Chapter 4 – To Spy For Information
To carry a person on the back while traveling a distance of thirty miles, Xu Xing Zhi was truly exhausted. A mere wrapping of the chain around the arms, a little packing here and there, he was ready to flip in and sleep.
Just with his disabled hand, it was already an extertion to hold a bowl, to grasp the chopsticks. a.s.sa.s.sination was such a meticulous task, seemed like he will have to search for another opportunity.
It was after Xu Xing Zhi fell into a slumber that the bamboo door once again opened soundlessly from the outside.
Meng Zhong Guang ambled from the outside. He had already changed his clothes.
An unlined hemp headcloth garment, whiter than the snow. The intersection of the clothes was embroidered with a dragon cloud pattern and the back was decorated with ink painted patterns. The crown was beautiful, garnished with a misty green color long sash, a contrast against his black like ink hair.
But his outerwear was still the long robe that was stained with blood, dyed with scorched black.
He silently kneeled at the edge of the bedside and he pulled Xu Xing Zhi"s right hand and cushioned it beneath his face like a pillow. His vision was slated sideways as he looked upon the sleeping Xu Xing Zhi.
Meng Zhong Guang"s gaze carefully glided onto the tightened lips, the fullness of the throat, the undulating chest, nervousness, apprehension, trepidation, akin to looking at a vase that may scatter into pieces any moment.
He did not know how long he had been staring, he simply could not be sure that Xu Xing Zhi was alive. His finger slowly traced towards Xu Xing Zhi"s body until he reached and opened the layer of thin coat on his body. His fingertip pressed on where the heart was, feeling the strong and powerful heartbeat underneath the skin.
Thump, Thump.
Meng Zhong Guang unveiled a seam of a satisfactory yet touched smile. A soft whisper: "Senior brother, you are back, back to home……"
Accompanying the soft whisper was Meng Zhong Guang"s breathing gradually becoming unstable.
The corner of his eyes seeped wisp of blood, the original bright and clear pupils were dyed in scarlet. The end of the eyes and the cinnabar at the center of his brows faintly revealed a terrifying ray of sunset light.
Likewise, his fingers were trembling badly and his nails gradually elongated. Looking at how close he was to tearing open Xu Xing Zhi"s skin layered above the heart, Meng Zhong Guang forcibly suppressed down any urge and swiftly pulled his hands back. He clutched tightly at his own wrist.
Five deep to the bone injuries were slashed onto his wrist. It was only after seeing the presence of blood that the blood red color on his eyes gradually faded away.
Xu Xing Zhi"s eyelid twitched as if he sensed something.
Meng Zhong Guang was unwilling to stay at this place any longer and he barely managed to seal his valve. He relied on his last seam of reasoning to remove the outerwear and covered it on Xu Xing Zhi"s body. He then turned and exited to the outside.
Meng Zhong Guang clashed onto someone as he walked out of the bamboo door.
Zhou w.a.n.g frowned and reached out her hands to support him: "Brother Meng?"
Meng Zhong Guang pushed away her support, he took a breather and coldly asked: "What issue do you have?"
Zhou w.a.n.g had seen Meng Zhong Guang fell ill too often. If he was to lost control of his emotions, it was a definite rampage, only blood could calm him down.
The good thing was that Meng Zhong Guang never crossed any lines. He never once touched any underlings even during times of insane violence. As such Zhou w.a.n.g was not fearful of him and she honestly answered: "This is my first time meeting Senior Brother Xu, I wish to talk to him."
Meng Zhong Guang controlled the rapidly beating heart, saying: "Senior Brother is still sleeping, you stay outside and wait, wait until he is awake."
Zhou w.a.n.g clasped her folded palm(1): "Yes."
Her eyes followed the stumbling Meng Zhong Guang to the tower"s bronze gate before she turned back and whistled. A push of her hand and she directly went inside.
Xu Xing Zhi was shocked awake by that push. He sat upwards and the robe that was covering him fell to the ground.
