Chapter 152: Someone Sends a Message

Everyone believed that the reason Qu Qiuming could dispel yin energy and demonic energy was because of the seal mark on his body. The direct proof was that ever since the mark disappeared, Qu Qiuming seemed to have suddenly lost that miraculous ability.

The problem was, the mark vanished too quickly for anyone to clearly see what it was or who had placed it on him.

“I’ve never heard of anyone who could dispel yin and demonic energy just by a single seal,” Master Xu said, feeling that the more he thought about it, the stranger it seemed. He simply couldn’t figure it out.

“Perhaps it wasn’t dispelling,” Yun Jiao suddenly spoke up.

Everyone froze and turned to look at her in unison. “Not dispelling? What do you mean?”

“Do you still remember that hunter from before?” she asked, nodding slightly. “How is he now?”

Master Xu didn’t understand her intent, but still answered, “A disciple reported earlier that he’s already regained consciousness, though his wounds still need time to heal.”

“Don’t forget,” Yun Jiao continued, “before Qu Qiuming treated him, his body only had a sliver of life force left.” She looked around at them. “Don’t you think he recovered too quickly?”

Everyone was startled, suddenly realizing she was right. When the Yu family head was afflicted by the Shaohua Curse, he too had only a sliver of life left, but he had lain unconscious for more than half a month before waking. The hunter’s body was far weaker than a trained cultivator’s, yet he woke up in just half a day.

“You mean…” Master Xu’s eyes widened, “that Qu Qiuming actually restored his life force?”

“No.” Yun Jiao shook her head. “What I mean is that Qu Qiuming’s ability wasn’t to dispel yin or demonic energy at all. It was simply to inject life force into others.”

“…” What the hell—life force again?

Master Xu and the other sect leaders were stunned, but the more they thought about it, the more sense it made. Yin and demonic energy, once invading the body, slowly devour a person’s life force—one rises while the other fades. If Qu Qiuming’s ability was truly to infuse a large amount of life force, then the yin and demonic energy would naturally be forced out, appearing as though it had been expelled!

“But wait,” said Jin Shang, the head of the Qiuhua Sect, suddenly thinking of something. “What about the little butterfly? What happened to the demonic energy in her body? It was clearly drawn out!”

“Probably because she’s a demon,” Yun Jiao explained. “Qu Qiuming could only restore human life force.”

Everyone suddenly understood. The life force of demons and humans was completely different. When Qu Qiuming infused human life force into a demon’s body, it naturally forced out the demonic energy. That was why, despite the little butterfly being a weak low-level demon, she looked indistinguishable from a human—no one except Yun Jiao, who had opened her Celestial Eye, could tell she wasn’t human.

“So that means…” one sect leader sighed, “that Qu Qiuming’s so-called ‘healing art’ actually did have some use. It’s a pity the seal disappeared, otherwise he could’ve saved a few more people.”

“Not necessarily,” Yun Jiao countered immediately.

“Why not?”

Yun Jiao gave him a serious look before explaining, “If he could inject life force into someone else’s body, aren’t you curious—where did that life force come from?”

Everyone froze. Their faces changed instantly as they drew in a sharp breath.

Right—life force isn’t like leeks; you can’t just harvest it endlessly. Once it’s dispersed, it takes time to recover. For Qu Qiuming to pour it around so freely—it clearly wasn’t the victims’ own life force, especially not in the case of the butterfly demon. So where did it come from? Or rather… whose was it?

The more they thought about it, the more uneasy they felt. The head of Qiuhua Sect stood up abruptly.

“No, I must return to Tianfang City at once to check on the people he treated before!”

Master Xu nodded and quickly assigned two spiritual healers to accompany him, to examine those people’s bodies and send word to the entire Xuanmen. If they found anything abnormal, they were to report immediately.

For a time, the entire Xuanmen was thrown into busyness again, even speeding up the ongoing registration examinations.

Yun Jiao, meanwhile, recalled the incident with the Chi Xiao. That too had involved life force, and she couldn’t shake the suspicion that the strange seal on Qu Qiuming might somehow be connected to the underworld.

A seal mark was simply a person’s imprint of spiritual power—it didn’t have any effect by itself, but it created a link between the person who placed it and the one who bore it. Just like when her ancestral master had pulled her back from the underworld—the master must have left a seal mark on her body, allowing him to cast a summoning spell across realms and bring her back to the human world.

But Qu Qiuming’s seal had disappeared far too quickly. Because of her position, she hadn’t seen it clearly.

Thinking it over, she decided that after finishing her invigilation duties, she would go back and ask her ancestral master. She needed to know whose seal could restore a person’s life force instantly.

But before Yun Jiao could finish the exams, Qingyang sent an urgent summons for her return.

“Girl,” the old man said, holding a communication talisman while turning to her, “Uncle Yuanjiang says someone’s looking for you. They asked if you could return for a bit.”

“Who?” Yun Jiao was taken aback. She didn’t know many people, and those who could find their way to Qingyang were even fewer.

“No idea,” the old man shook his head. “Uncle Yuan just said the person came from below. They’ve been waiting two days and seem to have something urgent!”

“Below?” She paused—the underworld?

Thinking of Wen Qing, who had been out of contact for over a month, she handed the nearly finished registration exams to the old man and decided to return early. Fortunately, Tianshi Hall had a teleportation array, so returning was quick.

Sure enough, when she arrived at the Qingyang Main Hall, she saw Yuanjiang sitting with a stranger in a dark robe. Before them was a pile of talisman papers, and they were checking them one by one.

“Uncle Yuanjiang?” They were so focused they hadn’t noticed her, so she called out.

“Ah, little junior sister, you’re back.” Yuanjiang looked up, smiling warmly as he took the brush beside him and drew a large cross on the talisman in his hand. Then, on the back, he wrote: Copy this one hundred times as punishment, before neatly setting it aside. Only then did he stand and gesture toward the other man.

“This is Junior Brother Wen Qing’s disciple. He’s here to deliver a message.”

The man in the dark robe quickly stood up and cupped his fists. “Junior Sister Yun!”

“You are… Ji Qi?” Yun Jiao asked.

The man blinked, surprise flashing in his eyes. “Junior Sister knows me?”

“I’ve heard Uncle Wen mention you.” Back then, Wen Qing had often scolded his two disciples in the underworld—one named Han Shu, and the other Ji Qi. This man was clearly filled with yin energy and came from the underworld, so his identity wasn’t hard to guess. “You came to see me about something?”

“I’m here to deliver a letter on behalf of my master,” Ji Qi replied. “Master said he can’t leave for the time being and may need to stay a little longer, so he sent me to bring you this message.”

As he spoke, he took out a letter and handed it to her.

Can’t leave? What did that mean?

(End of this chapter)