Chapter 246
Chapter 246
In a long, drawn-out dream, a shadow followed behind her, impossible to shake off.
Whenever she turned, she could sense him, yet he never dared approach.
“Why are you following me?” she stopped to ask.
He remained hidden in the shadows and did not answer.
So she kept walking, and he kept following. She did not know how much time passed.
The shadow drew a little closer.
She could roughly make out his form, the outline of a man.
But whenever she tried to see him more clearly, everything around her immediately sank into darkness…
Xia Ximo woke from the dream. It was already light outside the window.
Her throat felt very dry, and she could not help coughing.
The cough pulled at the place where the sword had pierced her, making her draw a sharp breath of pain.
Just then, someone knocked softly at the door.
“Miss Mo.”
Ren Fengjue’s figure stood outside.
Xia Ximo answered, “Come in.”
Though she had slept, her limbs still felt weak. She picked up a soft pillow beside her and placed it behind her back.
As the door opened, it brought a crisp chill. At a glance, she could see that heavy snow was still falling outside.
Ren Fengjue shook the snow from his clothes before stepping in.
He carried a food box. “Daoist Yan cooked some porridge this morning.”
Xia Ximo was puzzled. “I thought the villa had no food left?”
Ren Fengjue smiled. “We went to Liangzhou City and bought some provisions. We stopped at an apothecary for medicine as well.”
Liangzhou City was still several dozen li away.
The round trip would take hours.
And it was snowing.
Without betraying her thoughts, Xia Ximo asked, “What time is it?”
Ren Fengjue replied, “It should be between seven and nine in the morning.”
As he answered, he placed the steaming medicinal porridge on the table beside her, along with several medicinal plasters.
“After breakfast, apply these plasters where you were injured. They should ease the pain.”
But Xia Ximo asked, “You went to Liangzhou City last night?”
Ren Fengjue explained, “When I left the villa last night, I saw our carriage. To test whether we could get out, I walked around a little.”
“And that little walk took you all the way to Liangzhou City?”
Her face remained calm, but there was something unreadable in her tone.
As perceptive as Ren Fengjue was, how could he miss the change in her emotions?
Yet he deliberately said, “It was not very far.”
Xia Ximo’s gaze passed over him, but she did not answer.
Ren Fengjue chuckled softly. “Eat the porridge while it is hot. As for the plasters…”
Without revealing anything, Xia Ximo picked them up. “I will try them in a little while.”
Meanwhile, Yu Lang, Yan Zhengchu, and Axia were also having breakfast in the villa’s hall.
Yu Lang said to Axia, “With all that snow, you did not stop him? You actually let him go alone?”
Axia replied quietly, “I could not stop him. He rode off by himself.”
Yan Zhengchu smiled. “He thought the carriage was too slow.”
Glancing toward the rear courtyard, Yu Lang sighed. “I think the Young Marquis’s feelings for Miss Xia grow stronger every day. But Miss Xia…”
Axia said, “Miss Xia is cold to everyone. With the Young Marquis… she seems much the same.”
Yan Zhengchu shook his head. “There is still a difference. She says more to him than to us.”
“Exactly,” Yu Lang agreed. “Ten sentences for the Young Marquis, half a sentence for us at most.”
He had barely finished when he caught sight of Ren Fengjue from the corner of his eye.
So he covered his lips and coughed lightly.
The Young Marquis was clearly in a good mood. A faint smile lingered on his face as he approached.
When he reached the hall, all three immediately greeted him.
Ren Fengjue answered absentmindedly.
Axia stood. “Young master, you have not had breakfast yet.”
Only at the reminder did Ren Fengjue remember. He found a place and sat down.
Axia served him some porridge. “You have not slept all night, young master. Perhaps you should rest for a while afterward.”
But Ren Fengjue said, “I am not sleepy. We will see how Miss Xia is later before deciding when to leave.”
So Miss Xia still came first in everything?
No one dared comment.
But Yu Lang could no longer contain his curiosity. “My lord, you still have not told us what happened in the Illusionary Realm last night. How did the villa’s young lady… disappear?”
After considering his words, Ren Fengjue gave a simplified account of what had happened.
Everyone listened in astonishment, including Yan Zhengchu.
“You mean… even the Ghost King of the Underworld Administration appeared?”
Daoist Yan drew a sharp breath.
Yu Lang hurriedly asked, “What does the Ghost King look like?”
Before Ren Fengjue could answer, Yan Zhengchu said, “They say his face must not be seen, and no one has ever seen it.”
Ren Fengjue remained calm. “Dark mist surrounded him when he appeared. I could only faintly make out part of a mask.”
“That would be right.”
Yan Zhengchu asked, “He is the Lord of the Netherworld, after all. Who would dare look him directly in the face?”
A barely perceptible smile flickered across Ren Fengjue’s face.
He did not say that there really was such a person…
Yu Lang asked again, “You said the Attendant of the Cold Abyss stole the Book of Life and Death. For whom?”
Ren Fengjue paused, then grew serious. “Jiang Ting, the Marquis of Zhenbei.”
“What?”
Hearing that it was such an important figure, everyone’s expression changed dramatically.
None of these younger men had met the Marquis of Zhenbei, but they had certainly heard much of his deeds.
He was said to be brave and skilled in war, invincible in battle, with not a single defeat in his life.
When the former dynasty collapsed, the small neighboring states had watched like hungry tigers.
For those years, war had been constant and the world in chaos.
Without the Marquis of Zhenbei leading troops to defend the country, who knew whether Great Qi would have today’s prosperity?
Yet such an imposing figure of righteousness had a past as bizarre as this?
Ren Fengjue continued, “The Lord of the Underworld said that the Ghost God matter we encountered in Beiding County is connected to him as well.”
“Or rather, he may be the Ghost God of legend.”
Yan Zhengchu could not help speculating. “Then many of the things that happened in the capital, including Mount Yunhe… are all connected to him?”
Ren Fengjue nodded slowly. “Most likely.”
Yu Lang felt cold sweat pouring down him. “If that is true, it is terrifying. He… has lived more than a hundred years? With power like that, even if we know the truth, how can we fight him?”
Everyone fell silent.
But Ren Fengjue suddenly remembered something the Lord of the Underworld had said to Mogu: he was connected to the reason she entered the Nine Abysses Prison.
Mogu had spent a full hundred years in that place. Had it really been because she was guilty of the gravest evil?
No.
Her nature might be cold, but she was certainly no evildoer. What terrible injustice lay hidden in this?
Ren Fengjue’s expression abruptly chilled, his gaze resolute. “If that is the truth, we will fight him to the end.”