Chapter 52 The Haicheng matter is settled.
If you call it a tree, it's just a stump; if you don't, the stump is covered with thin branches, and on those branches hang plump leaves—maple leaves, yes.
Shi Yuan realized that this was incomplete metamorphosis, or rather, incomplete mutation.
"Where are its roots?" Shi Yuan observed for a long time but couldn't find anything that could be called roots.
As soon as she finished speaking, the slender branches and lush leaves on the mound all gathered in one direction, densely blocking out the area.
Shi Yuan: ...This feels weird!
"Shi Meili, ask where the souls of those victims are?"
Shi Meili said "Okay" and said something to the stump, then started whipping the stump, and then tied it up with vines, making the vines tighter and tighter.
No one noticed that the eerie blue light in the room of the small white building, which was filled with arrays, was slowly dimming.
It's no wonder that Sakura Takeda left with such confidence; the main reason is that this Maple Leaf Demon is one of the best in the entire country.
Let's pull the octopus out for comparison.
In other words, even ten octopuses wouldn't be a match for the Maple Leaf Demon.
However, there's always a "but."
But Ran Wen is the ancestor of the world of exotic plants and the pinnacle of combat power in the world of exotic demons!
With her ginseng tendrils holding the maple leaf demon in place, how could it dare to make any unusual moves?
Shi Meili gave Maple Leaf Demon a good beating, finally venting all the frustration she had suffered from Takeda Sakura.
Satisfied, she withdrew the vine and said to Shi Yuan in a light tone, "It confessed, saying that the souls of those people are trapped in its leaves."
Looking at the densely packed, plump leaves, Shi Yuan felt even more disgusted with Takeda Sakura and the Maple Leaf Demon.
"Let it release all those souls!" Shi Yuan said, then lightly touched her forehead with her fingertip, drawing out the Soul Jade.
This Soul Jade is indeed fortunate. Years ago, it unintentionally projected an image of the Reincarnation Platform and the Three-Life Flower. Now, it has spent so much time with the Reincarnation Platform and the Three-Life Flower, reaping many benefits.
Do you remember the marks left on it before the Reincarnation Platform and the Three-Life Flower returned to their places?
That is a bridge that can guide souls into the underworld!
This Soul Jade is now backed by a powerful force!
Of course, this is mainly due to the entanglement between the Reincarnation Platform, the Three-Life Flower, and Shi Yuan. They need a way to settle the karmic debt between themselves and Shi Yuan.
The Soul Jade represents the status of "chicken and dog" in the saying "When one attains enlightenment, even his chickens and dogs ascend to heaven."
The maple tree demon didn't move. Those souls were the nourishment that nurtured its mutation. It had finally achieved the eighty-one transformations. If it were given more time, it would be able to truly cultivate its tree body.
Releasing those souls at this point would render all its efforts futile!
Ran Wen smiled coldly, and gently hooked his finger. The ginseng tendrils binding the maple leaf demon were deeply embedded in its body. Green, viscous sap seeped out from the block, dripping onto the ground with a "sizzling" sound like concentrated sulfuric acid corroding objects.
In the dim blue light, a corner of the oil painting silently peeled away.
Neither Shi Yuan nor Ran Wen spoke again to ask the Maple Leaf Demon to release its soul; they simply watched coldly as the ginseng tendrils bound to the Maple Leaf Demon's stump tightened and tightened.
In a secluded corner unknown to anyone, many mottled fragments of oil paintings had fallen, and where the fragments landed, the light first dimmed and then went out.
Since becoming the most powerful summoner in Japan and experiencing the ups and downs of most of her life, Sakura Takeda believes that she has long since achieved a state of perfect harmony of mind.
She leaned against the window with her arms crossed, looking at the small white building diagonally opposite. She had to admit that Mo Xun's death had created a crack in her otherwise harmonious state of mind, and then, after seeing through Mo Qianwu's character, the crack widened even further.
Of course, she is not afraid of this crack; such an experience is also a learning experience for her.
But she was still a mortal and could not escape greed, anger, ignorance and delusion. Although she saw through it all and knew how to deal with it, her heart was still stirred because she was going to see Mo Qianwu that night.
These ripples made her unable to resist recalling past affections, immersing herself in them, and ignoring the sudden stinging pain in her back.
Since the skin resurfacing, she occasionally experiences this stinging pain. At first, she would get very nervous and keep checking her condition. Later, she calmed down, but she would still check the stinging area immediately to avoid any irreversible consequences.
