Rain flowed down the eaves, forming an intermittent water curtain. The cold wind blew it in diagonally, like scattered flowers and shattered jade.

Xiangzhou, located in the southwest, was cold and dry in winter. When it rained, it became damp and chilly, with the cold seeping into one’s bones.

Everyone sat around the bonfire. With ample firewood, the fierce flames drove away the chill of the rainy night.

“The Demon Slaying Assembly called by Aunt Chai?” Li Lingsu’s expression suddenly turned strange. He asked, “Demon Slaying Assembly? Who are they slaying? Has something happened to the Chai family?”

Xu Qi’an poked at the bonfire, suddenly understanding why the Heavenly Sect wanted to bring back both the Holy Son and the Holy Daughter.

Li Miaozheng’s chivalrous acts might not have been wrong in the eyes of the Heavenly Sect. Her real mistake lay in her inflated sense of justice and being trapped by “emotion.”

Similarly, Li Lingsu’s real mistake wasn’t that he slept around with women. If the Holy Son had been heartless after his conquests, the Heavenly Sect might not have bothered with his affairs…

His mistake was that he harbored feelings for every woman who had shared herself with him.

As soon as he heard it was related to the Chai family, the young man couldn’t sit still.

“Brother, are you not from Zhangzhou?” Feng Xiu asked, somewhat surprised.

Xiangzhou was under the jurisdiction of Zhangzhou. Her directly pointing out that they weren’t from Zhangzhou implied that the so-called “Demon Slaying Assembly” was no longer limited to Xiangzhou, but was known throughout Zhangzhou.

Xu Qi’an drew the corresponding inference, then heard Li Lingsu answer with a smile:

“Our destination is Yongzhou. We’re just passing through Xiangzhou, so we don’t know much about local affairs.”

Feng Xiu nodded in understanding, discreetly examining Li Lingsu’s exceptionally handsome face, and said:

“A major incident occurred in the Chai family over half a month ago. The family head, Chai Jianyuan, was killed in his mansion. The killer was his adopted son, Chai Xian. After killing his foster father, who had shown him great kindness, Chai Xian went berserk and killed dozens more in the mansion before escaping. Since then, there’s been no news of him.”

“Chai Xian…” Li Lingsu murmured the name, seemingly not unfamiliar with this person.

Xu Qi’an added a piece of firewood and smiled, “From what the young lady says, this Chai Xian is still within Zhangzhou’s borders, not having left?”

This man is very perceptive… Feng Xiu was somewhat surprised and said softly:

“You’re right, sir. After the killings, Chai Xian not only didn’t flee Zhangzhou but claimed he was wrongly accused and framed. He vowed to investigate the matter and clear his name.

“But later, fatal cases frequently occurred throughout Zhangzhou, especially severe in Xiangzhou. Someone witnessed him killing people and refining corpses. At first, he only killed jianghu people, but later even ordinary civilians fell victim to his cruelty. The Xiangzhou authorities began to intervene.

“Aunt Chai seized the opportunity to call for a ‘Demon Slaying Assembly,’ rallying jianghu practitioners from all over Zhangzhou to come to Xiangzhou and join forces with the authorities to subdue Chai Xian.”

Wang Jun, in his black tight-fitting clothes, coldly snorted, “Evil cult practitioners harming civilians deserve death by anyone’s hand.”

The scholar Lü Wei remained silent, quietly inching closer to the group.

Xu Qi’an took off his water pouch, took a sip, and added some water to the little white fox’s bowl. It extended its delicate pink tongue and lapped quietly.

The little white fox was dignified and elegant, with bright fur, immaculate, and being so small, it was exquisitely adorable, most capable of stirring a woman’s heart.

Feng Xiu stared at it intently and said delightedly, “What a beautiful little fox! May I hold it?”

The little white fox raised its head, about to say: No!

Mu Nanzhi beat it to the punch, quickly picking it up and covering its mouth, saying coolly, “No!”

Feng Xiu looked disappointed.

