The heat waves rolled through the mortal town in the summer dusk. The turbid qi, much thinner than usual, circled and wound about like extremely light gray smoke. Yet on the old banyan tree by the roadside, clear qi overflowed abundantly. From behind the dense branches and leaves, a corner of snow-white robes was revealed. Fucang held Chun Jun in his hand, leaning against the tree and absent-mindedly watching the noisy mortal theater stage across the way.

From within Chun Jun came the dragon princess’s equally absent-minded voice: “Are the one in blue clothes and the one in flowered clothes together now?”

She identified characters by their clothing.

Fucang said: “The one in flowered clothes died.”

Xuan Yi immediately moved her gaze from the hole and returned it to the book in her hands: “Then I won’t watch anymore.”

Perfect—he really didn’t want to watch this weepy, oddly-pitched thing either.

Fucang casually glanced around. Night was approaching, precisely the moment when demons and the demon race were most restless. Ten days ago, the local earth god had submitted a petition to the Southern Heavenly Gate, stating that there were demon race members here who were extremely skilled at hiding and were hunting mortals for food. They had already eaten no fewer than ten people. He had accepted the petition and kept watch in the area for a long time, but still hadn’t discovered any abnormalities.

He sent a thread of divine sense to probe into Chun Jun. She had already utilized his sword qi transformed dragon quite thoroughly. Amid brilliant golden light, a cloud-silk fine carpet was spread out. On the left was a box of candied plums, on the right a cup of tea still steaming with heat. All around were various books scattered in complete disarray. The dragon princess lazily curled up in a cloud-gauze quilt, the golden rings on her head all askew, engrossed in reading the book in her hands—female ghost and scholar, her recent favorite.

Seeming to sense divine sense peeping, she covered the book with her hand: “No peeking.”

Fucang knocked once on Chun Jun and withdrew his divine sense. Seeing the night deepen, he completely restrained his divine power and clear qi, lightly leaped down from the old banyan tree, and slowly advanced along the mortal realm’s uneven streets.

The dragon princess’s voice transmitted thinly from within Chun Jun again: “Senior Brother Fucang, have you caught the man-eating demon yet?”

She must be stifled inside the sword. The lower realm was heavy with turbid qi. Her dragon scales had not yet grown out, so she couldn’t come out. And because of official duties, it was inconvenient to take her touring around. Fucang’s voice became gentle: “Endure a bit longer. If we don’t encounter it tonight, we’ll return to the upper realm.”

Actually, she wasn’t anxious… Xuan Yi wriggled wrapped in her quilt up to that hole, squinting outside. The lights and fires of the mortal town were like sparse stars, scattered bit by bit. The pedestrians on the street were already very few.

These years, because she always slept within Chun Jun, she had almost become a regular visitor to the lower realm. Nothing seemed strange to look at. After casually glancing around once, she continued reading the sultry story collection of female ghost and scholar in her hands. Not knowing what she read, she suddenly spoke: “Senior Brother Fucang, you still haven’t taken me to a brothel.”

Fucang was caught off guard by her question and stopped in his tracks, his expression unchanged: “…Where did you learn those two words?”

Xuan Yi slowly waved the book in her hand, smugly triumphant: “In books there are beauties like jade; in books there are houses of gold.”

Mortals had so many interesting sayings.

“Is a brothel just a building painted blue?” She spat out a plum pit and stuffed in a new one. “Does it have a group of beauties living inside, and whoever is most beautiful gets to take money?”

Fucang narrowed his eyes looking toward the distant night sky. After pausing for a long while, he gave affirmation: “…Yes.”

Xuan Yi pressed toward the hole opening, her eyes behind the black gauze fixed on the white-robed shenjun’s face: “When you were a mortal, did you go?”

Fucang furrowed his brows, saying indifferently: “Have not gone, nor have I ever wanted to go.”

Those were flesh trade businesses in the world of wind and dust. Shenjun Fucang, who had experienced being a mortal once, naturally understood the true meaning within. Thus, the dragon princess who had never been a mortal asked curiously: “Why not go? If you went, you should be able to take a lot of money, right?”

Fucang discovered he once again couldn’t keep up with her leaping train of thought. Setting aside the question of “why not go” for now, what did “take a lot of money” mean? Had she misunderstood something?

Sure enough, the next moment she continued: “I read in books that courtesans are beauties selected from ten thousand. If you went, you should become the number one courtesan in the mortal realm, right? There would definitely be a lot of money to take.”

She still remembered how he had used just his face to trick three tail hairs from the ninth princess of the Celestial Fox Clan.

Fucang’s feelings had never been this complicated before. He didn’t know whether to be happy, angry, or knocked flat to the ground by her unique imagination.

He could only stride forward and continue walking, while coldly saying: “Silence. It’s time to conduct official business.”

