Chapter 99: Why Don't You Listen

Ruan Xing reached out with effort, gripping the other's lapel. Her vision was blurred, but the tension of facing a powerful enemy and the fear of impending death suddenly faded significantly.

A faint Divine Sense probed outward; she could feel as if she were placed in a strange, shaped spatial tunnel filled with water waves, her ears filled with the sound of whistling wind.

So this is what the Ghost Escape Technique feels like.

Sword Lai was holding her tightly in his arms in a protective posture. The two were submerged in concealment, and he was running at full speed.

She tried hard to move her lips but found she could not open her mouth, so she gave up and asked via mental link: "Sword Lai? How did you come?"

Sword Lai replied: "I heard you calling me, so I came."

"I don't think I called you..."

The message Sword Lai transmitted seemed to carry a hint of stubbornness: "I felt you calling me."

Ruan Xing was speechless. "Fine, let's just say I called you. Thank you for coming to save me, but... wait, we can't leave yet!"

Sword Lai obediently stopped, but he did not withdraw the concealment state, instead waiting docilely for her next instruction.

They hadn't run far; they had already reached the edge and were still within the town's perimeter.

She hadn't thought to call Sword Lai before because the last time she saw him, she had waited for him outside Yunyang City for two or three hours. The time needed to cross the mountain pass was too long; by the time he ran over, the opportunity would have long since passed.

But she hadn't expected Sword Lai to arrive so quickly this time. She couldn't see Sword Lai's character panel, nor did she know which level his Ghost Escape Technique had reached.

She pondered that since Sword Lai was already here, they might not lack a chance of victory. Sword Lai's Ghost Escape Technique could deceive Foundation Establishment cultivators even when he had no cultivation; there was no reason it would be detected by someone of the same realm now that he was at the Golden Core stage.

If there was a chance to win, they could not leave. If they left, Ruan Xing would find it difficult to move in Nanzhou and would have no place to stay.

"Sword Lai, those three emitting black Qi are our own people. Go and try to see if you can launch a sneak attack on the most powerful one in the sky. If you succeed, kill them and come back to find me. If not, come directly to take me away," Ruan Xing ordered.

Sword Lai nodded, but he did not do it immediately, looking somewhat hesitant.

He was worried.

Because of the fight at the restaurant in the town center, most of the cultivators and mortals who could still move had run to the edge of the town.

They were currently in a state of concealment and no one had discovered them, but once Sword Lai left, the concealment could not be maintained. Ruan Xing was severely injured and almost unable to move; if they encountered other cultivators with malicious intent, it would be over.

Ruan Xing thought about it; this possibility was indeed high. Little did she know how many protagonists out there had encountered severely injured seniors on the road, finished them off, and reaped their inheritance. If it were her, she might do the same.

"Sword Lai, do you remember Cai Xueshi? He is also here. Take me to find him and have him look after me."

Cai Wen had just pledged his loyalty to her; he should do some work.

Just after the fairy saved them, Cai Wen had nimbly taken Cai Jiao far away from the center of the battle. As a mere Qi Refining stage, any aftermath of a Golden Core battle could leave them without a place to be buried.

Sword Lai carried her and leaped onto the roof of a tall building. Ruan Xing scanned a few places with her Divine Sense and found Cai Xueshi's hiding spot.

The town was in chaos, but leaving the town at night was also dangerous; Monster Beasts were everywhere in the mountains and forests outside. Therefore, Cai Wen had found an empty, low house at the edge of the town to hide in.

The two appeared from the air, giving Cai Xueshi a fright. He clutched his heart and reacted for a moment before realizing that the little girl covered in blood in the Pure White Youth's arms was Ruan Xing.

Sword Lai carefully placed Ruan Xing on a bed made of stone bricks; there was only a thin mattress on top, but it was still more comfortable than lying on the ground.

After putting Ruan Xing down, Sword Lai concealed himself again and left.

"Gang Leader Ruan, this is..." Cai Wen spoke with worry.

The things Ruan Xing had experienced seemed far more dangerous than he had imagined. He didn't know if it was good or bad that he had entrusted Nannan to Ruan Xing.

But fortunately, Nannan had no combat power; at most, she would lose her freedom and be kept in a Storage Bag, and would not be sent by Ruan Xing to fight others.

Ruan Xing coughed twice. "Please look after me; I am not convenient right now."

"Alright." Cai Wen steadied himself and, under Ruan Xing's direction, found the Storage Bag on her person and placed it by her hand. Ruan Xing laboriously channeled a sliver of Spiritual Power to take out a bottle of Healing Pill and had Cai Wen help her take it.

As the medicinal power dispersed, Ruan Xing gathered her spirit to mend her injuries. The bleeding had stopped, but she had multiple fractures, and the spine on her back was also somewhat dislocated; she would likely need to recuperate for a period of time.

