Chapter 42 Soul and Sandalwood (6)

Translated by: Echo

EDIT: Fixed wording that we forgot to edit out in initial edit. System Reminders have also been changed to System Notifications.

Ling Miaomiao’s whole body was shaking. The sudden shock caused her heartbeat to sound like a cowhide drum, nearly affecting Mu Sheng. He pried her hands, which had been tightly gripping onto his clothes, off and reprimanded, “It’s Yab-Yum, have you never seen it?”

He was a little surprised at Ling Miao Miao’s violent reaction. She hadn’t been this frightened even when the Wan River water ghost had bared its teeth and come up to eat people.

“Ya…… Yab-Yum ……” She slowly regained her wits and calmed her heart.

It wasn’t that she had never heard of the Yab-Yum of Vajrayāna, but that those sculptures were works of art which were separate from other vulgar forms of art. They were completely unlike this dizzying scene of wanton copulation which challenged the limits of the human body and had lost its beauty. Surely, it would cause mental conflict within the audience.

After seeing this, she slightly pitied Princess Duanyang. She was a girl who constantly saw such a scene in her dreams. Who, in her place, could possibly continue eating and sleeping?

“It’s alright, they’re all dummies.” Seeing that she was showing a rare moment of loss, Mu Sheng patted her with stiff movements, hoping she would get up quickly.

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“R…… R nyd’v zlv ts……”

Nkdt Ykysxkys oyp nzspl vs naukdt.

Fbl eked’v jdso obyv jkde sq pvaydtl vaknj vbyv tyaeldky qaytaydnl oyp, cwv yqvla calyvbkdt kv kd, kv qlzv yp kq vblal olal vbswpydep sq ydvp ckvkdt bla yde pbl oyp wdyczl vs nsdvasz bla 2 zkxcp. Fbl qlzv kxryvkldv, yp kq vblal olal y bwdeale nzyop pnayvnbkdt yv bla blyav, yde wrsd ldnswdvlakdt psxlsdl, pbl’e byhl yd shlaoblzxkdt watl vs oayr bla yaxp yaswde vblx yde oswze byhl vs lmlav y talyv yxswdv sq lqqsav vs alpvaykd blaplzq, cyalzu xykdvykdkdt bla ayvksdyzkvu. Lsv vs xldvksd vbl dwxcdlpp yv bla qkdtlavkrp, bla obszl cseu bye clnsxl y zyatl eseela qzsola¹ [1] Brsd lxlatldnl, vbl pllezkdt kp elrldeldv wrsd nyacsbueayvlp pvsale kd vbl plle wdvkz vblu yvvynb vs y bspv. Xdnl yvvynble, eseela rzydv lmvaynvp dwvakldvp yde oyvla qasx vbl bspv alzukdt sd kvp bspv rzydv.

Ekvb pwnb y eydtlaswp pvyvwp yp y cssj vaydpxktayvsa, pbl pbswze byhl clld tkhld y rbupkiwl obknb oyp kdelpvawnvkczl yde wdyczl vs cl rskpsdle. Jwv dso, pbl oyp qyzzkdt kdvs vayrp zlqv yde aktbv. Ebyv oyp wr okvb vbkp?!

Gp y uydelal, vbl czynj zsvwp oswze schkswpzu byhl xupsrbscky. Ms sdl obs eyale vs pvykd bkp bsdsa yde vbalo vblxplzhlp yv bkx, kv’e cl pvaydtl kq bl eked’v kxxlekyvlzu alxshl vbl rlapsd yde lhld zlqv vblx okvb yd kdvynv nsarpl.

“Pkdt—— Tktb-zlhlz Pydtla Gzlav: Ubyaynvla 【Yw Fbldt】Wyhsayckzkvu byp easrrle 1%”

“Ding—— High-level Danger Alert: Character 【Mu Sheng】Favorability has dropped 2%”

“Ding—— High-level Danger Alert: Character 【Mu Sheng】Favorability has dropped 4.5%”

“……”

Ling Miaomiao’s heart was bleeding.

In the next second, Mu Sheng succeeded in prying off her hands and threw her off. He pressed her facedown on the prayer mat and held her hands together, behind her back, like how one would treat a terrorist.

The explosion of system reminders finally stopped and Ling Miaomiao replied with tears rolling down her face, “Thank you.”

Mu Sheng was speechless.

Mu Sheng let go of her hands with a puzzled look.

Drained, Miaomiao flipped over and laid on the floor with relief.

Mu Sheng looked at her coldly. The girl’s long hair was disheveled and spread over the floor. Her left eye was slightly shuttered, eyelashes trembling slightly, and cheeks unusually flushed. It was obvious that she had been gravely poisoned by the charming fragrance.

He hesitated for a moment before nudging her. “Hey.”

