“Hey, we are here!”
Just as Jin You was about to ask further, the voices of Lingyun and Ying Chuang sounded from not far away. Jin You looked up to see Lingyun sitting disheveled on Ying Chuang, who was in wolf form, waving at the two of them with relief.
By the time Jin You turned back to look at Yan Baichuan, Yan Baichuan had already restored his usual appearance, leaning against the tree with his eyes closed to rest his mind.
Lingyun jumped down from Ying Chuang’s body, brushing aside the loose hair on her forehead and complaining to Jin You, “Why didn’t you tell me before that this wolf cub was so fast on his feet? If I hadn’t held on tight, I would have been dragged and torn to pieces long ago!” Lingyun knew that Ying Chuang, as part of the wolf tribe, would be a bit faster on his feet, but she didn’t expect that damn Ying Chuang to run like he was risking his life. He didn’t even slow down in the slightest when turning. Her hair was messier than a female ghost’s, flying wildly in the violent wind, fully illustrating what it meant that strong winds reveal sturdy grass.
Whether she was pure gold was uncertain, but her hair was definitely sturdy grass.
Ying Chuang changed back into human form, proudly folding his arms, the pride in his tone hard to conceal, “Our Frost Silver Wolves can sprint without stopping even on snowy roads, of course we are fast!”
Jin You bent his finger and flicked Ying Chuang on the forehead, “Fool, she isn’t complimenting you.”
Being in such a state, Lingyun could only pretend not to care, “How is he doing?”
Yan Baichuan casually poked at the campfire in front of him, not taking his injury seriously at all, “Don’t worry, my life is tough, I won’t die. What about you, what trouble did you stir up again?”
When this matter was brought up, Lingyun got angry, tossing a stone into the campfire in resentment, making the tongues of fire crackle, and only stopped this childish behavior after being glanced at by Jin You, “Let’s get this straight first, this time it really wasn’t trouble stirred up by me. Didn’t I go up to see if there was any Sound-Suspension Stone among recent auction items? Who would have expected to run into such bad luck.”
A short while ago.
After Lingyun parted ways with Yan Baichuan and the others, she couldn’t wait to ascend to the ninth floor of the Treasure Pavilion, which was the largest auction house in Jiangling. Lingyun was not a dignitary or noble in the city, and she was an unaffiliated rogue cultivator with no sect or faction, so originally she was not qualified to go up.
However, as luck would have it, Lingyun happened to have a Ten-Phase Die in her hand, which an old gambler had forced onto her after losing. Lingyun loathed everything related to gambling, and holding this thing in her hand felt as uncomfortable as a hot potato. She was just thinking of taking this opportunity to sell it off, but unexpectedly caught the favor of the auction house, ascending to the top floor as a seller.
Lingyun strolled around the ninth floor in a quite good mood, calculating in her heart what good things the silver in her pocket could buy besides the Sound-Suspension Stone, when she saw a commotion up ahead. A person with the appearance of a shopkeeper hurriedly gave instructions to a servant, then entered an elegant room on the ninth floor.
Anyway, it had nothing to do with her, so Lingyun didn’t take it to heart either. As a result, a moment later, the shopkeeper was suddenly kicked out from the room by someone, curling up on the ground in pain, blood flowing endlessly from the corners of his mouth.
“Go tell everyone who wants to bid on the Sound-Suspension Stone that this young master wants this stone. Those who know what’s good for them can beat it on their own, otherwise this is the outcome.” A young man waving a folding fan walked out from the room, with splayed eyebrows and slant-cornered small eyes, looking extremely mean at a single glance. Even though his figure was plump, he still insisted on wearing a purple brocade robe, bloated like an eggplant, and his posture waving the folding fan was not even fit to carry Jin You’s shoes.
Looking at the shopkeeper on the ground, the purple eggplant snorted through his nostrils, “Still dare to talk about rules with me? I, Zou Shaoyan, am the rule! Today let’s see who dares.”
