The rain came quickly and fiercely. The diners quickly finished their rice dumplings and helped Boss Song pack up her stall. The wind blew the rain under the tarpaulin, and everyone became drenched.
“What a heavy rain.” A kind-looking auntie shivered from the cold rain. “How come the rain is heavier than in summer?”
“Everyone, hurry back and boil a bowl of ginger water to drink. Don’t get sick from the cold.”
Jiu Hui handed out several umbrellas and squeezed under one with Zhi You to head out of the city.
“With such heavy rain, an umbrella is useless.” Jiu Hui looked down at her soaked skirt, pulled it, and shook it. She turned her head and saw Zhi You holding an umbrella for her. He was drenched from head to toe. She wiped the rainwater from his face. “Let’s find a place to take shelter first.”
Just then, a shop owner recognized Jiu Hui and Zhi You, and invited them into her shop to avoid the rain.
“The rain came down all of a sudden.” The boss was a cheerful and generous middle-aged woman. She handed the two of them dry towels. “The weather is so cold. It’s easy to get sick if you get rained on.”
“Thank you, boss.” Jiu Hui wiped the rain off her body and thanked the boss.
“Unfortunately, I don’t usually stay at the inn, so I don’t have any clothes to change into here.” The boss brought over a brazier, added some charcoal to it, and rubbed her frostbitten fingers. “I don’t know what’s been going on these past two years, but it’s either been a drought or a blizzard. We just got through the New Year, and now it’s started raining again.”
The strong wind made the signboard creak and bang. There were hardly any pedestrians on the street. Occasionally, someone would pass by, running with their heads down, splashing water all over the ground.
“Boss, the ginger soup is here.” The shop assistant brought over a steaming pot of ginger soup, which was full to the brim. The boss ladled out two bowls and handed them to Jiu Hui and Zhi You.
Jiu Hui took a sip of the scalding and spicy ginger soup. The strange taste made her wrinkle her nose. Yaos wouldn’t catch a cold from getting rained on, but she couldn’t let the boss’s kindness go to waste. She simply closed her eyes and downed the entire bowl of ginger soup in one go.
After she finished the ginger soup in agony, Zhi You handed her the candy, and she quickly lowered her head and took a bite.
“You two are so in love.” The boss chuckled. “The young master is a considerate man.”
“Mm? Mm!” Jiu Hui nodded in agreement while her mouth was full of candy. “Not only is he considerate, but he’s also kind and capable.”
The boss saw that Zhi You’s ears had turned red, and couldn’t help but laugh again. She nodded and said, “Miss Jiu Hui is right.”
The waiter brought over snacks like peanuts, walnuts, and longans. The boss and Jiu Hui sat around the brazier, eating snacks and chatting about recent interesting events in Taolin City.
In the east, a man from a certain family was unfaithful to his wife, so the City Lord’s mansion sentenced him to divorce. In the west, a young woman from the Xi family saw a handsome man who was badly injured at the entrance of an alley. The handsome man begged the young woman to save him and not to tell anyone, but the young woman turned around and reported it to the City Lord’s mansion. Unexpectedly, the injured man turned out to be the second-in-command of a bandit stronghold who had escaped from the neighboring city.
“Miss Xi reported a crime and was rewarded a large sum of money.” When the boss mentioned this, her tone was slightly envious. Why hadn’t she encountered such a good thing?
“You’re asking for help when you’re injured, but you don’t want anyone to know about it. Even if you’re as handsome as a god, I still have to report this to the City Lord’s mansion.” Jiu Hui nodded. “If your identity is fine, then I’ll be saving a life. If there’s a problem with your identity, then I’ll be eliminating a threat to the people.”
“Not to mention that there’s such a large reward.” The boss sighed. “A man of unknown origin, how could he be more appealing than the reward offered by the City Lord’s mansion?”
About an hour later, the rain gradually subsided, and Jiu Hui and Zhi You got up to bid farewell to the boss.
The boss didn’t try to keep them, and after seeing them out, she turned around to find a few pieces of broken silver on the chair where Jiu Hui had been sitting.
She picked up the broken silver and chased after her, but she couldn’t find Jiu Hui’s figure. She couldn’t help but laugh and get angry: “This silly girl, even if you have money, you can’t spend it like this.”
“Boss,” the clerk leaned forward and whispered, “Miss Jiu Hui is beautiful, generous, and her clothes are the best in our city. A few days ago, I saw her talking to the Second Young City Lord outside the City Lord’s mansion’s courtroom. The Second Young City Lord was very polite to her. Could she be from a prominent family?”
