After Crossdressing and Provoking Long AoTian

After discussing it with Scholar Xiao, the two sides split up to handle separate tasks.

Scholar Xiao would first report the matter to Senior Sister Tianxin, then seek the old Fox King’s help.

Ye Chenyan had sent word to Pleasure Sect the previous night, and by now they had received a response. Several pill cultivators from outside Nanzhou had answered the notice, so they were asked to return and take a look.

...

Inside Pleasure Sect, Ye Chenyan and Yu Qingtang met the pill cultivators who had responded to the notice.

None of them were Du Heng.

Still, they did not let the cultivators make the trip for nothing. They purchased some basic chili-flavored pills and set them aside for Chi Yantian. He liked them, after all, and would certainly find a use for them.

A little disappointed, Yu Qingtang asked Candle Nine Yin, “Is this everyone? No one else came?”

“The notice was only posted last night,” Ye Chenyan consoled him. “Maybe he hasn’t seen it yet.”

Candle Nine Yin looked thoughtful. “So you don’t actually need pills. You’re looking for a person... There was one more, but Pretty Butterfly took him away.”

“Hm?” Yu Qingtang asked curiously. “Why would Pretty Butterfly take him? What does she need a pill cultivator for?”

“I don’t know,” Candle Nine Yin replied calmly.

Ye Chenyan raised an eyebrow. “She’s your daughter, and you didn’t ask?”

“She wasn’t the one who was poisoned.” Candle Nine Yin looked entirely unconcerned. “So there’s no problem.”

Ye Chenyan: “...Then where did she take him? Don’t tell me you don’t know that either.”

“I know where she is.” Candle Nine Yin looked at them. “Do you want to find her?”

Ye Chenyan nodded.

Candle Nine Yin raised a hand and released a small jade-green snake. “Follow it.”

The two hurried after it.

They had seen a similar jade-green snake on Pretty Butterfly before. Perhaps everyone in her family had one.

The little snake wound its way into Nanzhou City, then slipped inside a restaurant.

Yu Qingtang looked up and was somewhat surprised. “Heavenly Fragrance Pavilion?”

It looked familiar. There had been one in Qingzhou too, with bells that rang inside.

The two did not think much of it and were about to step through the entrance when a fragrant breeze swept toward them.

A yellow-haired fox woman with a fluffy tail swayed toward them on unsteady steps. “Oh my, new guests!”

She turned back with a smile. “Sisters, look! We’ve got two handsome ones today!”

Yu Qingtang’s eyes widened in alarm, and he took a wary step back. “Wait! Are you connected to the Heavenly Fragrance Pavilion in Qingzhou?”

“Who else beneath heaven would dare use the name Heavenly Fragrance Pavilion besides our young master’s establishments?” The yellow-haired fox leaned close, her eyes seductive. “Our young master personally oversees the Qingzhou branch. Have you two met him before?”

Yu Qingtang clapped his hands. “Oh, you mean that exceptionally handsome—”

“Ahem.” Ye Chenyan cleared his throat and turned toward him with a smile. “You’ve met him?”

“I have.” Yu Qingtang nodded honestly. “But you probably haven’t, because you were unconscious at the time.”

Ye Chenyan drew out the sound. “Oh—”

He smiled without quite smiling. “And how did I end up unconscious?”

Yu Qingtang: “...”

He leaned backward guiltily, avoiding Ye Chenyan’s gaze. “Maybe... maybe the weather was hot, and you fainted by accident.”

Ye Chenyan: “Hah.”

The yellow-haired fox’s eyes darted between them. With a giggle, she asked, “Are you two here together, or are you looking for someone?”

Yu Qingtang snapped back to himself. “Oh, we’re looking for someone. She should be—”

The yellow-haired fox beamed. “What kind do you like? Fur or no fur? Scales or no scales?”

Yu Qingtang’s eyes flew wide. “What?”

It took him a moment to understand.

He sucked in a sharp breath and immediately leaped back outside. “Wait! What kind of restaurant is this? Are you even a respectable establishment? I-I-I’m calling Starwatch Pavilion!”

“Of course we’re respectable.” The yellow-haired fox clung to the doorway and called after him with a grin. “Why are you panicking? We’ve got a hall full of demon cultivators for you to choose from. You can dual cultivate together.”

Ye Chenyan raised an eyebrow. “You call that respectable?”

“It’s only dual cultivation.” The yellow-haired fox did not care in the slightest. “Some human cultivators practice divine abilities named after demonfolk, so they come here to deduce and refine them with us. You must understand, some demonfolk carry the bloodlines of ancient demonic beasts. They might gain an insight or two.”

