Xu Xianqing stared at the new items that had just refreshed on her system interface, her heart brimming with delight.
She offered the screen a quick, preliminary scan before swiftly snapping her attention back to reality.
“Xianqing, are you alright?” Zhao Xing called out with concern, distracted by the noise behind him. He instinctively cast a quick glance over his shoulder.
That single moment of distraction was all the Liu family’s head steward needed. With a swift flick, Zhao Xing’s sword was struck from his grip, and he was hurled backward by a heavy blow.
Xu Xianqing reacted instantly, scooping up Zhao Xing’s fallen sword. The moves of the Formless Sword Art flooded her mind; though she had only practiced the basics with a wooden sword until now, the fundamentals were firmly wired into her muscle memory.
Putting the style to the test in actual combat for the first time, she was thrilled to find that she could actually hold her own.
“Be careful!” Zhao Xing called out anxiously from where he had been pushed back. Yet, seeing her handle herself in battle left him thoroughly surprised. Remembering the “fortuitous encounter” she had mentioned earlier, he breathed a slight sigh of relief.
Still, the Liu family was a force to be reckoned with. Even a mere head steward carried a treasury of defensive treasures on his person.
Surrounded by a hostile crowd, Xu Xianqing had to split her attention to keep an eye on Zhao Xing. Fortunately, Zhao Xing carried plenty of healing pills in his stash. Downing a quick dose to steady his condition, he drew a fresh disciple sword from his storage pouch and rushed to her side.
Back-to-back with swords drawn, the two stood vigilant against the surrounding guards.
Several of the lower-level thugs already lay dead, and the remaining ones were nursing injuries. Only the steward remained, calculating his options and preparing for one final, desperate struggle.
“Hold on,” Xu Xianqing interjected. She had no desire to keep fighting; while she could win, she didn’t want to take lives without a clear reason.
Hearing her call a halt, the steward visibly hesitated. He wanted to do his duty for his masters, but he certainly didn’t want to throw his life away over it.
“What else do you have to say?” the steward demanded.
Xu Xianqing looked him dead in the eye. “We really aren’t grave robbers. In fact, I’ve been tracking the actual grave robbers the whole way here. You claim to be from the Liu family…tell me, what was the name of the deceased whose body went missing?”
“This…” The steward’s brow furrowed tightly. He was severely injured and battered, but hearing her confident tone made him waver. “The young mistress’s name was Wan.”
“Liu Wan’er?” Xu Xianqing asked directly.
The steward’s hawk-like gaze locked onto her.
Xu Xianqing shifted her stance slightly and pointed toward the grave she had spotted earlier. “Is it that one?”
Still cautious, the steward gestured for a literate guard to check the headstone.
The guard scampered over and called back, “Steward Liu, there really is a tomb here!”
Steward Liu’s eyes darted back and forth as he weighed his choices. His main goal was to complete the task quickly to avoid punishment from his master. Now that the target was found, there was no need to escalate the bloodshed.
He took the initiative to stow his magical artifact. Seeing this, Xu Xianqing gracefully twirled her sword into a backhand grip behind her waist.
Steward Liu went over to inspect the site himself. After a brief pause, he barked an order to his men: “Dig it up!”
Clutching his chest, Zhao Xing shuffled over to stand beside Xu Xianqing.
“This whole thing…” Zhao Xing whispered softly, tugging discreetly at Xu Xianqing’s sleeve as he looked between this grave and Ye Ming’s grave nearby. “What on earth is going on here?”
“I’m not sure.” Xu Xianqing was waiting. She wanted to see if the body of Liu Wan’er inside that coffin was the female corpse she had encountered before…and whether it was the same “Wan’er” she had met in Old Sophora Village.
Before long, the guards had cleared away the soil, exposing the heavy wooden coffin.
Xu Xianqing leaned forward carefully, eager to get a closer look. Fearing for her safety, Zhao Xing edged closer to protect her.
Ignoring them, Steward Liu ordered a few men to jump into the pit and unseal the lid.
The coffin creaked open. The pale skin of the female corpse within was already mottled with cadaveric spots, but her eyes were wide open…staring coldly up at the uninvited guests who had disturbed her rest.
Even with their Foundation Building cultivation, both Steward Liu and Zhao Xing recoiled in shock at the eerie sight.
Xu Xianqing, however, remained calm. Having seen her share of horrors over the past few days, she was well-proofed against a scare like this.
“This is our family’s mistress,” Steward Liu instructed his men. “We must take her back.”
The men hastily slid the coffin lid back into place and hauled the heavy wooden box out of the pit with a great effort.
Zhao Xing watched them work, making no move to intervene.
