Chapter 188: I Only Have Eyes For You
Translator: Subudai11 Editor: Chrissy
We have no malice?
Of course, nowadays, the theme of the Immortal Cultivation World in the Nine Region was peace and development. Those who blatantly shouted we are here to destroy and conquer the barbarians were getting less and less, and their keeping appearance skill kept improving.
Even if it were clear the army has trampled the opposing side under their boots, which caused innocent people to suffer in hardships, the general carrying the flag would still hold up his bloody hand high and shout: "We bring you democracy and freedom!"
Yes, the left hand was democracy, while the right hand was freedom. The two hands would successively break your muscle and fracture your rib!
Therefore, when he heard that brown-skinned cultivator said they mean no harm, Wang Lu just smiled.
"Only the dead have no malice. Why don’t you raise your sword and slit your own throat, and then I’ll believe you."
That brown cultivator paid no heed to his mockery. With an unchanging smile, he said, "I am A Xia. Beside me is the cat girl Ling Yan. I believe you guys have seen each other previously."
A Xia said, and then his smile gradually retracted as he assumed a more serious pose. However, his pair of jet-black eyes were still elusive.
"One week ago, we were instructed by the Great Elder of the Grand Cloud Mountain Division to solve the problem of the three of you."
Wang Lu asked, "And then you come without malice?"
A Xia said, "Correct. Because I always feel that many things can be settled peacefully."
"Settled peacefully?"
"Yes. For example, I am here on behalf of the Beast Master School Grand Cloud Mountain Division to plead the three of you to bury the hatchet of enmity and turn hostility into friendship."
Hearing this remark, Wang Lu repeatedly nodded. "Mm, when rape is unfeasible, then comes the seduction, your calculation is sound."
A Xia smiled again. "Yes, I have calculated it carefully. If I insist in trading swords with you three, I don’t know how much troublesome it would be. A middle-level Jindan Stage with spiritual treasure that can come and go at will in my Beast Master School’s inescapable net. For such an opponent, I might be able to defeat and even expel them, but to completely solve the problem, perhaps even our Great Elder wouldn’t be able to, not to mention that we are doing something important that need all our manpower and resources. If we have to divide our manpower to deal with you three, I’m afraid it would be difficult to do both successfully, so why bother?"
Upon hearing this, Xiao Qi froze, and then said, "You, this person, are something else. Very different than those brutal beasts."
A Xia slightly cupped his hand across his chest. "Frankly speaking, my cultivation base is shallow and intelligence dull. In this life, I have no hope to even go a step further. So naturally, I’m unlike the others. However, it is also because of this that some problems that they can’t solve, I actually can. In my opinion, there is no deep hatred between the two sides, so it is absolutely unnecessary to make it so stiff."
Xiao Qi asked, "No deep hatred?"
A Xia said, "Is it worth to grudge over mere thousands of dogs? It was just the original Elder who handled this matter who overreacted. If you are willing to let it go, we will offer our sincere apologies for our rudeness."
With that, he turned to Wang Lu. "Likewise, I would also like to apologize to you for the rudeness of Elder Chi Hou."
Wang Lu sneered. "If apologies are useful, why do people still burn false paper money for the dead?"
A Xia repeatedly nodded. "Precisely, words are empty, and thus, in order to win your trust and show our sincerity… see this."
With that, A Xia took out a dangling thing from his loose robe. Upon seeing it, Wang Lu was stunned. It was actually an arm! It was a muscular arm with rough bones. He remembered it pretty well. It was the right hand of Chi Hou!
"He is an Elder of the Beast Master School, but because of the lax in rule, two disciples under him conspired to take your spirit beast. Later, he also obsessed with it and even personally tried to grab it by force from you… In accordance with the Beast Master School rules, we must strictly punish him. Now, I have taken one of his arms as a token of apology, I wonder if I can get your forgiveness?"
Not to mention the arm part, with his status as a Jindan Stage Daoist Master alone, to willingly lower himself and spoke that obsequious to Wang Lu, it was truly rare. Although A Xia’s pair of strange eyes still very much elusive, this stance was really impeccable.
Wang Lu lightly laughed. "You sure know how to make use of waste."
That day, he, Liu Li and Quan Zouhua jointly repelled Chi Hou, killed his two spirit beasts, and broke his magical treasure. This caused Chi Hou to lose sixty percent of his original strength. Although he was still in the Jindan Stage, according to Wang Lu’s level qualification, Chi Hou’s power level has already fallen to Jindan - n, an unknown amount of level. After suffering such a heavy blow, with Chi Hou’s intelligence and disposition, wanting to make a comeback was easier said than done. He was indeed just a waste.
