Chapter 177 – Li Yuan Gazes North, Mother and Daughter Reunited in the Ghostly Realm, an Envoy Dispatched to Northriver Prefecture - Part 3

After entrusting Fang Jianglong with the letter, Li Yuan departed from the Blood Blade Sect headquarters.

Yu Chaojin turned to Fang Jianlong. “Seems like the Patriarch is trying to shield your Fang Family so you don’t have worries at home. Even so, no one is better suited for this mission than you.”

He met Fang Jianlong’s eyes. “There’s danger in this...but also opportunity.”

Fang Jianlong lowered his gaze. “I won’t disappoint him, or you, Sect Master. I only request a few servants and disciples accompany me.”

“Of course,” Yu Chaojin agreed.

When Fang Jianlong departed, Yu Chaojin gazed off into the distance and sighed softly. “I wonder if Tie Sha has made contact with the Sacred Fire Palace in Northriver yet.”

A slender figure stepped out from the shadows behind him. It was Old Ding, the white-haired man who had once traveled with Tie Sha. He said nothing, merely echoing Yu Chaojin’s sigh.

Northriver was full of peril. Intelligence and decisiveness alone might not be enough to survive.

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A few days later.

A carriage set off northward, flanked by riders, passing smoothly through Antelope Pass and heading deeper into the northern lands.

Inside the carriage sat a

merchant’s son

flanked by bodyguards, none other than Fang Jianlong in disguise.

He knew Northriver was treacherous, so he never intended to arrive flaunting his martial status.

Instead, he posed as a young master of a trading company, wearing fine clothes borrowed from the Ginger Tavern.

Thanks to the recently formed Purejade Merchant Association, such a disguise would be quite convincing and deflect suspicion that he was a martial artist.

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The same evening.

Under cover of darkness, Li Yuan led his five-year-old daughter, Sheng'er, to the black-market ghost domain.

There, mother and daughter met once again. Sheng'er burst into tears, though the countless crows overhead simply watched in silence.

Yan Yu couldn’t physically embrace her child, but she coaxed Sheng'er to sit and began gently teaching her certain things.

She shared the peculiar origin of Sheng'er’s birth, shaped by the influence of Feng’er’s heavy Yin aura.

Feng’er had done her best to keep from harming Yan Yu or anyone else, but Sheng'er, then unborn, was vulnerable to the ghostly energies.

The result was a natural mutation, one that turned her into a jade husk somewhat akin to Feng’er itself.

So in some sense, Sheng'er possessed a diminished form of Feng’er’s power. At the same time, she’d inherited certain traits from her father, particularly Li Yuan’s uncanny talent for taming beasts, especially birds—an ability that also happened to be linked with undying husks.

The latent strength of that gift had naturally drawn Feng’er’s attention.

In other words, Sheng'er was an impossibility...part Li Yuan, part Yan Yu, and part ghost of the black market ghost domain. She was very much like the current ghostly form of Yan Yu, an existence that could never be replicated.

Now, Yan Yu was teaching Sheng'er to harness Feng’er’s power.

“Focus on the crows,” she told her daughter. “Compress them until they become part of your body, part of your eyes themselves. Like this...”

With just a thought, Yan Yu caused cracks to appear across her face and body. One by one, pale female ghosts slipped out of those fissures, crawling away on all fours.

Sheng'er watched with her pearly-white eyes wide, then burst into laughter...true, unguarded laughter. What others found terrifying and alien seemed perfectly warm and familiar to her. Even her mother’s frightening appearance didn’t faze her.

Imitating Yan Yu, she began experimenting with controlling the crows. Her mother guided her patiently.

Above them, under the bright moonlight, the skirmishes between the white-garbed female and human-skin ghost servants continued.

Li Yuan stood nearby, his shadow blood still not replenished enough for a full-scale assault, so he could only observe in silence. Behind him, mother and daughter whispered together in the dark.

