Chapter 38 – Beauty
Translated by: TaffyGirl13, Zaza, Shiroyukineko
Edited by: Krithika , Surjit, Rango
TLCed by: Zaza, Shiroyukineko
Far in the distance, faint voices could be heard.
Yue Yang was unable to lament any further. He commanded the Barbaric Cow to pick up the demon’s dismembered arm and quickly slipped away into the darkness. The Barbaric Cow carried the dismembered demon’s arm that was still frozen in ice and followed after him with thudding footsteps. The moment he slipped away into the darkness, Yue Yang looked back again at the bright-eyed thief who was still peacefully lying unconscious on the ground.
A white figure streaked across the night faster than lightning, appearing on the battlefield.
It was a beautiful lady in imperial robes. The lady’s snow-white face was lightly covered with a white muslin. The muslin had concealed the lady’s features, but it couldn’t hide her delicate, snow-white skin.
Those especially clear and luminous eyes were bright, brimming with intelligence. The long, curved eyelashes fluttered in a quick-witted manner would probably attract many people.
Seeing the bright-eyed thief lying motionless on the ground, she immediately cried out in shock, “How could something like this happen when I was gone for only a short while… Fortunately, she only overtaxed her mind… It is not a major problem!” The voices approaching from the darkness drew closer and countless footsteps could be heard. The beautiful lady clad in palace clothing furrowed her elegant, black eyebrows and frowned. She extended her lily-white arms and waved her slim, snow-white fingers to summon a Gold Grimoire.
With a flash of golden light, an elf with butterfly wings flew outwards, fluttering into the beautiful person’s fragrant body.
In an instant, a pair of enormous butterfly wings materialized on her back.
The beautiful lady gently lifted the unconscious bright eyed thief. With a flap of her wings, she danced into the air, looking like an immortal that had descended from the highest of the heavens as she flew away. After she had flown off into the distance, Yue Yang, who had been quietly hiding himself in the darkness with bated breath, gradually appeared. Hearing some messy footsteps approach, he turned around and chose to stride in the direction opposite the one that the beautiful person had gone towards. He left quickly, as agile as a fox, and blended into the darkness once more.
As soon as Yue Yang left, a middle-aged man that had a lion-like presence rushed to the battlefield with a burst of wind.
Seeing that the Merry Forest Pavilion had collapsed, burning merrily within the raging flames, he was so angered that he began to cry out loudly.
The battlefield was an utter mess.
A terrifying, deep gouge had left its mark on the ground, almost cleaving that 100m expanse of land in half. There were small, yet to be extinguished fires dotting the area and some Infernos still ablaze. Some corpses had already been burned into charcoal, while some still had remnants of skulls and ruined limbs. There were no signs of life at all; even the strongest guard, the Guard Leader, had taken his last breath.
The outrage in the powerful man’s eyes was evident. He couldn’t help but roar upwards at the heavens, “This makes me furious, too furious!”
A few warriors rushed over afterwards. When they saw the scene before them, they were so scared that they felt their legs go weak.
“What are you guys waiting for? Go search for any survivors! Look for any useful clues as well; I want to know exactly who did this immediately!” The man pulled out a thick, golden blade from his back, and began to wildly whack it around in anger, completely destroying the ground.
“Master Golden Blade, the circumstances here… …” A male that looked like a thief discovered some suspicious marks next to the Guard Leader.
(TLN: Master Golden Blade is the owner of the Merry Forest Pavilion)
“Xie Huo? Sixth King?” The angry middle-aged man discovered that before his Guard Leader had died, he had used his blood to write these four words messily on the rock next to him. After some careful inspection, he was just able to discern the blood spelled out these exact four words. After the man called “Master Golden Blade” finished examining the words, his expression changed greatly. Rage that was difficult to suppress surged within him, as he clenched his fists and shouted, “I don’t care who it is, I must find this perpetrator and exact my complete revenge upon him!”
“There’s a spot unaffected by the battle here, most likely left by a protection circle from a grimoire. There’s probably a summoner warrior still alive….” Another subordinate declared.
“Find him. Offer a plentiful bounty. We, the Merry Forest, will spend all our efforts and resources to investigate the truth of this matter! I will definitely not allow any demon believer to move around Da Xia Empire as he pleases. I definitely cannot accept the type of scum that uses our own citizens as blood sacrifices!” Master Golden Blade nearly burst his lungs, roaring in anger incessantly.
Yue Yang’s courtyard.
The beautiful woman, accompanied by a few attendants, held the little girl, walked up and knocked on Yue Yang’s door and with a panic-stricken expression.
