Mainly Listening to Advice

In just an instant, Nan Zhi's divine sense enveloped the entire room, carefully scanning Nan Yi's body, yet she did not detect anything unusual.

He had not been soul-snatched, he was not possessed, and his life force was certainly not being drained by some strange entity.

It was as if he was born with a congenital deficiency from his mother's womb, leaving his constitution weak and his body lacking.

“When I came from home, I saw that someone had left me a message.”

Nan Zhi's tone was casual as she placed two fingers on Nan Yi's wrist, which felt so fragile it seemed as if it might snap at any moment:

“It looked a lot like your handwriting.”

—Her expression remained calm, but she was prepared to strike at any second.

Ever since Nan Yi's character had appeared, various “coincidences” always seemed to happen around him.

He had a ten-heart favorability that not even her flesh-and-blood parents could reach.

Despite being a mere commoner, he could speak eloquently about the affairs of the Demon Suppression Division.

He had strayed into the forest of tiger-changs, yet by some stroke of sheer luck, he had emerged completely unscathed.

And now, even though she hadn't detected anything strange about the Demon Suppression Monastery, he was absolutely certain that there was a ghost in the monastery.

“I used soot from the bottom of a pot to leave eight characters under the stove.”

Nan Yi leaned against his pillow, a deathly coldness washing over his pale face.

He silently mouthed the words:

【Mayflies shaking a tree, born at dawn and dying at dusk】

The atmosphere in the room instantly grew cold and stagnant, settling into an almost eerie silence.

Nan Zhi quietly stared at Nan Yi, her eyes filled with scrutiny.

Was he playing a pig to eat a tiger, or was there another secret?

She was waiting for an explanation.

“You must be thirsty. I just cooled some sweet tea, and I even added some maltose. It's nice and sweet. You two siblings loved drinking this when you were little.”

Completely oblivious to the tension, Chen Jingui hummed a little tune as she poured two bowls of coarse tea and stuffed them into their hands:

“Drink up! Didn't you say you were thirsty just now? Sister Zhi, half a month ago, Immortal Hua had someone send quite a few things to our house. There was a bag of brown sugar in there. Once the water boils in a bit, I'll poach a couple of eggs in it for you... Wait, is there something seriously wrong with Brother Yi's body?”

She had no idea what kind of silent confrontation had just taken place between the two.

“It's nothing. He probably just drained his vitality some time ago. He'll be fine if he takes some nourishing supplements regularly.”

The crackle of electricity vanished from Nan Zhi's hand. She put on a smile and released Nan Yi's wrist:

“Mom, you've been living in the monastery for so many days. Have you gotten used to it? When I came by our house earlier, I saw no one was taking care of it, and the weeds in the yard have grown quite tall. I also heard a new pork stall opened on the front street. I bet someone is taking advantage of you and Dad being away to blatantly steal your business!”

“What? Who dares?! Let's see if this old mother of yours doesn't rip off their skin and stuff three zhang of pig bladders down their throat!”

Chen Jingui could not sit still a moment longer. The thought of returning home instantly consumed her:

“Sister Zhi, we couldn't find you before, and there was no one at home to talk things over with. I already told your dad earlier that this Demon Suppression Monastery is, after all, a place for government officials to live. If we stay here for nothing, people will inevitably gossip. Since you're back, I'll have your dad hitch up a donkey cart in the next day or two. The two of us old folks will head back first to get the pork stall up and running. Since you'll be looking after these two, I can rest easy.”

With that, she slapped her thigh:

“Don't look down on the profits of a pork stall. Just slaughtering pigs and selling meat brings in a hundred copper coins a day. And when hunters and mountain folk come to sell their meat...”

“Alright. I'm also quite busy right now, so you should pack up and set off within these next two days to avoid any delays on the road, lest you miss Dad's time for buying pigs.”

Nan Zhi immediately cut Chen Jingui off:

“Brother Yi hurt his leg and it's not convenient for him to move around, and I'm busy handling the tasks assigned by the Temple Master, so I'll have Sister Ye escort you back when the time comes.”

