Hot water swirled into the bottom of the cup and was brought forward by a maid skilled in reading expressions. The elderly woman helped Luo Cai sit down, deliberating again and again before speaking pleasant words to comfort her: “Madam, don’t listen to their nonsense. I’ve heard people say that while the Law Enforcement Hall is formidable, there are often poorly trained young disciples who sneak in to muddy the waters. When they can’t complete their missions, they point at deer and call them horses, falsely accusing good people.”

“Besides, just based on those two tokens that show nothing at all, they can’t prove they’re from the Law Enforcement Hall. They might have picked them up somewhere to frighten people. Speaking this way, they truly have sinister intentions. If Madam suffers any mishap because of this, we absolutely must report to the authorities and have them arrested.”

The woman born in the marketplace understood nothing, but Luo Cai had read poetry and classics, and in her early years had seen much of the world with her husband.

Those two women just now, whether standing or sitting, carried themselves with distinctive poise. Their clothing and accessories were all extraordinary items, and their speech and manner made others feel ashamed of their own inadequacy.

Ordinary families couldn’t raise such daughters.

With the effort they’d spend on deceiving her, what couldn’t they accomplish instead?

People are often like this – the more they care about something, the more they overthink it. Even the slightest suspicious detail gets turned over and chewed upon repeatedly. Each time they think about it, their heart skips a beat.

Luo Cai’s nails dug tightly into her palms, sinking deeply into her flesh. Her entire being was like a taut string, or a rain-soaked bird, clearly showing the panicked unease of someone who had been frightened.

Seeing her worried and taking it seriously, that woman was about to catch her breath and continue chattering endlessly about those rumors passed through countless mouths, when suddenly Luo Cai’s belly moved like a punching fist.

The movement was considerable, startling the elderly woman into choking all her words in her throat.

“What’s wrong?” Luo Cai looked at the elderly woman, her mouth opening and closing as if completely unaware, showing a kind of marionette-like incongruous stiffness: “Continue speaking.”

The usually talkative elderly woman’s heart trembled. Her mouth barely moved twice as she secretly glanced at Luo Cai’s belly while continuing in self-deception: “This old servant speaks crudely, but the reasoning is sound. We are mortals who neither cultivate immortality nor have connections with any sects. If there were truly supernatural matters, the imperial court would send people to notify us. How could they so carelessly label people—”

The elderly woman suddenly couldn’t continue, because Luo Cai suddenly began laughing uncharacteristically.

Unlike her previous refined and elegant laughter, when she laughed now, she even made sharp, high “giggling” sounds, her throat gurgling and murmuring like dozens of children simultaneously discovering some interesting object, their curious and satisfied whispered discussions.

Seeing this, the maid was the first to react, screaming “Ah!” at the top of her lungs and fleeing in panic, knocking over the tea service on the table with clattering crashes.

This commotion startled the elderly woman standing beside Luo Cai. She opened her mouth, her face shaking like peeling tree bark. After a long while, she finally rolled and crawled out of the guest reception hall.

The enormous residence began trembling like an earthquake. The newly purchased maids and servants either fainted or fled, creating chaos with chickens flying and dogs jumping, voices boiling over.

As they fled, Luo Cai didn’t pursue them. She sat on the square stool like watching a play, restlessly shifting her hips, licking her fingertips with childlike coquettishness as if smelling something sweet, then laughing innocently: “Run, run, none of you can escape. I’m going to eat you all up.”

It was the voice of a sweet, clear little girl.

This abnormal situation lasted about half the time it takes to drink a cup of tea. When Luo Cai regained consciousness, she felt dizzy and everything went black before her eyes, with a buzzing noise in her ears.

After a long while, she came to her senses. Her hand first fell on her lower abdomen. Seeing nothing abnormal, her still-unsettled heart hadn’t completely calmed when a breath caught in her throat.

She saw that her belly had swollen like an inflated balloon. In the blink of an eye, it had reached nearly full term. She gradually couldn’t even see her toes – only that unnaturally large belly filled her vision.

Luo Cai’s mind immediately went blank with a buzz. Before the tearing pain came flooding in like a tidal wave, only one thought remained in her mind.

—Indeed, what they said was true.

It was at this moment that Xue Yu and Shan Shu rushed in.

Xue Yu held a lamp as red as blood in her hand. The lamp trembled uncontrollably, its light growing brighter and its color more demonic. The flame inside the shade burned fiercely, as if following its master’s command to burn a hole in the hand holding it.

