96. You dare?? You DARE???!!

Lin Yijun’s eyes closed, tilting his head to deepen the kiss. His tongue slid hot against Zhou Sheng’s. It was like lightning, like spice.

Zhou Sheng’s mouth was the most delicious thing he had been forced to ‘eat’ so far.

Confused lightning crackled in the dark clouds. Thunder boomed, as though the Heavens were growling at them to stop. No, no, this can’t be right! Immortal eyes above could not believe the scene below.

“What—what is the meaning of this?” Elder Wang spluttered.

“Zhou Sheng, you were a spy the entire time?!” the Blood Sect Leader growled.

“That cultivator is not one of ours!” Elder Wang shouted back. “Your scum disciple seduced our Lin Yijun!”

Anger throbbed in Lin Yijun’s forehead. He apologetically pulled away from Zhou Sheng. The corner of his eyes curled when Zhou Sheng grabbed his hand.

“Don’t speak like that of Zhou Sheng,” Lin Yijun said coldly to all those present. “He is—”

“—his future Dao Companion,” Zhou Sheng finished, with a cocky tilt of his head. The big stone in his heart had dropped, and the resulting hole was filled with renewed confidence and relief and happiness.

Lin Yijun smiled, his eyes soft towards Zhou Sheng.

Elder Wang gagged at the disgusting sight. “Lin Yijun, kill that demonic cultivator and get back here.”

Lin Yijun’s smile dropped, eyes turning cold. “No.” He drew his sword with his free hand, as though readying to protect the demonic cultivator from Elder Wang.

“So, Zhou Sheng defected. Then we’ll kill him too,” an elder from the Blood Sect said dismissively.

Zhou Sheng let go of Lin Yijun’s hand and turned to face the Blood Sect cultivators. His polearm emerged and thumped on the air with a BANG!

“Didn’t I say I’ll kill any of you who dares to approach?” Zhou Sheng said darkly. “I’m the one taking out slave-owning rubbish. Come here and let me take out the trash.”

Wen Zhihao snickered, mentally giving Zhou Sheng a thumbs up for his line delivery. And he was happy for them: they seemed a lot happier now, and their qi was harmonious together rather than jarring.

Some demonic cultivators clearly wanted to die early. A few rushed up to Zhou Sheng and others rushed up to Lin Yijun. Zhou Sheng and Lin Yijun met them head on, together. The qi shockwaves from their weapons sent their opponents flying back.

Elder Wang gritted his teeth. His eyes honed in onto the Disciple Wen, inner disciple of Elder Liu Ru. “What’s so funny, Disciple Wen? Was it you who corrupted Lin Yijun?”

Wen Zhihao stiffened, but then the dog ran between him and Elder Wang, baring her teeth.

“GRRR!!!” DARE YOU SAY THAT AGAIN, OLD MAN?!

Elder Wang drew his sword a fraction from its scabbard. The blade shone brightly with qi. “Disciples, eliminate—” Elder Wang sucked a sharp breath when a sword suddenly slapped him on the bottom. He gnashed his teeth and spun around. “Which disciple dared—!”

But there was only a single flying sword, moving entirely on its own! Elder Wang could see qi clear as day, and yet this sword had no attached qi—it wasn’t being controlled by anyone! Without this, Elder Wang couldn’t predict its erratic manoeuvrers.

Wen Zhihao’s sword crowed in its heart. Ha! Whack!

Some of the righteous cultivators couldn’t hold back their sniggers.

A cultivator from the Ghost Sect sneered at the squabbling righteous cultivators. Aren’t they forgetting something? Pei, idiots! “Ghosts, grab me a demonic beast!”

Pale, chilling ghosts flew across the ravine, straight for Wen Zhihao.

“Fuck, you Ghost Sect bastards! Demons, get me a beast first! Get me two, no three!”

Bipedal, tripedal, quadpedal demons gnashed their teeth under the command and rushed forward.

The more reckless of demonic cultivators quickly followed on their heels.

Whoosh!

Stones flew through the air, as fast as an arrow. They slammed into the ghosts’ forehead. Some ghosts stopped immediately in their tracks, while some weaker ghosts immediately dissipated as they crossed over.

