The Deposed Crown Prince had Three Lifelong Regrets - Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Too much time had been wasted, and now it was almost dawn.

The previous days had been filled with continuous rain, and the earth was heavy with moisture. Water vapor was rampant; white mist floated in the air, blurring the layered mountains, making the world seem particularly indistinct.

Li Qinghuai walked outward along a winding mountain path. This so-called path was actually just a section of scarce weeds and not-very-straight mud. The surroundings were desolate and uninhabited; even the greenery of spring felt bleak in this barren mountain.

Normally, others would have been physically and mentally exhausted, and she should have gone off alone. But considering she hadn’t recovered from her serious illness, the kind-hearted, pale-faced escort volunteered to follow her.

The other escorts were facing a dilemma: failing to protect their employer meant incurring the wrath of the Song family once they left this huge mountain range, and whether they would survive intact was questionable.

But staying in this area infested with demons and ghosts meant their lives were not guaranteed, much less finding the person. It was like being stuck between a rock and a hard place—one step forward was a hidden reef, and one step back was a den of wolves and tigers.

“I’ll talk to her later and ask her to stick with us,” Mo Xianghao considered seriously. “Zhao Pan’er is alone and injured; it might be too difficult for her to travel.”

Mo Xianghao came from a medical family, primarily specializing in poisons and hidden weapons. She didn’t understand the matters of Yin and Yang as well as Lu Fengmian. She only knew that the Ghost Infant was a terrifying creature with incomplete records, and thus admired Li Qinghuai’s courage.

Furthermore, as a freewheeling soul of the jianghu, she quickly forgot that the other person had fooled her, though she did remember the other’s use of a marriage alliance to provoke her friend. After speaking, she immediately nudged Lu Fengmian with her elbow to ask for an opinion.

Lu Fengmian remained silent for a moment, then replied, “She might not actually want to follow you…”

She answered perfunctorily and casually, but she paused before finishing her sentence. Pondering the other person’s style of doing things, she surprisingly discerned a different meaning from the parting words.

“Wait a minute,” she stood up hesitantly, pacing in place, “I feel like something isn’t right.”

Uncertain in her heart, she decided not to ask for help and ran a few steps in the direction Li Qinghuai had left. The first few steps weren’t fast. She even stopped and looked back at Mo Xianghao before running off completely.

Mo Xianghao was bewildered and shouted for her immediately.

Her voice was scattered by the wind. By the time it reached Lu Fengmian’s ears, it was too muffled to hear clearly.

The surroundings were already deserted. The sky was a pale white; the moon and the sun each occupied a side, neither interfering with the other.

Following the fresh footprints in the mud, she ran forward. A moment later, two vague figures appeared at the end of her vision. The distance was too great, and the figures looked tall and thin, appearing somewhat bizarre.

Just then, the person who had been left staring blankly ran over, grabbing Lu Fengmian’s wrist without understanding. Lu Fengmian, in turn, grabbed her hand and dragged her forward.

“What are you doing?” Mo Xianghao cried out softly.

No one answered her.

The distant figures got closer and closer. Just as their outlines became clear, one of them suddenly vanished without a trace.

It was like a phantom hiding in the mountain mist. A gust of wind scattered the mist, and the person disappeared.

When the two women caught up, only Li Qinghuai remained there.

Li Qinghuai looked surprised, “Why are you here?”

Before Lu Fengmian could speak, the woman surnamed Mo anxiously interjected, “There was a figure next to you just now. It suddenly vanished when we caught up!”

“Did you notice it? Luckily, it didn’t harm you, or we would truly only be able to collect your corpse. That thing was hidden in the mist, gone in the blink of an eye,” Mo Xianghao said, nudging Lu Fengmian with her elbow again, “Say something!”

Hearing this, a smile curved Li Qinghuai’s lips.

Lu Fengmian had not intended to answer, but she suddenly spun around, her eyes fiercely resolute, reaching out to grab something.

A large mass of thick white mist lightly floated behind her, transforming into the upper half of a human body. This person was clad in pale green clothing, with upturned, peach-blossom-like eyes. It was smiling sweetly as it blew air into Lu Fengmian’s ear.

“Little beauty, long time no see. I’ve missed you so much~”

As soon as the words fell, the person transformed back into a mass of white mist and slowly drifted behind Li Qinghuai, occasionally peeking out a head to spy on them.

In the mist, three long, snowy white fox tails extended over a meter in all directions, swaying openly without restraint.

This monster was too ostentatious. Lu Fengmian was enraged, pulling a whip from her waist and pointing it straight ahead.

The atmosphere instantly became tense.