“You don’t need to pay attention to where your guests come from, so why are you thinking so much about it?” The boss gave a broken piece of silver to the waiter. “Are you the City Lord’s constable?”
The attendant held the broken silver that the boss had given him, smiling so broadly that his teeth were hidden.
The streets were exceptionally clean after the downpour. Jiu Hui and Zhi You furtively used magic techniques to dry their clothes. Just as they were about to leave, an urgent voice called out to them.
“Miss Jiu Hui… young lady! Young Master Zhi You!” Tao Er recalled that Jiu Hui didn’t want the city’s people to know her identity as a cultivator, so he quickly changed his words and hurriedly caught up with the two of them, panting, “Please wait.”
“Tao Er?” Jiu Hui asked, seeing that Tao Er was panting heavily. “What do you need from us?”
“Something happened in the city’s prison.” Tao Er lowered his voice, afraid of causing panic among the people. “I would like to ask you two to help us take a look.”
Seeing that the bratty young master, who used to run wild in the streets, now knew how to care for the people, Jiu Hui was filled with relief and immediately agreed.
“A few days ago, with the help of a citizen in the west of the city, my elder brother led a team to capture a fugitive second-in-command of a bandit stronghold. It was supposed to be a good thing, but who would have thought that something happened in the prison cell last night?” Tao Er’s face was full of terror: “That bandit’s whole body was suddenly covered in gray fur, and he even grew fox ears and a fox tail.”
“By morning, the prisoners in the cell next to the bandits also showed strange signs. Some grew donkey ears, some grew pigtails, and some grew fish scales on their faces.” Thinking of the prisoner with fish scales on his face, Tao Er couldn’t help but shiver.
“In the nearby cells, only one person was an exception, and he wasn’t affected in the slightest. He is…”
“It’s Zhang San.” Jiu Hui confirmed, “He’s a cultivator, so he naturally wouldn’t be affected like ordinary people.”
Jiu Hui and Zhi You had just stepped into the City Lord’s mansion’s prison gate when City Lord Tao and Tao Xiangyi came to greet them.
“Don’t be so polite, you two. Let’s go into the prison first.” Jiu Hui hurried into the prison, and she smelled the scent of yao poison.
City Lord Tao and Tao Xiangyi saw that Jiu Hui’s expression was strange, so they both hurried in after her.
As Jiu Hui stepped into the prison, she was met with the overwhelming stench of yao poison. Even the prisoners who showed no signs of infection would soon succumb to the yao poison within the next few days.
“Where are the guards who were guarding the prison? Have they come into contact with anyone else?” Jiu Hui asked immediately.
“We couldn’t figure out what was going on, so all the guards who approached the prison last night stayed in the City Lord’s mansion.” Tao Xiangyi was a little nervous: “Immortal Jiu Hui, is there a problem?”
“You did the right thing. This disease hasn’t spread yet, so it won’t cause any major problems.”
This yao poison was not an ordinary yao poison, but was refined from the inner core of a ten-thousand-year-old evil yao. If she had not been there today, then it would have been a great disaster for the entire Taolin City, or even the entire human world.
“But Tao Er just now…”
“He’s fine.” Jiu Hui explained casually, “Back when we were at the foot of the Jiutian Sect, Tao Er pretended to go crazy to help me with something. I was worried that he would be targeted for revenge by the Shenji School, so I put a restriction on him. With this restriction, not only can it block attacks from ordinary cultivators, but this poison can’t enter his body either.”
Tao Er looked at Jiu Hui with burning eyes. He knew that flattering Immortal Jiu Hui would pay off!
Jiu Hui silently turned her head to avoid Tao Er’s adoring gaze. She was mainly worried that he would go too crazy and get himself beaten to death.
“What’s more important is that this poison can lurk in the human body for three days. It won’t spread to others before it breaks out.” Jiu Hui gave a look to Zhi You, who waved his hand to set up a barrier around the entire City Lord’s mansion, keeping the yao poison within the premise.
“Fortunately, the girl in the west of the city reported it to the officials in time, otherwise…” City Lord Tao’s legs were trembling. He dared not imagine what a terrifying sight it would be if this strange disease spread throughout Taolin City.
“City Lord and Young Master, don’t worry, I can handle this matter.” Jiu Hui step by step approached the cell where the second-in-command of the bandits was being held.
