Long Aotian’s Beautiful Butler Has Run Away chapter 168

Chapter 168 Losing the Entire Board

After Xiao Zhi finished speaking, he fell backward into the center of the flower.

Layers upon layers of petals grew against the wind, quickly surrounding Xiao Zhi and burying him among the dark red petals.

The Hehuan Huayao let out bursts of eerie laughter. Several red threads reached into the center of the flower, and continuous white specks of light slid upwards along the red threads, flowing like a string of beads towards the back of the flower disc.

An ominous premonition rose in Rong Xie’s heart, and he shouted, “Wait!”

“No, Xiao Zhi, don’t be deceived by it. It won’t genuinely take you away out of kindness; it wants to absorb your spirit body!” Rong Xie yelled anxiously.

“Exactly, monsters are full of tricks. Do not fall for its vile plot!” Shen Bingsi drew the Shengxie Jian and slashed at the Hehuan Huayao.

Shen Bingsi’s slash was remarkably precise, striking perfectly through the gap in the middle of the silver cage, avoiding the flower’s core and aiming straight for where the red threads originated.

Of course, this was partly because Lu Yingqi had yielded a path for him.

Where the golden light flashed, the red threads fell in droves. The Hehuan Huayao cried out in pain, raging furiously: “You still dare to ruin my plans? You cultivators are the most hypocritical of all!”

The next moment, golden light erupted from the Hehuan flower’s core, gradually forming an orb of light that enveloped the Hehuan Huayao within it. The blinding light pierced through the cage, and a bizarre, high-pitched chanting wafted out. If anyone could still open their eyes under such intense light, they would see rows of tiny characters within the golden light, identical to the demonic scripts that had been lost since the War of Gods and Demons.

The intense light blasted Shen Bingsi away. Rong Xie couldn’t care about anything else and ran towards where Shen Bingsi was falling.

By the cliff edge, only Lu Yingqi remained. He opened his eyes, facing the intense light. The five fingers he extended into the air pinched forcefully, each knuckle twisting unnaturally due to the sheer force, his fingertips deathly pale and completely bloodless.

“Snikt!”

Despite the shockwave of the golden light, the silver cage continued to shrink inward irresistibly, until every spike pierced through the flower demon’s body.

One of the spikes, carrying Lu Yingqi’s consciousness, reached the spirit body of Xiao Zhi hidden within the flower’s core.

Xiao Zhi looked utterly exhausted, his eyes tightly shut, with several golden threads passing through his body.

“Xiao Zhi,” Lu Yingqi whispered near his ear. “You can leave me, you can go anywhere, but do not go with it.”

Xiao Zhi didn’t answer; he merely shook his head slightly.

Lu Yingqi gritted his teeth.

“It lacks the ability to preserve your spirit body. The most urgent matter right now is to return to your physical body.”

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“Do not be deceived by it; it is a demon. I don’t know what it said to you, but I can confirm that the moment we leave, it will harm you.”

However, no matter what Lu Yingqi said, Xiao Zhi didn’t even bat an eyelid.

Lu Yingqi was silent for a moment, then added, “Rong Shidi said the same. If you don’t believe me, you should at least believe him.”

“…” Xiao Zhi finally lifted his eyelids, looking at Lu Yingqi apathetically. “Are you done speaking? If you’re done, leave.”

Lu Yingqi had never been ignored by Xiao Zhi like this before. He was silent again for a moment, then said, “I am taking you away right now.”

Xiao Zhi closed his eyes, seeming thoroughly weary of Lu Yingqi’s words.

Right at that moment, the Hehuan Huayao recovered its strength.

The golden threads planted inside Xiao Zhi writhed and danced wildly like snakes, extracting Xiao Zhi’s spiritual energy once again.

Lu Yingqi reached out to pull at the golden threads wrapped around Xiao Zhi’s spirit body, but upon contact, he was repelled by the searing heat of the demonic patterns. He narrowed his eyes, gathered all his spiritual energy, and tried again. This time, he successfully caught one of the threads, feeling the bizarre texture struggling in his palm.

“Qi Shaoye, are you really going to snap the demonic pattern contract?” The Hehuan Huayao transformed into Xiao Zhi’s voice, whispering teasingly in Lu Yingqi’s ear. “Breaking a life-and-death contract will be recorded heavily in the ledger of karma. You can forget about ascending. After cultivating for so long, is it really worth it?”

“…A life-and-death contract?” Lu Yingqi stopped his hand.

The Hehuan Huayao laughed uproariously: “That’s right, this is a life-and-death contract. Actually, you can rest assured. Xiao Zhi and I live and die together. The day you abandoned him, he pledged himself to me.”

