The full moon was half covered, and it was late at night. All the candles in the shabby guest room were lit. The five people stood silently in the room again, looking at the person and spirit wriggling in the center.
Yun Xian had previously thought this inn was the base of the spirits, but he hadn't expected the proprietress to be a genuine human. Now, tied up and silent, the spirit was making a fuss, crying and yelling, "I just haven't seen anyone in a long time. I wanted to play a joke on you, is that not even allowed?"
"Are you kidding? You're saying that because you've been caught. You've hurt people before, haven't you?" Xue Lingxiu almost fainted from the smell of it. She said to Yun Xian, "Yun Xian, take some of it away. This thing is disgusting."
Yun Xian didn't even use spiritual energy when he caught it. In other words, any ordinary person who was a little brave and careful and not too weak could catch it. As a spiritual being, its cultivation level was about the same as those civilians at the outermost edge of the ancient battlefield, but in terms of noisiness and annoyingness, it was not on the same level.
The ancient battlefield was a simple place. The spirits were not like the one before them. With their meager abilities, they were determined to stir up such a huge storm. Now that they had hit a wall, they were still stubborn and said, "You guys can sleep, so why can't I? I look just like you. What's so disgusting about that?"
Judging from the tone of the matter, it hadn't harmed only Qiao Lingshan. If it hadn't been caught by Yun Xian, it would have probably spread to the other two rooms.
This kind of spirit wouldn't do much harm to people; at most, it would stealthily absorb a few breaths of their energy when they were frightened and lost in thought. The consequences wouldn't be serious either; at most, they'd suffer from typhoid fever and heatstroke for a month, and step on banana peels every time they went out. It was so bad there was no medicine to treat it. If they encountered a cultivator, the consequences would be even milder.
It's such a waste to use up precious spiritual energy reserves on something like this.
Yun Xian squatted beside it, picked it up, his eyes shining.
Spirit: "...Don't come over here!!"
It has been dominating this shady shop for years, and it has always been the only one sucking people away. Who would want to suck its share?!
"Big Brother." Su Chi had just broken through the door, so fast that it was unbelievable. Yun Xian pinched the spirit body and asked, "Why didn't the sword formation at the door react when this thing came in?"
Su Chi held the sword and said calmly, "Too weak."
Yun Xian: "..." I get it. It's so weak, even the sword formation doesn't want to bother with it. But Big Brother, did you really sleep? Why is everyone's hair so disheveled and messy? Even Xue Lingxiu's braid is crooked, but only you look so fresh.
"But you." Feng Ye, holding the zither, felt even more sleepy due to the heavy dew. He yawned hysterically. He said to the proprietress, "How can you, a human being, help the evildoers and cheat people along with the spirits?"
The proprietress had a stiff face and didn't say a word, with the bloodshot eyes becoming even darker.
Yun Xian always felt that there was something wrong with her. It wasn't her cultivation level that was wrong, but she just looked a little off.
"What's the point of asking her?" The spirit was pinched, but he kept talking. "The people of Tangling Kingdom are all rotten. If people don't care about themselves, they will be punished by heaven and earth. How can we let them survive and collude with demons and monsters? As long as they don't hurt themselves, they don't care whether others live or die. They are so selfish."
Yun Xian frowned: "Why do you say that?"
The spirit said confidently: "I am saying this because I was a Tang spirit before I died!"
Everyone: “…”
Good, so sincere. It's impossible to refute.
"I want to try and see if I can absorb the spiritual energy in its body." He couldn't let it continue to harm people, so Yun Xian reached out and covered its head. Before he could use any force, the spirit instantly changed its tone and screamed wildly: "No, no, no, no! I don't want to die! Even though I've been dead for a long time, I still don't want to die! Show mercy! So, the heroes must have come here for something important. I can tell you who the two cultivators who came here not long ago were, which sects they belonged to, what weapons they used, what color underwear they wore... I'll tell you everything! Don't kill me!"
Everyone frowned, thinking, "They used to think Yun Xian was noisy sometimes, but now that this spirit was in Yun Xian's face, they finally understood what being noisy meant."
Yun Xian sat back down and said calmly, "Then tell me."
The spirit squirmed on the ground for a while, moving away from Yun Xian. Then, with lingering fear, it said, "Three days ago, a sword cultivator, about your age, came alone. I saw him constantly spitting blood and thought he was a tuberculosis patient. Turns out he was a cultivator, and he beat me up. His name was Zhong Changyao, I think."
Everyone was surprised.
"Zhong Changyao??" Qiao Lingshan had almost forgotten about this person. "Why is he here again? What is he doing here? Is he also here to complete a mission?"
Xue Lingxiu held up her folding fan and said solemnly, "I haven't yet questioned him about what happened back then."
His behavior on the battlefield is no different from intentionally killing someone. This person was born in the Eastern Realm, but he is so cruel and ruthless to people from the Eastern Realm who have no conflicts with him. It is really despicable.