Wang Jun, seeing the woman he admired rebuffed, snorted, “It’s just a fox, what’s so special? Sister Feng, when the rain stops tomorrow, I’ll go to the mountains and catch one for you.”

Feng Xiu shook her head, “Never mind, don’t bother.”

She just found the little white fox cute and wanted to hold it, but she didn’t have the energy or interest to keep one by her side.

As she spoke, she unconsciously glanced at Li Lingsu again, coincidentally meeting his gaze. This elegant and handsome man winked at her.

Feng Xiu immediately averted her gaze, her heart fluttering and her cheeks burning.

Ah, my cursed charm… Li Lingsu sighed like a peerless expert feeling the loneliness at the top.

Then, he heard Xu Qian’s mental message: “Is that Aunt Chai your mistress?”

How did you know… Li Lingsu was dumbfounded, almost blurting out a question.

“I don’t remember saying that,” he replied mentally.

“When you heard about the Chai family’s bloodshed, you were surprised but not worried. This means you were sure your mistress wasn’t in danger. So I guessed it was the Aunt Chai who initiated the call,” Xu Qi’an said.

“Your insight is remarkable, senior!” Li Lingsu transmitted mentally.

“What’s your take on this case?” Xu Qi’an inquired mentally.

Li Lingsu fell into reminiscence, saying dreamily:

“I once traveled to Zhangzhou with Junior Sister Miaozheng and happened to meet the Chai family. The leader at the time was a woman as melancholic as a lilac flower, evoking pity.

“Zhangzhou has developed water systems. We met on a pleasure boat. It was early spring, with apricot blossoms in a light rain. She wore a water-green long dress, held an oil-paper umbrella, and stood by the boat watching the rain.

“She had recently been widowed and was depressed. I invited her for a drink to drown her sorrows. At first, she ignored me, treating me coldly. Later, annoyed, she even hurled insults at me.”

Wi-widowed? How are you any different from Cao Cao?!

Xu Qi’an was shocked.

“Later she said that in Zhangzhou, there’s a place called Thousand Absolute Valley where a pair of strange beasts lived, male and female, never separating. Near their lair grew a peculiar flower called ‘White Head.’ If one could obtain that flower, they could stay with their loved one for life, growing old together.

“If I could pluck that flower, she said she would drink with me.”

Hearing this, Xu Qi’an nodded slowly: “You got the flower and thus captured the beauty’s heart?”

The Holy Son shook his head:

“There indeed was a pair of strange beasts in Thousand Absolute Valley, incredibly fierce, with divine demon bloodlines. Even a Fourth-Order expert couldn’t handle them, let alone a Fifth-Order. There was no such flower near the lair of the male and female beasts. She had lied to me.

“But I still went, fought a great battle with the two fierce beasts, plucked one of their tail feathers, and escaped with severe injuries. I found her, gave her the tail feather, and then left.”

Just left? This is different from what I imagined… Xu Qi’an frowned and transmitted: “Then what?”

Li Lingsu chuckled and transmitted:

“She chased after me, eyes filled with tears, demanding to know why I had gone to such lengths. I knew there was no so-called rare flower in the valley, and knew she had lied to me. Why did I still risk my life?

“I said: Beautiful lady, loving you is my lifelong, unchanging faith; entering your heart is my deepest desire; this heartfelt emotion won’t change because rivers change course, won’t be buried because mountains collapse.

“Even for your little joke, I’m willing to risk my life. Unfortunately, my lady, I cannot enter your heart. So, I must leave this place and go to distant lands.

“She threw herself into my arms without hesitation…”

Good grief, does the Heavenly Sect still accept disciples? I’d like to go for a few years of advanced study… Xu Qi’an coldly interrupted the mental transmission:

“Enough, let’s talk about the main issue.”

Li Lingsu reluctantly ended the topic and transmitted:

“I’ve met that Chai Xian a few times. He’s a person of pure nature, not the type to commit such atrocities as patricide and killing relatives. There might be hidden truths in this matter…”

He hesitated to continue.

