Unexpected News

The young master's face paled a little when he saw how suddenly Li Qinglin had recovered. He asked, "Why… weren't you affected?"

Li Qinglin spat out some liquid and said, "I wrapped my internal energy around that wine and let it hang in my throat. I never actually drank it. I only pretended to have been drugged because I wanted to see how much more information I could get from that demon when it thought I had lost control…" He paused a little and sounded vexed when he went on. "I didn't know that the pendant would be so effective on that demon, and I didn't mean to make so much noise."

Outside, the Taoist Priestess pursed her lips. Tonight's events were full of twists and turns, and everything that transpired was beyond her imagination.

"That was why my master encouraged me to travel the world of ordinary people. I would never have known how complicated human beings were if I had stayed in the mountains to cultivate." After some thought, she murmured, "Judging by how shrewd this Li Qinglin is, the probability of him being the culprit of that thing has increased."

As if responding to her thoughts, voices quickly approached the manor, and several horses galloped into the courtyard.

The young master was surprised to see the man leading the team and immediately greeted him. "Magistrate Wang, to what do we owe this honor?"

The magistrate of the shire hastily jumped off the horse, shoved the young master to the side, and went down on one knee. "Your Royal Highnesses, I'm Wang He, your humble servant."

The members of the manor were all dumbfounded, and the young master's face was drained of color.

Li Qingjun smirked. "Are you here to back these people up? This guy has to have done some very impressive things to earn the assistance of the magistrate of a shire!"

Wiping away his sweat, Wang He said, "Ma'am, I'm afraid you're mistaken. I don't know this man. I have urgent news, and I'm only here because I was told that someone spotted the prince and princess at the city gate this evening."

"Is that so?" Li Qinglin asked. "What urgent news?"

"His Royal Highness, crown princess…" After some pause, Wang He prostrated on the floor and said, "The crown prince was killed by an assassin last night."

Li Qinglin's pupils contracted, and Li Qingjun's face went ghastly pale.

Compared to that breaking news, the incident in the manor was trivial. The young master confessed everything before the magistrate even started interrogating him.

The "unknown cause" that had killed the servants was actually the necro bug, who had drained the men of their vital essence. When the old master of the manor posted that reward to catch the ghost, he had no idea that his wife was responsible.

Had it not been for his scumbag son, the old master would've lived. The young man wanted to make his step-mother his own woman, so he made use of the rumor of the haunted manor and poisoned his own father.

That was to say that the anomalies here had been caused by both men and a demon. No one had guessed correctly.

But the Li siblings no longer cared for what happened here. All they could think about was the death of their older brother, and they set out for the capital city that very night. And the three of them no longer travelled on their own. Instead, the shire sent an army to go with them. After the oldest prince of Nanli had died, they couldn't afford to lose his younger brother.

Because the king only had two sons.

There was no time for them to "experience the world" anymore, and Li Qinglin probably wouldn't have any other chance to do it.

The siblings kept their faces straight for the rest of the journey and lost all interest in bantering. Nanli was going to see some drastic changes in its political dynamics, and they had just lost their older brother.

Together, these two facts gave everyone complicated feelings, and that was especially the case for Li Qinglin.

Qin Yi rode alongside in silence.

He felt exactly the opposite. The crown prince was too vague a concept to bother him. However, the incident of the manor made him think.

That beautiful woman was nothing but a shell. Under that skin, she was a repulsive necro bug. That was probably what the cultivators called "an illusionary beauty". At the end of the day, it was only superficial.

In order to reach ultimate enlightenment, one had to become unaffected by and look beyond pleasant appearances.

A son had killed his own father for a pretty shell, and all that affection had been abandoned in the end for a jade pendant.

Which was more vicious? Monsters or the human mind?

He followed the rest of the team at a distance, where he could talk to Liusu in a low voice.

"You haven't learned enough to figure things out yet. You might think you've reached an epiphany, but when a beautiful face is actually in front of you, you can't promise that you won't be attracted. Knowing things is much easier than actually doing it," Liusu said casually. "You'll get used to such things once you've seen enough. After you live for a few thousand years, you won't even bat an eyelash. An epiphany will come to you automatically."

