Tianhe City.
Compared to Wenxian City, Tianhe City was not famous at all. The people here were more in awe of immortal cultivators. It was rumored that a thousand years ago, a celestial crane came here to welcome an immortal who was ascending, hence the name.
Although a major sect like the Jiutian Sect didn’t take the Wangshu Pavilion seriously, the people of Tianhe City were extremely respectful to the Wangshu Pavilion members who descended from the sky on their gourds. The guards guarding the city even personally led the way to the best inn in the city before bowing and leaving.
The waiter stepped forward and bowed. “Greetings, Immortals. Would you like to rent a small courtyard or reserve a few guest rooms?”
Jiu Hui turned her head to look at Zhi You, and the other three turned their heads to look at him as well.
“A small courtyard.” Zhi You placed a handful of spirit stones on the table.
“Immortal, you can’t do this!” The waiter was startled and quickly explained, “We are just an ordinary inn. We don’t have a spiritual field for cultivation. You only need to pay with silver.”
“Silver?” Zhi You’s handsome face showed a hint of confusion.
“This is it.” Jiu Hui shook a piece of broken silver in front of Zhi You and put it on the table. “Is this enough?”
“That’s enough, that’s enough. Immortals, please follow me.” The waiter put the silver in his pocket and returned the spirit stone to Zhi You. He bowed and led them to the small courtyard in the back. “Although the small courtyard doesn’t have a spiritual field, it’s very clean. If the Immortals need anything, you can directly instruct me.”
He was very perceptive. Seeing that the immortals didn’t need anything, he tactfully left.
There were five rooms in the courtyard. Jiu Hui chose a room near the big tree to live in. The rain lasted for about two hours and stopped by the time dinner was served.
Luo Yan worried that Jiu Hui would be scared by herself, so she kept her company for a while before leaving. The courtyard gradually grew quiet.
The moon slowly emerged from the clouds, and its pure silver light bathed the entire courtyard. Jiu Hui pushed open the window, and the moonlight fell on her face as she looked up at the moon.
In the past, at this time, she would sit by the small village and listen to the elders tell stories about the outside world. The elders would talk about the good and evil of human nature, the love and hate after emotional entanglements. They would tell the stories with laughter, and she would also laugh as she listened.
The moonlight was so beautiful tonight. They should also be chatting outside.
Suddenly, several dog barks and the cries of a child could be heard outside the quiet alley. If one didn’t listen carefully, they wouldn’t have been able to hear it.
After the dog barked twice more, it fell silent. Jiu Hui sighed, stepped on the windowsill, and leaped out of the inn.
With the moonlight as her companion, the night path was not too dark. Jiu Hui flew over two streets and four alleys, and outside a dilapidated thatched hut, she saw two armored guards, a dog, and a child whose face was covered in tears and snot.
“Please, sirs, let it go. It’s just an ordinary dog,” the child pleaded, clutching the dog tightly. The two guards grew impatient but refrained from harming the child. “We are guards from the City Lord’s Mansion. Someone reported that your dog is unusually intelligent, suspecting it to be a dog yao. We are here to apprehend it. Child, step aside and do not interfere.”
“I watched the mother dog give birth to Dahuang, and he’s only two years old now, so how could he be a yao?” Faced with the two adults from the City Lord’s Mansion, the child cried and trembled in fear, but he refused to let go of the dog in his arms. “I heard people say that yaos are all big bad guys who have been cultivating for hundreds of years, but Dahuang is only two years old, really, he’s only two years old.”
“Awoooo.” Dahuang tucked its tail between its legs and hid in its young master’s arms, looking terrified.
The two guards looked at the frightened person and dog and put away their unsheathed swords. How could there be such a cowardly yao in the world?
Well, if a dog was well-trained by its owner, it was normal for it to be a little clever.
The two were about to leave when, unfortunately, the patrol team also spotted them. The patrol captain rode his horse to the two of them and looked down at the child and dog hugging each other on the ground. “What happened?”
The guard, not daring to offend the captain, recounted the events.
“How could you not know how much the City Lord despises yaos?” He glanced at the child and the dog. “Since someone reported it, it means that this dog is indeed strange and should be killed on the spot. If anyone dares to obstruct it, they will be sentenced for colluding with yaos.”
“No, don’t kill Dahuang!”
“What are you two still standing there for?” The captain looked at the two guards with dissatisfaction. “This afternoon, an immortal is coming to our Tianhe City. Do you want to attract these immortals and make them suspect that we are not doing a good job of eliminating yaos?”
“Yes.” The two guards did not dare to disobey the order. One of them went to pull the child away, while the other drew his sword.
“Dahuang, Dahuang!”carpreads.pages.dev
“Awoooo, awoooo.”
“If he keeps crying, kill the child too.”
“Dahuang!”
The child kept struggling towards Dahuang, but Dahuang stopped howling. Tears flowed from his black eyes, and finally he put his limbs on the ground and buried his head in the dirt.
“What are you guys doing?”
Just as the saber was about to fall on Dahuang, a woman’s voice rang out in the air.
Everyone was startled and looked up to see a young woman in a flowing immortal dress standing on the roof, looking at them curiously.
“Captain, this is one of the immortals,” someone on the patrol team whispered.
“I recognize you.” Jiu Hui tapped her toes and flew down from the roof. “Thank you for leading the way for us today.”
“Immortal, you are too kind. It is my honor.”
The patrol team dismounted their horses in a hurry. Even the arrogant patrol captain was respectful in front of Jiu Hui, a cultivator who had just joined a sect. He was afraid of showing any disrespect.
“No need to be so polite, everyone. I just happened to be passing by and heard a child crying here. I thought he had encountered a bad person, so I came over to take a look.” Jiu Hui walked over to the dog, bent down, and stroked its fluffy head.
