A thousand enlightenments in one night, starting from being a menial apprentice.

Before a carved and openwork huanghuali wood canopy bed, a semi-transparent gauze curtain hung from the top of the canopy. From inside the gauze curtain came soft, whimpering sounds.

In the dim light of a lamp beside the screen, a graceful figure could be seen trembling on the gauze curtain...

On the bed, Zhu Kun's forehead was covered in cold sweat. He was breathing heavily, his eyes puffy with sweat. Bruising was visible under his puffy eyes. He looked at his concubine writhing on his body like a water snake, and a complex desire, a mixture of greed and ferocity, surged deep in his eyes...

Just as the two reached the peak, two fireflies suddenly appeared, flickering uncertainly, inside the gauze curtain.

Zhu Kun and his concubine were both covered in sweat and panting heavily, completely unaware of the strangely appearing fireflies.

Two fireflies, tracing two streaks of cold light, disappeared into the space between their brows.

Just then, a figure appeared like a ghost outside the bed where the gauze curtains hung.

Duan Rong's eyes flickered slightly. He raised his hand and lifted the gauze curtain, hanging it on the silver hook of the shelf. He stared intently at the bed and saw a naked man and woman lying on the bed, covered in sweat.

A woman with a voluptuous figure was lying on top of Zhu Kun. Duan Rong coldly pressed down on the woman's shoulders and pulled her away. After his training at the White Bone Temple, his lustful desires had been broken. Even when he saw such a body, his heart was as hard as stone, as if he were seeing a pile of rotten flesh.

Duan Rong stood beside the bed and looked at Zhu Kun, who had already been afflicted by "Yinghuo". With a thought, he enveloped Zhu Kun with his divine sense, which instantly transformed into delicate tentacles like fungal filaments, slowly seeping into Zhu Kun's spiritual sea of ​​consciousness.

An hour later, Duan Rong withdrew his delicate mycelial spiritual sense from Zhu Kun's sea of ​​consciousness, let out a long sigh, and lowered the gauze curtain again.

Zhu Kun did not find the original blood light of the Filthy Blood Divine Art within his spiritual sea of ​​consciousness.

Duan Rong was not surprised by this result.

He had previously overheard Zhu Kun and Wu Ruyue's conversation, and from it, he had a vague feeling that the two of them were probably not related to the Bloodstained Cult.

This investigation is merely to confirm my initial judgment.

As the draped gauze curtains swayed, Duan Rong's figure vanished like a ghost...

Zhu Kun and his concubine were engaged in sensual acts in bed, while Wu Ruyue lay on the bed, tossing and turning, unable to fall asleep. Her conversation with Zhu Kun in the study after dinner had clearly caused her anxiety.

Wu Ruyue was very worried about her brother, Wu Mian. Just as Zhu Kun had said, the more she thought about it, the more she felt that her brother's behavior over the past two years had indeed been quite strange.

"Sigh, it's all because of Xiang'er's disappearance..." Wu Ruyue thought to herself, tears welling up in her eyes in the darkness. Just then, a flickering firefly appeared in the gauze curtains of the bed, like a firefly in the grass in the mountains.

Wu Ruyue was puzzled. The door was closed and the curtains were drawn. Where did the firefly come from? Just as she was about to chase it away, the firefly suddenly turned into a cold light and pierced her brow.

Wu Ruyue, who had been wide awake, suddenly felt drowsy and her eyelids drooped as if they were leaden...

Duan Rong lifted the gauze curtain and glanced at Wu Ruyue sleeping there, but he did not use his divine sense to penetrate Wu Ruyue's spiritual sea of ​​consciousness, because women cannot cultivate the Filthy Blood Divine Art.

Lowering the gauze curtain, Duan Rong slowly walked to the dressing table against the wall on the east side of the screen. In the darkness, the bronze mirror on the dressing table emitted a faint halo.

He walked over, and suddenly a force of law struck a drawer with a copper lock under the dressing table.

The internal spring of the brass lock vibrated, emitting a soft "ding" sound in the darkness, and then it opened on its own.

Duan Rong sat down, and his eyes, now adapted to the darkness, could see a flickering shadow in the bronze mirror—his own reflection, like a ghost.

He reached into the drawer, opened it, and took out letters, land deeds, and some transaction documents.

Duan Rong placed those items on the dressing table.

He had already discovered these things when he used his divine sense to explore Wu Ruyue's room, but since they were stacked together, the overlapping text made it difficult to distinguish them with his divine sense. So he took advantage of the night to run over and take a closer look at them.

Especially those family letters, many of which were written to her by her brother Wu Mian, may contain some hidden information.

In the darkness, Duan Rong picked up the letters one by one and scanned them with his divine sense.

If anyone were to witness this scene, they would surely be terrified. A dark figure sits before the bronze mirror, perusing letters in the darkness—what else could it be but a vengeful ghost?