Yet it was gripped by Xue Yu.

The more unruly the lamp became, the thicker the frost covering it grew. Eventually, its lamp-like shape was no longer visible. Only then did it finally seem to know fear, becoming dejected and exhausted, settling down quietly.

This was the mastermind behind everything that had led them to chase Wu to Suzhou city – the Worldly Lamp.

Xue Yu and Shan Shu had been guarding outside earlier and had expended considerable effort to subdue it.

Shan Shu cast a small spell to place the pain-stricken and intermittently conscious Luo Cai on the bed. Xue Yu placed a seal on the Worldly Lamp and efficiently hung it on the bed curtains.

Immediately after, with her as the center, connecting to the isolation array already set up outside, it was as if pulled up by an invisible thread, bursting forth with overwhelming spiritual light.

Anyone with some cultivation could sense the unusual disturbance here from ten or twenty li away.

“With such a great commotion, that demon monk should come now.” Shan Shu bent down to carefully observe Luo Cai’s expression, her gaze falling again on her unnaturally large belly that seemed stretched to its limit and ready to burst at any moment. Glancing at Xue Yu, she said, “Those left at the Law Enforcement Hall say that the young man by your side seems rather disobedient. Right after you left, he went to stake out Cloud Trace Restaurant.”

“Good in everything except being disobedient.”

Xue Yu had also received the news. Her beautiful eyes swept slightly as she tapped the Worldly Lamp with her finger, carrying a threatening meaning. The lamp then reluctantly extinguished completely.

Having done this, she rarely showed any unpleasant emotion at being affected, saying: “I don’t know who he learned from, not treating his own life as precious.”

“He wasn’t like this when he first arrived.”

“He is quite clever, though.” Shan Shu gave Luo Cai the pain-relieving powder in her hand. Who knew that the moment she touched the substance, her entire body would shake violently, her beautiful lips trembling as if she had touched some highly toxic medicine. “This ghost infant wants to slowly drain her to death.”

Seeing this, Xue Yu directly stepped forward and gripped Luo Cai’s jaw, forcing her to open her lips. Shan Shu finally successfully poured the pain-relieving powder down her throat. Her expression visibly relaxed before she continued: “The great array needs so many people guarding inside and out, even Jiu Feng is trapped as the array’s heart and can’t break free. When the real fighting starts, we’ll have no one to investigate the movements of those ten residences in the southern city.”

Su You is clever. He knows your thoughts and understands this gap needs someone to fill.”

“It indeed solves our immediate urgency and future worries.”

Shan Shu smiled at Xue Yu: “That young man is enduring pain to do his work. When this is over, don’t be angry with him.”

Xue Yu moved her lips, about to speak, when suddenly gusts of sinister wind began blowing through the room. Mind you, all four windows in the room were tightly locked, and the main door was closed – where this sourceless wind came from was obvious with a moment’s thought.

The windows began clattering violently, the sound like someone outside trying to ram them with force. Soon, all four windows couldn’t withstand such abuse and fell one after another.

“Giggle.”

“Giggle giggle.”

The sound of children deliberately misbehaving and pinching their throats to shout mixed with the jingling of bells on their bodies, creating a sinister, life-threatening melody that echoed throughout this empty residence, one after another, then spread rapidly in all directions as if searching for some anticipated prey.

Xue Yu and Shan Shu exchanged glances. The latter said softly, “Before we entered, those servants had already been taken away by our people.”

Xue Yu just nodded, standing with her back against the wall. In her movements, her practical clothing flipped open at the seam, revealing a section of skin like congealed cream, along with a conspicuous wound that had been hastily treated with some coagulant powder.

Snow white mixed with bright red – that wound had flesh turned inside out, making anyone who saw it feel shocked.

More than ten female infants were searching throughout the residence for people to supplement their energy. Only when they couldn’t find anyone would they return to merge into one and be born from Luo Cai’s belly. Before this, they couldn’t leave – they had to guard the room.

Shan Shu stared at the wound on Xue Yu’s hand, remembering how, after completing the array setup, this Yedu Princess had very skillfully taken a knife and, without blinking, cut her wrist, blood spraying out and dripping onto the formation.

That blood seemed to have some enhancing effect – almost the moment it fell on the array, the entire formation’s brilliance became several times brighter than before.

