After scolding the group of young people from the town, Chen Hao returned to his room, where Ye Yuqiao had already fallen asleep. Listening to Ye Yuqiao's calm breathing, Chen Hao quietly took a seat on the chair beside the bed.

Unlike the exhausted Ye Yuqiao, Chen Hao, who had just transformed a great amount of ancient power for his own use, was brimming with energy.

And so, Chen Hao lay quietly at the head of the bed, admiring Ye Yuqiao's side profile that remained stunning even in sleep, until he dozed off around dawn in a daze.

The next morning.

Upon opening her eyes and sensing Chen Hao's presence nearby, Ye Yuqiao's groggy eyes brightened, and then she reached out to pinch Chen Hao's cheek.

Soon, Chen Hao was awakened, and he sleepily looked at Ye Yuqiao, saying, "Your Majesty, you're awake."

Ye Yuqiao smiled vaguely and then shifted to the side, lifting the blanket, saying, "Why did you sleep propped up all night? It must have been uncomfortable. Come lie down."

Chen Hao squinted and chuckled foolishly, while climbing in beside Ye Yuqiao and explaining, "I was not asleep, but was knocked out by your beauty."

"Smooth talker!" Ye Yuqiao rolled her eyes and continued, "There was something I intended to tell you last night when you returned to the room, but I accidentally fell asleep."

"What is it?"

"Yesterday I noticed someone was following us the whole time. I felt it at the repair shop, and last night when I was closing the curtains, I saw her again. She's staying in the hotel across the street, keeping an eye on every move we make," Ye Yuqiao said with a furrowed brow.

"Could it be someone coveting your beauty and thus following us?"

"It's a woman!" Ye Yuqiao said with a touch of helplessness in her tone.

"A woman!" Chen Hao was shocked, "Then it seems she's after my good looks?"

Ye Yuqiao rolled her eyes again and huffed, "Go on, go ahead. A woman's throwing herself at you."

Chen Hao laughed out loud, and just as he was about to do something naughty, a knock at the door suddenly interrupted, with Tang Jing's voice coming through, "Jerk, Yuqiao, time for breakfast!"

"Talk about bad timing, Tang Jing, you big light bulb!"

A quarter of an hour later, Chen Hao and Ye Yuqiao, having freshened up, came down to the dining room, where Xie Xiaofeng and Tang Jing were nearly done eating.

Barely stepping into the dining room, Ye Yuqiao caught a whiff of a familiar scent. Her eyes immediately gleamed with recognition, and she thought, "Isn't that the woman who has been following us yesterday?"

Then, she glanced toward the northwest corner of the dining room and saw a woman, biting into a piece of bread, staring at her and Chen Hao with a strange look.

After Ye Yuqiao looked her way, instead of avoiding her gaze, the woman revealed a cunning smile, as if she had been aware all along that Ye Yuqiao had noticed her.

After a moment, Ye Yuqiao's expression reverted to its usual impassiveness. Just as Chen Hao was about to turn and join Xie Xiaofeng and Tang Jing, she quickly grabbed Chen Hao's hand and pulled him toward the woman.

Startled at first, Chen Hao quickly calmed down, knowing that Ye Yuqiao wouldn't act so impulsively without an important reason.

Upon reaching the woman, Ye Yuqiao sat down without a greeting and directly, without any expression, got to the point, asking, "Tell us, why have you been following us?"

"Ah!" Chen Hao was surprised and thought, "So she is the woman who has been secretly tracking us?"

Chen Hao took a closer look at the woman before him: she appeared to be in her thirties with smooth skin, though wrinkles gathered at the corners of her eyes. What struck him most were the black-framed glasses she wore, perhaps to create the illusion of larger eyes due to her naturally small eyes.

It was also because of her small eyes' ability to gather light that Chen Hao felt this woman was very crafty and sharp-tongued.

After stirring the spoon that dipped into her hot coffee several times, the woman finally spoke slowly, "I'll tell you who I am after I confirm something first."

"What is it?" Chen Hao asked eagerly.

The woman was about to speak when Ye Yuqiao suddenly stood up, pulling Chen Hao's hand, "Let's go!"

Chen Hao was taken aback, "Why are we leaving just like that?"

"Because she needs something from us, so she has no right to set conditions with us!"

Hearing Ye Yuqiao put it that way, the woman's face darkened, and then in a low voice, she said, "The young lady is right, I really have no right to set terms. Don't go, I'll tell you everything."

"Young lady, how did you figure out she needed something from us?" Chen Hao curiously looked at Ye Yuqiao and asked.

"Because I'm smart!"

With that, Chen Hao and Ye Yuqiao sat down again.

"My name is Luo Luo, and I am the vice president of the F City Yin Yang Master Association."

"I'd figured you were an Onmyoji — otherwise, the Yang Energy on you wouldn't be so strong!" Chen Hao said.

