Chapter 210: Poisonous
Yu Guang and his group stayed the night in Lehong Town. These teenagers, who had spent the entire day running around slaying evil spirits, had collapsed from exhaustion. After a good meal and a night’s sleep, they were back to full energy.
Early in the morning, they gnawed on roasted flatbread, flipped through the task books, and eagerly asked Yu Guang where they would be heading next to eliminate evil spirits.
Yu Guang took a large sip of porridge and finished a bun in three bites. In response, he said, “Today, we’re staying in Lehong Town; there’s still unfinished business here.”
“The evil spirits in Lehong Town have already been taken care of, haven’t they? And even the ones in the nearby villages are all gone. What’s left to handle?”
Everyone was puzzled.
The only one who seemed to understand Yu Guang’s intentions was Yu Yin, who sat beside him, sipping porridge slowly and taking tiny bites of a bun, which he still hadn’t finished after more than ten nibbles.
Yu Guang, having finished his meal, wiped his mouth and said, “Eliminating the evil spirits was just the first step.”
He urged everyone to eat faster, then turned to his younger brother. Placing a hand over Yu Yin’s dark head, he ruffled his hair and said, “You haven’t exercised for two days, and now you’re back to eating slowly. Are you sure you’ve eaten enough?”
Yu Yin had a cloth strip tied over his eyes, his porcelain-white face revealing no expression. Hearing the words, he deliberately acted contrary and tossed aside the steamed bun he had been nibbling on for half the day.
Yu Guang didn’t mind. He casually picked it up and finished it in two bites. “Are you drinking the porridge or not? If not, give it to me.”
The porridge Yu Yin had been stirring for ages was promptly taken by Yu Guang and gulped down in one go.
Yu Yin: “…”
Yu Guang had often finished off his younger brothers’ leftovers in the past. The second brother was picky about food, and the third wasn’t much better.
It wasn’t until the fourth brother started managing the household that this habit disappeared.
When the fourth brother cooked, he paid attention to everyone’s preferences, striving to ensure not a single bite was left over.
If anything was left, it meant the brothers found his cooking unappetizing.
That would spell trouble. The fourth brother would endlessly adjust the menu, trying various dishes to whet their appetites.
Over time, no one dared to leave any food uneaten.
Even the fifth brother, who was a little rascal when he first arrived, couldn’t escape this. Despite Yu Guang teaching him countless times not to waste food, it never worked. It wasn’t until the fourth brother got involved that the habit was corrected.
Whenever Yu Guang watched the youngest eat like this, he often wished he could bring the fourth brother over to teach him a lesson.
Unfortunately, the brothers were in other worlds, leaving Yu Guang to handle it himself.
…
On the widest street in Lehong Town, a simple stage had been set up. Nearly everyone in the town had come, crowding together with their stools to sit around the platform.
Neighbors sat together, discussing the major events happening in the town.
A group of young cultivators had arrived, slain the evil spirit haunting their town, and then summoned everyone to hold some kind of assembly, requiring at least one person from every household to attend.
The town rarely saw any excitement, so when something fresh happened, the townspeople flocked over in droves.
Even those unwilling to come had been dragged out of their homes.
The wealthiest two families in the town, both surnamed Ji, were brothers who had split their inheritance.
Since the cultivators arrived in town, these two families had kept their gates tightly shut, but even they had been dragged here now, sitting uneasily on the sidelines.
Several young cultivators from the Tianchong Class stood nearby, guarding the area to prevent anyone from slipping away while chatting casually with their arms crossed:
“Big Brother said he wants to get to the bottom of how the evil spirit came about. I bet these two families are definitely involved.”
“I think so too. Earlier, when I went to call them over, they even tried to bribe me with money. If that’s not a guilty conscience, I don’t know what is.”
Yu Guang stepped onto the stage, looking at the crowd below, filled with confusion, curiosity, or simply here for the drama. He began to talk about the identity of the ghost they had slain.
The first evil spirit they killed in Lehong Town had been a widow. Her husband had died young, and her son had succumbed to illness. Left alone, she became a target for her uncles and cousins, who schemed relentlessly to take over her property.
In the end, she died of illness in her home. Her body was only discovered after it had started to rot.
“Madam Ji had a kind heart. She often provided free porridge and food for those in need. She spoke gently too. When my family delivered charcoal to her, she would always pay us a little extra,” someone in the crowd remarked.
“Exactly. It’s such a pity her husband and son passed away so early. Good people just don’t get good endings!”
Many in Lehong Town remembered the charitable Madam Ji. Meanwhile, the two wealthy families sitting apart from the crowd began to panic.
“We didn’t drive her to her death! We were just reclaiming our own money. Our family lent money to our sister-in-law in the past. After our brother died, we asked her to repay the debt—how is that wrong?”
“Yes, exactly! We were just taking back what we lent her. We didn’t kill her!”
The two families, adorned in gold and silver, initially spoke with some hesitation. But as they continued, they convinced themselves of their innocence, growing increasingly self-righteous.
Someone in the crowd couldn’t hold back any longer:
“Reclaiming a debt? What debt? It’s all made up! You just wanted to seize her property! Who in town doesn’t know that?”
