Chapter 60.1

The night was dark and windy, with the bright full moon obscured by thick clouds, casting the land into darkness. A lamp flickered by the roadside, swaying in the wind and casting a faint shadow. The person holding the lamp, seen from behind, was a slender girl in a long, pink, soft gauze dress, with wide sleeves gently fluttering and the hem of her skirt flying. Her long black hair cascaded over her shoulders, and only by looking at her graceful back could one tell she was as beautiful as a fairy.

The shadows of the trees swayed lightly, and a man quietly emerged from behind a tree. He was disheveled, with tattered clothes, and his exposed arms and feet looked ulcerated as if he had some disease. From the front, his face was even more hideous, with triangular eyes and a face full of acne, so terrifying that he could scare people to death on the street. He hunched over, looked around for a long time, and saw no one around. Then he approached the girl holding the lamp by the roadside. His footsteps made no sound, and his figure moved like a ghost in the wind, quickly reaching the girl’s back.

At the same time, the moon peeked out from the clouds, casting a clear light on the man’s ugly face.

“Heh heh…” He grinned, revealing a row of sharp teeth, his blood-red tongue flicking out to lick his lips. In a hoarse voice, he said, “Miss, are you waiting for me here alone?”

The girl heard the voice, her figure swayed, and her shoulders seemed to tremble slightly.

Just like that, the ugly man thought. Next, she would turn around, be scared out of her wits, scream sharply, and tremble all over. At that moment, her blood would boil, becoming extremely sweet and delicious, especially the blood of young girls, which was pure and fresh.

Just as he was thinking, the girl in front of him slowly turned around. However, unlike the man’s imagination, when the graceful girl turned her head, she revealed a face that belonged to a young man. This face looked about seventeen or eighteen, with handsome and well-defined features and a darker complexion, as if tanned from years under the sun. Strangely, his eyes were blood-red, and his canines were sharper than usual, with a violent and brutal aura that even the pink dress couldn’t hide.

“How did you know I was waiting for you?” he asked, his voice clear and youthful.

“Ah—!” A miserable scream came from the man’s mouth. He was so frightened that his legs gave way, and he fell to the ground, unable to stand up despite kicking his legs twice. His body convulsed as if he was about to faint.

The young man, seemingly at the end of his patience, casually tossed the lantern aside, revealing a pair of sharp black claws. He stepped forward a few paces, grabbed the man’s head, and slammed it into the ground, pressing it into the dirt, ready to crush his skull with a squeeze of his arm.

“Hey!” A clear shout came from not far away, and at the same time, a chain with a sharp sickle attached to it was thrown over, aiming straight for the young man’s arm. He had to release the man and use his claws to block the sickle, then flipped back to dodge, showing an impatient expression.

A woman in a white dress appeared, sticking a yellow paper talisman on the forehead of the ugly man on the ground, who immediately fell silent as if dead. She recited, “The one hundred and thirty-ninth.”

The chain and sickle were retracted, falling into the hands of a man in black, who nervously checked it repeatedly. Finding no issues, he quickly walked over and said, “Miss Xiaoqian, how many more to go?”

“One hundred and sixty-one more to go,” Nie Xiaoqian said as she collected the ugly man with the yellow paper talisman on the ground. She turned to the boy in the pink dress standing nearby and scolded, “If you don’t want to work, then stop causing trouble. If you had killed him just now, wouldn’t we have wasted an hour?”

“When did I say I was going to kill him?” the boy retorted, tearing off his shirt to reveal a lean, muscular body. He snorted, “I just wanted to touch his head. What’s wrong with that? Is that not allowed?”

Nie Xiaoqian sneered, “Do you think we can’t see through you?”

“Come on, come on, don’t argue. Harmony brings wealth,” Black Impermanence, standing in the middle, tried to mediate. He quietly advised Nie Xiaoqian, “Miss Xiaoqian, don’t be angry. His Highness Hundred Crow didn’t really intend to kill him. Next time, don’t use the sickle to attack His Highness. This soul-reaping sickle is a public property of the underworld. If it gets damaged again…”

Black Impermanence remembered the last time the mourning stick and soul-reaping sickle were damaged, he and White Impermanence were fined a year’s worth of yin salary. All the money they had saved from their hard work was handed over. If it got damaged again, he couldn’t afford it.

Thinking of this, he put away the soul-reaping sickle, holding it tightly to prevent Nie Xiaoqian from snatching it when he wasn’t paying attention.

Nie Xiaoqian said, “If I hadn’t stopped him in time, this evil spirit would have been killed by him, and we would have been wasting our efforts here. I really don’t know why you came along.”

Hundred Crow irritably replied, “Do you think I wanted to come?”