But at this moment, she had no interest in checking, so she didn't notice that the painful spot on her back had become wrinkled, like fragments of a balloon that had been stretched to its limit for a long time and then suddenly burst.
The Maple Leaf Demon finally chose to survive rather than die immediately. Fragments of its soul floated out from the thick maple leaves, which withered instantly, becoming exactly like Sakura Takeda's back.
The released soul fragments were mixed with wisps of black energy. Ran Wen told her, "Such a soul cannot be reincarnated unless it is nurtured in the Three-Life Flower Sea for hundreds or thousands of years."
She also casually mentioned, "When I first met Ji Shuyang, she was in the same situation."
However, Ji Shuyang was lucky. She was bored at the time, so she decided to do a good deed and condensed her broken soul to prevent her from being completely destroyed. But that was all she could do. At that time, Ran Wen did not have the ability to send her to the Underworld.
Shi Yuan nodded, sat down cross-legged, and communicated with the Reincarnation Platform and the Three-Life Flower, which had been relocated to the Underworld, through the Soul Jade.
She solemnly stated her first wish: that these shattered souls could be reincarnated.
Because the connection was too deep, neither she nor they knew how many wishes they needed to fulfill to resolve the karmic entanglement. They could only wait for the ties to be broken and the white marks on the Soul Jade to disappear automatically.
Therefore, the Reincarnation Platform and the Three-Life Flower generally do not refuse Shi Yuan's wishes.
Things went smoothly, and those fragments of souls found a place to rest in the Three Lives Flower Field.
She breathed a sigh of relief after settling the remaining souls. It was also the first time she had made contact with the Three-Life Flower at the Reincarnation Platform, and she was not really sure what to expect. Fortunately, everything went smoothly.
The maple leaf demon, having lost the nourishment of those souls, withered and died. Huan Ni, with her sharp eyes, noticed that one of the withered maple leaves had far fewer wrinkles than the others, and immediately plucked it.
The silent maple forest suddenly began to howl like ghosts, and the mimicking maple trees instantly turned to ashes, leaving behind about a hundred maple trees that had turned black as if they had been struck by lightning.
“It seems these are its true transformations,” Ran Wen said.
Over a hundred precious lives lost!
Shi Yuan couldn't resist pressing an explosive talisman onto the maple leaf, even though she knew it might not actually harm the maple leaf demon.
She covered her hands with a layer of gold, and the talisman exploded in her palm. The maple leaf demon was indeed unharmed, but it looked even more withered.
"Ran Wen, draw out its demon core," Shi Yuan said.
At the same time, Mo Qianwu arrived at the study as agreed. After decades of separation, he was surprised to find that his former lover's appearance remained unchanged, with even more graceful charm. In an instant, longing, regret, and pain filled his eyes. He almost lost his composure and hugged Wu Tianying tightly, crying out, "Aying, Xun is gone, our Xun is gone!"
Sakura Takeda paused in her act of pushing the person away. Even the most cold-hearted and ruthless person will always have more feelings for the life that is full of love and anticipation.
She recalled the unspeakable pain and the many days of forbearance she had endured in the hospital, and in the end, she didn't push him away. She rested her head on Mo Qianwu's shoulder, closed her eyes, and shed tears.
A sharp pain shot through the spot where Mo Qianwu was holding her. She frowned, pushed him away, and finally realized something was wrong. However, it wasn't convenient to check her back right now, so she just wanted to get rid of him as soon as possible.
"What is it that you insist on seeing me about?" she asked.
"How have you been all these years?" Mo Qianwu asked her almost simultaneously.
They appear to be one cold-hearted and the other nostalgic.
Although they haven't met over the years for various reasons, they've never stopped keeping in touch. Even before Mo Xun came to Haicheng, Mo Qianwu sent a note to Wu Tianluo, asking him to help assassinate Gu Linyuan.
This matter was approved by Sakura Takeda herself.
Therefore, Mo Qianwu's reminiscing seemed deliberate.
Looking at the man whose skin was loose and who was no longer the young and handsome man he once was, Sakura Takeda sighed inwardly. Indeed, some people are more vivid and lovely when they live in our memories.
“Let’s not talk about those abstract things,” said Sakura Takeda. “There’s not much I can do about A-Xun’s matter, but I have some connections in Haicheng that can help me collect and destroy those photos.”
