Confucius once said, "If I hear the Dao in the morning, I can die content in the evening."
What he really meant was: if I find out where you live in the morning, I'll come over that night and kill you.
But Gu Cheng's operation this time was even more efficient than Confucius's.
He set out at noon, wiped out the entire fox den, and was back before the sun had even set.
He stepped into his own courtyard.
Looking at how unusually quiet it was, Gu Cheng couldn't help furrowing his brow.
Normally, shouldn't that Xu family's young lady have come out to greet him by now, asking her "feed-er" to toss her some food?
Why was it so quiet today?
Gu Cheng grew puzzled.
Seeing that the door to Xu Nianxue's room was open, he walked over and peered inside.
At that moment, Miss Xu was reclining lazily on the bed, looking listless and pale as a delicate flower that had lost all its water.
Hearing a noise at the door,
Xu Nianxue lifted her eyes. When she saw Gu Cheng staring at her in surprise, a flash of mortification crossed her pretty face.
But she quickly forced herself to act as though nothing was wrong and asked softly:
"Oh, you're back? What are we having for dinner tonight?"
"Forget dinner for now. What happened to you?"
Hearing the girl's weak voice, Gu Cheng furrowed his brow even more deeply and hurried from the doorway to her bedside.
As he drew closer,
Gu Cheng keenly noticed that although Xu Nianxue looked listless, there was an unusually alluring charm between her brows.
Her amber eyes were dewy, like a female cat in spring, radiating a captivating air that stirred ripples in one's heart.
"I'm fine. My internal injuries just flared up again. A couple of days of rest and I'll be all right."
Xu Nianxue lowered her eyes and explained softly.
But her turned face and wandering gaze made it perfectly clear she wasn't telling the truth.
"..."
Gu Cheng naturally didn't believe a word of it.
He turned around and glanced about the room.
Before long, he spotted the exquisite food box on the table, along with the late-night snack inside, more than half of which had been eaten.
Gu Cheng's gaze sharpened at once.
He'd been busy reuniting the fox-demon siblings, so he'd unconsciously overlooked plenty of minor details.
But now, looking back on everything and putting it together with Miss Xu's "strange" state...
Whoosh—
A bolt of lightning flashed through Gu Cheng's mind, and he instantly understood.
Suppose Madam Song had been overcome by lust and secretly added a little "something extra" to his late-night snack.
Wouldn't Miss Xu have accidentally caught the crossfire?
And wasn't her drained, weakened state because...
"..."
Gu Cheng quickly glanced at the girl's fair, delicate fingers, then immediately looked away.
Damn, I really hope next time I have an epiphany, it's about martial arts...
Gu Cheng was mortified, but his face showed not the slightest sign of it.
After a moment's silence, he calmly took a few talismans from his storage pouch and handed them to the girl.
"Miss Xu, do you know where these talismans came from?"
"Talismans?"
Xu Nianxue, also tacitly agreeing to let that embarrassing episode stay buried, accepted them naturally.
After examining them closely, she furrowed her delicate brows.
"They reek of fox. Did you seize them from some fox demons?"
Xu Nianxue looked up at Gu Cheng, her face full of surprise.
"It hasn't even been a day, and you've already wiped out the flower thief's accomplices too?"
"..."
Gu Cheng didn't answer. He simply took out three fox-demon cores and showed them to her.
Xu Nianxue took a good look, and her expression instantly grew wonderfully complicated.
During the time she'd spent with Gu Cheng, the girl's understanding of the world had been constantly overturned.
Sometimes, she even wondered:
Besides having children, was there anything this man couldn't do?
Young Master Gu, you really ought to become a Demon Hunter.
At this terrifying pace, you could probably earn a Silver Mask in less than three years.
After murmuring a few words of admiration,
Xu Nianxue turned her attention back to the talismans. After examining them closely, she furrowed her delicate brows and asked:
"Were the three fox demons you killed completely snow-white, without a single stray hair on their bodies?"
