Upon hearing Shen Tanqi’s words, Yu Ce felt a slight sweat forming on his forehead. Just now, he had been struggling with the cobblestone path and had forgotten about Shen Tanqi’s situation. He attempted to explain, “Senior Brother, I’m sorry. I got stuck on that stretch of road just now…”
As he spoke, he suddenly felt that finishing this sentence might make Shen Tanqi angrier. He quickly freed one hand and, with some effort, reached behind Shen Tanqi’s head. After feeling a pile of packages, he reluctantly whispered, “Let me help cushion you a bit.”
Though it was a bit difficult to channel spiritual power with only one hand, it was better than having Shen Tanqi burst out of the coffin with a head full of anger.
Shen Tanqi pursed his lips, sensing the cautious tone of the other party. Even his breathing seemed restrained, which eased some of his anger.
Realizing it wasn’t intentional, Shen Tanqi let out a soft sigh and simply said, “Forget it, it’s not your fault. Focus on controlling the coffin boldly, don’t worry about me. Let’s move quickly, finish the formation, and then go find Taro Ball and the others.”
As the breath beside him slowed down, Shen Tanqi heard Yu Ce softly agreeing and felt the hand behind his head exerting a bit of force, lifting him gently.
Shen Tanqi was about to say something when the coffin immediately moved swiftly, floating in mid-air towards the city gate.
Fortunately, they didn’t encounter any Chen Gui along the way until they reached the city gate tower, indicating that the Chen Gui hadn’t spread throughout Shuoxia City yet. Perhaps what they encountered earlier was just the beginning.
Yu Ce retrieved cinnabar and a brush from his storage ring, lifted the coffin lid, and began to draw the array on the city wall with vigorous strokes. Judging by his calligraphy when writing the formation spells, Yu Ce seemed capable of writing bold and beautiful characters.
After all, he’s the male lead, so he should be formidable in every aspect.
Seeing him draw a simple array, Shen Tanqi, puzzled, asked from inside the coffin, “Don’t you need to fill the entire space?”
Yu Ce meticulously continued drawing the array while patiently explaining, “No need, the size of the array is fixed. The clinic we were at earlier was small, so I filled the space.”
Shen Tanqi nodded understandingly; it did make sense.
The array was quickly completed, and they climbed back into the coffin, resuming their previous roles with Shen Tanqi directing the way and Yu Ce managing the coffin.
According to Yu Ce, Shuoxia City had three gates. They had entered through the northern gate, which was the main entrance for pedestrians and heavily guarded. Aside from the northern gate, there were also western and southern gates, mainly for transporting goods for trade.
As for why there was no eastern gate, it was because the Shen family resided in the east. They believed in the saying ‘purple qi comes from the east,’ so they insisted on building the tallest pavilions and towers to gather the auspicious energy from the north, west, and south.
“Which way should we go first?”
The coffin faced south, with the west on the left and the east on the right.
After a moment of contemplation, Yu Ce casually replied, “Either way is fine.”
However, he didn’t really want to go east, where the Shen family resided.
Shen Tanqi didn’t mind either way. He glanced towards the east and whispered, “That’s where my family is. Maybe we can borrow their help in killing Chen Gui.”
The Shen family was the largest clan in the city, and judging from the wealth brought by Shen Fei earlier, their background was profound, and they likely had many high-level practitioners. Calling for their help would surely make killing the Chen Gui much easier.
But upon hearing Shen Tanqi’s words, Yu Ce glanced at him thoughtfully and asked, “That’s your family?”
His question was sudden and seemed random, leaving Shen Tanqi puzzled. “Isn’t it my family?”
As the original owner of the body was from the Shen family, he naturally belonged to the Shen family as well. Why would Yu Ce ask such a question?
Yu Ce pursed his lips and didn’t say anything further.
The two of them steered the coffin towards the east. It was unclear whether it was Shen Tanqi’s luck or the protagonist’s luck, but they hadn’t encountered a single Chen Gui on their journey here.
