Tie Ci was shocked.

With her current strength, even standing there completely unguarded, no person or weapon should be able to approach her so easily.

Yet it had just happened. This strange wind came, and she couldn’t block it – she didn’t even have a chance to react.

What was worse, this collision struck precisely at the Shanzhong acupoint on her chest. She had been carefully circulating her qi according to Rong Pu’s instructions, avoiding qi reversal that would trigger her gifted abilities. Who would have thought that today’s collision would scatter that gathered qi and cause it to flow backward!

She had no time to think about anything else. She only said to Xiao Xueya, “Protect me!” and sat down where she was.

Sitting down to regulate breathing with a great enemy present wasn’t ideal, but she had no choice. Rong Pu had warned her that this method of advancing through repeated qi reversal to unlock gifted abilities would likely create greater hidden dangers as more abilities were unlocked. Once it occurred, suppressing it quickly was crucial – she mustn’t let the reversed qi pass through the twelve energy centers into her dantian, lest unpredictable consequences arise.

Rong Pu said that when this situation occurred, the faster it was handled the better. She had to stop it before the qi rushed to the next acupoint to avoid bigger problems.

More importantly, though she had taken a hit just now, she could feel the opponent had no killing intent. Since they could strike her with one blow, they must be a top expert. If she immediately surrendered, surely such an expert wouldn’t strike when she had no ability to fight back.

So she didn’t hesitate to regulate her breathing, leaving the top expert unceremoniously to Xiao Xueya.

The general should see the capable people of the world – it would save him from always looking down on everyone.

Once she began regulating her breathing, she completely ignored external affairs, only vaguely feeling something crawling on her body.

She kept hearing snorting sounds by her ears, and something moist nudging her face.

She opened her eyes and saw a… pig in front of her.

A pink, very clean little pig was nudging her face with its small pink snout.

Tie Ci: “…Is that you, Peppa?”

The pig snorted and burrowed into her arms. Tie Ci looked up speechlessly and saw Xiao Xueya standing before her with sword drawn in a completely protective stance.

Though this stance was somewhat disheveled – his usually immaculate long hair was messy and stuck with grass, his body had several mud stains, and there were several similar pigs by his feet, gripping his snow-white robes in their mouths and pulling desperately outward.

The wild wind continued, with pink shadows constantly appearing in the wind. Xiao Xueya’s shoulders were tense as he stared at those pink shadows, concentrating fully on parrying with his sword, but he was always a step too slow. Those flying pigs could always accurately hit his chest like cannonballs. Though Xiao Xueya struggled to support himself, each hit forced him back a step.

Tie Ci: …The opponent dislikes you and is pelting you with pigs.

Suddenly a figure rushed over, scooped her up, and nimbly dodged a gust of Peppa wind before turning to run, shouting as he ran, “We’re leaving first! Please take care of things here!”

Tie Ci panicked and patted Murong Yi beneath her, “You can’t get close to me, get away quickly!”

Murong Yi nearly spat blood from her patting but didn’t slow his steps, “We’ve met a tough opponent – don’t worry about so much. The wind is tight, let’s retreat!”

Tie Ci: “…I can walk myself, damn it!”

Murong Yi had already leaped onto the rooftop when suddenly there was a thunderous crash – the entire roof ridge beneath his feet collapsed.

But Murong Yi was always as agile as a ghost. Before falling, he grabbed the wall edge, hanging from the roof ridge while still boasting to Tie Ci, “See? If you were walking yourself, you’d have fallen down by now.”

Tie Ci sneered coldly, “Put me down already. You’re carrying me on your back – are you calculating that when Peppa, oh no, little pigs come flying, I’ll make a perfect shield for you?”

Murong Yi wasn’t provoked, “Exactly!” After speaking, he leaped up and continued running, still on the rooftops, specifically choosing the roof ridges of elaborately decorated, expensive buildings like flower pavilions, main halls, and reception rooms.

Let them smash away – the losses weren’t his anyway.

But Tie Ci suddenly felt something was wrong.

