Chapter 8: Skilled

Taoist priest was poised, with an igniting device in his hand to open the sword, making a gesture of incantation, but secretly sprinkling phosphorus powder.

Before anyone could react, the phosphorus powder ignited along the igniting device on the wooden sword, and it was about to pounce on Gu Yunru. However, she was quick to react and fiercely waved the fan.

As the amount of phosphorus powder was not much, and the fire was not too big, when Gu Yunru waved the fan, the fire was thrown back at the taoist priest and burned him.

Gu Yunru then picked up a jar of goods on the table, which others didn’t know what it was, but she could recognize it. It was called rosin powder, an important prop for Daoists to deceive people. As long as they held the rosin powder in their mouths and sprayed it out, it would ignite upon contact with fire, creating a flame that resembled a dragon.

She held the rosin powder in her mouth, held up an oil lamp, aimed it in the direction of the taoist priest, and with a puff of breath, a flame dragon burst forth and burned him.

“My goodness! Mom! Gu Yunru is indeed a monster! This taoist can’t handle her!” Gu Junyao had never believed in ghosts or monsters before, but she had just secretly discussed with Gu Junyue in the temple, asking her to act as if she had been frightened by ghosts. Then, she had bribed this taoist priest to say that Gu Junyue had indeed been frightened by ghosts, which convinced her mother to call for Gu Yunru.

She had intended to teach Gu Yunru a lesson by scaring her with fire, but she did not expect her to see through the taoist priest’s trick and overpower him.

Gu Yunru smiled lightly and said to Gu Junyao, “Little sister, you are wrong. I am not a monster. I think you are the monster.”

After that, she snatched the taoist priest’s peachwood sword and copied his actions, attaching a yellow paper to Gu Junyao’s forehead. Then, she waved it a few times and splashed water from the Daoist’s kettle over it.

“Reveal yourself!” Gu Yunru shouted. A monster with sharp teeth and claws indeed appeared on the paper. She then dipped the peachwood sword in the rosin powder and intentionally brushed it onto the oil lamp. When the rosin powder encountered fire, she directed the fire to the yellow paper and shouted, “Burn!”

The yellow paper turned to ashes in an instant.

After playing with this set, the servants who were watching in the main hall were already stunned. Only the Taoist, who had finally put out the fire on his body, looked very embarrassed with a pale face.

This young girl was not very old, but she saw through his tricks. It’s really not to underestimate the young!

“Second sister, do you think there are still evil spirits? Do you still need to tie them to the pillar and roast them?” Gu Yunru threw the peach wood sword on the ground with a clang and asked calmly.

“Good, good, I didn’t expect the Gu family’s young lady to also be skilled in magic tricks.” When chaos broke out in the room, a low and pleasant voice accompanied by applause rang out.

Madam Gu and Gu Junyao looked in the direction of the voice and suddenly turned pale with fright. “Master, King Zhao, Prince Zhao–“

Compared with Rong Zhen’s keen interest, Gu Yan’s face was grim, and his eyebrows were furrowed so tightly that he could have crushed a mosquito.

“What are you guys messing around with? What are you doing?” Gu Yan glanced coldly at Gu Junyao and Madam Gu, then turned his gaze to Gu Yunru’s face and shouted, “Don’t you go back and change your clothes! What kind of appearance is this?”

Gu Yunru also felt that the dog blood on her body was really too smelly, but if she left like this, wouldn’t it give Gu Junyao a chance to defame her?

She wasn’t that stupid.

Gu Yunru bowed to Gu Yan and whispered, “According to father’s words, his daughter only brought two sets of clothes from the village. She changed into one today, so she only has this one set of clothes left. Although the lady sent over some clothes, they were only outer skirts, and they were a bit smaller in size and not suitable for wearing. I didn’t even eat that salty and strange dinner tonight, and I hurriedly responded to the Madam’s summons. I didn’t expect to be greeted with a pot of dog blood as soon as I walked in. Shouldn’t the Madam compensate me for this outfit?”

She was inserting her argument at every opportunity, making the accusation both straightforward and indirect.

Madam Gu was so angry that she had already taken Gu Yunru to the Great Compassion Temple to see the abbot. The abbot said she had been divinely inspired, but Junyao didn’t believe it and insisted that she was possessed by an evil spirit, which frightened Junyue. That’s why she agreed to invite a Taoist to perform an exorcism, but she didn’t expect…

It was like stealing a chicken only to end up losing the rice.

“Madam! Have you really not even bought her clothes in these past few days? And what is this blood of the dog?” Gu Yan shouted coldly, questioning her.

“The thing is, as soon as I returned to the Gu family, Third Sister scared me, saying that Father had arranged a marriage for me with someone who was ugly and wicked, not good in character, and enjoyed torturing people for pleasure. I caused a scene and wanted to call off the engagement. Third Sister grabbed me and pulled me, and in the struggle, I fell into the lake. When I woke up, I was confused and forgot some things from the past. But I had a strange experience – I had opened my third eye, because the Ox-Headed and Horse-Faced Immortal told me that my lifespan should not end yet, and because I had suffered, they were making up for it by imparting some unique medical skills to me, so that I could heal people and do good in the world. But Madam didn’t believe me and said I was possessed by an evil spirit. She took me to the Dabeisi Temple to pray, and the abbot said that I had divine help, not a ghost. Then, I saw Second Sister meet with the new top scholar, and Third Sister covered for her, so I told Mother. Who knew that Second Sister held a grudge and sent this Taoist to deal with me. I saw through his tricks with my third eye, which caused this incident.” Gu Yunru explained the whole story logically and seriously.

Of course, she wasn’t stupid – scaring Gu Junyue was just a ploy she had skipped over.

Not only was Gu Yan stunned, but Rong Zhen also found it impressive.

Was this really opening her third eye, or just her imagination? She had told such a fantastical, mysterious story, but it was clear to him that she knew about Second Sister and the new top scholar met because he had told her in passing on the mountain. This girl could have been a storyteller – what a waste of talent if not on our own!

“You’re just talking nonsense! Father has never believed in these ghostly things!” Gu Yan said, annoyed and pointing at Gu Yunru.

Well, she knew that ghosts and monsters couldn’t be believed in, but if she told them she had traveled through time, then they wouldn’t be able to communicate at all.

There was no choice – Gu Yunru decided to use some real skills to fool him.

She looked at Gu Yan and saw that he was wearing a dark gray silk robe with a slightly folded collar, which should have been worn yesterday. There were dark circles under his eyes, indicating that he had not slept well last night. According to the rumors from the servants, Gu Yan was a person who was very obsessed with medical skills and could keep him up all night researching, which meant that he had encountered a difficult patient.