Chapter 70: This Venerable One Returns

Chu Wanning wasn't some weakling that just anyone could threaten.

There was a flash of golden light—Mo Ran could've sworn he saw some

kind of weapon in Xia Sini's hand, but it was gone in less than an instant—

and then both of Xiaoman's hands had been sheared clean off, wrists and all.

Xiaoman screamed and stumbled backward. He had only one usable

limb remaining, now that even his hands were gone.

The hands that had seized Chu Wanning dropped to the ground. Chu

Wanning stood up, enraged, his expression dark as never before. His lips

moved slightly, like he might say something. In the end, he seemed too angry

for words and turned away, his face pale.

Mo Ran rushed over and pulled him close. "Shidi, are you okay? Are

you hurt?"

In Mo Ran's arms, Chu Wanning only shook his head, too disgusted to

speak.

Despite everything, the Xiaoman in front of them was merely an

illusion of someone who had once lived two hundred years ago. Chu

Wanning wiped the blood splatters from his face. "As you saw," he said

quietly, "staying here won't be any safer for me than going out with you. I can

take care of myself. I won't slow you down."

Mo Ran had heard about his little shidi's skill from Xue Meng, but he

had never seen it for himself until now. It was, admittedly, quite eye-opening.

"Sure, you're pretty impressive, but…"

Chu Wanning pushed harder. "I'm also familiar with all kinds of

weapons, so I can give you pointers from the side."

"But…"

Chu Wanning lifted his eyes. "Won't you trust me, just this once?"

Mo Ran fell silent.

"Shixiong." Chu Wanning had meant to emphasize the sincerity of his

words, but with this young, tender voice, it came out all softly adorable

instead, almost like he was acting cute. When Chu Wanning heard his own

voice, he was flummoxed.

Mo Ran blinked, then started rapidly scratching his head in confusion

and going, "aaaah," before burying his face in both hands. A long moment

passed with his face thus buried before he said, "That, um, see, I'm just

worried that…you, uh…"

Two whole lives, and this was the first time a kid had called out to

him so sweetly. Mo Ran felt genuinely, incredibly close to the boy at this

moment, as if they were blood brothers.

When Mo Ran hated someone, he hated them to the bone, but to those

he cherished, he was extremely tender. When he finished clawing at his head

and finally looked back up at Chu Wanning from where he was crouched, the

tips of his ears had turned red.

If only he'd really had a little brother, maybe he wouldn't have been so

lonely.

Unfortunately for Mo Ran, his reaction was noticed. Chu Wanning

hesitated a little, then said experimentally, in a small voice, "Shige."

"Shige" was an even more familiar form of address than "Shixiong."

Mo Ran braced his forehead against a hand. He was seriously at his limit,

unable to even form words.

Chu Wanning glanced knowingly at Mo Ran and mentally filed away

this weak point. He figured that since he was, at present, already in a child's

body, and since Mo Ran hadn't the slightest idea who he actually was, there

was nothing to be embarrassed about. He opened his mouth again, and out

came a soft, saccharine sweet: "Ge."

"…"

"Gege."

"...…"

"Mo Ran-gege."

"Aaaaaah! Okay, okay! I'll take you, I'll take you! Stop saying that!"

Mo Ran jumped to his feet, face bright red, and rubbed at the goosebumps on

his arms. "All right, fine. Come along, then. You win, okay? You win. Oh my

god."

Hands clasped behind his back, Chu Wanning tilted his head and

smiled a tiny smile. "Let's go, then."

As he walked leisurely toward the door, he heard Mo Ran mumbling

quietly behind him: "Where in the heavens did he learn that from? I nearly

died from the sugar overload, holy crap…"

Chu Wanning had originally been in a dreadful state of mind after what

happened with Chu Xun, but now he felt the gloom in his chest slowly lifting.

Then he heard Mo Ran ask: "Oh yeah, what was Shidi going to say

earlier?"

Chu Wanning turned around and replied evenly, "Ah. That."

"Hm?"

"I forgot."

Mo Ran eyed him.

"If I remember it later, I'll tell Mo Ran-gege then…"

"Aaaaaaaah—stop! Don't say that one! Shixiong is fine! Shixiong is

enough!" Mo Ran waved his hands frantically.