Xu Qi’an, his mind full of thoughts of patricide, said, “If you have something to say, say it.”

“I want to visit the Chai family and learn more about the case,” Li Lingsu probed.

Xu Qian gave him the impression of being gentle yet aloof, not the type to meddle in others’ affairs, so he couldn’t gauge his thoughts.

Xu Qi’an nodded: “No more than three days.”

He agreed… Li Lingsu was delighted.

…

As the night deepened, the rain continued to drizzle.

People either sat cross-legged or lay on their sides, resting in the cold night.

The bonfire dimmed, the red-hot embers radiating heat, striving to dispel the chill.

In the silent darkness, the weak firelight distorted shadows. In the southern corner, the lid of that old coffin slowly lifted in the silent darkness.

A greenish-black hand reached out from the coffin, its nails black, pressing on the edge of the coffin.

“Clang!”

After a few seconds of silence, the coffin lid was suddenly flung off, crashing heavily to the ground with a loud noise.

A figure rose stiffly from within the coffin, its knees seemingly unable to bend.

The loud noise woke everyone sleeping in the abandoned temple. Wang Jun in his black tight-fitting clothes and Feng Xiu in her neat, short outfit were the first to wake, instinctively reaching for their weapons.

“Clang!”

The sword and blade were unsheathed simultaneously.

Mu Nanzhi, exhausted from days of travel, rubbed her eyes after being awakened and looked up.

She saw Wang Jun and Feng Xiu holding their weapons, their backs to the group, facing the southern coffin. From that eerie coffin stood a figure, hidden in darkness, only a vague outline visible.

The two sides seemed to be in a standoff.

At this moment, the figure in the coffin lightly leaped out. Its jumping posture was strange, the knees seemingly unable to bend, leaping stiffly.

The firelight illuminated the person’s appearance: white eyes, greenish-black skin covered in festering sores, sparse hair, wearing tattered clothes, waves of corpse stench wafting over.

This was no human, but a corpse, a moving corpse.

Mu Nanzhi’s pupils dilated slightly, her expression frozen. A few seconds later, she let out a high-pitched scream.

“Ah…”

The little white fox also let out a childlike scream, standing upright, its two front paws hugging Xu Qi’an’s leg, trembling.

The screams seemed to stimulate it. It let out an eerie howl, its legs springing as it pounced towards the group.

The scholar Lü Wei screamed, frightened into a corner.

“It’s a blood corpse!” someone shouted.

Wang Jun, in his black tight-fitting clothes, let out a low growl. His long sword slashed vertically, aiming to cleave the blood corpse in two.

“Blood corpses are evil beings that survive by consuming the vital essence of living people. Above blood corpses are iron corpses, whose defense is equivalent to the Sixth-Order Bronze Skin Iron Bone. The Chai family ancestor became invincible in Xiangzhou with thirteen iron corpses,” Li Lingsu explained via mental transmission.

The blood corpse clasped its hands together, catching the blade. Wang Jun tried to pull it back several times but couldn’t.

The strength of this blood corpse far exceeded his imagination.

Feng Xiu let out a fierce cry, took two quick steps, and delivered a direct kick to the blood corpse’s chest. Bang! A puff of dust exploded.

The blood corpse’s body curled like a shrimp, but its feet remained firmly planted, not moving an inch.

The next second, it straightened up, sending Feng Xiu flying, then swung its arm horizontally, sweeping Wang Jun away.

The two young novices were thrown in different directions, groaning in pain.

Wang Jun’s arm was hit by the blood corpse, fracturing the bone in his upper arm. He endured the pain, trying to circulate his qi for relief while picking up his sword. Just as he was about to continue fighting, his legs suddenly went weak, and his dantian felt like it was being twisted by a knife.

“Ah…”

On the other side, Feng Xiu seemed to be experiencing something similar, her face pale with pain, limp and weak.

Poisoned… Wang Jun’s heart sank as he immediately understood their situation.

