Susu: Little one, I'm a ghost

Xu Qi'an smiled, not at all intimidated. He sat down at the table, poured himself a glass of water, and said as he drank:

"I can't stop General Li from doing what he wants. However, I also have many things I haven't shared with them. For example, the details of Yunzhou, and General Li's claim that he's a genius at solving cases. Of course, there's much more."

Come on, let's hurt each other! Who's afraid of who!

Li Miaozhen forced a straight face, suppressing her inner shame, and coldly said, "I don't mind teaching them a lesson before the battle between the Celestial Person."

With a slap of her small hand on the table, the flying sword on her back was unsheathed, circled in mid-air in a semi-circle, and stabbed towards Xu Qi'an's buttocks.

Su Su wore a gloating expression.

Li Miaozhen glanced at Daoist Jinlian out of the corner of her eye. She thought Daoist Jinlian would definitely stop her, but what she saw was Daoist Jinlian stroking his beard and smiling, showing no intention of stopping her.

Hmph, it seems the Daoist priest also finds this guy hateful and wants me to teach him a lesson. The thought flashed through Li Miaozhen's mind, and she saw the boy, without turning his head, reach for the flying sword.

Xu Qi'an's palm was quickly covered with a layer of rich golden light, and "ding," a sharp sound of metal colliding came from his palm.

Li Miaozhen suddenly stood up, her beautiful eyes widening as she stared incredulously at Xu Qi'an's arm, and said in an astonished voice:

"Buddhist School golden statue?"

Xu Qi'an grinned and said, "That's right, the Vajra Divine Skill I won during the duel. General Li, your flying sword is a bit soft, put more force into it."

The golden statue of Buddhist School won through a magical contest. Li Miaozhen was astonished; there was no mention of this in the imperial proclamation.

"Master, he looks down on you," Su Su immediately added fuel to the fire.

My concerns just now were genuine, but my current attempts to stir up trouble are also sincere.

"I've been wanting to experience the Daoist School flying sword technique." Xu Qi'an raised an eyebrow.

"Good."

Li Miaozhen then stopped holding back and tried to break free of Xu Qi'an's grasp by manipulating her flying sword. The flying sword vibrated incessantly, but it could not escape her hand.

The Holy Maiden of the Heavenly Sect revealed a solemn expression. She formed a hand seal and her flying sword changed from retreating to advancing, slowly pushing forward.

Xu Qi'an's jaw muscles bulged on his profile, and the veins on his forehead and palms stood out, as if he were arm wrestling with someone.

The friction between the palm and the flying sword produced a sound that made one's teeth ache.

The silent struggle lasted for a few seconds, then with a loud "boom," the roof was ripped off by the violent force of the air, broken beams and tiles crashed down, and doors and windows were instantly destroyed.

Su Su, as expected of a twenty-year-old ghost, erected a barrier of Yin Qi, barely managing to block the clash of energies.

"Stop when you've made your point, stop when you've made your point."

Master Jinlian, feeling distressed, called for a halt.

Xu Qi'an and Li Miaozhen exchanged a glance; one sheathed her sword, and the other withdrew her hand.

In just a few months, his cultivation had advanced to such a level. Li Miaozhen looked at Xu Qi'an with a complicated expression. When they met in Yunzhou, he was an eighth-grade martial artist who was trying to break through to the Spirit Refining Realm.

At the time, Li Miaozhen, who was only at the fifth rank, thought his cultivation level was quite good. Who would have thought that two or three months later, he would have become so powerful?

She knew that her cultivation had improved quite quickly; she was now a fourth-grade Nascent Soul in the Daoist School, a far cry from what she had been before.

But now, Li Miaozhen felt a sense of powerlessness, realizing that her talent was nothing special.

"Cough cough!"

Master Jinlian coughed and laughed, "You attacked his physical body with your flying sword, which is using your weakness to attack his strength. It was just a small spar, don't take it seriously."

Li Miaozhen is a fourth-rank expert. She hasn't even used the Heavenly Sect's methods yet. Her flying sword technique can easily cut through a sixth-rank expert with copper skin and iron bones, but it's somewhat powerless against the Buddhist School Vajra.

Why has this kid's Vajra Divine Skill improved so rapidly? Master Jinlian glanced at Xu Qi'an, a question flashing through her mind.

"If we really fight, I'm no match for you, but you'll have to put in some effort to break through my invincible body," Xu Qi'an said modestly, then added in his mind:

Within seven days at most, after I absorb all of Monk Shenshu's Essence Blood, I will be able to raise the Vajra Divine Skill to the minor completion stage.

