Mountain and sea lantern

Chapter 562 Efficiency
With just that one light touch, Shi Chun was already a dead man in her eyes.

Since they're already dead, there's no need to waste them if we can make use of them.

The main issue is that there are some things that are said but not done, which is indeed inappropriate. Of all people to let take on disciples, Situ Gu is the one who really knows how to pick people. Even the Lian Tian Sect couldn't force Situ Gu to do this, let alone an outsider.

Of course, if she really wanted to be serious, it wasn't impossible to get it done.

The problem is that making a big fuss about this kind of thing is not good-looking and makes one lose face.

However, the finger that Shi Chun had retracted was still caught by three of her fingers, indicating, "This finger is very precious, you have to take good care of it."

Shi Chunle laughed. "You think you're so precious just because I touched you?"
So he joked, "You truly have an aura of nobility, then shall I absorb more of your noble essence?"

His other hand then casually reached out and touched her thigh.

A crisp, loud snap.

The woman in red, having released his fingers, directly swatted away his hand that was trying to take advantage of him.

I didn't expect to be taken advantage of before, so I wasn't on guard. Now that I'm on guard, how could I let him get away with it again?

The blow was not only loud but also stinging, like being whipped. Shi Chun grimaced in pain, took two steps back, and shook her hand repeatedly, scolding, "Are you trying to murder your husband?!"

"Husband?" The woman in red ignored the frivolous word and showed no reaction on her face. She really couldn't understand where this man got the audacity to lay a hand on her. It was a bit illogical. Even if he knew her identity and pretended not to know, he wouldn't dare to mess around in this matter. Wouldn't that be tantamount to courting death?

So she countered, "Do you know my cultivation level?"

Shi Chun chuckled as he blew a few breaths on the back of the other's hand. He pointed to his own eyes and then to the other person. "I am quite skilled in the art of observing qi, so I know a little about it. Speaking of which, I have a question for you. You have already cultivated to the point of human form, so your cultivation should have at least reached the high martial arts realm. Why is your cultivation still not quite there? With your background, you shouldn't lack cultivation resources, right?"

"..." The woman in red was speechless for a moment. At first, she didn't know what nonsense he was talking about, but seeing how seriously he was speaking, she realized that he was serious.

This made her understand why he dared to be so bold; he probably thought she was easy to bully.

Not knowing what kind of aura-gazing technique they practiced, they immediately retorted, "Could it be that your aura-gazing technique is mistaken?"

Shi Chun smiled. He couldn't guarantee anything else, but with his right eye's special ability, once he saw something clearly, he would never make a mistake.

Even the demonic arts techniques used by Lan'er and the others to conceal their cultivation levels, which could fool others' detection, could not fool his eyes. What he saw with his right eye's special ability was more reliable than the results he obtained through his own investigation.

So he smiled and walked over to the side of the couch and sat down, reaching out to grab her wrist, "Why don't we check and confirm it?"

Suddenly, seeing her skirt fluttering, the woman in red kicked him away without any hesitation.

Caught off guard, Shi Chun nearly fell flat on his face. As soon as he regained his footing, he couldn't help but grimac and rub his back. He realized that this woman's hit was so painful, even though she hadn't used much force. It felt like his kidney had been ripped out.

The woman in red, her skirt now smooth, remained in her original posture as if she had never moved, and cooperated by giving her answer, "Alright, no need to probe anymore. I made a mistake in my cultivation, and my cultivation level has been reduced to its original state. Get lost, I need to rest."

Before leaving, Shi Chun still asked, "When will Bai Qiru be released?"

Woman in red: "When do you want to release them?"

Shi Chun: "If she can come out early, she'll have something to talk about and contact Li Hongjiu sooner."

The woman in red glanced at him. "I'll contact someone later and let you know when we're done."

"Okay, I'll wait for your message." Seeing that he couldn't gain anything, Shi Chun simply said goodbye, quietly opened the door, and slipped away.

The woman in red, lying prone, gazed at Shi Chun's departing boots as she left, muttering to herself, "Aura Observation Technique..."

The reason she could believe Shi Chun's theory of observing qi was because there was some supporting evidence. She recalled that when Shi Chun first met the scholar in the blue robe, he didn't know him at all, but immediately regarded him as someone he could rely on for protection.

She even considered that Shi Chun's ability to observe qi might not be fully mastered, but she never imagined that the problem wasn't with the qi observation technique itself, but rather that Shi Chun himself lacked knowledge.

After a moment's thought, she transmitted her voice into the void, saying, "Aren't you always upright and honest? When did you develop the habit of eavesdropping by the wall?"

The scholar in blue robes inside the library smiled bitterly under the lamplight, "You can even detect this? There's no fluctuation of magical power."

The woman in red said, "Within my domain, any trickery is meaningless. You'll understand when you reach this level. What are you doing?"

The scholar in blue robes said, "Not long ago, I cultivated an extension of my will, which I call 'Sword Consciousness'."

"Sword awareness..." the woman in red murmured to herself, actually quite surprised. She had almost not realized she was being eavesdropped on, but thankfully she hadn't done anything more perfunctory with Shi Chun.

The scholar in the green robe explained, "I really didn't mean to eavesdrop. I didn't even know where your bedroom was. I just noticed that guy sneaking downstairs all the time. I didn't know what he was up to in the library. Seeing that he was involved with the demonic path, I thought I'd keep an eye on him. Who would have thought he'd sneak into your bedroom? Oh my, what's this kid's background? How could he get Situ Gu to take him as a disciple?"

The woman in red said, "This is none of your business. Keep your mouth shut about what happened tonight, or I'll never forgive you."

