Chapter 51 Something Might Have Happened to Her
Lin Heng ran forward as fast as he could, often tripping over rotten tree stumps or stones on the ground. His clothes were quickly torn to shreds by tree branches, and he, who was usually very particular about his appearance, didn't even dare to look down at himself.
He staggered forward, panting heavily, his heart pounding in his chest. Even though he had been running for a long time, he felt like he was still going in circles.
Achan glanced down a few times and immediately noticed something amiss. A malevolent spirit was haunting him, causing him to run for his life, yet he was still easily caught by Lin Sui, who was guided by the malevolent spirit.
"The mountain king cheated."
The black tiger demon lay on the boulder and yawned: "That woman is too slow. This kind of game is more fun. Or do you actually not want them to be caught?"
The black tiger demon, who had just been caught up in Ah Chan's words, calmed down a bit, but suspicions resurfaced.
Isn't it too much of a coincidence that anyone you randomly grab is a member of the same clan as the people of the Possessed City?
Was she suggesting this game a way to let these people escape?
The Black Tiger Demon had seen many humans who were willing to sacrifice themselves for others, so it tested Achan again.
Achan rolled her eyes: "Shanjun is really suspicious. Anyone who didn't know better would think you were a tigress."
"Roar, I'm male!"
"Hmph." Ah Chan hummed softly.
At this moment, Lin Sui had already come up behind Lin Heng. The two of them stopped talking and instead focused intently on the scene unfolding below.
Without hesitation, Lin Sui slammed the stick in his hand into Lin Heng's lower back. The stick, imbued with the demonic energy of the Black Tiger Demon, looked like an iron rod, but its force was far greater than that of an iron rod.
With just one blow, Lin Heng felt as if his lower back was about to break. He screamed and fell to the ground.
Lin Heng endured the excruciating pain and rolled over, only to find that the person who hit him was Lin Sui. The fear on his face instantly turned into anger: "Lin Sui, how dare you hit me? I'm your second brother!"
"Second brother?" Lin Sui walked step by step toward Lin Heng, carrying a stick. "When you forced Xiao Luo to go up the mountain, did you never think that you were my second brother?"
She pressed the stick in her hand against Lin Heng's chest: "I'll ask you one more time, where did Xiao Luo go? If you don't answer me, I don't mind losing a second brother from now on."
"I released him! We released him a long time ago!" Lin Heng seemed to finally realize that Lin Sui was really going to kill him, and he shouted frantically at the top of his lungs.
"Is that so?" Lin Sui lowered her eyes, seemingly deep in thought.
At this moment, a ferocious look flashed across Lin Heng's face. He suddenly reached out and grabbed the stick pressed against his chest, pulling it down forcefully, but he couldn't budge it.
Seeing this, Achan, sitting on the tiger's back, chuckled and said to the mountain king, "The show is about to begin."
The next moment, Lin Sui swung the stick and smashed it down hard on Lin Heng's arm. After just three blows, his arm broke off with a scream.
"I'll ask you one more time, where is Xiao Luo?" Lin Sui's tone was calm, but her eyes sent chills down Lin Heng's spine.
"Lin Sui, I didn't mean it. I was just joking with you." He kept trying to exonerate himself. "Oh right, I really let Gao Luo go. You can believe me."
Why was he injured?
"He didn't." Lin Heng didn't dare let Lin Sui know what they had done to Gao Luo, so he lied through his teeth.
Unfortunately, Lin Sui no longer believed him. After hearing Lin Heng's explanation, she didn't say another word and swung the stick again.
This time, the stick was aimed at his legs.
Lin Heng was beaten to the ground by Lin Sui, rolling around in agony. The excruciating pain in his legs made him scream and curse Lin Sui wildly: "Lin Sui, you'll die a horrible death! When I get home, I won't let you go! I'll sell you into a brothel and make you and your bastard brother die together!!!"
"Where is Gao Luo?"
“Gao Luo died in the mountains a long time ago. We shot him with an arrow and he rolled down the mountain. Hahaha, he's dead for sure. You won't find him.”
Lin Sui continued his actions until he smashed Lin Heng's leg, fracturing it inch by inch.
"I won't kill you, but I'll make you taste the suffering Xiao Luo went through." After saying that, Lin Sui picked up the stick and turned to leave.
Lin Heng collapsed to the ground like a lump of mud. While he was rolling around, his mouth was stuffed with rotten leaves and dirt, and now he couldn't even make a sound.
"Oh dear, he's still alive." Achan exclaimed softly, "It seems that the Mountain Lord guessed correctly."
