Is he dreaming?
Mu Nanzhi scrutinised him carefully. After a while, seeing that nothing bad had happened, she let out a sigh of relief.
“You little rascal, you little rascal…”
She reached out and rapped Xu Qi’an on the scalp several times, inwardly delighted.
The princess consort quietly vented her dissatisfaction at being neglected along the way. Although this fellow had treated her fairly well, except for the few times they had to sleep rough in the wilderness, most of the time they stayed at the best inns and ate the finest food;
But surely he was being a little too respectful and distant.
Apart from that occasion with Sun Xuanji when he had gone a little “overboard”, usually the most he would do was hold her little hand. Even if she had changed her appearance, she was still the Great Feng’s number-one beauty. Was she really so unattractive?
“You hit Silver Gong Xu!”
The little white fox poked its tiny head out from under the covers, its jet-black eyes fixed on Mu Nanzhi, like a child who had just discovered a great secret. In a sweet voice, it said,
“I’m going to tell him!”
Mu Nanzhi rolled her eyes. “Well, you can come and hit him too, I’m saying nothing.”
The little white fox cocked its head, thought for a moment, then said, “Alright!”
It quickly crawled out of the warm bed, leapt down, and came over to the small couch, trying hard to jump up.
“Ah!”
It failed to get onto the couch, its little belly bumping into the edge.
“Useless thing, yet you claim you can run thousands of miles in a day?”
Mu Nanzhi curled her lip and picked it up onto the bed.
“Stealth and speed are my innate magical powers, but they drain a lot of magic, and I’m still little, I’ve not got much strength…”
As it spoke, it climbed onto Xu Qi’an, its front paws swinging left and right, slapping his cheeks with soft little blows, scolding him as it hit:
“For sleeping with Sister Yeji without paying, for sleeping with Sister Yeji without paying!”
Though the blows weren’t strong, its momentum was fierce.
When it finished, Mu Nanzhi picked up the little white fox with a grin and said, “Tell auntie, what do you mean by sleeping with Sister Yeji without paying?”
She only knew that Yeji was the little white fox’s sister and Xu Qi’an’s old flame.
…
In the cellar, Xu Qi’an, feeling as if he had come home, endured the acrid stench. It was painful, yet he was quite content.
He followed the trail of corpses with their head coverings removed, moving quietly with an arched back, until he saw that walking corpse. “He” kept uncovering bodies’ head coverings, as if searching for something.
Who is he? Or rather, who is controlling him from behind the scenes?
With this doubt in mind, Xu Qi’an kept his patience and waited quietly.
Time slipped by. After half an hour, the corpse had checked all the bodies and then entered a small side door.
A cellar within a cellar?
A smoky yellow glow shone from oil lamps on the walls. Just as Xu Qi’an was wondering whether to go in, “he” came out, gently closed the door behind him and turned to retrace his steps.
He’s leaving… Ginger Cat An didn’t hesitate for a moment and immediately withdrew.
It left the cellar ahead of the walking corpse, leapt out of the courtyard, and hid beside the greenery outside.
Not long after, a shadow shot straight out of the courtyard and landed with a “thud”.
After that, “he” silently snuck towards Chai Xing’er’s residence, eavesdropped for a moment on the passionate commotion inside the courtyard, and then left without the slightest hesitation.
This person was extremely familiar with Chai Manor, skillfully avoiding the night patrols of the household, and left the estate without incident.
Throughout, Xu Qi’an followed “him” closely.
In the cold night, the walking corpse moved incredibly fast, darting through alleys and streets while avoiding the patrolling city guards. This was not difficult, for in a county town like Xiangzhou, patrols were lax.
It could not be as strict as the capital.
However, because Chai Xian had been going around killing people recently, the authorities had tightened security, the city gates were closed after dusk.
Ginger Cat An followed the walking corpse, twisting and turning, until finally they arrived at a small river.
Splash…
With a crisp sound, the walking corpse leapt neatly into the water and vanished from sight.
Did he discover me? No, a corpse being controlled couldn’t possess the abilities of its living body, unless the corpse itself was at the Refining Spirit stage, but in that case, he would have noticed me much sooner…
An stared along the river towards the imposing city walls in the distance, suddenly understanding the other party’s plan.
“He” intended to go underwater, following the river to escape from the city.
The ginger cat sprinted along the riverbank, only diving into the river when it neared the city walls.
It did so because a cat simply didn’t have the stamina to swim hundreds of metres, and it also needed to consider continuing the pursuit afterwards.
The river was icy cold and so muddy it was impossible to see. The ginger cat paddled along the bottom, managed to pass beneath the city wall, and emerged outside the city.
On the dark water, ripples spread, and the ginger cat swam hard to the shore.
Normally, city rivers like these had iron grilles along the bottom, but not always, after all, in this era, the populace had very little sense of hygiene and threw all sorts of rubbish into the water.
It was easy to cause blockages.
So whether iron grilles were installed depended on the diligence of the local authorities.
Once ashore, Ginger Cat An lifted his head a little, sniffed, catching a faint whiff of corpse stench.
He shot out like an arrow and, before long, spotted the walking corpse under the pale moonlight.
“Man” and cat kept a safe distance, travelling for about an hour. Along the way Xu Qi’an stopped several times to rest and regain his strength.
That was the nature of cats: tremendous speed, but poor stamina.
The long chase had worn the ginger cat out.
