Chapter 2
The man who arrived had a somewhat effeminate appearance, but his demeanor seemed to say, "If you treat me like a woman again, I'll kill you." In short, Gu Qingci had never seen anyone with this kind of aura in the past ten years.
"The aura on you is very similar to that of a famous female immortal. It must be that the barrier of Guancheng is mistaken." Although he said this to Gu Qingci, Zhou Xuanzhi's eyes were still fixed on the man with a very different temperament.
Looking at Zhou Xuanzhi's gaze, Gu Qingci had an indescribable feeling, as if they were very familiar with each other, but hadn't seen each other for a long time. Yes, that was the feeling. She tentatively asked, "You two know each other?"
Zhou Xuanzhi's entire demeanor exuded the air of someone raised in a prestigious family, just like the refined and courteous young masters of the capital. This man, while handsome, gave the impression that looking at him too long would be fatal.
"I know, this is mine..."
“Companions,” the man interrupted Zhou Xuanzhi, saying hurriedly, “we are companions.”
Gu Qingci could tell that Zhou Xuanzhi was very unhappy with the term "companion," but the man seemed completely unconcerned. However, given that she wasn't familiar with either of them, she felt awkward about pressing him further.
“Yes, companion.” Gu Qingci nodded.
The scene became very awkward. The two sat opposite Gu Qingci, and neither of them spoke for a moment.
"You said my aura is very similar to that of a female immortal, is it the Jade True Immortal Shi Wanqing?" Thinking of everything that happened in Guancheng, those demons seemed to have mistaken him for Shi Wanqing.
The man with the different demeanor seemed lost in some kind of memory upon hearing the name. Zhou Xuanzhi, however, replied, "Yes, the aura you exude now is very similar to... hers."
"I...I'm from the capital, my name is Gu Qingci." I'm not Shi Wanqing, although I really want to be Shi Wanqing. But the moment Shi Wanqing was mentioned, the person opposite me became uneasy. She suddenly asked, "What is your relationship to the Master?"
“Disciple,” Zhou Xuanzhi replied. The man in black had said, “She is my benefactor.”
"So you are a disciple of the Venerable One, my apologies for my rudeness." What to do? She had no experience interacting with strange men. She looked at the two people opposite her, thought for a moment, and then asked, "May I ask how you are addressed, Immortal Master?"
The man looked at Gu Qingci, paused for a moment, and replied, "Zhou Yun, Master Zhou Yun."
"Nice to meet you, nice to meet you." Her extremely perfunctory attitude was merely to ease the awkwardness of the initial unfamiliarity between the few people.
This Master Zhou Yun seems hostile towards me? Gu Qingci noticed a blue sword with beautiful patterns on it on the table. "Your sword is really beautiful." She tried to close the distance between them.
Shi Zhouyun looked at his sword and said, "It's called Baiyue (Worshiping the Moon)."
"The name sounds nice too," Gu Qingci complimented.
Upon hearing this, Shi Zhouyun scoffed. This sword was clearly a woman's weapon; most people would be curious and disdainful to see someone using such a sword. Gu Qingci's reaction made her seem insincere.
Gu Qingci looked at the two men sitting opposite her, feeling very nervous. In her previous experiences, she had never had the opportunity to be alone with strange men.
"Um," Gu Qingci hesitated for a long time before finally speaking, "Back in Guancheng, those...those monsters said I might be the reincarnation of Master Yuzhen?"
Shi Zhouyun rolled his eyes at Gu Qingci and then turned away, leaving Gu Qingci feeling somewhat embarrassed.
Zhou Xuanzhi smiled and shook his head, saying, "You only have Master's aura on you, but you are not Master's reincarnation."
She nodded.
Shi Wanqing is truly a legend. Her legend doesn't stem from her birthplace on Tianyu Mountain, but from the great war between immortals and demons six hundred years ago. She single-handedly guarded one of the entrances between the demon realm and the human world for twelve days, wiping out the demons with her twin swords. For those twelve days, not a single demon dared to enter the human world through that entrance. This battle is known as the "Battle of the Mountain Gate." Even now, storytellers throughout the human world still recount this tale.
Before this, the name of Master Yuzhen was already known to everyone, but after this battle, she was in a semi-retired state and stayed on Tianyu Mountain, only coming down the mountain once every hundred years or so. After that, no more stories about her were heard.
She looked at Zhou Xuanzhi, thinking that this Immortal Shi Wanqing had quite the eye for choosing disciples. Since she hadn't witnessed Zhou Xuanzhi's abilities, she wouldn't comment further, but his appearance alone was pleasing to the eye. The Shi Zhouyun beside him was even more handsome; if he wore women's clothing, he would be indistinguishable from the real thing.
