Chapter 4: CH 4

Translator: transcendent.wings

Editor: teaff 

After running 15 kilometers with a person on his back, Xu Xingzhi really was tired. He carelessly wrapped the chain around his arm a few times, tidied up a bit, then flopped over on the bed to sleep.

With a crippled hand, grasping chopsticks and holding bowls were already difficult tasks to complete, so he needed to find better timing for a meticulous job such as assassination.

After Xu Xingzhi fell asleep, the bamboo door was once again silently opened from the outside.

Meng Chongguang slowly strolled in. He had already changed. 

The whiteness of his single-layer hemp garment surpassed that of snow and while the lapel was decorated with a dragon amongst the clouds motif, the back hem was dyed with ink wash patterns. There was also an elegant headdress crown, which paired up with a long silk ribbon, further emphasized his ink-black hair.

But his outermost layer was still the same long robe stained with soot and fresh blood.

He quietly knelt beside the bed, pulled Xu Xingzhi’s right hand over, and rested his head on it as he gazed at Xu Xingzhi’s sleeping face.

Meng Chongguang’s eyes carefully lingered over his tightly closed lips, prominent Adam’s apple, and the rise and fall of his chest. He was nervous, uneasy, and anxious, as if he was looking at a porcelain vase that might shatter at any moment.

It was unknown how long he watched him like that as though he wasn’t fully convinced that Xu Xingzhi was still alive. He slowly moved his fingers up towards Xu Xingzhi’s body, gently pulled open the lapel of the thin garment he wore, and rested his fingertips where Xu Xingzhi’s heart was, feeling the strong and powerful heartbeat underneath that expanse of skin.

Thump, thump.

Meng Chongguang revealed a satisfied and touched smile as he murmured in a low voice: “Shixiong, you came back, you came home. . .”

Followed by that quiet mumble, Meng Chongguang’s breathing gradually became unstable. 

The corner of his eyes was tinged with blood, and the originally clear and bright pupils were gradually dyed scarlet. The cinnabar moles at the corner of his eyes and the middle of his forehead faintly shone with a terrible crimson light.

His fingers also trembled violently, and his fingernails slowly became longer. Just when it seemed like he would accidentally scratch open the skin over Xu Xingzhi’s heart, Meng Chongguang forcibly suppressed himself and hastily withdrew his hand, tightly squeezing his own wrist.

Five bone-deep lacerations marred his wrist. Only after drawing blood did the crimson glow in his eyes fade slightly.

As if he sensed something, Xu Xingzhi’s eyelids lightly trembled. 

Meng Chongguang could no longer remain here. He strenuously sealed his meridian acupoint then shrugged off the outer robe with the last vestiges of rationality he was able to retain and covered Xu Xingzhi’s body with it before he turned around to leave.

The moment he exited through the bamboo door, Meng Chongguang nearly ran headfirst into another person.

Zhou Wang frowned and reached out to steady him: “Meng-dage?”

Meng Chongguang shrugged away her support and coldly asked after he caught his breath: “What do you want?” 

Zhou Wang was accustomed to Meng Chongguang’s episodes. She knew that once he lost control of his emotions, he would definitely lose reason and go on a rampage, unable to snap out of it until he drank blood.

Fortunately, even when Meng Chongguang was in a crazed state, he still wouldn’t go too far. He was still able to maintain his bottom line and has never attacked them. Because of that, Zhou Wang wasn’t scared of him and deftly replied: “This is the first time I’ve seen Xu-shixiong, I wanted to chat with him.”

Meng Chongguang pressed down on his frantically beating heart and stated: “Shixiong is still sleeping. Go wait outside until he’s awake to chat.”

Zhou Wang cupped her fist: “Yes.” 

After watching Meng Chongguang stagger out of the tower’s grand bronze gates, Zhou Wang turned around, let out a whistle, and casually pushed open the door to immediately enter the room.

Xu Xingzhi was startled awake by the sound of the door opening. He hurriedly sat up and the outer robe that was draped over him slipped off with that motion.

