The people from the Chihua Sect listened to more of the ruler’s flattery and thanks. In the end, the ruler said: “Since you all have decided to jointly subdue the demon, why not stay in the royal palace tonight? Moreover…” he hesitated before continuing: “If it truly is that demon merman from years past who has returned from the dead for revenge, it definitely won’t spare anyone in the palace, so…”

So he desperately wanted more bodyguards.

Nie Xinghong stood up and said, “That’s natural. Since everyone has decided to subdue the demon together, we should naturally stay together. Fellow cultivators have no objections either, right?”

“I have no objections.” Putao said, “Later, I’ll use a sound transmission talisman to have my senior sisters come to the palace as well.”

“I’m too lazy to leave anyway.” Tan Tianxin said, “We’ll just stay here.”

Everyone’s gaze turned to Gu Baiying, all guessing that with Gu Baiying’s arrogant personality, he would most likely not fit in well with the group.

But unexpectedly, Gu Baiying just nodded and said: “Fine, we’ll stay here.”

Mendong was stunned: “Master Uncle…”

“Subduing demons and eliminating evil,” Gu Baiying said lightly, “For cultivators, it’s naturally our duty.”

The young man stood up and looked at the ruler: “We’ll stay as well.”

……

Li’er Kingdom’s royal palace was quite large.

When the inn incident occurred tonight, besides the Chihua Sect, Yinfeng Sect, and Xiangling Sect, there were also cultivators from other sects. The maids arranged courtyards for each cultivator to stay in.

Rong Yu returned Mimi from his arms to Zanxing. Zanxing looked at the bruises on his face and asked: “Senior Brother Rong, the injury on your face…”

“It’s nothing serious.” Rong Yu smiled: “I just explained Liuli Sect’s situation to the ruler. The ruler has already allowed me to bring my senior brother into the palace. In a few days, when we enter the secret realm, someone in the royal palace will help me care for my senior brother, so I can be more at ease.”

Zanxing nodded. Liuli Sect was also unlucky—they only had two spots to enter the secret realm to begin with, and now Rong Yu’s senior brother couldn’t even get out of bed, let alone enter the secret realm. Rong Yu’s cultivation didn’t seem particularly outstanding either, so this time they suffered a major loss.

Mimi let out an “Aowu” and jumped to the ground. Just then, several female disciples from Xiangling Sect walked by. One of them saw this and stopped, asking curiously: “Whose pet pig is this? It’s quite white.”

Zanxing: “……”

Putao burst into laughter and said, “Senior Sister, that’s a spirit beast raised by a Taiyan Sect disciple.”

“Spirit beast?” The female disciple was stunned and looked at Zanxing with some embarrassment: “I’m sorry, I didn’t know…”

“It’s fine,” Zanxing picked up Mimi, greeted Rong Yu, and returned to her room, closing the door.

Inside the room, Gu Baiying and the others were sitting. Zanxing glanced at the door and asked in a low voice: “Master Uncle, what exactly is the grudge between Xiangling Sect and our sect?”

She had wanted to ask earlier. The discord between the Chihua Sect and the Taiyan Sect was due to issues left by two ascended saints from years past, and the Yinfeng Sect and Taiyan Sect had a competitive relationship between the new and old sects. So what had happened between the Xiangling Sect and the Taiyan Sect? When she first met Putao tonight, the little girl’s face was full of hostility.

“What else could it be? Love turning to hate.” Mendong said.

Tian Fangfang asked: “Who had love turn to hate?”

“Junior Brother, don’t talk nonsense.” Meng Ying frowned and said: “Years ago, Master and Sect Leader once had an engagement with Xiangling Sect’s sect leader, Aunt Rongshuang… At that time, the two sects were still on good terms. Later, for unknown reasons, Master and Sect Leader voluntarily broke off the engagement. Aunt Rongshuang was furious and announced at the Immortal Sect Grand Assembly in front of all major sects that she would have nothing to do with Taiyan Sect until death. After this, Xiangling Sect’s relationship with our sect hasn’t been good.”

“Wait, Master and Sect Leader were engaged?” Tian Fangfang was surprised.

“Shouldn’t the point be that Master and Sect Leader broke off the engagement?” Zanxing said, “Did he have a change of heart?”

“Shut up.” Gu Baiying couldn’t stand it anymore: “Don’t talk nonsense about things you don’t know.”

Meng Ying shook her head: “Over these years, I’ve never seen Master and Sect Leader show special favor to any other woman, so it probably wasn’t that.”

“Then he must have loved someone else in his heart, just as others didn’t know. Otherwise, he wouldn’t suddenly break off an engagement for no reason.” Mu Cengxiao said.

Zanxing’s thoughts were very much in line with Mu Cengxiao’s. She thought to herself, could Shaoyang Zhenren’s beloved be her junior sister Qinghua Xianzi? If so, Shaoyang Zhenren was quite pitiful—not only was his beloved stolen away, but he also had to help his rival raise a son. Didn’t his heart ache every time he saw Gu Baiying? Thinking of this, Zanxing couldn’t help but look at Gu Baiying a few more times.

Gu Baiying noticed Zanxing’s gaze and found it somewhat puzzling. After a pause, he said: “What are you looking at? I haven’t even mentioned you yet. Yang Zanxing, today at the inn, you brought honor to Taiyan Sect.”

“Exactly!” Mendong feared the world wasn’t chaotic enough: “You’re afraid of dead people. You’re a cultivator—how can you be afraid of corpses?”

Zanxing was helpless: “I’m not like you all, constantly fighting and killing. I haven’t seen dead people before—what’s wrong with that? How about,” she looked at Gu Baiying with a flash of inspiration: “Master Uncle teaches me illusion techniques. Next time I see a corpse, I’ll cast an illusion to transform that corpse into something else, then I won’t be afraid.”

