The Missing Beauty
Yan Jue walked out of the dense forest carrying her haul from tonight.
The evening breeze was cool; the forest air was fresh.
Yan Jue looked up at the stars glittering overhead, then raised a hand and sniffed at herself.
Sure enough, the demonic aura was thick.
Monsters and humans were different, after all.
Luckily, she had Northern Sea black iron protecting her body; otherwise, with this much demonic aura clinging to her, she really wouldn’t know what to do.
Yan Jue closed her eyes and silently recited the Spirit Communion Formula. The Northern Sea black iron contracted violently, pressing tightly against her skin and absorbing the excess demonic aura.
A clear stream of true qi slowly flowed through Yan Jue’s entire body, and only then did she finally let out a relieved breath.
She wandered slowly along Fengxian Town’s main street, planning to look around the town market.
As she walked, she suddenly heard crying not far away.
Yan Jue froze and stopped in her tracks.
The crying was faint and indistinct; she couldn’t make it out clearly.
Following the sound, Yan Jue entered a secluded alley. In the moonlight, she saw an old woman in ragged clothes lying by the wall, crying.
The sobs were miserable, full of grievance and complaint.
The old woman seemed to have fallen; eggs and cabbages were scattered all over the ground beside her, and thin, mottled scratches could be seen on her arms.
Yan Jue walked over. “Ma’am, are you all right?”
The old woman jumped at her voice and turned to look at her.
A young girl stood in the moonlight.
Yan Jue was wearing a black cross-collared printed pleated dress, with a golden collar around her neck. Her narrow sleeves were neat and sharp, and her back was straight.
She wore a veiled bamboo hat, so her face was only faintly visible, but her neck and the exposed skin there were as white as snow. Her long, narrow eyes lifted slightly, looking at the old woman through the gauze with concern.
She had an unmistakable air of heroism; even through the veil, one could vaguely tell that her features were exquisitely refined, making her seem incomparably gentle.
What fine skin.
The old woman swallowed, hiding the joy flashing in her eyes, and said miserably, “This old woman went out in the middle of the night to bring in some goods. Who knew I’d lose my footing just now, and everything spilled everywhere...”
Yan Jue blinked. “Then what should you do? It’s already so late; there probably isn’t anyone selling goods outside the city walls.”
The old woman: “I can only wait until tomorrow. It’s just that my body can’t get back up... Useless, truly useless!”
Yan Jue: “It’s fine, it’s fine. I’ll help you. Where do you live?”
Sometimes Yan Jue really couldn’t stand herself.
She had always been a warmhearted person; back when she was in the modern world, she often took part in volunteer activities and the like. If she saw an old person fall by the roadside, she certainly couldn’t just ignore it.
A glint of delight flashed through the old woman’s eyes. “Thank you, young lady.”
She extended one withered hand. Yan Jue supported her, and the old woman grasped Yan Jue’s hand and slowly struggled to her feet.
The two of them walked out of the alley.
There was no one around; the night was quiet.
Yan Jue supported the old woman for a while, and before she knew it, they had arrived in a secluded side lane.
This was the old woman’s home.
Ahead was a red courtyard gate, and within the yard, several small houses with green-tiled roofs could be faintly seen.
The old woman: “My hands have no strength... I can’t lift them...”
Yan Jue: “Is there anyone else at home? I’ll help you push the door—”
Before she could finish, she suddenly felt a sharp pain in her chest.
Yan Jue froze, and then the pain crashed over her chest like a tidal wave, nearly swallowing her whole.
Her heart lurched in alarm. This familiar feeling... could it be...
Her vision went black, and her footing immediately became unsteady.
The old woman looked at her and froze slightly.
That surprise lasted only a few breaths before red light flashed in her eyes.
The old woman’s wrinkled face slowly twisted. Her mouth opened, revealing a pair of gleaming fangs.
Yan Jue’s vision blurred for a moment; she reached up and struck her forehead hard.
When she opened her eyes again, a grotesquely distorted face suddenly filled her vision.
The old woman, who had just looked perfectly normal, was now staring at her with a face twisted beyond recognition; her eyes were red as cinnabar.
