The lady lingered, but did not encounter any crabapple blossoms.
Yan Huanyue couldn't help but look around. The people in front of the door either looked at each other in disbelief or discussed with their companions in shock at what Ji Linsong had said. They were all open to the light of day and did not seem to have any secrets.
Sobbing continued, and the crowd was in an uproar. Yan Huanyue stood in the crowd, momentarily disoriented. Was she among the mortals? Or in the evil realm?
Ji Linsong looked at her from afar, seemingly knowing what she was thinking. A soft whisper came from under the gate of the Heavenly Patrol Hall to her ear, "Fellow Daoist is a smart person. You should not limit your eyes and ears to one corner, generalize from a part, and trap yourself in a cage without railings."
As if the cold snow of midwinter had fallen into her brow, Yan Huanyue suddenly felt a clarity in her mind. Only then did she faintly perceive a faint, decaying aura swirling around the tip of her nose, but she could not find its source among the crowd.
The charred bones within her soul sat atop the smoky immortal cauldron, lying dazedly across its mouth, dangling their dark, bony feet, clearly showing a fondness for its aura.
Yan Huanyue, however, could no longer bear the stench of decay emanating from her nose, which came in waves. She took a quick, desolate step and ran straight into a deserted alleyway to vomit.
Her head was buzzing, and the pain she felt when she was afflicted by the death aura swept over her like weeping willows on the bank. She felt as if her brain was being swept by the soft, boneless branches, causing painful ripples to spread.
"This is not my fault."
Jiao Gu lazily stretched her limbs, and the thick smoke from the cauldron passed through the bones of her body. "I die and I live, I live and I die. I have desires in life, and joys in death. Desires have their sins, and joys have their harms. They scold me, blame me, suppress me, and hurt me."
Yan Huanyue collapsed to the ground in pain, her eyes wide open, her fingers almost crushing her head. The pain aggravated the wound on her abdomen, and it took a long time for the pain to gradually subside.
She hurriedly swallowed a few pills, her heart filled with intense joy, knowing she would have to bear the consequences.
In truth, everything she did pleased Jiao Gu, and haven't many things she's experienced since then been the same? Is Jiao Gu simply an indelible mark of her death, or is it her insatiable greed?
A clanging sound of metal scraping against the white walls of the alley swept across the air and quickly stopped in the wind.
"Fellow Daoist Yan, what's wrong?"
Yan Huanyue looked up and saw Lu Shenchu wearing a faded purple robe, arms crossed, standing on tiptoe atop the wall.
Yan Huanyue composed herself and shook her head. She pulled out a plain handkerchief to wipe her bare lips, then stood up, leaning against the wall, and said, "The injury from last night just flared up again. I only managed to suppress it after taking some pills."
Lu Shenchu seemed to sense something, nodded, and said, "The little immortal said it will heal completely soon, and it's best not to run around, but if you have something to do, just use this."
As she spoke, she tossed down a white jade bottle and said with a grin, "This was bestowed upon me by a little immortal. It is formed from thousand-year-old snow crystals and is a top-grade spiritual medicine for replenishing vital energy and healing injuries. I was supposed to give it to you this morning along with your breakfast, but I didn't know you were here for a trial, so I couldn't bear to give it to you. Do you want it?"
Yan Huanyue caught the white jade bottle, then tossed it back up, saying, "Thank you, but no need."
Lu Shenchu carefully caught the jade bottle, put it away properly, and said with a smile, "You didn't want this yourself, so don't change your story if it asks about it someday."
Yan Huanyue carefully put away the plain handkerchief, tidied her hair, and walked out of the alley. "Don't worry, fellow Daoist."
Lu Shenchu, having successfully protected the top-grade spiritual medicine, patted his sleeve containing the treasure pouch with a delighted smile, then followed Yan Huanyue along the courtyard wall with his hands behind his back.
When they reached the alley entrance, Dinglingdanglang leaped to her side and asked with great curiosity, "Fellow Daoist Yan, what is your mission this time?"
