Chapter 263: Seven-Faced Ghost Cage Grass

Xu Yuan was wide awake; he tilted his ear to listen, but the night was utterly silent.

The street outside was quiet as well.

Recently, the evil spirits in the city had stopped wandering aimlessly near the Nancheng Patrol Station.

He waited a while longer, yet nothing happened.

But Xu Yuan could no longer sleep, so he simply began cultivating the Five Cauldrons Boiling Art.

On the street opposite the Nancheng Patrol Station, three shadows flicked their tails soundlessly and vanished into the darkness.

Hiding in the street corner were two little foxes.

They dared not move a muscle.

Once those three figures had gone far away, the sisters trembled: "Did you see?"

"I saw. Their cultivation is profound!"

"I fear they are no less than the Great Lady."

"What shall we do..."

The fox's voice carried a sob.

Yesterday, the Laozu Sect had sent another letter urging them.

The wording this time was extremely severe.

If they made no progress, the Laozu Sect would likely come to the occupied city personally to demand answers.

They feared the Laozu Sect and did not want him to come.

So tonight, they mustered their courage again to come to the Nancheng Patrol Station and take a look.

They planned to "accidentally" meet Lord Xu first thing tomorrow morning.

But now Xu Yuan was being watched by those three "seniors." If they got mixed up with Xu Yuan and suffered by association... those three seniors had huge mouths; the two of them were not enough to fill their teeth.

"L-let's go back first."

The elder sister's teeth chattered.

"Good!"

The two little foxes slipped away quickly, but halfway there, an evil spirit eating a dead rat spotted them.

The evil spirit cracked its blood-stained maw and sneered: Why haven't these two given up yet? They insist on wandering aimlessly outside that big house.

They must have been scared, heh heh.

It had seen clearly just now that the two foxes' tails were tucked tightly between their legs.

Then it began to lament itself: We are both evil spirits; I am at least one of the city's, yet why am I so wretched, forced to eat only rats, snakes, and the like?

I also want to eat humans like the evil spirits in the mountains...

After dawn, Xu Yuan checked the almanac. Today's prohibitions were:

Approaching rivers, ancestral worship, clearing wasteland, and martial arts drills.

Xu Yuan raised an eyebrow; the evil spirits had given Old Qin a day off.

As soon as he stepped out, Zhang Laoya opened his door too, his expression deep in color and solemn, saying, "They have arrived!"

Xu Yuan immediately thought of last night's nightmare.

But Lord Xu remained impassive and asked, "Your enemies?"

"Mm." Zhang Laoya walked into Xu Yuan's room.

Xu Yuan's room was the largest; meals were generally taken there.

The Nancheng Patrol Station was currently short on rooms and could not spare one specifically as a dining hall.

Lin Wanmo had also risen; she was very diligent when there was business to attend to.

Especially when that business involved outsiders.

Thus, in the eyes of outsiders, the stepmother always maintained the good image of being "hardworking, virtuous, and frugal."

If only she and Xu Yuan were home, she could sleep through lunch without eating.

Lin Wanmo went to make breakfast while Zhang Laoya told Xu Yuan, "I had a nightmare last night. They possess an ability: entering dreams."

Zhang Laoya sighed deeply: "They have found me after all."

Xu Yuan asked, "Who exactly are they? And how did you offend them?"

Zhang Laoya's old face flushed; he stammered and seemed reluctant to speak.

Xu Yuan then said, "At this point, you still refuse to tell the truth?"

"Ahem, it is all the sin I committed in my youth."

Zhang Laoya also felt he must explain things clearly to Lord Xu.

"They are not human; they are three dream-eaters."

"Back then, due to certain matters, I went to Yunfu Mountain in Liangguang Province, Zhengzhou. I accidentally wandered into a garden villa; they were the masters of that villa."

Zhang Laoya sighed again: "A karmic entanglement... Later I learned their true identities. After finishing my business, I dared not have any further entanglements and slipped away quietly."

"They felt deceived and have been searching for me all these years."

"I fled from Liangguang Province to Zhili Province, then from Zhili Province to Southern Jiaozhi; I never expected I still could not escape..."

Xu Yuan looked at Zhang Laoya with confusion.

This gaze made Zhang Laoya feel insulted: "I am telling the truth! What kind of look is that? When I was young, I was also a dashing, handsome young man, you know?"

"Fine." Between believing Zhang Laoya was a handsome young man in his youth and believing three dream-eaters were blind, Xu Yuan chose the latter.

But Xu Yuan still felt that Zhang Laoya had not told the whole truth.

"After all these years, you've been hiding and running; how did they find you?"

Zhang Laoya lowered his head and remained silent.

"Speak!"

"This old man... back when I was young, I once exchanged birth dates and hours with them."

Xu Yuan had just lifted his teacup for a sip and spat it all out.

"You—did you also send betrothal gifts, preparing for a proper marriage?"

Zhang Laoya's old face turned red: "I was young back then, and their illusion arts were extremely profound; I didn't realize they weren't human. The three sisters were all smitten with me at once, a sea of tenderness. Tell me, who could resist that?"

Xu Yuan tilted his head and thought for a moment; well, what you say makes sense.

My Lord Xu asked himself, if it were me, I'd probably also... be unable to resist.

"They also have methods to use this old man's birth dates and hours to calculate his general location. But I never expected that after so many years, they would still be so fixated on me."

Zhang Laoya raised his head and glanced sideways out the window, sighing: "Although they troubled this old man for over ten years, their affection was truly deep."

Xu Yuan nodded in agreement, then suddenly realized something was wrong: "Over ten years? How old are you this year?"

Only then did Zhang Laoya realize he had slipped up and quickly corrected himself: "This old man misspoke; it was several decades, not over ten years."

"Don't lie to me!" Xu Yuan wouldn't let it go: "Speak honestly; exactly when did this happen? Besides cheating them out of their feelings and bodies, did you cheat them out of something else?"

Xu Yuan now trusted less than thirty percent of the old swindler's words.

Zhang Laoya argued weakly: "I didn't lie to you..."

"Get out!" Xu Yuan pointed at the door and shouted: "We do business based on honesty, which is what you taught me! If you don't speak the truth to me, our deal ends right here!"

"How can you turn your back on me like this?" Zhang Laoya panicked.

He needed Xu Yuan's fate pattern far too much.

Leaving other things aside, last night those three dream-eating moths rashly entered dreams.

But Zhang Laoya lived in the Nancheng patrol station, where auspicious objects suppressed evil.

One dream entry could not cause any harm to Zhang Laoya; instead, it made him realize he had been exposed.

Perhaps the three dream-eating moths had finally found Zhang Laoya, and in their emotional agitation, acted somewhat irrationally.

But there must also be credit owed to Xu Yuan's "Eight Directions Injury Sha."

Xu Yuan felt nothing because the three dream-eating moths were mainly targeting Zhang Laoya.

Xu Yuan was merely threatened as an afterthought.

"Either speak the truth or leave quickly!"

Zhang Laoya didn't move: "Alright, over ten years, over ten years, is that fine? I was forty-six years old back then."

Xu Yuan finally couldn't hold back this time: "Were they blind?"

Zhang Laoya glanced at him, then stood up and adjusted himself before the mirror.

Turning back around, his entire demeanor had changed.

Xu Yuan's mouth dropped open in surprise.

Don't say it, Zhang Laoya actually did have some charm.

Zhang Laoya hummed and said: "These years, I almost changed my appearance completely too. Alas..."

Then he spoke honestly again: "Your guess wasn't wrong either; I stole a precious herb they painstakingly cultivated, the Seven-Faced Dou Mian Gui Grass."

(End of this chapter)