Chapter 70: This Venerable One Returns

Chu Wanning wasn't some weakling that just anybody could threaten; there was a flash of golden light—Mo Ran could've sworn he saw some kind of weapon in his hand, but it was gone in less than an instant—and both of Xiao Man's hands had already been sheared clean off, wrists and all!

Xiao Man screamed and stumbled backwards. He only had one useable leg left now that even his hands were gone.

The hand seizing Chu Wanning dropped to the ground. Chu Wanning stood up, enraged, expression dark like never before. His lips moved slightly like he might say something, but in the end he seemed too angry for words and turned away instead, face ashen.

Mo Ran hurriedly rushed over and pulled him into his arms: "Shidi, are you okay? Are you hurt anywhere?" In his arms, Chu Wanning only shook his head, too disgusted to speak.

For all that, this Xiao Man in front of them was merely an illusion of someone who had once lived two hundred years ago. Chu Wanning wiped the blood splatters from his face and said to Mo Ran in a low voice: "As you saw, staying here wouldn't be any safer for me than going out there with you. I can take care of myself, won't slow you down."   Mo Ran had heard about the little shidi's skill from Xue Meng before, but he had never seen it for himself until just now—it was, admittedly, quite eyeopening.

"Sure you're pretty impressive, but..." Chu Wanning pushed harder: "I'm also familiar with all kinds of weapons, so I can give you pointers from the side." "But..." Chu Wanning lifted his eyes: "Won't you trust in me just this once?" "..." "Shixiong." He had meant to emphasize the sincerity of his words, but with this young,

tender voice, it came out all softly adorable instead. Almost like he was acting cute. Chu Wanning was flabbergasted.

Mo Ran blinked, then started rapidly scratching his head in confusion and going "Aaaah" before burying his face in both hands. A long moment passed with his face in his hands before he said: "That, uhm, see I'm just worried that... you uh..."   Two whole lives and this was the first time a little one had called out this softly to him; Mo Ran really felt so close to him just now, as if they were brothers by blood.

When he hated someone, he hated them to the bone, but to those he cherished, he was extremely tender. And so, when he finished clawing his head and finally looked back up at Chu Wanning from where he was crouched down,

the tips of his ears turned red.

If only he really did have a little brother, maybe it wouldn't have been so lonely.

Unfortunately for Mo Ran, his reaction was noticed. Chu Wanning hesitated a little, then tried, experimentally, in a small voice: "Shige." Shige was an even more familiar form of address than shixiong.

Mo Ran braced his forehead against a hand, seriously at his limit: "..." Chu Wanning glanced knowingly at Mo Ran and mentally filed away his weak point. Anyway, he was in a child's body right now and Mo Ran hadn't the slightest who he actually was, there was nothing to be embarrassed about, so he opened his mouth again and out came a soft, sticky: "Ge."   "..."   "Gege."

"......"   "Mo Ran-gege." "AAAAAAH!!!!!! OKOK! I'll take you, I'll take you! Stop saying that!" Mo Ran jumped to his feet, face bright red, rubbing the goosebumps on his arms,

"Alright, fine, come along then, you win, okay? You win. Oh my god."   Hands clasped behind his back, Chu Wanning tilted his head and said with a tiny smile: "Let's go then." As he walked leisurely toward the door, he could hear Mo Ran mumbling quietly from behind him: "Where in heavens did he learn that from, I nearly died from sugar overdose, holy crap..." Chu Wanning was originally in a dreadful state of mind from what happened before with Chu Xun, but now he felt the gloom in his chest slowly lifting.

Suddenly, he heard Mo Ran ask: "Oh yeah, what was shidi going to say earlier?"   Chu Wanning turned around and replied evenly: "Ah. That." "Hm?" "I forgot." "..." "If I remember it later, I'll tell Mo Ran-gege then..." "Aaaaaaaah stop! Don't say that one! Shixiong is fine! Shixiong is enough!" Mo Ran waved his hands frantically.

