That evening, Zhou You took a hot shower to ease the fatigue of school and cultivation, then opened the Immortal Cultivation Forum and clicked on Chang'an. Posts about Chang'an came one after another.
"Seeking a local artifact-refining master. I want to refine my bicycle into a magic treasure."
"A big truck hit me. The owner was fully at fault. I'm fine, but the bicycle is wrecked. That was my favorite bicycle. I'm begging an artifact-refining master to fix it and refine it into a magic treasure!"
"Help request. I'm a pill refiner. The patient took my medicine and was suddenly striding about in fine form, but the family insists it's a last flicker before death and is furious. What do I do?"
"I want to open a wildlife park in Chang'an. How should I go about bribing people? (This thread has been locked)"
"I want to open a wildlife park in Chang'an. What procedures should I follow?"
Zhou You felt the atmosphere on the Immortal Cultivation Forum was not very free. He kept seeing posts locked by the administrators.
If he were an administrator, posts like these could go up as people pleased, and everyone could speak their minds. He certainly would not interfere. At most he would lock yesterday's thread about Wenchang True Lord going abroad.
Wenchang True Lord was a senior of the older generation. How could they discuss him like that? It was far too rude.
While he was at it, he would also mute a few of the impolite ones who had rudely called the idea brilliantly original.
"Help request. I feel like there is something invisible at home."
The poster was called "Stir-Fried Bamboo Shoots and Pork."
"It's like this. I live in a run-down residential complex, and I'm usually there alone. I was too bored, so I got a little black dog."
"One night I was out walking the puppy and passed an apartment building. The sound-activated lights inside were broken. No one had ever fixed them, and it was pitch-black in there."
"I also smelled a foul stench, as if someone had dumped garbage inside. I covered my nose and meant to hurry past, but the puppy suddenly stopped and kept barking toward the inside."
"The puppy is quite well-behaved and usually never barks. This time I don't know what got into it. It barked without stopping and would not listen, no matter how I coaxed it. It was the kind of bark where it crouched low and dropped its voice."
"I used an Illumination Art to shine a light inside. There was nothing in the stairwell, but the puppy was still barking."
"I felt something was wrong and hurriedly pulled the puppy away. As we left, the puppy kept looking back. I turned my head too, but I saw nothing."
"When it was time to sleep that night, after I turned out the lights I put the puppy on the bed to sleep as usual, but for some reason the puppy was very restless and barked at the wardrobe."
"The moment I turned the light on, the puppy stopped barking. When I turned the light off, it started barking again."
"I took up my spirit sword and carefully opened the wardrobe. There were only clothes inside."
"Later I got hold of a few talismans. They did no good. Things only got worse."
"Sometimes the puppy barks at the bedroom when no one is there. I cannot sleep soundly. I always feel as if someone is watching me."
"I'm begging some fellow Daoist to help me. If this goes on, I won't even be able to sleep."
The post had just gone up. Not many people had replied, and the replies were all meaningless.
"I'm scared."
"Scared me so badly I yanked my feet back under the quilt."
"Why am I reading this in the middle of the night?"
Zhou You reckoned the people replying were all Qi Refining stage cultivators. He thought a moment, then privately messaged the poster.
Swimming This Week?: "You there?"
The poster replied quickly.
From the private chat, Zhou You learned that the poster's cultivation attainment was a little higher than his own: mid Qi Refinement. If the matter could be resolved, the poster was willing to put up fifteen pieces of spirit jade as payment.
Zhou You turned it over. Fifteen pieces of spirit jade could buy one and a half spirit stones. He felt it paid better than the job with the Poverty Ghost, and quickly agreed.
"When can you come over?" After giving the address, the poster hoped Zhou You would come as soon as possible.
"If the teacher approves the leave, tomorrow night is fine."
"?"
The poster suddenly grew uneasy.
……
"The two of you want leave from evening self-study?"
Homeroom teacher Old Gao's suspicious gaze swept back and forth over the Soul Projection stage immortal cultivator and the Carefree Empress. Though neither felt they had anything to be ashamed of, they were still trembling with nerves.