After running her Spiritual Power to check, Ruan Xing breathed a sigh of relief. Fortunately, her Spirit Bone was not damaged, otherwise, it would be troublesome.

She closed her eyes and practiced healing for half an hour, but Sword Lai had not yet returned.

When it came to fighting, Ruan Xing didn't know how much strength Sword Lai currently had, but if it came to hiding and escaping, Sword Lai was absolutely unstoppable. Since he hadn't used the Ghost Escape Technique to escape back to take her away by now, he must have the advantage and be in complete control.

Cai Wen sat to one side, holding Nannan and staring blankly out the window.

Casting a Dust-Gathering Technique on herself, Ruan Xing took a set of clean clothes from the Storage Bag to change into, covering her lips to cough lightly: "Cai Wen... *cough cough*, carry me out to take a look."

"Now? It should still be very dangerous outside."

"It doesn't matter, just looking from outside; we won't go into the town center."

"Yes." Cai Wen had no choice but to carry Ruan Xing on his back.

An old man, carrying a little girl on his back and holding another in his arms, looked quite like the tragic story of left-behind children and a lonely old man.

The streets outside were very quiet. In the current situation, those who could run had long since run, and those who couldn't had found a place to hide like quails; no one would be idling on the street for no reason.

Messy items were scattered all over the uncollected stalls on the roadside. Cai Wen passed by and stepped on a flattened lantern, making some faint sounds. Ruan Xing alertly looked into a shop with a half-open door on the side of the road, meeting two pairs of slightly panicked eyes.

She decisively used her fastest Magic Art, Five Directions Water Row, to summon a water whip to trap the two Qi Refining third or fourth-layer cultivators inside.

After subconsciously using the Magic Art, she felt her Meridians aching faintly. No, she couldn't use Spiritual Power again for at least a few days.

"Senior, spare our lives! We haven't seen you..."

The trapped cultivators begged for mercy. Ruan Xing directly had the water whip seal their mouths. Only then did she feel the two cultivators looked a bit familiar; had she seen them when entering the restaurant, at the table closest to the door? Why weren't they dead? Could it be that they had already finished eating and left before the restaurant collapsed? Unfortunately, they had been too curious just now; seeing someone on the street, they wanted to see who it was, but after realizing it was the senior cultivator they had seen in the restaurant, they were too surprised and made a sound, catching Ruan Xing's attention.

Ruan Xing frowned and whispered to Cai Wen: "Kill them."

These two people had seen her in the restaurant. If Elder Xu died and the Sect investigation found these two people, then she would be a major suspect.

Even if her cultivation was too far from Elder Xu's and the case was very unreasonable, as long as she was involved, it wouldn't be easy to get clear. She didn't want to cause more complications because of Elder Xu.

Cai Wen did not hesitate; the two cultivators were bound by the water whip and had no power to fight back.

She took out from the Storage Bag the Corpse-Dissolving Liquid she hadn't used since she started cultivating immortality and had Cai Wen destroy the evidence. The physical quality of Qi Refining third or fourth-layer cultivators was still at the mortal stage; in no time, they became a pool of pus with a slightly pungent odor.

After dealing with it, Ruan Xing looked up at the sky. In the night sky, traces of cultivators could no longer be seen.

Had the battle ended?

Ruan Xing hesitated. She rarely used the mental link to communicate with the Demon Lord and the fairy, because it would make the two arrogant Spirit Severing cultivators appear inferior to her. After all, in the contract of the Puppet Technique, mental links were used to control, command, and suppress puppets.

However, she didn't dare to go over without asking about the situation.

After hesitating for a moment, Ruan Xing transmitted a message to the Demon Lord, asking him how the situation was now.

The Demon Lord was not angry, and soon told her that it was fine and she could come over now.

Ruan Xing hurriedly had Cai Wen carry her over. When she reached the ruins where the restaurant had once stood, the terrain and environment seemed somewhat different due to the battle that had taken place after she left.

On a patch of open ground that had been hastily cleared, the Demon Lord was half-kneeling, with the Fairy lying on his lap.

Ruan Xing had Cai Wen set her down on the ground, then instructed him, "Look around and see if there are any survivors; if there are, kill them."

These people had all seen the black Qi erupting from the Demon Lord and the others with their own eyes; if they were allowed to live and spread the word, the consequences would be unimaginable.

"I was thinking the same thing just now, but she wouldn't let me," the Demon Lord said with a helpless smile. "Don't tell her later."

"Of course," Ruan Xing nodded and asked, "What happened to the Fairy?"

"I don't know. Is she injured? Or exhausted? I don't know anything about Puppet Technique. Just now, I wanted to clear this place up, but she kept blocking me and wouldn't let me, and then she fainted. I tried to regulate her with Yin Qi, but it had no effect. You should know how to repair her, right? Take a look." The Demon Lord lowered the hand that had been supporting the back of the Fairy's head and let her lie flat on the ground.

