A big pot
The people behind them were all wearing masks so as not to be recognized.
Perhaps fearing that Cang Jingqi would be able to sense their identities without the disruption of spiritual energy, they gave up halfway through the chase.
Hanqi had several large and small wounds on his body. After stopping, he couldn't hold on any longer and collapsed onto Hanjiang.
Hanqi, who was supposed to be staying in Hanshan, suddenly appeared in Anzhou at the Hantian Demon Palace.
Is the female lead forcing the plot?
Having not read the original novel, I can only speculate about Han Jiang's fate. In the original story, Cang Jingmo did not die and would definitely go to Anzhou. Therefore, Cang Jingqi would be responsible for guarding the Demon Palace, which would leave Han Tian and Han Qi with nothing to do.
"It's nothing serious, just scrapes." The shopkeeper was invited by Han Jiang to examine Han Qi's injuries. The woman recognized Han Qi's Four Provinces Sect attire and asked about the three people's identities.
"Disciples of the Four Continents Sect are passing through here," Han Jiang explained.
"Do you think I'd believe that?" the woman scoffed. "Are you from the Vermilion Bird Pavilion?"
"No, that's not true, shopkeeper, you're overthinking it," Han Jiang said. "These are tokens from our Four Provinces Sect, they can't be faked."
The woman recognized the token of the Four Continents Sect: "What about those two? Aren't they demons?"
Han Jiang took Cang Jingqi's arm and said, "They are my lovers."
The woman scoffed, "Humans and demons together, how interesting. New rooms cost extra!"
She packed her medicine kit and left the room.
"You're just spouting nonsense? I have nothing to do with her." Cang Jingmo pointed at Han Qi.
Han Jiang said, "If we don't say it this way, how can we say it?"
"Why don't you just tell the truth that I'm a guard?"
"Ha! Two disciples from the Four Continents Sect are already out there, why would they need a demon guard?"
Cang Jingqi quickly stepped forward: "Xiaoman makes sense."
"Senior sister..."
Han Jiang sat on the edge of Han Qi's bedside, holding Han Qi's hand: "How are you? How did you end up here?"
Hanqi propped himself up and leaned against the wall behind him, saying, "Master went to the Demon Realm. I went with the Second Elder to Mizhou to settle the fleeing people of Anzhou. After fighting with a group of rebels, I chased them to Anzhou. Since I was already here, I thought I might be able to get some information, so I followed a group of people into Anzhou City."
Although her voice was weak, she still tried her best to finish recounting all the key clues in one breath.
She paused briefly, then looked at Cang Jingqi: "I encountered the Third Prince."
The two became alert and moved closer to the bed.
Cang Jingmo asked, "Where is the Third Prince now?"
“I don’t know.” Han Qi shook his head. “She seemed to be threatened. I saw her talking to a few people, and then they started fighting. The Third Prince was able to handle it at first, but then a masked person came. When the Third Prince saw that the person was coming, he stopped fighting, talked for a while, and prepared to leave. At this time, the person noticed my presence, and the Third Prince hurriedly sent me away.”
Han Jiang asked, "Did she leave anything behind?"
"She didn't say anything, she just sent me out. With my spiritual energy in disarray, I ran for a long time but couldn't escape until I met you, Senior Sister."
"Xiaoman, you stay here to take care of your junior sister. Amai and I will go check on her again."
"You two think you can get in? Who was so confused about their spiritual energy that they could only hold my hand?" Han Jiang said. "Amai, you should stay and take care of your junior sister. I'll go with you."
Despite his reluctance, Cang Jingqi had no choice but to do as Han Jiang said.
Having been there once before, Hanjiang quickly found the place where they had met Hanqi.
Once a certain limit is broken, the disorder of spiritual energy will be reduced.
The center of Anzhou City has changed, with several new defensive fortifications added to the original structure.
Even on the outermost perimeter, one could still discern the militia's attire. Most of them were young and middle-aged ordinary civilians, patrolling while wearing specially made armor and carrying inferior weapons.
Cang Jingqi knocked two people unconscious.
"Soft armor, it's like wearing nothing at all." Han Jiang pulled open the two people's clothes, revealing rough linen clothes underneath, almost like what ordinary people wear every day, and then they pretended to put on a layer of armor on the outside.
The weapons were all rusty, and Cang Jingqi could break them with a single forceful snap.
There was no useful information; the two of them had nothing on them.
The real interior is in the governor's mansion.
After the governor was killed, the rebels occupied the governor's mansion and used it as their headquarters.
Strict guards and security measures were set up outside the governor's mansion.
Han Jiang analyzed, "The people outside are all unsuspecting and being manipulated; the mastermind must be inside. How could a bunch of ordinary people understand mechanical arts?"
"Not only that, there isn't a single demon outside. But demons are clearly involved in the rebel army, so where could those demons be?"
He used the long-standing grievances of ordinary people to kill the governor, thereby gathering troops to launch a rebellion.
When trouble comes, it's always ordinary people rushing to the front lines, while the higher-ups quietly hide in the back and reap the benefits.
You can't force your way through a maze.
"Do you know the art of disguise?" Han Jiang asked.
“I can, but you can’t,” Cang Jing retorted.
"You can't cast spells on me?"
"Disguise won't work."
Han Jiang hardened her heart: "Then you escort me in."
Ordinary people outside couldn't tell the traces of magic at all, and couldn't even tell whether Cang Jingqi was a demon or a human.
Getting through the first level is relatively easy.
Security at the governor's mansion has been tightened even further.
"They're all demons." Cang Jingqi became wary.
Back when the Demon Lord was engaged in intense internal strife and weakened the demon race's fighting strength, a significant portion of the demons were dissatisfied. Those demons were either captured and punished or exiled to the Demon Realm, never to return.
