But Han Tao didn't have this problem, because he knew how to use demonic energy, and naturally knew how to avoid using demonic seeds when using spiritual energy.
As Fu Mingxu spoke, he felt that strange smell suddenly intensify, as if it had been exposed to the air from a hidden place.
But by the time he realized something, the smell had vanished even faster.
When he sniffed again, the last trace of scent in the air had completely dissipated.
"I'm all better." Han Tao finished everything as quickly as possible, got off the bed, and lowered his eyes as if he dared not look at the person in front of him. "Your pills are very effective."
Hearing this, Fu Mingxu breathed a sigh of relief. But when he turned around, Han Tao rushed out of the room like a gust of wind.
The door was opened and then slammed shut with a loud "bang".
At the same time, Han Tao's voice came through: "Rest well and don't go out."
After saying that, he left quietly.
Qi Muyuan, who was comforting his master not far away, was furious when he heard the noise: "Can't you guys be a little quieter?"
The mermaid Meng Shui beside him was as quiet as a chicken, while Fu Mingxu was alone in the room, feeling bewildered.
He figured Qi Muyuan probably thought the door was too loud.
A note from the author:
Qi Muyuan: As expected, the Dragon Clan knows how to play games, tsk. Thank you to all the little angels who voted for me or watered my plants with nutrient solution between 2022-03-28 00:00:00 and 2022-03-29 00:00:00!
Thank you so much for your support! I will continue to work hard!
Chapter 37
Liu Xin, who was strolling around the lobby, suddenly saw his master come down and couldn't help but ask, "Lord of the City, why are you out?"
Why are you out here in the middle of the night instead of sleeping with your partner?
Han Tao's mood hadn't completely calmed down yet, and with a tense expression, he could only reply indifferently, "Come down and get some fresh air."
Manager Liu: Huh??
Han Tao ignored him, his spiritual energy perfectly avoiding the demonic seed. He casually set up several warning barriers in the restaurant. After doing this, he reminded Liu Xin, "Someone is coming tonight, don't come out."
Liu Xin was puzzled, but he agreed: "Okay, I'll go back now."
As per the city lord's previous instructions, only the five of them remained in the restaurant after nightfall.
After Liu Xin left, the hall returned to silence. Qi Muyuan came out of the room, his handsome face extremely sour, and said in a harsh voice, "I thought you were going to die in Yunhan City."
Unexpectedly, the dragon not only survived but also married a mortal. He didn't believe in any kind of marriage to ward off bad luck; if it weren't for the person he wanted, he probably wouldn't have had the chance to even step into the city lord's mansion.
Han Tao stood below and looked at him: "Luckily, you didn't die."
Qi Muyuan came down, glanced at the warning array in the restaurant, and laughed, "Looks like you guessed someone would come tonight."
Han Tao: "Aren't you one too?"
"Still that deadpan expression." Qi Muyuan leaned against a pillar with his arms crossed and asked curiously, "Your partner actually likes you like this? There was quite a commotion just now."
"Hehe, they probably wanted to get him to sleep so he wouldn't get caught up in the chaos."
"Tsk, that's a good idea."
Han Tao glanced at him, did not refute, but asked, "Is Immortal Lord Siyang still awake?"
Qi Muyuan understood the meaning behind his words, his face darkened, and he said with worry, "My good master is still thinking about taking your partner as his disciple."
“He’s dreaming,” Han Tao said bluntly.
Qi Muyuan chuckled, and the two instantly understood each other's meaning.
On the second floor of the restaurant, Fu Mingxu, who was completely bewildered, stood there for a while, then sighed softly and went to lie down on the bed.
When exhaustion struck, he thought he would fall asleep quickly. But he stared at the bed curtains for a long time, and although his mind became increasingly clear, he felt no sleepiness whatsoever.
"Sigh," he turned over in his blanket, but couldn't fall asleep no matter what he did, so he simply summoned Long Yan to play.
Fu Mingxu stared at the flickering flames in his palm, straining to hear what was happening outside. Perhaps the defensive array here was too effective; after listening for a long time, he heard nothing but his own breathing.
The dragon flame in his palm had grown considerably, and the color of the flame was now purer and richer.
"Huh, I don't remember feeding it any spirit fire, how come it's gotten so fat?" The slender fingers poked at the dragon flame, jokingly saying, "Could you grow big just by eating the northwest wind?"
