The sky gradually darkened.
Lord Li Gou and his party chose not to travel at night, opting instead to stay in Prince Ning's mansion. Today was the Ghost Festival, and encountering any trouble on the road wouldn't be easy to handle.
Lord Li Gou held two thousand eight hundred taels of silver notes in his pocket, handed to him by Lord Hou Seven when they returned to the mansion.
Butler Xiao Erxian had already fled Qinghe County with his family, planning to send someone back to check the situation in the morning.
As for dispelling the blood pact? Spending a night here was the best proof of their determination to use money to get things done—or rather, their commitment to the safety of the people of Qinghe County.
Lord Hou Seven did not hide the silver notes privately. The longstanding rule of the Demon Suppression Bureau was to earn money openly; private hoarding was not allowed. Once discovered, the punishment was minor, but the real consequence was that no one would cooperate with you in the future.
He understood this principle. Moreover, the Taoist today demonstrated the Extreme Yang Thunder Method; who knows, someone in Lord Li's small team might have some sinister techniques, so Lord Hou Seven listened to their conversation with the butler carefully.
As for Nanmen Puyu, unsurprisingly, he received a beating from Lord Hou Seven and a couple of kicks when he wasn't paying attention. Well, that's what he gets for having sticky feet!
When Lord Hou Seven was beating him, not only did no one intervene, but an old man also took advantage of Nanmen's inattention to give him a couple of kicks.
In the courtyard of the royal mansion, a bonfire was already burning. Chen Xuanze went to bring back the corpse of the mysterious ox, while Wang Qingxuan confirmed that the meat was edible, with no demonic or evil energy lingering. There couldn't be any residue; it was a silver-ranked thunder technique.
If there were any lingering demonic or evil energy, wouldn't this second-ranked thunder technique be too inferior?
With a bruised face, Nanmen Puyu, upon hearing that the beef was edible, displayed his culinary skills, quickly dissecting the mysterious ox. Each person received a large piece of half-raw and half-cooked meat.
What surprised him was that there was no demon core or anything similar inside the mysterious ox. It was simply treated as being dispersed by thunder.
Wang Qingxuan had a keen eye. He brought back thin wooden sticks from the woodpile and handed them to Nanmen Puyu, who dismantled them into individual skewers and distributed them to everyone.
Everyone had a wooden skewer, onto which they impaled their portion of mysterious ox meat.
Those who had the resources rubbed some salt on it before roasting, while others just went straight to grilling. Soon, the rich aroma filled the entire courtyard.
Chewing sounds echoed around.
It had to be said that this cultivated beef was indeed delicious. The members of the Three Burials were enjoying it, their mouths filled with oil, showing no trace of a monk-like appearance.
After eating their fill and relaxing, Lord Li Gou began distributing money to everyone. Each elderly person, including Chen Xuanze, received one hundred taels, while the monks and Taoists received fifty taels each.
This is also a saying: the elderly, along with the monks and Taoists, took a total of seven hundred taels; Lord Hou Seven took two hundred taels. When he returned to the bureau, he handed in a total of two thousand one hundred taels, leaving himself with less than a hundred taels.
The monks and Taoists received a bit more than usual, far exceeding the shares given to newcomers in the past. The elderly had no objections; without these two on the mission, who knows how many lives would be lost, so the payment was reasonable. As for the newcomers, they dared not complain. In the survival stage, the monk and Taoist duo appeared to be rising stars, and they could only befriend them, not offend them.
Moreover, with these two talented individuals in their small team, the safety of future missions would greatly increase! If it weren't for concerns about the opinions of other newcomers, Lord Li Gou would have wanted to give each person a hundred taels!
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After finishing the beef and distributing the money, Daoist Wang Qingxuan approached Chen Xuanze, seeming hesitant to ask something.
Without giving him a chance, Chen Xuanze directly said, "Ask less, inquire less. What you need to know, you will know. What you don't need to know, you don't need to know. Today's information and observations will be reported separately when we return. Tell this to San Zang and keep the matter to yourself."
This was about the yellow shadow. Both of them had cultivation, and they definitely saw it. Wang Qingxuan nodded in agreement; he and San Zang were newcomers, and standing out too much was not a good thing.
Afterward, he found a room with San Zang to begin meditation and cultivation.
When the two left, Chen Xuanze cleaned up the leftover beef, including the hides, bones, and other things.