Although the Black Tiger Demon guessed the result correctly, he did not guess the process.
Its eerie eyes stared at Lin Sui's retreating figure: "This human is very interesting. I admire her. When the game is over, I'll turn her into my accomplice and keep her by my side forever."
Achan gently stroked the fur on the black tiger demon's body with her fingers, but the smile on her lips fell slightly.
Just as Lin Sui was about to go find the next person, A Chan suddenly spoke up: "I want Shan Jun to do me a favor."
"What kind of help?"
"Does the mountain king remember that boy in the blue clothes, who had very fair skin?"
"What are you going to do?" the Black Tiger Demon asked, narrowing his eyes.
“I want the Mountain Lord to take me to him.” Achan leaned forward and patted the black tiger demon’s not-so-shrewd head. “I have some personal grudges against him. I didn’t have the chance before, but now that I’m relying on the Mountain Lord’s power, I can’t let him go again.”
The black tiger demon immediately became interested. It stood up, and its massive body took a leap in the air, covering a great distance in one bound. It carried Achan and quickly traversed the forest.
Xue Zhao fled in the opposite direction from Lin Heng. He was more astute than Lin Heng; he remembered the way he came, but he didn't tell anyone.
Moreover, Xue Zhao seemed to possess something that could ward off ghosts and monsters, and all the ghosts that tried to block his path failed.
When the Black Tiger Demon brought Achan to find him, he had already run out of the territory designated by the Black Tiger Demon.
"Hehe, this kid runs pretty fast. If it weren't for me, you wouldn't have been able to catch him today."
"Thanks to the mountain king's help, we were able to capture him."
Xue Zhao was very perceptive and seemed to sense that something was chasing him from behind. He rolled on the ground in an attempt to avoid what was behind him, but was slapped to the ground by the black tiger demon's claw.
He coughed up blood, struggled to lift his head, and saw the enormous tiger demon land lightly beside him.
The tiger demon crouched down, and a dazzling crimson stain slid down its body.
Achan landed barefoot, but stopped after taking only a few steps. Her soles were poked by rough stones on the ground, and she frowned unhappily. She then shook her skirt to cover her toes.
"It's you..." Upon seeing Ji Chan's face, a barely perceptible look of fear flashed in Xue Zhao's eyes.
"Yes, aren't you surprised to see me?" Achan slowly squatted down, tilting her head to look at Xue Zhao, whose mouth was bleeding.
"You will not have a good end if you associate with the tiger demon; you will die sooner or later!"
Achan laughed: "Your momentum is quite good, stronger than your uncle's."
Xue Zhao's pupils constricted: "It was you, it was you who killed my uncle?"
"Who else could it be? Haven't you ever thought that if you want me to die, I also want you to die?" Seeing Xue Zhao reach out to grab her, even though she couldn't reach him, A Chan still straightened up and stepped back.
She still wore a sweet smile on her face, her eyes clear, like an innocent little girl, but the words she spoke shattered Xue Zhao's heart.
“Before he died, I told him that someone would soon go down to join him. Look, it’s only been a few days, and it’s your turn.”
"Ji Chan, you won't succeed. You killed me, and Father will kill you with his own hands. He won't let you go!"
"Do you think I'll let him go?"
Ji Chan's enemies are not just the Xue family.
Under Xue Zhao's unwilling and angry gaze, A Chan stood up: "Mountain Lord, I'll have to trouble you again."
The black tiger demon raised its claw and stomped hard on Xue Zhao, the sound of bones being crushed echoing through his body, and the smell of blood wafted out. It squinted at Xue Zhao and said to A Chan, "He has a grudge against you. How about I eat him alive?"
Ah Chan frowned slightly, a hint of resistance showing on her face.
"You can't stand seeing me eat people?"
"No, it's just that I feel that eating a few ordinary people would only pollute my internal energy. Has the Mountain Lord ever eaten cultivators?"
"Of course, he's no different from ordinary people."
Achan shook her head: "Mountain Lord, you are mistaken. Cultivators are vastly different from ordinary people. I suspect that what you eat is not from cultivators of the same level, is it?"
The Black Tiger Demon thought about it and realized it was true.
"The flesh and blood of cultivators of the same level can boost the Mountain Lord's cultivation level by a significant amount."
The black tiger demon licked its lips: "Really?"
"Of course it's true."
"It's a pity that cultivators at the third realm are hard to find, and they like to gather in groups." The black tiger demon shook its head. Although it was tempted by what A-Chan said, it was still very wary of human cultivators.
Achan looked down at Xue Zhao, whose eyes were wide open but who had already lost his voice under the black tiger's claws. Xue Zhao's blood flowed in all directions, and Achan took a step back in disgust.
