"Open the door for him!" Zheng Shouhe hissed, pressing his dagger against Wen Xiangyu's back.
Left with no choice, Wen Xiangyu opened the door.
A clean-cut face appeared outside—it was Lu Yang.
Wen Xiangyu desperately signaled him with her eyes to run, but Lu Yang seemed utterly oblivious. A polite, professional smile spread across his face. "Your barbecue skewers."
Zheng Shouhe put on a professional smile of his own. The boy looked like an honest, simple sort—tricking him inside would be child's play. "Come in and take a seat, young brother. I'll get your money."
Taking him at his word, Lu Yang stepped inside. Seeing the pitch-black room, he chuckled. "You haven't even lit a lamp. Going to bed this early?"
Seeing Lu Yang foolishly walk in, Wen Xiangyu panicked. Steeling her heart, she tried to shove him back outside.
How could Zheng Shouhe miss her sudden move? It was too late for that. Sneering, he flung Wen Xiangyu behind him and thrust his dagger at Lu Yang through the darkness.
Zheng Shouhe had spent a long time in the dark; his eyes were already adjusted. Someone coming in from the street would inevitably need time to acclimate. This was his chance!
It seemed tonight was destined to be a bloody night!
Lu Yang kicked Zheng Shouhe four or five meters across the room.
Who bothers talking about science with an immortal cultivator?
Zheng Shouhe never anticipated such a kick. It was monstrously heavy, slamming into his chest like a massive boulder. Stars exploded before his eyes, several ribs shattered, and he vomited a mouthful of blood!
He realized he had run into a ruthless powerhouse. If he wanted to live, he needed a hostage!
Forcing himself through sheer willpower to suppress the agony in his chest, Zheng Shouhe rolled over and lunged to grab Wen Xiangyu's wrist.
"Make one more move and I'll kill her!" Zheng Shouhe snarled viciously.
The figure in his grasp let out a cold laugh. "Kill who?"
Zheng Shouhe looked down and discovered to his horror that he wasn't holding Wen Xiangyu at all—it was Lu Yang!
Lu Yang shoved an open palm under Zheng Shouhe's chin, snatched the dagger away with his other hand, and casually dislocated the man's limbs.
"What rotten luck. How do so many things happen just delivering an order of takeout?"
Lu Yang let out an exasperated sigh, struck a flint, and lit a candle, casting a dim glow across the room.
Wen Xiangyu had never imagined things would turn around so quickly. The barbecue waiter had descended like a deity, subduing the vicious outlaw in the blink of an eye.
"Are you all right?" Lu Yang asked, helping the dazed Wen Xiangyu up from the floor.
"I—I'm fine."
"Good to hear. Skewer money, please," Lu Yang said politely.
"Ah? Oh... right." Only then did Wen Xiangyu remember that Lu Yang had come to deliver takeout and had merely rescued her in passing.
After handing Lu Yang the coins, a wave of lingering fear washed over her. Wanting to say anything to ease the terror in her heart, she asked, "Y-you're a cultivator?"
"That's right."
"Cultivators run shops too?"
"Gotta make a living, after all."
Lying on the floor and groaning in agony, Zheng Shouhe was filled with boundless regret. What awful luck was this, running into a cultivator the moment he stepped outside? Had cultivators fallen so low that they had to deliver takeout just to survive?
Seeing Wen Xiangyu's shaken expression, Lu Yang shook his head with a chuckle. "I'll walk with you to report this to the authorities."
"Thank you." Wen Xiangyu suddenly remembered the thief upstairs. "Oh, right—there's another man upstairs. He must be this guy's accomplice."
The moment she had regained consciousness earlier, she had seen both Zheng Shouhe and Lu Zhi, assuming they were working together and had simply turned on each other over her beauty.
Lu Yang headed upstairs and found Lu Zhi tied up securely. He also assumed Lu Zhi was Zheng Shouhe's partner. "A coordinated operation, I see."
Lu Zhi cried out in protest, "Don't talk nonsense! I'm not with that guy! He's a kidnapper, and I'm just a thief! The sentencing guidelines for our crimes aren't even on the same level!"
Lu Yang was amused. "You know your penal code pretty well."
