Chapter 66: Dropping the Disguise?
“What do you mean by that?” Zhuang Yusheng was shocked.
He was about to speak again, but saw Lou Yunxiao fly down the building, swinging his sword towards the night watchman on the street!
“Ahhhh—The Immortal Master is murdering someone!”
Seeing this, the night watchman dropped his lantern and ran while shouting: “Help! Help! Don’t kill me!”
There were city guards patrolling the street. Seeing this, they hurried forward to stop Lou Yunxiao: “Immortal Master, stop quickly!”
But how could they possibly stop Lou Yunxiao, who had already reached the Deity Transformation Stage.
The Cangyin Sword nailed into the night watchman’s chest.
Lou Yunxiao grabbed the top of the man’s skull with one hand.
A mass of black fog screamed and fled: “How could you recognize me! I disguised myself so well!”
In the next moment, it was caught in Lou Yunxiao’s hand.
Seeing this, the demonic creature attempted to drill into his palm to seize his body.
What excited it was that its plan went exceptionally smoothly; it indeed successfully entered Lou Yunxiao’s sea of consciousness.
But immediately after, it encountered a little figure half-gold and half-black in the sea of consciousness.
Behind the little figure floated a gold and red circular disk with a fish pattern.
The final image the demonic creature saw was the little figure reaching out a hand towards it.
After that, it completely lost consciousness.
Little did it know, it was refined on the spot by Lou Yunxiao and absorbed to become his own possession.
This was Lou Yunxiao’s unique constitution.
Breaking and then establishing anew under the Demon Abyss, entering the Demonic Soul River to slaughter demonic creatures, and then entering the underground palace, being turned into a living dead meant to store demonic energy by the Great Demon.
Back and forth like this.
Absorbing demonic energy was no longer a difficult task.
But to outsiders, that demon had truly entered Lou Yunxiao’s body.
“Immortal Master!” The city guards nervously gripped their weapons tightly, watching Lou Yunxiao warily.
They originally thought Lou Yunxiao was going to kill the night watchman for no reason, but later saw that the night watchman was a demon, and Lou Yunxiao did it to exorcise the demon.
Just as they relaxed, they saw that demonic creature drill into Lou Yunxiao’s body.
Their moods fluctuated wildly, their faces full of worry.
One city guard couldn’t help saying: “You, blink if you haven’t been possessed!”
The other city guards: “…”
“That demon clearly had the consciousness to disguise itself as a night watchman just now. If it really seized his body, why would it tell us?!”
“Then what do we do?”
“Beat the Immortal Master?”
The naive soldiers all froze, then simultaneously took a step back, exposing the person who suggested beating the Immortal Master, with expressions saying you said it, you do it yourself.
“I am not a demon.” Lou Yunxiao sheathed his sword.
He glanced down at the night watchman, pursed his lips, and flames emerged from his hand, burning the corpse.
Zhuang Yusheng had also arrived and sighed resignedly.
He stepped forward and explained: “He is indeed not a demon; he just possesses the ability to absorb demonic energy.”
“He is the Sword Sect’s Lou Yunxiao.”
The name Lou Yunxiao had now spread widely throughout the Human Realm.
No longer simply because the Liuyun Sect was wiped out.
But because since returning from the secret realm, he possessed a pair of red eyes like those of a demonic creature.
And also because he carried monstrous demonic energy, yet had still not lost his reason to become a man-eating monster.
But from a certain perspective, he could also be considered an anomaly among the Human Race.
His strangeness made people glad they could use him as a force to annihilate demonic creatures, but also made them fear the day he might go mad and claim the lives of those around him.
“So… so it’s Immortal Master Lou.”
Hearing this name, the city guards had varying expressions.
But ultimately, they no longer showed hostility towards Lou Yunxiao.
Zhuang Yusheng glanced at the corpse, frowned, and asked Lou Yunxiao: “You haven’t answered me yet. What did you mean by what you said earlier?”
The commotion outside naturally woke up the residents in the inn.
Ning Ke took a shortcut, jumping down from the third-floor window.
The wind billowed into the wide sleeves of his monk robes, making them flutter and revealing a section of his wrist.
On it were still the bruises Lou Yunxiao had grabbed out during the day.
Holding a string of prayer beads, he pressed his hands together and landed steadily.
Looking up, he saw Zhuang Yusheng and Lou Yunxiao both looking at him.
Ning Ke asked: “Two Benefactors, did a demon appear just now?”
