Chapter 253: Quick, Someone’s Coming

However, anyone who came within thirty feet was blocked by an invisible Barrier.

The air rippled like the surface of water.

Faint golden runes could be seen circulating within it.

“The power of incense is coming from here.”

Ji Hongyuan floated to the front of the Barrier. She reached out a hand, pressing it against the empty air, and stared at the small hut. A trace of Greed and apprehension flashed in her eyes. “Such pure votive power… It’s even richer than I imagined.”

Jiang Mu stood outside the Barrier, his brow furrowed as he stared at the seemingly ordinary hut before him.

‘What secret could possibly be hidden here?’

‘Could it be enshrining the statue of a deity once worshipped by the common people?’

“Do you think we can break it with brute force?”

Jiang Mu asked.

Ji Hongyuan shook her head. She floated halfway around the invisible Barrier, the long, black-stockinged legs beneath her dress faintly visible.

“Don’t waste your energy. This Array is connected to the earth’s ley lines. Unless you have a Cultivation Level at or above the Seventh Realm and can overwhelm it with pure power, you won’t be able to break through. The only way in is to find the array core and sever the flow of Spiritual Power.”

“Can you find the array core?” Jiang Mu looked at her.

A confident smile touched Ji Hongyuan’s red lips.

“If this were an Array from one of the righteous, orthodox sects, I might have some trouble. But in a place like this, crawling with Ghost Cultivators, all I have to do to sniff out the array core is follow the stench.”

Jiang Mu’s eyes lit up.

‘This demoness may have a rotten personality, but she’s surprisingly useful when it counts.’

‘She’s practically a human GPS hound.’

He said immediately, “Then what are we waiting for? Take me there.”

But Ji Hongyuan didn’t move.

Instead, she floated in front of Jiang Mu, extended a slender, jade-like finger, and gently lifted his chin. Her eyes were sultry as she said:

“Is that any way to ask for a favor?”

“Come on, give your big sister a kiss. If you make me happy, I’ll take you.”

Jiang Mu stared at the woman, speechless.

‘Of all the times to be acting like this?’

Seeing him hesitate, Ji Hongyuan put her hands behind her back, puffed out her chest slightly, twisted her waist, and pouted her red lips.

“No kiss, no guide.”

“Besides, I don’t care about slaying demons and exorcising evil. I’m fine with wasting time here.”

Jiang Mu said with a deadpan expression, “Fine. In that case, I won’t let you ‘absorb’ from me anymore. You can recover on your own.”

“Tch.”

But Ji Hongyuan just snorted coldly and lifted her chin. “If you, Eldest Young Master Jiang, are truly such an untrustworthy person, then there’s nothing I can do. We’ll just wait it out and see who can last longer.”

The two stared at each other, locked in a standoff for a moment.

Jiang Mu sighed in resignation.

“Fine, you win.”

Jiang Mu wasn’t one to be overly dramatic. ‘It’s not like I’m the one losing out, anyway,’ he thought.

He moved closer, leaning in to kiss Ji Hongyuan’s stunningly beautiful, bewitching face.

However, just as his lips were about to touch her cheek—

The red figure before him suddenly flashed.

Jiang Mu’s vision blurred. His lips met a delicate, cool, jade-like sensation.

It wasn’t the soft flesh of a cheek.

Instead, it was firm and smooth, and even carried a faint fragrance.

Jiang Mu froze, subconsciously looking down.

His entire body went rigid.

He saw that Ji Hongyuan had changed her position at the last second and was now floating high in the air.

And his lips were planted, precisely and without deviation, on the top of her delicate, pale, jade-white foot, which was arched like a crescent moon.

He could even clearly feel the faint pulse beneath the dark cyan veins.

Jiang Mu looked up.

He saw the incomparably beautiful woman looking down on him condescendingly, her face filled with the playful mischief of a successful prank.

With her hands behind her back, her posture as proud as a queen’s, she said languidly:

“Seeing how sincere you are, willing to even kiss my foot, I shall be merciful and help you this one time.”

After speaking, she could no longer hold it in and began to giggle, clutching her stomach.

She laughed so hard her body trembled like a flower in the wind.

The excessive curves of her chest heaved violently with her laughter, exuding an enchanting charm.

Jiang Mu’s face was as black as the bottom of a pot.

He finally understood. This woman was arrogant to the bone.