By coincidence, just as his words fell, he sensed within the night wind an extremely faint and distant demonic qi that trembled slightly. Fucang immediately transformed into a mass of clear wind and urgently pursued it.

Winding and twisting out of the town, he flew for a while. The turbid qi around gradually became richer. Nearby was a barren dead zone, with glimmering wisps of mortals’ dying resentment still faintly remaining. It must have once been a mortal battlefield. This type of place had always been avoided by ghosts and gods. For the man-eating demon to hide here was quite clever indeed.

That mass of dark wind in the distance suddenly landed beneath a pitch-black giant tree and revealed its demon form—it was a mountain demon. He clutched two unconscious mortals in his hands. Sitting down beneath the tree piled with white bones, he sighed: “The heavenly extermination demon decree from above was withdrawn many years ago. The gods are too busy enjoying themselves to have time to care about such a small demon head. This former earth immortal should also stop struggling. It’s fine to fall and become a demon—look, only this much clear qi remains. If discovered by patrolling celestial gods, it’s still a dead end. Might as well be carefree for a few days. Why seek suffering?”

Fucang didn’t bother with him first, instead looking around and surveying all directions. This dead land where grass and trees withered and all vitality was gone was actually the formerly prosperous and romantic capital city of Great Liang. The mortal realm’s winds and clouds passed, earth and wood decayed easily—the changes of the vicissitudes of life made him suddenly feel deeply moved.

That pitch-black giant tree was precisely the peach tree earth immortal from Qing Di’s temple. The tree body had been swallowed by turbid qi, with only a bit of clear qi remaining near the tree roots.

The mountain demon, who had once been Great Liang’s demon-slaying national preceptor, slowly tore open the clothing of the mortal at hand while selecting tender flesh, and continued: “This place is already a dead zone. Sooner or later it will be finished. What’s good about being an earth immortal? Exhausted half-dead and half-alive, one fragment smashes over and everything is gone…”

As he spoke, he picked up a mortal that looked more tender and was about to feast heartily when suddenly a clear and bright wind sound rushed at his face. He only felt a flash of golden light, and in an instant was bitten by a massive golden dragon and pushed over ten zhang along the ground, painfully screaming loudly.

The next moment, demon-binding rope and cinnabar truth words bound him thoroughly from head to toe. Only then did the mountain demon realize that golden dragon was the Huaxu Clan’s sword qi transformed dragon, and the white-robed war general before him with an indifferent expression was precisely Shenjun Fucang who, when he was a mortal back then, had been retaliated against by himself. His face immediately turned yellow, whether from pain or fright.

“Demon race preying on mortals is a grave crime.” Fucang swept his long sleeves. The golden dragon gently held the terrified mountain demon in its mouth and swam to the side. “Wait here and return with me to the Ministry of Justice to determine your punishment.”

He slowly walked to beneath the old peach tree, looked up for a moment, and said warmly: “When I descended to undergo tribulation that year, I received the earth immortal’s care.”

The pitch-black branches and leaves of the peach tree began to rustle and tremble, not knowing whether it was emotion, fear, or perhaps feeling that it could finally be liberated. Back when the Sea of Parting Regret scattered fragments everywhere, it happened to coincide with the peach tree earth immortal’s thirty-sixth metamorphosis toward human form. Unexpectedly, a fragment struck into the peach tree’s interior, thus infecting it with turbid qi, never again able to manifest the earth immortal form.

He had cultivated from peach tree to earth immortal—the hardships within were difficult to express. How could he be willing to fall and become a demon? He could only bitterly struggle against the turbid qi within his body in this dead zone. To this day, already infected by turbid qi over half his body, he harbored almost no hope. He never imagined he could reunite with an old friend.

Fucang raised his hand and lightly patted the peach tree. The fragment deeply embedded within the peach tree was immediately ejected and turned into fine powder by one tail strike from the golden dragon that the Chun Jun sword sheath had transformed into.

The divine power of metal and wood rippled outward like tide waters. The ground full of dried yellow withered wild grass instantly became a sheet of verdant green. Abundant and plentiful clear qi spread throughout the silent dead zone.

Fucang looked again at the still pitch-black old peach tree and said: “I hope you will soon expel the turbid qi and bring blessings to this region of land.”

This time, don’t rely on the incense offerings of Qing Di’s temple—build your own Peach Immortal Temple.

The white-robed shenjun, having completed his official duties, rose on the wind. Having flown for a long while without hearing the dragon princess speak, he immediately sent another thread of divine sense to probe into Chun Jun, only to see she had fallen asleep pillowing on the female ghost and scholar story. Because her divine power was so meager, when she said sleep she slept, unable to hold on for even a moment. He only hoped she wouldn’t sleep too many days this time, otherwise she’d be stifled again inside Chun Jun.