Chapter 216 – Exploration Complete, Moving to the Holy Tree Temple - Part 3

That same night, Li Yuan entered his dream as usual, stepping into the general store located somewhere deep in the ancient ghost street. Before he could speak, Yan Yu looked at him and said, “Husband, there’s a trace of Yin energy on you.”

Startled, Li Yuan went silent. Yan Yu continued, “It’s the scent of flowers from that flower shop.”

The flower shop? When could that have happened?

Li Yuan’s expression hardened. He suddenly recalled Tang Nian mentioning the faint floral smell on Gongshan Jun’s body. Had that man truly been involved in something strange?

Yan Yu explained, “The flower shop sells something called Resentful Soul Powder. Once it’s sprinkled on someone, that person can be tracked down, no matter how far they go. If the target is killed, the powder transfers to the killer. Whoever originally used the powder can then follow its trail to whomever did the deed.”

Li Yuan’s pupils shrank. Gongshan Jun must have been carrying Resentful Soul Powder. Since Li Yuan killed him, the powder was now on Li Yuan. Tang Nian must have smelled its residue.

“So, do I have to go to that flower shop?” he asked.

“No need,” Yan Yu replied calmly. She reached out with a cool, pale hand and pressed her fingers against Li Yuan’s forehead. With a small tug, a faint wisp of red smoke drifted free. Yan Yu closed her fist around it, and the red smoke dissipated.

“That’s dealt with,” she said. “But a bit of trouble remains.”

The moment she spoke, a dark silhouette appeared on that pale, twisting street outside—a street vendor in black robes. With a gentle smile, he headed over to the general store. He stood at the entrance without moving.

Meanwhile, Feng’er, the shop’s white-robed clerk, stepped away from the counter and walked outside, each step making a hollow clacking noise. She halted in front of the door as well.

After a while, a little girl in a blood-red headscarf appeared, carrying a flower basket. With a blank expression, she sprinted up to the shop and started banging on the door.

Thump! Thump! Thump!

Thump! Thump! Thump!

The knocking was loud. The dark-robed street vendor opened the door. The flower girl’s mouth twisted into a chilling grin as she grabbed him, trying to drag him away. But he wouldn’t budge. The two pulled at each other for a short standoff before abruptly separating. The girl then ran off without another word.

Moments later, the dark-robed vendor turned back inside the general store, rummaged through the cabinets for fresh rouge, then hurried off toward the main road again to continue selling his wares.

Yan Yu explained, “When I tore away the Yin energy on you, it attracted a ghost from the flower shop. Since the residue on you was weak, only a single ghost came. It tried to attack our general store, but that street vendor in black robes blocked it, so the ghost retreated.”

Li Yuan asked, “Yan Yu, do you know where this flower shop’s ghost domain is located?”

“In the southeast of Little Ink Village. Likely the same place you told me about before, where you ran into that sinister estate.”

After becoming a ghost herself, Yan Yu seemed to have gained widespread knowledge. Li Yuan fell silent, recalling the sight of that huge, corpse-like estate. Could it truly be a dead body on that hill? Did the flower shop sell corpse flowers? That would explain why icebone flowers grew on the outskirts, Perhaps they were connected to the same floriculture.

He couldn’t help but wonder how he, still only a ninth rank martial artist at the time, had managed to stumble upon such a fearsome dual-entity ghost domain. Yet now that the clues were piling up, he saw that everything...the flower shop ghost domain, icebone flowers, and Resentful Soul Powder on Gongshan Jun, formed one mysterious thread. Where did it lead?

Was it the line of a fishing rod, dangling some hidden bait? Or merely one strand in a vast web, intertwined with countless others?

Li Yuan previously thought,

There’s no way Gongshan Jun belongs to some powerful faction—who would send a sixth rank expert to spend 30 years as a demon hunter?

But now he realized he’d underestimated how dangerous this world could be.

Wait!

Li Yuan recalled Yan Mu telling him about how a black lotus had once dissolved an entire village. He also remembered Gu Xuejian mentioning how the Four Lotuses were waiting for the black lotus to bloom. Many disjointed clues buzzed in his mind, forming a hazy web of speculation he couldn’t quite prove...yet couldn’t entirely dismiss.

“What’s on your mind?” Yan Yu asked, rousing him from his thoughts.

He told her everything that had happened lately, everything he knew, and the suspicions that had been nagging him.

Yan Yu listened, then said quietly, “If that’s the case, you really do need to leave.”

She rested her pale body against him. “Take Sheng’er with you. Our daughter should live in the human world, not trapped in some ghost domain. As her mother, I wasn’t able to give her eyes. So before you leave, let me at least paint a pair for her.”