The old woman held a slender rope in her hand, and her lips peeled back in a vicious grin.
Just when Yan Jue had been struck by that sudden pain, the old woman had already looped the rope around her jade-white wrist!
Yan Jue came to herself and froze on the spot. A faint ache pulsed from her wrist.
The old woman pulled her hand toward the courtyard gate. “There’s no need to panic, young lady. With a skin like yours, coming to this old woman’s place is nothing but a blessing.”
“In a little while, I’ll have a few keepers come and take good care of you; they’ll see to you until you’re thoroughly satisfied. How about that?”
“...”
Yan Jue might be helpful, but she wasn’t stupid. Of course she knew what kind of situation she had run into now.
And when she thought back to the nighttime disappearances in Fengxian Town these past few days, she could guess at it, more or less.
The old woman walked unsteadily, but her strength was astonishing. When Yan Jue didn’t move, she yanked hard. Yan Jue stumbled a step, and just as she was about to be dragged through the courtyard gate, she had no time to react. She immediately dropped into a horse stance to steady herself, focusing her Divine Sense.
The breeze lifted her veil, revealing that enchanting, breathtaking face. Behind the veil, the girl’s phoenix eyes were long and narrow, and gold suddenly lit up in her amber pupils.
The red fox’s silhouette faintly appeared above her, with golden eyes and sinister, ferocious fangs.
“Hiss—” A massive surge of demonic aura exploded through the air; the red fox bared its teeth, its vicious nature fully exposed.
The pressure of the red fox bloodline descended.
The old woman’s pupils shrank, and she immediately fell to her knees, emitting a pained groan.
Yan Jue sprang upward; with a sharp knee strike straight to the face, the old woman had no chance to defend herself and was knocked unconscious on the spot.
It seemed the bloodline pressure of the original body was even stronger than she had imagined.
Yan Jue pondered for a moment, then immediately bit through the rope bound around her wrist. Though the rope was sturdy, it was just an ordinary rope; before long, it snapped in two and fell to the ground.
Free of the restraint, Yan Jue looked up at the tall courtyard gate before her. She lightly tapped the ground with the tip of her foot and vaulted straight over the courtyard wall.
This old woman, it seemed, was probably a trafficker who specialized in abducting women late at night.
Whether in the modern world or now, Yan Jue hated that kind of behavior with a vengeance.
And there was also a chance she was a monster.
How strange. Her eyes had always been sharper than ordinary people’s, yet just now she hadn’t noticed anything at all.
Yan Jue swallowed an Invisibility-Condensing Pill, crouched on the high wall of the courtyard, and closed her eyes to calm herself.
Her Divine Sense expanded soundlessly in the darkness, gradually spreading to every corner of the courtyard.
In the lights of ten thousand homes in Fengxian Town, some households gave off a dense aura; those were families with many people.
Other households gave off only a thin aura, like mountain mist; those were families with few people.
Before long, Yan Jue sensed a mass of completely nonaggressive white qi inside a blue-brick, tiled house not far away.
In the darkness, Yan Jue suddenly opened her eyes, unable to hide her surprise.
There weren’t any other cultivators in this old woman’s back courtyard.
But there were ordinary people.
-
“Senior Sister, i-it’s been a long time.”
By the time Chu Fu arrived at the inn, Qi Xianqing was already waiting downstairs.
Under the dim light, Qi Xianqing wore a snow-white cross-collared printed robe, with the pitch-black sword Zhuying on her back. Seeing him enter, she gave a slight nod and stood up. “Let’s head out now.”
Though she was not very willing inwardly, this was, after all, Uncle-Master’s instruction; Qi Xianqing could not really refuse.
As the pride of Five Dragons Sect, Qi Xianqing had many people who cared about her.
She knew that she was already at the middle stage of the Fusion Realm’s fourth level. If she found a dual-cultivation partner with compatible spiritual roots, her cultivation would improve by leaps and bounds. That was why her sect uncle-master kept thinking about this matter.
She had also heard a little about the case of the three missing beauties in Fengxian Town.