“They say Spirit Array Masters have weak bodies and injuries heal with particular difficulty. Miss A Yu, should you take some restorative medicine for this wound?” Shan Shu asked with some concern: “We don’t know how powerful that demon monk is. Thinking of the worst case, this ghost infant might need to be handled by Miss A Yu.”

Xue Yu didn’t want to elaborate on her not needing external medicine, so she used the latter part of the question to gloss over the former: “It’s no hindrance. I’ll handle the ghost infant.”

At this moment, those dozen or so tragically dead female infants, having searched the entire residence without finding a single living person, suddenly let out resentful shrieks. Rolling death energy stacked layer upon layer like tidal water, churning into mid-air before becoming black, dense clouds, finally rushing toward Luo Cai lying on the bed.

Luo Cai’s originally scattered pupils suddenly focused. Like a normal woman in labor, she was in such pain that she sweated profusely and bit her lips until they bled, showing traces of blood – this was after taking the pain-relieving powder.

Otherwise, before the child was born, she would have fainted from pain first. And after the ghost infant was born, as the birth mother, she would be the first to be devoured alive as excellent nourishment.

“This won’t work.” Xue Yu bent down several times to check Luo Cai’s condition, looking at the shark silk garment on her body that emanated light to resist the ghostly energy, frowning: “Without a power source, the ghost infant can’t come out. The Spirit Gathering Cauldron – did Fo Nu bring it?”

“I have it.” Shan Shu took out a small, silver square cauldron while observing Luo Cai’s features: “But if we use the Spirit Gathering Cauldron, we won’t be able to use the Dust Forgetting Curse on her afterward.”

Originally, they had planned to cast a small spell on Luo Cai after this was over to make her forget her past, erasing the memories of pregnancy and the ghost infant. This way, when she woke up, she would only remember coming to the southern city to relax due to her husband’s early death and her resulting melancholy.

Otherwise, just the events of this day alone might haunt Luo Cai for the rest of her life. Not only would she have to accept a new world of humans, ghosts, spirits, and demons, but also the fact that her child was killed by a ghost.

This would be too cruel for her.

“Can’t worry about so much now.” Xue Yu reached out to feel Luo Cai’s burning forehead, taking the Spirit Gathering Cauldron from Shan Shu: “Mortal bodies are too weak to endure such torment.”

Being alive was better than anything else.

Just as Xue Yu was about to activate the Spirit Gathering Cauldron, there was suddenly a great commotion from within the array, along with Jiu Feng’s furious voice ready to explode: “…Where did this dead monk come from, still having the audacity to impersonate some wandering warrior sorcerer? Today I absolutely must kill you here!”

Xue Yu stopped her actions, casually placing the Spirit Gathering Cauldron on the square table in the room, saying softly, “He’s here.”

Jiu Feng was guarding the array’s heart and couldn’t leave, no matter what. Hui Jue also had no intention of fighting her. Only when she brandished her blade and coldly asked, “Was it you who provided the life-borrowing method to the Chen family a thousand years ago?” did he lift his eyelids slightly and calmly answer yes, his manner even carrying the unique humility and propriety of Buddhist practitioners.

Jiu Feng was so angry that smoke came from her seven orifices. She wanted nothing more than to strike and suppress him on the spot, but at this moment, she was in a position where one movement would affect everything. She could only vent by shouting a few curses.

Thus Hui Jue proceeded as if no one else was present, entering the residence as if entering his own courtyard, taking the familiar route straight to the main courtyard.

The moment before his footsteps crossed the room’s threshold, the previously dormant Worldly Lamp suddenly flared once. Luo Cai’s muffled cry of pain caught in her throat, and she fainted the next moment.

Hui Jue leaned on his Buddhist staff, each step ringing as he walked to Luo Cai’s bedside. Then he half-knelt at the bed’s edge, gazing long at her sweat-covered brows and eyes, treasuring her scallion-like fingers as he grasped them. Only then did he seem like someone who had finally found their way home, his lips curving into a gentle arc.

When he kept a cold expression, he appeared rigid and stiff, but this smile somehow released a sudden youthful air. Every tense line in his features relaxed, revealing his originally handsome and delicate features.

He looked like a young monk with red lips and white teeth.

Xue Yu watched this scene coldly, her long fingers moving slightly as she asked: “You killed Liu Er, didn’t you?”

Hui Jue gripped that finger and refused to let go, his cold expression also becoming warm and tender. He seemed to know he would face this confrontation long ago, seemed to know early on that he would step into this trap, and thus accepted it calmly: “Yes.”

