Wei Jie walked over, stretched out his long leg, and kicked the door open with one foot.

The next moment, over a dozen silver talismans flew at Wei Jie and Xiaoxiao’s faces as if they cost nothing.

Xiaoxiao used a bench from the courtyard to shield her face, then, half-revealing her face, shouted to Tang Youshu, who was frantically waving his thin arms and throwing silver talismans: “Master Tang, it’s me!”

Seeing Xiaoxiao’s face, Tang Youshu was still uncertain, gasping for breath while asking: “Then… let me ask you, when do sesame sugar cakes taste… taste best?”

Yesterday, the neighbor’s grandmother had just brought them freshly baked sugar cakes, and at the time, Xiaoxiao, being extremely bored, had given the entire Talismonger Sect a detailed lecture on how to eat sugar cakes.

Now with the grand-disciple interrogating the patriarch, Xiaoxiao didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, but understood that Tang Youshu couldn’t tell if she was real or fake, hence this question.

So Xiaoxiao quickly replied: “Naturally, when freshly baked, carrying the heat from the pot bottom, steaming with sugar syrup, hard on the outside but soft inside – that’s when they taste best!”

Hearing the visitor speak of the Talismonger Sect patriarch’s worldly expertise, Tang Youshu let out a long breath and replied with a sobbing voice: “Patriarch! Master! You’ve finally returned!”

It turned out that when the skull lanterns were hung at the village entrance, the entire village seemed to be stuffed into a furnace, stuffy and hot beyond endurance.

And because Yu Ling’er carried spirit stones on her body, she sensed the abnormal formation fluctuations earlier than ordinary people.

But when she wanted to take Tang Youshu and the fox clan people out, the entire village seemed to be covered by a giant pot lid – they simply couldn’t get out.

Soon, the village seemed to be set on fire, becoming so hot that people couldn’t bear it.

Yu Ling’er knew the village was bewitched and could only lead her clan members to frantically crash upward into the sky, hoping to break open a gap to escape.

But the more they moved, the hotter it became, and soon they had no strength left.

At this critical moment, Tang Youshu suddenly remembered that day when Patriarch Cui Xiaoxiao had finished explaining how to eat sugar cakes, she had also casually chatted about the tragic cases in nearby villages.

Patriarch Xiaoxiao had mentioned the “Blazing Sun Formation” at that time. She suspected those villagers had been struck by evil arts similar to the “Blazing Sun Formation” and had explained the method to break it in detail.

Thinking of this, Tang Youshu quickly took out the silver talismans the Patriarch had left him, pasted them in sequence on the houses around the courtyard, and simultaneously drew a Yin-Yang formation on the spot.

He loved these feng shui formations, so he understood Cui Xiaoxiao’s somewhat vague description perfectly, as if this formation had been designed by himself.

Tang Youshu had learned the principles of formations, but his spiritual power wasn’t sufficient to support the formation.

Fortunately, there were Yu Ling’er and other fox clan people, so Tang Youshu arranged for them to enter the formation with Yu Ling’er as the formation’s eye and the fox clan people using spiritual power to guard the formation’s base.

Yu Ling’er had spirit stones on her body, completely compensating for her insufficient spiritual power. This way, they maximized the power of the silver talisman formation, completely resisting the invasion of the hot pot-like “Blazing Sun Formation.”

Tang Youshu had called many villagers to hide in these nearby houses, crowding together to avoid the scorching heat on the periphery, supporting themselves while waiting for Cui Xiaoxiao and Wei Jie to return.

But unexpectedly, countless masters and patriarchs soon came knocking on the door.

Tang Youshu saw through the window cracks those paper figures transformed into Wei Jie and Cui Xiaoxiao, wearing sinister smiles as they continuously scratched at the door outside – it was truly frightening enough to scare people to death.

So when the real ones returned, they were still like startled birds, needing to exchange passwords to distinguish real from fake.

Hearing Tang Youshu’s words, Xiaoxiao suddenly understood why she had broken the formation so easily outside the village earlier.

This formation used the people inside as fuel, needing to burn them completely to maximize the formation’s viciousness.

But Tang Youshu had set up a formation within the “Blazing Sun Formation,” protecting half the village’s people.

This prevented the “dry wood” in the formation from “burning” fully, invisibly weakening the evil formation, which allowed Xiaoxiao to easily split open those two skull cauldrons from the outside.

