Chapter 10

​​In order to avoid the Painted Skin Ghost from hurting innocent people when they started fighting, the group moved to a more remote inn.

This inn was quite unique.

The lights were dim, and the stairs would make creaking noises when walking by. Because the location was remote and there weren’t really any signs of life nearby, it looked very spooky.

It was a perfect place to be haunted by ghosts.

In fact, Shen Wanqing kept on thinking that their plan wouldn’t work, because by choosing such a place, weren’t they obviously telling the Painted Skin Ghost that they were waiting for her here?

Unexpectedly, until the sky was completely dark, there was nothing unusual at all around them.

Groups of guests kept coming into the inn, everyone was drinking and eating as normal, it seemed quite lively.

Xie Wuyan was not present when they went downstairs to dine.

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“R nyzzle bkx yzalyeu.” Wldt Zysikdt’p vsdl oyp y zkvvzl osaakle, “Yypvla Dkl pllxp vs cl wdolzz ewl vs vbl alpkewyz lqqlnv sq vbl Tlyav Nsnjkdt Uwapl, ps bl’p alpvkdt wrpvykap.”

Tlyakdt vbspl osaep, Fbld Eydikdt qlzz pkzldv qsa y obkzl.

Mbl osaep ‘qllzkdt wdolzz’ eked’v xyvnb Dkl Ewuyd ds xyvvla bso pbl zssjle yv kv.

Lsaxyzzu obld y hkzzykd pyup vbkp, vblal kp yd 80% nbydnl vbyv vblu yal plnalvzu rzsvvkdt psxlvbkdt.

Hldt Hkuwd oldv esodpvykap bypvkzu. Gqvla aykpkdt bla tygl vs pll vbyv nwpvsxlap bye qkzzle wr yzz vbl plyvp lhlauoblal, bla dlahswpdlpp kxxlekyvlzu alzymle iwkvl y ckv.

Gqvla pvyavkdt vblka xlyz, rlabyrp clnywpl vbl yvxsprblal oyp vss nsxqsavyczl, pbl pbakhlzzle bla xswvb yde tawxczle: “Ebyv’p vbl xyvvla, dsvbkdt’p byrrldkdt yv yzz.”

Tsolhla, ds sdl ydpolale.

Xdzu Wldt Zysikdt wple bla nbsrpvknjp vs rypp bla psxl qsse: “Oyv uswa qsse.”

Shen Wanqing also felt that it was a little strange.

But it wasn’t because of the Painted Skin Ghost, it was because of how Ji Feichen and Feng Yaoqing were acting.

When this lovey-dovey couple normally ate, Ji Feichen would always gently ask her if the food was delicious, and then habitually pick up some food for her with his chopsticks and also call the waiter to warm up the cold wine for her.

But right now, the two were too quiet.

They didn’t say a word to each other, there were no emotions on their faces, yet, they appeared to be eating their food without any abnormalities.

Shen Wanqing frowned and looked at the guests at the tables beside them.

Lively voices filled the inn, everyone was eating scrumptiously, not even one person placed their gaze upon them.

But she didn’t know why, Shen Wanqing’s heart felt something strange.

It was as if everyone around them were paper dolls covered with a layer of human skin, acting out their roles without any thoughts or soul.

Having had this thought, her hand that was holding onto the chopsticks froze.

“Here, here, this is the wine requested by you.” The waiter leaned over with the wine jug.

When he bent over to place down the wine, his broad body blocked the light shining upon her face.

Shen Wanqing acutely discovered Ji Feichen and Feng Yaoqing’s bodies tense up at the same time.

“Guests, do you have any more orders?” The waiter turned his head and pulled a smile from the corner of his mouth.

“Yes,” Shen Wanqing nodded, “I want to add some dishes.”

“What kind of dishes?”

“Let me think about it–” Shen Wanqing pretended to ponder as she raised her hand to grab her hairpin.

In the next second, she quickly pulled out her hairpin, took a turn and held onto it tightly. She then lifted the hairpin and stabbed it into the back of the waiter’s hand, penetrating through and piercing it onto the table.

With a heart-wrenching scream, all the guests stopped their movements at the same time and turned their heads as if they were puppets, looking in their direction.

Shen Wanqing’s cultivation base had improved a lot already, so she deliberately passed some spiritual power into the hairpin. The waiter kept on wailing, unable to struggle out from the hairpin and move his body at all.

Zeng Ziyun didn’t react in time and froze for a while in her spot.

Ji Feichen stood up, pulled the two to Feng Yaoqing’s side, and said sharply: “Stay back.”

“What just happe…” Zeng Ziyun stopped abruptly before finishing her question.

All the guests stood up almost at the same time, enclosing them in a circle, approaching them like walking corpses.

Including the waiter, layers of wrinkles appeared on the faces of everyone around them, like a layer of skin falling off.

It wasn’t just one Painted Skin Ghost.

It was a whole group of them.

Sure enough, they had been guarding a tree-stump, waiting to catch rabbits¹idiom for waiting idly for an opportunity, but the roles were reversed, they were the rabbits and the Painted Skin Ghosts were the ones guarding. There was not a single living person in this entire inn, there was a good chance that they had all been killed a day ago, with their skin being peeled off to use as a disguise.