Dragon Flame danced merrily in my palm, as if it wanted to say something. Unfortunately, although it had developed a little intelligence, it was not yet capable of speaking.
Fu Mingxu played with it for a long time, and finally, out of boredom, put it back into his dantian. He lay down again and simply opened his eyes to cultivate.
After the chaotic energy circulated through his body for several cycles, he finally drifted off to sleep. His dreams were filled with bizarre and fantastical colors, and the vanished aura flickered in and out of existence, eventually transforming into a thick vine that bound him tightly.
In his sleep, he was exhausted from being tormented, and an indescribable sense of shame clung to him as his mind drifted.
Until a strange aura swept over him, Fu Mingxu fell into a pitch-black dream as if he had lost his mind, and could no longer escape and wake up.
The defensive formation maintained the silence here. After midnight, Han Tao and Qi Muyuan, who had been sitting in the darkness for a long time, finally saw the arrival of the people.
There was no lightning-fast fight. The newcomer arrived under the moonlight, his gaze sweeping back and forth between the two men. He smiled and said, "I never expected to see City Lord Han and Sect Master Qi here at the same time."
Han Tao stood up, his expression indifferent: "Thank you, Sect Master. How have you been?"
Qi Muyuan spoke up at the opportune moment: "Oh, I didn't expect it to be you, Xie Buwen. What? In the middle of the night, you've come to pick up your good son-in-law from the Tianxuan Sect?"
Xie Buwen knew that Han Tao and Si Yang Xianjun were here, so he had no intention of forcibly taking the mermaid. However, he did not expect that Qi Muyuan would also be here.
"Sect Master Qi is joking. This is a complete misunderstanding. My disciple Zhang Anran has been having an affair with that mermaid, which violates the sect rules. How can we let her leave the mountain?" He did not deny his purpose, but changed his perspective. "If you give me that mermaid, you can have the Demon Flower in his possession. Is that acceptable?"
"As for his so-called twin contract, I will naturally find a way to deal with it."
Having said that, Xie Buwen's meaning was clear: he didn't want them involved in this matter at all.
Han Tao, Immortal Lord Si Yang, and Qi Muyuan are all at the Mahayana level; it would be best not to offend them.
He cupped his hands towards Han Tao: "I haven't yet congratulated City Lord Han on his recovery. I wonder what the City Lord wants the Demon-Generating Flower for? If you are curious about the Demon Source Pill, I will present it to you with both hands after it is refined."
Han Tao glanced at him coolly and said indifferently, "My partner likes it, so I brought it to arrange the flowers."
Upon hearing this, Xie Buwen was stunned, while Qi Muyuan burst into laughter: "What? Didn't the Tianxuan Sect's spies tell you what happened at the auction? The young mistress of Han City thinks the Demon Flower King is beautiful and wants to use it for flower arranging."
He clicked his tongue and gave Han Tao a thumbs up: "Lord Han and his partner have such a good relationship."
Han Tao nodded: "Of course."
The dragon race despises broken promises above all else. Since he had made a promise with the merman, he was obligated to let him meet Zhang Anran no matter what. Xie Buwen's secrecy only fueled suspicion.
"Master Xie, you should know that my Dragon Clan values integrity." The gaze in his golden eyes was exceptionally sharp, as if he could see right through Xie Buwen. "It's just a meeting. Do the disciples of the Heavenly Profound Sect need so many layers of protective formations that they can't even see each other?"
Qi Muyuan then added at the opportune moment, "Does Sect Leader Xie want City Lord Han to break his promise?"
The two of them talked back and forth as if there were no third person present. Qi Muyuan's accusation almost made Xie Buwen faint with anger.
He tried to calm his breathing and said coldly, "I'll just tell you the truth. Zhang Anran is already the dual cultivation partner of my Tianxuan Sect's ancestor, True Monarch Fengyou, so she can't possibly be the wife of some mermaid."
“Last time I had someone throw him out to save his life, but he trampled on the face of my Tianxuan Sect like this, I have no choice but to do something about it.”
Xie Buwen looked at Han Tao and Qi Muyuan and said, word by word, "I urge you two to be lenient and avoid causing any unnecessary trouble."
"Mermaids will not lose their lives if they fall into my hands, but if they fall into the hands of the Ancestor, their fate is predictable."
