Chapter 14: A Small Display of Skill, Astonishing Everyone

“Your Highness, that Miss Chu and Escort Leader Jiao Yan have gone into the forest where the bandits just fought. Should I follow and take a look?” Hei Yu reported quietly from the side of the carriage to Fu Heng, thinking to himself why the young lady happened to have the surname Chu as well—he guessed the prince would be reminded of the princess again.

“By the way, Your Highness, it is said that the Miss Chu can read faces and tell fortunes, and she has certain abilities. She predicted that the Dragon Flame escorts would suffer a bloody disaster and led them to avoid that group of bandits. Otherwise, the entire Dragon Flame Escort Agency would have been wiped out by now.”

Hei Yu had sensed during the fight that the group of escorts was ruthless in every move and quite skilled. He had also heard of the Dragon Flame Escort Agency; with only twenty men on this run, if they had truly clashed with those bandits, it would have been a complete massacre.

Inside the carriage, Fu Heng frowned as he listened. “Another sorcerer?”

Recently, there had been too many wandering sorcerers appearing. Just a few days ago, one bold one at the gates of his manor had read Cao Ronghai’s fortune wrongly, tricking him onto the road to Kuangbei.

And now, yet another female sorcerer, who had even saved the escort agency from a bloody disaster.

Were there truly such powerful sorcerers?

If so, then all those good-for-nothing officials in the Divine Ritual Department employed by the court should commit seppuku in shame. Even the great fate masters probably lacked such skillful techniques to avoid calamity.

“Keep a close watch on those escorts. I will go see for myself.”

No sooner had he spoken than Fu Heng flew out of the carriage like the wind, heading toward the nearby wilderness.

Sorcerers performing tricks and deceptions—he regarded them all as charlatans. He didn’t believe such a young woman could possess such great power.

Most likely, she was a weak and innocent-acting woman who was actually in cahoots with those bandits, out to deceive passing merchant caravans.

He had seen such scams many times. The Dragon Flame Escort was carrying Cao Ronghai’s goods, said to be worth more than half his fortune. Those bandits were surely after the loot.

Chu Li stood still, finding the area with the densest resentment, then took a talisman from her bundle and said to Jiao Yan and the others:

“Please stand back a little. I need to purify this place.”

Though Jiao Yan and his men were experienced escorts, none had ever dealt with a sorcerer before. Seeing the yellow talisman in Chu Li’s hand, they were quite curious.

After stepping back, Jiao Yan couldn’t help but ask:

“Miss Chu, you said you want to purify? Is there something wrong with this place?”

So many had died here, and with the Underworld King in charge of the matter, surely someone from the capital would soon arrive to handle the corpses.

So he understood purification to mean burning the bodies and cleaning the scene.

But obviously, the purification Chu Li spoke of was not that.

Chu Li rarely had the patience to explain esoteric matters to others.

She held the talisman between her fingers and said:

“This is a purification talisman. It cleanses evil and impure energies, such as death qi, resentment, and corpse aura.”

“So many died here, and these were all deeply wicked bandits. Their resentment is overwhelming. If not purified promptly and thoroughly, this place will soon become a cursed ground. Anyone passing nearby will be affected—at best unlucky, at worst, dead.”

With that, Chu Li prepared to begin purifying the resentment.

Jiao Yan and the others only half understood and were somewhat skeptical.

Death qi and resentment were just superstitions, they thought.

People died everywhere these days. Were there not countless unjust and tragic deaths all over the world?

If that were true, then wouldn’t the entire world be cursed?

Seeing their thoughts, Chu Li said no more. She preferred to use action to show outsiders the power of the mystical arts—how profound and intricate they truly were, beyond ordinary understanding.

Not far away, on a crooked-necked tree, Fu Heng wore a cold sneer.

From his vantage point, he could clearly see every move Chu Li made, and hear every word she uttered.

To him, Chu Li’s behavior was a joke.

Jiao Yan and his fools were being completely played by a weak woman without any real power—utterly ridiculous.

Her rhetoric was laughable; if she wasn’t a charlatan, then what was she?

He hadn’t expected such a seemingly naive and gentle woman to be even better at playing the mystic than those frauds in the Divine Ritual Department.

He was eager to see how this so-called purification talisman would cleanse the place.

Chu Li had no internal energy, and Fu Heng’s martial skill was very high, so she did not detect his presence nearby.

Holding the intricately inscribed purification talisman between two fingers, Chu Li gently flicked it.

In the next moment, a faint blue flame suddenly ignited the talisman.

This ghostly blue flame was eerie and mysterious in the pitch-black night.

Chu Li parted her lips to silently recite an incantation and then tossed the ignited talisman onto the pile of bandit corpses.

Boom—the small mound of bodies was engulfed in the talisman’s flame, bursting into roaring fire.

Yet the flames remained a ghostly blue, and despite their intensity, Jiao Yan and the others nearby felt no heat—only an eerie chill.

Faintly, red streams of energy mixed with black qi floated from the corpse mound, quickly swallowed by the blue flames.

The entire scene unfolded in an instant, leaving Jiao Yan and the others utterly stunned, forgetting even to breathe.

Their minds could only grasp one thought: the woman standing beside the blue flames was like the King of Hell himself.

Mysterious, ghostly, unfathomable, and immensely shocking.

Fu Heng’s expression shifted dramatically from the tree. His previously calm heart was shaken by Chu Li’s display.

Could such strange arts truly exist in this world?

His sharp eyes had clearly seen the strange red-black qi drifting from the bodies.

Was that the resentment she spoke of? But Fu Heng had killed plenty himself—why had he never perceived such auras from corpses before?

Questions swirled in Fu Heng’s mind. He now wished to seize that woman immediately and interrogate her thoroughly.

The talisman’s flame died out after consuming the resentment.

Chu Li exhaled a breath of stale air and, feigning weakness, covered her mouth to cough a few times.

Jiao Yan, having recovered, hurried over with concern.

“Miss Chu, are you alright?”

Chu Li shook her head. Her complexion had turned pale and translucent, her lips ghostly white, looking fragile and pitiful, as if she might collapse.

“Quick, escort Miss Chu back to camp to rest.”

The escorts gathered closely, forming a protective circle around Chu Li, shielding her from the night’s chill.

By now, they were completely won over by Chu Li. With such profound skill, calling her a master was no exaggeration.

No sooner had Chu Li returned to the warmth of the campfire than a man with a sullen face approached.

Fu Heng’s cold gaze fixed deeply on Chu Li.

“Miss Chu, please accompany me to the carriage.”