Chapter 166 The Guide Was It... Mother?
The house wasn't exactly in a remote location; it was hidden behind a bamboo grove, the cobblestone path through which was covered by withered bamboo leaves, making it seem almost forgotten. It was very quiet and perfect for hiding.
Jiang Yuhuo squatted on a tree in the distance. The person's cultivation level was very high, so she couldn't get too close, but she had a way to get closer.
Li Yanluo tucked the object into her bosom and chuckled softly, "Does Brother still think Yanluo is a child, that you can just toss her a little trinket and be done with it?"
"You know that's no small matter. From now on, the treasury will be under your management. That rebellious son will need your permission to take anything from the treasury in the future." A handsome man in a black robe leaned against a low table, looking up at a crow perched on a tree outside the window, its shiny black eyes darting over.
Just as Li Shichuan was about to shoo the crow away, Li Yanluo suddenly placed her hand on his temple and began to massage it lightly. "You should have given it to me a long time ago, otherwise he wouldn't have so easily given away the Earth Flame Vine, and then..."
Li Shichuan's hand grasped the soft hand pressing against his temple. "Yanluo, your third brother died while searching for medicine. You must remember that."
Li Yanluo curled her lips and said coquettishly, "Yes, it was all an accident. How could there be infighting within the Li family?" A mocking glint flashed in her misty eyes. "Hmph, even if you despise Gongsun Chan, you still love your son."
Li Shichuan closed his eyes, enjoying Li Yanluo's massage, and chuckled softly, "Yanluo, is there anyone who makes my heart ache more than you?"
"Again?" Li Yanluo's massage movements paused.
Li Shichuan opened his eyes, as if he had thought of something, and was momentarily stunned.
Li Yanluo slowly leaned down, her rosy lips brushing against Li Shichuan's ear. "Brother, if you care about me, you should know what I truly want." Her soft, delicate hands moved slowly downwards, her fingertips tracing the side of Li Shichuan's slender neck, sliding to the collar that bound his neck. With a gentle flick, she slipped inside, leaving a trail of kisses on Li Shichuan's cheek, and softly asked, "Brother, can you give me what I want?"
Li Shichuan frowned, as if forcibly enduring. He took a deep breath before pulling Li Yanluo's mischievous hand away. "No."
Li Yanluo chuckled softly, like a little girl who had just pulled off a prank. "Brother's heart is beating so fast, I could even feel it. What do you think I want? Let me tell you, what I really want is the key to the ancestral tomb, do you believe me?"
Li Shichuan suddenly opened his eyes, grabbed Li Yanluo's shoulder with considerable force, and Li Yanluo felt the skin on her shoulder being pinched painfully. She immediately said in a coquettish tone, "Brother, if you don't want to give it to me, fine, but why take it out on me?"
But Li Shichuan, contrary to his usual gentle manner, only firmly held one of her shoulders, his sharp gaze fixed on the back of her neck. Just now, when Li Yanluo leaned close to his ear, he sensed something was wrong with the aura on the back of her neck. Someone had attached a wisp of spiritual consciousness to her neck, and she was completely unaware, allowing that person to detect her presence for so long.
Li Shichuan plucked out the spiritual consciousness and ruthlessly extinguished it. As soon as he turned his head, the crow from before flapped its wings and flew away.
Oh no! Someone is secretly watching them!
The dark figure instantly leaped out of the window, and Li Shichuan's spiritual energy surged out, immediately rushing towards the tree where Jiang Yuhuo was hiding.
Jiang Yuhuo also fled quickly. She knew she should have left the moment she saw Li Yanluo bend over. As Wen Yizhan said, there was indeed something abnormal between this brother and sister who were exceptionally beautiful, but she didn't expect it to be presented to her so soon.
Ignoring the question of why the strange fragrance also emanated from their location, Jiang Yuhuo could only flee for her life. If she were discovered, things would get complicated. She didn't want to create two powerful enemies before she even understood the relationship between the Li family and Jia Qianyang.
