Chapter 78: Your Husband's Reincarnation Has Already Married a New Wife!

The atmosphere inside the Leping County yamen could be described as deathly silent.

Knowing that ghosts and gods exist, knowing that demons exist, but never having encountered them, one could still pretend they don't.

But once you truly encounter them, most people's perception of reality will be shattered.

As members of the Imperial Court, the two officials in Leping County had some sources of information and knew a little something, but for ordinary people, encountering such a situation was truly unbearable.

If it weren't for the fact that most yamen runners relied on this job to make a living, the entire Leping County yamen might have collapsed because of this today.

County Magistrate Lu, full name Lu Yufeng, was in a similar situation to Assistant Magistrate Li; he was not a local of Leping County, having been demoted and sent here. This place was remote and there wasn't much to do; while he didn't expect much in the way of political achievements during his tenure, it was at least a good place for retirement.

But running into demons and monsters was by no means a pleasant affair.

If it weren't for the immortal descending from the heavens last night, no matter how Lu Yufeng thought about it, he saw only a dead end for himself.

"Magistrate Gu is here."

Chang An walked in and reported truthfully to Lu Yufeng in the yamen's main hall.

Compared to the chaotic and panicked constables from last night, Chang An had been relatively calm and had even raised his blade to guard the two officials, which was why he had quickly gained Lu Yufeng's favor and promotion.

And at this moment, Chang An did not dare to show any offense toward Gu Jiangming in his speech; this address of "Magistrate Gu" came from the bottom of his heart.

If one were to say that Chang An's performance yesterday was still above that of a normal person, Gu Jiangming was the most bizarre and unfathomable of them all.

Not only did he not show the slightest fear, he even stared straight at the demon; even when the demon had closed in to that distance, Gu Jiangming had not changed in the slightest.

Even until the old immortal's Flying Sword pressed against the demon's sharp teeth, Gu Jiangming had maintained that calm and indifferent expression.

With such composure, Chang An could not think of him as an ordinary person.

He was clearly very confident, with a plan already in mind.

And Chang An was not intentionally over-analyzing; it was just that the scene yesterday had been too shocking to the soul, and he hadn't slept all night, constantly thinking about the details.

Lu Yufeng nodded; he also dared not slight Gu Jiangming anymore.

Last night, the old immortal's words were full of deference toward Gu Jiangming, and the charlatan on the side had also said that this old immortal had a great background.

Yet such a person was so respectful toward Gu Jiangming.

How could Lu Yufeng dare to put on airs by relying on his status as a County Magistrate?

One must be tactful in life.

He rose from the yamen's main hall, deciding to go and welcome Gu Jiangming personally.

As soon as Gu Jiangming entered from outside the yamen, he suddenly noticed that everyone's gaze was involuntarily drawn to him.

At first, Gu Jiangming thought it was because Her Highness Long Xi beside him was too eye-catching, but later, Gu Jiangming realized that was not the case.

His popularity seemed to have improved overnight; people he knew, or even those he didn't, would take the initiative to come up and greet him.

And Lu Yufeng, who had always possessed a bit of a scholar's arrogance, had taken the initiative to walk out of his office hall; in a world with a normal worldview, this would already count as lowering one's own status.

"Jiangming, you've come." Lu Yufeng said with a beaming smile: "This must be Madam Gu, right?"

Gu Jiangming had already given up on explaining such matters.

Yesterday in the yamen, he had been inexplicably kissed by Her Highness Long Xi, and today when they came over, she was afraid Gu Jiangming might accidentally lose her, so she was holding his hand again.

They had even caused a misunderstanding this morning that was impossible to explain.

What else could he do?

He could only lie flat and accept it.

Any forceful explanation would likely be taken as a conflict between a young couple; in the current situation, as long as he knew the truth and Long Xi could understand that they weren't in that kind of relationship, then that was fine, and he, Gu Jiangming, would no longer force anything.

Lu Yufeng then glanced outside nonchalantly and asked: "Where is that old immortal?"

"Did he leave with his mount?"

Last night, the white tiger had revealed its Demon Form to trade blows with the Sea Demon; since it was a demon helping humans, Lu Yufeng had undoubtedly taken the white tiger to be Xu Qingyun's mount.

Just like in those classical mythological storybooks, immortals must have mounts to match their status.

"He still had matters to attend to, so he left first. Moreover, he is bold and unconstrained by nature, so he rarely associates with the Imperial Court." Gu Jiangming pondered for a moment before speaking, "It would be somewhat difficult if you wanted to find him."

