Bloodshed

Rainwater flowed down the eaves, forming an intermittent curtain of water, which was blown in by the cold wind, slanting in like flying flowers and broken jade.

Xiangzhou is located in the southwest. Winters are cold and dry, and when it rains, it is damp and chilly, with the cold seeping into your bones.

The group sat around the campfire, where there was plenty of firewood, and the blazing flames dispelled the chill of the rainy night.

"The demon-slaying gathering convened by Aunt Chai?"

Li Lingsu's expression immediately turned strange, and she pressed, "The Demon-Slaying Assembly? Who will be slain? Has something happened to the Chai family?"

Xu Qi'an poked at the campfire, he suddenly understood why the Heavenly Sect wanted to capture the Holy Son and Holy Daughter together.

In Tianzong's eyes, Li Miaozhen's chivalrous acts were not necessarily wrong. Her real mistake lay in her inflated sense of justice and in being trapped by "love".

Similarly, Li Lingsu's real mistake was not that he slept with women everywhere. If the Holy Son were heartless and ruthless, the Heavenly Sect might not bother with his messy affairs.

His mistake was that he developed feelings for every woman he had confided in.

Upon hearing that it was related to the Chai family, the boy couldn't sit still.

"Aren't you from Zhangzhou, sir?"

Feng Xiu asked, somewhat surprised.

Xiangzhou is a prefecture under the jurisdiction of Zhangzhou. Her direct mention of people from outside Zhangzhou suggests that the so-called "Demon-Slaying Conference" is no longer limited to Xiangzhou, but is known throughout the entire Zhangzhou region.

Xu Qi'an drew the corresponding deduction, and then heard Li Lingsu reply with a smile:

"Our destination is Yongzhou, and we're only passing through Xiangzhou. We don't know much about this place."

Feng Xiu nodded in understanding, subtly scrutinizing Li Lingsu's incomparably handsome face, and said:

"More than half a month ago, a major incident occurred in the Chai family. The patriarch, Chai Jianyuan, was murdered in his mansion. The murderer was his adopted son, Chai Xian. After killing his adoptive father, who had been so kind to him, Chai Xian went berserk and killed dozens of people in the mansion before fleeing. He has been missing ever since."

"Chai Xian."

Li Lingsu murmured the name, seemingly quite familiar with the person.

Xu Qi'an added a piece of firewood and said with a smile, "Judging from what you're saying, Miss, this Chai Xian is still in Zhangzhou and hasn't left?"

This person is very perceptive. Feng Xiu was somewhat surprised and whispered:

"You are right. After committing the murder, Chai Xian not only did not flee Zhangzhou, but also claimed that he was innocent and that someone had framed him. He vowed to investigate the matter and clear his name."

"But later, murders occurred frequently in various parts of Zhangzhou, especially in Xiangzhou, where the situation was most serious. Some people witnessed him killing people and refining corpses. At first, he killed people from the martial arts world, but later even ordinary people fell victim to his cruelty. The Xiangzhou government began to intervene in the matter."

"Taking advantage of the situation, Aunt Chai convened a 'Demon-Slaying Conference,' calling on martial arts figures from all over Zhangzhou to go to Xiangzhou, join forces with the government, and together punish Chai Xian."

Wang Jun, dressed in black, coldly snorted, "These Outer Dao harm the people; everyone has the right to kill them."

The scholar Lü Wei remained silent, quietly moving closer to the crowd.

Xu Qi'an took off his water pouch, took a sip, and then added some water to the little white fox's bowl. The fox stuck out its pink little tongue and silently licked it.

The little white fox is reserved and elegant, with bright and spotless fur. Its small size and exquisite cuteness make it most likely to capture a woman's heart.

Feng Xiu stared intently, then exclaimed with delight, "What a beautiful little fox! May I hold it?"

The little white fox raised its head, about to say: No way!

Mu Nanzhi quickly picked it up and covered its mouth, saying calmly, "No!"

Feng Xiu looked disappointed.

