Destroy the bodies and erase the evidence?

Lin Wanyi had a dream.

In her dream, she knelt beneath a starry sky in prayer and saw a peerlessly beautiful immortal maiden high above the Nine Heavens lower her head until their foreheads touched.

As a warm current flowed into the space between her brows, the tide of yin coldness within her receded, and every limb and bone relaxed.

It was a wondrous pleasure beyond description.

Like a perfectly timed spring afternoon nap, it left her comfortable all over and brimming with energy, so intoxicating that she wanted only to lie there...

But as that pleasure faded, her consciousness slowly stirred awake after all.

How did I fall asleep...?

Just now...

I think my condition flared up in that corpse pit in the wilderness, and I fainted in front of Xie Jinhuan...

"Miss Lin..."

"Ah-!"

A scream rang through the mountain hollow!

Xie Jinhuan had been about to ask how she felt, only to see the scholarly beauty lying there suddenly turn scarlet with mortification and fury. Panic and terror flooded the lovely eyes behind her gold-rimmed glasses. First she wiped her forehead, found nothing there, then swung a slap at him!

Whoosh~

Xie Jinhuan had not expected Lin Wanyi to greet him with a resounding slap the moment she woke. He quickly leaned back to dodge it, then caught her wrist.

"What are you doing?!"

"Let go of me!"

Lin Wanyi struggled hard to free her wrist, even trying to kick him.

But she soon realized something was wrong.

Her dress was intact and properly on her, without the slightest sign of violation...

Her body felt perfectly normal too. In fact, she felt refreshed and full of vigor, clearly having received treatment and restorative care...

Instead, it was Xie Jinhuan whose face was pale, whose lips had lost their color, and who looked utterly drained...

?

Lin Wanyi's hysteria abruptly stopped. She swallowed her reproaches, her eyes somewhat bewildered, unsure what had happened.

Having used her body to help fabricate evidence, Xie Jinhuan naturally did not blame her now. Holding her wrist, he continued channeling true qi into her.

"You suddenly fainted, and your breathing was barely there. I didn't bring my silver needles, so I could only do my best to save you. Do you feel any better?"

Lin Wanyi carefully checked herself inside and out. She truly found no sign of violation, while the restorative nourishment her body had received was unmistakable.

Xie Jinhuan had remained a gentleman with a beauty in his arms and gone to such lengths to save her, yet she had woken up and struck him as though he were a lecher. Wasn't she measuring a gentleman's heart by a petty soul's yardstick, repaying kindness with enmity?

At this thought, Lin Wanyi grew embarrassed. After struggling for a long while, she finally drew in her neck and spoke timidly.

"I... I was muddled from sleep. I'm sorry. Um... I feel much better. Thank you for all your effort."

As she spoke, she took Xie Jinhuan's wrist, intending to check his condition.

But the moment she did, she discovered that his qi and blood had nearly been emptied out. His weakness was written all over his face. Who knew how much essence-blood and vital energy he had lost in those brief moments?

Lin Wanyi froze, her face shocked and bewildered.

"What method did you use to save me? How did you end up this weak?"

Xie Jinhuan gave a wry laugh, his tone calm.

"A Life-Extending Method my master taught me. It severely depletes vital essence, qi, and blood, but at least I saved you. How do you feel?"

Lin Wanyi felt like parched earth meeting a welcome rain. Every pore had relaxed, her mind was clear, and her spirits were soaring. She wished she could have a few more rounds.

But such insatiable demands would clearly drain Xie Jinhuan dry.

Realizing that Xie Jinhuan had practically harmed himself to save her, Lin Wanyi flushed with gratitude. She hurriedly took a pill that greatly replenished qi and blood from her waist and brought it to his lips.

"Quick, take some medicine to replenish yourself. Don't damage your health... I don't know what happened just now either. Perhaps the corpse pit's sinister yin energy was too strong and triggered my old condition."

Xie Jinhuan swallowed the pill and reassured her.

"I'm fine. Let's go. We need to get back and report this to the authorities. This place has serious implications. It might be the lair of that great demon from Purple Emblem Mountain."

Lin Wanyi no longer worried about keeping a proper distance between men and women. She helped Xie Jinhuan to his feet, still hugging his arm, her two soft, full breasts pressed against his upper arm.

