Chapter 47

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Chapter 47

Ji Du entered through the door a little after them and caught up with the two who were in front of him.

As if in unspoken agreement, everyone’s sight gathered on the group of people who followed the “Awakened One” upstairs and there was a furious discussion about them.

Mi Lansheng was already a regular at the Great Wu Lin Assembly, he confidently greeted in all four directions with one hand cupped over his fist, and said in a loud and clear voice with a smile, “I, Mi Lansheng of the Mandala Sect, pay my respects to the heroes from different parts of the world.”

Even though in the eyes of those righteous sects, the Mandala Sect was an unorthodox sect, but Mi Lansheng, who was the fifth strongest of the seven strongest fighters in the Western Region was a character with resounding fame. Immediately, there was an uproar coming from the surrounding area and many returned his greeting, but more were looking at the youngster who was following closely behind him with various questions growing in their minds.

He looked young, with a childishness that had yet to fade, he was probably only fifteen years old and was extremely beautiful. His skin was whiter than snow, his eyes were black and bright, and his lips looked as though they had rouge applied to them. Yet, he didn’t seem to be a person from this world; he seemed like the deity in a drawing as well as the evil spirit in a forest. It was hard to tell if he was male or female, which made people suspect that he was a pretty, little girl dressed up as a boy, but his posture was haughty and at ease, which in no way, was feminine. He With his hands behind his back, he had an imposing air about him, as though everyone else was beneath him.

“May I ask, who this young hero is?” A person raised his voice to ask.

Bai Tan froze and looked over to the side upon hearing the familiar-sounding voice. There was a tall, lean figure dangling over the fence above with one leg sitting on top of another. He had a leather robe with narrow sleeves and a peacock feather decorated, felt hat on his head. Under the hat was a pair of blue eyes, staring at him with ill-intentions. He was the second Tang Zhu of Yue Yin Palace, Lian Jiu.

“Why aren’t you speaking, could it be that it’s inconvenient for the young hero to announce his identity?”

“Why would it be inconvenient?” Bai Tan sneered, “I am the sect leader of Fu Tu Sect, Bai Tan.”

The moment it was said, the entire building immediately erupted into commotion.

Thanks to Fu Lu, Bai Tan’s “good reputation” was known throughout the entire Jiang Hu, there wasn’t a single person who didn’t know or anyone who hadn’t heard of him before. He was the evildoer who killed the Wu Lin Overlord of the Western Region…… his Shizun, “Mara”, to usurp his position as sect leader.

Aside from that, there were many widespread, racy rumors about this evildoer in Jiang Hu. Now that they saw him, he really was a rare beauty as the hearsay went, and those racy rumors were unavoidably brought up by those present.

Suddenly, soft trails of shady laughter could be heard coming from the continuous sounds of discussion.

Bai Tan’s feeling dropped to rock bottom, gripping Shiyue in his hand tightly, he asked with a surly face, “Who’s laughing?”

At that moment, a figure flipped out from behind and landed in front of him, immediately inciting a wave of surprised gasp.

“Da Ge!” Lian Jiu exclaimed with a joyous expression on his face.

“This, Yue Yin Palace’s first Tang Zhu, Tian Su? Isn’t he already dead?”

“That’s right, how is it that this person is actually still alive after not having heard a single piece of news about him for so many years?”

Wu Yanfu laughed, “Who said that the first Tang Zhu of Yue Yin Palace was dead? I am fine and well, I merely went into seclusion for a few years, how did I get taken as a dead person? When in the ring, please, do not hold back.”

One jokingly said sentence made the ambiance within the building much more harmonious. Lian Jiu could tell that he was obviously helping Bai Tan get out of the difficult situation and felt unhappy about it, calling out “Da Ge”, he leaped down. However, Bai Tan wasn’t grateful for the help and didn’t want to waste his energy concerning himself with Lian Jiu, and walked passed the two without uttering a single word, following the “Awakened One” upstairs.

Entering the zen room, Li Wuzhang placed Gui Yu’er on the bed only to realize that she had already fallen unconscious.

Bai Tan took her pulse, it was abnormally faint, like that of a person who was barely breathing and on the brink of death, and couldn’t help saying in surprise, “Aunt was still fine before she went missing…… could Fu Lu have done something to harm her?”

“That’s probably what happened.” Li Wuzhang couldn’t bear to move his line of sight away.

Bai Tan keenly detected a shred of abnormality in his tone and asked, “The night my aunt went missing, I* was unconscious……. Did something happen that I* was not aware of?”

“That night, Gui Yu’er went out by herself, this subordinate doesn’t know the details.”

