Seeking Shao Zaihuan
Pushing open the door of the clinic, dust fell in a flurry.
Jingxu pulled Yuzhu back, brushed away the dust with his sleeve, and led Yuzhu inside.
Although the clinic was preserved, it was neglected. Weeds grew rampant in the flower beds, and green patches appeared in the cracks of the stone-paved ground.
The wooden house was already dilapidated. Jingxu opened the rickety door and stared at one spot.
There were two rows of footprints on the ground, and the room was covered with a thick layer of dust, making the footprints very clear.
“Someone has been here,” Yu Zhu said in a deep voice.
Jingxu: "It should be the same person, who came and then left."
Yu Zhu looked around the main hall of the clinic; the furnishings were outdated, just like what a clinic should look like.
Upon entering the back room, traces of a fight were still faintly visible on the doors, windows, and walls. On the floor of one of the rooms, Yu Zhu discovered the restrictions imposed by the Yingtian Sect.
“This should be the place where the Immortal Peak Pavilion imprisoned the experimental subjects back then,” Yu Zhu said coldly.
Jingxu gripped Yuzhu's hand tightly, "Senior Sister."
"I'm fine, it's just that the thought of these heartless people makes me sick."
Yu Zhu broke the seal, and a hole appeared in the ground.
The two leaped lightly, and below the cave was a secret chamber.
Yu Zhu took out a luminous pearl to illuminate the room and gave one to Jing Xu.
Their location was a square room with several tables and shelves, from which a corridor extended on all four sides.
Yu Zhu looked at the scattered bowls on the table, with a layer of black stuff on the bottom. Just as she was about to pick them up, Jing Xu grabbed one first, touched it, and smelled it.
"This bowl must have contained medicine; the bottom looks like it contained medicine dregs."
Several daggers were placed on the shelf.
"Let's go in and take a look, then split up."
Yu Zhu walked into the nearest corridor, which was lined with staggered cubicles on both sides. The architectural layout of Xian Ding Ge truly maintained the hotel style throughout.
To stimulate the hazy memories in her mind, Yu Zhu walked very slowly, while Jing Xu had already checked the other three corridors.
"Senior Sister." Jing Xu stood behind Yu Zhu.
"Did you discover anything?"
“Starting from this corridor, the number of rooms decreases sequentially.”
Yu Zhu quickly checked and found that, as Jing Xu had said, the number of rooms decreased sequentially, and the furnishings of the rooms became increasingly better.
“They are conducting a screening process. They have arrested many people and are using their methods to select suitable individuals. These four corridors may represent the stage of their experiment,” Yu Zhu speculated.
"It seems their experiment has not been successful yet, otherwise they wouldn't have captured the people from Baicao Village."
"But Ning Wu and the group of people who fought against us have already mastered both spiritual and demonic cultivation. Doesn't that count as a success?"
This overturns the fundamental theories of cultivation that have been established in the cultivation world for years.
“Perhaps they are researching something new. They captured the adults of Baicao Village to cultivate the Zhen'e Grass, so capturing the children is for experimentation,” Jing Xu said.
Yu Zhu frowned: "Why would they poison the children of Baicao Village? Isn't everything they do aimed at enhancing their cultivation?"
"Actually, there are rumors that the people of Baicao Village once had the bloodline of the Spirit Clan, making them immune to all poisons. They may be trying to verify this."
Their eyes met, and Yu Zhu laughed in exasperation, "What kind of research fanatic in the cultivation world wants to create an invincible physique?"
Seeing Jingxu's confusion, Yuzhu said, "I'm scolding them."
The two returned to the basement where they had started.
Jing Xu: "Those medicines were probably given to the people who were arrested."
Yu Zhu closed her eyes; her head was throbbing.
"Drink your medicine."
"You don't need to know what it is, just drink it."
"If you don't drink it, then I'll have to force you to drink it."
"Stretch out your hand."
"I'll endure the pain."
"Senior sister, what's wrong?" Jingxu asked worriedly, wrapping his arm around Yuzhu's.
"I'm fine, it's just that I seem to have been given drugs and had my blood drained."
Seeing that Yu Zhu looked unwell, Jing Xu led her out of the basement.
"What are you planning to do next, senior sister?"
Yu Zhu pressed her head, "Let's find a place to stay and rest for the night. I'll think about it carefully."
"Senior sister, don't make things difficult for yourself. The Immortal Peak Pavilion has been able to lie low in the shadows for so many years, they must have made the most thorough preparations."