Yun Xian thought, Brother Xue has indeed discovered it... But why did he forget to bring his folding fan even though he was so anxious that his hair was tied up askew? Is the folding fan your true self?
Su Chi said, "Continue."
"Also, also, a witch came two days ago." The spirit rolled on the ground, trying to recall. "She was dressed so coolly, and the same style as the Demon Lord. It was obvious that she was not someone I could bully. So I just secretly observed her all night and found that she was also vomiting blood from time to time. How strange, is this a trend among cultivators these days? It makes it look more interesting?"
Yun Xian: "...Jimo Shu."
With such a big hole in his stomach, of course he would vomit blood. It would be strange if he didn't vomit blood.
Qiao Lingshan said anxiously: "She dares to come!"
As expected, the two people in the storybook eventually embarked on a similar path. However, Zhong Changyao was beaten severely by Jimo Shu, so he must not have come here to seek the magic grass. Jimo Shu did not love Zhong Changyao, so she must have her own purpose for coming here.
I just don't know what these two people are looking for.
Su Chi: "Anything else?"
"That's all, that's all. There's no one else here except you." The spirit improvised and said shamelessly, "My dear heroes, I've told you everything I know. Can you let me go now? I swear to God, I'll never scare anyone again."
Yun Xian looked at it and said sympathetically, "I understand how you feel. But, I don't think I promised anything."
Spirit: “?”
Yun Xian caught it and put it directly into his storage ring as a food reserve.
This is a great discovery. If we can absorb spiritual energy from spiritual beings, then what is there to worry about?
Spirit: “…”
Everyone: “…”
I never dared to eat the apple she handed me again. Besides dried venison, various grasses, pots and pans, who knows what else was in the storage ring!
The proprietress remained silent, frozen there like a stone. Yun Xian saw that she was just an ordinary person and couldn't do anything, so she simply released her and put her in the room below. It was at this time that she heard the proprietress's faint voice, saying, "You guys can go now."
The voice sounded tired, just like her.
"Let's go?" Yun Xian said with a smile, "But we just got here."
"Tang Lingren, it's not worth it. You will regret it." The proprietress only said this and didn't say anything else.
The rest of the night passed uneventfully. The next day, when Yun Xian and Qiao Lingshan packed up and left their rooms, they saw Su Chi and Feng Ye already waiting at the stairs. Only Xue Lingxiu's door was closed; he seemed still asleep. Yun Xian knocked twice and said, "Brother Xue, your butt's out in the sun."
After a while, Xue Lingxiu came out neatly.
"I get up every day when I hear the rooster crow." He looked grim. "There's not even a chicken in this damn place."
"Don't be too demanding." Yun Xian took the scallion pancake handed to him by Su Chi and said vaguely, "Forget chicken, there's not even any horse grass. Brother Xue, do you still want to bring your carriage?"
Seeing that her mouth was full of oil, Su Chi handed her paper again.
Feng Ye watched from the side, feeling something was amiss. It wasn't Su Chi's expression that was off; it was his expression that remained calm, as if he didn't find his actions at all strange. Feng Ye wondered, could this man be so unsophisticated that he'd misunderstood what Master Yun meant by "taking care of his junior sister"?
What Yun Lang meant by "taking care of his junior sister" probably just meant that he should remember to come back and check on Yun Xian while she was out in the wild, so that she wouldn't get herself killed. He could also give her some pointers on martial arts and sword techniques, and give her some news, but it didn't seem like he was asking her to take care of her in that way.
As it turned out, Feng Ye's guess was correct.
The main reason is that no one would have nothing better to do than to say "You're so weird" to someone's face, so Su Chi didn't know that he was weird. Yun Xian's mind was bigger than a funnel, and the two of them actually reached a weird balance.
Xue Lingxiu must have noticed it, but he is not Qi Xingye, so he would not point it out to Su Chi's face. He would only say something in a sarcastic way like "Senior Brother has a good temper", "Isn't he too considerate", "Haha, Yun Xian is so lucky to have you", etc. These words are of no use to Su Chi.
"I brought enough horse hay. Who would go to the fields to pick it like you?" Xue Lingxiu didn't eat scallion pancakes. He wiped the corner of his mouth with a handkerchief, erasing the nonexistent traces of food, and said, "Let's go. Well, but where's your cart?"
The coachman is not waiting outside, where is he going?
Yun Xian didn't say anything, just blinked and looked at him.
Xue Lingxiu felt something was wrong: "...Why are you looking at me?"
Yun Xian: "Brother Xue, it's too lonely to ride in such a big carriage by yourself. Why don't we come and have some fun."
Xue Lingxiu lost all her composure: "Get lost!!!"
—
Finally I sat down.
It was another long, long way from the inn to the main city of Tangling. Yesterday, she had thought the gloomy scenery was due to bad weather, but now it seemed that it had nothing to do with the weather; the area was simply gloomy.