"By the way, Magistrate Lu... where is Assistant Magistrate Li?" Gu Jiangming changed the subject and continued to ask: "Why haven't I seen him?"

Lu Yufeng paused and said: "Him... he said he was ill and has already submitted his resignation to the Imperial Court; he is currently bedridden with an ailment."

"Once the Imperial Court permits him to retire to his hometown, he will likely be returning."

"Ah?" Gu Jiangming was penniless, and his only source of income at the moment was ghostwriting for Assistant Magistrate Li; how could he have imagined such a thing would happen?

After thinking for a moment, Gu Jiangming spoke candidly: "I left home in a hurry and have no silver on me. With Assistant Magistrate Li gone, can I still work for the yamen?"

At least for now, Gu Jiangming could not expose his background.

His status as a clerk relied entirely on the fabricated identity of a noble family descendant he had made up.

"That goes without saying." Lu Yufeng actually wished for Gu Jiangming to stay; he could vaguely sense that there was something extraordinary about Gu Jiangming.

With Gu Jiangming staying here, he would have an extra layer of security.

Hearing Gu Jiangming's words, Long Xi's gaze was somewhat hesitant, but she felt as though Gu Jiangming seemed to be in need of something.

"This... can this be exchanged for things?"

Long Xi's voice sounded weakly from behind Gu Jiangming.

Gu Jiangming turned his head and saw that there was a shiny Golden Ingot in the palm of Long Xi's hand.

Its quality was excellent, and it was very dazzling under the sunlight.

Even Lu Yufeng had never seen a gold ingot of this quality; many of the gold ingots he had seen were dull, and this level of luster was relatively rare.

【Treasure Appraisal and Object Recognition effect triggered】

【The gold ingot you see comes from ten thousand years ago, an offering from an official of the Dazhou Dynasty to the Nanhai Longgong.】

【However...】

【Dragons have an extremely high pursuit of wealth; ordinary objects are hard to pique the interest of the Dragon Race.】

【This is a golden ingot refined by the Nanhai Dragon King using magic; its quality is excellent and it also conforms to the aesthetics of the Dragon Race.】

"So rich?"

"Of course it can be exchanged, but using this to trade for things is a bit extravagant, isn't it?" Lu Yufeng looked at the purity of this gold ingot and said hesitantly.

Long Xi was somewhat confused.

Why were human rules so numerous and so strange? If it could be exchanged, wasn't that enough? Why were there so many twists and turns?

Gu Jiangming had been secretly poking her, implying she didn't understand human rules.

Long Xi actually had quite a few complaints about this point; she wasn't completely ignorant.

For instance, transactions between people often involved bartering, taking some things to exchange for other things.

These principles, she still knew.

It was just that she hadn't expected it to be so complicated when put into actual practice.

"This, how many meals of meat can it exchange for?" Long Xi asked.

Since she was in the human world, she would follow human rules; in the past, if a dragon wanted to eat meat, it was a very self-indulgent matter.

Many mortals would even voluntarily throw domestic livestock into the sea to offer to them.

"Exchange for meat?" Lu Yufeng was stunned; he felt his soul had received a new shock and was greatly shaken.

If you use this thing to trade for meat, isn't that pure waste of a heavenly treasure? And if this thing were really used to trade for meat, how long would it take to finish eating it?

What kind of family is this? To be able to squander like this?

If you want to eat meat or buy meat, just take some silver fragments; is it necessary to bring out gold of this purity to trade for meat?

"My wife never goes out to buy things; they are all prepared for her by the servants at home," Gu Jiangming defended himself, wanting to cry but having no tears.

"Oh, oh, oh, oh." Lu Yufeng immediately reacted and roughly understood the situation.

That made sense.

But looking at this display, it wasn't something an ordinary young lady from a prominent family could produce, right? Just how rich must one be to say such things?

Even the eldest princess of the Emperor's family might not have this kind of "wealth rivaling a nation" mindset.

Moreover, Lu Yufeng recalled what happened last night and knew that the other party probably wasn't a secular person; her background must be significant.

After all, who else but the cultivators of our Human Race who have attained the Dao could make monsters afraid?

Under Lu Yufeng's speculation, he felt that within the Dajing Dynasty, there must be a world of cultivators secretly protecting the safety of the Human Race, or a special agency like the Imperial City Division; otherwise, with the terrifying abilities of monsters, they would have long since exterminated mortals like them, and how could the world have such long-lasting peace?