“Thank you, Taoist Master, for saving my life!” Lingyun treated the purple eggplant’s words as farting, taking out an elixir pill and shoving it down the shopkeeper’s throat. Before a moment passed, the shopkeeper’s originally pale complexion became rosy again, and his brows furrowed in pain gradually smoothed out. The moment he recovered, he hurriedly knelt down to Lingyun, only to be supported up by Lingyun.
Zou Shaoyan’s face turned flushed red. Ever since the Zou family gained power in Jiangling, he had never been stripped of face like this, especially the whispering taunts of the people around him, which hit his face like slaps. He definitely had to give this woman a lesson!
“What’s so great about a Taoist, you nosy smelly woman! When my master arrives, I will definitely have him cripple your cultivation and sell you to the dirtiest brothel to be a prostitute!” Zou Shaoyan’s murky gaze wandered maliciously over Lingyun, as if he had already seen the tragic state of Lingyun being toyed with by others.
Lingyun’s face completely fell, the usual smiling playful look on her face vanishing without a trace, replaced by a coldness like a deep icy pool. Her whole aura fully dispersed, her eyes looking at Zou Shaoyan without sadness or joy, “Committing many evil deeds, it seems there is no need to keep you.”
Having spoken, Lingyun pinched the Ice-Condensing Spell. The biting cold air forced the people around back a step, charging straight toward Zou Shaoyan.
Zou Shaoyan clearly hadn’t expected Lingyun to act directly without considering the Zou family. In panic, he pulled a servant in front of him to block, smiling triumphantly amidst the servant’s bewildered gaze. Only before that smile could freeze, he discovered that the cold air seemed to have awareness, bypassing the servant and locking directly onto himself.
Zou Shaoyan couldn’t care about anything else, constantly taking out magical artifacts prepared for him by his family and throwing them toward Lingyun, only to be swept aside by Lingyun raising her sleeve, and his neck was choked right by her hand.
Lingyun still used the maiden appearance she had when meeting Yan Baichuan and the others for the first time, her frame a size smaller than Zou Shaoyan’s, but at this moment, she effortlessly choked his neck with one hand and lifted him up from the ground, her words lacking even half a bit of mercy, “So what if it’s the Zou family. I am Lingyun, if you want revenge then come, provided you still have a life left.”
Zou Shaoyan’s hands tightly grabbed Lingyun’s slender hand, unable to even say words of begging for mercy, a pair of legs kicking around humorously in midair, yet suddenly felt his body lighten. It was Lingyun letting go of her hand, but why did everyone around look at him with such terrified eyes?
At the last moment of possessing consciousness, Zou Shaoyan seemed to see cold ice crawling onto his eye sockets. In the next second, he heard the sound of ice shattering, coming from his own body.
The shattered ice, along with the fear in Zou Shaoyan’s eyes, scattered all over the ground. The crisp sound caused a person nearby to cry out in surprise. Only then did everyone realize that from Lingyun freezing Zou Shaoyan to him shattering into dregs, it took no more than a single breath.
“Just like that, and then I went downstairs to find you guys, only to discover the trouble you guys stirred up was no less than mine.” Having finished speaking, Lingyun suddenly became righteous again, “So to say, it can’t be blamed on me for stirring up trouble, after all, I didn’t expect such a thing to happen either.”
Jin You felt that Lingyun had more or less a talent for attracting trouble on her, but also had to admit that this matter couldn’t be entirely blamed on her, turning his focus to another matter instead, “Then what about the Sound-Suspension Stone you originally wanted to bid on?”
Lingyun patted her side, “Of course I pocketed it. Even if I throw it into a latrine, I won’t give it to him.” After speaking, she suddenly realized Jin You was looking at her with a very strange gaze, hurriedly explaining, “I gave money for it, wasn’t that die left there, at worst I don’t want it anymore.”
Jin You said casually, “How do you know what I wanted to say?”
It was hard for Lingyun not to know, as Jin You’s gaze practically said directly: Lingyun, you swiped someone else’s stuff again, didn’t you.
Lingyun refused to admit it, and finding the other two people’s gazes were roughly the same, immediately questioned unconvinced, “Tell me, am I the kind of person who takes other people’s stuff without giving compensation?”
The three of them, “You are.”
After all, they had seen Lingyun’s locust-like sweeping behavior at the Liu Estate.
