"Never mind." Galuo pursed her lips. She suddenly stopped and said seriously, "On the night of the Qixiao Festival, it wasn’t just a Demon Sect attack, was it? Although I don’t know exactly what happened, from the movents of your Academic Palace, it seems quite serious. The Academic Palace has many enemies, and you are the most famous among this generation of students. There might be conspiracies targeting you. If you can’t stay in Yu Country anymore, just secretly run away to the grasslands and find ."
She paused for a mont and smiled. "The barbaric lands have their advantages. The grasslands are vast and wide; hiding a few people isn’t a problem."
"Alright." Li Ang nodded seriously, sighing inwardly.
The power of Zhao Ming is unfathomable. This attack on Chang’an was far from their full strength—it was rely a probe. I’ve already exposed myself and have likely been marked as a target by Zhao Ming. I’ll have to be more careful and cautious in my actions moving forward, or else I might bring disaster to those around .
The two stood quietly by the riverbank for a while. Li Ang watched the turbulent river, while Galuo watched him.
The sound of the Haotian Bell rang out. The carriage, now loaded with goods, moved from the roadside onto the official road.
"I should go." Galuo glanced at the carriage, backed away, and waved with a smile. "If fate allows, we’ll et again."
The world was vast. Even for cultivators capable of Flying through the sky and burrowing underground, long journeys could not be shortened.
"If fate allows, we’ll et again." Li Ang stood still, waving towards the carriage as it gradually shrank in the distance.
Suddenly, CLANG! The carriage door was forcefully pulled open. Galuo jumped down, sprinted over, and with her montum, hugged Li Ang.
"PHEW!" Galuo took a deep breath, then released her embrace. She teasingly tipped Li Ang’s chin and smiled. "I felt sothing was missing; this feels right. I’m off! Take good care of this, okay?"
After speaking, she turned around breezily, her hair flying past the tip of Li Ang’s pen as she hopped and chased after the carriage, jumping into the cart.
Li Ang was left bewildered, still holding a Wolf Tooth Pendant that retained so warmth, smooth like amber.
The caravan slowly moved away, blending into the wind-blown sand until it finally disappeared from sight.
Li Ang, holding the Wolf Tooth Pendant, slowly walked back towards the city gate. Li Wei noticed the pendant’s string in his hand and said, puzzled, "Hey, isn’t that—"
BANG! Yang Yu forcefully slapped Li Wei’s shoulder to prevent him from saying sothing embarrassing and quickly interjected, "Oh no, I haven’t finished my holiday howork! Let’s go and work on it."
After speaking, Yang Yu lifted Li Wei and helped him jump onto the carriage heading back to the city.
Li Leqing retracted her gaze from the pendant and said, "We still need to visit Sister Yan. We’ll head off first."
The turmoil of the Qixiao Festival hadn’t settled so quickly. Yan Xuan remained in the Academic Palace under the guise of recuperation, observing. anwhile, Prince Yue, Li Hui, seed to have been briefed by the Mountain Master on so of the truth. He hadn’t shown himself much these days, staying in the Academic Palace with his wife. Their trip to Zhanquan for further study was scheduled for winter, so they still had so ti to stay in Yu Country.
Li Leqing and Qiu Feng also boarded a carriage heading towards the Academic Palace, leaving only Li Ang and Chai Chai by the city gate.
"Going ho?" Li Ang cocked his head and asked.
"Hmm?" Chai Chai felt a bit lancholic and didn’t respond imdiately. The sudden departure of a friend with whom she had lived under the sa roof for so long was really hard to adjust to.
"Let’s go have a al then." Seeing her like this, Li Ang understood her mood wasn’t good. He shook his head helplessly, pulled her onto a carriage, and signaled the coachman to head to the best restaurant in the west of the city.
「On the border of Zhou Kingdom, in a town teahouse, within a private room.」
Jun Qianzi, dressed as a Confucian Scholar, was sitting at a table, casually flipping through a newspaper from Chang’an in Yu Country.
In Zhou Kingdom, it wasn’t particularly difficult to get hold of newspapers from Yu Country. rchants, officials, enthusiasts of Natural Science, and literary scholars all subscribed to them, though they arrived a few days late.
"Faith Cultivation Cardinal left Chang’an in a hurry with his delegation," Jun Qianzi remarked nonchalantly, turning a page of the newspaper. "It seems Lian Xuanyao has already relayed the news about Zhao Ming to Taihao Mountain."
The blinds in the teahouse’s private room were not drawn. Though there were other guests and waiters in the surrounding rooms, strangely, they seed unable to see this particular room or hear sensitive terms like "Faith Cultivation Cardinal" or "Taihao Mountain" being ntioned.
"This disciple was incompetent." Sitting on the other side of the tea table, Ya Jiu bowed his head and said respectfully, "The plan went awry, disrupted by Li Ang. We failed to use the Faith Cultivation Cardinal’s hand to eliminate Emperor Yu."
"Li Ang..." Jun Qianzi closed the newspaper, looked up, and sighed. "He is Brother Pu’s disciple, right? Heh, the world is indeed small. Brother Pu and I left Yizhou together, passed the Academic Palace examination together, and even served as Doctors together. We were even both offered the opportunity to work at Dongjun Tower."
"He gave that chance to , allowing to see the truth of this world." Jun Qianzi shook his head with nostalgia and said to Ya Jiu, "Don’t bla yourself. Emperor Yu has skilled guards; he isn’t easy to kill. Besides, the pillars of Yu Country aren’t just one or two Emperors. The failed attack will divert Yu Country’s attention, concealing our real purpose—to take ’that item’ from the Dragon Pond in Xingqing Palace."
Jun Qianzi flipped his hand, revealing a rusty, inscribed bronze fragnt in his palm. If Li Ang were here, he would instantly recognize its inscription style as matching the Bronze Earthenware Vessel he had found underground in Qi Shui Village, Taiyuan County. However, the bronze fragnt in Jun Qianzi’s hand was even more ancient and tiworn. Its inscriptions were twisted and crooked, as if not carved by human hands. rely glancing at it would make one involuntarily hold their breath.
"We’ve collected eight pieces; five remain," Jun Qianzi muttered to himself, putting away the bronze fragnt.
COUGH, COUGH, COUGH! A heart-wrenching cough ca from the back of the teahouse.
The surrounding custors and waiters—or rather, Ya Jiu’s puppets—ignored the desperate coughs that sounded as if they would tear a lung out, continuing with their own business.
"Jun Qianzi!" Yuan Sou hoarsely shouted. "Jun Qianzi!"
"It seems he’s awake." Jun Qianzi gave Ya Jiu a slight smile, then rose and walked through the corridor to the teahouse’s backyard.
The backyard woodshed was unexpectedly clean and tidy. Inside stood two glass containers as tall as beam columns. Considering the cost and rarity of glass in Zhou Kingdom, Jun Qianzi had clearly made them himself using Magic. Both containers were filled about seventy percent with a dark green, murky liquid. Yuan Sou was imrsed in one of them. The adjacent container held Ghost Shovel’s head. The head’s eyelids twitched continuously. Beneath the severed neck dangled a string of indistinct, bizarrely shaped fleshy organs, swaying and floating in the dark green, murky liquid. A wound split open in the middle of the organs, resembling a smaller version of a devouring maw.
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