Meng Jingzhou felt that ever since he started selling his blood, not a single good thing had happened to him.
First came Shi Chan testing his Chan mind at a brothel, followed by Xu An's harem battle royale.
The crucial point was that both of them had used his blood!
He had wondered why the lingzhi soup Liu Xiangyu served carried the faint scent of blood—turns out it was his own all along!
What should one do when a harem caught fire? Taking out the culprit solved everything. Or he could spare Xu An's life and simply beat him with a round of Bachelor Curse Fist.
In the courtyard, the snake demon, the ghost cultivator, the fox demon, and the artifact spirit were locked in a chaotic brawl. Fortunately, an array temporarily concealed the commotion, or patrolling constables would have arrived long ago to investigate.
Liu Xiangyu transformed, turning into a white snake dozens of zhang long, her body thicker than a water vat. Hissing with a flicking tongue, her frigid pupils glared at the three maids.
"My husband and I hit it off from our very first meeting, pledging our lives to each other in the spring rain of Qingming! What right do monsters and demons like you have to butt in?!"
Her massive coils writhed, shaking the earth and rattling the mountains until cracks fractured the ground. Opening a cavernous maw, she lunged to swallow the three maids whole.
Xiao Cui spread her arms. Innumerable shadowy black phantoms melted into the night, their silhouettes indistinct, and her Nascent Soul stepped forth from her body to block the white snake's gaping maw.
"What does hitting it off at first sight amount to? Love without surviving the crucible of life and death is nothing but empty talk!
"That day, my identity was exposed, and the yamen pursued me. Fortunately, I crossed paths with my benefactor, whose noble upright qi allowed me to conceal my form and survive!
"Had my identity not been so delicate that explaining the truth would jeopardize his imperial examinations, I would have wed him long ago! Where would there have been room for you to become the principal wife?!"
Xiao Zhu revealed her true demon form: a snow-white fox like a sprite of the snow, nimble and agile.
"Snow, come!"
A heavy flurry of snow swept across the courtyard. The temperature plunged sharply; breath misted into frosty vapor, and water froze the instant it dripped.
"I am a snow fox spirit. Over a hundred years ago, Benefactor's ancestor rescued me from a hunter's trap. Later, I wandered into a forbidden ground by mistake, devoured an unknown fruit, unlocked an ancient bloodline, and cultivated a human form using the power inherited within it.
"I intended to seek out Benefactor's ancestor to repay his kindness once I took human form, but by the time I arrived, he had already turned into a handful of yellow earth. Since that was so, I chose to repay Benefactor instead!
"If not for worrying that Benefactor could not accept my true identity, I would have confessed my feelings to him long ago!"
Liu Xiangyu sneered. "One after another, sneaking snacks at night and draining Husband of all his energy, yet you all sound so righteous! I was the one who tracked down the lingzhi, and I was the one who bought the pure yang blood! What did the three of you do?!
"If the three of you hadn't shown up together tonight, I wouldn't even have realized that not one of you is human! You even drove Husband to hire three Golden Core stage cultivators from outside!"
The white snake whipped up a ferocious gale. A bone-chilling wind howled through the air, sending shivers down the spine.
Xiao Qiu erected a barrier, temporarily blocking Liu Xiangyu's attack. Her true form was a jade pendant, a defensive magical treasure.
"Mistress, please calm your anger. Master awakened me, but I did not know how to face him, which is why I delayed revealing my identity. I did not hide it on purpose."
Just as a second round of combat was on the verge of erupting, a Buddhist chant startled all four into stopping simultaneously.
"Amitabha. Could the four female benefactors stay your hands for a moment for the sake of this poor monk?"
Shi Chan stepped forward into the courtyard, his two protectors flanking him—one brandishing a sword, the other clenching his fists.
"You three are awake—no, you were never unconscious?!"
The expressions of Liu Xiangyu and the three maids shifted in panic. Not one of them had noticed that the three men Xu An had brought home were awake.