Lingyun shrank to the other side of the campfire, quietly going into self-seclusion.
Ying Chuang glanced at the sky, rubbing his empty belly, and asked Yan Baichuan, “What are we eating tonight?”
Yan Baichuan casually pointed in a direction, “Over there you can hunt a bit of food.”
“Oh.” Ying Chuang stood up and changed into wolf form, leaping toward the direction Yan Baichuan pointed.
With Ying Chuang absent, Lingyun temporarily had no desire to speak either. The three sat by the campfire, the atmosphere being somewhat quiet for a time. Jin You quietly stole glances at Yan Baichuan resting his mind with closed eyes beside him, thinking about the time when he traveled with him in the past.
At that time, Yan Baichuan was even more wild and uninhibited than now, doing everything with a sense of wanton freedom. Even if covered in injuries, he would still fight fiercely with severe ghosts until a victor was decided, always having an appearance of fearing neither heaven nor earth. Everything only changed after his master died.
Even Jin You himself didn’t know why Yan Baichuan hated ghosts to the core, yet uniquely spared himself to travel together with him. Was it truly just because of the life-saving grace?
Oh well, let life-saving grace be life-saving grace, it was better than him hating him.
Yet Yan Baichuan was not as peaceful as he appeared before his eyes either. Perhaps because Yan’e’s appearance had stirred up some thoughts of his that were gradually fading, he had rarely spoken a couple more sentences with Jin You. In this exchange with Yan’e, he harbored a mind to test him, and surely Yan’e was the same. Since Yan Baichuan was injured, Yan’e wouldn’t be much better off, otherwise he would surely have taken the opportunity to kill him.
Qingshuangzi.
Yan Baichuan silently recited this name in his heart, feeling as if a lifetime had passed.
“I am back, but I don’t know how to cook.” Ying Chuang caught quite a bit of game and returned, with chickens, rabbits, and wild boars, as well as a few dying fish, two of which had already become two halves. Ying Chuang had always eaten raw meat on the mountain and didn’t know how to make his favorite roasted chicken, so he could only look at the other three people.
Jin You shook his head, “I don’t eat, so naturally I don’t know how to make it either.”
Lingyun, on the other hand, gathered a bit of spirit, “I haven’t made it before, shall I try?”
In Ying Chuang’s expectant gaze, Lingyun handed him a skewer of black charcoal, “Well, the heat was a bit overdone, but the taste should still be fine, hurry and taste this grilled fish.”
Ying Chuang wrinkled his nose and took a sniff, looking at Lingyun with a suspicious gaze, but ultimately decided to trust her, opening his mouth and about to bite down, making Yan Baichuan’s eyelids twitch, “Throw that charcoal away. The gall bladder wasn’t even removed, eating it will stink you to death with fishiness.”
Lingyun rubbed her hands together, grabbing a rabbit on the side, “Then let me try the rabbit, this time I will definitely scoop out all the internal organs.”
Yan Baichuan snatched the rabbit away in one move, “Stop wasting food. Ying Chuang, keep a good watch on your game, I will roast it.”
Yan Baichuan looked more reliable than Lingyun, so Ying Chuang immediately protected his game, not allowing Lingyun to approach, making Lingyun stomp her feet on the spot in anger.
Soon, a wave of fragrance actually came from the skewers beside the campfire in front of Yan Baichuan, enticing Ying Chuang to almost drool. Sitting beside Yan Baichuan and doing nothing, his eyes stared straight at the rabbit and fish strung on the skewers.
Lingyun poked Jin You, who was dazing off, whispering in a low voice, “He knows how to roast meat, why didn’t you say so earlier? Making me embarrass myself so greatly.”
When Jin You traveled with Yan Baichuan in the past, he had indeed seen him prepare some food in the wild, but at this moment he merely looked at Lingyun calmly, “He is injured, so originally I wanted him to rest quietly for a bit.” Too bad a certain someone was unpromising, roasting two skewers of charcoal out, forcing him to have no choice but to get up and roast meat anyway.
Lingyun moved two steps away in embarrassment, “I didn’t do it on purpose either, you guys eat, you guys eat.”