Tie Miaoqing was taken aback by the question and countered, “You mean, Ah Shiheng ruined Jian Yuan Zhai just to help us?”
Sun Ping blinked and said, “Could that be the reason?”
Tie Miaoqing asked suspiciously, “Is that so? He never mentioned this matter.”
Sun Ping pouted and said, “He suddenly gave you two million, which is no small sum, and he did not reveal anything before either.”
As soon as these words were spoken, Tie Miaoqing wondered if she was overthinking it. She felt there was something more in the other’s words. Subconsciously, she recalled the ambiguous scene in her room that day. Her eyes drifted with a touch of guilt. She said seriously, “Ping Niang, it is a loan. It was agreed that borrowing from others means it is a loan and it must be repaid.”
Sun Ping said, “Yes, yes, it is a loan.”
Tie Miaoqing fell silent, but in reality she was a little distracted, not knowing what she was thinking.
Sun Ping waited for a while and then reminded her, “Miss, you know, if that Tanhua Lang is really willing to help you, we might really have a chance to reopen the shop. No, if he can solve the problem with Qin Jue, you will not have to hide underground anymore and can live a normal life.”
Tie Miaoqing sighed and said, “You make it sound easy, but things are not that simple. He is so young…” She shook her head.
Sun Ping said, “That is not necessarily true. Although he is young, his abilities are undeniable. Not to mention he is a great talent, we all saw his capabilities in the ancient tomb wasteland.
Moreover, right now, he has ruined Jian Yuan Zhai, which is something we would not have dared to imagine before.
That person definitely has skills. It just depends on whether he is willing to put in the effort. If he is willing to help, Miss will not have to keep suffering here. If he can also avenge the master’s grudge, then Miss’s wish will be completely fulfilled. It will be a proper account to the master, and you can start over.”
Tie Miaoqing said, “Even if he can do it, these are no small matters. Why would he help us like that?”
Sun Ping stammered, “I do not know about that. Miss will have to decide for herself.”
The two then fell into silence.
The cost of the two living here was indeed not small, determined by the location and environment.
But there was no choice. The two could not just leave like this. Zhu Shangbiao and the others had no news so far. Whether they could return or not, the two could not walk away.
The most troublesome thing was that without the protection of the merchant status in You Jiao Bu, Qin Jue had always been watching closely. Without an absolutely safe way, the two did not dare to leave here, otherwise the consequences would be unimaginable.
Fortunately, after selling the last bit of assets from Miao Qing Tang, there was still some money left, plus the large sum given by Yu Qing. It was enough to keep the two comfortable for a long time.
But this was not a long-term solution.
After a good while, Sun Ping sighed and said, “I wonder where that Tanhua Lang is now.” With that, she got up and left, returning to her own room.
Tie Miaoqing looked at the closed door, sat quietly for a while, then got up and walked to the dressing table. She opened her jewellery box, took out a piece of paper from the bottom layer, unfolded it and looked at it. The handwriting on it was exactly what Yu Qing had left for her back then.
“Life in the world is good… one look at the wine and food of the world is good, what one cannot bear to part with is the goodness of people…”
She held the paper and murmured the words for a while, falling into the mood. Her cheeks flushed slightly with shyness again. She muttered almost deliriously, “Did he really ruin Jian Yuan Zhai for me?”
In a small courtyard diagonally opposite outside, Qin Jue sat in the pavilion with a gloomy face. He himself did not know how long he would have to drag things out with Tie Miaoqing.
Originally, he could have taken it slowly.
The safest way was also to take it slowly. After all, Tie Miaoqing’s status was previously under the protection of You Ya, so he did not dare to use force and let You Ya know.
But after the ancient tomb wasteland, Cheng Shanping’s exposure revealed his plot to harm Yan Xu. Fortunately, Cheng Shanping was dead, so there was no evidence.
However, from then on, he knew that the plan to win Tie Miaoqing’s heart after Yan Xu’s death could no longer proceed. Even if Tie Miaoqing had that intention, she feared others would point fingers at her. If she had no ability to take revenge, that was one thing, but how could she be with a man who killed her husband?
So his methods suddenly became intense. Now it was fine. Jian Yuan Zhai and Miao Qing Tang were both gone.
“Ah Shiheng! The matter in the ancient tomb wasteland was ruined by his hand. It is a pity that I was still worried before that he would ruin my plans again and treated him politely. It turned out to be nonsense, and I was played by him again. How did Liu Piaopiao know the identities of those three? It must have been them who said it themselves.”
After a bout of resentment, Qin Jue said to Cui You beside him, “Find a way to confirm whether he is dead or not. Find a way to locate him. This debt must be settled with him.”
Cui You reminded him, “It is also possible that they were captured by Liu Piaopiao and had no choice but to confess. Besides, you also said before that he has some background forces behind him, so it is better to be cautious.”
Qin Jue said, “You saw the situation of the ancient tomb collapsing. He was still able to survive. What does that mean? It means our previous guess may be correct. He may have grasped some situation that allowed him to escape the disaster in the ancient tomb. So, do you think the purpose of his trip to the ancient tomb was achieved?”
Cui You suddenly realised and nodded, “Yes, this is indeed very important. We need to find a way to verify it!”
The sky was slightly bright.
At a time that should have been quiet, in a mountain forest that should have been quiet, the commotion was still going on fiercely.
