Nonsense! How could my adopted son be a villain?

Xu Lingguang only came to his senses after Yu Yun and Zhou Fuying had been missing for a long time.

He recalled the black snake he had seen the day he first transmigrated, compared the sizes of the two, and wondered to himself whether the black snake he saw today was the same one as the one before.

Both snakes were black, but their sizes differed considerably. The tip of the tail of the black snake today was as thick as the waist of the previous one.

Xu Lingguang sighed, looked at the house next to him that had been mostly collapsed by the snake's tail, and lamented that there wasn't a single day of peace in this world of cultivation.

He went to get a broom, intending to clean up the gravel and dust, but once he started, he realized it was a huge undertaking, not something an old, weak, or disabled person like himself could do. So he put down the broom and went back to his room to pack his things.

—His bedroom was right next to the collapsed house, and it was unfortunately affected by the snake's tail, so it's probably uninhabitable now.

Cleaning is out of the question. Anyway, the Qingyu Sect has no shortage of empty rooms, so he can just move to another one.

Xu Lingguang went back to his room and packed up his few belongings, preparing to move them directly to the room next door.

While tidying up the bedding, I accidentally bumped into something, and a hidden compartment suddenly popped out from the headboard.

Xu Lingguang was startled by the sudden noise, but then his face lit up with joy – there was a black wooden box in the hidden compartment, and judging from its luster, it was very valuable. It was also hidden so well, so it might be the original owner's secret stash of money.

Finally, I'm going to have money.

Suppressing his excitement, Xu Lingguang took out the wooden box and carefully opened it.

Then the smile disappeared.

Inside the exquisite and valuable wooden box were only a few transparent stones and a horseshoe-shaped pendant.

The pendant is bluish-black, neither stone nor jade, and feels cool and heavy to the touch. One end is threaded with a black cord, so it can be used as a necklace.

Xu Lingguang was a little disappointed. This thing didn't seem to be anything valuable; it was probably just an old item that held some kind of sentimental value for the original owner. But the careful way he kept it gave Xu Lingguang a glimmer of hope. After thinking for a moment, he put the necklace around his neck and kept it close to his body.

After that hidden compartment opened inexplicably, Xu Lingguang couldn't close it back up. He decided to keep these things close to his body.

Only a few irregularly shaped transparent stones remained in the wooden box. Xu Lingguang picked one up and weighed it in his hand. He found a very comfortable and gentle aura flowing from his palm into his body. He squinted his eyes and sighed in comfort. When the comfortable feeling subsided, he found that the transparent stone in his palm had disappeared.

Xu Lingguang: ?

He searched through the cultivation novels stored in his mind and guessed that the transparent stone was probably a kind of spirit stone.

Spirit stones are stones formed from highly pure spiritual energy. In the cultivation world, they are generally a form of hard currency, used to exchange for cultivation resources or for personal cultivation.

Xu Lingguang carefully fastened the wooden box and hugged it to his chest, as if it were a priceless treasure.

If cultivation novels aren't deceiving people, then he's going to make a fortune.

*

Zhou Fuying and Yu Yun chased after him for a long distance, but they still couldn't catch up with Song Nanchu.

“He went in the direction of Ailao Mountain.” Zhou Fuying’s expression was ugly. He gritted his teeth and said fiercely, “He doesn’t think straight when he has an attack. I just hope he doesn’t go looking for death and end up in Ailao Mountain.”

Yu Yun frowned and scattered a handful of golden bells the size of a finger: "I'll send a message to the puppets and tell them to go find it."

After they finished speaking, the two fell silent.

After a long silence, Zhou Fuying suddenly said in a deep voice, "His episodes are becoming more and more frequent. How many times has he gone mad this month?"

“The third time,” Yu Yun said. “Xu Lingguang had one attack before he died, and then two more attacks in the two weeks following his death.”

Zhou Fuying paused for a moment and said, "About four or five days ago, I saw him go down the mountain to meet with the demons. I was too far away to hear what they were saying, but they fought. It seems that this is not the first time the demons have come looking for him."

