She quickly closed her mouth, looked left and right, found a relatively thick tree, and slowly hid behind it, murmuring: “But it’s still raining outside, and it would take over an hour of flying to reach any towns.”

This person had a bad temper—he might strike her with his palm if they disagreed. It was safer to hide behind the tree.

He tied the wooden sword to his belt and turned around to see her entire body curled up behind the tree with only her head poking out, looking just like a small rabbit.

“If you’re not afraid of death, suit yourself.”

He turned and walked away. Where his robes brushed past, thick fog began gathering in clusters, instantly shrouding heaven and earth. Beyond three steps, nothing could be seen clearly.

He really was a demon! Xin Mei was shocked—a demon that could release fog! No wonder she encountered thick fog when looking for a place to camp at the Imperial Tomb last time. So it was his doing!

She looked around and decided to walk in the opposite direction. After just a few steps, she suddenly felt her foot kick something quite heavy, hurting her toe. Picking it up, she found it was a dark blue money pouch stuffed full of silver fragments and banknotes, quite heavy. Among the banknotes was wrapped a jade token of rather poor quality and mixed colors. Strangely, the jade token had no patterns—the front bore the character “Lu” while the back had the two characters “Qian Qiao.”

Seeing the mud and water stains on the money pouch were still fresh, it was likely that demon’s belonging. Was the name on the jade token his? Lu Qianqiao—a demon actually had a human name.

She held the money pouch, thinking and thinking, hesitating as she looked back. Finally, as if making up her mind, she walked unhesitatingly in the direction he had gone. The thick fog instantly swallowed her figure.

Rainy deep mountain forests were the most annoying, full of mud pits everywhere.

Xin Mei supported herself against a tree, struggling to pull her foot out of the mire. Her feet wore newly made sheepskin boots that had been clean and pretty this morning but were now so covered in mud their color couldn’t be seen. She didn’t know when thunder had started rumbling overhead—several times she felt the lightning was right beside her.

This weather was too unusual.

She forcefully pulled out one foot and stepped forward. Suddenly her vision became clear—the impenetrably thick fog seemed to have vanished abruptly. She spotted what looked like white cloth under a tree ahead and was overjoyed, hurrying over to carefully wipe the mud from her feet.

Someone nearby suddenly let out a soft groan. She walked around the tree in amazement to find over ten people lying scattered on the ground, apparently in a state of unconsciousness. The white cloth she’d used to clean her shoes was the hem of one person’s garment.

Xin Mei felt a bit embarrassed and quickly folded it to cover properly. The person whose clothes she’d used to clean her shoes seemed to have regained some consciousness, lying on the ground only able to make faint moaning sounds.

She leaned over to ask: “Why are you all lying here? Camping in the mud?”

That person looked at her with difficulty and trembling, his expression as if he wanted to vomit blood: “You… didn’t you see… over there that…”

She turned around to see a huge bluestone across from them. Sitting cross-legged on the stone was a tiger demon with an extremely fierce appearance. Above his head, thunder clouds gathered densely with thunderbolts crashing down from time to time. This was actually a demon undergoing heavenly thunder tribulation—if he successfully passed through it, he would become an immortal.

“You came to watch the tiger demon become immortal?” she asked kindly.

That person fainted again from anger.

At that moment, as thunder clouds gathered more densely, the rain grew heavier. Seeing them lying in the mire covered in mud and water, Xin Mei bent down to support one person’s arm, planning to drag them to a drier place.

Suddenly footsteps sounded behind her. She turned to see the man from before walking over with his wooden sword. Upon first seeing her, his face finally showed a trace of extremely subtle expression that could be called “surprise.”

“How are you here?” he asked, his gaze unfriendly.

Xin Mei looked left and right, found a relatively safe large tree, hid behind it, then took out the money pouch and placed it on the ground.

“…You dropped your money pouch.”

He remained silent for a long while, picked up the money pouch, and was about to speak when suddenly the tiger demon let out an earth-shaking roar that seemed to make the entire mountain forest tremble. He appeared to be gradually unable to resist the lightning strikes, opening a pair of blood-red eyes and grabbing one of the people lying on the ground, opening his mouth to devour him.

Xin Mei suddenly understood—these people had all been captured by him to increase his power when resisting the heavenly thunder!

Lu Qianqiao kicked out a stone that struck the tiger demon’s right arm directly. The captured person flew out and fell back into the muddy ground. The tiger demon flew into a rage, opened his bloody maw, and countless black arrows shot forth densely.

