Listening to Feng Qishi’s words, Mu Anxiao suddenly realized he must have set a grand trap.
Thus, she temporarily abandoned the idea of finding a breakthrough point, turned to look at Feng Qishi who was staring at her coldly, and asked, "Speak, what exactly do you want?"
"As long as you promise me, and don't think about entering the palace, I will immediately help you get rid of it and let you go home."
"Home?"
"It should be said, return to the mansion to continue living the life of a young lady."
"Young lady..." Mu Anxiao repeated the word, then sneered, "Have you ever seen a young lady brought back home bound? I am not a young lady."
"But you are still Miss Mu's daughter," Feng Qishi said faintly.
"..." Mu Anxiao rubbed her eyes, then looked at Feng Qishi's indifferent expression and said, "Your changes are indeed quite significant."
"Not bad."
"It’s more than just ‘not bad’. Shen Moyun, I’ll call you that from now on, until you find your original intention, then I’ll call you Feng Qishi again, how about that?" Mu Anxiao asked deliberately.
Feng Qishi remained expressionless: "How you want to call me is your business. You are starting anew, and naturally, I have also started anew. In short, no matter how much nonsense you talk, I will not agree to you entering the palace."
"This is my business, it has nothing to do with you..."
"The one in the palace is not someone you can deal with. Unless," Feng Qishi stepped back a few paces, waved his hand, and the man who had been blocking his face with his hair reappeared, "you can defeat him."
Seeing this, Mu Anxiao's body stiffened, "Feng Qishi, you're crazy."
"I'm not crazy. Fight, I'll give you a chance. Use your magic," Feng Qishi said, glancing at Jia, "If you want to get hurt, stay over there."
Hearing this, Jia was stunned. He looked up at the man who seemed immensely tall in his eyes, swallowed, and ran away without a word.
Mu Anxiao had no intention of paying attention to Jia. She continued to stare at the man and said, "Alright, if I defeat him, will you stop obstructing me?"
"Yes," Feng Qishi uttered the word coldly.
Mu Anxiao rolled up her sleeves.
Then, after a few exchanges, Mu Anxiao sat on the ground, her face covered in wounds, watching the man walking towards her step by step. She then looked down at the remaining magic she had left, gritted her teeth, stood up, and said, "I'm not afraid of you." With that, she raised her hand to wipe the blood from the corner of her mouth and charged at the man.
Feng Qishi turned his face away.
Jia shrugged his shoulders, watching Mu Anxiao being instantly sent flying by the man, and gasped.
At the same time, Mu Anxiao descended from the sky, falling heavily onto the ground.
The man stretched his neck, turned to look at Feng Qishi, let out a soft 'ah', and disappeared.
Mu Anxiao lay on the ground, gazing at the misty sky, and said, "I will not give up."
Feng Qishi: "This mere puppet has beaten you this badly," he said, walking to Mu Anxiao's side. "If you have to deal with a demon soul, do you think you can handle it?" He squatted down and pulled Mu Anxiao's arm.
Mu Anxiao endured the pain, looked at Feng Qishi, and said, "You are right, the mortal world has its rules. The mortal world has its rules," she coughed a few times and continued, "Not everything can be solved with magic."
"..." Feng Qishi frowned.
Jia walked to Feng Qishi's side and looked down at Mu Anxiao, whose face was covered in blood and injuries, and said, "Does it hurt?"
"I'm used to it," Mu Anxiao said, pushing Feng Qishi's hand away, and painstakingly sat up, looking at Feng Qishi, "I'll use my brain."
"You are too naive," Feng Qishi met Mu Anxiao's eyes.
Mu Anxiao sneered, "I'm naive. As far as I know, that demon soul should have only recently entered the palace. If we resolve it now, it will be fine. If we delay any longer," Mu Anxiao swallowed the blood in her mouth, "your people will all suffer."
"What do you mean by that?"
"What do I mean?" Mu Anxiao snorted coldly, "You were quite smart when you were Feng Qishi, why are you so stupid now?"
Feng Qishi's gaze flickered slightly, "Speak."
"If you want me to speak, I will. I have stayed here for so long, and there has never been any demonic energy in this city, but now there suddenly is. If we don't resolve it quickly, I can say," Mu Anxiao said with a serious expression, "that the people here will experience the same fate as the people in that small town, especially your brothers, who will be the first to be killed."
"..." Feng Qishi's eyes darkened.