Yan Huanyue said, "Looking for the Rejuvenation Pearl? Have you ever heard of such a thing?"
Lu Shenchu shook his head. "It sounds like something that can bring the dead back to life. If such a thing existed, it would have been known to the whole world long ago."
Yan Huanyue pondered the matter, and said, "I'm also curious... Fellow Daoist, you've been here for many days, do you know what you use to raise and refine corpse demons here?"
Lu Shenchu smiled and said, "I haven't been here for very long, but I know a little about it. It's nothing more than the Primordial Primordial Array, which uses First Cry Filth, Hundred-Year Tears, Constant Yin Soil, and Immortal Wood, and is constantly nourished with the blood of living people."
Yan Huanyue asked, "I know everything else, but what is 'first cry filth'?"
Lu Shenchu explained, "It is the filth in a baby's mouth when it is first born. Spitting it out is like spitting out the first breath of yin energy a person has when they enter the world. It is both extremely yin and extremely yang."
Yan Huanyue made a hand seal and said, "I have learned a lot."
Lu Shenchu raised his chin. "Fellow Daoist, you're too kind. It's nothing. Just ask me if you have any questions."
A musty smell lingered in the air. Yan Huanyue swallowed a few pills and followed the scent to a thin, dark-skinned woman.
The woman was absent-minded the whole way, wandering around the streets with an old bamboo basket in her arms. It wasn't until the afternoon that she finally strolled out of the city and walked along the country lanes to a village.
An eight- or nine-year-old girl rushed out from beside the village road, exclaiming with delight, "Mom! You're finally back!"
The woman, startled back to her senses, was filled with shock and fear, and had nowhere to vent her anger. Suddenly, anger welled up inside her, and she raised her hand and slapped the little girl hard, yelling, "Your brother is dead, what are you happy about!"
The little girl was slapped so hard she saw stars. She covered her face and stifled her sobs, which were already rising in her throat, lest she be scolded for being a reincarnation of a mourning ghost and causing her whole family to cry away.
Seeing tears welling up in her eyes, the woman took a small wooden trinket from her sleeve, stuffed it into her hand, and hurried home with a stern face.
The little girl held the wooden carving up to her eyes, and through her blurry, tearful eyes, she could roughly make out that it was an eagle she had longed for.
But now that they've been beaten, the sadness outweighs the joy, and the sharp-eyed, soaring eagle no longer looks so pleasing.
Lu Shenchu, hiding behind the wall, said to Yan Huanyue beside him, "How... how did you figure it out?"
Yan Huanyue didn't reply. She watched as the little girl, clutching the eagle's large wing tightly with one hand and wiping away her tears with the other, silently walked home. She then followed her with light, gentle steps.
"I don't believe what they're saying."
The woman looked flustered. She put down her bamboo basket, washed her hands in the basin of water under the eaves, went to the kitchen to get a bowl, and called out to the door, "Jiaojiao, come back."
Upon hearing the call, the girl quickened her pace and ran home, heading straight for the dimly lit kitchen.
The woman locked the kitchen door, picked up the little girl and sat her down under the stove. She then unbuttoned her clothes and slashed her own chest. The little girl immediately dropped the hawk and pounced on her, sucking her blood.
The woman lowered her head and touched the top of the little girl's head, softly singing an old nursery rhyme.
The little girl smacked her lips, looked at the numerous wounds on her mother's body, and tenderly stroked them, murmuring, "Mom, does it hurt?"
The woman stroked her hair and said softly, "What's this? My pain was much greater when I gave birth to you..."
The little girl exclaimed admiringly, "Mommy, you're amazing!"
The woman laughed and said, "Actually, you're not that great, but you're better than your mother. You've been smarter than everyone else since you were little, and you have a better temperament than anyone else. You'll definitely be different from your mother in the future."
The little girl nodded confidently and said, "I will buy my mother silk clothes, gold and silver jewelry, a big house for her to live in, and chicken, duck and fish for every meal."
The woman smiled gently and said, "No, Mother doesn't want these. Mother wants you to be like this eagle..."