"Thank you," Mo Qianwu said. "Over the years, A-Xun and I have missed you very much."
“You don’t know, the only snack that Ah Xun can make is the cherry blossom cake that you used to make for my father and me.”
“Every year when the cherry blossoms bloom, he would personally collect the cherry blossoms and pickle them.”
"And when I have no appetite, I can only eat the cherry blossom cakes he makes himself." These few words were filled with emotion, and tears streamed down his face.
But he really is old. When he was young, his eyes were red and filled with tears as he begged her not to leave, which moved people's hearts. But now, Sakura Takeda only feels disgusted.
So affectionate that even the motherly bond between her and Mo Xun seemed to have faded somewhat.
In comparison, although her husband was not particularly handsome when he was young, he is now more mature and refined. Standing next to Mo Qianwu, they look like they are from two different generations.
She thought to herself that it had been a long time since she had made cherry blossom cakes herself. She would make some for Anzi tomorrow to reassure her that she would never leave her and her father again.
Mo Qianwu grieved for a long time, but when Wu Tianying came to comfort him, he knew that he had made a mistake. He wiped away his tears and quickly switched to the role of "Old Mo": "I'm sorry to have made you laugh, but I am truly grieving."
"You know, Xun is the only child in the entire Mo family."
Sakura Takeda genuinely didn't know this, and she frowned, saying, "How could that be?"
Mo Qianwu sighed, "We all suspect that it was that weasel who did it back then." He didn't mention Liang Peilian at all.
Sakura Takeda frowned: "Impossible! I cast a forbidden spell back then. If it retaliated, you would die instantly, your soul would be annihilated. It wouldn't dare!"
Mo Qianwu lowered his loose eyelids, hiding the shocking regret and hatred in his eyes, and said in an unchanged tone: "But the Mo family has indeed run out of blood."
"Aying, all these years, I've only asked one thing of you," he said tenderly, "I've only asked you not to leave me."
“But you didn’t agree, so I stayed with my son and waited for you for half my life.”
"Today, I want to ask you one more time."
"Aying, could you please allow the Mo family to have an heir?"
Sakura Takeda frowned, feeling uncomfortable, and refused: "I'm already this old..." Of course, her physical condition was perfectly fine. Not to mention having another child, she could have ten more without any problem.
But given Mo Qianwu's current appearance, she couldn't bring herself to kiss him!
Mo Qianwu could certainly hear the reluctance in Wu Tianying's voice, but at the same time, he could also hear that she was capable of giving birth!
He dropped the bombshell: "I can secure oversight of Haicheng Port."
Sakura Takeda is smitten!
If the channels to Haicheng Port could be opened up, Japan's operations in Huaguo would be incredibly convenient!
She gently scratched her itchy cheek and began to seriously consider the pros and cons of the matter.
In the oil painting, Ran Wen's ginseng tendrils pierce into a maple leaf, revealing a tiny demon core.
Huan Ni exclaimed disdainfully, "It's so small, not even enough to fill a tooth gap for Shi Meili!"
Ran Wen chuckled, "Lady Huan Ni, take a closer look." With that, he held the tiny demon core, about the size of a grain of rice, under Huan Ni's eyes.
"Oh! I made a mistake." Huan Ni laughed. "Don't underestimate this small thing; the energy it contains is quite impressive."
She looked at Shi Yuan and said, "We've come all this way, so we haven't lost anything."
Shi Yuan smiled and pressed another talisman onto the maple leaf. Without the protection of the demon core, the maple leaf demon was blown to pieces this time.
The light in the sealed room grew even weaker, the oil paintings began to fall off in large clumps, and the light on the ground went out piece by piece.
After scratching her face, Sakura Takeda casually glanced at her fingertips and saw dandruff on her fingertips. She froze, subconsciously looked up, and met Mo Qianwu's shocked and horrified eyes.
In his eyes, he saw an old woman with completely white hair and a face full of wrinkles!
She unconsciously touched her face, and the old woman in Mo Qianwu's pupils also touched her face!
"Ah!" Takeda Sakura screamed and swept everything off the desk, then ran like a madwoman towards the secret room. Mo Qianwu, not understanding what was going on, followed closely behind with a glint in his eyes.
In the oil painting, Shi Yuan presses talismans one by one onto the maple leaf monster, watching it slowly blast into dust with a blank expression.