"What are you looking at?" Shi Zhouyun couldn't help but ask after being scrutinized by Gu Qingci's gaze for a long time.
"Where are the officers?" She finally found an excuse for herself: "When I woke up, the bodyguards next to me thought I was... sick, so they called the authorities for me. I'm waiting for the officers to take me home."
Where do you live?
"The capital city." Gu Qingci said helplessly. These two didn't care at all what she had just said. "I don't know how I got here, no, how I entered Guancheng."
According to them, even if they possessed Shi Wanqing's aura, they still needed permission! I can't understand it.
"I never expected that you would have the aura of Master...Master." Master Zhouyun spoke to people as if he were a creditor.
Upon hearing this, Zhou Xuanzhi cleared his throat, and Shi Zhouyun lowered his arms, which had been crossed over his chest, and looked out the window.
Another awkward silence ensued, and Gu Qingci decided to head into the city on her own. Before she could even get up to say goodbye, a conversation broke out from the side.
"Another person has died in the city. Three have died this month. Three young people. Who would believe it if they said there were no demons?"
"I don't know what the newly appointed prefect is thinking. He didn't even bother to ask a cultivator to take a look. Do you think Yunzhou is short of cultivators?" He pointed to the road and said, "They're everywhere."
Someone died. No wonder the officials didn't come. But don't the cultivators care about this?
Gu Qingci asked, "Aren't you going to go take a look?" There's also a sect in the capital, under the jurisdiction of the imperial court, called the Exorcism Bureau. Whenever demons or monsters harm people inside or outside the capital, this group is the ones who handle it. Although I don't know what it's like outside the capital, these kinds of things are usually handled by cultivators, right?
"Look?" Shi Zhouyun looked at Gu Qingci and chuckled. But the laughter was unfriendly, and Gu Qingci didn't know what she had said wrong.
Seeing the person beside him like this, Zhou Xuanzhi pulled him back and gestured with his eyes for him to stop talking. He looked at Gu Qingci and said apologetically, "I'm sorry, Miss Gu, I hope you don't mind."
“We have something to take care of when we come down the mountain, and it’s very important to us.” His gentle tone was very pleasant, a stark contrast to the person who spoke with sarcasm from the very first word.
Gu Qingci said apologetically, "I'm sorry, I thought you cultivators were all about eliminating demons and monsters whenever you saw injustice."
Shi Zhouyun, whose thigh was being held down by Zhou Xuanzhi, didn't say anything despite his displeasure. He only muttered under his breath, "Reading too many storybooks, huh!"
The voice was very soft, and Gu Qingci, sitting opposite him, couldn't hear it clearly, but Zhou Xuanzhi, the cultivator beside him, heard it perfectly. There was nothing he could do but sigh.
“But we can go and take a look.” Zhou Xuanzhi ignored the struggles of the people around him.
"Are you crazy! With a..." The rest of his words were swallowed back by Zhou Xuanzhi's cold gaze.
Dressed entirely in black, Shi Zhouyun swaggered ahead, drawing considerable attention. Gu Qingci looked at Zhou Xuanzhi beside her and thought this was a more normal person, worthy of being Master Shi's disciple. Even though she wouldn't see Master Shi in this life, being able to walk side-by-side with her disciple was a blessing!
The city wasn't as desolate as Gu Qingci had imagined; on the contrary, it was quite bustling. There were pedestrians and even some cultivators coming and going on the streets. She felt it should be very safe here; how could demons be taking lives?
"Young lady, the officials are very busy right now and can't take care of you for the time being. If you trust us, please find an inn with us to stay in first."
The unexpected incident occurred after she had greeted her parents that evening. This left her penniless. Seeing that the other person also sensed her predicament, she nodded, "Alright, then I'll take my leave."
While Shi Wanqing was resting, Zhou Xuanzhi and Shi Zhouyun met outside the inn.
"Why did you bring that woman with you?" Shi Zhouyun asked as soon as he arrived.
Zhou Xuanzhi looked at Shi Zhouyun and said, "You also sensed what happened that night, right? She had Master's aura on her. Don't you want to know if there are any clues we don't know about? Miss Gu is a noblewoman in the capital. If we send her back now, it will be much more troublesome to find clues from her later."
"Want to know? That's easy." You can't see into people's hearts, but you can see into their memories.
Zhou Xuanzhi knew about that method, but he didn't agree with it. "She's just a mortal. If you use the Soul Search on her, she won't be able to handle it and will go crazy." There aren't many people in this world who can still be alive and kicking after the Soul Search.
"So what do you plan to do?"
