CH 17

Lou Muge was too familiar with this aura. He was able to accurately find Ning Shaosi’s position among the thousands of demons and immortals, just based on his perception of his aura.

He stood in the midst of the turbulent world and let the wind roar. However, he remained standing straight, looking at the light emanating from Tao Zhai’s body and trying to catch that flickering aura.

Tears welled up in Tao Zhai eyes along with the bitterly murderous aura emanating from his body. The mud pillars standing aside burst up, as if to merge with the shaking earth, burying all those in them alive.

The snowstorm left Lou Muge undaunted. On the contrary, he walked steadily. He walked behind Tao Zhai and asked him, “What’s your relationship with Ning Shaosi?”

Tao Zhai turned his head with hatred and looked towards Lou Muge. Boundless killing intent surged, and red waves appeared in his black eyes. He, who was lying on the ground, stood up, and conjured a long blade. The tip of the blade swirled with white light. His eyes missed Lou Muge, and he looked straight at Zhang Rong behind him.

Tao Zhai raised his long blade and was about to attack Zhang Rong, but Lou Muge caught the tip of the blade with his bare hands. The white light eroded his hand, and blood trickled down the palm of his hand. He stared straight into Tao Zhai’s eyes, and asked once more, “What’s your relationship with Ning Shaosi?”

“Get lost!” Tao Zhai swung hard, and the powerful force sent him flying.

Lou Muge hurriedly adjusted his stance so as not to fall with such embarrassment. Unexpectedly, he didn’t crash to the ground but fell into a soft embrace instead. He turned his head and met Ning Shaosi’s lowered eyes that were brimming with worry. 

He stroked down Lou Muge’s arm, pressed his fingers to the wound, and scarlet liquid stained his fingertips.

Lou Muge wanted to continue asking Tao Zhai, so he wanted to push him. However, he didn’t budge an inch. Ning Shaosi appeared weak, but he was able to restrain Lou Muge. Fog seemed to shade his eyes, Lou Muge couldn’t clearly see through them. 

“You’re asking him what his relationship with Ning Shaosi is…” Ning Shaosi slightly lowered his eyes and covered up his emotions that were about to burst out. He rubbed his fingers on his wound to restore the cut to its original state: “What’s your intention?”

“Don’t you know Ning Shaosi?” Only then did Lou Muge realize that his reaction was far too extreme. He remembered the immortal stone on his wrist and attempted to cover it up. “If you can get in touch with the people around Ning Shaosi , maybe I can meet him.”

“Then how do you know that they are related to Ning Shaosi?” he asked rhetorically.

Lou Muge was stunned. He just caught that fleeting aura, but he didn’t expect that everyone around had never seen Ning Shaosi, and it was even more impossible for them to perceive his aura.

After being rendered speechless by his question, Lou Muge forced a smile, but saw that Tao Zhai had already stepped on the half-dead Zhang Rong at his feet. He was about to kill with his long blade raised high.

Lou Muge was startled. He conjured a water blade, but just as he was about to stop him, he caught a glimpse of a light flashing across the sky. A long halberd descended from the sky and stabbed Tao Zhai ruthlessly.

To avoid the halberd, Tao Zhai could only withdraw the mist in his hand. He turned and ducked to the side, leaving the halberd to pitch on the ground. Almost more than half of it plunged to the ground, causing a cracking earthquake all around. 

Then a young man flew down, leading more than a dozen immortal soldiers behind him. As soon as they landed, they surrounded everyone. The man pulled out his halberd and said to Tao Zhai, “Evildoer, stop causing disaster!”

Gloom filled Tao Zhai’s brow. He took stock of the people surrounding them and sneered indifferently.

Tao Ming, however, scrambled up and said to the man, “We didn’t do anything! We’re not demons!”

“How dare you argue?” The man retorted, “We saw everything clearly from the Immortal Mirrors. You and your selfish desire caused trouble on earth, and now you dare to kill immortals. If you don’t stop, I will kill you!”

“Selfish desires?” Tao Zai mocked incomparably, “We?”

The man had a violent temper. Seeing his response, he immediately turned the halberd in his hand and snapped, “If you refuse to submit, I’ll execute you on the spot and seek approval later!”

After the man finished speaking, he moved to strike him. He twisted a luminous spot on the long halberd and charged straight to Tao Zhai.

When Lou Muge saw this, he stepped back a little and clenched his teeth. “I see.”

Ning Shaosi inclined his head in wonder: “What?”

“I was wondering why so many people were sent to this small town, but it turned out to be because of Ning Shaosi.” Lou Muge said, “I think the people of the Immortal Realm must have sensed Ning Shaosi’s aura here, so they sent people to find out the details.”

Hearing this, Ning Shaosi laughed and whispered under his breath, “If they’re so suspicious, why did they send these people?”

“Because he’s too weak.” Lou Muge answered, “His aura can barely be felt, so it is not certain whether he is here or not.”

Ning Shaosi shook his head. Something must have come to mind because he let out a soft sigh.

“We can’t let him kill Tao Zhai.” Lou Muge held the water blade in his hand and stepped forward to stop the man.

Just as he was about to move, he heard the person beside him say, “Even if people from the Immortal Realm fail to kill him, he will not live long.”

Lou Muge looked at him askance: “What do you mean by that?”

“Look.” Ning Shaosi pointed at Tao Zhai.

