Chapter 27 The Edict of Evil and Departure Technique "Master, let's go."...
Humans, demons, ghosts, and monsters all harbor resentment. When this resentment condenses into malevolent energy, it will bring calamity to the human world.
Only the night watchman can control time.
The so-called "night watchman's curse" refers to the resentment that Xi Niang, after going mad, attaches to the old night watchman. When the clapper sounds, the time in the entire Huatan Town changes.
This is enough to explain why there were so many hot summers that year, resulting in countless deaths and injuries among civilians.
so……
Lou Yan's eyes darkened as he silently began to calculate a game of time loops in his mind.
He turned his head to look at Heng Qichun, "So when we first met the old servant of the Tan family, he only said that Tan Qiqi had been 'missing' for three or four days, not because he was lying to us."
"In fact, time had indeed rewound to six months prior!"
Heng Qichun nodded slightly and continued, "Everyone in Huatan Town is trapped in this vortex of time, including you and me."
The reason is obvious.
A mother who lost her child, unaware of the truth, frequently altered the time, causing everyone to fall into this strange web.
All she wanted was to save his daughter.
Lou Yan felt a chill run down her spine and looked down.
The room was dimly lit by a single candle. Xi Niang stood there with her body slightly bent, her hands empty, frequently making the motions of striking the night watchman's bell in the air.
Her voice was hoarse, and the original tone was no longer recognizable.
"At the fourth watch of the night (1-3 AM), there are no taboos."
"At the fourth watch of the night (1-3 AM), there are no taboos."
She chuckled with each sentence she read, as if she could actually find Tan Qiqi's whereabouts.
Outside, it was pitch black, and the moonlight was completely obscured by thick clouds. The faint light tried its best to pierce through the clouds, but had to stop in its path.
The baby's night cries gradually faded away, and more waves of heat rolled in. Time had shifted once again, changing so quickly that it left people helpless.
As the climate changed, that familiar summer heat swept in once again.
Lou Yan was already drenched in sweat from the heat, his clothes were soaked and stuck to his body, and his curly braids had fallen down. But at this moment, he didn't care at all whether he should cast a heat-relief spell on himself.
He clicked his tongue, looked at Heng Qichun standing to the side, and guessed, "Later, the night watchman died, so the summer heat dissipated, and we were able to return to the correct time..."
With the night watchman dead, the resentment returned to Xi Niang, and the strange power that controlled time temporarily lost its effect.
It seems that this is why they were able to return to reality.
Nan Xu pondered for a moment: "I have carefully examined the night watchman's corpse, and there is indeed demonic energy attached to it, the same as the demonic energy on Xi Niang's body."
Lou Yan frowned slightly, looking at Nan Xu meaningfully, before asking his next question, "Why did Ke Xi Niang insist on killing the night watchman?"
Nan Xu didn't answer, so he bombarded him with questions one after another.
"Isn't it something Xi Niang has been insisting on: using the night watchman's signal to travel back half a year to find Tan Qiqi's whereabouts?"
"Or... did she have another purpose in killing the night watchman? Did she want to guide us to find out the truth?"
"Nanxu, you wouldn't be hiding something from me and Master, would you?"
Nan Xu's expression changed.
His clear eyes furrowed slightly, drawing people's attention to his tightly clenched hands beneath his crane-patterned robe.
Lou Yan raised an eyebrow. If she wasn't mistaken, that meant nervousness in the human world.
It seems that everything Tan Qiqi said in the illusion was based on some truth.
Nan Xu's nose was covered in sweat. He clenched his fingers and looked at Xi Niang, his eyes slightly red. "She's gone mad. Who knows what she's going to do?"
Heng Qichun glanced at her indifferently.
He didn't speak, but put two fingers together and condensed a stream of spiritual energy. A pale halo gradually rose up and then burned into a flame.
Lou Yan guessed what his master wanted to do, bent down, picked up the Pixiu cub, and took several steps back.
The next instant, the screen painted with snow-covered plum blossoms burst into flames, the flames climbing higher and higher, first the plum blossom branches and leaves, then the snow covering them...
