Chapter 281: Anyway, I'm Alive—Come Over and Beat Him Up!

As soon as Cai Mao finished speaking, the air inside the bar instantly seemed to solidify.

Bai Mu Yun and Lu Mu simultaneously changed expression; no shock or sorrow showed on their faces, but the thin mist lingering around Cai Mao suddenly thickened, pressing him so hard he could barely breathe.

"Y-You, s-said, w-what?"

Lu Mu's voice seemed to be forced out between his teeth, each syllable halting.

Cai Mao heard that and his scalp instantly went numb, every hair on his body standing up.

"W-wait, wait! No! He's not dead... uh, that also seems wrong..."

Cai Mao flailed his hands in panic, his words incoherent as he tried to correct himself, but it only made things darker.

"What I mean is... he died, but— but not completely dead!"

Bai Mu Yun's brows knit tightly, the irritation in his eyes nearly turning into tangible flames.

Cai Mao's rambling not only failed to clarify the situation, but made the claim that Ying Duo was dead sound even stranger.

What does it mean to be dead yet not completely dead?

At that moment, something that others couldn't see seemed to pop up before Cai Mao's eyes.

He froze on the spot, his gaze fixed unblinkingly on the void ahead; the panic on his face was gradually replaced by concentration, and he stood there dumbfounded.

He seemed to be watching something...

Bai Mu Yun and Lu Mu exchanged a glance, their tense nerves finally easing a bit; since that kid Ying Duo could still send messages, he probably wasn't completely dead.

Cai Mao's behavior likely stemmed from having received a message on Ying Duo's Team Channel.

"He contacted you?" Bai Mu Yun's voice remained cold, but was clearly softer than before.

Lu Mu also squinted, restraining some of the overflowing shadow energy, yet his gaze still stared at Cai Mao unkindly.

Cai Mao snapped back to his senses, nodding repeatedly as if clutching at a lifeline, then quickly shook his head, his expression tangled as if he had just swallowed a fly.

He stared at the Bai Mu Yun and Lu Mu before him, unaware when that thin illusion had been withdrawn; both the unmistakably nonhuman traits on their bodies and Bai Mu Yun's Gold Horizontal Pupils that seemed to pierce the heart gave him an urge to turn and run.

Yet the Ying Guang Lu messages in his view kept bombarding him, asking about the situation here.

Cai Mao hesitated repeatedly, but in the end couldn't resist the pressure from Ying Duo.

He closed his eyes, gritted his teeth, and went for it.

"What exactly did he say?" Lu Mu tapped the table impatiently, having watched Cai Mao's face‑shifting performance for quite a while.

He had never seen an expression so expressive before.

Pressed by their gazes, Cai Mao drew his neck back, swallowed, and plastered a smile uglier than crying onto his face, then began cautiously:

"Um... Ying Duo asked me to repeat his words to you, word for word..."

On his way here, Cai Mao did a lot of mental wrestling, considering, among other things, simply telling the Church people the news about Ying Duo and this bar to prove his innocence.

Along the way he thought a lot, but what made him hesitate most was the bizarre 'awe' some held for Ying Duo, as if the so‑called 'Holy Son' were a deity.

But the Slum folk never believe in gods.

That feeling was too strange; he couldn't gamble on it, nor dare to, and if they had to carve a way out for themselves, why couldn't that path be the force behind Ying Duo?

In the face of survival, sometimes choosing a side is riskier than staying independent, yet it may also be the only way to live.

Thinking that, Cai Mao mercilessly closed his eyes; having come this far, there was no time for regret, so he mimicked Ying Duo's usual carefree tone and began to repeat:

"Ying Duo said: 'Tell those two in the bar, especially that perpetually sour‑faced goat and that noisy crow...'"

"Bang!" A chunk of the table corner in front of Lu Mu was sliced away by shadow, wood shavings scattering.

The hint of his world‑weary sarcasm vanished completely: "Who… is… the… crow?"

Cai Mao was so frightened he nearly bit his tongue, and quickly waved his hands.

"Exact words! Ying Duo's exact words! Even with ten times the courage, I wouldn't dare call you that!"

Bai Mu Yun raised his hand, signaling Lu Mu to calm down; within his Gold Horizontal Pupils a storm seemed to be brewing.

"Continue."

"Ying Duo said... that Heresy Tribunal's 'Little Red Flower', uh, Chi Jinan, suspects Ying Duo's identity."

Cai Mao wiped the cold sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand, forced himself to keep speaking, wishing he could say it all in one breath.

"Then Little Red... cough, Chi Jinan didn't choose to erupt on the spot; instead he dragged Ying Duo over to this side of the Slum. Ying Duo guessed he probably wanted to bury him in a trash heap with a better view."

"And then," Cai Mao's tone gradually took on a hint of Ying Duo's detached attitude, even sounding a bit like a complaint.

Bai Mu Yun thought for the first time that, despite Ying Duo's terribly awful taste, the original piece was decent in every way.

At least hearing Cai Mao repeat Ying Duo's tone made him feel a bit nauseated.

"His move was pretty dark; my current cultivation level can't match it, the gap is too big, and then 'I' watched 'myself' get pierced straight through by his Blood Crystal."

"At that moment I thought I had to reload the save... hmm, in short, I survived."

Cai Mao couldn't interpret Ying Duo's 'unique terminology', so he could only recite it verbatim.

"So!" Cai Mao took a deep breath and shouted Ying Duo's final, most 'essential' request in as faithful a righteous tone as possible, emphasizing that these were Ying Duo's exact words:

"He told you—this is his exact wording, 'Hurry up, don't dawdle! Bring anyone you can rally, especially that cheap teacher I just met, over here to beat that guy up, and while you're at it let me soak up some experience, thanks!'"

"Oh, right."

Cai Mao quickly added another line, his voice dropping, but the content remained chilling.

"He also said they're now following a 'familiar' toward the Sixth District, and Ying Duo mentioned that person looked somewhat familiar, maybe the 'Flower Butterfly' who was especially good at pretending at the last auction, hmm, still pretty good at pretending now."

The recitation was finished.

The little bar fell into a death‑like silence.

Cai Mao bowed his head, daring not to watch the two opposite faces, only hearing his own heart pounding wildly in his chest and the crisp clicking of Lu Mu's finger joints.

He didn't know whether he wanted to fight Chi Jinan or land this punch on some Ying Guang Lu head.

Bai Mu Yun slowly lifted the glass of strong liquor on the table, tipped his head, and drank it down in one gulp.

He set the cup down; the bottom struck the tabletop, producing a crisp "tap".

"Lu Mu." Bai Mu Yun's voice was frighteningly calm; he smoothed his cuff, which had no thread, and moved with composure.

The Little Ghost who begs to be beaten, his knack for causing trouble and the tone he uses to command people have actually improved as his hair grows longer.

"Hm?" Lu Mu squeezed a syllable out between his teeth.

"Go down and inform our esteemed minister."

"Tell him, his 'good student'........." Bai Mu Yun paused, as if searching for a suitable word.

"We are actively securing research material for him; now we need a bit of firepower support."

Lu Mu twisted his mouth open, revealing a grin full of bloodlust.

"Got it, a group beating, right? I like that."