Chapter 25 - The peerlessly talented demon ba snake (8): Excess Infatuation Met With Heartless Indifference
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Translated by: Niladri
Edited by: celes
This chapter is sponsored by Rhavaniel. Also, special thanks to Anon
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After that, it seemed logical that they fell in love again.
Min was immersed in the joy of reunion, but he did not know that even if the soul was the same, differences in experiences would create different people. The Linyang County Lord was not the girl with unyielding love.
In the capital city, the Linyang County Lord was renown, not only because of her beautiful appearance but also because of her romantic affairs. The Linyang County Lord liked collecting all kinds of handsome men; she always used all kinds of means to get hold of them but soon got tired of them.
Prince Gong left the capital city and relocated with his family back to his fiefdom, simply because of this infamous daughter. In the capital city, except for the power-hungry and greedy ones, no aristocratic family would dare marry this kind of female, even if she was the ‘di-daughter’ of Prince Gong. [T/N: di nu= daughter of main wife.]
The so-called ‘unchanging mountains and rivers’ and ‘the leopard doesn’t change his spots’, that is, the Linyang County Lord remained unchanged even after coming to Linyang City. Even if Min was the first man to whom she took a liking to, he absolutely would not be the last.
Soon, the Linyang County Lord grew bored. Min however, was intent on keeping no secrets from his lover and told her he was a demon fox. The things that happened afterwards, Shi Kong told Lu Heng mentally, was that he was betrayed by his lover, causing him to lose his sanity and kill mortals, attracting the attention of senior monks of Fanyin Temple, and being sealed in the demon locking tower.
What happened after that, was different from what Lu Heng heard. Due to the trembling of the earth, Min, who was trapped in the locking demon tower, was able to escape by a stroke of fortune. He returned to Linyang City to look for the Linyang County Lord but was deceived by her, causing him to be chained in the trapping array laid by some unknown expert and thereafter, had his demon core taken out.
Lu Heng thought for a moment and asked, “You killed the maidservants of the Linyang County Lord?”
“I want to become a great demon by cultivating along the righteous path. How can I kill a mortal woman? Those mortals whom I killed in the beginning, were killed only because of my temporary insanity.”
Shi Kong and Lu Heng had examined the corpse of that maid; they really had died due to demonic powers. If they took the Linyang County Lord’s actions tonight into consideration, (the identity of the person) who had taken those maidservants’ lives was self-evident. She was only a mortal woman, from where did she get these secrets related to the demon clan?
The doubtful Lu Heng turned to Shi Kong and wanted to get answers from him. But he saw Shi Kong standing next to a bookshelf in a corner of the secret chamber, holding a book that looked quite a few years old and carefully reading it.
Lu Heng went over and took out a random book and discovered it to have the handwriting of the Linyang County Lord. It described in detail every man who had known her from acquaintance to dear friend to lover and finally to loathing, and Lu Heng stared at it in bafflement.
Lu Heng turned over to the back of the handbook, which was only full of things about Shi Kong, after trapping Min.
From the handwriting, one could see that the attitude of the Linyang County Lord towards Shi Kong was very different from that of previous men, which could be described as infatuated obsession. Perhaps, the things one couldn’t obtain were the best. For three years, the Linyang County Lord never looked at any other man again. Her sole focus was Shi Kong. Even when Prince Gong wanted to inform Shi Kong, she threatened to commit suicide.
Lu Heng looked at Shi Kong with a complicated expression. He never noticed that the latter’s charisma was so great. However, looking at the five senses of Shi Kong, despite having inky black eyebrows and an alluring face, his expression was always cold. Lu Heng suddenly understood the thoughts of the Linyang County Lord.
As if sensing Lu Heng’s stare, Shi Kong put down the book in his hand and sent an enquiring glance towards him.
Caught peeping, Lu Heng’s face grew red with embarrassment. He wondered if his current appearance was that of a seven or eight year-old young boy, timid and cautious. So, he fearlessly looked at Shi Kong and said, “What is written in that book?”
“Some things about the demon clan that should have been left behind by the experts who set up this array,” Shi Kong said. “Anything noteworthy in the books that you have?”
Lu Heng reflexively hid his hands behind him: “Nothing, just some miscellaneous notes.”
Shi Kong stopped speaking and did not ask any more questions. After searching a second time, they finally found the way to completely destroy the array in the bookshelf.
After Min was freed from the array, probably because the loss (of energy) was too much, his size shrank rapidly, turning into the size of a cat. Lu Heng picked him up and walked out of the secret room with Shi Kong.
Seeing Lu Heng and his party, two people and a fox, the Linyang County Lord, who was standing in the room, appeared panicky. Lu Heng thought that probably because she realized that her wicked deeds had been exposed, her heart was full of remorse. But after Shi Kong lifted her speech prohibition, Lu Heng discovered he really was too naive.
“Master Shi Kong, I have nothing to do with this fox. It was he who bewitched me with his ability!” Linyang County Lord said anxiously.
Although it was known that aristocrats of ancient times cared not a whit about the lives of servants, she still used evil techniques to commit a mass murder in her courtyard. Not only that, but upon being discovered, the Linyang County Lord actually had the audacity to utter such an excuse. Lu Heng was stupefied by her maliciousness.
“Do you have anything to say to her?” Lu Heng asked Min. “I can help you convey it.”
