Something Unclean!

The moon rose above the branches, outside the Pill King’s Residence.

The Pill King and the reigning emperor were full brothers born of the same mother. Their relationship was close, and he enjoyed exalted privileges. His fief comprised ten thousand households, the most of any prince, and he also served as Dan Prefecture Governor, wielding military and civil authority over the entire prefecture.

The county offices, Prefectural Guards, Danyang Academy, and other government institutions were all clustered around the Prince's Manor.

As night deepened, Danyang City became an endless sea of lights, with tall buildings lining both banks of the inner river.

With his back to the bright moon, Xie Jinhuan sat alone on a riverside rooftop. In the tavern below, a storyteller was recounting curious tales and anecdotes:

"Fairy Nangong is the greatest beauty in all the Daoist sects. As the poem goes: Jade skin and icy bones descend from the jeweled terrace, beauty to topple cities and talent without peer. Surely Heaven itself wielded its colored brush-how else could such a flower bloom among mortals...

"How could that Witch Cult temptress compare to such a flower of mortal splendor? Ashamed of her own ugliness, she grew jealous and planted a 'love gu' in Fairy Nangong..."

The story was about Nangong Ye, the current sect leader of Purple Emblem Mountain.

The Purple Emblem Mountain sect's headquarters lay just outside Danyang City. With a legacy of over six hundred years, it ranked among the foremost illustrious sects in all of Great Qian. Qixia True Person had been its previous sect leader.

Nangong Ye was Qixia True Person's disciple. Not only were his Daoist arts profound, but his swordsmanship was unrivaled in Dan Prefecture. He could be considered Xie Jinhuan's childhood dream wife.

But at that moment, Xie Jinhuan had no leisure to think about any of that.

The sudden news that his father had died in the line of duty was clearly a devastating blow. He did not believe the old man was simply gone like that. He had to get to the bottom of it.

But plainly, he could not leave at all right now.

That alone would have been bad enough, but the court had also noticed the demonic aura on Purple Emblem Mountain. He had been involved from beginning to end, yet his memory had gone blank. If discovered, he would be unable to clear his name even with a hundred mouths, and might even lose his life here.

Xie Jinhuan was still innocent for now. If he disappeared, he would become a prime suspect and implicate Yang Dabiao, who had bailed him out. For that reason, however great the risk, he still had to stay put in Danyang.

Having eaten and drunk his fill, Coalball had become lively again. He perched on the roof, gazing at the distant fireworks, and tugged fiercely at Xie Jinhuan's sleeve with his beak, clearly wanting Xie Jinhuan to take him out for a stroll.

But Xie Jinhuan had promised to stay near Yang Dabiao. Having just discovered that the inns around the Prince's Manor charged outrageous prices, he had found a broker to arrange a short-term rental of a single room and was now waiting to hear back.

As he quietly surveyed his surroundings, the broker had yet to return, but Xie Jinhuan spotted a large group of young men and women in blue-green robes emerging at the entrance to Wencheng Street. All carried medicine chests or book boxes, and there were quite a few luxurious carriages among them. It looked as though classes at Danyang Academy had ended.

Danyang Academy could be considered a national university, second only to the Imperial Academy in Luojing. It contained three schools-Chongwen, Wubei, and Alchemy Medicine-which could roughly be understood as "humanities, science and engineering, and medicine."

Xie Jinhuan had studied everything in the past and had once hoped to enter this top institution and become its Campus Hunk. Unfortunately, before he reached admission age, his father had been transferred to Lingnan.

Seeing its students now, Xie Jinhuan watched curiously for a few moments. Before long, Coalball, who had been bobbing his head beside him, suddenly tilted it toward the Zhenglun Sword:

"Gooji?"

Xie Jinhuan thought a little bug had crawled onto the Zhenglun Sword, but when he picked it up to inspect it, he found nothing unusual. Instead, a horse's shrill neigh suddenly rang out from the street below:

"Neigh-"

Clippety-clop, clippety-clop...

The long riverside street was lit as brightly as day. Countless students streamed out of Wencheng Street and dispersed into the surrounding streets and alleys.

Among them, a carriage bearing a wooden plaque inscribed with "Lin" moved slowly down the street. Its window was open, and a young girl's face peered out.

The girl's features were as delicately carved as powdered jade. Her tea-green ruqun resembled a spring river landscape, and her sparkling eyes surveyed the roadside as she listened curiously to the street gossip:

"There was a huge incident in Dongcang Ward. They say more than a dozen people died..."

"They sealed off the whole street..."

The carriage was quite spacious inside. Besides the cushioned couch seats, a small huanghuali table stood beside the window, holding brush, ink, paper, and inkstone. A woman in a green dress was writing with a brush.

The woman was tall, with a slender waist. Her weighty, full bosom was wrapped in a smooth dress that traced a lush, honey-peach curve below the small of her back.

As for her face, she wore no makeup and looked understated and elegant at first glance. But her distant-mountain brows and cherry lips revealed a measure of alluring, inward charm on closer inspection, like a peony quietly blooming amid clouds and mist.

Her name was Lin Wanyi. She was not a student of Danyang Academy, but the eldest young lady of the Imperial Physician Aristocratic Clan in the Capital City. She was currently acting as a student guardian, accompanying her younger relative Lin Zisu while she studied at the academy.

Noticing Zisu looking all around as though she wanted to run off and play again, Lin Wanyi earnestly admonished her:

"Zisu, if you're studying at the academy, you need to focus on your studies, not run around outside all day. It isn't peaceful out there these days. There have even been signs of sinister cultivators in Danyang City. What if you encounter some villain who secretly abducts you and uses you as a cultivation cauldron..."

