Chapter 69: This Venerable One Will Learn From You, Heh Heh

Was it a coincidence? Or…

Presently, Mo Ran couldn't just look at his shizun's chest whenever he

wanted, so he could only rely on his memory of that scar's appearance. That

faint, crescent-moon shape would have been left by the simple slash of a

blade—not like Chu Xun's wound, which had been made by five fingers

piercing flesh with force and left behind savage, bloody holes.

It wasn't the same after all.

Mo Ran let out a quiet sigh of relief as he thought it over. While Chu

Xun and Chu Wanning were wholly different people in terms of personality,

they shared too many points of resemblance to dismiss. From their

appearances to their mutual principle of "As a cultivator, the life of the many

is our priority, and the self comes last," to that long scar on their chests. So

many coincidences piled on top of one another made one suspicious.

Mo Ran wasn't exactly sure why—perhaps it was because Chu Xun

was so gentle, so different from Chu Wanning's ruthlessness, or perhaps it

was because Chu Xun had a wife and a son—but if Chu Xun had reincarnated

into Chu Wanning, or if he was Chu Wanning, Mo Ran was sure that he

wouldn't be able to take it. That he would have a breakdown.

Good thing that wasn't the case.

There is no need to expand on what manner of disaster the city of

Lin'an faced without Chu Xun's protection.

Of course the ghost king didn't keep his word. Once night fell, the air

was thick with blood, and heaven and earth mourned in kind. The moat ran

red with gore, and the howling of those still living, who had long lost their

senses, echoed through the night. Zombies wandered throughout the city,

picking at and devouring fresh, tender entrails, chomping down on brains.

Mo Ran took Chu Wanning to hide in a broken down little house whose

master had died some time ago. Everything within it lay under a heavy layer

of dust.

Mo Ran tightly shut the door and secured the surroundings. He left only

a small kitchen window through which they could observe the situation in the

city. From outside there came intermittent sharp wails and screams, and the

ominous sounds of chewing and swallowing.

Mo Ran carried Chu Wanning to a small pile of firewood in the corner

and patted his head. "According to Miss Eighteen, once we defeat the ghost

king, we can leave. So stay here and be good. Don't run off anywhere."

Chu Wanning's head jerked up at this. "You're going out?"

"Not right now. I'll leave once the ghost king shows himself."

"But it's so dangerous outside. The illusion has been manifested—how

will you manage on your own?"

"Well, I can't bring a kid with me to fight, can I?"

Chu Wanning shook his head. "I'm coming with you."

"Ha ha ha, Shidi is so cute! But you're still young. If you come with

me, you'll drag me down. Wait till you're older, and when we run into these

things again, I won't hold you back. For now, you have to listen to Shixiong."

"I won't drag you down."

"That's what they all say. Just be good and don't fuss, okay?"

Chu Wanning fell silent.

When Chu Wanning finally stopped talking, Mo Ran quietly let out a

sigh of relief. He turned his gaze to the wooden window to peer outside, his

expression growing serious.

Just why had the illusion meant for their training suddenly become

real? His little shidi was right; someone wanted to harm him. In his previous

life, there had no doubt been countless people who wanted him dead, but in

this life, he had yet to cross any powerful sorts. After giving it due

consideration, he could think of only one person who might want to take his

life: that fake Gouchen from Jincheng Lake.

What was the real identity of that false Gouchen? If he could use the

Zhenlong Chess Formation with such mastery, how come he'd never

demonstrated his talents in their previous lifetime?

Could it be that Mo Ran wasn't the only person in this world who'd

been reborn?

The thought gave him chills, and his eyes glinted menacingly. After

rebirth, he'd wanted nothing more than to bury his past, but if someone else

had been reborn, that might become quite difficult.

His brows were furrowed, but he suddenly heard Chu Wanning speak

up again. "Mo Ran, I…"

"What is it?"

Chu Wanning gritted his teeth silently. After considering the pros and

cons, he steeled his heart and decided he might as well be straight and tell

the truth. "Listen to me: In fact, I really can help you. I'm—"

However, when Mo Ran heard, "I really can help you," he assumed his

little shidi wanted to argue with him again, so he cut him off. "All right, all

right, I already said I won't let you go, so I'm not letting you go. Stop trying

to play tough. Listen to me."

"No, you listen to me—"

"I'm not listening," Mo Ran replied, feeling vexed. "I'm not listening,

la la la."