Seeing that Feng Qishi remained silent, Mu Anxiao continued, "After being beaten just now, I summarized a principle."
"What principle?" Feng Qishi listened to Mu Anxiao's words.
Mu Anxiao: "Since this is the mortal world, then I naturally have to use mortal methods to do things. Therefore, I don't plan to use magic, and I certainly won't let that guy see that I'm the one catching him."
"What do you mean?"
"What do I mean?" Mu Anxiao shook her head slightly, "You've really become much stupider. My current identity is Mu Xiao, not Mu Anxiao. Naturally, I won't have my old aura on me. Even if they see me, they won't recognize me."
"But you still look the same as before."
"..." Mu Anxiao gave Feng Qishi a sidelong glance, "You are Shen Moyun now, and you look the same as before. May I ask, in less than a year, how many people or demons know who you are?"
"None."
"Then that's right. From the moment I gained this identity, I started anew. And the aura on me is also different from before. Therefore," Mu Anxiao smiled, "the demon soul will not discover who I am, because demon souls generally use their noses to detect danger."
"Nose... I don't know about that," Feng Qishi said faintly.
"You really have changed into someone else and your brain has changed too," Mu Anxiao said, "As far as I know, after I died, these demon souls also forgot my face. Now my aura has also changed, so they naturally won't know who I am. Of course, this is also something I just found out."
"Just?"
"Yes, to be honest, I encountered a demon soul outside a few days ago. However, that guy wasn't there at the time," Mu Anxiao glanced at Jia, "so I walked around the demon soul. To my surprise, that demon soul did not recognize me."
Jia frowned and said, "Didn't you say you haven't seen any demon souls since you came here? How can you see one now? You are such a strange person."
Mu Anxiao also understood her own capabilities. To put it bluntly, she had always relied on Jia to support her confidence. If Jia left, she would naturally falter.
Like this matter, she originally didn't want to mention it, but in order to prove she wasn't talking nonsense, she had to say it despite her fear.
Unexpectedly, it had aroused Jia's suspicion.
Now, she was embarrassed.
"..."
Feng Qishi stared at Mu Anxiao's embarrassed face and said, "She feels ashamed, so she doesn't want to mention this matter to you."
"That makes sense," Jia nodded.
Mu Anxiao lowered her head, "I've already said so much. Now, can you stop obstructing me?"
"No."
Hearing this, Mu Anxiao suddenly raised her face to look at Feng Qishi, displeased, "Why?"
"You ask why? That palace is where you're going. If you say one wrong word there, your head will fall off."
"Head..." Mu Anxiao said, touching her neck, "I know."
"You know, and you still want to go."
"If I don't commit any offense..."
"Here in the small Mu mansion, you have trouble every day. If you go to the palace, there will surely be more. As I see it, you should give up. If you are really bored, I can let my puppets spar with you."
"You look down on me."
"You've already said that once," Feng Qishi said, standing up. "In any case, I won't help you with this. As long as you give up, the illusion will automatically disappear. Think it over carefully."
"What about me?" Jia asked.
Feng Qishi looked down at Jia and said, "You are with her. Only if she gives up can you be freed. It all depends on how you persuade her." With that, he turned and disappeared.
Thus, Mu Anxiao fell into thought.
Jia curled his lips, squatted beside Mu Anxiao, and said, "How did Feng Qishi become like this?"
Mu Anxiao mumbled, "Scoundrel."
Jia sat next to Mu Anxiao, not knowing what else to say.
Mu Mansion.
Mu Hua sat opposite the Madam, eating a pastry and drinking tea, and said, "Mother, do you think Mu Xiao will die?"
Madam: "She's already a coroner, she certainly won't live long."
Mu Hua smiled: "You're right. General has been on the battlefield, so his skills must be superb."
The Madam took a deep breath: "That immortal cultivator too, why did he send Mu Xiao back for no reason? He should have kept her by his side. Sending her back," she said, taking a sip of tea, "is truly an eyesore."
"Exactly," Mu Hua agreed. "Mother, do you think, if I were to marry the General..."
She had only spoken halfway when a woman in a blue dress pushed the door open and entered, "Mother, I don't want to enter the palace anymore."
This woman was the third sister, Mu Yanxing, whom Mu Anxiao had mentioned. She was considered the most beautiful in the mansion, which was why she was chosen by the Madam to enter the palace every month to familiarize herself with the palace environment.