“Oh?” Bai Tan stared at Li Wuzhang with suspicion for a while. He then suddenly removed the mask that was on his face and discovered his sweaty forehead, even his clean, pale face was swollen to the point it had turned red. In that instant, he confirmed the suspicion he had.

He had known this little secret of Li Wuzhang’s a long time ago…… the “Demon of Hallucination” who was good at disguising himself, who was able to make a thousand faces with a single mask, was unable to hide a single emotion on his own face.

Bai Tan questioned forcefully with a stern voice, “Don’t think of keeping it from me, tell me the truth. How did Gui Yu’er get into this state?”

Li Wuzhang shook his head, “This subordinate doesn’t know.”

Bai Tan pinched his chin with force, “You don’t know? If you don’t know, then what are you feeling guilty for?”

“This subordinate isn’t, it is just a little warm.” Li Wuzhang tugged on his clothes and said laughingly.

Bai Tan let go angrily, blinked, and his tone changed abruptly, “Shixiong, if you keep secrets from me too, who else can I trust? If my aunt was to die without a clear reason, and I find out in the future that you were hiding something from me, I’ll definitely break off all ties with you and never be in contact with you again, even in death!”

“Don’t, don’t force me!” Li Wuzhang had always had an indecisive personality, how was he to be able to fend off Bai Tan’s play of soft and hard emotional cards. After reconsidering for a while, he hesitantly squeezed one sentence out, “Gui Yu’er, in order to save your life, went to look for Fu Lu to get the Rengu Nian Bead. It must have been Fu Lu who caused her to be in this state.”

He deliberately avoided the main reason and went with the superficial, hiding the fact that Gui Yu’er picked out her bone to save him. However, Bai Tan immediately thought of the words that Gui Yu’er told him before. Suspecting that it was the pathological changes of the alluring bone, he turned her body over and flipped the robe open to look. The moment he saw it, he couldn’t help but turn pale from shock…… on her back was a horrifying wound that was two fingers wide. It was seriously sunken in, and covered in a dark brown scab. The alluring bone that was supposed to be protruding a little was nowhere to be seen.

“How did it become like this?” Bai Tan grabbed the lapels of Li Wuzhang’s robe and shouted fiercely at him.

“It must, it must be Fu Lu!” Sweat dripped down Li Wuzhang’s face.

“You still dare lie without your mask on?!”

Bai Tan was boiling with rage, even though he didn’t know exactly what it was that Gui Yu’er had done, he could guess for most parts…… the wound had already formed a scab, it must have been made only two, three days ago. No matter how free Fu Lu was, he wouldn’t have been so free that he could go and dig Gui Yu’er’s alluring bone out. Moreover, if he really did have some use for the alluring bone, he would have took it out over the few years they’d been together. There had been no need for him to do it during such a crucial time at the Great Wu Lin Assembly, was there?

Also, he remembered clearly, a few nights ago when his alluring bone was acting up again, and he wasn’t fully conscious of his situation, wandering between life and death, he’d had a dream. In his dream, it was Gui Yu’er’s singing voice that had forcefully brought him away from the gate to the underworld.

From the time he woke up, Gui Yu’er had been missing, and now she was in such a terrible condition. Combined with Li Wuzhang’s reaction, how was he unable to guess that the wound had something to do with him?

Bai Tan suddenly pushed Li Wuzhang aside and sat on the bed with his legs folded, he helped Gui Yu’er to sit up and placed his palm over the place her pulse could be felt. He was about to gather his energy to heal her injury when his hand was grabbed by Li Wuzhang, “Sect Leader, let this subordinate do it. With the Great Wu Lin Assembly imminent, please don’t deplete your internal energy.”

“Scram, I* must save her!” Bai Tan shook his hand off and passed a stream of pure energy into Gui Yu’er’s chest, but it couldn’t enter her pulse at all. It was as though he was using a bamboo woven basket to fetch water, it all dispersed from between his fingers. He tried again, and again, but it all had the same result. It was only then that he moved his palm away and knitted his brows together tightly.

At that moment, he truly understood what blood relations were. Thinking about how he was about to lose his last living relative, it felt as if there was a needle pricking his heart. A thought suddenly popped up in his mind, he immediately jumped off the bed.

Li Wuzhang still didn’t know there was only half a bead of the Rengu Nian Bead left in the world and was secretly thinking about how he could snatch it from Fu Lu when he heard Bai Tan saying, “You stand guard and watch over Gui Yu’er, I* have some business with Mi Lansheng.”

“Sect Leader, what are you going to do?”

However, Bai Tan didn’t answer. He headed straight for the door and left. Walking along the corridor, he headed for the room Mi Lansheng was staying in. He knocked on the door, and said softly, “Sect Leader Mi, I have something I wish to discuss.”

