Chapter 68: Seeing Everyone So Shady Puts My Mind at Ease

Ye Liuyun naturally wouldn’t shortchange his subordinates.

If you want the horse to run, you have to feed it grass.

If you give them nothing but expect your people to risk their lives for you, what, do you really think everyone is dying to serve you?

Took the money.

Every Embroidered Uniform Guard now looked at Ye Liuyun with much more fervor in their eyes.

Looking like they were ready to go through hell and high water for Ye Liuyun.

...

On the County Magistrate’s side—

Once he learned that the ghost light incidents that had put Shuihe County on edge these last few days were all tricks set up by that so-called Yun Sheng Zhenren, just to scam some money—

He cursed Yun Sheng out on the spot for quite a while.

It’s just that Yun Sheng was already dead, otherwise, the County Magistrate was thinking of dragging him back to the office for a round of good old torture before killing him.

Ye Liuyun figured—

This County Magistrate probably bought a bunch of Peace Talismans from Yun Sheng and spent quite a pretty penny, hence the big outburst.

Still, the County Magistrate wasn’t stupid.

He didn’t ask, "So now that Yun Sheng’s dead, where’s all the money he conned?" Everyone kept quiet about that, tacitly understanding not to bring it up.

"It’s all thanks to you, my lord, with your keen insight. Otherwise, our Shuihe County would still be in the dark, fooled by that Yun Sheng."

Ye Liuyun just smiled and waved it off at this kind of flattery.

He didn’t take it too seriously.

With the County Magistrate’s warm hospitality, Ye Liuyun and his crew rested another day here in Shuihe County before finally getting back on the road to the Imperial City.

...

"Master’s home!"

After a few more days on the road, when they got back to the residence—

Xing’er ran up warmly to greet them and helped Ye Liuyun out of his dust-covered robe.

Ye Liuyun didn’t even need to give any special instructions.

Xing’er dutifully had people heat the bath water so Ye Liuyun could freshen up first.

"Anything going on at the house lately?"

Leaning against the edge of the wooden tub, enjoying Xing’er’s massage, Ye Liuyun asked with a contented look on his face.

This kind of life, now, that’s something you can’t put a price on.

"Just the last couple of days, a few more people from Madam’s family came by, but she sent them all packing."

Figures—her second brother from the Sheng family before wasn’t exactly a one-off.

Sheng Lanzhi has a bunch of shops in her hand, all making a profit. With Sheng Li gone, every last person in the Sheng family is probably eyeing them with envy.

Luckily, Sheng Lanzhi herself is a very capable woman.

She’s not one to get taken advantage of easily.

So when it comes to this stuff, Ye Liuyun doesn’t need to worry at all.

"Not bad."

Ye Liuyun nodded, satisfied.

"Know where Madam went?"

With Sheng Lanzhi, once she knows he’s back, it’s impossible she wouldn’t at least show her face. So she’s probably not at home.

"From what Madam said, she seems to have found something valuable, and she went out for a few days to get it for you, Master."

Xing’er only knew some of the general details.

Maybe Sheng Lanzhi’s realized Ye Liuyun and Xing’er are getting a bit too close, so she’s keeping more things to herself.

Still, Xing’er managed to find this out from the other maids.

"Valuable?"

If Sheng Lanzhi calls it a treasure, it can’t be anything ordinary.

But Ye Liuyun didn’t dwell on it much.

This whole ride back, he’d been thinking about whether to have Sheng Lanzhi find him some manuals for spellcraft. With her connections, maybe the top-tier ones are out of reach, but the next level down should be doable.

But then, if he wanted to keep his magical prowess as an ace up his sleeve, the fewer people who know, the better.

Good thing Sheng Lanzhi’s not at home lately.

He might as well go snoop around himself tomorrow.

...

Nighttime.

Just like always, after Ye Liuyun practiced his cultivation in the yard for a while, he finally went back to his room to rest.

As for those three spell techniques, he’d already learned them, so now he just needed to practice more to get his proficiency up.

Cultivating spells is different from a Martial Artist working on their cultivation technique.

Spells rely purely on your natural talent and perception. Sometimes, if enlightenment hits, you break through naturally. If your talent’s lacking, practice your whole life and all you get is a bit more proficiency in using the spell—nothing else to show for it.

"Good thing I’ve got cheat codes."

If not for that...

I probably wouldn’t have the energy to juggle both magic and martial cultivation.

Actually, hell, being able to cultivate at all would be a miracle.

After washing up and heading back—

He found Xing’er still hadn’t left, but was lying on his bed instead.

"?"

Seeing Ye Liuyun come in, Xing’er’s face reddened a bit and she said,

"It’s cold now, so I’m here to warm up the bed for you, Master."

She was about to get up, but Ye Liuyun stopped her with a wave of his hand.

"Stay here tonight and rest."

Xing’er was surprised at first, but then broke into a huge smile and nodded—maybe she’d been waiting for this day for a long time anyway.

...

The next day—

When it was just getting light, Xing’er was ready to get up and serve Ye Liuyun.

"Hiss!"

Soreness shot through her body and made Xing’er suck in a breath.

"Alright, just rest up for the day. No rush."

The red stain on the sheets said it all.

Ye Liuyun wasn’t some heartless bastard.

He even tapped Xing’er gently on the forehead as he spoke.

"Mm-hmm!"

It was this kind of attitude from Ye Liuyun that Xing’er found totally irresistible.

But after Ye Liuyun finished washing up, Xing’er still forced herself up to help him into his Embroidered Uniform Guard uniform and saw him out of the room.

Once he got to the Embroidered Uniform Guard—

Ye Liuyun spent the morning going through files, then left in the afternoon, since he had other matters and didn’t go to the Imperial Prison.

...

’Fanlou.’

With a change of clothes, Ye Liuyun showed up outside a pavilion building.

He glanced a few times at the sign that read ’Fanlou’.

Fanlou was located in the south part of the city and had been set up by the Xie Clan Chamber of Commerce.

Not just in the Great Qian Dynasty, rumor has it the Xie Clan Chamber of Commerce has established Fanlou locations in countless places all across the Fourteen States of the World.

Specialized in selling all sorts of items.

Word on the street is: in Fanlou, anything you can imagine, you can buy. Only what you haven’t thought of—they have it all.

Those cultivation technique manuals Sheng Lanzhi gave Ye Liuyun before—they were all bought in Fanlou.

And Ye Liuyun had come here today for one reason only: the manuals for spell cultivation.

With that in mind—

Ye Liuyun, masked up, walked into Fanlou.

He’d thought the mask might actually make him more conspicuous—

But once inside, he realized that except for a handful, almost everyone was wearing a mask; nobody wanted their identity out there.

Seeing everyone else being sneaky, he could finally relax.

The first floor was just ordinary weapons. They looked decent enough, but Ye Liuyun wasn’t interested at all and headed straight upstairs to the second floor.

...