Chapter 12

That made sense.

During the day, Lian Xuehe had fallen into the lotus pond and nearly drowned. As he struggled for survival in the water, the medicine attendant puppet he relied on had watched coldly from the side, letting him soak in the cold water and suffocate little by little.

With fear carved into his bones, it was only normal for him to be afraid.

Yin Cai looked away uneasily and turned to leave.

Lian Xuehe grabbed his lapel. “What are you doing?”

Yin Cai said, “Aren’t you afraid of water?”

How could Lian Xuehe possibly admit that? He said coldly, “Do you think I’m like you, with roots that absorb water and pour it all into your brain? Can water eat me or something? What is there to be afraid of?”

Yin Cai: “…”

Yin Cai gave an “oh,” then carried him to the shore. Suddenly, his foot stumbled, and he nearly fell.

The abrupt terror of weightlessness and the fear of about to fall into the water surged over him. Lian Xuehe suddenly reached out and clung tightly to the medicine attendant’s neck, even his voice trembling. “You—!”

Yin Cai stared at his frightened, pale face and smiled. “Mm. Master truly isn’t afraid.”

Lian Xuehe: “…………”

Lian Xuehe exhaled silently and said mildly, “Put me into the water.”

Yin Cai removed his robes for him, bent down, and placed him in the water.

Before Yin Cai could straighten, Lian Xuehe suddenly summoned strength from who knew where. He abruptly reached out, seized Yin Cai’s neck, and pulled hard, dragging the puppet’s tall body forward.

Splash.

Yin Cai did not resist and fell straight into the hot spring.

To plants, the hot spring water was far too hot. Kunlun wood also grew on the peaks of snowy mountains. The moment it touched warm water, a layer of wrinkled lines surfaced on its skin.

The wooden heart inside Yin Cai’s body began to contract and expand rapidly. His skin was nearly being cooked.

Lian Xuehe was not courteous at all to his false soul. He reached out, pressed Yin Cai’s head into the water, and curled his lips in mockery.

“Ugly thing. You’re hurting my eyes.”

Yin Cai was submerged in the water. His gemstone-inlaid eyes could still see as usual beneath the surface. Everywhere he looked, black hair drifted like seaweed, and faintly through the shifting water, snow-white skin could be seen.

This sickly invalid looked calm on the surface, but under the water, his feet were desperately pushing against the bottom of the pool, terrified his body would slip into deeper water.

Only, Lian Xuehe’s legs had no strength. After pressing Yin Cai down twice, the buoyancy of the [bailiantales.com]water lifted his thin body, and he slid toward the deeper part. In an instant, the water submerged his mouth and nose.

A flash of panic surfaced in Lian Xuehe’s eyes, and he instinctively grabbed the thing beside him.

Splash.

In the next instant, Yin Cai broke through the water. With one hand, he clasped Lian Xuehe’s waist and pressed him against the stone wall.

Still shaken, Lian Xuehe panted and hugged the puppet.

Yin Cai raised a brow. “Oh my. That water nearly ate Master.”

Lian Xuehe: “…………”

022 watched in surprise.

This puppet seemed to have dual personalities. One was gentle as water and treated the host like a child, radiating maternal warmth all over. The other was devoted to making the host angry, with no humanity at all, only the dog-like urge to tease a cat.

With how proud the host was, how could he allow a boomerang to fly back at him? Sure enough, furious, he slapped the puppet.

That dog thing actually neither dodged nor avoided it. It even laughed. Ignoring the host’s protests that he still wanted to soak in the hot spring, it forcibly carried him, dripping wet, back onto shore.

Lian Xuehe was so angry he almost lost control of his image management. “Are you looking to die… mm!”

Yin Cai turned a deaf ear. He hastily wiped away the water, [Read on BaiLianTales]then took out one of the puppet’s black robes from the storage pouch and wrapped him in it.

That robe was so oversized on Lian Xuehe it could practically fit three of him. His four limbs were bound directly inside, turning him into a little roll as Yin Cai picked him up and walked away.

Lian Xuehe: “…”

Lian Xuehe said coldly, “I’m going to take it apart.”

022 hurriedly advised him, “Host, calm down! You still have a high fever. You shouldn’t have soaked in the hot spring for long anyway. As a medicine attendant—medicine! attendant! servant!—naturally, it must prioritize its master’s health.”