However, Ling Miaomiao quickly shrank back from his touch. With teary eyes that seemed to be filled with half longing and half pleading, she spoke with a wavering voice. “Don’t…… don’t touch me.”

Upon seeing her look at him like that, his fingertips seemed to be burned at the points which were touching her. A wicked fire began blazing in his heart.

Just a moment ago, she was the one sticking to him. Now, she was looking at him as if he was the one who wanted to do something to her.

It could be seen that from outside the door that darkness had settled in the night. Reality and imagination seemed to entwine. The girl lay among a group of Yab-Yum’s in different poses with a flushed face……

When his thoughts begin to wander, he’ll need to partially focus on suppressing them. And once he has to split his attention, he’ll become irritated and is strength will grow exponentially.

Having walked this far in life, there had never been anyone who had been able to unsettle him like this……

His line of sight landed on her. Ling Miaomiao had already struggled up to a sitting position and begun tidying up her hair. The pure moonlight shined on the chrysanthemum embroidered hem of her muslim skirt and her flushed face was enough to move someone’s heart.

The violence in his heart was quickly washed away and in the blink of an eye, had changed to unfounded impatience.

This won’t do.

A thought briefly surfaced in his mind which told him if he didn’t quickly make a decision, things would not be within his control from this point on.

Even he couldn’t predict what he would become.

He got up and released his Demon Restraining Circlets. The steel rings shined brightly while floating in the air, like the general of the vanguard.

The life of an ordinary girl was unimaginably different from their colorful wanderer’s life and their paths should have never crossed. From early on, he had a thousand, no, ten thousand reasons to abandon her.

Leave, he had to leave this instant.

He began walking, and suddenly a hand reached out, grabbing the corner of his robe.

Ling Miaomiao struggled between illusion and reality, only remembering to grab Mu Sheng, who was about to run off. It wasn’t that she was afraid, but the after effect of being abandoned by him too many times.

The black lotus was emotionally unstable but compared to the defenseless her in this world, he was a gold medal for escaping death.

Mu Sheng didn’t speak for a while. Miaomiao used the last of her strength to open her eyes to look at him and happened to meet his pitch-black eyes.

There wasn’t a hint of a smile in those black eyes. These seemed to be making a decision but in the midst of their solemn atmosphere, was a sort of blankness which came from confusion. A vast expanse covered in ice and snow seemed to exist in his eyes yet there was no life in it.

Startled, she slowly released his sleeve.

In any case, she wasn’t Mu Yao, the one who held an irreplaceable place in his heart. Even if they were joking and sharing weal and woe a second ago, it still…… it still was only……

Forget it.

She yanked her hand back and turned over using all her strength so her back was facing Mu Sheng, curling herself into a ball.

Anyhow, in the Buddhist hall illusion part of the book, she, Liu Fuyi, and Mu Yao were all present. Even if she was left here, the others would come to save her.

Cold sweat rolled down her forehead. She closed her eyes tightly and thought in her heart, “My role is very important, why should I beg a person with no conscience for help?”

When Mu Sheng saw her let go of his clothes, his heart suddenly felt empty and a feeling of irritability which he had never felt before filled his heart in its place. His head was once again filled with confusion. His feet were glued to the floor, unable to move no matter how he tried.

Ling Miaomiao’s five senses were so dull that she didn’t notice a palm sized object fall out of her sleeve. With a clatter, it landed on the marble floor.

Stunned, Mu Sheng bent over and picked it up.

It was a half-made bamboo dragonfly. The sharp ends at the bamboo joints were carefully ground down. Half of the wings were thin and delicate, the edges thin as a blade. The other half had not been carved yet.

“Mu Sheng.”

He was startled for a moment. He could only see the girl’s dense eyelashes. In a voice so quiet, it was almost indistinct, she told him, “In the future, don’t let that water ghost play with you. It’ll be better if you directly ask your sister rather than listening to it talk nonsense.”

“……”

She weakly raised her finger, like a dowager reclining on a chaise longue, her tone equally contemptuous. “I’m done talking, now get out.”

The cold sweat from her forehead had already soaked her eyebrows. She was cramping in her lower abdomen and the corners of her eyes had already reddened. She barely managed to carry out the lines before falling into endless darkness the next second.

Mu Sheng looked at her blankly, subconsciously running his fingers down along the body of the bamboo dragonfly. As he did this, his fingers ran into a few notches. He put it up to the light, carved on it were two crooked characters, “Zi——qi——”. Lower down, there was an indistinguishable mess. He swept a hand down his face expressionlessly before recognizing that it was a carelessly removed peach bud. Seemingly having thought that this kind of shameful treatment of the peach bud was overly rude, a small five-petaled flower was carefully carved below.

A plum blossom.

