Chapter 114
Chapter 114
In front of South River Courtyard.
A woman moved gracefully through the night.
When she reached the gate, she lifted her head and glanced at the three words on the plaque-South River Courtyard-then unconsciously let out a deep breath.
A simple little courtyard enclosed by a wicker fence looked plainly out of place beside the grand, imposing Marquis Mansion. It was proof enough of Marquis Renxuan’s partiality toward this younger brother of his.
No one had lived here for more than ten years, yet the Marquis Mansion still sent people to tend to it every morning and evening.
Not only was the interior kept spotless, even the flowers and plants the former owner had once planted had been preserved and cared for all this time.
Bai Qingshuang calmly pushed open the courtyard gate and stepped lightly inside.
Though there was no one around, she moved with great caution, as if afraid of disturbing something-or guarding against something.
After crossing the courtyard, she gave her sleeve a gentle flick, and the door swung open in response.
But she was in no hurry to enter. Instead, she carefully observed her surroundings.
There was only one house here.
Although it occupied a broad area, there were far too many things piled inside.
There were five cabinets alone, not to mention the heap of trunks and baskets stacked up like a mountain.
Searching for something under these circumstances was no different from looking for a needle in the sea.
In truth, she had already come here once ten years ago.
However, at the time, she had yet to wash the Yin-Sha Qi on her body completely “clean.”
As a result, before she had even gotten close, the chaotic assortment of ritual artifacts inside had nearly beaten her soul to pieces.
Bai Qingshuang frowned slightly. To keep herself from touching the “things” in the room, she lifted the hem of her skirt and crept forward on tiptoe.
Her gaze slowly swept over the piles of objects, while a thought flashed through her mind…
That sword was no ordinary object. There was no possible way it would be left exposed at random.
But Ren Yao was an abnormal man who did things without rhyme or reason. One could not use an ordinary person’s logic to imagine what he might have been thinking…
Precisely because of that, Bai Qingshuang did not dare overlook a single corner.
After searching for a while, however, she sensed something and turned to look outside.
Someone had actually followed her.
The corner of Bai Qingshuang’s lips curled up at once.
Interesting.
With a sweep of her sleeve, she turned into a wisp of smoke and drifted into the air.
The person outside the door no longer saw her figure. After observing from the shadows for a while, he climbed in through the window.
His movements were extremely agile. He was clearly trained.
The wisp of smoke Bai Qingshuang had transformed into deliberately drifted closer, coiling around him.
He seemed somewhat surprised and waved his hand to drive it away.
Who would have thought the smoke would wrap tighter and tighter around him, making him feel as if he were suffocating?
Yet in that lightning-fast instant, a bagua mirror hanging inside the room reflected a beam of golden light, which happened to shine directly onto the man.
The moment that wisp of smoke was struck by the golden light, it was flung out of the room.
Bai Qingshuang returned to human form and tumbled miserably into a patch of flowers.
She brushed off her clothes and was just about to get up when she discovered that after the corner of her robe had touched the soil, it had somehow caught fire on its own.
So frightened that she turned into a streak of smoke again, she plunged straight into the lake.
Inside South River Courtyard, Adong heard the noise and looked out the window, only to see the flowers and plants in the garden swaying gently beneath the moonlight.
Everything was utterly still.
“Where did she go?”
Puzzled, he looked around again.
It seemed he really had lost her this time.
Bai Qingshuang climbed out of the lake, feeling rather humiliated.
Who knew what that brat Ren Yao had buried in the courtyard? Even the soil contained something that could “treat ghosts.”
She had not even seen the shadow of the sword, yet she had reduced herself to such a sorry state.
Damn it.
She was still gritting her teeth, wishing she could raze the whole of Mount Yunhe to the ground, when a bright, luminous white beam of light suddenly broke through the sky.
She fixed her eyes on it, and her legs went faintly weak.
If she was not mistaken, that was sword light.
Could it be that Ren Yao had not hidden the sword in South River Courtyard at all?
It was in the North Courtyard!
Bai Qingshuang’s heart leaped with joy. At once, she turned back into a wisp of smoke and drifted toward the North Courtyard.