Smack! More stones flew and struck the demons, also stopping them in their tracks.

“What, how—”

“Is that a heart soothing treasure?!!”

“HEAVENS ABOVE! A HEART SOOTHING TREASURE!”

Demonic and righteous cultivators alike had their concentration broken as they focused their attention on the fallen stones on the ground, littering both sides of the ravine.

Heart soothing treasures! Who on earth would throw them out like common sticks and stones?!

One righteous cultivator from a different sect couldn’t help himself—he was poor, and heart soothing treasures were expensive! He weaved through the dumbfounded ghosts and snatched up a stone. “Heavens witness! It really is a heart-soothing treasure!” With this stone, he could avoid heart-demons and his path to cultivation will become so smooth!

His words struck the hearts of many. The scrambling for the stones began!

The ghost cultivator who had sent the first round of ghosts gritted his teeth. Fuck heart-soothing treasures, he didn’t need them! He summoned his most powerful revengeful ghost. The ghost general dripped blood from head to toe, emanating a cold murderous aura. “Get me a demonic beast, now!”

Sun Fuyu swore in his heart as the ghostly general rushed towards them. He was running out of calming stones, and he couldn’t dash in and retrieve the thrown ones, not with all the cultivators scrambling for them. “Wen-ge, get behind me!”

Wen Zhihao dazedly moved behind Sun Fuyu. Who was the author of this novel?!

Before Sun Fuyu could step forward to meet the ghostly general, though, light shone like miniature suns from the demonic cats. No matter how high one’s cultivation, it was impossible to see exactly what was happening.

A few seconds later, the cats were gone...and in their place were humans—or human figures. Their skin was a range between pale, pink, and grey. Long hair tumbled down their patterned robes, and furry ears stuck out from heads.

The eyes on the transformed demonic beasts grew even hotter. These demonic beasts had cultivated enough to achieve a human form!

One of the cat-humans bared her teeth. “Pet, you dare want us as a pet?” She and another cat-human leapt at the ghostly general, claw tipped hands forcing the ghost into submission. “We’ll make you our pet, let’s see how you like that!” 

“Tch, I hate this form,” a male cat-human frowned, pulled at his yucky robes. They all had robes on because Huang Jialing impressed on them multiple times to transform their fur into human clothing. “So let me be quick, no one will be our master! You can only be our cat-slave!”

“Don’t even bother trying to attack us, you humans won’t even fill the spaces between our teeth,” another cat-human sneered.

“Tch, not even worthy to be a cat-slave!”

“Go away, we don’t want you stinky humans!”

“And stay away from our sleepy human!”

With their thoughts expressed in human language for the poor humans who couldn’t understand cat-language, bright lights surrounded the cat-humans once more as they turned back into their preferred cat form. Their mouths opened, baring sharp teeth. You dare? You dare make me your pet? Throw you into the pits for a thousand years!

One cat slapped the humans and ghosts and demons alike and grabbed the calming stones. “GRRR!!!” These aren’t yours! They’re mine now!!

“May lightning strike up!” Elder Wang seethed. He finally trapped the wayward sword under chains, and threw the cursed thing to the ground hard enough to create a small crater. “Disciple Wen, stop playing around and fight! Disciple Sun, dare you point your sword at me?”

Wen Zhihao snapped out of his cat-induced daze. He rested a placating hand on Sun Fuyu’s shoulder and looked up at Elder Wang’s angry, demanding face.

“No. I don’t want to fight.”

Elder Wang spluttered in anger.

“Calm down, Elder Wang. Take a deep breath in, and breathe out...”

Wen Zhihao’s voice was laced with qi and had an authoritative parental tone. Cultivators couldn’t help but subconsciously breathe in as the voice told them to.

The air rippled around Wen Zhihao, like a soft shockwave spreading outwards.

Elder Wang: THIS IS MEANT TO BE SERIOUS!

Wen Zhihao: ┐(︶▽︶)┌ Guess I’m about to ruin this man’s life…

Cats: Stay away from our sleepy human!

Sun Fuyu: (≖_≖ ) Whose sleepy human, hm?