It must be the male lead’s luck, Shen Tanqi thought to himself, as he didn’t believe he had such great fortune.
As he was thinking about it, a sharp scream echoed from a nearby corner alley.
“Help! Help!”
The piercing cry soared into the sky, reverberating throughout the entire Shuoxia City.
Yu Ce hurriedly stopped the coffin, gently lifting the lid. The scream persisted relentlessly from the alley.
He instinctively glanced back at Shen Tanqi, who met his gaze.
Shen Tanqi inexplicably felt that Yu Ce, upon hearing the cries for help, resembled a hungry puppy unable to eat due to its owner’s command – eager and pleading, with eyes fixed on him.
This thought struck Shen Tanqi as oddly amusing, but the screams couldn’t be ignored, rendering him unable to laugh. He softly said, “Go.”
Yu Ce, our righteous and compassionate male lead, can’t move on when hearing cries for help.
If he were to ignore the pleas for help, it would surely drive him mad.
After hearing Shen Tanqi’s words, Yu Ce immediately rose from the coffin, ready to draw his sword and leave. However, as if suddenly remembering something, he paused and returned to Shen Tanqi’s coffin.
The moonlight was cool as water, and Shen Tanqi, with half of his head peeking out from the coffin, had eyes shining slightly, resembling a pool of spring water reflecting the moonlight. Yu Ce gazed at him intently for a moment before instructing Shen Tanqi to lie back in the coffin. He carefully sealed the edges and checked the array on the coffin for any damage. Only then did he whisper, “I’m going.”
A muffled “Hmm” came from inside the mahogany coffin.
Drawing his sword, Yu Ce’s eyes suddenly turned cold and ruthless. With his keen perception as a daemon, even without face-to-face contact, he could still detect the demonic aura emanating from the corner alley.
He took a few steps and quickly arrived at the mouth of the alley.
This was a dilapidated alley filled with the accumulated filth of the city’s residents, where rotting vegetables and foul-smelling broth littered the ground, and insects and flies swarmed, creating a nauseating stench.
Yu Ce couldn’t help but furrow his brows as his gaze fell upon the two ‘living beings’ at the end of the alley.
One had a shriveled head the size of an apple and a thin, elongated body – clearly one of the Chen Gui.
And the other…
Yu Ce looked up at the man sitting on the wall, his face smeared with tears and snot, crying uncontrollably.
He was indeed a living person, but… this man seemed somewhat familiar.
Without much time to ponder, Yu Ce swiftly drew his sword, and with a single burst of sword energy, easily eliminated the Chen Gui, separating its head from its body.
As he walked slowly to the side of the deceased Chen Gui, Yu Ce shook his head.
No, this wasn’t Chen Gui resurrected by the demons. Just a commoner assimilated into a Chen Gui for failing to answer its questions.
If it were the real one, it wouldn’t have been so easily dealt with.
“Kind sir, kind sir, save me! Take me home, and I’ll give you ten thousand taels of silver!” Yu Ce was about to turn back to Shen Tanqi’s direction when he heard the trembling voice of the man on the wall, begging him to stay.
Yu Ce furrowed his brows again. He was already worried about Shen Tanqi being alone, and now this man was being persistent. With so many people in the city, delaying even for a moment could mean the death of innocent citizens. It wasn’t possible to save everyone and send them home.
But for now, he had no choice but to rescue this man. Sitting on the wall wouldn’t do any good.
With a light tap of his toe, he leaped onto the eaves, grabbed the man’s collar, and brought him back to the ground.
Earlier, with the presence of Chen Gui, the situation was urgent, so Yu Ce didn’t dwell on why the man seemed familiar. Now that he was closer, he suddenly realized who this person was.
“It’s you?” Yu Ce’s annoyance was evident as he quickly withdrew his hand as if touching something dirty.
The man was even more shocked, his tears stopping immediately. His small, squinty eyes widened to the size of green beans. “It’s… it’s you!”
A moment later.
Shen Tanqi, lying in the coffin on the verge of sleep, was startled awake by a ray of moonlight shining over him. He slowly opened his eyes to see two figures standing before him.
