Don't mess with that Miao boy, he's sickly and perverted.

Wu Li was suddenly taken aback.

When she hugged him on the bed just now, he heard the soft clinking of the tassels. At that time, he thought she had forgotten to take them off, but he never thought that she was deliberately wearing them all the time.

He raised his eyes and looked at the hairpin.

The hairpin is made of sandalwood, but the earrings hanging below are made of silver. The materials and the design are obviously incongruous, and it looks like a child's haphazardly put-together toy.

If it were displayed in a shop, no one would give it a second glance.

It's too shabby to give as a gift.

Thinking of this, his gaze fell back on the Qiankun bag.

The hairpin that had originally shimmered with delicate silver light suddenly seemed as cheap and worthless as a muddy weed in his mind.

Even if there were thousands upon thousands of such hairpins, they wouldn't be worth even one ten-thousandth of this Qiankun bag.

Some things are valued from the moment they are born.

If Jiang Zhiyu suddenly felt like making such a hair ornament, he could make it anytime.

But if he were to give away a Qiankun bag... he probably couldn't do it even if he spent his entire life doing so.

Only powerful sects with exceptional Taoist skills and profound knowledge can craft magical treasures like the Qiankun Bag.

Jiang Zhiyu's master, Ji Fangshi, came from Jingmingtai, one of the most prestigious sects of the time. His sect possessed countless treasures, and a Qiankun bag was nothing more than an ordinary object to him.

Wu Li's fingertips curled unconsciously.

His face suddenly darkened, and his tone hardened: "You wear it to sleep? Be careful it doesn't get stuck in your head when you roll over, and you'll be poked to death in your sleep!"

What's so precious about this poorly made thing?

Chai Xiaomi frowned, and her fingers, which were fiddling with the tassels, immediately stopped.

He's the quintessential example of someone who can't expect anything good to come out of a dog's mouth!

She wasn't satisfied with the gift he gave her; how could he be so difficult to please? She retorted angrily, "Then why did you give me this hairpin? Were you deliberately trying to—"

Stab me to death!

She suddenly swallowed the remaining three words back.

She saw the moonlight filtering through the inn's window, falling on the boy's lowered eyelashes and casting a fine shadow.

She suddenly felt that the boy at this moment resembled a small beast that was bluffing and brandishing its claws, seemingly covered in thorns, yet clumsily curled up, as if carefully protecting its most vulnerable spot.

Recalling the way he had pursed his lips and focused intently when he made this hairpin, the anger in her heart was suddenly simmering away, gently extinguished by something subtle.

"But," she said softly, her voice carrying a tenderness she herself didn't realize, "I just can't bear to pick it. Someone made this for me by hand; you won't find another one like it anywhere else in the world. If I lose it, where will I find an exact replica?"

"The Qiankun Bag is a magical artifact, but it can always be made again. But this hairpin took one of Lili's earrings."

She leaned forward and saw her own tiny reflection in his amber-purple pupils.

"What I like most is people who are willing to share their few possessions with me."

"This sentiment is priceless; it's so precious."

She's such an idiot.

Wu Lixiang.

How could anyone think a weed is precious?

Besides, these earrings aren't exactly rare; there are far more exquisite silver ornaments everywhere in Miao villages.

"Nonsense."

He heard himself utter those two words dryly.

But as soon as the words left his mouth, a strange sense of unease welled up inside him, as if what he wanted to say was not what he intended to say at all, yet he didn't know what he actually wanted to say.

Coincidentally.

At that moment, a cold, stern rebuke rang out from downstairs: "Nonsense!"

Chai Xiaomi's attention was instantly drawn to it.

She instinctively leaned out, most of her body sticking out of the railing, eagerly looking downstairs.

The inn was old, and the wooden railings were already cracked and rotten.

Although the girl was slender and light, her posture caused the old wooden structure to creak slightly, and the gaps swayed quietly in the dark.

She was busy eating melon seeds and was completely unaware of it.

Wu Li's gaze swept over the crack that was quietly widening beside her, but he remained silent.

The second floor of the inn is not as deep as a cellar, so falling down there is not a serious injury. At most, you will scrape your skin and feel pain for a few days.