Tens of thousands of demon cultivators participated in the excavation day and night without stopping.
Half a month passed in the blink of an eye. A large deep pit had already been dug underground.
Many corpses that were blurred with blood and flesh, or that had become minced meat, were found one after another during these days.
Liu Piaopiao also stayed here almost day and night, wanting to know if there were any survivors.
The appearance of a large amount of dark black bone fragments that were almost crushed to powder caught her attention.
Later, another underground entrance appeared. While a group of demon cultivators quickly cleared it, they found a fluffy thing wrapped in mucus.
“What is this?” A demon cultivator reached out to touch it with something.
Liu Piaopiao shouted, “Be careful!”
As soon as the words fell, a ghost foetus that looked like a hairy monkey had already jumped out and pounced on the demon cultivator to bite him, but it was punched and sent flying instead.
The scene was already like a hornet’s nest being poked. Countless ghost foetuses surged out like a tide, rushing in all directions and attacking any living thing they saw.
Among them were also puppet soldiers holding weapons that rushed out to fight.
Fortunately, there were many demon cultivators. They immediately launched a counterattack. In addition, their strength was far stronger than that of the ghost foetuses and puppet soldiers. It was almost a one-sided slaughter.
The commotion here also alarmed the three cave masters of Qian Liu Mountain and Hong Teng and others, who rushed over urgently.
Liu Piaopiao noticed that a stranger had appeared beside the three cave masters, a white-robed scholar holding a folding fan. She did not know who he was, but he looked calm and composed beside the three cave masters.
When the sun rose high, the cleanup finally ended. Corpses lay everywhere, full of ghost foetus and puppet soldier bodies, and sticky corpses all around.
When the sunlight began to shine into the deep pit, all the ghost foetus and puppet soldier corpses exposed to the sunlight emitted a “sizzling” sound, smoked, and melted under the sunlight, actually melting away until there was no trace left.
After watching this strange sight for a good while, the three cave masters pointed at the entrance where the evil things had emerged and shouted, “Continue digging and pry it open!”
A group of demon cultivators immediately rushed up, swung heavy hammers and smashed wildly with loud booms.
As the entrance expanded, they found that below was a huge triangular tower-like structure. The entrance was at the tip of the tower, and below it was like an abyss.
Boom!
After a huge stone ground was smashed by the heavy hammer, a beam of sunlight shone into the abyss through the gap.
“Ah…” A painful muffled groan came from inside the abyss.
Many demon cultivators immediately ran to the edge of the pit to look down. With the help of the light, they finally saw the scene below clearly.
In the abyss, there was a huge meat ball as big as a mountain, intertwined with vine-like structures, full of sinister energy. The parts exposed to sunlight were also sizzling and smoking, seeming to shrink from the sunlight and avoiding that beam of light.
“Is this the Yun Xi who became a demon?” The three cave masters asked Liu Piaopiao beside them.
Liu Piaopiao said, “I have not seen her rolled into a ball, but it should be her.”
“Afraid of sunlight?” The three cave masters muttered, looked at the sun overhead, and immediately pointed to the part of the pit entrance that blocked the sunlight, “Open it and let it see the light completely.”
A group of demon cultivators immediately rushed up to work, smashing wildly. The pit entrance collapsed quickly, and the sun itself was gradually rising higher.
Under the sunlight passing through the dust, the sizzling and smoking below became intense.
“Ah…”
A woman’s miserable and painful wailing sound continued nonstop from the abyss. The tragic feeling made people’s scalps tingle when they heard it.
The mountain-opening heavy hammers were still smashing. The thick smoke rising from below was so dense that it seemed to cover the sunlight.
When the sun gradually hung directly overhead, the thick smoke of ashes and extinction in the abyss finally faded.
The screams gradually stopped as well.
A golden shining thing appeared in the abyss, appearing under the sunlight.
It was a golden coffin.
On the coffin lay a naked woman, with dishevelled hair, curled up and lying on her side.
On her back, there was still a cluster of octopus tentacle-like things attached. Under the sunlight, it sizzled and emitted black smoke, slowly shrinking, and finally disappeared into her back like a tattoo.
The woman’s hand gently stroked the golden coffin, seeming a little weak.
The three cave masters suddenly flashed down, and Hong Teng, Liu Piaopiao and others immediately followed and landed beside the golden coffin.
“You are Yun Xi?” The three cave masters asked.
Liu Piaopiao recognised her and nodded, “It is her.”
Yun Xi stroked the golden coffin as if caressing a lover, with a look of infatuation on her face. She murmured as if speaking to the coffin, “I wanted them to think I was dead, but in the end I still could not hide. I cannot accompany you anymore.”
After speaking, a smile appeared on her face. The smile gradually became strained, the kind of feeling that could not be endured.
She curled up hard, and her body trembled violently.
“Mmm…” An extremely suppressed painful sound came from her throat.
Under the sunlight, white smoke suddenly rose from her body. Her whole person seemed to become transparent in an instant from the sunlight.
The three cave masters were greatly shocked. They flashed over and reached out with both hands to hug her. They realised it was a problem with the sunlight and wanted to carry Yun Xi away from the sunlight.
The person was carried away, but before they could run to the shaded area, the nearly transparent figure in their hands suddenly fell apart. It floated lightly like catkins, rose into the air and scattered into flying ashes, ultimately disappearing without a trace.