"I am willing to work as diligently as a dog or a horse for the Sect Hierarch!" The three of them, quite in unison, lifted their teacups and responded in chorus.
"Not for , but for us," Yang Xiao corrected.
In any case, the Sun and Moon Divine Sect was officially established that night, and at that mont, less than six hours had passed since the Golden Snake Qipao Woman had t Yang Xiao.
Elated by the establishnt of the new sect, Yang Xiao finally rembered sothing. He took out the tal short arrow from within his chest and showed it to the two people of Golden Snake. "Do you recognize this object?"
Before his words were fully out, Yang Xiao knew he’d asked unnecessarily because the eyes of the two from Golden Snake were glued to the item. It was only after Yang Xiao prompted them that they ca back to their senses. The Qipao woman swallowed salivam her face full of admiration, "Sect Hierarch, this object is known as the Lantern Order, bestowed by the Peace Hotel. It’s said that no matter what trouble you encounter within the bounds of Xiang Ma Town, as long as you release the Lantern Order, soone from the hotel will co to your aid."
As Yang Xiao had guessed, the man in the Tang suit had summoned the Ghost Slave with the Lantern Order. "Is this item very precious?"
"Extrely precious. You need to help the hotel complete a task to have a chance of obtaining it. For juniors of the Yuan Generation like us, it’s essentially impossible," the Qipao Woman confessed truthfully.
Nodding, Yang Xiao could roughly guess the difficulty of acquiring such an item. It probably required at least the prowess to take down individuals of Huang Sanbing’s caliber, and such missions would be akin to suicide for the current Golden Snake Qipao Woman.
As the new sect was just established and its foundation still unsteady, Yang Xiao had the two from the Golden Snake go back to organize the followers and take stock of their assets.
Yang Xiao did not touch a di of their gold and silver treasures. What really interested him was intelligence. He arranged for Ling Yanyu to join the two, to compile the intelligence they had gathered over the years, focusing on information related to Xiang Ma Town, Peace Hotel, internal affairs of Rongcheng, and matters pertaining to the Yu Yuan Sect.
Now that he was the leader of a faction, things were different than before. So simple yet tedious matters could entirely be delegated to his subordinates.
This was also ant to train Ling Yanyu. Though young and not worldly, his strength lay in his quick learning ability, nimble mind, and relative loyalty to Yang Xiao.
Since he was prohibited from entering the hotel for three months by a hotel expert, Yang Xiao no longer had the chance to trade intelligence with the Peace Hotel. It seed the issue related to the Mirror Ghost would have to wait, probably forcing him to engage in covert contests at the Ru Lin Academy in Yun Qi City.
Leaning back slowly into his chair, Yang Xiao let out a sigh, suddenly feeling sentintal, "I, Yang Xiao, have lived a straightforward life, never wishing to be an enemy to anyone, yet things have gone against my wishes. To this day, it has all been due to circumstances beyond my control, fate that cannot be defied."
In the following days, Yang Xiao stayed in Xiang Ma Town, keeping an eye on his Golden Snake subordinates and reading through intelligence.
When he had nothing to do during the day, he would go out for a walk, but to hide his identity, he always used the Soul-Capturing Mirror to teleport out, changing his clothes and wearing a duckbill cap and mask.
Walking on the street, Yang Xiao noticed that Xiang Ma Town in daylight was no different from other towns, in fact, it was even livelier. Street vendors were plentiful, and occasionally so school uniform-clad children would run about, their appearances innocent and adorable.
At night, after dinner, Yang Xiao sat alone in a room on the second floor, not in the best mood. He had just driven away a woman with high-heels, blonde hair, and a flirtatious dress—obviously arranged by Golden Snake or Qipao Woman, sothing readily apparent even without thinking.
Right now, Yang Xiao didn’t have ti for these distractions. His urgent priorities were to establish a foothold in Xiang Ma Town and, most importantly, to guard against potential sneak attacks.
Only at night did Xiang Ma Town reveal its more terrifying aspects, and Yang Xiao had survived up to this point by being cautious.
Suddenly, Yang Xiao’s brow furrowed sharply. He heard a "tapping" sound coming from downstairs. The woman he had sent away had returned.
Yang Xiao, suppressing his temper, pulled open the door and shouted downstairs, "I don’t need any services, go back where you ca from and don’t provoke to anger."
The person below was very cooperative, not daring to utter a word, their footsteps stopping at the corner of the staircase. Soon, Yang Xiao heard a "creak," the sound of a very old door being opened.
It was the wooden door of the bathroom at the corner of the first floor. The Nie Family Teahouse where he was staying was an old building with severely aged facilities. The Golden Snake duo had previously asked Yang Xiao to move in with them, but he had declined, preferring the tranquility here.
Unable to persuade him, the two mbers of the Golden Snake left a couple of reliable subordinates in the teahouse to be on call, allowing Yang Xiao to summon them at any ti for assistance.
After sitting back down on the sofa, Yang Xiao continued to look through the docunts in his hands. However, it wasn’t long before he sensed sothing was wrong; because it was an old building with poor soundproofing, the flushing sounds from the outdated bathroom downstairs would continuously echo, one after another, as if soone were standing by the toilet, imdiately flushing it once the tank refilled.
His recent experiences had sharpened Yang Xiao’s sense of danger, and he imdiately realized sothing was amiss. It was likely that trouble had co knocking at his door.
That was expected, but he didn’t raise any alarm. Instead, he picked up the intercom on the wall and whispered to the two people on duty downstairs, but the only response he received was the rustling sound of an electric current.
To silently take out two skilled fighters, the opponent must be up to no good and was surely an Angel Envoy. He just wasn’t sure which faction they were from.
Yang Xiao, well-versed and experienced in dealing with such situations, didn’t panic at all. He didn’t choose to approach the window to draw back the curtains and look outside, as that would only expose him. The other party could very well not be alone.
He first hid in the Mirror World and swiftly changed into his Drama Robe there, also putting on his mask. In the blink of an eye, Yang Xiao had arrived downstairs.
And, unbeknownst to when, all the lights downstairs had gone out. Looking outside through the French windows, the courtyard was also pitch-black, and the two subordinates guarding the place were gone. Now, all around was deadly quiet—night had fallen as silent as death itself.
"Whoosh—"
The sudden sound made Yang Xiao feel as if his heart was being clenched, and he quickly looked towards the corner bathroom where the flushing sound was heard again.
There was soone inside. Yang Xiao could sense it very clearly because the broken wooden door of the bathroom was now slightly ajar, and light was seeping through the crack.
It was the kind of light emitted by an old light bulb, a dim yellow color that felt oppressive. The streak of light cast on the floor also flickered sporadically, indicating movent inside.
Silently pulling out the Human Bone Staff, Yang Xiao once again activated the power of the Soul-Capturing Mirror, attempting to sneak in and find out who was pretending to be a ghost there. But the next second, he witnessed sothing he had completely not anticipated—his Soul-Capturing Mirror beca ineffective. In his perception, the bathroom had suddenly disappeared, as if it had beco a void at that very mont.
A bold guess surged into his mind. Yang Xiao cald his spirit and slowly walked toward the bathroom, holding the Ghost Lantern in his left hand and the Human Bone Staff in his right, his nerves taut.
As he pushed the bathroom door open bit by bit with the Ghost Lantern, Yang Xiao’s pupils shrank in shock. There was no one inside; the toilet lid was down, covering it. And on top of the toilet cover, there was a square box.
The box was covered with a deathly gray color, and beside it, three big characters were written in blood-red—
Blue Skirt.
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