Chapter 492: Auto-Combat Talismanic Armor! Luring the Tiger From the Mountain!? The Perfectly Obedient Little Concubine!

The Taiping Inn fell silent for a moment, then a burst of noise exploded as everyone began talking at once.

Liu Jun yelped in fright. The man’s corpse was covered in blood, eyes wide open; it was utterly terrifying. Meanwhile, the innkeeper frowned, sensing something unusual.

Immediately, Li Yanchu flashed forward, appearing beside the fallen swordsman. A quick examination confirmed the man was already dead.

“Three villages in Dongyang County... slaughtered by a demon?” Li Yanchu exchanged a glance with the innkeeper.

“Did he

choose

to say that?” the innkeeper asked suddenly.

Li Yanchu immediately understood her meaning. Even if Dongyang County really had been attacked by a demon and entire villages truly had been wiped out, why did this swordsman just happen to run straight into

this

inn? And why would he blurt out that single sentence the moment he entered, only to die on the spot?

A glow flashed through Li Yanchu’s eyes.

Spirit Eyes! Qi Sight!

He sensed no signs of external manipulation. However, the man’s body was heavily eroded by baleful qi.

Only the fact that he was a skilled martial artist with internal true qi protecting his organs had kept him alive this long. A normal fighter would’ve died long before reaching the city.

No signs of mind control

, Li Yanchu thought.

Still uneasy, he took out the Eight Trigrams Mirror and scanned the corpse. The mirror quickly returned its feedback: No abnormalities.

“So he really was just delivering a warning. That’s... strange.” Li Yanchu’s brows furrowed.

Before long, the death in the Taiping Inn alarmed the authorities, and Constable Wang strode in with a longsword at his side. Seeing Li Yanchu instantly steadied his nerves.

“Daoist Master Yanchu, I received a report that someone died at the inn. What happened?”

Li Yanchu shook his head. “He came in, said Dongyang County had a demon slaughtering three villages and then he died. That’s all I know.”

Gasp!

Constable Wang sucked in a sharp breath. “Slaughtered villages?”

In all his years as a constable, he had never heard of such a thing. This wasn’t wartime or an age of chaos. A massacre of entire villages... How horrifying.

“Regardless of whether it’s true or false, I’ll leave things here to you. I’m heading to Dongyang County to take a look,” Li Yanchu said gravely.

Since the matter had fallen into his lap, he had no intention of ignoring it. If a demon really was behind such atrocities of massacring entire villages, he would hunt it down and kill it outright. Besides... he hadn’t earned any merit points from the Liu ancestral hall incident.

After a moment’s thought, he quickly walked over to the innkeeper.

“You’re going? This feels off,” the innkeeper said, clearly uneasy.

“I’ll just check what’s wrong. If nothing is, I’ll be right back,” Li Yanchu replied.

He drew out a talisman and a few wooden plaques and handed them to her.

“This is a Daoist talismanic armor. It already has a rudimentary consciousness. These plaques can summon the spirit-souls of Baxia and Chaofeng. If anything feels wrong, be careful.” Li Yanchu instructed her carefully.

The situation truly was strange, but Dongyang County wasn’t far. He could go, take a look, and quickly confirm what was going on.

Still, he worried that someone might be trying to lure him away, like luring the tiger from the mountain[1], and take the chance to attack the innkeeper. There had already been one such incident.

Even though he knew full well that the innkeeper could really fight, worry clouded judgment. He still didn’t feel at ease. In this world, who knew what demons, monsters, ghosts, and spirits could crawl out next?

Although he had given her a Five-Lightning Talisman last time... This time, Li Yanchu still left her a ten-thousand-merit-points treasure. After all, the talismanic armor could even fight on its own!

“Call Qinglan back too. Give her this sword.” Li Yanchu pulled an ancient sword from beneath his Daoist robe.

The Southern Ember Sword.

The Universe Pouch was extremely convenient; anyone unaware might think his robe had infinite pockets.

“Alright, go on then. Cuihua went into the mountains for something, I’m not sure what. Take Lady Yun with you,” the innkeeper said softly.

“That works too,” Li Yanchu nodded.

She had a helper call Lady Yun out from the kitchen.

