Chapter 253: Chapter 151: Oh No, These Xingzi Have Caused Trouble

"Oh, okay." Gu Ziye was exhausted, but she was a woman of her word.

After preparing the various materials, Lu Yuan began to fabricate the components by hand.

Watching Lu Yuan at work, Gu Ziye blurted out in astonishment, completely forgetting her decorum, "Damn, Yuan, you’re a freak of nature! Your grip strength is incredible."

Lu Yuan said calmly, "It’s nothing special."

Gu Ziye stayed with Lu Yuan all night, bustling about and handing him whatever he needed.

As the sky began to lighten in the dead of night, Gu Ziye finally succumbed to her exhaustion and fell asleep on a nearby patch of grass.

Lu Yuan didn’t pay her much mind, simply continuing to assemble the wheat harvester on his own.

Thanks to Gu Ziye’s help throughout the night, the process went much more smoothly this time.

When Lu Yuan finished his work, he walked over to Gu Ziye’s side.

He called her name a few times and gave her a gentle shake.

But Gu Ziye was so deeply asleep that she didn’t wake.

With no other choice, Lu Yuan gently picked up Gu Ziye and carried her toward the factory manager’s office.

As he walked, Lu Yuan sensed something strange behind him—an indescribable feeling.

It felt as if something was following them from a distance, its gaze fixed upon them both.

The feeling made Lu Yuan’s skin crawl. Being constantly watched from behind was deeply unsettling.

Carrying the sleeping Gu Ziye, Lu Yuan had no time to deal with such ghostly trifles.

Lu Yuan silently recited a Spell, then turned and snapped at the pitch-black darkness behind him, "Get lost! And stay the hell away from me!"

As soon as he spoke, some unknown creature shrieked and fled.

Now that Lu Yuan held an official position and cultivated Techniques, repelling malicious spirits with a single shout was a simple matter for him.

Lu Yuan carried Gu Ziye to the office’s inner suite and placed her on the bed.

Gazing at Gu Ziye’s lovely face, he pulled a thin blanket over her.

Lu Yuan had no indecent thoughts. He left the room, intending to return to the Zhao Mansion.

’Gu Ziye will head home on her own when she wakes up. She’s a grown woman; it’s not like she’ll get lost.’

But before Lu Yuan even reached the factory gate, he noticed a faint mist drifting through the grounds and began to worry about Gu Ziye’s safety again.

He had no choice but to turn back. Resigned, Lu Yuan settled down to sleep at the office desk.

’The factory isn’t like the Zhao Mansion. The mansion is protected by Celestial Master Talismans and situated in the heart of Taiping City, safe from malicious spirits.’

’I should put some Talismans up around the factory.’

In the early morning, Gu Ziye woke to unfamiliar surroundings. She lifted the blanket and checked her clothes.

A strange feeling washed over her.

Gu Ziye walked out of the suite and saw Lu Yuan still asleep, slumped over the desk. ’That guy actually slept here.’

Gu Ziye woke Lu Yuan with a tap on the shoulder. "Did you finish assembling the wheat harvester?" she asked.

Lu Yuan rubbed his eyes. "Yue’Er, you’re awake. Yes, it’s assembled. Let’s head back."

After returning to the mansion with Gu Ziye, Lu Yuan informed his two "aunts" that he would be taking his wife to visit her parents that day.

When Gu Gaoxu heard from Gu Ziye that Lu Yuan was returning to Changliu Village, he wanted to tag along and see the countryside.

So, Lu Yuan had to arrange a carriage for his wife, while the two from the Gu Family, Gu Gaoxu and Gu Ziye, followed on horseback.

"Mistress, Mistress! The master is back with the young miss! They’re already at the edge of the village." The little girl floated around Su Liyan’s mother.

"Xiao Yunyun, my son-in-law is coming. Shouldn’t you go hide?" Su Liyan’s mother was surprised. Her son-in-law was really here.

The little girl knew that the master was far more skilled in the spiritual arts than before. If she got too close, he would easily detect her. With that, she vanished in a flash.

Lu Yuan hadn’t told his mother-in-law he was coming.

This caught Su Liyan’s mother completely off guard.

As soon as Lu Yuan entered Changliu Village, he sensed Xingzi wandering in the bamboo forest by the reservoir to the south.

Lu Yuan thought to himself, ’They dare to harass my wife’s family? They must have a death wish.’

For now, Lu Yuan didn’t alert anyone, figuring he would come back to clean them up when he had the time.

After Lu Yuan and his party arrived at Su Liyan’s family home, they unloaded some goods from the carriage.