Looking down, good heavens.

Somehow a flying pig had grabbed her clothes hem and was rising and falling with her, its small black-bean eyes staring intently at her.

Under normal circumstances, seeing such a cute pig, Tie Ci might have played with it. But seeing this pig at this moment made her hair stand on end.

She pulled out a bag of snacks from her chest and threw them at the pig’s mouth, “Here, eat!”

Pigs loved to eat, didn’t they?

Hurry up and open your mouth.

The pig indeed opened its mouth.

Then fell.

Before Tie Ci could sigh in relief, she saw a cluster of flames curl up from her clothes hem.

Tie Ci drew her sword and cut off the hem.

The next instant, a bright light suddenly streamed down from overhead. Upon contact with her sword tip, it immediately crackled and spread along the sword.

Tie Ci had to abandon this precious meteoric iron short sword.

The wild wind pursued, like a transparent hand that instantly swept the sword away as if confiscating it.

Murong Yi suddenly slipped.

Tie Ci felt coldness and looked down to see the roof ridge beneath their feet suddenly coated with frost. The ice spread from behind like a frozen white wave, rapidly advancing and reaching their feet in an instant.

Frost and snow already clung to the tips of Murong Yi’s boots.

Tie Ci’s head was somewhat muddled.

Were these gifted abilities? They seemed to transcend the realm of martial arts.

In just this short time, she had already witnessed wind, lightning, frost, fire…

Apart from herself, she had never seen anyone with so many gifted abilities, all so powerful.

They were comparable to Chentuntian, Guihaisheng, Xuanqiongchi, Fengli and others she’d encountered before…

No, stronger than them all! They only knew one ability each, but this person knew everything…

Tie Ci suddenly thought of the Poison Maniac.

Her heart grew cold.

Then she saw a golden thread appear on her clothes hem.

With all the fire, ice, snow, and lightning earlier, she hadn’t had time to look at her clothes. Now looking, where the pig had bitten seemed wrong – a golden thread wound and twisted, seemingly still moving…

She made a quick decision, slicing with her finger to cut off that section of hem.

The hem fluttered to the ground, and the moss in the roof cracks immediately turned yellow and withered.

Meanwhile, Murong Yi was busy dealing with various changes – either suddenly slipping on ice that formed under his feet, or the ice suddenly melting into water with poisonous insects swimming in it, forcing him to leap up urgently and stumble, or lightning striking down from a tree they passed overhead…

By the time Murong Yi carried Tie Ci to the front courtyard, though he was disheveled with water, scorch marks, and ice fragments all over him, even Tie Ci was nearly naked – after cutting off one section of hem and finding golden edges that required more cutting… her robe had become a short shirt that couldn’t even cover her bottom.

They finally reached the main gate of Wanmei Pavilion, with the bustling street outside. The wind, frost, rain, snow, lightning, and pigs behind them finally seemed to retreat. Only then did they have time to look at each other, and both were stunned speechless.

Murong Yi had to take off his dirty outer garment for Tie Ci to wear. Tie Ci wasn’t polite and immediately put it on. Turning around, she saw the dumbstruck sausage-lipped Feng Huan standing not far away, with many onlookers wearing similar expressions.

Even Tie Ci, who had weathered many storms, blushed.

But this wasn’t over yet. Behind them came a thunderous crash as a large group of pink pigs burst through the double doors.

It was like a pig rain falling from the sky.

The events were so fantastical that Tie Ci inappropriately remembered a fairy tale her master had told her as a child – a little pig got a magical umbrella painted with many pigs. When a wolf wanted to eat it, the pig opened the umbrella and pigs filled the sky. The wolf busied itself eating those pigs while the little pig escaped… Where could she find such an umbrella now?

She could only run frantically. Seeing Feng Huan blocking the path ahead, still not reacting, she thought she couldn’t let him be killed by pigs. When she flashed to his side, she grabbed him, spinning him around so his sausage lips faced the approaching wind.

Tie Ci watched as a pig’s snout was about to make intimate contact with his sausage lips.

