Mu Yao hurried over as her pale lips shook terribly. The scene before her shocked her to the core.
Mu Sheng’s expression changed in an instant, his dark eyes staring unwaveringly at Chuchu’s face. A cold smile adorned his lips and his tone was similarly cold, “Demonic creature, no wonder you always feared me approaching.”
Having been messed with all this time, the youth finally turned furious at this moment. He suddenly shot out the Demon Restraining Circlets in his palms, attacking Chuchu’s face directly.
His position was only a step’s distance from Liu Fuyi and Chuchu. His move was ruthless, allowing the demon no chance to dodge.
However, in the blink of an eye, the earth quaked and the ground shivered. It came in nearly an instant, the two of them nearly immediately disappearing from Mu Sheng’s eyes. The Demon Restraining Circlets clanged together as they bounced back to his feet.
“A demon hunter that overestimates themselves.” The tender voice was soft and filled with laughter. It sounded like it came from the air while also echoing.
They raised their heads and saw Chuchu controlling Liu Fuyi, whose complexion had already turned deathly pale. They were standing above them, about ten meters away and the ground had somehow split into a massive fissure. The fissure was as wide as several people and its length to them was akin to a massive and fierce blade scar in the earth.
The depths of the fissure were covered by a darkness that couldn’t be seen through.
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In this world, would you die once your heart left your body?
——It truly wasn’t an absolute.
Even though she knew that the female and male leads would manage to turn danger into safety in the end, even giving birth to a few kids later on, at this moment, she still couldn’t endure and her heart filled with a great amount of indignation and unhappiness. She raised her head and roared, “Injustice has its end and debt to its owner. 1 [1] I’m still not sure what this means but by all accounts, I’d go with ‘Karma is a biatch’ Whoever offends you, you take action against. Then, why did you take Brother Liu’s heart out of his chest?”
As he was such a good person, he gave others the opportunity to ride all over him precisely due to his lenience and warmth towards all things….
“You’re an idiot…..” Chuchu spent a long time greatly admiring the beating heart in the palm of her hand. Then, she turned her admiring, nearly entranced gaze to the pale-faced Liu Fuyi, “If I didn’t take out his heart, how could I turn Brother Liu into my toy?”
Mu Sheng didn’t plan to speak nonsense with her and leaped into the air without warning. His headband also fluttered in the wind as he flew up, trying to leap past the fissure to attack. However, who would’ve known that the break in the earth would grow increasingly wide and the two on the side would grow further and further away. No matter how fast he flew, he couldn’t reach the other side.
He turned around and landed atop the crown of a tree. The Demon Restraining Circlets spun in agitation around his fingertips as a cold killing intent suffused his pupils.
“You want to kill me?” The little girl’s eyes filled with demonic qi, shone with a teasing look, “I am a naturally born illusion demon. All of Jingyang Slope, from the hills to the rivers, are free for me to manipulate. With a flip of my hand, the clouds will come and with a single palm I can summon the rain. Even if you possessed unimaginable power…..” She smiled, her little lips as red as blood, “It’d still be useless.”
Mu Sheng’s dark pupils looked at her in silence as the tips of his fingers shook.
“I am the head of the Mu family, Mu Yao. In the path that I’ve taken, I cannot count the number of demons I’ve slain.” Mu Yao’s voice was high-pitched but the ends of her words shuddered. Her eyes that looked like glazed glass, reflected a thick silvery moonlight color. “If you offend my Mu family, we will cross any sea and travel any distance to slay you. Let go of the person in your hands.”
“What an arrogant tone.” The illusion demon shook her head while clicking her tongue. Her gaze, hidden from the moonlight, shone down on Mu Yao for a long time before she happily laughed, “How about…. You look behind first?”
Miaomiao felt a shiver go down her spine and her back felt cold. Immediately after, she saw dark figures that seemed to be formed of dark clouds.