He was born with a body of coldness. It slipped his mind to properly cover himself before sleeping. The outer gown was unknowingly opened up. This one nap, and his feet and arms were a layer of frost.
He sneezed and there was no time to think about who helped to cover his body with this robe. He hugged this outer robe with a body temperature to warm him up first.
Zhou w.a.n.g asked: "Cold?"
"A little." Xu Xing Zhi was sizing up Zhou w.a.n.g as he rubbed his palm.
She had already removed that two huge swords. Even though she was wearing a set of brown coa.r.s.e texture, she was born was a natural snow white skin. She was like how a disheveled hair with a dirty face(2) could not cover away brilliance ray of light.
She noticed Xu Xing Zhi"s gaze and laughed: "My uncle was right."
Xu Xing Zhi: "???"
Zhou w.a.n.g hugged her arms as she smiled: "The one with the surname Xu is impetuous and unrestrained, even more without any slight integrity in personality and speech, a glance at a woman and he will not be able to move."
Xu Xing Zhi: "……what else did he say?"
Zhou w.a.n.g said: "He said if you dared to harbor any bad intentions toward me, I am allowed to dig out your eyeb.a.l.l.s."
……Xu Xing Zhi wad deeply accused.
While Xu Xing Zhi loved the beauties to the point that tall or short, fat or thin ladies he would look a few more times. However, he had never developed any dally thoughts, not to mention, kids the age of Zhou w.a.n.g.
Xu Xing Zhi shrugged his shoulders, magnanimous said: " Beauty was born to the world, it is a treasure, to look was to see lesser, the beauty today and the beauty tomorrow differs, a few more glances will contribute to the society, how can it be counted as impetuous?"(3)
Zhou w.a.n.g: "……"
In between the silence, she caught sight of the left hand bound to the bedside. Her heart was settled a little, showing a "serve you right to get chained" happiness.
Xu Xing Zhi was not angry, the left hand grasped the hinge and naturally knocked on her forehead gently: "That"s right, this is what a child should look like, pulling a long face, acting like an elderly, that should not be the case."
Zhou w.a.n.g was stunned by that knock, she covered her forehead and looked at him.
She abided by the instruction of Zhou Bei Nan to come and indirectly lure out some words from Xu Xing Zhi, yet this conversation was led by him.
Xu Xing Zhi asked her: "You are called Zhou w.a.n.g? Is Zhou Ben Nan your uncle?"
Zhou w.a.n.g found this person to be intriguing and curiosity rose in her heart. She imitated how a guy would sit, with a leg on the kneel, leaning on the wooden carving railling at the head of the bed: "En."
Xu Xing Zhi estimated her age: "You came in together with your uncle?"
Zhou w.a.n.g: "Around there. It has been close to thirteen years already."
If he was in front of other people, Xu Xing would still have to be mindful of his speech and actions, however, this girl at his side, he will not have to specially restrict himself.
Afterall, she had never seen him before, at most she heard from Zhou Bei Nan mentioning about the stories of himself, she probably only knew half the story.
If there was a possibility, Xu Xing Zhi could actually enquire about the wilderness from her.
He asked: "Why were you and the rest throw into the wilderness?"
Zhou w.a.n.g looked at Xu Xing Zhi, her eyebrows slightly scrunched: "My uncle, they say I was young and refused to tell me the details……Moreover, as to how we ended up coming here, Senior Brother Xu was unaware?"
Xu Xing Zhi: ……oh no.
She was a relatively smart lady, not easy to fool.
If you want to talk to smart people, you naturally have to change your tactics, Xu Xing Zhi snapped open the fan, and fanned himself several times: "I did not think that they would not even let go out a child."
Zhou w.a.n.g"s corner of the mouth turned, she pushed her palm open and fiddled with the coc.o.o.n scar on the palm: "I was not born when I entered the wilderness. After my mother and uncle were exiled into the wilderness, my uncle lost his life in order to protect my mother. If not my Uncle Lu who stabilized my uncle"s soul in his talisman, and then gave him his essence, my uncle"s soul could have long scattered."
