Translator: Dj22031
Editor: Dj22031
Advance chapters available for patrons on Patreon. And a chapter can be sponsored by buying me a ko-fi
Chen Hua followed Yin Xuan’s trail, but not daring to get too close, he could only trail far behind.
As Yin Xuan moved swiftly, the wide sleeves of his grey Taoist robe billowed in the night wind, making him appear like a nimble hawk darting through the darkness, heading relentlessly towards the outskirts of town. His hurried movements clearly indicated that something urgent had happened.
The two walked one after the other and eventually stopped near a Chinese-style hotel.
The hotel was located at the border of Hanyang District and Caiyang District, in a rather remote location, and the entire hotel appeared somewhat old and gloomy. Chen Hua glanced at the hotel sign and felt it looked vaguely familiar. After a moment of recollection, he was startled to realize that this was actually a rather famous online celebrity hotel.
The difference between the actual hotel and the promotional photos on social media was just too great. If Chen Hua hadn’t remembered the name, he would never have been able to connect this lifeless, old hotel with the artsy, retro hotel he had seen online.
Yin Xuan hid on the roof of a residential building not far from the hotel. Chen Hua dared not approach, so he secretly observed him from two buildings away.
He vaguely saw a crowd gathering in front of the hotel, but to avoid being discovered by Yin Xuan, he was too far away to see what the crowd was doing.
Yin Xuan, hidden in the shadows, was also intently observing, clearly trying to figure out what was happening at the hotel.
The two waited in the shadows for about half an hour before the crowd in front of the hotel dispersed. The sounds of sirens and ambulances rose and fell, and several police cars and ambulances passed by on the main road. Chen Hua then realized that something must have happened at the hotel; with so many ambulances, there must be quite a few injured people.
But what was Yin Xuan doing here all of a sudden?
His first thought was that Yin Xuan had mentioned during their first meeting that he had been asked to come to Jiangcheng to investigate a case.
But he immediately dismissed the idea. Perhaps Yin Xuan did have business in Jiangcheng, but it certainly wasn’t what he said.
The claim that he was asked to come to Jiangcheng to investigate a case was mostly just an excuse to appease him.
Thinking of this, Chen Hua gave another bitter laugh.
My senior brother really knows my personality inside and out; he even came up with such a perfect excuse.
He thus waited patiently, filled with questions.
After everyone left the area in front of the hotel, the already lifeless hotel became even more gloomy and eerie. A hotel that should have been open for business was now completely deserted, with even the lights in the lobby on the first floor off.
Chen Hua became even more certain that something had definitely happened at the hotel.
As he pondered this, he saw Yin Xuan, who had been waiting in the shadows, finally move. He floated lightly over the rooftops of buildings and landed silently on the hotel’s rooftop. He then pushed open the door and went down from the rooftop. His movements looked practiced, indicating that this was not his first time here.
After he went downstairs, Chen Hua cautiously approached the hotel. He didn’t follow him in immediately but carefully hid on a balcony. Only after confirming that Yin Xuan hadn’t noticed him did he climb in through the balcony window.
The hotel was dark and presumably empty of guests; it was unusually quiet in the dead of night.
Chen Hua didn’t need to follow closely; he could guess Yin Xuan’s direction and location simply by the subtle sounds he made as he walked.
Yin Xuan continued down the stairs, one floor at a time, but his pace was very slow, and he would occasionally pause slightly, as if he were searching for something.
After a long while, Chen Hua heard him come down, and then his unusually cold voice rang out: “Come out.”
These words startled Chen Hua, but he quickly realized that he had been very careful all the way, and there was no reason for Yin Xuan to have discovered him, so he froze and did not move.
A few breaths later, a hesitant, somewhat timid voice rang out: “Geomancer.”
Yin Xuan responded arrogantly.
The tone was colder than Chen Hua had ever heard before.