Although Tang Youshu was still a frail youth, he was already beginning to unconsciously display the talent of a generation’s Talismonger Sect founding master!

Hearing this, Xiaoxiao felt a surge of excitement and couldn’t help but grab Tang Youshu’s hand, acting like a child as she said: “Mas… Master Tang, I knew you were the best!”

When saying this, Xiaoxiao’s face was full of worship, almost wanting to compose a poem praising her teacher’s brilliant wisdom.

But such a lack of propriety looked unpleasant to others.

Wei Jie’s face was gloomy, but before he could reach out to separate the patriarch and disciple’s tightly held hands, Yu Ling’er let out an “awoo” and forcefully pulled Tang Youshu over, then bared her teeth fiercely at Xiaoxiao.

At this moment, Wei Jie intentionally or unintentionally stood beside Xiaoxiao, not letting Yu Ling’er’s fox fangs reach Xiaoxiao.

When Yu Ling’er was glared at by his deep purple eyes, she immediately fell silent. However, seeing a somewhat long oil paper package sticking out of Wei Jie’s shoulder bag, she curiously asked: “What’s that?”

Every time Wei Jie went out, he would bring some delicious food for Cui Xiaoxiao, and Ling’er could usually eat some too.

Seeing the oil paper package, Yu Ling’er’s first thought was some fragrant braised delicacy.

Wei Jie smiled and deliberately opened a corner to show Yu Ling’er…

As a result, the timid fox was again frightened into whimpering sounds, red-eyed as she hugged Tang Youshu’s arm, refusing to speak to Tang Youshu and Cui Xiaoxiao no matter what.

Tang Youshu had no choice but to drag along this fox-skin adhesive plaster, running back and forth following his master and patriarch.

Ling Zhishan and several Miaoxian Mountain disciples also followed behind, helping Xiaoxiao and the others rescue those villagers harmed by the evil formation.

As for the other unfortunate villagers in the village who had lost blood, seeing Xiaoxiao and Wei Jie also frightened them into crying for their parents. Tang Youshu had to explain with effort that these two were the real people, while the earlier ones were just illusions.

After drinking the talisman water Xiaoxiao had prepared, those villagers who had lost too much blood improved considerably.

Since Tang Youshu and Yu Ling’er had protected most of the villagers, and after their explanations, the villagers all believed that demons had transformed into Cui Xiaoxiao and Wei Jie’s appearance to harm people.

Just as they were busy treating the villagers, the four great sects who claimed to subdue demons and uphold righteousness finally arrived belatedly.

The leader was none other than Qinhe, the Pavilion Master of Lingyun Pavilion, who had just been healed of his injuries at the royal manor.

However, before entering the village, Qinhe had expected to see a scene of dried corpses everywhere.

Of course, this formation would also kindly leave some “surviving” witnesses to vividly describe Wei Jie and Cui Xiaoxiao’s appearance through their mouths and tell of their crimes in massacring the entire village.

With such ironclad evidence, Xiaoxiao’s demonic crimes would be confirmed. The master had instructed that Cui Xiaoxiao should be left speechless and full of grievances to catalyze her demonic nature!

But unexpectedly, though the villagers had lost much blood, they were all still alive. And the targets of the frame-up – that Talismonger Sect master-disciple pair – were directing people to give the villagers talisman water to drink.

At this moment, Cui Xiaoxiao was coaxing a crying baby. The delicate young woman held the milk-scented infant, kissing the baby’s chubby face while feeding him water.

The baby would drink a sip, then blow a few bubbles, and giggle at Xiaoxiao.

Such a scene looked peaceful and harmonious, no matter how you viewed it, completely different from the rumored bloodthirsty demoness image!

Qinhe’s heart sank. He had just seen the split cauldrons at the village entrance and knew Cui Xiaoxiao must have broken the formation.

Earlier at the royal manor, she had fought with Wan Lian Shi and proved superior, causing Wan Lian Shi to suffer backlash from human skin talismans and lose an arm that still hadn’t been found.

Moreover, these two had somehow escaped the Xiezhi divine statue’s attacks and fled the heavily guarded royal manor without anyone knowing.

Now, at such a young age, she had effortlessly broken his senior brother’s most prized formation. What… exactly was her background?

Qinhe had an uneasy feeling, but having received his master’s orders to force Xiaoxiao to become demonic, he naturally couldn’t easily retreat.

