Chapter 136: Junior Sister, What Does “Head Grows Below” Mean?
The streets of East City were filled with dust, as if a sandstorm had passed through, leaving them barren. Many pavilions had been overturned by the air waves, and the paving stones on the street had been uprooted. Only a few low houses had survived.
*Boom—*
A golden figure fell from the sky, smashing heavily onto the roof of a tiled house. The tiles were all blown away by their physical body. Then, like skipping stones, they bounced up and down before finally landing on the street and rolling a long distance, legs askew, body slumped, and motionless.
Yun Xi lay on the ground, her face blankly staring at the sky. All she saw was a strange, giant snow lotus. Her head was spinning. She realized she must have been severely injured, but she felt no pain. It could be said that Yun Xi felt as if she only had a head and a right hand left; the rest of her body had vanished.
“Hiss—cough—cough cough cough—”
She tried to sit up, but found she had no strength. There was a metallic taste in her throat, as if it were stuck in her windpipe, making her extremely uncomfortable.
It was at this moment that the petals of the blood lotus in the sky began to contract again.
*Whoosh—*
After a roaring sound, the flower once again spewed countless crimson pollen into the sky. A dense sheet of it completely dyed the area directly above Chi Long Mansion a blood-red. Seeing the falling crimson snow, Yun Xi finally reacted and knew she needed to take shelter indoors. Thanks to the demonic cultivator just now, her clothes, like the other two people, had holes torn in them, and her bamboo hat was gone. She couldn’t use her lightning and fire defense now. She had seen what happened to those who were touched by the crimson snow.
“Tsk…”
Yun Xi clicked her tongue lightly, gritting her teeth as she tried to drag her body with her only moving hand under the eaves of a nearby house. But unfortunately, just lifting her hand took all her strength. Knowing she would likely not avoid possession by a blood spirit and transform into that disgusting monster, Yun Xi felt unwilling. She used the last of her strength to raise her right hand. She gave a thumbs-up to the blood lotus in the sky, then flipped her wrist, turning her thumb down.
With a sound that shook the heavens, she exclaimed: “Fuck your mother, demonic cultivator!! I will absolutely kill all of you in my next life! Cough cough—cough—”
Crimson snowflakes drifted down, heading towards her scarred face. Yun Xi resigned herself to fate and let her raised right arm fall, hitting the street.
*Rustle—*
The sound of dragging footsteps was heard, and then a broken paper fan slid into Yun Xi’s field of vision, obscuring the crimson snow and the giant lotus in the sky behind it.
A single umbrella blocked the view.
Yun Xi rolled her eyes towards the person holding the umbrella for her. The youth, wearing a bamboo hat, had his face wrapped in bandages, revealing only a pair of deep, dark purple eyes. His night-walking clothes were covered in dust, making him look a bit dishevelled.
After a moment of silence, Yun Xi suddenly opened her mouth and took a deep breath: “Hiss—you… cough cough—”
However, before she could finish, she spat out a mouthful of blood. Ye Anping looked down at her, shook his head, and his gaze shifted down. He looked at her feet, now twisted like crab legs, and the corner of her transparent gold-threaded underskirt peeking out from beneath her flipped skirt, feeling a bit helpless.
He squatted down, tucked the umbrella under his arm, supported Yun Xi by her back and buttocks, and picked her up, heading towards a relatively intact two-story pavilion by the roadside. Although Yun Xi was a little unhappy, she had no choice. She could only glare fiercely at Ye Anping’s eyes to express her protest.
“…”
Inside the pavilion, Pei Lianxue was sitting cross-legged on a wooden table, adjusting her breath and cultivating. She opened her eyes upon hearing the commotion and saw her senior brother carrying a girl into the room. She puffed out her cheeks and immediately jumped down from the table.
“I’ll do it.”
Pei Lianxue snatched Yun Xi from Ye Anping’s arms and placed her on the table where she had just been meditating. Then, Ye Anping walked to the side of the table and grabbed one of her crab-like legs.
