Chapter 218

Chapter 218: Collecting Nine Infant Boys’ Souls

Li Rou’s face turned even paler, but she knew that if she wanted to be a proper maid, she had to obey without question. Her Miss was a mystic arts practitioner, and things like this would happen again. She couldn’t keep acting timid and end up embarrassing her Miss or dragging her down. She gritted her teeth and held back her fear: “I understand.”

Constable Song couldn’t stand it and said: “Official Yu, Miss Li isn’t like us. She’s an ordinary person. It’s normal if she can’t look at a corpse, so why force her?”

Yu Zhi Yi did not answer that and said: “Come on, let’s go in and take a look.”

Constable Song’s face turned dark for a moment, then he quickly went back to his serious, steady look.

Inside the morgue, Yu Zhi Yi walked a full circle and examined each body with care. Constable Song grew anxious and said: “Well? Official Yu, did you notice anything?”

Yu Zhi Yi looked at him with surprise and said: “Since when did you become so impatient, Constable Song? Last time you weren’t this rash.”

Constable Song’s eyes flickered, then he put on a bitter face and explained: “Official Yu, you wouldn’t know. My son is about to marry. If we don’t catch this cruel killer soon, I’m afraid my future daughter-in-law will be in danger.”

This made sense.

Yu Zhi Yi nodded and said: “Let’s go back.”

Constable Song froze and said: “Back already? You’re not going to keep investigating?”

Yu Zhi Yi stretched lazily and said: “It’s too late. Women shouldn’t stay up; it makes the skin rough.”

Constable Song’s mouth twitched.

She added: “Oh, right. Tomorrow morning bring me the birth dates and eight characters of all the victims.”

“Alright.”

They returned to Yiluan Charity by sedan chair. Before Constable Song and the others could leave, Yu Zhi Yi turned and went straight into the shop, showing no interest in polite small talk.

Outside Yiluan Charity, dark clouds covered the moon. Constable Song and his men melted into the shadows, and even the shapes under their feet looked a bit twisted.

Red Luan had already come back. She wanted to tell Yu Zhi Yi what had happened that day, but Yu Zhi Yi waved her off and said: “I have something to do. Tell me in a couple of days.”

Red Luan blinked and said: “Is it something tricky?”

Yu Zhi Yi nodded and said: “A bit, but it’s not a big problem.”

After thinking, she took a jade token from her robe, pressed it into Red Luan’s hand, and said: “This is an Attack Jade Talisman. It holds three bolts of thunder power, a bane to all evil things. If you face an inhuman attack, don’t hesitate. Hold the talisman before you and shout one word, ‘Burst.’ That will trigger its force.”

Red Luan’s easy smile turned serious.

She could feel her friend had run into real trouble.

She couldn’t help much, so she only nodded and said: “I’ll remember.”

Yu Zhi Yi added: “Until I solve this, do not leave the city, and don’t stroll the streets. If you can, take some time off.”

She wasn’t being overly cautious. The person behind the scenes was stronger than she had first thought. It wasn’t that she couldn’t fight them. She just couldn’t crush them. That feeling of not standing above the enemy made her uneasy. She didn’t worry about herself. She worried that person would attack those around her.

These days she had been tempering her body with spiritual energy, but she hadn’t raised her cultivation base. Now it seemed she had to.

In her past life she hadn’t met this many cultivators before she died. After being reborn for less than a year, she had already met the senior first disciple of Dragon-Tiger Mountain and even two demonic cultivators. Urgency rose in her heart. In her last life, pride had blinded her. She thought she was the strongest mystic arts master in the world. Now she saw there is always someone stronger and a higher sky above. Leaving others aside, that demonic cultivator alone could bring her big trouble. It wasn’t that he could hurt her. It was that he could hurt the people around her, even the innocent.

That night, Yu Zhi Yi sat cross-legged on her bed to meditate. Unlike before, when she only used spiritual energy to temper her body and widen her meridians, today she drew on the golden merit light she had stored. She had saved up dozens of strands earlier but never used them. After returning from Cao South Village, she sent Cao Zhao Di to reincarnate, captured several vengeful ghosts of the Cao Clan, and took Cao Yao Zu into custody. Later there was Li Qing Miao, and then all the people Yiluan Charity had helped in these days. By now, she had over a hundred fine strands of merit light.

Normally she hid them inside her body so no one could sense them. Now, when she released them, from the outside she looked like a shining Buddha wrapped in gold. Yu Zhi Yi closed her eyes, drew out the light strand by strand, refined it into spiritual energy, and guided it slowly into her dantian.

…

Imperial Palace.

Consort Yu looked at the old woman before her. She was still a bit afraid, but excitement clearly won out and she said: “Master, is this really foolproof?”

“Rest easy,” the old woman rasped, staring at the tiny souls floating before her with full confidence, and said: “As long as we gather nine baby boy souls and refine them into alchemy pills, once Your Highness swallows them, the female traits of the child in your womb will fade. It will turn back into a boy.”

Consort Yu’s eyes lit up and she said: “Thank you, Master. When I give birth to a prince, I will make sure to reward you well!”

She was due in March next year. There were still a few months, and she would take good care of the baby. Once the prince was born, His Majesty’s favor and power would return to her hands.

The old woman saw the greed in Consort Yu’s eyes and let a mocking smile slip across her cold gaze. [Foolish woman.]

She hadn’t killed the dead spirit herself, but he had come to the Capital City because of her mission. As the spark that led to his death, how could she possibly let this woman go? Alchemy pills that could erase a fetus’s female traits were nothing but a lie to fool her.

What she really wanted was…

Suddenly, she stopped and looked toward the distant sky in shock. The clear night sky turned wild. Wind rose and clouds rolled. Purple bolts of electricity hid behind the clouds, mysterious and terrifying.

The old woman was shaken and said: “Someone actually formed Foundation Establishment?”

In the Great Sheng Empire there were not many cultivators; most hovered forever at early-stage Qi Refining. The lucky few might scrape into mid-stage. In all her years of cultivation, she had seen fewer than ten late-stage cultivators. Each was the pride of a great sect or a top elder of a small sect. A person in the Foundation Establishment Realm stood at the very tip of the pyramid in the Great Sheng Empire. Such people were the auspicious guardians of their sects. Why would one appear here?