At this moment, only the words “geomaster” remained in Chen Hua’s mind. He had probably been mentally prepared for this. Now that his vague guess had been confirmed, he felt not much shock or distress, but only a silent acceptance that it had all come to pass.
He just couldn’t understand why Yin Xuan, a half-demon of mixed blood, would get involved in the affairs of the Qian Sect and even become one of the four geomancers of the Qian Sect.
The trembling voice that answered proved that Yin Xuan was not as gentle and good-tempered as he appeared in front of him.
Chen Hua’s eyes dimmed, and he suddenly became uncertain about his judgment of Yin Xuan.
He had always thought he knew Yin Xuan well, but after seeing this scene, he realized that he might not have truly understood him.
Yin Xuan continued to ask, “What happened? Where is Fuyou?”
He was resting when he suddenly felt a pang of fear, and then he realized that the hotel had lost contact with him. The hotel was the result of his and Fuyou’s years of hard work, and he valued it highly. Fearing that something had happened to the hotel, he rushed over.
However, upon arriving at the hotel, he discovered that its condition was far worse than he had imagined.
Not only were the arrays set up around the hotel destroyed, but the small space they had painstakingly created with great resources was also completely destroyed. Even their subordinates in the hotel were nowhere to be found, and Fuyou could not be contacted at all.
Yin Xuan felt vaguely uneasy and had no choice but to risk coming in to find out what was going on.
The staff in the hotel were all spirit servants controlled by Fuyou, with one exception: he created a dwarf puppet by combining spirit servant techniques with puppetry.
The dwarf puppet was small in stature and could not appear in human form; it was a half-finished product. Yin Xuan originally intended to destroy it but unexpectedly discovered that the dwarf puppet was very good at hiding. It could not only conceal its own aura, but also, to a certain extent, conceal the aura of its companions, thus evading the detection of the Demon Management Bureau.
Therefore, Yin Xuan kept it.
After discovering the incident at the hotel, he risked entering in order to find the dwarf puppet.
However, what the dwarf puppet said next made his expression change drastically. Upon hearing that the hotel’s troubles were due to Fuyou offending Taotie, which not only implicated the hotel but also led to Fuyou being taken away, he became even angrier.
“More trouble than he’s worth!”
Yin Xuan’s face was extremely ugly. He coldly cursed “idiot” and then flicked his sleeve to put the dwarf puppet into his sleeve.
He glanced around the hotel, then hurried away, already pondering his next move.
If Fuyou fell into the hands of the Demon Management Bureau, it was hard to guarantee that he won’t be implicated. Fuyou was different from Suanyu; the two had been partners for many years and knew each other inside and out. If Fuyou revealed anything, he would be in danger.
To be on the safe side, it would be better for him to leave as soon as possible.
The thought that all his hard work and planning these past few days would be wasted, and that the current situation was largely due to Fuyou’s arrogance, blind self-importance, refusal to listen to advice, and willful actions, made him want to curse.
….
After leaving the hotel, Yin Xuan took advantage of the cover of night and quickly headed in another direction.
Chen Hua followed him like a tail, but as he followed, he noticed that Yin Xuan started deliberately choosing main roads where it was difficult to hide. He didn’t know if it was a coincidence or if he had discovered something. Just as suspicion began to rise in Chen Hua’s mind, he saw Yin Xuan turn sharply and enter a deserted street.
Out of caution, Chen Hua did not immediately follow him inside. Instead, he found a good spot to observe and first check whether Yin Xuan had discovered that someone was following him.
But when he looked up, he saw Yin Xuan standing with his hands behind his back in the middle of the street, looking in his direction with a cold expression: “Come out. You’ve been following me all this way, why hide anymore?”
Now that his whereabouts had been discovered, Chen Hua no longer hid.
He walked out of his hiding place with an air of nonchalance, his gaze coldly fixed on Yin Xuan: “Senior brother, you’re out running around in the middle of the night instead of sleeping. I was just curious, so I followed you to see what was going on.”
