Roaring Dragon-Chapter 37: Shifting the Blame Eastward

Outskirts of the city, Huai River Bend, inside a secluded manor.

A painting desk was set up on the riverside terrace, but there wasn’t a soul in sight. In the meditation chamber behind, an elder with graying hair, dressed in scholar robes, paced back and forth, his face dark with rage as he cursed:

"I sent you to destroy the evidence, and you, you walking disaster, what the hell did you pull outside?

"This afternoon the yamen was still looking for the big demon from Zihui Mountain, and then you went out once—and Lu Ming died outside! Not only that, three hundred soldiers all ran back to the city, and now everyone from the Dan Prince’s Mansion, Zihui Mountain, and Danyang Academy are parading the streets armed to the teeth.

"At this point, if I went outside to take a piss, I could crash into two third-rank experts! I’ve done shady business all my life and have never seen such a massive operation..."

Most real martial strength started around sixth rank and above, and Danyang wasn’t the capital, so running into two third-rank powerhouses by accident was clearly an exaggeration.

Still, right now, masters were indeed swarming the city and outskirts, all looking for the demonic traitors raising mad corpses!

He Can, sitting on a meditation cushion with bandages wrapped around his chest, wore a bewildered expression:

"I don’t know, Master. I just got to Jiguang Ridge when Xie Jinhuan blocked me. His attacks were brutal beyond belief—I barely escaped with my life.

"Master, I really think Xie Jinhuan is hiding something huge. He’s wielding a demonic-suppressing artifact but running around with witch cultists, and he showed up at Jiguang Ridge like a ghost—like he already knew exactly where to go.

"Do you think he might be from the Gu Poison Sect’s ancestral court, sent specifically to clean up traitors like you?

"He got there before me and had already opened the corpse pit..."

The old man, Taishu Dan, He Can’s master, halted in fury:

"I left Chidong Cave thirty years ago! If anyone were clearing house, it’d be the Corpse Witch Sect, not the Gu Poison Sect! What would they come after me for now?

"And besides, according to our brother inside the city, the blood markings at the corpse pit are divine-level.

"To fake something like that, you’d need unbelievable mastery. Xie Jinhuan’s just a straightforward fighter. Even if he wanted to frame me, how could he possibly produce blood traces of that level?"

He Can thought it over carefully and realized it made sense.

From today’s clash, neither Xie Jinhuan nor that witch girl seemed capable of faking such transcendent traces.

And if a top master had been hiding nearby, he would’ve been silenced immediately—it was much riskier to let him live and escape.

"If it wasn’t Xie Jinhuan’s doing..."

He Can thought harder, then asked:

"Could it be that the big demon from Zihui Mountain accidentally found the corpse pit and was using the yin energy inside to recover its strength? Xie Jinhuan might’ve tracked it through the corpse flower and mistakenly thought you were the source?"

Taishu Dan thought this over, finding it plausible. He sat down nearby:

"The source of the blood aura isn’t clear even at the top. If that’s the case, we can’t exactly jump out and explain ourselves. Even if we did, without proof, the yamen wouldn’t believe us."

He Can frowned deeply. This was a serious mess.

His master had once belonged to the Gu Poison Sect, then defected to the Corpse Witch Sect, and now had betrayed both to join the Nether God Sect, secretly refining "Blood Demon Pills" in Danyang.

A traitor thrice over, Taishu Dan was a deeply entrenched villain in the Jianghu.

But this time the court’s lineup was ridiculous. Every powerhouse from Dan Prefecture had been mobilized, and national teams like the Celestial Observatory were preparing to intervene.

If they got mistaken for the source of Zihui Mountain’s demonic aura, there would be no surviving this.

"What do we do now? If the Prince’s men keep investigating like this, we won’t even last two days before being dug up."

Taishu Dan rubbed his fingers thoughtfully for a long time:

"The yamen currently thinks the Zihui Mountain aura is tied to Dongcang Ward and the Sanhe Tower incident. They don’t know who we are yet.

"Since we’ve already shifted the blame eastward, we must keep framing others. Let the Li Family take the fall. We only need to drag this out until after Mid-Autumn Festival."

He Can brightened immediately.

The court believed they were connected to the Zihui Mountain demon but didn’t know their identities.

They had already framed the Li Family yesterday. If they piled on more ‘evidence’ linking the Li Family to the demonic aura, then naturally the court’s iron fist would smash down on the Li Family!

And the Li Family wouldn’t confess easily.

With their powerful backers, they’d clash head-on with the Prince’s faction—buying He Can and his master precious time.

"A dead fellow traveler is better than a dead poor Taoist! I’ll go dig a bigger hole for the Lis right away, get the yamen’s attention off us."

"This time you must get help from that senior brother. Don’t expose yourself again. Mid-Autumn is just days away. If you botch this, there will be nowhere left in the world for us to hide."

"Understood..."

...

——

Night deepened. Near the Qingquan Alley yamen, hoofbeats continued ceaselessly, with constables riding in and out.

Xie Jinhuan, carrying a sleeping Meiqiu over his shoulder, walked along the street.

Seeing the now doubled number of constables and soldiers on patrol made him feel much more at ease.

These officers had originally been combing the mountains for hidden demon tombs.

Even though finding the Demon Suppression Tomb hidden deep in the mountains would’ve been hard, they would’ve eventually succeeded—and could’ve found traces related to him.

Now everyone’s attention had been pulled back to the city, focused on chasing the demonic traitors. His odds of exposure had dropped dramatically.