Fortunately, he wasn’t the only one who came to subdue demons this time. He just needed to incite other righteous cultivation sects to crusade against the demoness as before.

These so-called righteous cultivation sects always excelled at suppressing people, typically starting with words before resorting to force.

Before Qinhe could speak, Lingyun Pavilion disciples loudly cursed and denounced Lingshan Talismonger Sect as a demonic cult rarely seen in a thousand years, actually producing a demoness like Cui Xiaoxiao who treated human lives like grass!

Their four great sects would act for heaven and uphold justice this time.

As a result, this group’s random shouting frightened the baby in Xiaoxiao’s arms into loud crying.

Before Xiaoxiao could speak, the baby’s parents and uncles began glaring and cursing back: “Where do you dogs come from! Can’t you see our village just suffered a great disaster? You come to our village without presenting official credentials, enter and start cursing, frightening children – do you think everyone in our village is dead?”

The four great sects, along with various other large and small sects, all considered themselves righteous cultivators. Usually transcendent, drinking dew and eating flowers, unstained by worldly dust with an immortal bearing, wherever they went and displayed some supernatural powers, people would call them “immortal master.”

When had they ever been pointed at and cursed by a group of coarse-clothed, vulgar villagers?

The disciples leading the cursing were beaten into complete defeat by the villagers’ crude language and folk curses, each turning red with anger, uncertain whether they should treat these male and female, old and young villagers as demonic cult accomplices.

At this moment, Qinhe spoke coldly: “Ignorant village fools! Your village’s disaster was caused by these people. We came here to rescue you!”

These words made the villagers lower their voices, as many had indeed seen “Cui Xiaoxiao” and “Wei Jie” committing violence, inevitably harboring doubts.

Xiaoxiao looked at Qinhe and asked with a smile: “Pavilion Master Qin, we just met at Lord Can’s manor, and unexpectedly encountered you here again. We truly have fate!”

Her words made the other three great sects’ people turn their attention. Because of the disaster at Autumn Water Pool, the three great sects had suffered considerable losses.

Although Lord Can, relying on his imperial relative status, had forcibly pushed all blame onto Wei Di and his daughter, his malicious intentions were an undeniable fact.

Now, Cui Xiaoxiao was saying Qinhe came from Lord Can’s manor, which couldn’t help but make the three great sects’ people frown secretly, quietly waiting for Pavilion Master Qin’s explanation.

Qinhe sneered. He had long anticipated that Cui Xiaoxiao would expose his relationship with Lord Can.

But Xiaoxiao had no evidence. Qinhe wasn’t afraid of her words – after all, his accumulated connections and reputation in Lingyun Pavilion over so many years couldn’t be shaken by a few words from a young girl.

He laughed coldly: “Cui Xiaoxiao, I advise you not to confuse right and wrong! I’ve never been to Lord Can’s manor, nor do I know what you mean by this. Do you think slandering me as colluding with Lord Can can wash away your sins?”

As soon as he said this, Lingyun Pavilion disciples immediately echoed loudly, with some taking out official wanted notices to show the villagers, proving that these people hiding in their village were indeed thoroughly evil demon heads!

This village was isolated, most villagers were illiterate and rarely entered the city, so they truly didn’t know about Cui Xiaoxiao and the others being wanted.

Now seeing these official seals, they scattered in fright, staying far from the Talismonger Sect master and disciple. A woman even snatched the baby from Xiaoxiao’s arms and staggered away from the demoness with the child.

Seeing this situation, Qinhe felt pleased inside but maintained a cold demeanor: “Cui Xiaoxiao, you are thoroughly evil! Intolerable by heaven’s justice! Don’t think putting on a false benevolent face can escape heaven’s clear judgment!”

It didn’t matter that the village wasn’t massacred this time – enough people had died before. As long as this black pot could be placed on Cui Xiaoxiao’s head!

Now with all four great sects present, plus other large and small sects, this counted as a public trial by all righteous paths.

If everyone humiliated her severely enough to make Cui Xiaoxiao furious and catalyze her demonic nature, that would be even better! They could let everyone see her hideous appearance when she became demonic.

Once labeled a demoness, it would be difficult for Cui Xiaoxiao to turn things around.