Chu Wanning's eyes were like a pair of deep puddles, the corners of his lips quirked with a hint of a smile: "If you say so, shixiong. Anyway, I think the ghost king will be showing up soon, since this illusion is based on the memories of survivors, and those survivors have left Lin'an by now, so the illusion probably won't last much longer." "That makes sense... we should be able to get out once we defeat him,

right? I'm gonna find whoever it was that manifested the illusion and tried to kill us!"   Chu Wanning nodded: "Fortunately for us, judging by the battle with Chu Xun earlier, this ghost king isn't too strong. In fact, he might be the weakest among the nine kings. Although the illusion has been manifested, it seems to me that whoever did it probably thought I was just an ordinary six year old, and didn't expect me to actually be able to help take care of this." Mo Ran nodded along: "Sounds about right." Chu Wanning continued: "So rather than saying that he tried to kill us, it would be more accurate to say that I was never part of the equation. He's actually only after shixiong." Mo Ran nodded even more vigorously: "Checks out."   "After we get out of here, shixiong must make sure to tell Xue Meng about this. Something is afoot at the Peach Blossom Springs, we have to be careful from here on out. But let's not dwell on that for the time being. Shixiong, please lead the way, I won't slow shixiong down."   Chu Wanning's prediction was spot on.

Three in the morning; the massacre in the city was winding down.

A bloody rift cracked open in the sky suddenly, green smoke pouring onto the wreckage and solidifying into the shape of a hunched-over man.

The man's eyes were bright scarlet and his skin was ashen pale; half of his body had flesh and skin, but the other half was stark, exposed bone. He stalked across the corpse-littered city with a black banner in tow, absorbing the pain and resentment of the newly deceased as he passed.

Mo Ran looked at the man's face from where they were hidden.

"So it's him?" There was a hint of relief in his voice.

It was obvious to Chu Wanning why he sounded relieved, but he didn't intend to reveal himself just yet, and a six year old can't know too much.

So he looked up at Mo Ran with feigned cluelessness: "What?" "You guessed right. The nine kings of the ghost realm differ in strength, and this one is indeed the weakest among them." Mo Ran watched the figure approach from behind a window, saying in a quiet voice, "We lucked out." "What does shixiong think our odds are?" "Ninety percent. Always best to not be too overconfident, you know." Chu Wanning smiled a little.

Of course he knew that the "Skeleton King" was the weakest of the nine ghost kings, but strength was relative. With Mo Ran's age and experience, even with the holy weapon Jiangui at his side, going up against the Skeleton King alone was still pushing it a bit.

Unfortunately for the person plotting against Mo Ran, the kid by his side wasn't just any rookie from Sisheng Peak, but Chu Wanning himself.

"Help me..." They were just about to burst out the door with a surprise attack when a weak voice called out from behind.

"Ah, he's still alive?" Mo Ran's eyes were wide as he turned to look at Xiao Man curled up in the back.

"I don't want to die…...Dad... I don't want to..."   Chu Wanning looked at the young man curled into a rumpled heap of rags and shook his head: "Back then, this person had likely died as soon as he stepped in here, but he's still alive in this illusion probably because we happened to be here and killed the undead that were after him, so some things turned out differently."   "Sigh... if he hadn't defected, do you think that maybe Chu Xun wouldn't have died two hundred years ago? That maybe Lin'an wouldn't just be a pile of ruins now..." "Maybe."   But they both knew that, no matter what they did now, the past was the past.

The important thing right now was to defeat the Skeleton King and get out of this illusion, and there was no reason to delay, so they charged out from their hiding place, killing everything in their way.

Getting out of this illusion might be even easier than they had thought.

Mo Ran knew exactly what he had to do, and engaged the Skeleton King without delay. But watching them face off, Chu Wanning felt a wave of uneasiness.

It wasn't because Mo Ran was struggling; quite to the contrary, under his guidance, Mo Ran maintained a solid upper hand. But more and more, Chu Wanning felt that—— The person behind all this had planned everything out far too precisely.