Jiang Yuhuo concealed her form and aura, but Li Shichuan was no ordinary cultivator and continued to relentlessly pursue her. As they flew over bamboo groves and houses, passing a low wall, Jiang Yuhuo suddenly smelled that strange fragrance again.
The fragrance was faint, yet it permeated the rooftops. Jiang Yuhuo's breathing became disordered by the scent, and soon Li Shichuan disappeared from her sight. But that fragrance…
Jiang Yuhu hesitated for a moment, but still followed the scent toward its source.
The fragrance dissipated before a tall ebony building, the northernmost main hall of the Li family residence. Its location was far more secluded than the bamboo grove they had just passed, yet it was grand and imposing, boasting five stories. The main gate was tightly shut, and there was no fragrance at the entrance; the person carrying the unusual scent had ascended to the rooftop.
Jiang Yuhuo discovered a courtyard on the roof, from which she could glimpse the interior. Looking inside, she saw only an empty hall and a huge golden chrysanthemum embedded in the ground, so bright it was dazzling even from this distance.
Such an obvious trajectory...
Did the person carrying the unusual fragrance intentionally lure people here?
Jiang Yuhuo concealed herself and waited by the courtyard, partly to see where Li Shichuan was, and partly to see if anyone would enter the hall. In such a place, it wouldn't be good if she rashly barged in and accidentally activated any array or barrier.
Sure enough, a small group of Li family servants arrived from not far away, each carrying utensils. They unlocked the door, pushed it open, and went inside to sweep, dust, and replace items. After a short while, the group left as usual.
Nothing unusual happened; it was probably just an ordinary hall.
Jiang Yuhuo jumped in.
But as soon as Jiang Yuhuo jumped in, she realized she had fallen into a trap!
There was no strange fragrance inside; the person hadn't actually entered the place, but had deliberately lured her in.
Not only that, as soon as she entered this space, she felt as if something was binding and suppressing her, as if it wanted to trap her here forever.
Without a moment's hesitation, Jiang Yuhuo rushed to the courtyard, intending to leave. But just as she leaped into the air, the light on the roof suddenly went out.
Someone had sealed off the courtyard from the outside. She tried to break it open with her sword, but for some reason, her spiritual energy seemed to be imprisoned. After a moment of dizziness, she fell heavily back to the ground.
Something's not right. There's some unseen force at work here, keeping her in check. Everyone else can come in and be at peace, but this place is suppressing her.
No, it's not just about checks and balances, it's about taking away her power!
She felt her blood flow quicken, which was a bad sign, meaning that the fire element in her body was about to retaliate.
Jiang Yuhuo got up from the ground. The door was locked from the outside. The heavy ebony door was silent when knocked on. The cleaning servants had already gone far away, and they could no longer hear anyone knocking from inside.
An invisible pressure continued to act upon her, tearing at her body and robbing her of her power, yet its flow was unseen. Soon, the terrifying heat within her body surged violently. The blood in her veins began to boil again. She tried to use the mermaid pearl to soothe the agitation in her blood, but this time even the mermaid pearl was ineffective; it was the power within her bloodline resisting desperately.
Pain swept through my entire body, and my mind began to feel like boiling water, making it difficult to think.
What is it?! What is hidden here?!
Jiang Yuhuo felt an overwhelming urge to destroy. This unseen power ignited the most primal and ancient destructive desires within her bloodline. If she could, she would want to destroy the entire hall! Burn it! Turn it into ruins! Burn it to ashes! Crush it under her feet!
However, under the suppression, she couldn't even summon a spark; only her own already riddled body was burned.
But she still had a sword in her hand, and she could still hold it.
The Dingchun Sword shattered everything it could cut: candlesticks, tables, seats, screens... anything that might be related to arrays or barriers.
There was no relief.
