Chapter 98: Looks Like There's Trouble

"You eat too!"

Ruan Xing shoved a pair of chopsticks into Cai Wen's hand. The latter sat down in fear and trepidation, his gaze darting between the Demon Lord and the Fairy on the table, then back to Ruan Xing.

If one were to judge the two by their appearance with the naked eye, they would indeed seem no different from ordinary people, but Cai Wen had been almost inseparable from A Jiao, and he quickly sensed the discordant Death Qi emanating from the other two at the table.

More importantly, when the Demon Lord opened his lips to devour, he saw faint suture marks inside the mouth.

With a complex and incredulous expression, he asked Ruan Xing in a low voice, "Are these two... also?"

Ruan Xing's thoughts shifted, and she immediately knew what he was thinking. She nodded and said, "Yes, but the situation is a bit different from A Jiao's."

"I see." Cai Wen lowered his head, seemingly deep in thought.

The Fairy also noticed A Jiao sitting beside Cai Wen with a vacant expression. She frowned, her gaze cold as frost, "Didn't you say that I and he were your first?"

"No, Fairy, that sounds a bit ambiguous..." Ruan Xing hurriedly waved her hands. "The two of you are indeed my first, I didn't lie to you. As for this child, I can explain."

The Fairy looked at her with a questioning gaze. Ruan Xing continued, "Didn't I say before that I obtained this Puppet Technique by chance? It had to do with an old Daoist who practiced evil arts. That old Daoist would either trick or kidnap children in the city to refine several puppets, and this little girl was one of the victims. Later, that old Daoist provoked me and was killed by me. I found that technique on him, and I took over all the puppets he had refined. Look, this is the child's grandfather; once I found out, I sent the child back to him."

After listening, the Fairy closed her eyes. A few seconds later, she said, "Fine, you didn't lie."

She explained, "The cultivation method I practice can discern the hidden emotions and malice of others. Your emotional fluctuations were normal just now, and you held no malice toward me, so you didn't lie."

"Heh, still using that old trick? Using that thing to distinguish good people from bad is not accurate at all," the Demon Lord laughed out loud.

The Fairy retorted seriously, "No, it is very accurate."

The Demon Lord raised an eyebrow and smiled, "Then test me. Do I hold malice toward you?"

The Fairy hesitated for a moment and said, "... No. But I did before."

"The past is the past, and now is now. I lied to you before, but am I lying to you now?"

"You have. You just lied to me saying that ghosts and gods consume Incense Fire to know the taste of humans, and after I offered three sticks of incense, you tricked me into eating..."

"Alright, stop, hold it." The Demon Lord interrupted her, feeling somewhat awkward. "No need to go into details. So you didn't detect that I was lying just now, right? Then your cultivation method isn't accurate."

"... It seems so." Upon hearing this, the Fairy fell into deep thought.

Seeing this, the Demon Lord began to laugh triumphantly again.

Ruan Xing listened to the two big shots bickering like elementary school students and, feeling somewhat speechless, took another bite of a meatball.

Cai Wen finally finished thinking. Looking at Ruan Xing, he said with some difficulty, "I have an ungracious request..."

Ruan Xing was waiting for the rest when Cai Wen suddenly left his stool and knelt on the ground.

She choked slightly and hurriedly helped him up. "No, if you have something to say, just say it properly. There are so many people outside."

Fortunately, as a big client who had ordered a table full of Spirit Food, the private room they had partitioned off with screens was quite spacious, and the screens blocked the view. Otherwise, if people saw a man nearly seventy years old kneeling to a young girl, they would think she was bullying someone.

Cai Wen bowed solemnly with cupped hands, "Please, Gang Leader Ruan, do me this favor. I wish to entrust Nannan to you."

"Ah?" Ruan Xing was surprised. "You are already at Qi Refining Level 8; reaching Foundation Establishment shouldn't be too difficult. After Foundation Establishment, your lifespan will extend to two hundred years. You have plenty of time ahead. With the Soul Nourishing Wood, A Jiao will slowly regain her Divine Soul. Why entrust her to me?"