The old wood and cloth made a piercing "sizzling" sound when they were burned together.
Xi Niang had stopped her strange movements. Her almond-shaped eyes were fixed on the screen that was about to burn out. Her pupils shrank suddenly, and just as the cloth was about to be burned to ashes, she reached out and grabbed it.
"No……"
Before he could finish speaking, the entire screen collapsed with a crash.
Nan Xu stood on the other side of the sea of fire, looking down at the madwoman kneeling on the ground, struggling in vain. His voice was slightly hoarse: "After the God sent Xi Niang here, he went to find Senior Brother Lou. At that time, Xi Niang was delirious and her demonic aura was spreading. I heard that she used to love winter plum blossoms the most, so I found this screen. I didn't expect that she would actually calm down..."
Lou Yan listened to these words coldly, but the images she had seen in the illusion kept churning in her mind.
A cluster of wintersweet blossoms bloomed under the eaves, their delicate fragrance drifting in through the window and lingering around the two enchanting figures on the bed.
That was what Xi Niang cared about most, but why was Heng Qichun so heartless?
We must destroy her last remaining hope as well.
Lou Yan secretly pursed her lips.
Having been wandering in illusions for days, the tangled mess in his heart has become increasingly tighter, and it seems that only now has he truly accepted the fact that he has been reborn.
Heng Qichun seems to be different from his previous life.
He looked down at it.
The wooden frame collapsed, and the pale flames gradually disappeared. Heng Qichun withdrew his fingers, which had been pressed together, and instead formed a lotus-shaped hand seal with his fingertips.
The spiritual energy scattered in all directions.
The light was dazzling, and the originally dark house suddenly became bright. Lou Yan and Nan Xu couldn't help but reach out to shield their eyes, and for a moment they couldn't see the scenery in front of them.
All that could be heard was Xi Niang's sorrowful weeping.
After a long while, when the Pixiu cub was fidgeting restlessly in Lou Yan's arms, they finally heard Heng Qichun speak.
“The evil energy departs from the form, breaking through impurity and returning to emptiness.”
"Imperial Edict!"
The divine light vanished instantly, leaving only emptiness in my ears, as if I were in a desolate wilderness.
Lou Yan was in a daze and returned to his previous life. He and Heng Qichun perished together in the Shenxiao Palace, and his last wisp of soul drifted in the sky for two hundred years.
No consciousness, no support—that's the feeling.
It was too uncomfortable. Lou Yan couldn't help but want to curl up, his arms tightening involuntarily. The small beast's scales in his arms were icy cold, making him shiver violently.
"Ugh—" Lou Yan suddenly opened her eyes and looked at the screen that had been burned to ashes.
After the embers, Xi Niang knelt down, her burned fingers still stubbornly gripping.
A large pearl was rolling down her cheek, making a "crackling" sound as it hit the ground.
It turns out that Heng Qichun wanted to break her evil aura.
Lou Yan turned around and met Heng Qichun's pale, watery gaze.
Even a deity seated on a lotus throne can look down upon all living beings. In his eyes, all demons and monsters seem to always be defeated. Even the technique he just used was something Lou Yan had never heard of before.
Lou Yan clenched his fists and fell silent for a moment.
Heng Qichun, just how many more skills do you possess that I don't know about...?
Before the thought had even formed in his mind, the little Pixiu that had climbed onto his calf let out a sharp cry. Lou Yan initially thought it was just making random noises, but after hearing the sound clearly, he suddenly became terrified.
He turned his head and looked in the direction where Xi Niang had been sitting. "Oh no! Xi Niang has run away!"
Heng Qichun had already regulated his inner energy. His cold eyes narrowed slightly as he stared thoughtfully at the ashes of the screen on the ground.
With things having developed to this point, all the strange occurrences in Huatan Town now need to be explained.
Only one thing—
“Chase,” Heng Qichun said.
Nan Xu gently supported Heng Qichun's arm. Upon hearing this, he couldn't help but turn to look at Heng's face. He saw that Heng's face was pale, obviously due to the casual use of spiritual power earlier. He didn't look like he was alright at all.