“Then why don’t you go back?” Nie Xiaoqian sneered. “Let Emperor Qingchao take you back so you won’t cause trouble here.”

After just a few words, the two started arguing again, their quarrel echoing through the silent night. Black Impermanence tried to mediate but failed, silently stepping aside to watch.

From afar, Xue Ming heard the sound of the argument. Nie Xiaoqian’s sharp voice was evident in the open space, repeatedly saying, “Let Emperor Qingchao take you back.”

She materialized in the wind, landing on the ground, and asked, “It’s only been a short while. How are you arguing again?”

Jiang Xing circled around her twice, then folded its wings and landed, standing obediently by her leg.

Seeing her, Black Impermanence’s face lit up with joy as if seeing a lifeline. He hurried forward and bowed, saying, “Lord Xue.”

“Boss Xue!” Nie Xiaoqian’s eyes lit up as she floated over to complain, “We’ve been waiting here for a long time to lure out a Chimei, and Hundred Crow almost killed it. The underworld has given us many quotas, and it’s not easy to catch each one. Yet, he’s causing trouble here.”

Hundred Crow let out a heavy snort, sitting cross-legged on the side. Nie Xiaoqian’s words had hit a sore spot, and he was now so angry that his face had turned dark, unwilling to speak further.

Back then, he had sneaked down the mountain to cause trouble in the ghost realm and was severely punished by Emperor Qingchao when he was brought back. Now, his spiritual power was greatly diminished, and he was no longer the powerful Hundred Crow Ghost King he once was. Qingchao often assigned him to do small, tedious tasks in the underworld to atone for his past misdeeds.

Today was the Mid-Autumn Festival, a time when yin energy was strong, and evil spirits roamed the human world. Although the Heavenly Thunder had previously struck down ten thousand ghosts and shattered the ghost realm, as long as people died in the human world, new vengeful spirits would continue to be born. Therefore, the Mid-Autumn Festival remained the busiest time for the underworld. The underworld would send many ghost officers to the human world to capture wandering souls and evil spirits. Nie Xiaoqian had been recruited by the underworld and became one of the many ghost officers. Due to her involvement in the Heavenly Thunder incident, she was warmly welcomed upon returning to the underworld. Whenever they had free time, other ghost officers would come to ask her about the events of that time.

At first, Nie Xiaoqian patiently recounted the events a few times. Later, she grew tired and began to be perfunctory. Eventually, the ghost officers started offering her yin salary to hear the details, so she honed her storytelling skills in the underworld. She divided the story into several chapters, telling one each day. After finishing the story in a few days, she would start over, vividly captivating the ghost officers, who became so engrossed that they neglected their duties. In just a year, she earned a considerable amount of money, but this situation caught the attention of the higher-ups, who confiscated her earnings and punished her by assigning her to fieldwork with Black and White Impermanence.

This Mid-Autumn Festival, Black and White Impermanence were assigned three hundred quotas. Nie Xiaoqian was already filled with resentment, and Hundred Crow almost ruined things again. After several days of hard work, they had only captured one hundred and thirty-nine spirits, leaving her full of frustration.

Seeing the tense atmosphere, Xue Ming gently intervened, saying, “Don’t worry, I have captured sixty spirits. You can take them back to report.”

Nie Xiaoqian’s face lit up with joy, and she bowed to Xue Ming, saying, “Boss Xue, you are truly a living Bodhisattva!”

Xue Ming smiled and replied, “No need for that. I came here today to help you.”

Black Impermanence looked around and, seeing no one else with Xue Ming, asked, “Where is Honorable Lord Yan?”

Xue Ming replied, “He met his junior brother. They are chatting. I heard you arguing here, so I came to check.”

It had been a year since the Heavenly Thunder struck down the evil spirits, and it was now the Mid-Autumn Festival again. After receiving the heavenly seal, Yan Yuhe and Xue Ming had been traveling in the human world. Yan Yuhe was sealed as a Martial God and was sometimes summoned by the heavenly realm to deal with evil spirits. Xue Ming accompanied him and, under Yan Yuhe’s deliberate guidance, began to cultivate and learn to control her celestial power.

Xue Ming had no achievements in the heavenly realm, and her previous life was that of a great demon who harmed the human world. However, when the heavenly thunder struck, it did not include her, leaving her a chance to live. The gods of the heavenly realm, wary of her ghost king bloodline, decided to enlighten her. In essence, it was a form of recruitment, fearing she might cause trouble in the future. They gave her a position, making her one of the heavenly beings, though she held no official title and was a wandering immortal.

Over the past year, Xue Ming made little progress in her cultivation. She had always heard Yan Yuhe casually mention the difficulties of cultivation, but only after trying it herself did she realize that the challenges were not just physical but also involved cultivating the mind and character. Even swearing was forbidden, and dwelling too much on dark thoughts could lead to inner demons.

