At the parking lot beneath the overpass, Xi Yu unfastened his seat belt and spoke to the other two, who were also preparing to get out.
“You two stay in the car. I’ll be right back.”
Lu Zhixing’s hand stopped.
He turned toward Xi Yu and smiled obediently.
“Okay.”
Xi Yu was going to find Old Dog and ask him about Wutong Village.
There were too many people beneath the overpass, and Lu Zhixing and Luo Cheng’an were both public figures. They could easily be recognized and cause trouble.
He left the two of them in the car, put on a mask, and headed toward the area beneath the overpass.
At this hour, most of the stalls had already been set up.
From a distance, Xi Yu saw Old Dog squatting on the ground, trying to sell the assortment of broken metal and junk he had spread all over the place.
Xi Yu didn’t interrupt his business.
He leaned against Auntie Lan’s stall.
“Not selling watermelons anymore?”
Auntie Lan handed him a peeled pear.
“It’s autumn now. Time to nourish the lungs. Pears sell much better than watermelons.”
“Just eat my pears. One bite and you’ll be speechless.”
Xi Yu took a bite.
The pear was juicy, crisp, and sweet.
Auntie Lan seized the opportunity to move closer to Xi Yu and began absorbing his spiritual energy.
There had been very little spiritual energy around Xi Yu beneath the overpass before, but to them, as demons, even that little bit had been extremely nourishing.
Later, when Xi Yu returned home, she and Old Dog had felt rather regretful about losing their source of nourishment.
They hadn’t expected that the last time Xi Yu came over, the spiritual energy around him had increased by more than a thousand times.
She had absorbed it for an entire afternoon, and her demon core had advanced by an entire level.
Old Dog had been haggling with a customer when he suddenly sensed spiritual energy overflowing around him.
He turned his head.
The instant he saw Xi Yu, his eyes lit up.
He hurriedly shoved the item toward the customer.
“Twenty. Twenty it is. Scan the code.”
The customer had been arguing his case with every bit of logic he could muster, yet Old Dog hadn’t budged.
He had already been preparing to take out his money.
The moment he heard this, he immediately scanned the code, grabbed the item, and fled as though his life depended on it.
Old Dog walked over, casually took a pear from Auntie Lan’s glass display case, and began absorbing spiritual energy without saying a word.
He knew why Xi Yu had come.
Xi Yu said nothing.
He needed a favor, so naturally he had to offer something in return.
It was only some spiritual energy, and he didn’t mind letting the two of them absorb it like addicts desperate for a fix.
After about ten minutes, Old Dog’s tongue had practically lolled out, and his hands were curled in front of his chest.
Fur had begun appearing on the backs of his hands.
Xi Yu clicked his tongue and kicked him.
“Stop absorbing. What happened with the thing I asked you to look into?”
Xi Yu now had a way to find Wutong Village, but he still wanted to ask Old Dog if he’d discovered anything else.
Old Dog had been so blissfully intoxicated from absorbing the spiritual energy that when Xi Yu kicked him, the fur on the back of his hand immediately disappeared.
His heart jolted.
That felt way too good. I almost transformed right here.
Old Dog gave an embarrassed smile.
“I asked around. That place you mentioned is called Wutong Village, but I couldn’t find the exact location. That place is incredibly hidden. It’s really hard to find.”
Xi Yu was somewhat surprised.
“Even your people couldn’t find a route map?”
Old Dog’s people were scattered all over the world.
In theory, as long as a place existed somewhere on Earth, they should have been able to produce a route map to it.
Xi Yu looked thoughtfully at Old Dog.
He no longer needed a route map.
Chan Yu’s sword soul would lead him there.
He had only come here because he wanted to hear whether Old Dog had learned anything else about the place.
He wasn’t going to ask Chan Yu.
He didn’t trust Chan Yu.
But he hadn’t expected that even Old Dog couldn’t find the place.
A place the demon clan couldn’t locate, yet Jiang Yunzheng had somehow stumbled into it by accident.
And then there was Sang Biao, who had escaped and later returned.
Xi Yu fell into thought.
“I thought it was strange too. No one can find it,” Old Dog said.
After a pause, his expression became more solemn.
“But I did find out some other things.”
Old Dog lowered his voice.
“I don’t recommend that you go there, because that place is… really sinister.”
Xi Yu raised an eyebrow.
“Tell me more.”
Old Dog lowered his voice even further.
“There is an arrow worshiped inside Wutong Village. It’s…”
He pointed upward and spoke cryptically.
“Something from up there.”
“A divine artifact,” Xi Yu said, taking another bite of his pear. “That’s great.”
The spiritual energy from Zhuohua alone would be more than enough to nourish an entire village.
Having it land anywhere would be a pleasant surprise.
Old Dog, however, shook his head.
“What’s so great about that? Although that arrow is a divine artifact, it survives by sucking out people’s souls.”
Xi Yu swallowed the pear in his mouth.
“Sucking out people’s souls?”
Old Dog nodded.
“That’s right.”
Xi Yu’s expression became strange.
Sucking out people’s souls…
He was silent for two seconds before asking,
“Are you sure it’s an arrow, not a sword?”
…………………….
If it sucked out people’s souls, it had to be Chan Yu.
It was extremely unlikely to be Zhuohua.
Zhuohua was his magical artifact, formed from the spiritual energy of Heaven and Earth.
It was incapable of doing something like sucking out people’s souls.
Otherwise, it would inevitably suffer a backlash.
“I’m sure!”
Old Dog lowered his voice.
“I have a member of my clan who was once taken back and raised by someone from the village. It accidentally wandered into the Holy Son’s room and saw it with its own eyes. It was an arrow with a jade body and golden feathers.”
Golden feathers and a jade body.
Then it could only be Zhuohua.
