After returning from Tengchong, I wanted to spend more time with 

Senior Shu

. We had 

completed

 a few cases, but all of them 

were easy

 otherworldly items. 

Li Mazi had recovered well after half a month. He insisted that he 

had

 to see me. 

Senior Shu

 immediately shooed me away. “If Li Mazi comes, I can’t live in peace.”  

I felt embarrassed

 and

 was afraid that Li Mazi would really come here. 

After c

onfirming that 

Senior Shu

 was all right, I bid him farewell. When I returned to my antique shop, Li Mazi was fuming and screaming 

in my

 face that I 

wasn't

concerned

 about him. 

On the same day, our two families had gathered for a big lunch. At around twilight, Li Mazi and Ru Xue took their little Nianchu home. I held Yin Xinyue’s han

d and

 slowly drove home. 

While having lunch together, I had already 

noticed that

 she wasn’t 

okay

. Although she looked cheerful and excited, she couldn’t hide the grief in her eyes. 

“Are you okay, honey?” I asked when we arrived home. 

“

I’m fine

.” She shook her head. 

As we had been living together for quite a long time, I knew her well. I didn’t believe her words. 

I kept pestering her about it. 

Yin Xinyue couldn’t hide it 

anymore. She

 hugged me and cried.

While sobbing, she said, “Hubby, my parents are sick. I even invited doctors from the US to check on them. However, 

t

hey 

couldn't

 find the cause of their sickness. Their condition is getting worse. What should I do now?” 

I was perplexed. From her words, 

it seemed

 her parents 

had been

 sick for

 a while, but

 she decided to tell me only today. I 

guessed

she

 didn’t want to distract me.

I hadn’t spent 

a lot of

 time with her after getting married

, and

 I hadn’t even seen my in-laws yet… I felt sorry and also embarrassed. I pulled her tight

ly

 in my chest and comforted her. “Wife, don’t 

worry

. I’m sure I can help cure your parents!” 

I had spent a long time with her to calm 

her

 down. With red eyes, she told me about her parents’ situation. 

A few days ago, Yin Xinyue had free time

. As 

I was away to deal with a case, 

she

 went home to visit her parents. She found that 

neither of them

 appeared to look well. 

At first, she thought that her parents were mad at her because she didn’t bring her husband home to see her parents after getting married for quite a long time. But at night, she saw her father carefully 

bring

 a bucket of warm water to the bedroom. Then, she heard her mother whimpering in pain. 

Yin Xinyue was a smart woman. She immediately 

knew

 that her parents were hiding something from her. She secretly peeped through the slit of the door. She screamed at the first glance

.

 Her mother had blue scales all over her body. Her father was using a pair of scissors to help her cut the scales off. 

Her mother 

bled

 after every cut. Although Yin Xinyue had seen a lot of abnormal 

situations

 since she had been with me, when it happened to her mother, she almost cracked. 

While c

rying, she asked her parents what had happened to them. 

Yin Xinyue’s parents sighed as they knew they couldn’t hide their sickness from her anymore. 

It turned out the two of them had started to have strange and unknown itchy spots on their bodies. They scratched their skin to ease the itch and ignored 

the problem at first

. Unfortunately, the situation

 had gotten worse, and

 they 

no longer felt

 comfortable with 

just

 scratching. It seemed they 

had

 something that wanted to drill out from under their skin. They had tried several antiseptics only to no 

avail

.   

The old couple was worried. They visited many hospitals from modern to traditional medical practices in the big cities 

and

 the small villages to see what had happened to them. However, no one had found the cause yet.  

They were 

old-fashioned people, so t

hey were a little reluctant when it came to spending money on medical treatment. Moreover, as the cause remained unknown, they eventually gave up 

on finding a

 treatment. They 

went

 home and followed a traditional method: 

To u

se 

a

 needle to prick the itchiest spots. They hoped it 

would

 help extract the toxin out of their body. 

