Chapter 408: Can't Afford the Price (Bonus Chapter)

"M-my lord, what should we do?"

The county magistrate grew even more terrified, for the cassock was drifting toward them.

On the cassock, mouths opened and closed in succession.

In many of those mouths, streaks of bloody flesh were caught between the teeth.

Drool dripped steadily.

But in his left eye, he saw a monk with gentle brows and kind eyes, holding a wooden fish, smiling warmly as he walked toward them.

Xu Yuan sneered and said, "Burn it all clean!"

With that, Lord Xu opened his mouth sharply:

Boom—

The fifth-tier belly fire was unleashed without reservation.

Rolling flames instantly formed a blazing sky above their heads.

Three feet outside their bodies remained clear.

Beyond that lay a sea of fire.

Screams and roars continuously rose from the fire sea.

Merely hearing those sounds made the county magistrate's head throb as if red-hot steel needles were twisting inside his skull.

He also saw countless demonic creatures, though already aflame, still desperately charging forward, stirring violent waves of flame within the fire sea.

Fortunately, none reached close enough—they were all reduced to ash before they could.

Outside the temple gate, Lang Xiao Ba and Ji Shuangqiu turned back and felt the warmth emanating from within the temple.

"My lord has unleashed his full power."

"The temple's evil spirits must have done something to fully enrage my lord."

After a stick of incense burned out, silence suddenly fell within the temple.

Not long after, Xu Yuan stepped out first.

Behind him stumbled the county magistrate.

And he followed closely, terrified of being left behind.

Even though Lord Xu had burned away all the evil spirits, the magistrate still dared not stay inside alone.

"My lord."

The members of the Purification Office bowed in greeting.

Xu Yuan opened his palm, revealing six glass-like beads.

"Still only this kind of material."

The temple's evil spirits had reached the sixth tier!

Xu Yuan felt uneasy: tomorrow, would sixth-tier evil spirits appear?

The county magistrate was truly terrified, pleading behind Lord Xu: "My lord, please stay in my county for several more days…"

…

As night fell, a guesthouse in Chengxi welcomed several wealthy guests.

The group of five was led by a Young Lady.

She was accompanied by two strong maids and two guards.

One of the maids tossed a ten-tael silver ingot onto the counter and ordered the innkeeper to prepare a clean courtyard.

The money was placed on the counter; any excess would be refunded upon departure, any shortfall made up.

She also ordered dinner—clean and delicious, without fail.

The Young Lady moved with graceful elegance, wearing a veiled hat and a sheer veil obscuring her face; though her features were hidden, she was surely a beauty of heavenly grace.

The innboy stole a glance and immediately felt reverence, daring not to look again as he hurried off to prepare dinner.

From within the inn stepped a ragged boy, clutching a clay jar.

"Boy, is there hot water…?"

The innboy shoved him away impatiently: "Go draw water from the well yourself. A pauper paying one copper for a straw shed thinks I'll serve you?"

The thin boy, emaciated, nearly fell to the ground from the shove.

He rose silently and went to the well in the back courtyard.

…

After dinner, the Young Lady and the two maids spread out a map in their room.

The map was only three feet square, yet the terrain it displayed constantly shifted.

The Young Lady stared at the map, her gaze fixed on the city of Shiping.

The city, previously just a red dot on the map, suddenly enlarged.

Soon, the entire city filled the map.

All buildings within the city—including the Shengpeng Guesthouse where they now stayed—were clearly rendered.

The two maids pleaded earnestly: "Young Lady, tomorrow you absolutely must not risk yourself. Let Geng Seven and Geng Nine handle any matters. If you refuse, don't blame us for summoning your father's letter and forcibly taking you home."

"If anything happens to you, we four cannot bear the responsibility."

The Young Lady propped her chin on her hand, leaning lazily against the table, revealing unconsciously the refined ease of a life raised in luxury.

The innkeeper's guess was correct: the Young Lady was a beauty of heavenly grace, and her eyes were clear and pure, untouched by the corruption of this world.

"I know," the Young Lady replied indifferently, her voice inexplicably lovely.

Her attention remained entirely on the map.

Then her delicate, high nose wrinkled as she pouted: "Master is so stingy—this map only gave me Southern Jiaozhi. I can't even go play elsewhere first, hmph."

The robust woman Wei Wei said, "Southern Jiaozhi is safer, as Lord Ma Tianshou is stationed there."

The Young Lady's fingers traced casually across the map; wherever her delicate finger pointed, the location would expand or shrink.

"The map shows that the evil spirit 'Nail-Head Boil' for which the Purification Bureau offers a reward has recently fled to Shiping County, yet why, now that we have arrived at Shiping County, does its position still not appear on the map?"

Wei Nian Yi said offhandedly, "Perhaps because that thing has already fled the county town today."

The other robust woman, Wei Nian Yi, said, "Young Lady, rest early; tomorrow, after we worship the map, we shall seek the location of that evil spirit."

We have already worshipped it today, so we cannot worship it again.

Hearing this, the Young Lady yawned: "Very well, I shall take a bath."

"This servant will have them prepare hot water."

The inn waiter, having received Wei Nian Yi's orders, hurried to the kitchen to boil water, only to see the boy from the woodshed who had just boiled a pot of hot water on the stove and was filling a clay jar.

He flew into a rage and struck the back of the boy's head.

The woodshed boy, stunned by the blow, turned around and looked at him in confusion.

"Does firewood cost nothing?" The inn waiter poured the hot water from the clay jar back in, then added a bucket of cold water to the pot: "A noble person is about to bathe."

He then added firewood to the stove and pulled the bellows with force.

The woodshed boy stood behind him, his face cold: "A noble person may bathe with hot water; is it not allowed for me even to take a single sip?"

"No!" the inn waiter said. "If you can pay, I will personally carry the entire bucket of hot water to your room."

"People are the same, yet fates differ; my life is cheap, and yours is even cheaper!"

The boy said no more, filled a jar with icy well water, and left.

As he went out the door, the inn waiter threatened viciously, "Do not go to the west courtyard; if you disturb the noble person, you cannot bear the consequences!"

The boy arrived outside and reached out to touch his brow.

The skin there split open, as if it were a third eye.

The eyeball was a glass bead.

With this third eye, he gazed at the clay jar in his hand and said softly, "I can only drink cold water; then let everyone be like me, able to drink only cold water."

He splashed the well water from the earthen jar onto the ground.

The water was seen gurgling and flowing in all directions.

Though it was merely one earthen jar, it quickly flooded the entire courtyard.

The first to be struck was the inn waiter in the kitchen behind him.

The inn waiter let out a cry of shock, followed immediately by the sounds of drowning and choking.

Icy well water poured endlessly into his mouth.

The inn waiter closed his mouth, yet the water continued to surge into his body from his nostrils, ears, and even his anus.

The inn waiter's body swelled larger and larger until it could bear no more, and with a boom, it exploded!

(End of this chapter)