After Abandoning the Ruthless Dao Swordmaster

“Hey, Wu Su, I’m going to watch the Lantern Festival outside, then… you will be on duty for me tonight, okay?”

Through the lush grass and trees that decorated the courtyard in early summer, there came a melodious sound,  like an oriole singing softly.

The visitor didn’t even knock, and the door to Wu Su’s house was opened unexpectedly.

The hands that were combing her hair in front of the mirror paused, and she looked back.

The window behind the vanity was open, and the afternoon sunlight outside was shining brightly, reflecting on her calm and gentle face.

Wu Su’s eyes turned in the direction of the door.

Wei Li’s sweet and delicate face appeared, and she spoke to Wu Su with a smile.

“I’ve made a date, and it’s not easy to break the promise, Wu Su, you go for me!”

She winked at Wu Su, a little coquettish.

Wu Su’s black eyes narrowed slightly.

The corners of her lips raised slightly, and she felt that this should resemble a friendly smile.

“Okay~” Her ending sound was very long, biting the twists and turns of the tone a little bit, sounding as jerky and unfamiliar as a new language.

“Hee hee, Wu Su, you’re so kind, I’m leaving then!” Wei Li closed the door with a bang.

Wu Su was holding a white wooden comb in her hand.  When Wei Li came, she had only combed her hair halfway.

Now, her hand slowly pressed down, and the white comb moved through to the ends of her extremely black hair.

She knew that she was just a maid in a wealthy family, the most common kind, not even qualified to work in front of her master.

Wu Su remembered that this mansion was called Prince Jing’s Mansion, but she had never met the owner of it.

But that doesn’t matter, she just needs to work hard to make a living.

The atmosphere has been very lively these days, but she didn’t feel much. She is a demon, and can’t fully understand human emotions.

Wu Su was a demon born from the energy of chaos, unable to absorb the ordinary spiritual energy that filled the world.

She can only absorb the undivided yin and yang energy emitted by living beings when they die, and in exchange, she will fulfil the obsession of the dying soul.

The reason she stayed in Prince Jing’s mansion was because she was fulfilling the wish of a dead human, anyways it was a means of earning a living.

Wu Su quietly looked at herself in the mirror.

She has no amazing beauty to leave a deep impression on people’s hearts.

The lines of her face were soft and slender, as if they had been carefully sketched by a painter.

Wu Su blinked her eyes.

The clear whites of the eyes contrasted strongly with the pure black, giving her eyes an icy inhuman quality.

She sat unmoving  for a while, and not long after, the steward in charge of managing their group of maids ordered someone to bring the things over.

Wu Su heard the noise outside her room, and got up to get the clothes she was going to wear tonight.

The West Garden of Prince Jing’s Mansion where she lives is very strict in hospitality.

In order for the distinguished guests not to make mistakes, every servant must wear uniform clothes and jewelery.

When serving guests, the servants are also required to take a Qianyan Pill, which changes their appearance so that they all wear the same standard handsome and beautiful face.

Originally, she wasn’t on duty today, but Wei Li, a maid who lived in the same courtyard, asked her to take over for her, so Wu Su went.

In the eyes of outsiders, Wu Su is honest and talkative, but she doesn’t look very smart, so she is pushed forward like this all the time.

Wu Su did a lot of work for nothing, and never saw them thanking her for any of it.

In any case, Wu Su was mostly in a daze when she was not doing anything, and she didn’t really care too much.

Wu Su walked out of the house, her long hair still falling loosely on the shoulders of her white clothes.

She saw Wei Li dressing up under the twilight in the yard, taking flower branches from a basket and weaving them into her braids.

She knew that Wei Li should be going to meet her bodyguard lover today, and would go to the lantern festival with him at night.

There is also another girl in the courtyard, named Lin Meng, who would be working with Wu Su tonight.

Seeing Wu Su come out, Lin Meng leaned in Wei Li’s direction.

Wu Su picked up the brocade box that was placed on the table in the courtyard. Inside the box were the uniform clothes and accessories from the West Garden of Prince Jing’s Mansion, and the texture was much better than what Wu Su usually wore.

“Lin Meng, shall we go together tonight?” Wu Su looked at Lin Meng and asked in a soft voice.

“I’m going to send Wei Li out of the house first, you go by yourself.” Lin Meng glanced at her with a distant expression.

Wu Su couldn’t sense this estrangement.

She returned to her room, took out the pearl earrings from the brocade box, and slowly attached them to her earlobes.

On Wu Su’s hand, there rested a strange-looking ring in the shape of a black and white moth.

Suddenly, the moth’s wings trembled, struggling to fly.

But its wings were incomplete, so Wu Su extended a thread of chaotic airflow from her fingertips, supporting the moth’s fluttering wings.

“It’s getting dark, let’s go play.” Wu Su’s voice was light and soft, as if comforting a dying soul.

