"I simmered some Dragon Bone Soup. Little Daoist Priest Li, give it a try."
Gongsun Rou wore a casual Silk Swallow Dress as she carried in a bowl of soup. The soft fabric clung to her body, revealing her slender, graceful curves like rolling spring hills.
This was likely her most natural state at home. Her luxuriant long hair was slightly disheveled, and though her face was free of makeup, she remained gentle and lovely.
"Thank you."
Li Chu accepted the soup bowl, lifted the lid, and took a sniff. It smelled delicious.
"In Chaoge, we don't have a habit of drinking soup. But after coming south, I found that every household loved soup, and gradually, I came to like it too."
Gongsun Rou sat beside him and spoke softly.
Li Chu lowered his head over the bowl. There were plenty of edible ingredients in the soup—chestnuts, Chinese yam, and pork bone. In keeping with the principle of not wasting food, Li Chu fished them all out and ate them.
Gongsun Rou touched her flat, soft belly again. "I've gotten a little fatter lately from drinking too much soup."
After the soup cooled slightly, Li Chu simply lifted the bowl and tipped back his head to drink. If anyone else made such a gesture, it might have seemed inelegant, but when he did it, it somehow carried an unconventional, carefree flair.
Gongsun Rou asked again, "What do you think, Little Daoist Priest Li? I specially spent three or four days learning it. This is the first time I've made it for someone other than my father."
"Hah—"
Li Chu set down the bowl, let out a breath, and smiled. "It tastes excellent. To make soup like this after learning for only three or four days, Miss Gongsun is very talented."
Gongsun Rou's eyes curved into crescents as she smiled.
She tidied up the soup bowl and carried it back out. These tasks were normally done by the Yamen Office servants, but she had come herself.
When she reached the kitchen, she filled another bowl of soup before bringing it to Gongsun Zhe.
Although it was already late, Gongsun Zhe was still handling official business at his desk.
From the perspective of an official, he truly was an impeccable good magistrate. He had not been in Yu Hang County long, yet he had already cleared out the county's backlog of old unresolved cases. Magistrate Gongsun's good name was also spreading swiftly among the people.
"Father, try tonight's soup. Little Daoist Priest Li just said it was delicious too," Gongsun Rou said.
"Hehe." Gongsun Zhe chuckled. "The batches you practiced on these past few days went to me first, but now that it tastes good, Little Daoist Priest Li gets it first, right?"
The father and daughter lived in two adjacent courtyard compounds within the Yamen Office. After Li Chu moved in, he was assigned to Gongsun Zhe's courtyard compound. Thus, the old father had seen all of his daughter's actions just now.
"Not at all. If you keep talking nonsense, I won't let you have any from now on." Gongsun Rou pouted.
"All right, all right. I'm scared, I'm scared."
Gongsun Zhe laughed a few times and began drinking the soup with his head lowered.
The room fell quiet for a while. Then Gongsun Rou suddenly murmured, "It would be nice if Little Daoist Priest Li could live here forever."
"Cough, cough! Cough!"
Gongsun Zhe failed to swallow a mouthful of soup. The moment he heard that, he choked and coughed for quite a while.
"Father, what's wrong?" Gongsun Rou walked over and patted his back.
"Cough, cough. You girl, are you hoping your father gets assassinated every day? Cough." Gongsun Zhe glanced sideways at his daughter.
Gongsun Rou had not thought that far just now. At her father's question, her face immediately turned red.
Still, she could not help thinking to herself.
If Father didn't need to be assassinated, and I could still see Little Daoist Priest Li every day...
That would be wonderful.
Mm.
The moonlight was clear and bright.
Li Chu stepped out of his room and nimbly climbed onto the roof by the ladder.
He had recently discovered that when using Mind's Eye Art, it worked better when there were no obstructions around him. At the same time, the higher his position, the better the effect.
Thinking of the old-fashioned antenna back home, Li Chu chose the roof as his spot.
Although he had slain a ghostly creature last night, he had not relaxed his watch over Resentful Qi.
Gradually, he found himself rather enjoying the feeling of looking down upon everything from the clouds.
No intense Resentful Qi had appeared today.
Very good. It seemed that all of Yuhang Town had passed another civilized and harmonious day.
There was quite a bit of faint Resentful Qi, however. But Resentful Qi at that level was not enough to attract ghostly creatures, so there was no need for concern.
Just as he was about to withdraw Mind's Eye Art, he suddenly noticed something wrong.
Outside the wall of the courtyard compound stood a humanoid form made of yin and yang qi.
There was nothing strange about that in itself.
But in an instant, a powerful earthy-yellow aura erupted from outside the humanoid body!
Li Chu had seen this kind of qi on Little Yue'er.