Mother and daughter settled the departure in just a few sentences. Meanwhile, Nan Yi held his coarse porcelain bowl and gulped down his tea as if he were truly parched:

“Mom, when you go back this time, you and Dad shouldn't think about earning money all day long and strain your bodies. There's never an end to earning money. Look at my eldest sister—she's an official of the Demon Suppression Division now, so prestigious and formidable. Sister Ye is highly regarded too and has a great future ahead. You might as well hire a young maid and a young boy to help out with the work...”

He turned back to chat with Chen Jingui, as if everything that had just transpired was merely a brief hallucination on Nan Zhi's part.

Once Nan Dazhuang fetched Nan Ye and brought her home, the sisters' reunion was filled with warmth.

That night, Chen Jingui prepared excellent food and wine. She slaughtered a fat chicken they had been raising for less than a month, and also bought a carp, half a sheep, a rabbit, and two jars of wine from the Taoist priest in charge of purchasing in the monastery. The family gathered for a bustling, hard-won reunion dinner.

...

Nan Zhi feared that delay would breed trouble. The very next day, she bought a carriage drawn by two horses from the nearest town, packing up the still-drunk Nan Dazhuang and Chen Jingui and sending them on their way.

Hearing that the Nan family was leaving, Shen Luohe, despite being up to his ears in work, still remembered to send over a chest of local specialties. He also specially assigned a cultivator at the Qi Refinement stage to help drive the carriage.

—Though she didn't know what kind of fishy business was hidden within this Demon Suppression Monastery, it was best to get the three of them out of here first.

As for the perpetually strange Nan Yi...

Nan Zhi was somewhat uncertain, so she kept him behind under the pretext of “recovering from his injuries.”

After all, Huiyuan and his co-conspirators were still in the monastery. Hurriedly sending away her sick younger brother would be no different from laying all her cards on the table and openly declaring that she had noticed something was amiss.

As the only sober one, Nan Ye had no idea what was going on and was pushed into the carriage in a daze by Nan Zhi. Seeing her sister's solemn expression, she couldn't help but grow tense as well:

“Eldest Sister, did...”

...something major happen?

Otherwise, why would she keep their parents in the dark and send them away so hurriedly?

“Sister Ye, I still have matters to attend to, so I must trouble you to escort Father and Mom.”

Nan Zhi glanced at the cultivator Shen Luohe had sent to help move their things. She reached out to brush a stray lock of hair from her sister's ear, her lips barely moving as she leaned in close:

“There is a letter in the bag, and something beneath the letter. Do not go home this time. Head straight north along the official highway. Take this string of beads and go to the Bianjing Demon Suppression Division to seek shelter with a Buddhist nun named Miaoyun.”

Nan Ye's eyes widened. In the next second, she felt a sudden weight on her wrist. She frantically reached down to touch it, finding a heavy, warm string of beads.

“I have made arrangements for the journey. Trust no one except Hongluo. Once you reach Bianjing and show her this string of beads, Miaoyun will understand everything.”

Nan Zhi gave her sister a brief hug and gently pushed her into the carriage. The latter bit her lip hard, looked at the increasingly desolate and eerie Demon Suppression Monastery before her, and nodded firmly:

“Alright, Eldest Sister, I will go and return quickly. You and Elder Brother take care of yourselves as well.”

“Rest assured, Martial Aunt Nan, I will safely deliver your family back.”

The young cultivator driving the carriage looked to be only fourteen or fifteen, but his eyes were exceptionally sharp. Seeing Nan Zhi nod in acknowledgement, he hopped onto the carriage and lightly flicked his whip—

The two horses pulling the carriage snorted, their hooves clattering as the wheels slowly turned. Before long, they vanished down the end of the road.

Sister Ye had always been clever; hopefully, she would do exactly as instructed.

Nan Zhi's heart was heavy.

In this Northwest Circuit Demon Suppression Monastery, there was no one she could trust, and no one she dared to trust.

Only by sending her family away could she break free from her shackles and focus all her attention on battling wits with Huiyuan.

If she couldn't defeat him, the worst that could happen was death, and she would simply reload and try again.

To Nan Zhi, the Nan family were not mere game data, nor were they NPCs who should have perished along with Dingyuan.

She hoped that Miaoyun, whom she had only met once, would offer some protection to the Nan family for the sake of Nan Ye carrying the Miaoyun Prayer Beads.

The Great Calamity was approaching, and chaos was about to erupt.

Only by constantly growing stronger could she protect everything she held dear.