Yu Ce’s expression was slightly cold, seemingly wary. This wasn’t quite the reaction he expected after rescuing someone. Behind him stood a fat man with a smile plastered on his face, nervously rubbing his hands together. He seemed eager to approach Shen Tanqi, but Yu Ce unhesitatingly blocked his path with the scabbard of his sword.
Rubbing his eyes, Shen Tanqi asked in confusion, “Who is this?”
Unexpectedly, the fat man, upon realizing that Shen Tanqi didn’t recognize him, immediately turned red-eyed. “Young Master, I am Shen Zhiguo, the 36th branch of the Shen family. I am your cousin!”
He struggled to pull back the flesh on his face, trying to make Shen Tanqi see his features clearly, but instead, he startled Shen Tanqi.
“What’s going on?” This question was clearly directed at Yu Ce.
Yu Ce retracted the scabbard, his brows still furrowed deeply. “Your cousin was forced into the alley by Chen Gui. The person who called for help earlier was him.”
Hearing them discussing himself, Shen Zhiguo was eager to push past Yu Ce and stand in front of Shen Tanqi, clinging to his leg. “Young Master, at that family banquet years ago, I sat behind you. You might not remember, as you’re a person of high status and must forget a lot of things.”
This didn’t seem like a cousin but more like the original owner’s lackey.
Shen Tanqi pondered for a moment before turning to Yu Ce. “Do you know him?” Yu Ce rarely showed such clear disdain and dissatisfaction towards someone.
If he displayed such an expression, it meant he was truly annoyed with the person.
Yu Ce was about to speak, but Shen Zhiguo quickly interjected, “Yes, yes, we know each other. I had some minor conflicts with this cultivator brother before, but after he educated me, I’ve become much more obedient now, never daring to embarrass our Shen family.”
He deliberately emphasized ‘our Shen family,’ completely oblivious to the fact that the person before him had already changed identities.
Perhaps the original owner would have some reaction upon hearing about the Shen family, even if just to boast about his own power in front of this cousin, forcing Yu Ce to bring Shen Zhiguo back home.
But Shen Tanqi wouldn’t.
He lazily propped his chin, clearly lying in the old coffin, yet his demeanor resembled that of someone lounging on a noble’s soft bed, draped in silk and velvet. Shen Tanqi yawned and straightforwardly spoke, “Guests are full, so no more are being taken. You can leave, run away, or return home as you wish.”
Conflict… Shen Tanqi recalled the only time Yu Ce mentioned having conflict with the Shen family, probably the incident where he was bullied while buying bayberry fruit in Shuoxia City.
Shen Zhiguo, from the 36th branch.
It seemed the name and branch matched.
While Yu Ce enjoyed rescuing people, he certainly did not.
Less trouble is better than more, and no trouble is better than any trouble.
Shen Tanqi preferred being a lazy fish.
He didn’t care about the desperate and shocked look from Shen Zhiguo. He waved his hand towards Yu Ce. “Come in quickly, there’s still unfinished business.”
Yu Ce stood still. He had thought Shen Tanqi might show some leniency and bring Shen Zhiguo back to the Shen family, but he hadn’t expected Shen Tanqi to refuse so directly.
It was as if…
He was only on his side.
Yu Ce’s eyes narrowed slightly, and he quickly nodded his head before entering the coffin. Suddenly, there was a loud thud.
Shen Zhiguo had knelt down stubbornly, clutching onto the edge of the coffin with snot and tears streaming down his face. “Young Master, I am your blood cousin. Please save me. Our family is not far away. Please consider it a good deed and take me there!”
Hearing this, Shen Tanqi’s breath paused, and his gaze fell on the mucus about to drip from Shen Zhiguo’s nose, afraid it might fall into the coffin.
“If you know who I am, you should know my temperament.”
