Concubine Liu rose indifferently and walked to her side.
“The master is discussing business with Boss He today. How could he return so quickly? He’ll already be doing well if he makes it back before sunset.”
Lin Yanxi quickly calculated on her fingers several times. The uneasiness in her heart only grew stronger.
Without another word, she suddenly turned and ran out.
“Where are you going?”
Lin Yanxi left in such a hurry that she did not hear Concubine Liu’s question at all. There was only one thought in her mind:
I have to get there quickly.
She selected a fine horse and sped out of the Lin residence, galloping toward the west.
Shi Zhao, who had been hidden in the shadows the entire time, noticed how urgent her departure was. He immediately sent a message to Xiao Junyan before following Lin Yanxi westward.
After receiving the news, Xiao Junyan quietly followed as well.
Lin Yanxi continuously lashed the horse with her whip, urging it to go faster—faster still.
At the same time, she kept calculating Lin Hongyuan’s location in her mind.
In the end, she stopped before an abandoned temple.
She looked up at the sky above the temple.
It was currently noon, the hour when yang energy was strongest during the day. Yet beneath the empty sky, the temple was surrounded by dense deathly aura. If an ordinary person entered, they would certainly be affected by that energy.
What puzzled her was why her father had come to such a place.
Even the horse seemed able to sense something. It kept snorting uneasily at the entrance, trying to back away.
Lin Yanxi tied the horse up and drew a talisman on its body before it finally calmed down.
Lifting her skirts, she stepped into the temple.
The dense death aura instantly swallowed her whole, even making it difficult to breathe.
Without hesitation, she bit her finger and drew a talisman on herself. With its protection, her mind cleared considerably, and even her body felt much lighter.
“Father? Father, are you here?”
Her crisp voice echoed through the ruined temple.
“Father? Where are you?”
As she called out, she simultaneously released all her senses to search for signs of breathing nearby.
“Xi… Xi’er?”
A weak and feeble voice responded.
Hearing it, Lin Yanxi immediately rushed toward the source of the sound.
Suddenly, she flicked her hand and cursed loudly,
“Get lost!”
A cluster of death aura instantly scattered.
But instead of fearing her after that strike, the surrounding death aura gathered together even more aggressively.
“You want to block my way?”
A bloodthirsty smile curled onto Lin Yanxi’s lips.
“Then don’t blame me for showing no mercy and dispersing every last one of you.”
She was worried about Lin Hongyuan’s condition. As an ordinary person, every extra moment he spent here increased the danger.
Her fingers rapidly formed seals while she muttered incantations under her breath.
Outside the temple, Xiao Junyan and Wei Xing stood hidden behind a tree, watching her movements clearly.
“Your Highness, who is she talking to?” Wei Xing whispered. “I can see her speaking, but there’s no one else inside the temple.”
Xiao Junyan frowned slightly and shook his head.
“I don’t know.”
“Your Highness, doesn’t the atmosphere around here feel strange?”
Wei Xing swept his eyes around the temple grounds repeatedly.
He could not pinpoint anything abnormal, yet something definitely felt wrong.
Xiao Junyan kept his gaze fixed on Lin Yanxi inside the temple. Though he could not hear her words clearly, her gestures resembled some of the rituals he had once seen the Imperial Preceptor perform.
While they were still thinking, Lin Yanxi emerged from the temple supporting a nearly unconscious Lin Hongyuan.
Seeing this, Xiao Junyan and Wei Xing immediately hid themselves.
The two men watched as Lin Yanxi tapped several points on Lin Hongyuan’s body before turning and entering the temple once more.
“Why is she going back inside?” Wei Xing asked in confusion.
Xiao Junyan remained silent, quietly watching Lin Yanxi’s figure disappear through the doorway.
At the same time, Lin Yanxi’s voice drifted into his ears.
“With such dense death aura here, there must be an extremely powerful cursed object sealed inside.”
Death aura?
Xiao Junyan looked toward the temple. He could sense that this place differed from ordinary locations, but how could one actually see death aura?
And a cursed object?
He suddenly recalled some stories regarding this temple.
Long ago, this had once been the most prestigious temple in Northern Li. Great enlightened monks had resided here, incense offerings never ceased, and it was regarded as the most spiritually effective and prosperous temple in all the land.
However, after the eminent monk passed away fifty years ago, the temple mysteriously declined. Eventually no one dared approach it anymore, and it remained abandoned to this day.
He had once heard from the Imperial Preceptor that the monk’s downfall had begun after obtaining something he could not control.
So the cursed object Lin Yanxi mentioned… was that very thing?
Following the trail of death aura, Lin Yanxi arrived at the temple’s rear courtyard.
She discovered that the death aura there was even denser. At first glance, the wildly growing trees throughout the courtyard appeared chaotic, but in truth they echoed and supported one another, forming a massive array that locked the death aura within the temple grounds.
The courtyard contained not only trees and scattered broken stones, but also numerous skeletons lying abandoned everywhere.
The trees themselves had nearly withered under the influence of the death aura. Once they died completely, nothing would remain to suppress the aura anymore. At that point, the escaping death energy would certainly bring disaster.
Those skeletons were likely victims trapped here forever, unable to leave because of the death aura’s influence.
Now that she had discovered this place, Lin Yanxi naturally could not ignore it.
Besides, she was deeply curious about what kind of object could transform a place of great fortune into something like this.
That alone proved the object inside was extraordinary.
At this moment, noon yang energy was at its peak. With the Pure Yang techniques she had mastered in her previous life, she could temporarily resist the death aura. But if she wanted to uncover exactly what cursed object lay sealed here—or worse, completely dispel the aura—that would not be possible yet.
Not to mention eliminating all the death aura entirely.
Lin Yanxi carefully memorized every detail of the courtyard.
Today was not the right opportunity. She also needed to prepare certain items before she could confidently approach the cursed object.
Outside the temple, Wei Xing stared intently inward. The moment he saw the slender figure emerge, he excitedly called over Xiao Junyan.
“Your Highness, she’s out!”
“What do you think she was doing in there for so long?”
“Her behavior is so suspicious. Staying in there alone for that long… could she have been plotting something?”
“Should I go eliminate her?”
After rambling on for a while without receiving any response from his master, Wei Xing asked in confusion,
“Your Highness? What are you thinking about?”
Xiao Junyan narrowed his eyes slightly, curiosity flickering in their depths.
Only after watching Lin Yanxi ride away with her father did he finally speak in a low, meaningful tone.
“If I remember correctly, we obtained a jade pillow from a hundred years ago recently, didn’t we?”
Wei Xing looked utterly baffled.
“Your Highness? Why bring up the jade pillow all of a sudden? Has the poison in your body worsened to the point that you can’t sleep?”