Chapter 4: Senior Brother, You Must Die — Failed to Die, Both Entered an Illusion…
The room was pitch black. Outside the window, the night wind howled, mixing with the sharp knock-knock on the door that pierced through the deep night and into the room.
Seeing no response, the person outside knocked three more times and called out gently, “Junior Brother?”
Now, Feng Jiangyue might seem like the most caring person on Lichen Mountain, but in reality, she wasn’t particularly reliable. Occasionally, she would use somewhat forceful methods to make her junior brothers submit. In a nutshell: unreliable and violent, but loves mothering people.
However, no matter what, she would never adapt to local customs like this, becoming so gentle she seemed about to melt into this Jiangnan water town.
Previously, Master Chongjiang couldn’t stand it and advised her to cultivate her character and become a lady. Feng Jiangyue herself had once declared, “If it can’t increase my cultivation or let me ascend on the spot, what’s the use of cultivating it?”
Therefore, this “Feng Jiangyue” who came looking for people in the dead of night was definitely an impostor.
Su Huan dared to bet on his experience of reading countless novels that this “Senior Sister Feng” outside was likely their mission target for this trip—the demon causing chaos in Liufang City.
Xiao Jianming had evidently guessed the other party’s identity even earlier than him. Long before this person appeared, he had formed a hand seal to hide both their auras and was now listening intently to the movement outside the door.
Creak— The other party pushed the door open.
Immediately after, the person let out a flustered and exasperated voice: “Damn it! Where are they?”
Xiao Jianming frowned.
In the darkness, the unretracted dagger flashed with a cold light, reflecting on Xiao Jianming’s tense cheek. The whole world was quiet enough to hear breathing.
Suddenly, Xiao Jianming’s gaze sharpened. He grabbed Su Huan, smashed through the window, and fled. “Go!”
A white tiger with red stripes, wreathed in ghostly demonic fire, bared its ferocious teeth, broke through the wall, and pounced in. With one swipe, it shattered the bed, letting out a thunderous roar—
“Roar!”
If Xiao Jianming hadn’t anticipated this strike, the two would have nearly been pierced by those sharp tiger claws.
The demonic cultivator laughed hideously. “You two brats, so you were hiding together!”
Xiao Jianming turned and threw the dagger in his hand, shooting it straight at the demonic cultivator’s head. However, it was dodged, leaving only a streak of blood on the demon’s face.
Su Huan followed closely behind, trembling as he pulled a handful of talismans from the storage bag at his waist. Like a rich spendthrift, he threw them behind him to detonate. In an instant, the entire courtyard was like an exploding star; fire shot into the sky, and crackling explosions shook the heavens, making the pitch-black City Lord’s Manor look like a bloody, man-eating maw.
Su Huan didn’t know if the demonic cultivator had been blown up. He only knew that if the Black Lotus didn’t let go of his back collar, he was going to be strangled to death. He raised his hand and slapped the iron arm behind him hard. “Let… let go…”
Xiao Jianming stepped on his flying sword, turning a deaf ear.
That demonic cultivator was truly tough. He rode the tiger out from the smoke and dust, his fine clothes blasted into rags. Demonic energy surged around him like a tidal wave, his expression gloomy as he stared viciously at the two flying away, cursing, “Damn human cultivators!”
At some point, the entire city had been covered by a barrier. Xiao Jianming made a prompt decision and ducked into a deserted alley.
After landing in a hidden, uninhabited spot, he casually pushed open the door of a house. Unsurprisingly, it was empty.
Xiao Jianming let go of his hand. Su Huan fell to the ground, caught off guard, coughing incessantly as he desperately gasped for fresh air, barely avoiding death by suffocation.
Falling along with him was the communication token tied to his waist. A crystal-clear piece of emerald jade, which looked invaluable at a glance, hit the ground with a clack, a heart-wrenching sound.