“Brother Wang, Miss Feng, as expected of experts from renowned sects, it’s only now that my Soft Tendon Powder has taken effect,” the scholar Lü Wei emerged from the shadows in the corner, smiling as he walked to the bonfire.

His face was delicate, but gone was his previous gentleness. In the firelight, he even looked somewhat ferocious.

“It was you?!” Feng Xiu was shocked, completely unprepared for this turn of events.

“You’re the one raising corpses. No wonder you didn’t let me chop the coffin earlier. Was it because you hadn’t had the chance to poison us yet?” Wang Jun leaned on his sword, standing up shakily, his face ashen.

Lü Wei nodded, “That’s right. My blood corpse isn’t fully matured yet. Though it could kill you two without problem, if you tried to escape, it couldn’t catch up.”

“Why are you doing this?” Feng Xiu, whose cultivation was inferior to Wang Jun’s, could no longer stand.

As Lü Wei was about to answer, he suddenly heard the man in blue robes sitting cross-legged by the bonfire, unable to move, interject:

“Of course, it’s to refine the blood corpse and improve his cultivation.”

Lü Wei scrutinized him for a moment, confirming he was just an ordinary person with no threat, and smiled, “That’s right.”

Xu Qi’an continued, “So you disguised yourself as a scholar, lingering nearby, deceiving passing travelers? Judging by the numerous bonfire ashes, you must have harmed quite a few people.”

Feng Xiu and Wang Jun’s faces immediately darkened, realizing they were among the deceived travelers.

Lü Wei smiled, once again examining the man in blue robes.

“People keep dying on this road, and the authorities don’t intervene?” Li Lingsu poked the bonfire and asked.

“Times have changed. That Chai Xian is killing people and refining corpses everywhere, causing an uproar. We independent cultivators are just following in his wake for some leftovers. In the end, all the blame will fall on him anyway,” Lü Wei’s eyes were gloomy, seemingly unwilling to waste more words. He said, “I’ll start with you ordinary people as an appetizer.”

He controlled the blood corpse to walk towards Li Lingsu.

Why am I the first to die? Is it because I’m too handsome? Li Lingsu felt somewhat angry.

“The vital essence of ordinary people isn’t very useful, but accumulated over time, it can amount to something. I see you all are in good health, with vital energy far surpassing ordinary people,” Lü Wei said as the blood corpse leaped in front of Li Lingsu, opening its foul-smelling mouth to bite the Holy Son viciously.

Li Lingsu shook his head, sidestepping and standing up in one motion. He took off the jade hairpin binding his hair and gently tossed it.

The jade hairpin shot out like lightning, piercing half of the blood corpse’s face. The pin’s tip skewered an ugly black Gu worm. As if given life, it twisted back to Li Lingsu.

The blood corpse staggered forward two steps before collapsing lifelessly.

“What?!” Lü Wei’s eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. The blood corpse he had painstakingly refined for years, more powerful than a Qi Condensation cultivator, was so easily destroyed by the other party.

Shock, astonishment, and disbelief surged first, followed by fear and anxiety. Cold sweat instantly broke out.

He had encountered a true expert.

Perhaps in the next moment, he would become a corpse just like the blood corpse.

Feng Xiu and Wang Jun, having narrowly escaped death, were shocked, delighted, and bewildered. However, compared to Wang Jun’s pure joy at escaping death, the beautiful Miss Feng gazed at Li Lingsu in a daze.

So he’s that powerful…

Xu Qi’an waved his hand, summoning the jade hairpin. He stared at the gu worm on its tip and shook his head:

“A mutated corpse gu, not authentic enough.”

As he spoke, Lü Wei’s expression went through a series of changes. Finally stealing his heart, he rushed out of the dilapidated temple at an extremely fast speed, attempting to escape.

“Whoosh!”

The jade hairpin whistled through the air, piercing through scholar Lü Wei’s chest, drawing a stream of bright red blood. He fell to the ground.