Lin Zisu was sixteen. She dressed like a quiet, refined young lady from a distinguished family, but she was quite mischievous. At those words, she turned back and looked Lin Wanyi up and down:

"What use would a villain have for a half-grown girl like me? If you ask me, Aunt should worry about herself. You're the flower of the Capital City. With that big, fair bottom, even a girl like me wants to give it a couple of squeezes..."

"Zisu!"

Lin Wanyi put on a stern expression, attempting to quell the impudent little brat.

But before she could begin her lecture, the carriage abruptly accelerated and jolted, making both of them stumble. A horse's shrill neigh and startled cries came from outside:

"Neighhh-"

"Out of the way..."

Clippety-clop, clippety-clop...

Lin Wanyi quickly steadied herself and turned to look. For some reason, the two powerful horses had panicked, knocked aside the driver trying to grab the reins, and charged straight toward the inner river.

Slightly startled, she hurried out of the carriage and caught the reins swinging through the air. But the two horses galloped as though possessed, overturning roadside stalls in an instant.

Crash!

Clatter...

Seeing that she could not rein them in, Lin Wanyi immediately intended to take Zisu in her arms and leap clear of the carriage. But just as she caught Zisu's wrist, she heard a sound nearby:

Whoosh!

A white figure descended from above and flashed up beside them.

Then something tightened around her waist, the world spun, and she was swept into someone's arms.

?!

Caught off guard, Lin Wanyi quickly grabbed the newcomer's arm. What met her eyes were whirling lights and a rather young man's face.

The man wore a white brocade robe. His features were handsome and sunny, his bearing upright and righteous. From his attire, he looked like the son of a wealthy family, but his eyes were unusual.

In that fleeting glimpse, she found that those eyes so close to hers resembled a cold spring and a chilly moon. Though they held little warmth, they lacked neither water's softness nor the moon's radiance.

Lin Wanyi could not understand how a young man could possess such an otherworldly air.

Naturally, she could never have imagined that an unscrupulous loafer existed in this world who, to outcompete the natives to death, had diligently practiced his posture and bearing from the age of three, persisting for well over a decade!

And so, suddenly confronted with such an aloof, ascetic heartthrob, she froze for a moment.

Tap!

Soon, the three of them spun once through the air and landed steadily beneath the eaves.

Crash-

The runaway carriage plunged into the river with a thunderous noise, startling the people nearby:

"Mother of mercy..."

"What happened?"

The officers patrolling both banks also hurried toward the spot where the carriage had fallen in.

Xie Jinhuan landed beneath the tavern's eaves and looked at the green-dressed woman in his arms. He had intended to ask after her, but soon noticed something amiss.

Whether in face or figure, the woman in green could be called a peerless beauty, yet she wore a pair of "glasses."

The gold-rimmed glasses were exquisitely made, no worse than modern craftsmanship. Xie Jinhuan had seen such things in the Capital City before, but they had all been worn by old men at private schools.

This green-dressed woman had some grounding in cultivation, so by ordinary reasoning she could not be nearsighted. Moreover, the skin beneath her dress felt somewhat chilly, which did not seem quite normal...

Unfortunately, before he could study the matter closely, the bespectacled woman in green recovered. Her face faintly flushed, she slipped out of his embrace and gracefully bowed:

"Thank you for saving us, young master."

Lin Zisu turned and noticed the handsome young master whose presence towered eighteen feet high. She hurriedly cupped her hands in greeting:

"This young lady is Lin Zisu, nicknamed the 'Poison-Hand Medicine Maiden.' May I ask your name, young master?"

Medicine maiden?

Xie Jinhuan looked at the lively young girl beside him. Seeing that she had no Adam's apple, he secretly sighed in relief:

"Xie Jinhuan. A pleasure to meet you."

Lin Zisu was just about to thank him when, out of the corner of her eye, she suddenly noticed a large, ink-black eagle fly down from the roof and land on Xie Jinhuan's shoulder, seizing his collar in his beak and tugging him away.

"Wow, what a black eagle! Is he yours, young master?"

"Yes. His name's Coalball..."

Xie Jinhuan nudged Coalball, wanting his personal maidservant to stop making trouble.

But he soon realized that something was wrong with Coalball. He looked very panicked and kept tugging him away.

Thinking back carefully, the carriage's sudden loss of control had been quite abrupt. He had been so focused on saving people that he had failed to notice.

And there was that inexplicable "wait" he had heard at noon, followed by Coalball suddenly bristling and crashing into the bandits' den...

Could there be something unclean nearby?!

Realizing something was wrong, Xie Jinhuan's heart went half cold. He dared not linger and turned to leave:

"I have something else to attend to. I'll take my leave."

"Huh?"

Lin Wanyi was checking on the carriage in the water. Before she had managed more than a few words, she noticed that he was leaving and hurriedly said:

"Young master, you came to our rescue, and I haven't even had the chance to thank you. If you have time, you could come to the Lin Family Clinic... come..."

Before she finished, the man and bird had disappeared into the mouth of an alley, giving no further reply.

Lin Wanyi's eyes were filled with bewilderment.

Lin Zisu had not expected that a man would actually ignore her aunt, either. Looking in the direction Xie Jinhuan had vanished, she asked:

"That young master is so aloof. Aunt, who is he?"

"His bearing is extraordinary. He must be a scion of royalty or nobility from the Capital City."

"Oh..."