*Crack—*
“Ahhh—!!”
After a scream, Yun Xi’s dislocated knee was reset by Ye Anping with his bare hands. Then, Ye Anping also proceeded to straighten her left hand and left foot. Yun Xi’s teeth were so tightly clenched that she chipped one. Using the last bit of her consciousness, she glared at Ye Anping’s dark purple eyes one more time before rolling her eyes back and fainting.
Ye Anping used his spiritual sense to examine Yun Xi’s condition. After confirming there were no major problems, he reached out and closed her eyelids. Then, he went to a corner and checked on the other Moon Shadow Sword Sect disciple he had brought in earlier. After confirming that person’s breathing was stable, he stood up, adjusted his bamboo hat, and left the room with Pei Lianxue.
…
The crimson snow on the street had become denser than before. Ye Anping, with his bamboo hat pulled low, looked up at the sky. Then, he reached out and gently pushed Pei Lianxue’s bamboo hat forward a little. They then headed back towards the square they had just come from.
The previous square had been devastated. Within several hundred feet of the square, the residential buildings and pavilions had vanished, leaving only an extremely regular and clean circular open space. In the center of the open space lay Zuo Min’s headless cicada shell, and a golden page of a book on the ground beside her.
If this were a game, Zuo Min’s self-detonation would mean the end of the battle; Zuo Min would be dead and wouldn’t appear again. However, Ye Anping felt that this place was extremely eerie. He vaguely felt that Zuo Min might not be dead yet. Gu cultivators had lifespans as resilient as cockroaches, so he had to guard against any further tricks.
“Junior Sister, still be careful.”
Ye Anping took out his spirit sword and, with his junior sister, walked to the side of the cicada shell. He picked up the golden page from the ground and put it into his storage bag. Then, he used his sword to slash Zuo Min’s corpse twice and took out a Fire Element talisman to ignite her cicada shell.
Watching Zuo Min’s cicada shell gradually wither and turn into a pile of black ash, he finally relaxed a little. However, when he looked down, he saw what looked like black specks resembling ash on the soil at his feet.
“Ash? Or is it…”
Ye Anping frowned slightly. After thinking for a moment, he immediately took out a Fire Element talisman, signaled Pei Lianxue to move back a bit, and then directly plastered the talisman onto himself, igniting it with spiritual energy. Instantly, flames erupted all over his body.
Pei Lianxue, who had retreated to a distance, widened her eyes in shock upon seeing this. She wanted to rush forward to help extinguish the flames but was stopped by Ye Anping.
“Don’t come closer. Five, four, three, two…”
Ye Anping endured the searing pain and counted in a low voice. As the word “one” left his lips, a scream suddenly pierced through his back.
“Ah—!!!”
Instantly, a bloody spiritual light surged into the sky. Zuo Min’s spirit, unable to withstand the flames, leaped from him.
“You brat!!!”
“Junior Sister!”
Ye Anping shouted, simultaneously quickly taking out a Water Element talisman and splashing a large amount of water on himself to extinguish the fire. Seeing the spirit attempting to escape, Pei Lianxue immediately formed a sword finger at her chest, stepped forward with her right foot, and released ice-blue spiritual energy that spread around her body.
In an instant, the ground of the square was covered in frost, and countless sharp ice spikes emerged, chasing after Zuo Min in the sky. They finally froze Zuo Min’s spirit into an ice sculpture, causing her to fall back to the ground.
Trapped in the ice, Zuo Min glared at Ye Anping. She had just transferred her spirit into a flea-like Gu worm she had raised. She had planned to wait until the two of them returned to pick up the golden page, then jump onto the girl and find an opportunity to possess her. However, when Ye Anping picked up the page, the girl was standing quite far away. Helplessly, she had her Gu worm cling to Ye Anping’s clothes, preparing to act at any moment. Who would have thought this brat…
“Ah—!!!” Zuo Min yelled at the sky, “Wu Yue!!! Yao Yuanhua!!! You two useless sacks of trash who can’t accomplish anything but ruin things!! If it weren’t for you, how could I have fallen to two Early Foundation Establishment stage cultivators?!”
