Chapter 47: Knowing a Person’s Face but Not Their Heart

In an instant, the handsome man's body stiffened abruptly, and every hair on his body stood on end.

He also said in a deep voice, "Breath-concealing talismans, you really are quite lavish."

Before entering the courtyard, Gu Xian had given each person a breath-concealing talisman, which not only completely hid their presence, but also rendered their very figures invisible to others.

Relying on these talismans, they had successfully deceived the flower-picker before them.

Gu Xian cut straight to the point: "Are you the flower-picker?"

The handsome man tilted his head back. "That's right."

With a smile on his face, he glanced at Xia Qinghe, reined in the desire in his eyes, and spoke softly.

"My friends, grievances are better settled than kept alive. I didn't gain much advantage from this young lady anyway, and instead suffered quite a heavy blow to my hands. How about I present this young lady with a priceless treasure as an apology, and also make friends with you all? Why don't you spare my life?"

Gu Xian wore a half-smile and casually flicked out a straight, slender sword beam.

Then he smiled and said, "Foolish, once we kill you, won't everything belong to us anyway?"

The handsome man cursed inwardly, but his speed was not slow in the least. His figure moved like a ghost, leaving trails of afterimages in the courtyard as he dodged the sword beam.

Immediately afterward, however, another sword beam followed like a shadow, slashing toward him.

In a split second, the ordinary little courtyard was instantly filled with sword light, bursts of powerful aura erupted, and spiritual energy bloomed brilliantly.

The four of them attacked with all their might. The handsome man looked disheveled, forced to dodge continuously as the surging spiritual energy around him formed a protective barrier, desperately trying to withstand the attacks of the group.

Before long, the flower-picker was still pierced in the shoulder by a slender sword beam. He let out a muffled groan, and his speed plummeted by quite a bit.

At that moment, the golden-robed young man conjured a string of prayer beads, every single bead engraved with dense seal scripts that emitted a radiant glow.

Mo Qi channeled his mind to control the beads, smashing them down toward the top of the flower-picker's head.

The handsome man was struck with sudden panic, feeling as though a towering mountain were endlessly crushing down upon him. His figure sank abruptly, both feet plunging several inches into the ground.

Xia Qinghe lunged forward fiercely, her posture exceptionally agile, and arrived before the flower-picker in the blink of an eye. With a blank expression, she swung her sword.

Instantly, a head flew high into the air, rolling across the courtyard a few times after hitting the ground.

With that, the flower-picker's life and soul were completely extinguished.

Not a trace of sympathy could be found on anyone's face. Such evil practitioners who practiced dual cultivation through abduction and preying upon the innocent deserved a thousand deaths.

Gu Xian, meanwhile, was reminded of an old tale he had once heard. Years ago, the flower-picker was as infamous as the Joyous Maiden, recognized across the world as a dreaded cultivator skilled in extraction arts.

Looking at the corpse, Gu Xian and the others all recalled a widely circulated legend throughout the realm.

Many years ago, a flower-picker had set his sights on a young female disciple of a sword-cultivation sect in the Northern Conquest Continent. The young female swordsman happened to be traveling with her sword, and seizing the opportunity, the flower-picker drugged her in a desolate wilderness shrine with malicious intent.

As it happened, an elderly sword immortal was passing by. Witnessing the scene, he casually waved a sword from the clouds riding the wind, causing the flower-picker's soul to scatter instantly, dead beyond all doubt.

Having survived this ordeal, the female swordsman retreated deep into her sect, rarely stepping outside. Sixty years flashed by in the blink of an eye, and the world assumed she had suffered such a severe blow that her Dao heart had shattered forever.

Never had anyone expected that at that very moment, the female cultivator would suddenly appear at the flower-picker's sect. Sensing the fluctuations of her aura, everyone was jolted awake—she had already ascended to the realm of a sword immortal.

That day, the female sword immortal went alone with her sword, single-handedly slaughtering her way into the flower-picker's sect, where countless depraved villains perished beneath her blade.

Those flower-pickers who managed to escape by sheer luck or were absent from the sect at the time had lived like rats hiding from the light ever since.

For over the course of the next full century, the female sword immortal did only one thing: hunt down the surviving flower-pickers across the entire world.

To this day, the lineage of flower-pickers had long since declined, falling far short of the Joyous Sect, one of the seven great demonic sects.

The four of them looted the flower-picker's corpse and various corners of the courtyard. This place must have been one of the flower-picker's secret strongholds, and they actually managed to unearth quite a few good treasures.

Spirit stones alone numbered in the thousands. Beyond that, talismans, magical artifacts, and other treasures were numerous as well.

The four of them immediately divided the loot equally. At first, Mo Qi repeatedly refused, but in the end, Gu Xian and the others shoved the items onto him anyway.

The golden-robed young man wore a smile, finding it a rather novel experience.

As one of the premier immortal sects within the borders of the Daxuan Dynasty, the Concealed Moon Sect was wealthy enough to rival nations. From the moment he was born, Mo Qi had never once worried about money or cultivation resources.

Naturally, he wouldn't hold the wealth accumulated by the flower-picker over the years in high regard, but since it was a kind gesture from Gu Xian and the others, it wouldn't do to refuse.

The group disposed of the flower-picker's corpse. With Xia Qinghe and Yang Mao both being demon-slayers, coupled with the fact that the flower-picker was clearly in the wrong first, they had no fear of stirring up any trouble.

Instead, this naturally added a merit to Xia Qinghe and Yang Mao's records.

Returning to the inn, the innkeeper dressed in light grey robes greeted them with an apologetic expression.

The earlier commotion in Xia Qinghe's room had long since alerted the entire inn, and the innkeeper was naturally already aware of it.

"Honored guests, what happened tonight was due to the inn's negligence. I truly am deeply sorry."

Gu Xian and the others didn't make things difficult for the innkeeper. After all, the man was merely a mortal, and there was nothing he could do when such a misfortune struck.

In the end, the innkeeper grew even more embarrassed, taking the initiative to offer Gu Xian and his companions free food and lodging for the duration of their stay.

After chatting with the innkeeper for a short while, the group returned to their respective rooms.

Yang Mao first pressed his ear against the door for a moment to listen, and after confirming that no one was eavesdropping, he spread out a talisman, used his spiritual energy to write a message on it, and then folded it into a paper crane. Tossing it out the window, the paper crane flapped its wings and flew off in a certain direction, quickly vanishing from Yang Mao's sight.

Beneath an old locust tree in Yellow Haze Town, a woman dressed in red robes sat on a thick bough, her delicate jade feet swaying gently.

Floating beside her was a small boy, working diligently to massage the woman's back like an absolute sycophant.

The boy suddenly asked, "Big Boss, why didn't you go find that guy after we rushed all the way here with such hardship?"

The woman in red turned her head and glanced at him, causing the boy to quickly cover his mouth with one hand.

Right at that moment, a paper crane flew past above their heads. The red-robed woman reached out, pure spiritual energy spreading forth, and the paper crane instantly altered its flight path, guided directly into her hand.

The boy's eyes lit up. "Immortal crane talisman?"

Spiritual energy gushed from the woman's fingertips, carefully cutting through the layers of seals upon it like a paper-cutting knife.

A line of text materialized before the two of them.

Upon reading it, the boy's eyes widened instantly, and he said in utter shock, "This..."

Before he could say anything more, he was once again silenced by a warning look from the red-robed woman.

The woman raised her gaze toward the direction of the Chasing Wind Inn, her voice gradually growing ethereal beneath the cover of night.

"You can know a man's face, but not his heart."