“Ridiculous!” Gu Baiying spoke coldly, looking at her with sharp eyes: “If you use illusion techniques to blur corpses, you’re deceiving yourself, not others. Next time you encounter such a situation, how will you find clues from the corpse, and how will you catch the evil demon?”

No matter how lazy and unreliable this young man usually seemed, he was always very strict about such serious matters. Zanxing didn’t dare speak anymore. However, she still muttered silently to herself—looking at corpses was impossible, absolutely impossible in this lifetime.

“Tomorrow, the people from other sects will follow Tan Tianxin to pursue the demon.” Mu Cengxiao spoke up, breaking the silence in the room: “He has the Thousand-Li Demon Toad in his hands, so he should be able to follow the demonic aura to find the other party. Master Uncle, let’s go together too.”

Gu Baiying said, “No.”

Everyone in the room stared at him in confusion.

“Li’er Kingdom’s ruler seems to be hiding some things. If it’s just a demon merman harming people, even if it’s the demon merman from forty years ago returning for revenge, there’s no need for a gag order forbidding citizens from discussing the matter.” Gu Baiying said, “There are things about this that don’t make sense.”

“Master Uncle means…”

“The family members of those who died forty years ago are mostly impossible to find now, but the relatives of those killed in the past two months shouldn’t be hard to locate. Tian Fangfang, tomorrow you and Mendong will go together to inquire with the families of those who died in the past two months. Find out clearly what these deceased had been doing recently and what their situation was before death. The rest will go with Tan Tianxin tomorrow to capture the demon.”

“What about you?” Zanxing asked.

“I’ll stay in the royal palace. The palace’s Scripture Pavilion has records about the demon merman case from forty years ago. I need to investigate some things.” Gu Baiying said.

Zanxing’s heart stirred, and she quickly said: “I’ll also stay in the palace and investigate with Master Uncle.”

Gu Baiying looked at her suspiciously: “What do you want to do?”

“I… I’m afraid of dead people.” Zanxing found an excuse: “If the demon kills more people along the way and I lose my composure when I see the corpses, and disciples from other sects see it, it wouldn’t be good if I embarrassed our Taiyan Sect. Moreover, I read very quickly and am good at grasping key points. Maybe I can help somehow.”

Gu Baiying was very cold: “Not needed.”

Mendong quietly cast a sound transmission technique to Gu Baiying’s ear: “Master Uncle, this is a wonderful opportunity! What if Yang Zanxing and Senior Brother Mu go out together and encounter danger, and Senior Brother Mu plays hero, saving the beauty? This kind of true feelings born from sharing trials and tribulations is too dangerous—who knows when Yang Zanxing might be so moved she pledges herself to him…”

“However, considering you have good intentions, I agree.” Gu Baiying changed his mind.

Zanxing: “……” Men were too fickle.

“Tomorrow you’ll stay in the palace with me to read the records. Mu Cengxiao and Meng Ying will follow Tan Tianxin and the others to find the demon. Tian Fangfang and Mendong will go inquire about the deceased from the past two months.” Gu Baiying said, “If there are any changes, remember to use sound transmission talismans to inform us.”

Everyone nodded in agreement.

Having decided on tomorrow’s plans, and seeing it was getting late, Tian Fangfang stretched and said while yawning: “Well, if there’s nothing else, we’ll go back to our rooms to sleep first. Who knows what time Tan Tianxin’s toad will wake up tomorrow morning—if it’s like a rooster, we won’t get to sleep much.”

“Right.” Meng Ying also stood up: “Master Uncle should also rest early.”

Everyone left Gu Baiying’s room. Li’er Kingdom’s royal palace was large, with one courtyard per sect and one room per person. Zanxing entered her room and closed the door.

The flame in the oil lamp on the table flickered. She sat down at the table and finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Just arriving at Li’er Kingdom today, so many things have happened. And these were all things not written in the original work, which was somewhat unsettling.

Zanxing looked down at the red mark in her palm. This red mark couldn’t be seen by Hong Su, Tian Fangfang, Xuan Lingzi, or anyone else—only she could see it. It was like a warning, warning her not to randomly change the main storyline and not to steal Mu Cengxiao’s protagonist aura. So she could only try to avoid some of the traps the original work had dug for her within a safe range.

She was indeed afraid of seeing corpses, but her decision to stay in the royal palace to read records with Gu Baiying wasn’t for this reason. In the original work, Meng Ying was Mu Cengxiao’s wife, and their relationship gradually developed through adventures together. If she went along tomorrow and accidentally disrupted something again, and their romantic storyline couldn’t develop, what if the original work blamed her for this mess again?

She didn’t plan to take responsibility for that.

Zanxing washed up and got into bed. Whatever—since the red mark in her palm hadn’t warned her, she’d just follow the current plot. In any case, there shouldn’t be any trouble.

The oil lamp was extinguished, and Li’er Kingdom’s night descended. The cicadas in the courtyard had somehow stopped calling, and the royal palace was completely silent. Only the lanterns under the eaves swayed slightly in the wind, and the yellow talisman papers pasted by the door made “rustling” sounds.

A long, flat black shadow swept over from the wall top, like soft water, slowly spreading across the ground bit by bit, then being pulled up into a human shadow, standing rigidly in front of the window.

“Creak—”

An extremely light sound arose in the night. The window was pushed open a small crack, and the black shadow slowly approached… An eye appeared through the window gap, staring fixedly at the person on the bed.

The cat at the bedside had all its fur standing on end, arching its body and letting out an “Aowu” hiss.

The person on the bed turned over.

The window gap was empty, with only the cold, thin night wind blowing through the crack bit by bit.