How could she recognize the taste of "morning and evening" in the bait?
The black paper scraps, like willow catkins, drifted and fluttered in the air.
The scraps of paper gently landed on the wooden handrail, in the dusty crevices, and the prison-like staircase that had confined people's freedom was instantly freed.
Amidst the scattered black ash, Peng Youcai and Shen Liuhua frantically descended the winding staircase, downwards...
Until they rushed out of the inn and ran into the cold, windy wilderness.
The once brightly lit town has vanished into the night, leaving only a crescent moon casting a faint, indistinct glow in the western sky, and a chilling wind that makes one feel indifferent.
They could only run eastward, relying on their memories of the directions they had taken in their daily lives.
Left alone on the stairs, Wang Xiaotao, ignoring the bleeding wrist from the cuts made by the copper coins, breathlessly picked up the wooden box that had fallen to the ground.
She spat at the railing where the paper figure had been sitting, then staggered down the stairs, holding onto the railing.
Her pale hair was disheveled and scattered around her temples. She needed to move things from the backyard to create the illusion of a demon wreaking havoc.
She didn't know if she could escape tonight, but she had to stay here to clean up the mess so that her son could get away.
She used to think of herself as a weak and incompetent person who had to rely on others for everything, and her parents, sisters and husband thought so too.
Humans are very complex. She was afraid of blood, but she could also kill.
Many of the people she killed were like she used to be.
She set up memorial tablets for them after their passing, but those tablets were always bleeding. At first, she felt guilty, but as time went on, all that remained was disgust.
Those inconsiderate bastards were all burned to the ground by her.
Wang Xiaotao carried the box down the stairs, swaying like a white fluffy flower in the wind as she stumbled into the backyard.
Pushing open the dark door of the mourning hall, one is greeted by the glow of candlelight, and a fair-skinned, adorable little boy sits on the back of a young man.
Hearing her enter, the little boy lowered his hands from his eyes and said pitifully, "Mom, why did it take you so long to come back? I've been counting for ages."
Wang Xiaotao's tense heart finally relaxed completely at this moment.
See, fate is still on her side.
What Xuanjiang cultivators, what orthodox immortal sects—they're just like those rogue cultivators, all paper lanterns that catch fire first when the flame gets bigger.
She just wanted to live a peaceful life without regrets, so why did someone have to cause trouble for her?
She limped unsteadily to the table in the room, opened the box, took out three incense sticks from the box, lit them with white wax, and inserted them into the incense burner.
As the wisps of smoke rose slowly, her heart grew even happier.
Something was dripping from her head. She looked up and saw dark red blood dripping from the roof beams onto her forehead.
Drip, drip, drip...
She stared blankly at her feet, where a ring of splattered blood beads danced and scurried across the ground.
The blood droplet grew and grew, and the limbs and heads that grew out were all the people she had killed, playing and frolicking around her.
"You're such a kind old lady."
"Grandma, your food tastes great."
"Old lady, I'll get my revenge on you when I die."
"Hahahaha, we meet again. I told you I wouldn't let you off the hook."
Everyone was beaming with joy, and the brightly lit funeral hall was filled with laughter.
Wang Xiaotao couldn't even utter a cry for help. She stood there numbly, staring at the eerily happy smiling faces in front of her.
In the shadows, the son and husband were surrounded by a joyful crowd, laughing hysterically as they danced happily together...
A clear, cold voice drifted into her ears, "There are actually people of the Xuanjiang realm here, what a pleasant surprise! Gentlemen, it's late at night and there's not much fun to be had, so how about we play a little game?"
In the blink of an eye, she was still covered in cold sweat, clinging to her eldest son's back.
The paper figure with its red lips split to its ears still sat serenely by the railing, its silhouette behind it thin, ethereal, enormous, and eerie.
The daughter-in-law, Chen Liuhua, huddled at the bottom of the stairs with a look of despair, muttering incoherently, "I've already gone to the immortal sect to become an immortal, why haven't I left yet, why haven't I left yet!"
.
