Don't Cause Trouble Chapter 104: A Slice Across

"We're new cultivators, assigned to patrol the City Lord's Manor," Xu Chengyu took the initiative to explain. "The Captain of the Guard said the array in the side courtyard was broken and told us to check it out."

Zhou Yun stared at him for a while, finally recognizing the familiar face. "Aren’t you the City Lord’s wife’s younger brother?"

The young man stepped a little closer when he heard that. "My name is Yu Chengyue."

So it was the City Lord’s wife’s younger brother.

As soon as he came closer, everyone immediately realized, Yu Chengyue wasn’t a cultivator. He hadn’t even reached Foundation Establishment.

How could an ordinary person manage to silently appear behind them without being noticed?

"Are all of you talisman masters?" Yu Chengyue asked.

"We are," Lian Lian replied.

"That’s great. I’ve always wanted to visit the cultivation world," Yu Chengyue said, a hint of regret on his pale and delicate face. "Unfortunately, my health is poor, and I can't travel far."

"You can fly," You Fushi suddenly interjected.

Everyone turned sharply to look at him.

"Do you… mean sword-riding?" Yu Chengyue asked hesitantly. He was thin and pale, his face gentle and refined, but he seemed completely devoid of energy. Standing in the dark, if not for the white cloak, he might have blended right into the night. "My brother-in-law said ordinary people can’t stay steady on a sword."

"You can sit in a basket," You Fushi said firmly, as if it made perfect sense.

Everyone else: "…"

Yu Chengyue froze for a second, then replied seriously, "Maybe I can try it sometime."

"It can carry you," You Fushi said, pulling out the Chongming Sword. "But you’ll need to pay with spirit stones."

Ye Su closed her eyes briefly, suddenly getting the feeling that she’d led him astray.

This was the same junior disciple who once casually tossed away a rare piece of purple pear burl wood. And now he was trying to make a profit.

"Young Master Yu, what brings you here?" Ye Su quickly changed the subject.

"My courtyard is nearby. I couldn’t sleep, so I went for a walk and saw you all coming this way," Yu Chengyue said, pulling his cloak tighter. He added politely, "Please don’t tell the Captain of the Guard, or my sister will lecture me again."

He stepped to the side. "Please continue."

Since he was the City Lord’s wife’s brother, everyone agreed without hesitation. Lian Lian and Cheng Huaian turned to work on repairing the gap in the array.

Even though everyone watched Lian Lian and the others fix the array, they kept a portion of their focus on Yu Chengyue. After all, he was just an ordinary person who had somehow appeared without anyone noticing, a cause for suspicion.

But the way he stood there, coughing every so often, looking like he was terminally ill, made them feel awkward about staring. They ended up looking away.

Maybe… he really had been standing there the whole time.

In front of the array—

Ye Su asked Lian Lian in a low voice, "Since this is a demon-repelling and mind-cleansing array, could we try expanding it to cover the entire City Lord’s Manor?"

"No way," Lian Lian shook her head. "Such an array consumes a massive amount of spiritual power. We're only at the Nascent Soul stage, nowhere near enough to support an array that size. But small areas or individuals might be doable."

That meant they’d need to identify the demon first. If they used the array on the wrong target, and it turned out the person wasn’t a demon, they’d be disqualified.

Lian Lian and the others worked through the night. Yu Chengyue didn’t show any signs of sleepiness either. Though he looked like he might collapse at any moment, he still stood there and quietly watched them repair the array.

"It’s done." As dawn approached, Cheng Huaian withdrew his spiritual power. "The gap in the array is fixed."

"It’s time to head back," Zhou Yun said. "We’re meeting the City Lord soon."

"Young Master Yu, let me walk you back," Xu Chengyu offered. As he spoke, he put one hand behind his back and subtly waved at Zhou Yun and Ma Congqiu.

"I can go back on my own," Yu Chengyue said just as a violent cough overtook him. His already pale face turned red from the strain.

Xu Chengyu stepped forward and caught him, gently injecting a trace of spiritual energy to ease the irritation causing the cough.

"Thank you," Yu Chengyue sensed it and sincerely expressed his gratitude.

"I’ll walk you back and make sure no one else finds out," Xu Chengyu said kindly as he withdrew his energy.

Nothing seemed off. Yu Chengyue even had a cultivation-compatible spiritual root, just too weak physically to bear the strain of cultivation.

As the two walked away, Lian Lian clicked her tongue. "Xu Chengyu always plays it sly when it matters most."

He even took the opportunity to test him and now he had a reason to enter Yu Chengyue’s courtyard and check on the others.

……

When they went to meet the city lord along with the previously selected cultivators, everyone realized that someone had already met the city lord beforehand.

Ye Su looked up at the people above and sighed inwardly, everyone seemed to move faster than the last.

The city lord sat at the highest seat in the council hall. Standing beside him was the new Buddhist disciple of the Wanfo Sect, Gu Liangtian. He held a staff in one hand and prayer beads in the other. He was slender and handsome, with a faint air of compassion, and there was a new scar on his forehead.

He looked very much like a con artist.

"It is my honor that all of you cultivators are willing to serve as guards. You will be well compensated with spirit stones," said the city lord from above. Then he gestured to his attendants to hand out several trays of spirit stones. Turning to Gu Liangtian beside him, he added, "Buddhist disciple, please wait a moment. I’ll take you to see my younger brother shortly, his condition has worsened again lately."

