Demoness, where are you Fleeing to?
Chapter 303 - 257 Tiger of Jinling_1

Chapter 303: Chapter 257 Tiger of Jinling_1

When Li Xuan and Jiang Hanyun arrived at the Jiang’s mansion, they found that the atmosphere there was somewhat tense.

Princess Changle was sitting at the head of the table, speaking in a gentle voice and smiling happily as she chatted with Lady Jiang. The latter only responded with fake smiles, just barely getting by in the conversation.

Vice Master Zhang Yingyuan from the Liudao Division was discussing, under the title of his division, with Jiang Yunqi about the recent uprisings of turtles and alligators in the upper and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. But the threat of terrestrial monsters was much smaller than that of the water demons, so Vice Master Zhang didn’t put them much into his mind.

Even though Jiang Yunqi tried to hide his impatience, the tea cup he held couldn’t drive people away. He had no choice but to chat indifferently with Zhang Yingyuan.

Xue Yunrou was the only one sitting at the lower end of the hall, staring eagerly at the entrance.

When Li Xuan entered with Jiang Hanyun, her eyes lit up instantly. Her whole being brightened as if she had seen the light.

At this moment, something unusual flashed in Princess Changle’s eyes. She stared at Li Xuan as if trying to know him all over again, a satisfied expression on her face. "Finally, I met the person. Li Qianzhi, Liudao Division protector, unhindered versifier, the Tiger of Jinling."

Li Xuan wondered if his nickname had changed again? It used to be the Tiger of Mingyou, but now it’s prefixed with Jinling.

While he was thinking, he paid his respects to the princess seated above. "Your Highness flatters me, I can’t live up to your praise as the unmatched poetic talent."

Copying others’ works would be more appropriate. He felt that his path of imitating others’ works was comparable to those predecessors before the transmigration!

Princess Changle shook her head, "Duwei Li, why do you need to underestimate yourself? Your battle with Li Zhetian outside the Guozi Bureau has shaken Jiangnan. Your ten famous poems are copying throughout the city. Now not only the literati and scholars in the city are discussing about you, even among the ladies, your name is the most talkative.

They are talking about ’I will mount a long wind some day and break the heavy waves, and set my cloudy sail straight and bridge the deep, deep sea’, ’Rise to the Sky.’ and ’Looking for you on my own a thousand times, looking back around, you were there in the dim light.’ They all think that the Tiger of Jinling, you, must be a gallant man, with amazing vision, and soft as water. They said that if they could meet you by the Xuanwu Lake at twilight, they would be willing to be unwed for life."

Lady Jiang frowned slightly, and the handkerchief held tightly in her hands had been wrung into a twist by her.

She had heard about the movements of the backyards of the noble official families in Jinling City. These two days the value of Li Xuan had risen so fast that the matchmakers were almost breaking the doorstep of Earl Chengyi’s mansion.

If she didn’t bring Li Xuan back to Jiang’s mansion ahead of time, who knows what would’ve happened by now?

Li Xuan, however, was deep in thought. A rendezvous at Xuanwu Lake at dusk? And no responsibility? That’s certainly possible.

"--Even I was shocked by you. I never thought that Duwei Li had such poetic talent when we first met. Now many people say it’s a pity that you didn’t study and take the right path of Neo-Confucianism."

Princess Changle covered her lips and laughed, glancing at Xue Yunrou: "If it weren’t for you, Li, who already had her heart set on someone else, I would have added your name to the list of prospective sons-in-law for my clan house that was submitted to me."

Xue Yunrou glared at Princess Changle angrily upon hearing this.

Li Xuan, however, had successfully suppressed his unruly thoughts: "Your Highness’s words really make me ashamed, I feel extremely embarrassed."

"A person who could write a poem like ’Born as a hero and die as a daunting ghost’ would not be so thin-skinned."

Princess Changle casually placed a dozen or so scrolls on the desk next to her: "Enough with the nonsense, these are for you to sign or stamp, left by my good friend. I’ll collect them later, otherwise I won’t give up."

Then she looked at Lady Jiang, "I’ve heard that the landscaping of your Jiang’s garden is among the top ten in Jinling, and I’ve always been looking forward to it. Would you please accompany me to take a look?"

Lady Jiang’s face froze, thinking what garden landscaping do they have? They have very limited space in their home, not even one-tenth of the space in Earl Chengyi’s mansion, and can’t create any decent garden landscape.

Even the only garden they had, had been flattened by Jiang Yunqi and his daughter and turned into a part of the training ground.

But since the princess had said so, Lady Jiang had to get up and accompany her reluctantly. She starred at her niece with her eye, thinking that Yunrou, the girl, had really made progress and was on a high level of Tao.

Meanwhile, across from Lady Jiang, Zhang Yingyuan stood up, "Jiang, it’s not convenient to talk here. Why don’t you and I go to your study room to talk? You come here too, Hanyun."

Jiang Yunqi sneered silently, thinking that if he could make me go to the study room today, then I lost.

Once they were out of the princess’s sight, it would be his time to kick people out. Did he really care about those incense gift?