Pei Xuanzhi stood in front of the cold wind blowing from the second-floor window, playing with the copper coins in his hand, and temporarily tossed them into his treasure pouch to keep company with the pile of copper coins he had already collected.
He turned to check on the people trapped in the nightmare, but suddenly heard a soft voice calling from the depths of the quiet corridor: "Xuanzhi..."
He stopped in his tracks, pondered for a moment, took out a few talismans, activated them, and threw them on the corridor.
He raised his hand again and struck his chest without hesitation, a metallic taste rising in his throat.
He coughed incessantly from the blood, and with a casual wipe of his sleeve to his lips, a trail of blood seeped through his sleeve.
The injury was restrained; it wasn't minor, but it wasn't serious either, not to the point that it would make him seem incompetent.
He was somewhat curious about how she managed to break free from the comforting dream of those four copper coins.
So he tugged at his hair ribbon, disheveled his robes, stumbled open the door, and struggled his way to her bedside.
But she was tense all over, her red lips slightly parted as she murmured softly, her tightly closed eyes struggling to open a tiny crack before suddenly closing again.
Pei Xuanzhi chuckled, realizing that he had been overly cautious in injuring himself earlier.
He watched her struggle with a smile, and couldn't help but stroke her eyebrows and eyes with his cool fingertips.
"You woke up from your dream? You're so easy to fool."
Seeing her long eyelashes fluttering slightly, he couldn't resist. He lowered his head and kissed her lips, then lay down beside her pillow and rubbed his face against her warm cheek, breathing in her warm fragrance.
Warm and satisfying.
Taking advantage of the moment when his mind was wavering, the long-suppressed golden mist emerged from his thin back, carefully avoiding him and scrambling into the quilt.
The boy, who was smiling with satisfaction, was made to breathe heavily and his eyes glaze over by the soft and full touch of Jin Wu's exploration. He subconsciously nibbled at her earlobe.
He was lost in the moment, and in the blink of an eye, he snapped back to reality, straightened up abruptly, and with a cold face, forcibly withdrew the golden mist that was desperately trying to cling to her body.
However, this caused countless disgruntled golden mists to roam freely through his soul, whipping, fighting, twisting, and venting their anger. In an instant, his face grew even paler.
He took the four copper coins from under Yan Huanyue's pillow and threw them back onto the roof. He coughed once, and she suddenly opened her eyes.
As soon as Yan Huanyue opened her eyes, she saw a slender figure sitting by her bedside in the moonlight.
"Senior Sister Yan, I couldn't wake you up no matter what I did. There was some commotion outside, so I had to go out and check it out myself. Who knew there would be a paper figure..."
Yan Huanyue had a faint, indistinct taste of blood in her mouth, and a very subtle, tingling discomfort emanated from her body.
It is likely that the paralysis was caused by being paralyzed by a nightmare and unable to move, resulting in the forced flow of blood.
She sat up, made a hand seal, and a small flame ignited at her fingertips.
Under the light of the spiritual fire, Pei Xuanzhi's face was frighteningly pale, his hair was disheveled, his clothes were in disarray, and there were even bloodstains on his sleeves.
Yan Huanyue's heart sank, and she asked, "What's wrong?"
Pei Xuanzhi coughed a few times, spitting out a mouthful of blood, but he forced himself to support his swaying body, suppressing the pain, and calmly said:
“I heard some noise outside, so I immediately wanted to wake you up, but you were sleeping very soundly. I guessed that something might have happened, so I wanted to go out and see what was going on to make sure that I could handle it myself or that I needed to inform the people of the Tianyan Sect.”
"But when I went outside, I saw a paper figure floating in the air, somewhat like Xuanjiang's mannerisms, but I couldn't be sure. It was about to float out of the window, but when it heard the sound, it turned back and fought with me. It seemed to have been injured by me, so it escaped through the window in the corridor."
He coughed violently, and Yan Huanyue immediately reached out and grabbed his wrist to check his pulse.
