Chapter 78: Wu Gou: Neither of You Should Think of Leaving Me
“What are you trying to do?!” Yong Jie glared at Wu Gou, his voice trembling with fear. “Wu Gou, don’t be impulsive! Let’s talk this out. Senior Brother was wrong this time; I shouldn’t have coveted your treasure, it’s—”
But before he could finish, he felt a sharp pain in his head.
Lou Yunxiao had already complied.
“I was just worrying about having nowhere to release all this demonic Qi. Giving it to him is quite fitting.”
Lou Yunxiao treated Yong Jie as a storage vessel, transferring all the demonic Qi floating around him like black flames into the other man.
As the demonic Qi entered his body, it gradually took over Yong Jie’s consciousness. Before long, he turned into a baring-teethed demon that wanted to eat people. Just as he was about to counterattack Lou Yunxiao, several chains burst from the array beneath his feet, binding him tightly.
In the next moment, Wu Gou’s staff pierced through his chest.
Blood flowed down the wound. The clean, fair little monk had an extremely cold expression. He didn’t look like a compassionate Buddhist disciple, but rather like an Asura from hell.
Before the last light faded from Yong Jie’s eyes, Wu Gou told him, “Since you have become a demon, you are no longer my fellow disciple. It is only logical and reasonable for me to kill you. This is the world you wanted, where the strong are respected.”
He practiced Buddhism, but he also practiced fate. He was the most kind, yet also the most cruel. Since Yong Jie had planted the cause, Wu Gou would deliver the effect. Otherwise, he would only suffer for it in the future.
Lou Yunxiao let go, and Yong Jie slumped to the ground. He released fire to incinerate the body.
Wu Gou pressed his palms together, and after chanting the sutra for the deceased, he tossed the staff to Lou Yunxiao.
“Take it and play.”
Lou Yunxiao glanced at the corpse on the ground, curled his lip, and said, “I’ve suddenly realized you’re not bad. Decisive enough.”
He took the staff, used a Cleansing Technique to make it spotless, and then trotted over to Ning Ke like a loyal dog presenting a treasure. “Ming Xin, I saw you staring at this staff in Beiyou City. You must want it very much. I’ve gotten it for you; try it out and see if it feels right in your hand.”
Only then did Ning Ke realize why Lou Yunxiao wanted the staff so badly. For a moment, he really wanted to laugh. He had asked Wu Gou for the Buddha Lotus Lamp to give to Lou Yunxiao, while Lou Yunxiao had snatched it to give to him. Looking at it this way, the two of them were like a pair of idiots.
“Thanks, I’ll try it in a bit.” Ning Ke patted Lou Yunxiao’s head as a reward, took the staff, threw away the melon seed shells, and clapped his hands before standing up.
He walked toward Wu Gou.
He glanced at the charred corpse in passing. He didn’t feel much sympathy for the man. Wu Gou could see through karma, so every step he took was more cautious. If he felt this person deserved to die, then that person had no way to live.
“Wu Gou, it wasn’t a coincidence that you appeared here, was it?”
“Naturally not.” Wu Gou revealed a smile, though his voice carried a hint of gritted teeth. “However, Ming Xin, don’t tell me that even now you can’t remember what you promised me? We agreed that you would let me stay by your side to witness everything. In the end, you ran off alone without a word. Now you turn around and ask why I’m here—don’t you feel a guilty conscience? Do you have any idea how long I chased you without seeing you stop? You really forgot about me completely!”
“…” After staying in Beiyou City for a few days, Ning Ke had almost forgotten that Wu Gou was a chatterbox. This barrage of accusations actually made him feel a bit of guilt.
“I… wasn’t I in a hurry?”
Lou Yunxiao cut in, saying in surprise, “Fellow Daoist Wu Gou, this is the first time I’ve heard you speak so much.”
Wu Gou glared at him, still feeling quite pained about being left behind. He smoothed his chest before regaining his composure.
“In any case, I’ve also reached the Soul Transformation stage, and I am going to that secret realm with you. Neither of you should think of leaving me behind again!”
…
The party of two eventually became a party of three.
Ning Ke didn’t mind, but in the following days, the more Lou Yunxiao thought about it, the more he felt Wu Gou’s behavior—chasing after Ning Ke and insisting on staying by his side—was quite wrong. Consequently, he watched Ning Ke even more closely. Whenever Wu Gou got too close to Ning Ke, he would bare his teeth.
After two days of urgent travel, the three finally reached the secret realm that had swallowed the Liuyun Sect before the entrance closed.
The mountain where the Liuyun Sect once sat looked as if a giant beast had taken a massive bite out of it, leaving only a bare gap. Suspended within that gap was a circular secret realm entrance.
Ning Ke glanced at the cliff not far away, and memories flooded his mind. The entrance to the Demon Realm had been right down there; the image of him chasing after Lou Yunxiao was still vivid in his mind.
Lou Yunxiao stood before the entrance. Because his demonic Qi had decreased, his temperament was slightly more restrained. He was able to control the sky-high hatred in his mind so he wouldn’t lose his composure. On this trip, he had to bring back the remains of his parents and the disciples of the Liuyun Sect. He would set up tombs and engrave tablets, and in the future, he would use Ning Ke’s blood to sacrifice to their souls.
“Let’s go.”
The three nodded, stood in a line, and stepped into the secret realm simultaneously.
After they entered, the entrance vanished, leaving only a bare hill.
A moment later, a streak of light arrived.
Ning Xiaoxiao clenched her fists and grit her teeth, her eyes swirling with emotion.
Sure enough, she hadn’t made it in time?
She had been left behind once again…
…
However, when they opened their eyes again, the three had appeared in two different places.
Lou Yunxiao plunged into a deep pond. The water in the pond appeared golden, and every drop contained a density of spiritual Qi so terrifying it was bordering on horrifying. At this moment, it was frantically burrowing into Lou Yunxiao’s body, completely beyond his control.
His meridians burst and his pores seeped blood.
Lou Yunxiao struggled to break through the surface of the water.
Suddenly, he froze.
He saw the pond water form a human shape. The woman had exquisite features and a gentle gaze. It was actually his mother, Bai Wanru, who had been dead for three years…
The woman formed of pond water stepped forward and gently embraced Lou Yunxiao. In that instant, all the stinging pain in his meridians vanished. He was even able to breathe underwater. The woman was like his guardian deity, giving him the best protection and preventing the violent spiritual Qi from harming him in the slightest.
Lou Yunxiao’s body was stiff and his fingertips trembled. It was as if he couldn’t believe everything before him was actually happening.
After a long while, he grit his back teeth and reached out to embrace Bai Wanru’s watery body.
He choked out a cry.
“Mother… your son missed you so much…”
…
Unlike the spirit pond Lou Yunxiao had fallen into, Ning Ke and Wu Gou were facing an extremely violent world.
Thunder filled the sky and heavy rain poured down, drenching them. Furthermore, because the two were standing on the peak of a reef in the middle of a sea, giant waves ten meters high rose from the surface, like a giant beast opening its bloody maw to bite them.
BOOM—!
The two were violently swept up and then slammed down.
“Cough, cough…”
Two smooth, round bald heads popped out of the sea. Ning Ke still had a fish caught in his mouth, which he quickly spat out. The fish happened to smack Wu Gou’s face, flopping around and slapping him once before falling back into the sea.
“…” The little monk, who was usually calm and composed while “eating tigers,” now had a face as black as iron.
“Benefactor Ning, I really shouldn’t have come to this godforsaken place with you.”
Seeing him suffer, Ning Ke immediately bared his teeth and smiled with pure schadenfreude.
“Regretting it now?”
“Too late.”
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