Diverting the Disaster

In a villa at Huai River Bay on the city outskirts.

A painting desk stood on the riverside terrace, with no one around. In the meditation room behind it, a gray-haired old man in a scholar's robe paced back and forth, his face livid as he cursed:

"I sent you to destroy the bodies and erase the evidence. What the hell did you do out there, you jinx?

"This afternoon, the Yamen was still searching for the great demon of Purple Emblem Mountain. You went out once, and not only did Lu Ming die out there, all three hundred soldiers came back to the city. Everyone of any standing from the Pill King's Residence, Purple Emblem Mountain, and Danyang Academy grabbed their weapons and started roaming the streets.

"Now I can run into two Third Grade powerhouses just going out for a piss. I've spent my whole life committing evil, and I've never seen a gathering like this..."

Most of Jianghu's main fighting force was Sixth Grade or higher, but Danyang was not the Capital City, and experts above Third Grade were not particularly common. Claiming he could run into two just going out for a piss was clearly an exaggeration.

But those experts really were all roaming inside and outside the city now, every one of them searching for the Demon Bandits cultivating Mad Corpse Flowers!

He Can sat on a meditation cushion, bandages wrapped around his chest, looking thoroughly bewildered himself:

"I don't know! As soon as I reached Cockscomb Ridge, Xie Jinhuan intercepted me. His attacks were absolutely brutal. I barely escaped with my life.

"Master, I think something's seriously wrong with Xie Jinhuan. He carries a Dharma Artifact that can suppress evil, yet he mixes with the Witch Cult. And he's like a ghost-somehow, he found Cockscomb Ridge.

"Do you think he might be from the Gu Poison Sect's ancestral headquarters, sent specifically to purge a traitor like you?

"He got there ahead of me today. By the time I arrived, he'd already opened the Corpse Pit..."

The old man was named Taishu Dan, and he was He Can's master. At this moment, however, all he wanted was to purge his own disciple. At those words, he stopped in his tracks and glared:

"I left Chi Dragon Cave thirty years ago. If anyone were coming to purge their ranks, it should be the Corpse Witch Sect. Why would the Gu Poison Sect come looking for trouble with me now?

"Besides, according to that senior brother in the city, the mastery displayed in the blood traces at the Corpse Pit bordered on the Transcendent Immortal level.

"To fabricate traces like those, you would first need the corresponding mastery. Xie Jinhuan is a martial artist through and through. Even if he wanted to frame me, how could he fake traces like that?"

Hearing this, He Can thought he had a point.

Judging by today's fight, neither Xie Jinhuan nor that Gu Master possessed the extraordinary cultivation needed to fabricate such traces.

And the fact that he had escaped alive meant there were no experts nearby either. After all, killing him to silence him would have been far less risky than staying hidden.

"If Xie Jinhuan wasn't playing dirty..."

He Can thought it over carefully, then asked:

"Could that great demon from Purple Emblem Mountain have stumbled across the Corpse Pit and used the sinister Corpse Qi inside to recover its strength? Xie Jinhuan found the place through the Gu Flower, then mistook you for the source of Purple Emblem Mountain's demonic qi and came straight for you?"

Taishu Dan thought this was quite possible and sat down before him:

"Even those above us haven't figured out the source of the Blood Baleful Qi. If that really is what happened, we can hardly step forward and clear things up with the Yamen. Even if we did, we have no proof. They wouldn't believe us."

He Can frowned, feeling that this trouble had grown rather serious.

His master had come from the Witch Cult's Gu Poison Sect, later switched to the Corpse Witch Sect, and now had even betrayed his masters and ancestors to join the Nether God Sect, secretly refining "Blood Demon Pills" in Danyang.

As a slave who had served three surnames, his master knew a little of everything. Even in Jianghu, he counted as a ruthless practitioner of the evil path with deep foundations.

But the imperial court's lineup this time was simply too extravagant. Dan Prefecture's formidable figures had come out in full force, with national teams such as the Directorate of Celestial Observation waiting behind them to enter the fray. If the court mistook them for the source of Purple Emblem Mountain's demonic qi, he had no idea how they could survive this situation.

"Then what do we do now? If we let the Prince's Manor keep investigating like this, we won't get anything done. They'll probably dig us out within two days."