With that, a gentle, graceful woman in a simple blue dress with her hair in a coiled bun stepped forward, catching everyone’s eye.

𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

“Lady Yun, go with him to Dongyang County,” the innkeeper instructed.

“Alright...” Lady Yun didn’t understand, but the sight of the corpse on the floor made her heart clench.

“What happened?” she asked anxiously.

“That swordsman reported, right before he died, that a demon was slaughtering villages in Dongyang County. We don’t know if it’s true. You’ll go along to take a look,” the innkeeper said.

“Ah!?” Lady Yun cried out. “I’m perfectly happy cooking in the kitchen! I’m so busy, I can’t spare the time!”

“Quit whining and go!” the innkeeper snapped.

Lady Yun had no choice but to agree with a stiff face.

Li Yanchu’s mouth twitched. Lady Yun had been cooking at Taiping Inn for this long, and her cowardice still hadn’t improved.

“Daoist Master, what about me?” Liu Jun asked nervously.

“You stay here and work at the inn.”

Hearing this, Liu Jun fell speechless.

With that, Li Yanchu left with Lady Yun and headed out of the city. Once they were outside, he used the Cloud-Riding Immortal Art, pulling Lady Yun by her slender waist as they rose into the sky.

Cuihua had vanished somewhere again, otherwise her perception abilities might have been useful...

Li Yanchu couldn’t help complaining in his heart.

Feeling the yang aura around her, Lady Yun flushed red and gently bit her lip.

“What’s wrong with you?” Li Yanchu glanced at her.

“N... nothing,” she whispered.

He thought nothing of it and continued flying toward Dongyang County.

Dongyang and Wei City were only about half a day apart. With the Cloud-Riding Immortal Art, even carrying Lady Yun, he arrived quickly.

However, Lady Yun’s expression looked a little strange. Compared to earlier, there was now a hint of shy softness about her. The change was obvious, but Li Yanchu’s mind was focused entirely on the supposed demon, so he didn’t notice.

Even if he

had

noticed, he wouldn’t have paid it much mind. He’d encountered far too many open and hidden affections like this.

What could he do? Being handsome came with its own troubles.

In truth, Lady Yun had been

trained

by the innkeeper. A perfectly proper wood-spirit girl who’d once been enlightened by a senior monk was now filled to the brim with feudal notions; she was poisoned thoroughly.

Things like how a woman should uphold the “Three Obediences and Four Virtues” expected of her[2]... How she should learn the duties of a concubine, serve well, obey, be devoted...

The innkeeper had chattered on and on, even about matters between men and women. So now, when Lady Yun looked at Li Yanchu, some of that ingrained shyness naturally surfaced.

Once they crossed into Dongyang County territory, Li Yanchu didn’t head straight for the county office to ask where the slaughter had occurred.

If there truly was a demon at work, and even a cultivator-level martial wanderer barely escaped alive, then it meant the Dongyang authorities likely couldn’t handle the matter at all.

They might not even know what had happened.

1. “Luring the tiger away from the mountain” is a Chinese idiom from

The Thirty-Six Stratagems

. It means using a strategy to entice an opponent to leave their advantageous position (the mountain), so that one can take action and achieve one’s goal. The key lies in the ideas of “luring” and “leaving.” It is often used metaphorically in military or business contexts to describe creating a ruse, offering temptations, or leveraging external forces to make the opponent leave their stronghold or well-defended position, allowing one to strike effectively. ☜

2. The “Three Obediences and Four Virtues” were moral standards for women in ancient China. The Three Obediences refer to obeying one’s father before marriage, obeying one’s husband after marriage, and obeying one’s son if widowed, emphasizing a woman’s dependence on and submission to male elders or her husband at different stages of life. The Four Virtues refer to moral virtue (chastity and integrity), proper speech, proper appearance (demeanor and decorum), and domestic skills, requiring women to meet traditional standards in character, words, appearance, and household management. These norms were reinforced by Confucian scholars during the Ming and Qing dynasties, becoming a key part of feudal codes that constrained women. In modern society, however, a “New Three Obediences and Four Virtues” has emerged, giving the concept a contemporary reinterpretation. ☜