For someone like Xue Ming, who was filled with resentment, cursing her boss and colleagues was a common mental activity. She was used to cursing people in her mind, which hindered her progress in cultivating her mind, to the point where even Yan Yuhe sighed and advised her to refrain from such thoughts.

Xue Ming thought it was impossible. How could any normal person resist cursing others in their mind?

She also discovered something curious: Yan Yuhe had plenty of mental activities. He often compared his junior brother to a reincarnated foolish pig in his mind, yet his cultivation was unaffected. According to him, this was not cursing but merely stating facts.

Xue Ming: “…” She couldn’t understand cultivation.

Despite being stuck in cultivating her mind for a long time, thanks to Yan Yuhe’s persistent transfer of yang energy—actually, it couldn’t be called transferring yang energy anymore, as their intimate relations after her enlightenment counted as dual cultivation—her body fully recovered in just a few days. The benefits of dual cultivation were significant, and now Xue Ming could use some minor celestial arts, such as flying, earth escape, changing size, and shape-shifting.

In July, when the yin energy was strong, Xue Ming and Yan Yuhe walked around exorcising evil spirits. They happened to run into Nie Xiaoqian and her group during the day. Previously, Xue Ming had visited the underworld with Yan Yuhe a few times and knew that Nie Xiaoqian had become a storyteller to earn money. Xue Ming had advised her to stop, warning that such slacking off would be severely punished if discovered by the boss. However, Nie Xiaoqian didn’t believe it, and now her earnings had indeed been confiscated, and she was punished to capture three hundred evil spirits in the human world.

Xue Ming thought that Nie Xiaoqian was once her subordinate. Every time they met over the past year, Nie Xiaoqian eagerly came over to chat. Moreover, Xue Ming and Yan Yuhe had been exorcising evil spirits, so she decided to stay and assist them.

The group split up to act separately. Jiang Xing followed Xue Ming closely, with a strong ability to track evil spirits. Once it smelled evil energy, it would let out a crane call and lead Xue Ming to chase it. Yan Yuhe dealt with the more dangerous and heavily evil spirits, so throughout the day, Xue Ming didn’t see him much.

They had just met, and coincidentally, Liu Mengyuan was also there. He carried a flag on his shoulder and held a bell in one hand, walking slowly down the street while muttering to himself, looking like a swindling charlatan. Yan Yuhe watched him from the shadows for a while without being noticed. Then Yan Yuhe said, “I can’t let him tarnish the reputation of the Taixu Sect,” and strode over. Seeing his senior brother, Liu Mengyuan was so frightened that his legs went weak. At this moment, Xue Ming, who was watching the commotion, heard the argument and came over.

Just as he was thinking, Yan Yuhe had already grabbed Liu Mengyuan and brought him over. With a casual flick, Liu Mengyuan stumbled forward a few steps before steadying himself and turning back, saying, “Senior brother, I told you, I’m not pretending to be a charlatan to deceive people! Why don’t you believe me?”

Yan Yuhe’s expression was cold as he glanced at him without responding.

Liu Mengyuan had no choice but to turn and bow to Xue Ming, saying, “Sister-in-law, please help me say something.”

Xue Ming looked at Liu Mengyuan. After a year, he had grown a bit taller, and his originally wheat-colored skin had darkened slightly, likely from spending a lot of time in the sun after leaving the mountain. He used to wear the clean white robes of the Taixu Sect, but now he wore whatever rags he could find, though his face was still relatively clean, looking better than a beggar on the street.

When he first left the mountain for training, he made a big fuss, crying and shouting that he didn’t want to leave. In the end, Shui Xi intervened and decided that he should go down the mountain for training. Liu Mengyuan reluctantly packed his belongings, wiping his tears and looking back every few steps.

Shui Xi couldn’t let go of Liu Mengyuan and sent several messages to Yan Yuhe, asking him to look after his junior brother in the mortal world. Yan Yuhe pretended to agree but didn’t actually care. When Xue Ming asked why he treated his junior brother so harshly, Yan Yuhe got angry, saying that his foolish junior brother was good at pretending to be pitiful, deceiving not only their master but also making her feel sorry for him.

Xue Ming couldn’t argue, saying she was just curious and didn’t feel sorry for him. Yan Yuhe didn’t believe her and was angry for half the night before being appeased.

Now, it seemed that Liu Mengyuan was living well in the mortal world. Although his clothes were not luxurious, his demeanor had changed drastically, showing a maturity that came from experience.

