Daoist Nun

Outside the cave's mourning hall, a Daoist Nun had somehow appeared silently atop the roof opposite. Her blue-and-white Daoist robe swayed gently in the moonlit breeze, and her plain Daoist scarf fluttered softly, like a Fairy riding the wind away.

She quietly watched the inside of the mourning hall, as though she could clearly see the two people underground.

"Such dense Demon Qi. Who knew how many lives had been harmed here... I never expected the Zhaoyang Princess of Southern Li to put herself in such danger. Though rash, her courage can shine alongside the sun and moon." The Daoist Nun murmured to herself, "Let us watch a little longer and see whether she can break this deadlock."

Inside the cave.

—He had smelled the smoke, and naturally Li Qingjun had as well.

Li Qingjun's reaction to smelling it was this: any woman's first instinct should have been to shove the man off her, yet she did not. Her heart was faintly unsettled. She found him pressing down on her uncomfortable, and the large hand covering a certain spot made her burn, yet she also vaguely felt that this man was not unpleasant. That place actually felt rather nice...

For a time, there was only the sound of their increasingly labored breathing. In the dark underground cavern, neither could see the other's face, but that made the tender undercurrents in this hidden chamber all the more intoxicating. Subconsciously, it made one feel that they could do something... After all, it was the drug's doing. It seemed only natural, didn't it?

Qin Yi bit his lip hard and sprang to his feet.

Others could pretend it was only natural. He could not.

He was a Fangshi, an apothecary. This was his field.

And Liusu was right beside him, watching the show.

Qin Yi swiftly reached into his robes, fished out a pill, and stuffed it into his mouth. Whether it suited the symptoms or not, it at least slightly eased the muddle in his thoughts and the desire in his heart. Then he struck a firestone and fed Li Qingjun a pill as well.

The Daoist Nun murmured, "This young man's mind is open and upright, and he possesses considerable self-restraint. He is indeed a gentleman..."

"So you really are a eunuch..." Liusu, who had watched the entire show, voiced the exact opposite conclusion.

"..." Qin Yi circulated his power to purge the lingering drug effects. He did not even have the heart to retort.

After taking the medicine, Li Qingjun also sat halfway up, her expression complicated as she straightened her collar. In the flickering firelight, her rosy cheeks still bore a flush, and her clothes remained somewhat disheveled, making her seem all the more alluring.

Qin Yi turned his head away and refused to look. Li Qingjun lifted her head slightly and merely stared straight at him with wide eyes. She seemed to want to curse him, yet had no idea where to begin.

Liusu continued sighing. "Women who insist on being reasonable tend to have harder lives. That is why women ought to have the right to be unreasonable. If she started cursing now, at least she would not feel so embarrassed."

Qin Yi resisted the urge to roll his eyes and pulled Li Qingjun to her feet. "Are you all right?"

"No..." Li Qingjun's lips moved, but in the end, she said, "People who practice martial arts do not get hurt from such a small fall."

Was this even a matter of whether the fall hurt? Qin Yi wisely chose not to take it seriously and instead answered with a straight face, "Mm, it was probably only one or two zhang high."

His cooperation made Li Qingjun let out a breath. Then she said, "I seem to have been rash again?"

Qin Yi said, "Good thing you were rash. Otherwise, wouldn't you have beaten me up that day?"

Li Qingjun laughed despite herself. That day, she had been rash and fallen into Qin Yi's trap, ending up hung upside down. At the time, she had been furious beyond measure, but now it had somehow become something Qin Yi used to comfort her.

This Qin Yi was actually... not bad, was he? She had dragged him into a trap, yet he did not blame her and even comforted her. And besides...

He seemed to be a true gentleman. If he were not, she might already have lost her chastity to him for the second time.

That fleeting moment of tenderness just now—never mind pretending to be calm now, Li Qingjun knew it was still swirling through her mind. She could only rely on the composure she feigned, along with his tactful cooperation. Otherwise, she would not even know whether she ought to smash her head into the wall and die.

The two tacitly avoided mentioning it again. They turned to look around, and Li Qingjun suddenly shuddered. Every muddled thought in her mind was frightened away.

Qin Yi pressed his lips tightly together as well.

All around them lay grim white bones. Yet they were not scattered haphazardly across the ground; someone had arranged them in eight evenly spaced positions. Each position held a skeleton, its bones dismantled and arranged into a platform-like frame, with the skull resting atop it. They had fallen into the center, and when they looked around, eight skulls surrounded them from every direction. Their hollow black eye sockets stared coldly, and their clenched jaws seemed to mock them.