Wang Jun, dressed in black, scoffed when his advances were rejected by the woman he admired. "It's just a fox. What's so special about it? Junior Sister Feng, I'll go to the mountains and catch one for you when the rain stops tomorrow."

Feng Xiu shook her head. "Never mind, no need to bother."

She just thought the little white fox was cute and wanted to hold it, but she didn't have the energy or interest to actually keep one as a pet.

As she spoke, she glanced at Li Lingsu again, and their eyes met. The handsome and charming man gave her a flirtatious wink.

Feng Xiu immediately looked away, her heart pounding and her face burning.

"Alas, my damned charm," Li Lingsu sighed, like a peerless powerhouse who felt isolated at the top.

Then, he heard Xu Qian's telepathic message: "Is that Aunt Chai your lover?"

How did you know that Li Lingsu was speechless and almost blurted out a question?

"I don't remember saying that," he replied telepathically.

"When you heard about the massacre at the Chai family, you were only surprised and not worried, which means you're sure your lover is safe. So I guess it was that Chai family aunt who initiated the call," Xu Qi'an said.

"Senior's insight is truly remarkable!" Li Lingsu transmitted her voice.

"What's your opinion on this case?" Xu Qi'an asked telepathically.

Li Lingsu was lost in memories, and said slowly:

"I once traveled to Zhangzhou with my junior sister Miaozhen. We met the Chai family by chance. The person leading the group was a woman with a melancholy look, like a lilac, which made people feel sorry for her."

"Zhangzhou has a well-developed water system. We met on a cruise ship. It was early spring that year, with apricot blossoms and light rain. She was wearing a light green dress, holding an oil-paper umbrella, and standing by the boat watching the rain."

"She had recently lost her husband and was depressed. I invited her for drinks, hoping she could drown her sorrows. At first, she ignored me and was cold towards me. Later, she got annoyed and even spoke rudely to me."

Lost your husband? How are you any different from that traitor Cao Cao?!

Xu Qi'an was shocked.

Later she said that there was a place called Qianjue Valley in Zhangzhou, where there was a pair of strange beasts that never separated. Near their nest grew a strange flower called "White Head". If you could get that flower, you could stay with your loved one for life and grow old together.

"If I can pick that flower, she'll drink with me."

Hearing this, Xu Qi'an slowly nodded. "You obtained that flower, and thus won the beauty's heart?"

The Holy Son shook his head:

"There is indeed a pair of strange beasts in Thousand Absolute Valley, extremely ferocious, with Gods and Devils bloodlines. Let alone a fifth-rank expert, even a fourth-rank expert wouldn't be able to handle them. There are no such flowers near the nest of the male and female beasts. She lied to me."

"But I went anyway, fought a fierce battle with the two ferocious beasts, plucked one of their tail feathers, and escaped severely wounded. I found her, gave her the tail feather, and then left."

"They left already? This isn't what I expected." Xu Qi'an frowned and transmitted his voice, "What happened next?"

Li Lingsu chuckled twice and transmitted her voice:

She chased after me, tears welling in her eyes, demanding to know why I had gone to such lengths, knowing there were no so-called rare flowers in the valley, knowing she had lied to me. Why did I still risk my life?

I said: Beautiful girl, loving you is my lifelong faith; entering your heart is my long-cherished desire; this heartfelt feeling will not change because rivers change course, nor will it be buried because mountains collapse.

Even if it's just a little joke of yours, I'd be willing to risk my life for it. Unfortunately, my girl, I can't enter your heart. So, I'm leaving here and heading far away.

She threw herself into my arms without hesitation.

"Good heavens, does the Heavenly Sect still accept disciples? I'd like to go and study there for a few years. "Xu Qi'an coldly interrupted via telepathy:

"Enough, let's get down to business."

Li Lingsu, still wanting to continue the conversation, transmitted her voice and said:

"I've met Chai Xian a few times. He's a kind-hearted person, not the kind of thief who would commit patricide and fratricide. There might be more to this story."

He hesitated, as if he wanted to say something but then stopped.

Xu Qi'an, whose mind was filled with thoughts of patricide, said, "Speak your mind."

