Feng Yunshu sized up Qing Zhu in front of her. "Since you're a bamboo spirit, you should know that it's not easy to cultivate into a human form. I'm sure you've worked hard in your cultivation. But why do you hide here and do things that harm people?"
Qing Zhu looked at Feng Yunshu. His expression was dark and unclear. After a while, he slowly curled his lips into a cold smile.
"Little Taoist nun, which eye of yours saw me harming people?"
"Harming no one? The pipa melody you just played clearly had the demonic power to hypnotize. And those who listen to it will be constantly hypnotized and lose consciousness."
After saying that, Feng Yunshu glanced at the two men who were originally going to take Ziyuan away. "Anyone who dares to touch my people, if you're not afraid of vanishing into thin air, just give it a try."
The two men standing on either side of Ziyuan immediately stopped their forward movements. Then they looked up at Qing Zhu. "My lord, this..."
"You may step back first. Don't alert the others."
"But my lord, you—" The two men turned their heads worriedly to look at Feng Yunshu, afraid that she might harm Qing Zhu when they fought.
"Go out."
Under Qing Zhu's order, the two men quickly left the private room.
"Qing Zhu, what on earth are you up to?"
Feng Yunshu frowned. "You said you didn't harm anyone. Then explain what your purpose is for gathering these bamboo spirits and setting up this Qingguan?"
"What if I don't want to explain?"
Qing Zhu's eyes twitched slightly at the corners. Suddenly, several green leaves with demonic power flew out of his sleeve and headed straight for Feng Yunshu.
"Master, be careful!"
Xiaoling reacted quickly and stepped forward. She spat out a fireball from her mouth and burned these green leaves to ashes.
"Hehe," Feng Yunshu said mockingly with a smile. "Qing Zhu, your real form is a bamboo. Don't you know you should understand your enemy's situation before taking action?"
After saying that, Feng Yunshu looked at Xiaoling. "Come on, Xiaoling, show him your abilities."
Xiaoling raised her head and smiled proudly. "You're a bamboo demon. Coincidentally, this spirit beast is best at spiritual fire. I wonder if you, this bamboo demon, are not afraid of fire?"
As her voice fell, Xiaoling spat out a bigger spiritual fireball from her mouth and sent it straight towards Qing Zhu. Qing Zhu immediately jumped back to dodge, but it was obvious that his face had turned pale.
Xiaoling didn't give him a chance to dodge. Taking advantage of the victory, she jumped up and spat out several fireballs in succession. Sweat gradually seeped out on Qing Zhu's face, wetting his sideburns. His dodging movements also became a bit sluggish.
Feng Yunshu watched the battle from the side and couldn't help but say, "So the old saying goes that if you know both yourself and your enemy, you can fight a hundred battles without defeat. Qing Zhu, it's a pity for this good-looking appearance you've transformed into. It's really quite deceptive..."
"However, I'd like to give you a kind reminder. Next time, understand the other person's background before taking action."
Taking advantage of the moment when Qing Zhu was catching his breath, Xiaoling planned to give him a fatal blow and use a big spiritual fireball to turn him back to his original form.
However, at this moment, a ray of light suddenly flashed in front of Qing Zhu. At the same time, a woman's panicked cry rang out, "Don't hurt him!"
Just as Xiaoling was about to spit out the fireball, seeing this, she had to turn her head to the side. The fireball hit a corner of the room and blasted out a big hole.
Fortunately, Qing Zhu had initially set up a spiritual power barrier here. Originally, it was to prevent Feng Yunshu and Xiaoling from escaping. Now, thanks to this spiritual power barrier, the commotion caused by the fireball didn't alert others.
Feng Yunshu hugged Xiaoling in her arms and stared intently at the ray of light that suddenly appeared in front of Qing Zhu. As the light gradually dissipated, Feng Yunshu finally saw that it was a young woman with long floating hair and a gentle face.
However, this woman had no feet and was floating in mid-air. She was just a spiritual body, not a living person.
"A Yun, what are you doing? Get out of the way quickly. That spiritual fire has no eyes. If you're burned, even your spiritual body will vanish into thin air!"
Qing Zhu's originally calm expression immediately became unsteady when he saw this woman appear. He anxiously told her to leave.
It turned out that this young woman's spiritual body was called A Yun. Judging from Qing Zhu's reaction, Feng Yunshu guessed that this woman was most likely the one he admired. Maybe all the things he was doing now were also related to this woman.
"Qing Zhu, don't go on like this anymore. Don't do these things for me! It was so hard for you to transform into a human form. But now you're doing things that go against the natural law because of me. This will bring you backlash..."
As A Yun was speaking, her voice began to choke. Tears fell from the corners of her eyes, turning into a fine light that flew into the air and then completely dissipated after a while.
The whole private room was filled with the woman's deep sorrow. Feng Yunshu's heart ached, and she put away the spiritual power light arrow she was about to release.
"Master, it seems that this Qing Zhu really has his hard - to - tell secrets. He seems to be doing these things for this woman."
Xiaoling also quickly sensed that there was more to this matter. She put away her spiritual power.
Feng Yunshu nodded and took a few steps forward. "Qing Zhu, did you open this Qingguan and bewitch strange women all for her?"
Qing Zhu looked at Feng Yunshu and remained silent.
A Yun turned around and looked at Feng Yunshu. Her expression was a bit urgent. "You can see me, right? Oh, right. Just now Qing Zhu said you're a cultivator. Taoist nun, Qing Zhu is not a bad person, nor does he want to harm people! He's doing all these things to save me! Please spare Qing Zhu's life..."
Feng Yunshu frowned. "It's not impossible for me to spare his life. But you have to tell me what exactly is going on."
A Yun began to slowly tell their story.
It turned out that A Yun was originally a girl from a nearby village. There was a bamboo forest near her home. A Yun liked to play in the bamboo forest since she was a child.
One day, A Yun almost fell off the mountain. At that time, Qing Zhu, who could already transform into a human form, was so anxious that he transformed and saved A Yun. A Yun was very grateful to Qing Zhu and didn't mind that he was a bamboo demon. After that, the two often chatted and laughed together.
Unexpectedly, the good times didn't last long. Someone saw Qing Zhu transform into a human form and thought he was a harmful demon. Then they told A Yun's parents, who confined her. Then they found someone to cut down and burn the bamboo forest.
Qing Zhu didn't want to harm anyone. Those people used A Yun to threaten him and didn't allow him to use his demonic power.
"For my sake, Qing Zhu watched helplessly as all the bamboos around him were cut down and burned. And he endured dozens of stabs and the pain of being burned..."
"And then?"
"A heavy rain saved him. He didn't die in that fire. Then he left the bamboo forest."
A Yun's expression was very sad. "After that, I searched everywhere but couldn't find him. I missed him very much. Until one day, a group of bandits broke into the village. They burned, killed, and looted in our village. They did all kinds of evil. My parents were killed by the bandits. Those bandits defiled me and were going to take me to the mountain stronghold and lock me up..."
"Just when I was on my last breath, Qing Zhu rushed over, killed those people, and rescued me. But by then, I only had one breath left. Qing Zhu himself was also seriously injured. When I saw him for the last time, I felt that I had no regrets in dying."
"But Qing Zhu thought it was all because he came too late that I suffered such a disaster. He didn't want me to die at such a young age. He tried every means to preserve my body, keep my spiritual body, and found a formation to try to let my spiritual body return to my physical body."