And for an arm of a waste, was there any value in it?
And Wang Lu, without compunction, actually pointed out this issue, giving the opposite party a taste of face slapping.
However, A Xia was still not angry. He continued to nod. "Indeed, this alone is not enough to prove our sincerity. Therefore… Ling Yan, come here."
The cat-eared girl under the cloak behind him trembled, slowly walked forward and removed the hood.
It was still that same young, immature-looking yet not lacking in heroic spirit beast girl. It was just that, compared to several days ago, her complexion now was deathly pale and she completely lost her spirit. Moreover, she also wore a black eye-patch, which blocked her right eye.
Then, the girl stretched out her right hand. In her palm, there was a flickering cat eye’s stone.
"You!?"
Xiao Qi was extremely surprised and even somewhat angry. Next to her, Wang Lu’s eyes slightly widened; this was obviously an unexpected scene to him.
A Xia, still smiling, said, "With this high-grade spirit object as compensation, it should be able to prove our sincerity."
Wang Lu was silent. Xiao Qi was silent. Liu Li looked at the girl and the cat’s eye stone in her hand in disbelief, wanting to say something, but in the end did not know what to say.
Regarding this, even a harsh and demanding person would have nothing to say.
If the right hand of Chi Hou was just making use of a waste, this cat’s eye stone was a precious magical object carved out of the flesh of a peak Jindan Stage Daoist Master.
Moreover, with the secret method to remove the eyeball and turn it into a gem, the lost of her right eye almost has no regeneration possibility, unless she could advance to Yuanying Stage where she would get the chance to reshape her flesh. However, peak Jindan Stage to Yuanying Stage was not a threshold that was easy to cross. Plus, because Ling Yan was of spirit beast origin, her difficulty to cross this stage was several times harder than human cultivators. Now, with a missing body part, her difficulty increased even more, almost to the point where it was hopeless for her to advance.
With such a loss, even for a high-rank sect, it was not something that could be ignored. Jindan Stage cultivators of Beast Master School were not just a few, but each has its own value. To casually disfigure one of them, it was really...
Wang Lu was silent for a while. His eyes firmly locked in A Xia’s body.
The opposite party’s stance was impeccable, however, it was exactly because of this that it made people uncomfortable because such offer was almost something that could not be refused. A Xia has put himself in a very low position, but behind him, there must be some kind of mountain-like component.
Why? It was very simple. If at this time A Xia took out gold and silver, and even high-grade spiritual treasure, Wang Lu could use the pretext of: I, this father, am of noble character and unquestionable integrity. I could not be bought with such cheap objects. However, since the opposite party has dug out her own eyeball, how could he refuse? If he insisted, would he only be satisfied when the whole Beast Master School was exterminated?
At that time, the one being unreasonably arrogant was no longer the Beast Master School, but Wang Lu.
He had to admit that though this method was quite diabolical, it did put people in a dilemma. Wang Lu was still silent. Looking at the increasingly meaningful smile on A Xia’s face, inwardly, his heart gradually became wroth.
Wang Lu, this person, most of the time was amenable to coaxing but not coercion. And if he wanted to be honest, only if there was a contradiction that he could not adjust, otherwise, in doing his things, Wang Lu would always leave some leeway. However, right now, A Xia’s outwardly soft but inwardly hard stance actually provoked Wang Lu’s anger instead.
Interesting. Want to play tricks with me? Are you sure?
However, before Wang Lu could get into action, he heard behind him the compassionate sigh of Xiao Qi. "If you really are sincere, why must you use others as a token for it? You have eyes, why don’t you dig out your own eyes!"
With that, Xiao Qi, grasping her monk staff, took several steps forward. Golden rays of light emitted out from that thick staff. Under the rays, Wang Lu felt a warm feeling gushed out from the bottom of his heart. He could not help but be surprised. "Seventh Madame, you…"
The next moment, he was completely speechless. He saw that as she took each of her steps, the woman’s silhouette became infinitely tall. Her purple robe, along with her monk staff emitted out a gentle zen light. As she walked, she lifted her hand. Petals fluttered in the breeze, and zen sound spiraled out. Furthermore, from the woman’s body, there seemed to be a hundred arhats chanting sutras in a chorus. This massive momentum and magnificent stature were simply irresistible.