"I want to go to the Chai family to see her and find out more about the case," Li Lingsu tentatively suggested.

Xu Qian gave him the impression of being gentle yet aloof, not the kind of person who would meddle in other people's business, so it was hard to guess what he was thinking.

Xu Qi'an nodded. "It must not exceed three days."

He was overjoyed to actually agree to Li Lingsu's request.

As night deepened, the rain began to fall softly.

People sat or lay on their sides, resting in the cold night.

The campfire dimmed, but the glowing embers still emitted heat, trying to dispel the chill.

In the silent night, the faint firelight distorted the shadows. In the south corner, the lid of the old coffin slowly opened in the silence.

A bluish-black hand emerged from the coffin, its fingernails pitch black, and pressed against the edge of the coffin.

"Clang!"

After a few seconds of silence, the coffin lid was suddenly flung off and crashed heavily to the ground with a loud thud.

A figure rose straight up from the coffin, his knees seemingly unbendable.

The loud noise woke up the group who were spending the night in the deserted temple. Wang Jun, the man in black, and Feng Xiu, who was dressed in a neat short-sleeved outfit, were the first to wake up and instinctively reached for the weapons beside them.

"Clang!"

The swords and sabers were drawn simultaneously.

Exhausted from several days of travel, Mu Nanzhi rubbed her eyes after being woken up and opened them to look around.

Wang Jun and Feng Xiu, weapons in hand, stood with their backs to the crowd, facing south toward the coffin. Inside the eerie coffin stood a figure, hidden in the darkness, only a rough outline visible.

The two sides appear to be in a standoff.

At this moment, the figure in the coffin gently leaped out. His leaping posture was strange; his knees seemed not to bend, and he jumped straight up.

The firelight illuminated the man's appearance: white eyes, bluish-black skin covered in ulcers, sparse hair, dressed in tattered clothes, and a stench of decay wafted from him.

This isn't a person; it's clearly a corpse, a moving corpse.

Mu Nanzhi's pupils dilated slightly, her expression froze, and a few seconds later, she let out a high-decibel scream.

"Ah"

The little white fox also let out a childish scream, stood up on its hind legs, and clung to Xu Qi'an's legs with its two front paws, trembling.

The screams seemed to provoke it; it let out a chilling roar, sprang to life, and pounced on the crowd.

The scholar Lü Wei screamed and fled to a corner in fright.

"It's a blood corpse!"

Wang Jun, dressed in black, let out a low roar and slashed vertically with his long sword, intending to cut the blood corpse in two.

"A Blood Corpse is an evil creature that survives by devouring the Essence Blood of living people. Above the Blood Corpse is the Iron Corpse, whose defensive power is equivalent to a sixth-rank copper-skinned iron-boned warrior. Back then, the ancestors of the Chai family relied on thirteen Iron Corpses to become invincible in Xiangzhou."

Li Lingsu explained telepathically.

The blood corpse clasped its hands together, clamping the blade between them. Wang Jun tried to pull it out several times, but couldn't.

The power of this blood corpse far exceeded his expectations.

Feng Xiujiao shouted, took two quick steps, and delivered a straight kick to the blood corpse's chest. Bang! A cloud of dust rose up.

The blood corpse's body was curled up like a shrimp, but its feet were firmly planted on the ground, without moving an inch.

The next second, it straightened up and sent Feng Xiu flying, then it swung its arm sideways and swept Wang Jun away.

The two inexperienced young people fell in different directions, groaning in pain.

Wang Jun was struck in the arm by the blood corpse, fracturing his upper arm bone. He endured the pain, circulating his inner energy to alleviate it while picking up his sword. Just as he was about to continue fighting, his legs suddenly gave way, and his Dantian felt like it was being stabbed.

"Ah"

On the other side, Feng Xiu seemed to be experiencing a similar situation, her face pale and weak from the pain.

He'd been poisoned. Wang Jun's heart skipped a beat; he immediately understood his predicament.

"Brother Wang, Miss Feng, you truly are a master from a prestigious sect. You were hit by my muscle-weakening powder, and it's only now that the effects are taking hold."