Mi Lansheng opened the door and Bai Tan saw that the Old Sa Man Shaman was in the room as well. He quickly closed the door and looked at Old Sa Man Shaman fixedly for a while. Clenching his teeth, and bending his knees, he knelt down in front of him.

Mi Lansheng was shocked, “Sect Leader Bai, what is this for?”

The young Sect Leader took on an appearance completely different from his usual prideful one. He lowered his body, and gave a resounding and deep kowtow, “Elder, Sect Master, this junior pleads for a favor.”

Mi Lansheng was taken aback internally, what could make this haughty little evildoer willing to set his pride aside and bow down to others?

The Old Sa Man Shaman walked shakily to the side of a table, with the help of the staff in his hand, sat down, and poured a cup of tea, “Sect Leader Bai, please get up. If you need to say anything, you can do it standing up.”

But Bai Tan did not move at all, “This junior begs for the half piece of Rengu Nian Bead.”

“So, this was what it was about. Why does Sect Leader Bai need to do this? Hasn’t this old man already promised to lend you the Rengu Nian Bead for you to create the illusion? Since you have obtained Rengu Nian Bead for this old man, this old man definitely wouldn’t go back on his promise. If you want to know what happened back then urgently, this old man can create it for you now, it isn’t impossible.”

Bai Tan was stunned, and desire flickered by in his eyes, but he slowly shook his head. After a moment of silence, he spat out one sentence with difficulty, “This junior doesn’t want to borrow the Rengu Nian Bead, this junior wants to have the Rengu Nian Bead.”

Hearing his words, Mi Lansheng wasn’t very surprised and thought to himself, it seems like he found out he doesn’t have much time left, it’s no wonder he’s acting like this. No matter how arrogant he is, no matter how difficult it is for him to kneel, even he has to concede when facing the Lord of the Underworld.

The Old Sa Man Shaman didn’t say a word for a while, then gave out a long sigh, “I can understand why you would want the Rengu Nian Bead, but this Rengu Nian Bead is the sacred item of our Sect. It is of utmost value to us but now that there is only half a bead left, even if it were placed back on the altar, it wouldn’t have its original effect. We can give it to you to save yourself, but……”

Bai Tan understood, he knew that he was raising conditions and hurriedly said, “Elder, please do tell. If the Elder is willing to give the Rengu Nian Bead, as long as it is within this junior’s means, junior will definitely do whatever it takes, even if it entails hardships.”

“You heard what that person had to say earlier, what he said was not wrong. This matter not only has something to do with our sect’s survival, but, before the Solar Devouration, we need to go to the Tian Zhu Shrine, in the depth of Heavenly Mountain……”

Mi Lansheng continued the sentence, “Therefore, the treasure map that is with Sect Leader Bai……”

Bai Tan stood up, dusted the ends of his robe off, and was a little upset. He’d almost forgotten that he still had a bargaining chip in his hands, hah, why was he in such a hurry to kneel? All that pride was gone now that he’d knelt!

He straightened his back, “No problem, this junior is willing to use the treasure map as an exchange. However…… this treasure map is in this junior’s mind, and this junior’s mind, well, doesn’t work really well. The memories often get jumbled up, and when in a hurry, it can’t remember a single thing. Elder, why don’t you relieve your junior’s burning issue first?”

At the end of his sentence, he reached a hand out towards the Old Sa Man Shaman, asking for it shamelessly.

Mi Lansheng was shocked and rendered speechless, seeing his complete change of personality in just a split second.

The Old Sa Man Shaman too couldn’t help laugh a little, he shook his head, and took a porcelain bottle out from his sleeve, “If that is the case, draw the treasure map out first and this old man will give this Rengu Nian Bead to you.”

“This junior will try his best, but with an urgent issue at hand, this junior can’t be sure if it would be drawn correctly.” Bai Tan agreed easily. He then turned his head and said to Mi Lansheng, “Sect Leader Mi, I’ll trouble you to bring writing materials over.”

A short while later, Bai Tan was done. With one hand, he brought the rough sketch of Vishnu drawn on a sheep leather to the Old Sa Man Shaman and with the other hand, he reached out to ask for the item, “This junior can only remember so much for now, some details might have been missed, but they will definitely be added in future when remembered.”

Mi Lansheng looked at him, and thought this kid, he was simply a fox, so cunning.

“Forget it, Elder, give it to him first. We can only place our hope on the treasure map now.”

The Old Sa Man Shaman passed the porcelain bottle to Bai Tan, “Sect Leader Bai, by giving this Rengu Nian Bead to you, this old man has made true to his promises. However, you shall no longer have the chance to find out your Shizun’s past. In the future, please do not pester this old me for this reason anymore. There are things this old man can’t say and it should stay that way.”

