Chapter 484: The Mystery

At the inn, Guan Fangyi paced inside Niu Youdao’s room, now and then going to the window and craning her neck to look outside.

Niu Youdao had not managed to hide his departure from her. The moment he went out, she followed and asked where he was going, but he refused to say and would not let her accompany him. In her view, the very fact that he was being so secretive meant he was hiding something from her, so she had simply stayed in his room and waited.

As for whether a woman constantly entering a man’s room might damage her reputation, she did not care in the slightest. Her amorous reputation had long spread far and wide. For years, spending the night with different men had been nothing unusual for her. Why would she fear a thing like that? Usually, it was the men who avoided her for fear she would ruin their reputations.

As she paced, footsteps sounded in the corridor outside and drew near. Yuan Gang suddenly opened the door and stepped aside. Niu Youdao followed, carrying someone in both arms. It was Yin’er.

Blood plainly stained Yin’er’s face. Curled against Niu Youdao’s chest like a kitten, she looked frail and weak, obviously badly injured.

Guan Fangyi was startled. “What happened?”

Niu Youdao laid Yin’er across the couch. As he straightened, one of her hands caught his clothes again and refused to let go. Her gaze was weak and pitiful.

“I’m not leaving. I’m not leaving.” Niu Youdao soothed her as he forcibly pried her fingers loose. Each time she lifted her hand again, he pressed it back down. Finally, he warned, “If you still won’t behave, I won’t want you anymore.”

Before this, he would never have dared be so forceful with her.

Only then did Yin’er obediently lower her hand, though her eyes remained fixed on Niu Youdao as if afraid he might run away.

Niu Youdao straightened and sighed. “Ah.”

Guan Fangyi asked again, “What happened to her?”

“Look for yourself. Someone injured her.”

“What?” Guan Fangyi was deeply shocked. “Who has that kind of ability? Who could injure her?”

Yuan Gang was equally surprised, though he already had a vague suspect in mind. He knew Niu Youdao had gone to meet Zhao Xiongge.

“Let’s not talk about that.” Niu Youdao waved the subject away. It was not something he could conveniently explain. Otherwise, he could simply have taken Guan Fangyi with him to meet Zhao Xiongge.

Someone capable of injuring the Holy Rakshasa was no ordinary person. How could Guan Fangyi possibly suppress her curiosity? She refused to let it go. “Come on. Tell me.”

Niu Youdao was silent for a moment. A trace of self-mockery appeared on his face. “Zhao Xiongge.”

“This...” Guan Fangyi froze, then stared at him in disbelief. “Zhao Xiongge came? You went to meet him? Zhao Xiongge’s strength is actually that formidable? He could even injure her?” She glanced back at Yin’er. Seeing that Yin’er had returned alive, she hurriedly asked, “Then was Zhao Xiongge injured, or was he killed?”

“He’s perfectly fine. What could have happened to him?”

Guan Fangyi did not believe it. “How is that possible?”

She had personally fought the Holy Rakshasa. She had every reason to believe that even Zhao Xiongge would have to be wary of her Heavenly Sword Talisman, yet the Yin’er before them was someone who could simply ignore a Heavenly Sword Talisman. How could Zhao Xiongge possibly be her match?

Niu Youdao had not believed it either, but the facts had proved otherwise. If Zhao Xiongge’s talk of demon power had not made something click in his mind, he really might have seized the opportunity this time to kill Yin’er and remove the danger once and for all.

When he had been about to put Yin’er to death, she had no ability to resist. After testing her, he had finally understood a few things.

The Holy Rakshasa was not pretending. Without that demonic state, she truly no longer possessed her former strength. It should have been connected to Niu Youdao having neutralized the aberrant demon qi within her. Only after hearing Zhao Xiongge’s explanation of demon power had he understood what was happening.

He had been intimidated by this innocent, frail-looking demon king before purely because he had frightened himself.

Yin’er herself was not complicated. Their own thoughts had been too complicated.

Nor had she been pretending to be innocent. She truly remembered nothing. Her memory had plainly already been abnormal when she was first released from the formation eye. After her demon power was neutralized and she transformed into human form, she became even more like a blank sheet of paper.

Once the threat to his safety was gone, Niu Youdao had no choice but to face another question. Whether it had been Shang Song or Li Ge, why had they confined this demon king within the formation eye? It was obvious that no matter who became trapped in the formation, anyone who opened the path to survival would have to release this demon king. In effect, they would be giving the demon king a new life.

What had Shang Song or Li Ge intended by doing this?

The question was truly baffling. Shang Song and Li Ge had left no answer. Niu Youdao had the faint sense that the answer might lie with this demon king herself, but she remembered nothing at all. Would her memories ever return?

The formation. The ancient tomb. The bronze mirror. The formation within Butterfly Dream Illusory Realm. The demon king sealed in its formation eye. Shang Song shattered Heaven. Where had he and his wife gone? Why had he and Monkey come here through the ancient tomb? All of it seemed connected.

Only someone who could decipher the bronze mirror could cultivate the Qiankun Art. That same person could also find the imperial retreat within the Illusory Realm. And after cultivating the Qiankun Art, he just happened to be able to neutralize the aberrant demon qi within the Holy Rakshasa. This was plainly no coincidence.

Taken together, all these things gave him an unmistakable feeling: this demon king seemed to have been prepared for someone with that entire chain of abilities. Prepared for him.

Yin’er herself no longer posed a threat to him. He could neutralize the aberrant demon qi and, to a certain extent, control Yin’er.

Once he connected all these things, he could no longer bring himself to kill her.

If Yun Ji had not intervened and he had acted rashly, he reckoned he would have been forced to confront these questions much earlier.

“What’s impossible about it? He has more fighting experience than she does.” Niu Youdao casually brushed the matter aside.

