Recalling Sang Luofu's attempt to remove his own bones, and Lin Shuhe's description of "methods," Shen Gurong asked Xue Manzhuang, "How did you notice her bones were all jumbled up?"
"I've seen so many beauties over the years; I know the bone structure of a beautiful woman inside and out," Xue Manzhuang said proudly, patting his chest as he transformed into human form. "Beauty lies in the bone structure, not just the skin. I saw her ugly appearance at a glance!"
Shen Gurong glanced at him.
After speaking, Xue Manzhuang tilted his head in confusion. "Hmm? When have I seen so many beauties?"
It seems his past memories are playing tricks on him.
Shen Gurong continued to lean back in his soft chair, watching the rain curtain falling from the eaves.
Afraid of saying the wrong thing, Xue Manzhuang squatted beside Shen Gurong's soft chair, looking up at him pitifully, "Your Majesty, should I stop them for you?"
Shen Gurong said, "Let them be."
Xue Manzhuang could only agree, continuing to squat beside him, staring at him intently.
After a while, even the narcissistic Shen Gurong blushed under Xue Manzhuang's intense gaze. He glared at him and said, "Don't stare at me. Don't you have anything to do?"
Xue Manzhuang shook his head, "Right now, the most important thing is to be with you."
Shen Gurong looked at him strangely. He had never been spoken to so directly about love before, and the experience was quite novel.
Qingyu was still fighting with Sang Luofu. Shen Gurong, determined not to leave the area, decided to find some amusement for himself.
He said to Xue Manzhuang, "Say a few more words."
Xue Manzhuang asked blankly, "Say what?"
Shen Gurong replied, "Sweet nothings."
Xue Manzhuang was known for his directness. Before losing his memory, he had no idea about courtship when he met Shen Feng Xue. He bluntly asked Shen Feng Xue to be his cultivation vessel, completely lacking any romantic flirting skills.
But seeing that Shen Gurong really wanted to hear it, he could only say shyly, "My beauty, you are so handsome. I want to cultivate with you."
Shen Gurong: "..."
Shen Gurong kicked him out of the barrier.
Xue Manzhuang wasn't angry. He splashed the water off himself and ran back, asking, "Is this sweet nothings?"
Shen Gurong's face was ashen. He finally realized that Xue Manzhuang's "I'll be with you" was just an unusual performance. He really shouldn't have had any expectations of this little red bird whose mind was full of thoughts of cultivation.
Shen Gurong got up and walked towards the backyard of the clinic. Xue Manzhuang followed behind, splashing water from his clothes onto Shen Gurong.
Shen Gurong said, "Don't follow me."
Xue Manzhuang said, "I can't, I have to protect you."
"Protect me?" Shen Gurong looked at him suspiciously. "With what? Your cultivation level is only at the Foundation Establishment stage?"
Xue Manzhuang said seriously, "I'm willing to give my life for you."
The words "give my life" were too heavy for Shen Gurong. He shook his head, ignoring Xue Manzhuang who was willing to risk his life for beauty, and followed his memory back to his room.
After entering, he realized that this was Mu Zhe's residence.
Recalling Lin Shuhe and the missing medicine from last night, Shen Gurong immediately abandoned the idea of returning to his own room and sat down on the soft chair as if he weren't an outsider.
The wooden puppet also followed, dutifully serving him tea. Shen Gurong thoughtfully stroked the palm-sized wooden puppet, his gaze drifting to the bed beside him. Suddenly, the scene of him clinging to Mu Zhe and acting coquettishly last night uncontrollably flashed through his mind.
Shen Gurong blushed and muttered, "He's still a child. Why were you acting like that with him?"
The puppet, thinking he was speaking to it, leaned down and asked, "What did Your Majesty say?"
Shen Gurong coughed, trying to maintain his cool and dignified demeanor: "Nothing. Don't worry about me."
The puppet had no choice but to continue standing beside him.
Shen Gurong scolded himself, then inadvertently noticed a corner of the soft pillow on the bed, as if something was covering it. Too lazy to move, he gestured to the puppet to bring it to him.
The puppet obediently rummaged around and brought over a glass bottle.
Shen Gurong looked it over. This must be the glass bottle that Mu Zhe had shoved into his arms last night, the one that had been poking him. Mu Zhe had said it was a spiritual medicine?
However, spiritual herbs are generally rare and usually kept in storage rings. Why then was this bottle uniquely placed in Mu Zhe's possession?
