Villains: Starting with the Landlady

Page 152

Ling Yun flicked his robe, and the bead was put away.

This is no ordinary treasure, but the Fire Spirit Orb! However, the Fire Qilin has no attraction to the Fire Spirit Orb at all, so it's normal that he doesn't want it.

"You must have come to see me for something else, right?"

“Yes, Senior Qilin.” Ling Yun cupped his hands in greeting. “My wife is a descendant of Nuwa. She is currently experiencing a miscarriage and needs phoenix eggshells and Qilin horns for medicine. That’s why I came here to ask you for them.”

“A descendant of Nuwa…no wonder.”

The old man with the Qilin nodded. He was quite straightforward. He reached out and snapped off his left horn. "Take it. Goddess Nuwa has treated me well. In addition, I have a deep connection with the descendants of Nuwa. Anyway, it's just a horn. I've been doing this for the past hundred years."

Ling Yun took the still-warm Qilin horn from his hand, cupped his hands again, said a few polite words, and then led the two women out.

"Brother Ling, now that's settled, Ling'er will be alright, right?"

"It should be alright now. The Holy Maiden is quite capable. We just need to wait for the little phoenix to hatch, and then we can use it in medicine along with the Qilin horn."

Anu took the unicorn horn from his hand and played with it for a while. Of course, she couldn't just bite into it raw; even with Zhao Ling'er's excellent teeth, it wouldn't be enough. It needed to be ground into powder… but this task would most likely fall to her anyway, since she was the Holy Maiden's little apprentice!

The three of them rode back to the wooden house at full speed. The Holy Maiden was quite pleased to see that they had obtained the medicinal herbs so quickly.

The phoenix egg was placed in the corner to wait for hatching. Ling'er also woke up and was chatting with Jiang Wan'er.

Upon seeing Lingyun return, Ling'er instinctively tried to get up, but Lingyun quickly went over and hugged her.

"Brother Lingyun, I'm sorry for making you worry."

"Ling'er, how can you say such a thing!" Ling Yun hugged her and kissed her forehead. "It's all my fault. If I hadn't insisted on pulling you along... you wouldn't have had this problem."

"That was Ling'er's own choice, it has nothing to do with Brother Lingyun."

Watching the two of them so affectionately, Lin Yueru was surprisingly not jealous. For some reason, she always felt very close to Ling'er, but she couldn't stand Anu for some reason.

Anu sat on a chair to the side, looking enviously at Zhao Ling'er in Ling Yun's arms, hoping that she would have such a day someday...

Chapter 352 Nuwa Temple

The next morning, Yue Ru and Jiang Wan'er stayed to keep Ling'er company, while Anu took Ling Yun to the Nuwa Temple.

Nuwa has no temples in other places, only a temple in Dali City, which is widely worshipped by the Bai Miao people.

Today, Anu came to pray to the goddess Nuwa for rain. The drought in Dali City has cracked the earth, and only near the Nuwa Temple can one see a patch of green.

Many people devoutly climbed the steps and knelt outside the temple to worship, hoping that Nuwa would appear and save the people from suffering.

Lingyun knew that Nuwa didn't want to help them, but rather that she had already died and become a "spirit," making it difficult to establish a connection through faith. Furthermore, matters of rainfall were under the jurisdiction of the Divine Court, Nuwa's mortal enemy, which naturally refused to bring rain to Dali City, a city that worshipped Nuwa, creating a vicious cycle.

Upon entering the temple, Ling Yun looked at the Nuwa statue in the center, which was exactly the same as the Nuwa he had seen in that white world.

Anu knelt on the prayer mat in front of her, her hands clasped together, and said in a low voice, "Goddess Nuwa, please send down a great rain..."

Ling Yun looked up at the statue of Nuwa. For some reason, he felt that he didn't need to kneel before Nuwa; in fact, he should be the one to do so.

This absurd feeling lasted only a moment before he heard Nuwa's call again.

"Lingyun~"

The voice was ethereal and lingering; judging from the sound, it was definitely Nuwa herself.

Ling Yun stepped forward and, amidst Anu's terrified expression, reached out and touched the snake tail of the Nuwa sculpture.

"Brother Yun, no!"

As soon as Anu finished speaking, the Nuwa sculpture flashed with a white light and sucked Lingyun into it.

The girl stared blankly at the empty Nuwa Temple, then quickly stood up and began searching for Ling Yun's whereabouts. However, no matter how hard she searched, Ling Yun no longer existed in the current time and space.

She bit her lip, thought for a moment, and then rushed towards the wooden house where the Holy Maiden was...

