I am the villain in the book

The little boy named "Zhu'er" was just one of many young children who had died in the Longzhou area in recent days.

And the culprit was naturally Bai Youheng, who had escaped from the Dafeng army.

In order to complete that ancient ritual that could elevate him to the heavens in one step, he needed the souls of 33,333 dead people, and the spiritual essence of 3,333 virgin boys.

Right now, during the two countries' war, the former number has already been reached.

However, the latter is still far short.

“One thousand four hundred...”

“Still lacking two thousand, alas...”

Putting the ancient bronze mirror back into his arms, Bai Youheng sighed softly.

There were still fifty days until July 15th, which meant that on average, he still had to kill at least forty young children every day.

This goal was undoubtedly difficult to achieve.

After all, the Gu Diao's activity range was limited to Fengyuan City, and all the young children in the city would soon be concentrated around the Princess's mansion where Wei Changtian lived. Once he took action, it was very likely that he would be detected by the latter.

Bai Youheng didn't have any psychological burden about "killing children", but after all, he was not a Gu Diao who could be immune to all attacks. If he acted carelessly, he was very likely to fall into danger, so this progress was bound to be slow.

Just like in the past few days in Longzhou, he had only "collected" less than fifty spiritual essences in total, and as the search efforts of the Longzhou government continued to increase, he would soon have to change places to commit crimes.

“Creak~”

The old wooden window was gently pushed open, and Bai Youheng looked at the pedestrians on the street outside the window, wondering where to go next.

Was there any place where he could quickly complete his goal?

He frowned and pondered for a long time, but he couldn't think of any good place to go.

However, at a certain moment, a bold idea suddenly surged into his heart.

Just like when he had decided to come to the Yuanzhou battlefield to collect the souls of the dead before.

Instead of taking huge risks and constantly "fleeing to commit crimes" and killing people one by one.

It would be better to simply "settle the matter with one blow" and get all the remaining two thousand spiritual essences at once.

And looking at the whole world, there was only one place where so many young children gathered.

That was the place he had always told the Gu Diao to avoid as much as possible—

Fengyuan, the Princess's mansion.

Two days later.

The Princess's mansion.

“Young Master, Wang Qian and the others have already met Senior Zhang in the Ximo Gobi.”

In the study, Chu Xianping reported: “It is estimated that they will arrive in Fengyuan in six or seven days.”

“Hmm? Picked him up?”

Wei Changtian raised his head, his expression not too surprised.

This old man was indeed coming to Fengyuan.

Then it seemed that he should indeed be coming for "Yan Luo".

However, Li Qi once said that the mysterious swordsman who killed Yan Luo with one sword sixty years ago was surnamed Zhou. I wonder what relationship he has with Old Zhang...

Forget it, it's useless to think about these now. I'll just ask when he arrives.

“Okay, I understand.”

Nodding to signal Chu Xianping to sit down, Wei Changtian asked again: “How is the situation in Da Ning recently?”

“There's nothing worth mentioning.”

Chu Xianping replied truthfully: “The Dafeng army has retreated to Yuanzhou City, but the imperial army is still holding on to Feng County and not coming out. The two sides have been in a ceasefire for several days, and no one seems to want to act rashly for the time being.”

“There is no important information from the capital either. Ning Yongnian doesn't seem to care much about the war in Yuanzhou. He has issued several orders to Yuanzhou, all of which are to tell Wu Ding to hold the Feng County line.”

“As for Shuzhou... Madam Lu is now in charge, and it is said that she handles all affairs in an orderly manner, and nothing has gone wrong.”

“Oh, right, Madam Lu also opened a branch of Chun Shen Bookstore in Shuzhou City, and is now selling newspapers and other items...”

“...”

Chu Xianping slowly talked about some of the things that had happened in Da Ning in the past few days, and Wei Changtian listened while flipping through Yan Luo's files, his expression always very calm.

Because, as the former said, there was indeed nothing worth mentioning.

He didn't care whether there was a war in Yuanzhou.

He didn't care what Ning Yongnian planned for the front line war.

He cared even less about what Lu Jingyao did after she went to Shuzhou.

As for the fact that she had now become the "master of his harem", since Xu Qingwan and the others had no objections, Wei Changtian would just let her do whatever she wanted.

“By the way, Brother Chu.”

Suddenly, Wei Changtian remembered something he cared about very much: “When will my maternal grandfather arrive?”

“Sect Leader Qin left Shuzhou eight days ago. I think he should be able to arrive in a few more days.”

Chu Xianping replied: “I have previously instructed the people of the Gongji Society to hand over the location of the Princess's mansion to Sect Leader Qin. After he arrives in Fengyuan, he should come here directly.”

“That's good.”

Hearing that Qin Zhengqiu was coming soon, Wei Changtian immediately relaxed a lot, nodded, and finally instructed: “Keep a close eye on You Jia. Tell me immediately when she returns to the capital.”

“I understand.”

Chu Xianping responded and stood up: “Young Master, if there is nothing else, I will go out first.”

“Okay.”

“...”

Pushing the door and leaving, Chu Xianping quickly left the study and walked outwards along the bluestone path.

It happened that Pei Dajun was walking towards him at this time, so he stopped and greeted him.

“Lord Pei.”

“Ah?”

Pei Dajun turned his head as if waking up from a dream, and bowed in return with an apologetic face: “It turns out to be Young Master Chu, sorry, I was just thinking about something.”

“It's okay.”

Chu Xianping nodded and asked casually: “Lord Pei, are you going to find the Young Master?”

“Yes, I have some things I want to discuss with Young Master Wei.”

Pei Dajun asked: “I wonder if Young Master Wei is in the house at this time?”

“Yes, I just came out of the house.”

“Young Master Chu, then I will excuse myself first.”

“Okay, Lord Pei, go ahead.”

“Farewell.”

“...”

After saying “Farewell”, Pei Dajun hurried towards the study.

Chu Xianping stood there watching his back, and didn't move for a long time.

Pei Dajun hadn't met him too many times. The few exchanges they had were just polite encounters like today.

Logically speaking, the two of them couldn't be considered familiar at all, and even saying they “knew each other” was very far-fetched.

But just based on the few short conversations just now, Chu Xianping noticed that Pei Dajun seemed to be different from usual.

“Lord Pei!”

Suddenly, Chu Xianping shouted loudly from behind.

“Ah?”

Pei Dajun turned his head, looked at Chu Xianping who was walking towards him again from a distance, and asked in confusion: “Young Master Chu, what's wrong?”

“It's nothing, I just want to ask you...”

Chu Xianping lowered his voice, leaned close to Pei Dajun's ear, and asked with a smile:

“Do you know what my name is?”