Thinking that his Senior Sister and the others might be trapped deep in the City Lord’s Manor, Su Huan hurriedly grabbed the jade token and injected spiritual energy into it with his fingertip. However, after sending the message, there was no response.
A bad premonition rose in Su Huan’s heart. He tried several times in succession, but there was still no response.
Xiao Jianming impatiently stopped him. “It’s useless. Perhaps they are all dead already.”
Su Huan was stunned. A wordless grief and indignation welled up in his heart. He felt that City Lord Liu had indeed colluded with the Demon Race, truly betraying Senior Sister’s trust in him.
But the most important thing right now was how to escape.
Initially, the two had entered in a rush. Now, settling down to look around, they discovered the room was in disarray. Tables and chairs were overturned, and messy footprints dotted the floor, as if thieves had broken in and looted the place. Yet, strangely, there were no signs of a struggle.
Everything seemed odd.
Doubts filled Su Huan’s mind. He said, “Since City Lord Liu has long since betrayed us, doesn’t that mean this Liufang City has already become a demon’s den?”
Meanwhile, Xiao Jianming was still leisurely playing with the golden glazed ball in his hand, a smile in his eyes, acting as if the matter had nothing to do with him.
Only, when the smile in his eyes met the consistent light golden spiritual energy inside the ball, it was like a pool of spring water gradually freezing over with frost and snow—silently turning cold.
Xiao Jianming said coldly, “Yes. I reckon the people of the whole city were offered to the Demon Race by that old man, torn limb from limb and eaten clean.”
Knowing he was deliberately trying to scare him, Su Huan still couldn’t help but shudder.
In the original novel, although the main storyline revolved around Xiao Jianming’s face-slapping plot of playing the pig to eat the tiger on his way to godhood, regarding the Demon Race—this group of villain reserves—it was genuinely mentioned that they were monsters who fed on human cultivators. Whenever they caught a human cultivator, they would start a cauldron to cook them. Some even treated humans like fresh fish sashimi, slicing them alive while keeping them alive with a pill, carefully cutting off thin slices with a dagger to savor slowly. It was said that the cultivator wouldn’t breathe their last until they were stripped to white bone, forced to watch helplessly as their own flesh and blood were devoured by demons.
If the Demon Race hadn’t been so cruel and devoid of morals, impossible to educate, the Immortal Venerable ten thousand years ago wouldn’t have exiled the entire race to the barren lands beyond the Wuwang Sea, forbidding them from entering the Human Realm ever again.
But thousands of years had passed, and the power of the ban on the sea had weakened. Demons began to find ways to smuggle themselves in, even forming small factions. Hiding in the dark, they became a thorn in the side and a needle in the eye of the various Immortal clans. Whenever discovered, people would be sent to encircle and suppress them.
And Liufang City, seemingly having run into terrible luck, had become an empty city before their support could even arrive.
Xiao Jianming said, “Since the transmission talismans can’t get out, we can only rely on ourselves to kill a way out.”
He had already revealed his true cultivation in front of Su Huan, so he no longer concealed the spiritual waves of the Nascent Soul stage emanating from his body. Forced by the situation, he could only cooperate with this idiot in front of him.
Unexpectedly, this idiot said something shocking. With wide, seemingly innocent eyes, he said, “Huh? But aren’t you able to…”
Suddenly realizing something, he panicked and shut his mouth.
Xiao Jianming narrowed his eyes slightly, rotating the glazed ball in his hand, and asked, “Able to what?”
Can’t say it, can’t say it! In the original novel, the Black Lotus hated people knowing his background the most. If the Black Lotus knew that he knew he was a descendant of the Lingxi Clan, whose bloodline was naturally close to spiritual energy and whom no barrier in the world could trap, his little life would be truly over!
Su Huan really wanted to slap himself twice. That’s what you get for being loose-lipped!
