After the meal, Xuanji approached the owner of the restaurant and asked, “Do you know of a family named Zhao in the town? The three brothers are all surnamed Zhao.”
The shopkeeper thought, and suddenly said, “Oh, could it be that they’re from the northern part of the town, the Zhao family home? The situation there is even worse than ours, with no land and no way to feed themselves.”
Zhong Min-yin drained his tea and said, “Then we’d like to ask you to show us the way to the Zhao’s house.”
The shopkeeper hurriedly agrees and tells his staff to prepare a carriage in the backyard. “The three guest cultivators are going to exorcise ghosts, but do they need to prepare blood talismans? I’ll tell them to make preparations…”
Ling Long laughed and said with great vigor, “All these talismans are used by unscrupulous Taoists to deceive people. You guys really think those things are useful? It is enough for an immortal to get rid of demons and ghosts with a sword. In the future, if you encounter any of those bastards who cheat you by using blood talismans, you should use a big stick to drive them out!”
The shopkeeper was so impressed by her beauty and grace that he nodded his head in approval.
Zhong Min Yan quietly pulled her down and whispered, “Ling Long, every family has its own way of doing things, and blood talismans is not necessarily a lie. The world is so big, how much can we know? It’s better not to talk too much.”
Ling Long snorted and was about to argue with him, but Xuanji, who was beside her, laughed and said, “That’s right. Master also told me that the dog blood talisman water is a folk remedy to expel evil spirits. Wandering Taoists often uses this method, so it’s not necessarily a lie.”
Ling Long saw that since they had left home, she has been singing against each other, making it look like they were making a nuisance of herself. She can’t help but feel unhappy, and coldly said, “Yes, I’m always wrong anyway, you two are always right. Why are you still with me? You two go on your own!”
After saying that, she ran ahead and left them behind.
Zhong Minyan frowned, and sighed, “It’s been so many years, she is still stubborn, and no matter what people say, it’s useless!”
Xuanji wanted to say something, but then she thought that she shouldn’t interrupt at such a time, so she simply acted as a boring gourd[1] and went ahead. She suddenly looked back and smiled at the two people who were still awkwardly standing on opposite sides. “I’ll go out first, go up the mountain to see the situation. We’ll meet up at the Zhao Clan tonight.”
Before Ling Long could object, she had already disappeared from view as a white light.
“It’s all your fault!” Ling Long is furious with Zhong Minyan, “I made my sister run away! If anything happens to her, I’ll never forgive you!”
After saying so, she also swords away, leaving Zhong Minyan alone,not knowing whether to laugh or cry.
Sometimes, he is happy with Ling Long, but sometimes, he is also tired.
Ling Long is like a brightly colored dancing fire; he never gets bored with her, but if he gets too close to the fire, he will get burned.
For many years, living with her and growing up together. In order not to get burned, he often retreated again and again until he buried his body in the ground, and even forgot who he was, as if he existed to live for Linglong.
Really, it was a bit tiring.
For the first time, he didn’t want to catch up with her, so he walked slowly towards the northern part of Zhao’s manor.
The mountain to the north of Wang Xian town had an interesting name, called “Hai Wan Mountain”[2]. It is called Haiwan Mountain, because the mountain is shaped like a big upside-down sea bowl, hence the name.
Xuanji flew with her sword, and within a few moments she reached the mountain and landed in the middle of the back of the mountain.
The situation here is even worse than what Boss Zhao said. Xuanji walked around the edge of the forest for a while and found that half of the slope up from the edge of the forest was filled with withered grasses with long, slender leek-like leaves.
The dead grass was either uprooted or broken into four or five pieces, laying on the ground in a messy, thick layer. It looked as if several giants had been playing around here, destroying large fields of Zhuyu Grass as if they were pranks.
She bent down and picked up a piece of Zhuyu grass that had been torn off, and gently rubbed it with her hands, and the mud on it fell off. It didn’t look like the grass was cut by a sharp instrument, the cut was so twisted and uneven that it was probably ripped off.
She tried to break the grass further, but it took seven times the normal strength one would exert to break a blade of ordinary grass.
She was a little surprised, for it seemed that messing things up here was not something easy to do.
Xuanji threw down the withered grass and was about to look for clues elsewhere when suddenly a gust of wind struck her, and the withered grass on the ground was blown to the sky, blurring her vision.
She hastily covered her face with her sleeve, but then she heard a strong wind blowing overhead, as if something huge was flying past her. She couldn’t bear to be blinded by the wind any longer, and looked up to see a silver light flashing like a sword, and then, in the blink of an eye, it was gone.
It was a demon! When she smelled something fishy in the wind, she immediately took off with her sword and followed the smell.
After chasing for a while, she saw silver lights flashing in the forest in front of her, as if something was moving forward at high speed. When he saw it twisting and turning and moving like a snake, Xuanji was suddenly stunned. She seemed to have seen such a scene, in her memory, a silver snake…
Just as she was thinking about it, but suddenly the wind behind her head moved, she hurriedly drew her sword to block it. With a ‘ding’ something hit her sword with great strength. The sword in her hand could hardly be held, and the wrist felt sore, and she almost lost the sword.
Who? She shouted, and hastily stopped in the air to look around, but the sky was clear, and there was no sign of anyone in the green forest beneath her!
When Xuanji turned around and looked again, the shining silver demon had already disappeared.
Xuanji searched for a while but still had no clue what to do, so she flew back towards the Zhao’s house.
As soon as she landed, she saw Zhong Minyan and Linglong standing there with their backs to each other without saying a word.
She smiled bitterly in her heart and asked, “Have you found Boss Zhao’s house?”
Ling Long and Zhong Minyan said in unison, “I’ve found it, it’s over there…”
The words are still coming out. The two of them suddenly froze, and then saw each other pointing in the same direction as themselves, they couldn’t help but retract their hands in a daze.
Zhong Minyan said, “I met with Zhao’s grandson just now and showed him the picture, but he said he looked like him, and then he said he didn’t. It seems that children’s words are not always accurate, so let’s wait until tonight to go up to the mountain to see it.”
Xuanji nodded her head and recounted her encounter in the mountain behind the sea bowl[2], and both of them could only remain silent when they heard that the demon was so powerful.
“What should we do? Is it an old demon that we can’t handle?” Ling Long asks timidly.
Zhong Min Yan frowned but didn’t say anything.
Xuan Ying smoothed her hair and said, “Let’s take a look at it tonight… Since it doesn’t hurt anyone, it must not be a bad demon. Just get rid of it….”.
Suddenly, something rolled out of her sleeve and fell to the ground.
Ling Long bends over to pick it up and wonders, “What’s this? …Rice Crackers?”
The three of them stared at the familiar and unfamiliar rice crackers with small eyes, confused and bewildered.
Xuanji suddenly remembered the hidden weapon that attacked from behind her head.
She brought the rice fruit over and looked at it in her palm, a little confused for a moment.
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[1]: As in she didn’t do anything.
[2]: 海碗山 (hǎiwǎn shān) literally translates as Sea (hǎi) Bowl (wǎn) Mountain (shān)
Lazy Cat Translations 
Is it Sifeng’s snake?
Thanks for translating
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