She knew the culprit had bizarre movement techniques, extraordinarily fast escape speed, and appeared and vanished like a dragon showing only its head. South Tower had already sent people, but to this day it still had not been resolved.
After abducting the most beautiful three women in Fengxian Town, the person had vanished from the human world as if by magic, as though they had already left the city entirely.
Yet the city guards said that no suspicious person had left the city this month.
Chu Fu hadn’t expected her to be so decisive, and hurriedly smiled. “Senior Sister, are we going out tonight? Shouldn’t you rest first?”
Qi Xianqing said indifferently, “If Junior Brother Chu is exhausted from travel and tired, then you may rest tonight and go tomorrow instead.”
Chu Fu: “No, I’m worried Senior Sister is tired.”
“I heard from Master that Senior Sister had just finished a mission on Luoyun Mountain as well.”
Qi Xianqing: “It’s fine.”
After speaking with Chu Fu, Qi Xianqing subconsciously looked upstairs.
Before entering her room earlier, she had told Yan Jue that once she finished circulating her qi, they would go to the market together for a walk. Now they couldn’t go, so Yan Jue should still be waiting in the room.
Qi Xianqing pressed her lips together and went up the stairs to knock on Yan Jue’s door. “Junior Sister, are you there?”
The room was silent.
Perhaps she was asleep.
Since it was a private room, Qi Xianqing also found it inconvenient to probe with Divine Sense.
That little troublemaker usually seemed to have boundless energy; even if she were asleep, she would probably wake up at the sound of knocking.
Qi Xianqing knocked again, but still no one answered.
Could she have gone out to play on her own...
Qi Xianqing stared at the motionless door and suddenly felt a faint trace of displeasure rise in her heart.
Wasn’t she waiting for her?
She had only circulated her qi for two hours, and Yan Jue was already in such a hurry that she wouldn’t even wait?
Qi Xianqing felt even worse.
Chu Fu waited a while and saw Qi Xianqing come down quickly with her sword on her back; her expression was indifferent, and he didn’t know what she was thinking.
Chu Fu licked his molars with the tip of his tongue, feeling a little disappointed.
He had heard that this time Yan Jue and Qi Xianqing were going out on a mission together, and he had originally been rather curious what kind of trouble Yan Jue would cause Senior Sister this time.
But where was Yan Jue? Why couldn’t he see that woman at all...
Chu Fu held back for a bit, then smiled and asked, “Senior Sister, do you know where Senior Sister Yan went?”
Qi Xianqing said expressionlessly, “I don’t know.”
Chu Fu paused, and a faint joy welled up in his heart.
From Qi Xianqing’s expression, it seemed like she was a little unhappy.
Was Senior Sister unhappy because he mentioned Yan Jue?
-
Yan Jue was not someone who liked to meddle.
Standing on the wall, she roughly probed the surroundings with her Divine Sense and found that there were no high-level cultivators in this courtyard. Instead, there were ordinary people. Only then did she connect this old woman with the disappearance case of Fengxian Town’s three beauties she had just heard about downstairs at the inn.
Yan Jue planned to go to the magistrate’s office and call for help.
Just as she was about to climb down from the wall, she suddenly heard voices from below.
“Senior Sister, what is this?”
Yan Jue’s movement stopped; she froze instantly.
Chu Fu?!
Yan Jue looked down and indeed saw Chu Fu in a light blue daoist robe, handsome beyond measure with red lips and white teeth, standing not far away with Qi Xianqing.
Qi Xianqing?
Perhaps because her previous strike had been too hard, or perhaps because the red fox bloodline pressure had too great an effect on ordinary monsters.
The old woman she had kicked down was lying on the ground with her mouth wide open, her tongue hanging out, still not awake.
Qi Xianqing was folding her arms, looking at the old woman on the ground with a thoughtful expression.
After a brief sweep with her Divine Sense, Qi Xianqing had already climbed over the wall.
Yan Jue immediately jumped down and hid beneath it.
Fortunately, she had taken the Invisibility-Condensing Pill just now; otherwise, with Qi Xianqing’s terrifying Divine Sense, she would probably have been discovered long ago.