In the past, when Zhou You alone asked for leave from evening self-study, Old Gao had simply approved it. How had it become two people now?
Chu Xiaoyao forced the words out. "Milord... no. Teacher Gao, it's like this. I signed up for a cram class. I want to use evening self-study to study a little more and make up some lessons."
"I see."
The homeroom teacher nodded. The reason was passable enough. Parents signing third-year high school students up for extra classes was very common. Chu Xiaoyao's grades sat in the middle of the class, with plenty of room to rise.
He looked at the other student, whose room to rise was not so great.
"Zhou You, and you? Did you sign up for a class too?" The homeroom teacher's throat had been uncomfortable lately. His voice was dull and heavy, but on the guilty Zhou You's ears it was no different from a thunderclap.
Facing the invisible pressure from the homeroom teacher, Zhou You was silent for a moment, then decided to tell the truth.
"Right. I signed up too. The two of us signed up together and got twenty percent off."
"...Fine."
After the two left the office, they were still badly shaken and had not fully calmed down.
"I thought we'd been found out." The fear still lingered with Chu Xiaoyao. Even facing powerful enemies on the Hongmeng Continent, she had never been this nervous.
"Shh. Don't talk at the door." Zhou You pulled Chu Xiaoyao along and hurried off. They came face to face with Su Tingxue.
"What are you two doing here?" Su Tingxue was holding a stack of math test papers she had just collected, ready to hand them to the math teacher. She was puzzled that Zhou You and Chu Xiaoyao had come out of the math office.
"Asking for leave."
"Asking a math question."
The two answered at the same time, not in the least in sync.
"Why did you go and tell the truth!" Chu Xiaoyao said angrily.
"It's nothing, is it?" Zhou You did not understand. Su Tingxue hardly counted as an outsider. She was the one who had brought him onto the forum.
Under Chu Xiaoyao's aggrieved stare, Zhou You briefly explained the help request he had taken on the forum.
Not a shred of secrecy. No wonder he could only be the sect master!
"So that's it. It sounds like a haunting. Can I come along?"
"That doesn't seem right."
"No."
This time the two answered very much in sync. Their tones differed, but the meaning came to the same thing.
Seeing Su Tingxue look a little surprised, Zhou You explained, somewhat embarrassed, "I took the help request mainly to earn some spirit stones. If you come too, this trip won't even bring in one spirit stone."
Seeing that the two had misunderstood her, Su Tingxue said, "I don't want spirit stones."
She had been able to comprehend the Yin-Yang Heavenly Eye entirely because Zhou You passed along Chu Xiaoyao's words, and Chu Xiaoyao had no cultivation attainment. That showed Chu Xiaoyao's origins must be extraordinary.
Su Tingxue had always been very interested in Chu Xiaoyao. If she could see Chu Xiaoyao make a move this time, what did a few pieces of spirit jade matter?
Chu Xiaoyao grew even warier of Su Tingxue. Su Tingxue still wanted to join even without taking any spirit jade. Could she have some crooked idea?
"Fellow Daoist Su is truly righteous." Zhou You admired Su Tingxue. Worthy indeed of a Celestial Master of Mount Longhu. Her sense of principle was simply that high. For the sake of exorcising spirits, she would not even take a reward.
He himself, by contrast, was far too low in his thinking, still toiling for a pittance of spirit stones.
At that thought, Zhou You decided to do something for Su Tingxue, to show his respect for the Celestial Master of Mount Longhu.
"Here. I'll carry the papers for you."
Although Su Tingxue was every inch a late Qi Refinement cultivator, and Zhou You and Chu Xiaoyao together were not as strong as she was, how could classmates helping one another come down to who was strong and who was weak?
Zhou You took half the math test papers and went back to the math office.
"Oh, right. Is Nuomi coming?" Still not at ease, Su Tingxue asked one question more.
"She's not coming. She's watching the house."
Chu Xiaoyao regretted leaving Nuomi to watch the house.
Chapter 36