When she turned around, there was a massive crowd of people clothed in darkness. There were men and women, old and young. The worker’s faces were all ashen and their gazes all blank. They held clubs and sticks in their hands with spades resting against their shoulders.
They…. Were all the illusion demon’s puppets.
Mu Sheng felt that something wasn’t right and his gaze sank. Immediately after, he turned around and flew towards her. However he was too late as a countless number of pitch black bats flew out of the undergrowth to trap him. It was almost like the youth was swallowed by the tide.
The illusion demon smiled, “Don’t be in such a rush, Mu Sheng, I prepared something especially for you.”
Since Miaomiao had started doing the system’s missions, she had never encountered a situation similar to this one, where they met an enemy who was right behind their backs. Her heart leaped. At this moment, Mu Yao’s cold fingers suddenly tightened around her own hand. She lowered her voice and said, “Don’t be scared Miaomiao, we can get away.”
Miaomiao was stunned and then smiled at her, “Mhm, Sister Mu, I’m not scared.”
Before she even finished speaking, Mu Yao pulled her behind her back to protect her. Mu Yao extended her hand and a row of talismans flew out from, suddenly knocking down and injuring the front row of puppets.
Soon after, the workers behind them waved their spades and charged up to surround them. Their numbers grew increasingly high and they surged over like the tide, encircling them in a tight circle.
Miaomiao slightly scowled at this scene then stuck close to Mu Yao’s back, close enough to feel her sharp butterfly-like shoulder blades. She pulled off the Demon Restraining Circlet on her right wrist and held it tightly within her hand.
“Sister Mu.” She lowered her voice and asked, “What is the chant to control the Demon Restraining Circlet?”
“……” Mu Yao couldn’t be bothered to think about why she would suddenly ask her such a question and just directly blurted out the chant into her ear.
Miaomiao hurried to listen to her but only grasped a part of her words. She hastened to recite out the entire chant when she suddenly noticed a small row of characters carved into the top of the slender circlet. In the past, she hadn’t looked at it closely and thought the complicated indents were just for decoration.
Miaomiao felt cold sweat as she looked over and realized that —- this line of characters seemed like they could be matched up to what Mu Yao had just said.
Mu Sheng had written the chant onto the Demon Restraining Circlet he gave her.
….. Beautifully done!
Her tightly knitted brows loosened and the circle in her hand was released. It flashed with silvery light and knocked over a whole host of the puppets in a moment’s notice.
She had her back against Mu Yao’s back and somehow actually managed to hold them off for ten minutes.
However, the puppets were already being controlled and didn’t have any intelligence. They also felt no pain. They would only follow the commands their master had given them, even if they lost their leg or arm they would still climb back up and continue swinging their shovels at them.
Miaomiao watched the horde of zombies missing arms and legs here and there, surging forward and felt her eyes blur.
Her furry collar concealed the sweat rolling down her neck. She couldn’t endure it anymore and pulled open her collar. If she had known that she would be making so many strenuous movements, she wouldn’t have worn her autumn lined jacket!
“Miaomiao!” Mu Yao blocked for her as she shouted in an anxious tone, “Don’t use the Demon Restraining Circlet, they’re all normal people. They were just turned into puppets… don’t accidentally injure them.”
“Oh….” She could only let the Demon Restraining Circlet return to her hand.
Harming the innocent truly wasn’t appropriate. However, if they were to only depend on Mu Yao, she wouldn’t be able to protect the two of them, let alone the fact that the workers surrounding them were growing in number, the number of talismans left in Mu Yao’s possession were quickly dwindling…..
She really felt like she was about to turn bald from worry.
“Bang——” A fireball suddenly erupted and the dark cloud of bats were all blasted into pieces as they suddenly dispersed. The Demon Restraining Circlet flew about rapidly in the air, preventing the remaining bats from approaching. Mu Sheng broke away from the besieged position he had been in, but his eyes were red and a hint of malevolence filled his pupils.
He watched the illusion demon’s face, silently panting for breath. Then, he reached out to touch his hair.