Looking at the bustling street, Zhou Xuanzhi said, "Even if she carries Master's aura, she shouldn't be allowed to enter Guancheng at will. Let's first find out why she can come and go in Guancheng."
He had promised his master that he would never harm mortals unless his own life was threatened. He compromised, saying, "Alright, we'll do as you say. So now? Are you really going to find the murderer?"
“She is a noble lady from the capital. Once she returns to the capital, it will be difficult to see her again. We need to buy some time.” Zhou Xuanzhi had no other choice now.
Shi Zhouyun nodded in agreement, "I won't get involved, you can handle it yourself!"
Zhou Xuanzhi wasn't angry. He smiled, patted Shi Zhouyun on the shoulder, and asked casually, "How have you been lately?"
It had been a long time since they had met, and he didn't want their meeting to start with tension.
"It's the same as always, which is fine." Shi Zhouyun was no longer nonchalant, but for some reason, he seemed a little down.
"I'm doing fine over there. It was the sword that sensed it. There must have been quite a commotion on your end too!" Zhou Xuanzhi said this in a very relaxed manner.
"They let you go down the mountain?" Shi Zhouyun was very surprised. Since Shi Wanqing passed away, Tianyu Mountain has cherished her disciple very much. It would not be an exaggeration to say that he was the most beloved disciple. In the past two hundred years, they would not easily agree to let him go down the mountain.
"The sect leader and senior uncles still have things to do, so I made an excuse to go down the mountain for training and came down." Zhou Xuanzhi felt a little embarrassed thinking that the sect leader and senior uncles were still looking for the reason why the main peak was shaking.
Shi Zhouyun laughed, "So you didn't tell them it was because of Master... Yuzhen Shangren?"
“If Master were alive, she would prefer to hear you call her Master,” Zhou Xuanzhi said, looking at the inn not far away. “No matter who you are.”
After a long silence, Shi Zhouyun finally said, "But I was the one who killed her. I am not qualified to be her disciple."
Zhou Xuanzhi looked at his junior brother. They had maintained contact over the past two hundred years, but each time it ended unpleasantly. He gazed at the sky and said, "That matter has nothing to do with you. Besides, we should show compassion today; after all, we've seen a glimmer of hope."
"The demons won't let her come back. If that girl really has her aura on her, that will be the key to her return..."
Upon hearing this, the two exchanged a glance and quickly rushed to the inn.
The inn was in complete disarray. Zhou Xuanzhi had cast a spell to seal off the entire inn, preventing anyone inside from escaping. He could still sense Gu Qingci's presence; she was still alive.
The instant the inn was sealed off, an unknown black gas filled the entire inn, obscuring the view.
Zhou Xuanzhi closed his eyes and held his breath, adjusting his perception range to the limit. Now he had a grasp of the entire inn, even the flight paths of the mosquitoes.
Suddenly, a sword flew out from his left, right where Zhou Xuanzhi was standing. The sword whistled past his face, the wind it created dispersing some of the black mist and lifting a strand of Zhou Xuanzhi's hair before finally embedding itself in a nearby pillar.
"Since you are all here, why not show yourselves?" With that, he drew his Sunset Sword.
With a swing of the sword, the black mist instantly dispersed. Wherever the sword energy touched, the black mist ignited like dry grass encountering a spark, but in the blink of an eye, the fire and the black mist vanished together.
The demon hiding in the shadows was thus forced to reveal itself.
"That's perfect, let's test Shi Wanqing's righteous disciple!" With that, a group of people pounced on Zhou Xuanzhi.
Zhou Xuanzhi fought with those people; their movements were so fast that only afterimages could be seen.
As for Gu Qingci, she was now standing in the shadows with her mouth covered by a female demon. At this moment, Gu Qingci's doubts were dispelled; these people were indeed not mortals.
She was frozen in place, unable to move or speak. Her gaze was also drawn to the battle before her. Looking at Zhou Xuanzhi's graceful figure, his sharp swordsmanship, and the demons lying on the ground revealing their true forms, she knew that he really was Shi Wanqing's disciple.
"Damn it, this Zhou Xuanzhi is a real pain!" the succubus muttered softly.
"That's a disciple of Master Wanqing from Tianyu Mountain." A man's voice rang out. Although Gu Qingci couldn't turn around to look, she recognized the voice.
Upon hearing the man's voice, the succubus dragged Gu Qingci from the shadows into the light. The speed was so fast that before Gu Qingci could even blink, they were already standing opposite Shi Zhouyun. Looking at Shi Zhouyun, dressed in black, she felt a pang of regret; she should have tried to get closer to him more in the first place.
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