Pei Xuanzhi let her take his pulse and continued, "It said that it had a grudge against the Jiang family of Yishan, so it came to find this Xuanjiang criminal who killed people and refined pills for the Jiang family. This has nothing to do with us, and it told us not to meddle in other people's business... When I came back, I looked in the room for any Xuanjiang copper coins, and sure enough, there were some, in the crack of the table."
Pei Xuanzhi paused, then coughed with difficulty again. After a short while, he slowly said, "Senior Sister Yan, my chest hurts a little. I want to lie down for a while..."
As she was speaking, her whole body went limp, and she slid down the edge of the bed to the floor like a piece of silk, then leaned against the edge of the bed and fainted.
Yan Huanyue quickly picked him up and put him on the bed. She held him and fed him a pill before taking out a yellow talisman and activating it by making hand seals.
In no time at all, the Tianyan Sect disciples who had been lurking around the inn emerged from the darkness on their swords and entered the inn.
Suddenly the lights came on, and three seemingly crazy people huddled together on the stairs.
Xue Jingnian led his fellow disciples silently to the second floor. In a guest room, an old woman was sleeping soundly with a little girl in her arms. In another room, a lean young man was fast asleep by the door.
Xue Jingnian continued forward in his boots, pushing open a half-closed door with one hand. He saw Yan Huanyue sitting on the edge of the bed in the moonlight, looking up at the people by the door.
In her arms, she held the unconscious Pei Xuanzhi tightly.
“Xue Jingnian, go and take a look in the backyard. From the smell I can detect, there should be incense mixed with ‘morning and evening’ burning there. However, there seem to be other ingredients in the incense. We are not fooled. This matter may be related to the Jiang family of Yishan.”
Xue Jingnian raised his hand, and several of his fellow disciples immediately jumped out of the window and went down to the backyard to investigate.
He looked at Yan Huanyue and asked in a low voice, "What's wrong with him?"
Yan Huanyue gently laid Pei Xuanzhi down and replied, "He was seriously injured."
"oh."
Xue Jingnian sniffed the cold, astringent wind and felt an unexpected chill all over his body. Because he had taken the snow crystal that she didn't want, he was also injured and hadn't recovered, but it seemed that no one had noticed.
"Morning and Evening" is a forbidden medicine of the immortal sects, and it is difficult to identify because it is always mixed with other spices.
She was unlikely to have any contact with "Chao Mu"; she probably only came into contact with Pei Xuanzhi.
With so many medicines made by succubi, their flavors should be different. How could she only guess that the one burning in the backyard was the rarest one, "Morning and Evening"?
No……
She must have only ever seen the medicine "Morning and Evening" before; she definitely didn't smell anything on Pei Xuanzhi that made her feel comfortable or even like it...
.
Yishan, Jiang family.
Amidst the beautiful scenery of the lake and mountains, Jiang Xusheng leaned against the railing, gazing at the plump koi carp in the water.
This koi is born in the cold pool of earth fire, refined by the extreme yin fire and extreme yang water. Its scales are covered in five colors, and its tears are like fire pearls. It is extremely precious, and there are only three to five people in the whole world who can obtain this koi.
Even he only managed to retrieve five fish from the glass fish tank of an elder of the Mingde Sect after winning a trial, and then specially kept them in his home lake, where they were cared for by a dedicated person.
A servant handed over a white porcelain dish tinged with blue, containing five red pills.
He was in a good mood today, so he casually took the small blue-dyed dish, picked up a red pill, and tossed it into the lake.
The five koi carp, their bodies glowing with a rosy light, leaped out of the water, chasing after Akamaru. A few drops of water, tinged with fire, splashed around them, creating a truly breathtaking sight.
Jiang Xusheng smiled, a rare occurrence, and was about to return the dyed blue plate.
A servant approached him and whispered, "Young Master, something bad has happened. Elder Feng Ye from the Tianyan Sect has come to visit."
Jiang Xusheng frowned slightly, though he harbored some dissatisfaction, he didn't show it.