She couldn’t bear to watch and closed her eyes.

But the wind suddenly stopped at that moment.

A light laugh came from within the wind.

The voice was light and soft, neither clearly male nor female, faintly carrying three parts charm yet also bearing the vicissitudes of one who had seen through worldly affairs.

Tie Ci vaguely heard someone say, “…The person A’ji has taken a fancy to…”

This voice was both extremely distant and extremely close, with the muffled feeling of hearing through an oiled paper lantern.

It was different from Tie Ci’s normal hearing experience.

Looking around, including Murong Yi, no one showed any unusual expression, as if only she had heard those words.

At this moment, all around was like a frozen force field – even the pigs stopped motionless in mid-air.

Tie Ci saw a tutuo fruit that had been flying through the air explode in front of her, becoming a brown-yellow mess. Combined with that explosive smell, physiological nausea couldn’t be stopped. She instinctively pointed, and the tutuo fruit restored itself before her, finally becoming less nauseating.

She heard another soft “Oh?” from the wind.

Somewhat surprised, somewhat curious, somewhat delighted, somewhat excited.

The next instant, the frozen force field moved. Another wind rose, but in the opposite direction. With a whoosh, she watched as all the flying pigs were sucked back into the Wanmei Pavilion’s main gate. The dark entrance was like a magic box reclaiming demons. The next moment, with a thud, the gate closed, and after a gust of wind, the damaged area above the gate suddenly returned to its original state.

Tie Ci’s heart jumped.

She suddenly felt something was wrong.

Finally, all around quieted down. The dazed crowd on the street returned to normal and began moving again. The pimp from Wanmei Pavilion reopened the door and had people rehang the lanterns that had fallen earlier. Everything that had just happened seemed like a dream – now everyone had awakened, but Tie Ci felt even more like she was dreaming.

Why did everyone act as if this was perfectly normal?

She grabbed a passerby to ask. The person shook his head, “They say there are monsters in Wanmei Pavilion – ‘spirits,’ ‘demons,’ ‘sprites,’ and ‘droughts’ that know all kinds of supernatural powers. Nothing that happens there is surprising.”

“‘Spirits,’ ‘demons,’ ‘sprites,’ and ‘droughts’?” Tie Ci raised an eyebrow. Before coming, she had indeed read about the Southwest, which mentioned many legends of strange creatures and ghosts. Among them, spirits and demons were one category, while sprites and droughts were another. Spirits were beasts turned into demons, demons were plants with souls, sprites were human ghosts, and droughts were zombified monsters. Such legends existed everywhere, but frontier regions were especially rich in them due to local customs and geography. So in Liaodong and Yannan, some people specifically worshipped them while others specialized in catching demons. In her view, these were just supernatural nonsense used to make a living.

There were originally no demons in the world, but when enough people deceived others, demons came to exist.

“If there are spirits, demons, sprites, and droughts, why is Wanmei Pavilion’s business still so prosperous?”

The person replied disdainfully, “You’re clearly an outsider barbarian. The more spirits and demons there are, the more it proves the place’s master has supernatural powers and can coexist with them. They say spirits and demons live for a thousand years – their skin flakes and nail clippings are longevity medicines for us ordinary people. If you could spend a spring night with one, you could also gather their essence for longevity. Wanmei, Wanmei – isn’t it the myriad beauties of the mortal world?”

Tie Ci was stunned.

She’d only heard stories of demons coveting Tang Monk’s flesh and male essence for cultivation. She’d never heard of mortals coveting spirits’ and demons’ supernatural powers and wanting to harvest their essence.

This unconventional thinking and shocking ideas.

The Southwest’s customs were truly fierce!

“So who are the spirits and demons? The top talents?”

“No one knows – it depends on luck. If spirits and demons were so easily identified, they wouldn’t be called spirits and demons, would they?”

“Aren’t you afraid of encountering spirits and demons? What if instead of harvesting their essence, they harvest yours?”

“What’s to fear? The spirits and demons at Wanmei Pavilion don’t harm people. Speaking of scary things, is there anything more terrifying and evil than humans?”