Xue Ming was lost in thought when she met Yan Yuhe’s gaze. She couldn’t tell what had upset him this time, but his face was dark, and his eyes conveyed a certain hostility. It seemed that if she said a word in defense of Liu Mengyuan, Yan Yuhe would immediately respond with something like, “Junior brother is always pretending to be pitiful to deceive others,” full of resentment.

It was her fault for carelessly praising Liu Mengyuan in front of Yan Yuhe, saying he was “good-looking and had a good temperament.”

Xue Ming thought for a moment and then asked Liu Mengyuan, “Junior brother Liu, what are you busy with here?”

Liu Mengyuan pouted and said, “I received news that a powerful evil spirit came to this city intending to harm people during the Mid-Autumn Festival. Just as I entered the city, I saw someone with a darkened forehead and a ghostly aura. After questioning, I learned that his household had been troubled recently with strange occurrences. I cast divination at his residence and found that the evil spirit intended to harm this family, so I stayed here tonight to guard.”

Xue Ming was surprised and asked, “How could this be?”

If there was truly a fierce evil spirit, Yan Yuhe would have noticed it upon entering the city. She turned to Yan Yuhe and asked, “Did you also know about this evil spirit?”

Yan Yuhe shook his head slightly, then asked Liu Mengyuan, “Where did you get this information?”

Liu Mengyuan stammered and hesitated before saying, “A… a powerful person told me…”

Yan Yuhe’s eyes sharpened, and he said sternly, “Liu Mengyuan.”

Seeing Liu Mengyuan’s guilty expression, Xue Ming knew that the source of his information might not be clean, which was why he didn’t dare tell Yan Yuhe. However, she noticed something: even an evil spirit that Yan Yuhe hadn’t detected was divined by Liu Mengyuan. If this was true, Liu Mengyuan’s star divination skill was remarkable. Despite Yan Yuhe often saying his junior brother was lazy and foolish in cultivation, it seemed that Shui Xi had not taken Liu Mengyuan as a disciple for nothing; he truly had some real skills.

Liu Mengyuan was already terrified. Growing up under his senior brother’s oppressive presence, he feared his senior brother more than their master. Every time Yan Yuhe called his full name, it meant punishment. He quickly pleaded, “Senior brother, good senior brother, please spare me!”

“Hmph.” Hundred Crow let out a heavy snort, successfully drawing attention to himself. Everyone looked at him, not understanding why he suddenly snorted.

He said, “Who else could it be? Can’t you smell the alcohol on your junior brother?”

“Alcohol?” Xue Ming sniffed hard but couldn’t smell anything before Yan Yuhe covered her face, pressing her nose to prevent her from smelling. Then Yan Yuhe said coldly, “Gu Jinglan, how long do you plan to hide?”

A few light laughs echoed in the air, followed by a rich aroma of wine spreading through the air. Xue Ming’s vision blurred, and she saw a golden sedan chair suddenly appear. The curtain swayed lightly, and a white jade fan emerged, lifting the curtain. Then Gu Jinglan, dressed in a golden robe, stepped down slowly.

In life, he was a crown prince, and even in death, he refused to lose his dignity, standing among the group with an air of nobility. After the sedan chair behind him disappeared, White Impermanence stood there.

Seeing this, Black Impermanence hurriedly showed joy and stepped forward to bow, calling out, “Your Highness.”

Gu Jinglan casually raised his hand, then turned to Yan Yuhe with a smile, saying, “Yan Chixia, long time no see.”

Yan Yuhe showed no intention of catching up, directly asking, “Did you give this information to my junior brother?”

Gu Jinglan, although accustomed to Yan Yuhe’s stubbornness, still showed a bored expression. He then greeted Xue Ming and the others, even acknowledging Hundred Crow, who was sitting angrily nearby.

Hundred Crow called him a drunkard, but Gu Jinglan didn’t mind and smiled, saying, “Yes, it was me. This evil spirit has been trapped in a well for many years. Recently, it somehow obtained a magical artifact and escaped. I happened to meet your junior brother and thought that your sect, which is dedicated to slaying demons and exorcising evil spirits, should know about it.”

Yan Yuhe asked, “What proof do you have?”

Gu Jinglan replied, “Naturally, there is no proof. You couldn’t detect it because, first, you no longer have that sword, and second, the evil spirit has a magical artifact that conceals its aura, so you were unaware.”

Curious, Xue Ming asked, “How did you know about it?”

Gu Jinglan smiled and said, “It was a coincidence. The person I was looking for has some connection with this evil spirit, so I found out.”

After he finished speaking, there was a moment of silence as everyone seemed to wait for someone to make a decision. Xue Ming looked at Yan Yuhe, knowing he had already made up his mind but disliked being the leader. Even if he had a plan, he wouldn’t easily reveal it. So she asked him, “How many have you captured?”