Chapter 34: Younger Sister

Under the lamplight, the men around her were all drawn by her beguiling charm, yet only Huang Wenzhao looked at her with clear, luminous eyes. His gentle features were like polished jade, somehow even more elegant and handsome than when she had seen him at the exorcist dance that day.

Su Tang smiled with graceful warmth. “That is true, only some matters are more urgent than others.”

Huang Wenzhao asked, “What counts as urgent, and what counts as less so?”

Nearby, Wang the shopkeeper and the others, who were ostensibly listening to the music and dance, were in truth secretly straining their ears toward this side.

Su Tang said, “Merchants chase profit, and…”

“Liang Shanbo, what you are about to hear is the highest secret of the Sacred Sword Hall. Listen carefully.” Cui Ji said solemnly, and an imposing dignity suddenly swept toward them.

By comparison, the thoughts of the military officers were even more shocking to the common people; the notions held by these soldiers and officers, supported by the court, were frankly filthy beyond words.

The first to arrive with their report were Yan Ao and Huang Peng. They had set up camp on the outskirts and were the nearest.

Gan Ning is a wretch through and through. He wants to pin us here, then wait until the Han reinforcements arrive and have us surrounded and wiped out in one blow. We cannot fall for that.

Shoo, shoo! A handful of pine nuts, thirty-six in all, shot toward Liang Shan like projectiles from a pea shooter. Liang Shan hurriedly rolled and leaped aside.

In the depths of space, Chen Zheng sat cross-legged, eyes shut, only his palm raised. The black smoke gathered again, taking on all manner of forms.

“No,” said Selnias, shaking his head calmly. “I came to observe this nation’s destruction.”

Chen Mufan immediately dialed Xie Tianlong and relayed the information he had obtained, while also asking him to notify the police and military in Jinling to jointly search the Wan Group. From the look of it, this time he intended to uproot every single person in the Wan Group who had anything to do with the matter.

“Hok ga!” A shark-like creature appeared, hideous to behold, its body covered in many sharp spines like fangs.

Kong Ming said, “Very well. Then let us go outside.” With that, he led his men and Ming Liyuan out at once. Sheng Tian and the others followed them into the great courtyard before the Bright Forest Immortal Palace.

Bathed in the morning sun, a tall and upright figure radiated overwhelming battle intent as he strode steadily, neither hurried nor slow, to the edge of the Sea Horse Sacred Pillar.

The onlookers all craned their necks, their faces filled with curiosity or pity, gazing at the stretcher borne by the constables.

As Chu Yichen caught sight of Pei Weiwei and Madam Zhou returning, some of the chill around him receded. His thin lips were pressed tightly together, his face unreadable.

Yet the bullets had not struck the organs beneath the monk’s robe, but the hard concrete ground.

Lin Zipeng’s fist was too heavy. Struck by that blow, Yi Xue’s mind blanked for a moment, and that single moment left her completely at a disadvantage, forced to endure the beating.

And now, hearing Jia Yue’s words, Xiang Yu suddenly understood why that sense of familiarity had felt so strange.

“So they really do look down on me,” Lan said with a bitter smile. After a moment’s thought, it seemed the one Manda scorned was not him. He was not the commander of this army.

This time, though, perhaps because Yi Xiu was present, the banquet had been made exceptionally grand, as if they meant to use this occasion to thoroughly make the name of the Eastern Sea Dragon King resound.

Alas, Yi Xiu’s hopes were in vain. Once the two demonic beings had finished condensing the black mist and the stone statue had fully “come alive,” neither of them continued absorbing any more power.

But I refused to say it aloud. Trials in the mortal world are much the same as those in the immortal realm—nothing but empty shows of vanity and reputation. I could not be bothered to fuss over such things.

You halt the Sacred Authority and live quite well in your secret galaxy, while we huddle in the underground ruins of a city like miserable marmots. You abandoned us, and so you are no longer our countrymen.

At Su Wei’s clap, from behind the screen at the back of the great house, Mei Baobao helped Old Madam Mei out.

Chen Xia, directing the driver, took the other two along in high spirits to a newly opened place called the Whirlwind Bar.

Today Wang Mengjian was going to discuss cooperation with Manager Qi. On the surface, Manager Qi was a wealthy businessman from the south, but his real background was far more complicated.

Damn it, if the entire peninsula of that country were wiped out, the people of China would not shed a single tear for your unworthy descendants. At most, we would burn you a sheet of paper.

The route had already been thoroughly scouted by Li Zi and Zao, so the two of them took the nearest path straight to Miao Jueyang’s home. At that moment, Sun Liang was anxiously waiting for the kidnappers’ call, when suddenly the door was kicked open.

If I had not joined the Three Star Group, perhaps I would never have had any connection with the Mechanism in this lifetime.

Why was stone chosen to carve the Rain-Dispelling Divine Beast, rather than wood or limestone and the like? Because stone is hard and durable. If the Rain-Dispelling Divine Beast were ruined after only a few years, the power it carried would disperse into the surrounding space.

Zhou Ping looked intently and saw that on the giant elephant warrior who had fallen to the ground, there was a mass atop his head, like elephant-shaped jelly.

At this point, Zhengzhong thought of the magical spirit armor on his own body, which had been forged from demonic materials. And that golden-armored demon beast he had seen in the crack-space when he encountered Master Zhu and Master Li was very likely the descendant of a spirit beast that had been demonized at the time.

What Qingyin saw, however, was a wooden carving as tall as a vase, carved into the likeness of a fierce old man with a beard all over his face.

The Thousand-Toxin Hand was not something an ordinary person could touch. Her entire body was poison, and naturally her hands were poison too, a deadly venom that killed with a drop of blood.

She had once imagined countless times that after having a child with her master, the two of them would raise the child together and live quietly day after day. But now that it had truly come to this point, she was suddenly afraid. The one her master loved was Qing Ran—would he accept this child?

After all, they had already gone out of their way to make things easy for you, and had warned you in advance that this job would not be simple.

“How I wish I could keep gazing forever at this flourishing splendor. To see no sorrow, no pain.” A half-sighing voice poured slowly from those moist, full lips, only to be swept away by the wind as soon as it emerged, dissolving into the air without a trace.

Shen Changqing’s former life had been as the lowest-ranking trainee exorcist in the Demon Suppression Office.

Jiang Yue shook his head, pushed open his own gate, walked a short way through the courtyard, and hung the eagle nest beneath the eaves of his house.

More than that, the materials placed here were all rare treasures seldom seen in the cultivation world. Wuxuan Mountain truly deserved to be called an ancient great sect of cultivation; its wealth was indeed abundant.