“I’ll fix it for you. I’ll return it after I’m done——”

I’ll return it after I’m done. Ziqi.

Strangely, there was a sharp pain in his chest. As if each cut made on the bamboo was instead made on his heart; causing blood to spurt out, and beads of blood to drip down forming a line.

*

When Ling Miaomiao woke up in a daze, she was surprised to find herself on Mu Sheng’s back. At the tip of her nose, was a nearly imperceptible scent of plum blossoms which came from the collar of his clothes.

The Black Lotus cut a sorry figure in the time that he had been walking. Ling Miaomiao looked very slender but did not feel in the least bit light when carrying her on his back. She was like a mountain pressing down on him, making his every step steady.

The Demon Restraining Circlets shined brightly, opening up a path. On either side of them were naked clay statues with their lips drawn back in greedy grins. The statues attempted to pounce on them but were hit by the Demon Restraining Circlets before even having a chance to get close. Once hit, they turned into a puddle of clay and slid down the walls.

There was only endless darkness ahead of them and who knew how many more Yab-Yums were blocking their way. The demon blood flowed into a small river. He stepped on the mud corpse and passed through. It was like walking through a snowy field.

Ling Miaomiao felt immense pain and it wasn’t until quite later that she finally came back to her senses. She then realized there was a round bead in her mouth and she couldn’t smell the overpowering floral scent from before.

What was this?

A humming noise rang in her ears, “System Notification: Item【Bamboo Dragonfly】 has been used. End of notification.”

Ling Miaomiao was stunned for a moment. Shortly thereafter, she felt her heart ache. This trashy system, how could it use the item before she had even finished carving it?

Xingshan Temple was no longer Xingshan Temple. The long passage had evil spirits lying on both sides, chattering and letting out uncanny laughter. The clay bodhisattva had a demonic aura between its brows and a strange charm beneath its feet.

Mu Sheng’s long lashes lowered and he turned his head to look at Ling Miaomiao’s face.

She immediately closed her eyes and pretended to remain unconscious.

Mu Sheng had reached the end of his patience and seeing that the girl on his back was still unconscious, he didn’t have anything to worry about.

In his left hand, a pile of talisman papers were lined up in a row, suspended in the air. He bit through the skin of his right index finger and lightly dotted her lip before using the blood covered finger as a writing brush to quickly write from right to left.

Miaomiao let him dot blood on her mouth but she accidentally consumed a drop. His tongue was quickly overcome with a sweet taste.

Oh my god, so there was a person whose blood was sweet……

Those water ghosts wanted blood but, it can’t be that they were treating Mu Sheng’s blood like honey, were they?

She thought that absentmindedly then subconsciously stuck out her tongue to lick the rest off. Mu Sheng suddenly turned his head around and told her fiercely, “Don’t eat it.”

Before his voice had ended, the blood characters had already flashed past over ten sheets of yellow paper. His finger came to a firm stop and his finger left the talisman papers. One after another, they shook for a bit before suddenly flying out in all directions like a cast out deck of cards.

At this moment, the gale whistled. The massive Xingshan Temple was blown like a paper house swelling up at the entrance of the wind. The doors and windows shook violently, as if about to burst open in the next second. The large Buddha statue emitted a humming sound as it began vibrating. The candles and incense burners tumbled off the altar and onto the ground.

The red light suddenly burst forth. Accompanied by the explosion of the body and sound of the air tearing, were waves of countless piercing and raspy voices. It was as if there were several hundred people striving to shake an old bed frame which was already close to falling apart; a sound which would give people the shivers after hearing it.

Both their hair and sleeves were blown by a gale, and fluttered in the air.

Ling Miaomiao’s calves and abdomen trembled. She closed her eyes and heard only the whistling of the wind by her ears.

She recalled that day on the Wan River boat. The young man floating in the air, his sleeves unfurled like the wings of a butterfly, and red light, so hot your eyelids hurt, filling the room. Even the sound of the wind was sharp, like a blade on the battlefield.

Reverse talisman.

Without even having to look at Mu Sheng’s face, she could already tell that he was going to use some dishonest method.

Footnotes:

[1] Upon emergence, the seedling is dependent upon carbohydrates stored in the seed until they attach to a host. Once attached, dodder plant extracts nutrients and water from the host

Translator’s Note: 

The first time Ziqi appears:
OWOWOWOWOW That’s his NAME. Refresh: His name is Mu Sheng but the name people close to him call him (courtesy name) is Mu Ziqi! YOOOOOOOO XDDDD Finally, something happening here!!! Hope this gets through his thick yandere skull. Hahaha.

The second time Ziqi appears:
O-la-la. I’m squealing！So gosh darn cute! UGH, I can’t wait for the rest!

Entropy: Isn’t Z(Echo) so cute tho? Don’t let her see this though, she’s very shy :0