Then, Zhuang Yusheng saw Lou Yunxiao smile again.
Yes!
Smiled again!
Although it looked exceedingly unpredictable, he was indeed smiling happily!
“I meant it literally.”
Lou Yunxiao answered Zhuang Yusheng like this, then turned to Ning Ke and said: “Daoist Ming Xin, you arrived just in time. I just killed a night watchman who was possessed by a demon. I must trouble you to help perform a transcendence ritual for him.”
Zhuang Yusheng looked blankly at Lou Yunxiao, then at Ning Ke.
For a moment, he actually felt like an outsider.
Moreover, no matter how much he thought about it, he couldn’t figure out what Lou Yunxiao’s answer meant.
He wanted to ask more.
But saw that Lou Yunxiao had already ignored him, following closely behind Ming Xin, and walked over to the corpse, keeping him company while performing the ritual.
And at this time, Ning Ke was extremely glad he had been forced by Wu Gou to study Buddhist scriptures for three months.
Now, his chanting was quite proper. With a light movement of his lips, scriptures were uttered.
With lowered eyes, his raven-feather-like eyelashes cast a shallow shadow beneath his eyes.
He chanted earnestly.
Lou Yunxiao also watched earnestly.
The probing gaze practically burned two holes into Ning Ke’s body.
“…”
It was so obvious, Ning Ke couldn’t ignore it even if he wanted to.
His heart began to feel uneasy, and he couldn’t help asking Xiao Yuan: Why do I feel like something’s not right with Lou Yunxiao? Could he have recognized me?
[He shouldn’t have.] Xiao Yuan said: [Didn’t you give a command to the Hongyun Sword? Now that the Hongyun Sword isn’t moving, he has no reason to recognize you.]
Hearing these words, Ning Ke felt slightly relieved.
Finishing the transcendence ritual, he breathed a sigh of relief, turned to look at Lou Yunxiao, and tried hard to pretend to be calm and curious.
“Why does Benefactor Lou keep staring at me?”
“Because you look good.”
Ning Ke abruptly widened his eyes.
Completely unable to believe that these words came out of Lou Yunxiao’s mouth.
Seeing his silence, Lou Yunxiao added: “Daoist Ming Xin, do not misunderstand. I just felt your appearance is extraordinary, so I couldn’t control my eyes. I hope Daoist does not find me presumptuous.”
“…?” Ning Ke always felt like he had heard Lou Yunxiao’s words somewhere before.
Xiao Yuan reminded him in time: [Host, I take back what I just said about him not recognizing you.]
After saying that, she played a projection in Ning Ke’s consciousness.
It was exactly the conversation between the two when they were in the Sword Sect, when he was staring at Lou Yunxiao eating and got caught.
The words Lou Yunxiao was saying right now were mimicking him from that time!
“…(ΩДΩ)”
[Then tell me, what should I do?]
[Him testing you like this probably means he isn’t 100% sure you are A-Ke yet, so keep pretending as long as you can. Ganbadie!]
After saying that, Xiao Yuan slipped away.
Leaving Ning Ke alone to face Lou Yunxiao.
“Haha, everyone has a love for beauty. How could I blame Benefactor Lou?”
Ning Ke answered Lou Yunxiao as naturally as possible.
Looking up again, however, he found that the person who was originally two steps away from him had, at some unknown point, arrived right in front of him.
Lou Yunxiao’s fingers lightly pressed against his forehead, and he said: “Is this flame pattern on Daoist Ming Xin’s forehead painted on?”
Ning Ke’s breath caught, and he hurriedly stepped back half a pace to distance himself.
The lingering sensation on his forehead sent chills down his spine.
He subconsciously lied: “It’s not painted, it’s innate.”
“So that’s how it is.”
Lou Yunxiao nodded.
His fingers dropped, rubbing together by his side.
He felt it. That was a seal.
So, Ming Xin lied to him.
He suddenly smiled, dark red eyes surging with complex emotions too thick to dissolve.
Sure enough…
On the point of loving to deceive people, this Ming Xin and A-Ke were almost exactly the same.
Translator’s Note:
- Transcendence Ritual (超度 – Chāodù): A Buddhist ritual performed to help the souls of the deceased find peace and move on to the next life.
- Ganbadie (乾巴爹): A Chinese transliteration of the Japanese word “Ganbatte” (Good luck / Do your best). Xiao Yuan is cheering for our poor Host!
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