Lu Yingqi said in a low voice, “So, you will keep him safe?”

“Of course,” the Hehuan Huayao chuckled softly. “I will keep him safe just as I keep myself safe, until we are destroyed together. I am not human; I will not be as fickle as a human. As long as the contract remains, the vow remains. For all eternity, it shall never change.”

An imperceptible crack appeared in Lu Yingqi’s expression. He looked at Xiao Zhi again. Xiao Zhi’s eyes remained tightly shut, looking as if he had nothing more to say to him.

“No matter what I say now, you won’t believe it,” Lu Yingqi looked at Xiao Zhi. “Xiao Zhi, I’m sorry.”

With that, he let go, flying out of the Hehuan flower’s core along the shockwave of the golden light.

The silver cage blasted into fragments and vanished in the blink of an eye.

Lu Yingqi’s spiritual consciousness returned to his body. He opened his eyes again. A teardrop fell from his left eye, landing on his heart, and evaporating instantly, as if it had never existed.

Rong Xie helped Shen Bingsi up, and the two sat not far away, looking over with concern.

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Lu Yingqi turned around, his back to the flower demon, and walked toward them step by step.

Rong Xie’s face was full of confusion. He didn’t understand what Lu Yingqi meant. Was he not saving Xiao Zhi anymore?

The next moment, the flower demon let out a sharp laugh. Countless streaks of white light exploded from the flower’s core.

Lu Yingqi abruptly turned his head, just in time to see fragments of the spirit body scattering in the air, falling like a fluttering heavy snow onto the blooming Hehuan flower disc.

The Hehuan flower petals eagerly absorbed the spirit body fragments, using them as nourishment to grow robustly, each petal turning as crimson as blood.

The world seemed to lose its sound and color in an instant.

Lu Yingqi stood frozen on the spot.

That instant felt endlessly long. Various manic thoughts exploded in his mind. Everything became illusory, just like those tests he had seen in the illusion realms.

However, he also clearly knew that this was real.

Lu Yingqi thought of the screams in the Lu Manor at night, and of the sudden, agonizing howls echoing without warning in the Wuqing Dao Gong.

“Do not be distracted.” “Those have nothing to do with you.” “They are just people with weak wills. On the path of cultivation, there are always many who enter, and as they walk, they disappear. You are different from them.”

“You are destined to ascend.”

Countless voices spoke in Lu Yingqi’s ears—Bai Zhanglao, the old patriarch of the Lu family… Their voices formed a barrier, trapping Lu Yingqi inside.

Those were all fake, a test for him. Only those with weak wills would be affected.

Gradually, even the things happening in reality were separated by a thin veil of illusion. The changes in reality also became fake.

Ever since he began cultivating the Wuqing Dao, he had never broken down. Even if the most tragic event happened right before his eyes, he would not lose his composure.

He wouldn’t… he wouldn’t.

He didn’t know how to lose his composure. He didn’t know how to express the agony in his heart. It was as if a lock had been placed on his throat, and the key had been thrown away long ago. He couldn’t make a sound, not even scream piercingly like those people he had heard before.

It turned out that venting also required practice. Otherwise, when true agony arrived, one would be swallowed by immense suffocation. A thick wave of disgust overwhelmed Lu Yingqi. He suddenly felt that everything was hateful. The Hehuan Huayao deserved to die, Bai Zhanglao deserved to die, the Lu family patriarch deserved to die, the Zongzhu of Xuantian Zong deserved to die, the three sects deserved to die, the Heavenly Dao deserved to die, and of course, he, Lu Yingqi, deserved to die as well.

Demonic scripts flashed through Lu Yingqi’s eyes. He slowly drew his silver flying sword. Monstrous spiritual energy surged from the blade, and the flying sword instantly swelled to dozens of zhang in height, akin to a giant tree reaching the heavens, smashing straight down toward the Hehuan Huayao‘s flower disc!

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“Qi Shaoye,” Xiao Zhi’s voice rang out, forcefully halting the massive sword blade. “Didn’t you promise to let me go?”

“…” Lu Yingqi’s face was unreadable. “Vile demon full of tricks, prepare to die!”

“Qi Shaoye, are you really going to kill me? Please, spare Xiao Zhi.” The pleading voice drifted in the wind. Even though Lu Yingqi knew this was the flower demon mimicking the voice, he hesitated to strike.

“Do not speak using his voice!” Lu Yingqi said coldly. The sword blade descended, slashing right through the very center of the flower disc.

The flower disc shattered in two, but in the blink of an eye, it reassembled in the air. The eerie laughter echoed across the cliff top: “Qi Shaoye, you’ve already killed Xiao Zhi once. Must you kill him again, destroying his soul completely before you are satisfied?”