Duan Rong used his divine sense to investigate and read very quickly, finishing in about half an hour.

He sighed deeply. The letters were all trivial matters, containing no useful information whatsoever. He folded them neatly and put them back in the drawer. In the darkness, with a soft click, the brass lock was fastened again.

The instant the thud sounded, Duan Rong's figure vanished, leaving only deathly silence in the darkness...

On the roof of Wu Ruyue's house, a cold wind blew Duan Rong's hair. It was already late at night, and the surroundings were pitch black. Only the sound of the night watchman's clapper could be heard from several streets away.

Duan Rong stared intently at a certain spot in the night, looking towards the backyard of the county government office, which was two streets away.

The next moment, a strange and bewitching red light flashed between Duan Rong's brows, and his figure disappeared in an instant, like a ghost.

Duan Rong emerged from the darkness. This was a secluded space, Wu Mian's study. Wu Mian didn't sleep here; he slept in the room next door.

In the silence, Duan Rong slowly walked to the desk and took out many letters and official documents from a drawer with a copper lock underneath.

In the darkness, he used his divine sense to penetrate and scan each area.

The number of letters and functions from Wu Mian's collection far exceeded that from Wu Ruyue's; it took Duan Rong two full hours to read them all.

Similarly, nothing was gained; most of it consisted of official documents, and some of it was useless gossip.

Duan Rong put the letters and official documents back in their place, then stood up, turned around and walked towards the wall behind him. Without stopping, he passed right through the wall, like a ghost.

Passing through the wall, you enter another room, about the same size as the study. It is pitch black, with faint snoring sounds.

Duan Rong stood there, and with a thought, a firefly appeared in the darkness not far in front of him. It then transformed into a cold light, passed through the screen, pierced through the curtains, and disappeared into Wu Mian's brow.

Then, in the darkness, the faint, undulating snores underwent subtle changes. Even in deep sleep, dreaming and not dreaming are completely different. Being possessed by Yinghuo (荧惑) means entering a dreamlike state of the soul.

Duan Rong walked slowly past the screen, and suddenly stopped in front of the cabinet not far from the bed. He released a burst of law power, and the lock on the cabinet door jumped open on its own.

Duan Rong opened the cupboard door and took out a wooden box from inside.

He carried the wooden box to the table, set it down, and gently pulled open the lid. In the darkness, even without scanning it with his divine sense, he knew that inside was a Blood Spirit Mushroom.

Duan Rong took the blood-growth mushroom out of the wooden box and sniffed it.

By absorbing the spirit of the artifact, Duan Rong had already mastered the arts of medicine and poison, and identifying herbs was second nature to him. With just one sniff, he had roughly discerned the medicinal properties and quality of this Blood Spirit Mushroom. Duan Rong then rubbed some powder from the edge of the Blood Spirit Mushroom and dabbed it on the tip of his tongue.

He swallowed the powder along with his saliva, feeling the subtle diffusion of the medicine in his body.

"Truly a fine item." Even Duan Rong, who had already reached the Cave-Ming Realm, couldn't help but praise it. "As long as it's not a fatal illness, this item can prolong life."

Then he suddenly noticed a cloth bag about the size of a baby's fist in one corner of the wooden box.

He took out the cloth bag and sniffed it. Duan Rong frowned slightly; it was dry lime powder. This was clearly meant to keep the blood-ganoderma lucidum inside the wooden box dry.

Looking at the blood-red Ganoderma lucidum and the bag of dried lime powder, a look of doubt flashed across Duan Rong's eyes.

According to his observation of Zhu Kun and Wu Ruyue's conversation tonight, Wu Mian obtained this Blood Spirit Mushroom from Zhu Kun a couple of days ago.

Duan Rong couldn't understand why Wu Mian would get his hands on this Blood Spirit Mushroom and hide it in the cupboard next to his bed.

"What exactly is this Blood Ganoderma involved in?" Duan Rong felt that Wu Mian would not have done this for no reason, but he found no information about this Blood Ganoderma in any of the letters and documents he had investigated.

Just then, Duan Rong suddenly noticed a brazier on the floor next to the desk in the bedroom, and there was a lot of paper ash in the brazier.

Perhaps all the correspondence related to this item has already been burned by Wu Mian.

After this investigation, Duan Rong became even more suspicious of Wu Mian.

Because Wu Mian had a son named Wu Xiang, who contracted a terminal illness two years ago and disappeared shortly afterward. Duan Rong heard this from a conversation between Zhu Kun and Wu Ruyue.

This piece of information reminded Duan Rong of the Filthy Blood Cult. The wonder of the Filthy Blood Divine Skill lies in its ability to bring the dead back to life, and to regenerate severed limbs and internal organs. With this miraculous power, it can cure all diseases.

Wu Mian's son, Wu Xiang, contracted a terminal illness and suddenly disappeared. Could it be that he joined the Filthy Blood Cult?

