Chapter 53 Soul and Sandalwood (17)

At the ends of his eyebrows and corners of his eyes was a strange light. The corners of his eyes were flushed, as if light peach blossom makeup had been applied on him and his limpid eyes were as pure as two balls of mercury.

According to reason, he shouldn’t have been able to use the evil techniques within three days. But upon entering, he witnessed her clothes being ripped, revealing the pale skin of her back. In that instant, his eyes were stung by that sight.

His mind settled and only one thought appeared. He had to quickly, no- immediately make them disappear. It would be too slow to deal with them one by one using the Demon Restraining Circlets and he couldn’t wait that long.

He instinctively felt his sleeves but there were no attack-type talismans. This was like a general intoxicated by bloodlust who couldn’t find a weapon by him to use. No trace of the anger he was feeling inside could be seen on his face as he reached back to yank off his headband.

He regretted it almost immediately, but since he started it, there was no looking back.

These resentful spirits were originally ghosts, after going through this, they probably had disappeared from existence.

The three-day resting period was not be broken at all costs. However, he violated the most important rule. Just before, he was sinking deeper and deeper into his bloodlust. He nearly lost himself to the rising violence and began having thoughts of devouring the entire world. It was a desperate scream which finally woke him from that train of thought.

Ling Miaomiao was lying on the ground, screaming and kicking a burnt corpse like her life depended on it. This sound slowly tempted him back to his previous state but he restrained himself and picked her up, only for her to continue screaming by his ears.

The following parts of the text will be scrambled to prevent theft from aggregators and unauthorized epub making. Please support our translators by reading on secondlifetranslations (dot) com. If you are currently on the site and and you are seeing this, please clear your cache.

Mbl pnalyx ekpvaynvle bkx ldswtb vbyv vbl czynj nzswe yaswde bkp cseu ekppkryvle yde vbl hkszldnl obknb bye shlaoblzxle bkx, ekpyrrlyale. Tkp qllv vswnble vbl taswde, qwzzu alvwadkdt bkx vs alyzkvu.

*

Nkdt Ykysxkys zssjle yv bkx hynydvzu. Fbl dlhla lmrlnvle vblal oswze cl y eyu oblal vbl czynj zsvwp oswze nsxl pyhl bla kd rlapsd. Mbkp oyp alyzzu…

Fbl pvwvvlale qsa y ckv clqsal qkdyzzu nyzzkdt swv bkp dyxl. “Hkik”

Jwv, obu oyp kv vbyv vbswtb vblu bye sdzu clld yryav qsa y zkvvzl obkzl, bl pllxle vs zssj ekqqlaldv qasx clqsal?

Yw Fbldt zssjle cynj yv bla qynl.

Lso vbyv pbl nyzxle esod, bla zyatl aswde lulp vwadle oyvlau yde kd bla pwarakple lmralppksd, y qlo vaynlp sq taklhydnl nswze cl plld. Fbl nyzzle bkp dyxl yp pbl pvyale yv bkx wdczkdjkdtzu, ekpclzklq oakvvld yzz ynaspp bla qynl.

Ebyv oyp vblal qsa bla vs cl yttaklhle ycswv? Eyp kv clnywpl vbl sdl obs nyxl oypd’v Nkw Wwuk?

He looked down. Seeing as she had been frightened, he forgave her and bit back the chill in his voice. “It’s me. Let’s go.”

Unexpectedly, he was hugged tightly the next instant. The girl’s arms were wrapped unyieldingly around his neck, seeming to have hung herself on him leaving him to support her whole weight. Only then did she let out her emotions, “I, I’ve been waiting for you… I never thought you’d really come…”

“…” He felt a gust of hot air on his neck which then turned into wetness. Ling Miaomiao was crying inconsolably.

Well, she nearly hugged the corpse back then. For her to not cry even when she was that scared, she must have been holding back her tears until now.

Miaomiao was like a down quilt, wrapped tightly around him, warm and soft. It aroused all the unhinged, greedy instincts of his darker side. He went to grab her clothes so he could pull her off him but his hand only encountered smooth skin. Then he remembered her clothes had already been ripped and his actions may seem to harbor unseemly intentions. He could only change it to patting her gently.

Seeing as the black lotus was being uncharacteristically well-behaved, allowing her to hug him, and even patting her back, she was deeply moved and indulged herself in crying it all out.

Hah, it feels great. Being able to release all the stress of these last few days, I’m feeling much better.

The weight in his arms suddenly disappeared and cold swept in to take its place. She had already wiped her tears, and struggled to her feet. Conscientiously, she scrambled to the side and nasally apologized to Mu Sheng. “Sorry.”

He stood up as well. It was dim in the hall. As soon as he was about to open his mouth to speak, a small tremor shook the ground like there was a small earthquake.

Ling Miaomiao looked at the ground in astonishment. She limped over to his side with a disturbed look on her face.

“Tao Ying is dead and the illusion array is about to collapse. Get ready to go.” His eyes took in the sight of dried blood on her tattered clothes and that dagger. He hesitated for a moment before bending down and resting his hands on his knees, saying, “We need to leave quickly, get on.”

Ling Miaomiao looked at him uncomprehendingly, the after-effects from her bout of crying showing at the corners of her eyes.

“If you walk at that pace, I’ll have to wait for you.” He seemed to be annoyed, “It’s not as if this is the first time, hurry up.”

She got onto his back in a great mood. She even forgot about the pain in her leg and asked by his ear, “Hey, have you eaten?”

Old habits were hard to break. She was talking circles without ever getting to the point. She could have brought up anything else but she just had to bring up the wrong subject at the wrong time.

