Fan Wu She was recuperating in Yunding for 7 days. After clearing out the corpse poison, it was time to bid farewell----The three of them were not willing to continue their stay.
After Xie Bi An told his hypothesis to Zhong Kui, Zhong Kui's expression became strange but didn't say anything, only letting them focus on recuperating and disappeared for 3 consecutive days.
While bidding farewell at Yunding, Song Chun Gui told Fan Wu She: "Little Black Master's injuries have yet to recover, about your master's whereabouts from Mount Qingcheng, I will go to Fengdu to ask around after some time."
Fan Wu She sneered: "Care about your master first."
Song Chun Gui said expressionlessly: "You don't need to worry."
Most of the guests who came for the birthday celebration have left, only Lan Chui Han accompanied them to the end, although Fan Wu She used his injuries as an excuse to pester Xie Bi An, Lan Chui Han and Xie Bi An barely even met.
With a serious expression, Li Bu Yu specially appointed his only son Li Zhi Qing to send them off down the mountain.
Fan Wu She looked at Li Zhi Qing, as if he saw Li Bu Yu back in the days. Actually, he had already forgotten how Li Bu Yu looked like when he was young, but he still remembers this face of being able to achieve success.
He is different from Lan Chui Han, Lan Chui Han has long sleeves to dance skillfully*, neither obsequious nor supercilious, and Li Zhi Qing does not treat everyone equally. He could even imagine how Li Zhi Qing would behave when meeting an ordinary disciple.
Fan Wu She felt nauseous. When he takes back his power from his previous life, he will let the Li family disappear completely without a trace.
Approaching Lanxi Town, Lan Chui Han said: "This time we didn't get to sightsee this place properly, what a pity."
"Yeah." Though Xie Bi An agreed, he didn't feel any regrets. He isn't curious about this place anymore, he only felt lingering fears. He wants to go home right now.
Li Zhi Qing said: "Mount Shu welcomes everyone, next time when everyone comes to Mount Shu, Wuliang Sect will entertain you passionately to make up for the unpleasantness this time.
"Don’t mention it."
After reaching the place where they’d part ways, Lan Chui Han called Xie Bi An to one side and said rather regretfully: "I was thinking of inviting you to Jinling to be a guest after it ended, but now you need to go back and recuperate. Bi An, why not we make a promise, wait till the spring of next year when it's warm and blossoming, you come to Huayueye to see the orchids, how about that?"
Xie Bi An smiled: "Sure, let's make a promise, wait till the spring of next year when it's warm and blossoming, I will go."
Fan Wu She stood at one side, though his eyes were on him, his ears were sharp. In order to not miss out on any words, he even used his spiritual power to tune in. Hearing till the end, he became very jealous.
Promise my foot, I will burn Huayueye, what kind of girly name is that?
Lan Chui Han smiled while looking at Xie Bi An, his vision elegant and moving: "Bi An, you've really grown, when I saw you that time, I didn't even dare to recognize you."
Xie Bi An laughed cheerfully: "Who knows, next year's spring Brother Lan may have a whole new level of respect for me."
"Definitely." Lan Chui Han reluctantly said, "Farewell for now."
Xie Bi An bowed deeply: "Brother Lan, hope to see you again."
---
After leaving Mount Shu, they flew back to Fengdu. No one stayed in the human realm for long, all went straight back to the underworld.
The underworld is filled with spiritual power, even more advantageous for healing Fan Wu She's injuries.
These few days, not only did Xie Bi An see Zhong Kui not drinking wine, but also didn't find Zhang Luo for entertainment. He definitely has something on his mind. He poured a cup of tea and brought it in front of Zhong Kui's eyes: "Master, drink some tea."
Zhong Kui was deep in thought and lightly responded.
"Master, have you been to Jing province's Chunyang Sect?"
“Been there." Zhong Kui drank a sip of tea.
"Did you manage to investigate that person's identity?" Fan Wu She asked.
"Zhaowen searched Jiao's history, sure enough, I found one person. It matches with that evil spirit in various aspects."
"Oh? Who is it?"