Min was silent for a long time, and in the end, he sighed: “I should have said everything on the day I came to see her; other words are completely useless now. Since she has no interest in me anymore, it’s over. However, it’s not proper for my demon core to stay in the body of a mortal.”
“Do you have a way to remove the demon core from her belly?” Lu Heng asked.
Min reluctantly raised his body, nodded, and then opened his mouth to spit out a ray of light. It could be seen that being attracted by that light, a bead gradually emerged from the mouth of the Linyang County Lord. The bead shimmered with a golden radiance; evidently, it was the core of a demon who cultivated on the righteous path.
The demon core fell into Lu Heng’s palm. Under careful examination, it could be observed that the demon core was shrouded in pitch-black miasma. It was probably because the Linyang County Lord’s method of cultivation was primarily an evil one, augmented by harming human lives.
“Do you have a way to dispel this black miasma?” Lu Heng looked up and asked Shi Kong.
Shi Kong nodded, rubbed his hands, and silently muttered a few holy verses; then the black miasma on the demon core slowly faded.
Lu Heng brought the demon core near Min’s mouth, urging him to retrieve it quickly. For the demon race, keeping the demon core separated too long would result in great harm.
Min actually shook his head and refused: “My spirit has been mostly absorbed by that formation, and my vitality has been cut off; giving the demon core to me is useless now.”
The Linyang County Lord who was still in the room started to hysterically rebuke: “You demon fox! You dare treat me like this!”
Min spit out a cluster of essence from his mouth and poured it into the Linyang County Lord’s body. Afterward, he spoke to Lu Heng: “At the beginning, she rescued my life, now practicing evil techniques has reduced her mortal lifespan. I gave her the rest of my lifespan, to conclude the past karmic debt.” Min looked again at the Linyang County Lord as if saying goodbye to his lover from his previous life.
“Zheng, I bequeath my demon core to you. No need to be worried, I am willingly giving you my demon core. There will be no evil consequences if you use it for cultivation. I only wish that you can send my body back to my native land.”
Just like migratory birds eventually return to their homeland, foxes wish to die in their native place.
After explaining his final wish, Min finally accepted everything and closed his eyes peacefully.
After a long silence, Lu Heng found that all of the Linyang County Lord’s skin suddenly began to dry up, and her hair turned white. Her whole person was as old as an eighty-year-old woman. In contrast, she had plenty of vitality in her body, and her remaining lifespan was enough for her to live another seventy or eighty years. It’s just such a situation was not a good thing for the princess of Linyang who is dependent on her beauty.
“Why did this happen?”
“When one practices evil techniques with a mortal body, there will always be some adverse effects,” Shi Kong explained.
“When Min decided to give his life to Linyang County Lord, did he know this would happen?” Lu Heng somewhat sighed with emotions.
“It has nothing to do with you or me. It’s time to leave.” Shi Kong brought out a recording orb and sent a paper crane to Prince Gong. He also waved his sleeve to release the body binding technique on the Linyang County Lord and led Lu Heng away from Prince Gong’s mansion.
Lu Heng also hesitated to look back and said, “The Linyang County Lord has killed so many people, is that all right?”
“A person must cultivate on the righteous path and in order to avoid karma, should never hurt the lives of mortals.”
“Karma?”
“The greater the karmic debt, the harder it is to overcome tribulation. You should remember that before you can ascend, all karmic debts will be settled.”
Lu Heng seemed to have heard the mournful scream of the Linyang County Lord in the courtyard, probably because she saw her present appearance.
Lu Heng was somewhat worried after putting the corpse of Min in a storage bag. His cultivation was still shallow, the inheritance he received was not complete, and even in the limited inheritance, there was no mention of where the demon clan was located.
Lu Heng was frustrated and revealed his worries to Shi Kong. Shi Kong, after pondering for a moment said, “You go back to the mountain forest (we were in) before and cultivate. “
Hearing that Shi Kong’s words had different meanings, Lu Heng urgently asked, “What about you? Where are you going? Will you come back?
“I need to go back to the sect to report what happened here, and on the way, I need to check some matters concerning the cultivation of the demon clan in the sect’s records.” Shi Kong looked at Lu Heng and saw his expression, then explained, “Some of the clans in the sect have prejudice against the demon clan, you’d better stay in and cultivate.”
After Shi Kong left, Lu Heng did not dare to slacken a bit in his cultivation. After all, Shi Kong would test his cultivation when he returned. But without the companionship of Shi Kong, living in the uninhabited mountains almost caused Lu Heng from modern society to go crazy from boredom.
“I REALLY WANT AN APPLE!” Today, Lu Heng let out a scream in the empty forest, which was also a way to vent his emotions.
“That…… I know where apples are.”
Lu Heng heard a timid voice behind him. He looked back and saw a young man with a beautiful face. He looked so frightened that he hid behind the tree and only peeked his head.
“Really?”Although he knew that this apple was not the other apple (from his world), Lu Heng was glad to finally have someone to talk to.
Seeing Lu Heng’s blooming smile, the young man summoned up courage and stepped out from behind the tree. “My name is Bai, Snow Rabbit clan.”
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Next chapter teaser: This little buddy is really fun to play with
NILADRI: I didn’t expect to receive support so soon. Luckily I had this chapter in stockpile.
It takes me 4-6 hours to translate so I can only do 1 sponsored chapter per day. Also, if you guys loved it/hated it/found a mistake please point them all out in comments.
Edit: All ko-fi links are temporarily being removed since arc 2 is completely sponsored now, and I might take a break before arc 3 releases.