In the corner, the scholar Lü Wei emerged from the shadows with a smile and came to the campfire.

His face was handsome, but the gentleness he had shown before was gone; in the firelight, he even looked somewhat ferocious.

"It's you?!"

Feng Xiu was taken aback, completely unprepared for how things would unfold.

"You're the one who raises corpses, no wonder you wouldn't let me chop down the coffin earlier, was it because you hadn't had a chance to poison it yet?"

Wang Jun, leaning on his knife, staggered to his feet, his face ashen.

Lu Wei nodded and said, "That's right. My blood corpse is not yet fully developed. Although killing you two is no problem, it won't be able to catch you if you want to escape."

Why did you do that?

Feng Xiu's cultivation was inferior to Wang Jun's, and she could no longer stand up.

Just as Lü Wei was about to answer, he suddenly heard the blue-robed man, who was sitting cross-legged by the campfire and unable to move, speak up:

"Of course, it's for refining the blood corpse and improving one's cultivation level."

Lu Wei scrutinized him for a few moments, confirming that he was just an ordinary person and posed no threat, then smiled and said, "That's right."

Xu Qi'an continued, "So you disguised yourself as a scholar, loitering around here, deceiving passersby? Judging from the many embers of the campfire here, you must have harmed quite a few people."

Feng Xiu and Wang Jun's faces instantly turned ugly; they were just passersby who had been tricked.

With a smile on his face, Lü Wei scrutinized the man in blue once more.

"This road is a frequent site of deaths, and the government doesn't seem to care?" Li Lingsu asked, poking at the campfire.

"Things are different now. That Chai Xian is killing people and refining corpses everywhere, causing a huge uproar in the city. We rogue Rogue Cultivator are just following behind him, getting a taste of the spoils, and in the end, we just shift the blame onto him."

Lu Wei's eyes darkened, as if he was unwilling to waste any more words, and he said, "Let's have a snack on you ordinary people first."

He manipulated the blood corpse and walked towards Li Lingsu.

Why was I the first one to die? Was it because I was too handsome?

Li Lingsu was somewhat angry.

"Ordinary people don't have much use for their Essence Blood, but over time, it can accumulate. I see that you are all in good health, and your Qi and Blood are extremely abundant compared to ordinary people."

As Lü Wei spoke, the blood corpse had already leaped in front of Li Lingsu, opened its foul-smelling mouth, and viciously bit at the Holy Son.

Li Lingsu shook her head, stepped aside to avoid it, and then stood up, took off the jade hairpin that held her hair in place, and gently tossed it out.

The jade hairpin shot out like lightning, piercing half of the blood corpse's face. A hideous black Gu worm emerged from the tip of the hairpin, seemingly imbued with life. It turned and returned to Li Lingsu's side.

The blood-soaked corpse staggered forward two steps, then collapsed to the ground, lifeless.

"What?!"

Lu Wei's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. His blood corpse, which he had painstakingly refined for years and was even more powerful than Qi Refining Realm, was so easily destroyed by the other party.

Shock, astonishment, and disbelief were the first emotions that surged up, followed by fear and anxiety, and cold sweat poured out.

It's obvious he's met a true master.

Perhaps in the next moment, he will become a corpse, just like the blood corpse.

Feng Xiu and Wang Jun were both surprised, delighted, and bewildered at their narrow escape. However, compared to Wang Jun, who was simply overjoyed at escaping death, the beautiful Feng Xiu gazed longingly at Li Lingsu.

He was so powerful.

Xu Qi'an beckoned, took the jade hairpin, stared at the Gu worm at the tip, and shook his head, saying:

"The mutated corpse gu isn't authentic enough."

As he spoke, Lü Wei's expression underwent a series of changes. Finally, he made up his mind and rushed out of the dilapidated temple at an extremely fast speed, attempting to escape.

"Call out!"

The jade hairpin shot out with a whoosh, piercing the chest of the scholar Lü Wei, drawing out a stream of bright red blood, and he collapsed to the ground.