Chu Wanning gave him a dark look.

The expression gave Mo Ran pause—maybe the attitude he was taking

wasn't very nice. So he poked a finger between Chu Wanning's brows and

laughed. "You're a kid! What's with all this deep, tormented suffering and

refusing to listen to your seniors? Here, let me tell you something: since you

call me Shixiong and we come from the same sect, when we run into peril

like this, I have to protect you. At all costs. Do you understand?"

Chu Wanning shut his eyes and answered in a low voice, "I

understand."

"Good to see you do. Then why don't you—"

"But I'm worried about you."

Mo Ran was taken aback, and for a second the finger that hung before

Chu Wanning's forehead quivered. For another second, he couldn't utter a

single word. He had lived for two lifetimes, but never had anyone said the

words, "I'm worried about you," to him. Even in Shi Mei's moment of

tenderness toward him, he had never so straightforwardly expressed his care

for Mo Ran.

Mo Ran gazed with amazement at the tiny child sitting atop the pile of

firewood before him, and hundreds of emotions filled his heart. After a long

while, his eyes gradually softened. The finger he had used to poke Chu

Wanning lifted and instead moved to ruffle his shidi's soft hair. "Don't worry.

Shixiong promises you that he'll come back alive and well."

"Mo Ran, can you let me finish…"

Mo Ran grinned. "All right, what did you want to say?"

"I'm actually—"

The door crashed open with a bang.

A man with disheveled hair charged in, screaming and covered in

gore, one thigh mauled to shreds. Behind him was a band of zombies, lured

by the stench of blood.

The man tumbled into the room, dragging his ripped leg, and grabbed

at anything he could get his hands on. He hurled the objects at the growling

zombies, and as he threw, he yelled, "Fuck off! Get the hell away from me!

Go away! Go the fuck away!"

Mo Ran cursed under his breath and shielded Chu Wanning with his

body. A red light flashed from his hand as he summoned Jiangui. "Shidi, hide

yourself," he said over his shoulder. "Don't get any closer, not under any

circumstances!"

Then he attacked with vine in hand and started to slaughter the mob of

corpses that had invaded the house. Although Jiangui and Tianwen were

similar, Chu Wanning hadn't yet fully passed on his technique to Mo Ran, and

in Mo Ran's past life, the weapon he wielded had been a blade. He thus

wasn't used to supple weapons, so while at the beginning of the slaughter he

held his own, it gradually became clear that he didn't quite have the finesse

to match his determination.

Jiangui swung all over the place. Suddenly the voice of a child cut in,

crisp and cool, "Left side. Wrap it around your wrist and strike three times,

then jump in the air and swing around your back to sling it out."

Mo Ran had no time to think and just followed the instructions. The

willow vine whipped the body of a zombie on the left, and with a single

strike, the holy weapon broke the zombie's arm, exposing its bones.

Normally no one would think it necessary to whip it twice more, but since

little shidi had told him to do so, Mo Ran figured he might as well give it a

try—no harm, no foul. Thus he immediately struck the zombie again twice,

then jumped up and bent nimbly at the waist, flipped, and slung out the vine

whip straight behind his back—

Slash!

Quite coincidentally, the next wave of corpses happened to swarm in,

and Jiangui, which had accumulated three times the power, lashed out a

stream of blazing fire that blasted toward them. The band of corpses was

instantly lacerated by the brutal holy weapon, and every zombie lost their

head. Their skulls dropped to the ground, still letting off black smoke.

Mo Ran was dumbfounded. He sent a shocked glance at the cool little

shidi sitting on top of a firewood pile. This kid… He's pretty good.

"What next?" Mo Ran asked excitedly, newly energized.

"Next, use your left hand and pat at your right sleeve," Chu Wanning

instructed him expressionlessly.

"Ooh, this action is deep and indiscernible. What move is this?"

"Nothing deep and indiscernible about it," Chu Wanning said flatly.

"You were swinging too confidently earlier, and the weapon lit your sleeve

on fire, that's all."

Mo Ran let out an, "ah," and looked down. Sure enough, that was the

case, and he hastily patted out the fire Jiangui had started in the chaos. This

guy's face sure was thick; he didn't feel remotely awkward, and he even

looked up with a goofy grin. "My shidi is so amazing. I like it."