“The Chen family had past kindness to Su Se and me. I provided the life-borrowing technique.” Hui Jue’s voice was even, composed, and peaceful: “I took the Worldly Lamp, I killed Liu Er, and that Soul-Fixing Rope is also mine.”

He admitted everything in one breath.

Shan Shu sensed for a moment, then spoke with surprise and uncertainty: “Your aura.”

“Yes.” When Hui Jue smiled, no threat could be seen. He looked at Shan Shu as if discussing some trivial matter: “A thousand years ago, my Buddhist cultivation also reached a certain level. People from Northern Wasteland came, preparing to bring me into the Sacred Land.”

“Though now much has been damaged.”

He spoke lightly, but it stirred waves in Shan Shu’s heart.

Among the Six Sacred Lands, except for Kunlun, which constantly recruited new members, the other five strictly controlled such matters. Like Northern Wasteland, only those with extremely profound Buddhist knowledge who caught the elders’ attention qualified for the Sacred Land, and they had to be outstanding figures among the young generation at that time.

Yet such a person had walked the path of a demon monk.

“No need for the Spirit Gathering Cauldron.” Hui Jue looked again at Luo Cai lying on the bed, slowly reaching out to tuck her disheveled hair behind her ear, as if afraid of waking her, his voice falling soft and slow: “She’s timid and can’t handle being frightened.”

“She’s not purely human – true mortal flesh wouldn’t be chosen by a ghost infant.” Xue Yu asked pointedly: “So what is she, or rather, what was she before this life?”

“A demon.” Hui Jue answered her seriously: “A not-very-clever little fox demon who was quite troublesome.”

Xue Yu then understood.

Another lingering, tragic love story that didn’t end well.

“Given the current situation, what do you plan to do?” Xue Yu calmly pointed out the facts: “Knowing it’s a trap yet still stepping in, you must not want her to die.”

Hui Jue looked at Luo Cai, his eyes showing an indescribable mix of joy and resignation. After hesitating for a long while, he seemed to finally make a difficult decision, leaning forward to gently and slowly brush Luo Cai’s forehead with his lips.

Cherishing, solemn, with a touch of unconscious attachment, and pleasing.

Though he was someone who had lived over a thousand years, this tiny gesture seemed to exhaust Hui Jue’s meager sense of shame. His ears reddened, and he smiled somewhat embarrassedly: “Please excuse the display.”

Before coming here, Xue Yu had imagined there would be fierce confrontation under dark skies, subduing demons and eliminating ghosts amid flashing swords and sabers, but she never expected this kind of opening.

She couldn’t help but turn her head away with a wooden expression.

Hui Jue held Luo Cai’s fingertips that emitted faint warmth, saying with a smile: “After tonight, she’ll be purely human.”

As his words fell, he also placed his hand on Luo Cai’s highly protruding belly. His entire spiritual power was summoned, releasing like rivers and seas competing to flow forth. Mid-air seemed to rain down a satisfying shower of light around him.

“You’re…” Shan Shu’s pupils contracted slightly as she softly articulated: “Trading life for life?”

Hui Jue didn’t raise his head, but the power around him surged more urgently and quickly, forming wind-like spirals.

The dormant ghost infant could no longer resist such fatal temptation. It became active again, greedily devouring these powers in great gulps, being lured bit by bit to emerge from Luo Cai’s body.

It was a delicately carved female child with two upward-pointing hair tufts on her head and bracelets on her chubby wrists. If not for those extremely malicious eyes, no one would associate her with the chilling term “ghost infant.”

Almost the instant the ghost infant separated from the mother’s body, Xue Yu seized the opportunity and struck swiftly. Simultaneously, Shan Shu flicked talisman papers filled with Buddhist light from her fingertips, shooting them out like arrow rain.

That ghost infant had grown on the locust tree for over a hundred years and absorbed much sinister energy drawn by the Worldly Lamp. Near birth, it had become incredibly arrogant.

Unfortunately, facing both Xue Yu and Shan Shu simultaneously, it was quickly beaten into submission and deflated.

“Just wait, all of you wait.” The ghost infant stamped her feet angrily, using a little girl’s sweet tone to speak venomous words. Her eyes fell on Xue Yu and Shan Shu, weighing pros and cons as she thought. Finally, she vigorously shook the bells on her hands.