Avoiding the blood, she said, "To thank the Mountain Lord for getting rid of him for me, I'll take him to find a lone cultivator at the Third Realm. After we eat him, we'll go to Xiling, how about that?"
The black tiger demon narrowed its enormous eyes: "You wouldn't be thinking of having that cultivator subdue me, would you?"
Achan looked somewhat helpless: "You can't even defeat a cultivator at the third realm? At the same realm, what human can be a match for our demon race? Besides, if you find that the cultivator has someone lying in ambush beside him, you can kill me and then escape. I don't think anyone can stop you."
The black tiger demon thought about it and found it made a lot of sense, but out of caution, it asked again, "How do you know there are lone cultivators at the third realm?"
Achan said with great distress, "That cultivator had some grudges against me before. This time, I went out with someone, and he happened to be invited to the same place. When we met on the road, he even humiliated me!"
She thought to herself, how could it not be considered an insult if she was robbed of two hundred taels of silver for no reason?
Seeing that the Black Tiger Demon was still hesitating, she added, "If the Mountain Lord finds it troublesome, then forget it. Originally, I saw that your cultivation was only at the third realm. If you could improve to the peak of the third realm, it would be safer when you eat my sixth uncle's inner core."
Hearing what Achan said, the Black Tiger Demon finally stopped hesitating. As long as it could eat the inner core of the Fourth Realm Fox Demon, it would have a chance to advance to the Fourth Realm. At that time, it could become a king even in the demon realm and would no longer be forced to flee to the Great Xia because of offending other great demons.
"Alright, take me to that third-realm cultivator now." Although she said that, the Black Tiger Demon thought to herself, this fox demon really holds grudges. She wants to kill anyone who has a grudge against her.
Once I got the demon core, I killed the fox demon to prevent the fox clan from finding out that I had swallowed the demon core of the fox king's son and causing them trouble.
"Isn't the Mountain Lord afraid? That man is an official of the Great Xia Dynasty." Achan deliberately mocked the Black Tiger Demon.
"Didn't you say we'd go to Xiling after we finished eating? That way, we could run away and the officials of Daxia wouldn't be able to catch us."
Achan immediately praised, "Mountain Lord is truly decisive; he will surely achieve great things in the future. If you become a Fifth Realm Demon King in the future, please don't forget me."
"Sure thing, hahaha..."
As dusk fell, lanterns were lit up throughout the lotus garden, illuminating the entire area.
Today, as her son went out, Xue's eyelids kept twitching. She was constantly worried, fearing that something might happen.
As darkness fell, Xue Zhao still hadn't returned, and Madam Xue lingered at the entrance of the Lotus Garden for quite some time.
Xue Ying disregarded her mother's worries and even advised her, "Mother, brother might just have been delayed on the way. There were so many people with him, how could anything happen? You're just overthinking it."
Madam Xue didn't listen to her daughter at all. She complained, "Your brother just won't listen. The outskirts are nowhere as safe as the capital. Last time he encountered a tiger demon and almost didn't make it back, yet he still dares to go."
"There aren't that many monsters in this world," Xue Ying muttered, suddenly feeling a pang of fear.
The feeling came out of nowhere, and she was suddenly filled with fear, as if she had lost someone important. Who was it?
"What's wrong?" Seeing her daughter clutching her chest and collapsing to the ground, Madam Xue rushed forward in a panic and said to the guards at the gate, "Quickly, go and call the doctor."
The guard turned and went into the lotus garden to fetch a doctor.
"Yingying, what's wrong?"
"Mother!" Xue Ying suddenly grabbed Xue Shi's sleeve, her eyes wide open. "It's brother! It seems something has happened to brother."
"What nonsense are you talking about!" Madam Xue scolded.
“I’m not lying. I have a bad feeling. Something must have happened to someone, Mother. We have to find my brother right away.”
Although Xue said she was worried about her son's safety, she was unwilling to admit that something might have happened to him.
However, since her son and daughter were little, they had some kind of connection. If her daughter had a fever, her son would also cry incessantly. Now that her daughter had said this, Madam Xue couldn't help but panic.
After the doctor arrived, she left her daughter behind and hurriedly ran back to find the guards she had brought, instructing them to go and greet the people along the way.
Finally, she went to the Princess's courtyard and asked to see her.
After the guards went in to report, the nanny who was with the princess came out and said to Madam Xue, "People of the Marquis of Jinyang's residence, the princess is currently in Lord Bai's courtyard. If you are looking for the princess, this servant can take you there."
