Lady Three Flowers

Li Yunxin glanced at Qiao Jiaxin, confirming that she really was... dead.

The girl had fallen into the grass. Her posture in death was anything but beautiful, and her eyes had not closed.

He sighed and shook his head slightly. Of course, girls in ancient times were not as pretty as those from his era—at least, on the whole. Natural beauty without adornment was always good, but that also meant they were not as fair, not as fragrant, their hair not as soft and smooth, and how could they hide the pimples on their faces?

Yet even in modern times, this Miss Qiao would have counted as a little beauty. Li Yunxin had thought rather well of her. He had never expected her to die before they had even spent a day together.

Sure enough, modern civilization and a society ruled by law were better.

At least people would not die so casually.

But he only felt sentimental for a moment. He had done quite a few things in his past life and had seen plenty of dead people. Since he could accept transmigrating and the existence of demons, accepting a few deaths was even easier.

Thus, he quickly withdrew his gaze and looked at the swordsman. "I'm afraid I'll scare you to death if I tell you."

The swordsman froze, then frowned. He had indeed realized that this white-clad youth before him was anything but ordinary.

Whether the son of a merchant or an official, no one could possibly remain so calm after seeing such a death, without even the slightest trace of grief or sorrow. What was more, he had displayed extraordinary skills earlier—he was certainly no mere mortal of the secular world.

Then... perhaps he really was connected to those "immortals."

The Six Ghosts of the River had once been hunted by Black Blade Ying Jueran like homeless dogs. Only after meeting that immortal had they turned their fortunes around. Thus, they understood very well what sort of people could not be provoked—"the Thirty-Six Grotto-Heavens and Seventy-Two Schools" had once been no more than misty clouds drifting at the edge of the sky to them, but now they knew just how terrifying anyone connected to those people could be.

The youth's earlier actions, his current reaction, and that outrageously arrogant statement made the swordsman realize that he might have encountered a troublesome figure.

He could not kill him.

But if he did not kill him, he had already offended him. What if the youth bore a grudge afterward and truly belonged to some Grotto-Heaven or school...

How could insignificant figures like them possibly bear the consequences?

They had merely robbed a few people by the roadside. How had they suffered such an undeserved calamity?

Several thoughts flashed through the swordsman's mind in a few seconds, and Li Yunxin had already understood what he was thinking.

So he decided to take a dangerous gamble once more. He had not summoned Ninth Young Master before because he feared he would kill innocent people. Now that Qiao Jiaxin was dead, and he had no idea whether those "innocent people" had already been slaughtered by the other swordsmen, he had nothing left to worry about.

Before the swordsman could change his mind and make up his resolve, Li Yunxin pinched the portrait of Ninth Young Master hidden in his sleeve between his fingers. All it would take was a light tap, and Ninth Young Master's phantom would suddenly appear. Then that savage demon would probably rush over soon after.

But at that very moment, an angry rebuke rang out from the forest. The voice seemed to come from all directions, startling the birds roosting among the branches into fluttering up into the sky—

"What audacious madman dares to run wild in this Empress's palace?!"

Li Yunxin and the swordsman both froze.

A second later, Li Yunxin broke into a mad dash toward a cluster of low trees to the north.

According to his parents, painters were among the cultivators most sensitive to spiritual energy. Li Yunxin deeply agreed. For instance, the instant that voice had sounded, he had sensed a familiar kind of spiritual energy as well.

This spiritual energy had also appeared when that female ghost had shown herself earlier.

The female ghost's appearance had disrupted the simple painting formation he and the old Daoist had set up, but Li Yunxin believed the owner of that spiritual energy meant him no harm and had wanted to save him.

She had frightened off the six swordsmen last time, and this time she had bought him more time.

The source of the spiritual energy lay beyond those low trees to the north. He did not know whether that being was human, ghost, demon, or immortal, but he knew that at least for now,

that thing did not intend to kill him.

When he had stopped and told Qiao Jiaxin, "Something seems a little off," this was what he had meant—at the time, he had been certain he had seen the same tree twice in a row.

He had run into a ghostly wall.

This being probably did not want him to leave the forest. Perhaps it needed him to do something for it.

Li Yunxin could more or less guess what it was.

He rushed into that clump of low trees. After running wildly for a dozen paces, he found the view before him suddenly opening up. Beyond the forest was a clearing, and in its center stood a dilapidated little temple, leaning crookedly to one side. Half the temple had already collapsed. The only reason it had not become a pile of rubble was that the other half was supported by an ancient tree so thick it would take one person to encircle it. The tree had probably grown up from inside the temple. Having endured who knew how many years, it had now become half a roof beam.

Long, long ago, people had probably lived in this forest, and incense had probably burned brightly in this temple. Even after all these years, the clearing remained broad. Before the stone slabs had been laid, some other treatment had likely been applied to the ground, so little grass and vegetation grew here, forcibly carving out a patch of sky amid the towering ancient trees all around.

Clear moonlight spilled down from the heights, and Li Yunxin saw the broken plaque still hanging from one corner of the lintel—

Temple of Lady Three Flowers.

What kind of ghostly name was that? It did not sound like an Orthodox God, either.

It sounded more like, long ago, ignorant commoners had built a temple for some spirit creature with a few tricks and supernatural powers, worshiping it as a true immortal.

But after only one glance, Li Yunxin rushed through the doorway, whose door panels had long since vanished.

The altar inside the temple was surprisingly still there, along with a clay statue upon it. Its surface had already weathered and eroded, making its features impossible to discern. Yet judging from its faint outline, the clay figure once worshiped on the altar seemed to have been a fairly proper mountain god or earth deity.

"Another temple." Li Yunxin stopped and sighed.

To an ordinary person, he had already fallen into a dead end. But Li Yunxin knew that aside from summoning Ninth Young Master, this was probably his only chance of escape.

For beneath the seemingly ruined clay statue surged astonishingly active spiritual energy.

Thus, he no longer worried about the swordsman who might arrive close behind him. Instead, he calmed down, clasped his hands behind his back, circled the clay statue once, and shook his head slightly. "What exactly are you? Why are you helping me?"

Then the ethereal female voice from before rang out within the ruined temple again. "Because this deity has fate with you. You saw this deity and still do not kneel? Did you bring the three sacrificial animals? Hmm? Oh dear, you didn't bring them..."

"The three sacrificial animals... you didn't bring them, hmm? You brought nothing at all? Hmm?"

"Ah, my... hmm... Hmph. You saw this deity and still do not kneel? Hmm? Are you a Daoist? Hmm? A painting Daoist?"

Li Yunxin frowned slightly. He felt that this thing seemed to be more complicated than he had previously thought.

This thing knew the term "painting Daoist."

He himself knew it, his parents knew it, and among everyone else, probably only a few still remembered it.

Kang Cangzi and Red Pine Master knew it. But they seemed to belong to the Sword Sect.

And this one before him... was probably some sort of spirit creature.