Connecting this to Gu Jiangming's expression yesterday, the old immortal's descent from the sky seemed more like an escort, and the extraordinary spending of the other party's wife, along with that muddled perception of wealth, further reinforced Lu Yufeng's judgment.

Just at this moment, a piece of information sounded in Gu Jiangming's heart.

【The people from the Imperial City Division are about to arrive in Leping County to investigate the monster Quan Xi'an who died in the yamen.】

The information had just appeared.

A sound rang out at the entrance.

"The Imperial City Division is handling a case, all idlers step aside—"

Ten or more people were seen wearing identical official robes, with black cloth as the base, adorned with bright brocade; on their waists and backs, each had a long sword in a scabbard, and three daggers hung at their waists. Some wore bamboo hats, some were simply covered with a black veil, and others wore ghost masks on a whim, their purpose seemingly to conceal their true identities.

The leader only glanced at Gu Jiangming, then immediately asked: "Which one is Magistrate Lu?"

"I am Hu Qiubai, an Envoy of the Xijiang Prefecture Imperial City Division. I have received the report of an extraordinary event from Leping County to the Imperial Court and have come specifically to investigate this case."

The person speaking had an extra seal on their chest, which seemed to be a symbol of some rank.

Compared to the Northern Wei state in the Reincarnation Simulation from hundreds of years ago, the current Dajing Dynasty had clearly learned from the former's lessons, as if they had specifically established a special department to investigate monstrous and strange matters.

But in fact, the Northern Wei state was not without means to deal with monsters and evil; Gu Jiangming remembered that the simulation mentioned the Northern Wei state inviting cultivators to pacify the rebellions of insurgent armies in various places, which was enough to prove that the Northern Wei state had knowledge of and used cultivators.

It was just that it was eventually overthrown by the later Dajing Dynasty.

After all, the simulation only had one line of text, omitting a lot of fluff and essential details, which also caused Gu Jiangming to miss more detailed information.

"I am Lu Yufeng, the Magistrate of Leping County." Seeing the Token presented by the other party, Lu Yufeng immediately said: "Last night, this county was suddenly harassed by a monster, but fortunately, an immortal master named Real Person Qingyun took action, and we were spared."

"The corpse of that monster is in the back hall; please follow me, my lords."

As the words fell.

The group of people walked toward the back hall.

Gu Jiangming did not go to join the excitement; he intended to head to Assistant Magistrate Li's room to visit this official who had been good to him.

Assistant Magistrate Li in the back room was holding a brush and applying ink.

His complexion was ruddy, and he was not bedridden with illness as Lu Yufeng had said; this claim was just an excuse to find before submitting a resignation.

It was mainly because Assistant Magistrate Li did not want to die in a foreign land, and secondly, because of the "haunted house" he had found for Gu Jiangming; after last night, he just wanted to escape and leave this place as soon as possible.

And this haunted house also had some hidden circumstances.

One must know that the location of Leping County was extremely remote, and there were no very rich local industries; under Xijiang Prefecture, Leping County was considered a relatively poor county.

The young and strong in Leping County only flowed outward to higher places; there was no saying that people from other counties would voluntarily come to Leping County to settle down.

A scholar appeared here inexplicably, and repeatedly said he was not a local, explaining that he was out traveling and landed here.

Yet his name happened to be Gu Jiangming.

At that time, Assistant Magistrate Li only felt that the other party was joking with him, because Leping County was the hometown of Scholar Nangu.

Even the local farmers had heard the stories of Scholar Nangu.

You, a scholar, don't know?

Assistant Magistrate Li wanted to see how long Gu Jiangming would keep up the act, so he took him in for a few days.

As a result, the other party insisted that this name was his, and even wrote calligraphy that was completely in the same vein as Scholar Nangu.

Assistant Magistrate Li took out the old authentic works of Scholar Nangu to compare, and it was completely carved from the same mold.

It shocked him into a cold sweat that night, and he thoroughly investigated the past and present life of Scholar Nangu, checking his life in the local area clearly.

Fearing that Gu Jiangming was the reincarnation of Scholar Nangu's vengeful spirit, Assistant Magistrate Li made a bold decision.

That was to send Gu Jiangming to the solitary residence where Scholar Nangu lived alone after his wife died.

That is the haunted house that makes outsiders turn pale at the mere mention of it.

Several scholars who visited this place once stayed there for a night, and as a result, all three caught a cold at the same time.

Not long after one of them returned home, many family scandals were exposed, causing him to lose his reputation.

From then on, no one paid any attention to this house.