Han Tao frowned as he listened, while Qi Muyuan sighed inwardly at how the Phoenix Wanderer of the Heavenly Profound Sect had become so eager to compete with a mermaid for a wife.
"Feng You must be over a thousand years old. By that reckoning, Zhang Anran should be his disciple or grand-disciple. Does this old ox eating young grass have any shame?" Immortal Lord Siyang appeared on the stairs at some point, leaning lazily against the railing with a sarcastic smile. "What dual cultivation? I think he's more like using her as a furnace!"
"He came at the same time as me, and now he's turned out like this, it's disgusting!"
The last shred of decency was ruthlessly ripped off and trampled, leaving Xie Buwen's face turning purple with embarrassment. In a daze, he suddenly realized that Qi Muyuan's sharp tongue was probably inherited from his master, Immortal Venerable Siyang.
"I wonder how he cultivated to the Mahayana stage. Could it be that he relied entirely on his furnace and cauldrons to achieve it?" Immortal Lord Siyang spoke again without any politeness. After all, when he became an Immortal Lord, the current True Lord Fengyou was just a disciple hiding behind the already fallen True Lord Haoqing.
Unexpectedly, after only a few hundred years, Haoqing Zhenjun's disciples, apart from advancing their cultivation to the Mahayana stage, did not learn even a fraction of his character.
An Ran and the mermaid Meng Shui made a pact on the Three Lives Stone, a marriage recognized by Heaven and Earth, which even sects and families cannot defy the will of Heaven.
Let alone a mere ancestor?
Therefore, Xie Buwen's talk of dual cultivation with the ancestor was nothing but a self-deceiving pretense. The reason he could use a powerful formation to conceal the secrets of heaven was simply to cultivate with a female disciple from who-knows-how-many generations ago. This female disciple had already been married to another man, and Si Yang couldn't think of a better explanation than that he could gain even greater benefits from her.
None of the three were fools. Si Yang Xianjun had explained it so clearly, and they understood his meaning in just a few moments.
A look of disgust flashed in Han Tao's eyes, and Qi Muyuan's face showed his contempt.
When had Xie Buwen, the leader of a sect, ever been mocked like this? He couldn't even beat the three of them in a fight, so he could only let them guess. What's more, they were mostly right about what they guessed.
Xie Buwen, who had been personally sent by the patriarch, couldn't stand it and left in a huff after the incense had burned for a while.
Qi Muyuan called out from behind, "Sect Master Xie, go back and tell your ancestor that we will be visiting tomorrow."
Xie Buwen, who hadn't gone far, staggered a couple of steps, then transformed into a beam of light and drifted away.
...
At Fengyou Mountain of the Tianxuan Sect, layers of formations obscured the starlight, and the servants carefully gathered together, heads bowed, to clean.
At the entrance to the main hall at the front of them, people were carried out from inside, their hair hanging down with gray strands, their chests not rising and falling significantly, and they seemed to have no chance of life.
The men carrying the body passed by the servants, and the token on the body fell silently onto the grass, just like its deceased owner.
Holding a broom, Ye Chen stood hunched over like everyone else, head bowed respectfully. But after the people carrying the corpse left, he slowly moved towards the grass in front of him.
"Hey, watch out for the formation!" a servant kindly warned.
Ye Chen's heart skipped a beat. He stepped precisely on the token and replied, "I know, thank you!"
After saying that, he took advantage of the others' inattention, quickly grabbed the token on the ground, and stuffed it into his pocket without even looking at it.
A shrill and familiar scream came from the main hall of Fengyou Peak. The servants were terrified and wished they could shrink into a ball and cover their ears to pretend they hadn't heard it.
People have been dying in recent days, and judging from the occasional stray strands of hair and the hairpins on them, they should all be women.
But this familiar female voice always began to scream after someone died, without ceasing.
Despite the existence of a spell to block out sound, the people in the main hall seemed to be doing it on purpose, letting the woman's shrill voice continue, as if to say that no matter how much she called out, no one could save her.
Ye Chen lowered his head, not daring to look around, but his hands gripped the broom tightly, not caring at all even when his palms were pricked by the rough thorns.
He closed his eyes and followed the other servants in another direction.
Inside the main hall, Zhang Anran spat angrily: "What kind of bullshit True Monarch! Even with such an evil method to improve cultivation, he still can't ascend successfully!"