She picked up the dusty eagle from the ground and gestured in the air, saying, "Strong, fierce, no one dares to bully it, and it will live a peaceful life."
"But didn't your mother tell you before that your father and brother had only been dead for a short time, so you shouldn't be laughing so happily outside?"
The little girl nodded blankly, watching the eagle fluttering freely in her mother's hand through the dust particles refracted by the sunlight. "Hmm, but isn't Mom happy too?"
The woman suddenly stopped what she was doing and burst into laughter: "Yes, Mother is happy! Mother killed them with her own hands, and she is overjoyed!"
Lu Shenchu whispered from the window, "What a vicious and cruel woman. She can still laugh so maniacally after killing her husband and son. Even the power of the Corpse Demon's bewitching ability probably wouldn't have made her like this."
After saying that, he was about to leap over and break through the window to enter.
Yan Huanyue grabbed him and dragged him out of the farmhouse, leaping into a field where few people passed by. "Don't alert the snake. If you provoke it, that corpse demon will go on a killing spree to increase its demonic power, and the first person it will eat will be that woman."
“Then I’ll have someone come and keep an eye on her.” Lu Shenchu said as he looked her over, and asked with curiosity, “That’s impressive. How did you find out that she was raising a corpse demon? The wounds from those people’s bloodletting were all in places that couldn’t be seen by others. If it weren’t for taking someone’s life to raise a corpse demon, it would be really difficult to strip her clothes and investigate without any evidence.”
"There was something about her that was almost deathly aura."
Lu Shenchu asked doubtfully, "Even if there is death energy in the body, it cannot be detected without careful pulse examination and spirit probing, let alone something like this where there is only a trace of it. You can tell at a glance?"
Yan Huanyue shrugged. "I can't explain it. Maybe it's because my senses are amazing."
Lu Shenchu remained noncommittal, turned to look at the farmhouse, and said, "This woman is really bold, daring to let the corpse demon wander outside."
Yan Huanyue thought for a moment and said, "She is very smart. I'm afraid the person who taught her to raise corpse demons would not know who she was raising in the end if they hadn't come back to see.
Lu Shenchu looked at her with a puzzled expression.
Yan Huanyue said, "If someone who was raising the corpse demon with her regrets it and betrays her, and she runs away with her lively daughter beforehand, guess whose grave your people from the Sky Patrol will end up digging up after being told off by the informant?"
Lu Shenchu suddenly realized and said, "You mean her son? Some ordinary people value their sons more than their daughters, so naturally they wouldn't doubt it... You really have some brains."
"As long as the grave is arranged according to the requirements and not nourished with blood, the people from the Patrol Hall will only think that she didn't have time to nourish the corpse with blood. Since no one was harmed, the Patrol Hall will likely not look for her again after collecting the body... As long as Ji Linsong doesn't become stubborn, this woman is really smart, daring to gamble..."
Yan Huanyue sneered, "Spiritual cultivation talent is divided according to spiritual roots, but intelligence is not. There are plenty of people in this world who have intelligence but no spiritual roots. Some clever ones can play with spiritual cultivators only depending on their mood and whether they are happy to play."
Lu Shenchu laughed and said, "That's true. There are more than a few brainless cultivators, and half of them can understand human speech."
Yan Huanyue said solemnly, "Since that's the case, Fellow Daoist Lu, you are more experienced and more perceptive than I am. You stay here and guard the place. I'll go back and call for reinforcements. That little corpse demon is still too weak to cause any trouble. Unless absolutely necessary, we must not alert it. Please, please..."
Lu Shenchu laughed and said, "Don't worry, do you need to keep reminding me? I can understand human speech."
As he watched her gracefully disappear beneath the vast, pinkish-red sky, she made a hand seal and flew away on her sword. Lu Shenchu thought to himself that she ran incredibly fast, like a ghost chasing after her.
However, he is reliable in dealing with matters and can distinguish between what is important and what is urgent.
The wind blew his hair down to his chin, and Lu Shenchu smiled as he brushed the strands aside, saying with a smug look, "With me here, is there any need to rush? You don't even trust my abilities?"