Ling Yun's vision was blurred, and his body felt ethereal. After what seemed like a few seconds, he suddenly sat down on the soft, muddy ground.

Ling Yun looked at the azure sky in surprise. This was clearly no longer the Nuwa Temple, but more like the outskirts of Dali City.

He got up from the ground. If he guessed correctly, he should have returned to Miao territory more than ten years ago. At that time, Zhao Ling'er was still a little girl, and even the witch queen Lin Qing'er had not died.

Ling Yun heard a rustling sound behind him and turned around to see a girl dressed in Miao ethnic clothing.

"Anu?"

No, she is not Anu.

After shouting that, Ling Yun realized he had mistaken someone for someone else. Even if Anu existed more than ten years ago, she should have been just a two or three-year-old girl.

"Hehe, you're quite strange. My name isn't Anu, it's Aman!"

The girl was about the same age as Ling Yun, but slightly more mature than Anu. Perhaps she was already pregnant and had given birth, making her more womanly; overall, she had matured considerably compared to Anu.

"However, I do have a three-year-old daughter named Anu."

Aman looked at Lingyun with great curiosity, after all, she had never seen such a handsome young man before. As the next chieftain of the Bai Miao tribe, she had conceived and given birth to Anu through prayer to the Nuwa Temple, and had never been in love, still in the innocent and romantic stage of girlhood.

Ling Yun suddenly realized, yes, he clearly knew she was Anu's mother, the Southern Barbarian King, but the two were just too alike, practically cut from the same mold.

For some reason, he felt a little envious of Anu's father.

"My name is Ling Yun. May I ask where this place is, Miss Aman?"

"This is Miao territory."

Aman blinked, but her answer surprised Lingyun.

Seeing Ling Yun's incredulous expression, A Man chuckled: "Alright, alright, I won't tease you anymore. This is of course the woods south of Dali City. Just walk a few miles north and you'll reach Dali."

After she finished speaking, she stepped forward and asked curiously, "You're not from Miao territory, are you? You look quite unfamiliar."

"No, I just happened to wander into this place."

"Oh, so you're going to Dali? I can take you there so you don't get lost here."

Taking the opportunity, Aman moved closer to Lingyun. The young man's appearance and figure directly touched her heart. In addition, Miao women are usually more proactive, so she didn't feel anything was wrong.

"Then thank you, Miss Aman!"

"no big deal."

Aman led him out of the woods, and Lingyun took the initiative to ask about the current situation in Miao territory. The girl put her hands behind her back and said, "Where did you hear that? The Black Miao tribe has been having some trouble lately."

As Ling Yun watched Dali City draw closer, he said softly, "I also feel that the atmosphere is a bit off right now; it's a turbulent time."

"indeed."

Aman glanced at the falling leaves. As the current young master of the Bai Miao tribe, although the troubles of the Hei Miao tribe had nothing to do with her, it was the innocent people who suffered.

After arriving in Dali City, Lingyun found an inn to stay at, while Aman returned home to take care of her daughter Anu. She had come out to search for some Gu worms and had already collected them.

Ling Yun was downstairs drinking alone when he heard footsteps approaching. He looked up and saw a woman and a little maid.

The little girl was probably only about 3 years old, and the woman was in her early fifties. The two of them walked hurriedly and were dressed in the clothing of the Black Miao ethnic group.

The woman's foot seemed to be injured, and she walked with a limp, while the little girl looked very cute, but her eyes held a hint of wariness.

Upon seeing the old man and the child, the innkeeper came over.

"Gentlemen, what would you like to eat?"

The little girl looked wary and stepped in front of the woman, saying, "Don't come near me or Grandma!"

This startled the shopkeeper, who looked quite embarrassed.

The woman quickly replied, "Shopkeeper, we'd like a fine room and some food!"

"Oh dear, what bad luck!" The innkeeper rubbed his hands together. "All the rooms are booked for today, there are no vacancies!"

"Huh?" The woman was dumbfounded. "Not a single one left?"

Before the shopkeeper could speak, Ling Yun, who had seen through the two men's identities, stood up.

"Shopkeeper, you can give them my room, and you don't need to refund my money."

"Oh, sir, you are truly a great philanthropist!" For the innkeeper, this was simply perfect. He had plenty of money, and Ling Yun was very generous. Praising him wouldn't hurt him.

In the woman's eyes, the handsome Han man Ling Yun was like a timely rain. She had injured her leg when she left the palace with the little princess, and the pursuers might already be upon her. However, because this was Dali City, a city of the Bai Miao people, they dared not launch a full-scale invasion. Her immediate priority was to find a place to heal her wounds in order to face the challenges ahead.

