SOL Chapter 15

Shouldn’t Recognize

Ever since encountering Shi En at the last scripture lecture, Li Shan seemed to have been traumatized, unwilling to leave Liuyuan for any activity.

After the start of autumn, the sky was high and the air crisp, and the gentry’s wives sent invitations even more diligently. Li Shan was now able to use the excuse of pregnancy to decline these social engagements.

Li Huai Su was happy to see this happen, confining Li Shan to this small world, as if he was the only one Li Shan could rely on in the whole world.

Li Shan’s pregnancy progressed, and the morning sickness became more severe. His waistband could no longer be fastened, and his legs were slightly swollen.

Because the time since the last childbirth was too short, the problem of breast tenderness appeared very early. Ignoring it, the leaking milk soaked his front, and Li Shan often had to get up in the middle of the night to wipe it, so he couldn’t rest well.

Li Huai Su was overwhelmed with concern. He had no experience in these matters, so he had to seek medical help in desperation, and he asked Zhou the landlord. Zhou the landlord really had some connections.

Zhou’s wife had a very dangerous time when she gave birth to Little Zhou, and she invited the gynecological expert from Qingya Town to ensure the safety of both mother and child.

However, this Doctor Chen is now living in seclusion, and it may be difficult to find him even if one is destined to meet him.

Before Li Huai Su set off to invite Doctor Chen, he told Li Shan about this.

But when Li Shan heard that Qingya Town was a hundred miles away from Taoyuan Township, his heart immediately hung up. The road was mountainous, and he was afraid that Li Huai Su would not be able to return soon. Seeing him drooping his eyes and tugging at the corner of his clothes, Li Huai Su comforted him softly, “Don’t worry, just keep the copper bell close to your body, and I will immediately return home to find you if there is any sound.”

Since the Demon World launched a full-scale counterattack, the internal affairs of the Immortal Sect had become a mess. Before the outsiders had even attacked, the people within had started fighting each other.

The sudden death of Headmaster Lin and the elders of various sects in the Cui Wei Sword Pavilion, and the unknown whereabouts of Li Shan, caused no small disturbance. In the blink of an eye, it became a struggle for power and profit.

Now, the Cui Wei Sword Pavilion has elected an acting headmaster. Although his qualifications are mediocre, he is very stable in balancing things, so the Sword Pavilion was able to get out of the vortex of infighting, recuperate, and free up its hands to deal with the invasion of the Demon race in the human world.

The Surveillance Division stated that the aura fluctuations in the Lingnan area were quite abnormal, and dispatched Zhou Ci Hua and other Sword Pavilion disciples to investigate the situation.

Lingnan has a lot of miasma, and Zhou Ci Hua and others had not yet arrived at Taoyuan Township, but they could remotely sense the demonic energy soaring into the sky in the direction of Taoyuan Township.

The human world has not been peaceful recently, and there have been disturbances by the Demon race again. The Sword Pavilion disciples have become numb to the tragedies of natural and man-made disasters along the way, but seeing such a strong demonic energy, they couldn’t help but feel a chill in their hearts.

The three looked at each other and understood the emotions in each other’s eyes—Taoyuan Township was probably in dire straits.

The closer they got to Taoyuan Township, the more vigilant the three became.

Zhou Ci Hua had been paying attention to the surrounding situation. Since entering the Lingnan area, although the demonic energy was strong, there were few demons to be seen.

They hadn’t even seen the lowest-level living skeletons, and they couldn’t help but feel strange in their hearts. Until they saw the smoke rising from Taoyuan Township, that strange feeling reached its peak.

With this level of demonic energy, the thinnest edge should have gathered a lot of these low-level demons.

The Sword Pavilion disciples walked along the road towards Taoyuan Township in a daze, brushing shoulders with the lively traffic and crowds.

It was the autumn harvest season, and the tenants in the countryside were carrying bundles of autumn grain onto the ox carts. On both sides of the widest avenue in the countryside, there were vendors and peddlers who had rushed from nearby villages and towns to the market, and children were running past them, playing and making noise.

The younger junior brother couldn’t help but ask Zhou Ci Hua, “Senior Brother, why doesn’t this Taoyuan Township seem to have any problems?”

Cultivators can see through illusions. The scene of harmony, happiness, and vitality in front of them was not an illusion. However, Zhou Ci Hua frowned even more: “Don’t relax your vigilance.”

The junior sister suggested: “Why don’t we split up and ask the villagers for information, and find the source of the demonic energy first?”

Half an hour later, the three reunited and exchanged the information they had obtained.

The junior sister said, “The place with the strongest demonic energy is the mansion in the southernmost part of Taoyuan Township.”

The junior brother interjected, “We originally wanted to visit directly, but no one answered the door. There must be something fishy about this concealment.”