Although Madam Xue was anxious, she did not dare to urge him and only said, "Thank you for your trouble, Granny."
At this moment, in the courtyard where Bai Xiuming lived, the sounds of flowing water and chirping insects echoed each other.
There was a small pond in the courtyard where he lived, and a patch of lotus flowers grew in the pond.
These lotus flowers are somewhat different from the lotus flowers of other colors outside. During the day, the lotus buds here are tightly closed, but as the sun sets, they tremble and slowly open their petals.
The tips of the petals glowed faintly in the night, and when the lotus flowers in the pond bloomed, it looked exceptionally beautiful.
These lotus flowers were a rare variety specially brought from Xiling by Princess Fu Ning. It is said that this type of lotus was cultivated by the deceased Princess of Xiling many years ago, and is therefore considered a rare variety.
Bai Xiuming graced the lotus garden with his presence, also for the sake of these lotus flowers.
Princess Fu Ning stood by the pond with Bai Xiuming. Although it wasn't the first time she had seen these lotus flowers bloom, she was always amazed every time she came to see them.
Neither of them spoke; they simply watched each other in silence.
Suddenly, the voice of the princess's personal nanny rang out from outside the courtyard.
"Princess, the Lady of Jinyang Marquis requests an audience."
Princess Fu Ning frowned, somewhat displeased at being disturbed at this time. She glanced reluctantly at the lotus flowers in the pond before saying to Bai Xiuming, "I'll be right back."
Bai Xiuming responded and then turned to walk out of the courtyard.
Upon meeting Princess Fu Ning, Madam Xue said in a trembling voice, "Princess, my son went hunting with the third young master of the Duke of Liguo's mansion and the second young master of the General of Anxi's mansion. They promised to return before dark, but there has been no sign of them since."
The old nanny standing nearby was displeased when she heard that Madam Xue had only asked the princess for this matter.
Princess Fu Ning felt helpless, thinking that the second wife of the Marquis of Jinyang was somewhat clueless, no wonder she would instigate the Marquis of Jinyang to do such a undignified thing.
However, she always presented a gentle demeanor to the public, so she couldn't say anything harsh at this moment. She simply said, "Perhaps they were just delayed by something on the way. If the Lady of Jinyang is really worried, I will send guards to find them."
Seeing Princess Fu Ning's nonchalant attitude, Xue knelt down with a thud.
“Princess, I am not exaggerating. My daughter and my son have been of one mind since childhood. She suddenly broke out in pain just now, saying that something had happened to my son. Those who went out with my son were all sons of noble families. I am worried that they may have all encountered an accident.”
Hearing her say this, Princess Fu Ning also became worried. Although the incident did not happen here, if those people really encountered an accident, she would inevitably offend several noble families.
"So what do you plan to do?"
With hopeful eyes, Madam Xue asked, "I wonder if the princess can ask Lord Bai for help? He is highly skilled in cultivation, so finding someone shouldn't be difficult for him. If there are any evil spirits or demons, he can easily eliminate them."
Princess Fu Ning turned around and glanced at the courtyard: "I cannot agree to this on his behalf. I will take you inside, and you can tell him about it."
"Thank you, Princess." Madam Xue really didn't know who to ask for help from, and the only person she could think of was Bai Xiuming.
He is the Commander of the Mingjing Division, and her husband said that he was even evenly matched with the Marquis of Zhenbei. If this man were to help, he would definitely be able to find her son.
Madam Xue had a good plan, but when she knelt beside Bai Xiuming and begged him for help, Bai Xiuming only glanced at her indifferently: "Madam Hou has come to the wrong person. I am not the Prefect of the Capital and I am not responsible for finding people."
“Lord Bai, the place my son went to is the mountain where tiger demons used to roam. Perhaps there are still evil spirits in the mountain that haven’t been cleared out. Isn’t this within the purview of the Mingjing Division?”
"If anyone can get me to do things for them based on mere guesswork, then I..."
Before Bai Xiuming could finish speaking, another commotion suddenly arose outside the courtyard.
"Madam, you cannot go in."
"The princess is here. If you try to force your way in, we will show no mercy."
The guards' shouts rang out one after another, the gate was kicked open, and Bai Xiuming looked up and saw Chen Hui looking disheveled.
Upon seeing Bai Xiuming, Chen Hui immediately said, "Lord Bai, we encountered ghosts in the mountains. Lin Sui was kidnapped, and A Chan, who was left in the village, has also disappeared. Something may have happened to her."
Bai Xiuming asked in a deep voice, "Where did she disappear from?"
"Huangxi Village".
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