HLnovel Chapter 516 Xie Jingchun's Storyline: Escape
Chapter 516 Xie Jingchun's Storyline: Escape
The white bones were twisted as if they were suffering greatly, and a broken Gu talisman was stuffed into their mouths.
Nan Nan covered her mouth and nose, "They were refined while they were still alive."
Xie Jingchun's eyes were so deep they were almost dripping with water. He stepped forward and kicked over the lid of the bronze cauldron.
"pat-"
Two semi-formed Gu worms rolled out of the cauldron. They were transparent and not fully transformed, and they crawled at an extremely fast speed.
"Don't touch them!" Zhou Ningchuan shouted, immediately ordering his men to set up torches and surround the two insects.
The insect struggled and rolled in the firelight, emitting a faint buzzing sound.
The two worms died quickly.
Nan Nan watched from the side, her gaze sweeping over the bloodstains and residue inside the cauldron, when suddenly her eyes sharpened.
"wrong."
She crouched down to examine it closely. "There were three couples here, so there should be three Gu worms. Why are there only two left?"
Xie Jingchun turned and stared at the old man being held against the wall. "Where's the other one?"
The old man looked up, his eyes still holding that half-mad, half-crazy smile.
"sold."
Zhou Ningchuan's expression changed drastically. "You sold the Gu worms?"
The old man laughed and said, "We don't practice Gu poison to keep it as a sacred object; of course we sell it."
"That was the best-bred one, and it sold for the highest price."
Zhou Ningchuan's brows furrowed with barely suppressed rage. "Who did you sell it to?"
"I don't know," the old man said slowly, his eyelids drooping.
“The person was wearing a veiled hat, his voice was altered, and his clothes made it impossible to tell his identity.”
“He just left the silver notes and took the insects with him; we won’t ask about such things.”
Xie Jingchun asked in a low voice, "When did this happen?"
"Half a month ago."
The air suddenly felt extremely heavy.
Xie Jingchun's phoenix eyes narrowed slightly, her killing intent surging like a tide.
"If this Gu falls into the wrong hands, who knows how much trouble it will cause!"
The old man suddenly laughed a few times, his voice hoarse, "You can't catch up even if you want to. The Gu worm recognizes its master. Once it enters the body, it can never be driven out unless the person is willing to die."
The air suddenly felt extremely heavy.
Zhou Ningchuan took a deep breath, "Do you know what kind of sins you've committed? You don't even deserve to be called a human being!"
The old man laughed even more maniacally.
"But I only turned people's hearts into worms; it was this world that first turned love into poison."
Zhou Ningchuan was furious and stepped forward, but Xie Jingchun pulled him back.
"Stay calm, we can still get some information out of him."
Zhou Ningchuan seemed to have taken his words to heart, and he waved his hand, "Take him away."
-
The day the Yuanwang Temple was completely sealed off, the entire Yuanzhen town collapsed.
The couples who had traveled from afar were plunged into despair upon learning that it was all a scam.
"It was all fake? We knelt for seven days and seven nights, and it turned out to be all for raising Gu poison?"
"My incense money, my son, my mother-in-law forced me to come here to pray for a child, and you're saying this temple is fake?"
Many women collapsed in tears on the spot, and several men looked ashen-faced.
Some people started tearing up the paper talismans and smashing the stone statues at the temple gate.
Some people knelt down and begged for redemption, crying and asking the officials if they had also been bewitched.
Zhou Ningchuan ordered martial law to be imposed on the entire town of Yuanzhen, and all temples to be demolished and sealed off.
The statue of the Mandarin Duck King, pottery jars, remnants of the array, and furnace cauldrons were all confiscated and sealed, and the remaining shells of the Gu worms were burned.
All townspeople involved in receiving cash, selling insects, or delivering messages for the elderly were arrested and sent to the Dali Temple in the capital for trial.
Yuanzhen was completely emptied.
Five days later.