Gu Liangtian nodded slightly and gently rotated his prayer beads. "The Blessing Array can help protect his spiritual energy from dispersing."

Everyone below: "……"

They could only blame themselves for lacking skills. All they knew was how to fight. Now they were stuck working as guards. Look at the Buddhist disciple even making up things like ‘Blessing Arrays’ on the spot.

After finishing his pleasantries with the cultivators, the city lord quickly left with the Buddhist disciple.

……

There were ten days left before the night of the city massacre. In the meantime, everyone’s daily task was to monitor those coming and going in the city lord’s estate, yet no one discovered anything. Even the Hehuan Sect had no leads.

None of the people in the estate found any clues. Over the past few days, all they learned was that the city lord and his wife were very affectionate, and thus treated Yu Chengyue very well. They had gone to great lengths to invite cultivators from all over to prolong the life of the lady’s younger brother.

The city lord had to handle affairs every day, while the city lord’s wife often visited the temple to chant prayers for her brother. As for Yu Chengyue, he always stayed in his own room.

Except for the changes at the beginning, the number of access passes had not decreased. This meant that even outside the estate, no one had found any trace of demonic beings.

Ning Qianyao stood under a tree and looked up. "Ye Su has been unusually quiet lately. What is she doing?"

"She seems to be selling talismans?" Jian Hu said hesitantly.

"Selling talismans?" Ning Qianyao was confused. Selling talismans inside the Suhui Array? She had no idea what Ye Su was thinking.

After considering for a moment, she decided to go look for Lu Chenhan.

……

At this moment, with no leads and nowhere to turn, Ye Su took advantage of a break from patrol duty to wander around selling talismans.

Ye Su squatted in a corner by the city wall, setting up a small stall. Across from her were a few cultivators from the city lord’s estate.

"I’ve never heard of talismans needing the user’s own blood," one of them said.

"You’ve never heard of blood talismans?" Ye Su looked at him with suspicion in her eyes. "The best talismans are drawn with blood."

"I’ve heard of them, but aren’t they supposed to be made with the talisman maker’s own blood?" another cultivator squatting nearby asked.

Ye Su replied seriously, "These days, the most popular thing among talisman cultivators is to use the user’s own blood. These are called custom talismans. Of course, lower-level talisman makers probably don’t know how to do this yet, which is why they haven’t told you."

Her face radiated sincerity, and she carried an aura of trustworthiness that made the cultivators unconsciously believe her. In the end, they hesitated but still cut their palms and collected a small bowl of blood.

"Is this okay?" one of the cultivators asked.

Ye Su looked at the blood, which smelled completely normal, pretended to dip into it, and actually used her spiritual power to draw more than ten talismans. "Here, take these. They’ll definitely work."

The cultivators hesitantly took the talismans and left.

"Just ordinary cultivators again," Yan Hao said as she walked over.

She had cast an illusion on Ye Su, making everyone subconsciously believe that Ye Su was righteous and trustworthy.

Ye Su pulled out a notebook and crossed off a few more names. "The people who are willing to come to me are most likely not demons. I’ve eliminated over thirty people now. I wonder how things are going on my junior brother’s end."

Elsewhere—

Yi Xuan was challenging cultivators from the city lord’s estate under the pretense of friendly sparring, trying to make them cough up blood so he could check whether their blood contained demonic energy.

Of course, there were some cultivators who didn’t want to buy talismans from Ye Su or spar with Yi Xuan. That’s when You Fushi’s Chongming Sword came into play again.

—The Chongming Sword would sneak around ambushing cultivators, slashing them once and then running off.

Afterward, Lü Jiu would step forward to explain on You Fushi’s behalf, "This sword has a sword spirit, but it was only recently tamed, so it’s still a bit wild."

Most cultivators would frown, shake their sleeves, and walk away while the group observed the blood they left behind.

If they found someone suspicious, whose blood smelled foul and bloody like a demon’s, the people from Sword Sect and others would swarm the person, lure them to a remote area, and kill them on the spot.

Surprisingly, this crude method actually worked. They really did manage to identify demons this way and each person successfully earned their pass for the trial.

Probably none of the sect masters outside expected them to use such a simple and brutal method to identify demons.

The rules prohibited killing people inside the Suhui Array by mistake, but slashing once and running didn’t count as breaking the rules, they were still within the limits.

"There are still more than four hundred suspicious people left in the city lord’s estate," someone said as they either stood or squatted in the courtyard. Xu Chengyu flipped through his notebook and added, "We need to monitor them closely and identify the demons on the night of the city massacre."

"Recently, Gu Liangtian has been wandering around the city lord’s estate a lot," Zhou Yun said. "I’ve seen him several times. Not sure what he’s up to."

"No one knows where Lu Chenhan went, either," Ma Congqiu whispered to the people from Qianji Sect. "I saw your little junior sister often going out with him."

The four disciples from Qianji Sect remained completely unmoved.

You Fushi and Lü Jiu didn’t know Ning Qianyao and weren’t interested. Ye Su wasn’t surprised that the male and female leads were sticking together. As for Yi Xuan, his mind was filled with nothing but how to find demons.

"The city lord’s wife’s younger brother’s birthday is coming soon," Cheng Huaian said from the side. "Right before the night of the city massacre."

Xu Chengyu nodded and looked at Ye Su. "We need to find all the demons as soon as possible."