"Gang Leader Ruan is willing to think of me and gift such precious Soul Nourishing Wood to Nannan; it must be because I am of use to you. I entrust Nannan to you, firstly because my master disdains her, and I cannot keep Nannan by my side at all times. Secondly, Nannan is my only weakness; only if you accept Nannan will you feel at ease and trust me. Thirdly, regarding Nannan's current condition, I believe staying by your side is much better than staying by mine."

Cai Wen finished his three-point argument with clear logic, and at the end, he even glanced at the other two big shots on the table.

Ruan Xing rested her chin on her hand and hesitated for a moment. Accepting the puppet Cai Jiao would not affect her in any way. It was impossible for her to treat Cai Jiao with such meticulous care as Cai Wen did. Anyway, Cai Jiao had no Divine Soul and no strength; keeping her in the Storage Bag would suffice, and she could even let her rub against her two large pieces of Soul Nourishing Wood to accelerate the repair of her Divine Soul.

Moreover, with Cai Jiao in her possession, she wouldn't have to worry about Cai Wen betraying her. After all, Cai Wen was a politician; he had spent so many years in the imperial court, and she hadn't seen much loyalty from him toward his monarch.

"Accept her. This child is quite pitiful," the Fairy suddenly spoke, her expression compassionate yet cold. "Besides, I can feel more at ease if she is with you. If she stays outside and happens to absorb too much evil energy and goes on a rampage, I won't be able to finish her off immediately."

She sympathized with the child's plight. Although it wasn't her fault that she had become a puppet, if the other party became an evil entity that brought disaster to the world, she would not be soft-hearted.

"You joke, Fairy. She doesn't have that capability," Ruan Xing added, then said to Cai Wen, "Fine, I will accept her. But you must also improve your cultivation as quickly as possible, gain the Sect's trust, and participate in internal affairs. Try your best to inquire about that... unspeakable news without drawing attention."

The unspeakable news was the Boundary Tree. Everyone who had seen the Boundary Tree could never mention it again after leaving the Secret Realm.

Cai Wen nodded, "Understood."

Ruan Xing was about to give a few more instructions when the Demon Lord suddenly sat up straight, "It seems someone is coming to cause you trouble."

Needless to say, this was the result of the Demon Lord's Divine Sense sweeping around.

A question mark had just appeared over Ruan Xing's head, and she hadn't had time to ask what was going on.

The next second, the entire restaurant collapsed like building blocks. The surrounding buildings spread outward like dominoes. The cold moonlight shone on the ruins, and dust filled the sky.

Fortunately, the Demon Lord was quick; he grabbed her by the back of her neck and flew out of the restaurant. He looked down at his feet and clicked his tongue, "Shouldn't have paid for the meal in advance."

Is this the time to care about the meal money!? Ruan Xing looked down, shaken. In the dark night, the bustling scene of the mortal world had turned into a scorched, war-torn version. Cultivators and mortals in the distance heard the commotion and hurriedly fled to safer places. Those slightly closer who were affected by the Spiritual Power shockwave lay on the ground unconscious, while most of the mortals and low-level cultivators in the restaurant had already become a puddle of mush. Those cultivators who possessed high-quality protective Dharma Artifacts were on their last breaths, barely managing to keep their bodies intact.

The Fairy grabbed Cai Wen and Cai Jiao with her left and right hands respectively. Neither of them had any obvious injuries. After the aftermath subsided, she landed and set them down.

Seeing the tragic scene before her, the Fairy was enraged, "Truly audacious! To have no regard for the innocent in a town! Such conduct is no different from demons! Die, you thief!"

Amidst the dust and chaos, a cultivator wearing a black bamboo hat hovered above the ruins. The Fairy immediately attacked and began to fight him. "Who is that person? Why would he come to kill me?" Ruan Xing was bewildered. She didn't remember offending such a Golden Core Stage cultivator.