She squinted her eyes, quietly watching the moth circle around her, trying to fly.

Wu Su can also absorb the energy of plants and animals before they die.

The moth that landed on her finger had only just emerged from its cocoon, but it was already about to die.

Its wings were crippled from birth, unable to fly, and it could not live more than a few days,

Today, Wu Su picked it up and made a small exchange with it.

She will use her magic to help the little moth move its wings, and the moth will give her its energy after death.

As dusk gradually fell, Wu Su moved the gauze covering the table lamp, and lit the lamp.

“Look, the moon is out.” Wu Su spoke to the moth as she pointed to the moonlight outside the window.

“I have my own things to do, so I won’t go with you.”

The moth’s wings were surrounded with Wu Su’s chaotic air current, and it fluttered unsteadily as it flew outside.

In this way, Wu Su, who is getting dressed, can also gain information from the perspective of the moth.

The lights in Prince Jing’s mansion were gradually lit up, illuminating the two young women holding hands and whispering.

“A’Meng, what a pity, you are also on duty tonight, so you can’t go with me.”

Wei Li held Lin Meng’s hand and spoke affectionately.

“Hey, you are really pitiful. You actually have to work with Wu Su. I’m so worried that she will drag you down.”

“Haha, Prince Jing’s Mansion is going to have a banquet tonight. I’ve never seen Steward Lu pay so much attention to it. They even used the Qianyan Pills. She’s so stupid, it’s best to let her make some mistakes and let the steward drive her out of the mansion.”

“It’s best for her to leave the mansion. How can such a person stay in Prince Jing’s mansion like us? I saw her send a message to the dining room the other day, and she made a mistake in her writing. It seemed as if she had had some education, but in the end she was just a villager.  Just an ordinary girl from the wild.”

“She’s not smart, she doesn’t do things quickly, and who knows how she got into Prince Jing’s Mansion. I heard that Steward Lu favours her…”

Wei Li held up her skirt, touched the flower branches wrapped around her braids, and hissed.

“Don’t say it, we came in on our own ability, not like her.”

In her other hand, she was holding a delicate lantern, and the broken-winged moth released by Wu Su saw the light in the lantern, and was drawn towards it in a daze.

“Ah-!” Two shrill cries sounded, and Wei Li and Lin Meng hid from this terrifying insect.

Lin Meng shook her round fan, and slapped the moth to the ground, and the chaotic aura attached to it by Wu Su dissipated instantly.

The delicately embroidered shoes stepped on the moth’s body and trembling wings, and the two beauties held up their skirts and ran away screaming.

Wu Su, alone in the dressing room, suddenly opened her eyes, which were calm and without a trace of fluctuation.

She stuck out the tip of her tongue in front of the mirror, picked up the Qianyan Pill, and took it into her mouth.

The Qianyan Pill melted, and an invisible airflow covered her cheeks.

The plain and gentle face in the mirror was replaced by a standard beauty.

Wu Su walked out into the courtyard that was now empty.

She squatted down and slowly scooped up a handful of sand and stones to cover the moth’s corpse.

At the same time, a very weak dying energy landed on her fingertips, and Wu Su opened her lips to inhale it.

She was a little satisfied, but only a little bit.  In a few days, she had to look for another dying object.

_

Yundu is welcoming an important person back tonight, and the time has come for the ceremony of offering sacrifices to heaven, so the legendary Ninth Prince will return to Yundu to preside over the ceremony as usual.

There are many stories about the Ninth Prince, everyone admires him and respects him, from the emperor to his subjects.

Before he came back, the eight princes and daughters of His Highness were arguing over who would prepare the welcome banquet for him.

In the end, it was decided by lottery, and the fourth prince, His Royal Highness Prince Jing, won. The Guanlan Pavilion, his guest house built in the West Garden of the palace, was finally able to show off.

Pei Juizhi returned to Yundu without fanfare.

In Yundu, the lanterns of blessing turn the night into day, and a white horse rides through the downtown area.

The man riding the horse was wearing a neat green shirt and a bamboo hat, looking forward with his head slightly lowered.

He only showed the lower half of his fair and handsome cheeks, and his thin lips were pursed coldly, drawing a gloomy and majestic arc.

A long sword on his back was shining brightly, and the scabbard was wrapped in a piece of ordinary white silk, hiding the light of the sword.

On the street, a girl with flowery braids is holding hands with a young man behind her.

Countless people came and went, and the sound of the horse’s steps faded away, like a breeze passing by, headed for Prince Jing’s Mansion.

_

This is Wu Su’s first visit to Guanlan Pavilion.  It is entirely built in the middle of an artificially excavated lake.

The moon in the sky is reflected in the water, far above the banquet hall on top of the high pavilion.

Wu Su only glanced at the tall pavilion, feeling that it looked like a huge bright beast, before looking away.

She walked slowly along the nine-curved corridor bridge that connected the shore with Guanlan Pavilion.

