Under the night sky, Qingyun City resembles a bright lantern, casting its brilliant light across the land. This majestic city, located in the heart of Xiangzhou, boasts a prosperity second only to Heaven-Reaching City and Golden Jade City, with its central area illuminated day and night.
But where there is light, shadows are inevitable. Compared to the dazzling city center, Shen Garden in Willow Alley of the East City District is like a fragment hidden in shadows.
In the darkness, a small group of people stealthily approached Shen Garden—the courtyard where Li Qingming resides.
The leader of the group was tall and burly, and under the distant glow from the central city, the three behind him appeared like chicks, especially the last one, who, despite wearing more refined servant garments, was panting, hunched over, and his footsteps were messy, like a chick afflicted with fowl plague.
"Brother Ping, are you, are you alright? Actually, you should have rested before coming."
"Rest? Would we still make it in time? If we don't bring her back tonight, tomorrow you three can run away with me! Just know when to say stupid things!"
Li Li said, "But Brother Ping, in your current state... sigh, although it was your mistake to break Miss Wanqing's things, Second Master punishing you with laps is too harsh..."
"Second Master treasures Miss Wanqing the most. These years while Miss has been cultivating outside, Second Master often reflects on the things and misses her. It's my own fault," Li Ping said, gasping for breath, "No worries, when necessary, I'll take pills. They can sustain me for fifteen minutes. It should be enough to handle the Miss."
"Brother Ping, do not underestimate her. Miss's swordsmanship progress is truly uncanny; once she's close, she inexplicably broke through Protective External Skills..."
Li Ping said, "Perhaps her mother left her some exotic techniques or whatnot. No worries, I won't let Miss get close. I'll keep a distance, use spirit talismans and techniques to trap her. I won't even let her see my face. And no matter how bizarre her cultivation is, as long as she hasn't broken the Wind Barrier, she is still a Mortal Martial Artist and no match for me. Of course, you three don't just hang around; help me control the scene. That small courtyard was left by the Madam, after all. Despite its disrepair, there could be traps or mechanisms. I can't handle both the mechanisms and Miss. Li Peng, your hard qi skill is the best, so you'll do the probing later. Li Yuan and Li Li, you two protect Li Peng, especially make sure he doesn't act stupid. Li Peng, listen to instructions later; I'm the first priority, Li Li second, Li Yuan third."
As Li Ping grumbled on, he was already gasping for breath, bending over in exhaustion. After a while, as his breathing calmed slightly, he suddenly realized the surrounding silence was somewhat abnormal.
"Li Li? Respond, Li Peng?"
With no response from either, Li Ping instantly sensed something was amiss. Raising his head, he realized the familiar gray courtyard wall had vanished without a trace, leaving only pitch blackness and a hazy mist. An eerie wind blew past, carrying distant cries and moans.
"What the hell!?"
Li Ping's heart rate instantly more than doubled, transforming from slightly nervous pounding into a frenzy. His qi blood surged, his vision darkened, and his legs trembled weakly.
He may be a Wind-Rising Realm cultivator, having transcended the mundane into the realm of immortals... but on the other hand, he is just a house servant of the Li Family, responsible for household duties, a pacifist whose only use of cultivator's power, after breaking the Wind Barrier, was to carry a few hundred pounds and run around the city at speeds unattainable to Mortal Martial Artists.
This kind of ghost-busting job is simply too much!
Li Ping struggled to take deep breaths, stabilizing his qi blood through breathing exercises. His divine sense tightly controlled the true qi within, transforming qi into wind, allowing a gentle breeze to flow around him, immediately suppressing panic and fear.
Then he moved his steps, gradually stepping into the darkness.
This sudden darkness and eerie wind were merely illusions, and their scope wouldn't be large, nor the level high—such advanced techniques couldn't be deployed by the current Miss. Hence, as long as he persisted in not getting lost in the darkness, maintaining his divine sense steady, he would be as stable as Qingyun.
Just as he thought this, Li Ping heard footsteps behind him. That familiar rhythm was precisely from those three foolish companions.
Li Ping was utterly livid, cursing without looking back, "You three idiots, didn't I say to stay close during action? This is the Madam's place after all... Ah! Oof!"
Before he finished speaking, a piercing pain shot through his lower back. Turning around, he saw Li Li expressionlessly holding a pure white blunt sword with both hands, its tip embedded in the muscle of Li Ping's lower waist...
"You!?"
In the next moment, Li Ping witnessed in horror as the sword-wielding Li Li began to twist and distort, as if colors diluted by rain, or like a snowman melting under the scorching sun, turning into an unrecognizable mass of blurred flesh on the ground in moments.
"Ahhhhh!"
Li Ping's mental defenses collapsed instantly. He couldn't help but emit a high-pitched scream and stumbled back, only to bump into a hard wall after just two steps. Turning back, he saw Li Peng with bleeding from the seven apertures and a pale face, and the next moment, Li Peng too started melting before his eyes.
"Help!!!"