His voice turned cold and stern. “I was never one to do good deeds. You’d better let go quickly, or else…”
He paused halfway through his sentence, and Shen Zhiguo’s body instantly stiffened. Thoughts of the rumors he had heard about Shen Tanqi flooded his mind. It was said that when he got angry, not only could he cripple someone on the spot, breaking their legs and damaging their meridians, but he could also strip them of their family name.
Thinking of this, he immediately released his grip as if touching scalding water, knowing Shen Tanqi was not to be trifled with. He looked tremblingly at Yu Ce beside him, “Little brother, have mercy and save me. I still have a wife, I still have a son, my son is only three years old, he can barely even call me dad…”
At the mention of the word ‘son,’ Yu Ce suddenly stopped in his tracks.
He remembered when he went to buy bayberries for Shen Tanqi, Shen Zhiguo did indeed go to buy bayberries for his wife.
It was precisely because of this that they had a minor conflict over a few baskets of bayberries. As for Shen Zhiguo’s action of later forcibly seizing goods from the common people without payment, he also received his own lesson.
Yu Ce looked at the countless lights of thousands of families in the endless dark night of Shuoxia City, thinking of his two sons, just like Shen Zhiguo’s family, both were only three years old.
With their father not at home, the son would have to face the terrifying daemons outside the door alone.
As a father, he couldn’t just sit idly by.
But before he could speak, he heard Shen Tanqi in the coffin say indifferently, “Alright, I’ll take you along.”
Yu Ce was slightly stunned, he lowered his eyes to Shen Tanqi, feeling that no matter when, his thoughts always seemed to be perceived by his senior brother, even if he hadn’t said anything.
Shen Zhiguo was moved to tears again, but fearing to be discovered by the Chen Gui’s, he forced himself to hold back, tightly biting his plump lower lip, extremely grateful, “Thank you cousin, thank you cousin, my whole family thanks you!”
Shen Tanqi said, “…But, I have a request.”
Hearing this, Shen Zhiguo trembled, without hesitation he agreed, “Cousin, you name it.” Shen Tanqi pointed to the dilapidated alley and said, “Find a box big enough for you, then find a rope. We’ll tie you behind, set up a formation, and no one will notice your presence.”
Shen Zhiguo saw a glimmer of hope and nodded desperately. Just as he was about to rush into the alley to find a box, he suddenly seemed to remember something and said, “By the way, young master, actually I saw two ghosts just now, one was the one the little brother just killed, and the other was…”
Mentioning that ghost, he suddenly shuddered, lowering his voice, “It’s a plague ghost covered in red rashes all over.”
As soon as the words ‘plague ghost’ were uttered, both Shen Tanqi and Yu Ce slightly widened their eyes. “Where did you see it?”
According to the beggar, the real Chen Gui failed to seek help for the plague, and eventually succumbed to the disease, being strangled to death by a butcher.
“I…I was in a hurry at the time, just glanced at it. That plague ghost was terrifying, with immense strength.”
Shen Tanqi lowered his eyes, carefully thinking about the formation, and said, “Let’s forget about it then.” When the array is completed, sooner or later they would encounter it, but at least now they knew what the real Chen Gui looked like.
After a while, Shen Zhiguo squeezed himself into a garbage can. The box looked like a fence used for raising pigs or dogs, with a wooden board at the bottom, making it a makeshift ancient garbage can.
Shen Tanqi looked at Yu Ce and chuckled softly, “Do you think he’ll pass out in this box?”
Yu Ce didn’t understand what he meant by ‘pass out,’ but after a moment’s pause, he quickly grasped the implication from the word, and chuckled softly, “Even if he doesn’t pass out, he’ll probably bump his head a few times.”
The formation covered all six sides of the garbage can, filled with cinnabar. Yu Ce frowned throughout the process, holding the brush far away to complete the drawing.
They lay in the coffin, and Shen Zhiguo hid in the garbage can.
Along the way, Yu Ce indeed displayed his superb ‘drift technique.’
Hello, everyone ヾ(＾∇＾). I hope you enjoyed the story! If you’re feeling generous, please buy me a coffee, share/comment on my translated works! Check out the link below for early chapters. (๑>ᴗ<๑)