Once the coffin was safely retrieved, Steward Liu cast a fleeting glance at his fallen men lying dead on the ground. Frowning slightly, he offered no orders regarding them, opting instead to rush the survivors out: “Lift the coffin! We’re leaving, double time!”
Xu Xianqing and Zhao Xing watched in silence until the party disappeared into the night.
The moment they were out of sight, Zhao Xing’s strength gave out completely. He collapsed onto the ground, gasping heavily for air.
Xu Xianqing knelt by his side. “Are your injuries that bad?”
Zhao Xing nodded, trying to force a reassuring smile. “It’s fine… Once we reach Yilin Capital, I’ll find a physician to patch me up.”
His personal supply of low-grade elixir pills was entirely drained; he was relying purely on his own spiritual energy to suppress his internal injuries.
Xu Xianqing accessed her inventory, pulled out the bottle of pills she had purchased from the system, and handed one to him.
The moment the pill touched Zhao Xing’s palm, he felt its extraordinary quality. Having only ever handled low- and mid-tier elixirs…and having only seen a single high-tier Spirit Restoration Pill from a distance during his master’s lectures…he had never held a treasure like this so close up.
“This is…”
Seeing his wide-eyed astonishment, Xu Xianqing urged him, “You’re severely hurt. Take it quickly.”
Snapping out of his shock, Zhao Xing hesitated no further and swallowed the pill whole.
He immediately crossed his legs and closed his eyes, drawing in spiritual energy to guide the potent medicine through his damaged meridians.
By the time Zhao Xing opened his eyes again, he was stunned to see that Xu Xianqing had already dug open the grave marked with Ye Ming’s name.
He scrambled over on hands and knees, scrambling down into the pit only to find it completely barren. “It’s empty?”
Xu Xianqing shook her head.
Of course it’s empty. She had cremated Ye Ming’s body with her own hands…set the fire herself. There was no way she could be mistaken.
Zhao Xing rubbed his temples, feeling as though the strange events of the past few days were completely overwhelming his capacity to reason.
“Why would Miss Ye’s grave be here? Why would anyone build a tomb for her in this place? And if the Liu family’s corpse was stolen… don’t tell me all these graves around here are filled with bodies brought by grave robbers?”
Xu Xianqing didn’t have the answers either. She stood up to leave.
Noticing the unsettled, somber expression on her face, Zhao Xing called after her, “Xianqing, where are you going?”
“Brother Zhao, there is somewhere I must go right away. Can you wait for me here?”
Zhao Xing grabbed his sword and stood up to follow her. “I’m coming with you.”
Xu Xianqing was about to agree, but then she remembered that she hadn’t seen a single male resident in Old Sophora Village.
She turned back to him. “Brother Zhao, it’s better if I go alone. Could you do me a favor and head over to Wugen Village instead? Find an old Taoist named Feng Kun and buy some food and water from him.”
Neither of them had reached the Abstinence Stage yet, and the food in Old Sophora Village wasn’t safe to eat. They needed to secure clean supplies first.
Zhao Xing nodded. “Sigh, if I had known, I would have bought more Fasting Pills back in the Solitary City.”
“Most manufactured pills contain residual pill toxins anyway; it’s better to eat sparingly,” Xu Xianqing advised smoothly.
Zhao Xing agreed readily, “I rarely take them anyway, don’t worry.”
With their plan set, the two split up under the cover of night.
Xu Xianqing hurried back to Old Sophora Village. When she arrived, she found the villagers milling about anxiously, waving lit torches that cast flickers of light across the dark streets.
“Sister Si!” Xu Xianqing called out to an anxious-looking woman. “Sister Si, it’s so late. What is everyone doing out?”
Si niang ran over to her, her voice trembling with panic. “Lady Xu! Have you seen my wife anywhere?”
Xu Xianqing went silent.
Her grim suspicion had been confirmed, and instead of relief, a heavy weight pressed down on her chest.
She quietly opened her system panel. The progress bar for the Secrets of Old Sophora Village secret quest had just reached 25%.
“I haven’t seen her,” Xu Xianqing replied gently. “Let me help you look.”
Using the search as a cover, Xu Xianqing navigated through the village, carefully matching the layout of the houses to the positions of the chaotic graves she had seen outside.
Finally, she stopped in front of a quiet residence.
In the real world outside, this exact spot corresponded to the location of Miss Ye’s tomb. If the houses in Old Sophora Village truly mirrored the graves outside, then this was where Miss Ye had lived.
Xu Xianqing stood before the entrance. Raising a hand that trembled slightly despite her best efforts, she knocked on the door.