Jingxu found an inn and booked two rooms.
"Senior sister, have some water, take your time." Jingxu brought the hot water to Yuzhu.
Yu Zhu had been looking at the communication jade tablet for quite a while.
“I just asked my senior sister, and she said that some of the people in Thousand Peaks City also have demon blood. The people of Immortal Peak Pavilion have known for at least two hundred years that demon blood can withstand their research, but they have only recently been exposed to us. What have they been doing for the past two hundred years?”
Yu Zhu straightened her hair. She was arrested when she was ten years old and imprisoned in the Immortal Peak Pavilion for almost a hundred years. She has been a disciple of the Yingtian Sect for almost 118 years now. The Immortal Peak Pavilion has also developed to its full potential. What are they waiting for?
"Senior sister, why didn't you uncover the purpose of the Immortal Peak Pavilion after you found out about Luo Hai City?"
"The Immortal Peak Pavilion erased the victims' memories and sealed their cultivation with a secret technique. But the main reason is that several other such places were later discovered to have been committed by cultivators who had sided with the Demon God in order to help the Demon God find a more powerful Demon General. This matter was then attributed to the Demon Clan."
"The Demon Clan!" Yu Zhu exclaimed in a flash of inspiration. "The Immortal Peak Pavilion hired the Demon Clan to clean up the mess; they're colluding with the Demon Clan."
“And the footprints I saw today, I suspect belong to Shao Zaihuan,” Jing Xu said.
Yu Zhu pondered for a moment, "It's highly likely he's a demon investigating the Immortal Peak Pavilion. So, our next step is—"
"Thousand Peaks City".
Yu Zhu looked out the window as night fell.
"Then let's go to Qianzhang City first thing tomorrow morning."
"I'll go downstairs to get my meal and eat with my senior sister." Jing Xu got up and went downstairs.
Taking this opportunity, Yu Zhu took out the cold medicine prepared by the medical elder and drank it down in one gulp. The bitterness made her face scrunch up.
After swallowing the medicine, a cool sensation spread from my abdomen.
Jingxu returned quickly, and a servant brought over a table of steaming dishes.
Smelling the medicinal aroma in the air, Jingxu quickly ladled out a bowl of hot soup and handed it to Yuzhu, then closed the window.
"Will this medicine make people feel cold?" Jing Xu asked, a faint mark appearing between his brows.
"It's not that I'm afraid of the cold. This medicine is meant to increase the body's coldness. I just feel a little cold, but it's nothing."
"How about I transfer some spiritual energy to my senior sister?"
Yu Zhu chuckled, "No need, I don't lack spiritual energy now. I'll just take the medicine for two more days and I'll be fine. Don't worry."
Jing Xu pursed his lips and remained silent.
Yu Zhu picked up a piece of food with her chopsticks and put it into Jing Xu's bowl. "Eat quickly, we have things to do tomorrow."
Qianzhang City and Luohai City are located in the north and south, respectively, and are quite far apart.
Yu Zhu originally planned to fly away on her sword, but Jing Xu took out a small flying boat instead.
On the flying boat, Jingxu pulled Yuzhu into the cabin, saying, "Senior sister, it's windy outside, be careful not to catch a cold."
Yu Zhu: "...I'm a cultivator, how could I possibly catch a cold?"
Jingxu pressed her down to sit down, "Anyway, Senior Sister is taking cold medicine, so it's best to avoid the wind."
He took out another set of clothes. "This set of clothes is made of a special material that has its own warmth. Qianzhang City is located in the northern region, which is much colder than Kanzhou."
Yu Zhu tapped her fingers on the table. "Did you prepare this in Kanzhou?"
"Yes, I prepared it after seeing Senior Sister's cloak the night before last."
Yu Zhu smiled and said, "Thank you."
Yu Zhu picked up the cup and took a sip of the warm tea.
She wondered if she shouldn't have broken the ice that day. Now, when she was with Jingxu, they were always stuck in a limbo when nothing was going on.
Two hours later, the flying boat arrived at Thousand Peaks City and stopped outside the city.
After hesitating for a long time, Yu Zhu finally changed into the clothes that Jing Xu had prepared.
The light blue fabric was embroidered with gold-threaded bamboo patterns. Yu Zhu touched it and suspected that the special material Jing Xu mentioned was this gold thread.
Upon exiting the cabin, Jing Xu was also dressed in a light blue brocade robe.