The Essence Blood left to him by the monk Shenshu had the true effect of accelerating the cultivation speed of the Vajra Divine Skill, because Shenshu himself was a master of the Vajra Divine Skill.

His Essence Blood perfectly complemented the Vajra Divine Skill. As long as Xu Qi'an absorbed the Essence Blood while practicing this skill, he could improve his level of the Vajra Divine Skill.

Li Miaozhen snorted and turned her head away.

After drawing her sword, some of the anger she had been holding back dissipated, and she didn't feel as uncomfortable as before. At the same time, Xu Qi'an's "threat" made her hesitate.

If Xu Qi'an's identity is revealed, her every word and action in Yunzhou will also be exposed within the Heaven and Earth Society. This kind of self-destructive behavior is not in line with the style of the Holy Maiden of the Heavenly Sect.

She finally understood why Xu Qi'an insisted on concealing his identity.

The boasts he made back then were a hundred times more outrageous than hers; if those were made public, he'd be utterly humiliated.

"If Miaozhen doesn't want to stay at an inn, she can stay at Xu Qi'an's residence. Number Five is also there. Xu Residence is in the inner city; it's a grand three-courtyard mansion, extremely impressive," said Daoist Jinlian.

"You're here again? When did my house become an orphanage for the Heaven and Earth Society?" Xu Qi'an's lips twitched.

Su Su's eyes lit up. Compared to staying at an inn, staying in the courtyard was definitely more comfortable. Moreover, she also wanted to take advantage of the night to seduce this man and get him to take her to the Bureau of Astronomy.

Li Miaozhen thought of the headless corpse. She was worried about her limited ability to solve the case, and she was reluctant to hand it over to the government because of her crisis of trust in the court.

They're afraid those who hold positions without doing any work won't take it seriously.

This is a good opportunity to hand this matter over to Xu Qi'an, and I can also learn some useful crime-solving skills from him.

So Li Miaozhen nodded and said, "Okay, I also want to see Number Five. She traveled thousands of miles north; she must have suffered a lot."

Xu Qi'an keenly sensed that Master Jinlian had something else to say to him. He subtly noticed the Master Jinlian's frequent scrutinizing gaze, but remained outwardly calm, even wearing a smile.

"General Li, shall we return to the manor together?"

Master Jinlian watched the two people and the ghost leave, then pondered, "Once the battle between Celestial Person and man is over, I will leave the capital. Until then, I need to find a way to disrupt this struggle."

"Miaozhen."

On horseback, Xu Qi'an had just opened his mouth when Li Miaozhen corrected him, saying, "You should just call me General Li."

"That would be too formal, we're already so familiar with each other." Xu Qi'an said with a thick skin, "I have a question about the battle between the Celestial Person beings and humans."

Li Miaozhen kept her eyes forward, following the mare at a leisurely pace, ignoring his question.

She was still angry and didn't want to talk to me. Xu Qi'an's thoughts raced, and he said casually:

"We probably haven't talked about what happened in Xiangcheng that day when we were searching for Number Five."

Upon hearing this, Li Miaozhen turned her head and looked over, gritting her teeth as she said, "The Daoist Master has been blocking my Earth Book fragments. I should have realized it sooner; he was trying to conceal the news of your resurrection."

Li Miaozhen still harbors resentment over the fact that Master Jinlian helped Xu Qi'an "deceive" her.

"None of that matters. What matters is that the tomb we discovered is incredibly ancient, the great tomb of Daoist School elder, and very likely a Daoist from the Human Sect," Xu Qi'an, casting out his bait.

"Hunzong?"

Li Miaozhen looked at him, her eyes filled with curiosity.

"Yes, it is the Daoist Master Renzong who usurped the throne." Xu Qi'an's smile grew even wider.

He immediately recounted his experiences in the tomb to Li Miaozhen in detail, like telling a story, full of vivid tales. This did not include the dialogue between the monk Shenshu and the mummified corpse.

Li Miaozhen listened with great interest, abandoning her aloof demeanor and engaging in a rather enthusiastic discussion with him.

"This reminds me of what Master once said. He said that among the three sects of 'Heaven, Earth, and Man,' the Man sect is the most foolish because they actively seek to align themselves with the fortunes of the human world. The Earth sect is next, cultivating merit and accumulating blessings. However, everything in the world has a cause and effect; how can everything be explained by the three words 'doing good deeds'? Therefore, people of the Earth sect, when they reach the second rank, are often entangled in karma and easily fall into the demonic path."