He did not tell Guan Fangyi that Yin’er was now easy to bully. If she knew, she would certainly never allow Yin’er to remain beside them, because keeping her nearby could easily bring trouble. Nor could he explain the complicated reasons behind his decision. They involved the secret of his having lived two lives, something he could not conveniently tell her.

Guan Fangyi looked deeply suspicious. Clearly, she had her doubts.

Niu Youdao changed the subject. “Is everything ready over there?”

“It’s ready. We can act at any time. Do we do it now?”

“It’s the dead of night. Moving now would attract attention, and he wouldn’t find it easy to go out either. Myriad Forms City is no place to make a move. Tomorrow morning.”

Guan Fangyi nodded, then asked, “Why did Zhao Xiongge want to see you?”

Niu Youdao smiled bitterly. “What else could it be? The Shangqing Sect.”

“You agreed?”

“No. I managed to fob him off for the time being.”

Since they were talking about Zhao Xiongge, Guan Fangyi had to bring up something else. “What exactly is going on between him and Uncle Chen?”

“He didn’t say it outright. From what I gathered, it sounds as though one of your old lovers sent Uncle Chen to protect you.”

Guan Fangyi rolled her eyes. “Be serious.”

“I’m not joking.”

“I have so many old lovers that even I can’t remember them all. Did he say which one?”

“So many you can’t even count them yourself?” Niu Youdao froze, then raised a thumb at her in admiration. Shaking his head, he said, “He didn’t say. But I’d guess the man is from the Demonic Sect. Think about which one is most likely. I want to know who it is too.”

“The Demonic Sect?” Guan Fangyi fell into thought. After pondering for a long while, she said in puzzlement, “If that’s the case, it really is hard to judge. After the Demonic Sect suffered that devastating blow, most of its members hid their identities. Who knows which man belonged to the Demonic Sect and which didn’t?”

“If he can have dealings with Zhao Xiongge and make Zhao Xiongge reluctant even to speak of him, his status within the Demonic Sect should not be low. Concentrate on the upper ranks of the Demonic Sect. Think of anyone from before Uncle Chen found you who had an especially close relationship with you. For example, anyone you had relations between man and woman with. See if someone comes to mind.”

“Never mind thirty years ago. Even the current upper ranks of the Demonic Sect are only names I’ve heard. I haven’t met a single one of them. How am I supposed to connect anyone?”

Yuan Gang turned his head away, unable to bear how casually the two of them discussed relations between men and women as if it were nothing.

Niu Youdao stroked his chin and muttered curiously, “Who could it be?”

“Tell me something. Is this your own guess, or did Zhao Xiongge explicitly say the person was from the Demonic Sect?”

“He didn’t say the person was from the Demonic Sect either. He only said Uncle Chen used to belong to the Demonic Sect and later left it...” Niu Youdao roughly repeated what Zhao Xiongge had told him.

After hearing it, Guan Fangyi’s face filled with disdain. She did not believe it at all. “Either you misunderstood what he meant, or Zhao Xiongge was making a joke of this old lady and feeding you nonsense. If there really were a man so deeply devoted to me, would he have stood by while I carried on with other men in the Qi capital? If he had that kind of ability, he would have taken me away long ago.”

“That’s true...” Niu Youdao muttered.

That was precisely what he could not understand either. Yet certain signs clearly proved that whoever stood behind Uncle Chen possessed no small amount of power and was by no means an insignificant figure.

The more he thought about it, the more contradictory it seemed. Unable to find an answer, he could only set the matter aside for now.

After Guan Fangyi left, Yuan Gang jerked his chin toward Yin’er on the couch. “Zhao Xiongge really injured her?”

Niu Youdao gave an acknowledging sound and told him the truth of what had happened, along with why he had brought her back.

Yuan Gang’s brows drew tightly together. He, too, sank into that mystery...

“Which Niu Youdao?”

“Which other Niu Youdao could it be? The one from Nanzhou in the State of Yan. Yesterday I saw him with my own eyes coming out of the Illusory Realm together with that Elder Chao’s grandson from Myriad Beasts Sect.”

The indistinct voices in the corridor gradually faded away. Lu Shengzhong, sitting cross-legged on his couch, abruptly opened his eyes.

He lightly stepped down, went to the window, and pushed it open a crack to look outside.

The sky was just beginning to brighten. Peddlers, porters, and other early travelers had already begun moving along the streets.

Turning back, he quickly altered his appearance and made a few simple preparations. Then he opened the door and left the inn, remaining alert to his surroundings the entire way.

What did it mean that Niu Youdao and Chao Shenghuai had come together? Was it nonsense? If it was nonsense, why had those two particular people been mentioned together?

He did not know whether Chao Shenghuai intended to move against Niu Youdao, but he sensed danger.

Because there was another possibility: the two of them had established contact.

Given Niu Youdao’s methods, that was entirely possible.

If so, would Chao Shenghuai tell Niu Youdao the truth?

Lu Shengzhong knew very well what kind of man Niu Youdao was. If Myriad Beasts Sect cooperated with him as well, remaining in Myriad Forms City would be extremely dangerous.

No matter what, Lu Shengzhong had to leave now and avoid the storm. His first priority was to hide.

Once outside the city, he avoided open ground where he could be seen at a glance and headed straight for the remote mountains, where concealment would be easier. A crescent dawn moon hung in the sky.

He had only just entered the mountains when firelight suddenly flared ahead. On a low hillside to his right, a bonfire had been lit, illuminating the person seated beside it so clearly that Lu Shengzhong could see him at once.

Niu Youdao held a branch in one hand and stirred the bonfire. Turning his head toward the man who had blundered into the trap, he smiled. The smile was mysterious and eerie.

[End of Chapter 484]