Li Guanyu’s courtyard was separated from He Liansheng’s place by several mountain peaks. Xing Shuishui climbed until she was exhausted, enduring many criticisms along the way. She covered her ears, wondering if these Lingshan people ever practiced or if they had all gone mad.
Fortunately, Li Guanyu sensed her arrival and ended her meditation early, opening the door: “Shuishui, why did you come without telling me first?”
Xing Shuishui smiled: “Sister Guanyu, I rarely come to Lingshan, so I wanted to visit you. But this place is so big, I almost got lost.”
She opened her hands, and Li Guanyu saw it was a sachet. Xing Shuishui said: “Thank you for taking care of me all this time. This one is for you, and please help me give the other one to Brother Guanxing.”
Li Guanyu held it in her hands, smiling gently: “Then I’ll thank you on Guanxing’s behalf.”
“Are you getting used to staying at Lingshan?”
“Lingshan is nice, except…”
Seeing her guard down, Xing Shuishui suddenly seemed to remember something and said: “Except I don’t feel very welcome. Actually, Sister Guanyu, on my way here, someone joked about using puppet magic to control me… against He Liansheng…”
Li Guanyu became angry: “How outrageous! How dare they say such things at Lingshan!”
She picked up her sword: “Don’t be afraid, Shuishui. I’ll handle this for you.”
Xing Shuishui looked at her with a complicated expression. I’m sorry.
“You don’t need to handle it for me! I don’t want to trouble Sister Guanyu too much, it’s just… if I’m not careful and get controlled by puppet magic, is there any way to track down who cast the spell, like you did before? Just knowing who it is would help me be prepared.”
Li Guanyu thought for a moment and said: “If you were a cultivator, there would be a way. But even for mortals… there is actually a method.”
“Throughout history, the Li family heads created a special talisman to prevent people from maliciously using puppet magic. If you stick it on your body, it not only resists puppet magic but also allows you to sense the caster and find them. I’ll give you one.”
Li Guanyu waved her hand and summoned a talisman, handing it to Xing Shuishui. The cinnabar burned uncomfortably against Xing Shuishui’s hand, but she maintained her composure and tucked the talisman away.
With the separation fire in her body, she naturally wasn’t afraid of puppet magic, but with this talisman, everything would soon become clear.
She smiled: “Thank you, Sister Guanyu!”
Walking side by side out of the house, Xing Shuishui stopped. There was someone new in Li Guanyu’s courtyard. The young servant pointed at He Liansheng, breathing heavily: “Miss, I couldn’t stop him.”
He Liansheng leaned against the wall holding his sword. Why was he here?
Li Guanyu was also surprised: “He Lian? Weren’t you with your master?”
After yesterday’s unpleasant parting, no one knew what to say. Li Guanyu sighed and patted Xing Shuishui’s head: “Shuishui, do you want to stay longer?”
She bent down and said in a voice only they could hear: “If he forces you to do anything you don’t like, tell me directly. I won’t let him take you away.”
Xing Shuishui smiled and shook her head: “Don’t worry! Sister Guanyu, I should go back!”
Li Guanyu was startled.
Xing Shuishui ran over. He Liansheng stared at her, the coldness in his eyes softening: “Didn’t you say you wanted to dry persimmons? Today anyone can enter and leave Lingshan freely. I’ll take you down the mountain to buy persimmons.”
So soon? Hadn’t he just returned from his master?
Xing Shuishui looked at him for a long time. Something she had almost forgotten after sleeping, yet he still remembered.
It was a bit helpless.
Night fell, and the small town below Lingshan was bright. Large red lanterns illuminated the bustling streets, and golden-orange round persimmons were piled on small stalls. Xing Shuishui crouched down to choose some.
He Liansheng stood behind her, his shadow enveloping her completely.
There was chatter all around. After casually picking some persimmons, she was drawn into the crowd.
A peddler sat at a table displaying many martial arts manuals and books of strange techniques. There were also story books and many romance novels.
Xing Shuishui stood in front flipping through them expressionlessly, one after another, lingering on one for a long time. He Liansheng held his sword, his eyes moving downward, but she covered it with her hand.
The young man sneered: “What’s there to hide?”
He snatched the book from her hands. Xing Shuishui panicked: “No, you! Please don’t look!”
She reached up to grab it, but He Liansheng was much taller. He turned around, scoffing as he flipped through the pages quickly, his expression suddenly becoming very strange.
This book wasn’t about random romantic affairs, but rather some dual cultivation techniques from the Harmony Sect, and they were fake… because Harmony Sect techniques were never shared publicly. Some fool had made this up, writing explicitly and obscenely.
The peddler looked over and said with a grin: “Young master has good taste. This is our best-seller.”
But wouldn’t practicing according to this lead to qi deviation?
Xing Shuishui felt guilty: “I just picked it up randomly. I told you… not to look…” Still you wouldn’t listen.
He Liansheng suppressed the urge to burn down the book stall and grabbed her hand, his tone slightly fierce: “Let’s go. If we don’t leave now, I’ll make sure you get your fill of reading!”
Xing Shuishui said awkwardly: “Calm down, calm down.”