Lian Xuehe said, “As an assistance system, aside from making things harder for me, I don’t see what you assist with or where you help. You are just as useless as it is.”

022 said affectionately, “Good boy, I can still provide sleep-coaxing services.”

Lian Xuehe was cold and ruthless. “Does blacking out from stupidity count as falling asleep? If so, then that is indeed ancestor-level sleep-coaxing technique, unmatched by anyone.”

022: 【……】

Yin Cai knew this sickly invalid cared most about face. Sure enough, after he picked Lian Xuehe up like a roll, Lian Xuehe only stiffened for a moment and stopped struggling. With a cold face, he maintained the dignity and nobility of an emperor ascending the throne in Yin Cai’s arms.

But the false soul floated out, pressed the tip of its nose against Yin Cai’s face, and hysterically cursed him.

“Insolent! Insolent! How dare you! How dare you!”

“Wuu…”

It seemed to have been angered into tears.

The corner of Yin Cai’s lips lifted, and he openly admired the egg-flower eyes that were all the false soul showed.

But when they had only just returned to the bedroom, the false soul that had still been cursing him suddenly changed for some unknown reason. It put away its tearful eyes and began circling Yin Cai, muttering to itself.

“Want to drink… want to drink…”

Yin Cai’s smile paused.

It was late at night. Lian Xuehe’s medicinal blood withdrawal had started again.

---

Midnight was approaching.

Shuncheng Manor’s thirteen cities bordered the southern sea, so summers were already hot. But tonight, it was like being inside a steamer. Ordinary people could not endure this dry heat at all.

In the dead of night, the sky burned with dazzling, multicolored fire. Many people noticed something was wrong, looked up, and turned deathly pale with fright.

“It’s heavenly fire!”

Clang, clang.

The night watchman struck his clapper heavily and ran through the streets [read the original at bailiantales.com]shouting, “Fire is falling from the sky!”

Many people were woken up, lamps lighting one after another.

Some were terrified, but even more people looked unconcerned.

“So what if it’s a natural disaster? Which city hasn’t seen heavenly fire before? Manor Lord Ge is a sixth-realm cultivator. One slight move from him can stop it. What’s there to fear?”

“But the whole sky is burning red! It doesn’t look like an ordinary natural disaster. It looks more like…”

No one dared say those two words.

The crimson sky shone on people’s faces, as if they were standing in the underworld. Someone reacted and immediately rushed toward Shuncheng Manor’s estate in terror.

“Manor Lord! Hurry and invite the Manor Lord!”

Shuncheng Manor’s estate.

Ling Changfeng had grown up here since childhood. Familiar with the path, he walked through the quiet grounds full of medicinal herbs and headed toward the Ziwei sacrificial platform beneath Butian Tower.

His mother had loved planting medicinal herbs in the garden. Whenever midsummer came, the back mountain of Butian Tower would be filled with the rich fragrance of medicinal plants.

…Now, corpses were buried there, and poisonous plants were cultivated.

Ling Changfeng walked straight toward the Ziwei sacrificial platform without looking to the side.

A priest frowned and reached out to stop him. “What thing are you? How dare you—”

Ge Yu’s expression was terribly ugly. He said coldly, “Enough. Let Changfeng go up.”

The dozens of priests around them looked at one another.

Yesterday, they had let this lowly person wear priest robes only to humiliate him and amuse themselves. Yet tonight, he was allowed to enter and leave the Ziwei sacrificial platform freely?

In the end, Ling Changfeng was still young. Under countless gazes, his heart pounded wildly.

He tightened his grip around the purple jade bead that had been warmed in his hand. After breathing out countless times, he somehow gave birth to countless more courage. Expressionless, he walked up the nineteen steps and stepped onto the sacrificial platform.

The Ziwei sacrificial platform was carved with a blooming lotus, the totem symbolizing Hongpan.

At the very center was a lotus lantern made of jade. There should have been a strand of Ziwei aura in the wick, but now it was completely empty.

The heavenly punishment drew closer and closer. Even Ling Changfeng could hardly endure the heat, let alone ordinary people.

A trace of coldness surfaced in Ling Changfeng’s brows and eyes. He stepped forward and placed the purple jade bead on the lotus lantern.

