The Side Character Who Wins by Doing Nothing

The Divine Soul Restriction inside the Golden Core Cultivator wasn’t difficult for Lu Sangjiu to deal with, but to feign weakness, she deliberately took a little longer to completely remove it.

Finally, she clutched her chest again. ”I really can’t go on... Let Duoduo protect you. I need to get some good sleep to rest and recover.”

Watching her feigned stagger as she left, Xie Ningyuan gave a helpless smile before turning to the Golden Core Cultivator. ”See? I wasn’t lying, was I? So, can you tell me who your master is now?”

The Golden Core Cultivator was overjoyed to have the restriction on him removed. True to his word, he then answered Xie Ningyuan’s question without hesitation.

”It’s the City Lord.”

Then, without Xie Ningyuan having to ask, he explained everything.

”The City Lord’s Wife contracted a strange illness. To save his wife, the City Lord somehow found an Evil Technique to cure her.”

”It involves using a Magic Treasure to drain a woman’s blood and flesh, which is then refined into a pill to prolong the life of his wife.”

”The method is evil, but it really works. Once he had a taste of success, the City Lord had us start searching the city for suitable candidates among the Loose Cultivators. Many people pass through the city, so no one would care if a few Loose Cultivators came and went.”

”Everything was fine at first, until one of my subordinates made the mistake of going after the young lady of that prominent family. That’s when things spiraled out of control.”

”To appease that family, the City Lord had no choice but to put on a show of searching for clues. As a result, one disappearance after another was brought to light, which is how it became the serial murder case we have today.”

Hearing this, Xie Ningyuan understood. ”So, in reality, more than seven people have died?”

The Golden Core Cultivator nodded. ”They say it’s seven people, but in reality, only seven bodies have been found...”

On that topic, Xie Ningyuan had to ask about the one thing that perplexed him the most.

”So, if you’re the killers, why didn’t you destroy the evidence? Why throw the bodies into this deep pit?”

At this, the Golden Core Cultivator’s face fell. ”To be honest... we really weren’t the ones who did that.”

He was clearly frustrated about it too. ”Everything was going smoothly. Then one day, we had a moment of carelessness and discovered that a body we hadn’t disposed of yet had vanished.”

”We were afraid the City Lord would blame us, so no one dared mention it at first. We thought it would just blow over, but then bodies started disappearing regularly. Finally, we found them here, in this deep pit.”

”The City Lord was furious and ordered us to stand guard more carefully. We tried, but a body would disappear the moment we let our guard down. We couldn’t catch whoever was doing it, and it’s been a massive headache for us.”

”Eventually, with that prominent family applying constant pressure, the City Lord had no choice but to report the matter to the Joyful Union Sect. His plan was that if they sent someone to investigate, we could hopefully pin the blame on the corpse thief.”

”And if the investigator grew suspicious, we’d find an opportunity to kill them and frame the corpse thief for that, too.”

Xie Ningyuan frowned. The story was coherent, but for some reason, he couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong...

As he was lost in thought, a light breeze drifted by, carrying a faint, almost imperceptible scent.

The scent was faint but incredibly potent. With just a single whiff, Xie Ningyuan felt his head go dizzy, and he swayed before collapsing to the ground.

At the same time, he saw the man who had just been speaking so candidly fall into a deep slumber almost instantly.

Elsewhere, Lu Sangjiu also smelled the fragrance at that same moment.

But unlike Xie Ningyuan, who grew dizzy, she had no reaction. Her eyes only widened when she recognized the familiar scent.

’This is... Fa Shan’s Ghost Demon Fragrance!’

Fa Shan’s Ghost Demon Fragrance, much like Cangming’s Blood Evil Curse, was a unique Secret Technique.

This fragrance had a powerful soporific effect on Immortal Cultivators. Anyone below the Nascent Soul Stage would fall into a deep sleep almost instantly after smelling just a trace of it.

Even cultivators at the Nascent Soul and Divinity Transformation Stages would succumb if they inhaled a few more times. In short, its effects were incredibly potent.

However, the fragrance was only potent against Immortal Cultivators. For Demon Cultivators, it merely had a minor calming effect.

Back when she had trouble sleeping, Fa Shan would light some for her, so she couldn’t be more familiar with the scent.

But because the refining process and materials for this fragrance were so unique, no one besides Fa Shan could possibly create an identical one.

This made the fragrance exceptionally precious. She didn’t know about the present, but the Fa Shan of the past would never have dreamed of giving it away or selling it to anyone but her.

’In short, it’s highly unlikely this fragrance would fall into an outsider’s hands. Someone is using it now... could it really be Fa Shan’s people pulling the strings?’

A myriad of thoughts flashed through Lu Sangjiu’s mind, but she remained perfectly still, feigning sleep.

She waited until she felt a person approaching the edge of the pit. When he was close enough, she abruptly opened her eyes!

As Lu Sangjiu’s eyes snapped open, they met the panicked face of a teenage boy.

He had a corpse slung over his back. Startled by her sudden movement, he forgot to even drop the body and simply spun around and fled without hesitation.

He was clearly a timid sort. He had been careful not to reveal his Demonic Qi earlier, but now, caught red-handed, he panicked and activated his movement technique.

Demonic Qi instantly billowed around him... He was a Demon Cultivator!

’Now that I’ve seen him, there’s no way I’m letting him get away.’ Immediately, she activated her Flying Cloud Step, her body blurring as she shot after the boy.

The result, of course, was that the boy, who only had Golden Core Cultivation, was no match for Lu Sangjiu. He didn’t get far before she intercepted him.

Looking at him again up close, the boy seemed even more sallow and scrawny, as if malnourished. His large eyes were filled with pure terror.

But seeing that escape was impossible, he found the courage to fight her head-on.

Lu Sangjiu had no intention of hurting him, so her attacks were relatively gentle. After a dozen or so exchanges, she finally subdued him.

Pinning the desperately struggling boy, Lu Sangjiu channeled her Spiritual Energy and sealed several of his major acupoints with a touch. He was instantly immobilized, unable to use his Demonic Qi.

Only then did she breathe a sigh of relief and drag him back.

When she returned, she saw that Xie Ningyuan, Duoduo, and even the Golden Core Cultivator were still fast asleep. The Ghost Demon Fragrance was clearly very effective; even someone like Xie Ningyuan had been caught off guard.

Lu Sangjiu walked over and helped him lie back down on his mat. Seeing him sleeping so soundly, she couldn’t help but pout. ’See? I told you you were useless.’

’Hmm, even though I only escaped the Ghost Demon Fragrance because of the Demonic Qi in my body, that still counts as my own ability. It’s still Xie Ningyuan who’s the useless one!’

But despite her disdainful thoughts, her movements were gentle. She even took out a soft pillow and a blanket to make him more comfortable.

She placed Duoduo next to Xie Ningyuan, ignoring only the Golden Core Cultivator.

Finally, she walked back to the young Demon Cultivator.

Crouching down to meet his terrified eyes, Lu Sangjiu gave him a gentle smile. ”Alright, young man. How about we have a nice chat?”