The further we went, the more scattered the bungalow shops became, but there was only Tang Lingren, who was wrapped in black cloth like the innkeeper, guarding the counter. I didn't know what kind of customers he was waiting for in this deserted place.
The more I think about it, the more uneasy I feel.
Yun Xian sat in the front of the car with his legs crossed, feeling bored, so he took the tabloid out of Taiping's mouth and read it again.
She had only looked at the top of the Rising Stars List at the time, and wasn't sure what news might be found below. Yun Xian ignored Taiping's angry shouts, scratched her ears, put the tabloid together, and continued reading.
Sure enough, she saw something good.
Counting down another thirty or forty, Zhong Changyao clearly made the list. But because he was so lazy, it was unclear what he was actually doing. Xue Lingxiu specifically spent spirit stones to hire him, but he couldn't even explain his contribution to the Southern Realm. He was only on the list based on his appearance. I'm not sure what nickname to give him, so at my wit's end, I've given him the nickname "Soy Sauce Sword."
He was wandering around like a sleepwalker. He looked up and saw that the spirit stones had not arrived.
What a crappy doggerel! Yun Xian laughed so hard that his whole body trembled, and he almost woke up Feng Ye who was sleeping next to him.
Looking at it this way, her dog sword is way better than the soy sauce sword! Haha! Hahahahaha!!
As expected, pain comes from contrast. Yun Xian felt much more refreshed.
The sky and earth were vast, and in the distance, the eaves of the Tangling Kingdom's palace and its towering city walls could be vaguely seen. It was indeed a country rich in minerals, truly wealthy. The eaves shone with gold, as if thirty Qi Zhiyes were tied to them.
Feng Ye woke up automatically, rubbed his eyes, and said slowly: "It's so calm..."
Before he could finish his words, the sound of hurried horse hooves followed behind him. The person coming had bad intentions, as if they were following closely behind the others and about to overtake them!
Yun Xian glanced sideways, his expression instantly solemn.
He was wearing a familiar brown shorts and had a knife on his back. However, this knife was not a broadsword, but a scimitar with a sharp blade and a handle wrapped in white cloth stained with blood.
A member of the Sword Sect!
Unexpectedly, he had chased her here. Qiao Lingshan clenched her fists, ready to draw her sword at any moment, but Su Chi opened his lips and said, "It's okay."
What do you mean "nothing"? This person was from the Sword Sect. Yun Xian had just destroyed their young master's golden elixir in front of the whole world a few days ago. It's no exaggeration to say that there was a deep blood feud between them. But when the eldest brother said it was okay, Qiao Lingshan was strangely relieved.
The horses' hooves quickened, and the pursuer suddenly revealed his true face.
The woman had wild eyebrows and eyes, a very straight nose, the corners of her lips seemed to be naturally downward, and there was a long and thin scar at the end of her eye, making her look very fierce and not to be messed with.
Yun Xian met her gaze.
Okay, let's see what he's going to say next. "Yun Xian, I finally found you!" "I'll avenge the Dao Sect!" "Waaaaa! Kill, kill, kill! Kill!"
The woman clasped her fists, politely saying, "Fellow Daoist, I am Sword Sect Liu Xu. What is your name?"
"Ah? You're asking me?" Yun Xian thought to himself. This woman looked fierce, but in reality, her character needed to be lowered. She could even tolerate this: "Yun Xian from Jiange."
"Oh." Liu Xu's expression remained unchanged: "Then can I just call you by your name?"
"Ah." What kind of trick is this? Yun Xian blinked, "Okay. Why not?"
Feng Ye was extremely nervous, fearing that she would pull out her sword and chop him on the head if they disagreed.
"Miss Yunxian." Liu Xu was an excellent rider. This horse was wild, looking freshly caught, without horseshoes or saddle. She pondered for a moment before asking, "Excuse me, is this Tangling Country? The spiritual energy suddenly disappeared."
Seeing Yun Xian nod, she continued, "Then, where are the cities? I'm going to participate in the Four-way War and accidentally got lost. I don't know if it has already started."
Yun Xian: “…”
Everyone: “…”
You've strayed a bit too far! And it's been so long now, the war has been over for half a month!
"Looks like I missed it." Liu Xu seemed to know her own personality. Seeing everyone's strange expressions, she accepted the fact quite casually and said generously, "If you don't want to go, then don't go. Anyway, the Northern Realm will definitely be first this time. Miss Yun Xian, do you know what the current situation is?"
"Well, at the moment," Yun Xian said. "Currently, Miss Yun Xian from the East Realm is killing people with a cool and arrogant attitude, bravely defeating everyone. She even destroyed Liu Shi's golden core with a flick of her wrist, easily taking the top spot. Then, in order to avoid being hunted by the Sword Sect, she came to Tang Ling Country to prepare for a mission."
Willow Catkins: “Ah?”
Yun Xian: "That's about it. Anything else you want to ask?"
Willow Catkins: “…Ah?!!”
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