"In our line of work, you look up the statutes before a job to see how many years you'll get," Lu Zhi said, clearly well-versed in the trade.
"Then let's go. We'll head to the yamen and see how many years you get."
Hearing they were going to the yamen, Lu Zhi panicked and pleaded, "No, no, brother, everything's negotiable! We both make our living out in the world, so why back me into a corner? How about this: I'll give you something good if you let me go!"
Lu Yang looked Lu Zhi up and down. The man was purely mortal. "What kind of good thing?"
"A yellow paper that puts people to sleep! With this paper, anyone you want to sleep goes right to sleep, and you can do whatever you want to her!"
Connecting this to the recent strange occurrences in the city, Lu Yang frowned. Realizing this was far from simple, he asked in a cold voice, "Where is it?"
Lu Zhi wasn't entirely foolish; he wasn't going to give up his bargaining chip so easily. "Promise to let me go first!"
Lu Yang swore a solemn oath: "I, Chi Xulong, swear to the heavens: if I don't let you go, may Chi Xulong be struck down by the five thunders of heaven!"
Overjoyed, Lu Zhi said, "The yellow paper is outside, tucked in a corner of the ground-floor wall!"
Clearly, Lu Zhi wasn't all that clever either.
Lu Yang leaped down from the second floor, walked around the exterior, and indeed found a sheet of yellow paper.
It bore symbols Lu Yang couldn't decipher, resembling some sort of talisman.
Stowing the talisman away, he returned upstairs. "Where did you get this?"
"Under the Great Stone Bridge. Once when I was escaping on a boat, I happened to look up and saw a sheet of yellow paper stuck underneath."
Lu Yang nodded. Going back downstairs, he reset Zheng Shouhe's legs, then hauled both men off toward the yamen, with Wen Xiangyu following closely behind.
"Hey, hey, hey! You went back on your word!" Lu Zhi yelled.
Lu Yang gave a cold chuckle. *The one getting struck by lightning is Chi Xulong. What does that have to do with me, Lu Yang?*
As it happened, Constable Wei was on duty tonight. When he saw Lu Yang escorting two criminals into the yamen, a sense of *not you again* welled up within him.
After hearing the details regarding the two culprits, Constable Wei dropped his playful mood and turned solemn. Zheng Shouhe was tied to homicides—a serious felon. Lu Yang had rendered a major service.
"This is the yellow paper Lu Zhi mentioned." Lu Yang handed the paper to Constable Wei, having already committed the symbols to memory.
Taking the talisman, Constable Wei recognized the gravity of the situation.
He had heard that some of the townspeople had been unusually drowsy during the day. He hadn't felt anything himself and had assumed it was nothing serious. Now it seemed someone was deliberately pulling strings behind the scenes!
Who knew how many of these yellow papers were hidden throughout Yanjiang Commandery right now?
However, Constable Wei couldn't make sense of the runes either. He would have to wait until the Chief Constable arrived for duty in the morning to consult him.
"Thanks again. I'll have another commemorative banner sent your way tomorrow," Constable Wei said, waving goodbye after taking statements from Lu Yang and Wen Xiangyu.
Before leaving, Lu Yang stopped by the cells and found Chi Xulong. "A brother of mine named Zheng Shouhe will be staying in here for a while. Please take good care of him."
Chi Xulong sneered. *So you have to come begging me for help too! Take care of him? My Stone-Spitting Divine Art has reached grand completion—just watch how I teach him a lesson!*
After escorting Wen Xiangyu safely back to the tofu shop, Lu Yang resolutely refused the tofu she offered him.
After all the commotion, the barbecue shop had already closed for the night. When Lu Yang returned, the two chang ghosts were washing dishes.
Lu Yang drew the rune from the yellow paper for Lan Ting. "Take a look at this rune. Is its effect meant to induce sleep?"
Lan Ting examined it closely, her expression turning to shock. "Where did you find this? This is a Reverse Lifespan Talisman. It drains a person's lifespan, causing the victim to appear lethargic and excessively drowsy."
"This kind of rune only affects mortals; it doesn't have the slightest impact on immortal cultivators."
Chapter 85