On the way to the residence gifted by Xiang Hai, the night had grown thick.
Recalling that eerie and disgusting scene from earlier, Gantang couldn’t help but shudder.
She leaned closer to Lu Qiancha and asked in a low voice, “Senior Brother, just what on earth were those ghostly things? They didn’t die even after their hands and feet were cut off.”
“Painted Skin,” Lu Qiancha replied succinctly.
“*Strange Records of Mountains and Seas: Ghost Section* has records of them. I told you to read more classics and worry less about snacks, but you just won’t listen.”
Lu Qiancha’s tone carried a hint of helpless frustration.
“Senior Brother…” Gantang pursed her lips aggrievedly and defended herself in a whisper. “It’s not that I don’t read. I just can’t get into it. Whenever I see a book, I start feeling dizzy and fall straight to sleep.”
She spoke with such righteous conviction that it sounded perfectly logical to her.
Beside them, Shangguan Yunzhu couldn’t help but roll her eyes. She cut in, “Xiao Qiancha, was that old man selling jujube cakes earlier also a Painted Skin?”
She glanced at the box of jujube cakes in Lu Qiancha’s arms, her tone playful. “You let him go on purpose. Could it be that you were actually bribed by this box of cakes?”
Lu Qiancha didn’t stop walking. Her gaze remained calm as she looked at the deep, dark alleys ahead.
Her voice carried a trace of exhaustion. “Am I really the kind of person who can be bribed by a box of sweets in your eyes?”
‘Yes,’ Shangguan Yunzhu and Gantang both nodded silently in their hearts.
Utterly unaware of the two women’s inner thoughts, she let out a light chuckle.
“Our primary mission for this trip is to gather intelligence and find the root of the anomalies in Wanghai City, not to alert the enemy by completely falling out with the Painted Skin clan.”
She paused, her tone turning grave.
“From what we saw today, these Painted Skins are extremely afraid of death and act with great caution. They know how to utilize mundane identities and rules as cover. If we were to kill every single one we saw, we would eventually drive them into a corner.”
“Guess what would happen then? Would these monsters hiding in human skin among the commoners go completely mad and trigger a Night Parade of a Hundred Ghosts in the city? If that happens, it would be a true massacre.”
Hearing this, Shangguan Yunzhu’s red lips parted slightly, and a flicker of realization and surprise flashed in her crimson eyes.
She hadn’t expected that beneath Lu Qiancha’s soft and cute appearance lay such thorough consideration.
Shangguan Yunzhu’s heart stirred. She couldn’t help but reach out a slender hand, lightly rubbing the top of Lu Qiancha’s head with a touch of intimacy and admiration.
“Xiao Qiancha is truly clever. Even I didn’t think of that layer.”
Lu Qiancha only tilted her head slightly and did not dodge. She had long since grown accustomed to this level of intimacy.
The three arrived at the residence gifted by Xiang Hai. It was a typical one-entry courtyard with a square layout.
The Main Hall was in the center, flanked by the east and west wings, with a gatehouse facing the street.
Before Lu Qiancha could distribute the rooms, Shangguan Yunzhu and Gantang shared a tacit look.
Each grabbed their luggage and briskly claimed the two side wings, leaving the most spacious and bright Main Hall in the center.
Lu Qiancha watched the two disappear into the wing doorways and shook her head helplessly, though a faint smile touched the corners of her lips. Fine, the Main Hall it was. She accepted their gesture of deference.
The moment she stepped into the Main Hall and closed the door, the steady aura belonging to “Senior Brother” instantly dissipated.
She braced her small hands on the edge of the bed and leaped lightly onto the soft mattress. Sitting firmly, her two slender legs dangled off the side of the bed, swinging gently and unconsciously.
She pulled out the warm Jade Token. A soft, pearly-white light was flashing, indicating unread messages.
Lu Qiancha focused her mind and sent her Divine Sense into it.
