Chapter 104
Chapter 104
Through her ghost servant’s soul, Zhu Yin learned how the two children had reacted.
She sat in silence for a while.
Barbara asked, “Host, are you feeling sorry for them?”
It said, “Perhaps it would be better if we left as soon as we completed our mission.”
The longer they stayed, the harder it became to let go.
For employees of the World-Hopping Bureau, that was hardly a good thing.
Those in their Supporting Role Division had it relatively easy, with weaker ties to the minor worlds.
Over in the Protagonist Division, many employees needed their emotions diluted or even sealed away after returning from a mission. Otherwise, they struggled to move on from the last one.
Zhu Yin came back to herself and smiled. “I don’t see it that way.”
“I am a little reluctant to leave those two youngsters.” She gently stroked the black cat’s soft fur. “Since I don’t want to leave, I won’t. I’ll stay and watch them a little longer. Isn’t that simple?”
She was puzzled. “Why go against my own wishes and feelings?”
Yun Lie and Yun Xi had fallen unconscious, and Heiwu was kept at the city lord’s residence.
They wanted more details from him.
But Heiwu kept firmly to his “ghost character.” He was merely a ghost servant lucky enough to have been sent elsewhere by his master, thereby escaping disaster.
And since it had all happened so suddenly, with such a powerful enemy, his master hadn’t had time to convey any further information.
Those few sentences were everything he knew.
Fortunately, the people of the Demonic Realm simply couldn’t wait.
They had little choice. In Nandu, the city lord and the elders were difficult opponents, but dealing with them wasn’t entirely impossible.
If they waited until the two returned to the Eastern Continent, the heartland of the cultivation sects, any further attempt would be a pipe dream.
Elder Long Yan personally regulated Yun Lie’s and Yun Xi’s spiritual energy, finally managing to stabilize the youngsters.
A piercing whistle suddenly rang through the city lord’s residence.
An attack!
The moment the whistle sounded, the intruders knew they had been exposed and abandoned all attempts to conceal themselves.
Torrents of demonic energy surged into the sky!
“Demonic cultivators!” Elder Long straightened, his expression cold. His spirit sword slid from its sheath on its own and hovered beside him.
Elder Lu of the Dao Sect glanced at the young man beside him. “City Lord, I suspect this attack has something to do with these two children. Please look after them for us.”
The young man nodded. “Rest assured.”
Even without their request, he had a bond with the two disciples as something of a teacher to them.
Besides–
His face turned frosty. Invisible sword energy appeared above the residence and shredded the demonic energy.
This was Nandu!
Elder Long and Elder Lu appeared in midair. When they saw the figures opposite, both looked grim.
Their opponents were old acquaintances.
The righteous and demonic paths had always stood opposed, each following its own way, though they were far from mortal enemies.
But as one waxed, the other waned. With the cultivation sects flourishing, the fortunes of the demonic sects had been suppressed, forcing them to retreat into the Demonic Realm.
High-level cultivators lived long lives. Those on both sides had fought one another before.
Seeing the two opposite him, Long Yan understood how demonic cultivators had managed to kill someone in Nandu without a sound and leave unscathed.
Of course, they didn’t know that the actual perpetrators that day had been a few insignificant minions. One could only call it a happy misunderstanding.
“You old ghosts, Youming and Huangquan.” The spirit sword in Elder Long’s hand rang out. “Have you come to die?” he asked coldly.
Patriarch Huangquan was gaunt, with bluish lips. He gave a strange laugh. “Long Yan, don’t boast. I’m no match for you, but you can’t do anything to me either. We two brothers came today on someone else’s behalf. We have no desire to cross blades with you.”
Elder Lu’s eyes flickered. “Oh? On whose behalf, and for what purpose?”
Patriarch Huangquan cackled. “I can’t tell you who sent us, but I can tell you our purpose. Those two disciples you brought from the Eastern Continent have caught the attention of someone important. Someone is paying handsomely for their lives!”
Elder Long’s expression abruptly sharpened. “Damn!”
These two old ghosts were both treacherous and vicious. Why would they be behaving so uncharacteristically politely this time, unless they were deliberately buying time?
He had barely spoken when a brilliant burst of sword light erupted from the residence below!
Long Yan spun around, but howling ghosts wound toward him. Patriarch Huangquan’s laughter rang out. “Long Yan, I’m your opponent tonight.”
The room where the two children had been resting was already rubble.
Only a barrier formed of sword energy sheltered them and kept them safe.
The young man in black stared coldly at the person opposite him.
It was a pale young man with an eerie, almost beautiful face. His lips were blood-red, but the hands hanging from his sleeves had been stripped clean of flesh, leaving only stark white bones.
“Gong. Yi. Fei,” Gongyi Jin said, enunciating every syllable.
His gaze swept over the two unconscious children. “Who exactly are they?”
This traitor to the Gongyi family had abandoned the clan years ago and fled to the Demonic Realm. Now he held the powerful position of Left Protector there.
And he had actually come to kill them himself.
The uncanny young man chuckled softly. “It doesn’t matter who they are. After all, who cares about the identities of the dead?”
The entire city lord’s residence had become a battlefield.
Zhu Yin stood in midair, enjoying the spectacle.
The two demonic cultivators outside clearly had no intention of giving it their all. They weren’t trying to kill their opponents, only doing their best to keep Elder Lu and Elder Long occupied.
The two inside were fighting much more fiercely.
The one called Gongyi Fei seemed quite mad. He fought by trading injury for injury, completely indifferent to his own body.
City Lord Gongyi had to fend him off while dividing his attention to protect the two unconscious children from a surprise attack. It left him badly hampered.
After watching for a while, Zhu Yin remarked, “So, is that Demon Venerable an idiot?”
Barbara said, “Huh?”
Zhu Yin was genuinely baffled. “Look. He knew there were three people on this side, yet he only sent three people to silence them. Now they’re stuck in a stalemate. If you ask me, all he had to do was send one more high-level demonic cultivator. Wouldn’t that make this ridiculously easy?”
She sounded disgusted. “I’ve never seen such a brainless villain!”
Fortunately, a certain Demon Venerable couldn’t hear her, or he might have died of anger.
Did she think he didn’t want to send more people?
Those old scoundrels in the Demonic Realm! They called him Demon Venerable to his face, but each one was outrageously cunning.
The moment they heard they would be making trouble on the cultivation sects’ territory and opposing the Dao Sect, Dingtian Sword Sect, and the Gongyi family, eighty percent of the Demonic Realm’s high-level demonic cultivators went into seclusion that very day.
He had paid an enormous price just to persuade these three.
What? Why didn’t he go himself?
He was the exalted Demon Venerable. As the saying went, men of high station did not expose themselves to danger. How could he risk his own life?
In any event, he had only managed to summon three people.
And so matters had fallen into this rather awkward predicament.