Seeing that Zuo Yan — the one who would wield the blade — had agreed, Lang Jiuchuan rose, satisfied, and took her leave. In passing, she reminded him that the Zhenbei Marquis’s return was not far off. This matter needed to get moving quickly — only then would it be worth sending the Marquis off with a grand gift to mark his son’s wedding.

Zuo Yan saw her out, and asked one final question: “What if we cannot bring this person down? After all, your father has been gone for many years now, and he died by means of dark parasitic arts. Even if we tried to find traces of parasite activity in his bones, it would likely be difficult. And the witness has been rendered useless by your own hand. If things go poorly, it could amount to slandering a marquis of the court, and if he reacts quickly, he might even turn around and bite back against the Lang Family.”

Lang Jiuchuan replied calmly: “If it comes to that, then I suppose I will have no choice but to return the favor in kind.”

Zuo Yan felt his scalp tighten.

Lang Jiuchuan gave him a wave, stepped into her carriage, and returned to the shop. Zuo Yan stood there for a long while, drew in a deep breath, and then called for his trusted chief steward to come and discuss business.

The Duke’s compound had its own network of information and connections, as well as a shadow unit. Now, to push the Zhenbei Marquis toward his end, it would be necessary to mobilize fully and gather evidence of his crimes — after all, time was short.

The most critical point was military authority. The Emperor would certainly be more than willing to reclaim that authority. A mere concubine of low rank had dared to wrong him — how could he allow her unruly father to remain in command of troops?

Zuo Yan was turning this matter over in his mind, considering how best to approach it, when Yice came rushing over, pale-faced. Zuo Yan hurried forward to greet him with a bow, first informed him that Lang Jiuchuan had already departed, and then smiled and invited him to remain as a guest in the compound to rest and recover his strength at ease.

Upon hearing that Lang Jiuchuan had already gone back to her quarters, Yice looked deeply aggrieved — like a small, abandoned creature. He muttered under his breath: “Used and discarded. How heartless.”

Zuo Yan then asked what his requirements were regarding compensation, and also hinted that the Duke’s household might be open to keeping him on retainer on a long-term basis.

For practitioners with genuine skill, Zuo Yan had no hesitation about sponsoring them.

Yice desperately wanted to open his mouth and ask him to fund the reconstruction of a mountain gate and Daoist temple — but he felt that was too much to impose upon someone, and besides, he still had unfinished business. So he settled for cash.

He also did not ask to remain and rest in the compound. The Duke’s household was a fine place, and they even had precious tonics for him to replenish himself — but if he stayed too long in such a wealthy and comfortable nest, he feared he would become absorbed in luxury and neglect his cultivation. That would damage his commitment to the path.

So he firmly declined.

Zuo Yan thought he had been an inadequate host and pressed him to stay. But upon hearing his explanation, Zuo Yan regarded him with deep respect and sent him off with a box of banknotes.

Yice left the Duke’s compound, wound his way through several turns in the lane, and opened the box. A thick stack of banknotes, each in a hundred-tael denomination — there must have been several thousand taels here.

As expected of a ducal household.

Yice pressed the corners of his mouth firmly down. Reluctantly, he pulled out ten notes and deposited them at the silver exchange. The remainder, he sent to charity halls and several Daoist temples.

Those who cultivate the path must keep their heart pure to attain ease and the great way. One must never covet.

As for Lang Jiuchuan — she rode back to the shop in a carriage full of gifts from the Duke’s household. Fu Qi came out to meet her. Seeing her pale complexion, he asked: “Was the matter difficult to handle?”

“Everything was settled. It was fortunate I listened to the words of Manager Piao and worked with someone else.” Otherwise, had she been dealing with the evil curse and watching over Bai Ning alone — even if she could divide her attention, the spiritual power she would have consumed would certainly have been far greater than now.

Having had someone to share the three vulnerabilities and five deficiencies with made a real difference. Though her spiritual power had taken some damage, it hadn’t reached the point of her soul being harmed.

Fu Qi nodded: “Good. Lady Song has had a ginseng soup simmering on the small stove — shall I send it to you?”