No wonder her chest had suddenly hurt when she reached the door earlier.
So Chu Fu had come here again.
Yan Jue frowned slightly, not knowing what Chu Fu was doing here.
The courtyard was dark and unlit.
Qi Xianqing and Chu Fu walked slowly forward.
Qi Xianqing suddenly stopped. “Before entering the inner courtyard, what should we do? Do you know, Junior Brother Chu?”
She often led junior brothers and sisters; having become accustomed to the role of leading senior sister, her manner of speaking and doing things was naturally very professional.
Chu Fu was also very humble. “Naturally, we should first stop and use Divine Sense to investigate our surroundings.”
Qi Xianqing nodded. “Then try it.”
The aura Chu Fu displayed now was only at the peak of the Foundation Establishment Realm.
Divine Sense was a divine ability only formed after the Clarification Realm; and yet Chu Fu already knew how to use it now?
Yan Jue watched from behind and couldn’t help being slightly stunned.
Chu Fu reached into his Qiankun Bag and carefully took out an umbrella.
Qi Xianqing raised her brows slightly, seeming rather surprised.
Chu Fu smiled; his smile was humble and courteous. “It’s like this, Senior Sister. Right now I’m only at the peak of Foundation Establishment, so I still don’t have the ability to investigate my surroundings with Divine Sense. I can only rely on this Bi Luo Umbrella to assist me.
“If there are high-level cultivators ahead, this umbrella will emit a red glow; if they’re just ordinary people, it will light up white instead.”
As he spoke, Chu Fu tossed the umbrella in his hand out.
The shabby paper umbrella floated slowly through the air, actually drifting toward a blue-tiled house not far away before stopping above it.
A burst of white light illuminated the top of the umbrella.
There were mortals!
Yan Jue watched silently and couldn’t help but sigh that Chu Fu really was the kind of male lead who came from a prop-based background. With the Demon Lord from Five Dragons Mountain backing him, his Qiankun Bag was never short on tools.
Chu Fu took the umbrella back and looked obediently at Qi Xianqing, his eyes carrying expectation, as though he were a clever junior brother waiting for his senior sister’s praise.
After all, if Senior Sister was willing to take him on a mission in the middle of the night, it meant he still had some redeeming qualities. Maybe, without realizing it, he had already won the senior sister’s heart. Maybe.
Thinking this, Chu Fu’s eyes brightened with a faint light.
Qi Xianqing stared at the umbrella in his hand for a long moment, then said lightly, “You can begin practicing Divine Sense searching once you reach the peak of Foundation Establishment. Magical tools may be useful, but they aren’t reliable.”
Hearing this, Chu Fu felt as though a bucket of cold water had been poured from head to toe; even his whole heart went cold.
He lowered his eyes. “Senior Sister is right.”
Yan Jue couldn’t help thinking privately that Qi Xianqing really was just as merciless as always when she spoke.
She didn’t particularly care to watch the male-and-female lead’s plot. Turning around, she was just about to leave when she suddenly heard a voice from the room beside her.
“Help me!”
The voice was faint and indistinct; she couldn’t hear it clearly.
Yan Jue stopped, but the voice only called out once before vanishing.
She wanted to keep going, but then heard another voice from behind her.
“Help me...”
“...”
Yan Jue paused, quickly confirming that the voice was coming from the house beside her. She walked over to the window and looked in, and couldn’t help feeling a chill of disgust.
It was a room filled with monster pelts.
The room was very crude. In the dim moonlight, Yan Jue saw a horse hide hanging upright before her, a tiger skin pouch over there, and in that fish tank, a fish skeleton seemed to have been sealed inside with spiritual power.
It was just like the kind of horrifying biological experiment lab she used to see in movies.
Closest to her, unbelievably, was a red fox pelt.
Yan Jue’s disgust now was no less than that of a pet pig discovering pork on its owner’s dinner table.
“Help me...” the weak voice came again.
Yan Jue looked down and saw a white fox in a cage under the bed.