Taishu Dan rubbed his fingers together and pondered seriously for a long while:

"The Yamen now believes 'Purple Emblem Mountain's demonic qi' is connected to the incidents at Dongcang Ward and Three Harmony Tower, but they don't know who we are.

"Since we've already diverted the disaster eastward, we can only keep framing someone else. Let the Li Household shoulder this first, and try to stall until after the Mid-Autumn Festival."

He Can thought that made sense!

The court had mistaken them for the great demon from Purple Emblem Mountain, but did not know who they were.

They had already framed the Li Household yesterday. If they now planted a little more evidence of the "great demon from Purple Emblem Mountain" on them, wouldn't Great Qian's iron fist naturally come crashing down on the Li Household's head?

The Li Household would deny everything anyway, and they had towering backing to rely on. Once they locked horns with the Prince's Manor, the two of them would naturally gain some time.

"Better a fellow Daoist dies than this poor Daoist! I'll go dig a pit for the Li Household right away and draw the Yamen's attention over as soon as possible."

"We'll need that senior brother's help with this. Remember, don't expose yourself again. The Mid-Autumn Festival is only a couple of days away. If we botch this assignment, there will be nowhere under heaven for master and disciple to hide."

"Understood..."

As the night deepened, hoofbeats still rang incessantly near the Clear Spring Lane Yamen, and constables could occasionally be seen coming and going.

Xie Jinhuan walked down the street with the sleeping Coal Ball over his shoulder. Seeing the multiplied numbers of constables and soldiers on the streets put his mind considerably at ease.

These officers had originally all been searching the mountains. Though the Demon-Suppressing Mausoleum was hidden deep in the mountains and difficult to find, an inch-by-inch search would uncover it sooner or later. They might even discover clues about him.

Now everyone's attention had been drawn back, and their focus had shifted to hunting the Demon Bandits. Naturally, the chance of his being exposed had dropped to a minimum.

It was only a stopgap measure. Once the Prince's Manor discovered that the Demon Bandits were not that capable, they would still come hammering at him. But he had at least gained some time to find a way out.

Mulling this over, Xie Jinhuan returned to his residence on Clear Spring Lane. The boisterous music and chatter at his landlady's home continued:

"Swallows murmured sweetly, orioles sang in lilting strains~..."

"That young gentleman who swept all before him at Peony Pond today was so handsome! Does anyone know who he is?"

"He comes and goes with Doctor Lin. How are you going to steal him? Not only is Doctor Lin as lovely as a flower and as fair as jade, her mastery of the bedchamber arts borders on the Transcendent Immortal level..."

These little hussies...

Xie Jinhuan grumbled inwardly. First, he laid Coal Ball on the bed to sleep, then fetched water and poured it into the Bathing Tub, adding the medicinal powder Lin Wanyi had given him.

As he stirred it with his hand, a rich medicinal fragrance spread, and the water turned milky white, looking more like a milk bath.

Xie Jinhuan stripped off his robes and reclined in the Bathing Tub. He took out a small bottle and tipped a red pill out of it.

The Dragon Blood Pill looked more like a hawthorn ball and carried a faint fragrance. It melted in his mouth, with nothing particularly remarkable about its taste.

Soaking in the Bathing Tub, Xie Jinhuan carefully felt the changes in his body. Soon, he discovered a warm current rising within his organs and flowing into every limb and bone. His muscle soreness and fatigue visibly dissipated at speed, and he remarked in surprise:

"A pill worth nearly ten thousand taels of silver really is something else."

He had said this to his ghost wife, but Xie Jinhuan truly had not anticipated how A Piao would appear.

As soon as the words left his mouth, Xie Jinhuan noticed something was wrong before him.

Looking up, he saw that a woman had appeared at the other end of the oval Bathing Tub.

She had a lush, supple figure, with long, ink-black hair cascading down her back. Her smooth, snowy shoulders were as white as mutton fat. Beneath her radiant, captivating face lay a fair neck and an impressive bosom. Unfortunately, her breasts were submerged in the milky water, leaving only faint outlines visible...

Holy shit...

Suddenly confronted with such a stimulating sight, Xie Jinhuan's eyes widened a little. He looked her up and down:

"What are you doing?"

