At the intersection, an exquisite wooden bridge connects to another street. Under the bridge is a winding river leading to the moat of Yancheng.
A young man in red was standing at the street corner. No one approached him within ten feet. It was as if he was in a busy city yet still enjoying the quietness.
Chu Qi stopped five feet in front of him, looking at him appraisingly.
Seeing Chu Qi coming over, the young man in red spoke first, "My name is Hu Jiu, what is your name?"
"My last name is Chu."
Chu Qi did not mention the name. Seeing that Hu Jiu's face was a little stiff because of his words, he stopped being polite and said, "Your Excellency seems to have other purposes."
"I just want to get to know you. Please forgive me if I have offended you." The meaning of Hu Jiu's words was ambiguous.
"If it was just the lantern from before, I wouldn't care about it."
Chu Qi lowered his eyes and glanced behind Hu Jiu. There seemed to be an illusory fox fire there, which made Chu Qi feel vaguely familiar.
"I hope you will know how to maintain the proper manners of a stranger."
Hearing Chu Qi's words, Hu Jiu's stiff expression faded, and the corners of his lips curved, smiling again, "Of course, if it wasn't for no reason, how could I disturb you."
There was something behind Hu Jiu's words, and Chu Qi heard a warning in it.
It was quite interesting, as it was Fox Jiu who had provoked him first, but now he was warning him.
"There is no reason, and there is no stopping someone from doing it on purpose."
After Chu Qi finished saying this, Hu Jiu wanted to say something, but he sensed an unfriendly aura approaching them.
Hu Jiu paused and when he raised his eyes, he saw a young man in black and gold clothes, looking at him with an unexpected expression, and the vigilance in his eyes was not concealed at all.
It was Yan Jiuge, the heir of the Yan family who had left Chu Qi earlier and gone to an unknown place.
Shocked by Yan Jiuge's aura, Hu Jiu took a small step back for no reason.
"Young Master Yan..."
In any case, he is not exposed now. Yan Jiuge has no reason to attack him, otherwise it will not be good for the Yan family to provoke conflicts between the demon race and the human race.
While thinking, Hu Jiu wanted to say something else, but he caught a glimpse of the red fate lamp in Yan Jiu's singer's song. His eyebrows twitched uncontrollably, and a thousand waves were stirred in his heart.
Fox Wine knows the meaning of the Yancheng Lanterns very well.
This is something used by lovers to bond with each other.
He once used lanterns to approach the Young Master of Yaowang Valley because using lanterns as an excuse to strike up a conversation would not go wrong.
But Yan Jiuge and Yaowang Valley's young master seemed to have known each other for a long time, so there was no need to use such an excuse to strike up a conversation. So the only possibility was the former.
The Lantern of Destiny - The two of them actually have such a relationship? !
Emotions were surging in Hu Jiu's eyes. He felt that the lantern he had just given away had become an extremely dangerous object. No wonder Yan Jiuge had such a bad aura.
"What are you doing in Yancheng?" Yan Jiuge's voice sounded cold.
These words were spoken to Fox Wine.
"I came to Yancheng for a visit and happened to run into you two strolling around. It's getting late today, so I'll take my leave first."
Hu Jiu took a step back, bowed to the two of them, and then prepared to turn around and leave.
There was a hint of fox fire floating on the hem of his red robe, and in just a moment, his figure disappeared in the crowd, leaving no trace.
*
After leaving Yan Jiuge and Chu Qi, Hu Jiu found a secret place, set up a forbidden barrier, took out the communication jade, and tried to report what he had just discovered to the adult.
In just a moment, the message was connected.
An old and hoarse voice sounded from the other end of the communication Lingyu, "Hujiu, what do you want to ask?"
"Sir, when I came to Yancheng this time, I discovered something unexpected." Hu Jiu organized his words and told everything he had just seen and heard. "The heir of the Yan family and the young master of Yaowang Valley have a romantic relationship, which is even deeper than what we have previously speculated." "Are you serious?" The voice sounded a little anxious.
Hu Jiu remembered Yan Jiuge's warning look and nodded firmly, "Seriously!"
"Can you use the magic weapon I gave you? If you can seize the opportunity, you can kill them all at once. They are each other's weak points, which is a good thing for us."
When Hu Jiu heard the adult's words, he was a little stunned for a moment. It was the first time he heard the adult speak so long. His tone revealed an urgency that was difficult to conceal.
It seemed that as long as Yan Jiuge and the young master of Yaowang Valley were eliminated, all the fate that was weighing on their demon clan would be resolved.
"But... can we really liberate the demon race by doing this?" For no reason, Hu Jiu suddenly hesitated. He remembered the pair of clear eyes when he met the young master of Medicine King Valley. People with evil thoughts would not have eyes like that.
Could there be any misunderstanding here
Fox Wine's thoughts were a little confused.
"Of course." Hearing Hu Jiu's hesitation, the person on the other end of the message emphasized, "Have you forgotten what I told you? The fall of the sacred tree is to blame for the Medicine King Valley. And since the ancient war, have you seen any cultivator in the Hidden Cloud Realm ascend to the upper realm? This is because the Yan family is in charge of the Ascension Platform and prevents other cultivators from ascending."