Shen Gurong's curiosity had caused him countless deaths. Staring at the spiritual energy swirling within the glass bottle, he curiously asked the puppet, "What's in here?"
The puppet replied, "I don't know."
Shen Gurong tilted his head, thinking that since it belonged to Mu Zhe, he shouldn't touch it.
Perhaps his gaze was too focused on the glass bottle, because the puppet mistakenly thought he wanted to know what was inside, it offered to help the Holy Lord.
The puppet said, "I'll take it out for you."
Shen Gurong was startled and quickly said, "No..."
Before he could finish, the puppet's wooden hand cleanly and decisively crushed the glass bottle.
Shen Gurong: "..."
The spiritual energy, after emerging from the glass bottle, vanished into the void, its whereabouts unknown.
Shen Gurong frantically looked left and right, searching for a long time but unable to find the "spiritual medicine." He could only glare at the wooden puppet.
The puppet, puzzled, asked, "What are you looking for?"
Shen Gurong said, "Looking for the spiritual medicine. Have you seen it?"
The puppet rubbed its fingertips together, rummaging through the broken shards of glass, but found no trace of the "spiritual medicine," and gently shook its head.
Shen Gurong rubbed his temples, feeling a headache coming on.
How was he going to explain this when Mu Zhe returned? He couldn't very well say that his master was greedy and had eaten his spiritual medicine, could he?
As he pondered this, the motionless puppet suddenly raised its hand with difficulty, its robes seemingly gleaming faintly.
“Your Majesty,” the puppet’s voice was calm and even, yet strangely unsettling, “There’s someone outside the clinic, plotting something sinister.”
Shen Gurong glanced out the window, not paying much attention. “Didn’t Lin Shuhe say that no one is allowed to enter the clinic without his permission?”
The puppet’s joints cracked loudly, as if about to shatter. It stared blankly at Shen Gurong, its arm trembling violently, as if restraining something.
“Your Majesty, run!”
Shen Gurong was confused. “Run? Run what?”
The puppet, like a marionette, suddenly and unexpectedly attacked Shen Gurong’s neck with its previously suppressed arm, showing no mercy.
Shen Gurong’s pupils contracted. His body seemed to move as if propelled by something. By the time he reacted, he was already standing, taking a few steps back, his hand gripping the knife tucked into the puppet’s waist.
The puppet remained in the gesture of reaching out to him, but in the next instant, its wrist snapped cleanly at the root, crashing down with a thud.
Although Shen Gurong had lost all his spiritual power, Shen Feng Xue's combat instincts honed over the years remained. He cleanly severed the puppet's arm that was attacking him, then belatedly realized what had happened and frowned, saying, "You're under a spell?"
The puppet said, "Holy Lord, the medical clinic's barrier has been removed! Run!"
As it spoke, it lunged uncontrollably at Shen Gurong, but its clumsy movements made it impossible to catch him. Instead, Shen Gurong severed both of its arms with a few strokes.
The more Shen Gurong thought about it, the more something seemed amiss. The barrier around Lin Shuhe's medical clinic was likely set up by Su Xiyan; it was practically impossible for an ordinary person to break. How could it be so easily breached by a mermaid…
Wait?
A thought flashed through Shen Gurong's mind. The puppet had just said the barrier had been removed?
Lin Shuhe removed the barrier?! As he drifted into thought, a faint glow emanated from the spot on the puppet's clothes, as if activated by some kind of magic array.
Then, the light vanished abruptly.
By the time the puppet realized what was happening, Shen Gurong had disappeared.
The puppet: "..."
The puppet practically tumbled and crawled to its master's room, its hands gone, yet it still tried to knock on the door with its shoulders.
"Master."
Lin Shuhe was fast asleep and didn't hear it at all.
The other puppet stood expressionlessly at the door, ready to draw its sword and chase away any attempt to disturb Lin Shuhe.
The puppet stammered, "The Holy Lord, he's been...captured."
The drizzling rain suddenly turned into a torrential downpour, pounding against the eaves like broken beads, flowing into the narrow channels of Xianyun City and eventually into the moat.
When Shen Gurong regained consciousness, a damp, foul odor assaulted his nostrils, almost making him vomit.
Slowly opening his eyes, he saw a dilapidated Buddha statue, half-fallen, its walls collapsed. His wrists were bound by a binding lock, and his robes hung in the filthy puddles at his feet.