Yu Zhu recalled carefully that they had worn clothes in the same color scheme on several occasions.
"Was the color of your clothes chosen on purpose?"
Jingxu took Yuzhu's hand. "Yes, Senior Sister, don't you like green?"
Yu Zhu withdrew her hand and pointed at Jing Xu, "I meant your clothes. I like green, do you like it too?"
Jingxu smiled gently, "I like it too. The Lonely Wind Chime is originally green."
Yu Zhu stared at him without saying a word.
Jingxu chuckled softly, then took Yuzhu's hand again, saying as they walked, "Nothing can be hidden from Senior Sister. I just want to wear the same clothes as Senior Sister."
"Hmph, that would be best."
Jing Xu paused. "What do you think I'm hiding, Senior Sister?"
“I don’t think you’re hiding anything, but there’s one thing I’m really curious about.”
Jingxu slowed his pace.
"The Dream of Albizia on Fragrant Grass Isle, what did you dream of?"
Jingxu's heart skipped a beat, and he stopped in his tracks. Yuzhu turned to stand in front of him, her eyes seemingly trying to see into his soul. Jingxu's gaze flickered for a moment, then he hesitated, as if he wanted to say something but couldn't.
"You didn't dream about me, did you?"
Yu Zhu took a step closer, and the hand that was being held by her gripped Jing Xu's. Jing Xu felt as if he was being pressed to the spot by this hand, unable to move forward or backward.
What did you dream about?
Yu Zhu's eyes filled with laughter as she took another step forward. Jing Xu felt his blood rush to his head, but his gaze couldn't help but drift downwards, landing on Yu Zhu's pale lips.
Yu Zhu's gaze followed the downward movement, and realizing what was happening, her lips twitched almost imperceptibly. She then fixed her gaze back on Jing Xu and asked quickly:
Did I kiss you?
After asking the question, Yu Zhu clenched her fist behind her back.
Jingxu suppressed the urge to swallow and shifted his gaze back to Yuzhu's eyes.
"yes."
His voice was a little dry.
"Did you kiss?"
"We kissed," Jing Xu replied sincerely.
After a moment of eye contact, Yu Zhu let go and walked towards the city gate. He had actually kissed her in his dream.
Jingxu took a deep breath, chased after her, and took Yuzhu's hand.
He lied just now; he didn't actually kiss her in his dream.
He was awakened the moment his senior sister's face drew near.
The two entered the city and went straight to the city lord's mansion, revealing their identities as disciples of the Yingtian Sect and requesting to see the population records of Qianzhang City.
Sure enough, they found a demonic cultivator named Shao Zaihuan. The records said that he had always lived in seclusion and had no origin.
There are quite a few people like this in the cultivation world, and they haven't attracted much attention.
Yu Zhu thought of Zheng Qi, but couldn't find the name. She searched for A Luo, but still couldn't find anything suspicious. She then searched for Pingyang County, but still couldn't find anything suspicious.
The two decided to visit Shao Zaihuan's residence.
Given Shao Zaihuan's personality, Yuzhu thought he should live in the city center, surrounded by admirers, but she never expected his house to be in the west of the city.
Further north of Thousand Peaks City lies Bi'an Gorge, where disciples of the Immortal Sect are stationed to guard the gorge.
Every ten years, various immortal sects and local forces would send people to form a guard team to protect the gorge, but Thousand Peaks City was not qualified to do so because it was a city of demonic cultivators and was easily bewitched by demons.
However, this location is rich in demonic energy, which is of great benefit to low-level demonic cultivators. It took a lot of effort to determine the location.
Therefore, the further north you go in Qianzhang City, the more prosperous it becomes. The south and east are less prosperous because they lead to other places, while the most remote place is the west of the city.
The two arrived outside the house, changed their appearance, and pretended to be passing by, not hearing a sound.
Yu Zhu made a hand seal with her left hand, releasing a little bit of magic power.
The next second, Jingxu grasped Yuzhu's left hand, and the magic dissipated between their overlapping palms.
What are you doing?
"Let's think of other ways. Senior Sister, you should use less magic."
“Using spiritual power will be detected, but using only a little magic power will not. This area is all residential, and the doors are tightly closed, so no one will let you ask for information.”
Jingxu had no choice but to let go.
Yu Zhu made another hand seal, and after a moment said, "This house is protected by a restriction, so it seems we have no choice but to keep an eye on it."
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