So that she could be chosen in the future.
In reality, she herself did not like the imperial palace; on the contrary, she loved freedom.
Before she went each month, she would come to the Madam to say this. The Madam was already accustomed to her words.
Therefore, the Madam merely smiled it away.
Mu Yanxing: "Mother, why are you smiling?"
"Sister, if you don't go, it will implicate us. Can you be more sensible?"
"Mu Hua," Mu Yanxing directly shifted her gaze to Mu Hua's face, "I'm just curious why you always come before this. Are you deliberately trying to laugh at me?"
"Mother, look at how Sister is talking," Mu Hua said.
"You speak less," Mu Yanxing glared fiercely at Mu Hua, then looked at the Madam, "Mother, I heard that Mu Xiao, that wild girl, wants to enter the palace. If possible, let her go."
"..." The Madam's face turned stern.
Mu Yanxing looked at the Madam's face, her eyes flickering slightly, and said, "Mother, when I go into the palace, I'm never taken seriously. That feeling, I've had enough of it. Do you know what makes me most angry? Those people in the palace actually made me clean the stables."
"What?"
"Every time I want to tell you about this, you don't want to listen. I thought you knew," Mu Yanxing said plaintively.
"You are going to become a consort in the future. If they asked you to sweep the stables, wouldn't you resist?"
"Mother, after I entered the palace, I realized that those people's fathers all held much higher official positions than my father. At that moment," Mu Yanxing choked, "I realized that there is always someone better. As long as my father doesn't get promoted, I'll only be fit to clean the stables in the palace."
"You..."
"Mother, if you don't want your daughter to die, then continue to force me," Mu Yanxing said, turned, and walked away with tears yet to fall.
Mu Hua ate a pastry and remained silent.
On the contrary, the Madam clenched her fists, gritted her teeth, and said, "This is too much."
"I think Sister is talking nonsense," Mu Hua said faintly.
"She's crying, and you still say she's talking nonsense. Is she your real sister?" the Madam said, glared at Mu Hua, and shook her head slightly, "No, I have to talk to your father about this."
"I think Father will definitely not agree with you."
"..." The Madam took a breath.
In the blink of an eye.
Mu Yanxing opened the back door, looked at the young gentleman waiting for her outside, and smiled, "You're waiting for me here."
"Otherwise? How did it go with your mother?"
"Qiu Yan, I did as you said."
This young gentleman was the young master of the Qiu family in Jincheng, Qiu Yan. He had grown up with Mu Yanxing, and they had secretly pledged their lives to each other a year ago.
However, fate was unpredictable. Just as Qiu Yan was about to go to the Mu mansion to propose, Mu Yanxing was chosen by the Madam to enter the palace monthly.
Upon learning this, Qiu Yan used his connections to quietly remove Mu Yanxing from the list of concubine candidates. These days, she had been pretending to go, but in reality, she had been with him all along.
As the day of the concubine selection drew closer, Qiu Yan helped her devise this plan.
"Really? What did your mother say?" Qiu Yan asked.
Mu Yanxing smiled, "My mother seems to have been moved."
"Then when your mother decides to change it, tell me, and I'll find someone to tamper with it."
"Okay," Mu Yanxing nodded, and asked, "Where are we going later?"
"Where? I'll take you fishing."
"Okay," Mu Yanxing agreed and left with Qiu Yan.
After they left, Feng Qishi emerged from a nearby corner, looked at Mu Yanxing and Qiu Yan walking away, thought for a moment, walked up to the back door, pushed it open, and went inside.
Illusion.
Mu Anxiao, covered in wounds, sat leaning against a tree, looking at the trees opposite, not saying a word.
Jia sat beside Mu Anxiao, looking at Mu Anxiao's expression, which seemed to be deep in thought yet also lost in a daze, and said, "No, say something."
"What do you want me to say?" Mu Anxiao asked without looking at Jia.
Jia: "Why don't you just compromise?"
"Why should I compromise? I've said so much," Mu Anxiao clenched her fists, "I don't believe his heart won't be moved."
"But the facts prove that he is no longer the Feng Qishi of the past. Are you sure you want to be like this?" Jia said helplessly.
"Sure, and absolutely sure," Mu Anxiao said firmly, and gasped, "Speaking of which, can you treat wounds? I'm aching all over right now." She finally looked at Jia.
Jia smiled.