All the girls said they were willing.
In this world, a woman’s chastity was treated as more important than anything. On the wedding night, they even inspected the “virgin cloth”—if there was no blood on it, the bride would be sent back to her family.
Some families were kinder and would just send their daughter off to a country estate.
Wealthier ones sent them to a temple, offering the temple money each month.
But there were also families that would have a rope prepared the moment their daughter returned, ready to have her hang herself.
Plenty of families of scholars did things like that.
The girls knew their own families well. Those who felt there was no way they could return all agreed—the path Qi Yuan offered was the best they could hope for.
Qi Yuan gave a faint “mm” of acknowledgment and looked at Jingkong, who was covered in injuries. Lowering her gaze, she said:
“I’m going to burn this temple down. The air is dry, and your Wanan Temple isn’t exactly a big or well-guarded one. I noticed there’s no one even tending the incense burner. If it catches fire, well—that’s just normal, isn’t it?”
Jingkong thought for a second, then understood her meaning and quickly nodded.
Qi Yuan turned to the girls again:
“Whether you go home or not, you must never speak of what happened here. This isn’t just about protecting yourselves—it’s about protecting your families as well. For the abbot here to run rampant for so many years, someone powerful must be behind him. I’m sure I don’t need to spell it out for you, right?”
She had no intention of reporting this to the authorities.
Report it? To whom?
Let those corrupt officials hem and haw, pass it to the Bureau of Monastic Affairs, then let Pu Wuyong pull some strings and throw out a scapegoat?
She’d rather just kill them all herself.
Anyone who preyed on women didn’t deserve to live. They’d go to h*ll and be boiled in oil all over again.
Besides, reporting it would mean exposing the girls. And Pu Wuyong—that d*mn eunuch—would never let them go.
Qi Yuan gave the girls a sweeping look. “Do you understand?”
The girls all nodded quickly and said yes.
Qi Yuan nodded. She had the stronger ones help the injured, supporting one another as they left the cave and headed toward the temple’s main hall.
Once there, she kicked over the massive incense burner.
The incense inside and the candles on the altar toppled to the floor.
Flames flared up instantly, quickly leaping to the nearby main hall.
Jingkong looked at the burning temple, his face full of complicated emotions. He knelt down and knocked his head against the floor three times.
When he rose again, he was startled to see the young woman hacking at trees and bushes with her flexible sword.
……
Having lived in the mountains for years, Jingkong understood what she was doing.
When a wildfire broke out, the first thing they did was chop down nearby trees and brush to clear a path—a firebreak—so the flames couldn’t spread too far.
Arson was a serious crime.
Qi Yuan had killed plenty of people, and now she was setting fires too.
But in her eyes, burning Wanan Temple was perfectly justified. That place was a filthy abomination. Still, everything in the world had its own spirit. The fire should not go too far. Never mind animals—even if it just burned flowers and grass unnecessarily, that was still wrong.
And if the fire spread too far and reached the mountain’s base, it would hurt the villagers.
Once she had done enough, and gauged that the flames would soon draw attention from the village below, she led the group around the back of the mountain and away.
By the time they reached the riverside at the foot of the mountain, Qi Yuan let the girls who wished to return home go their separate ways.
Dawn was just breaking. Qi Yuan looked at their retreating figures and slowly let out a breath of relief.
Then she turned to Jingkong and said, “I’ll have one of my people escort the rest of these girls south to Huizhou. Do you want to return to secular life, or do you still wish to remain a monk? If you still want to be ordained, there are temples in Huizhou.”
Jingkong scratched his head and wiped the blood from his nose. “I’ll continue to serve the Buddha.”
Qi Yuan nodded. “You have a kind heart—Kṣitigarbha will see it.”
She sent a message to Shunzi, intending for him to escort Jingkong and the rescued girls to Huizhou.
Per her earlier instructions, Shunzi had already redeemed a few bodyguards from contract service. They would come in handy for this journey. Without a word of complaint, he packed up and set off right away.
As for Qi Yuan? She had just returned to her estate when she turned and saw Xiao Yunting standing there.
His Highness the Imperial Grandson had an unreadable anger on his face. He tilted his head and glanced at her, then said in a low voice:
“Go wash up at your estate first—you reek of incense and smoke.”
It was true. Qi Yuan herself could smell the heavy scent clinging to her body.
She gave an indifferent “oh,” not caring one bit about the look on Xiao Yunting’s face.
From his reaction, she could tell he was already aware of what had happened at Wanan Temple. It wasn’t surprising—those two, Babao and Liujin, were often sent by Xiao Yunting to keep an eye on her.
Everything was ready at the estate. Qingtiao brought her a clean set of clothes, and she sent Lihua down to comfort the others.
Only then did Qi Yuan come out.
As soon as she sat down, Xiao Yunting said in a low voice:
“I’ve already taken care of everything inside. The mountain villagers know that this temple wasn’t a good one. They’ll all insist to the authorities that this fire was divine punishment, brought down because the monks were not devout enough.”
Divine punishment, of course, referred to the temple being burned down.
Qi Yuan gave a quiet “mm.”
Xiao Yunting sighed again. “As for that abbot you killed—Cishan—even though you set the fire, his body didn’t burn completely. The sword wounds were still visible. Any coroner could determine the cause. I’ve already handled that as well.”
He had gotten used to this by now.
Qi Yuan handled the killing up front; he followed behind to clean things up, to make sure there were no loose ends—anything that could come back to cause her trouble.
Even if there was no evidence, this was still a serious matter.
Xiao Yunting made no attempt to conceal anything from her:
“Get ready. That eunuch Pu Wuyong is about to turn into a rabid dog.”
As a eunuch, Pu Wuyong had always placed tremendous importance on continuing his family line.
He treated Cishan better than he treated himself, practically worshiping the man like an ancestor.
The reason Cishan could act with such impunity all these years was precisely because of that.
Now that their only heir was dead, it meant the Pu family line had ended.
Pu Wuyong was going to lose his mind.
He looked at Qi Yuan and said, “From now on, that mad dog will try to rip you to pieces—he’ll want to tear every bit of flesh from your bones.”
Qi Yuan let out a cold laugh.
“Your Highness is mistaken. It’s not that he’s going to try to bite me to pieces—it’s that I’m going to smash out every one of that mad dog’s teeth.”
She looked Xiao Yunting straight in the eye, not retreating an inch.
“He killed my people. He hurt my family. He let his nephew defile those girls. And next, he’ll probably target my family again. So no—it’s not that he wants to destroy me. It’s that I’ll never give him the chance to live. I want him dead.”
Xiao Yunting nodded. He knew there was no persuading Qi Yuan otherwise.
If he couldn’t stop her, he’d join her.
He got straight to the point:
“The Head Eunuch of the Directorate of Ceremonial, commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, with personal ties to the Weaving Bureau of Jiangnan, and dozens of adopted sons and grandsons he’s gathered over the years… How do you plan to kill him?”
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