That is to say, that person had carefully assessed that it would be extremely difficult for just Mo Ran and one other person of average skill to get out of this situation. But he also didn't use anything more deadly than this so as to not rouse any suspicions of foul play. His goal was to make it look like Mo Ran died in a training accident.

Whom exactly was this person, to plan so meticulously against Mo Ran's life?

Was it really that fake Gouchen from Jincheng Lake…...

Chu Wanning watched the ferocious battle between Mo Ran and the Ghost King. The longer it went on, the more Mo Ran came out on top, and as the sky slowly lightened, the Ghost King's strength gradually waned; victory was all but in hand.

But just then, amongst that horde of undead and demons sealed behind Mo Ran's spell, Chu Wanning suddenly saw the face of a living person!

"Who is it!!!!"   Amidst the walking corpses, half of that person's face was shadowed beneath the hood of his cloak. From this distance, all he could see was a sharp chin, sweetly colored lips, and a gently curved nose.

Just one look, and Chu Wanning could tell that this person didn't belong in the illusion of two hundred years past——he wasn't in any kind of fighting stance, only shrouded under his hood, looking in Chu Wanning and Mo Ran's direction. Seeing that Chu Wanning had noticed him, he smiled faintly then lifted a hand and swept it across his neck in a "kill" gesture.

Chu Wanning cursed under his breath and lunged to try and capture him.

But that person only kept smiling, crimson lips and ivory teeth under his hood, and mouthed what looked like "goodbye".

Then he turned and disappeared.

"Stay right there!" It was useless. The sky brightened, layers of fish scale clouds painting across it.

The fight between Mo Ran and the Ghost King ended with one final blow—— the very moment that Jiangui sheared the Ghost King's head clean off, sending foul blood flying everywhere, their bodies were abruptly tossed up, and that sunrise of ancient Lin'an from two hundred years ago, the ruined wreckage of the city, all of it sped away in a blur.

Thump!

When Chu Wanning hit the ground again, he found himself back at the testing cave.

Mo Ran was also here, dropped on the ground next to him, covered in blood from the fight, but mostly not his own. He was laid out on the ground, clearly still too tired to get up, only gazing at Chu Wanning with those pitch-black eyes.

A few moments passed, then he lifted a hand and gently poked Chu Wanning's forehead.

"We made it."

Chu Wanning "Mn"-ed, but his expression was dark: "...I saw someone in there just now." "What?" "It was probably the spell caster." Mo Ran rolled up, his eyes going wide: "You saw him? You saw him! Did you see who it was? What did he look like?"   Chu Wanning shook his head, brows furrowed: "He was wearing a hood, I couldn't see clearly. But based on the figure, he should be male, fairly young,

thin, with a pointed chin..." But he didn't voice the rest of his thoughts.

He felt like this half of a face looked vaguely familiar, as if he had seen this person somewhere before, long ago. But he also couldn't shake the feeling that he might be mistaken, it was only half of a face after all, and there were plenty of similar-looking people out there, so he couldn't really be sure.

    He was deep in thought when he felt Mo Ran pat him on the shoulder.

"Shidi." "What is it?" "...Look over there." Mo Ran's voice was low, with a chill in it.

Chu Wanning looked up in the direction he was pointing.

It was Eighteen.

At the entrance to the testing cave, Eighteen hung from the ceiling, both eyes bulging outwards, the embroidered satin shoes on her feet swaying in mid air.

She was already dead, and there was no wind here. Judging by the angle of her body's sway, the murderer had just left.

But the thing that turned their faces pale was the murder weapon wrapped tightly around her neck.

It was a willow vine.

With sharp, blade-like leaves, the vine coursed with a firey red light that crackled, erupting with sparks that fell together with the drops of blood.

Jiangui.

The thing that strangled Eighteen and hung her from the roof of the cave was none other than the holy weapon Jiangui!

Author's Notes:

Disguise: Eh? Didn't you want to take me off in the last chapter? I'll take it off for you now…

Chu Wanning: The opportunity has passed, you can be good and stay on me. (Apathetic expression)