“As for whatever else you’re imagining...”

The yellow-haired fox gave them an ambiguous smile. “That isn’t impossible either. It depends on your ability—whether your face is pretty enough, and whether you know how to make a demon happy...”

Yu Qingtang looked entirely serious. “I don’t think that can be called respectable.”

“Oh, what’s not respectable about it?” The yellow-haired fox leaned against the doorframe. “You human cultivators are simply too dull and too proper.”

“Poor Heavenly Fragrance Pavilion. Outside Nanzhou, we aren’t even allowed to offer dual cultivation services. We can only operate as ordinary restaurants...”

Yu Qingtang: “...Then the people who aren’t looking for someone are just here to eat?”

“Of course not.” The yellow-haired fox opened her eyes slightly wider. “Who would come here just to eat alone? Our food isn’t even good. Obviously, they come to dual cultivate.”

Yu Qingtang: “...”

He should not have asked.

“Ahem.” Ye Chenyan smiled faintly. “We’re here to find Pretty Butterfly of Pleasure Sect.”

The yellow-haired fox looked mildly surprised, then laughed and turned her gaze away. “I already told you, the only ones available here are demonfolk. No one from Pleasure Sect is here...”

Ye Chenyan displayed the Pleasure Sect master’s seal.

The token had probably not appeared in Nanzhou City for many years. Even if she did not recognize it as the sect master’s seal, it was obvious that it belonged to Pleasure Sect.

The yellow-haired fox immediately relaxed and waved a hand. “Oh, so you’re from Pleasure Sect. You nearly scared this demon to death.”

“Come with me.”

She turned around without hesitation and beckoned for them to follow, complaining the whole way.

“That little girl has always been good at causing trouble. Today she came charging in with an unconscious little monk over her shoulder. She was in such a panic that she nearly frightened me to death.”

“Not long afterward, she went back out and dragged in a pill cultivator. She kept rushing in and out, always in a frenzy, and never once told me what had happened.”

“I thought you two had come to settle a score with her...”

She knocked on a door. “She’s in here. Go on in.”

Pretty Butterfly’s irritated voice came from inside. “I already told you, I can’t eat anything! Stop bothering me, Foxy!”

“Bah!” The yellow-haired fox kicked the door open. “Like hell I’d bring food to an ungrateful little brat like you! Your Pleasure Sect people are here. Hurry up and get lost! All you do is occupy my rooms when I still have guests to entertain!”

Pretty Butterfly looked up. When she saw the two of them, she froze. “It’s you...”

Yu Qingtang curiously leaned in and saw two silhouettes behind a screen. “What happened to Baoshan?”

In Nanzhou, the only monk Pretty Butterfly would carry around was probably little Monk Baoshan.

Pretty Butterfly pressed her lips together. Only then did Yu Qingtang notice that her eyes were red.

She was normally so flamboyant. It was rare to see her like this.

Yu Qingtang crouched down in shock to look at her. “What happened? Were you crying?”

He tugged on Ye Chenyan’s robe.

Ye Chenyan reacted a beat late, then crouched beside him with a strange expression. “Who did you lose a fight to?”

Pretty Butterfly stared at the two of them. Her mouth crumpled, and she burst into tears with a loud wail.

“Oh, my little ancestor—” The yellow-haired fox looked as though the headache might make her faint.

She dragged the three of them out and stuffed them into the neighboring room. “The patient and the pill cultivator are busy in there. Come over here.”

Pretty Butterfly wiped her tears on the yellow-haired fox’s skirt and muttered resentfully, “Weren’t you just complaining that I was taking up a room? Now I’m taking up two.”

“I’m not complaining, I’m not complaining.” The yellow-haired fox looked helpless. “Little ancestor, what happened? Tell us.”

Pretty Butterfly lowered her head. “Haven’t I been helping you make trouble for that fool from the Esoteric Sect lately? I’ve been stopping him so he can’t come bother you.”

“Right.” Yu Qingtang quickly nodded. “He hasn’t shown up recently. You’ve done an excellent job.”

He nudged Ye Chenyan. “Sect Master, hurry up and praise her.”

“Huh?” Ye Chenyan’s eyes widened slightly.

He opened his mouth, then stiffly repeated Yu Qingtang’s words. “You’ve done an excellent job.”

Pretty Butterfly’s expression eased a little. Still puffing with anger, she pointed at the next room. “But that stupid monk kept saying I was causing trouble for no reason and harassing people. He was always stopping me!”