Having witnessed Lü Wei being killed like dirt, Feng Xiu and Wang Jun took a deep breath, suppressing the complex emotions surging within them, and spoke with utmost respect:

"Thank you both so much for saving my life."

Xu Qi'an threw a piece of firewood into the fire and sighed, "Has Xiangzhou become this chaotic?"

Feng Xiu pursed her lips. "When I was in the sect, I only heard that Chai Xian was causing trouble in Xiangzhou and other counties, making things very uneasy. Now it seems that some of these murders were caused by unscrupulous people like Lü Wei taking advantage of the chaos."

"Brother Wang and I trusted the wrong people. If it weren't for the presence of the two seniors in the temple today, we probably wouldn't be alive."

She thanked him again for saving her life, but her beautiful eyes were mostly focused on Li Lingsu, believing that this handsome man was the core of the small team.

Li Lingsu nodded slightly. "Dispose of the blood corpse, continue to rest, and set off tomorrow."

Mu Nanzhi watched as Wang Jun dragged the blood-soaked corpse away, then turned her head in terror and glared at Xu Qi'an:

"Did you already know there was a ghost in the coffin?"

Xu Qi'an shook his head:

"I don't know, but there's definitely something strange about having a coffin in a dilapidated temple. People often stop here to rest, and the tables have all been chopped up and burned, but the coffin is perfectly intact. Such a glaring flaw is obvious at a glance."

Later, the scholar secretly threw sleeping powder into the campfire, but he couldn't hide it from the poison expert.

Mu Nanzhi snorted, then lay down with Bai Ji in her arms, facing Xu Qi'an. The curves of her waist and hips were extremely alluring.

"It's uncomfortable, don't hold me while I sleep."

The little white fox struggled.

Xu Qi'an lay down on his side and put his arm around Mu Nanzhi's slender waist.

Her body stiffened for a moment, but she neither resisted nor spoke.

The next day, early morning.

When Mu Nanzhi woke up, she found herself curled up in Xu Qi'an's arms. She had been frightened the night before, and when she fell asleep again, she subconsciously snuggled up to him, seeking a sense of security.

She was like a young girl who had never married, her face slightly flushed, yet she forced herself to pretend that nothing was wrong.

Before long, everyone woke up one after another. Xu Qi'an boiled a pot of water, first giving each person a bowl of hot water with cold steamed buns, and then using the remaining hot water to brush their teeth and wash their faces.

The group set off together. During the journey, Xu Qi'an asked:

What are some of the local delicacies of Xiangzhou?

Li Lingsu thought for a moment and said, "The cured meat is quite good. Once we get to the city, I'll take you to try it."

Xu Qi'an looked at Mu Nanzhi and saw that she was interested, so he smiled and said, "Okay."

Feng Xiu and Wang Jun followed behind somewhat awkwardly, not daring to speak first. However, when they heard Li Lingsu respectfully address the man in blue, they exchanged a surprised glance.

He addressed the man as "senior," his attitude quite respectful. Feng Xiuyuan's eyes widened slightly. Had she guessed wrong? Was this man in blue the key figure?

Before noon, the group arrived at Xiangzhou City. The city walls were three zhang high, and there were few pedestrians. They were dressed plainly, and very few people were seen in fine clothes and riding spirited horses.

Xiangzhou was not wealthy, even less so than Leizhou, which was located on the frontier.

After entering the city, Feng Xiu and Wang Jun bid farewell and left.

Li Lingsu led the way, with Xu Qi'an following behind, leading the mare. Half an hour later, they stopped outside a large manor.

A plaque reading "Chai Mansion" hangs above the lacquered red gate.

The young and strong gatekeeper stepped forward, cupped his hands, and asked, "Which sect do you gentlemen belong to?"

Li Lingsu replied, "I belong to no sect or school."

Do you have an invitation?

"No." Li Lingsu shook her head.

The gatekeeper frowned, about to speak, when he heard the handsome young man say:

"I'm an old friend of Chai Xing'er. Go in and announce that Li Lingsu requests an audience."

PS: I felt sleepy and weak all day today, and my computer screen was blurry.