Unexpectedly, after one sleep, they had blue scales 

all over

 their bodies. The old couple now recognized that the situation wasn’t simple at all. However, they were quite conservative 

as

 they were afraid of going to the hospital for proper treatment. They were also afraid that people would call them monsters, 

which was

 why they 

endured the

 pain and cut the scales. 

More scales 

showed

 up the next day, which looked even denser than the day before. They were baffled

 and knew 

that they couldn’t just cut the scales off. However, no one would want such alien 

objects

 growing on their bodies

, so they still went ahead and got rid of

 the scales daily. Day by day, the scales 

became 

tougher, while they were getting weaker and weaker… 

Yin Xinyue 

said,

 “Husband, please

save my parents. I’m sure they are being pestered by 

a

 foul thing. I didn’t want to distract you 

while

 you were away. But now that you’re back, please help them. I’m begging you!” 

As she was emotional, her words weren’t orderly. I felt even more embarrassed

 and held 

her tightly 

in

 my embrace. “Wife, don’t worry. Even if I have to risk my life, I will save your parents!” 

Yin Xinyue didn’t talk anymore. She gave me a firm nod then rested her head against my chest. After she had calmed down, we didn’t linger for even a second. I packed up the Emei Piercer and the Holy Mother Pierce with some other items I would likely use and departed. 

Senior Shu

had made

 me keep the Holy Mother Scepter. 

T

he Holy Mother Scepter had both 

offensive and

 defensive functions, which 

was

 the same 

as

 the Sirius Whip and the Yin and Yang Umbrella

.

 I thought that I wouldn’t need the Sirius Whip. The whip

’s power

 always

drained after a few times of use. 

In a critical

 moment, it could be my fatal weakness. 

Since it was something hap

pening 

to my family, after thinking about Yin Xinyue’s 

feelings

, I didn’t tell Li Mazi the details. I just told him that I was going to visit my in-laws. 

Yin 

Xinyue’s family came from the Dai

ethnic minority

. However, her parents had moved North when they were young. They now resided in a small town in Rizhao City, Shandong Province. I drove 

calmly

 through the night

, and w

e arrived at the village early in the morning. 

Yin Xinyue had told me 

that

 the Northeastern people were 

very 

friendly. If they knew that the son-in-law 

had come

 to visit his in-laws, they would come to share the joy. If they came, we 

wouldn’t be able to

 hide her parents’ sickness. 

I stopped the car at the village entrance and took a view of the entire 

place

. This village was a typical Northeastern village. The ground was paved with 

gravel, and s

ince it had just snowed, 

it

 was all icy. 

I

t gently cracked when we 

walked

.

The wind blew

, which made me feel 

chilly. Sometimes, snow 

fell off

 the tree branches. 

After w

alking for a while, Yin Xinyue and I 

had

 snowflakes on our heads. 

Her 

place

 was 

a

 normal-looking 

farmhouse

. Since we had called them on the way here, her parents had woken up early to wait for us. When Yin Xinyue saw her mother, she directly 

went

 into her arms. The two women burst into tears. 

Her father had red-brimmed eyes. He held my hands and repeatedly welcomed me. “Good, good. It’s good that you’re finally home.” 

The

y were

 honest farmers. I felt the pressure in my heart reduce

greatly. I 

went

 into the house and ate a bowl of beef noodles. I didn’t feel cold anymore.

I turned to talk to Yin Xinyue’s father. “Father, please show me your wound.” 

When I first saw them, their faces were strangely ashen. At that time, I thought it was because of the cold weather. But eve

n

a

fter a long time of sitting in the warm room with a brazier, their faces were still pale. I was worried. 

My father-in-law nodded. He unbuttoned his thick puffer and exposed his torso. At first glance, I had to 

take a

 deep breath. 

His situation was even worse than what Yin Xinyue had told me. From his belly button to his collarbone, there was no place where I could see his skin. Scales were everywhere. 

P

eople would think it was a dragon’s belly. 

Since

 he had cut the scales daily, it had created a thick layer of blood 

clots

 on his scales, which looked horrible. 