“I put scorpions and poisonous insects in that man’s room, and the idiot monk insisted on warning him. Those things could scare someone at most. How could they possibly hurt a Nascent Soul cultivator?”

Pretty Butterfly pouted and pointed at Yu Qingtang. “Today, I overheard that fellow from the Esoteric Sect telling someone from Starwatch Pavilion that he still refused to give up and absolutely had to take you back...”

“So I wanted to teach him a harsher lesson.”

Ye Chenyan raised an eyebrow. “A well-deserved lesson.”

“Exactly!” Pretty Butterfly planted her hands on her hips. “I stole a poison pill from Granny Shaman Healer and secretly slipped it into that Esoteric Sect fool’s pastry!”

Yu Qingtang’s eyes slowly widened.

He pointed toward little Monk Baoshan in the neighboring room. “Then why is he the one who collapsed?”

“Because he had to meddle!” Pretty Butterfly stamped her foot furiously. “He took it upon himself to go apologize at that man’s door on my behalf, and then he ate the pastry!”

She remembered leaping in through the window and seeing Baoshan collapsed on the floor, clutching his mouth.

With a trembling hand, he had pointed at her, his eyes filled with disappointment.

“You hurt someone again...”

Pretty Butterfly’s eyes reddened. “Stupid monk! He can’t tell good from bad or right from wrong! His brain is decoration, and his eyes are ornaments! In his next life, he should become a rock and sit on top of a latrine!”

“All right, all right.” Yu Qingtang went along with her, then asked, “Since it was Granny Shaman Healer’s poison pill, did you go find her?”

Pretty Butterfly’s gaze darted away. “I-I used to follow Granny around and study poison medicine.”

She muttered quietly, “The row I picked from contained poison pills she had found in different secret realms. They were the ones she had not yet created antidotes for.”

“Once she makes an antidote, she moves the pill somewhere else.”

Yu Qingtang: “...”

“It won’t kill him.” Noticing Yu Qingtang’s expression, Pretty Butterfly pursed her lips and clarified, “Granny wouldn’t leave anything deadly where I could reach it.”

Yu Qingtang’s expression turned complicated. “...Granny has it hard too.”

Pretty Butterfly looked at him warily. “Why did you come looking for me? Did Granny find out?”

“No.” Yu Qingtang pointed toward the neighboring room. “Didn’t you take away a pill cultivator? We came to find him.”

“Him?” Pretty Butterfly frowned. “I left plenty of others for you. You specifically want that one?”

“But that man’s medical skills are terrible. He couldn’t figure out anything. I threw him into the next room.”

The yellow-haired fox had already gone to fetch him. “This one?”

A middle-aged man with a goatee entered. He looked at them nervously. “Everyone...”

Yu Qingtang and Ye Chenyan leaned closer to inspect him.

Yu Qingtang suddenly reached out and tugged on his goatee.

The pill cultivator yelped, and Yu Qingtang immediately let go. “It seems real.”

“Then it probably isn’t him.”

Ye Chenyan raised an eyebrow. “Wait. If he’s here, then who’s treating the patient in that room?”

“Oh, him.” Pretty Butterfly pointed toward the other room. “This fellow was useless, so I was about to go find another one. Then I happened to see someone reaching for the notice from Pleasure Sect, so I grabbed him first.”

“He said he could treat the monk, and he also asked why we were looking for that kind of pill cultivator...”

Before she could finish, a firm knock sounded at the door.

An unnaturally deep voice came from outside.

“Miss, I have a solution.”

Yu Qingtang and Ye Chenyan exchanged a glance, then reached out and opened the door at the same time.

A broad-shouldered, powerfully built man stood outside.

Ye Chenyan raised an eyebrow.

Yu Qingtang tried tentatively, “Senior Brother Du Heng?”

“Hm?” The man froze and raised a hand to point at them.

Before he could speak, Pretty Butterfly impatiently pushed past the two of them. “Can you cure him?”

“Yes.” Du Heng nodded. “It’s simple.”

Pretty Butterfly’s eyes lit up. “Do you need to fire up a furnace and refine a pill? What ingredients do you need? Tell me, and I’ll go find them!”

“No need.” Du Heng pulled a bottle of pills from his pocket. “Have him take this.”

He paused, glanced at the two of them, and smiled.

“The chili-flavored one you were looking for.”

Pretty Butterfly poured out a pill and sniffed it. Her expression instantly turned strange. “Isn’t this a laxative?”

“That’s right.” Du Heng sat down and took a sip of tea. “Once he passes it, he’ll be fine.”

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