Xu Xing Zhi slightly frowned: "How did Zhou Bei Nan die?"
Zhou w.a.n.g answered: "He doesn"t remember."
Regarding this point, Xu Xing Zhi did not find it strange.
Ghost cultivation controls the dead bodies along with the ghost soul as the main force of attack. As the top ghost cultivator, Lu Yu Jiu clearly belonged to the latter, As for the souls, it can be categorized under light ghost and dark ghost.(4)
Those who still retain their memories were called "light ghost". They minds were clear, and their power was no different from that of their lifetime. They were strong before birth and equally powerful after death.
Those ghosts with vague memories were collectively referred as “dark ghost”. When they died, some of their souls had been damaged, lost, or still attached to the remnants of their lives. They were not freed from their damaged sh.e.l.ls. Therefore, they left in a disordered and confused manner, and their power was greatly reduced compared to before their death.
And the only reason why the ghost became a "dark ghost", was because their death was horrible that the spirit was broken and spilt into pieces. It was even painful to reminisce about their death.
Xu Xing Zhi found it hard to imagine what happened back then.
According to the owner"s scattered memories, there were four immortal gates and each gate guarded a creation artifact.
The cool valley guarded the “Tai Xu bow”, Ying Tianchuan kept “Li Hen mirror”, Danyang peak guarded the “Cheng Ming sword”, and the Fengling Mountain where the original owner was staying at was guarding the “Shi Jie Book.”(5)
Meng Zhong Guang was a spirit demon, robbing the artifacts and then exiled into the wilderness, that was more than logical. However, Zhou Bei Nan was the son of Tianchuan Island, why did he and his sister wanted to steal the artefacts?
And why was it necessary?
As Xu Xing Zhi"s thoughts were spinning, Zhou w.a.n.g asked: "Senior Brother Xu, what happened to your left hand?"
Xu Xing Zhi glanced at the rosewood hand with a hole, pitifully said: "Are you talking about this hole? It was pierced just now."
Zhou w.a.n.g cannot help but chuckled: "Who asked you about the hole? I am asking you why was your hand amputated?"
……indeed, why?
To be honest, Xu Xing Zhi was not clear.
It seemed to be when he was five years old, he was too mischievous, while playing, his whole arm was accidentally slashed his palm with a knife, blood flow like a stream, he fell ill and burned for three days. After a month, he woke up to discover that he had become disabled.
Thankfully that heaven still left him another limb, thinking about it doesn"t seem so bad.
As such, now that he mentioned about his left hand, Xu Xing Zhi could not help but remembered how his father took care of him during this incident.
Now that he was in the wilderness, he did not know how the time flowed outside, how were his father and sister doing outside.
Thinking to this point, Xu Xing Zhi was somewhat lost in thoughts and he was unwilling to cut a long story short: "……hard to explain."
Zhou w.a.n.g threw out the second question: "You have been outside for so many years, did you search for your eldest brother Xu Ping Sheng?"
……en?
With this question, Xu Xing Zhi was certain that this little lady was sent by Zhou Bei Nan to dig out some information from him.
The trickiest thing was that he rummaged through his memory and couldn"t find the memory of the owner"s brother.
After all, whether this person exist or not was a problem, what should he then answer?
If he continued with her words, will he be trapped by her words?
In a few moments, Xu Xingzhi had a solution.
Xu Xingzhi looked at Zhou w.a.n.g"s eyes and said one word at a time: “I don"t have a brother.”
This answer made Zhou w.a.n.g brows wrinkled: “But…”
Xu Xing Zhi had a hard time interrupting Zhou w.a.n.g"s words, lying backward, holding his head with one hand and feeling indifferent: “I don"t have any elder brother.”