The peddler misunderstood his meaning and pulled out another book: “If you don’t like this one, young master can look at this! It’s new stock! Selling very well lately!”
He Liansheng couldn’t even be bothered to give it a glance, pulling Xing Shuishui away, but she stopped, tugging at his sleeve.
On the cover were four large characters: The Qingzhou Incident. He Liansheng frowned.
Xing Shuishui picked it up and flipped through it, becoming completely speechless.
The content was indeed about what had recently happened to them: how Huayulou held a matchmaking event, using the Qitong demon blade to attract cultivators from all over, throwing Qingzhou City into chaos. Who would have thought Huayulou had ill intentions and had set up a ghost-summoning formation to trap them all!
The story wasn’t far off, except the wording was a bit extreme, with phrases like: “stupid cultivators,” “brainless Lingshan,” “foolish Li family,” “dead nun Guan Mulan,” “only the wise and mighty Mountain Lord Du Dizhu of Wuxiang saw through the plot early, laughing as they fled Qingzhou in disgrace.”
It was obvious which nutcase wrote this… Du Dizhu loved doing this in his past life too, slandering Lingshan, himself, and everyone he disliked.
Lingshan was way too tolerant to allow such books to be sold right under their noses.
Xing Shuishui glanced at He Liansheng. He sneered, and the peddler, seeing them “engrossed,” pulled out another identical book from under the table: “Here’s another one, they’re a set.”
Xing Shuishui had wondered why she hadn’t seen He Liansheng in the previous book – so he was in this one!
This book was called: The Romance of Qingzhou. Reading it made her want to tear it up.
Why wouldn’t that dog Du Dizhu just die! Not content with targeting the He family and He Liansheng, he had to drag in innocent people like her. No wonder the rumors kept getting more ridiculous, no wonder those people at Lingshan kept giving strange looks. It was all because this dog was stirring things up behind the scenes!!!
What nonsense about He Liansheng having special feelings for her while hunting demons, still loving her deeply despite knowing how weak mortals were. What rubbish! And about him being so afraid of her running away that he tied her to him with red string, spending days catching demons and nights doing unspeakable things, waking up with red marks all over her neck…
Xing Shuishui blushed and tore up the book directly.
Shameless, absolutely shameless.
The one who spread rumors about her having a crush on Mu Ziyu back then must have been him too. This undead dog – why hadn’t that lightning bolt struck him dead too back then!
He Liansheng coldly glanced at the peddler: “How many more?”
The peddler pointed to all under the table. He Liansheng immediately set them on fire. The peddler almost cursed out loud, but the young man drew his Taoyuan sword, placing the silver blade against his throat, his gaze ice-cold. Now even a fool would know who he was.
“Spare me, Young Master He! I’m just a bookseller!”
Xing Shuishui held his arm: “He Liansheng, let it go. Threatening him won’t help. The person who wrote this is deliberately targeting you.”
As long as the rumors seemed true enough for his master and family to believe even a bit, he would never have peace. Xing Shuishui looked at the terrified peddler on the ground, her eyes emotionless.
He Liansheng lowered his sword and grabbed her hand, walking quickly back the way they came: “We’re returning to Lingshan now, and don’t wander around lately. Understood?”
Xing Shuishui was about to nod when she suddenly felt something strange in her hand. Looking down, she saw blood.
But how could there be blood?
She was startled – this hand had just grabbed He Liansheng’s arm!
Xing Shuishui suddenly stopped. He Liansheng sensed something wrong and turned back. Before his hair could settle from the movement, Xing Shuishui grabbed his sleeve and yanked it up.
Fresh whip wounds covered his arm, dense and numerous.
In the dim alley, the young woman’s eyes were dark and unreadable.
Her fingers trembled as they held his sleeve, and she almost laughed: “Did your master do this?”
He Liansheng seemed as if some secret had been exposed, his black pupils trembling. He suddenly pulled his hand back, his tone harsh: “No, I got injured while practicing sword techniques. That set of sword moves was too complex.”
Liar, what sword wound looks like this?
Getting whipped and then coming to buy persimmons with her – was he tired of living? He hadn’t made a sound this whole time, still walking around so openly.
Xing Shuishui remembered she had medicine, pulled it from her sleeve, and reached up to apply it to the wounds on his arm. He didn’t refuse.
Wild flowers fell from the wall, and autumn rain created ripples on the blue stone path. In the dark alley, no one else was around. She kept her head down, looking very focused.
The young man stared at her for a long time before suddenly asking: “Xing Shuishui, are you worried about me?”
Xing Shuishui’s movements paused. In the alley, it was so quiet she could hear her own heartbeat.
Don’t answer.
If one day he discovered her deception, his rage would be unbearable.
“I don’t know, maybe it’s sympathy. You’ve saved me many times before, I can’t be ungrateful. That’s what my sister taught me.”
Yet she couldn’t help but feel concerned.
“You must come to tomorrow’s discussion of the Dao.”
Hearing his voice, Xing Shuishui looked up.
The young man said arrogantly: “You need to watch me defeat all those worthless people who look down on others and speak disrespectfully.”
He Liansheng spoke contemptuously, as if describing something extremely simple. If his master knew, he would probably be furious.
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