And in her previous simulations, there was no such event...

Wait, in her last simulation, the two big shots accidentally captured Xu Sixi and the others while grabbing people. After exiting the Secret Realm, Xu Sixi attacked her.

So in reality, after she trapped Xu Sixi to death in the Secret Realm, she thought she had already escaped this disaster.

She didn't expect someone would still come to kill her. Could it have been sent by Elder Xu? But he had no evidence at all; on what grounds would he think she killed Xu Sixi?

"The Fairy doesn't seem to be able to beat him," the Demon Lord sighed helplessly. "She is not familiar with using Yin Qi, and she has no usable Spirit Tools or Dharma Artifacts on her. Fortunately, that person seems to have just reached the Golden Core Stage not long ago and is not yet accustomed to his own strength, so they can temporarily do nothing to each other. Honestly, why be so impulsive at her age?"

"Then, Demon Lord, aren't you going to help her?" Ruan Xing asked.

The Demon Lord pursed his lips, "You think it's just him? There is a Golden Core Late Stage and two Foundation Establishment Early-stage cultivators who haven't made a move yet. If I go to help her now, your little life will be gone."

Ruan Xing's heart sank. The other three people the Demon Lord mentioned were likely Elder Xu and his remaining personal disciples. She hadn't expected that killing a Foundation Establishment Mid-stage cultivator like her would actually warrant Elder Xu coming in person.

"Can you win?" she asked cautiously.

The Demon Lord raised his eyebrows and said bluntly, "Eighty percent chance I can't. I can only exert the strength of a Golden Core Early-stage right now. However, I can try to help you stall them for a while later. You take the opportunity to run. Their target is you. If you can find a safe place to hide, it won't be difficult for me and the Fairy to escape."

"Alright, then I'll leave it to you, Demon Lord." Ruan Xing took a deep breath, took out her Sect Jade Token, and threw it on the ground.

They must have found her through this path.

It was a pity... originally, she didn't want to leave the Xuanbing Sect, but there was no other way now. Once the Fairy and the Demon Lord made a move, Elder Xu would definitely see that they were not proper cultivators, but evil entities burdened with Yin Qi. Even if Elder Xu acted against her privately, it was still an act that violated Sect rules. With this handle, Elder Xu would not only be blameless but would also be credited for this.

Perhaps seeing that Ruan Xing and the Demon Lord had been slow to act, Elder Xu finally lost his patience. He appeared and sneered at Ruan Xing, "No wonder. So you are the mole colluding with the Demon Sect."

Although Ruan Xing did not consider herself to be in collusion with the Demon Cultivator, she truly did not care much for the lives of those fellow sect members in the Secret Realm, and she had even used Xie Huai's hand to kill Xu Sixi and the others; furthermore, as she was now standing with the Demon Lord, no one would believe her no matter how she defended herself, so she asked in a deep voice: "You didn't know it was me and yet you came to kill me; aren't you afraid the Sect Master will hold you accountable?"

"The Sect Master? He can barely protect himself; in half a month it will be time for him to step down, so will he still have time to uphold justice for you?" Elder Xu laughed twice, and without waiting for Ruan Xing to continue her verbal sparring, a long-handled ruyi-shaped Dharma Artifact appeared in his hand, its cloud-patterned top shedding a brilliant green light.

The Demon Lord flicked his long sleeves, pushing Ruan Xing away from the area, while he himself stepped lightly and flashed in another direction, immediately gathering Yin energy in his hands to condense into a dense sphere that he smashed toward Elder Xu.

Elder Xu swung the long-handled ruyi again, and under the stimulation of his Spiritual Power, the green light surged, smashing the Yin energy sphere apart; the scattered Yin energy was like continuous silk mist, surrounding Elder Xu's sides, and whenever it touched even a bit of skin, it would twist and burrow inside like a leech, but a vibration of Elder Xu's protective Spiritual Power blocked the Yin energy, leaving it unable to advance or retreat.