There was a leather collar around the dog’s neck, and a small wooden sign was hanging from the collar.
“Dahuang.” Jiu Hui looked at the name on the dog tag. “This handwriting is awful. Did you write this, kid?”
The child nodded while sobbing.
The patrol captain was relieved to see Jiu Hui’s amiable demeanor. A few days ago, another patrol team in the city had inadvertently offended an immortal, who had flicked his hand and sent the patrol team flying, leaving them half dead.
“Why aren’t you sleeping at this late hour? What are you doing out here with your dog?” Jiu Hui took out a thumb-sized brass tag from her storage ring and engraved the words “Dahuang” on it. She put it on the puppy and waved at the child. “Come, take a look. Is my handwriting better than yours?”
The guard holding the child quickly let go, secretly relieved. With the dog tag given by the immortal, no one in the city would trouble this dog in the future.
The child looked at the words on the dog tag, hugging the dog and nodding while wiping away tears. Dahuang tried hard to squeeze into his little master’s arms. Jiu Hui touched the fur on his body, and he didn’t dare to resist, looking extremely pitiful.
……the guards of the City Lord’s Mansion:
This cowardly and stupid appearance, to call it a yao would be an insult to yaos.
“It seems this was a misunderstanding.” The patrol captain cupped his hands towards Jiu Hui, then bowed to the child holding the dog. “It was my failure, please forgive me, young master.”
For small cities like theirs that had no sect to protect them, they didn’t have the luxury of Wenxian City. Forget about bowing to a child, as long as this immortal was willing to spare them, they would even bow to a dog.
The child held the dog and dared not speak. Jiu Hui made no comment on this person’s behavior of being humble to the powerful and arrogant to the weak. She turned her head slightly, her expression changed, and she pinched her hands and said, “Retreat!”
Before anyone could react, a layer of green light appeared in front of them. Three bats crashed heavily into the light and fell to the ground, transforming into three short and ugly men.
“Yao!”
“There’s a yao!”
The guards turned pale with fright, and the patrol captain drew his sword with trembling hands. “Silence! Do you want to attract the townsfolk and have them die with you in the bellies of yaos?”
Jiu Hui looked at the patrol captain in confusion. This man had been arrogant and rude a moment ago, but now that the yaos had really appeared, he was so scared that he still drew his sword and fought the yaos to the death, and he didn’t want to implicate the people around him.
Strange, truly strange.
Was this what a complex human heart was like?
“How come there are immortal cultivators here?” The leading bat yao looked at the barrier blocking their way. “Second child, didn’t you say that this city isn’t protected by any sect?”
“Big Brother, I made special inquiries a day ago. There really aren’t any immortal cultivators in this small city.”
“Then where did she come from?” The big bat pointed at Jiu Hui.
“Well, how would I know?” Second bat said, feeling a little guilty.
“Whatever, she doesn’t seem to have a high cultivation level, so the three of us can definitely beat her.” The big bat twisted its five fingers into a distorted shape and reached out to tear the barrier. “The heart of a cultivator is more delicious than that of an ordinary person.”
“Take this kid who writes ugly characters and hide somewhere.” Jiu Hui took out a jade hairpin from her storage ring and tossed it into the air: “The pen is as the heart desires!”
The child that the patrol captain picked up：“……”
At this point, could this beautiful lady please stop mentioning how ugly his handwriting was?
Even a child needed to save face.
“Ah!” The great bat’s two claws were pierced by the jade hairpin. Before it could even let out a scream, its claws turned to ash.
“Big Brother!” The second and third bats saw that things were not going well, so they turned around and ran. “Big Brother, don’t worry, we will definitely avenge you next time.”
“Squeak, squeak, squeak!” The giant bat didn’t even have the strength to resist. It was forced back to its original form by the jade hairpin and lay motionless on the ground, its wings fluttering a few times before it stopped moving.
“What’s the rush?” Jiu Hui watched the two bat yaos fleeing in disarray, and took off her cloak. “Go!”
Why bother running? They couldn’t escape anyway.
Killing people like mowing grass and eating their hearts, the evil energy on their bodies was already blacker than the bottom of a pot. Who would miss out on the chance to accumulate merit for themselves by killing such a low-level evil yao?
The two bat yaos flew desperately far away, thinking they could save their lives, when a red silk flew out from behind them. The red silk emitted a golden light under the moonlight. It seemed to have life and consciousness. The end of the silk bound the two bat yaos and dragged them back to Jiu Hui as a stream of light.
“I was born with a kind heart, and the three of you brothers share a deep bond. How could I bear to separate you three yaos?” Jiu Hui squatted in front of the two yaos and said with a smile, “Before I left home, my elders repeatedly told me to do good deeds and accumulate virtue. Am I being good to you?”
The two yaos looked at the smile on Jiu Hui’s face, doubting that she was not joking with them. She really thought that she was doing a good deed by letting their three brothers die together.
They had cultivated their yao bodies for hundreds of years, and even though they had killed countless people, they had never seen such a living King of Hell who reversed black and white.
“Remember to thank me.”
The two yaos：“……”
Thank you, my ass.
“You kill without mercy and show no etiquette. You are a disgrace to the demon world.” Jiu Hui stood up. “You have truly disappointed me.”
Three breaths later, two immobile bats appeared on the ground.
The red thin silk transformed into a scarf once more, hanging from Jiu Hui’s arm. She turned her head to look at the crowd, who all took a step back in unison.
On the roof, Elder Mo and his two disciples locked eyes with Jiu Hui.
Author’s Note:
Village: The outside world is so dangerous. Children must bring more self-defense items when they go out.