He had an innately low body temperature and had forgotten to cover himself up with a blanket before he slept. Unsure of when the front of his robe slipped open, his hands and feet were now ice-cold after his nap.

He shivered. With no time to ponder over who draped this outer robe over his body, he embraced the robe, seeking warmth from the residual temperature left behind on it. 

Zhou Wang asked: “Cold?”

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Vtf tjv jigfjvs gfwbnfv tfg qjlg bo rjygfr jcv kjr meggfcais kfjglcu j rtjyys mglwrbc vgfrr. Ktja, qjlgfv klat tfg vjgx ilqr jcv rcbk-ktlaf rxlc ujnf tfg j rilutais ecxfwqa jcv ujevs ibbx.

Rbalmlcu We Wlcuhtl’r ujhf, Itbe Qjcu ujnf j rtbga ijeut: “Zs ecmif kjr gluta.” 

Xu Xingzhi: “???”

Zhou Wang crossed her arms and commented as she grinned: “That guy surnamed Xu is wild and wanton. Furthermore, he is arrogant and has no ethics to speak of. Once he sees a member of the opposite sex, he’ll be rooted to the spot.”

Xu Xingzhi: “. . . What else did he say?”

Zhou Wang responded: “He said if you dare to harbor indecent intentions towards me, I have permission to dig your eyes out.” 

. . . Xu Xingzhi felt really wronged.

Although Xu Xingzhi loved beauty and it didn’t matter whether the girl was tall or short, chubby or slim, as he would still take a few extra glances, but he almost never thought about playing around with them, let alone a young child like Zhou Wang.

Xu Xingzhi shrugged and answered frankly: “Beauties who exist in this world could be considered to be precious treasures. Another glance taken is another treasure gained. The beauty of today will not be the same beauty of tomorrow. If I admire it more now, it would be accomplishing a meritorious deed, how can this be called unrestrained?”

Zhou Wang: “. . .” 

In her moment of speechlessness, she noticed that Xu Xingzhi’s left hand was chained to the head of the bed. She finally felt that her heart was appeased and revealed a gloating look that had “you deserve to be locked up” written all over it.

Xu Xingzhi didn’t take offense. Holding the fan in his left hand, he lightly tapped on her forehead in a familiar manner: “That’s right la, now you seem like the child you are. Putting on a solemn face, acting all sophisticated is completely unreasonable.”

Zhou Wang was dumbfounded by his tap and stared back at him as she covered her forehead.

She was following Zhou Beinan’s order and was trying to fish information out from Xu Xingzhi, yet Xu Xingzhi managed to gain the upper hand in the middle of their conversation instead. 

Xu Xingzhi asked her: “Your name is Zhou Wang? Zhou Beinan is your uncle?”

Zhou Wang only felt that this person was interesting and became curious. She mimicked his sitting posture, propping one of her legs up on the heatable brick bed, and then leaned against the carved flowers on the wooden column at the head of the bed: “En.”

Xu Xingzhi mentally calculated her age: “You came here with your uncle?”

Zhou Wang: “Pretty much. 13 years have passed since then.” 

If he was facing anyone else, Xu Xingzhi would have still been cautious with his words and mannerisms, but next to this little girl, he didn’t need to be particularly vigilant anymore.

After all, she’s never met him before. Even if she heard stories about him from Zhou Beinan, she would still probably only have half-baked information.

If it was possible, Xu Xingzhi might even be able to gain information about the savage wasteland from her instead.

He asked: “Why were you all imprisoned in the wasteland?” 

Zhou Wang observed Xu Xingzhi and slightly raised a brow: “My uncle and the others think I’m too young and wouldn’t explain it to me in detail. . . Besides, exactly how we entered, how could Xu-shixiong not know?”

Xu Xingzhi: . . . Oho.

She was a pretty smart girl, it won’t be easy to pull the wool over her eyes.