The town was so small that there were no real secrets. With so many people gathered together and the presence of cultivators keeping order, those who had previously been too afraid to speak found their courage.
Bit by bit, the crowd pieced the entire story together.
It turned out that after discovering Madam Ji had become an evil spirit, the two wealthy families had gone out to purchase talismans to trap her within the mansion.
To ensure the ghost wouldn’t escape and harm them, they even went to the countryside to buy people, using them as offerings to pacify the ghost inside the house.
The young cultivators of the Tianchong Class hadn’t expected such a horrifying twist. Disgust was evident on their faces.
Ban Ying carefully documented the ghost’s identity and the entire sequence of events.
“They tormented their widowed sister-in-law for money, and then bought people to feed to the ghost. Who knows how many lives they’ve ruined? This family truly deserves death!” one of the young cultivators said angrily.
Pei Wenjue was equally upset but still reasoned, “What they’ve done is despicable and deserving of punishment. However, under Zhuzhou law, they didn’t kill Madam Ji with their own hands. Buying and selling people is treated as sl*very, and causing the death of sl*ves only results in a fine.”
“So what? Are you saying we can’t punish them even if we hand them over to the authorities?”
The young cultivators all turned to Yu Guang. Yu Guang waved his hand dismissively. “Tie them all up and hang them on the town wall!”
The cultivators burst out laughing and rushed to bind the arrogant Ji family members, dragging them to the wall.
Yu Guang then posted the written record of the ghost’s origin and the events leading to it on the town’s bulletin board. He also sought out the town’s stonemason to carve the story into a monument, which he erected in a prominent spot in the town.
“This is a Warning Monument. From now on, whenever an evil spirit appears nearby, the full story must be documented and displayed.”
In the past, when evil spirits appeared, the local people lived in fear until cultivators arrived to deal with them. Once the threat was eliminated, life would return to normal, and the incident would be buried and never spoken of again.
People treated evil spirits as taboo, covering up their existence whenever possible.
No one had ever done what Yu Guang did—laying everything out clearly and openly, ensuring that everyone knew the truth.
Regardless of the legal rulings, Yu Guang wanted people to understand that good deeds and evil actions carried consequences.
Whether someone was directly involved or not, he wanted everyone to remember the lesson: if such things happened again, evil spirits would inevitably reappear.
Lehong Town was only the beginning. From then on, wherever they went, whenever they killed an evil spirit, Yu Guang would uncover the source of the ghost and investigate the cause of the deceased’s death.
In every place they passed, they first dealt with the evil spirits, then confronted the wrongdoers, and finally left a record pinned to the bulletin board.
In each town, they erected one Warning Monument after another.
Within just a few days, the young cultivators of the Tianchong Class were visibly worn out.
Killing evil spirits wasn’t the hardest part. The truly exhausting part was uncovering the heavy, tragic stories behind each ghost, which left their spirits deeply troubled.
They noticed a pattern: the gentler, kinder, and more defenseless a person had been in life, the more likely they were to become a malevolent ghost after enduring a painful death.
It was as if all the suffering and grievances they had buried deep inside during their lifetime were unleashed only after death, manifesting in the form of a ghost.
It was heartbreaking.
On every Warning Monument they erected, they carved the words: “Do not exploit the kind.”
The 30-person team traveled under a cloud of gloom, the atmosphere heavy.
Seeing everyone looking so dejected, Yu Guang slowed their pace, allowing them time to recover.
This marked the tenth day since they had left the Divine Academy, and still, no one from the Exorcism Bureau or the Academy had found them.
It was slower than Yu Guang had anticipated.
He announced that they could rest for a day and didn’t need to rush to the next location to hunt evil spirits. The listless group of teenagers finally perked up a little.
“Why don’t we rest by this river?” suggested the liveliest of them. “We can hunt some wild rabbits or pheasants in the nearby woods, catch a few fish from the river, and have a cookout!”
“Alright, alright! I’ve been riding horses every day lately, and my backside feels like it’s been split into eight pieces. I don’t want to move anymore—let’s just rest here for the day!”
“Spending the night in the forest, under the open sky—it’s certainly a unique experience!”
The group of young masters and young misses, who had rarely endured any hardship, eagerly decided to have a wild cookout.
After finishing their hunt, they stared at the wild rabbits, pheasants, and fish flopping their tails, exchanging bewildered looks.
None of them knew how to cook—they had always been the ones lounging and waiting for meals to be served.
“How are we supposed to cook these?”
“Why are you asking me? I’ve never cooked before either.”
“I saw my family’s cook make chicken once. I think you have to pluck the feathers first.”
“With so many of us, is there seriously no one here who knows how to cook?”
Suddenly, they heard an unfamiliar laugh.
Following the sound, they realized the laughter was coming from Yu Yin. It was the first time anyone had ever seen the porcelain doll-like boy laugh so happily—it was unprecedented.
Everyone froze, thinking they were seeing things. They instinctively looked twice, then snapped back to reality, their faces filled with alarm.
