Chapter 1419: Breaking into the Mortal World

The usually expressionless Yuan Gang suddenly reacted strongly. He stared at Lü Wushuang in astonishment, as if asking, Me? He seemed to suspect he had misheard.

Niu Youdao was equally startled. Thinking he might have heard wrong as well, he asked tentatively, “Sacred Venerable, what did you say? Could you repeat that?”

“You heard me.” Lü Wushuang was perfectly direct. This time she raised a hand and pointed at Yuan Gang. “Make him marry me! If you want me to do as you say, then have Yuan Gang marry me!”

Yuan Gang could no longer keep his composure. His voice sank. “Are you joking?”

“I’m not joking. I’ve thought this through very carefully.”

“You...”

Yuan Gang had barely begun when Niu Youdao raised a hand to stop him, signaling him not to lose his temper. He turned back to Lü Wushuang with a smile. “Sacred Venerable, that joke is going a little too far.”

Lü Wushuang stared at him and enunciated each word. “I’ll say it again. I am not joking.”

Niu Youdao chuckled. “Look at your status. He’s nothing but a rough brute. He really isn’t worthy of you.”

“Status?” Lü Wushuang asked. “What status do you think I have now? I’m only a prisoner who may not live to see tomorrow. What status is there to speak of? I have at least that much self-awareness.”

Niu Youdao looked puzzled. “People don’t marry for no reason, least of all someone like you. If the Sacred Venerable is willing to marry beneath herself, there must at least be a reason.”

“I already told you. Nothing else matters to me now. I only want to preserve my life. If he marries me, then my life will have some protection.”

Niu Youdao had guessed it had something to do with that, but precisely because of that, he found it even harder to understand. “If it really is about staying alive, why insist on marrying him?” He pointed at himself. “Wouldn’t marrying me as a way to protect your life be even safer?”

“If I offered to marry you, would you take me? He, on the other hand, should listen to you.”

“You think he’d listen to me?” Niu Youdao shook his head and pointed at Yuan Gang. “Ask him yourself. Is this the kind of thing he would listen to me about?”

Lü Wushuang did not ask Yuan Gang. Instead, she gave Niu Youdao a clear answer. “You’re a man who calculates interests. People like that are the least reliable. He isn’t. He is more reliable than you.”

Ever since the danger she had faced in the Fifth Domain, she had been struggling to survive. She had nearly died beneath Yuan Gang’s blade then, and at the critical moment a single sentence had preserved her life.

Now she was once again fighting to survive. Once she lost her value, her position would become extremely dangerous, at least according to everything she had experienced in life.

Yuan Gang was the escape route she had chosen for herself. So long as she married him, her life would gain a measure of security.

Why had she chosen Yuan Gang? Partly for the reason she had just given Niu Youdao, and partly because she had personally witnessed the way Niu Youdao received Yuan Gang in the Boundless Desert. She could see how much Niu Youdao cared about him.

And why had Yuan Gang once risked his life to help Luo Zhao? Why had he risked his life to help the Huyan family?

Those were important reasons she dared entrust her survival to marriage with Yuan Gang. Under her present circumstances, marrying a man like this was the safest and most dependable way to protect herself.

Of course, in her heart, she did not reject Yuan Gang either.

Niu Youdao, on the other hand, was not the kind of man she admired. What did it matter if his status was higher than Yuan Gang’s? What status had she herself once possessed? Niu Youdao’s present standing held no attraction for her at all.

As she had said, she had thought this decision through very carefully.

A man who calculates interests? Niu Youdao smiled faintly at the description. Whether he truly was such a man could be debated, but he had to admit that a woman capable of standing among the Nine Saints did possess a certain eye for people. At the very least, she had seen that once she was bound to Yuan Gang, Niu Youdao would no longer lay a hand on her.

“He won’t listen to me about something like this.” Niu Youdao shook his head, then looked back at Yuan Gang with a teasing expression. “Sacred Venerable Wushuang is willing to lower herself and marry you. Are you willing to take her?”