"Didn't the Second Young Master wait in Xizhu Town early yesterday to deliver a visiting card for Mother? Elder Feng said he wouldn't be staying long, so there was no need for Mother to come and pay her respects. Why did they come to the Jiang family today instead of setting off?"
The attendant was so anxious that his face turned pale. "Young Master, Elder Feng said that his disciples investigated a black shop last night that helped people from the Xuanjiang sect kill people and refine pills. After searching the souls of the shop owners, they followed some things in the corpse-raising area in the backyard and the pill-refining cellar and found an old Taoist priest who was controlling them to refine pills and was about to escape."
Jiang Xusheng asked, "Which shady shop is it?"
"It's the Renyi Inn, run by people from old Tengzhou!"
Jiang Xusheng vaguely remembered hearing many people talk about this shopkeeper's family when he went out once. They said that the family was very kind and generous because they remembered the kindness of the locals who had taken them in. They regularly distributed porridge, helped the weak, and donated money to repair roads...
“I never expected this… Alright, since Elder Feng has come in person, he probably wants my Jiang family to contribute some manpower to help the deceased. I’ll go and see.”
The servant waved his hands frantically, "Young Master, you should run away quickly! That old Taoist priest keeps claiming that he has some connection with the Jiang family. Elder Feng should consider his own worth, respectfully invite him for a cup of wine, and let this matter pass by lightly."
Jiang Xusheng immediately retorted angrily, "Where did this shameless scoundrel come from, daring to slander the Jiang family like this!"
The servant said with a bitter face, "That old Taoist priest is the merchant who buys fish bait around Little Lake Mountain. You instructed him to feed the koi with scraps of ingredients that others used for alchemy..."
"He didn't know we were using it to feed the fish. He just said his Akamaru was excellent, and once they tasted it, they would never choose any other brand. We saw that the fish ate it well, so we kept buying it according to the feeding dates of the koi..."
"Young Master, the Patriarch is furious and summons you to Chengkun Hall to report to him..."
Jiang Xusheng's face grew paler and paler as he listened, staring in shock at the pill in his hand.
It has a texture like red clay, a very poor-quality product, and I don't know what kind of licorice was added to it to attract people. It smells like grass and wood, and it crumbles into pieces when you squeeze it gently.
This is the kind of food he feeds the koi, the most basic kind of loose feed, the kind he never bothers to ask about the recipe for. The servant just hands it to him, and he just feeds them like this.
When I'm in a good mood, I grab a handful and toss them to the animals one by one.
Watching the koi carp burst from the water with a rosy glow, splashing up colorful droplets in the air, was the simplest pastime for him.
How could such a common pastime be used by such a cunning person to hide a life?
Jiang Xusheng picked up a pill with a puzzled look, held it up to the sun, and examined it carefully.
In the blazing light of the sun, so intense it almost blinded him, he thought of his grandfather, who had died many years ago in the battle at the natural barrier.
In fact, he had never met his grandfather, only a portrait of his ancestor on his two-hundredth birthday.
The portrait depicts a very handsome young man, said to be a rare talent in the Jiang family, one that has been rare for hundreds of years.
According to the merits of the Jiang clan, the grandfather's portrait was not placed in the main position, but was only hung on the tenth position on the left side of the ancestral hall.
Seeing that he held the pill up to the sky for a long time without making a move, the attendant beside him couldn't help but call out, "Young master? What's wrong, young master?"
Jiang Xusheng smiled slightly and said softly, "Grandpa, I think I'm coming to see you..."
After saying this, his eyes rolled back and he fell straight backward with a "thud," startling all the servants in Xiaohushan Garden into a frenzy of screams and shouts.
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Author's Note: Thank you to all the little angels who voted for me or watered my plants with nutrient solution between 2024-04-22 23:56:31 and 2024-04-24 00:42:14!
Thank you to the little angels who watered the nutrient solution: Zhou Man's Sword Bone, 024, Manaka 10 bottles; Little Girl Who Loves Longtu, 42293163, Feng Xi Chu Ge, Just Take a Look, Lan Ze Duo Fang Cao 1 bottle;
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