Master Sun

Huo Xuan smiled gently. "We're strangers until today. I'm Huo Xuan, your brother's friend."

Lele tilted her head. "But I feel like I've known you forever."

Zhuang Wen's eyes glistened as he clapped Huo Xuan's shoulder firmly. "A debt like this transcends words. From this day, your battles are mine."

Lin Yue inhaled sharply—Zhuang Wen's oath carried political earthquake potential.

"These past years watching Lele suffer..." Zhuang Wen's voice cracked. "We even paid charlatans claiming to exorcise demons."

The boulder crushing Zhuang Wen's chest dissolved. No gesture could overcompensate for this deliverance.

"Sparing her pain was privilege enough," Huo Xuan deflected. "Ceremonial gratitude chafes my spirit."

Zhuang Wen's laughter boomed. "You'll stay tonight! We'll drain my cellar dry!"

"Normally I'd drink until dawn," Huo Xuan chuckled. "But tomorrow's mission forbids hangovers."

The CAPITAL's Elder Li awaited treatment—Hua Buyi's procedure demanded peak acuity.

"Celebrations are medicinal too," Lin Yue interjected. "We'll leave before midnight."

Huo Xuan acquiesced with a nod.

Zhuang Wen summoned Aunt Wu to prepare a feast and dialed his parents without a preamble.

"Zhuang Wen?" A baritone voice demanded—Mayor of Jiangzhou and their father, Zhuang Ziming. "Has Lele's condition improved?"

"Father! Lele's cured!" Zhuang Wen's voice cracked with raw emotion, the words nearly shouted.

"What? Repeat that!" Zhuang Ziming's newspaper crumpled as he sprang up, oblivious to the toppled armchair behind him.

"I said she's completely healed!" Zhuang Wen's laughter reverberated through the phone. "Bring Mother. We're celebrating!"

"We're coming now!" Zhuang Ziming sprinted to the kitchen. Moments later, muffled sobs of joy echoed from within.

The dining table groaned under a Jiangzhou-style feast, its lacquered surface reflecting the gathered faces.

Zhuang Ziming's entourage descended upon the villa. Their first act: scrutinizing Lele's impish grin and carefree banter—irrefutable proof of restored normalcy.

Huo Xuan sat trapped in the seat of honor, physically maneuvered into position by the Zhuang patriarchs who'd threatened mutiny otherwise.

The mayor's pomaded hair and portly frame belied his earthy charisma. His jokes flowed like aged baijiu, dissolving bureaucratic pretenses.

Toasts bombarded Huo Xuan—four shots of 56-proof liquor already fogging his cognition.

Zhu Meiying from the Municipal Personnel Bureau dabbed her eyes compulsively, proximity to her revitalized daughter liquefying bureaucratic poise into maternal tenderness.

"Young Huo," she toasted tremulously, "Our family's debt transcends generations. Name any desire within Jiangzhou's boundaries."

"Your gratitude outshines my humble efforts," Huo Xuan demurred, liquor-flushed cheeks burning.

"This isn't courtesy," Shu Jie interjected softly, her Qing-dynasty-matron demeanor radiating sincerity. "It's necessity."

The question hung crystalline: "What precisely afflicted her? By what miracle was she cured?"

Huo Xuan's liquor-numbed tongue stumbled. How to explain astral battles and golden light to mortals?

After a contemplative pause, Huo Xuan spoke: "Lele must have endured profound psychological trauma. The terror embedded in her subconscious periodically resurfaces, triggering those episodes."

"Imagine a demon nesting in her psyche," he elaborated. "It hibernates, then emerges to torment—those are her episodes."

Zhu Meiying frowned. "She's been coddled since birth. No traumatic incidents whatsoever."

"The trauma might be dream-born," Huo Xuan ventured cautiously.

"Nightmares causing this?" Disbelief rippled through the room.

"I'm no physician," Huo Xuan conceded. "But the demon's eradicated. The root cause is gone."

Zhuang Ziming sighed. "Esteemed specialists prescribed psychotropics for 'mental illness'—all useless. Your methods astonish."

"Master Sun suppressed her episodes," Zhuang Wen interjected bitterly. "But his demands proved... problematic."

Huo Xuan's interest sharpened. "Master Sun?"

Six months into Lele's illness, Sun Wuji appeared uninvited. Skepticism dissolved when he demonstrated symptom suppression.

"But he refused full cure unless Father met three conditions," Zhuang Wen explained.

"As a provincial-level official, I couldn't risk political suicide," Zhuang Ziming said grimly. "Even for my daughter."

"What conditions?" Huo Xuan pressed.

The mayor's wine cup clinked against the table. "Promote two nobodies to bureau-level directors. Destroy a deputy bureau-level cadre's career. All within two years."

"Most crucially, his motives reeked of conspiracy. A Jianghu practitioner meddling in politics? He exploited Lele's illness for ulterior agendas."

Huo Xuan's spine tingled. Sun Wuji's timely appearance after Lele's illness—too convenient. Did he orchestrate this?

"Be careful Sun Wuji," Huo Xuan warned gravely. "Ninety percent certainty he's the pathogen's source."

Zhuang Wen's knuckles whitened. "We dismissed him due to zero prior contact. What evidence do you have?"

"Speculation only," Huo Xuan admitted. "Master Hua's insight will illuminate truth tomorrow."

The banquet concluded past 10 PM. Li Hu navigated darkened streets as Lin Yue steadied a tipsy Huo Xuan in the backseat.

Sprawled on the suite's sofa, Huo Xuan marveled at his newfound psychic penetration ability—mental X-ray vision.

Lin Yue pinched his cheek playfully. "You're becoming an enigma wrapped in golden light."

"Inspect closer then." His golden gaze flickered to her décolletage. Pulse spiking, lower body stirred involuntarily.

An eyeroll later, she retreated to the bathroom's sanctuary.

A goddess arm's length away... Huo Xuan's fantasy dissolved under Li Hu's stoic glare from the doorway.

Meanwhile, in Jiangzhou's western slums: A ruddy-faced man in white robes meditated in a dim room.

Sinister winds howled. The man convulsed, nostrils flaring. "Who dares break my nightmare curse?" His eyes glowed venomous green. "Your suffering shall eclipse the Nine Hells!"