After a few words, the hesitation in Linghu Jiu's eyes gradually disappeared.
This matter cannot be delayed any longer. As long as the evil spirit remains in the Yunyin Realm, the first to suffer damage will definitely be their demon clan.
Fox Wine took a deep breath and said solemnly, "I understand. I will follow your instructions."
"Treasure your eyes, they can reveal many secrets. When we form a formation later, you will be the one to find the whereabouts of the two of them. I will provide you with the greatest assistance. Don't worry."
After the call, Lingyu disappeared into the air.
Fox Wine reached out and took off the fox mask covering his face, revealing his handsome face and a pair of mysterious eyes like mist.
He is the most gifted of the Nine-tailed Fox clan’s Demon Eye in millions of years.
Using force from his fingers, Fox Wine crushed the fox mask in his hand and poured his spiritual power into it, turning it into six faceless foxes.
These foxes are all incarnations of Fox Wine. He has a total of nine tails. The six faceless foxes in front of him have consumed six of his tails, which is equivalent to six lives.
After hesitating for a moment, Hujiu took out the magic weapon given to him by the adult and covered the six faceless foxes.
In an instant, Hujiu saw invisible threads entangled his six faceless foxes, and an extremely strange aura cut off the connection between him and the faceless foxes.
Hu Jiu was a little confused, but he could see that the aura of the Faceless Fox was rising, and it was even reaching the same level as his cultivation.
At this time, the puppet that Fox Wine had thrown out earlier condensed into a physical form in a corner of Yancheng. It had no facial features, but a talisman was attached to its head. After a moment, the talisman turned into an ordinary human face, making it look like a human.
Before the formation set up by Fox Wine was completely formed, it could hardly wait to walk into the crowd in Yancheng, hoping to meet the two people who would kill it in words as soon as possible.
*
On the other side, after Fox Wine left.
"The man just now was a nine-tailed fox from the demon clan. He is good at using illusions to confuse people. If you are not careful, you will be dragged into the illusion by them."
Yan Jiuge explained to Chu Qi the origin of fox wine, and his cold voice softened.
"Nine-tailed demon fox?" This reminded Chu Qi of Yun Jiangmiao's contracted beast, and when he was in Huacheng, that vague gaze also retained traces of fox fire.
"Yeah." Yan Jiuge responded.
Once he returns to reality, it won’t be too late for him to go find Yun Jiangmiao to verify it.
Chu Qi was thinking about it when he turned around and found that Yan Jiuge was holding a red lantern in his hand.
The lantern was very big, twice as big as the one Fox Wine had sent before, and was decorated with gold and jade, as if symbolizing a perfect marriage. In Yancheng, the bigger the lantern, the better, as people believed that vulgarity is elegance, and red is more sentimental than lanterns of other colors.
However, this lantern does not match Yan Jiuge's temperament at all. I don't know why there is such a lantern in Yan Jiuge's song.
Chu Qi was stunned for a moment, then he came back to his senses and asked with a smile, "Who gave it to you? In Yancheng, lanterns have other meanings..."
“No one gave it to me.”
Chu Qi's pretending to be relaxed stopped abruptly, he glanced sideways, his eyes met Yan Jiuge's. Those dark golden eyes were extremely serious and pure.
At this moment, the two of them were at the intersection, in a busy city with bright lights and people coming and going. There were shadows of people on the bridge and the river flowed slowly under the bridge.
In Chu Qi's eyes, all the prosperous scenes in the world were reduced to the foil of Yan Jiuge. He had seen the paranoid Yan Jiuge, and also the proud or indifferent Yan Jiuge, but only at this moment, he saw the unprecedented seriousness and caution in Yan Jiuge's eyes.
In those dark golden eyes, there was only the shadow of Chu Qi.
"I want to give it to Aqi."
Yan Jiuge's voice was a little soft, but every word was very clear, "I wonder if you are willing to accept it?"
[In Yancheng, you can send lanterns to someone you like to show your affection. If the other person accepts it, it means he is willing to accept this affection. ]
The child's words from before surged in Chu Qi's mind again.
He just realized that the Yancheng lanterns have different meanings, but he wondered if Yan Jiuge also understood the meaning of the lanterns
Chu Qi was a little dazed.
"Do you know that the Yancheng Lanterns are given to—" Unconsciously, Chu Qi asked subconsciously due to excessive hesitation.
After coming back to his senses, Chu Qi suddenly closed his mouth. He was afraid that he would tear up the last bit of peace and make their relationship awkward.
His heartbeat was inexplicably uneasy. Even when facing a thunder tribulation, Chu Qi had never felt this way.
"I know that lanterns are only given to the one you love." Yan Jiuge took a deep breath and continued his unfinished words carefully, "I always thought that Ah Qi and I could be good friends. But that's not the case. Rather than being good friends, I want to be the one who stays by your side forever. No one can love you for me."
"So this lantern is only for Aqi."
(End of this chapter)