“Silence!” Lu Yingqi lunged into the air, raising his flying sword, and hacked at the flower demon once more.

The sword wind passed through the flower demon’s phantom image and smashed into the valley of Zhilan Ling, exploding with a deafening roar. As the smoke and dust dispersed, a massive rift had been violently cleaved into the verdant, vegetation-covered valley!

“Lu Yingqi, not only do you not thank me, but you also want to kill me? Doing this, are you worthy of Xiao Zhi’s painstaking efforts?” The flower demon’s voice reverted to that teasing tone.

“Thank you?” Lu Yingqi delivered three consecutive slashes, chopping a peak of Zhilan Ling into three segments. The Wuqing Dao Gong itself tottered precariously on the mountain peak, and countless cultivators scattered in panic. “You swore to protect Xiao Zhi, and this is how you protect him? And you want me to thank you?”

“Can’t you see? He already doesn’t want to go back. A spirit body cannot survive in the mortal world. I had no choice but to assimilate him. This way, he can possess the same eternal life as I do.” The flower demon laughed breathlessly while dodging. “Moreover, this is the result of his own choice. I had promised him not to tell you, but since you persist in pestering me, I have no choice but to speak.”

A red cloud drifted toward Lu Yingqi, and the Hehuan floral scent instantly enveloped him.

Lu Yingqi knew the flower demon was full of tricks, but he did not resist, because he had a premonition that he would see Xiao Zhi in the fragrant mist’s illusion.

…

Scene after scene, event after event—every bit of time Lu Yingqi and Xiao Zhi spent together in the Wuqing Dao Gong appeared incredibly vividly before his eyes.

Those scenes always arrived suddenly and departed just as suddenly, so fast that one couldn’t grasp them.

Lu Yingqi saw his familiar past, yet within the familiarity lay unfamiliarity, for it included Xiao Zhi’s perspective.

He saw Xiao Zhi cultivating diligently, yet failing time and again due to the pseudo-spiritual root of his furnace physique.

He saw Xiao Zhi shamelessly finding all sorts of excuses to dual-cultivate with him, just to pass the inner sect assessment and stay by his side.

He saw that while every inner sect disciple had to pass the Foundation Establishment assessment to stay long-term and become an official member of Xuantian Zong, Xiao Zhi could not pass it for the longest time.

Until a reply letter arrived from the distant Lu family, clearly informing Xiao Zhi that his physique was special and he could not reach Foundation Establishment, telling him to stay behind as an outer sect disciple for now.

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However, by that time, Xiao Zhi had completely destroyed his pseudo-spiritual root through his repeated, desperate attempts to reach Foundation Establishment, leaving him worse off than an ordinary Lianqi stage disciple.

Xiao Zhi secretly scoured all the available materials and learned that overdrawing spiritual energy would not only result in a drop in realm but could also lead to a backlash from the Heavenly Dao. Yet he still held onto a fluke mentality, believing the backlash wouldn’t happen to him so soon.

Misfortune began with a sudden aging. Xiao Zhi opened the door to find Lu Yingqi, but was mistaken by Lu Yingqi for an old handyman delivering goods to the various peaks. Lu Yingqi merely cast him an indifferent glance and walked past him.

Xiao Zhi went back, looked in the mirror, and saw his transformation in horror.

It was at this time that the Hehuan Huayao spoke in his ear for the first time, using a seductive voice to invite him to make a deal.

The Hehuan Huayao would give Xiao Zhi the magical power to remain in the Wuqing Dao Gong, and even help him reach Foundation Establishment. In exchange, Xiao Zhi had to promise to trade his spirit body after his death.

Xiao Zhi didn’t agree to the Hehuan Huayao initially, but unable to withstand the pressure of his circumstances, he eventually agreed.

As long as he could stay by Qi Shaoye‘s side for a long, long time in this life, it didn’t matter if he had no next life. Furthermore, who knew what one would be reincarnated as after death? If he couldn’t be with Qi Shaoye, what was the point of a next life?

Xiao Zhi placed a bet that Qi Shaoye would never abandon him, that he would protect him. Even if Qi Shaoye lost his emotions later in his cultivation, the bond they established early on would be enough to make Xiao Zhi an irreplaceable existence by Qi Shaoye‘s side. That would be enough.

But Xiao Zhi lost the bet.

He lost the entire board.

Translator’s Note: Just a quick note from the author here: “Their story will conclude in the next chapter. It’s meant to be a bit of a foil/control group, so please don’t complain about the length!” See you in the next update!