Unable to withstand the excruciating pain, Jiang Yuhuo collapsed to her knees.
She saw the pattern on the ground, black and gold tiles interwoven to form a golden chrysanthemum blooming in the darkness, shimmering like flowing gold.
A sword pierced into a barely visible crack in the brickwork, and something silently fell to the ground behind him.
Jiang Yuhuo turned around, and a curtain of the same color suddenly fell from the previously dark ebony wall, revealing a tall wooden screen standing there. The screen was almost as tall as the ceiling, and because of the dim light, it looked like a wall when covered by the curtain.
Jiang Yuhu stared blankly at the wooden screen that had suddenly appeared before her, the shock almost overshadowing the pain in her body.
The wooden screen depicts a young girl, painted with vibrant colors, making it more vivid and lifelike than any sculpture or stone carving.
The girl had white hair, her hands clasped in front of her chest, and a pair of enormous wings spread behind her, each white feather clearly visible. She was entirely white from head to toe, except for her pair of slightly downward-looking golden eyes.
That was, Mother?
*
He reached his arm to his side, but found nothing.
When Li Mengbai woke up, he knew that the person next to him had already gotten out of bed, so he lazily opened his eyes. It was already bright outside, but he wasn't in a hurry to get up. He just stared silently at the spot that had lost its warmth for a long time, then rolled over and lay down there, inhaling the lingering scent on the bedding.
My heart is still filled with sweetness.
Although Jiang Yuhuo slapped him last night, didn't she also heal his wounds?
Under the soothing power of her spiritual energy, his spiritual sea was calmer than ever before. If he could receive such treatment every time, he would wish to get injured more often.
Li Mengbai leaned closer to the pillow that someone had used, rubbed his nose against it, and his face was beaming with an uncontrollable smile.
He believed that after last night, Jiang Yuhuo's feelings for him would deepen. After all, the only thing she cared about was his murder, and he would change. As long as she didn't find out about it, everything else was secondary, and he was certain he wouldn't let her find out.
He started thinking about her again.
With a flick of his slender fingers, the items locked in the cabinet flew to his side one by one.
The little cloth figures, each the size of a palm, are all dressed in black. Some have high ponytails, some have loose hair, some are smiling, some are angry… and there’s one in red, which is Jiang Yuhuo from the day of the marriage ceremony. He made all of these himself when he couldn’t see Jiang Yuhuo.
The little figures are all performing actions: walking, practicing swordsmanship, daydreaming... Puppetry was infused into them during their creation, and it seems that these little figures have also gained souls.
The murderous curse was used to store Jiang Yuhuo's memories. Li Mengbai looked at them and found them extremely cute.
Originally, I planned to introduce these villains to Jiang Yuhuo after returning to the Li family, but unfortunately, Wen Yizhan's sudden return ruined the plan.
Thinking of that bastard still made Li Mengbai angry.
But the little ones were so cute that after playing with them for a while, Li Mengbai's anger gradually subsided, but he longed to see them in person even more.
After carefully washing and dressing up, Jiang Yuhuo still hadn't returned.
Li Mengbai asked the maid, who only said that Jiang Yuhuo had gone to the waterside pavilion that morning.
What's the point of going to that place alone? You'll only run into bad luck. If you're going, you should go with someone.
Despite these thoughts, Li Mengbai went straight to the waterside pavilion. When he saw that it was empty, Li Mengbai realized something was wrong.
As dusk approached, Jiang Yuhuo, unfamiliar with the Li family and not recognizing many members, was unlikely to have been wandering around for so long, given her personality.
A bad feeling crept over him, and he had no choice but to activate the tracking mark on his wrist. When he saw the direction the mark pointed to, his heart skipped a beat.
That is...
Li Mengbai headed north almost immediately.
A row of guards stood in front of the dark hall, the doors tightly shut, as if preventing the people inside from coming out.
Li Mengbai frowned immediately and shouted aggressively, "Open the door!"
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