The white fox had a pair of clear eyes, and it was staring at her urgently. “Lady, save me.”
Yan Jue paused slightly.
As expected of the white foxes renowned for elegance and nobility, every strand of fur on its body seemed exquisite, and even its eyes were a deep ice-blue.
But at this moment, it was trapped in a narrow cage, unable even to straighten its back; it had the unmistakable look of a tiger trapped on level ground.
Compared to red foxes, white foxes really were very graceful creatures.
But perhaps precisely because white foxes were too cultured and noble, in fox society they could only serve as servants to red foxes.
After all, this world was a place where the strong preyed on the weak.
Too delicate a creature would always be bullied.
The white fox flicked its tail and looked at her gently. “If you save me, I’ll marry you.”
Yan Jue was silent for a moment. “...That won’t be necessary.”
Yan Jue was meeting the white fox through the small window.
She glanced that way to confirm Qi Xianqing and the others had gone farther off and wouldn’t see her, then went to the door.
Yan Jue gripped the door handle and pulled hard.
The door didn’t budge at all, faint blue light rising from it.
It was a room covered in restrictions.
Although Yan Jue had asked Qi Xianqing about arrays while traveling today, this restriction that glowed blue was already a mid-level array.
Yan Jue really had no way to break an array of this level.
She went to the window again, pressed a hand to the golden collar around her neck, and silently recited the Spirit Communion Formula.
The Northern Sea black iron trembled lightly, then turned into a thin rope and flew to the cage, wrapping tightly around the iron bars.
Yan Jue closed her eyes and continued reciting the Spirit Communion Formula. The Northern Sea black iron began straining to lift the cage upward.
The cage was dragged up by the Northern Sea black iron.
With a loud crash, the iron cage flipped out through the window.
The white fox inside was also thrown dizzy and off-balance, staring at her with a face full of complaint, its gaze carrying a hint of coquettishness.
It seemed born to be alluring. If Yan Jue were only an ordinary mortal, she really might have been charmed by that look.
The white fox had originally been staring at Yan Jue’s face, but as it looked, it suddenly discovered something in Yan Jue’s eyes.
It seemed to be a very faint... golden light.
The white fox’s pupils contracted. In an instant, it pressed itself flat to the ground. “Is Lady from the Red Fox Clan?”
Yan Jue: “Yes.”
The white fox: “This little one was blind and failed to recognize your greatness. I ask Lady’s forgiveness.”
Red foxes held high status among the fox clans; Yan Jue had long since grown used to that.
The white fox said coquettishly, “Can Lady let me out now?”
Yan Jue: “...”
Whether it was just her imagination or not, the white fox’s tone when speaking to her seemed a little strange.
Yan Jue crouched in front of the cage and looked at it. “Before I let you out, I have a few questions.”
The white fox: “Ask, Lady.”
Yan Jue asked, “Who captured you?”
The white fox: “It was a painted-skin ghost. She was collecting animal pelts, so she captured me.”
Yan Jue paused slightly. When she was reading in the Library Pavilion before, she had also seen the name of the painted-skin ghost.
The painted-skin ghost had originally been a green-faced, fanged hungry ghost. Its greatest lifelong hobby was collecting all kinds of skins, then wearing those skins to walk among crowds of people; ordinary people had no way of noticing anything amiss.
So the one who had tried to abduct her at the courtyard gate just now was a painted-skin ghost?
No wonder.
It used a human skin to conceal the sinister aura on its body, so she hadn’t been able to tell.
Yan Jue asked, “All right, second question: has the disappearance case of the three beauties in Fengxian Town these past few days also been related to the painted-skin ghost?”
The white fox: “Yes. The painted-skin ghost doesn’t just catch animals; it also catches people. It especially likes collecting the skins of good-looking people.”
So that was it. No wonder that fat South Tower man had patrolled the streets and never run into the trafficker once. When Yan Jue had seen him at the inn earlier, she had already thought his appearance was... hard to describe.
Turns out he was simply too ugly; ugly enough that even the painted-skin ghost didn’t want to catch him.
The painted-skin ghost only caught beauties.