The other Sword Pavilion disciples did not find anything wrong. The only problem was that the residents of Taoyuan Township lived too leisurely and comfortably. When asked about the Demon race, they all said they didn’t know anything about it, as if they had never heard of it.

It should be known that in this world now, the Demon race has almost wreaked havoc in the human world! Could Taoyuan Township really be some kind of paradise?

Zhou Ci Hua’s expression was solemn: “If a place that should have evil spirits is so clean that it is unbelievable, then the only possibility is that there is something here that makes these evil spirits fear and want to escape.”

The Sword Pavilion disciples also fell silent. This was obviously not good news.

Zhou Ci Hua and others were discussing on the street, without avoiding anyone.

The vendor closest to the three heard this and took the initiative to say, “Are you outsiders immortals from the cultivation world who have come to subdue demons and eliminate evil?”

Zhou Ci Hua heard that the vendor was a local of Taoyuan Town, walked to his stall, and casually picked a few small things to buy.

The vendor’s eyes lit up immediately, and he enthusiastically said to Zhou Ci Hua: “I am a know-it-all in Taoyuan Township. If you immortals have any questions, just ask me!”

The junior sister asked, “May I ask, old fellow, whose property is that very beautiful garden in the southernmost part?”

The vendor said, “You are talking about Liuyuan, right? This garden has been abandoned for many years. A Mr. Li moved in last year. I heard that he is a big shot.”

Zhou Ci Hua and the junior sister exchanged glances and immediately locked their target on this Mr. Li. Zhou Ci Hua asked again, “Is there anything unusual about this Mr. Li?”

The vendor looked blank: “What’s unusual?”

The junior brother asked anxiously, “For example, he doesn’t see people often, and his background is unknown?”

The vendor scratched his head and said, “You immortals have stumped me with this question. This Mr. Li treats people kindly and politely, and he also hosts banquets in the garden to entertain guests. All the influential figures in the countryside have met him, and there has never been anything unusual.”

Whenever a demon imitates a human, there will always be some obvious flaws in the disguise. In the eyes of mortals, it is the so-called “unusual.”

The vendor said it so confidently, and this Mr. Li seemed to have a lot of communication with the villagers in Taoyuan Township, but he did not reveal a single flaw. He was probably really just an ordinary person.

The clues ended here again, and the Sword Pavilion disciples were silent for a while, unable to hide the disappointment on their faces.

Seeing this, the vendor immediately began to rack his brains to recall, and then a flash of inspiration came to him: “However… this Mr. Li has a wife who doesn’t seem to appear in public very much and avoids seeing guests.”

The junior brother’s eyes lit up immediately, and he hurriedly asked, “Do you know the identity and origin of this Mrs. Li?”

The vendor waved his hand: “How would I know that? She is a woman, and Mr. Li hides his wife very well. She is very mysterious. Most of our villagers have never seen her face. As for her name and background, we don’t know anything about it.”

That’s right, if a demon transforms into a human, it is very easy to have flaws in fabricating an identity.

If they randomly take on an identity and run into the real person, wouldn’t they be exposed on the spot? Therefore, most of them are vague and the fewer leaks, the less likely they are to make mistakes.

The vendor seemed to feel that it was inappropriate to discuss women behind their backs like this, and the words were too subjective, for fear of being misleading, so he carefully added two sentences: “However, the noble women in the countryside have indeed met this Mrs. Li, and they also went to the local Buddhist temple to worship Buddha together. They said that she doesn’t go out much because she is physically weak. Plus, I heard that she is pregnant recently, and Mr. Li cherishes her so much that he went out of town to find medicine for his wife these two days, so it may be inconvenient to receive foreign guests.”

Zhou Ci Hua thanked the vendor and went to Liuyuan with several disciples.

The junior brother said confidently: “Most of the villagers have seen this Mr. Li, so there should be no problem. This Mrs. Li is elusive, so she must be a demon woman with profound Taoism, who seduced a man from the human world to have an affair with her. Now that she is pregnant and her mana is affected, she hid in Taoyuan Township to hide and seek refuge.”

The junior sister frowned: “It is difficult for mortal women to give birth, plus this Mrs. Li is weak and sickly, so it is very normal for her not to go out and see people much. If we rashly go to the door and make a mistake, wouldn’t it be rude? Why don’t we wait for this Mr. Li to return from out of town, explain the situation, and then make a decision?”

The junior brother was dissatisfied: “Who knows when this Mr. Li will be able to return? To put it bluntly, the world outside Taoyuan Township may not be able to return. Are we going to keep dragging it on? You can drag it on, but the demon can’t drag it on!”

The two quarreled and had to turn their eyes to Zhou Ci Hua for help.

Zhou Ci Hua pondered for a moment and made a decision: “When things are urgent, we must act with discretion. Tonight, we will sneak into Li’s residence. If it is a misunderstanding, we can apologize in person another day. Human life is at stake. If there are demons lurking in Liuyuan, if we let it go, this Mrs. Li may not be spared.”