"What a poor child."
Xiao Qi looked at the cat-eared girl with infinite compassion. She then extended her staff. The speed seemed slow but fast in reality, not giving the other party a chance to react.
That piece of cat’s eye stone suddenly stood up and rotated. From the angular appearance, it gradually swelled up. Gradually, it became watery from the center.
At this time, even the mysterious A Xia looked surprised. Ling Yan’s right eye has been removed through a secret procedure before it was crystallized. It has already changed from living to dead thing. Yet under Xiao Qi’s zen light, the dead object actually became alive again; this was an extremely amazing feat!
"Go."
Xiao Qi sighed as her monk staff slightly trembled. The eyeball in Ling Yan’s palm turned into a ray of light and flew into the eyepatch. The girl cried out in surprise and then she removed her eyepatch. A nimble and resourceful eye rotated in its place, as clear as ever.
"... Truly a proper method." Wang Lu was simply awestruck. A petrified cat’s eye turned back into an eyeball, how could he not see how difficult it was? Moreover, Xiao Qi was merely an avatar amongst many, with magical power stage just middle-level Jindan. And though the monk staff in her hand was a spiritual treasure, it was far from enough to produce such a miracle.
The magic was not in the monk staff but Xiao Qi. With her Jindan Stage, she was able to turn a dead object into living; this meant that she understood the road of reincarnation, which was the main road many great Zen cultivators failed to understand.
Sure enough, no ordinary person could befriend his Master. With this move of her, besides showcasing how amazing Xiao Qi’s power was, it has also resolved A Xia’s mean.
Your eyeball has been returned. If you want to reconcile, please make a new offer. Besides, Xiao Qi had just also said that if A Xia really wanted to show his sincerity, he should dig his own eyeball.
The zen light and sound continued to emit non-stop from the staff in Xiao Qi’s hand, however, the intent of ‘delivering all living creatures from suffering’ within them had already vanished without a trace. The woman coldly watched A Xia, seemingly waiting for the later to dig his own eye.
Zen Master Dog Meat has the means of a Zen Master, but did not have the leniency of a Zen Master. When she was in a bad mood, she could devour thousands of spirit dogs on the Ground Cloud Mountain, thus she wouldn’t mind digging out a sinister person’s eyeball.
A Xia sighed. "This is really embarrassing. It seems like today’s visit is not the perfect time. Let’s meet again next time."
"Want to go?"
Wang Lu raised his eyebrows and stepped forward, hand still holding the Sword of Mount Kun. Completely disregarding the insurmountable gap between middle-level Foundation Establishment and middle-level Jindan, he actually launched the first strike!
A Xia’s complexion became imposing; he certainly didn’t concern himself about that sword thrust from Wang Lu. Even without the constraint of his Heart Demon Oath, Wang Lu’s striking power was also too horrible to look. However, this time, Wang Lu was not alone. When he lunged his sword forward, for some unknown reason, the naive girl behind him also moved, and her action was even faster than Wang Lu.
The same sword thrust, yet Liu Li’s attack was impossible to ignore. Even if the distance between high-level Foundation Establishment and middle-level Jindan was like the heaven and earth, but Brilliant Sword Heart seemed able to cross the bridge to the heaven and puncture it. A simple sword thrust, yet A Xia already felt that the entire magical power within his body had begun to shake. If he met it head on, though he would still be able to withstand it, taking into account that the other side still has the mysterious Zen Master Dog Meat whose comprehension in zen was as deep as the ocean, A Xia decided to flee.
A Xia and Ling Yan came together so naturally, he would not leave alone. A Xia took a step back, the floating light from the escaping technique had already shone on his body, and reached out his hand to grasp Ling Yan. However, Ling Yan was a bit slow to react and did not immediately move.
At this time, however, Liu Li’s sword suddenly had a change in momentum, slashing through the space in front of Ling Yan. A Xia’s eyebrows jumped up as his connection with Ling Yan was cut off by the sword. The next moment, the floating light has completely engulfed him, and in a flash, he was instantaneously transferred dozens of miles away.
However, a certain cat-eared girl was left behind.
This was almost exactly the same tactic when dealing with Chi Hou. Only this time, the one left was not a war trophy of an ancient skull, but rather a peak Jindan Stage… pet?
Looking at the timid and cowering face of Ling Yan, no one would find it not difficult to think that she was the same imposingly arrogant Elder a few days ago.