CHAPTER 29: CHAPTER 20: EMPTY-HANDED WHITE WOLF

After Sang Que fed the donkey and left, Yan Daozi finally withdrew his gaze, took the letter paper from earlier to the candle, and burned it.

He sat down and absentmindedly tapped the table; if this girl wasn’t deeply scheming and adept at disguise, she might really not be the daughter of the temple priest that group was looking for.

But even if there was a tiny possibility, he had to consider it. Such a good seedling; it would be a shame to let her go.

Wait a minute...

Yan Daozi’s tapping fingers paused, and his mind suddenly turned a corner.

Previously, he worried that if this girl was indeed the temple priest’s daughter that group was searching for, once handed over, all his diligent nurturing would be in vain.

But if there truly was a strong bond between master and disciple, could he not rise through her elevation? That group had specifically instructed that she be kept alive, not to be gravely injured; this was not how one treated an enemy.

Even if she wasn’t the temple priest’s daughter, she could still be trained into a good disciple, one who would charge for him and serve by his side.

The conflict between him and her boiled down to two possibilities.

If this girl was indeed the temple priest’s daughter who appeared that night, then the only conflict between him and her was Ming Zhang’s death.

As long as she understood that he didn’t care about Ming Zhang’s death, wouldn’t seek revenge, and even thought it was for the best, there would be no conflict between them.

If this girl wasn’t the temple priest’s daughter, and was really Yao Yuniang, the only obstacle between him and her was Kou Yushan.

Hmph~

Yan Daozi sneered coldly; Kou Yushan wouldn’t live much longer, and by then, the only person this girl could rely on would be him.

Looking at it this way, taking her as a disciple required no effort, and he wouldn’t lose out regardless!

Having thought it through, Yan Daozi’s brow relaxed, his mood greatly improved. He fished out a key from his sleeve, unlocked the left door, and went in to continue with his proper business.

*

Leaving Yan Daozi’s small courtyard, Sang Que found a secluded spot, leaned against an earthen wall, and squatted on the ground. It took a while for her numb body to return to normal.

That old fox Yan Daozi, she really didn’t want to deal with him any longer. Who knew what nasty tricks he’d use to test her next time?

The paper from earlier had scared her, almost prompting her to strike preemptively, her hand reaching for his throat.

Opening her right palm, the imprint of the Yansheng coin was just a blurred circular outline, insufficient to send her back.

Recalling the basic knowledge Yan Daozi had mentioned earlier, Sang Que summarized her current situation.

She was currently at a deeper level in the Nine Netherworld than Yan Daozi and had harnessed the Yin Child, equivalent to a child in a martial arts novel suddenly possessing powerful inner strength and magical weapons.

Even a haphazard strike could deal massive damage, but it would certainly harm herself, possibly even lead to her death. She needed to learn the techniques to best wield these ’inner strengths’ in cooperation with her weapons.

But she was too passive now, reliant on Yan Daozi’s meager offerings and arrangements. She should be finding a way to get home, not obediently jumping into the fire pit Yan Daozi had arranged.

She had no interest in uncovering the source of these deceptions; finding out wouldn’t help her get home and might get her killed.

"Feels like I’m missing some crucial clues, making it impossible to hold the initiative."

Seeing no one else around, Sang Que picked up a stone and, recalling the mental mapping her mother taught her, began writing and drawing on the ground, listing the information and intel she’d gathered these past few days.

A moment later, Sang Que’s eyes lit up.

She thought of a way to bypass these tasks, claim her reward, and then return home!

The clues were fragmented; she wouldn’t have pieced it together without listing them all.

Initially, she trapped herself in a dead end, presuming the rules unbreakable; she either had to strengthen her Heart Lamp or commit murder and make sacrifices.

She believed she couldn’t sacrifice to the Yin Child and, therefore, couldn’t use it to kill the Evil Spirits, gain power, and open the gate to return home.

But that wasn’t the case.

Her focus should break free from the conventional thinking, directing it onto the Yin Child itself.

Firstly, why did the Yin Child appear in Black Mountain Village, and Kou Yushan said Yan Daozi knew the Yin Child’s origins and feared it.

Ming Zhang Notes mentioned Yan Daozi receiving a letter from an old friend, who died suddenly at the hands of the Yin Child.

Secondly, Kou Yushan had described to her that the corpses of the killed Liu Family couple had their chests cut open, lacking hearts, right arms, tongues, and eyeballs.

The Yin Child itself also lacked these parts.

She hadn’t seen the scenes where the Yin Child killed the Liu Family couple and Ming Zhang, but she did see the Yin Child attaching Ming Zhang’s right arm to its own right shoulder.