“She’s calling for help.” Xue Yu saw through it immediately, feeling that things had developed in ways even the Celestial Records hadn’t anticipated.

Now that the Worldly Lamp was found, the demon monk had appeared – they only needed to subdue the ghost infant, and this mission would be finished.

But the ghost infant was calling for help.

Was there someone behind her?

Xue Yu immediately thought of Su You.

Actually, given her personality, wanting to arrange someone to watch at Cloud Trace Restaurant or the southern city alley entrance was completely precautionary – essentially for peace of mind. So when manpower was insufficient, such actions became dispensable. She hadn’t expected a real emergency to arise.

Facts proved Xue Yu’s guess was correct – the ghost infant indeed called someone.

The newcomer wore all black with a ghost-face mask tightly covering their face, only revealing a pair of black pupils. They seemed to know Xue Yu and Shan Shu’s identities and didn’t fight them head-on. The purpose of this desperate venture was only to save someone.

The newcomer had excellent lightness skills but didn’t understand combat techniques. That cultivation seemed stolen from someone else. Being able to grab the ghost infant and escape quickly under Xue Yu and Shan Shu’s pincer attack relied entirely on spiritual treasures thrown from their hands that exploded in mid-air.

Those spiritual treasures each had considerable power, but had no chance to shine in their master’s hands before being crudely discarded, creating thunderous explosions and self-destructing to block the overwhelming siege for the newcomer.

Another golden light blocked Xue Yu’s attack, and her pupils completely turned cold.

“The sixth one.”

Even locally prestigious major sects couldn’t afford to be so extravagantly wealthy, throwing away six or seven spiritual treasures in one go.

So behind the Worldly Lamp and ghost infant affair, there might be countless connections to aristocratic sects and local magnates.

Shan Shu also thought of this. She tapped her toes, and an overwhelming golden light burst from her body, forming arrow feathers that suddenly exerted force, shooting toward the ghost infant and the black-clothed rescuer at air-breaking speed.

The result was that the arrow rain had barely approached when another thunderous explosion rang out, the spiritual power disturbance caused by the spiritual treasure’s self-destruction forcing it back.

Thus, the black-clothed person hadn’t exchanged a single move with them, yet managed to brazenly carry the ghost infant to the edge of their great array.

If they escaped today, even if Xue Yu ordered Suzhou city to be dug three feet deep, they might not catch the ghost infant again.

This was equivalent to a bomb that could explode at any time – if they couldn’t keep it tonight, it would be an endless source of trouble.

Xue Yu glanced at Shan Shu. The latter, born in Buddha Continent, practiced techniques mostly for ferrying departed souls and calming resentment. Those great killing moves that made people pale at their mention required extreme caution and consideration in their use – carelessness could affect one’s nature and cause future troubles on the cultivation path.

Jiu Feng was eager to act, but she was at the array’s heart. If she moved, all the citizens of Suzhou city would be awakened from their dreams by the earth-shaking commotion here and suffer the consequences.

Seeing the ghost infant giggling and blowing bubbles at them, just one step away from being taken into darkness by the black-clothed person, and escaping to freedom.

Xue Yu soared into the air, then lowered her eyes. Vast winds arose from somewhere unknown, blowing her soft sleeves forward.

She extended her long finger, pointing downward in mid-air.

The entire night seemed frozen in this moment.

“Running where?”

She spoke lightly and coldly: “All of you stay here.”

Facing them, the black-clothed person had never dared to be careless. Seeing such a formation, they gritted their teeth and threw out several more spiritual treasures in succession. They exploded with the same earth-shaking, sky-disturbing commotion, but the previously infallible tactic seemed useless now – Xue Yu’s attack still came toward them.

When he noticed the snowflake that fell on his shoulder, he was still in a daze. In just the blink of an eye, that arm of his, along with the ghost infant he held, fell like autumn leaves.

He didn’t even have time to scream. His only and final thought was to turn and flee into the night without looking back.

Shan Shu and others swarmed forward, binding the forcibly detained ghost infant with layer upon layer of seals.

Chao Nian ran toward Xue Yu, gasping and asking in panic: “Miss, are you all right?” The word “okay” hadn’t left his mouth when he saw Xue Yu coldly and inconspicuously wiping blood from her lips with her sleeve.

His eyes immediately reddened.

“Take back those tears.” Xue Yu turned toward Luo Cai’s room while instructing: “List information about all the major families and sects in Suzhou city and surrounding cities for me.”

“Go now.”