Chu Wanning softly cleared his throat and silently turned his face away

to stare at the bare gray walls, his ears faintly red.

By now, only six zombies in the house could still move. Chu Wanning

didn't want to look at Mo Ran any longer, so with his head still turned away,

he instructed the wall: "Loosen your wrist, swing the vine toward the sky,

twirl it six times to gain power, and then slash like the character 'one.'"

15

Mo Ran followed the instructions, but when he twirled the fifth round,

he suddenly wondered, "How do you 'slash like the character one'?"

"Just slash how you normally would with a sword."

"Ah, I see!" Mo Ran was enlightened and struck down with a blow.

The blazing fires shone, and it was as if that soft and supple vine had blazed

into an indestructible long blade, slashing through the six corpses in a single

swing.

"Whoa!" This time, Mo Ran's eyes were so wide that they were

practically round. "Where did you learn this? How come I feel like you're

almost as familiar and practiced with the vine whip as my shizun? No, maybe

you're even better. He never told me the things you taught me today."

Chu Wanning said nothing.

Mo Ran's smile widened. "Good, good, good—this is great! Now I

won't have to deal with his attitude anymore because I'll learn from you.

Won't that be much better?"

Chu Wanning shot him a glare. "You have a problem with the Yuheng

Elder's attitude? Why don't you have a problem with my attitude?"

Mo Ran withdrew the vine whip and shut the door anew before pulling

a table over to block the entrance. He laughed. "You giving me a hard time is

your way of being good to me. The two of us, we've technically gone through

hardships together now. Shixiong remembers how good you've been to him.

From now on, I'll dote on you like my own little brother, and never mind

your attitude. Even if you were to get upset and hit me a couple times, I

wouldn't get mad."

Chu Wanning's face darkened. "Who wants to be your little brother?"

Then he hopped down from that pile of firewood, unwilling to pay Mo

Ran any more attention, and went to check on the injuries of the man who had

barged in.

Unexpectedly, Chu Wanning took one look at him and his eyes widened

a touch. "It's him?"

"Who?" Mo Ran looked over curiously too and was also stunned.

"That…that Xiaoman fellow?"

The one lying in a pool of blood and groaning in tears was indeed

Xiaoman. He had suffered grave injuries, and after looking him over, Chu

Wanning shook his head. "Humans and ghosts were never meant to live in

harmony. I imagine the ghost king stopped caring for him once he lived out

his use. He really…"

"Deserved it," Mo Ran said.

Chu Wanning gave him a look.

Mo Ran laughed shortly but with a jolt, he felt a little guilty. If he were

to start calling people "deserving," wasn't he himself the one who

"deserved" retribution more than anyone? He changed the subject. "Oh yeah,

what was it you wanted to tell me earlier? That you're actually what?"

Chu Wanning lowered his eyelashes, paused, and said softly, "I'm

actually—"

Before he could finish, he felt a breeze behind his back. Chu Wanning

startled and whipped around, ready to fight. However, he was in the body of

a child, and his strength was far from that of a grown man. When he was

seized by the throat, he couldn't struggle free.

Somehow, Xiaoman had hauled himself up from the pool of his blood

in a single breath. Veins protruded from the back of his hands as he held Chu

Wanning's neck in a deadly grip. The other hand twisted and locked Chu

Wanning's arms in place. It was as if a wild flame burned within that filthy,

unkempt face; his entire form twisted in his desperation to live, like a wax

figure distorted by intense heat. His eyes were bloodshot as he croaked at

Mo Ran, "Get me…out of here…"

"Let him go!"

"Get me out of here!" Xiaoman snarled furiously, his eyes practically

cracking at the edges in his rage. "Or I'll kill him! Go!"

"If you want me to save you, then I'll save you. What are you doing,

threatening a child? Let him go first—"

"Keep talking and I'll kill him! I've already committed so many sins—

what's one more?! Are you getting me out of here or not?!"

Chu Wanning couldn't utter a sound because of the stranglehold, and

his delicate little face grew red and strained. Mo Ran panicked at the sight. If

he struck now, he could take Xiaoman's life. But this illusion had become

reality. If Xiaoman exploded in fury before Mo Ran could move, his shidi

might get terribly hurt.

"Fine, fine, fine, I'll listen to you," Mo Ran said. "Don't get riled up.

Just loosen your hand a bit, and I'll—"

Before he could finish, blood splattered.