“Ah Sheng!” A familiar voice seemed to erupt through the air like lightning, causing his hand to freeze.
Mu Yao dealt with the horde of workers while turning around to stare at her younger brother’s face with a fixed gaze. Her tone seemed to be nearing a berating tone as she shouted, “What are you trying to do!?”
“Sis…..” The youth froze in his position. His gaze seemed to shatter as he looked at her face, helplessness seemingly taking his body.
His eyes seemed to turn as he saw that the two of them were surrounded by an unending horde of spade wielding workers. The circle around them seemed to be shrinking constantly and they were already on the verge of being unable to hold out. His gaze suddenly turned into one of thick, pure killing intent. He reached out for his hair band, his wronged tone carrying a hint of stubborness, “Sis, I want to protect you two.”
“I don’t need you to protect us!” Mu Yao’s eyes were like crystals, shimmering like the surface of the sea. Her tone turned increasingly cold as she gave him a heavy warning, “Mu Sheng, mother helped you tie that hair band on you, not to let you untie it!”
She calmly watched his face, spitting one word out at a time: “Remember what you promised to me.”
“….”
Mu Sheng’s fingers turned rigid as he slowly lowered them. It was just like a great sage casting a calming spell, barely pulling back on the reins of a start to a mad slaughter.
He stood at a standstill due to this for a long while. It wasn’t until the deafening roars filled with killing intent of the workers floated into his ears did he rouse himself. He hurriedly pulled out a dagger from his robes and stabbed it fiercely into his own shoulder.
“Ah Sheng………..” Mu Yao was absolutely stunned.
Mu Yao didn’t understand but Miaomiao’s brows leaped up: That was the position of his old injury! In the past, a water ghost had managed to pierce through his shoulder in that very position. Even though so much time had passed, it might not have healed.
Because it was an old injury, he was able to easily split open his flesh. The youth clenched his teeth and blue veins appeared all over his forehead. He used some force and forcefully turned the dagger’s handle a half circle and then immediately pulled it out. Thick blood flowed out, covering the brilliant flashes of the dagger blade as it pulled away.
The blade gleamed with cold light. His blood was the color of warmth and the front of his clothes were immediately drenched in it.
The sweet scent of blood permeated the air, rapidly drifting into the noses of all present. The situation seemed to freeze in that instant as all heads turned in Mu Sheng’s direction.
His face was turning pale. His watery pupils were like dark clouds shrouding a lake as he moved his gaze over to look down on the puppets. Slowly, his mouth curled into a complicated smile, “I’m right here.”
In an instant, the forest was filled with a thunderous commotion. The leaves of the trees slapped onto one another without the wind’s assistant.
Swoosh—– Swoosh——
It seemed like an innumerable amount of demons had stirred. Just like sharks smelling the scent of blood on its soon-to-be victims, they swarmed. They came from all directions, congregating on him. From within the black clouds swooping towards him, sharp fangs and teeth glimmering under the moonlight. Each and every one of them wanted to rush right in to fight for their portion of food…….
He leapt down from the treetop and landed at a spot rather far from Miaomiao and Mu Yao. There was a provocative sneer on his lips, “Come at me.”
The workers by Mu Yao’s side threw down the shovels in their hands with a loud clang. They then tossed away the clubs in their hands in a daze, as if they were infants attracted by the sound of a rattle drum. Shaking back and forth, they instinctually rushed towards the source of the smell of blood.
The encirclement was broken in an instant. Even if the two of them were to wave their arms at the puppets, they would have absolutely zero beckoning power.
Mu Sheng’s Yin Constitution was originally spectacular at attracting demons and ghosts. Now that he deliberately let himself bleed at a Yin-Yang Fissure, he had basically turned himself into live bait.
Even if the black lotus was more powerful during the day, he was still just a single person with weaknesses of a single person. He had no way to deal with the horde. If he had really foolishly listened to his sister to use talismans to fight the demons one by one, they would’ve very likely been bitten into shreds today…..
