Chapter 23 Part 2

“M-Master?” Zhang Jue was scared senseless, darting around like a headless fly.

Master Zhang barked at him, “Don’t panic! Guard the Incense Burner and relight any that go out!”

“I-I’m on it…” Zhang Jue finally snapped back and hurried to do as told.

Master Zhang inwardly regretted his overconfidence. He had thought the Five Elements Eight Trigrams Array made it foolproof, but now he was internally injured, and he had no idea how to proceed with the Call Soul!

Fortunately, once Zhang Jue replenished the Incense Burner, the yin wind stirred by the Peach Blossom Evil weakened, and Master Zhang felt much better.

But just as he relaxed, an accident occurred!

“You two stinking Taoists, wasn’t getting doused in shit last time lesson enough? You dare come back!”

A middle-aged couple suddenly rushed in from outside the courtyard, sticks in hand. Seeing the Peach Tree suppressed by Master Zhang, they charged forward to destroy the Magic Artifacts.

Father Li hurriedly called the bodyguards to intercept them.

Mrs. Li was frantic too. She yelled at Father Li, “Didn’t I have someone send them away? How did they come back?!”

Father Li shot back, “How should I know? Ask me why don’t you!”

Both were exhausted from worry over their son. Compared to their last meeting, they had lost all the poise and elegance of prominent socialites; their tempers had grown much more irritable.

The bodyguards had disarmed the Wei Couple and pinned them down. When Wei Mother saw Li Hongming and his wife, her eyes turned red, and she adopted a desperate stance. “If you dare harm my daughter, you’re forcing me to die! I-I’ll fight you all!”

Wei Father was more rational. “The Peach Tree was compensation we got from the bar owner—it’s our private property! What right do you have to touch it?!”

It was clear both had received higher education; even when cursing, they didn’t resort to shrewish street vulgarity, but their all-out brawling momentum against the bodyguards was the same.

The bodyguards were paid to protect their employer and couldn’t harm the interlopers while defending themselves, so they slipped up, and Wei Mother bit one, breaking free in the chaos.

“Stop her quick!” Mrs. Li cried out anxiously.

By then, Wei Mother was about to reach the edge of the Magic Array. Before her fingers could touch the Red Rope, the pursuing bodyguards tackled her.

“Let go, get off! Li Hongming, don’t bully us too far…” With her head pressed to the ground, unable to move, Wei Mother could only wail toward Master Zhang. “Stop! Stop right now! That’s my daughter—you can’t touch her!”

Hearing his wife’s sobs, Wei Father ignored his own restraint by the bodyguards and struggled fiercely. “What right do you have to grab us? Is there no law anymore? Li Hongming, don’t think having a bit of money makes you superior. Worst case, we’ll all go down together!”

Mrs. Li burst into tears too. “Don’t make it sound like we’re the bullies! Who’s bullying whom? Using our living son to accompany your dead daughter—if your daughter doesn’t want to be lonely alone, does our son deserve to die for it?!”

Wei Mother retorted, “That’s his own fault! If he hadn’t seduced my Xiaoxiao, how could he have killed her!”

“Mu Jiajun said Yun Kai had nothing to do with your daughter!”

“No proof now that she’s dead—he can say whatever! Who knows how he bewitched my daughter? Our Xiaoxiao was such a good girl, always obeyed her parents. She was only seventeen… The doctor said she could live to thirty…”

Wei Mother was overwhelmed by grief, tears streaming down her face. Wei Father was the same. The couple looked at each other in utter despair.

Yu Qingxian and the others watched the drama below, their moods complex. Mu Jiajun, as a former participant, felt deep regret now. If he had paid more attention to those around him back then, maybe he could have prevented Wei Xiaoxiao’s tragedy.

At that moment, the Peach Tree perhaps sensed its parents’ anger and sorrow, and its Yin Qi surged violently. The branches thrashed wildly, and the Red Ropes and Five-Colored Command Flags overhead began to loosen, as if they would slip off at any second.

“Watch out!” Master Zhang only had time to shout before he was flung away by the Yin Qi. The Peach Tree exploded outward, Red Ropes and Five-Colored Command Flags scattering everywhere.

A humanoid figure of the Peach Tree’s spirit essence floated out from the tree. She looked like the seventeen-year-old Wei Xiaoxiao, but her eyes were entirely black, exuding extreme yin coldness.

“Th-The Peach Blossom Evil has taken form—run!” Master Zhang spat out a mouthful of blood, urgently warning them.

“M-Master…” Zhang Jue’s teeth chattered, frozen in place, nearly pissing himself in fear.

The bodyguards released the Wei Couple and retreated in terror. Holy shit, a ghost!

Wei Father and Wei Mother scrambled up from the ground. Far from fleeing in fear, they ran desperately forward. “Xiaoxiao, is that our Xiaoxiao? Xiaoxiao, Mom and Dad finally see you again…”

Before they finished speaking, the Peach Blossom Evil raised its hand, a blast of yin qi aimed straight through Wei Mother’s chest—

“Ahui!!” Wei Father’s eyes nearly popped out. He never imagined that the daughter they had finally reunited with would kill her own mother!

At the critical moment, a Copper Coin shot out with a “ding,” precisely severing the yin qi!

“She’s not your daughter—she’s the Peach Blossom Evil!” Chu Yi said coldly from above.

Wei Mother had been tackled to the ground by Wei Father, but she still refused to believe, crying hysterically. “You’re lying! She is our daughter—she’s our Xiaoxiao, waaah…”

By the end, she might have despaired herself, because that scene wasn’t fake—their Xiaoxiao would never do that to her!