The heads of various divisions under the jurisdiction of the City God of the Capital Prefecture spread out to give chase, particularly the head official of the Yin-Yang Division. His pair of eyes tracked Yin and Yang energy, often making it difficult for many evil spirits to escape.

Ji Yuan was standing next to the restaurant that was diagonally opposite the City God Temple in on Temple Administration Lane, watching the dead Zhou Niansheng being taken into the City God temple by the soul-binding messengers and disappearing. Then he looked in the direction that the white-haired woman had escaped.

Most of the time, mortals were easily bewitched by evil spirits. Often, they would be bewitched without realizing it, wasting their own vitality away in vain.

At first, Ji Yuan didn’t dare to conclude what the relationship between this Zhou Niansheng and the Ruo Niang was. After all, sincere love between a human and a monster was truly rare. In the Legend of the White Snake in his previous life, didn’t the White Snake also deceive Xu Xian at first?¹

However, when he arrived at the gate of the underworld, what truly touched Ji Yuan was the woman’s tearful farewell. The genuine emotions that she revealed moved Ji Yuan so much that he was willing to believe in the possibility of human-demon love.

‘The City God of the Capital Prefecture is a little hard to deal with, though…’

With a self-deprecating smile, Ji Yuan took a step forward, and his figure became intangible, moving towards Jin’an Lane as if the very earth were shrinking beneath his feet.

With his mind and body in perfect alignment with his inner world, Ji Yuan returned to the Zhou Mansion in no time at all.

There was still crying inside Zhou Mansion. All of the Zhou family members, young and old, gathered around Zhou Niansheng’s bed, expressing their sorrow. Two servants were changing Zhou Niansheng into burial clothes before his body became stiff.

The woman’s body was temporarily placed on a straw mat that had been laid on the ground, but she was not treated in any exaggerated manner.

‘I never thought that I, Ji Yuan, who had such a great reputation throughout my entire life, would ever stoop so low as to steal corpses! ’

As soon as the thought flashed through his mind, Ji Yuan decided not to care about anything else. He rushed into the house with a technique to conceal his presence and waved his arms in the direction of the woman’s body. It floated through the air towards him.

As the body floated through the air, Ji Yuan felt that something was wrong. Although the weight seemed to be that of a woman, it gave off a strange feeling of falsehood.

He opened his supernatural eyes, and saw that the body in his grasp turned out to be nothing more than a white tail; in other words, the monster’s soul that had been captured just now was in fact no soul at all!

This trick even fooled Ji Yuan. Although Ji Yuan’s eyes had only been half-open, perhaps he had not noticed because the other party had no ill intentions, so he hadn’t taken a closer look. This skill was definitely not comparable to ordinary concealment techniques.

Although he was surprised, Ji Yuan didn’t care about that too much, and immediately departed with this “body.”

When Ji Yuan left once more, the woman’s body was already floating to his side, and disappeared alongside him.

The Zhou family was still crying when a servant suddenly realized that the woman’s body was missing, and started screaming in shock.

“Lady Bai Ruo’s body is gone!”

“It was here just now, but it disappeared in an instant!”

“It was a demon, maybe it ran away by itself?”

“Shh…”

“Today has been too scary!”

“Come with me to find it!”

……

As they spoke, the eldest son of the Zhou family and two servants searched everywhere around the house and the grounds, but of course, they found nothing.

The Zhou family was in chaos for a time before they calmed down. After Ji Yuan learned the woman’s name was Bai Ruo, he quicky took her body and left, moving through the city like smoke, headed away from the temple and towards the imperial sector of the city.²

He avoided crowds, noisy sections of the city, and places with too many people. He didn’t dare to jump too high, for fear of being discovered by ghosts or gods.

In less time than it took to drink a cup of tea, after Ji Yuan had disappeared with the woman’s body, the god of the underworld and a head official rushed to the Zhou family residence. After all, although the monster might not dare to return after escaping, they still had to be on guard against it coming back to take the body away.

It was only when they arrived at the Zhou family residence that they discovered that the monster’s physical body had also disappeared.

Ji Yuan’s thoughts at this moment were somewhat complicated.

‘What am I doing, running away with the body of a loved family member! ’

But there was no other way. That being said, strictly speaking, with the immortal sword by his side, Ji Yuan wasn’t all that afraid of the City God of the Capital Prefecture. Besides, the Tongtian River was not too far away.³

However, he wasn’t the one in the right, and he really didn’t want to provoke conflict in the underworld. However, when he thought about it carefully, it would be too troublesome to truly rely on the underworld’s goodwill to get anything done. It was better to solve the problem simply if possible. Thus, he used this method.

About a quarter of an hour later, Ji Yuan entered an attic in the backyard of a wealthy individual’s mansion in a different part of the city. He went straight to the third floor, waved his hand, and set the woman down.

This attic was a study, but it seemed to have seldom been visited, and it didn’t seem to be that popular of a spot. There was already a layer of dust forming in the corridor outside the divider screen. It seemed that the servants of this mansion only cleaned it occasionally.

“It’s only been a short while. Since you dared to send your lover to the gate of the City God Temple, you shouldn’t have been caught yet, right?”

Ji Yuan muttered something and didn’t think too much about it. He bent down on his knees and half-knelt beside the woman. He touched her forehead with his left hand, pointed his right in the air, and drew a circle. From the depths of his throat, a command rang out.

“I summon Bai Ruo, Bai Ruo please present yourself!”