Watching the villagers look at them with fearful expressions, completely forgetting how they had helped the villagers in the evil formation, Yu Ling’er felt very disappointed and couldn’t help but angrily say: “If Xiaoxiao harmed people, why would she have her disciple save people in the formation? Isn’t that taking off pants to fart – unnecessary extra effort! It’s clearly this hypocrite Qinhe colluding with Lord Can to frame us! The formation here and the phantom city we encountered outside Luoyi City are the same – both the handiwork of Ghost Sect’s Wan Lian Shi, whom Lord Can keeps!”

Qinhe sneered: “Everyone in the four great sects knows that Ghost Sect’s Wan Lian Shi was already executed in the four great sects’ encirclement twenty years ago! You’re now dragging out a dead person to take the blame for you – it’s utterly ridiculous. You say Wan Lian Shi is still alive – who can testify?”

Xiaoxiao wasn’t particularly angry about Qinhe and others’ slander and framing. Because she knew she was walking the path of becoming demonic in Wei Jie’s place.

This overwhelmingly dirty water was what Wei Jie should have borne alone. If he had been surrounded and attacked like this alone, unable to defend himself, he truly would have been suffocated by frustration!

But Xiaoxiao had been called “little liar” since childhood and had experienced more hardships than many octogenarians.

To make her lose composure and feel ashamed and angry, this bit of dirty water wasn’t even enough to cover the pot bottom – how could it be enough for her to drink?

So, hearing Qinhe’s slanderous words, Xiaoxiao still said unhurriedly: “It was widely rumored that Wan Lian Shi was struck down a cliff by the four great sects and died. But where are his bones? No one has ever seen them. However, those great masters who participated in encircling Wan Lian Shi have mysteriously died one by one over these twenty years. Don’t you all find the mystery in this curious?”

Master Tang Youshu was also very curious about the Ghost Sect’s rise and fall, so dozens of pages in his secret manual were devoted to wild histories and miscellaneous stories about the Ghost Sect that Tang Youshu had collected. The tragic death of a great master who had previously encircled Wan Lian Shi was also marked by Master in the manual with the annotation “doubtful, to be investigated.”

When Xiaoxiao had read it before, she didn’t understand the Master’s deep meaning. But now that she was personally in the time two hundred years ago and had glimpsed the secret that Wan Lian Shi was alive, she immediately understood Master’s meaning of “doubtful, to be investigated.”

Hearing her say this, several senior elders among the four great sects were moved.

Because what this woman said was correct, those great masters who had participated in encircling Wan Lian Shi had mysteriously disappeared or accidentally died in their secluded cultivation caves over the following decades. Not one had survived!

If they were ordinary people, a natural death would be normal. But they were all outstanding figures among the four great sects – how could they so easily disappear or die without exception?

Xiaoxiao continued: “Ghost Sect’s Wan Lian Shi is extremely vengeful. If he had been rescued and able to continue living, he would have returned to avenge those great masters. I wonder if his human skin talismans contain the skin of your respected teachers and elders…”

Hearing this, Ebony Peak Qi Sect’s disciples were the first to explode. Because one of their elders had indeed died tragically in a secluded cultivation cave. When discovered, his entire body was bloody and mangled, with all skin stripped clean!

But the cave had been sealed with no outsiders entering, not even traces of fighting. This meant the elder had no power to resist at the time.

This bloody case was too damaging to Ebony Peak’s great masters’ reputation, making all disciples seem incompetent, so it was suppressed as a sect scandal, known only to high-ranking disciples.

But Cui Xiaoxiao’s words were truly like a wake-up call! Yes, why did the perpetrator need to strip away human skin?

You must know that Ghost Sect talisman-making indeed required human skin as material, and a cultivation master’s skin was rarer than exotic beast hide!

Hearing Ebony Peak disciples speak of this sect’s great master’s tragic death secret, senior elders of other major sects were also terrified, revealing their private matters like bursting beans.

It turned out their sects also had great masters who had mysteriously died and lost their skin.

No wonder they had always concealed this from each other. These great masters had died extremely shamefully, without even traces of resistance or struggle! Speaking of it would be too damaging to their sect’s reputation. After secret investigations yielded no clues, they could only keep it buried like silent farts, afraid of shaking their disciples’ morale.

But now they discovered that they weren’t the only ones who had such bizarre murders, and these cases were interconnected, all related to those who had encircled Wan Lian Shi.

With this revelation, Xiaoxiao’s deduction became well-founded.