Bai Tan held the porcelain bottle in his hand, his fingers slowly closing over it tightly.

“Could it be that once the Rengu Nian Bead is used to create the illusion, it can’t be used to save a person’s life anymore?”

The Old Sa Man Shaman shook his head, “You can’t get two uses out of a single bead, Sect Leader Bai, you will have to choose. This old man thought that between the two, your life is more important. The dead one has passed, so please learn to let go of this bad obsession. You and Wu Yanfu were disciple and master once, even if it was an ill-fated relationship, the earlier you end it, the better it would be, and the earlier you can forget about it.”

“Who said that I* couldn’t let go of it. Of course… life is important.”

Mi Lansheng heard the youngster mumbling, seemingly to himself, poured out the halved Rengu Nian Bead from the porcelain bottle onto his palm, stared at it for a good while before holding it up to his mouth, raising his head and his Adam apple rolled.

He then turned around and quickly wrote on the treasure map for a bit, cupped one hand over the other fisted hand in a greeting towards them, “Many thanks, this life-saving kindness shall never be forgotten. The treasure map has been completed. Sect Master, Elder, kindly accept it.”

At the end of his sentence, he turned around and left in a hurry.

After returning to the room, and closing the door properly, Bai Tan finally uncurled his tightly gripped hand, walked to the bed and helped Gui Yu’er up. Li Wuzhang looked at him, puzzled, only to see Bai Tan parting Gui Yu’er’s mouth with a finger pressed on either side of her jaw and stuffed a white sphere that was held between two of his fingers into her mouth. He couldn’t help but be stunned for a while before finally making sense of what had happened.

“This is…… a Rengu Nian Bead?”

Bai Tan nodded.

Li Wuzhang suddenly wore an unpleasant expression, he caught his hand, and reached two fingers into Gui Yu’er’s mouth, wanting to take the Rengu Nian Bead out. Bai Tan was shocked and with the strike of a palm, he resolutely pushed him aside.

“What are you doing?!”

Li Wuzhang looked at the tip of his fingers. The Rengu Nian Bead dissolved upon consumption and he had only managed to pick up a tiny smidgen of powder. He suddenly pounced towards Bai Tan and was about to smear the powder onto Bai Tan’s lips.

Bai Tan was unprepared and was pushed down. Instinctively, he struck back swiftly and hit a few of his acupoints. Li Wuzhang’s fingers hovered a mere half a finger distance away from Bai Tan’s lips and they were still trembling slightly. Seeing that the precious smidgen of powder on his fingertips was about to dissolve and disappear in the blink of an eye, Li Wuzhang’s eyes instantly became red.

“Shidi……Eat it, why aren’t you eating it?”

Bai Tan laughed, “What use will this small bit have? Can it make me live a long life, without resentment or fear?”

“It can’t.”

Bai Tan reached over to push his hand aside and undid the acupoints, “Then, forget about it, what use do I have for it?”

Li Wuzhang pushed himself off the floor, his hands trembled silently… I’m only afraid I won’t even get to see the day when you become the Wu Lin Overlord. That was what he thought, but he wasn’t able to muster the courage to say it.

He couldn’t tell if he was afraid to say it to Bai Tan or to say it to himself.

He stood up and walked straight towards the door, “Sect Leader, it isn’t early anymore. Your subordinate shall leave now.”

Bai Tan hummed in response, sat back on the bed, and checked Gui Yu’er’s pulse.

Li Wuzhang was in the corridor, looking around, trying to see if Fu Lu was already there. Instead, he happened to catch a glimpse of another familiar face. That person was tall and slim, he had lithe footsteps and despite having put on a disguise, having been a Hu Fa together for almost ten years, he would still be able to recognize the person, even if the person was reduced to ashes.

Behind Si You, there was a girl in the prime of her life and he recognized that person too. She was the well-known disguiser of Jiang Hu, Yan Ruyu. It had been over ten years since she was sent to the Xi Ye Palace by Wu Yanfu, who was once the Grand Advisor of Xi Ye and was, now, a supervisor in the palace. It was difficult to invite her if it wasn’t for a high reward or a person of a certain status in Wu Lin. Her appearance at the Great Wu Lin Assembly was really rare.

Could she be here to compete as well?

Li Wuzhang subconsciously felt that this was no ordinary matter. After seeing Si You approach a zen room on the fourth floor, he searched for a window and flipped out of the building. Maneuvering along beams and walking on high walls, he came to the window of that zen room and moved closer to eavesdrop.

Translator: Crispyfry

Proofreader: Grumpykit

QC: Xiao

Xiao’s Comments: I love how petty Bai Tan is, lol. What? I knelt even though I still have a trump card?! Now my pride is gone, lol.

Chapter 46 Chapter 48

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