‘She just wanted to see me humiliated, to see me ‘submit’ at her feet in a roundabout way, all to satisfy her desire for conquest and control.’

He straightened up and said coldly:

“Are you done playing around?”

Having had her laugh, Ji Hongyuan floated down beside him, poked his chest with a finger, and said with a coquettish laugh:

“Oh, is the little guy angry?

Don’t be ungrateful. The line of people in this world who want to kiss my feet would stretch from here to outside Hu State City. The fact that you got to kiss it is the good fortune you’ve accumulated over several lifetimes.”

Jiang Mu’s face was cold. He didn’t want to waste another word on this perverted female jiangshi.

“If you’re done messing around, then lead the way!”

‘Dammit, I haven’t even licked Little Demon’s feet.’

Jiang Mu was thoroughly annoyed.

Seeing that he was genuinely angry, Ji Hongyuan stopped her excessive teasing. She blew a kiss at Jiang Mu, then twisted her waist.

“Alright, alright, you humorless little rival. Stay close, big sister will lead the way.”

With that, she turned and floated off toward a dark, narrow path to the right.

「About the time it takes for an incense stick to burn,」

The two arrived before a rather magnificent palace.

The palace was built entirely of black stone. Strings of white bone wind chimes hung from the eaves. When the sinister wind blew past, they let out a series of crisp chimes.

Flanking the palace gates stood two stone statues of ferocious-looking evil ghosts.

They exuded a grim and oppressive Ghost Qi.

“It’s inside.”

Ji Hongyuan pointed at the palace doors.

Jiang Mu nodded. Using the Demon Shadow’s Instant Teleportation ability, he passed through the wall and slipped into the palace.

Inside, many pale-faced ghost maids were on patrol.

Jiang Mu used the shadows and blind spots to evade them, finally arriving at a spring-fed pool deep within the main hall under Ji Hongyuan’s guidance.

The pool was about two meters square.

The pool’s water was a strange, deep turquoise, with mist curling above it.

“It’s down there?”

Jiang Mu looked at the water, his brow slightly furrowed.

Ji Hongyuan floated above the water’s surface and nodded affirmatively. “The array core is down there. The presence is strongest.”

“Are you sure?”

Jiang Mu was a bit skeptical.

Ji Hongyuan rolled her eyes, too lazy to answer. She simply crossed her arms and hovered over the pool with an expression that said, “Believe it or not.”

Jiang Mu hesitated no longer and entered the pool.

The water wasn’t cold; instead, it held a gentle warmth.

Jiang Mu held his breath and quickly dove down.

Ji Hongyuan floated down after him. Miraculously, the surrounding water seemed to fear her, parting automatically three inches from her body, leaving her completely dry as her red dress continued to drift elegantly.

Reaching the bottom, Jiang Mu indeed made a discovery.

He saw golden lines carved into the stone slabs at the bottom of the pool, emitting a faint glow.

The direction and style of these lines were identical to the ones on the Barrier around the small hut outside.

And in the very center of the lines was a fist-sized purple stone.

The stone was crystal clear and sparkled with light.

Like a beating heart, it continuously pumped out energy.

‘This is the array core!’

Elated, Jiang Mu swam over and reached out to pry the purple stone loose.

Just then.

“Someone’s coming! A powerful one!”

Ji Hongyuan’s urgent voice suddenly exploded in his mind.

Jiang Mu was startled, and his movements froze.

Before he could react, the red figure beside him suddenly disintegrated, turning into a streak of light that drilled into his body.

Immediately after, Ji Hongyuan’s grave voice rang out again:

“Don’t move! There’s no time to run!

Quick, put that Ghost Pill in your mouth! I’ll help you conceal your living aura.”

Jiang Mu’s heart tightened. Not daring to hesitate for a second, he quickly stuffed the Ghost Pill given to him by Yu Xiaoqian into his mouth.

As the Ghost Pill entered his mouth, a chilling sensation filled his mouth.

At the same time, Ji Hongyuan’s power surged within his body, merging perfectly with the Ghost Pill’s aura.

In that instant, Jiang Mu felt as if he had become a lifeless stone, or a drop of stagnant water dissolved in the pool.

All traces of his life force, body heat, and Star Power fluctuations were completely sealed off and hidden.

At the bottom of the gloomy pool, it was as if he had turned invisible.