Everyone immediately erupted, no one caring about a few dead villagers, all angrily demanding to investigate the murderer who had killed several great masters in their sects.

Seeing he couldn’t control the situation, Qinhe was so angry he gritted his teeth secretly, raising his voice to regain control: “Everyone, we came here to capture the demon head Cui Xiaoxiao, who is currently doing evil! Don’t be deceived by her tricks and deviate from our purpose! Those old cases naturally need investigation, but since she knows so many details and is skilled with talismans, doesn’t she have countless connections to the Ghost Sect? This demon head, Cui Xiaoxiao, has unknown origins and absolutely cannot be spared!”

Cui Xiaoxiao looked at Qinhe with a slight smile: “Oh my, Pavilion Master Qin and Wan Lian Shi are fellow sect brothers, so naturally you don’t like others speaking badly of him. I was presumptuous!”

Before Qinhe could retort, Lingyun Pavilion disciples began shouting: “Demoness! What nonsense are you spouting! Our Pavilion Master has been cultivating at Lingyun Pavilion since youth – how could he be Wan Lian Shi’s fellow sect brother!”

At this moment, Wei Jie suddenly pulled out the oil paper package that Yu Ling’er had mistaken for fragrant braised food from his cloth bag, throwing out a bloody severed arm!

This arm was exactly the one Wei Jie had chopped off Wan Lian Shi at Lord Can’s manor.

Wei Jie had too many devious thoughts, fearing Wan Lian Shi might reattach it. After chopping off the limb, he had taken the arm away.

Originally, he wanted to feed it to the dogs in the royal manor courtyard, but after Xiaoxiao examined the arm’s palm, she had Wei Jie bring it back.

So Wei Jie had torn oil paper in the prince’s palace, wrapped his arm, and stuffed it in his bag.

Xiaoxiao wanted to keep it, naturally, not for the evil prank of frightening Yu Ling’er.

Once one entered the Ghost Sect path, it was hard to turn back!

Because one had to make contracts with various evil talismans they cultivated, dark red markings would appear on the cultivator’s palm. The deeper the cultivation, the deeper and more complex the markings would become.

The markings on this severed palm were like interwoven spider webs, bright red and shocking – an old hand steeped in Ghost Sect ways.

When Wan Lian Shi served as royal manor steward, he always wore flesh-colored gloves to conceal this, not attracting attention. But without concealment on this severed arm, it immediately betrayed that the arm’s owner was deeply versed in Ghost Sect arts.

Xiaoxiao wanted to use this arm to prove that Wan Lian Shi was indeed still alive in this world!

She took the arm, held it high, and declared loudly: “This is what we master and disciple chopped off the white-haired steward at Lord Can’s manor when we broke in at night. He is the long-hidden Ghost Sect’s Wan Lian Shi! If you don’t believe it, you can immediately go to Lord Can’s manor to see if that steward is missing an arm and whether he still dares to meet you all! As for you, Pavilion Master Qin? I really don’t know if you’ve practiced Ghost Sect arts. Why don’t you show everyone your palms to see if you have these contract markings?”

When saying this, Xiaoxiao wore a face full of curious smiles, inquisitively staring at Qinhe’s hands that had always been hidden in his wide sleeves.

Hearing this, Qinhe’s eyelids twitched slightly. He truly never expected that such a young girl like Cui Xiaoxiao would understand Ghost Sect methods so well!

How did she know that anyone who had practiced Ghost Sect arts would leave markings on their palms?

Even if beaten to death, Qinhe could never imagine that Cui Xiaoxiao had traveled from two hundred years in the future, and she carried a foot-binding cloth-like secret manual that, besides not discussing much about their own sect’s affairs, recorded other sects’ unofficial histories in great detail!

The Ghost Sect was the inspiration for the Talismonger Sect, so Tang Youshu naturally wrote extensively about the Ghost Sect that had gone astray, incidentally warning disciples not to take the evil path.

Now, Xiaoxiao pointed out the aftereffects of practicing Ghost Sect arts, directly targeting Qinhe, demanding to examine his palms.

In the Luoyi phantom city, Xiaoxiao had seen Qinhe’s face through that broken mirror, so she was certain Qinhe had been exposed to Ghost Sect evil talismans and had considerable accomplishments.

Once stained by such evil arts, one would carry indelible marks for life. Now, Xiaoxiao wanted to examine Qinhe’s palms in front of everyone.