Seeking Truth with a Sword-Chapter 429 - 380 Reporting

Chapter 429: Chapter 380 ing
The two exchanged a knowing glance and tacitly dropped the subject.
Li Ang approached the edge of the ice layer and used Telekinesis to pull the two girls up from the water. "How do you feel? Are you experiencing any discomfort?"
The girls hugged themselves with both hands, their lips turning purple as they chattered, "So... cold."
"Take these."
Li Ang pulled out two Warming Talismans from his talisman plate and handed them over. "Also, don’t take off your knee covers."
He then turned to He Fanshuang. "What about you?"
He Fanshuang had been completely submerged in the icy river water; she was soaking wet from head to toe.
"I have my own."
He Fanshuang drew several Warming Talismans from her own talisman plate and stuck them onto her drenched clothes, immediately producing a warm mist around her body.
Like a freshly steamed dumpling.
Li Ang hesitated. "Uh... shouldn’t you wring out your clothes first? You’ll catch a cold like this."
Shrouded in mist, He Fanshuang replied indifferently, "I’m quite robust, nothing to worry about. Ahchoo—"
She suddenly closed her eyes and sneezed, sending transparent snot flying out, which then hung below her nose. An awkward silence fell.
Li Ang eyed the snot swinging beneath the knee cover, hesitated for a moment, and asked, "Are you really okay...?"
He Fanshuang, feigning composure, wiped her nose with her hand as if nothing had happened. "I’m fine. Ahchoo—"
This sneeze was even louder. The knee cover over her head nearly flew off, prompting Li Ang to quickly reach out and press down the red cloth to prevent it from flying away.
"Stand still."
Li Ang shook his head resignedly, circulated his Qi Sea, and released his Telekinesis.
He Fanshuang obediently stood in place, allowing Li Ang’s Telekinesis to grasp the hem of her clothes and wring them out.
WHOOSH—WHOOSH—
Once the clothes were wrung out, the effects of the Warming Talismans became much more pronounced. Li Ang helped He Fanshuang dry her hair and attached another Warming Talisman, before treating himself in the same way.
"HISS."
He rubbed his cold arms and looked upstream at the pitch-black river, pondering, "These paper figures were originally going to take you deep into the Dark River."
He Fanshuang squinted and asked softly, "What’s inside there?"
"I don’t know." Li Ang shook his head. "Forget it. Excessive curiosity isn’t a good thing. Let’s head back to the surface quickly."
As the saying goes, with great power comes great responsibility.
Li Ang had just lost three years of his life to the Ten Thousand Spirit Book, and he was hosting Mo Si within his body that could lose control at any moment. He had no desire to risk himself.
"Follow me; the exit is this way."
He led He Fanshuang and the others to a drilling site downstream of the ice river. Due to soil collapse, many parts of the passageway were blocked.
He Fanshuang used a Melt Soil Charm to liquefy the soil above, while Li Ang exercised his Telekinesis to dig upwards, wrapping Mind Threads around the other two girls, leading them all the way up.
Digging upward was much more troublesome than drilling down. It took Li Ang probably half a quarter-hour to finally emerge from underground.
"You all..."
Pei Jing looked in amazement at the dirt-covered Li Ang. "What have you done?"
"Long story short, it’s a long tale."
Finding an explanation too cumbersome, Li Ang shook his head, brushed off the dirt from his body, and pulled He Fanshuang and the others up from underground.
Dawn was breaking, and the light of the rising sun pierced through the treetops, illuminating the dense forest.
The moment He Fanshuang and her companions’ knee covers touched the sunlight, they spontaneously burst into flame, creating a fire without heat, and were instantly reduced to ashes. The curse was broken.
Two tear-streaked young girls wiped the dust from their faces and flung themselves into their parents’ embrace.
Li Ang climbed into the carriage, found his medicine bag in the compartment, poured some iodine onto He Fanshuang’s palm wound, and wrapped it with three turns of gauze.
"If anyone asks later," Li Ang whispered a reminder, "you just say this wound was cut by Mind Threads."
"Mhm."
He Fanshuang nodded, then suddenly remembered something and asked softly, "When you were underground before, you reminded me not to remove the knee cover. Did you know that the red cloth of the knee cover would spontaneously combust in sunlight?"
"That..." Li Ang hesitated. He didn’t want to, nor could he, tell He Fanshuang about the Ten Thousand Spirit Book. "Just a guess," he finally said. "Well, not entirely a guess. I read a story from the Pre-Sui Period in a Forbidden Book.
"A scholar was on his way to Chang’an to take the imperial examination when he encountered a torrential rain. He took shelter in a wealthy family’s house and became betrothed to the daughter of the household.
"Unfortunately, the scholar didn’t pass the examination. Dejected, he left Chang’an. Still, he received warm hospitality from the girl’s family, who claimed they wanted him as a live-in son-in-law. The scholar said he needed his parents’ consent first but couldn’t withstand the family’s repeated requests and finally held a grand wedding locally. Along with the bridal party, he returned to his hometown.
"After the procession had traveled some distance, the bride, wearing a knee cover, told the groom that she had been dead for many years and was now a ghost. She said that if the groom could persist until they returned to his hometown and completed the wedding ceremony without looking at her even once, she could return to the mortal world and become a living person.
"Shocked, the groom nevertheless agreed and refrained from looking at the bride. It wasn’t until the procession stopped at his house and he got off the carriage to welcome her that he inadvertently caught a glimpse of the face beneath the knee cover.
"The bride, perfectly normal moments before, instantly turned into a skeleton. Her decayed bones fell from the carriage, scattering on the ground. Not long after, the groom also died from fright."
In the Pre-Sui Period, such headless and tailless tales of the supernatural were common. Some were really caused by Alien-induced anomalies, while others were human tragedies orchestrated by Cultivators from the Demon Sect.
CLIP-CLOP, CLIP-CLOP.
The sound of hooves approached from a distance, as a team of soldiers from the garrison hurried over. Along with them arrived Flying Swords that cut through the sky—Academic Palace Swordsmanship Master Cui Yixian had also arrived at the scene.
"You..."
Cui Yixian descended from the sky, landing in front of the carriage. He looked at Li Ang, his face covered in dust, and said with a complex expression, "Encountered another anomaly?"
"Hmm."
Li Ang nodded helplessly, picked up three paper geese from the ground, and handed them to Cui Yixian, briefly recounting the incident. He Fanshuang, Pei Jing, and Sun Xinzhi supplemented from the sidelines.
"..."
After listening to the account, Cui Yixian closed his eyes to ponder for a moment, then suddenly opened his eyes and asked, "Where is the tunnel?"
"Over by the rear of the carriage," Li Ang pointed in the direction of the tunnel and said, "Down by the Dark River, there are still some glow lamps I left behind. Those three paper figures were moving against the current, and I suspect there’s something deeper in the Dark River."
"Alright. You all wait here."
Cui Yixian slapped his sword scabbard and transformed into Body Sword Light, plunging into the tunnel.
Pei Jing immediately turned her head and said coldly to Sun Xinzhi, "Judge Sun, once we return to Chang’an, I will file a with the garrison, detailing your conduct just now."
"As you please, Pei Silang." Sun Xinzhi, showing no trace of panic, spread his hands and said calmly, "Whatever decision the superiors at the garrison make, I will accept it with an open heart."