“My Lord, that was not how it happened.” Grey Wolf said quickly.
“Then what?”
Feng Jiu folded her arms across her chest and glanced sideways at Grey Wolf as she said: “You dare to say that you were not staring at me when I wanted to change? You dare to say that you did not try to strip off my clothes?”
“You!”
“Me? What about me? Although my countenance has been ruined, I am however still very picky. Someone like you with a body like a washboard and that pretty boy face really wouldn’t be pleasing enough to this Young Master’s eyes.”
Feng Jiu’s face was one of utter contempt and her tone very light. But the words spoken there in that room made everyone fall silent as they all stared at her like she was some kind of monster. Even Grey Wolf was staring at her with bulging eyes, his face stupefied with shock.
The corners of the Hell’s Lord’s mouth twitched almost unnoticeably as he stared at the youth’s bold and aggressive demeanor without displaying the slightest bit of shame. He could not help but to turn his eyes away from the youth and immediately turn to walk out of the room.
“Hurry up and change your clothes!” Grey Wolf said viciously, leaving behind those words as he quickly turned to leave as well.
When the other people there saw that, everyone of them started to look at Feng Jiu with a different gaze, their hearts properly shocked. They had not thought that that young youth would really be hiding a *habit of cutting his sleeve! (Translator Note: lit. cut sleeve (idiom); fig. euphemism for homosexuality, originating from History of Western Han 漢書|汉书: emperor Han Aidi (real name Liu Xin) was in bed with his lover Dong Xian, and had to attend a court audience that morning. Not wishing to awaken Dong Xian, who was sleeping with his head resting on the emperor’s long robe sleeve, Aidi used a knife to cut off the lower half of his sleeve. Source: https://glosbe.com/zh/en/%E6%96%AD%E8%A2%96%E4%B9%8B%E7%99%96)
Seeing them leave one by one, Feng Jiu stepped forward to shut the door before she could no longer hold herself back as she broke into a smile. She stared at the grey set clothes in her hands and she brought them inside to quickly change into them before she came back out.
“Follow behind us!” Grey Wolf said with a loathing glance at Feng Jiu before he walking in front to lead the way.
Feng Jiu swept a quick glance outside and saw that the rest of the cultivators were all there. As for the Hell’s Lord, there was no longer any sign of him.
Her gaze fell upon the figure of Grey Wolf in front of her, a dark glint flashing very briefly in her eyes. The corners of her lips stiffened as she walked leisurely behind to follow, till they came to a tower that was seven storeys tall.
The thick fragrance of herbs mixed with a variety of other medicines assailed at her nose. Within a rather large yard, many people were buzzing around, some carrying out herbs to be sunned, some grinding up herbs, while some others were sorting out the medicines, everyone carrying out a different task.
Moreover, these people had already become rather used to having newcomers arrive here after a certain period had passed and hence, when a badly disfigured youth came in, many of them had merely lifted their heads to glance once before they continued with their tasks with some not even bothering to look at them at all.
“Old Lin, I’m handing this kid over to you.” Grey Wolf shouted and then immediately walked away after leaving his charge behind, not even looking at Feng Jiu at all.
At that moment, an old man dressed in green came walking out from the tower to stop before Feng Jiu as he looked Feng Jiu up and down in a measuring gaze and asked: “What is your name?”
Feng Jiu’s face split into a grin and said brightly: “Ghostly.”
“Ghostly?” The old man was taken aback for a moment and his brows creased up as he asked: “What do you know? Tell me about it so I can arrange a job for you.”
Feng Jiu did not answer his question but instead asked: “What is this place? What do all of you do here?”
“Do not ask what you’re not supposed to ask, or you’ll not live long!”
Hearing that, Feng Jiu lifted an eyebrow and thought about it awhile: “Then just arrange some odd jobs for me. I would at least still know how to complete some of these odds and ends around here.” As she spoke, her gaze looked at the tower and she saw that there were quite a number of people inside as well.
“That place is where medicines are concocted. Newcomers will all just attend to the menial tasks out in the yard here. You can just go over there to sort out the herbs then!” The old man indicated and then turned around to go back into the tower.
Feng Jiu took a look inside and walked over to where the herbs were, observing the surroundings as she sorted out the herbs.
“Eh, how did you come in?” The youth beside her asked in a hushed voice.