After a simple lunch, they sat and made small talk with Su Liyan’s mother and father.

Su Changliang was still in the city working as an Official, so he hadn’t come back with them this time.

The fact that Lu Yuan could rest easy about the official affairs in Taiping City had a lot to do with Su Changliang.

Gu Gaoxu and Gu Ziye didn’t stay put for long. They went out after the meal, feeling that Su Liyan’s family home was too small to comfortably fit everyone.

There wasn’t much to do for fun in the countryside. The main attractions, if you could call them that, were the reservoir and the riverbank.

In the summer, you could play in the water; in the winter, you could go skating. These were common haunts for the village children.

However, in the Divine Ling Empire, adults didn’t let their children run wild, as the waters were far from clean.

Many Water Ghosts lurked beneath the surface, waiting for a chance to pull a suitable target under so they themselves could be reincarnated.

The larger reservoirs were especially dangerous.

When people were just floating peacefully, the seemingly calm surface would exert a strange pull, drawing them toward the center of the water.

By the time they realized what was happening, they would already be in deep water.

Then, swarms of black Water Ghosts would surge up from below, seeking a substitute to take their place, a cycle repeating for generations.

This would continue unless the Water Ghosts chose to remain in the water forever, never reincarnating.

As it happened, Gu Gaoxu led Gu Ziye on a stroll right to the edge of the reservoir south of the village.

If this had been an ordinary village, it might have been fine.

But Changliu Village was a gathering place for all the Da Xingzi from the surrounding countryside.

And all these Da Xingzi were under the care of Su Liyan’s mother.

The reservoir and bamboo forest to the south of the village looked perfectly ordinary.

A normal person might not have noticed anything amiss.

But if the Grand Celestial Master from Dou Shi Temple himself were to come, he would be driven back by the chilling, sinister winds after taking just a few steps inside.

A Ghost-faced White Monkey sat in a tree, watching Gu Gaoxu and the others with a bizarre grin.

The deathly pale Black Mountain Demon sat with a Human-faced Two-legged Sheep on a nearby hillside.

The two Da Xingzi were discussing where these strangers had come from.

They hadn’t received word from Su Liyan’s mother, who had been so busy welcoming her son-in-law that she had forgotten to inform them.

Gu Gaoxu and Gu Ziye possessed no spiritual skills, so they were completely unaware they had wandered into a den of Xingzi.

Even the two Personal Guards accompanying Gu Ziye wouldn’t have been able to spot anything with their eyes alone.

If the two guards had any real skill, and if they had used their Techniques to probe their surroundings, they might have discovered that the water and the bamboo forest were teeming with Da Xingzi.

Two-hundred-year-old Xingzi were a minority here; most had two or three hundred years of power, if not more.

Meanwhile, Lu Yuan was back at his mother-in-law’s house, talking about the wheat harvester.

As Su Liyan’s mother listened, she praised Lu Yuan for his capability.

Lu Yuan had already arranged for men from his mansion to go harvest his mother-in-law’s wheat fields.

Su Liyan’s family home was bustling with activity today, as neighbors from the village kept stopping by to visit.

They all wanted to be seen and curry favor with Su Liyan’s husband.

Now, whenever Lu Yuan returned to the countryside, he was a hot commodity that everyone vied for.

If they had known Lu Yuan would become so successful, they would have sent matchmakers to beat a path to the Lu Family’s door, willing to marry their daughters to him without even asking for a betrothal gift.

They would have even considered it a great honor for their daughters to become his concubine.

The neighbors praised Su Liyan relentlessly for her good fortune in marrying into such a good family.

Someone even pointed at Su Liyan’s belly and said, "A round belly like that is sure to be a boy."

Lu Yuan remained polite. Regardless of his current social status, he knew his manners when visiting his mother-in-law. ’Might as well chat with them,’ he thought. ’It’s a good rest after the last few busy days.’

Lu Yuan didn’t care whether they had a boy or a girl. Besides, the old wives’ tale about a round belly meaning a boy and a pointy one a girl had no scientific basis.

As long as he and Liyan wanted to, they could have as many children as they liked.

Su Liyan, her baby bump prominent, sat beside Lu Yuan, holding his arm. She simply smiled as she watched them chat, not joining the conversation.

Just as Lu Yuan’s family was in the middle of a lively chat with the visiting neighbors,

several sharp cracks echoed from the south of the village, interrupting the conversation.

No one could identify the sound, except for Lu Yuan and his family.

Su Liyan’s mother, however, immediately recognized the sound of gunfire. ’Oh no,’ she thought, ’that bunch of Xingzi to the south must have stirred up trouble!’