Completely ignoring his predicament, Shen Gurong cried out "Ah!" and lightly kicked his robes out of the puddle. However, this movement caused him to fall halfway into an even larger puddle beside him.
Even dirtier.
Shen Gurong: "..."
Shen Gurong nearly collapsed. His first thought was: Disciple, Master is dirty! Help!
Even after this initial reaction, Shen Gurong himself was startled.
Just then, a voice suddenly came from outside.
"Are you sure it's him?"
"Yes, he's definitely there. He was the only one in the clinic, and Lin Shuhe and I know him; there's no way we could mistake him."
"But... he doesn't look like Shen Feng Xue at all. If we've taken the wrong person, Sang Luofu probably won't pay us."
Shen Gurong was filled with doubt.
He was in what seemed to be a dilapidated temple in a remote area. The Buddha statue had collapsed, the roof was mostly exposed, and rain was pouring in. Fortunately, the people who had kidnapped him had some conscience and placed him in a place where he wouldn't get wet.
Shen Gurong frowned slightly. Sang Luofu... it really was her.
She actually managed to break through the clinic's barrier and kidnap him, or perhaps Lin Shuhe intentionally let Sang Luofu take him away?
As he was thinking, the two people who had been talking outside stepped into the puddles. Shen Gurong immediately closed his eyes and pretended to be dead.
The two people walked up to him and squatted down to look at him.
A booming, deafening voice boomed, "See? He can't possibly be Shen Feng Xue! If he were Shen Feng Xue, I'd be the Demon Lord!"
Another voice, sarcastic and chilling, said, "My teleportation array would never malfunction. Sang Luofu said it was the man besides Lin Shuhe, so it's undoubtedly him."
"But, but," the man said, "as far as I know, Shen Feng Xue should have entered the Daoist path in a mortal body, but this person... how does he look..."
Shen Gurong's heart skipped a beat as he heard the man finish speaking slowly and deliberately.
"...How does he look like a demon cultivator?" the man said. "Look, he even has fox ears."
Shen Gurong: "..."
Shen Gurong: "!!!"
Shen Gurong: Ahh ... Shen Gurong nearly collapsed.
“Ah,” the person said, “his ears twitched, is he waking up? Let’s ask him when he wakes up.”
“Anyway, my teleportation array won’t malfunction; he must be Shen Feng Xue.”
“Then shall we wait for him to wake up and ask him?”
“Wait for what? Just splash him with water to wake him up; he’s just a helpless person right now.”
“Ah? But there’s no water here.”
“Isn’t there water everywhere on the ground?”
Shen Gurong: “…”
The muddy water on the ground getting on Shen Gurong’s clothes was already unacceptable, let alone being splashed on his face!
Shen Gurong immediately stopped pretending to be dead, and slowly opened his eyes, feigning a leisurely awakening.
The man, already scooping water with both hands to splash, said, "Ah, he's awake."
He casually splashed the water, a smile spreading across his honest face. He said to the weasel-faced man beside him, "Big brother, he's awake."
The man called big brother nodded casually, his narrow eyes seeming to be coated with venom as he looked Shen Gurong up and down. He casually asked, "Are you Shen Feng Xue?"
Shen Gurong looked at him blankly. "Who?"
Big Brother frowned. "Don't play dumb. White hair, ice-white hair—you must be Shen Feng Xue."
Shen Gurong glanced at the lock of hair that had fallen into the puddle. The dark ink from the water had slowly faded, revealing its original white color.
Shen Gurong: "..."
Oh, wow.
The honest-looking man standing nearby said, "But his fox ears and the trace of demonic spiritual power in his body definitely don't belong to Shen Feng Xue."
The eldest brother frowned and said, "Why do you always argue with me? If I say he is, then he is!"
A man as sturdy as a small mountain said aggrievedly, "I'm just afraid of arresting the wrong person, and then innocent people having their bones ripped out by Sang Luofu for no reason."
The eldest brother sneered, "Hasn't she ripped out enough bones from innocent people over the years? Stop pretending to be a good person. Think carefully, are we good people?"
After berating "Xiao Shan," he turned to the innocent-looking Shen Gurong and coldly said, "Someone wants us to capture you and crush every bone in your body. Do you have anything to say?"
Shen Gurong: "..."
His elder brother added, "Last words."