Duan Rong deduced that it was highly likely.

The Wutong Temple wouldn't have appeared in Huangpi County without a reason. It was built under the leadership of Wu Mian, but Wu Mian did not practice the Bloodstained Divine Skill.

How did this person become connected with the Bloodstained Blood Cult? Through the information about Wu Xiang in the conversation between Zhu Kun and Wu Ruyue, Duan Rong deduced that Wu Mian's connection with the Bloodstained Blood Cult was his son, Wu Xiang.

The Wu family has had only one son for three generations, so isn't this only son Wu Mian's Achilles' heel?
As long as the Filthy Blood Cult seizes this weakness, Wu Mian will remain obedient and do whatever they ask. In this way, taking the lead in building the Wutong Temple seems like a natural progression.

Moreover, Duan Rong now suspects that this Blood Spirit Mushroom is also related to the Filthy Blood Cult.

Because none of the letters and official documents he received from Wu Mian contained any information about the Blood Spirit Mushroom. This indicated that Wu Mian had erased all information about the Blood Spirit Mushroom.

What information could possibly be causing Wu Mian such alarm? The answer is obvious: the Bloodstained Cult.

Duan Rong put the blood-ganoderma lucidum and the cloth bag containing the dried lime back into the wooden box, closed the lid, and put it back into the cabinet behind the screen.

After locking the brass lock on the cabinet again, he glanced at the bed. Wu Mian was still asleep inside the curtains. Through layers of reasoning, Duan Rong was almost certain that this person had been controlled by the Filthy Blood Cult.

All he needs to do now is wait and see, keep an eye on Wu Mian, and wait for Wu Mian to make contact with the Bloodstained Blood Cult members. Then he can follow the clues and destroy another Bloodstained Blood Cult stronghold.

With a thought, Duan Rong vanished like a ghost.

He reappeared in the abandoned courtyard, just before dawn when the sky was darkest, with only a lone star hanging upside down in the sky.

Duan Rong glanced at the lone star in the dark sky, then squinted and lay down on the recliner under the big locust tree. He used his divine sense to lock onto Wu Mian while taking a short rest on the recliner.

Locking onto Wu Mian with only a wisp of divine thought did not consume much of Duan Rong's soul, nor did it even affect his rest.

As the morning sunlight danced through the branches of the old locust tree, Duan Rong awoke. He yawned, fetched a bucket from the well, washed his face, and then released his divine sense once more, enveloping the entire Huangpi County, focusing primarily on three people: Wu Mian, Wu Ruyue, and Zhu Kun. He was listening to the gossip circulating in the city, mainly concerning these three individuals.

That morning, Wu Ruyue went to the county government office and once again tried to persuade Wu Mian to remarry, but Wu Mian refused on the spot, and Wu Ruyue left dejectedly. All other trivial matters proceeded as usual.

Using his divine sense to monitor the entire city, Duan Rong became somewhat tired by evening, so he focused his divine sense only on Wu Mian, Wu Ruyue, and Zhu Kun, no longer covering the entire city.

At first, Duan Rong didn't pay much attention, keeping an eye on the three of them while resting with his eyes half-closed. He was prepared for a protracted battle.

But not long after, something unusual happened.

After dinner, Wu Mian finished reviewing official documents and then spent an hour in his study reading travel notes.

As time went on, Duan Rong's vigilance gradually increased, because he remembered that on the previous two nights, Wu Mian would only read for a while before going to bed in his bedroom, but tonight he had been reading for a full hour and was still sitting there reading by candlelight.

To say that the travelogue was so captivating that Wu Mian was completely engrossed in it wouldn't be accurate. He had already gone through several different notebooks, flipping through each one only a few pages before switching to another, and his restless, darting eyes clearly indicated that his attention wasn't on the book.

This unusual situation naturally caught Duan Rong's attention, and his divine sense was firmly locked onto Wu Mian.

After another hour or so, Wu Mian remained absent-minded in the study.

Suddenly, the sound of the night watchman's clapper came from outside. Wu Mian counted the hours and realized it was already midnight. He suddenly got up and walked out of the study, but did not blow out the lamp on his desk.

Wu Mian groped his way to the bedroom next door. He walked slowly inside, went behind the screen, squatted down in front of the cabinet next to the bed, took out a key, unlocked the brass lock, and took out a wooden box.

Wu Mian carried the wooden box back to his study, sat down at his desk, slowly opened the box, looked at the blood-ganoderma inside, and then closed the box again.

At this moment, Wu Mian stopped reading his travelogues and notes, and instead sat there with his eyes closed, resting his thin hands crossed on the wooden box on the table.

Duan Rong noticed this scene with his divine sense, and suddenly, on a whim, he released all his divine sense, covering the entire urban area of ​​Huangpi County.

He had a feeling that tonight would be the night the Bloodstained Cult members and Wu Mian made their rendezvous. (End of Chapter)