However, while his subjective will knew he couldn’t say it, his physical body acted in opposition. His mouth opened automatically and said, “You are a descendant of the Lingxi Clan; you can pass directly through the barrier and escape…”
Emergency physical mouth shut. Eyes closed. I’m done for.
Xiao Jianming was astounded.
The expression in his eyes turned cold instantly. His slow tone appeared gentle as water on the surface, but every part revealed killing intent: “Good Senior Brother, tell me, who told you this?”
The golden glazed ball in his hand was crushed instantly, his eyes colder than ever.
Su Huan instantly felt an invisible force choking his throat. Finally realizing what the small glazed ball the Black Lotus had been playing with was, terror unconsciously spilled from his eyes. He helplessly heard his own voice crawl tremblingly out of his throat: “No one told me…”
Xiao Jianming’s cold gaze softened slightly. “Then where did Senior Brother learn of… my secret?”
Su Huan struggled to spit out the words: “The… the book…”
“The book?” Xiao Jianming was puzzled and asked again, “Where is that book now?”
Su Huan was sweating profusely. “In my mind…”
Before his voice had even faded, Su Huan’s eyes were filled with terror. It’s over, it’s over. The Black Lotus isn’t going to dig out my brain, is he?
Hearing this, Xiao Jianming’s expression actually softened. He released the glazed ball to let him catch his breath, then asked as if to confirm, “From where did Senior Brother obtain this book?”
Su Huan slumped to the ground, gasping for air. He held back again and again, then corrected himself just in time, “That book now only exists in my mind; you can’t find it…”
That was close. Almost leaked that I transmigrated into a book.
However, precisely because of this sentence, Xiao Jianming misunderstood. He raised an eyebrow with a smile and said, “It seems this is Senior Brother’s fortuitous encounter.”
In the past, there had been cultivators who, after encountering a heavenly opportunity, obtained one or two fragmented pages of a heavenly book recording heavenly secrets. Xiao Jianming naturally categorized Su Huan into this situation.
Xiao Jianming pinched the golden glazed ball, lowered his eyes, and asked him, “In that case, has Senior Brother told anyone else about my secret?”
Su Huan thought he had let go of his killing intent, so he tentatively said, “I haven’t told anyone, and I will never speak of it in the future. I can swear it, as long as you don’t kill me.”
Xiao Jianming chuckled lightly and said, “But only if Senior Brother is dead, dead in a way that even a soul search is impossible, will this secret remain undiscovered.”
Su Huan’s heart went cold.
Xiao Jianming suddenly clenched the golden glazed ball in his hand. Cracks instantly appeared on the ball before it shattered. He said coldly, “I originally planned to let Senior Brother go, but unfortunately, now you know my secret.”
“So, you must die.”
Su Huan suddenly spat out a mouthful of blood, as if half his life had been crushed just like that. He collapsed on the ground, his face pale as paper, his whole body in excruciating pain.
The smile was gone from Xiao Jianming’s eyes. He summoned his spirit sword and walked toward him. The spirit bead could control and injure people, but it couldn’t kill them.
Squelch—
The long sword pierced through his abdomen. The Spirit Root, where a cultivator’s life force resides, shattered at the sound.
Blood stained the blue bricks on the floor, and his life force turned into shimmering light, scattering into the air.
Watching as Xiao Jianming formed a seal to summon fire to burn the corpse and refine the soul, truly facing imminent death, Su Huan felt surprisingly calm inside.
His only regret was that he had been admitted to a top media college but hadn’t lived to see the title of Best Actor.
He had bled too much, as if triggering some taboo. A pitch-black hole suddenly tore open beneath him.
Caught off guard, Xiao Jianming was swallowed along with the dying Su Huan.
On the empty floor, a giant character subsequently appeared—Liu (Willow).
With a loud bang, Su Huan fell to the ground, unconscious, his life or death unknown.