Everyone nodded in agreement. As the moon rose over the willow trees, Zhou Ci Hua and others quietly entered Li’s residence to investigate under the cover of night.

As soon as they entered Liuyuan, the three noticed something wrong. The position of the houses, trees, and plants in the mansion was extremely strange, as if it was arranged according to a formation. If Zhou Ci Hua and others had not learned some Taoism to break the maze in Cui Wei Sword Pavilion, they would probably have been trapped in it like ghosts hitting a wall.

When they arrived at the hall, they saw servants in the courtyard in groups of three or two, patrolling the night. From a distance, there was nothing wrong, but when they got closer, they found that these servants’ movements were stiff and they did not look like living people.

Zhou Ci Hua had the deepest cultivation among the three and saw the problem at a glance: “They are all monsters transformed from plants and trees!”

Upon hearing this, the young disciples were sure that the demon must be hiding in Liuyuan. The maids and servants were all transformed by demonic magic, so the biggest demon was probably the owner of this mansion.

The demonic energy in the house was so strong that it was almost impossible to find the accurate location and source. Zhou Ci Hua saw that the space in the garden was different from the outside world, as if it had expanded more than five times. He understood that if the three of them investigated together, they might not be able to find the demon by dawn.

Moreover, the magic array in Liuyuan was strange. If they stayed for a long time, they were likely to be trapped by the miasma in the garden and eventually get lost.

Zhou Ci Hua immediately made a decision and signaled the three to split up.

He went to the main house to investigate, and the junior brother and sister patrolled nearby. If they directly encountered the demon here, they must not act rashly and immediately transmit a message to him.

On the other side, Zhou Ci Hua broke into the main house all the way. On this side, the junior brother and sister were searching the way in a tight formation, but they found a formation of Cui Wei Sword Pavilion.

The two looked at each other and saw the horror in each other’s eyes: “How can there be a formation of Cui Wei Sword Pavilion here?”

The two young disciples were among the best of their peers in the Sword Pavilion. They decisively urged their spiritual energy to break the formation. The illusion suddenly dissipated, and then a very cold and desolate small courtyard appeared in front of them.

In the courtyard was a rather elegant small building, with warm and bright lights shining through the gauze windows, cutting out beautiful window lattice patterns on the grass in front of the house.

The two held their swords in front of them and quietly pushed open the door of the small building.

What they saw was the warm and dim light in the house, which was unusually simple and comfortable. There seemed to be nothing wrong.

However, the moment they pushed open the door, both of them sensed that extremely strong demonic energy was stagnant in this small space, wrapping around their bodies as if it had substance.

The two were almost numb from the scalp and were instantly nailed to the spot.

Both of their eyes fell on a very delicate and beautiful screen in the house. The freehand landscape was illuminated by the light, showing a thin human silhouette, which was somewhat beautiful and graceful—it must be the “Mrs. Li.”

However, the figure did not seem to notice the arrival of outsiders and was still sitting quietly in place.

The younger junior brother trembled and transmitted a message to Zhou Ci Hua, feeling that his heart was about to jump out. He did not dare to speak and signaled his junior sister to retreat to the outside of the house together.

In the process of moving, he stepped on an unstable floor, and a grating noise suddenly sounded in the quiet house.

The two trembled and raised their eyes, gripping the long swords in their hands, waiting for a battle.

The figure behind the screen just slightly shook his body and asked softly, “Li Lang, is that you back?”

The two were stunned when they heard this. The blinding method was not very effective for cultivators, and they had been on guard, so they immediately heard that it was not a woman at all! It was clearly a man’s voice!

Now that they had been caught on the spot, and they didn’t know if Senior Brother Zhou Ci Hua could arrive smoothly, the two held the swords in their hands even tighter—

Fighting is death, and not fighting is also death, so it is better to fight hard and strike first, maybe there is a glimmer of hope!

The two joined their swords to form an array, and a sword energy forced toward the screen. The screen, which was originally made of silk, was torn apart by the sword wind, and the sandalwood frame also shattered, scattering messy wood chips.

The person behind the scenes seemed startled and covered his lower abdomen and turned his back, without making any resistance or struggle.

The younger junior sister noticed something strange and was about to speak to remind him, but the younger junior brother had already flown forward with his sword.

A second before the tip of the sword approached, the young man who was originally lying on the ground turned his face blankly, revealing a delicate face covered by ink-like messy hair.

The younger junior brother saw the young man’s face and recognized the other party’s identity. He was so shocked that he couldn’t even hold the long sword in his hand.

The tip of the sword suddenly stopped at the young man’s eyebrows, piercing a small inch of skin. Blood beads immediately meandered down his nose, drawing a bright red blood mark.

The “Mrs. Li” hiding here was actually the former chief disciple of Cui Wei Sword Pavilion—Li Shan.