The Earth Sect's leader is an example. Why is the Human Sect, which actively seeks to align itself with human fortune, the most foolish? Is human fortune untouchable or something? Hmm, so that Human Sect's predecessor eventually shed his old body? Xu Qi'an nodded:

"Where is Tianzong?"

"The Heavenly Sect naturally follows the Great Way, transcending all emotions and achieving harmony Celestial Person; this is the Heavenly Dao." Li Miaozhen raised her pointed chin.

"The Heavenly Sect emphasizes transcending emotions, with the highest state being the Celestial Person. According to this philosophy, shouldn't one be indifferent and detached from all things? Why are you so fixated on the struggle between Celestial Person and man, so fixated on the orthodox tradition?"

Xu Qi'an then asked the question that had been bothering him earlier.

Li Miaozhen looked at him with some surprise, "It's rare that you could think of that."

She paused, then shook her head and said, "I don't know. As you said, such a fixation on fighting certainly doesn't align with the Heavenly Sect's principles. But our sect has its reasons. I've asked, but haven't received an answer."

In other words, the conflict between Celestial Person and Man appears to be a clash of ideologies and traditions, but there is a deeper underlying reason. And even the Holy Maiden of the Heavenly Sect is unaware of this reason. The Daoist School path is indeed very complex.

Half an hour later, they arrived at the Xu Residence.

Su Su followed behind Xu Qi'an, looking around with great satisfaction at the layout and furnishings of the Xu Residence: "Not bad at all. Living in such a grand mansion in the capital, have you embezzled a lot of money?"

"Yeah, so as long as you follow me, you'll definitely live a life of luxury from now on," Xu Qi'an joked casually.

Upon reaching the inner courtyard, they saw Lina sitting on the threshold with Xu Lingyin, each with a plate of water chestnut cake on their laps.

Lina said angrily, "Put on a horse stance! You can't eat pastries if you don't do a horse stance!"

The little boy replied, "I'm tired. I'll share half of the water chestnut cake with you, and then I'll do half of my horse stance today, okay?"

Lina: "Okay, okay."

"Big pot!"

When the little boy saw Xu Qi'an return, he shouted with delight and, with his short legs, charged forward like a dragon, bumping into Xu Qi'an's arms.

"Is she number five?" Li Miaozhen scrutinized Lina.

She was a very beautiful young woman with long, black hair that curled slightly at the ends, healthy tan skin, and eyes as clear and bright as the blue sea.

Lina also noticed Li Miaozhen, but didn't say anything, just silently watched her.

Xu Qi'an waved and said, "Lina, this is number two, the Holy Maiden of the Heavenly Sect, Li Miaozhen."

Upon hearing this, Lina's face immediately lit up with a warm smile, and she skipped over, carrying the water chestnut cake.

"Oh, so you're number two eating water chestnut cake?"

She certainly didn't seem very bright. Li Miaozhen shook her head and asked, "The journey from the Southern Frontier to the capital is long and arduous; you must have suffered quite a bit."

"Uh-huh."

Lina nodded vigorously and began to recount her arduous journey as a migrant worker in Beijing. She had been cheated out of money and tricked into doing manual labor, working tirelessly for others just for a meal.

She was also ambushed by martial arts figures who coveted her beauty with despicable sleeping potions. Fortunately, she was a member of the Gu clan and had been to the Abyss, so ordinary poisons had no effect on her.

She believed that the easiest and most enjoyable job was that of a beggar, who did nothing but sit on the street with a broken bowl and receive coins as a reward from kind-hearted people.

After hearing this, Li Miaozhen was speechless for a long time.

"Sister, you're so beautiful!"

The little boy walked up to Su Su, looked up at her with envy.

Su Su thought the child was a bit dim-witted and funny, so she made a ferocious face, baring her teeth and shouting, "I'm a ghost!"

The little boy was stunned, staring blankly at her, when suddenly he swallowed hard.

SuSu: "???"

Li Miaozhen was filled with sympathy and pity. She comforted Lina for a few moments, then turned to Xu Qi'an and said, "On my way to the capital, I found a corpse. It seems he was silenced."

"I summoned the remnant soul to inquire, and discovered something significant."

event?

Xu Qi'an frowned and said, "Let's talk in the study."

Immediately, she picked up Li Miaozhen and headed towards the study. Su Su, holding a red umbrella, followed behind them. After walking a distance, she looked back.

The little boy was still looking at her, his eyes filled with longing and aggression.

P. S.: I've been a bit out of sorts these past few days, so I need to work on the detailed outline slowly. I can't possibly finish the remaining hundreds of thousands of words in one day.