Chapter 414: Not as Fun to Tease… (2^nd Update)

Ghost Mother knew that Ye Wenxin had profound, unfathomable strength, but she had no idea where her limits lay. However, compared to facing someone like Long Qingyue or Fairy Fengya, Ghost Mother felt more inclined to endear herself to Ye Wenxin.

Ghost Mother couldn’t understand her own thoughts or mentality. Noticing more sweat appearing on Ye Wenxin’s forehead, she tried to pick up a towel to wipe it, but her hand passed right through the towel.

This moment reminded Ghost Mother that, no matter what, she was still a ghost and could never become an ordinary human. She floated in the air, watching Ye Wenxin continue with the acupuncture.

Ye Wenxin often displayed such a focused expression for many people, but it seemed she had never shown such concern for Ghost Mother. A sour feeling emerged in Ghost Mother’s heart, and when she saw Ye Wenxin finally stopping with a sigh, she drifted closer and gently pressed against Ye Wenxin’s side.

Ye Wenxin no longer wanted to move. This was the most exhausting use of the Soul Suppressing Eighteen Needles ever. She hadn’t expected that applying all eighteen needles would require one to be at the Soul Transformation stage. If not for the surplus of qi within her, she might not have been able to save Xiao Zhang.

As Ye Wenxin relaxed, she saw Ghost Mother looking at her with a pitiful expression. She could only comfort her, saying, “Be good. I can’t give you anything to eat today. You two should go and rest for now.”

Ghost Mother opened her mouth, but ultimately chose not to say anything before returning to the umbrella sword.

Ye Wenxin wiped the sweat from her forehead, surprised by the Ghost Mother’s reaction earlier. She turned to the still-present Sword Ghost and asked, “Is Gui Gui plotting some big scheme?”

Sword Ghost merely smiled and, without addressing Ye Wenxin’s question, also returned to the umbrella sword. The puzzled Ye Wenxin soon shifted her focus back to Xiao Zhang and helped her change into fresh clothes.

With her body completely cleared of corpse poison, Xiao Zhang was starting to regain her normal complexion. She would quickly recover after a few days of rest. Realizing that there were still people waiting for an explanation outside, Ye Wenxin went out and explained to Mo Ziqian what had happened.

Yangzhou City was in a state of crisis, and only Mo Niancheng could be the key to its salvation.

Mo Ziqian, learning of the true situation, listened with a serious expression and said, “With such a major issue, you should have spoken up sooner. Our Mo Clan Village will fully support you.”

Ye Wenxin gave an awkward smile and replied, “I didn’t want to cause too much alarm and spread panic among everyone. But now, the Jiangshi King moves faster and is even more cunning than I anticipated. In the end, we must rely on everyone’s strength to find Mo Niancheng before the Jiangshi King does.”

Mo Ziqian nodded, and then called her subordinates over to take Xiao Zhang to the Mo Clan Stronghold for a quiet recovery. Ye Wenxin didn’t remain idle either. First, she sent a message via carrier pigeon to inform the One Short Sect of the current situation. Then, she continued to search for any possible clues with Mo Ziqian.

To avoid causing widespread panic, Mo Ziqian simply stated that they were searching for a long-lost loved one. By the next day, Xiao Zhang was already up and about, using her Secret Guard badge to search across various regions of the Golden Age Dynasty for any sign of Mo Niancheng.

Several days passed, and Yangzhou City remained in deep trouble, while Ye Wenxin made minimal progress. This even led her to suspect that the so-called Mo Niancheng had already left the Golden Age Dynasty and gone elsewhere.

“That’s impossible. Such a charismatic figure would stand out wherever they went, and that young master had only appeared at the borders of the Golden Age Dynasty. Could he have encountered some mishap?” Mo Ziqian shared Ye Wenxin’s irritation. In the past few days, Ye Wenxin had grown tired of pretending to be Ye Liangchen, so after revealing the true situation, she openly admitted her real identity to Mo Ziqian.

Now, she had returned to dressing up as a woman, and became as close as sisters with Mo Ziqian.

“Don’t worry, Little Sister Fourth. If that person is still alive, there will definitely be some clues left behind. As long as we follow those clues, we will surely find that young master,” Ye Wenxin reassured. During lunch today, she had the rare opportunity to meet the four leaders of the Mo Clan Stronghold.

The four leaders had very different personalities. Chief was forthright and was like a champion among women. Second was gentle and soft-spoken, while Third was flirtatious and charming. The leaders, apart from Second, had rather ordinary appearances.

Ye Wenxin particularly liked Second, whose name was Mo Rou¹. True to her name, she was gentle and soft, even excessively shy. When Ye Wenxin was still pretending to be ‘Ye Liangchen’, just saying a single sentence to Mo Rou would make her blush.

After Ye Wenxin returned to her female identity, Mo Rou still blushed up to her ears whenever teased.

Just like now, with only a few extra glances from Ye Wenxin, Mo Rou’s ears had turned red all the way to the tips. Initially, Ye Wenxin thought it might be due to her own peach blossom chains acting up again, but after a few days of observation, she realized that Mo Rou acted this way around everyone except the other three leaders. She was like a timid little rabbit.

It was the first time Ye Wenxin had ever seen someone so introverted in this world, especially someone born and raised in a stronghold, which made it feel even more out of place. However, despite her shyness, Mo Rou was very clever. Lately, Xiao Zhang had been getting along well with her, and the two often discussed various matters together.

“Stop picking on Mo Rou.” Xiao Zhang noticed Ye Wenxin’s mischievous glances towards Mo Rou and lightly nudged her foot. Compared to the ambiguous relationship she shared with Ye Wenxin, Xiao Zhang felt more like she was taking care of a child who never seemed to grow up.

Xiao Zhang never talked about what had transpired during her last treatment. Although she had her doubts, she ultimately chose to believe that Ye Wenxin had reasons she couldn’t explain. However, the thought of her role shifting from protector to the one being protected still made Xiao Zhang uncomfortable.

She had thought that if she worked hard enough, she could give Ye Wenxin the whole world. But it seemed that no matter how much effort she put in, in Ye Wenxin’s eyes, she would always be just Xiao Zhang. She wouldn’t address her with any more intimate terms, like ‘Qian Qian’ or the like. Ye Wenxin seemed to be completely uninterested in romance, and these days, she hadn’t even had any physical contact with Xiao Zhang.

Xiao Zhang grew increasingly resentful the more she thought about it, but she couldn’t let it show too obviously. She feigned coughing a few times, and immediately drew Ye Wenxin’s concerned gaze. Ye Wenxin then checked Xiao Zhang’s pulse to assess her physical condition.

This was the most frequent kind of contact between the two of them. However, this time, Ye Wenxin’s expression became a bit peculiar, as if she had discovered something remarkable while checking Xiao Zhang’s pulse.

“What’s wrong with me?” Xiao Zhang, frightened by Ye Wenxin’s reaction, worried that the corpse poison was re-emerging, and couldn’t help but feel a bit nervous. Ye Wenxin quickly gave an awkward smile and explained, “It’s nothing serious, just…”

Xiao Zhang let out a breath but noticed that Ye Wenxin’s expression remained odd. Unable to resist, she said, “Just tell me the truth; I can handle it.”

Seeing the concerned looks from the others, Ye Wenxin took a bite of food to hide her awkwardness and whispered, “I’ll tell you later.”

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Footnotes:

1. 1. The Rou in Mo Rou, 莫柔, means ‘soft’. This Mo is the same Mo as Mo Niancheng. I think all the villagers share this surname no matter where they came from. ↩︎