Shen Gurong took a deep breath, feigning composure, and said calmly, "Then tell Lin Shuhe one thing: 'I will haunt him even as a ghost.'"
Even hearing that his bones would be crushed, Shen Gurong remained "calm." His elder brother became interested. He stroked his chin, a half-smile on his face, and said, "If Lin Shuhe had discovered this in time, he might have been able to save you before you died. Besides, you and Lin Shuhe are fellow disciples, with a deep bond. For... why leave those words behind?"
Shen Gurong glanced at him and said, "Like you'd believe me?"
The elder brother gave a cold laugh: "Speak, I'll make my own judgment."
"Alright." Shen Gurong pursed his pale lips slightly, lowered his eyes, and said softly, "Do you know why there are so few nine-tailed foxes in the world?"
Xiao Shan quickly said, "Because the Phoenix Demon Lord occupied the Tao Zhou Great Swamp, slaughtering most of the nine-tailed foxes, and then suppressed them for hundreds of years, so there are very few adult nine-tailed foxes."
The elder brother glanced at his useless younger brother and said impatiently, "Get to the point, stop with the nonsense."
Shen Gurong thought to himself, what's the rush? Shouldn't I find time to make something up?
He feigned deep thought: "That's one reason. Another reason, unknown to most, is that nine-tailed foxes are adept at transformation, able to freely transform into the appearance of anyone in this world, even mimicking their aura and spiritual power. Some powerful cultivators even freely plunder them, skinning them to create transforming magical artifacts."
The two were startled, exchanged a glance, and communicated telepathically.
Nine-tailed foxes have this ability?
It seems...right? After all, they're so skilled at bewitching people.
The elder brother took a deep breath, his gaze shifting slightly. "So you mean you're not Shen Feng Xue?"
Shen Gurong nodded. "My name is Gurong. Lin Shuhe and that bastard forcibly abducted me, forcing me to use my spiritual power to transform into Holy Lord Shen's appearance. Then they destroyed my elixir, turning me into a mortal. He knew Sang Luofu and Holy Lord Shen were enemies, and he knew she'd try to capture him, so he used me as a scapegoat."
Xiao Shan, looking burly but extremely sensitive, exclaimed in shock, "Ah? Is that so?!"
Even the cold-faced man's brow twitched slightly.
Shen Gurong, seeing the effect, pressed on, "Lin Shuhe is ruthless and cruel, willing to do anything for his junior brother, completely disregarding the life of a lowly demon like me. Tell me, if I were truly innocently killed by Sang Luofu's bone-ripping technique, wouldn't Lin Shuhe be the culprit? Should I become a vengeful ghost and seek revenge?"
Xiao Shan nodded vigorously, "Of course! Lin Shuhe is such a scoundrel!"
Shen Gurong nodded in agreement, "Exactly, such a scoundrel."
He suspected that Lin Shuhe deliberately removed the barrier so that he could be captured by Sang Luofu.
When they got back, he would definitely have to question his good senior brother about what he was plotting.
The elder brother looked at Shen Gurong suspiciously for a long time. Whether it was Shen Gurong's excellent acting or the uncanny detail of his actions, he was actually starting to feel a little uneasy.
But the most important thing was those fox ears. A man as aloof and noble as Holy Lord Shen would never wander the streets with such shameful fox ears.
It seems they've made a mistake.
A moment later, Shen Gurong gently wiped his eyes with a clean corner of his wide sleeve, saying gratefully, "Thank you both for your pity on my miserable state."
Xiao Shan also wept, saying, "Sang Luofu isn't a good person, and Lin Shuhe is no exception. I even thought he had miraculous healing powers."
Shen Gurong: "Exactly, exactly."
His elder brother frowned and said, "Let's go quickly."
Shen Gurong nodded slightly, turned around, and slowly walked away.
Once they were a little away from the dilapidated temple, the leisurely Shen Gurong suddenly turned and ran like a startled rabbit.
Ha, ha, ha, ha!
Shen Gurong! You're something else! My brother always says reading stories and listening to storytellers is useless, but look at all that! This is exactly what I needed!
So easily fooled! I'm perfect for performing in operas and telling stories!
However, he hadn't run far when his arrogant smile froze on his face.
In the open space not far away, Sang Luofu, covered in blood, coldly walked towards him, bone sword in hand.
Shen Gurong: "..."
Just out of one den of wolves, into another.
Comments
Post a Comment