"Phew~" She let out a breath, finally feeling a bit better. "Where's the other one? Where is it?"
Shenxu pointed to a protrusion on the mound that resembled a thumb and carrot. If Ranwen hadn't been very familiar with the structure of the alien plants, they would have been misled by the maple leaf alien demon.
That's right, what the Maple Leaf Demon was trying so hard to cover up wasn't actually the root.
Ha! Those cunning Japanese exotic plants!
The Maple Leaf Demon's core was lost, and its true form was destroyed. With a few talismans, it turned to ashes just like the Maple Leaf Demon.
The next instant, the entire maple forest began to turn to ashes, and Ran Wen led Shi Yuan and the others out of the oil painting.
As soon as Shi Yuan stood firm, she met the gaze of Takeda Sakura, who had coughed up a mouthful of blood and appeared listless, shocked, and even older.
Shi Yuan subconsciously took a step back and said, "So ugly!" She did it on purpose!
"What did you do?" the old voice asked, trembling.
Shi Yuan shrugged: "What I see now." She smiled nonchalantly, seeing that Takeda Sakura was clearly suffering from the backlash, and she felt a little better.
That's how it should be. It's all about cause and effect. If you owe someone, you should pay them back!
Enraged, Takeda Sakura screamed, "Guards!" "Shi Yuan, I won't let you get away with this!"
Shi Yuan raised an eyebrow and shook her head: "I told you from the beginning, it's not you who should let me go, but you who should beg me to let you go."
"Alright, I'm going to reveal my identity now." Shi Yuan chuckled, took out her Seventh Division ID and waved it in front of Wu Tianying and Mo Qianwu. "Shi Yuan of the Seventh Division, let's begin the manhunt!"
After saying that, he raised his hand, and the golden talisman shot straight towards Takeda Sakura's face.
Sakura Takeda instinctively raised her hand to summon the Maple Leaf Demon to defend herself, but she summoned nothing. Only then did she see that the oil painting behind Shi Yuan had turned to ashes.
"Ah!" She screamed uncontrollably again, completely losing the beautiful and composed demeanor she had when she first met Shi Yuan.
She awkwardly dodged the talisman and began chanting obscure tunes to summon other strange demons to aid her, just like other summoners in Japan.
The talisman she had dodged suddenly swerved and headed straight for Takeda Sakura's back.
Stunned and speechless by the series of unexpected events, Mo Qianwu instinctively warned, "Watch out behind you!"
Sakura barely dodged the talisman and continued chanting, but the talisman turned and attacked her face again. Sakura dodged and chanted at the same time, looking quite disheveled.
Mo Qianwu unconsciously shifted his gaze away from Takeda Sakura's face; she was too ugly!
If in the past he always felt that the women who came and went around him were not as important as a single hair of Sakura Takeda, now he could say the opposite.
Speaking of which, I wonder if he would be willing to exchange the right to use Haicheng Port for a night with Takeda Sakura and leave an heir for the Mo family?
Although Sakura Takeda suffered a severe backlash, she was indeed the most powerful summoner in the entire country, and the strange plants she summoned were also quite powerful. Of course, Ran Wen gladly accepted its demon core.
Seeing this, Shi Yuan raised an eyebrow. Thinking of something, she twitched her fingertips slightly, deflecting the talisman slightly just as it was about to hit Takeda Sakura, only burning off a few strands of her sideburns.
Sakura Takeda was nervously dodging, not noticing anything unusual. She continued chanting and summoning, narrowly avoiding the talisman's pursuit amidst constant danger, and summoned another strange plant.
Ran Wen once again accepted the demon core from the other party.
After several attempts, Sakura Takeda realized something was wrong, but she had no other choice but to keep summoning the strange demons, because she knew very well that if she stopped summoning the strange demons, the talisman would immediately explode in her heart.
She didn't want to die!
She also planned to deal with Shi Yuan and then summon a powerful alien plant to reactivate the array in the secret room. With her abilities, it wouldn't be long before she could return to her former self.
Just hold on a little longer, Yasuko Takeda will be here with her men soon.
As expected, Yasuko Takeda arrived, but for Tokiwa, it was just a matter of having one more talisman.
As for the others who surged forward, let Shi Meili go out and hold the pass alone!
This caused chaos on the scene: the mother and daughter, Sakura Takeda, were running around, talismans were chasing after them, ginseng tendrils were constantly harvesting demon cores, Shi Meili was swaying wildly, Japanese subordinates were scurrying around everywhere, and oh, there was Huan Ni with her eyes darting around, afraid of missing anything.