Yuan Gang replied icily, “Master Dao, this isn’t funny.”

Niu Youdao turned back to Lü Wushuang. “You’ve seen his attitude. I can’t force him into something like this either.”

“Suit yourselves. I won’t force him, and I couldn’t even if I wanted to.”

Her position was obvious. If Yuan Gang did not marry her, she would not cooperate. She would never willingly surrender her value while having no protection for her own life.

Niu Youdao raised an eyebrow slightly. “Lü Wushuang, don’t refuse the wine only to drink the punishment. Torture is not pleasant.”

“So long as I still have value, you won’t kill me. Cripple me and throw me outside if you like. A crippled Lü Wushuang won’t frighten anyone. I can endure the agony of being skinned. What is there that I can’t endure?”

Niu Youdao did not waste any more words. He turned and left.

She was not wrong. She had struck the key point. Throwing a mutilated Lü Wushuang out into the open would intimidate no one.

Nor did he have time to wear her down slowly. Since Lü Wushuang refused to cooperate, he could only use his own people in the Sacred Realm to spread the rumors. The drawback was that he could no longer create the impression that Lü Wushuang herself was fighting back against the Six Sacred Venerables.

That also made it inconvenient to spread the news that Yin Ji was still alive. If such a rumor appeared without any identifiable source, Luo Qiu would probably suspect Sha Rulai at once, or at the very least place him among the suspects.

For now, Niu Youdao could only think of some way to arrange for Yin Ji to appear publicly...

Within the Butterfly Dream Illusory Realm, light shone from a hollow in a gigantic tree. Luminous sap had congealed inside the hollow into a semitransparent, amber-like mass.

The glowing amber seemed to breathe, brightening and dimming in a steady rhythm. Whenever it brightened, the outline of a figure sealed within could be seen.

Butterfly Rakshasas were scattered throughout the surrounding mountains and forests, with especially large numbers of Blood Rakshasas among them, guarding their sleeping sovereign. More Butterfly Rakshasas occasionally patrolled through the sky above.

One Butterfly Rakshasa clinging to the tree turned its head.

Then a second.

Then a third.

Countless Butterfly Rakshasas turned one after another, all looking toward the hollow in the enormous tree.

Inside, the amber-like mass stopped breathing. Its light withdrew, and it sank into darkness.

Crack!

A claw punched through the hardened amber. Five silver talons flexed.

Crash!

The entire amber shell suddenly burst apart. A streak of silver light shot from the tree hollow and stopped in midair, revealing its form.

After sleeping to recover from her severe injuries, the Holy Rakshasa had finally awakened.

Her cold gaze swept the surroundings. Suddenly she lifted her head and gave a piercing cry. “Yaa!”

Cries of “yaa, yaa” immediately answered from all around. Innumerable Butterfly Rakshasas beat their wings and rose into the air, clustering around the Holy Rakshasa and calling incessantly, their emotion impossible to understand.

Strange silver markings covered the Holy Rakshasa’s face. She raised both hands and watched her claws repeatedly open and close. Then she suddenly swept both arms outward.

Two points of brilliance appeared along the armored plates of her back. Silver radiance seeped outward and rapidly expanded, growing into a pair of luminous silver wings that bathed her whole body in argent light.

“Yaa!” The Holy Rakshasa clenched both claws and loosed a shrill cry.

The surrounding Butterfly Rakshasas answered endlessly. Many of them pointed in the same direction.

The silver wings began beating slowly.

Then the Holy Rakshasa abruptly transformed into a streak of silver light and shot away like a meteor vanishing into the distance.

The chattering swarm of Butterfly Rakshasas immediately flapped after her. They could not remotely match the Holy Rakshasa’s speed and soon lost sight of her, yet they continued flying rapidly in the direction she had disappeared.