The two confronting figures stood motionless, while Mo Xianghao was completely dumbfounded.

In the world’s myriad forms, humans, ghosts, spirits (jing), and monsters coexist.

Creatures like plants, fish, and insects absorb the spiritual energy of the world, developing sentience and are called spirits (jing). Those that degenerate and take human lives for cultivation are renamed demons (yao).

A hundred years ago, when the Demon Suppression Pagoda was rebuilt in Jinguancheng, over twenty ten-coin Celestial Masters debated and concluded that spirits would no longer be within the scope of Celestial Master purges.

Since then, people have revered some benevolent, cultivating spirits as immortals. These spirits, in turn, tried their best to benefit the world to quickly ascend to the celestial ranks and escape the cycle of reincarnation.

The white mist rolled beside Li Qinghuai, then suddenly surged forward. She sternly reached out, yanked a fox tail, and pulled the creature back.

“Daoist Lu, what is the meaning of this?”

Demon Slayers had been on good terms with the Spirit Clan for many years, and their companionship in subduing ghosts was not uncommon. To attack without distinguishing right from wrong was considered disrespectful.

Furthermore, they hadn’t seen the pale-faced escort who had been traveling with them transform into a fox immortal.

They could only guess that the creature was summoned midway.

A nameless rage burned hotter and hotter, extreme emotion dissolving her reason. Lu Fengmian’s knuckles cracked as she clenched her hand, “Was it previously hiding among the escorts…”

The jade-faced fox listened, tilting its head. It couldn’t figure out if she had secretly observed and known all along, or if she was panicking in her anger. Regardless, having been entrusted by someone, it didn’t want to hurt her feelings, so it simply followed her lead without rebuttal.

“No. I saw that person die by a monster’s hand earlier, while the others were still searching. To prevent everyone from seeing the corpse and getting disturbed, which could allow evil spirits to take advantage, and also to make them leave quickly, I simply morphed into that person’s likeness and blended into the group.”

Its words, though ridiculous, were plausible. Besides, this non-human was a half-immortal, a spirit creature who had made a name for itself in the mountains. Its conduct was naturally different from that of ordinary people.

Following the other Daoists secretly could, at worst, be seen as monitoring their progress in finding Young Master Song to snatch the credit and the reward.

The fox looked at Lu Fengmian’s face and giggled, “Daoist Priest, you have offended me.”

“Hahahaha,” Mo Xianghao quickly jumped in, putting one arm around Lu Fengmian’s shoulder and waving the other between the two to minimize the situation, “I am truly sorry. My friend is usually not like this. I don’t know what got into her today.”

She then leaned in close to Lu Fengmian’s ear and whispered, “What is wrong with you?”

While such a move to steal credit was despicable, how could she lash out without clarifying the matter? Moreover, this trip was not for gold and silver but to seek justice for the decent women who had been abused by the Second Young Master.

The Lu family had a marriage contract with the Song family. Lu Fengmian was to be betrothed to the Song family in the future, although her husband would not be that ridiculous Second Young Master.

Song Xuanxuan’s public reputation was relatively decent, but many noble ladies knew about his actual conduct of bullying men and women.

After repeatedly witnessing his vile actions, both women had always kept their distance from him. But even with the complete lockdown on news of his disappearance, Lu Fengmian still accidentally learned of it.

Coupled with the request from the parents of the girl Song Xuanxuan had abducted, Lu Fengmian had no choice but to make a trip to these vast mountains herself.

She gritted her teeth and lowered her raised arm.

Closing her eyes deeply, Lu Fengmian wasn’t sure what was wrong with her. The moment she saw the Fox Half-Immortal, it was as if some deep-seated grudge buried in her memory had been pulled out, and a monstrous fury nearly overwhelmed her.

Li Qinghuai was accommodating, “It’s nothing major.”

“No, I have a big problem with this,” the beauty formed by the fox still floated in the mist, covering its face with a pale green sleeve and feigning sobs, “I worked so hard to do good deeds and accumulate virtue, only to be misunderstood and blamed. What is the point of my life?”

“I might as well bash my head against a wall to prove my innocence!”

Lu Fengmian: “…”

Unfortunately, Li Qinghuai wouldn’t give it any more chances to act out. Unwilling to stay, she pulled the fox spirit back again, tucking it under her arm.

“Don’t mind him. Is there anything else you two need? If not, I’ll be going ahead,” she made no attempt to hide her intention to part ways. “This fox spirit and I have some history. My presence here has been intrusive. Since there’s no information to exchange, and too many people are looking, I won’t stay here to bother you two.”

Her last sentence was an open admission that she had used a trick, allowing the fox spirit to monitor the progress of the other Daoists.