Demoness, where are you Fleeing to?
Chapter 306 - 260: Thrilling and Exciting_1

Chapter 306: Chapter 260: Thrilling and Exciting_1

Qiu Qianqiu’s response came faster than Li Xuan had anticipated.

The three of them had only just arrived at the door of Zhuque Hall when the deputy director’s talisman paper had reached them.

He was currently participating in the grand ceremony at Xiao Mausoleum with the Fumo Zongguan, but despite his busy schedule, Qiu Qianqiu made a special arrangement to respond to Li Xuan’s request promptly.

By the time Li Xuan got to the Zhenyao Tower, he had already appreciated his Uncle Qiu’s goodwill.

Due to the busy schedules of many bureaucrats including the Zhonglangjiang and Xiaowei in recent days, a group of Six Paths Bureau Colonels were also occupied with their official duties. There was a long line of people waiting outside the Zhenyao Tower, intending to interrogate the convicts.

The Six Paths Bureau Colonel Youjiao could only watch with envy as Li Xuan was escorted in by a slay demons Youjiao.

Li Xuan’s face was strange, because the person in charge of accompanying him to see the Evil Corpse was none other than Lei Yun, the former commander of Huoya City.

The latter was munching on a slab of stone while explaining to them, "This Evil Corpse was previously incarcerated in the seventeenth house level. It nearly escaped during the tower anomaly caused by Zhenhun Pillar. The quick recovery of the Zhenwu Fengmo Array prevented a disaster. We discovered that Sima Tianyuan had meddled with the coffin, probably intending to release the corpse.

In the end, perhaps due to being on a higher level or finding it troublesome, he did not continue to destroy the seal. Nonetheless, after the incident, we added twelve half-millennium-old peachwood nails to the seal and moved the corpse to the twenty-fourth level."

As he said this, he glanced at Li Xuan’s trio with an expressionless face, "If you want to laugh, just laugh, it’s not the first time we’ve experienced this."

Xue Yunrou had never seen Lei Yun’s wild and arrogant side before and felt indifferent, but Li Xuan and Yue Qianqian could no longer control their facial expressions, they both burst into laughter. Then they chuckled uncontrollably, guffawing and laughing till their sides hurt, unable to stop for a long while.

"You guys are exaggerating!" Lei Yun saw Li Xuan laughing uncontrollably, banging the wall, looking unable to walk, and huffed, "Is it just because I was demoted due to my mistakes? I bet I can climb back up in no more than a year!"

Li Xuan thought to himself that it was not what he was laughing at. However, he regained his composure soon after. "Have you been transferred to the Chastisement division at the Zhenyao Tower? There aren’t many achievements to be earned here."

"Temporary." Lei Yun continued to gnaw at his stone, looking unsatisfied, "The director said to let me work in the Zhenyao Tower for half a year without receiving a salary to redeem my past mistakes. After six months, I can start working abroad."

Yue Qianqian curiously asked, "Lei Xiaowei why are you still eating stones, and why are you not marinating them anymore?"

"I’m still eating them because I haven’t finished. As for marinating—" Lei Yun glanced at the stone in his hand, his expression filled with sorrow, "No one is doing that for me anymore."

Li Xuan ’tsked’, "You could ask someone to help you. Isn’t the director sending you to the Zhenyao Tower like dropping a mouse into a rice bin?"

"Sir Colonel, you don’t know." Yue Qianqian shook her head, "Gongsun Xue has been demoted to Youjiao and reassigned to a foreign post."

At this news, Li Xuan’s cheeks puffed out and he chuckled again. This time, he genuinely felt some sympathy for Lei Yun.

While they were talking, the twenty-fourth level of the Zhenyao Tower lay before them. Lei Yun effortlessly guided them to a cell named, ’Dizi No.27’.

The cell spanned about a dozen meters square, and in the center, a blood-red coffin was laid, surrounded by numerous chains.

These chains, full of vermilion runes, stretched out from a hole in the wall of the inner chamber. They connected to the Zhenhun Pillar, and every kind of demon, ghost and goblin could not escape the suppression of the Zhenhun Pillar.

"Wait here—" Lei Yun casually opened the cell door and started to unfasten the chains. He then sent the nails locking the coffin flying.

From inside the coffin, dull roars began to resonate, like the howls of a wild beast, mixed with the creaking sound of metal scraping against metal - an eerie noise. Moreover, a malicious black aura was continuously leaking out.

Yue Qianqian, being timid, silently hid behind Li Xuan. However, Li Xuan and Xue Yunrou remained as collected as ever. With the present two third-door stage giants here, why would they fear an Evil Corpse within the confines of the Zhenyao Tower?

Equipped with the power of Fumo Vajra, Li Xuan himself was capable enough to face many third-door opponents head-on.

And just when Lei Yun opened the coffin, a large amount of substantial black fog immediately gushed out. They coalesced into the shape of a ferocious beast ’Taowu’ lunging towards Yue Qianqian.

’Fumo Vajra’ had preemptively moved to intercept it, delivering a punch infused with thunderous lightning, reducing the black fog to smithereens in an instant.

However, Yue Qianqian was startled by the sight inside the coffin - a hideous-looking Evil Corpse groaned fiercely at them.

The skin exposed outside looked like the bark of a thousand-year-old tree, full of patches and wrinkles. In many places, a dark pus oozed out.

"Stop howling! Behave yourself!" Lei Yun picked up his waist knife and spanked the coffin a few times. When the howling of the Evil Corpse subsided, he jabbed the knife into the corpse’s brow, rendering it immobile.

