“Phew!”
Lu Zheng sat up abruptly.
The pale moonlight filtered through the window paper, casting a blurred white glow on the bedroom floor.
It was a dream.
It wasn’t a dream.
Lu Zheng jolted, instantly alert, and leapt out of bed, starting to dress.
The items he’d prepared with Yuan Jing a few days ago, though unused then, would finally come in handy.
He didn’t doubt Shen Ying’s sincerity, for if she had ill intentions, she could have used countless excuses to keep him overnight at Peach Blossom Manor without resorting to a dream message.
The mention of a pig demon only added credibility to the matter.
Shen Ying had gifted him a book, and she got along well with him and the Liu sisters.
So, he had to help!
Two Embroidered Spring Sabres: one on his back, one at his waist.
Peace and exorcism talismans were placed for easy access.
Patting his forehead, Lu Zheng crossed to the modern world, opening the fridge.
In the chilling mist, two stacks of Frost Talismans lay quietly in the freezer.
Over eight days, the twenty Frost Talismans he’d placed in the fridge had absorbed enough cold energy to reach the peak of his current talisman-crafting ability.
Storing the talismans, Lu Zheng crossed back to the ancient world.
“All set, let’s go!”
A spark of excitement flashed in Lu Zheng’s eyes.
Taking a Speed Talisman, he slapped it onto himself, formed a hand seal, and felt a surge of warmth flow from the talisman into his legs.
With a leap, he vaulted over his courtyard wall, vanishing into the night.
…
South of the city, Peach Blossom Plateau.
The Speed Talisman exhausted, Lu Zheng arrived outside the plateau.
Unlike the vibrant, blooming peach blossoms of daytime, a stunning human vista, the night-time peach grove was pitch-black, lightless under the canopy of leaves and flowers.
Lu Zheng slapped a Breath-Concealing Talisman on himself, and without pausing, he leapt into the grove, his figure a blur, heading straight for Peach Blossom Manor.
Drawing closer, he sensed ripples of energy. As a qi-refining cultivator, he quickly detected several presences.
One resembled the ghostly aura released when the corpse ghost was defeated.
Another carried a savage undertone, faintly familiar from Yuling Garden.
The third was fresh yet eerie, tinged with yin energy.
Three beings, none of them human.
Lu Zheng smirked, avoiding the manor gate and moving to a peach tree by the wall. With two silent steps, he slipped into the tree’s canopy.
Parting the branches, he peered out, and the front courtyard came into view.
The great peach tree, as in his dream, rustled fiercely, emitting a faint pink miasma that filled the courtyard.
Amid the miasma, Shen Ying floated, her flowing phoenix-tail skirt swaying in the wind, the same image from his dream.
In the peach blossom miasma, roots whipped up from the ground, lashing about the courtyard.
Shen Ying formed hand seals, sending peach blossoms swirling to attack two figures.
Lu Zheng observed. One was a shadowy, half-real figure in a grey-green robe, flitting through the blossoms, occasionally waving a hand to scatter petals and make roots bleed.
The other was a burly, hulking man, wielding two short blades, charging towards the peach tree, slicing through obstructing roots or tearing them apart with his bare hands.
“So ferocious?”
Lu Zheng could tell Shen Ying was linked to the peach tree; each injury to the tree caused her aura to falter.
No wonder she sought his aid. Her foe was keeping her occupied, and without intervention, the pig demon might break through and destroy the tree.
After watching briefly, Lu Zheng formed a plan.
Though he could join Shen Ying openly and drive them off, since he was acting, he wouldn’t settle for merely repelling them.
Seeing Shen Ying could hold on a bit longer, Lu Zheng blinked, slipped down the tree, and moved along the wall, soon reaching the back courtyard.
Vaulting the wall, he spotted Xiao Cui and two elderly servants peeking from a side door.
Raising an eyebrow, he sensed, now at night and without concealment, that these three weren’t human either.
“Xiao Cui!” Lu Zheng called softly.
He stayed back to avoid startling them and alerting the front courtyard.
The three jumped. Xiao Cui spun around, “Young Master Lu!”
“Shh!” Lu Zheng quickly gestured for silence.
Xiao Cui nodded hastily.
Lu Zheng approached silently, staying by the side door.
“Young Master Lu, please save Madam!”
“I’m here to do just that,” Lu Zheng replied, “No time for talk. I’ve used a Breath-Concealing Talisman. Can Madam Shen sense me?
If not, can you inform her without alerting those two?”
Xiao Cui paused, looking towards Shen Ying.
Two breaths later, she said, “Madam didn’t know you were here, but I’ve told her. She says she can’t enter your dreams when you’re awake, but I can relay messages.”
“No attention drawn from them?”
“None. I’m born of the peach tree and can speak to Madam through it, unnoticed by others.”
“Good!”
Lu Zheng nodded, noticing the talisman’s effect waning, and slapped another on himself.
“The talisman hides my presence but not my form, so if I appear, they’ll see me and be on guard.”
Lu Zheng spoke quickly, “Tell Madam Shen to use the peach blossom miasma and roots to cover me, letting me get close to the pig demon for a fatal strike.”
Glancing at the sabre at Lu Zheng’s waist, Xiao Cui nodded repeatedly, relaying the message to Shen Ying.
The next moment, the peach blossom miasma in the front courtyard grew denser than ever, and more roots erupted from the ground, lashing at the burly man.
“Hahaha!”
The grey-robed figure laughed sharply, “Brother Peng, this wench is faltering. Can you still hold up?”
“Heh!” The man called Brother Peng, eyes flashing red, grabbed a root, bit it off, and chewed.
“I could fight till dawn and still pin this woman to a bed!”
“Hahaha, Brother Peng’s got spirit!” the grey-robed figure cackled, “Don’t worry, we agreed: her soul’s yours, I just want the peach tree!”