I frowned

 and turned 

to my mother-in-law. She gave me a confirming nod

, her face 

twisted.

Her situation was the same. 

“

Did 

anything strange happen in your house these days?” I asked. 

T

he scales on their bodies indicated that they had messed with something foul. If I couldn’t solve this problem, they would have scales all over their bodies

. At that point,

 even 

a

 powerful immortal couldn’t save them. I knew I had to find the cause as fast as possible. 

However, they thought 

for a while and

 shook their heads. “Except for the scales growing on our bodies, there’s nothing else strange.” 

I 

nodded, then

 asked Yin Xinyue to bring me a small bowl of vinegar. I drank the vinegar and stood next to my father-in-law

. I sensed around 

with closed eyes. 

Some powerful foul things could deliberately hide their Yin energy. The vinegar could facilitate the sense of smell and break the concealm

ent

 the foul things had cast. Unexpectedly, after I had drunk the vinegar, I still didn’t feel the existence of Yin energy in this house. 

I didn’t know where to 

start

. For the time being, I decided to make some potions that could treat the corpse toxin. 

Senior Shu

 had taught me and showed me how to apply them. Not long after applying the ointment, I noticed that my father-in-law

started to twist his body. At first, perhaps 

it was because he

 had minded his image, so he didn’t move much. However, it seemed he couldn’t endure it for long. In the end, he rubbed his body against the wall and started to cut the scales with a pair of scissors. 

“

Husband

, 

besides

 cutting 

off those

 scales, do we have any other solution?” 

My mother-in-law asked Yin Xinyue to help her cut the scales. 

While h

olding the scissors, Yin Xinyue wept

.

 “Mom, 

scales are growing

on

 your body. Cutting them isn’t different from cutting your flesh.” 

Before I found the cause, they would have to cut the scales every day. Otherwise, 

once

 the scales covered their entire bodies, their deaths would come eventually. 

After cutting the scales, they went to their room to rest. I picked up a scale from the ground and brought it to my nose to smell. It had a strong stink of fried fish. I frowned

 and walked 

to the basin outside to take some water to clean the scale. 

T

he smell didn’t disperse. 

Yin Xinyue saw that

 and felt 

helpless

.

 “Do you have any solution?” 

I hugged her. “Let

’s w

ait and see. Perhaps my ointment 

can

 save our parents.” 

However, 

this possibility wasn’t 

high

. 

At twilight, they got up. My father-in-law was so excited. “Son, I’m okay now!”

Then, he showed me his belly. I was surprised

 to see that 

many scales were peeling off

. Hi

s soft skin was revealed underneath. 

My mother-in-law looked at me

 and smiled

. “Usually, new scales w

ould have grown

 by now,

 b

ut they aren’t growing today! I feel so comfortable.” 

She spun twice

 and looked 

at me pleasantly. It seemed the proverb was true: 

W

hen the mother-in-law s

ees

 her son-in-law, she 

becomes

 happy. 

Yin Xinyue hadn’t expected the situation to 

change so quickly

. She was perplexed for quite a long time

. Then, her 

tears roll

ed 

silently.

S

he sobbed. “Thank you

. T

hank you so much, my husband…” 

“

W

ife, why are you crying?” 

I wiped her tears. To thoroughly cure this strange disease, I made some more ointment 

and

applied it

to

 their skin one more time. 

Yin Xinyue cooked a simple dinner. After dinner, my in-laws went to sleep early

 while

 I restlessly shifted on the bed

. I

 couldn’t sleep as I was afraid that when we woke up tomorrow, everything would be the same. I resolutely grabbed the Holy Mother Scepter and sat in the yar

d, watching

. 

Since that thing 

was

 able to hide its Yin energy, I smeared ox 

tears

 on my eyelids

, 

bit the tip of my finger

, 

and touched my glabella.  

The Heavenly Temple acupoint was 

a

 spot between the eyes. People with profound cultivation could use a spell to open their Heavenly Eye. Although I hadn’t reached that level, 

this method could let me use

 the Heavenly Temple acupoint to sense the Yin energy!