"It’s safe to proceed. You have nothing to worry about, not with me here. Do you really think this Evil Corpse could escape from its coffin under my watch?"

His gaze slid toward Yue Qianqian, who was peeking around from behind Li Xuan, and curiously asked: "What are you guys looking at this thing for, anyway? We’ve seen plenty of evil corpses in the tenth house level."

Li Xuan watched Lei Yun’s casual handling of the corpse with a slight twitch of his lips. This was an Undead King’s existence after all, and Lei Yun’s treatment stripped it of all dignity.

He then turned his inquiring gaze to Xue Yunrou and Yue Qianqian. The latter began to use the ’Shenyanguan’ whilst Xue Yunrou’s eyes bore a flicker of mystic light.

After a moment, Xue Yunrou’s eyebrows knitted slightly: "Something is not right! It’s not this Evil Corpse. There is no dragon qi within it at all."

Yue Qianqian nodded thoughtfully in agreement: "Indeed, it’s not this one. Although the altar on Jiangjun Mountain was not entirely successful due to the shattered Thunder Meteorite, theoretically, they should’ve already extracted a portion of Dragon Qi through the earth veins."

"Dragon Qi?" Lei Yun looked confused, "What are you folks talking about?"

"Yunrou and others have restored the altar on Jiangjun Mountain, and they believe that its purpose, aside from corpse refining, is to extract Dragon Qi. Moreover, it was supposed to have effects related to ’Cosmic Swap’ and ’Reversing the Universe’."

Considering that Lei Yun was one of the organizers behind the blood sacrifice on Jiangjun Mountain, Li Xuan did not conceal anything. Simultaneously, his eyes also revealed signs of confusion.

It struck Li Xuan odd that his Guardian Spirit, the Red Dress, hadn’t reacted to the Evil Corpse inside the blood coffin.

"If it’s not this Evil Corpse, then where is the one they used in the blood sacrifice on Jiangjun Mountain?"

"It reminds me that Xiaowei Jiang had doubts too, and the Spellcasters justified that the Evil Corpse’s aura was changed due to the infusion of Tengshe’s blood."

Lei Yun stroked his chin, a hint of intrigue evident in his eyes: "This is interesting. They’ve gone as far as using such exalted Undead King as a decoy to deviate our attention. The remnants of the Jianling, they are planning something big, indeed."

Li Xuan continued questioning Xue Yunrou: "If the Evil Corpse continues to be refined, what will happen? I mean, such a large-scale spell should manifest some sort of omen, shouldn’t it? Or does it need to be performed at a particular location?"

Xue Yunrou fell into thoughtful silence while Yue Qianqian’s pupils sparkled with brilliant insight: "I know this one! Three thousand years ago, during the Southern Dynasty, in the third year of the Taiqing era under Emperor Wu of Liang, the Great General Hou Dong had extracted the Dragon Qi of Southern Liang to refine a Drought Demon in Jiankang."

"Back then, Jiankang experienced a series of earthquakes, the strongest of which ruined the palace and the external city wall of Jianye. For two years afterward, there was a drought that turned a huge expanse of land in Jiangnan barren."

"Earthquakes?"

Both Li Xuan and Lei Yun exchanged glances, shock reflected in their eyes.

Xue Yunrou seemed equally surprised. She knew about the large earthquake in the ’Taiqing third year’ in Nanjing City, known as ’Jiankang’ back then, but was unaware of its association with Drought Demon refining.

Li Xuan felt chills run down his spine as he immediately thought of the grand ceremony at the Xiao Mausoleum that day. Had the remnants of Jianling targeted Xiao Mausoleum not for the second prince, but for this Drought Demon?

Or was this another diversion, a case of deceiving the east by making a noise in the west?

"So, where within Nanjing City would be suitable for refining the Drought Demon? Could it be the Xiao Mausoleum?"

"Not possible, Xiao Mausoleum is the source of the Dragon Vein of the Jin Dynasty. Even an Undead King would be instantly crushed by the Dragon Qi once put in there."

Yue Qianqian shook her head, her face grave: "Currently, within and outside Nanjing City, apart from Jiangjun Mountain, there are thirteen Dragon Vein branches they could possibly exploit to steal the Dragon Qi. Let me map them out for you."

She reached for a dagger and began to sketch on the ground.

However, before she could finish drawing, Li Xuan turned abruptly and walked toward the exterior of the building: "Xiaowei Lei, where is Sima Tianyuan held captive currently? I need to see him now. Qianqian, send a flying spell to Fumo Zongguan and vice lord Qiu, tell them everything and remind them to be very cautious."

Lei Yun seemed hesitant. Yet after a moment’s deliberation, he followed along: "Come with me, he’s currently held on the thirteenth floor of the Zhenyao Tower."

Sima Tianyuan was not only a major offender in the Six Paths Bureau but was also one of The Court’s wanted criminals. Under normal circumstances, Li Xuan would need to file an application and get permission before interrogating him.

However, in light of the urgency of the situation, Lei Yun decided to act without official sanction.

Even if he would be admonished afterwards, Lei Yun could not care less. Having already been demoted to Youjiao, how much lower could they demote him anyway?

The two men even used transposition spells in the Zhenyao Tower. In just a moment, they arrived outside a cell on the thirteenth floor.

Lei Yun didn’t have the key to this cell. He didn’t bother to ask for it from the prison head overseeing the thirteenth floor and directly broke open the iron lock.

Inside the cell, a disheveled Sima Tianyuan lifted his head. His chilly, puzzled gaze was fixed on the two men outside the door.