Chapter 88: Probing and Gifting the Gathering Spirit Pill to the Qiao Family

The City Lord's wife stood up abruptly upon hearing this, a flash of panic crossing her face before she regained her composure, acting as if she had not understood, and said with shifty eyes, "What is Miss Lingxiang saying? I am naturally the mistress of the City Lord Mansion..."

Seeing her like this, Lingxiang only gave a light smile and then slowly sat down.

"That's a fine thing to say. Although you have disguised yourself to be eighty or ninety percent like the City Lord's wife, while you might be able to fool the City Lord and the servants in the mansion, you cannot fool me." As Lingxiang spoke, she picked up the tea cup in her hand.

The City Lord's wife sat down gently and touched her face with a handkerchief: "What is Miss Lingxiang saying? Why can I not understand..."

Lingxiang was not in a hurry; she took a sip of tea and then slowly looked at the City Lord's wife.

"It doesn't matter if you don't say it. The person behind me, though nominally my disciple, is actually a descendant of a demon-subduing family. With a flip of his hand, he can make ordinary minor demons reveal their true forms. Why not let him 'state' it for you?"

Upon hearing this, Xin Yi felt it was somewhat amusing. Lingxiang had said those things to him earlier, and now she was playing little tricks and insisted on dragging him into it. But since she had already spoken, he would indulge her; it was said he was her nominal disciple, so he had to give her some face.

Thinking this, Xin Yi glared at the City Lord's wife. This glare was no simple matter; it was one of the Demon-Subduing Methods of the Lu Family.

Seeing this, the City Lord's wife became nervous at once, yet she forced herself to remain calm and said, "You! What are you doing? This is the City Lord Mansion, and I am the dignified City Lord's wife!"

"Oh? Is that so?" Lingxiang said, putting down the tea cup. "Since you are the City Lord's wife, why are you nervous? The witchcraft he just used only works on demons. If it were an ordinary person, it would be nothing more than feeling a gaze."

"I... where am I nervous! It... it's just that that person looks fierce and malicious, and he scared me."

"Not nervous?" Lingxiang said, pinching the City Lord's wife's chin. "There is no charcoal fire burning in this room. If you aren't nervous, why are you sweating so much in the middle of winter?"

"Per... perhaps I am dressed a bit too heavily..." The City Lord's wife could not overcome Lingxiang, so she had to look to the side.

"Heavily?" Lingxiang let go of the City Lord's wife, turned around, and smiled lightly. "They are just silk clothes. I didn't expect the City Lord's wife to have nourished her body so well in these two or three months."

"Yes... yes, ever since you left last time, I have learned some fisticuffs from the guards in the mansion, and my body..."

"Shut up!"

Before the City Lord's wife could finish speaking, Lingxiang immediately shouted to stop her.

"Don't talk about the City Lord's wife practicing martial arts! With that body of hers, even doing heavy labor is impossible! Otherwise, I wouldn't have quietly given her a pack of Body Nourishing Pills before I left last time!"

As she spoke, she turned around to look at the City Lord's wife, her face devoid of the teasing expression from just a moment ago.

"Before, the City Lord's wife would be scared into a faint even if she were bumped into by a yellow weasel, yet you say Xin Yi is fierce and malicious and scared you, but you are still able to sit here perfectly fine! Are you still not going to confess honestly!?"

The "City Lord's wife" on the seat was rendered speechless by the questioning. She looked at Lingxiang for a long time before finally collapsing into the grand armchair.

"How did you see that I am not the City Lord's wife?" the person asked after a long while.

"You can ask that, so you are admitting you are not the City Lord's wife?" Lingxiang said, sitting back in her chair.

The person on the seat hesitated for a long time before saying, "I am indeed not the City Lord's wife, but this physical body is indeed the City Lord's wife's..."

This statement surprised Lingxiang for a moment.

"So that is to say, you used the Body Possession Technique?"

The person on the seat nodded. Seeing this, Lingxiang asked, "Did Ajin help you?"

Upon hearing this, the person looked at Lingxiang with a face full of astonishment, while Lingxiang, as if she had insight into everything, just sat peacefully drinking tea.

"That's right. I guessed who you were from the very beginning; I just wanted to get to the bottom of it. With your cultivation, having only received incense for a few years, there is absolutely no way you could have accomplished this Possession. The only one who could help you is Ajin, right, Alv?"

It was actually Alv!

"Since you knew it was me long ago, why go through all this extra trouble?" Alv said, sitting up, completely lacking the gentle appearance from before.

Hearing this, Lingxiang took two boxes out of her Universe Bag.

"With your cultivation, even if the Possession succeeded, this physical body would likely not be compatible. Moreover, your original body is surely being watched over by those little yellow weasels, but in the long run, it will certainly rot." As she spoke, she placed the boxes on the small side table.

"There is a box of Fragrance Preserving Pills here. If you feed one to your body every month, it can be kept safe. Furthermore, since you have taken possession of the City Lord's wife, this body will certainly not be able to adapt naturally, and in the long run, something will surely go wrong. The Fragrance Preserving Pills can also help you get through this period. Now that Ajin is not here, you cannot look after the guards in the mansion either. In a place like the City Lord Mansion, which is rich in Spirit Qi, it might attract those monsters. I will gift you two more Gathering Spirit Pills; you can use them to cultivate your descendants, and that can be considered comprehensive."

"Since you already knew I was not the original wife, why treat me this way? Don't you practitioners all claim to take subduing demons and defending the Dao as your own duty?" Alv asked, staring blankly at Lingxiang.

Lingxiang smiled lightly: "Those are just the sophistries of sanctimonious people. They all say demons harm people, but what you have done has harmed whom? There is no such thing as a clear distinction between right and wrong in this world. What I believe in is only the human heart; some who are born human are, on the contrary, not as kind as you. Or..."

"Or you can just consider that I did it for Wuyang!"

Alv stared in a daze at the Pills gifted by Lingxiang on the table, her heart unable to stop thinking about the instructions given by the wife on her deathbed that night.

On the night of the 28th, Ajin suddenly found her place of residence, saying that the wife wanted to see her, which had surprised her immensely.

This wife was frail and weak, and did not seem to have any cultivation; why would she know of her existence?

She followed Ajin, half-believing and half-doubting, and on the way, she really could not hold back and asked the question in her heart.

"Do you think the wife is really as ignorant as she appears on the surface?" Ajin said without looking back.

What did this mean? Could it be that the wife actually had cultivation?

At this moment, Ajin turned around. His fur was blended into the dark night, but those golden eyes were like a golden moon, adding a bit of momentum to this crescent moon night.

"She is a descendant of the Qiao Family, a demon-subduing family from Gaoling. How could she be the same as those sheltered women?"

What?! A demon-subduing family!?

Although she had not been cultivating for long, she knew a little bit about human affairs. The wife was actually a descendant of that Qiao Family; she really did not look like it at all.

And hadn't the Qiao Family been wiped out many years ago? How did the wife manage to escape?

"The wife is someone with the Heavenly Star Spirit Root aptitude, which only existed in the ancient era."