The Guide to Capturing a Black Lotus

102

There was an exaggeratedly large bowl in the shape of a funnel in front of him. The bowl was filled with fresh soup noodles, still hot and steaming from the pot. The dense steam struck the man's face as he ate.

Changan's wine shops brought a great brouhaha to the atmosphere of the capitol. From the inside, one could see several streams of warm light streaming through the carved windows, falling upon the uneven surface of the table and getting into the little cracks and crevices.

Mu Huaijiang had his head stuffed into the bowl of noodles he was swallowing. Behind the cloud of steam, he silently finished an entire bowl. He raised his sharp and stern looking eyes: "Ah Jin, do you want to eat anymore?"

Bai Jin had only eaten a few bites before stopping, not having any appetite. She softly replied: "I'm full."

There were two bronze bells hanging on her waist. They had been constantly stirred from the moment she sat down, relentlessly filling the air with its soft tinkling all the way till now. However, the sound was easily engulfed by the noisy dining hall. It wasn't very obvious to the ear, but the woman reached out to hold the bells still, forehead knotting and wrinkling.

Mu Huaijiang raised one eye: "Is it the west side again?"

"Marquis Qingyi's residence."

The two of them turned quiet for a moment. Mu Huaijiang lightly slapped his chopsticks on the edge of the bowl, muttering to himself in a low tone: "Her?"

The two of them had chased her all the way here from Wufeng Town.

The small town's Qin style dynasty brothel had burned down to a crisp.

The numerous corpses burnt into coal effused the town's air with an unique stench for many days. Other than the innumerable casualty count, the demonic aura left within the ruins seemed to reach the heavens.

The entire town was enveloped by a thin layer of purple cloud in the sky above. In fact, it was simply just like they had lit a bonfire beacon within the town, summoning all demon hunters with any fame to their name to the town.

The internal struggles of greater demons was their own matter. However, if they dragged in countless innocents, then there was no other choice but for the demon hunters to come and inflict righteous retribution against them.

The Mu patriarch and wife couple was a powerful one. They were able to easily find clues because of the indicators from their dharma tool, the Soul Suppression Bell. By following the extremely thin strand of demonie aura they chased the source all the way to Changan.

"Possibly." Bai Jin lowered her eyes. She dipped her slender fingers into her tea and began to write on the table, "Huazhe. Taoist inside the palace. Marquis Qingyi.
She stared at the water stains on the table before letting out a sigh.

At first, by both of their estimations, they thought that this greater demon had killed till it went mad so they were afraid that it'd cause a similar massacre and upheaval. However, looking at the current situation, this demon didn't really have a goal. The only ones that underwent upheaval were the Celestial Bureau and the Marquis Qingyi residence.

Marquis Qingyi had already removed himself from politics for two years. His wife was one of the noble ladies within the capitol, a virtuous, capable and warm woman. She birthed him a son and a daughter and hailed from a reputable and influential family. However, ever since spring arrived, a series of extremely unfortunate events happened.

First was the Marquis' wife suffering a heavy head injury after falling from a startled horse. She was unconscious and couldn't be woken up. Next, the daughter suddenly disappeared and no matter how hard or carefully they looked, she couldn't be found in the capitol. Finally, the son suddenly started bleeding from all seven apertures and the imperial physicians said that he had been poisoned.