Xun Xue: ‘Baby, have you arrived in Wanghai City yet? (·ω*。) Is the food there okay? Do you have any trouble adjusting to the environment? OvO’
Lu Qiancha’s Ling Shi tapped lightly as she replied: ‘I’m all settled in. The meals are quite lavish, just a bit too much fish, shrimp, and crab. The flavors are similar to the small towns near Tianyuan Sect. Don’t worry, Respected Mother~ (=‘ω`=)’
Almost instantly, the Jade Token glowed again with soft light.
Xun Xue: ‘That’s good. Stay up a little later tonight, baby~ Mommy has prepared a small surprise for you.’
‘A surprise…?’ Lu Qiancha propped her chin on her hand, her clear blue eyes filled with curiosity.
She tilted her small head, trying hard to think of various possibilities, but she couldn’t guess what Xun Xue was up to.
She put away the Jade Token and sat quietly by the bed, her toes in their snow-white socks continuing to swing rhythmically.
***
Meanwhile, in the depths of this coastal city, the incense-heavy Liuxiang Temple had already shed the bustle of the day.
All Sounds Silent; only the moonlight filtered through the high windows, casting mottled shadows on the ground.
The main hall, where the massive Buddha statue was enshrined, was now completely swallowed by thick darkness and deathly silence.
A figure clad in a pitch-black cloak slid through the gap of the heavy temple doors like melting ink, slipping silently into the space. His footsteps fell on the cold floor tiles without making a single sound.
As soon as the Black-robed Person stood in the center of the hall, the bronze oil lamps around the lotus pedestal suddenly flared up with a loud *whoosh*.
The pale yellow flames flickered. Instead of dispelling the darkness, they distorted the light, making the originally solemn and merciful face of the Buddha statue appear exceptionally eerie and inscrutable in the swaying shadows.
Those stone-carved eyes opened slightly in the dim light, revealing a thin slit.
“It seems you have finally accepted,” the Black-robed Person’s voice was hoarse and low, like sandpaper rubbing together.
“The Master asked me to pass on a message: before the Ghost Gate opens on the fifteenth of July, the letter must be sent out via Xiang Hai’s hands. This is a critical step.”
*Whoosh—*
A piece of paper as thin as a cicada’s wing drifted down slowly from the darkness above the Buddha statue’s head. It hovered right in front of the Black-robed Person.
On the paper, a line of small black characters appeared: [There are already eyes and ears of the immortal sects in the city. Should they be cleared out in advance?]
“No need,” a cold, piercing voice rang out abruptly from the deepest shadows of the hall.
Accompanying the voice, a tall, thin figure that was almost skeletal slowly paced out. He was draped in a wide, black dao robe.
His face was half-lit and half-hidden by the lamplight. His most prominent features were a chin as sharp as a bird’s beak and a pair of triangular eyes that flickered with a shrewd, predatory light. He was the Pointy-chinned Master of the Black-robed Person.
“They are just a bunch of inexperienced juniors. They might not necessarily be our enemies.” A cold arc curled on the Pointy-chinned Master’s lips.
“Master!” The Black-robed Person immediately bowed with extreme respect, silently retreating to the side and completely merging into the deeper shadows.
The hovering red paper seemed to tremble slightly. Then, a new line of ink seeped out like a living thing: [Why me?]
“Heh…”
The Pointy-chinned Master let out a short, harsh chuckle. His triangular eyes flashed with a piercing light that saw through everything. “Because your appetite is large enough. Your ambition is worthy of this net.”
He took a step forward, his gaze piercing through the gloom like a physical weight, pinning itself onto the Buddha statue.
“And more importantly, because of your identity. You are the perfect and most unexpected key to leverage that old stubborn fool, Jiang Xuan.”
He paused intentionally, seemingly enjoying this sense of control. “As long as Jiang Xuan…”
Before he could finish, he suddenly looked up at the bottomless darkness above the Buddha statue.
A flash of wariness quickly crossed his eyes, and he forcibly swallowed the more explicit words that were to follow.
‘Damn it, I can’t say any more.’
Feeling that inexplicable gaze from the void, he cursed inwardly before quickly regaining his composure.
“In a few days, I will come for you again. At that time, I hope you can give me a satisfactory answer.”
As soon as the Pointy-chinned Master finished speaking, he disappeared without a trace, as if he had never existed.
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