Seeing this scene, Lord Li Gou continuously praised Chen Xuanze to the newcomers, "Did you see that? Xuanze was from the previous batch of newcomers. It's with this kind of diligence that he became an official Demon Suppression Guard. You guys should learn more from Xuanze!"
He didn't mention the fact that out of 103 people, 102 died.
Newcomers are precious, and scaring them away would be a significant loss.
With no entertainment for the night, the elderly had already found rooms and were preparing to sleep. Lord Li Gou sat by the bonfire, giving lectures to the newcomers.
Ignoring Lord Li Gou, Chen Xuanze took the cleaned-up things to the green horse. He said, "Following me won't let you suffer any loss. This is the corpse of the mysterious ox. Eat it; it will help enhance your cultivation."
The green horse didn't pretend not to eat meat and began to devour it. After the green horse finished, Chen Xuanze tried to extract the demonic core from the ox.
He succeeded in one try, and a milky-white bead appeared in his hand. After scrutinizing it for a while, he threw it in front of the green horse, saying, "Eat this later. It will increase your magical power and cultivation for ten years. I'll call you Xiao Qing from now on."
He didn't say much more, turning and leaving.
The green horse wasn't stupid. With the five thunder techniques that appeared later today, even if its dad or granddad came, they would just be farting around. The treasure to enhance cultivation, he casually threw it away like garbage.
Not to mention it didn't have any ulterior motives, even if it did, it didn't now.
What's more useful than enhancing cultivation?
It didn't know that the five thunder techniques were enhanced by an array.
Chen Xuanze wasn't afraid of Xiao Qing running away. He used the full power of Shadow Travel, chasing a horse demon with a forty-year cultivation level, as easy as a walk in the park.
Back at the bonfire in the courtyard, Lord Li Gou was listening to the stories Lord Li Gou was telling to the newcomers, which was a reserved item.
Lord Li Gou didn't ask where the Daoist and the monk had gone; he entrusted them to Chen Xuanze, feeling reassured.
Taking advantage of nobody's attention, Chen Xuanze used Night Travel Technique, blending into the shadows and sneaking into a pavilion in the mansion's garden.
Canceling the spell, he jumped onto the roof with a knee raised, leaping onto the roof.
Looking up, the moon and stars were sparse.
"The moon on the fifteenth day is truly round! I wonder how it looks in Kyoto now."
After muttering to himself, he sat cross-legged, took out the Washing Essence and Marrow Fruit, and examined it for a while.
The fruit, the size of a fist, emitted a faint red light, somewhat resembling the crabapple fruit from his memories, but slightly larger.
Taking a bite, it was sweet and melted into a warm stream flowing down his throat. After finishing three or two bites, Chen Xuanze activated the Star Transmutation Nine Revolutions.
However, this time, the cultivation was accompanied by waves of pain.
The pain came from flesh, meridians, and bones.
Fortunately, the obsession with the technique made people addicted, preventing him from crying out.
In the late night, Chen Xuanze woke up.
Awakened by a foul smell.
The foul smell wafted from his body, and he couldn't bear it. He jumped off the pavilion and came to the edge of the fish pond in the garden.
Quickly, he undressed and jumped in.
In no time, he cleaned himself after being thoroughly soiled. Chen Xuanze squatted by the pool, washing his clothes inside and out with the pond water.
The fish and shrimp in the pond suffered a catastrophe and soon floated to the surface. The smell was quite strong.
Ignoring these, he hung his clothes on a tree branch in the garden. Chen Xuanze, completely naked, jumped back onto the top of the pavilion, continuing to meditate and cultivate.
After Washing Essence and Marrow, the cultivation speed was almost laughably fast—rapid, incredibly fast.
How could it not be fast? With a half-step third-rank physical body, absorbing stellar power was like robbery, fast as lightning.
The stellar power was almost forming a vortex, a sign that his technique was different from others.
Others absorbed spiritual energy, and on good occasions, they might absorb a bit of stellar power. But no one absorbed stellar power like him, as if it was food.
This was why nobody noticed the anomaly in his cultivation.
However, at this moment, Chen Xuanze was pondering. Was the rapid cultivation speed due to not wearing clothes, or was it the effect of Washing Essence and Marrow?
One night of cultivation increased his internal strength significantly.
In the quiet Qinghe County on the Ghost Festival, the sky was serene, and no supernatural events occurred.
The bright moon in the sky and the clear river on the ground complemented each other, creating a tranquil scene.
However, ninety miles away in Kyoto City, the night presented a completely different spectacle.