With a click, the purple jade bead was lifted by an invisible spiritual power and floated in the center of the lotus lantern, like a lamp that had finally been given oil. The bead shattered at once, and a strand of purple Ziwei aura transformed into a dragon and emerged. Throwing its head back in a long roar, it plunged fiercely into the lotus-patterned array below.

Rumble—!

Heavenly thunder crashed down, drowning Ling Changfeng’s figure in blinding white lightning.

The priests were nearly blinded and closed their eyes one after another. When they opened them again, a thin, silk-like light gently rose from the ground. Like a barrier, it stretched across a thousand li in an instant.

The Ziwei aura lit the lantern. Light carrying purple lotus patterns covered Shuncheng Manor like elegant mermaid silk.

In just a blink, the heat that had almost cooked people alive vanished. The wind that blew over was no longer hot.

In the next instant, heavenly fire crashed down!

Bang, bang, bang. Burning meteorites carrying the power of the Heavenly Dao smashed fiercely onto that thin layer of Ziwei “gauze,” yet failed to damage it in the slightest.

Everyone in Shuncheng Manor raised their heads and stared blankly at the heavenly punishment that had nearly destroyed them, silent.

The heavenly fire fell for a full two hours before gradually stopping.

For the first time, everyone had witnessed heavenly punishment. They felt as though they had survived a disaster and knelt one after another in the direction of Hongpan City, crying bitterly and expressing endless gratitude.

Just one strand of Ziwei aura could block heavenly punishment.

Ge Yu’s face was pale. The booming sounds above his head shook him so badly he could not come back to himself for a long time.

If not for Lian Xingsong, perhaps not a single person in Shuncheng Manor’s thirteen cities would have survived, including the Ge family.

Ling Changfeng had already slowly walked down from the Ziwei sacrificial platform. Those priests who had always looked down on him now did not dare stop him. They watched him with both reverence and fear.

“Uncle,” Ling Changfeng said mildly. “The calamity of heavenly punishment has been resolved. I must go back and report to His Highness.”

Ge Yu looked at him expressionlessly, knowing this child was no longer the soft persimmon he could casually pinch as before. He could only say, “Mm. That His Highness values you is your good fortune.”

Ling Changfeng smiled obediently. “Then I must thank Uncle. If you had not sent me to serve His Third Highness, how could I have obtained such an enormous opportunity?”

Ge Yu: “…”

In front of outsiders, Ge Yu had always maintained the false image of deep affection between uncle and nephew. Yet at this moment, he could not even force a smile.

Ling Changfeng knew when to stop. He lowered his head and said, “After heavenly punishment, Uncle must be busy. I will stop by and retrieve what His Highness left behind and bring it back to Zhiji Tower, saving Uncle another trip.”

A flash of killing intent passed through Ge Yu’s eyes, but he could only say with a dark expression, “That is very good.”

Ling Changfeng had thought what Lian Xuehe left here would be some treasure or magical artifact.

Only after entering the estate did Ge Yu take the item out.

Ling Changfeng received it and glanced at it, nearly laughing in anger.

Within the gaps of the incense burner coiled with nine-colored golden dragons, he could faintly see that the things imprisoned inside were strands of purple-gold spiritual energy, hundreds of them in total.

Ling Changfeng reached out and brushed the incense burner. The dragon-like mist roared at him viciously, and within the mist, threads of strange prohibitions emerged.

It was actually Lian Xuehe’s Ziwei aura, and every strand was covered with eerie prohibitions.

Once anyone dared covet the Ziwei aura, it would trigger the laws of heaven and earth. The one capable of laying down such world-destroying prohibitions had to be either the Saint or a great power above the eighth realm.

No wonder someone as proud and arrogant as Ge Yu had been willing to kneel and beg Lian Xuehe. It turned out he did not dare use the stolen Ziwei aura.

Ling Changfeng’s expression turned rarely cold. “Stealing Hongpan’s Ziwei aura—once His Highness the Crown Prince discovers this, it is a capital crime worthy of exterminating your entire clan.”

Ge Yu said coldly, “Is it your place, as a junior, to lecture me?”

Ling Changfeng suppressed the irritation in his heart and had no intention of wasting words with someone like Ge Yu.

The urgent task was to bring His Highness’s Ziwei aura back, lest something else happen.

Holding the heavy incense burner, Ling Changfeng turned to leave.