He had only been laughing for a short while when his expression suddenly froze. He suddenly realized that he hadn't wanted to waste time here and was planning to leave her here and go back to find someone himself.
How did she manage to fool me into thinking I was so smart and willingly stand here as a guard?
Yan Huanyue flew back to Xuntianliao and told Ji Linsong about the village. Ji Linsong then sent someone to replace Lu Shenchu, saying, "He still has to go out on patrol tonight, so I will have someone bring him back immediately."
The so-called patrol must mean, like last night, leading demons and immortals around to scare people, but it may be more than that.
Yan Huanyue secretly found Ning Wuyang and asked for some more pills. When Ning Wuyang asked, she simply said that she needed them for her injuries.
Once he obtained the pill that could suppress the interference of death energy, he went out at dusk to discern the decaying energy.
While taking his medicine, he endured the intermittent headache and found three privately owned corpse demon farms. He notified the Sky Patrol Office to guard the first two farms.
The last family used the blood of their servants to support their deceased father, hoping he would come back to life and the property would be redistributed. Given the precedent of the Zhao family, their relatives will surely suffer.
The pampered children discussed it and decided that their most pressing issue was to get their father dead. As for how the siblings should fight over the inheritance, they would postpone that for now.
Some say that the original master secretly broke the evil spell, while others say that it's best to go directly to the people of the Heavenly Patrol.
Yan Huanyue listened to their argument from the eaves. In the end, the minority yielded to the majority and stopped looking for the teacher who had deliberately harmed people. Instead, she went to Xuntianliao that night to confess and ask for help.
Yan Huanyue watched them leave through the middle gate in their carriage.
She met four families, three of which were raising the corpses of their deceased children, and none of them intended to give up. Only this one family was raising their parents, so she immediately went to the Heavenly Patrol Hall to break the spell and kill the corpse.
Yan Huanyue stood up on the roof ridge, feeling dizzy from the decaying air, and vaguely saw a familiar figure flash by under the moonlight.
Yun Ruoliang?
How dare he come here?
Yan Huanyue's expression immediately hardened, and like a long arrow suddenly shooting through the air, she flew without hesitation in the direction where the figure had disappeared.
She chased after them for a long time but didn't see a single person. The other party had concealed their presence, and she couldn't be sure if she had misjudged them.
However, the portrait of Yun Ruoliang that she drew has been distributed to various sects by the sect leader, and Yu Yi is also using the portrait to search for the person who injured him that night.
Under these circumstances, if Yun Ruoliang were to truly hide in Tingnan, it would be a clever way to keep things under wraps.
Yan Huanyue wandered around the city and then searched outside the city, wishing she could find him and kill him immediately.
Hiding in the dark mansion, Yun Ruoliang watched her leave the city and couldn't help but sneer, "She probably likes me, because she can recognize my figure even like this and is chasing after me so closely."
The servants in the courtyard stood in two rows, all looking up at him. One of them laughed and asked, "Who is the young master talking about?"
Yun Ruoliang flew out from the recess between the two arched ridges and leaped into the courtyard. He stretched out his arms, and someone came forward with a whisk to gently sweep away the dust on his clothes.
"She's just a woman who's interested in me. We'll just keep her around for fun. If you ever run into the prettiest woman in the Patrol Office, remember not to hurt her. Capture her alive and hand her over to me, and I'll deal with her myself."
An older servant chuckled and said, "The female cultivators in the Sky Patrol Hall are all quite beautiful. May I ask which one you are referring to, young master?"
Yun Ruoliang snorted coldly, "Do you think I can't tell which one is the prettiest? The one surnamed Yan, whose given name is Huanyue, always wears a pink dress. She has a tall and straight figure, graceful posture, bright and beautiful face, gentle and lovely temperament, cold speech, loves to glare at people, and never really looks people in the eye."
She has a gentle and amiable personality, but speaks coldly, likes to glare at people, and never looks them in the eye.
The servants exchanged glances, wondering if the young master didn't think his words were contradictory.