"Th-that shouldn't be possible! Even an early Nascent Soul cultivator caught off guard would be knocked unconscious for three shichen by my sleeping incense!" Xiao Cui had the strongest reaction; she knew how potent her incense was.
It was definitely not something the Golden Core stage could resist.
More importantly, these three now knew their true identities!
What would happen if their husband found out?
"You were pretending to be asleep the entire time!"
Blushes flushed the cheeks of the four women. Did that mean everything that had transpired on the bed between them and Xu An tonight had been witnessed clearly by these three?
In their mortification and fury, all four attacked at once.
The white snake coiled, the Night Parade of a Hundred Ghosts marched, the snow fox called down blizzard frost, and the jade pendant manifested its power.
"This poor monk has no wish to provoke conflict."
Confronting the four women's concerted assault, Shi Chan remained unhurried. He produced a nine-tiered pagoda and cast it into the air. The pagoda radiated a pale golden light that engulfed the four, rendering them completely unable to move.
"Wh-what magical treasure is this?!"
The four were astounded; none of them had ever seen so wondrous a treasure. Xiao Qiu felt the crushing suppression of a higher-order artifact even more keenly.
"Female benefactors, you cannot defeat the three of us."
Shi Chan sighed and lifted the suppression from them. A golden dharma body manifested behind him, holding a vajra pestle in its left hand and a dharma wheel in its right—the most orthodox Six-Zhang Golden Body.
The Green Blade Sword in Lu Yang's hand gleamed with frigid radiance. Merely glancing at it felt like a thousand needles pricking the eyes; its sword qi was so sharp that one dared not look at it directly.
Meng Jingzhou displayed his Three Heads and Six Arms. Six mighty, muscular arms stood poised to strike, capable of shattering the heavens or cleaving the earth with a single fist. His three faces were ferocious, eyes glaring in a great wrathful visage.
"Nascent Soul... no, Soul Formation stage?!"
The faces of Liu Xiangyu and the three maids went stark white in an instant. Although these three appeared to possess cultivation levels similar to their own, the aura they now displayed undeniably carried the power of the Soul Formation stage!
Even without the nine-tiered pagoda, any single one of the three could have subdued them!
Wasn't Chunjiang City home to only two Soul Formation cultivators in total, both of whom served the yamen? Where on earth had Husband managed to hire three Soul Formation experts?!
Seeing that the four women had settled down, Shi Chan withdrew his Six-Zhang Golden Body. Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou followed suit, dispelling their displays as well.
"This poor monk was entrusted by Patron Xu to resolve his deficiency of yang qi. I ask the four female benefactors not to make things difficult for me."
The four women naturally agreed, behaving as meekly and obediently as could be.
Liu Xiangyu returned to human form and invited the three masters into the main hall to talk.
"Before we discuss the matter at hand, allow this poor monk to introduce myself. My Buddhist name is Shi Chan, a disciple of the Hanging Temple."
The color drained from the faces of the four women once more, their nerves tightening. He was actually an esteemed monk from the Hanging Temple!
The Hanging Temple had very few disciples, and rumors of them were exceedingly rare. To the outside world, the temple was shrouded in mystery, leaving the four women unable to discern Shi Chan's stance.
Xiao Cui was the most panicked of all. She was a Branch Master of the Nine Nether Cult; if her identity were exposed, she feared she would not even be able to flee.
"Benefactor Liu, if this monk is not mistaken, you are of the White Snake Clan from the Demon Domain?"
"The master's sight is clear."
"Benefactor Liu, heed this monk's advice. Your relationship with Patron Xu is truly improper."
Liu Xiangyu turned pale, overcome by a foreboding premonition. "Does the master mean that humans and demons tread different paths, and we can never truly be together?"
Shi Chan shook his head. "Nay. This monk means that when registering a marriage, one's race must be verified. Patron Xu has never known your true identity, which indicates that while the two of you have the reality of husband and wife, you do not possess the legal status.
"This monk advises you two to go to the yamen and register."
Chapter 669