Yan Jue asked, “Do you live nearby normally?”
The white fox: “Lady is so mean~ Why are you asking about this little one’s home?”
Yan Jue: “...”
Yan Jue slapped the cage and said sternly, “Speak properly.”
The white fox’s expression immediately became respectful. “Yes. This little one lives nearby.”
Yan Jue asked, “When did the painted-skin ghost come here? Or had it always been in the Luoyun Mountain area?”
Today, she and Qi Xianqing had encountered many water ghosts on Luoyun Mountain.
In principle, there shouldn’t be so many water ghosts in the same region.
Those water ghosts had appeared in large numbers in the same place at the same time; they had been summoned there by someone.
If the painted-skin ghost had also only recently appeared, then this matter became even stranger.
There was even a chance that someone had deliberately lured a large number of evil ghosts here in order to frame the only Immortal Spirit Physique in Five Dragons Mountain.
Although Yan Jue knew that, as the female lead, Qi Xianqing had many people who wanted to harm her, and that she would encounter many hardships along the way even if the ending was ultimately a happy one, she still wanted to understand the situation a little more.
If things could go smoothly, who would want hardship? The plot had already deviated far too much from the original story; Yan Jue still needed to understand more.
The white fox: “It wasn’t here before. The painted-skin ghost only appeared last month. I was only captured last month as well.”
Yan Jue thought for a moment, then opened the cage. “I have nothing else to ask. You can go.”
The white fox lifted its head and stared at her, seeming to throw her a coquettish glance.
Then it suddenly spat out half a piece of jade from its mouth and ran off.
Yan Jue froze slightly.
The jade was a pale purple, with sharp edges, as though it had broken off from somewhere.
Yan Jue was stunned; an oddly familiar feeling suddenly flashed through her mind.
She immediately fished out the broken jade that Jia Ni from Xiaoxing Village had given her yesterday from the Qiankun Bag in her arms and fitted the two pieces together.
No wonder the jade the white fox had spat out felt so familiar.
It actually seemed to come from the very same jade as the one that girl from Xiaoxing Village had given her!
The two fragments fit together perfectly, without the slightest gap.
It could be seen that this was part of a jade pendant.
But two more pieces were still missing.
Yan Jue rested her chin on her hand and fell into thought.
Back in the modern world, she had read plenty of xianxia novels too. Could this fragmented jade be the key to opening some secret realm...
Surely it couldn’t be that coincidental.
After all, that was the sort of thing only the male lead was supposed to run into.
Could it be that she had accidentally stolen the male lead’s opportunity again...
Yan Jue lowered her head and put the jade pieces back together once more.
A character that could faintly be made out was “xu.”
Yan Jue’s gaze flickered. She put the jade pendant away in her Qiankun Bag, and with a flash of movement, headed toward the direction where Qi Xianqing and Chu Fu had disappeared.
-
The door of the house was knocked open, and a thick cloud of dust rolled down.
Qi Xianqing narrowed her eyes.
In the empty house, no trace of any human being could be found.
Qi Xianqing: “The place you found by probing with Divine Sense outside the door just now is here.”
Chu Fu stood beside her with folded arms, frowning as he looked around. “But there’s no one here. Only...”
He suddenly noticed something; his pupils contracted sharply, and he almost cried out in shock. “Here...”
From the rooftop in the distance, Yan Jue looked down, suddenly noticing something as well, and her pupils contracted sharply too; in an instant, she was shocked beyond words.
On the rack inside the house hung two human skins.
The two skins had been peeled perfectly from the faces, and the exquisite features on them could still be faintly made out; reflected in the moonlight, they looked especially sinister.
“Painted-skin ghost.”
A flash of disgust passed through Qi Xianqing’s eyes. She said expressionlessly, “The reason we couldn’t see anyone was because of the restriction.”
On a rooftop eight zhang away from the two of them, Yan Jue stood silently.
Her hearing was very good; even from that far away, under extremely quiet conditions, she could still hear the conversation over there.
Yan Jue narrowed her eyes slightly and looked up at the roof of the house. Sure enough, she saw a faint layer of green light there.