Seeing Xi Yu’s slightly furrowed brows, Old Dog immediately continued.
“The spiritual energy from that arrow is incredibly pure. That member of my clan was only able to form a demon core and take human form because it was brought back and exposed to that spiritual energy.”
Xi Yu took the tissue Auntie Lan handed him and slowly wiped his hands.
“Then why did it leave?”
The demon clan loved spiritual energy above all else.
With Zhuohua there, cultivation should have been twice as effective with half the effort.
Old Dog had said that his companion had been raised there for a period of time.
That meant it was no longer in Wutong Village.
If there was so much spiritual energy there, why would it leave?
At Xi Yu’s question, Old Dog slapped his thigh.
“That’s exactly why I said the place is sinister! It escaped.”
“Every full moon on the fifteenth, that arrow absorbs people’s souls. But the village doesn’t allow outsiders to enter. The souls it absorbs… belong to the people inside the village.”
“My companion had already cultivated into human form. He was afraid that one day it would be his turn, so he escaped while no one was watching during the ritual.”
“The people inside that village… technically, they can’t even be considered human anymore.”
Old Dog thought for a moment.
“They’re more like vessels. Their souls are drained, then restored by the spiritual energy, then drained again. Over and over, in an endless cycle.”
“Brother.”
“Brother?”
“Brother!!!”
Xi Yu had been lost in thought.
It wasn’t until Luo Cheng’an shouted at him that he came back to himself.
He turned to look at Luo Cheng’an and instinctively unfastened his seat belt.
“We’re home?”
“What? No.”
Luo Cheng’an turned around from the driver’s seat.
“I was asking if you wanted to get ice cream. There’s an ice cream place here that’s really good.”
Luo Cheng’an nodded toward the window.
Only then did Xi Yu realize that they had driven to a spot outside an amusement park.
The entrance was packed with people.
There were countless yellow cartoon-themed food carts, and one of the ice cream trucks had an extremely long line in front of it.
Xi Yu liked cold, sweet things like this.
But he wasn’t really in the mood to eat.
He was just about to refuse when he caught sight of Lu Zhixing from the corner of his eye.
His words changed direction.
“Fine. Go get me one.”
“Brother Lu.”
Luo Cheng’an looked at Lu Zhixing.
“Come with me.”
“He’s not going,” Xi Yu said.
“Get me vanilla.”
Luo Cheng’an’s hand paused on the door handle.
“Fine. Then what flavor does Brother Lu want?”
“Vanilla. Thank you.”
Luo Cheng’an got out of the car.
Xi Yu watched as he crossed the street and ran over to the ice cream truck to join the line.
Then he leaned forward and pressed a hand against the back of the passenger seat.
His expression became serious.
“Lu Zhixing, I’m taking you with me.”
“Where?”
“To find Sang Biao.”
Lu Zhixing tilted his head and blinked.
“We’re going to find the arrow that can remove the thing inside me, right?”
“You know?”
Lu Zhixing nodded.
“Your disciple mentioned inside the ring that we needed that arrow to remove the demonic aura from my body. Then, on the day Shen Linchuan kidnapped us, he said he had been injured by an arrow. At the time, you told me what that arrow looked like.”
Xi Yu stared at Lu Zhixing for two seconds before breaking into a smile.
He teased,
“Look at how smart you are, Brother Lu~”
Xi Yu’s voice was soft, the final note drawn out.
His brows and eyes relaxed, and he looked completely casual and at ease.
Xi Yu himself hadn’t noticed that after learning Lu Zhixing was Zhili, he behaved very differently around Lu Zhixing.
He was relaxed.
It was like someone living alone on a dry, silent mountaintop, holding the only little companion who had ever stayed by his side close to him.
Neither Xi Yu nor Lu Zhixing noticed it.
Sometimes the people inside the situation were the ones least able to see it clearly.
The two people who were closest to each other had instead overlooked the invisible web they had woven between themselves.
And because of that, even now, they still couldn’t recognize each other.
Lu Zhixing only felt his heart tremble.
Even though overwhelming fear and unease filled him, he still smiled faintly at Xi Yu’s relaxed manner.
A thin blush appeared on his cheeks, making him look a little embarrassed.
Like a shy student who had just received praise, bashful and reserved.
That expression fell into Xi Yu’s eyes, causing his gaze to deepen slightly.
So cute.
Xi Yu’s fingertips began itching again.
He rubbed them together, feeling a little excited.
All the irritation he had felt when returning from beneath the overpass vanished in an instant.
Lu Zhixing had no memories now.
But once the demonic aura inside his body was removed, he would remember that he was a god.
At that point, Xi Yu could restore the memories he had extracted.
Then master and disciple could finally recognize each other.
Xi Yu thought that when the little cub recovered his memories, he would probably be very sad and very angry.
But it didn’t matter.
He was very good at coaxing him.
He really missed those years at the Lanxing Palace.
“Let’s leave tomorrow,” Xi Yu said.
He couldn’t wait any longer.
No matter how many dangers or mysteries awaited them inside Wutong Village, he couldn’t wait any longer.
Lu Zhixing’s fingertips turned cold, but he still nodded gently.
He looked very obedient.
As though no matter what Xi Yu asked him to do, he would do it.
“No!”
At the Luo family’s dining table, Xi Yu had just finished saying that he and Lu Zhixing were going to Wutong Village when Luo Cheng’an slammed his hand onto the table and stood up.
“It’s so dangerous there! Shen Linchuan went there once and came back seriously injured. Jiang Yunzheng was bedridden for three years! You’re not allowed to go!”
Shen Qing and Luo Yuan had originally had no idea what Wutong Village was.
They had assumed Xi Yu was simply going on a trip.
But after hearing Luo Cheng’an say this, they both looked at Xi Yu in disapproval.