Lou Muge followed his finger and saw that Tao Zhai, who was fighting with the man, was still emitting a white glow, only from the bottom of his feet upwards. The glow had a vague tendency to dissipate. What was more, half of his feet had turned into smoke.

“Why?”

“Who knows…” Ning Shaosi replied softly, “Maybe it’s because of that tear.”

After he mentioned this, Lou Muge immediately recalled how intense Tao Ming’s reaction was when Tao Zhai fell into tears just now.

But right now it was too late to delve deeper into it. It was necessary to save Tao Zhai from that immortal man first.

The man’s strikes were ruthless. His halberd slashed the wind, and at a glance, he wasn’t to be taken lightly. Hence, he decided to show the unique trick that he had been practicing for many days. He took a horse stance, and from his chest, he squeezed out a stern cry, quite with style.

Seeing his actions, Ning Shaosi stepped back without a trace.

Lou Muge took a deep breath. His eyes fixed on the man who kept striking, and without warning, he raised his hands high and shouted to the man, “Destroy, my Heavenly Dragon sleet!”

As soon as he finished speaking, water droplets condensed, gathered into columns, and rushed towards the man’s face. The man was fighting with Tao Zhai, and he didn’t pay attention to the sudden column of water. He was caught off guard and was water bombed in the face. He hastily closed his eyes, retreated several steps, and withdrew from Tao Zhai.

Seeing that he hit the target with one blow, Lou Muge put away the water column. He also issued a proud hum. He developed this trick after he commandeered the body of the water demon. It should have been a very powerful move. However, the strength of a water demon was too weak, so he could only summon a water column. Fortunately, it was still useful.

Ning Shaosi, who witnessed everything, was stunned for a long time. His tongue moved, but he couldn’t think of anything to praise him.

Lou Muge flew to the man’s side, put a resistance stance, and said to him, “Don’t be impulsive, Your Excellency. I have something to ask these brothers.”

Water soaked the man’s face, so his expression couldn’t be any more overcast. He shouted at Lou Muge, “What more do you have to ask? Since you have found the evil demons, just exterminate them!”

“That’s too bad. I think you really should care not about these two brothers, but the one above.” Lou Muge pointed to Lady Zhu, who was still fighting with Wen Changchu. He accompanied it with a sigh. That Wen Changchu’s couple of tricks were so powerful that he could even draw with Lady Zhu.

When the man heard his suggestion, he hesitated, but still said, “Mortal life is important.”

“No one has died yet, right?” Lou Muge retorted, spreading his hands. 

Who would have thought that the moment he said this, movement suddenly occurred on Tao Zhai’s side. The land under their feet suddenly flowed and turned mud-like, which instantly sucked their feet, and then set off a huge wave, ocean-like waves, that were even higher than the city gate. It seemed that he wanted to drown everyone.

Lou Muge was a little embarrassed, and said to Tao Zhai, “You move quite fast.”

“Get out of the way!” The man pushed Lou Muge into a stumble and retrieved the halberd in the ground with a wave of his hand. His palms conceived a blinding light, and the moment it touched the halberd, the light instantly transformed into a flexible luminous snake. Shaped like a lightning, it opened its jaws towards Tao Zhai.

Tao Zhai showed no signs of resistance and was still focused on lifting the mud wall. The dozens of immortal soldiers surrounding him shot at the same time, and the sharp blades in their hands stabbed him all over. Zhang Rong, who was seriously injured, also got up at this moment. Water sprouted out of the middle, and the mud wall was washed into pieces.

Tao Zhai failed and was also attacked multiple times. He frowned in pain, yet he gritted his teeth and didn’t utter a single sound. He raised his hand to fight back, but the man cut off half of his arm with a knife. Blood instantly stained his whole body.

“Brother! Brother!” The blind Tao Ming screamed miserably. He waved his hands here and there and plead for mercy, “Don’t hurt my brother!”

Lou Muge stood by, watching these immortal soldiers exterminating demons, and felt a little uncomfortable. However, on second thought, this was a fact. In the past, as a Devil Venerable, he could change the situation with a single word, but he was currently Lou Shengsheng who no one knew. Who would pay attention to him?

So, somewhat depressed, Lou Muge bent down and picked up a lump of mud from the ground. He kneaded it into a ball, raised his hand and threw it at the man. He aimed high, hitting the back of his head.

In one fell swoop, half of his head turned muddy.

The man turned around with an angry roar and pointed at Lou Muge: “Are you with them?

Lou Muge’s expression was quite innocent. “Who asked you to ignore what I said? I still have something to ask him. Stop for now. Before the matter is divided into right and wrong, you can’t convict him at will.”

“What did you say?!” The man clenched his teeth together and let his voice ring like a bell, “I’m telling you! This pair of brothers have already admitted their guilt, so you don’t have to stir up trouble here. If you keep stirring up nonsense, I’ll take you in as well!”

Lou Muge snorted, expressing his displeasure.

Ning Shaosi, who kept silent for a long time, stood up at this time. His expression was as warm as before, still unhurried as he spoke to the man, “These brothers just mentioned something else. Why don’t we first clarify things? By then, you can clearly distinguish right from wrong.”

The man glanced at him and was infuriated, “Isn’t it obvious? His desire to kill these mortals is enough to explain everything. What else do we need to understand?”