Ye Hongshang reclined at the other end of the Bathing Tub and shrugged slightly:

"I said I'd give you a sweet treat today. Don't you like a lovers' bath?"

Xie Jinhuan liked it very much, but she could at least have come as a real person!

Being able to look but not touch-wasn't that pure torture?

Xie Jinhuan tried touching her with his foot. Unsurprisingly, it clipped straight through her. He said helplessly:

"If you're offering a treat, make it something tangible. I'm taking a medicinal bath to nourish my body. What if unsettled blood and qi and an unsteady Dao heart ruin the treatment?"

"As the Buddhist Sect often says, 'Emptiness is form, and form is emptiness.' If you can't steady your mind before an illusion, how will you ever set foot on the summit?"

As Ye Hongshang spoke, she scooped up water and splashed it below her neck.

Splash~

Though it was only an illusion, the physics engine was terrifyingly realistic. As long as he did not touch her, she looked just like a real person.

Faced with a ghost, Xie Jinhuan could not unleash his animal urges even if he wanted to. His gaze was decidedly pained. After some thought, he picked up the wine flask beside the Bathing Tub, intending to take a couple of swigs to settle himself.

But his ghost wife was highly skilled at her trade. Having promised him a treat, she gave him the full "drinking, bathing, and sleeping companion package." With a flick of her wrist, she produced a wine cup:

"Just drinking is so boring. Want your big sister to play a finger-guessing game with you? If I lose, I stand up. If you lose, you drink a penalty cup."

Xie Jinhuan thought this had potential. Even if she was an illusion, he could still feast his eyes. But he took precautions first:

"No cheating. You can't put on clothes when you stand up, turn into a spider-bodied thing, or become a femboy whose chest is smaller than mine but whose dick is bigger."

Holding her wine cup, Ye Hongshang raised an eyebrow slightly:

"Of course. If you win three rounds in a row, I'll let you use your hands. I guarantee you'll be able to touch me."

"Really?"

Xie Jinhuan genuinely grew interested. He poured himself a cup of wine and set it on the small table beside the Bathing Tub:

"How are we playing?"

Ye Hongshang gestured with her eyes toward the back wall:

"Fifteen-twenty, like those girls are playing. You know it, right?"

How could Xie Jinhuan not know it? He sat upright, put his hands behind his back, and waited expectantly.

Ye Hongshang sat up too, but her illusion shifted freely. The fair flesh of her chest still did not rise above the water; she had only moved a little closer. She hid both hands underwater:

"Here we go. Fifteen, fifteen..."

"Ten! (Twenty-five!)"

"?!"

Hearing A Piao call out nonsense, Xie Jinhuan could not help curling his lips.

But he immediately noticed four arms before him, extending four pale hands...

Altogether, there were exactly twenty-five fingers!

??

Xie Jinhuan's smile froze. Thinking he had somehow gotten drunk before drinking, he rubbed his eyes, but there were still four arms before him.

"La la la~"

Looking immensely pleased with herself, Ye Hongshang raised all four hands and waved them:

"I won. Drink."

"Seriously? You can't play fair?"

Realizing he had been subjected to a demon's dimensional strike, Xie Jinhuan promptly grew unhappy:

"You're an illusion. You can transform in a thousand ways. If you want, you can turn into a Thousand-Armed Guanyin. How am I supposed to play?

"Let's get this straight first. You can only call twenty or below, and it has to be zero or a multiple of five. No negative numbers, and definitely no decimals..."

Despite the long list of clearly defined rules, Ye Hongshang looked utterly unconcerned and put her hands behind her back again:

"All right~ Whatever you say. Let's continue. Fifteen, fifteen... fifteen!"

"Twenty!"

Xie Jinhuan did his utmost to contend against a Heaven-Reaching Demon with his mortal body, but the result was obvious.

Ye Hongshang was an illusion he had conjured. From the moment she appeared, he had already fallen under her illusion and remained constantly bewitched.

Playing finger-guessing with an illusionist inside an illusion, he could never win unless she let him.

Though he never managed to make his ghost wife stand up despite giving it his all, fortunately, she really did know how to flirt, and the wine truly tasted excellent. Right up until he blacked out, Xie Jinhuan enjoyed his drinking quite a bit...