When dawn drew near, Yan Yu’s lucid time ran out, and Li Yuan took Sheng'er back home.

The next several days passed the same way.

Each evening, Li Yuan and Sheng'er returned to the black market ghost domain so mother and daughter could meet.

Gradually, their initial reunion’s soft warmth gave way to small everyday quarrels. Sometimes, Yan Yu lost patience at Sheng'er’s fumbling and scolded her in frustration; in turn, Sheng'er would pout and call her mother

mean

, running to cling to Li Yuan in mock protest, pretending only to like her papa. Moments later, the two would be laughing together again, fully reconciled.

Watching them, Li Yuan’s desire to help Yan Yu complete the

fusion

of the ghost domains only intensified.

If Yan Yu succeeded, he wouldn’t have to keep traveling back and forth. She could simply pull him and Sheng'er into the dream house so they could be together, just as Feng’er had done before.

That dream house was still out there in the ghost street marketplace somewhere, though he wasn’t sure how it might change after the fusion.

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Northriver Prefecture.

Creak, creak...

A cage was opened. Two white finches spread their wings and flew off.

Fang Jianlong watched them disappear into the sky and let out a soft breath, one small errand for the Li Yuan completed. The more pressing matter now was to find Yan Mu. Yet Fang Jianlong had no clue where Yan Mu might be.

Before setting out, he had looked into one of the Holy Tree Temple’s subordinate powers, the Farmstead Sect. This sect was rather unusual; both upper and lower ranks were farmers, using their cultivation to enhance their farming.

The Farmstead Sect controlled four counties—Eastspring, Westplain, Tiger’s Back, and Oxtail—making it a true power in Northriver Prefecture.

Compared to them, the Blood Blade Sect was a small fry indeed. Moreover, the Farmstead Sect was likely one of those large factions that had maintained contact with the Holy Tree Temple even throughout the recent turmoil.

At the thought, Fang Jianlong, the once-proud genius from a small county, grew uneasy. Still, recalling his mission from Li Yuan, he steadied himself and began assigning tasks to the disciples who traveled with him.

High above them, unseen, one of the white finches circled the unfamiliar land, imprinting the terrain and roads into its keen eyes. Far below, on a winding country path, Fang Jianlong’s carriage rattled onward toward the territory of the Farmstead Sect.

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Gemhill County.

“Dearest! Hah, hah...” Xue Ning murmured in a faint voice, her breathing rapid, eyes rolling back slightly. It looked like she might faint at any moment.

Alarmed, Li Yuan paused and wrapped his arms around her from behind, gently wiping the sweat from her brow. He said nothing, simply holding her in comforting silence.

At length, she relaxed in his embrace, giving him a wry smile. “Without Yan Yu here, I really have no chance at all, do I?”

“Well, you already run the Ginger Tavern, Hundred Lotus Distillery, and Purejade Merchant Association,” Li Yuan teased, tapping her nose. “You’re taking care of the children, and now you’re sneaking around just to visit me. You’re bound to be exhausted.”

People might see this graceful beauty as a decisive authority figure, capable of swaying countless deals with a single word. Yet she was also a mother, a wife, and the one who had to keep an eye on everything. Of course she was tired.

“Better to be tired doing something that matters,” she murmured, nestling deeper into his arms.

Li Yuan pulled her closer, their bare skin pressed together, sharing warmth. A flicker of guilt crossed her face, and she whispered, “Shall I call Xiao Zhu so the three of us can...”

“Let’s wait a bit longer,” Li Yuan replied gently.

A little while later, she fell asleep from sheer exhaustion. He didn’t wake her but shut his eyes instead, letting his awareness drift north...across the river, where one his white finches soared. Through the bird’s eyes, he glimpsed the scenery of that distant land and spotted Fang Jianlong’s carriage trundling along a winding road.

Ahead lay the domain of the Holy Tree Temple’s subordinate powers, the Farmstead Sect.