Tie Ci was speechless.

As the person was leaving, he looked her up and down and smiled, “With your looks, you’re easily favored by spirits and demons. Just now they probably took a fancy to you. Why don’t you go back for another round? Maybe you could sleep with a demon or two and gain a few hundred years of life – wouldn’t that mean several lifetimes of freedom?”

Before he finished speaking, someone heavily patted his shoulder. A voice said sinisterly in his ear, “What a good idea. To express my gratitude for your good idea, I’ll send you to heaven right now – how about you enjoy yourself there in advance?”

The man’s shoulder went half numb from the pat. Furious, he turned to curse, but met the starry sea-like eyes of the person behind him. His eyes suddenly brightened with delight, “With your looks, if you entered Wanmei Pavilion, everyone would think you’re a spirit or demon and definitely spend fortunes on you, throwing thousands in tips!”

He stood on tiptoe and shouted to the pimp at the entrance, “There’s prime goods here – come grab him quickly!”

Before he finished speaking, the Wanmei Pavilion pimp rushed over with bright eyes.

Tie Ci grabbed Murong Yi and fled.

Before Murong Yi could punish this audacious Southwest native, Tie Ci dragged him away. He couldn’t help but angrily say, “Why are you protecting this ignorant brat…”

Tie Ci shouted as she ran frantically, “Who the hell is protecting him! I’m afraid you’ll be forcibly taken into Wanmei Pavilion as a top talent, and I won’t be able to get you back!”

“Bah! You’re too quick to build up others’ ambitions while destroying your own prestige. It’s just a brothel…”

“Then who was the one getting knocked on his ass by pigs earlier and chased like a fleeing animal? You can handle Wanmei Pavilion? Can you handle flying pigs?”

“…”

Tie Ci dragged Murong Yi all the way to the dock. Only when she saw the ship on the river did she release him to catch her breath.

Murong Yi quickly broke free and moved far away from her, pressing his concealing hat lower.

Tie Ci looked at him – oh no, had his chin also broken out in pimples?

Then she thought she’d forgotten something important, but was immediately distracted by her own ship, which was on fire.

Wan Ji and Bu Qing came down from the ship with men to tell her what had happened after she left. After Qi Lingyuan was captured earlier, Tie Ci had directly ordered guards to take him back to the blessing ship for detention. Before interrogation could begin, Xiao Xueya’s lieutenant also arrived, asking from afar, “Your Highness, where is our general!”

Tie Ci slapped her forehead.

That’s what she’d forgotten! She’d left Xiao Xueya at Wanmei Pavilion!

Xiao Xueya’s lieutenant looked at Tie Ci hopefully. Tie Ci was embarrassed and was about to send someone back to find him when she saw Xiao Xueya return on his own.

He looked fine, much better than the disheveled Tie Ci. His clothes were still snow-white and clean, and he was wearing a hat.

This was somewhat strange. Tie Ci had never seen this person wear a hat. He was cool and noble with a sharp temperament, usually just neatly arranging his hair in a topknot and wearing a sharp, simple purple-gold crown. Now seeing him in white brocade with gold bat patterns but wearing a common hat with black netting that commoners wore, it looked completely mismatched.

Had he changed clothes too?

Tie Ci watched Xiao Xueya approach coldly and prepared to apologize. After all, when facing the monsters in Wanmei Pavilion, he had stood in front of her, but she had abandoned him – that was quite ungracious.

However, Xiao Xueya didn’t even look at her and walked directly past to board the blessing ship.

Wan Ji’s expression was poor, and Dan Shuang snorted coldly.

This Xiao Xueya was too disrespectful to his sovereign!

But Tie Ci was somewhat puzzled. Though Xiao Xueya’s recent attitude toward her couldn’t be called reverential, it had always been properly courteous. She could feel he was making an effort to respect her. Moreover, because of her suggestion, the blessing ship had avoided disaster from Qi Lingyuan’s fire attack – he should be grateful to her.

Today’s behavior was like returning to square one.