Qin Yi whispered, "If an epiphany will come to me on its own, what's the point of cultivation?"

"It's a r… I mean, cultivation is all about asking your heart."

"What do you mean?"

"You'll see once you've seen enough of this world," Liusu said. "One might think they've seen beyond this world after cultivating in seclusion for a lifetime, but they couldn't be more wrong. They've never even stepped into the real world, so how could they see beyond it?"

"Is that why you tried to tempt me to hit on women?"

Liusu chuckled. "One shouldn't talk about 'the way of things' unless they have enough experience. Even if they haven't personally encountered some things, they have to have witnessed them. Why do you think I sound so cynical? I've seen my fair share of the world. That's all. A hundred years will pass so fast, so why bother following all the rules?"

Qin Yi didn't retort, which was very rare for him. Instead, he said earnestly, "Thank you for telling me all those things."

Liusu paused for a moment before changing the subject. "You've seen a demon that could wear human skin. Aren't you curious how they cultivate?"

"I know you'll offer to tell me sooner or later."

Liusu gritted its teeth. "No, I won't."

"Fine," Qin Yi said casually. "That Mrs. Zhang was defeated by a jade pendant, so she was probably even weaker than that tiger."

Liusu smirked. "You know nothing!"

After that, it told Qin Yi everything it knew about demon cultivators.

The initial stage a demon cultivator had to go through was called the "Intelligence Stage". That meant animals, plants, or other non-human things had to gain some initial intelligence and could do some odd things. It was roughly equivalent to the Qi Refining Stage for human cultivators, and it was also divided into nine levels. Once a demon reached mastery of the Intelligence Stage, intelligence wise, it would be almost identical to an average human being.

"Of course, most petty demons don't have a solid cultivation regiment at this stage, and they don't know as many techniques as humans of the same level. Overall, they aren't as knowledgeable as cultivators of the Qi Refining Stage, and they can't even handle powerful martial arts practitioners. Intimidating ordinary people is pretty much all they can do." After that, Liusu added, "Such as that demon spider."

"Well…" Qin Yi scratched his head. "Has Mrs. Zhang passed this stage?"

"No, she was stuck after reaching mastery at this stage." Liusu smirked. "Don't underestimate demons of this stage. Human beings who have reached perfection in the Qi-Refining Stage can even call themselves immortals. However, Mrs. Zhang, who was of an equivalent level, was useless around that jade pendant. That pendant has to be quite formidable."

Qin Yi nodded, lost in his thoughts.

Once a demon reached perfection in the Intelligence Stage, it could try to break through into the Transformation Stage, which would allow it to obtain a human form. Numerous demons had been stuck at this point, and they all tried to make breakthroughs with all sorts of odd methods. The human skin Mrs. Zhang wore was one of them. She had to use it because she had no other options before she could obtain a human form of her own.

"Some flay humans to refine their skin, and some end up looking not like humans at all after trying their own methods—you can immediately tell from their blue faces and sharp fangs," Liusu said. "The method Mrs. Zhang used was one of the milder ones. She absorbed the vital essence of human beings to help her maintain her looks, but the method was simply too crude—most of the unorthodox cultivators are like that."

"I see." Qin Yi sighed in amazement. "That means if I meet a demon who looks like a real human being, they have to be very powerful, right?"

"Once they make a breakthrough into the Transformation Stage, they do look very much like a real human being. But most of the time, a part of their original forms will stubbornly stick around, such as a tail or a dense smell of their demon scent. They have to work very hard to cover it up, and they may change back into their original forms when provoked. But with a little disguise, they can successfully hide among human beings and can normally keep their cover. If we use that strange jargon in your head, you can say that they've achieved 'foundation establishment'."

"And after that?"

"After that?" Liusu smirked. "With the pitifully few skills you have now, if you saw a demon with a higher cultivation level than that, you wouldn't see another sunrise. So don't bother asking."

"…"