Qi Yu was silent for a moment, then looked at Yu Zhen and the others, and asked sincerely from the bottom of her heart, "Are we going with him?"
"Sister, is that the point?" Si Qing grabbed Qi Yu's collar. "I thought you'd rather explain properly now, what the heck is Fu Lu Zhai, and what the heck is this man in front of us? He's not that Ming Zun, is he?"
Yue Zhiyin also pinched Qi Yu's face. "Yeah, explain!"
"This is actually all a misunderstanding," Qi Yu struggled. "Fu Lu Zhai was an industry of the Shen Wu tribe a long time ago. Later, because I was expanding my territory, I acquired the pawnshop in the Seven Absolutes Mountain area. But over time, coupled with that incident before, I just don't remember."
Therefore, when she came to Seven Absolutes Mountain, she didn't remember that this place was her territory.
"Are you Ming Zun?" Qi Nian looked at the man.
"I am indeed Ming Zun," the man said slowly, looking at Si Qing and the others. "But I didn't intentionally do these evil deeds. I have my difficulties. If you come with me, I will explain clearly, and you will understand."
With the conversation having reached this point, Qi Yu and the others had no choice but to agree.
The man summoned a carriage and invited Qi Yu and the others to get in.
Qi Nian originally thought that such a small carriage would be very crowded once they got in, but unexpectedly, the carriage was quite spacious.
Even with so many of them sitting inside, there was still room to spare.
"Speak," Qi Yu looked at Ming Zun. "There are many things you need to explain. Tell us everything from the beginning, one by one, in detail."
"First, what's the situation with the villagers of Seven Absolutes Mountain? It's said that they worship you, chant scriptures for you, and offer young maidens to you, and in return, you can grant them divine power?"
"Second, what's the situation with the villagers using the power you gave them to kill the merfolk? I remember the last time I managed Fu Lu Zhai, I expanded its territory, and it's possible I also enveloped Seven Absolutes Mountain within the barrier."
As Qi Yu spoke, she spread her hands:
"However, the Fu Lu Zhai barrier that now envelops Seven Absolutes Mountain is no longer under my control. Someone has tampered with my Fu Lu Zhai barrier, using mermaid pearls as a medium. Ming Zun, are you fully aware of all these matters?"
Qi Yu's mood was somewhat complicated as she said these words.
This feeling was no different from hundreds of years ago, when you opened a shop called Fu Lu Zhai, acquired the adjacent shop, expanded Fu Lu Zhai's area, and for convenience, you found a shopkeeper to ensure you could earn money while lying down.
Then, after years of getting used to receiving money while lying down, you forgot about it.
You happened to pass by the shop and remembered it was your store.
At this point, although money was still automatically sent to your bank every month, you found that the key to your shop's door had been replaced, and your shopkeeper was lending money outside and marrying a new wife every year.
Ming Zun looked at Qi Yu:
"Esteemed Proprietor, everyone, it is like this."
"I am Ming Zun. Since my birth, I have lived in Seven Absolutes Mountain and have been worshipped by the villagers."
"Hundreds of years ago, to expand Fu Lu Zhai, Esteemed Proprietor took over the territory of Seven Absolutes Mountain and bestowed upon me the position of shopkeeper."
"Initially, I merely blessed the villagers of Seven Absolutes Mountain with favorable weather and abundant harvests."
"Until hundreds of years ago, you suddenly disappeared. After I was subdued by you, my powers came from you. When you disappeared, I lost the support of my powers and unknowingly fell into a deep slumber."
"As a result, when I awoke, I discovered a surge of evil energy within my body."
"At first, that evil energy was relatively well-behaved and didn't do anything. But later, that evil energy began to frequently influence my thoughts, control me, and force me to fight against it every day."
"That evil energy controlled me to take a young maiden every year and absorb their yin energy."
"After each use, that evil energy simply wanted to kill those young maidens."
"I couldn't escape its control, so all I could do was send those maidens back... As for making those maidens into saintesses and chanting prayers, it was mainly out of fear for the maidens' lives."
"After all, mortals are ignorant. In the eyes of those villagers, even if these young maidens were still pure, they had already lost their reputation, and if they didn't commit suicide, they would be drowned."
Ming Zun lowered his head. "As for bestowing divine power upon the villagers, making their wishes come true in all matters, and even inciting the villagers to hunt merfolk and dig for mermaid pearls, these have nothing to do with me. It was all the work of that evil energy."
"As for the Fu Lu Zhai barrier that enveloped Seven Absolutes Mountain, why it has become reliant on mermaid pearls as a medium, I suspect it is the doing of the evil energy within me."
Yue Zhiyin pondered for a moment. "Based on this speculation, then, the extra evil energy in Ming Zun's body should be the Evil Ancestor."
Qi Yu had figured out most of it. "It seems that the Evil Ancestor planted a strand of evil energy in Ming Zun's body when I fell into the Evil Cold Hell, and then from time to time used Ming Zun to obtain the pure yin energy of young maidens to nourish himself."
"He even used Ming Zun's followers to amplify their evil thoughts, instigating them to use that evil power to hunt merfolk and dig for mermaid pearls."
"He used mermaid pearls as a medium to alter the formation of Fu Lu Zhai that enveloped Seven Absolutes Mountain, likely to find more lairs for himself..."
As Qi Yu analyzed this, she couldn't help but feel puzzled. She looked at Ming Zun. "But if that's the case, then when you weren't encountering me just now, you should have been under the control of the evil energy while riding the horse. Why did you immediately return to normal after seeing me?"
"I, I don't know," Ming Zun also shook his head. "Normally, I can't last more than the time it takes for an incense stick to burn before that evil energy starts fighting me for control of my body. But when I sat beside Esteemed Proprietor, that evil energy never appeared."
It made him sound like he was lying.
"It's probably not that it didn't want to appear, but because Ming Zun's powers originally came from Qi Yu, and now the Evil Ancestor's main body is severely injured and its primordial spirit is mostly destroyed, causing the current Evil Ancestor to be no match for Qi Yu," Yu Zhen guessed from the side. "So when Qi Yu sits beside Ming Zun, Ming Zun's powers surge, and the evil energy is naturally suppressed firmly."
Everyone thought this made sense.
Sui You listened silently from the side. When everyone had finished speaking, he finally posed a crucial question to Qi Yu:
"So, Qi Yu, you never mentioned Fu Lu Zhai from the moment you entered the mountain. Does this mean you've completely forgotten about this identity of yours?"
"Then, can I reasonably suspect from this that you have many other identities besides this one, but you've also forgotten most of them?"
Qi Yu's expression froze on her face. "..."
Third Senior Brother, in this life, why must you be so serious about uncovering people's hidden identities...