Ge Yu stared expressionlessly at his back and suddenly said, “How much sincerity could someone like Lian Xingsong possibly have toward you? Even if he doesn’t want your Dao bones, he only treats you as a toy to casually play with. Do you really think you’ve soared into the sky and turned yourself into a proper person?”

Ling Changfeng’s ten fingers tightened around the incense burner. He turned back coldly. “What right do you have to judge him? Even if His Highness is a villain, he is still ten thousand times more upright than a theft-addicted thief like you.”

Ge Yu’s expression changed. “Insolent!”

Ling Changfeng had long since grown used to humiliation and abuse over the years, but he could not tolerate Ge Yu saying even half a bad word about Lian Xuehe.

“You know very well how your position as Manor Lord came about. Someone addicted to theft will never change his nature…”

Ge Yu’s eyes turned blood-red. He abruptly stepped forward and seized Ling Changfeng’s throat viciously, saying sinisterly, “Once he tires of playing with you, you will still fall back into my hands.”

Ling Changfeng had not yet grown to his full height. Being choked by the neck, only the tips of his feet touched the ground, and his breathing grew increasingly difficult.

He was too lazy to keep pretending to be obedient and foolish. He laughed shortly, his voice hoarse from his throat. “His Highness truly wasn’t wrong when he cursed you.”

Ge Yu’s breath hitched.

Being cursed at by Lian Xuehe straight to his face was the most humiliating moment of his life. Yet all of it had been seen by this junior, who now dared climb onto his head and run wild.

The anger Ge Yu had suppressed all night surged over him instantly. He struck out with a vicious palm.

Bang.

Caught off guard, Ling Changfeng was struck and sent flying backward. He smashed through the carved wooden door in a sorry state and fell heavily into the courtyard outside.

That palm was far too ruthless. Ling Changfeng’s vision went black in waves, and he spat out a mouthful of blood.

Ge Yu stepped onto the wreckage and stared at him sinisterly. “Ling Changfeng, you [read the original at bailiantales.com]had better not fall into my hands again in the future, or I will make you live worse than death.”

Ling Changfeng lay on the ground holding the incense burner, his shoulders shaking violently from fear and severe pain.

Ge Yu looked at him coldly.

…But very soon, he realized Ling Changfeng was not afraid.

He was laughing.

Ge Yu’s eyelid twitched, and an ominous feeling suddenly rose in him.

Ling Changfeng carelessly wiped the blood from the corner of his lips. The smile remained on his face, but his eyes carried a trace of sinister killing intent.

Click.

Something seemed to crack apart.

Ge Yu had been looking down from above. When his gaze swept over the thing in Ling Changfeng’s arms, his expression changed drastically.

Just now, forced out of control by anger, that palm had been utterly merciless. It had been aimed at destroying Ling Changfeng’s cultivation, and the remaining force had struck the Nine Dragon incense burner perfectly.

At some point, the lid of the incense burner had opened, and that palm had directly scattered a strand of Ziwei aura that had emerged from it.

The prohibition shattered.

“Ling Changfeng—!”

Ge Yu immediately lunged forward to stop it, but it was too late.

The shattered prohibition gathered again, turning into a purple-gold “dragon” that roared furiously.

A pressure of heaven and earth descended fiercely.

Amid the raging storm, the “dragon” raised its head and let out a long roar. After landing, it silently condensed into a phantom human figure.

In that instant, everything between heaven and earth seemed to freeze. Falling raindrops stopped in midair, and the soul banners fluttering above the Ziwei sacrificial platform remained frozen in their flying state.

The priests stayed kneeling, unmoving.

Between heaven and earth, only Ge Yu and Ling Changfeng could still move.

Ge Yu stared blankly around him. When his gaze landed on the human figure formed from Ziwei aura, his pupils suddenly contracted. Before his mind could react, his body had already knelt first.

“Cro…”

The man stood tall and elegant in black-and-gold dragon-patterned robes. His cold brows, eyes, and facial features were extremely similar to Lian Xingsong’s, but his cinnabar mole was dotted at the corner of his eye. His long, narrow eyes and feather-like lashes were like sharp blades, showing a chilling coldness of heartless indifference.

Ge Yu said, “Your Highness the Crown Prince!”

This prohibition had actually been laid down by Hongpan’s heir apparent, Lian Jingfeng!