Seeing this, the Demon Lord remained indifferent, his mouth opening slightly to reveal gums stitched together with black threads and ghastly white teeth; with a forceful inhalation, a gust of wind formed a small vortex in his mouth, and the silk-mist-like Yin energy, mixed with Elder Xu's protective Spiritual Power, was uncontrollably sucked into the vortex.

Seeing that the Demon Lord could handle it, Ruan Xing no longer hesitated, turning to step onto her Flying Sword and running in the direction of the Six Suns Study.

For her right now, the safest place was neither the Xuanbing Sect nor Yunyang City, but that Mortal Dynasty.

The Six Suns Study would not let others discover their greatest secret; this unknown dynasty and that ingenious Boundary Tree—as long as Elder Xu discovered them, he would surely die.

As for whether she could survive by then, that remained to be seen.

She had seen the Boundary Tree, so the Six Suns Study would not worry about her leaking their secret, but it was hard to say what attitude the Six Suns Study had toward Ghost Path Evil Cultivators, even if their cultivation techniques and the hidden dynasty didn't seem particularly orthodox.

She had flown out for less than a few seconds before she was intercepted again.

This time it was Elder Xu's two personal disciples; they seemed relatively familiar with each other and coordinated tacitly, entangling her steps, and although Ruan Xing's cultivation was slightly higher than theirs, she unexpectedly fell into a disadvantage for a moment.

The time the Demon Lord had bought for her could not be wasted like this.

Ruan Xing made a prompt decision and released Fu Qinghong's Puppet.

This Puppet retained strength at the Foundation Establishment Late Stage, so it should have no problem dealing with Elder Xu's two disciples, but it was just a pity that it would likely be destroyed here and would not wait until he regained his consciousness.

She hadn't expected that her momentary soft-heartedness would become her lifeline at this moment; was this what they meant by good people getting good rewards? Ordering Fu Qinghong to attack and drag the two down, Ruan Xing used her Sword Control Technique again to prepare to leave, yet a loud noise suddenly entered her ears.

She subconsciously looked toward the sound, just in time to see the fairy's snow-white dress mixed with blood fluttering, falling like a butterfly that had lost its balance, landing in the ruins of the restaurant and kicking up a small mushroom cloud.

The Golden Core Cultivator wearing a black bamboo hat pursued the victory, the light on his Sword shining as he flew rapidly toward the center of the mushroom cloud.

The Demon Lord, distracted while using the Devouring Great Art, exerted a powerful suction force to deflect the direction of the Sword, while Elder Xu also seized the opportunity to strike a beam of green light toward Ruan Xing's direction.

From the moment Ruan Xing saw the green light to being struck by it, less than a single breath of time had passed; the 【Guard】 Talisman she had been wearing since she left the Xuanbing Sect flashed with a faint light and then disappeared, and Ruan Xing spat out a mouthful of blood, her body flying backward like a kite with a broken string.

Her back hit the broken walls of the building on the ground, and the powerful force caused her to break through the wall and be dragged along the ground for several dozen meters.

She only felt that all the bones and tendons in her body had snapped, blood was constantly bubbling from her ears, nose, and mouth, and her vision had become incredibly blurry.

She wanted to sit up and eat a Healing Pill, but no matter what, she could not make even the slightest movement; her spine might have already broken.

No way... to perish halfway before becoming an immortal, to die before one's mission is accomplished...

Ruan Xing thought of random things in her mind to divert her attention so as not to let the pain take away her consciousness; she barely lifted her eyelids, as if she saw a dazzling white light.

Then it seemed someone gently picked her up, and her whole body sank into a mass of cold water.

Those hands, moving with such gentleness, were incomparably icy.

Thanks to Hopeful Drifter for the monthly ticket~ Thanks to MidoriQ for the monthly ticket~ Thanks to Haoning for the monthly ticket~(End of chapter)