Inherited 100 Million - Chapter 3

After nightfall, the weather was not as hot as during the day. A cool breeze blew, and if you didn’t cover yourself properly, you might catch a cold.

Xue Yizhuo wasn’t used to sleeping with her window closed. It was propped open with a small stick, revealing a few stalks of bamboo planted outside. The slender bamboo stalks swayed in the wind, their leaves rustling with a gentle shaa-shaa sound.

The night wasn’t completely silent, but the subtle noises made it easier to fall asleep.

Xue Yizhuo fell into a deep sleep the moment her head hit the pillow; normal noises couldn’t wake her. Yet, in the middle of the night, she suddenly felt a jolt in her heart and abruptly opened her eyes.

For a moment, Xue Yizhuo stared blankly at the ceiling before slowly regaining her senses.

Sitting up in bed, she knitted her delicate brows. A strange sense of unease filled her, as if something terrible was about to happen.

Xue Yizhuo’s mind was troubled.

She put on a thin robe, got out of bed, and, with her wooden clogs, walked to the window. As she leaned against the frame and a cool breeze washed over her, her wildly beating heart gradually calmed down.

But the feeling of unease lingered.

Although she hadn’t fully adapted to her new identity, she was now a powerful cultivator. This meant that her feeling of unease was likely not a false alarm; something had probably gone wrong.

The night breeze carried a faint scent of blood.

Xue Yizhuo’s expression changed.

The direction of the wind… it was from Old Li’s house!

In an instant, Xue Yizhuo remembered the “blood-robed person” she had heard about at the teahouse that day. Panicked, she pushed open her door and ran toward Old Li’s house.

The two homes were separated by a single wall. Upon entering the yard, the scent of blood, though still faint, was much stronger than what she had smelled in her room.

Xue Yizhuo didn’t even have time to open the door; she simply vaulted over the wall.

Standing on the wall, she saw everything in the courtyard, and her pupils constricted. A gaunt figure in a blood-red robe with a hood stood in the courtyard. One of his hands, twisted in a grotesque manner, was mercilessly clamped around Old Li’s throat.

His fingernails were like sharp daggers, puncturing Old Li’s neck and leaving several bloody holes. As Old Li struggled, blood seeped from the wounds.

Xue Yizhuo’s movements had been far from quiet, and the blood-robed person immediately looked up at the top of the wall. In the moonlight, his face was clearly visible to Xue Yizhuo.

He was a man, and if not for his pale, corpse-like skin and eyes filled with web-like red veins, he would have been considered handsome.

But the dark, chilling aura he gave off made anyone who saw him feel a deep cold in their heart.

This was a demon cultivator.

The mini-map could display people within a hundred-meter radius, and a blood-red dot clearly identified the blood-robed person’s status to Xue Yizhuo.

Old Li also saw Xue Yizhuo and, with all his might, made a raspy, gasping sound, as if telling her to run.

The blood-robed person stared at her with a malevolent glare, making no attempt to hide his killing intent.

Everyone who had clearly seen his face had died.

The blood-robed person raised his other hand. Black veins bulged on the back of his hand, and his fingers curled into a claw, as if to grab Xue Yizhuo from across the wall.

But another shadow was faster.

A round fan, now split in half, was embedded in the ground. The blood-robed person’s eyes narrowed in disbelief as he watched his fingers, now severed at the base, fall to the ground.

On the fan, the embroidered red koi were still lifelike, swimming around a lotus flower. You’d have to look closely under a lamp to see that one of the koi’s scales was darker than the rest, as if stained with something.

The fan had only grazed him, but the blood-robed person couldn’t even begin to imagine how fast it had been thrown.

He couldn’t sense any cultivation from the person on the wall; her aura was completely that of an ordinary person.

Demon cultivators were masters of concealment and also the best at seeing through the disguises of other cultivators.

The blood-robed person had no time to wonder how Xue Yizhuo was disguising herself. He shoved Old Li away and fled toward the half-open courtyard door, moving so fast he was just a blur of red.

He didn’t even think about using Old Li as a hostage; that one move had already shown him that Xue Yizhuo could chop off his arm before he could even kill Old Li.

The moment Old Li was thrown, Xue Yizhuo leaped off the wall and rushed to catch him as he collapsed. With the blood-robed person’s hand gone, Old Li’s wounds were no longer blocked, and blood gushed out. The several bleeding holes on his neck were horrifying.

Xue Yizhuo didn’t know the quality of the healing potions in her inventory. She grabbed a random bottle and poured the powder onto Old Li’s neck.

The bleeding stopped instantly, and in a moment, the wounds began to heal.

Xue Yizhuo let out a sigh of relief.

Old Li was ashen. He seemed terrified, opening his mouth several times but unable to make a sound.

“Don’t worry, don’t worry,” Xue Yizhuo said, patting his back. She helped Old Li back into his house, settled him down, and then, under his worried gaze, said, “Stay inside and don’t come out. I’m going after him!”

Old Li made a couple of grunting sounds.

Xue Yizhuo took a deep breath. “He’s no match for me, don’t worry.”

The moment she left Old Li’s room, Xue Yizhuo’s face grew grim. She flicked her hand, and the round fan on the ground flew back into her grasp.

Her idea from earlier in the day was now worthless. Xue Yizhuo had intended to ignore the blood-robed person and let the Shiwai Pavilion handle it, but now the blood-robed person had tried to kill Old Li!