Of course, this is just a rumor, but it is true that no one dares to touch or live in this house.

County Assistant Li sent him there just to teach the other party a lesson for playing at ghosts and gods.

After yesterday's incident, County Assistant Li felt that he had already offended Gu Jiangming and realized even more that Gu Jiangming was no ordinary person, so he naturally wanted to avoid him.

A knocking sound rang out at the door.

"Enter—" County Assistant Li said with a full, resonant voice, "Didn't I say not to disturb me unless there is something important?"

Gu Jiangming walked in, "Master Li, aren't you doing just fine?"

"Why is it you?" County Assistant Li had just been thinking about Gu Jiangming, and he didn't expect to run into him head-on; he was caught red-handed. He gave a sheepish laugh and said, "I have offended you quite a bit these days, I hope Immortal Master Gu will be magnanimous."

"I can't be considered an Immortal Master. If it weren't for your care, County Assistant Li, I would have likely starved to death long ago, and I wouldn't have a place to stay now." Gu Jiangming truly felt gratitude toward County Assistant Li.

The opportunity to make a living was given by him, and the house was arranged by him.

Such a superior is already very rare.

Why does his appearance look a bit strange?

County Assistant Li was so scared he almost wanted to kneel; especially when he heard the mention of "a place to stay," his knees nearly went weak, and he swayed to the side.

But looking at the expression on Gu Jiangming's face, it seemed very much like he meant it.

"I heard you are resigning from your post to return to your hometown, so I came to pay a visit and see you off when the time comes," Gu Jiangming said with feeling.

"There is no need to see me off, it is enough that you have the heart to, Mr. Gu," County Assistant Li waved his hands repeatedly, "This illness is just an excuse to make it convenient to submit my resignation to the Imperial Court, you don't need to worry about it."

He thought for a moment, gritted his teeth, and took out a Deed from the side room, which could be considered telling the other party the truth.

"This is the deed to that house of yours."

"That house was originally unoccupied, and later it was confiscated, but because it is somewhat special, no one has moved in."

What he wanted to say was already on this deed.

Because on this deed, there was the signature of Hermit Nangu; as long as he goes back and thinks about it carefully, he should be able to know that the house is Hermit Nangu's house.

It couldn't be considered him cheating the other party.

Gu Jiangming took the deed and found that County Assistant Li was quite practical in his work; his name had already been written on the deed in advance.

Does this count as a house falling from the sky?

"I cannot accept a reward without merit," Gu Jiangming wanted to be polite, but his hand had already taken the deed.

A house that he would have to struggle for thirty years to afford in the modern era was now given to him by someone in a single sentence.

Gu Jiangming's mood was still very comfortable.

Before, he felt a bit bothered, thinking that this house belonged to someone else and not himself, so he couldn't let go and renovate it properly.

Now that the house is his own, he has an idea for renovation: to thoroughly clean up the place.

It will be much more comfortable to live in.

Meanwhile, in Guanzhong, a thousand miles away.

After a full day of rushing.

The White Tiger transformed back into its human form and rode a fine horse it had swiped to gallop a thousand miles.

About to return to a place where the Human Race lives densely, it could no longer use its Demon Form to show off in public or use the Evasion Technique of a Demon Cultivator to travel.

When it is time to be low-key, the White Tiger still needs to be low-key.

But motivation brings infinite productivity.

It was using the fastest speed of its life, intending to complete its errand.

Dismounting and tossing the reins aside, it flew onto the city wall of Guanzhong, stepping through the air under the cover of night, and entered the city in just a few steps.

The set of movements was smooth and fluid.

The former residence in Guanzhong.

The White Tiger's proud and complacent voice rang out outside the door.

"Lady Jiu Jiu, I have already found your husband's reincarnation. He has married a new bride now, so you don't need to go looking for him."

"Xu Qingyun told me that a person's life has many encounters; since there is a new one, there is no need to disturb the old red dust of the past. Let the past vanish like smoke and clouds, and let us forget each other in the rivers and lakes."

"Alright, I have found the person for you, when will you remove my name from the Hundred Demon Manual?"

The White Tiger walked into the room.

"Good—" Jiu Jiu smiled lightly, then her expression turned as cold as a blade, and her voice was chilling to the bone.

"When do you want to die? How about you pick an auspicious day?"

"Who exactly... taught you to speak to me like this?"

Jiu.

There will be another update tonight. Last night, in the early hours, I felt unwell and my head felt dizzy and heavy, so I didn't update.

(End of this chapter)