"Oh?"
Shi Tongxuan was somewhat surprised. "Then shall we open it and see?"
Cheng Xinzhan nodded.
"That was precisely why I wanted you to take a look, Patriarch."
And so Shi Tongxuan reached out and opened the Gourd's mouth, as though the talisman Cheng Xinzhan had pressed over it did not exist.
A wisp of white smoke spilled from the Gourd, billowing in midair before turning into a woman. She no longer had the divine, fairy-like bearing she had possessed at their first meeting. Her hair was disheveled and her clothes were in disarray. Clearly, after Cheng Xinzhan had suppressed her inside, the fire crows had harassed her to distraction.
"I'll kill you!"
The woman screamed.
But when she looked around, she immediately realized something was wrong. Hadn't she been in Western Hunan? How had she ended up in a Daoist temple, with two Daoists, one old and one young, standing below?
Hu Baozhuang decided that of the thirty-six stratagems, running away was best, and immediately tried to fly out of the hall.
But Shi Tongxuan merely extended a finger and pointed. Hu Baozhuang flew backward and landed before them, simultaneously forced back into her original form: a fluffy white fox with three tails.
Terror filled the fox's ink-jade eyes.
Shi Tongxuan paid the fox no further attention, turning instead to Cheng Xinzhan. "First, tell me where she came from."
Cheng Xinzhan nodded. He first explained about Aunt Bao at the place where the Celestial Master of Dragon-Tiger Mountain kept his seal and sword, then described how the Soul-Losing lineage in Western Hunan repeatedly resurfaced despite being wiped out, along with the local Water Gang and some suspicions of his own.
As the fox listened, the terror in her eyes grew deeper.
*This man had been to the Celestial Master