In this world, Old Li was the person Xue Yizhuo was closest to.

Xue Yizhuo still remembered the long period of disorientation she felt after first transmigrating into the game. She was a person who took things as they came, but even she was at a loss for a long time when faced with such a drastic change.

Xue Yizhuo took out a coin and bought a candied hawthorn stick. She walked along the small river, eating as she went. Pedestrians walked by, occasionally bumping shoulders, but the distracted Xue Yizhuo didn’t notice.

She didn’t know what to do or where to go.

Before she knew it, she was almost out of Qingping Town. The river suddenly widened, and the houses on the bank were scattered.

Xue Yizhuo sat blankly on a bluestone slab by the river. Not far away, a few women were washing clothes by the river, chatting about things she couldn’t understand. Further away, chimney smoke slowly rose, and she could almost smell the familiar scent of a kitchen fire.

Even further in the distance, a red sun was setting behind mountains that looked like they were painted with light ink. The landscape, water, sun, and moon were all different from what she was used to.

Lost and helpless, Xue Yizhuo heard heavy footsteps, accompanied by the familiar thump-thump of a cane hitting the ground.

She thought it was just a passerby.

He was inconsequential to her, just as she was to him.

But the footsteps stopped beside her. The old man’s voice was hoarse, as if he had hurt his throat when he was young, and it sounded a bit like her grandfather, who had passed away early. Old Li rubbed his tired lower back with a sigh. “Girl, you’ve wandered too far.”

In that moment, an invisible thread seemed to connect Xue Yizhuo to this world.

Now, Xue Yizhuo’s face was just as bloodless and pale. She couldn’t imagine what would have happened to Old Li if she hadn’t woken up in the middle of the night.

At first, there was a faint trail of blood on the ground, but the blood-robed person quickly noticed the marks he was leaving and stopped the bleeding.

After chasing for a few more meters, even the smell of blood was gone.

Xue Yizhuo could only track him by the faint demonic energy lingering in the air. She had her mini-map on, but with the enemy intentionally concealing himself, there was no indication on the map.

Xue Yizhuo had the power but no experience in using it. The subtle demonic energy she could barely sense felt like it would disappear at any second.

She dug her fingernails into her palm.

Xue Yizhuo dashed out of an alley, abruptly turned her head to the side, and heard a startled cry—

A sedan chair was passing by right outside the alley!

The sedan bearers were startled by Xue Yizhuo’s sudden appearance, and the sedan chair swayed violently. A soft cry of surprise came from inside.

“Sorry!” Xue Yizhuo quickly stepped back.

The sedan bearer was initially furious, but when he saw the person who had darted out was a young girl, he let out a frustrated sigh. He simply furrowed his brow and said in a low voice, “You should watch where you’re going!”

“I apologize for my rudeness,” Xue Yizhuo said hastily.

From inside the sedan chair, a woman’s gentle voice said, “It’s late. Young lady, be careful on your way.”

She then lowered her voice slightly. “Uncle Chen, let’s go back.”

The lead sedan bearer acknowledged her. The tall, burly men carried the sedan chair with steady steps, and it quickly disappeared from Xue Yizhuo’s sight.

Xue Yizhuo stood in the middle of the road, frustrated. That brief distraction had made her completely lose the trace of demonic energy.

All around her was silence; there wasn’t a soul in sight. A few lanterns hung under the eaves, casting a faint light.

Xue Yizhuo patted her forehead with the fan, crestfallen, and began to walk back.

The blood-robed person was extremely vigilant. Xue Yizhuo knew that others couldn’t sense her cultivation, though she didn’t know why herself. She appeared to be a normal person, and even though she had done something that a normal person couldn’t do, the way the blood-robed person ran was still unexpected.

Now that he had gotten away, she didn’t know if she’d ever be able to find him again. To make things worse, it was very possible that the blood-robed person would just leave Qingping Town.

Xue Yizhuo wouldn’t feel at ease just because the blood-robed person left Qingping Town. Knowing that an enemy was still alive would feel like a bone stuck in her throat.

Xue Yizhuo walked silently down the empty street, her thoughts tangled like a ball of yarn.

Fifteen minutes later.

Xue Yizhuo suddenly realized a serious problem.

She seemed to be, possibly, probably, perhaps… lost.

Xue Yizhuo had a terrible sense of direction.

She stood still and looked around. Everything looked familiar, but she couldn’t remember which way led home.

When Xue Yizhuo got lost, she could walk in circles around the town all night and might not find her way back even by morning.

The thought of wandering the streets all night made her head pound.

“Can someone please help me…” Xue Yizhuo muttered, but she couldn’t even spot a night watchman.

She could only choose the path that felt the most familiar. She stopped in front of an alley and stood there for a long time, looking in, then looking back, unsure if it was the right way home.

If only she could find the river… her small courtyard was located by the river, so finding the river would mean finding her way home.

After a moment of hesitation, Xue Yizhuo stepped into the alley.

The alleys crisscrossed, and the paths were complex. Xue Yizhuo felt like her mind was a complete mess, and even with the mini-map on, she didn’t know where to go.

Suddenly, a bright light appeared ahead.

It was a person!

Xue Yizhuo quickened her pace. The person holding the lantern heard her hurried footsteps and looked up.

When Xue Yizhuo saw Jun Yu’s slightly stunned face lit by the lantern, she was also taken aback.

Jun Yu’s eyes held a gentle smile, and her voice was warm: “It’s you.”