The old servant chuckled and agreed, coaxing and urging Yun Ruoliang to go wash up and rest.
Then he summoned four trusted confidants to his room and discussed, "So, in this Tingnan region, there are people who know the young master, and they can even recognize him despite his changed long face and body shape."
One person said, "Young Master's cultivation is not yet sufficient to maintain his physical transformations, and he refuses to add weight by wrapping cotton pads under his clothes."
The old servant said, "It's very simple, just capture that woman alive and bring her back to keep you company, young master."
"Would the young master be willing?"
"So tell me, if you throw a meat bun to a dog, would it eat it?"
"Ah, this..."
The old servant said, "It's just an example."
"What if we can't capture them alive, and we end up alerting them?"
The old servant laughed and said, "Just kill her and burn her. She is free to come and go in Tingnan. It is not convenient for you to go looking for her now, so just consider it as her returning to her sect."
Everyone exclaimed in unison, "Master Hui is truly brilliant!"
Yun Ruoliang sat in the steaming bathtub, leaning back against the wooden edge, watching the ever-changing mist before him.
They used people's desires to guide them to raise corpses, but Ji Linsong used people's fears to subdue evil with wicked schemes, making him difficult to deal with.
Seeing his father's plans thwarted, he originally intended to go see what the so-called "ghost" was tonight, but unexpectedly ran into Yan Huanyue.
He used to live with his father and rarely saw people. She was the only one here who had seen him before and could recognize his figure, which made things difficult.
He couldn't show himself, but Master Hui had naturally understood what he meant.
This beauty he cherished so much, he should either capture her alive or kill her quietly, without having to report it to her again and hurt him.
In short, we must not let him worry about this matter.
He closed his eyes and gently touched the arrow wound on his shoulder, which had healed to the point where the scar was no longer visible.
Yan Huanyue, you'd better come to me alive, otherwise, it would be too boring if you just died like this.
I care so much about you, a married woman, so you should be secretly happy. Live well, and let me see if, when you kneel at my feet, your tears will flow like raindrops on a begonia, compelling me to take pity on you...
He slowly opened his eyes and said to the window, "Go and pick a crabapple blossom for me."
The servant by the window replied, "Young master, it's unfortunate that it's the season for crabapple blossoms; it's a bit late."
Yun Ruoliang was instantly filled with suppressed anger and said coldly, "What do you mean 'too late'? There has never been a time when I am too late in my life. Go and pick for me the most beautiful and vibrant double-petaled pink lotus in full bloom."
The servant hurriedly replied "Yes," but had no idea why he suddenly wanted the flowers.
Petal bath?
The servant chuckled at his own thoughts; it was rather strange that a grown man like the young master wanted to take a petal bath.
Laughing, they went to find a pond and picked lotus flowers under the moonlight.
Yan Huanyue leaped across the moonlit stream, stepped over a patch of reeds, and used her sword to cleave open a clump of trumpet creeper flowers clinging to an old tree. She found no one hiding there.
Her eyes were cold and clear. "Yun Ruoliang, you'd better not be in Tingnan. Otherwise, it would be a waste of such a wonderful place for you to gather so many talented people if I didn't kill you!"
"Since you're injured, why are you coming to the countryside in the middle of the night to vent your anger on the flowers?"
Yan Huanyue turned around abruptly, only to find the paper figure she had seen yesterday standing silently behind her.
Yan Huanyue concealed her surprise, sheathed her sword, made a hand seal, and bowed, saying, "I was unaware that an immortal was here. I apologize for any inconvenience caused."
The paper figure's pair of glass-like eyes reflected the bright moonlight of tonight, radiating a faint darkness.
"You're overthinking it. I saw you passing by after I finished my business tonight, and thinking something was wrong, I followed you from the other side of the stream. Are you... in a bad mood?"
Yan Huanyue glanced down at the ground. In the hazy moonlight, she could see a few scattered trumpet creeper flowers on the ground between them.
She shook her head. Things were uncertain, and Yun Ruoliang might also disguise himself. Even if she were to speak to Ji Linsong, it wouldn't be good to needlessly divert and waste the current manpower of the Patrol Hall.