At this moment, the second-in-command was less like a human and more like a half-human, half-beast that had lost his mind. He was on all fours, using his teeth to bite the dirty straw in the corner of the wall. Although he still had a human face, there was no longer any trace of humanity in his body.
When Jiu Hui approached, he suddenly turned his head and bared his teeth at her, letting out a beastly roar.
Suddenly, a white light burst from his chest and shot straight at Jiu Hui’s face.
“Retreat!” Zhi You slapped out a palm, sending the white light flying back halfway.
“You two ignorant juniors really like to meddle in other people’s business.” The white light on the ground transformed into a fox. Its body was twisted, and its entire body was filled with yao poison, and a baleful and deadly aura.
Jiu Hui frowned and pulled Zhi You back two steps. “Why would a dead yao try to resurrect itself?”
“Since the heavens have given me a chance to be reborn, why shouldn’t I give it my all?” The yao fox had been dead for tens of thousands of years. When it was first resurrected, its spirit body was weak, and it could only possess a swindling fox. It wanted the fox to take its spirit body to find spirit herbs in secret realms, but that useless thing only knew how to trick foolish little yaos in the mountains into becoming mounts for the human sects.
A while ago, when the mountain was sealed off by heavy snow, the useless fox was afraid of being retaliated against by the yaos it had deceived, so it didn’t dare to leave the mountain.
It just so happened that several murderous bandits passed by, so he seized the opportunity to possess one of them.
If he had known that the current yaos were so useless, he would have possessed a human rather than a useless yao.
After killing all the bandits on the bandit mountain and absorbing their blood, resentment, and fear, he finally took control of this body. In order to lower the vigilance of ordinary people, he even deliberately spent some of his cultivation to transform into a good-looking face.
As a ten-thousand-year-old fox spirit, he naturally knew what kind of appearance could attract women. But he never expected that ten thousand years later, human women would not care about his face and would trade him for the reward from the City Lord’s mansion!
His mortal body couldn’t support his spirit for too long. He had planned to absorb the life force of everyone in the City Lord’s mansion before going to seek revenge on that human woman. He hadn’t expected two nosy young people to show up.
Ten thousand years had passed, and now even the tiniest of things dared to cross him.
They dared to say that they could handle his yao poison. How shameless!
“Your body is quite good,” the fox yao said, opening its mouth wide and spewing out a foul-smelling yao poison.
“What a crude thing you are. You’ve disgraced the entire fox clan.” Jiu Hui took out her crow feather fan and fanned the yao poison back at him.
The strong wind brought by the feather fan rolled up the fox yao and slammed it hard against the wall, creating a deep pit.
When the fox yao landed on the ground, it still hadn’t reacted. How did it take off, spin, and close its eyes?
“You released yao poison in the mortal realm, intending to turn all humans into your food. Do you really think it’s ten thousand years ago?” Jiu Hui asked. “Do you know why the fox spirit you first possessed would rather trick other yaos into becoming cultivators’ mounts to earn money, instead of looking for secret manuals, secret realms, or spirit herbs?”
“Why?” The fox yao looked at Jiu Hui with malice.carpreads.pages.dev
“Moron, because the times have changed!” Jiu Hui flew up and kicked the fox yao into the wall of the next cell.
“Ignorant junior, how dare you be disrespectful to benzuo! When benzuo cultivates a physical body, I will definitely slaughter your entire clan!” The fox yao struggled desperately under Jiu Hui’s feet.
“I don’t need to wait for you to cultivate a physical body. I’ll send your soul back to the earth right now.” Jiu Hui’s foot pressed down hard on the fox yao’s body.
Two steps away, Zhang San looked at the fox yao struggling in the pit under Jiu Hui’s foot, and his mood was very complicated.
Only then did he realize that the countermeasures he had been thinking about all night were so feeble.
Jiu Hui turned her head when she noticed someone looking at her, and her eyes met Zhang San’s. “Zhang San?”
“Whew!”
The fox yao beneath Jiu Hui’s feet took the opportunity to spit out a mouthful of red smoke, laughing out loud. “Benzuo is the number one charming fox in the world. Any human who inhales this smoke will be trapped by their own desires!”
As soon as it finished speaking, everyone in the room fainted to the ground, including Zhi You and Zhang San. It laughed smugly, but its laughter came to an abrupt end when it saw Jiu Hui, who was completely unaffected.
Among the humans who had fainted on the ground, a yao and a human locked eyes, and the atmosphere became awkward.
Author’s Note
Little Garlic Chive: I told you long ago, times have changed. Look how embarrassed you are now~