A look of surprise flashed across Yin Xuan’s eyes. Unsure of how much he had seen, he softened his voice and said, “I mentioned to you before that I was sent to Jiangcheng by someone to investigate a case.”
“Senior brother is one of the four Geomancers of the Qian Sect, so why does he have to personally investigate a case?”
Chen Hua looked at him sarcastically: “Why didn’t the Qian faction send you any subordinates to do your bidding?”
Yin Xuan’s face darkened, his fake smile vanished, and he looked rather sinister: “You heard everything?”
Chen Hua didn’t answer him, but stared at him intently and asked, “Why?”
He actually had many questions he wanted to ask, but there were so many that in the end he could only utter three simple words.
Yin Xuan clearly couldn’t give him a satisfactory answer either. So he lowered his eyes and said, “I have my reasons, why do you have to pry? Although we serve different masters, we have no conflict of interest…” As he spoke, his expression softened, and he tried to persuade him with reason and emotion: “I kept it from you because I didn’t want to affect our past friendship.”
“Junior brother, Master is gone. I don’t want to be your enemy anymore.” He looked at Chen Hua with a hint of pleading: “Let’s pretend that tonight’s events never happened, okay?”
His expression was sincere, and his words were earnest, almost every word hitting Chen Hua’s weak spot.
Yin Xuan was much older than him. Ever since he was enlightened by Yuan Li and freed from the painting, it was Yin Xuan who enlightened him and guided him in cultivation. When he came out of the painting, he was just a snow-white skeleton, and it was Yin Xuan who taught him brush and ink painting, and how to make his own skin. He was a skeleton in the painting, originally without any relatives or friends, and Yin Xuan was his only family.
Yin Xuan was to him no less than Yuan Li was to Yin Xuan.
If he had a choice, why would he want to be Yin Xuan’s enemy?
Chen Hua closed his eyes and remained silent for a long time before saying in a hoarse voice, “It’s fine to pretend it never happened, but you have to give me a reason to believe you.”
He looked at Yin Xuan with a stubborn gaze: “Otherwise, we, as fellow disciples, will only be enemies from now on.”
Yin Xuan’s eyes dimmed, and after hesitating for a long time, he finally said with a struggle on his face, “Fine, I’ll tell you.”
He said in a hoarse voice, “I’m just not reconciled…” He slowly approached Chen Hua, and while Chen Hua was listening intently, he unexpectedly pierced through his heart with his five fingers forming a claw, and said with a low, hoarse laugh, “…I’m not reconciled to die in the lower realm like this.”
Chen Hua’s face paled, and his eyes widened upon hearing that familiar voice: “…Yuan Li?”
Seeing that he had figured it out, Yin Xuan no longer concealed it, looking at him with a kind smile, but his voice was venomous and sinister: “Good disciple, you still remember your master?”
Chen Hua grasped his hand, the veins on the back of his hand bulging, and shook his head, saying, “No, you are not Yuan Li.”
If the Yin Xuan in front of him was Yuan Li in disguise, how could he possibly know even such trivial matters that only the two of them, the fellow disciples, would know?
Moreover, Yin Xuan has been cooking for him every day for the past few days, and the food tasted exactly the same as before.
If it were Yuan Li impersonating him, it would be impossible for him to disguise himself so perfectly.
“Of course I am Yuan Li.”
Yin Xuan gave him a strange smile, his fingers tightening as he savored the man’s pained expression, his eyes filled with pleasure: “But I am also Yin Xuan…”
Guys, ads are my only source of revenue, so please do not turn on the AdBlock when you are accessing this website…. Thank you, this would be a great help…
You can buy me a ko-fi and sponsor a chapter on: https://ko-fi.com/midnightrambles
Or become a Patron or access advance chapters on: https://www.patreon.com/bePatron?u=45665005
If you support me, I would be able to provide more chapters….
Previous • Table of Contents• Next