Witnessing Lü Wei being killed as easily as cutting grass, Feng Xiu and Wang Jun took a deep breath, suppressing the complex emotions surging in their hearts, and spoke with utmost respect:

“Thank you, seniors, for saving our lives.”

Xu Qi’an threw a piece of wood into the fire and sighed, “Has Xiangzhou become so chaotic?”

Feng Xiu pursed her lips, “When I was in the sect, I only heard that Chai Xian was causing trouble in Xiangzhou and other counties, disturbing the peace. Now it seems that some of these murder cases are the work of unscrupulous individuals like Lü Wei taking advantage of the chaos.

“We misjudged people. If it weren’t for you two seniors also being in the temple today, we might not have survived.”

She thanked them again for saving their lives, but her beautiful eyes mostly focused on Li Lingsu, believing this extraordinarily handsome man to be the core of the small group.

Li Lingsu nodded slightly, “Let’s deal with the blood corpse and continue resting. We’ll set out tomorrow.”

Mu Nanzhi watched Wang Jun drag away the blood corpse, then turned fearfully to glare at Xu Qi’an:

“Did you know there was a… ghost in the coffin all along?”

Xu Qi’an shook his head:

“I didn’t know, but a coffin in an abandoned temple is suspicious. People often stop here to rest, and even the tables have been chopped for firewood, yet the coffin remains intact. Such a glaring oversight was obvious at a glance.”

As for later, the scholar secretly throwing sleeping smoke into the bonfire couldn’t escape the notice of a poison expert like him.

Mu Nanzhi snorted, hugging Bai Ji as she lay down, her side facing Xu Qi’an, her waist and hip curves alluringly outlined.

“Un-uncomfortable, don’t sleep hugging me…” The little white fox struggled.

Xu Qi’an lay down on his side, embracing Mu Nanzhi’s slender waist.

Her delicate body stiffened for a moment, but she didn’t resist or speak.

…

The next day, early morning.

Mu Nanzhi woke to find herself curled up in Xu Qi’an’s arms. Frightened by last night’s events, she had unconsciously clung to him while sleeping, seeking a sense of security.

Like an unmarried maiden, her cheeks slightly flushed, yet she put on a strong front pretending nothing was amiss.

Soon after, everyone gradually woke up. Xu Qi’an boiled a pot of hot water, first giving everyone a bowl of hot water with cold steamed buns, then using the remaining hot water to brush their teeth and wash their faces.

The group set off together. On the way, Xu Qi’an asked:

“What specialty foods does Xiangzhou have?”

Li Lingsu thought for a moment and said, “The cured meat is quite good. When we enter the city, I’ll take you to try some, senior.”

Xu Qi’an looked at Mu Nanzhi, saw her interested expression, and smiled, “Alright.”

Feng Xiu and Wang Jun followed behind somewhat nervously, not daring to speak up. They exchanged a surprised glance when they heard Li Lingsu respectfully address the man in blue robes.

He calls that man ‘senior’ and shows such respect… Feng Xiu’s round eyes widened slightly. Had she guessed wrong? Was this man in blue robes the core figure?

Before noon, the group arrived at Xiangzhou City. The city walls were thirty feet high, pedestrians were sparse, dressed plainly, with very few people in fine clothes on horseback.

Xiangzhou was not prosperous, even less so than Leizhou on the frontier.

After entering the city, Feng Xiu and Wang Jun bid farewell and left.

Li Lingsu led the way, with Xu Qi’an leading the small mare, their footsteps echoing “clop, clop, clop” behind. Half an hour later, they stopped outside a large manor.

A plaque reading “Chai Mansion” hung on the vermilion main gate.

A young, strong doorkeeper came forward, cupping his hands in greeting, “Which sect are you from?”

Li Lingsu replied, “No sect, no school.”

“Do you have an invitation?”

“No,” Li Lingsu shook his head.

The doorkeeper frowned, about to speak, when he heard the handsome young man say:

“Chai Xing’er and I are old acquaintances. Go in and announce that Li Lingsu is here to see her.”