The old man’s muddy eyes went wide as he saw the white stone Leng Ruoli produced.
“Miss, where did you get this stone?” the old man asked curiously.
“Grandpa, I picked this stone up from Flame Mountain. I thought it looked quite pretty, so I picked it up to play with,” Leng Ruoli replied simply.
“Miss, may I have a closer look at it?” the old man asked excitedly.
“Certainly!” Leng Ruoli, seeing the old man’s excited expression, readily agreed.
She placed the white pebble in her hand directly into the old man’s hand.
Holding it, the old man examined it repeatedly, muttering the same sentence over and over.
“It’s it, it’s it, it truly is it…”
The old man’s words left Leng Ruoli and the others completely bewildered. None of them understood what the old man meant.
Especially Jun Mohan and the others, they didn’t even know where Leng Ruoli had picked up a white pebble.
Leng Ruoli watched as the old man held the palm-sized white pebble, visibly excited for a while.
Finally, Leng Ruoli couldn’t help but remind the old man.
“Grandpa, what kind of white stone is this?”
Upon hearing this, the old man grinned.
“Little girl, you’ve found a treasure this time. This is no ordinary pebble; it’s a spirit stone.”
“What is a spirit stone?” Leng Ruoli asked curiously.
“A spirit stone is a stone that contains energy. I’m not entirely sure about its specific functions, but such a pure spirit stone is rarely seen on this continent. Even I, this old man, am seeing it for the first time. Miss, you’ve found a treasure, so be sure to keep it safe,” the old man explained truthfully, then added a special reminder.
“Oh, I understand. Thank you, Grandpa.”
After thanking the old man, Leng Ruoli turned and walked out of the house again. As she passed the stone table in the courtyard, she paused for a moment. She left three large gold ingots for the elderly couple, and then Leng Ruoli and Jun Mohan and the others immediately left the courtyard.
A long time after Leng Ruoli and Jun Mohan had left, the old man discovered the three large gold ingots Leng Ruoli had left on the stone table. He wanted to return them, but he could no longer find any trace of Leng Ruoli and her companions.
—
After the time it takes an incense stick to burn, Leng Ruoli, Jun Mohan, and the others, guided by flashlights, returned to the street from the old man’s house. At this time, the east was just beginning to show the belly of a fish.
“Jun Mohan, since we’ve already dealt with Yu Chenglong, why don’t we go the extra mile and, before it gets fully light, deal with that corrupt official who colluded with Yu Chenglong? That way, he won’t be able to oppress the common people any longer,” Leng Ruoli suggested.
“Li’er, that approach is not advisable. The magistrate is an official of the Nanzhao court. If he were to be suddenly killed, the court would definitely send people to investigate the cause of his death. If this matter were to implicate that elderly couple, we would be bringing immense trouble upon them, so we cannot act so rashly,” Jun Mohan explained to Leng Ruoli.
“Alas, indeed. I overlooked that matter just now,” Leng Ruoli said, instantly understanding the implications of killing the magistrate after Jun Mohan’s explanation.
“However, even if we can’t kill that dog official, we can still think of another way to teach him a lesson, can’t we?”
As Leng Ruoli thought of this, a mischievous idea suddenly flashed through her mind. She then touched her chin with her hand, a sly smile appearing on her face.
“Jun Mohan, let’s go. I’ve thought of a way to deal with him that doesn’t involve killing him, and will ensure he can’t do evil for the rest of his life.”
With that, she took the lead and walked ahead.
This left Jun Mohan and the others bewildered.
Subsequently, the group quickly caught up to Leng Ruoli.
Soon, Leng Ruoli, Jun Mohan, and the others found the magistrate’s mansion. The group stealthily infiltrated the corrupt official’s residence and searched the entire backyard of the magistrate’s mansion before finding the corrupt official.
At that moment, he was sound asleep on a bed with one of his concubines.
Leng Ruoli, with Jun Mohan, secretly slipped into the room where the corrupt official and his concubine slept, while the rest were left outside the door to keep watch.
Then, Leng Ruoli took out two green-glowing ghost masks from her system space. She handed one to Jun Mohan to wear, and put on the other herself.
When Jun Mohan saw the ghost mask Leng Ruoli tossed him, which looked unsettling, the corners of his handsome mouth twitched involuntarily.
If they both wore such terrifying ghost masks, even if they didn’t scare people to death, they would surely drive them mad. So this was his Consort’s idea. He hadn’t expected his Consort to have such a peculiar taste.
While he was internally grumbling, his Consort had already put on her ghost mask. She was now crouching low, carefully grabbing the hair of the woman sleeping beside the corrupt official, and tickling the official’s nose.
The corrupt official was having a pleasant dream, dreaming of flirting with a peerless beauty in bed. Suddenly, a cat crossed his face. He immediately swatted the cat away, but after several attempts, the persistent cat returned and rubbed against his face. Enraged, the corrupt official roared, “Get lost, you damned cat!”
The corrupt official was instantly awakened, and the concubine sleeping beside him was also startled awake by his shout.
As soon as they opened their eyes, they saw two ugly and terrifying ghosts, one emitting green light and the other red light, staring at them. They both let out terrified screams: “Ghosts—!”
After screaming, the corrupt official and his concubine immediately fainted from fright.
“Sigh, Jun Mohan, these two can’t take a scare at all.”
Leng Ruoli said indignantly, then turned her masked face, glowing green, towards Jun Mohan.
Jun Mohan: “……”
When he glimpsed the green glowing mask on Leng Ruoli’s face, if he hadn’t known beforehand that this ghost was a person in disguise, he too would have been quite startled by Leng Ruoli.
His Consort was truly a playful one!
Just as he was lost in thought, Leng Ruoli thought of another mischievous idea. She took two ice packs from her system space and placed them on the corrupt official’s chest. The corrupt official suddenly felt a piercing coldness on his chest and was awakened again.
Upon being startled awake, the corrupt official saw the ghost faces of Leng Ruoli and Jun Mohan again. Terrified, he immediately sat up, closed his eyes, and trembling, he crawled towards the corner of the bed, pulling the blanket covering the concubine over himself, completely wrapping his entire body.
“Hahaha…”
Leng Ruoli also used the voice changer on the ghost mask, altering her laughter to a sinister ghostly sound. Then, she reached out next to the corrupt official and pulled away the blanket he was covered with.
“Corrupt official, return my life…”
Leng Ruoli said it twice. The corrupt official, hearing her words, was immediately scared half to death. He kept muttering to himself, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’ll never dare again…”
“Never dare what? Tell me!” Leng Ruoli shouted.
Then, Leng Ruoli stepped onto the bed and brought her face close to the corrupt official. Unexpectedly, as the corrupt official looked up and saw her face again, he screamed in terror. This time, he was completely stunned by Leng Ruoli.
He chuckled and looked up at Leng Ruoli, his eyes becoming unfocused, his gaze vacant, and disgusting saliva dripped from the corner of his mouth.