"Take it slowly. For the next few days, you absolutely mustn't have intercourse or stay up late..."

Thick-skinned as Xie Jinhuan was, Lin Wanyi's gratitude left even him struggling to keep a straight face. He joked.

"I don't even have a wife. How would I have intercourse?"

"Then don't pleasure yourself either. It harms your health..."

"Huh?"

Lin Wanyi blinked. Perhaps worried that Xie Jinhuan would disdain her for knowing too much, she hastily added:

"I'm a physician. I've read medical books since childhood and often see the married ladies from Wencheng Street, so I know a little more. Don't get the wrong idea."

"I understand..."

The two followed the creek, with a faintly intimate atmosphere between them at first.

But before they had gone far, Coal Ball, circling overhead, called out twice.

"Hoo-hoo-"

Every trace of weakness vanished from Xie Jinhuan's expression. He drew his arm out from between her breasts and gripped his sword-breaker's handle. The slightly wandering look in his eyes regained its piercing edge.

?

Somewhat puzzled, Lin Wanyi glanced up at the sky.

"What's wrong with Coal Ball?"

"Someone's coming."

"What?!"

The sun slanted westward, and autumn colors enveloped the hollow below Cockscomb Ridge.

Brownish-yellow leaves and pine needles covered the rugged creekside path. Several squirrels leaped through the woods, and a black bird could be seen overhead, apparently searching for prey.

Four figures headed upstream along the creek. Lu Ming, a Gu Master dressed like an ordinary merchant, glanced at the black speck circling in the sky.

"That hawk is a fine specimen. Once we're done here, shall I find a way to catch it and take it back for the Young Master's amusement?"

He Can, respectfully addressed as Young Master, walked ahead dressed as a young gentleman in fine robes, a black umbrella hanging at his waist. Displeasure filled his brow.

"Everything's about to fall apart, and you think I'm in the mood to play with a hawk? Look at you. You're over fifty, yet you still get so engrossed in erotic pictures at night that you don't even notice the mountain waters rising and washing corpses out.

"Master went to enormous trouble covering things up before he managed to pin the Dongcang Street affair on the Li Household. The case was about to be closed, and now look. All that effort wasted..."

Lu Ming knew he had made a grave mistake and was too ashamed to argue. He could only complain.

"Has that Xie Jinhuan opened his heavenly eye or something? He exposed the warehouse the moment he arrived. I thought he was lucky. Those corpses were so rotten that even the experts from the Dan King Pavilion couldn't work out their origins, yet he could tell it was 'Corpse Flies and gu flowers.' How did he figure that out?"

"Who knows?"

He Can hopped from rock to rock.

"Perhaps heaven has its own designs in the unseen. As the common folk say, 'evil cannot overcome righteousness,' and 'those who commit too many wrongs bring about their own destruction.' With a bunch like us, do you really expect heaven's blessing, smooth sailing, and success in everything?"

"Uh..."

Lu Ming opened his mouth but did not respond to those dispiriting words. Instead, he asked:

"The cave abode has already been sealed. Why are we still coming here?"

"If the Yamen follows the Mad Corpse Flower lead, they'll find this place in two days at most. So long as we clean it up beforehand, the Yamen won't find where the flowers were grown. Then Xie Jinhuan will just be spouting nonsense, and the Yamen will have to keep investigating the Li Household. We won't be exposed prematurely and stir the grass to startle the snake, either."

"A brilliant insight, Young Master."

"Brilliant insight? All that corpse qi had accumulated in the cave abode. Master intended to come back and keep using it once things blew over, but one moment's carelessness from you ruined everything. This is called wiping your ass for you..."

Talking like this, the two soon reached the pool deep within the hollow.

He Can stopped beside the creek. Looking at the hole in the middle of the landslide, he froze slightly.

"What happened? Did the beasts inside rise from the dead and break out?"

Lu Ming scanned their surroundings with a deep frown.

"How could thoroughly rotten dead people and pigs break through rock? Perhaps someone's been here."

"Oh..."

After that one word, deathly silence fell over the hollow.

He Can pulled up the cloth around his neck to cover his face, then took the black umbrella from his waist and held it as he surveyed the silent hills and woods.

"They should have left, right?"

"Not sure. The corpse stench hasn't dispersed. It still stings the eyes. Whoever it was opened the corpse pit no more than half an hour ago."