If Yun Ruoliang were here, he would definitely make a move against her. At that point, it would be a foregone conclusion, and there would be no need to worry about asking the people from the Sky Patrol to catch fish out of thin air.
So he said to the paper figure, "Nothing, just looking for something."
"A trial mission?"
"Um."
Yan Huanyue then took her leave, saying, "Immortal, since you are here, I will return now."
"Madam, please wait..."
Even though Yan Huanyue was easygoing, she still felt a little awkward about being addressed like that. Back in Chang'an, the Xue family would call her that, but it was rare.
She hadn't heard anyone call her that in a long time; even Xuanzhi rarely called her "Madam." This sudden address made her feel a little uncomfortable.
However, since she is already married, it's not inappropriate for others to address her that way.
Yan Huanyue stopped and looked back. Under the dark sky, there was a pale, paper-like face.
It was expressionless, and its tone was indifferent. "It's a bit inappropriate for me to call you 'fellow Daoist' given my status. You're already married, so I'll call you 'Madam.' I hope you don't mind?"
Yan Huanyue laughed and said, "I've never heard such a title before. If my husband calls me that, I wouldn't know who he's calling. Why don't you just call me by my name, Immortal?"
"this......"
The paper figure hesitated for a moment, inexplicably not daring to utter her name in front of her.
This is too intimate, and he hasn't seen her in a long time. If he calls her name, even if there's a thin layer of paper separating them from each other, he's afraid she'll notice something's off.
He casually changed the subject, "The medicine I asked Lu Shenchu to give you, is it usable?"
Yan Huanyue replied, "Thank you, Immortal. Fellow Daoist Lu gave me some, but I have too much medicine and thought it unnecessary to waste it, so I forcibly returned it to Fellow Daoist Lu."
The paper figure was somewhat displeased, but still said politely, "You flatter me. I went out of my way to fetch it for you, how could it be a waste?"
Yan Huanyue suddenly felt a bit overwhelmed.
This isn't the first or second time that the demon fairy has acted strangely towards her.
Previously, he transformed into a small snake and crawled on her body in the Cold Winter Secret Realm. Yesterday, for some reason, he pretended not to have seen her, but still helped her heal her injuries and gave her medicine.
It's clear that Lu Shenchu didn't give her such expensive medicine because he didn't want to help her and make her owe him too much of a favor.
Perhaps she was just being presumptuous and misunderstanding, but the demon's words and actions did seem rather strange to her.
Yan Huanyue bid farewell again, saying, "Immortal, please wait. I have other matters to attend to and must return now."
"Huan Yue!"
With a clear and cold voice, Yan Huanyue inexplicably felt that his tone carried a hint of gentle sigh at the end.
She couldn't help but recall Pei Xuanzhi's gloomy face.
If he knew that she was alone in the countryside talking under the moonlight with a demon who treated her differently, he would definitely be unhappy.
He can be a bit stubborn and difficult to deal with at times, and she might hold her temper for a while before finally letting it out. If she gets too angry and falls ill, she'll be the one suffering the trouble of serving him soup and medicine.
He was in seclusion and couldn't see this place; they couldn't even exchange words now, but Yan Huanyue still immediately flew away without touching the ground or looking back, yet she still remembered yesterday's kindness and replied:
"Please forgive me, immortal. I have other matters to attend to. If you need my help in the future, just call me."
The paper figure watched her figure and gave a self-deprecating smile, neither warm nor cold.
It turns out that without the identity of being Pei Hanzhou's son, she existed in this way for him, and his soul avoided her like the plague.
They wouldn't even exchange a single word with this completely unrelated monster...
But that's nothing; he can choose not to care.
Fortunately, he was Pei Hanzhou's son; fortunately, she could look at him a little longer because of that...
But why is he still so unsatisfied...?
His cold, glassy eyes gradually darkened until even the moonlight could not reflect them. He gazed at the desolate night in the distance and said indifferently, "Why are you running, sister? Do you think you can escape?"
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