The Rakshasa Tide from before had long since subsided. Myriad Beasts Sect had once again ventured into the Butterfly Dream Illusory Realm and was gradually restoring the area planted with Light-Repelling Grass.

Two Myriad Beasts Sect disciples tending the grass suddenly noticed the area around them brighten, as though flooded with the sheen of liquid silver. Both raised their heads and saw a silver-winged monster hovering overhead. Their eyes slowly widened.

The surrounding Myriad Beasts Sect disciples noticed the abnormality as well. The creature was far too conspicuous to miss. All of them looked toward the silver-winged demon floating in the air.

The appearance of that silver-winged demon seemed to disturb the Butterfly Rakshasas nearby. One after another they rose into the air and flew toward the scene.

“The Holy Rakshasa! This is bad! Retreat!” someone suddenly shouted.

Everyone scattered at once.

The two Myriad Beasts Sect disciples directly beneath her had only just turned to fly away when a streak of silver light flashed past and smashed them heavily to the ground. Coughing blood, they were immediately swallowed beneath the swarm of Butterfly Rakshasas arriving from behind.

Silver light flashed again and again. The Holy Rakshasa plunged into the fleeing crowd like a silver thunderbolt, streaking back and forth with no one capable of stopping her. She began a massacre. Anyone she caught fell, and screams rose one after another.

In the end, only a number of Myriad Beasts Sect disciples close to the exit managed to escape.

The Holy Rakshasa did not stop.

With another flash, she charged straight into the exit of the illusory realm and pursued them outside.

Abruptly emerging into a bright world caught her off guard. Hovering in the air, she immediately raised an arm to shield her eyes.

After a moment she lowered the arm. Her tightly closed eyes slowly opened as she gradually adapted to the sudden, intense light.

That brief delay was enough for most of the Myriad Beasts Sect disciples to disappear.

A few slower ones were caught by her gaze.

Whoosh!

She shot after them.

A swarm of Butterfly Rakshasas rushed out of the Butterfly Dream Illusory Realm behind her, but unlike the Holy Rakshasa, they could not adapt to the outside world. After a burst of shrill, chaotic cries, they finally had no choice but to retreat frantically back into the illusory realm.

Within the forest, a pair of silver wings plunged downward and then rose again.

The Holy Rakshasa now held a Myriad Beasts Sect disciple by the throat in one claw. The man struggled desperately but could not break free, terror covering his face.

“Where are the people who broke into my city?” the Holy Rakshasa demanded coldly in human speech.

She wanted to find the people who had injured her and settle the score.

The disciple could barely make a sound under her grip, and he had no idea what she was talking about. In desperation, he raised a hand and randomly pointed in one direction.

The Holy Rakshasa looked where he pointed.

Crack!

One twist of her claw snapped his neck. She casually threw the corpse aside, beat her wings, and sped away in the direction the dead man had indicated.

...

The Holy Rakshasa was out.

The Holy Rakshasa had actually left the Butterfly Dream Illusory Realm and broken into the mortal world!

Myriad Beasts Sect was the faction closest to the entrance of the Butterfly Dream Illusory Realm. Its reaction could easily be imagined. The entire sect went on high alert, preparing from top to bottom for battle.

Only later, when disciples who had hidden in the forest and escaped disaster returned to report that the Holy Rakshasa had not headed toward the sect but had instead flown in another direction, did Myriad Beasts Sect finally breathe a little easier.

An event of this magnitude was beyond anything Myriad Beasts Sect could shoulder alone. Naturally, it had to be reported to Misty Pavilion immediately.

Xi Haitang also sent a confidential message to Niu Youdao at once.

Niu Youdao had told him that if he ever discovered traces of the Holy Rakshasa, Niu Youdao was to be informed before the Nine Saints learned of it.

But the circumstances this time were unusual. Too many people had seen what happened. Xi Haitang could not delay reporting to Misty Pavilion, so the messages to Misty Pavilion and Niu Youdao were sent at almost the same time.

[End of Chapter 1419]