Xiao Jianming, falling after him, flipped over and landed steadily. First, he surveyed the space he was in—
In the center was a wooden table. Embedded in the wall was a ferocious, giant beast head, with the character “Quiet” (Jing) carved largely on its forehead. Aside from the strokes being crooked and askew, there was nothing unusual; it was an extraordinary quiet room.
After confirming there was no danger, Xiao Jianming formed a seal to summon fire again, vowing to bury the secret of his background here along with Su Huan.
As his fingers moved, he suddenly heard a sigh: “Where did this little brat come from? So ruthless.”
Xiao Jianming’s eyes sharpened; it was the beast head speaking.
It said, “Observing karma, he holds no grudge against you. Why must you harm him?”
Xiao Jianming sneered, “Since he knows my secret, naturally he must pay the price. As for you, some unknown monster, you want to stop me?”
The fire dragon emerged, originally aiming for the person lying on the ground. As his voice fell, the dragon head flipped in mid-air and suddenly attacked the beast head.
The beast head had originally kept its eyes closed, but now, provoked to anger, it opened its eyes and roared, “Ignorant brat, how dare you offend me!”
Xiao Jianming was hit by the impact of this deafening roar. For some reason, the barrier he instinctively erected was useless. After taking the beast’s roar head-on, his figure swayed, and he fell to his knees, supported by his sword.
Unexpectedly, this beast head—whatever strange beast it was—not only could speak after death but its roar was also incredibly weird. It seemed to possess some strange power, dragging people into sleep.
Xiao Jianming shook his head, chanting the Clarity Sutra in his heart over and over, but he still couldn’t resist. He staggered and collapsed to the ground, unconscious.
After the beast head let out that roar, it belatedly felt a bit of regret. Seeing the situation, it thought, Oh no.
Looking at their clothes, it knew these two were disciples of the Xuanji Sect. If that kid Liu Zhejun found out it had dragged Xuanji Sect disciples into a Heart Tribulation Illusion, it would inevitably face another round of nagging.
amidst its worry, it caught a glimpse of the other youth lying on the ground out of the corner of its eye. Its vertical pupils rolled, and it instantly had an idea.
The beast head snorted lightly, breathing out a mouthful of spiritual energy that landed between Su Huan’s eyebrows. It glanced sideways at the brat who was unconscious on the ground for offending it and said, “I am the divine beast Chi Jing. I can send cultivators into the Heart Tribulation Illusion. After breaking the dream, one can obtain opportunities to break heart demons and temper cultivation. It’s not impossible to cross a realm in a single dream.”
“But you, little brat, are truly detestable. So, I’ll use your opportunity to redeem the sins you committed.”
That way, it could tell that kid Liu Zhejun that it pulled them into the Heart Tribulation Illusion to save that youth.
Unexpectedly, just as its voice fell, the quiet secret room was suddenly opened by someone. A youth in green walked in and asked, “Chi Jing, I heard a disturbance just now. Did the Demon Race discover this place?”
Behind him followed a woman holding a sword. Seeing the two people lying in the quiet room, she immediately pounced on the blood-soaked youth, crying out in alarm, “Fourth Junior Brother!”
It was precisely Liu Zhejun and Feng Jiangyue.
After Chi Jing explained the reasons, it didn’t forget to emphasize, “At that time, that kid only had one breath left, his life hanging by a thread. Since there are no life-saving immortal pills or miraculous medicines here, I could only save him this way.”
Who knew that after listening, Liu Zhejun would still frown and scold it: “Nonsense! How can you send people into dreams at will!”
Liu Zhejun was almost angered to death by it, pointing at the unconscious Su Huan, anxious enough to stomp his feet—
“If they both break through the dream smoothly, then fine. But before you forcibly sent him into the illusion, his consciousness was already weak. How can you guarantee he can successfully see through the illusion! If he can’t break out, he’ll be killed by you right here! You’re really going to anger me to death!”
Chi Jing opened its beast mouth, only then realizing that it seemed to have made a mistake.
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