She's always so reckless and careless; maybe if she falls once, it will teach her a lesson.

His gaze swept over her slender waist outlined by the light pink ruqun (a type of traditional Chinese dress), its curve so soft it seemed as if it could break at any moment, and over the section of her pinkish-white arm that peeked out as she clung to the wooden railing.

She looks like a porcelain doll no matter how you look at her.

It's probably not very durable.

I almost forgot, she also has a "body".

Then you absolutely cannot fall in front of everyone.

I've never seen a more troublesome woman than her!

A barely perceptible hint of helplessness flashed across his eyes, and he could only silently raise his hand to cover the trembling wooden railing.

His five fingers suddenly clenched, gripping the crack tightly. The railing, which had been slightly swaying, was instantly frozen in place by a chilling force.

"Since you are the one who set up the Soul-Locking Array, how could you not know the method to summon back the ghost infant?" Jiang Zhiyu said. "That infant spirit has already harbored murderous intent towards people and must not be allowed to live any longer. If you summon it back, I will naturally disperse its soul to prevent it from causing trouble in the future and also to cut off the danger of this karmic debt backlash for you. This will also be a relief for you."

Upon hearing the words "disperse the soul," the shopkeeper's eyes suddenly turned bloodshot, and he hissed as if in a desperate act, "What ghost infant? What soul-locking array! Young master, I don't understand a single word you're saying!"

"You fatso, I advise you not to refuse a toast only to suffer a forfeit!" Yan Xingxiao slammed his scabbard to the ground with a bang, and a murderous aura honed from years of wandering the martial world suddenly rose up.

If Song Yueyao hadn't raised her hand to stop him, he probably would have rushed up and started hitting people.

The innkeeper scoffed at his threat, giving a mocking sneer: "In my inn, there's neither toasting nor penalty drinking, only our own homemade rice wine. Sir, haven't you tried it?"

"you!"

Song Yueyao made a feint to stop Yan Xingxiao's sudden movement.

She had been sent to Lingyu Prefecture as a hostage by her biological father, and had seen the wickedness of people's hearts, but she had never seen such a shameless person.

In the Sanchao County area, those who use infant spirits to perform evil magic are mostly their own flesh and blood.

Song Yueyao's mind raced. This baby girl was most likely the shopkeeper's own child. He was using his own daughter's soul to enhance his fortune. Instead of showing any pity, he was furious when he heard that the soul should be dispelled, fearing that his source of income would be cut off.

How cold-blooded, and how pathetic.

"Stop acting." Song Yueyao's voice was cold and clear. "You're just using that ghost baby to make money for yourself. Otherwise, where did all that fine silk and satin you're wearing, and that jade thumb ring on your finger, come from? Did you get it from this shabby little inn of yours? Is money really that important?"

"Isn't it important?" The shopkeeper seemed to have his deepest wound touched, his pupils widened suddenly, and the muscles on his face contorted.

He had already discerned the extraordinary bearing of the couple before him, concluding they must be from wealthy families: "What do you people, born into luxury, know! Of course you can make sarcastic remarks!"

"I spent five ingots of silver to marry this stupid woman, what bad luck! She hasn't brought me any benefit, only given birth to money-losing brats!" He spat, his eyes filled with naked disgust. "Bah! Women are useless, all lowly bastards! Worthless things, they don't even deserve a simple coffin!"

He rubbed the cold jade thumb ring on his finger, as if it were the only real and warm thing in the world, his tone turning cold and smug: "Her useless life, at least, managed to bring her father something tangible; that's a blessing for her!"

"I used my own efforts to cultivate my own destiny, so what? I gave her life, and now I'm using it to give back to her father—it's only right! What are you all pretending to be so high and mighty for?"

He became increasingly agitated as he spoke, spitting as he spoke: "In this world, people laugh at poverty but not prostitution! Without money and power, you're just mud on the ground, anyone can step on you! But when I put on this silk and wear this thumb ring, everyone has to respectfully call me Boss Zhu! Anyone who tries to cut off my source of income is my mortal enemy! Want to ruin my fortune? They'll have to step over my dead body!"

"I advise you all to mind your own business and get out of here!!"