Ye Anping looked at her expressionlessly. Indeed, if Wu Yue and Yao Yuanhua hadn’t died, the remaining three demonic cultivators wouldn’t have had to share the responsibility of the formation core between those two. With just him and his junior sister, killing Zuo Min would have been a hard-fought battle. However…
“Senior Zuo, who do you think they died by?”
“Died by…”
Hearing this question, Zuo Min was slightly stunned. Because Yao Yuanhua was naturally irritable, when Yao Yuanhua was killed by the Chi Long Mansion guards, she and the remaining demonic cultivators believed that Yao Yuanhua had caused trouble in a brothel, exposing their demonic cultivator identities, and was thus killed by the guards and two Xuan Xing Sect disciples. Wu Yue was the same. Eager for revenge for Yao Yuanhua, she exposed her identity and was tragically killed. They had never considered that this was a deliberate, targeted attack. After all, the Tian Mo Sect had only sent five of them to Chi Long Mansion to prevent any leaks that might attract the intervention of someone like Dan Yue Shang Xian. The matter of Chi Long Mansion, even within the Tian Mo Sect, was known only to a few elders and the Sect Master himself. There was no possibility of information leakage. But…
Upon hearing Ye Anping’s words, Zuo Min finally understood.
—There was a traitor among their five people!!
Zuo Min gritted her teeth and shouted at Ye Anping: “Could it be… Yao Yuanhua!!! He told you, didn’t he?! I knew it, that piece of trash whose head grows below!!”
“…”
Ye Anping pursed his lips. His left hand formed a sword finger, wiping the body of his spirit sword with a Fire Element talisman. Instantly, fierce flames erupted on the sword’s body.
“Wait!! Xuan Yin Art!! I know!! Let me go, and I’ll tell you the location of the incomplete Xuan Yin Art scroll!”
Horizontally, a sword strike; vertically, a sword strike. Two fire spirit sword qi crossed to form a cross, passing directly through the ice prison formed by Pei Lianxue’s spiritual energy, igniting her spirit.
“Ah—!…… I’m dead, and you’ll never know where my incomplete Xuan Yin Art scroll is!!!”
“Chi Long Mansion, a hundred li to the east, Pine Flame Mountain. Did you cultivate a cave dwelling there before to store things?”
“Wh…at…”
Ye Anping winked his left eye at her and said with a smile: “Senior Yao told me.”
With that, he took his junior sister and turned to walk out of the square, leaving Zuo Min alone behind them, screaming in agony. He had originally wanted to take Zuo Min’s storage bag, but… on second thought, it was better not to. The valuable items were most likely stored in her cave dwelling on Pine Flame Mountain. Who knew what strange things were in her storage bag now. In the game, the “Xuan Yin Art Scroll Five” in Zuo Min’s possession required defeating her to drop a secret letter, which would then be deciphered to find her hiding place on Pine Flame Mountain. But since he knew in advance, he didn’t need to decipher anything. He had come back to retrieve the “Xuan Yin Art Scroll Five” he had previously thrown out as bait.
After walking out of the square, Pei Lianxue looked back at the struggling and wailing Zuo Min and asked weakly: “Husband, what does ‘head grows below’ mean? How can a head grow below?”
Ye Anping paused, his lips parting as he turned to look at her. Seeing the innocent look in his junior sister’s eyes, he felt as if something was stuck in his throat.
“It’s…”
“It’s?”
Just then, from the central district of Chi Long Mansion, a golden dragon soared into the sky, causing Ye Anping to turn his head. He was silent for a moment and then replied:
“It’s… like Feng Yu Die.”
“Oh…”