As a Wind-Rising Realm cultivator, transforming all his cultivation into an earth-shattering scream, the creed of maintaining the divine sense steady as a mountain flew straight out of his mind, replaced by a single thought, run!
Li Ping began fleeing desperately, the elixir pills meant for dealing with Li Qingming unhesitatingly popped into his mouth. The medicine's power transformed into a refreshing coolness, propelling him like a galloping horse, covering an unknown distance in the darkness in no time...
However, nervously looking back, he saw Li Peng bleeding from the seven apertures suddenly appear right behind him, those cold eyes almost touching his cheek!
"Ahhhhh!"
——
Meanwhile, in the darkness, the three men were nearly scared to heart failure by a high-pitched scream.
The leading tall, strong servant's face was ghostly pale, trembling like a sieve: "L-L-L-Li Brother, w-w-what was that just now..."
The frightened Li Yuan's body did not tremble, yet his face was also paper-white: "It sounded like Brother Ping, he seemed to be calling for help."
Li Li said, "Should we, should we go take a look?"
Li Yuan said, "If even Brother Ping can't handle it, I'm afraid the three of us would also..."
"How could this be..."
"Maybe there's something left by the First Madam in this courtyard, some formidable mechanism."
Li Li asked, "Then, should we go back to the Li Family Mansion to get reinforcements first?"
However, before Li Yuan could answer, Li Peng had already gritted his teeth and ran toward the direction of the sound.
"Li Peng?!"
"Brother Ping is in danger, we can't just watch him die without doing anything!"
Li Peng's response made the other two feel ashamed. They clenched their teeth, suppressed the panic in their hearts, and followed the big guy running forward. But after only a few steps, they suddenly bumped into Li Peng's back. At some point, the big guy had stopped running.
"Brother Li, look, is that..."
Not far ahead, in the darkness enshrouded by thick fog, they could vaguely make out a human silhouette. The outline somewhat resembled Li Ping, but his movements were stiff, his hair disheveled, as if he had suffered severe injuries.
Suppressing their panic, the three of them ran quickly forward, but after only two steps, they all stopped in unison.
Before them, Li Ping's figure began to sway slightly, then quickly collapsed like a punctured ball, leaking air. Accompanied by the sound of bones breaking and flesh grinding that made one's gums ache, it finally left only a shapeless mass of flesh on the ground — yet Li Ping's head remained intact, standing atop the pile of flesh, his blood-filled eyes rounded wide open, unable to rest in peace.
"Ahhhhhh!"
No matter how bold their brotherly loyalty, in the tidal wave of panic, it all vanished without a trace, and the three brothers simultaneously turned to flee.
Li Li was most skilled at lightness kung fu, running at the front. After a while, he realized that Li Yuan and Li Peng might not be able to keep up with him. He hurriedly turned back to look for them, but in the endless darkness, there was no trace of Li Yuan and Li Peng. Instead, a single point of ghastly pale stood out starkly in the blackness — it was Li Ping's head floating in mid-air!
"Damn it! Brother Ping, don't haunt me!"
Afterward, Li Li dared not look back for anything, just desperately running forward without daring to stop for even a moment...
The group of four, amidst the darkness, each experienced fear, then each ran wildly for survival.
Filled with terror, they didn't know how long their frantic escape lasted. Though the four of them had considerable skills, they gradually began to feel their hearts pounding explosively and their breathing growing difficult. If they calculated the distance, they might have covered enough ground to reach Heaven-Reaching City, but the surrounding darkness showed no signs of diminishing in the slightest.
Finally, when all four were somewhat exhausted, the darkness at last began to recede.
A hint of dawn appeared at the edge of their vision. At first an inconspicuous glimmer, it quickly spread, filling their sight.
Bathed in the morning light, the four of them stopped in unison — by now they couldn't have run another step even if they wanted to.
And then, they found each other, not far from the main entrance of Shen Garden. The grey courtyard walls, the maroon courtyard gate, and the ancient trees extending their branches over the walls remained the same as ever.
Only they, the four of them, were each pale-faced, disheveled, breathing like dying dogs, tears and snot covering their faces...
In their shock, they saw someone approaching from a distant alley, also dressed as a servant, looking at them with surprise.
"What are you all doing, Li Ping and company? The Madam has been waiting impatiently!"
——
Li Family Mansion.
Li Ping knelt before his master, utterly exhausted, unable to stop crying.
"Sob, it's too much, Miss is too much! I was almost scared to death in the Illusion Technique Array. Sob, when she was little, I even used to buy her candied hawthorn..."
Behind him, the three attendants were all sobbing uncontrollably, accompanied by groans and murmurs.
Li Peng kept wiping his nose and tears with his sleeve, but the sleeve was already soaked through, making a mess everywhere.
This disgraceful display made Lu Xin, seated on the main chair, watch with mounting irritation, longing to wave his long sleeve and sweep all four of them out of the city gate to run laps for a month.
However, more important than punishing these hopeless cases was figuring out what exactly happened last night.