Even that great man was not immune to oversight. The exiled demons quietly gathered together, forming a considerable force.
The Vermilion Bird Pavilion believed that since it was a matter of demons rescuing demons, it should be managed by the demon race. However, the demon lord believed that those demons had already been exiled and did not belong to the demon race, so he refused to take charge.
This led to the conflict between the two.
Those demons had nowhere to go, so they caused a lot of trouble in the human world, giving the Vermilion Bird Pavilion a real headache.
Cang Jingqi said he had encountered it several times during his travels in the human realm. Each time it caused quite a commotion, but the Vermilion Bird Pavilion never had a reasonable excuse to eliminate it.
Human laws do not prohibit private fights. At most, people will be arrested and detained for a period of time for fighting. As long as no one dies, they will not be punished with their lives.
They can't be exiled to other places like the demon realm.
Besides the Demon Realm and the Human Realm, where else can we go?
"So the demons here are the exiled ones?" Han Jiang asked.
Cang Jing said, "I'm not sure, but I did see a few familiar figures."
"That makes a lot of sense." Han Jiang recalled what the shopkeeper's woman had said about Anzhou's former governor being incompetent, oppressing the people, and favoring demons in sentencing. Anzhou was the closest human region to the demon realm, wasn't it? Those people likely settled in Anzhou, happened to be there when the people rose up, and took advantage of the chaos to rise up.
When she was captured in Anzhou, she overheard someone telling her not to be afraid of becoming a demon, because the demons would rule the world from then on. They were dissatisfied with the way the Demon Lord had weakened the demon race, because they believed that the demons were stronger than humans and that the demons should wage war, conquer the human realm, and expand their territory.
The two hid in the shadows, waiting for their chance to strike.
"Third Prince!" Han Jiang suddenly grabbed Cang Jingqi.
Cang Jingye entered the governor's mansion with a masked person.
Judging from the figure, it wasn't another dark shadow, but someone Han Jiang had never seen before.
"I can't sense any spiritual energy; it's deliberately hidden."
Han Jiang couldn't help but mock, "I thought your spiritual perception was some kind of amazing cheat, but it turns out it's limited in every way."
What does "golden finger" mean?
"It's used to describe someone who is very capable." Han Jiang slapped himself, wondering when he would ever get rid of his bad habit of constantly using internet slang!
Cang Jingye and the masked man entered a room and faintly heard the sounds of mechanisms activating inside. In the blink of an eye, the two disappeared.
After knocking down the guards at the door, Cang Jingqi and Han Jiang went inside to check.
There must be a secret passage or partition in the house.
They knocked everywhere but couldn't find any sound.
Han Jiang reached under the table and found a hidden compartment. She gently lifted it; it felt heavy, indicating there must be something inside. She pushed it open with two fingers, only to find it empty.
She refused to believe it and, after knocking on it for a while, discovered that the hidden compartment had two layers, with a token in the lower layer.
"How did the Vermilion Bird Pavilion's token end up here?" Han Jiang looked closely. "And it's not of low status."
The tokens of the Vermilion Bird Pavilion come in different colors and shapes according to rank. This one is even inlaid with gold, indicating someone who has direct contact with the emperor. Could there be a spy among the higher-ups of the Vermilion Bird Pavilion?
She carefully put away the token and returned the hidden compartment to its original position.
Under the table was a covered iron basin filled with ashes from burning paper money.
Hanjiang rummaged through the ashes, hoping to find any undestroyed parts of the rebels' correspondence, and she actually found half a communication talisman.
Although she couldn't draw communication talismans, she could still distinguish their basic quality. Such a high-quality talisman could only be drawn by no more than ten people in the entire country. Furthermore, the higher the quality of the talisman, the harder it was to destroy, since the more spiritual energy infused into it, the less likely it was to be damaged and lose its effectiveness.
It's unclear whether these rebels were too careless or too confident, believing that no one could overcome the spiritual energy disorder to find this place.
"Can the voice transmission talisman be repaired?" Han Jiang asked.
Cang Jingqi took the communication talisman handed to him by Han Jiang: "It is possible, but it is very difficult. There is a talisman artist in the capital who is a good friend of your master and me. Asking him for help should not be a problem."
The machine clicked again, and a row of bookshelves moved aside, revealing a small opening. A person walked out from inside, facing Han Jiang.
"You are—" Before the man could finish speaking, Cang Jingqi knocked him unconscious with a single palm strike.
Han Jiang also found the Vermilion Bird Pavilion token on his waist, but it was not of a higher grade than the first one.
"How come there are people from the Vermilion Bird Pavilion here?" Han Jiang asked.
Cang Jingqi shook his head: "Why don't we go in and take a look?"
The opening is only wide enough for one person to pass through at a time.
The secret room contained a formation, with a large pot in the center. Although there was no fire underneath, white steam was rising from the pot.
Two people carried something up a ladder next to the pot, poured it into the pot, and then stirred it with a nearly transparent stick.
That stick looked a lot like a giant glass rod, the kind of glass rod used for stirring that you see in your chemistry textbook when you're studying during the winter break.
Besides the entrance through which Han Jiang entered, the secret chamber has two other exits.
The way they brought things in was one exit, while the other exit was closed.
"Who goes there!" came a shout from behind.
Oh no, we've been discovered!
The people inside the secret chamber also heard the noise and approached the cave entrance.
Having been exposed, Cang Jingqi jumped out, knocked down the person in front of him, climbed the ladder, and quickly filled a bottle with some of the contents of the pot.
The third door opened at that moment, and Cang Jingye came out. He immediately recognized Cang Jingqi, who was using a disguise technique, and said, "What are you doing here?"
People were coming from three sides, leaving almost no way to escape.
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