Faint red smoke drifted from the skulls' mouths. Breathing it in still made their hearts race, making them afraid to look at each other.

Li Qingjun said with difficulty, "These must be the people who supposedly went missing, right?"

"They should be." Qin Yi lowered his voice. "This is an artificially arranged formation. Since we barged in, the one who set it up must already know. This is not the time to get to the bottom of things. We should leave at once, or this place will become our grave."

Li Qingjun looked up. The hole through which they had fallen had already sealed shut. There appeared to be no exit around them, and the stone slab overhead did not look easy to blast open.

"How do we get out?" she asked Qin Yi expectantly. "You understand formations like this, right?"

As Qin Yi listened to Liusu's instructions, he said, "This is a Spirit Gathering Array. Its function is to gather the vital essence of living beings for absorption and cultivation. It also contains a little of the Eight Gates Golden Lock method. As long as we take the correct gate, the mechanism for the exit will be there. If we take the wrong one, I fear something unpleasant may happen."

What Liusu had actually said was this: "What idiot set up this formation? It barely even brings out the Spirit Gathering Array's cultivation effect. All the life essence has dissipated, leaving nothing but worthless Death Qi. And it has the nerve to layer the Eight Gates Golden Lock on top of it? The Gate of Life can be recognized at a glance—it reeks to high heaven... Don't panic. The one who set this formation is trash. When it comes, just smash it to death."

Naturally, Li Qingjun could not hear Liusu's soul communication. Seeing Qin Yi's confident air, she felt somewhat reassured. Yet Qin Yi did not even look around before walking straight toward the skull on the eastern side.

The Daoist Nun was counting on her fingers. "This Eight Gates Golden Lock shifts with the time, containing ninety-six transformations. It is quite exquisite. They likely cannot get out. It seems this poor Daoist must rescue her... Hm?"

That "hm" naturally came because Qin Yi had accurately walked to the Gate of Life. With a casual press upon the skull, the sealed opening overhead opened.

Li Qingjun was overjoyed. She grabbed Qin Yi's hand and leaped lightly, shooting straight out of the pit.

"So this young man is a fellow Daoist. A double-layered formation, the Time Wheel Golden Lock, yet he broke it at a glance. He handled a heavy burden as lightly as if it were nothing. There will be no danger here." The Daoist Nun smiled, then suddenly vanished.

In fact, at the very moment she spoke those words, voices had already risen outside the mourning hall. The Young Master led a large group carrying torches, swords, and sabers, surrounding Li Qingjun and Qin Yi completely.

Though the Daoist Nun had clearly seen such a formation, she still declared that there would be no danger here without the slightest concern. Who knew whether she trusted Li Qingjun's martial prowess too much, trusted her "fellow Daoist's" methods, or simply did not care at all about conflicts between people?

The Young Master did not know a Fairy had come outside. When he led his men to surround Qin Yi and Li Qingjun, his first reaction was also a thump in his heart. His stepmother had gone to find Li Qinglin, yet these two had come to break into the mourning hall... Then what about Li Qinglin?

He was burning with anxiety. He quickly sent a servant to check on Li Qinglin's guest room, then sneered at Qin Yi. "My mother kindly took you all in as guests. Who would have thought she had invited thieves into the house?"

Before Qin Yi could speak, Li Qingjun snapped, "Inside the mourning hall, there were hidden traps! Beneath the coffin, bones were piled high! Who is the real thief here?!"

The Young Master sneered. "This is my family's ancestral shrine. The bones beneath are all those of my family's ancestors. What does that have to do with anyone else? The traps were set precisely to deal with grave robbers like you!"

Li Qingjun's eyes widened. For a moment, she was choked speechless.

Qin Yi said flatly, "Was that heretical formation that gathers the vital essence of living beings for cultivation also set by your ancestors?"

The Young Master froze. "What formation?"

Qin Yi frowned.

The Young Master clearly had no interest in wasting words with them. He waved his hand. "Take them down!"

The servants surged forward, and Li Qingjun raised her spear.

Just then, a scream suddenly rang out from the distant guest rooms. It was incomparably shrill, laden with unbearable pain and terror, chilling everyone to the bone.

It was Madam Zhang's voice. Yet it was distorted now, like the shriek of a vicious ghost.

"Not good!" The Young Master's expression changed drastically. He did not even bother with the two people he had surrounded, instead rushing frantically toward the guest rooms. He even stumbled over the threshold, looking utterly panicked.