Even though this was only a temporary reprieve—once the Prince’s forces realized the enemy wasn’t as strong as expected, they would eventually circle back to him—for now, he had bought precious time to find a way to break the deadlock.

Thinking thus, Xie Jinhuan returned to his rented house on Qingquan Alley, where the landlady’s noisy zither playing was still in full swing:

"Swallow's whispers, oriole’s gentle tunes~..."

"I heard the young master who slaughtered his way through the Peony Pond today is outrageously handsome. Anyone know who he is?"

"He was coming and going with Doctor Lin—you think you can compete? Doctor Lin isn’t just stunningly beautiful; her bed skills are said to be divine..."

...

These little wild vixens...

Xie Jinhuan muttered to himself, setting Meiqiu on the bed to sleep.

Then he drew water into the bath barrel and poured in the medicinal powder Lin Wanyi had given him.

As he stirred it with his hand, a rich medicinal aroma filled the room. The water turned milky white, looking almost like a milk bath.

Xie Jinhuan shed his clothes and leaned into the barrel, pulling out a small vial and tipping out a red pill.

The Dragon Blood Pill looked more like a hawthorn candy ball.

It had a faint, pleasant fragrance, melted instantly on his tongue, and tasted nothing special.

Soaking in the bath, Xie Jinhuan carefully observed the changes in his body—and soon felt a warm current rising from his lungs, spreading through his limbs and bones.

The soreness and fatigue in his muscles visibly melted away. He couldn’t help but exclaim:

"A pill worth nearly ten thousand taels really is extraordinary."

He said this toward the ghost wife, but he hadn’t expected her to show herself so soon.

Even as the words left his mouth, he noticed something wrong.

Looking up, he saw that across the oval bath barrel... a woman had appeared.

The woman’s figure was lush and tender, with long black hair cascading down her back.

Her shoulders were snowy and smooth like mutton fat jade.

Her face was bright and seductive, her white neck and proud chest tantalizing—though sadly, the water masked most of the curves.

Holy shit...

Xie Jinhuan’s eyes widened, scanning her up and down:

"What are you doing?"

Ye Hongshang lounged at the opposite end, shrugging slightly:

"I promised you candy during the day. Don’t you like a lovers’ bath?"

Xie Jinhuan did like it—but could it at least be a real body!?

Look but can’t touch—this was straight-up torture!

He experimentally stretched out a foot to touch her, but unsurprisingly passed right through.

Sighing, he said:

"If you want to give me a treat, make it something tangible. I’m soaking in a medicinal bath to nourish my body. If you mess up my qi and spirit, who’s going to fix it?"

"The Buddha said, ‘Form is emptiness, and emptiness is form.’ If you can’t stabilize your mind even against illusions, how will you ever reach the mountain peak?"

As Ye Hongshang spoke, she scooped water with her hand and sprinkled it down her chest.

Splash, splash~

Even though it was an illusion, the physical effects were terrifyingly realistic—so long as you didn’t try to touch, it looked exactly real.

Facing a ghost wife he couldn’t ravage, Xie Jinhuan’s expression grew more and more strained.

He reached for a wine flask at the side of the barrel, hoping to drink away his frustration.

But the ghost wife’s business skills were top-notch.

When she said she’d spoil him, she really meant it—offering ‘drink, soak, and cuddle’ all in one go.

With a flick of her wrist, she conjured a wine cup:

"Drinking alone is boring. How about we play finger-guessing? If I lose, I’ll stand up. If you lose, you drink."

Xie Jinhuan thought this sounded promising.

Even an illusion would be worth the show.

But he still set some ground rules:

"No cheating. You stand up naked if you lose. No shapeshifting into a spider body. And no pulling out a bigger dick than mine and turning into a fake shemale."

Ye Hongshang arched an eyebrow, swirling the wine cup:

"Of course. Win three times in a row and you can even touch."

"Really?"

Xie Jinhuan perked up immediately, pouring himself a drink and setting it on the side table.

"How do we play?"

Ye Hongshang gestured toward the back wall:

"Play Fifteen-Twenty, like those little girls."

Of course Xie Jinhuan knew how to play. He sat up straighter, hiding his hands behind his back, ready.

Ye Hongshang also sat up—though thanks to the illusion’s perfect control, her chest still «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» didn’t break the surface—hiding her hands under the water.

"Start. Fifteen, fifteen..."

"Ten—twenty-five!"

"?!"

As Xie Jinhuan shouted, he noticed four arms emerging across from him.

Four pale hands...

Adding up exactly twenty-five fingers!

??

Xie Jinhuan’s smile froze.

He even rubbed his eyes, but the four arms were still there.

"Lalala~"

Ye Hongshang shook her four arms proudly:

"I win. Drink."

"You—you’re cheating!"

Xie Jinhuan protested immediately:

"You’re an illusion—you can morph however you want! If you want, you could turn into a Thousand-Handed Avalokitesvara! How the hell am I supposed to play?

"From now on: only call out zero or multiples of five, no negatives, no decimals..."

He rattled off a long list of rules.

Ye Hongshang nodded nonchalantly, hiding her hands again:

"Okay~ your call. Let’s go. Fifteen, fifteen... fifteen!"

"Twenty!"

Xie Jinhuan did his best to resist the supernatural, but the outcome was inevitable.

Ye Hongshang was a conjured illusion.

The moment she appeared, he had already fallen into her charm.

Playing finger-guessing inside an illusion? It was impossible to win—unless she let him.

Even though he never managed to make the ghost wife stand up, he had to admit—she knew how to tease, the wine was excellent, and until he blacked out, he drank quite happily...