He merely flicked his wooden sword once, and the black arrows fell before him at three feet as if encountering an invisible wall. Those who didn’t understand the situation would think he held some divine weapon, when heaven knew this wooden sword was something Xin Mei had personally watched him carve just moments ago.

The wooden sword floated in the air above his palm. With a gentle flick of his finger, it instantly transformed into a streak of swift light, emitting an extremely ear-piercing humming sound as it circled up and down around the tiger demon like a living thing. After a moment, it suddenly stopped in mid-air and shattered into powder with a “bang.”

This was because an ordinary wooden sword couldn’t withstand such tremendous force.

So powerful… Xin Mei’s mouth fell open as she watched the tiger demon who was about to become immortal quietly split into small pieces of flesh without even a grunt before dying.

Lu Qianqiao stepped through the scattered flesh and blood, picking up a fist-sized blood-red pill from the shattered tiger demon’s corpse—the tiger demon’s inner core.

He was also a demon yet killed his own kind to take their inner cores! He was so powerful that even Qiuyue would probably be beaten to bits standing before him. If he decided to silence her permanently, wouldn’t that be extremely terrible?

Xin Mei looked around, deciding it was important to find an opportunity to escape.

Suddenly he flashed over. Xin Mei only felt the area above her head darken—he was already standing before her, grabbing her wrist in one motion.

“You’ve broken through the Cloud Mist Array twice. I can’t let you remain outside. Come with me.”

What Cloud Mist Array? Did he mean the thick fog he released?

Xin Mei’s other hand desperately hugged the tree trunk, wishing she could climb up it entirely: “It’s just fog! Anyone with a good sense of direction can walk out of it!”

Unfortunately, her sense of direction was particularly good—she’d never gotten lost.

“Lies.”

He applied force with his hand. If the Cloud Mist Array were so easily broken, it wouldn’t be called one of the three great array formations.

Her arm was about to be dislocated.

Xin Mei suddenly turned to look at him: “I only came back to return your money pouch!”

She should have kept it if she’d known! Why was being a good person so difficult in this world?

Lu Qianqiao saw what seemed like tears sparkling in her eyes, looking both stubborn and angry. She had indeed returned his money pouch earlier, walking through a large expanse of muddy ground—the yellow mud on her feet still wasn’t dry.

He slowly relaxed his grip but still didn’t release her, saying: “Regardless, you’re coming with me.”

“Why should I go with you?” She struggled to shake off his hand, but his fingers were like iron pincers, completely immovable.

“I’ve set up the Cloud Mist Array around the Imperial Tomb. Apart from me, no one can exit or enter. Since you can break this formation, I cannot let you remain outside—it would cause trouble. I’m taking you back to the Imperial Tomb.”

Xin Mei was shocked: “You… you’re forcing yourself on a maiden…”

Lu Qianqiao didn’t want to waste more words. He scooped her up by the waist and strode away with large steps.

Xin Mei was still in shock, looking up at his face. Not knowing what she was thinking, she suddenly seemed quite frightened: “You want to kidnap me to be your mountain stronghold wife?”

That’s how it seemed to be performed in plays—kidnapping maidens, then keeping them in strongholds as wives, treating them as spouses when happy and beating and scolding them randomly when unhappy. She wouldn’t be that tragic, would she?

Lu Qianqiao’s eyebrows twitched twice, but he said nothing.

Xin Mei racked her brains and said with difficulty: “I… I won’t marry you… I don’t like demons, and I don’t like expressionless people either…”

He stopped and looked down at his hands, beginning to consider whether to knock her unconscious with one slap… or knock her unconscious with one slap.

Suddenly mooing sounds came from overhead. A broken-down ox cart stopped beside the tree, and Lord Meishan came out chattering: “Wasn’t it said that the tiger demon here would undergo thunder tribulation to become immortal recently? How did he suddenly die…”

Xin Mei was overjoyed and shouted: “Lord Meishan!”

He looked up in amazement, seeing her, then Lu Qianqiao. His face immediately turned green as he murmured: “War ghost…”

He dove back into the ox cart and immediately flew far away.

Lu Qianqiao looked up at the ox cart that had disappeared into a small black dot and suddenly asked: “You know that immortal?”

Xin Mei was still shocked by how quickly Lord Meishan had fled, only nodding blankly.

“I heard you call him Meishan just now. Could he be Lord Meishan from Meishan Residence, who constantly collects others’ private secrets?”

Xin Mei turned her head away and silently shed tears. So Lord Meishan was this type of gossip-loving, useless immortal—no wonder he ran faster than a rabbit just now.

“Is it him?”

“…I won’t tell you.”

Lu Qianqiao said nothing more.