"He's the junior brother of Xu Zhi Nan who died a hundred years ago. At that time Xu Zhi Nan was still Chunyang Sect's supervisor's senior brother. He's rather talented, there was one time he went out for business and got murdered by a core thief. His age, body, cultivation level, cause of death, all matches the distinctive traits of the evil spirit. But there are still a few doubtful points.
Both of them stared at Zhong Kui.
"First point is the time. When he died, Zong Zi Xiao was still young. Second point is the corpse. After he died, Xu Zhi Nan and a few of Chunyang Sect's disciples brought him back home for burial. Third point is his physique. That evil spirit did not possess a high ranked Chunyang Sect's physique." Zhong Kui touches his chin, "But these 3 doubtful points, can all be explained.”
Fan Wu She nodded: "He may not have died in Zong Zi Xiao's hands. Core stealing demonic cultivators have been present since ages ago, they never went extinct. The corpse could have been dug out. About his physique, elder Zhaowen also said not to exclude the shrinkage of muscles after death.
"Yeah, so it's hard to make conclusions right now."
"Unless..." Xie Bi An suddenly realises whatever he wanted to say is offensive to the dead.
Zhong Kui didn't mind: "Unless we dig the grave and see whether the corpse is still there, then everything will become clear."
"His descendants probably will not agree."
"That's obvious, who would agree to dig up an ancestor's grave, but to confirm his identity, currently there's only this way. So no matter what, we still have to ask Xu Zhi Nan to come out. Only Xu Zhi Nan knows where he is buried. Secondly, the people of Chunyang Sect do not have any blood-related descendants, maybe Xu Zhi Nan can convince his descendants to open the coffin and perform an autopsy. But, Zhaowen and the rest disagreed to alarm Xu Zhi Nan because of this matter."
Xie Bi An frowned: "Then what now?"
"I'll go to where he's secluding and call him out."
"Absolutely not." Xie Bi An exclaimed, "Master, please do not act recklessly. If you manage this poorly, you'll offend Chunyang Sect."
"Well, that won't happen, I'm still counted as his junior, he won't argue with me."
"You can't master, you really can't. Bring me to Chunyang Sect too, we will use reasons to convince him." Xie Bi An was really afraid of Zhong Kui being reckless, "just now you offended Li Bu Yu at Mount Shu, you can't offend Xu Zhi Nan again."
Zhong Kui gave a "hmph": "I won't ‘offend’ Li Bu Yu for nothing. I absolutely want to know what kind of shameful, shady business that old head did behind everyone's back. If he didn't shun quickly, he probably got struck by lightning, damn it..."
"Master, you promise me, absolutely do not be reckless."
"You're young yet so worried." Zhong Kui held his teacup and was about to drink tea, "Your master..."
Xie Bi An snatches away his teacup and says sternly: "You promise me first."
Zhong Kui cast a sidelong glance at Xie Bi An, not really willingly saying: "Alright."
Fan Wu She sips tea with his head down, thousands and millions of emotions on his mind.
"Actually, what you told me last time, did give me some thoughts."
"You're saying..."
Fan Wu She lifted his head up.
"If that person is really Xu Zhi Nan's junior brother, in fact, there's one doubtful point that's hard to explain, that is why was he suppressed at DianCangFeng. Wuliang Sect and Chunyang Sect have no hatred for each other, they are also allies. This Tiangang positive bound magic array is definitely set by a high-ranked cultivator. Given Li Bu Yu's response, even if he wasn't the one who set it, he definitely already knew about it. So, why then? Which person in Wuliang Sect has such great fear and hatred towards Xu Zhi Nan's junior brother?"
"Definitely unexplainable." Fan Wu She said, "Although I don't understand Emperor Zong's era very well, I still know Wuliang Sect and Chunyang Sect. Can't say how good they are, but at least they have always been allies."
Zhong Kui nodded: "Yes, but if let's say this matter is not done by Li Bu Yu, from investigating his beginning karma, we can still guess someone. This person, excluding cultivation using Yuanyang technique, the rest all matches."