Yet the moment she reached its gates, her expression froze again.
“You?”
In the courtyard of the North Courtyard, Yan Zhengchu stood with his hands clasped behind his back, dressed in Taoist robes. When he saw Bai Qingshuang, his face tightened as well. “Well, well. So you really are hiding here, you ghost!”
During their battle in Tongtian Pavilion at Fu Tower that day, they had been evenly matched, barely fighting each other to a draw.
Bai Qingshuang had only managed to slip away after taking advantage of a moment of distraction and launching a sneak attack.
Now that she had run straight into him, face-to-face, it was truly infuriating.
Without another word, Yan Zhengchu summoned his Jade Sword.
Bai Qingshuang looked at the sword and wondered, Did that flash of sword light just now come from him?
No.
With his current Taoist cultivation, the Jade Sword could not possibly possess such overwhelming force…
Suddenly, she smiled with soft, seductive charm. “Little Taoist, why rush into a fight? Don’t you want to know where everyone in the Marquis Mansion has gone?”
Yan Zhengchu had been anxious about exactly that. His thick brows lifted sharply. “Was this your doing from the shadows?”
“Speak! What exactly have you done here, ghost?”
Bai Qingshuang clicked her tongue twice in admiration. “And here I thought Master Tianji’s eldest disciple would know better. How shallow your experience is…”
That did not sit well with Yan Zhengchu.
But on second thought, this trip down the mountain in search of the Soul-Nurturing Pearl was his first true training journey.
Calling him inexperienced was not entirely wrong.
Even so, he had long since memorized his Grandmaster’s Demon-Slaying Notes from cover to cover. In a way, he had read through every deed of his Grandmaster’s life.
“Enough of your mystifying nonsense with this Daoist Master. Today, I will beat you until your soul scatters into nothing!”
The moment he finished speaking, he sent a spell flying straight at Bai Qingshuang.
However, she did not meet it head-on. Instead, she turned into mist and nimbly dodged through the air.
As she evaded him, she said, “Do you still remember the name of Mount Yunhe’s founding Grandmaster?”
That question made Yan Zhengchu’s hands pause slightly.
Something was off.
Why would she suddenly ask about his Grandmaster’s name?
“How dare you! You think you’re worthy of asking my Grandmaster’s name?”
With a flash of irritation, Yan Zhengchu unleashed one ghost-subduing spell after another.
Who would have thought Bai Qingshuang would suddenly say, “I have met your Grandmaster.”
“…”
For a moment, Yan Zhengchu could not tell whether she was insulting him or whether she truly had met him…
“A hundred years ago, he once suppressed a pair of Vengeful Ghost at Mount Yan…”
Mount Yan? Vengeful Ghost?
Yan Zhengchu’s mind went clear all at once.
His master had once told him that it was precisely because the Grandmaster had subdued the Mount Yan Evil Ghosts that his name became known throughout the world.
Yan Zhengchu could not help taking a step back.
Was this some kind of joke? A Vengeful Ghost of that level was something a green little Taoist like him could run into?
But in the next instant, Yan Zhengchu sensed something was wrong.
“Don’t tell me you’re going to say you’re one of those Mount Yan Evil Ghosts?”
“If that were true, would I still be alive right now?”
“You’re clearly spouting ghostly lies to deceive me!”
Seeing that the little Taoist did not believe her, Bai Qingshuang grew somewhat annoyed as well.
If this had been a hundred years ago, crushing him would have been as easy as crushing an ant.
But after being suppressed beneath Mount Yan for a full century, her soul power had been scattered away. How could she compare to what she once was?
She did not want to return to those old days of stealing Yin Soul to eat in the underworld…
Things were quite good as they were now, but they still were not enough.
So there was one thing she absolutely had to accomplish!
Just as the ghost and the Taoist became locked in battle in the North Courtyard, the ground beneath their feet suddenly shook violently, as though something was about to burst out from below.
Bai Qingshuang’s expression changed slightly. With a sweep of her long sleeve, the door to a nearby room flew open, and she instantly turned into smoke and slipped inside.
Seeing this, Yan Zhengchu cast a Tracking Talisman and followed close behind.