The woman named Luo Luo nodded slightly and then looked at Chen Hao earnestly and asked, "Tell me, are you the young prodigy of the Onmyoji world that has made a name for himself, Chen Hao?"

Chen Hao nodded, an embarrassed smile on his face.

"Please, I beg you!" Luo Luo suddenly pleaded with Chen Hao, her eyes suddenly shimmering with tears, "Please save my husband!"

"Your husband?" Chen Hao looked surprised.

"Yes, my husband..."

Then, Luo Luo told both Chen Hao and Yuqiao: her husband, named Zhang Chuiping, was the president of the F City Yin Yang Master Association. Not long ago, discontented with the actions of the National Onmyoji Discipline Management Committee and the National Onmyoji Association, Zhang Chuiping wanted to create a new organization with the Onmyoji associations of several major cities.

Later, once the Onmyoji Discipline Management Committee and the National Onmyoji Association learned of this, they tried to get rid of Zhang Chuiping.

"What, they killed your husband just like that?" Chen Hao exclaimed, feeling that these people were really lawless.

"They didn't kill him, but imprisoned him in a prison from which he could never escape."

"A prison you can't escape from?" Chen Hao looked puzzled, filled with curiosity.

After nodding slightly, Luo Luo continued to explain to Chen Hao that in ancient times there was an Onmyoji with profound magical powers named Xu Sheng, who was also a carpenter of exceptional skill. In his later years, not wanting to reincarnate in the Netherworld, he used his own hands to carve a bustling wooden city.

After the wooden city was carved, Xu Sheng used a forbidden Onmyoji spell to attach Wandering Souls and ghosts to the wooden figurines he'd carved, and he then exhausted all his Mana to set a Seal Barrier on the wooden city. Unlike ordinary Barriers, the Seal Barrier on the wooden city allowed any person or soul to enter but made it so they could not leave.

In the end, just before his life force was about to expire, Xu Sheng entered the wooden city he had built by his own hands, becoming the supreme ruler within it.

This wooden city was originally buried in an ordinary person's grave, but more than a thousand years later, it was excavated due to real estate development, and the ingeniously crafted wooden city reemerged in the world of the living. After several transfers, the wooden city ended up in the hands of the Onmyoji Discipline Management Committee.

After hearing Luo Luo's story, Chen Hao asked, "Are you saying your husband entered that wooden city?"

"Yes!" Luo Luo nodded, her expression turning somber, "They captured my father-in-law and mother-in-law and then sent the wooden city to my home, forcing my husband to enter it himself. With no other choice, he had to agree to them. Later, I used the wooden city to ransom my father-in-law and mother-in-law back."

"These people are just vile!" Chen Hao said angrily.

At that moment, Ye Yuqiao, who had been sitting expressionlessly aside, asked, "So, this wooden city is in the hands of the Onmyoji Discipline Management Committee, what use is it finding my boyfriend?"

"It's with me," Luo Luo shook her head, her expression immediately turning bitter, "A few days ago, the people from the Onmyoji Discipline Management Committee came to my house and handed the wooden city back to me. They said there was one person in the world who could save my husband, and that's you, Chen Hao. I'm sorry, I know they want to get rid of you, and that's why they asked me to find you. But I really don't want to give up any chance to save my husband!"

Yuqiao snorted, her face extremely somber. Knowing Chen Hao as she did, he wouldn't refuse anyone's plea for help, even if he knew it was a road to certain death.

However, at that moment, Chen Hao suddenly asked Yuqiao in his heart, "Girlfriend, do you agree with me going to rescue someone?"

"Would you listen to me if I didn't agree?"

"Of course! If you didn't agree, I definitely wouldn't go. Other people's lives are lives, and isn't mine as well? Besides, I have you to consider. What would you do if I truly couldn't come back? Who would take care of you?"

"Do you really think that way?" Ye Yuqiao was quite surprised.

"Nonsense, haven't you realized that all I have been doing so far is to fulfill that beautiful promise of our eternal commitment? I'm also a selfish person. Doing deeds like ridding evils and exorcising demons is just to make myself better. It's just that I'm luckier, my dreams and responsibilities happen to align."

Ye Yuqiao was moved by Chen Hao's words, and after a pause, she took his hand and said, "Where Chen Hao goes, Yuqiao will go too. If you really want to go to that wooden city to save someone, then I'll go with you. If we can't get out, it's like fulfilling our promise of eternal commitment ahead of time."

"Silly girl!" Chen Hao smiled contentedly, "It's just a wooden city, how could we possibly not be able to come out."

Having said that, Chen Hao looked at Luo Luo and said, "Take us to see that wooden city."

"Are you sure about this?" Luo Luo asked excitedly, "You might never come back after you go inside."

"I'm sure, let's just treat it as a holiday."

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