Chu Wanning's eyes were like a pair of deep puddles, and the corners

of his lips quirked with a hint of a smile. "If you say so, Shixiong. Anyway, I

think the ghost king will show up soon. This illusion is based on the

memories of survivors, and those survivors have left Lin'an by now, so it

probably won't last much longer."

"That makes sense… We should be able to get out once we defeat him,

right? I'm gonna find whoever it was that manifested the illusion and tried to

kill us!"

Chu Wanning nodded. "Fortunately for us, judging by his battle with

Chu Xun earlier, this ghost king isn't too strong. In fact, he might be the

weakest of the nine kings. Although the illusion has been manifested, it seems

to me that whoever did it probably thought I was an ordinary six-year-old

and didn't expect me to be able to help take care of this."

Mo Ran nodded along. "Sounds about right."

Chu Wanning continued, "So rather than saying that he tried to kill us,

it would be more accurate to say that I was never part of the equation. In

truth, he's only after you, Shixiong."

Mo Ran nodded even more vigorously. "Checks out."

"After we get out of here, Shixiong must make sure to tell Xue Meng

about this. Something is afoot in Peach Blossom Springs, and we have to be

careful from here on out. Though let's not dwell on that for the time being.

Shixiong, please lead the way. I won't slow you down."

Chu Wanning's prediction was spot-on. By three in the morning, the

massacre in the city was winding down. A bloody rift cracked open the sky,

and green smoke poured over the wreckage to solidify into the shape of a

hunched-over man.

The man's eyes were bright scarlet, and his skin was ashen pale; half

of his body had flesh and skin, but the other half was stark, exposed bone. He

stalked through the corpse-littered city with a black banner in tow, absorbing

the pain and resentment of the newly deceased as he passed.

Mo Ran studied the man's face from where they were hidden. "So

that's him?" There was a hint of relief in his voice.

It was obvious to Chu Wanning why he sounded relieved, but he had

no intention of revealing himself yet, and a six-year-old wouldn't know this

sort of thing. So he looked up at Mo Ran with feigned cluelessness. "What do

you mean?"

"You guessed right. The nine kings of the ghost realm differ in strength,

and this one is indeed the weakest among them," Mo Ran said in a quiet

voice as he watched the figure approach from behind a window. "We lucked

out."

"What does Shixiong think of our odds?"

"Ninety percent. Always best not to be too confident, you know?"

Chu Wanning smiled a little. He of course knew that "the Skeleton

King" was the weakest of the nine ghost kings, but strength was relative.

Even though Mo Ran wielded the holy weapon Jiangui, at his age and with

his experience, facing the Skeleton King alone would still push him a bit.

Unfortunately for the person plotting against Mo Ran, the kid by his

side wasn't just some rookie from Sisheng Peak, but Chu Wanning himself.

"Help me…"

They were about to spring out the door with a surprise attack when a

weak voice called out from behind them.

"Ah, he's still alive?" Mo Ran's eyes were wide as he turned to look

at Xiaoman, curled up in the back.

"I don't want to die… Dad… I don't want to…"

Chu Wanning looked at the young man huddled in a rumpled heap of

rags and shook his head. "In truth, this person likely died as soon as he

stepped in here. He's only still alive in this illusion because we happened to

be here and killed the undead that were after him. Thus some things have

turned out differently."

"Ah…" Mo Ran sighed. "If he hadn't defected, do you think that

maybe Chu Xun wouldn't have died two hundred years ago? That maybe

Lin'an wouldn't be a pile of ruins now?"

"Maybe."

However, they both knew that no matter what they did now, the past

was the past. The important thing now was to defeat the Skeleton King and

escape this illusion. There was no reason to delay, so they charged out of

their hiding place, killing everything in their path.

Escaping this illusion proved to possibly be even easier than they'd

thought.

Mo Ran knew exactly what he had to do and immediately engaged the

Skeleton King. However, as Chu Wanning watched them face off, he felt a

wave of uneasiness. It wasn't because Mo Ran was struggling. To the

contrary, under his guidance, Mo Ran maintained a solid upper hand. Even

so, more and more Chu Wanning got the feeling that…the person behind all

this had planned it all far too precisely.