“I already had some at the compound. Leave it simmering for now. But this visit to the compound brought an unexpected windfall — come inside with me.” Lang Jiuchuan thought of the bone bell, and a pleased expression crossed her face.

From handling the curse on Bai Ning, not only had she secured compensation that could be converted into having Zuo Yan act against the Zhenbei Marquis on her behalf — sparing her considerable effort and freeing her hands to deal with other matters — but the bone bell itself was an unexpected bonus.

That three-inch sinew — she needed to attach it to her own hands and feet. Now that the bone bell had been cleansed of its karmic force, she could re-refine it, and surely craft it into a useful protective ritual instrument.

Fu Qi listened to Lang Jiuchuan and was mildly surprised: “That sinew is from a python…”

“What is there to fear? This was no ordinary python. When I was breaking the curse last night, I saw the Willow Immortal’s true form — she had already begun developing a small horn.” Lang Jiuchuan’s tone carried a faint note of regret and lament: “She was also a fool who turned into a complete simpleton — she fell into what people call ‘love.’ Thousands of years of cultivation, thrown away in an instant. With her aptitude, had she kept cultivating, she could have gone from python to water dragon and then to true dragon. There was no telling she might not have had a chance at it. At worst, she could have been enshrined in a temple as a guardian deity — any of that would have been better than coveting someone else’s man.”

Fu Qi: “The path of cultivation is a lonely one. Occasionally failing to resist a momentary impulse is only natural.”

Lang Jiuchuan shot a sideways glance at him: “Then you had better resist yours to the very end. Don’t go playing out some tragic romance between the living and the dead on me.”

Fu Qi: “!”

They entered the study. Lang Jiuchuan said: “It just so happens — let me test how well you’ve been progressing in your ghost path cultivation recently. Set up a barrier.”

She intended to retrieve the bone bell from inside the Little Nine Pagoda, and to prevent whatever unknown thing was hiding inside it from escaping, it was better to set up a barrier first as a precaution.

Fu Qi didn’t understand the reason, but it was a simple enough request and not difficult to fulfill. He set up a barrier on the spot. He cultivated the ghost path, so the barrier he produced was naturally unlike the Daoist path’s righteous barriers — it carried a yin energy within it. Bluntly speaking, his barrier felt somewhat like the realm of ghosts, except without the frightening elements packed inside.

Lang Jiuchuan gave a satisfied nod, then summoned the Little Nine Pagoda and extracted the bone bell from within it.

Sure enough, the moment the bone bell appeared, it instinctively tried to dart away — only to slam into the barrier and let out a sharp yelp.

“This place is filthy! I am contaminated!”

It was a voice like a small girl’s — brimming with disdain. In an instant, something translucent and round floated out of the bone bell. That thing was…

A water bubble?

Jiangche was the first to lose its composure. It stretched out a paw and poked at the thing — and was bounced right back. Soft and yielding, springy and smooth. Actually rather fun.

It eagerly raised its paw to try again.

“Ugly thing, stay away!” The bubble shot up high like a ball, shrieking in fury.

Jiangche: “?”

What on earth — ugly thing, was that directed at it?

Infuriating. A tiger may be bullied, but never insulted.

ROAR.

Jiangche let out a tiger’s roar. Its tiger eyes went wide and round. It pounced, both claws raised, and lunged after the bubble to tear it apart. A scorching gust of tiger’s breath blasted out from its mouth.

A blast of searing, ferocious energy slammed into the bubble — yet it was like fire meeting the sea. The bubble suddenly changed shape entirely, spreading out in rippling waves like water.

Jiangche gave a start. Just before it would have landed on the ground, it leaped again, landing on a shelf inside the room, and glared daggers at the rippling water patterns: “What exactly are you?”

Remarkably, fire breath had no effect on it at all.

The water ripples coalesced back into a water orb. It laughed with mockery: “I refuse to tell you!”

Lang Jiuchuan abruptly struck out with a Daoist seal. A clump of foul, murky earth went flying at the water orb — yellowish-brown and turbid, seeming to carry an unspeakable stench. It enveloped the water orb entirely.

The water orb: “!”

It wasn’t a person, but this person was truly wretched — how dare she use filthy mud on something as pure and crystalline as itself, a water spirit!