"That's right." Gu Cheng nodded.
"Just as I thought..."
Xu Nianxue ran her fingers over the talismans, and her pale face darkened.
"These three fox demons all came from a small but well-known fox-demon family in Yunzhou.
Since every member of the family had a coat of pure white fur, they took Bai as their surname."
"The Bai Family of Fox Demons is a force to be reckoned with among the demon clans of Yunzhou's twelve prefectures."
"They're vindictive and fiercely protective of their own. You've killed three of the Bai family's younger generation, so I'm afraid you've made a deadly enemy of them..."
Xu Nianxue spoke with grave certainty, but then abruptly changed tack, a smile appearing on her face.
"But you don't need to worry. They have problems of their own right now and won't have time to come after you."
"Oh? Why's that?" Gu Cheng asked, baffled.
"Because a 'phantom thief' appeared among that den of foxes!"
A strange glint flashed through Xu Nianxue's eyes as she explained softly:
"Relying on her unique innate ability, she's been committing crimes all over Yunzhou, stealing who knows how many precious techniques and treasures.
Even my Xu Family's Scripture Repository couldn't escape her 'clutches'..."
"Later, the truth came out, and the Bai Family of Fox Demons naturally became the target of everyone's ire, besieged by the major forces.
If those crafty foxes weren't so slippery, their whole family would've been wiped out long ago!"
"I see..."
Gu Cheng nodded in understanding.
No wonder the fox demon's Thunder Talismans had been so similar to the Wind Thunder Blade Technique.
So she'd stolen it from the Xu Family!
"Did they catch this White Fox Phantom Thief?"
"Of course not!" The girl shook her head helplessly.
"If she were that easy to catch, she wouldn't have been allowed to swagger around for so long...
By the way, I heard she showed up in Tianshui Prefecture recently. She even stole something important from the Demon Suppression Bureau's headquarters in Tianshui City."
"Tianshui Prefecture... the Demon Suppression Bureau's headquarters..."
Gu Cheng pondered for a moment, then suddenly had a flash of inspiration.
Could it be...
That great purge the Demon Suppression Bureau had suddenly launched across Tianshui Prefecture, going berserk as if they'd lost their minds, had been because of this?
Having uncovered such a juicy secret, Gu Cheng was thoroughly satisfied.
In any case,
the Bai Family of Fox Demons wouldn't pose much of a threat for the time being.
Still, Gu Cheng added that den of foxes to his little notebook.
That White Fox Phantom Thief had stolen so many treasures. The Bai Family of Fox Demons had to be rolling in wealth.
Once his divine art reached perfection, he'd wipe out the whole family in one fell swoop.
He'd gain lifespan, collect demon cores, and give his foundations a massive boost.
Three birds with one stone. What could be better?
To make up for accidentally getting her caught in the crossfire,
Gu Cheng specially cooked a whole table of delicious food for Xu Nianxue that evening, making sure to replenish her strength.
After taking care of the household chores,
Gu Cheng returned to his room, closed the door, lay down on the bed, and focused as he opened the panel.
Remaining lifespan: 1,597 years
After a whole day of slaughter,
Gu Cheng's lifespan had climbed back into the four digits, setting a new record in the process.
During his fierce battle with the pair of fox-demon sisters,
Gu Cheng had gained a deep appreciation for the sheer brutality of Body Refinement cultivators.
Forget all those fancy tricks. I'll just overpower you.
Charge in headfirst and get the job done!
This simple, forceful way of fighting suited Gu Cheng perfectly.
It also made him all the more eager to see what the results of his upcoming life-for-cultivation exchange would be.
"I wonder how far the second volume of my Blood Blade Scripture can break through after I absorb these three fox-demon cores?"
Gu Cheng pondered for a moment, then took out the smallest of the three cores and swallowed it whole.
As its indescribable flavor exploded in his mouth,
the remaining lifespan recorded on Gu Cheng's panel began rapidly dwindling once more...
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