The scholar in the blue robe said, "Sigh, it was my fault for meddling. I'll shut up. I didn't hear anything, okay?"

Despite saying that, he still got up and slowly strolled around the library. He happened to bump into Shi Chun, who had sneaked back. He even took out his Sandalwood Flame and looked Shi Chun up and down, muttering, "So this is what you really look like. You're really something, running around at night. Are you trying to steal something?"

Shi Chun was speechless. He had been using his right eye's special ability too frequently, which had exhausted him. He had only saved it for this one time when he ran into this. He said awkwardly, "Senior is joking. What's so great about stealing from this poor library?"

The scholar in the blue robe asked, "Don't you still have a few women? You wouldn't be having an affair, would you?" Shi Chundun straightened his back and said solemnly, "I am a lover of books and a refined person. How could I do such a despicable thing!"

The scholar in the blue robe raised an eyebrow, sized him up, and nodded, saying, "I misjudged him..."

After saying that, he turned and left to continue reading his book.

Shi Chun simply took out a light and went to the third floor. After taking out a book about the underworld, he remembered something, put down the book, took out the mother-child talisman again, and sent a message: Ruojun, you are the most beautiful woman I have ever seen!
After finishing, he put away the mother-child talisman and settled down to read, figuring the other person wouldn't reply to his message.

Nevertheless, he still has to say nice things afterward; this is the expected pattern.

He himself didn't feel anything at all, and he couldn't be bothered to think about whether the other person felt anything or not. Why would he waste his energy thinking about such trivial matters? All he needed to know was that women liked to hear nice things, and they didn't care whether they were true or not.

The woman in red, who was lying in the bedroom pretending to be asleep, slowly took out the mother-child talisman, glanced at it, and then rolled her eyes.

If she hadn't known the other person's true identity and that they were being fake, she would have doubted whether she would have believed such a charlatan.

He casually tossed the mother and child talismans aside and continued to feign sleep, ignoring the fart, but a slight mocking smile crept onto his lips.

The mountaintop in the center of the city.

Zhu Xin, a disciple of the Extreme Fire Sect, stormed into the City Lord's Mansion in a fit of rage.

Li Xianghong, who was already waiting in the pavilions and towers, knew he would come. She waved to her subordinates to step back and not to stop him.

Zhu Xin burst into the pavilion and demanded in a deep voice, "What happened? Why was Bai Qiru released?"

Li Xianghong retorted, "Do you think I can make this decision? In short, I'm just following orders. Don't ask me who gave the order; I won't tell you. Just have your sect communicate with the Divine Mountain."

Seeing her like this, Zhu Xin snorted and turned away.

Not long after the incident, Shi Chun, who was reading in the library, took out the mother-child talisman again.

The message from the woman in red was just one sentence: The person has been released.

Shi Chun was surprised. He hadn't expected it to be so efficient. It hadn't even been half an hour since he spoke up, and the person had already been released.
It seems that the woman's maternal uncle's relationship is real, not fake at all.

He immediately replied enthusiastically to the woman in red: Okay, I understand. In order to make you my woman as soon as possible, I will work hard!
The woman in red in the bedroom casually picked up the talisman and glanced at its contents. She couldn't help but roll her eyes; it was too offensive to look at, so she quickly threw it aside.

Shi Chun, however, immediately forgot his kind words and took out another pair of talismans. He contacted Wu Jinliang and said that Bai Qiru might have been released. He asked Wu Jinliang to try to contact Bai Qiru and see if he could reach him. He also asked Wu Jinliang to come to the library to meet him immediately.

There's no need to say more; once people arrive at the library, they'll naturally be able to determine whether they've truly been released.

When Wu Jinliang replied that he had made contact and would be coming soon, Shi Chun immediately turned off the lights and went downstairs to the lobby to wait.

After waiting for a while, before the person who had arrived outside could knock, Shi Chun quietly opened the door a crack.

Although the person outside was wearing a veil and not revealing their true face, he seemed to have already recognized who it was, and even shushed them and turned his head to signal them to come in.

The person enters and the door is closed.

After the person removed the veil, Bai Qiru's face was revealed. Even in the dim light from the streetlights outside, her pale and weak complexion was still visible, indicating that she had suffered a lot.

Upon seeing that it was Wang Ping, Bai Qiru was taken aback and asked, "Wang Ping? How dare you come here again?"

When Gao He sent her a message, he was worried that she would give away her contact information if she was arrested, so he was not at ease with the connection between the mother and child talismans and did not tell her in advance who she was going to meet.

Shi Chun raised a finger to his lips, signaling to be quiet, then pointed upwards and whispered, "There are experts up there."

If he weren't afraid to go out, he wouldn't have arranged to meet someone here.

He waved the person over and led them to a small booth by the counter to speak, "You've suffered a lot, haven't you?"

Bai Qiru asked in a low voice, "Gao He means that you got me out of there?"

Shi Chun: I guess so.

To keep their voices down, the two of them practically huddled together, whispering in each other's ears.

Bai Qiru: "Who exactly are you people? Why would Shenshan join forces with the Jihuo Sect to capture you?"

Upon hearing this, the woman in red, who was pretending to be asleep in the bedroom, twitched her brow slightly.

Shi Chun ignored the question and asked in a low voice, "You don't need to worry about anything else. Your grandmother is still trapped on Mount Shen. Do you have any way to contact her?"

Bai Qiru thought for a moment and nodded slightly.

Once he was sure he could get in touch, Shi Chun didn't say anything more. He would deal with the rest once he got the refining materials from the sacred mountain. Instead, he told him something else: "There's something you should know first. You've heard of Li Hongjiu, right? He's fallen for you."

(End of this chapter)