Amidst the chaos, Mo Qianwu silently huddled to one side, constantly looking for an opportunity to leave. However, he was either blocked by the Japanese subordinates, brushed against the legs by Shi Meili's vines, or occasionally struck by talismans flying near his ears, making him afraid to move.
Mo Qianwu felt deeply that he was being targeted, but he had no evidence. The key was that everyone and the demons were very busy, and it seemed that no one and no demons were paying attention to him.
This chaos ended when Shi Meili hung all her Japanese subordinates in mid-air, Shi Yuan's talisman was finally affixed to Takeda Sakura and her daughter, and Ran Wen's ginseng whiskers were covered with demon cores.
At this moment, Mo Qianwu, who had gone through many hardships, touched the doorknob of the secret room.
"Hey, old man, come back!" Shi Yuan seemed to be chatting casually with the gatekeeper, without any hint of threat, and his voice even carried a hint of laughter.
But Mo Qianwu obediently let go of the doorknob, turned around, and went back into the secret room.
Shi Yuan smiled and put away the talisman: "That's more like it. We all came together. How could you leave alone?"
"Huan Ni, call Gu Linyuan and ask him to come and clean up the mess."
Huan Ni flapped her wings and flew away.
Mo Qianwu lowered his head slightly, thinking of a way to escape, but after thinking for a long time, he could not find a suitable excuse.
First of all, the fact that he entered the secret room with Sakura Takeda is hard to explain.
Moreover, the person who came to clean up the mess was Gu Linyuan, and there were quite a few old and new grudges between them.
Gu Linyuan arrived quickly, or rather, he had been waiting at the small villa ever since he received the news that Shi Yuan was at the White House, ready to meet her.
Accompanying him was a regimental commander from the Haicheng military unit, who had previously been in charge of clearing out foreign spies lurking in Haicheng. He was very experienced in dealing with such people, and entrusting those Japanese subordinates to him would be the most cost-effective option.
As for Sakura Takeda and her daughter, they will first undergo routine review at the Seventh Division, and then be transferred out based on applications submitted by various departments.
Of course, before that, the Seventh Division will confirm that Sakura Takeda and her daughter no longer have the ability to harm people.
Ultimately, Sakura Takeda and her daughter will pay the price for the crimes they committed in the Flower Country.
As for Mo Qianwu, ever since Mo Xun's affair spread like wildfire and tore a hole in the Mo family, his and the Mo family's demise was already sealed. However, he deliberately walked into the line of fire, which only accelerated his own and the Mo family's destruction.
After the Haicheng matter was settled, Shi Yuan and Gu Linyuan escorted Mo Qianwu back to Beicheng and explained the Xiaobailou incident. The subsequent matters were no longer Shi Yuan's concern.
What Shi Yuan didn't expect was that Liang Peilian turned herself in and even asked to see her.
She looked at Ran Wen, who shrugged: "I don't do good deeds anonymously."
Shi Yuan chuckled. Although she didn't know why Liang Peilian wanted to see her, she still went.
With her bare face, Liang Peilian was incredibly pure, giving off a sense of secluded beauty. No one would associate her with the audacious woman who used her body as bait to make Mo Xun die such a dishonorable death.
"Thank you for coming to see me." Liang Peilian smiled gently. "And thank you for saving me in Haicheng."
“You don’t need to thank me,” Shi Yuan said truthfully. “I saved you back then because I wanted to see you make things even bigger.”
"To some extent, we were aligned in our goals at that moment."
“But I’m still grateful to you,” Liang Peilian said. “I’m not afraid to die in Haicheng.”
"Even if I die, Mo Xun's photos and deeds will still be widely publicized in Beicheng."
"I could die in peace if I could do these things myself."
“I know you’re curious why I wanted to see you. If it was to express my gratitude, I could have simply sent someone to deliver the message.”
Shi Yuan nodded: "I was indeed curious, so I came."
Liang Peilian was slightly surprised, clearly not expecting Shi Yuan to have such a personality. She thought that someone who could be so shrewd and had such powerful followers would be as arrogant as those in power.
"Thank you for coming." This was much more sincere than the previous thanks. "Would you be interested in knowing why I attacked Mo Xun?"
"I would like to hear the details," Shi Yuan said.
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