If it had been a dog, Xu Qi’an reckoned it could follow him until the end of time.
They crossed field ridges, dense woods, wilderness, and finally a small village appeared up ahead, silent and dark.
To maintain control over a walking corpse for this far, the controller must be quite skilled… As a corpse Gu expert himself, Xu Qi’an thought to himself.
At least he did not possess that ability for now.
The walking corpse, clearly familiar with the way, followed a muddy path to the gate of a household, where there were two tall haystacks in the courtyard.
The corpse raised its hand and knocked gently on the door.
The door of the clay house opened, and someone came bouncing out holding a lantern. The figure was short, seemingly a child.
The child opened the courtyard gate, welcomed the corpse inside, closed the gate again, and returned to the house.
Then, a flicker of firelight appeared from a small window.
“Uncle Xian, did you find Sister Xiao Lan?”
The voice was soft, clear, and belonged to a girl.
“No.”
A weary voice replied.
The ginger cat immediately leapt onto the wall and squatted in the courtyard to eavesdrop.
“What should we do, then? It’s infuriating. Who on earth is framing Uncle Xian?” The young girl spoke with indignation.
That voice did not answer. After a while, it sounded even more tired: “I don’t know. It’s getting late, Erya, go to sleep soon.”
“Alright!”
The girl replied, then the candle went out, and all was silent.
Uncle Xian, Sister Xiao Lan, the walking corpse who broke into the Chai manor… it’s Chai Xian!
Ginger Cat An made the judgement immediately.
…
In Xiangzhou city, at the inn, Xu Qi’an opened his eyes.
He sat up abruptly, startling Mu Nanzhi and the little white fox, who had been whispering to each other under the covers.
“Did you two just hit me?”
Xu Qi’an said angrily.
“It was her (it)!”
Mu Nanzhi and the little white fox shifted the blame at the same time.
“I’ll deal with you both later.”
Xu Qi’an grumbled, then said in a low voice, “I’m going out for a bit, you two go ahead and sleep.”
Mu Nanzhi could not be bothered to ask. She reached out to stroke the little white fox’s head. With this little thing for company, she felt far less afraid.
Xu Qi’an turned into a shadow and left.
…
In the small village, Ginger Cat An was about to slip away to wait for his main body’s arrival.
“My friend, since you are a guest, why rush off so soon?”
As the words fell, Ginger Cat An heard a sound from the haystacks. Four figures crawled out from within.
In the hazy moonlight, the four people were in tattered clothing, expressionless, filled with lifelessness. Their dead eyes fixed on the ginger cat with an eerie glow.
I’ve been discovered… Maybe if I act cute I can get away with it… he thought, and spoke in human language with a light chuckle:
“Chai Xian?”
The clay house door opened. A man in common clothing walked out holding a lantern.
He had delicate features, about one metre eighty tall, and exuded a gentle, reserved aura. There was an inextricable knot between his brows.
The moment Xu Qi’an saw this man, his mind buzzed as boundless joy surged within him.
In his vision, the man was wreathed in golden light, with faint dragon shadows coiling around his body, his presence extraordinary.
A Dragon Qi host!
Compared with the county tyrant whom he had beheaded with a sabre, this man’s Dragon Qi was many times richer. This was one of the nine crucial strands of Dragon Qi.
He had not discovered that the man was a Dragon Qi host before because his main body was absent, and the Earth Book fragment was not with him, so there had been no resonance.
Only now, upon seeing him in person, did Xu Qi’an perceive the Dragon Qi.
So Chai Xian is a Dragon Qi host? To think I searched high and low, only to find it right under my nose… If not for a passing whim, staying in Xiangzhou only due to the spate of recent cases, I might never have lingered here so long… No, this isn’t luck, this is the aggregation effect between Dragon Qi and me…
Xu Qi’an was so thrilled he nearly meowed out loud.
“And Sir is?”
He reined in his emotions and replied calmly, “Just a travelling warrior.”
Chai Xian scrutinised the ginger cat, nodded, and said quietly, “This is not a suitable place to talk. Come with me.”
They left the courtyard and made their way to a secluded alley. Xu Qi’an took the initiative, “I heard about the business with the Chai family in Xiangzhou. Curiosity got the better of me, so I investigated the Chai estate by night and chanced to run into you.”
Chai Xian said flatly, “So?”
Xu Qi’an spoke frankly, “I understand what happened. As for the charge of patricide, there are plenty of doubts, I suspect it’s not as simple as it seems.”
Chai Xian seemed surprised, responding warily, “And what, in your view, are the doubts?”
“The greatest doubt lies with the ‘patricide’ itself. True, there are certainly fathers in this world beyond redemption, but the Chai patriarch treated you fairly well. Even if you were hopelessly in love with the Chai girl, you could simply have eloped with her. Why make a mess of things?”
“If you were a true villain, bent on betrayal, the man would be dead, and your childhood sweetheart spirited away, you’d have long since fled far from here. What’s the point staying in Xiangzhou?”
Ginger Cat An outlined his reasoning, calm and clear.
Chai Xian was silent for a moment, then sighed,
“Pity there are too few clever folk like you in the world. My foster father was not killed by me, nor was Xiao Lan abducted by me. I stayed in Xiangzhou to uncover who is framing me.”
“Oh? Tell me, what have you discovered, and whom do you suspect?”
Ginger Cat An was only too happy to stall for time, awaiting the arrival of his main body.
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