After the cleanup of Yuanzhen was completed, the last truckload of case files and physical evidence set off northward.
Zhou Ningchuan, as the presiding judge, will stay at the midway station to escort the prisoner. Before parting, he pats Xie Jingchun on the shoulder.
"You should rest well after you return to Beijing. This time, we owe a lot to you and Nan Nan."
Xie Jingchun lazily raised an eyebrow, "If you know how to be grateful, treat the two of us to dinner when you get back to Beijing."
“That’s for sure,” Zhou Ningchuan said with a smile.
After saying that, Xie Jingchun turned around and led his horse over. Nannan was already ready and stood in front of the steps waiting for him.
Just as she was about to mount the horse herself, her waist suddenly tightened.
Xie Jingchun stepped behind her and nimbly swept her up into his arms, gently lifting her onto the horse's back.
"Ah—" Nan Nan exclaimed softly, and before she could react, she had already settled down comfortably.
She turned to look at him, her face slightly flushed, "I can go up by myself..."
Xie Jingchun flipped over and sat down behind her, naturally wrapping his arms around her waist to hold the reins.
“I know you can,” he whispered with a laugh in her ear, “but I want to hug you.”
Nan Nan stopped speaking, only lowered her eyes and smiled softly, letting him hold her in his arms.
The two sat on a tall, fine horse.
Sunlight streamed down the mountain path, falling on their overlapping shadows and outlining a warm, soft halo.
Zhou Ningchuan stood in front of the post road, watching them ride away on horseback, and couldn't help but shake his head and smile.
"Tsk, this time they're really a pair."
"You can't create love gu with a gu array, but you two are probably truly living lovers."
After he finished speaking, he put his hands behind his back, turned around, and walked towards the post station.
On the mountain road, Xie Jingchun tightened the reins and gave a soft shout: "Giddy up!"
Horse hooves pounded the wind, raising clouds of dust.
Three days later.
A night breeze brushed against the windowpanes. The inn was quiet, with only the low chirping of a few night birds heard outside.
Nan Nan sat on the edge of the tatami mat, gently twisting the hem of her clothes with both hands.
She lowered her eyes and pondered for a long time before finally looking up at Xie Jingchun, who was sitting to the side wiping his sword, and asked softly, "Do we really have to tell the Prince and Princess about our affairs as soon as we meet?"
Xie Jingchun looked up at her, a faint smile in his eyes.
"What's wrong? Don't you want to?"
Nan Nan lowered her eyes: "It's not that I don't want to, I'm just a little nervous."
“I’m afraid the princess might disagree, after all, my status…”
Xie Jingchun put down the cleaned sword, stood up, walked to her, knelt down, and took her hand.
He looked up at her, his expression calm, but his tone was surprisingly gentle.
"Don't worry, your mother has always liked you and won't disagree."
"Moreover, she said before that she would not interfere with my marriage and that I could marry whoever I liked."
"As for the others, let them say whatever they want, we don't need to care."
"I'm behind you, let's see who dares to say a word!"
When Xie Jingchun said this, his voice suddenly turned cold.
Nan Nan was amused by the tone of his words, and her eyes and brows softened.
"Thank you."
Her voice was soft, but to Xie Jingchun, it was like a drop of water falling into a lake on a spring night, incredibly gentle.
Xie Jingchun stared at her intently, his gaze filled with an undisguised tenderness and fervor.
The next moment, he slowly leaned down and gently kissed her cheek.
It was a very light and warm kiss, devoid of any desire.
Nan Nan's eyelashes trembled slightly as she turned to look at him, only to see that Xie Jingchun had already taken a step back, his eyes calm and his breathing steady.
He simply looked at her, his eyes calm.
I love you, I love you.
They are not married yet, so he won't do anything inappropriate to Nan Nan.
"When we return to the capital, I will marry you openly and honestly."
Nan Nan's heart skipped a beat, her face flushed, and she nodded gently in response, "Okay."