Qi Xianqing: “Disciples at the Foundation Establishment Realm should already have started learning arrays. Do you remember how to break one, Junior Brother Chu?”
This stumped Chu Fu.
He was a key disciple the Five Dragons Sect had carefully cultivated, so he had indeed studied arrays.
But that class had always been a watered-down one. Most Five Dragons disciples were sword cultivators; the obscure and difficult array course was the kind where only one in ten disciples would seriously listen, and the one who did was often the most rigid student in the class.
Chu Fu did not answer.
During the day, when they were going down the mountain, Yan Jue had pestered Qi Xianqing to teach her how to judge hexagrams, so she had a little understanding of how to break this kind of array.
If the array shimmered with green light, it was a low-level array.
If it was blue light, it was a mid-level array. For example, the room that had held the white fox just now was of this sort.
If golden light shimmered, then it was a high-level array that only great powers above the sixth realm could set up.
Yan Jue stared at the green light above the roof and fell into thought.
Qi Xianqing suddenly said, “Then show him, Junior Sister Yan.”
Yan Jue was standing on the roof and, hearing Qi Xianqing call for her so suddenly, nearly lost her footing and fell off.
Qi Xianqing turned back with her hands behind her back; their gazes met.
What the hell? She had clearly taken the Invisibility-Condensing Pill. How had Qi Xianqing detected her presence? Had her Divine Sense already reached such a terrifying level?
“...”
Yan Jue suddenly realized that an hour had already passed.
The effect of the Invisibility-Condensing Pill seemed to have ended.
In the blink of an eye, the immortal sword Zhuying on Qi Xianqing’s back suddenly slipped from its scabbard. Its blue-green figure flashed through the air like lightning and in the next instant was already before Yan Jue.
When Yan Jue saw Zhuying, her whole body immediately stiffened a little.
The cool blade of Zhuying’s sword had somehow already pressed against Yan Jue’s back, rubbing against her intimately.
Cuddling.
Then it nudged Yan Jue once.
Yan Jue awkwardly jumped down from the roof and landed right in front of Qi Xianqing.
Qi Xianqing walked over to Yan Jue’s side, and only then suddenly realized that in this one month, Yan Jue had somehow grown taller again.
Before, Yan Jue had been a little shorter than her; now she was already as tall as she was.
Qi Xianqing lifted her eyes slightly and asked softly, “Explain.”
Yan Jue braced herself and could only roughly tell Qi Xianqing what had happened: “I went out for a walk just now, and on the way I met an old woman. I helped her home, and who knew she turned out to be a pai—”
The fact that the culprit was a painted-skin ghost had been told to her by the white fox, so Yan Jue omitted that and said instead, “—a trafficker.”
Qi Xianqing: “Junior Sister is in a good mood. You were so tired from travel during the day, and yet you still had the leisure to go shopping.”
Yan Jue: “...”
Why did she feel like Qi Xianqing was a little unhappy?
Qi Xianqing asked, “How do you break this restriction?”
At the same time, Zhuying secretly poked Yan Jue from behind, telling her to speak quickly.
This was only the lowest level of array; Yan Jue could still handle it.
Since this was Yan Jue’s first time breaking an array, she frowned slightly and spent about half a cup of tea’s time roughly figuring out the positions of the various hexagrams.
“Qian, Gen; strike the gate...”
Recalling how Qi Xianqing had broken restrictions before, she took a fingernail-sized low-grade Spirit Stone from her Qiankun Bag and flicked her wrist to send it flying.
The Spirit Stone traced a graceful arc through the air and struck the painting opposite with a dull thud.
The green light on the ceiling grew brighter and brighter.
Yan Jue immediately threw another Spirit Stone, which landed just right on the window over there.
A very faint sound suddenly came from the air.
The barrier enveloping the room gradually disappeared.
What appeared before Yan Jue was a frightened woman, dressed in a pale pink flowing immortal skirt. Her hair was in disarray as she huddled in a corner, looking utterly miserable.