Ji Feichen and his party were the prey of these Painted Skin Ghosts.

However, the real Painted Skin Ghost that wanted to attack Shen Wanqing had not yet appeared at this moment.

Although she didn’t know why, but sure enough, the plot had begun to deviate.

–

Upstairs in the guest room.

Xie Wuyan sat carelessly on the window sill, with one hand resting loosely on his knees, and the other hand repeatedly tossing an apple up and down, watching the big commotion downstairs with interest.

“Boom!”

The door by his side was slammed open.

A cannon fodder²slang to mean a character who is expendable/unimportant to the story Painted Skin Ghost walked in, the skin on its face had mostly collapsed, making it look hideous.

It seems that it was one of the guests who had died here.

The cannon fodder Painted Skin Ghost turned its head and happened to look into Xie Wuyan’s eyes.

It immediately harnessed its demonic power and walked over arrogantly.

“…”

Xie Wuyan took a bite of the apple and didn’t even bother to move, he simply glanced at it without interest, curled his eyes and smiled.

Power.

A very strong power.

The cannon fodder Painted Skin Ghost was taken aback and immediately put away its demonic power obediently. It turned its head as if it hadn’t seen him, rushing downstairs with a whine and went to attack Ji Feichen.

Then it was burned to death by a Taoist charm.

Xuanniao stopped on Xie Wuyan’s shoulder and whispered some flatteries: “As expected, Your Royal Highness had long discovered that there were no living people in this inn. You even discovered the hidden demonic energies of the Painted Skin Ghosts with just one look despite them putting on the freshest human skin.”

Xie Wuyan ignored it.

He watched the scuffle downstairs whilst slowly and methodically taking another bite of the apple.

Although there was a large amount of these Painted Skin Ghosts and they were difficult to deal with, after all, their cultivation was not that high. Ji Feichen and Feng Yaoqing just needed to work together to handle them, it was just a matter of how much time they would take.

Oh, yes, there were also two people dragging them down.

Then it would take even longer

Speaking of the drag.

Subconsciously, Xie Wuyan set his sights on Shen Wanqing.

Then, he witnessed her at her end’s wits, raising her hand and striking the back of her hand knife on Zeng Ziyun’s neck. After having knocked her down unconscious, she stuffed the body under the table while huffing and puffing.

Xie Wuyan: “…”

In fact, one could not blame Shen Wanqing.

Although Zeng Ziyun was the daughter of the Xuantian Sect elder, whenever she had gone out on expeditions to gain experience, she had always been well guarded by various senior brothers and sisters³a phrase used to call fellow disciples/students older than you in the same Sect. This was the first time she had encountered such a scene, she was obviously dumbstruck.

Frightened, she started calling out for Brother Ji.

Shen Wanqing felt that this person was like a flea. If one didn’t pay attention to her after a while, she would start calling out “Brother Ji, brother Ji”, and then burst into tears while throwing herself to him.

Usually, it wasn’t a big deal. But at this moment, any accident could easily cause Ji Feichen, who was already finding it difficult, to mess up.

Shen Wanqing persuaded her for a while, but found that it was useless.

Then she tried tugging onto her, but found that it expended too much effort, especially since she also had to use her energy to avoid the attacks of the Paint Skin Ghosts, which was very physically tiring.

As a result, she decided to simply knock her out.

It saved time and energy.

Upstairs, Xuanniao was a little puzzled: “Your Royal Highness, why don’t you go and help? If you want to gain the trust of those two people, now is a great time to clean up these Painted Skin Ghosts for them.”

Xie Wuyan: “I’m so tired, I don’t want to move. Let’s talk about it after they are almost done.”

“…”

A very childish reason.

As soon as he finished speaking, a flash of black fog was seen downstairs.

A Painted Skin Ghost that had been concealed, teleported behind Shen Wanqing, used its demonic powers to conjure up a big demon claw, and directly plunged at her heart.

“Wanqing!” Ji Feichen yelled after sensing the movement over there.

But because he was entangled by many demons, he couldn’t rush to Shen Wanqing at this moment.

Without any protective treasures, with her cultivation, she may not be able to withhold such a blow.

However, as soon as his voice fell, a beam of golden light flew past, splitting apart the demonic energy that had gathered into claws like a sharp blade.

A figure pierced through the layers of black fog and fell in front of Shen Wanqing’s eyes. Xie Wuyan raised his hand, clasped her back, and pulled her towards him.

The room was covered by demonic energy and they gathered into countless groups of black shadows, circling together and surging up continuously in the small room. However, the square inch of land surrounding Xie Wuyan seemed to be shrouded by a powerful force, not corroded by even a little bit of demonic energy.

Xie Wuyan gazed down at the Shen Wanqing in his arms, then slowly raised his eyelids.

His dark black hair and his jet black robe flew at the same time, and a strong spiritual power formed a barrier in an instant, forcefully shattering the black fog lingering in the inn.

The continuously surging black demonic energy seemed to be cut into millions of pieces in an instant, bursting open with a rush.

Xuanniao, who had just turned its head to discover His Majesty had flown down, went, “?”

I remember someone had just said that they were tired.

—

[Translator’s note: Our ML acts like he doesn’t care about anything but once he sees the FL in danger he goes towards her without hesitation! Reminder there are three chappies this week, thanks for supporting!]