeared."