On the day at Sun Mingyue’s hometown, I had been worried that White Fox would appear. Later, Lu was nearly captured but was ultimately rescued by someone.
Could it have been White Fox who did it?
“Stop calling me White Fox. My name is Hu Jinzhao.” Those enchanting fox eyes looked me up and down in surprise. “You’ve opened your Heavenly Eye? And you’ve contracted a Yin Artifact?”
I frowned. “Didn’t you see it all when you rescued Lu that day?”
Hu Jinzhao looked utterly confused. “What Lu?”
I scoffed. “Don’t pretend. Weren’t you two cooperating well on the night of the escort mission robbery? And the one who rescued him a few days ago was also you, wasn’t it?”
“Oh, you mean that old Taoist who controls corpses.” Hu Jinzhao waved a hand dismissively. “I don’t know him. I went alone to rob the escort mission. He just took advantage of the opportunity I created.”
So, they weren’t working together, and Hu Jinzhao wasn’t the one who rescued Lu.
There was another mastermind behind Lu.
Hu Jinzhao brushed back her hair disdainfully. “How can a filthy person who refines and controls corpses be compared to a pure and noble Immortal Family like me?”
“Then if you robbed the ferocious corpse not for your own use, what was it for?”
I retorted without holding back. Hu Jinzhao finally grew serious. “I robbed the ferocious corpse for my sister. That’s also the reason I came to find you today.”
“Your sister?”
Hu Jinzhao nodded and began to explain. “I was originally the Household Guardian Immortal worshipped by the Gu family ancestors. For several generations, the Gu family had been in the fur trade, always smooth sailing and accumulating great wealth, all thanks to me.
By Gu Fusheng’s generation, the Gu family was already very wealthy. As people grow older, they start fearing death. He somehow heard that consuming an Immortal Family’s Inner Elixir could prolong life and even lead to cultivation ascension, so he developed wicked intentions.
The only Immortal Family he could come into contact with, besides me, was Suisui, who had just cultivated her Four Tails—my sister. Taking advantage of my closed-door cultivation, he hired someone knowledgeable to capture Suisui, forcibly extracted her Inner Elixir, and fabricated an accident to cover it up, thinking he could get away with it.”
I was truly shocked. So, the old master of the Gu family was such a sinister and immoral person!
Forcibly extracting an Inner Elixir—how much pain must Hu Suisui have endured!
“He thought he had covered his tracks perfectly, but I saw through it immediately. He fled to another region, consumed Suisui’s Inner Elixir, suffered a backlash, and died there. I intended to go and retrieve Suisui’s Inner Elixir, but I never expected that old scoundrel to be so cunning—he hired the Yin Escort Bureau to transport his corpse back to his hometown!
Since the corpse was returning, I stayed with the Gu family to wait for him. Just as the Yin Escort Bureau was about to enter Jiangcheng with the escort mission, they suddenly vanished. For the past hundred years, I’ve searched almost all of Jiangcheng but never found any trace of the Yin Escort Bureau. It wasn’t until a few days ago, when the Yin Escort Bureau suddenly reopened, that the subsequent robbery of the escort mission occurred.”
So that’s how it was.
“Why didn’t you just go to the Yin Escort Bureau and demand the corpse? Why take the risk of robbing the escort mission yourself?”
Wouldn’t that be even riskier?
Hu Jinzhao sneered. “The Yin Escort Bureau has its own rules. Once an escort mission is accepted, it cannot be canceled. If I went to demand the corpse, they wouldn’t give it to me. Besides, they hid the ferocious corpse from me for a hundred years—what kind of decent people do you think they are?”
“Um, you might have misunderstood,” I explained. “The Yin Escort Bureau didn’t hide for a hundred years to avoid you. It was because its master failed in ascension and was sealed away for a century.”
Hu Jinzhao was stunned. “Failed ascension? Sealed away?”
I nodded emphatically.
He pinched the bridge of his nose, visibly frustrated. “Regardless, in the end, they did deliver Gu Fusheng’s body back. But there was no trace of Suisui’s Inner Elixir inside it. I suspect the Inner Elixir is still with the Yin Escort Bureau, so—”
He shook the Five Emperors copper coin in his hand. “I want to make a deal with you.”
I hesitated.
Afraid I might refuse, Hu Jinzhao added, “This is an exceptionally rare, high-grade spiritual artifact. If you won’t help me, I’ll just keep it for myself.”
The Five Emperors copper coin was actually a high-grade spiritual artifact?
Grandmother had truly gone to great lengths to protect my life.
“Alright, I can ask around for you. But it’s been a hundred years—I can’t guarantee you’ll get the result you want.”
Better to state the harsh truth upfront; it never hurts.
Hu Jinzhao agreed immediately. “I’ll come find you in a week and return the Five Emperors copper coin.”
·
As soon as I returned to the courtyard house, I heard Chang Di’s booming voice as he directed his men to unload some items.
I hurried over and asked Chang Di as soon as I saw him, “You’re back? Where’s Liu Xuanyi?”
Chang Di said regretfully, “The Eastern Yi Salt Sea was too treacherous. To protect the brothers, Fifth Brother was struck by a Salt Spike and was badly injured. He’s gone back to Dragon Locking Valley to recover.”
My heart sank, and I blurted out, “How could he be so careless?”
“Miss Huai, you don’t understand. That Salt Spike was as tall as a person, incredibly cold and sinister, with a sharp, pointed tip. It pierced right through Fifth Brother’s shoulder…”
Chang Di gestured animatedly, describing how perilous the situation had been.
Listening to him, my heart raced with fear, and I broke out in a cold sweat.
Then I recalled Hu Jinzhao’s words—he said I had opened my celestial eye and contracted a Yin Artifact.
The Yin Artifact he mentioned must be ‘Shen.’
Wasn’t Liu Xuanyi’s deal with the Feng family precisely to force Feng Lao to hand over ‘Shen’?
Putting it all together, everything he did was for my sake.
So this injury was also suffered on my behalf.
I began to feel restless and uneasy.
During dinner, noticing Liu Songyu was absent, I asked about her.
Shen Li replied, “Songyu has gone to Dragon Locking Valley.”
“Oh.”
I acknowledged and put down my bowl and chopsticks to go for a walk.
Lying in bed that night, I tossed and turned, unable to sleep. My mind was filled with thoughts of Liu Xuanyi’s injury.
I wanted to go to Dragon Locking Valley to see him, but I didn’t know the exact location where he had been sealed before.
Moreover, I suspected that something else was still sealed within Dragon Locking Valley. Going there might just cause more trouble.
It wasn’t until the early hours of the morning that I finally drifted into a hazy sleep. Suddenly, the covers turned cold, startling me awake. I opened my eyes abruptly.
“It’s me.”
Liu Xuanyi wrapped his arms around me from behind, burying his face in the crook of my neck and taking a deep breath. “So fragrant.”
I reached out to turn on the lamp, wanting to check his injury.
But he held my hand and kissed me instead.
His advance was fierce, giving me no chance to catch my breath. Only when I felt I was about to suffocate and kept pushing against his chest did he finally release me.
I didn’t dare move too much, afraid of aggravating the injury on his shoulder. Annoyed, I said, “Weren’t you supposed to be recovering in Dragon Locking Valley? Why did you come out?”
His large hand wandered restlessly, and he murmured, “I was afraid you missed me too much, so I came back to let you see me, to ease the pain of longing.”
My face instantly flushed bright red. “Who missed you! Don’t flatter yourself.”
He chuckled softly. “Alright, you didn’t miss me. It was me who missed my wife too much. Darling, let me hold you properly…”