He released the sword fingers in his right hand and gently pressed the illusory circle he had just drawn. A mysterious aura spread out through the air like a ripple.

Soul-Binding Technique.

It could also be used like this!

Back in the city, the soul of this woman was actually so skilled that not even the head of the Yin-Yang Division could catch her. Not only was her speed unnatural, but her aura was also weird. From time to time, she would perform a trick similar to a golden cicada shedding its shell.⁴ If the head official of the Yin-Yang Division had not been chasing her all this time, she would have long escaped.

The situation at this point in time was very critical. The judges at the rear had not stopped writing with their brushes, constantly describing the woman’s appearance. Once the judges had finished, she would have nowhere to hide so long as she couldn’t escape the jurisdiction of the City God Temple.

However, as long as the City God of the Capital Prefecture did not come to arrest her in person, Bai Ruo had the confidence to escape. The price she would have to pay would of course be quite steep; not only would her soul be damaged, but she might never be able to get her tail back.

However, it was worth it to have a body transformed from her tail and to be buried together with Zhou Niansheng. Although the eldest son of the Zhou family had a bad temper, he was at the very least truly filial, and would definitely allow for her and Zhou Niansheng to be buried together after death.

She could no longer stay in the Capital Prefecture. After fleeing for so long, the walls of the capital city were right before her. Bai Ruo’s demonic aura rose up to crash into the city wall in front of her.

Swish… She passed straight through the wall. Her heart instantly felt relieved. Once she was out of the city, she didn’t have to worry about the power of the City God of the prefecture, and could use a Hidden Earth Escape Talisman.

However, it seemed that it was too soon for her to relax. As soon as she left the city walls, she saw a strong golden light in front of her. It was a large golden net woven from vines.

‘The Capital Prefecture’s Land God! ’

The Capital Prefecture not only had a City God, but also a true Land God – and this Land God here was in charge of the territory of the Capital Prefecture!

“This demon is seeking death!”

When the Land God’s voice fell, Bai Ruo was already in a state close to death. She didn’t expect that the Land God would have been notified so quickly. She truly had no chance at all. Even if she had a concealment and escape talisman, how could she escape from right under the nose of the Land God?

‘Maybe it would be better to go accompany Minister Zhou! ’

However, right under the eyes of the Land God, his golden vine net captured nothing; the monster disappeared right before the net was closed.

“Hmm?”

Although the Land God of the Capital Prefecture looked to be an old man, he was nine feet tall. He wore a robe and held a thick rattan staff in his hand, and looked in the direction that the monster disappeared with a puzzled expression.

Looking back towards the city, and glancing around at its surroundings, he still could not detect where the monster had vanished to.

Behind the city wall, the head officials of the various divisions under the City God came flying over. When they arrived outside the city, they saw the Land God standing in the air, and all bowed to greet him.

“We greet the Lord Land God!”

“Excuse me, Lord Land God, have you seen a monster escaping past here?”

When the head official of the Yin-Yang Division asked, his eyes were still fixed on the vine net in the Land God’s hands, with nothing inside.

The Land God was also extremely confused at this moment.

“Someone happened to be offering tribute in the temple just before now. While I was enjoying the offerings, I saw a commotion in the city, with demonic aura and spiritual lights flashing, so I gave chase to find out what was going on. I was about to capture the demon, but to my surprise… that monster just disappeared!”⁵

“Disappeared?”

The head officials of the underworld and all of the ghosts looked at each other in bewilderment. With the Land God here, it was absurd for the monster to have been able to escape. If she had such powerful abilities, why would she have needed to run?

. . .

On the third floor study of the mansion, Bai Ruo’s real body acted like a powerful magnet attracting a piece of iron. Her soul was directly pulled out from the air in the ripples and fell to the ground with a bang in her original “flesh body.”

With a slightly dazed head, she looked at her “body” in a daze, and found the word “concealment” surrounding her body in a triangle.

These words were all formed from the dust that had gathered on the ground, and firmly stuck to the floor in three places. A mysterious hidden power emerged from the characters.

As she looked around again, she found a man in white sitting to the side, gazing in the direction of the temple. He wore a thin, long robe with wide sleeves, and his hair was held in a loose bun by a black hairpin.

Bai Ruo looked around. Her surroundings indicated that this person was a “mortal.” However, she knew that this was definitely not true!

“Oh… What a hassle! Fortunately, my ability seems to be slightly stronger than that of the Land God!”

The man sighed as if mocking himself, before turning to look at Bai Ruo, allowing the latter to see his pale, still eyes.

T/n: you’ve met Ji Yuan, the Legendary Immortal, now meet Ji Yuan, the Corpse Bandit

1. The Legend of the White Snake is a romance following a man named Xu Xian and a female snake spirit, who marries Xu Xian without telling him that she’s not human. However (after a lot of drama) Xu Xian eventually realizes his wife’s love for him is genuine and they have a happy ending
2. One part of the city will house the temples, the other part of the city will have the imperial palace & related governmental institutions
3. T/n: he’s grown so much… *sniffs dramatically* from hiding in fear as a hermit in the mountains to feeling confident enough to take on the City God of a literal country’s capital…
4. The strategy “Golden Cicada Sheds Shell” comes from “Journey to the West.” It means to leave behind something that looks like you to escape.
5. By the way, I’ve been using “demon” and “monster” interchangeably here because they don’t know that she isn’t evil

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by Aunomay Read