Miaomiao wasn’t able to do much so she could only shout a single sentence, “Ziqi, your life is precious!”
Her voice was both sharp and resonant, directly piercing through the bushes and the horde of demons to intrude into Mu Sheng’s ear.
He blankly raised his head and looked towards her. The young girl’s clearly distinguishable apricot eyes and his eyes met, separated by a distance. Her eyes were as bright as the stars above their heads.
It was just for a moment, just before their gazes were blocked by the circle of demons rushing up to him. He was surrounded by a countless number of demons, covered in blood and it was just like he was about to be covered by an endless amount of darkness.
Things were always like this……
Warmth was only for a moment and purgatory was forever.
“….. tsk tsk tsk. What a wonderful show of deep emotions between brother and sister.”
There was a fake smile on the illusion demon’s face. She turned her head over and looked at the heart in hand, still beating in rhythm. She seemed to sigh, “There are two men who are willing to die for you, Mu Yao. You are truly capable eh.”
Liu Fuyi’s eyes were already closed. His head was drooping as he hung in the air. His face was deathly pale and it wasn’t clear or not whether or not he was dead.
A bizarre smile covered the little girl’s face. Her blood red lips were so apart that the roots of her teeth were visible. “It’s just that, since you met me, I’ll let you know how you lost exactly.”
She hadn’t finished speaking when she controlled the unconscious Liu Fuyi, suddenly jumping into the massive fissure in the earth, “Oh right, help me thank Madam Shi for caring for me everyday and taking care for me, kekekeke——-”
Her puerile laughing voice echoed off Jingyang Slope’s mountains and rivers, causing those who heard her to feel their hairs stand on end.
“Brother Liu!”
The sound of a girl’s voice suddenly letting out an involuntary scream came from behind Miaomiao. Her husky scream basically caused her eardrums to tremble in pain, her ears suddenly feeling sore and numb with pain—–
Immediately afterward, a figure clothed in purple started running for the fissure. Their footsteps were without any hesitation and four other figures robed in taoist robes hurriedly followed behind.
The four figures moved extremely rapidly, managing to catch the purple-clad figure in an instant. They forcefully pulled her back out, all trying to advise her at once, “Princess, Princess you must not do this!”
“It’s too dangerous, Princess you cannot go!”
Ling Miaomiao blankly stared at Princess Duanyang, who looked like a hibiscus flower, sitting on the ground looking paralyzed. She sat in front of the fissure crying her heart out in a painful manner. Miaomiao was thinking in her heart that since Princess Duanyang had already arrived at the fissure, the next segment of plot to occur, according to the original story, would be….
Almost at the exact same moment, she heard a most familiar ‘Ding!’:“System Notification: Mission One, segment 3 of 4 is about to start. May the host please do careful preparations.”
TLN: Fufufu, I wonder what’s about to happen….
On a side note though, between my internship, school starting soon and other tl projects, the stockpile for black lotus has gotten pretty pathetic; Despite the lovely Z helping with some chapters, she’s also pretty busy with real life. I’m not saying that the chapters per week will be dropping or anything, but just keep in mind that it might happen :0 ……. good day everyone o7
Thanks for the chapter!!!!
Poor Ziqi, I keep wondering how hurt and lonely he must be in the novel (the one without Miaomiao) just because his sister wants to protect everything (including her pride and beliefs) without sacrificing anything in return. The one who ends up doing sacrifices so she can be happy is Mu Sheng, which is very sad and unfair. Thankfully this story is about Ziqi and Miaomiao! I’m so anxious and curious to know about this mission! And the princess is back, hopefully she can pose as bait and at least be useful this time… (－‸ლ) Thanks for the chapter and even if the release schedule changes I’ll keep waiting for new updates and be extremely grateful for your hard work! Have a nice weekend!
Ughhh not the Princess again… poor ziqi and brother liu :(( thank you for the chapter!!
Mu Yao is hella annoying