This woman had obviously been imprisoned here by the monster for a long time. Her face was very pale, her lips trembling, tears streaking down her cheeks; she was the very picture of a beauty in tears, drenched in pear blossoms and rain.
Yan Jue stared at her; she stared at Yan Jue. Both of them froze.
-
The woman was so frightened she couldn’t even speak properly.
Yan Jue crouched beside her and comforted her for quite a while before she finally understood the general course of events.
The three missing beauties in Fengxian Town were Jiang, the courtesan from Exploring Spring Tower; the third Miss of the Song family; and the eldest Miss of the Xu family.
Any one of these three women, if taken out, would be peerless beauties; they were all the sort who could enter the palace for a consort selection.
The only survivor among them was the eldest Miss of the Xu family, Xu Sijin.
And the culprit behind this case was actually a painted-skin ghost.
No one knew why this painted-skin ghost had locked onto this town. It didn’t catch ordinary commoners; it only caught beauties.
This eldest Miss of the Xu family probably didn’t quite satisfy the painted-skin ghost’s taste in appearance, and had been left here untouched all this time, thus escaping its poisoned hands.
Chu Fu sighed. “Thanks to Senior Sister Yan...”
Ever since Miss Xu saw the three of them, she had been crying incessantly, and the originally quiet room had become very chaotic.
Chu Fu smiled at her, graceful and polite. “Don’t be afraid; I’ll send you home now.”
Chu Fu: “Where is your home...”
Qi Xianqing suddenly cut him off. “Hold on. Just now, when she broke the restriction, did you see clearly how she did it?”
Yan Jue couldn’t help feeling a little embarrassed; as the leading senior sister, Qi Xianqing really was very serious.
But Chu Fu had spent all his attention admiring the beauty. How could he possibly have had the mood to watch how Yan Jue broke the restriction? He mumbled, “I don’t know.”
Qi Xianqing: “Every mission is a great opportunity to learn. Doing this not only wastes my time, it wastes yours too.”
Her voice held no fluctuation and remained cool and light, but the words she spoke were very severe.
Qi Xianqing was scolding someone; this was the first time Yan Jue had seen her do it.
Yan Jue was just finding it novel when a sharp pain suddenly shot through her chest!
Her vision went black, and for an instant she nearly couldn’t stand.
It was over.
Because of her again, the relationship between the male and female lead had gone bad again.
“...”
Why was she always the one getting hurt...
Yan Jue’s legs went weak, and moisture welled in those beautiful phoenix eyes; she looked as though she might fall at any moment.
Qi Xianqing froze and stepped forward to support her. “What’s wrong?”
Yan Jue said weakly, “Senior Sister... don’t scold him, don’t scold him...”
“Junior Brother Chu is only at the Foundation Establishment Realm; he still has plenty of time to learn. Besides, he’s already very clever; he’s already better than most Foundation Establishment disciples...”
Qi Xianqing frowned, her expression growing even colder.
Chu Fu had been wishing he could find a crack in the floor to crawl into, head bowed in embarrassment. Suddenly hearing Yan Jue speak up for him like this, his heart jumped.
Good heavens, that woman was actually speaking for him...
So it seemed she still loved him. Chu Fu couldn’t help but curl his lips, though his face showed a flash of disgust. “Senior Sister Yan is mistaken. I really don’t know arrays; you don’t need to cover for me! As disciples of Five Dragons Sect, we’re supposed to strive for excellence; we have to learn every kind of knowledge.”
Chu Fu humbly admitted his mistake, but Yan Jue didn’t hear a single word of it.
Chu Fu’s expression became even more solemn. “Senior Sister’s reprimand is also for my own good. Besides, it’s also a fact that I don’t know arrays!”
Stop talking, stop talking...
Yan Jue leaned against Qi Xianqing’s shoulder; with every sentence Chu Fu said, the pain in her chest intensified by a fraction. She didn’t even need to think to know that Qi Xianqing’s goodwill toward Chu Fu was, along with his endless chatter, plummeting at a dangerously vertical rate.
It was over. Why did it feel like she had made Qi Xianqing dislike Chu Fu even more...!