That was to say, that person had carefully assessed that it would be

extremely difficult for Mo Ran and one other person of average skill to

escape this situation alone. Yet he also hadn't deployed anything more deadly

so as not to arouse suspicions of foul play. His goal had been to make it look

like Mo Ran had died in a training accident.

Who exactly was this person who plotted so meticulously against Mo

Ran's life? Was it really that fake Gouchen from Jincheng Lake?

Chu Wanning observed the ferocious battle between Mo Ran and the

ghost king. The longer it went on, the more Mo Ran came out on top, and as

the sky slowly lightened, the ghost king's strength gradually waned. Victory

was all but at hand.

Just then, in the horde of undead and demons sealed behind Mo Ran's

spell, Chu Wanning saw the face of a living person.

"Who's there?!"

Standing amidst the walking corpses, this person's face was half

shadowed beneath the hood of his cloak. From this distance, all Chu Wanning

could see was a sharp chin, sweetly colored lips, and a gently curved nose.

A single look and Chu Wanning could tell that the man didn't belong in

the illusion of two hundred years past. He hadn't assumed any kind of

fighting stance and just stood there, shrouded under his hood, looking in the

direction of Chu Wanning and Mo Ran. When he saw that Chu Wanning had

noticed him, he smiled faintly, then lifted a hand and swept it across his neck

in a "kill" gesture.

Chu Wanning cursed under his breath and lunged in an attempt to

capture him.

However, the figure only smiled with the crimson lips and ivory teeth

under his hood, and mouthed what looked like, "Goodbye."

Then he turned and disappeared.

"Stay right there!"

It was useless. The sky brightened, layers of fish-scale clouds painted

across it.

The fight between Mo Ran and the ghost king ended with a final blow.

The moment that Jiangui sheared the ghost king's head clean off, sending foul

blood flying everywhere, their bodies abruptly flew up. That sunrise of old

Lin'an from two hundred years ago and the ruined wreckage of that city, all

of it sped away in a blur.

Thump!

When Chu Wanning hit the ground again, he found himself back in the

trial cave.

Mo Ran was also there, dropped on the ground next to him and

covered in blood from the fight, though mostly not his own. He was laid out

on the ground, evidently still too tired to get up, only gazing at Chu Wanning

with those pitch-black eyes. A few moments passed, then he lifted a hand and

gently poked Chu Wanning's forehead. "We made it."

Chu Wanning made a soft sound of assent, but his expression was dark.

"I saw someone in there just now."

"What?"

"It was probably the one who manifested the illusion."

Mo Ran rolled up into a sitting position, his eyes going wide. "You

saw him? You saw him! Did you see who it was? What did he look like?"

Chu Wanning shook his head, brows furrowed. "He was wearing a

hood, so I couldn't see clearly. Based on the figure, he's probably male,

fairly young, and thin, with a pointed chin…"

He didn't voice the rest of his thoughts. He felt like that half a face had

looked vaguely familiar, as if he had seen that person somewhere before,

long ago. He also couldn't shake the feeling that he might be mistaken. It had

only been half a face after all, and there were plenty of similar-looking

people out there. He couldn't really be sure.

He was deep in thought when he felt Mo Ran pat him on the shoulder.

"Shidi."

"What is it?"

"Look over there." Mo Ran's voice was low, and a chill ran through it.

Chu Wanning looked in the direction he was pointing.

It was Eighteen. At the entrance to the trial cave, Eighteen hung from

the ceiling, both eyes bulging outward, the embroidered satin shoes on her

feet swaying in midair.

She was dead, and there was no wind. Judging by the angle of her

body's sway, the murderer had just left.

However, the thing that turned their faces pale was the murder weapon

cinched around her neck. It was a willow vine with sharp, blade-like leaves.

The vine coursed with a fiery red light that crackled, erupting with sparks

that fell together with the drops of blood.

Jiangui.

The thing that had strangled Eighteen and that now hung her from the

ceiling of the cave was none other than the holy weapon Jiangui.