Jiang Hanyun thought, what does it have to do with me? At most, she would hide far away when Li Xuan and Yunrou have a private meeting later, so as not to get in the way.

But in the next moment, they heard Zhang Yingyuan stroking his long beard, "Recently, Yunrou found a secret technique from our Longhu Mountain’s Taoist collection in some old paper pile, which may delay Hanyun’s demonization period. She has already shown me that this technique is effective and can delay for about two years. Based on this, we may make some improvements. As long as we have five years, Hanyun will have hope to enter the fourth gate and achieve the mind of Yang."

"Really?"

Jiang Yunqi first asked in surprise, and then he looked at Xue Yunrou with complex eyes.

He knew that the Taoist collection of Longhu Mountain could not contain less than a million volumes, and Xue Yunrou’s ability to find this secret technique among them was not a spur-of-the-moment action.

When Zhang Yingyuan left with his father and daughter, Li Xuan and Xue Yunrou looked at each other and then walked out in an unspoken agreement.

When they walked into a corner of the Jiang mansion, Xue Yunrou just pounced on him and held Li Xuan tight with one arm.

It seemed like she used all her strength, making Li Xuan’s face change color as he felt his ribs creak again.

"Yunrou, be gentle, be gentle! Your man is going to die in your hands."

Although he had made good progress in body refinement recently, he was still not a match for Xue Yunrou’s power at the seventh house level—even though she was just a spell cultivator at that level.

This child... hadn’t seen him in just two days, yet she behaved as if they were separated for three autumns?

"You don’t know how unreasonable my aunt has been! I came early yesterday, but she’d closed all the doors and wouldn’t let me in."

Xue Yunrou spoke angrily, but then noticed that Li Xuan’s face was changing colors. Startled, she quickly let go of her slender arm, then helped Li Xuan catch his breath by gently patting his chest.

Only after a long time, did Li Xuan laugh bitterly: "That’s quite enough of you. To meet, you used such a big fuss and even invited the princess. I may need to stay for three months in the Jiang mansion, but it doesn’t mean that I can’t go out. According to Uncle Jiang’s prescription, I can go out in at most two days."

"I just missed you so much, I was going crazy."

Xue Yunrou strongly hugged Li Xuan’s waist again, finally remembering that her sweetheart was a fragile man who must be handled with care.

"That night at the Guozi Bureau, I had so much to say to you that I couldn’t even wait a day. I figured my aunt wouldn’t allow me to meet you, so I had to invite them."

Li Xuan just shook his head with a wry smile, "That Princess and Vice Master Zhang, they were willing to go along with your mischief."

"Of course they weren’t." Xue Yunrou chuckled. "So, I owe the Princess a favor. As for my uncle, he’s totally messed up—"

As she talked, she took out several sheets of paper rangling them in front of Li Xuan: "For this matter, I’ll have to work for him for at least two months."

"What’s this?" Li Xuan felt a sense of familiarity looking at the patterns drawn on the paper, "Seems like design layouts of an altar?"

"Exactly, it’s an altar! The one used in the blood sacrifice case on Jiangjun Mountain, sacrificing 900 infants. My uncle dumped the whole extrapolation onto me. He hasn’t even finished half, and the following part is the most difficult."

Xue Yunrou pouted: "How black-hearted can he be?"

However, Li Xuan grabbed the paper and examined it carefully while recalling the images he had seen through residual memories few months ago on Jiangjun Mountain.

Then he took out a pen from the Sumi Ring and began to mark on the paper.

—Thanks to the students from Guozi Bureau, he now had a plethora of pens.

"No! These parts are all wrong. Vice Master Zhang’s calculations are incorrect."

Li Xuan took out a blank sheet of paper, recalling the runes he had observed drawn on the altar, marked each one on the paper: "This altar has three layers, and the runes on it should look like this. Also, the Thunder Meteorite that exploded should be placed in this position."

Due to the blurred vision and limited field of view, the runes he saw back then were very limited, just over a hundred, but each was deeply imprinted in his memory.

However, Xue Yunrou looked at him in confusion: "But how do you know, Xuan? Did you know that in terms of ability in array formations, my uncle is among the top ten in the whole Jin Dynasty."

Li Xuan asserted, looking at the Xue Yunrou with an utmost seriousness about him: "I just know! I won’t tell you the specific reasons. If it’s possible, I hope Yunrou, you can help me restore the entire array as soon as possible, based on the runes I drew. The faster, the better."

He considered then added: "If you think it’s too much to handle alone, you can ask Qianqian for help, she also has some achievements in array formations."

Xue Yunrou felt the weight in Li Xuan’s words, her expression slightly serious": "I will try my best! With the runes you’ve drawn, it should be much easier to extrapolate. But can we not talk about this for now?"

She casually packed up the paper that Li Xuan had drawn, and looked at Li Xuan passionately: "Do you know, Xuan, that the Knife Demon Li Zhetian, is the one who murdered my father?"

Only then did Li Xuan understand and connect the dots, realising the origin behind Xue Yunrou’s erratic feelings.