Unlike him and Yu Yun, Song Nanchu is not a pure human; he is a hybrid of human and demon.

Over the years, the human and demon races have been constantly clashing and hating each other. Humans and demons are naturally discriminated against and hated by both races. Song Nan was born and wandered in the mortal world from a young age. When he was ten years old, he was taken in as the first disciple by Xu Lingguang and brought back to the Qingyu Sect.

As the eldest disciple, Xu Lingguang was exceptionally strict with Song Nanchu. When Yu Yun and Zhou Fuying entered the sect, Song Nanchu was already a very qualified senior disciple. He was thorough in his work, had a gentle temperament, and always wore a gentle smile on his handsome face. He was highly praised by everyone in the Qingyu Sect.

Of course, this is just the appearance from an outsider's perspective.

In reality, Xu Lingguang also deeply despised Song Nanchu's demon bloodline. He only took Song Nanchu as his disciple because he needed the snake blood in his body to cultivate secret techniques. He was worried that Song Nanchu's identity would bring trouble to the Qingyu Sect and that he himself would be criticized, so he strictly forbade Song Nanchu from showing any characteristics related to the demon race.

However, half-human, half-demon hybrids do not control their true forms as freely as pure-blooded demons. Song Nanchu is weaker in this regard, and there is always one day a month when he loses control and completely reverts to his original form, falling into a state of frenzy.

When Xu Lingguang was still alive, Song Nanchu would be locked in a cage by him to get through this day of the month.

Zhou Fuying felt sorry for him at the time.

After Xu Lingguang died, no one kept Song Nan in a cage anymore. The first time he went berserk, he destroyed half of the Qingyu Sect.

The Qingyu Sect is now down to just a few members. Half of them are because Xu Lingguang died and the sect collapsed, and the other half were scared away by Song Nanchu.

Zhou Fuying muttered, "If he goes back with the demons, he can wreak havoc on them."

Yu Yun glanced at him, her delicate expression vanishing, making her appear somewhat cold: "If Senior Brother really leaves, then Qingyu Sect will only have us left."

Zhou Fuying lowered her eyes listlessly, looking somewhat dejected: "Let's go back first."

*

Xu Lingguang took another nap and woke up to find that Yu Yun and Zhou Fuying had already returned.

The two tacitly ignored the ruins beside them, so Xu Lingguang also pretended not to see them, stretched and greeted, "Where's Song Nanchu?"

Zhou Fuying glanced at him and said, "It's hot, I guess you're sleeping somewhere."

Xu Lingguang found this explanation a bit strange, but he didn't delve into it. His focus was entirely on the wooden box in his arms. He skipped forward, beaming as he held out the box: "Look what I found!"

Yu Yun glanced at it, somewhat surprised: "Where did Master get these spirit stones?"

After Xu Lingguang died, his private stash was divided up among them, but unexpectedly, some escaped.

"I found this by chance while cleaning the house." Xu Lingguang looked at her expectantly: "Is this very valuable?"

Yu Yun said, "Now that the spiritual veins are depleted, such pure spiritual stones are rare and indeed very valuable."

Xu Lingguang became happy: "Then let's find a chance to go down the mountain and exchange the spirit stones for gold and silver. With gold and silver, we won't have to worry about food and clothing, and maybe we can even pay off our debts."

That way, his creditors should stop chasing after him and threatening to kill him.

Zhou Fuying's expression changed upon hearing this. He narrowed his eyes and gave Xu Lingguang a deep look. After Yu Yun had coaxed the man away, he said in a gloomy tone, "Song Nanchu just had an accident, and he already found the spirit stone and wants to go down the mountain..."

Yu Yun also had some doubts and pondered, "Should we let him go?"

Zhou Fuying said coldly, "Let him go. There are still a group of people waiting to capture him down the mountain. When he reveals his true colors, it's better to end it sooner rather than later, so we don't have to keep playing along with his act."

Yu Yun lowered her eyes and said, "Okay."