Severing ties with family to marry the young marshal, his whole family chases me to the crematorium.

"Well, I can't sleep."

Shen Qingyao turned over in frustration. This time, she was back in Lingzhou, and now she was rushing back to Nancheng. She was actually a little reluctant to do so.

Although Nancheng was a good place, and Si Jingnian and Meng Shuqin treated her very well, she never felt a sense of belonging.

But her fate is now tied to Si Jingnian's; they share both glory and misfortune, and are inextricably linked. She cannot help but go back.

Moreover, with the rise of the cult "Paradise Society" in Nancheng, she could no longer afford to stand idly by.

Tonight, she sensed something unusual at the Lu family's house and instinctively wanted to escape and ignore it, though she didn't know if that was right or wrong.

She said Mu Qingya had her own mission, but didn't she also have her own mission?

Si Jingnian noticed Shen Qingyao's low spirits, sighed deeply, and then mustered up his courage to turn to look at her.

"Ayao, don't you want to go back to Nancheng?"

"Ah."

Shen Qingyao nodded without any hesitation and readily admitted it. Si Jingnian nodded upon hearing this, his eyes filled with heartache.

"If you don't want to go back, then..."

"No way."

Before Si Jingnian could finish speaking, he was interrupted by Shen Qingyao's firm tone.

“Si Jingnian, I am now married to you, we are husband and wife, we are one, I cannot leave you alone in Nancheng.”

Shen Qingyao meant that her fate was tied to Si Jingnian's, but Si Jingnian heard it in a completely different way.

His gaze was shocked, and a complex mix of emotions welled up in his eyes. He could hear his heart pounding strongly and faster than ever before.

"Moreover, I cannot ignore the affairs of the Bliss Society. This kind of cult endangers social stability and affects the fate of the country."

“It is the duty of every Taoist practitioner to exorcise evil spirits and avert disasters, so I must return to Nancheng.”

Shen Qingyao exhaled a breath of stale air, and the slight frustration in her heart instantly dissipated.

"Okay! I'll go with you!"

Si Jingnian's lips curled up, clearly in a very good mood, and his tone was unusually firm.

Shen Qingyao didn't turn around to look, so she didn't know that Si Jingnian's eyes were filled with tenderness and affection at that moment.

……

As dawn broke, Shen Qingyao woke up again and found herself transformed into an octopus, clinging tightly to Si Jingnian.

"Um...I...I'm sorry! I...I..."

Shen Qingyao blushed so deeply that her face turned bright red, and the usually quick-witted girl became a stutterer.

Si Jingnian didn't say anything, but just smiled, got up, put on his coat, and thoughtfully handed Shen Qingyao's clothes to her.

Taking the clothes, Shen Qingyao wanted to slap herself a few times. Why couldn't she remember? Why did she close her eyes and run to hug Si Jingnian again?

Just then, a terrified scream came from outside, along with the sound of an iron basin hitting the ground.

Shen Qingyao's heart skipped a beat. She quickly put on her clothes and went out, with Si Jingnian following behind her without saying a word.

Shen Qingyao arrived at the scene as quickly as possible, where a large crowd had already gathered.

Some people glanced at it and then squeezed out of the crowd to vomit while leaning against a tree, while others ran away in terror.

Thinking of the fleeting yin energy she sensed last night, Shen Qingyao felt an ominous premonition rise in her heart.

Squeezing through the crowd, Shen Qingyao discovered a young girl lying on the ground.

Her skin was a deathly gray, clearly indicating that she had long since died.

Shen Qingyao frowned and squatted down to examine the body. When she saw a blood-soaked wound on the corpse's neck, her heart skipped a beat.

The others also saw the wound and were so frightened that they all took a few steps back.

"Was she... was she bitten to death by something?"

"It seems so, her neck was bitten raw."

"Could it be...could it be a ghost, or a zombie?"

"Ah! Don't scare me."

"..."

Some timid girls were so scared they were almost crying, and even the men turned pale at the mention of zombies and ghosts.

"General's wife, aren't you afraid?"

Lu Linxi rushed over, his clothes not yet buttoned up, and his hair a mess like a bird's nest.

He couldn't help but frown when he saw the corpse, but Shen Qingyao's boldness made him take a few more glances.

She died from excessive blood loss.

Shen Qingyao shook her head, finally reaching a conclusion, but this also made her frown.

"Impossible. There's no blood on the ground. There's some blood seeping from the wounds of the corpse. If she really died from blood loss, there should be a lot of blood on the ground."

Without a second thought, Lu Linxi rejected Shen Qingyao's conclusion, then squatted down to take a look and said something else.

"I think she must have suffocated because her trachea was bitten through."

Shen Qingyao raised an eyebrow and shook her head speechlessly.

"If you don't believe me, Young Marshal Lu, take a knife and cut any part of her body. See if there's any blood left inside."

Lu Linxi, not believing in such superstitions, made a cut on the corpse's arm, only to find that, just as Shen Qingyao had said, not a single drop of blood flowed out.

"This...how is this possible?"

This scene was completely unexpected for Lu Linxi, and his face showed a mixture of embarrassment and seriousness.

"Then where did her blood go?"

The question raised by Lu Linxi is the question everyone has.

"Could there really be zombies? I've heard that zombies are specifically designed to suck human blood."

"Zombies? What do we do?"

"..."

Shen Qingyao listened to their discussion and shook her head with a serious expression.

“She wasn’t a zombie. If a zombie had bitten her to death, she would have already turned into a zombie due to the zombie virus attacking her heart.”

"Moreover, her wounds did not leave any trace of yin energy, which further proves that the one that bit her and sucked her blood was not a zombie."

Shen Qingyao's words made everyone present breathe a sigh of relief, and their expressions softened.

"What bit her to death? And sucked all her blood. And... General's wife, how do you know these things?"

Lu Linxi looked at Shen Qingyao with curiosity. Shen Qingyao knew that if Si Jingnian hadn't been there, his curiosity would have turned into suspicion.

"I am a disciple of Taiqing Temple, so naturally I know these things."

Shen Qingyao glanced at Lu Linxi with a hint of disdain in her eyes.

"Taiqing Temple? You're actually a disciple of Taiqing Temple, then...then, General's wife, could you help investigate this matter?"

"The fact that you care so much about this matter proves that it's not an ordinary case, but a supernatural event. Does that mean that your Taiqing Temple has to step in?"

"Madam General, has some kind of demon or monster appeared in my Lu residence? You, you, you... you have to help me, I beg you, please help me resolve this matter, and I promise to go to Taiqing Temple to donate incense money!"

"..."

Upon hearing that Shen Qingyao was from Taiqing Temple, Lu Linxi immediately felt as if he had seen a savior.

At this moment, Shen Qingyao really wanted to find a rag to shut Lu Linxi up; he was noisier than the chickens and ducks in the market.