"My name is Jiang. May I ask your honorable surname, young hero?"

Looking at her grandmother, who seemed much younger, Ling Yun smiled faintly and said, "Just call me Ling Yun. By the way, little sister, what's your name?"

The little girl was slightly stunned when she saw Ling Yun, then blushed and said, "My name is Zhao Ling'er, I'm from Hei..."

Before she could finish speaking, Madam Jiang immediately covered her mouth and smiled apologetically, "Ling'er is too young, some of her words cannot be taken seriously, please don't mind, Young Master Ling."

"It doesn't matter."

Ling Yun nodded and returned to his seat. He had stored all his belongings in his spatial storage. The guest room was clean and tidy, so he could simply have the waiter take the two of them in.

Chapter 353 Reencounter with Elder Shi

Ling Yun watched the two women go upstairs and realized that the current plot had already unfolded, neither too early nor too late.

Just as the young man was trying to figure out a way to get to know them better, Ah Man came over.

Aman saw the joy on Lingyun's face, then sat down opposite him, propping her head up with her hands and looking at him.

"Hey, Miss Aman, why are you staring at me like that? Do you suspect I'm a spy from out of town?"

"Pfft!"

Aman chuckled softly, her voice as melodious as birdsong, causing Lingyun, who had a deep conversation with Anu, to momentarily lose his senses. He had previously heard some jokes about not being able to tell his wife from his sister-in-law after marriage, which he had scoffed at then, but now even he was starting to have trouble distinguishing them.

"You're quite an interesting person."

Aman didn't reveal the real reason. In fact, she just wanted to chat with Lingyun. Everyone in Dali City knew she was the young master and dared not speak disrespectfully to her. Only Lingyun treated her as an equal, which made the usually lively Aman feel much better.

The two chatted for a while, and Lingyun's wit and humor made Aman laugh out loud, while the shopkeeper broke out in a cold sweat.

"If your husband knew you were chatting like this with me, wouldn't he skin me alive?"

Lingyun asked tentatively, but Aman replied blankly, "What husband?"

Ling Yun sensed something was wrong, leaned forward, and whispered, "Didn't you say you had a daughter? If you don't have a husband, how did you get a daughter?"

“My daughter… has a special situation.”

"Not related by blood?"

Ling Yun's Adam's apple bobbed, and he immediately used the search function, and sure enough, he found the "☆" mark after her!

"Yes, it's my biological mother, but... my mother won't let me say the specifics."

Ling Yun thought that this world was not the mortal realm, but a world of immortals and heroes. Some things that seemed bizarre were actually normal in the eyes of the natives, so he didn't ask any more questions.

Since she was still single and, in some respects, a virgin, Ling Yun didn't stand on ceremony any further.

My wife and sister-in-law don't distinguish between each other, so... well, maybe I don't need to either, right?

Aman didn't understand why Lingyun had suddenly become much happier, but she quickly thought of her daughter and was overjoyed. Could it be that this handsome young man was also interested in her?

Just as the two were getting closer, a large group of burly men dressed in Black Miao ethnic clothing suddenly burst in from outside the door.

Ling Yun recognized the leader; it was none other than his old acquaintance, Elder Shi!

However, they didn't run around in a big way. Instead, they sat at the table and asked the waiter for some dishes.

Ah Man kept staring at them after they came over, and even seemed a little wary.

"what happened?"

Taking the opportunity, Ling Yun grasped her small hand, feeling its smooth texture, a triumphant smile playing on his lips.

That's often how it is; once the bottom line is broken, there are basically no other obstacles left.

Aman glanced at his smiling face and the two small hands clasped together, and said in a hoarse voice, "This man is an elder of the Black Miao tribe, with extremely high martial arts skills. I just don't know why he suddenly came here..."

Ling Yun played with her soft little hand and casually said, "Just now, a little girl named Ling'er, who seems to be from the Black Miao ethnic group, also came to the inn."

"Ling'er?"

Aman almost lost control of her voice. Ling'er's mother, Lin Qing'er, was the high priest of the Bai Miao tribe. How could she not know that!

"Oh no, there really is unrest among the Black Miao people!"

Shi Gonghu, who was at the other table, now had perfect eyesight. When the waiter brought over the wine, he tossed him a silver ingot and asked, "Waiter, have you seen an old woman with a little girl who looks a few years old passing by here recently?"

"Oh, sir, what a coincidence!" the waiter whispered in his ear, "He just arrived before you gentlemen and is staying upstairs!"