It was Demonic Qi.
Ordinarily, a demon that had taken human form would not be discovered unless it used Demonic Arts.
Their Demonic Qi would be well concealed within their bodies.
The current situation suggested that a Great Demon in human form had been lying in wait behind the wall and had gathered all of its Demonic Power.
And in the instant Li Chu considered this, it had already shot into the sky.
Its target was Li Chu!
It came so fast!
Leopard Five was a Silver Rank Assassin of Azure Wing Tower, known as Thunderclap Fist.
Its methods were cruel and ruthless. None of the targets it assassinated had ever been left with an intact corpse.
But it felt that could not be blamed on it. If blame had to be assigned, then blame those people's bodies for being too fragile.
It was only one punch, yet those people exploded. How could they blame it for hitting too hard?
Hehe.
It was obsessed with that feeling.
Every time it watched a human body get blasted apart by one of its punches, flesh and blood shattering into fragments that danced through the air.
It would become so excited that it could not control itself.
For that reason, though it was a Silver Rank Assassin, it took an unusually large number of jobs.
As high-end forces within Azure Wing Tower, assassins at the silver rank usually controlled the level of jobs they accepted in order to maintain their value.
But Leopard Five did not care. It accepted anyone who came.
Compared to making money, it was more obsessed with slaughter itself.
Today's job was the same.
It was merely killing a defenseless middle-aged human. Yet a bronze-rank fool named Eight-Armed Asura had actually failed before this, and then vanished without a trace.
By the rules, a Silver Rank Assassin should have been dispatched now.
But the other silver-rank assassins had not wanted to take it, because it was too easy.
So Leopard Five came.
When it discovered that the target was a County Magistrate, it changed its mind.
Why kill only one person?
There were so many humans here protecting him. It would be perfectly reasonable for it to blast all of them to death too, wouldn't it?
Blasting people was satisfying for a moment.
Blasting people forever was satisfying forever.
Hehe, let's start with this little Daoist Priest meditating on the roof.
Looking at that calm expression, he probably had no idea he was about to die!
Leopard Five bent its knees, circulated its Demonic Power, and leaped into the air!
Boom—
Its body shot into the sky like a cannonball and smashed straight toward Li Chu!
The moment Leopard Five attacked, it used its strongest punch.
This punch was called:
Heaven Collapsing Earth Shattering Purple Gold Hammer!
Hundreds, even thousands, of Fallen Souls had died beneath this punch. Not a single one had ever survived; whenever its fist struck, death was certain!
Hehehe.
The moment it clenched its fist, a savage grin had already appeared on Leopard Five's face.
Explode. Explode right before my eyes.
There is no sight more beautiful in this world than flying flesh and blood!
In the span of a lightning flash and flint spark, Li Chu had only just withdrawn from the state of Mind's Eye Art and had not yet had time to react.
When Leopard Five's fist struck him in the back!
Boom!
The punch landed.
Both of them felt something.
Leopard Five's body shuddered. Then it abruptly turned its head and, moving even faster than it had come, flashed away and retraced its path.
It then sprang away at high speed, nearly turning into a gust of demonic wind as it fled the Yu Hang County Yamen.
By the time Li Chu stood up.
It had already vanished in a lightning flash and flint spark.
Huh?
Li Chu furrowed his brows in confusion.
He felt that someone had struck him on the back—though not enough to cause pain, it had still felt rather heavy.
But...
That aura had clearly been so powerful, and its attack had come with such ferocity.
In the end, it had only given him a punch that neither hurt nor itched?
What was that supposed to mean?
Was it simply giving him a pat?
He had not even clearly seen the assailant's figure before it fled far away.
Thus, there was no way to guess its purpose.
After turning it over and over in his mind, the only reasonable explanation Li Chu could think of was that this was a demon's scheme to lure the tiger away from the mountain.
They had sent some minor underling to "give him a pat."
Once he chased after it, they would come assassinate the defenseless Magistrate Gongsun.
Li Chu naturally would not fall for it.
He sat down cross-legged again, but this time he raised his guard.
Just now, Mind's Eye Art had covered too broad an area, making him less sensitive to changes around him.
He had to be more careful in the future.
He absolutely could not allow himself to be so easily approached again!
That situation just now had truly been too dangerous—if that punch had been a thousand times stronger, might he not have been injured?
At that thought, Li Chu could not help feeling a lingering fear.
Thanks to "Unlucky Star of Calamity" for the two-thousand Recommendation Ticket Red Packet.
And thanks as well to everyone for your support through collections and Recommendation Tickets.
Recent results are very important. I don't even dare pad chapters anymore; the plot is running at full throttle. Friends who are interested, please give your support. It gives me even more motivation.
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