Xuan Wei appeared calm and composed, but inside she was an absolute mess. The evil allure technique she had honed with such effort, which could even shake her master's mind, had just dropped into the ocean with no trace. Gu Su really hadn’t lied.
She wore a smiling face, but her mind wandered to Gu Su, who stood motionless on the other side of the street.
Xuan Wei wasn’t at all worried about her personal safety. After all, she looked so much like her mother. From what she knew, her mother and her mother’s ex-husband didn't have a purely financial relationship. If it hadn't been for Old Master Lu interfering all those years, her mother might never have divorced Cheng Jingzhou, and Lin Baiming, her father, might never have gotten his “promotion”...
Although she hadn’t succeeded this time, Cheng Jingzhou was looking more and more pleasant to her eyes. Raised on the magic path as she was, her love for beauty and strength was etched deep in her bones.
So her smile became all the more genuine.
Yet that combination of charm and sincere affection, a smile that could make an ordinary person weak at the knees, landed flat in Qin Jingzhou’s eyes. It was utterly unremarkable, not worth mentioning. Xiaoling’s smile was far more beautiful than hers.
Amid the gasps of the crowd, he first lit a cigarette, then acted like lightning as he grabbed Xuan Wei by the collar and sent a surge of true qi through her. “Let's go, take me to see your master.”
Then, cigarette in one hand and the terrified Xuan Wei in the other, he leaped lightly onto the roof of the three-story building before him, disappearing among the crowd’s cries of astonishment.
In Hua Country, Gu martial masters and other supernaturals were hardly a secret to ordinary people, and the official attitude was evident from how casually he had registered and booked an appointment on the Gu Martial Association’s website.
Still, knowing gu martial masters existed and knowing they were different from ordinary people was not the same as actually witnessing a gu martial master hoist someone like luggage and leap three stories in a single bound!
The onlookers were instantly buzzing with excitement, chattering among themselves. Some even broke into a run, chasing in the direction Qin Jingzhou had vanished.
Taking advantage of the chaos, Gu Su slipped away deftly. After advancing in cultivation, her mind had become even sharper, and she could already tell that Cheng Jingzhou was deliberately using her and Xuan Wei as sharpening stones to help Lu Jiuxiao break through his own demons and inner anguish. Xuan Wei was Lu Jiuxiao’s maternal half-sister; as long as she had that identity, it was unlikely Cheng Jingzhou would harm her. Even if she “outlived her usefulness,” at least she would be able to live in peace, but Gu Su wasn’t so lucky! She... needed to pack her bags and get out of here, maybe even go abroad and make a killing. No matter how powerful Cheng Jingzhou was, he couldn’t reach her overseas.
Meanwhile, Qin Jingzhou tossed Xuan Wei into the back seat of the car, then sat in the driver’s seat and repeated his question, “Do you know where your master is? Lead the way.”
Xuan Wei hugged her arms and cheerfully betrayed both her master and the lair she came from.
The magic path was all about adapting to circumstances, which was what Qin Jingzhou liked most about it. Since Xuan Wei was willing to cooperate, he was also more inclined to chat. “You should know what your master is best at.”
He’d only just figured it out as well. The reason he had intercepted Xuan Wei in the first place was to get a look at the opponent’s cards ahead of time.
“My master is skilled at manipulating people’s minds. The technique he practices is called the Mi Huan Jing.” Xuan Wei’s tone was gloomy. “I was stolen away by my master when I was five. He deliberately erased my memories, and for more than ten years after that, he kept brainwashing me. But what he doesn’t know is that by the time I reached the Houtian Middle Stage, I had already remembered everything he erased.”
Qin Jingzhou asked, “Are you sure he doesn’t know? Your master should be a real expert at playing with people’s minds.”
Xuan Wei’s eyes widened sharply.
Qin Jingzhou saw her expression through the rearview mirror and smiled a little.
He spoke to his system, “Even though this girl has harmed plenty of people on her cultivation path, intentionally or otherwise, the person she’s harmed most is her own father. And the people she most wants revenge against are her master, her father, and her maternal half-brother. Avenging her idiot brother doesn't make much sense, but wanting revenge on her father Lin Baiming is understandable.”
The system got curious. “Brother Zhou, you already figured it out?”
“More or less. When she was five, Miss Lu was in poor physical and mental health, spending most of her time in the hospital. Lin Baiming was probably at a critical point in his cultivation and couldn’t look after her, so both children were left with the nanny. The nanny was bribed and, by design, let something happen when the siblings were together. Lin Baiming got word and rushed to the hospital, only to be cursed there by someone lying in wait. Under the influence of the curse, he believed his daughter was beyond saving, and he essentially handed her right over to the other party. Remember how he told me before that his daughter died from a genetic disease? That’s a classic curse aftereffect, memory disarray.”
The system sighed, “Miss Lu was already in bad shape, so when she heard the terrible news, her condition must have worsened. Is that why she died? Lin Baiming saw his own daughter, remembered this whole episode—all while holding it together enough to seek out a doctor. Not bad at all.”
Qin Jingzhou replied, “Exactly. The idiot son wasn’t in much better shape because of his mother. Add to that his guilt over his sister’s death, and he was bound to follow in her footsteps. Lin Baiming was at his wits’ end. He hired a master from the association to help temporarily suppress his son’s memories. It was probably around then that Old Master Lu gave up on my idiot son for good, but it doesn’t seem like he ever told Lu Zhentong the whole truth—otherwise my idiot son would have long since gone mad and needed to live in a sanatorium.”
The system gave a soft sound. “When someone manipulates memories, can you spot it, Brother Zhou?”
“I really can.” Qin Jingzhou smiled. “Erasing, sealing, or hiding memories always leaves traces. But since there are gu martial masters in this world, using some tricks on memories is completely routine. Which is why I never guessed the ‘plot’ was this complicated at first.”
The system grew a bit embarrassed. “That’s my fault. The plot never mentioned anything like this, so I didn’t pay attention or dig deeper along Lu Jiuxiao’s line.”
“Even though, hearing it now, my idiot son’s madness makes sense and even seems pitiful,” Qin Jingzhou continued, “if he hadn’t wanted revenge on Lu Zhentong by marrying and tormenting Gu Su, he wouldn’t have ended up so wretched. People always pay a price for their choices.”
Having finished, he stopped the car, got out, grabbed Xuan Wei again, and strode toward her master’s lair.
Xuan Wei’s master had actually prepared for a visit from Lin Baiming, so he was a bit surprised to see it was Cheng Jingzhou first. It was odd to think of Cheng Jingzhou coming for the sake of his ex-wife’s boyfriend.
Still, for someone who relied on curses to thoroughly bewitch others and cultivate by devouring their true qi, he couldn’t afford to be picky. Though gu martial masters who walked the Divine Doctor Path never had especially pure true qi—in other words, what they had was in short supply, and didn’t exactly taste great.
But when he saw Cheng Jingzhou, all his mental preparation vanished as his eyes lit up. “Oh, you’re actually a Master Fan!” He threw himself in full force, aiming to settle things with a single blow.
Qin Jingzhou felt the rush of the oncoming fist and tilted his lips in a grin. So he was a battle mage. No wonder Lin Baiming had fallen for it.
He reached out with his other hand and, once again, grabbed this battle mage from the magic path by the collar. With a flick, he slammed the man straight to the floor and stamped a foot on him. “Willing to tell me who’s backing you? If you talk, that means you’re willing.” Then another kick landed until the man spat out two teeth. “Keeping quiet means you’re extra willing.”
Still being dangled off the ground, Xuan Wei looked with sympathy at her once-dominant master.