Cultivation Retirement Plan (BL)

37. Bountiful Harvest

Joyous Spirit was in an uproar by the time the three cultivators landed on the roof of a building across the street. A crowd had gathered in the streets below, whispering and pointing at something on the abandoned second floor. It looked as if a storm had swept through there, leaving chairs and tables overturned, plates of food spilled or untouched, and a general mess on the ground.

"You were sitting at that spot when I found you," Su Shimeng pointed out a table. From their angle, it looked abandoned like the rest.

"There's nobody there now," Nan Wuyue observed.

"But the crowd hasn't dispersed," Mo Yixuan glanced at the people in the streets. "Let's take a closer look."

Instead of leaping straight across to the balcony opposite, however, he ran along the edge of the roof until he was lined up with the corner of Joyous Spirit and took off from there. This would ensure any excess qi he used on landing wouldn't be in range of sensitive jade pieces as well as avoid the crowd below. Despite this, it was impossible to mask the sight of his all-white robes, which quickly sent a titter of cries and screams in the gathered mob.

Su Shimeng could even see the town guards coming from a distance away. "I'll deal with them," he told Nan Wuyue as he backtracked towards the street. As an IRS disciple, he had required training in diplomacy with the Lower Realms, even if he liked to be brash with his interpersonal relations.

Nan Wuyue naturally tailed after Mo Yixuan. Master and disciple ran along the roof before swinging themselves into the second floor. Both of them were keeping a tight rein on their qi as they landed in the wineshop. It didn't take long for Mo Yixuan to spot Old Song's body crumpled up beneath the table. Nan Wuyue hurried forward and dragged the corpse out into the open, where Mo Yixuan did another scan with his spiritual sense.

As expected, the heart was missing once again.

"Shizun, I see a jade piece on the table," Nan Wuyue said.

"Keep an eye on it but don't touch," Mo Yixuan replied, still studying the latest victim. "Check around for other clues." Part of him marveled at the fact that this almost felt routine now.

The first body had been a nasty shock, but it almost felt unreal with how clean the insides had been. The second was equally unpleasant because it belonged to a child, but there had been too much going on with the angry crowd for him to process anything but the most important details. Now he was here with Old Song, a man he'd talked and drunk with just hours ago, and Mo Yixuan felt...

...nothing.

There was a trace of pity for the man who'd died so soon—and so close before proposing to his beloved. There was also some horror and revulsion over the fact that he deteriorated so quickly. But there was so much disconnect between the lively, swarthy speaker and this hollowed husk of a man that Mo Yixuan's brain was having problems connecting the two together.

He decided to ignore it and focus more on the investigation. His prior examinations had all fixated on the heart, but now he realized that there was a faint trace of heat still lingering around the chest area that the rest of the body lacked. It was as if all the essence of the living had concentrated there in the last few moments before the host expired.

Did all the yang essence flow into the heart before it was harvested?

All living things possessed a balance of both yin and yang in their bodies. Today was the Ghost Festival when ghosts were strongest. Could the Jade Ghost be seizing this chance to collect her fill of yang essence? He'd heard legends of ghosts regaining human form by supplementing their lack of yang. But there were two issues with that theory.