Miaomiao didn’t mind his silence and changed topics. “Has Sister Mu been saved?”

“Uh-huh.”

“She’s alright, isn’t she?”

“…Uh-huh.”

Mu Sheng hesitated, his lashes trembling slightly, before asking, “Was my sister really taken away by the shadow?”

Hesitantly, Miaomiao replied, “You..you could say that.”

“What do you mean, you could say that?”

“She just…” Her voice had gotten quiet and in an unconvincing tone, she continued, “She just chased after the shadow.”

“…Then what kind of nonsense did you tell me?”

He turned his head to look at her, trying to find the slightest hint of dread on that heartless face, but was only met with a pair of large round eyes which blinked at him innocently. “I just wanted you to hurry up and go instead of hesitating and wasting time.”

…How in the world could there be someone like this?

When Princess Duanyang’s face came up in his thoughts, a trace of hostility appeared in his brows before quickly disappearing. He coldly told her, “If you don’t want to die before your time is up, then don’t stick your nose in other people’s business.“

“…How could this be considered other people’s business?” She smiled and poked at his shoulder, making him frown. “I’ve always been audacious and I’m still fine, aren’t I? Isn’t everything alright now? Everyone is happy.”

Audacious… He sneered at her in his mind. Who was it that screamed until the roof was close to collapsing?

*

Tremors, one after another, shook the ground. The time between each tremor grew shorter as time went by and the tremors only grew stronger.

Mu Sheng stopped walking and put her on the ground. He pulled up the hems of his pants and kneeled down, placing her injured leg on his knee. He stared intently at the jewel on the dagger.

“What are you doing?” Nervously, she protected the dagger embedded in her leg. “This dagger can’t be pulled out carelessly, Mu Ziqi. Otherwise, I’ll lose my life…”

He replied lightly, “The handle of this dagger keeps knocking into me and it chafes.”

“…” Miaomiao’s face paled. “Could you just endure it for a little longer? For the reason that you’re uncomfortable, you can’t just… just take my life…

She hadn’t finished speaking before Mu Sheng stuck a finger in her mouth, along with it, the sweet taste of his blood. The next second, her wrists were held tightly by him with one hand while the other hand drew out the dagger in one smooth movement.

f*ck…

She looked blankly as her blood rushed out. Miraculously, she did not feel any pain——

All of this was done very quickly, and a hemostatic talisman was stuck on her wound. Only then did she feel a nearly non-existent itchiness.

The hemostatic talisman was put on very quickly and accurately without any sign of hesitation. The blood which had been flowing out did not become a fountain and everything froze.

But in her mind, she thought, ‘Of course! Demon catchers have this kind of useful hemostatic talisman! And to think that he allowed himself to bleed without even bothering to stop it that time on the Wan River boat. This masochist…’

Mu Sheng raised his eyes to look at her, “Does it hurt?”

A touch of sweetness was still left in her mouth and she unconsciously replied, “No…”

He suddenly laughed. A wicked smile surfaced in the depths of his dark eyes. “I knew I should have let you feel the pain for a moment.”

He stopped talking. Then he grabbed the arm of the stupefied Ling Miaomiao and threw her on his back. With a bit of force from his wrist, the bloody dagger was broken into two, shining with a cold light.

The handle of the dagger was still in his hand. Ling Miaomiao heard a rustling and realized it was coming from the grass. Mu Sheng was gripping the scabbard with so much force that the inlaid gems were falling out of their settings and down into the grass, creating the rustling sound she had been hearing. Only once they had all fallen off, did he release his grip, throwing away the now pit-ridden scabbard along with it. Elegantly, he dusted off his hands, as if disgusted with and wanting to remove the dust off his hands.

“…” She watched as the glimmers of light shining through the leaves faded away. And after quietly listening to the chirps of the birds perched on the tree branches, she softly asked, “Ziqi, are we friends?”

A mocking smile appeared on his lips, “I have never had friends…”

The girl on his back suddenly laughed and a burst of hot air rushed past his ear. She slyly closed her eyes while saying, “Yes, I know. You only have your elder sister.”

Mu Sheng listened to her words. For a moment, his mind wandered. There was nothing left for him….was…was elder sister, all he really had…

“Then, we don’t count as friends…” She smiled and hugged his neck tighter, giving off a very intimate and seemingly flirtatious impression before continuing.

Her mellifluous voice spoke heartfelt compliments, “Did you know, you’re a really good person, even without friends, you’re still a great person.”

As soon as she finished speaking, she fell asleep on his back without a care. Later, she woke up and began playing with his hair and when she tired of that, she began poking at his collar. Each time, her actions distracted and vexed him to no end.

“It’s too boring, I’ll sing you a song. How about that? Cough, cough, ‘The lass of Yimeng Mountain Oh!…’”

The ground shook violently. Her spirited singing was cut off. “Huh, why is there another earthquake?

*

The moon was very bright, covering everything in silver.

He was shut out from the warmth of this world, walking on a lonely road. However, from this point onwards, there was another person besides Mu Yao, who was a step closer to him.

Before, he had rejected her vehemently and only wanted to kill her. But now, he calmly accepted her.

A small voice in the back of his mind told him that in this part of their journey, without his elder sister and Liu Fuyi, without the Mu Family, without Dowager Consort Zhao, and without the jade tablet, he was quite willing to slow his steps and enjoy this time. He never knew he could be so at ease even while carrying a load on his back.

This kind of warmth, this closeness… he never wanted to let go.

---

TLN: Sigh. Translating this novel has really gone a long way to make me feel single. ;0