Ruan Xing examined her with her Divine Sense. After all, the Fairy's body was a Puppet Body with Golden Core strength. Although she looked like she had been beaten badly, the actual injuries on her body were not even half as severe as Ruan Xing's. Once stitched up and slowly repaired with Yin Qi, she would be fine. However, inside the body, the meridians of this Puppet Body had been left in a mess by the Fairy trying to circulate Yin Qi through them.

"She seems to have tried to circulate her Qi through the meridians according to a cultivation technique... It's fine, she'll be better after a few days of recovery with Soul Nourishing Wood."

Yin Qi only needs to be absorbed and condensed; it does not need to be circulated through meridians like a Cultivator's. The Fairy was perhaps still unaccustomed to this Puppet Body and had subconsciously run a cultivation technique during the fight.

As for the Demon Lord's technique, it was based on devouring and refining, so it did not require circulating through meridians, which is why he had no issues using his technique.

Ruan Xing took out materials to repair the Fairy's Puppet Body, then placed it into her Storage Bag next to the Soul Nourishing Wood.

Perhaps in four or five days, the Fairy would wake up and be fine once released.

"What about Sword Lai? The one who came over to help you just now."

"I know, that's also your Puppet, right? You have quite a few Puppets." The Demon Lord glanced at Fu Qinghong, who was half-sitting on a broken stone wall not far away. "Just now, he suddenly appeared and heavily wounded that Golden Core Late Stage cultivator. Once he was injured, it was easier for me to fight. Then your Puppet went and killed the Golden Core Early-stage one and the two Foundation Establishment Early-stage ones; the corpses are over there. When the Golden Core Late Stage one saw that all his subordinates were dead, he tried to run, and your Puppet chased after him."

"Then why didn't you chase him? Are you injured?"

"No," the Demon Lord said bluntly. "My Yin Qi was depleted too much just now, and quite a few people died here, so I thought I'd replenish it."

In any case, that Cultivator was already heavily wounded; as long as the white-clad boy caught up to him, he would definitely be able to kill him, so there was no need for him to make an extra trip.

Ruan Xing rubbed her forehead. It was true; as a Demon Cultivator who had his own thoughts and did not submit to her, the Demon Lord's actions were not problematic, just a bit resentful—such a high-combat-power Puppet, yet not very obedient.

Fortunately, there was Sword Lai. Sword Lai already had Golden Core strength and was very obedient and well-behaved; truly a little angel!

She called Fu Qinghong over, preparing to check his body as well.

Fu Qinghong's situation was similar to Cai Jiao's; he belonged to the type that had absolutely no consciousness. Her mental link could only issue commands to Fu Qinghong, but Fu Qinghong would not respond to her through the link.

When Fu Qinghong limped over, Ruan Xing realized he hadn't sat down because he was tired, but because he couldn't stand anymore. She took out materials to repair him and put him into the Storage Bag. Cai Wen also returned after finishing his task. She had Cai Wen support her, and she began to clean up the battlefield and collect the spoils of war.

She also put the three corpses killed by Sword Lai into her Storage Bag; she would refine them into Puppets once her injuries were healed, especially the black-hatted Cultivator, as he was a Golden Core Early-stage one after all.

She had two pieces of Soul Nourishing Wood. If she used them sparingly, a thumb-sized piece of wood could be divided into one or two hundred pieces, enough to form a Puppet army.

She couldn't help but sigh, "If only the Puppets refined this time could be a bit smarter."

One could tell from Fu Qinghong that although he was Foundation Establishment Late Stage and was fighting two Foundation Establishment Early-stage ones, he had no consciousness and relied entirely on instinct to fight. He was not as strong as a normal Foundation Establishment Late Stage Cultivator at all. He and Fu Yu had even forced Xie Huai to use a self-destructing Dharma Artifact.

Now, he couldn't even beat two ordinary Foundation Establishment Early-stage ones.

Hearing this, Xie Feng couldn't help but laugh, "Have you ever thought that the reason the Puppets you refine have no consciousness is because this method is inherently like that?"

Ruan Xing was stunned, "What do you mean?"

"I don't know the principles behind your Puppet Technique, but for us Demon Cultivators, we don't like the tools in our hands to have their own consciousness. Take me for example; although I am nominally your Puppet, do I listen to you? I don't. Do you think I'm more useful, or is that obedient white-clad Puppet of yours more useful?" The Demon Lord smiled kindly, "After all, I have more experience being a Demon Cultivator than you do. Why don't you teach me this method, and I'll help you brainstorm."

Ruan Xing's internal alarm bells rang loudly, and she hurriedly refused, "That is quite unnecessary."

Just kidding; if the Demon Lord found out that his life and death were not restricted by her, she wouldn't have a life left.

Currently, the Demon Lord and the Fairy followed her and protected her—besides the inheritance she promised—only because they had dripped blood and made a contract, believing that if she died, they would die too.

Thanks to high school student Zhou Yingting for the tip~(End of chapter)