Go See Who Is Causing Trouble

Jin Ping'er noticed his gaze and looked up, meeting his eyes exactly.

She paused for a moment, then the corners of her lips curled into an arc.

She deliberately pulled her neckline down, revealing more of her shoulder, her movements slow as if she were unfolding a painting before his eyes.

"Is it pretty?"

Lu Jiuyuan looked away, his earlobes burning.

Jin Ping'er chuckled softly without pressing him, bending down to pick up her own soaked clothes from the ground.

She had tossed that thin silk undergarment right on top; it was dripping wet, casting an ambiguous luster under the moonlight.

She walked up to him and handed over the bundle of clothes.

"Help me keep these, Young Master Lu. I can't very well go back wearing wet clothes."

Lu Jiuyuan looked down at the bundle.

The thin silk undergarment was too conspicuous—pink, so sheer it was translucent, and the color had deepened even further from being soaked. Resting on top of the other clothes, it looked like a withered flower.

His fingers faltered when they touched the sodden fabric, then he shoved it into his storage pouch, his movements as hurried as a thief's.

Jin Ping'er watched from the side and laughed out loud, her voice light and tinged with mischief.

"Let's go." Lu Jiuyuan took a deep breath, driving those chaotic images out of his mind. "Let's go see who it is."

The two walked down the hillside.

Jin Ping'er was wearing his oversized outer robe, walking slowly, the hem dragging on the ground and collecting dew and grass clippings.

She looked down from time to time, then kicked the hem away with her foot, her movements impatient, though she didn't stop to tidy it up.

At the foot of the hill, on the west end of the village, several dark figures were sneaking toward the outskirts of the village.

The moonlight illuminated the crimson robes they wore—the standard attire of Fenxiang Valley.

What were they doing?

Lu Jiuyuan's brows furrowed.

"People from Fenxiang Valley." Jin Ping'er stood beside him, her voice lowered, her tone carrying a hint of amusement. "Not sleeping in the middle of the night, running out here to scout?"

"Not just scouting." Lu Jiuyuan's gaze landed on the copper bell in the leader's hand. "That is a Beast-Driving Bell, something Fenxiang Valley uses to drive low-level spirit beasts."

Jin Ping'er's expression changed as she looked at the copper bell. "They want to use spirit beasts to do it again? Or do they want to lure the beasts over while you're all asleep?"

"Regardless of which it is, it's not an honorable tactic."

Below the hill, the four men had already crept near the village. The leader was holding the copper bell when a hand reached out from behind and clamped onto his wrist.

The force wasn't great, but the hand felt like an iron pincer, impossible to break free from.

The leading Fenxiang Valley disciple froze and slowly turned his head, seeing a young face.

Under the moonlight, there was no anger on that face, only a faint smile, but those eyes were as cold as a deep winter pool.

"Not sleeping in the middle of the night?" Lu Jiuyuan's voice was soft, so soft that only these four could hear it.

The leading disciple's face turned deathly pale in an instant.

He certainly knew who this was.

A man even their Sect Master feared; there wasn't a soul in all of Fenxiang Valley who didn't know this name.

His hand began to tremble, and the copper bell slipped from his fingers, only to be caught steadily by Lu Jiuyuan's other hand.

"This bell is not bad." Lu Jiuyuan weighed the copper bell in his hand. "Lend it to me to play with."

The four Fenxiang Valley disciples exchanged glances and turned to run in unison.

The four Fenxiang Valley disciples ran fast, but Lu Jiuyuan had no intention of letting them go just like that.

He raised his hand, a faint cyan light condensing at his fingertips. The light was as thin as a strand of hair, silently chasing after them and landing on the inside of the leader's collar.

The tracking techniques of the Qingyun Sect were not as bizarre as those of the Ghost King Sect, nor as supple as those of the Hehuan Sect, but they excelled in stealth.

With the methods of the Taiqing Realm, a few disciples at the mid-stage of the Yuqing Realm could never detect it.

Jin Ping'er stood beside him, wrapped in that wide outer robe, tucking her chin into the collar as she watched the direction the four had disappeared in, her tone languid: "You're just letting them go like that?"

"No rush." Lu Jiuyuan withdrew his hand. "Let's see what they're up to first."

The two did not return to the house immediately, but instead followed silently behind the four Fenxiang Valley disciples, keeping a sufficiently safe distance.

The four men were still shaken; after running for a distance, they stopped, gathered under a dead tree, and argued in hushed voices.

"What did I tell you? We ran into him, didn't we? With our level of cultivation, we wouldn't even be enough to fill the gaps in his teeth!"

"Keep your voice down! Are you afraid he won't hear you?"

"So what do we do now? The task Li Xun assigned us isn't finished yet..."

"Let's try another spot. There are a few more houses on the east end of the village; let's scatter the incense powder over there."

When Jin Ping'er heard the words "incense powder," her brows furrowed slightly, and she tilted her head to look at Lu Jiuyuan.

Lu Jiuyuan did not speak, merely watching from afar as those men took several small paper packets from a cloth bag; inside the packets was a pale yellow powder that carried a pungent, fishy-sweet scent.

They scattered the powder around several houses at the east end of the village, moving quickly; they left as soon as they finished, not daring to linger for even a moment.

Once they had completely vanished into the night, Lu Jiuyuan and Jin Ping'er emerged from the shadows.

Lu Jiuyuan crouched down, pinched a bit of the powder, and rubbed it between his fingertips. The powder was as fine as grease, dissolved upon contact with moisture, and had a pungent odor with an unsettling, sweet, fishy scent.

"Beast-Attracting Powder." Jin Ping'er stood beside him, looking down at the powder, her voice carrying a hint of coldness. "A signature trick of Fenxiang Valley. Whoever has this stuff sprinkled near their home will find the demonic beasts within a hundred miles rushing toward them like they've gone mad. It's even more effective than a Beast-Driving Bell."

"You certainly know your stuff."

"Hehuan Valley has dealt with Fenxiang Valley for so many years; how could I not know?" Jin Ping'er crouched down and nudged the powder with her finger. "This stuff has a unique trait: it takes two hours to take effect after being scattered. By the time the demonic beasts are lured over, the people who scattered it are long gone."

"When the demonic beasts attack your people from the Qingyun Sect, what does that have to do with Fenxiang Valley?"

Lu Jiuyuan remained silent for a moment, then waved his hand. A surge of spiritual energy swept across the ground, gathering all the powder and scattering it into the night wind.

He walked over to the other houses at the east end of the village and cleared away the remaining powder, his movements light and almost completely silent.

Jin Ping'er followed behind him, watching him bend down to clear the powder, and suddenly said, "You, sometimes you really don't seem like someone from the righteous path."

Lu Jiuyuan didn't even turn his head. "How so?"

"When people of the righteous path catch someone from Fenxiang Valley, they either take them down on the spot, report them to their sect, or lecture them with righteous indignation."

"And you? You let them go, leave marks, eavesdrop, and destroy evidence!" She counted off on her fingers, her tone filled with amusement. "This is clearly the style of us in the Demon Sect."

Lu Jiuyuan cleared the last of the powder, straightened his back, and turned to look at her. "As long as it works, why distinguish between righteous and demonic?"