Xie Bi An's eyes widened: "Who?"
"Ninghua Emperor Zong Ming He."
Xie Bi An, without any reasons, felt a drilling pain in his inner skull. Without a trace, he pressed his temple: "Ninghua Emperor...", Yeah, how can he only think of Zong Zi Heng, but didn't think of Zong Zi Heng's father?
"After Li Bu Yu's older female cousin married the Ninghua Emperor, everyone knows what happened next. Li Bu Yu naturally hated Zong Ming He, and during that year, at Eight Trigrams Platform, Zong Zi Heng killed his own father, Zong Ming He's corpse is currently at Mount Shu, how it was handled, outsiders knew nothing. Age, cultivation level, corpse, grudges, all matches."
Fan Wu She said calmly: "Just that this Yuanyang technique; this point is unexplainable."
Zhong Kui vexed and said: "Anyway, both are doubtful points, we can only think of eliminating them, so Xu Zhi Nan must come out. Believe me, once I explain to him properly, he'll understand."
Xie Bi An sighed: "Wuliang Sect is really...Meng Ke Fei's case has yet to find the murderer, and yet another nameless ghost appears."
"All these are related to core stealing, if we were to say they aren't related, I'm afraid it's hard to comply."
This time, Bo Zhu suddenly barged inside and nervously pointed outside the door: "Hea-Heaven Master, Official Lord Cui brought Night Patrol here."
Zhong Kui raised his thick brows, stood up and turned around on the spot: "Say I'm not here." After he spoke, he was about to head into the palace.
"Zhong Zheng Nan!" Official Lord Cui's voice rang from afar, as if predictable, "Night Patrol saw you guys returned to the underworld, don't you dare hide."
Zhong Kui's shoulder sank.
Cui Jue brought a cool and elegant lady inside, she wore blue sturdy clothes. She doesn't look like an ordinary lady wearing ornaments, naturally carved, has a simple and neat face yet gorgeous, possessing a valiant and formidable look.
Xie Bi An cupped his hands in greeting: "Official Lord, Night Patrol."
Night Patrol apathetically greets Zhong Kui and Xie Bi An.
Cui Jue swept a look at Fan Wu She, and looked at Zhong Kui sharply: "I heard that you gave him a spirit-attraction element and even let him and Xie Bi An take up a post as impermanence together."
“Uh...He's in the underworld, it's safer for him to have a spiritual weapon by his side. Regarding taking up a post as impermanence together." Zhong Kui covered his mouth with one hand, quietly said to Cui Jue, "that's just coaxing a child, don't have to take it seriously."
"Who are you treating as a child? Who are you coaxing?" Cui Jue glared at him, "Even if he wasn't granted a title, didn't take an official's salary, not listed in the ghost and immortal realms, the name of impermanence is something you can call rashly? What do you treat the underworld general as?"
"I feel that this is our Jiuyou's good tradition, you see, judges are split into civil and military, patrol is split into day and night, then why can’t impermanence be split into black and white?" Zhong Kui smiled fawningly, "Isn't that right, Zi Yu?"
"Nonsense, you bring humans back to the underworld, again and again, nowadays you don't even ask the Emperor and secretly bestow the titles, I can't stand it. You go to Yanluo palace with me, let a few Yan kings reason things out."
"No need no need." Zhong Kui waved his hands, "I have no reason, I admit I'm wrong, punish me however you want."
Xie Bi An was restraining his laughter so badly that his face turned red.
Cui Jue's handsome and jaded scholar face became red, and said with anger: "You...You unrepentant..." He got very angry and waved his hand. A white glow drifted, appearing on his hand was a tattered leather sealed book and a white fox fur brush.
That's a record of the living and predestined lifespan, as well as a judging brush that can add or subtract rewards and penalties!
----
PS: I translated this on 28 Feb, right after I translated chapter 2...
long sleeves to dance skillfully* - shows a person with money or power could do things skillfully.
Edited on 30 May 21 (changed Ye You to Night Patrol)
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i cant be the only person that ships zhong kui and cui jue rightt
ReplyDeleteNah cuz same😌
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