Oh no, we accidentally looked at the younger brother again! We’re going to be soul-bound!
Still laughing, Yu Yin raised his hand and pointed at Yu Guang.
“Hmm.” Yu Guang let out a rare, pleased hum through his nose.
While many were still marveling that the younger brother could laugh—and simultaneously panicking about being embarrassed or beaten—Ban Ying and a few of the less-shaken girls quickly grasped the meaning.
“Yu Yin, are you saying that Big Brother knows how to cook?” Ban Ying asked.
Everyone suddenly snapped out of their daze.
“That’s right! Big Brother must know! He can use all kinds of weapons—there’s no way he doesn’t know how to cook!”
“Big Brother and his younger brother depended on each other for survival. He must’ve cooked for him often—he’s probably very skilled at it!”
The naive teenagers lit up with excitement and eagerly gathered around Yu Guang.
“Big Brother, show us what you’ve got!”
“Big Brother, we’ll help you out!”
Yu Guang was pushed into the spotlight by the group and had no choice but to confess honestly, “I can cook, but it doesn’t taste very good.”
“Hahaha, Big Brother, you’re too modest!”
“Big Brother said before that he only knew a little about fighting, and then went on to defeat everyone. We can’t believe Big Brother’s modest words!”
“Exactly! Big Brother is capable of anything. Cooking is probably nothing to him!”
The group of teenagers, blindly trusting and adoring their Big Brother, optimistically awaited the results. Soon, they were presented with roasted fish and meat that didn’t look very appetizing.
Someone hesitated. “It doesn’t look very tasty.”
Another retorted, “What do you know? Sometimes things that look bad taste amazing.”
The most devoted admirer, Wu Jin, was the first to grab a piece of roasted rabbit. Seeing this, the others rushed to snatch some for themselves, worried they’d miss the chance to taste Big Brother’s cooking.
Moments later, the sound of retching filled the air.
Pei Wenjue, seated closest to the river, crawled over and dunked his head into the water, drinking furiously.
Wu Jin, still by the fire, rolled his eyes and clawed at his throat as if he were choking.
Ban Ying turned pale, her whole body trembling as she struggled to suppress the urge to vomit.
Ming Yu lay on the ground, spitting out white foam.
It was a disaster born of their excessive faith in Yu Guang. They had all taken big bites of the food and, refusing to believe it could be so bad, kept trying again—only to regret it deeply.
Yu Guang observed their reactions with mild surprise. He took two bites himself and found that it didn’t taste any worse than what he had cooked before.
Back when he and Youngest lived in a hunter’s cabin in the mountain, he had made similar roasted rabbit, and his brother hadn’t reacted like this when eating it.
“Could it be the lack of seasoning?” Yu Guang muttered to himself.
…
Meanwhile, in the distant forest, a few cultivators in gray robes from the Exorcism Bureau were quietly observing Yu Guang and his group by the river.
The Exorcism Bureau cultivators had spotted Yu Guang’s group the day before. However, seeing that they were outnumbered, they held back, waiting for reinforcements from other teams to arrive before attempting to apprehend Yu Guang and his followers.
Now, seeing the group inexplicably sprawled across the ground with only Yu Guang standing unaffected, they suddenly realized this was the perfect opportunity.
“Go! Restrain Yu Guang—everyone else is no threat right now!”
The cultivators emerged from the forest and charged toward the riverbank.
Moments later, all five were tied up by Yu Guang.
Yu Guang looked at the leader of the cultivators and asked, “When did you start tracking us?”
“You’re all doomed, and you don’t even know it. The Exorcism Bureau issued an edict to bring you back, and more cultivators are already on their way. If you’re smart, you’ll let us go now and surrender quietly,” the leader replied.
His gaze swept over the youths lying scattered on the ground. “With them in this state, you won’t be able to escape!”
Yu Guang’s expression shifted as if something clicked in his mind. Pressing a hand on the cultivator’s shoulder, he asked sharply, “Did you poison the water?”
If they had been poisoned, it would explain all the vomiting.
“Don’t you dare slander us!” the cultivator snapped angrily.
They were official members of the Exorcism Bureau—how could they stoop to such despicable tactics?
Ming Yu propped himself up on his sword, glaring. “Shameless! To think you’d poison the water to harm us!”
The group of youths immediately believed it.
“So that’s it—they poisoned the water! No wonder I felt a bitter taste in my throat after swallowing just one bite.”
“This poison is powerful—it even altered the taste of the meat. I was wondering why normal meat would taste sour and bitter! It was the poison!”
“Despicable! I almost blamed Big Brother for this!”
Outraged, the young cultivators began to shout accusations, their indignation boiling over.
Yu Guang grabbed the shoulder of one of the captured cultivators and asked sternly, “What poison did you use? Where is the antidote?”
The cultivator, already seething under their disdainful glares and accusations, snapped, “I already told you, we didn’t poison anything!”
“To poison us and then deny it—how shameless!”
“Feed him some of this roasted meat and let him taste his own poison!”
Through the gray-eyed cat, Yu Yin observed the interrogation from a distance, his expression strangely blank.
Are they all idiots?