Li Yuan said, “I’ll keep the thousand-mile thread tied to Yu Chaojin, so no matter where I go, I can still come to the black market ghost domain to find you. But...about Sheng’er—”

“Take her,” Yan Yu said gently, glancing at the little girl playing in the distance outside the general store. “She shouldn’t have to stay here.”

˙·٠✧🐗➶➴🏹✧٠·˙

A month later.

Gu Xuejian herself arrived to pick up Ping’an. Li Yuan had already made all the necessary arrangements.

He dropped by the Grand Abode once more, where Xu Lan and Xu Sheng, both of whom had reached seventh rank, were now striving for the pinnacle of that realm. He left them two of his newly copied visualization aids, The Thousand-Mile Hero for Xu Lan, and Southern Mountain’s Ghostly Rain for Xu Sheng. He then departed.

He also left a copy of Young Master Riding the Deer at the Martial Lodge for Zhao Chunxin. As for the originals, he stored them safely away in the black market ghost domain. These were not things he could carry on his person. Li Yuan knew exactly what might happen if those three

external copies

circulated, but that was precisely what he wanted.

He paid one last visit to General Mammoth, but only under the alias of Mister Wood. It had no connection to the soon-to-vanish Blood Blade Patriarch.

By the time the Eternal Rest River thawed, Li Yuan and his entire household were ready to depart alongside Gu Xuejian.

The Ginger Tavern and the Hundred Lotus Distillery would remain in place, now owned by the Blood Blade Sect.

Li Yuan walked hand-in-hand with Xue Ning, their daughter Sheng’er skipping between them.

Sheng’er now had a lovely pair of

eyes

, courtesy of Yan Yu. Following close behind was his goddaughter Tang Nian, a shrouded puppet with its features hidden beneath a cloak, and Pang Yuanhua, who rode in a wheelchair. Further back trailed the four maids—Mei, Lan, Zhu, and Ju—Auntie Wang, and her two children.

Now practically into adulthood, Xiao Sheng and Niu Niu...or rather, Wang Dalang and Wang Chuliu had dropped their childhood nicknames.

Ahead of them, Gu Xuejian and Ping’an strolled arm in arm, talking and laughing, the deputy temple master deepening her bond with her beloved direct disciple. Little by little, the caravan moved on, sometimes stopping, sometimes starting, gradually disappearing into the distance.

˙·٠✧🐗➶➴🏹✧٠·˙

South of the Eternal Rest River, beyond Gemhill County, a man and a woman walked through the wilderness.

The man was tall and broad-shouldered, dressed in red, his expression calm. The woman wore snow-white robes and let her hair fall loose around her pristine face. Yet her eyes betrayed a bizarre mix of intense fascination, as if consumed by research, and a hint of madness.

If Li Yuan were there, he would have recognized the man as the master of the Clock Mansion. If Pang Yuanhua were present, she would have recognized the woman as her own

roommate

, that mysterious Miss Long. The pair ambled through the desolate wilderness without the slightest hint of concern for the curses that once bound them, which must have been lifted...possibly more than once.

“Gongshan Jun is dead,” the Clock Mansion master remarked in a measured voice. “Someone erased the resentful soul powder on his body.”

Miss Long shrugged. “I haven’t been out in ages. If you’re asking me, I’ve no idea who did it.”

The Clock Mansion master smiled faintly. “I’m just thinking aloud. It doesn’t matter who killed Gongshan Jun or how they erased the powder. One way or another, we’ll find out eventually.”

“What about those outsiders? How long are you going to keep them around, placating them?”

“It’s not

placating

.”

“Then what is it? We both know you could crush them at any time, yet you choose to humor them.”

“I’m not humoring them. I’m humoring what stands behind them, Apparel Atelier.”

“Apparel Atelier? I’ve been cooped up so long I’m out of the loop. Care to explain?”

“Have you heard of the blue-robed peddler? Or that newly appeared general store on the ancient ghost street?”

“Nope, haven’t heard of either.”

“A human and a ghost, perfectly fused together...something that can’t be copied. There’s one like that in the general store, but the one residing at Apparel Atelier is even stronger.”

“How interesting.”

The two strolled on a bit further. Then the Clock Mansion master tilted his head back as if savoring the air, speaking with a strange serenity. “The lotus is about to bloom, a masterpiece like none we’ve ever created before, harnessing the power of the flower shop and the beast garden alike.”

He paused, letting the corners of his mouth lift into a smile. “As appearances reflect the heart, every person is a beast at the core.”