Conversing with an intelligent person would obviously require a different method. Xu Xingzhi spread the fan open and fanned himself a few times: “I just didn’t expect that they wouldn’t even spare a child.” 

The corner of Zhou Wang’s mouth raised slightly. She revealed her palm and played with the calluses on it: “I wasn’t born yet when they entered the wasteland. When my mom and uncle were exiled here, my uncle sacrificed his life to protect my mom. If it wasn’t for the fact that we encountered Lu-shushu who anchored the core of my uncle’s soul in his talisman and then shared his spiritual essence with him, his soul of origin would’ve long dissipated.”

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Xu Xingzhi frowned slightly: “How did Zhou Beinan die?”

Zhou Wang replied: “He forgot.”

Regarding this, Xu Xingzhi didn’t feel that it was strange. 

Ghostly cultivation relied on the manipulation of corpses or the souls of ghosts as the main offense method, and as a ghostly cultivator, Lu Yujiu obviously belonged to the latter. The souls of ghosts could be further roughly divided into light and dark ghosts.

Those ghosts who remembered the past were called “light ghosts”; their spirit core was clear, and their strength didn’t deviate much compared to when they were alive. If they were powerful in life, then they were equally powerful beyond death.

Those ghosts whose memories were hazy were referred to as “dark ghosts”. When they died, part of their souls were damaged, lost, or trapped inside their mortal remains. Therefore they were muddle-headed, dissociated from the world, and their strengths were greatly reduced compared to when they were alive.

And the sole reason a deceased soul would become a “dark ghost” was if their cause of death was tragic to the point that their consciousness collapsed, their five mortal souls were split, and it was so painful that they didn’t want to remember their own death. 

It was difficult for Xu Xingzhi to picture what happened back then.

According to the original owner’s fragmented and chaotic memories, the righteous path was split into four sects, and each of the four guarded a primordial divine artifact.

Qingliang Valley guarded the “Taixu Bow”, Yingtianchuan guarded the “Lihen Mirror”, Danyang Peak guarded the “Chengming Sword”, and Fengling Mountain where the original owner was from guarded the “Shijie Book”.

Meng Chongguang, a calamitous spirit who seized a divine artifact, being exiled was still within reason. However, Zhou Beinan was the son of Yingtianchuan Island’s Master, so why would he steal his own sect’s divine artifact with his younger sister? 

Why would he even need to?

As Xu Xingzhi mulled over this hundreds and thousands of times in his mind, Zhou Wang abruptly asked: “Xu-shixiong, what happened to your right hand?”

Xu Xingzhi glanced over at his rosewood right hand, in which a gaping hole akin to a skylight had been opened up in, and replied piteously: “You mean this hole ah? It was pierced through just before.”

Zhou Wang could hardly suppress her laughter: “Who was asking about that hole? I was asking you why your hand was dismembered?” 

. . . That’s right ah, why?

To be honest, Xu Xingzhi himself couldn’t quite remember either.

It seemed that he was too naughty when he was five and accidentally cut off his hand with a wheat scythe. He had bled profusely, gotten extremely sick with a high fever for three days, and was delirious for a whole month. When he woke up, he was already disabled.

Fortunately, God still left him with one hand. After taking that into consideration, it didn’t seem too bad. 

Nonetheless, whenever he mentioned his own right hand, Xu Xingzhi couldn’t help but recall the scene where his father tirelessly and meticulously took care of him.

Now in the savage wasteland, he didn’t know how time flowed outside, nor did he know how his father and little sister were faring right now.

Recalling this, Xu Xingzhi not only lost focus but also didn’t want to answer in detail. He simply summed it up with: “. . . It’s a long story.”

Zhou Wang tossed him a second question: “You’ve been outside for so many years, have you ever tried to look for your older brother, Xu Pingsheng?” 

. . . En?

As soon as this question came out, Xu Xingzhi was certain that this little girl was sent here by Zhou Beinan to coax answers out of him.

The trickiest part of this was that he rummaged through all the memories, but couldn’t find any signs of the original owner having an older brother.