The food box in her arms was extremely hot, and the bottom was filled with boiling water to keep it warm. She didn’t dare to neglect it, and carried it carefully.

In front of and behind her, other maids with the same appearance are boring their heads.

In the palace, there is no need to stand out, and the safest way to do things is to make no mistakes.

After entering the Guanlan Pavilion, Wu Su presented the dishes to the last guests, then walked out with her head and eyes down, rested for a while, and then continued to serve the next dishes.

The singing and dancing in the pavilion were light and melodious, and the guests enjoyed themselves.  Wu Su didn’t know who was at the banquet, she only knew that it was very grand, and lasted late into the night.

Behind the Guanlan Pavilion, the full moon hangs high, but the moonlight that falls on the windows and floors is engulfed by the burning lights in the house.

Wu Su carried the dishes, waited for the master’s order, and then served them.

Finally she carries the dishes for the last time, after this other servants will take over to do the rest of the work.

Standing in an inconspicuous place in the hall, she yawned slightly.

Recently, there are few dying things in Prince Jing’s mansion, she often feels hungry, and when she is hungry, she gets sleepy.

Prince Jing, the owner of the Guanlan Pavilion, sat in the guest seat and accompanied Pei Jiuzhi.  Behind him, a handsome man in a black robe saluted Pei Jiuzhi.

He took out a censer and a stick of incense, and carefully placed it together. In an instant, a wonderful fragrance spread throughout the Guanlan Pavilion.

Prince Jing smiled. “Juizhi, this is a famous incense maker from a foreign country. I visited him several times before I invited him over.”

Pei Jiuzhi lowered his eyes, glancing at the incense maker who was fiddling with the censer, and only nodded slightly to Prince Jing, his posture indifferent and alienated.

“Hey…” Prince Jing sighed. “Jiuzhi, since you learned the way of the swordsman, you have become more and more indifferent.”

“No.” Pei Juizhi’s voice was deep and gloomy, like the bright moon behind clouds.

When the wonderful fragrance in Guanlan Pavilion diffused, Wu Su was still feeling in her heart that it smelled really good.

But she only smelled it briefly before she felt dizzy.

She didn’t pay attention to anything around her.

But when Pei Jiuzhi spoke in the hall, she raised her eyes, trying to see his appearance clearly, but failed.

Several layers of screens separated the guests from the prying eyes of the servants.

Wu Su felt a strange feeling surge up. She frowned, and when she heard that the food was about to be served, she hurriedly moved.

She felt that her body was a little out of control, as if she had been poisoned.

Instinctively trying to avoid danger, she ran even faster out of Guanlan Pavilion.

Inside the pavilion, the fragrance was still wafting through the air.  The black-clothed incense-maker lowered his eyes, and fiddled with the incense and censer to make it produce more smoke.

The fire of the incense burner had been lit with an old item of Pei Juizhi’s.

The incense-maker smiled.  He recalled what the raving voice told him when he got this piece of incense.

“This fragrance is called Yiquingxiang, use Pei Juizhi’s old things as a focus, light one end of it, and when it burns to the other end, it will attract the most terrifying and evil monster within a range of 800 miles to run desperately, the stronger the monsters, the more irresistible Pei Juizhi will be to them. I think you should understand how many monsters there are under Yundu.”

Wu Su exited Guanlan Pavilion, far away from the censer, and only then regained some sanity.

She panted heavily, but the fragrance had not dissipated, and instead had spread outside.

Just after midnight, the night shadows of Guanlan and His Excellency swayed, Wu Su’s eyes went dark, and suddenly she couldn’t see anything.

She is a demon born from chaos, originally without form or features.

After taking shape, she was unable to see, hear, speak, or smell for four days each month, and today she lost her eyesight.

Since she is a demon, she can still sense the outside world, and her movements will not be affected.

She adjusted the hem of her skirt, straightened the pearl earrings around her ears, and prepared to leave regardless of the weird fragrance.

Anyway, her job was done.

But at that moment, Lin Meng held her back.

“Wu Su, I want to go back to rest early, the last dish of today, please take my turn serving it.”

Wu Su turned her head with a slight frown, and spoke in a soft voice, like a ghost at night. “Lin Meng, I can’t do it today.”

The fragrance is weird, and she couldn’t see, so it was not suitable for her to enter Guanlan Pavilion again.

“You are so quick to help Wei Li, why don’t you agree when I ask you to help me?” Lin Meng complained. “What’s wrong with you?”

“Then give it to me.” Wu Su sighed slightly.

She sensed Lin Meng’s general location and outline by her temperature and breath, and nodded to her.

She knew that the scent in Guanlan Pavilion was dangerous.

But… something inside the pavilion seemed to be drawing her in, and she couldn’t help but agree to Lin Meng.

Wu Su took the food box from Lin Meng, and walked back towards Guanyan Pavilion.