He Can fell silent for a moment, scanning the wilderness for any stirring of wind or grass.

"Go destroy the bodies and erase the evidence. I'll keep watch."

Lu Ming slowly stepped back and removed the tools from the two cloaked figures behind him.

Meanwhile, up on the slope.

Hidden among the bushes, Xie Jinhuan frowned as he studied the four figures beside the pool.

To conceal herself properly, Lin Wanyi huddled close in front of Xie Jinhuan, her full hips tracing a graceful curve behind her. She, too, remained perfectly still.

Seeing the two leaders looking around, Lin Wanyi knitted her brows.

"We might not be able to beat four people. What do we do now?"

Xie Jinhuan was also assessing the four. Of the pair, one old and one young, he could tell both were Mystic Sect experts with middling cultivation. But he could make nothing of the two cloaked figures behind them.

"Those two in cloaks don't seem to have any breath circulating through them. They don't seem alive. What's going on?"

"Don't seem alive?"

Lin Wanyi looked puzzled. After a little thought, her gaze darkened slightly.

"They might be puppets from the Corpse Witch Sect. How does Danyang still have such ghastly things?"

Xie Jinhuan had never seen a puppet in his memories, but he had heard of them.

Puppets were the specialty of the Witch Cult's corpse witch lineage. Because the Corpse Ancestor had come from the Corpse Witch Sect, this lineage had been slaughtered almost to extinction and was rarely seen even in the Southern Border.

Though everyone cried out for their destruction, the Corpse Witch Sect's fighting strength could not be underestimated. The puppets they controlled had bodies refined through secret methods, making them incomparably tough and unafraid of injury or death. The Gu Masters themselves were also proficient in witchcraft, giving them both offense and defense in battle, effective at long and short range alike, with practically no weaknesses.

Their only flaw was that the corpse witch path tended to use up fellow cultivators. Not only did it leave them friendless, it also made them liable to get beaten up.

Unable to gauge these Mystic Sect practitioners' capabilities, Xie Jinhuan asked:

"Are both of them corpse witches?"

Lin Wanyi observed carefully, unwilling to say for certain.

Fortunately, Ye Hongshang, who followed him like a shadow, did not neglect her duties as strategist at this moment.

"The old one is a corpse witch. The young one is a ghost witch. The mastermind isn't among them. That boy's black umbrella is a dharma artifact with a few little ghosts kept inside. If you wield the Zhenglun Sword with Thunder Magic, you can ignore them."

Hearing this, Xie Jinhuan knew he had a chance to wipe out this group.

But he still needed these Demon Bandits to take the lightning for him, so he did not want to act now.

After all, if he uprooted this group of Demon Bandits, wouldn't the Prince's Manor have its hands free to hammer him again?

Thus, he held his position, intending to wait for them to leave.

But he soon discovered that these people apparently had no intention of returning alive!

After a brief standoff, the figures beside the pool made a move-one kept watch while the other took out a bag of something unknown, apparently intending to destroy the bodies and erase the evidence.

Xie Jinhuan had literally "vomited his heart out and shed his blood" to stage the scene and frame someone else. If he let these Demon Bandits destroy the evidence, wouldn't all his work have been for nothing?

Xie Jinhuan's gaze darkened. He lightly patted Lin Wanyi's shoulder.

"They're going to destroy the bodies and erase the evidence! Stay here and don't move. I'll be right back."

"Huh?"

Lin Wanyi had not expected Xie Jinhuan to hate evil so fiercely. Having just depleted his qi and blood to save her, he was now preparing to fight four opponents alone to preserve crucial evidence for the Yamen!

Under these circumstances, Lin Wanyi had no choice but to act too. She took a little blue pill from her sleeve and handed it to Xie Jinhuan.

"With puppets as meat shields, you'll have trouble getting close. Charging straight in will cost you dearly. I'll cover you with poisonous mist. Once I draw the puppets away, make your move. Remember, kill the corpse witch first. Take the antidote now."

Xie Jinhuan inspected the pill, then tossed it into his mouth anyway. Bitterness shot straight to his brain, instantly scrunching his stern face into a knot.

"Fuck, that's bitter..."

"Shh..."

My sleep schedule has completely flipped. I'm updating a little early today so I don't wake up halfway through sleeping in a panic to check whether the update went through or2