Gu Yuan turned his eyes and looked at the three incense sticks in my hand. His brows suddenly furrowed, and he said seriously, "The evil spirits are lingering. Light another one."
Upon receiving his order, I immediately took out another incense stick and bowed to the surroundings. But the incense sticks still showed two short and one long. Moreover, the two broken incense sticks on the left and right were burning extremely fast. In a short while, they had burned down to the base.
I looked at the incense sticks, pinched the base with two fingers, quickly jumped up towards the top, accumulated the incense ash between my fingers, then thumbed open my index finger, let the fresh blood stain the incense ash, and finally swept it forward.
The incense ash landed and splashed forward. After the gray smoke dispersed, a figure finally appeared in front. It was none other than Yinggou.
He dusted off the incense ash on his body. Under the scorching sun, he was not afraid of the sunlight and was extremely agile. However, his face, like dried bark, was gray and looked extremely terrifying.
"Prince Yuan, long time no see..." Yinggou's voice was like the scraping of two rusty iron tools.
"I didn't expect you to escape," Gu Yuan said coldly.
"Hahaha... A mere secret spell can't trap me." After Yinggou finished speaking, his figure floated in mid - air and moved horizontally towards Gu Yuan.
I quickly stepped in front of Gu Yuan to stop Yinggou from approaching him. After all, Gu Yuan was not capable of competing with him at the moment.
Yinggou's red eyes, full of bloodshot, sized me up from head to toe.
"You green - horned brat, with just a bit of mediocre skills. Do you think you can stop me?"
"Even if I can't, I'll still try. But if you want to hurt Gu Yuan, you'll have to step over my dead body."
As I finished speaking, I lifted my arm to the side, pinched a talisman in my hand, my eyes glowing with a faint purple light as I stared coldly at Yinggou.
At first, when Yinggou saw me, there was a look of disdain on his face. But the moment his red eyes met my purple ones.
He was obviously shocked, and his face was full of disbelief.
"It's impossible. Who are you?"
"Of course, someone you can't afford to provoke."
After I finished speaking, I forcefully threw out the talisman paper in my hand. Seeing the talisman paper flying out, Yinggou flashed and disappeared without a trace with a "whoosh".
"Girl, we'll meet again." Yinggou's voice echoed in the air.
Seeing him leave, I took a step forward and was about to chase after him, but Gu Yuan stopped me. "Don't pursue a fleeing enemy. Be careful of a ploy to lure the tiger away from the mountain."
Gu Yuan grabbed my arm. I stared at the direction where Yinggou left, feeling unwilling. But Gu Yuan made a lot of sense. I should always stay by his side.
"Usually, when bad guys like this are beaten away, they always say something like this as their last words."
Seeing me protecting him so much, Gu Yuan bent his eyebrows and reached out to ruffle my hair.
"Did he recognize my identity?" I quickly asked Gu Yuan, afraid that my identity would bring him trouble.
"What identity do you have? You're just a small sachet on my waist. What identity could you possibly have?"
Gu Yuan crossed his arms in front of his chest, the corner of his mouth curling up obliquely. Seeing that he showed no sign of worry, it seemed that Yinggou should not have recognized my identity.
"What on earth did you do?" I asked curiously.
"Nothing. Just a sleight of hand."
"Ah? What kind of sleight - of - hand is so powerful..."
As we were talking, Ji Xiang, who was wearing gray clothes, finally ran over from the front. When he stumbled over to us, he was out of breath, his hands on his knees, gasping for air.
Ji Xiang looked complaining. "You guys... You... Little bro, why are you in such a hurry? Don't you know I was in the arms of a beauty, planning to have offspring? Now it's all ruined."
"Is this true love this time?" I asked.
"I'm just trying to strengthen our clan. Who cares about true love or not? Look at you and Third Master. You're so deeply in love. Why bother..."
He caught his breath and asked, "What do you want me to do? Hurry up and tell me. I told that girl I was going to take a bath. Don't delay me."
Ji Xiang was really like an ant on a hot pan, extremely anxious.
"I'll take you to become an immortal. Do you want to go?" Gu Yuan said calmly.
"Become an immortal? Don't be joking, hahaha..." One second he was still smiling playfully, but suddenly his face changed, and he said seriously, "When shall we set off? I'm ready at any time."
"Aren't you in a hurry to have offspring?" I asked, tilting my head.
"Oh, little bro. If I become an immortal, then my offspring will be little immortals. This is called making the kids win at the starting line..."
I held back my laughter and thought to myself that it really was true that when one person attains the Dao, even chickens and dogs ascend to heaven, and even a rat was no exception.
True to his reputation as a waiter, in less than half an hour, Ji Xiang sent the two of us to the small stone bridge in the Netherworld.
"Ji Xiang, go back first. Disband the gang and tell Li Hua to wait for my news," Gu Yuan said to Ji Xiang.
"Ah?" Ji Xiang didn't react for a moment and looked at Gu Yuan in astonishment.
I nudged Ji Xiang with my elbow and said, "You're going to become an immortal in a few days. What do you need the gang for?"
Hearing this, Ji Xiang quickly scratched his head awkwardly and said, "Little bro is absolutely right. I'll go back and wait for good news."
Saying that, Ji Xiang transformed and disappeared on the small bridge in the Netherworld.
After Ji Xiang left, Gu Yuan turned around and looked at the sky lantern on the Wangchuan River in the distance, silent for a long time.
I stood beside him and followed his gaze. "I heard that sky lantern has been hanging there for a thousand years."
"Really? You even know this?"
"I know more than that. I also know that the person who released this lantern must be a person of deep affection. I wonder if this lantern is to light the way for his relatives, lover, or friends?"
After hearing my speculation, Gu Yuan curved his lips and said, "Then why don't you go and take a look for yourself?"
"No... That lantern hanging there is a beautiful hope. Why ruin this wonderful scenery?"
Gu Yuan nodded, thinking that what I said made a lot of sense.
"Yeah. After this is all over, I'll release a sky lantern just for the two of us with you."
After Gu Yuan finished speaking, he reached out and gently stroked my hair, leaving a deep kiss on the top of my head.
At the same time, Jun He also left the City of Eternal Night and stood on the opposite side of the small stone bridge. Seeing the two of us being so affectionate,
he really couldn't stand it anymore. He made a fist and coughed hard twice near his mouth.
Hearing the sound, I quickly shyly pushed Gu Yuan away, tidied my hair, and said, "Why are you here?"
"Yo, what? Do you think I came at a bad time? If I hadn't come, Gu Yuan might have rubbed your hair bald. Going bald at such a young age. Tsk tsk tsk..."
"You..." I was so angry that I kicked out sideways.
Jun He was probably used to getting beaten. He tilted his body and blurted out, "I'm sorry, mom..."
When he called out "mom", my heart skipped a beat. Even Jun He himself didn't expect to say such a thing.