Chapter Ninety-One: Neat and Orderly

“They are all my personal disciples,” he said, implying they were completely trustworthy. Jiang Lan nodded, then waved her long sleeve. Two yellow talismans shot forward, and the watery barrier exploded at once.

“Unfortunately, I have my own rules,” she added.

The Old Ancestor of the Qimen School ground his teeth in frustration.

Jiang Lan cleared her throat. “The golden blood pearl is hidden…”

Everyone leaned forward, eager. Jiang Lan’s gaze flicked over the Old Ancestor’s subtle expressions.

“It’s inside the Imperial Supervisory Office.”

An uproar broke out. The flying swords circling the Old Ancestor spun so fast they sparked against each other.

“Are you joking? That is not something to joke about!”

Ignoring the threat in the Old Ancestor’s eyes, Jiang Lan stepped forward and gently nudged the scattered treasures on the ground with her toe. “All of these are treasures from your Imperial Supervisory Office, aren’t they? You’ve all admitted as much.”

“Yes, just now he said so!” a Daoist from outside the sect confirmed.

A youth from the Supervisory Office protested, “Who said that? Be clear!”

“You did, you did. What of it?” came the reply.

Jiang Lan paid the private squabbles no mind and picked up a golden alms bowl from the ground. “The whole world believes the Imperial Supervisory Office is impenetrable. If someone like me—a so-called ‘demonic cultivator’ in your eyes—could break in so easily, what does that suggest?”

Everyone’s attention was drawn to her. It seemed the masked sorcerer’s words made sense. The Imperial Supervisory Office was the culmination of Daoist and Yin-Yang arts. Even formidable monsters rarely dared approach the stronghold of the Thirteen Yin-Yang Divisions—unless, as the masked sorcerer claimed, there truly was some hidden treasure within.

“Demon, hurry up! We’re all listening,” someone urged.

A glint flashed in Jiang Lan’s eyes beneath the mask.

“I went there precisely for the treasure. You all know the wondrous effects of the golden blood pearl, do you not?”

Everyone nodded.

“It’s a peerless treasure, a supreme elixir for rebirth and transformation! Who hasn’t heard of it?”

“That’s right! Everyone’s heard of it!” many jeered.

“Demon, which floor of the Supervisory Office is the treasure kept on? Tell us, and we’ll let you go!”

“Yes, we’ll let you go!”

Jiang Lan ignored their clamor and looked instead at the Old Ancestor, whose face had darkened to pitch black. “So, will you let me go or not?”

“Get out!”

“What? I didn’t catch that.”

“Go! Just go already!”

Jiang Lan took out her spirit pouch and swept all the evil spirits into it at once. “Chifeng, come out.”

A surge of powerful demonic energy swept forth, swirling up the dust and blinding everyone present.

Jiang Lan looked at the barrier the Old Ancestor had conjured, which now enclosed just the three of them inside.

“Farewell, white-bearded Daoist!”

She leapt onto Chifeng’s back. The great beast soared skyward, then swooped down again to snatch up the dazed phantom beast Lingling, grabbing it by a single horn.

With every breath, Chifeng could cover over seventy thousand kilometers. Lingling’s mouth gaped so wide that drool poured onto the ground in a long, thick stream.

“A waterfall plunging three thousand feet!” Jiang Lan exclaimed.

“You’re reciting poetry now?” Chifeng turned to look at Jiang Lan standing on its scaly back.

“No, I saw it in Ming-ge’s poetry collection. It seemed fitting for the occasion.”

Chifeng glanced down at the white, murky trail Lingling had left and nodded its phoenix head. “Quite appropriate indeed.”

Then it asked, “Where are we going?”

“We’ll fly for a while, get clear of the cultivators’ tracking talismans, and then head to the mountain where we first met—near White Horse Temple.”

“Heh! Don’t you trust me? I’ll have you know, at my speed, who on earth could catch up with us?”

Jiang Lan looked at the proud creature beneath her feet and shook her head inwardly. She thought to herself, In the old days, besides you, I heard there was a stinky monkey too. No wonder the Sun God couldn’t stand you and sealed you away. If it were me, I wouldn’t have put up with you either.

“Hey, you’re not speaking—did my skills amaze you into silence?”

Jiang Lan ignored him, lay down on Chifeng’s broad scaly back, and rested. No matter how Chifeng twisted his neck, he couldn’t see.

Left speechless, Chifeng soon turned his attention to the creature in his claws.

“Hehe, what’s your name?”

“Ling…Ling…”

“You stutter?” Chifeng blinked his enormous eyes, one open and one closed.

“N-n-n-no…”

“I won’t laugh at you. If you stutter, you stutter. But why are you drooling with your mouth open?”

Lingling looked up at the bird’s head, which was full of disdain, and almost spat blood from humiliation.

Once Chifeng had flown off, the pressure that had weighed on the Daoists below finally eased. They didn’t bother to tidy their clothes, but hurried off in different directions, all headed for the Star-Plucking Tower of the Imperial Supervisory Office.

Jianzi Wenren was in shock. “Grandmaster, Master, what should we do now?”

Rong Mu was just as bewildered and looked to his own master for guidance.

The Old Ancestor’s face remained dark. “That wretch planned this! He deliberately appeared before all the cultivators to put the Imperial Supervisory Office under the spotlight. He could have escaped on his own, but instead used the excuse of a secret treasure to force me to let him go. Ruthless—utterly ruthless!”

“Master…” someone began.

“He already has an ancestral demon phoenix and that lesser phantom beast Lingling. I might not be a match for him. He’s luring the enemy in, sowing discord, hoping to use others to weaken our office’s strength!”

“That can’t be, Master. He looks only sixteen or seventeen, yet he’s so cunning and accomplished?”

“Hmph!” The Old Ancestor snorted, twin streams of breath shooting from his nostrils. “Do you think the world can always be explained by common sense, Xunzhi? Have you forgotten my teachings?”

“I wouldn’t dare, Master.”

Seeing his disciple’s respectful demeanor, the Old Ancestor’s anger finally subsided somewhat.

“But Master, was there any truth to what that masked man said? Do we really have such a thing in our office?”

The Old Ancestor’s white brows furrowed. “Xunzhi, you were in the office first. Did you notice anything unusual?”

Rong Mu shook his head. “Nothing at all.”

“Then where exactly did that boy break in?”

Rong Mu shook his head and looked at his own disciple.

Wenren, flustered under the gazes of his master and grandmaster, stammered, “I—I don’t really know. The demon phoenix escaped from Brother Wei Li’s alchemy room. None of the other disciples know anything.”

“Wei Li…”

“Wei Li…”

The Old Ancestor and Rong Mu exchanged a glance. One mounted his sword, the other seized Wenren by the collar, and they both leapt onto their magical tools, vanishing from the bloodstained street.

On the ridge, Jiang Lan released all the evil spirits and monsters from her spirit pouch.

“Thank you, great immortal!” they chorused, bowing neatly in unison.

Jiang Lan waved them off, refusing their obeisance.

“Truly, I don’t deserve this.”

“Huh?”

Seeing their puzzled expressions, Jiang Lan confessed everything.

“I know you have a grudge against Gu Chengwu, but I don’t know the details.”

At that moment, the evil spirit she had first rescued stepped forward. “My name is Sheng Wan, from Jiaxing in Yu Prefecture, a subject of Qin. My family was once a prominent local clan. My mother bore three of us siblings. I had an elder brother and sister. Those years, the Qin country was undertaking massive construction—building waterways. Our estate was coveted by government officials. Without warning, the entire family was thrown into prison. All one hundred sixty-five members, not a soul spared. Even my newborn nephew…”