Outside the tower, Zhou Bei Nan, who was controlling the spirit and was listening to the dialogue between the two people, satirically raised his mouth and said: “Last time, Xu Xing Zhi always thought about his brother in a thousand ways whenever he"ve gotten something good. Now he finally knows that his brother is not a good thing.”
The reply ghost mask youth Lu Yu Jiu gave was simpler and ruder: “Xu Ping Sheng is a b.a.s.t.a.r.d. Serve him right that Senior Brother Xu doesn"t recognize him.”
Zhou Bei Nan pressed the at the ear side and gave an order: “Ah w.a.n.g, ask him, why did he come to the wilderness? Who sent him?”
However, Zhou w.a.n.g had yet to asked anything out and Zhou Bei Nan heard Xu Xing Zhi"s lazily said: "Zhou Bei Nan asked you to ask me?"
Since she was seen through, Zhou w.a.n.g did not bother to conceal anymore. She asked straightforwardly: “My uncle"s doubt is reasonable. For thirteen years, no one has seen you, and could not find your whereabouts. After so many years, why did you suddenly enter the wilderness?”
Xu Xing Zhi glanced at Zhou w.a.n.g and his fingers motioned a hook: "Come here, I will secretly tell you."
Zhou w.a.n.g naturally placed her ears towards there.
Xu Xingzhi"s eye was attracted and a glimmer was found in the stone earrings on the right side of Zhou w.a.n.g.
His eyes and hand were swift, and in one go, he reached out and pinched at the earring hard.
This earring was created by Zhou Bei Nan"s spiritual energy and it linked directly to his eardrums. Now that it was pinched, he was like a cat that had its tail stepped on and jumped. Covering his ears while raining curses: "The one with the surname Xu, I □□ your uncle!"
Xu Xing Zhi: "HAHAHAHAHA."
Zhou Bei Nan"s face was blue as he held his head, and he pointed to the round mark: "You wait for me!"
In a flash, the earrings in Xu Xing Zhi"s palm turned into a spider as big as a compa.s.s.
Xu Xingzhi"s smile gradually became sluggish.
Until the spider"s thin and furry legs started moving at his palm that he violently swung his hands away, making a terrible scream.
This time it was Zhou Bei Nan patting his thigh and laughing boisterously: "HAHAHAHAHA."
Gooseb.u.mps stood up all round Xu Xing Zhi"s body, he pulled the gold chain straight to the edge of the bed. He was so frightened that he was trembling, from the inside to the outside, his bones were soft as if in between his bones were densely covered with small bugs. So uncomfortable, he felt like he was dying.
At this moment, the bamboo door was opened by someone.
Meng Zhong Guang rushed in a panic: "Senior Brother?? What happened?"
Xu Xing Zhi had yet to answer. He only saw that thin limbs of the spider moving, following along the bed"s legs and was climbing up to the bed.
In his mind was a buzzing sound, he jumped out of the bed and thrown himself into Meng Zhong Guang"s embrace. Both feets leaving the ground and hanging at his neck, his tears almost dropping: "……Bug!! There"s a bug there!!!"
End of Chapter 4.
Translated at rrrrhexiatranlations
The author has something to say:
Senior Brother: Who can help me swat these insects to death, this body and life will belong to you.
Zhong Guang[swat the insects to death]: Senior Brother, you see……
Senior Brother: Go away! Don"t come near me with that hand that touched the insects!!
Zhong Guang:……QAQ
Footnotes:
(1)
(2) Describing living condition is bad
(3) "美人生于世间，即为珍宝，看一眼便少一眼，今日之美和明日之美又不尽相同，我多看上几眼是功德善事，怎么能算孟浪？” so, if someone could give me a better translation, i will be grateful
(4) 明鬼与暗鬼, literal translation will be Bright ghost and Dark Ghost hahahah, if you have a better suggestion please comment?
(5) Tai Xu = void, Li Hen = to part and hate, Cheng Ming= Clear and bright, Shi Jie = world
I need a list of cultivation glossary that suits this novel