Now the real question was whether or not there was actually such a person, so how should he answer? 

If he goes along with her words, will he fall into the trap laid by her interrogation skills?

After a brief moment, Xu Xingzhi came up with an answer.

Xu Xingzhi stared into Zhou Wang’s eyes and enunciated each word clearly: “I don’t have an older brother.”

This answer made Zhou Wang confused: “But. . .” 

Xu Xingzhi interrupted her words in a rare act of discourtesy. He leaned back with an indifferent expression on his face while using one hand to cushion his head: “I don’t have an older brother.”

Outside the tower, Zhou Beinan who was listening in on the conversation between the two in the room by manipulating his spiritual sense, curled the corners of his mouth sardonically: “In the past, whenever Xu Xingzhi came across a treasure, he would always think of his older brother. Now, he’s finally realized that his older brother isn’t anything short of a bastard.”

The phantom-masked youth Lu Yujiu’s answer was even more simple and crude: “Xu Pingsheng is simply a piece of sh*t. He deserves to be renounced by Xu-shixiong.”

Zhou Beinan pressed on his tragus and gave an order: “A-Wang, ask him, why did he come to the wasteland? Who sent him here?” 

However, before Zhou Wang was able to open her mouth to ask, Zhou Beinan heard Xu Xingzhi inquire lazily on the other side: “Zhou Beinan told you to come interrogate me, right?”

Since they were already exposed, Zhou Wang no longer held back and asked straightforwardly: “My uncle’s doubts are reasonable. It’s been 13 years and no one has ever caught a single trace of your whereabouts nor has anyone been able to uncover any rumors about you. It has already been so many years, why did you suddenly appear in the wasteland?”

Xu Xingzhi hooked a finger to beckon Zhou Wang over: “Come over here, I’ll tell you in confidence.”

Zhou Wang naturally leaned her ear in closer. 

Xu Xingzhi narrowed his eyes and discovered that the dangling stone earring on Zhou Wang’s right ear was shimmering with a faint glow.

He nimbly removed the earring in one quick motion and pinched it between his fingertips with force.

This earring was condensed from Zhou Beinan’s spiritual sense and was directly connected to his ear canal. There was no way it could stand such a kneading motion. Like a cat whose tail was stepped on, he sprang up and covered his ear to exclaim in pain: “Surnamed Xu, f*ck your uncle!”

Xu Xingzhi: “Hahahahaha.” 

On the other side, Zhou Beinan was blue in the face as he pinched his fingers as if looking for patterns: “You better watch out!”

In an instant, the dangle earring in Xu Xingzhi’s palm turned into a spider as big as a compass.

Xu Xingzhi’s smile gradually dampened.

Only when the spider’s hairy legs began to squirm between his fingers did he violently shake his hand and let out a bloodcurdling scream. 

Now it was Zhou Beinan’s turn to slap his thigh and laugh wildly: “Hahahahaha.”

Goosebumps covered every inch of Xu Xingzhi’s skin as he backed away to the end of the bed, yanking the golden chain along. He was so terrified that he was trembling in fear. He felt weak from the outside down to his very bones, and his joints tingled like there were tiny insects crawling throughout. He was so disturbed that he just wanted to die.

At that moment, the bamboo door swung open again.

Meng Chongguang charged in frantically: “Shixiong?? What’s wrong???” 

Xu Xingzhi had yet to answer when he saw the spider twitch its spindly legs and start to climb up along the leg of the bed.

A buzzing sound shot through his head, and he leapt off the bed, diving straight into Meng Chongguang’s arms. His entire body hung off of Meng Chongguang as tears threatened to fall: “. . . Bugs!! There are bugs over there!!!”

The author has something to say:

Shixiong: whomever can smack that bug to death, my whole body and life are yours. 

Chongguang [smush to death]: Shixiong, look. . . . .

Shixiong: Get away! Don’t touch me with the same hand you used to hit the bug!!

Chongguang: . . . . . qaq

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