“The Divine Lord’s energy has not yet recovered, so why don’t we rest here?” Nan Xu said, reaching out to support Lou Yan’s shoulder. “I’ll go with Senior Brother Lou…”
Lou Yan slapped his hand away with a "bang," her arrogant eyes glaring upwards with disdain, and said, "Who wants to go with you!"
Nan Xu choked for a moment, wanting to say something more, when he saw Lou Yan pick up the Pixiu cub and take two steps over, reaching out to grab Heng Qichun's other arm, "Master, let's go."
Heng Qichun hadn't planned to stay here anyway. He stumbled a step after being pulled by Lou Yan, and after a moment of stunned silence, he followed his little apprentice's pull and went out the door.
Only Nanxu remained.
The boy stood in the ashes of the room, his brow furrowed and his fingers clenched into a fist.
From Nanxu's residence to the Tan family mansion, the journey on a flying sword takes only a blink of an eye.
Lou Yan squatted behind Heng Qichun and noticed that his master's fingertips were tense due to unstable spiritual energy. Lou Yan frowned and then made a spirit-aiding spell with a sour face.
Heng Qichun twitched his fingertips slightly and glanced back imperceptibly.
When I came to my senses, the Tan residence was already in front of me.
The master and apprentice sheathed their swords and, under the cover of night, knocked on the tightly closed wooden door. They waited for the time it takes to drink half a cup of tea before they heard rustling sounds coming from inside.
—The old servant opened the door from the inside.
Night had fallen, and it seemed to be past midnight. The alley was deserted, except for flocks of crows flying by, their wings flapping as if trying to shatter the long, silent night.
The old servant was surprised to see Heng Qichun and Lou Yan, and his face showed a moment of astonishment before he put on a smile and asked with great enthusiasm and eagerness, "Why have you two immortal lords returned?"
"Could it be..." he said meaningfully, "that there's been some news about him?"
Heng Qichun gave Lou Yan a look, and Lou Yan understood. She immediately raised her chin, narrowed her eyes slightly, and adopted a haughty attitude. "You ask about your young lady's death."
"Ha, you were unaware of this?"
The old servant paused slightly, the smile that had been on his face immediately vanished, his hand on the door frame slowly tightened, and then he quickly stepped aside to close the door.
"Crack—" Lou Yan quickly reached out to block it, his wolf claws seemingly impervious to pain, slamming against the door with a dull thud.
He secretly gasped, using the act of blocking the door to squeeze half his body inside, and grinned under the old servant's panicked gaze. "Why are you in such a hurry to turn us away? Are you afraid we'll find out something?"
Knowing that his plan had been exposed, the old servant stopped pretending and pushed hard on the wooden door in his hand, trying to force Lou Yan out.
Lou Yan didn't use any spiritual energy; he relied solely on brute force to fight him head-on.
The two were locked in a stalemate between a wooden door, unable to determine who was superior.
Heng Qichun stood in the pitch-black night, his sleeves tucked together, and couldn't help but sigh, rubbing his forehead.
How can you be so childish?
Knowing that time was of the essence and finding Xi Niang was the most urgent task, Heng Qichun did not let his little apprentice continue his nonsense.
With a slight flick of his wrist, a faint lotus fragrance spread out, carrying a pale golden spiritual energy that meandered along the way, gradually approaching the wooden door.
Lou Yan had already stepped back when he sensed the familiar spiritual energy. The spiritual energy quickly seeped in through the gap he had created, like a tangled spider web, completely covering the two wooden doors.
No matter how hard the old servant tried, he couldn't move it an inch.
Heng Qichun walked in from outside the door, his eyes were indifferent. He stopped when he was next to Dan Louyan, but did not look at him. Instead, he said to the old servant, "Human life is precious. Do not make the same mistake again."
Lou Yan didn't understand these words, but the old servant's eyes widened in shock.
His chest trembled slightly, then he closed his eyes with a trembling hand, raised his hand and pointed in a certain direction, "It's too late, Immortal Lord, go and see for yourself."
Lou Yan looked in the direction he was pointing and raised an eyebrow.
It is an ancestral hall.
-----------------------
Author's note: See you tomorrow!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com