Without caring that Yue Yang was still in his sleepwear, she hurriedly rushed over and handed the little girl to him, “San-er, White Stone City is in chaos. Perhaps the Black Mountain Bandits have attacked the city. Uncle Nan has just returned after scouting the situation; apparently the Eastern part of the city has become a sea of fire. Hurry up and leave with Shuang Er! Quickly! Quickly!” The little girl, Yue Shuang, was crying in fear, and had refused to leave her mother no matter what. When she saw Yue Yang, she jumped into his embrace and wailed in grievance, “Mommy hit me! Third Brother, I haven’t done anything wrong, but Mommy still hit me….it really hurts, wuaaaa!”
“Shuang Er is a good girl, don’t cry, don’t cry!”
Looking at the woman’s expression, Yue Yang could tell that she had misunderstood.
She definitely thought that the eastern part of White Stone City had been attacked by the Black Mountain Bandits. For the sake of protecting her precious daughter, she had rushed to meet Yue Yang so that he could bring the little girl out of the city and escape before the Black Mountain Bandits started wreaking havoc.
Si-niang was such a great mother!
She didn’t think of her own safety at all, completely engrossed in protecting her son and daughter!
Warmth surged from Yue Yang’s heart, flowing throughout his body. Eventually, it caused his throat to constrict and he was unable to speak.
After taking a deep breath to calm his emotions, Yue Yang lightly patted the little girl’s back and gave the woman a comforting smile, “Mother, don’t worry, there’s no need to fret about the Black Mountain Bandits. Even if the Black Mountain Bandits really did slaughter their way here, I would definitely protect you and Shuang Er! Mother, believe me, there are no bandits. It was only the warriors from Merry Forest that broke out into a fight. I just surveyed the scene from the rooftop. Aside from a pretty intense fire that burned a few of the houses, nothing major happened!”
“The Black Mountain Bandits really aren’t coming?” Hearing this, the beautiful woman’s expression immediately relaxed, although she still looked doubtful.
“Definitely not. The Black Mountain Bandits are actually White Stone City’s private force. There’s no way they would come attack us!” Yue Yang patiently explained.
“I was so scared just now!” The beautiful woman’s burden seemed to have been completely dispelled, as she patted her chest, easing her lingering fear away. She was so scared that she needed at least this much time to slow down her thumping heartbeat. The servants behind her also started to shout in joy and relief when they heard Yue Yang say that it wasn’t the mountain bandits in such a resolute and unhesitating tone. A disaster had disappeared suddenly, everyone was extremely happy.
In the Da Xia Kingdom, there were many mountains and dangerous lands. The Black Mountain Bandits had turned the Huang Ye Mountain to their fortress and plundered the nearby villages.
As the nation was still too weak, some places were not governed properly. With the addition of outside support and spy activities, a few mayors or governors of some places had colluded with bandits. Hence although the Black Mountain Bandits was notorious and the Kingdom tried to destroy them again and again, they had grown even more savage through the years. Other than the cities that had city walls to protect themselves, normal villages had to pay taxes to the bandits in order to survive. If they didn’t, it wasn’t strange if the entire village was massacred. Normally, infamous and exceptionally powerful bandit groups would successfully take over some random small-scale towns and occupy it for around 1-2 months. Only when the empire’s army rushed over would they relinquish their control and run away.
A town besieged by the Black Mountain Bandits would typically be destroyed. The usual practice was to massacre everyone in the city for one day, and use them for pleasure for the next three days.
The ugly-looking villagers would be publicly executed, while the beautiful looking young girls would either be raped or sold as prostitutes.
Hence, all girls from renowned families would have a Chastity Pill. The moment they fell into a hopeless situation, in order to protect their chastity, they would consume the Chastity Pill. They would rather end their lives with poison than be tarnished by those bandits.
Inside the small pouch that the beautiful woman carried, there was also a Chastity pill, which was small emerald green in colour. Yue Yang was afraid that she would try to commit suicide, hence he quickly tried to dispel the rumour of the Black Mountain Bandits raiding the village.
After Yue Yang’s numerous attempts to reassure her, the beautiful woman finally calmed down a little.
The beautiful woman carried the little girl who had cried herself to sleep and sat inside Yue Yang’s room throughout the night, until the old servant, Uncle Nan, who had gone out multiple times to ask about the situation, confirmed that the Black Mountain Bandits were not going to raid the town. When it was almost daybreak, she finally went back to her own residence to sleep. After such a scare, the beautiful woman was unable to sleep peacefully for several days. She was even panicky during the day, afraid that the Black Mountain Bandits would come to hurt them.
Although she didn’t say it out loud, Yue Yang could see it with one glance. Si Niang had probably experienced a traumatic accident before.
When Yue Yang saw her beautiful face that was wasting away, he inwardly made up his mind.
The next day, the old servant Uncle Nan came to report with great delight, “Madame, young master, there is an extremely joyous news! The Black Mountain Bandits from the Black Mountain had angered a Ranker and were decimated in just one night. The whole group was annihilated…”
As expected, the beautiful woman’s anxiety didn’t require any medicine to fix. Her snow white face recovered its original smile.
White Stone City’s leader was naturally furious. However, his pent up, bitter grievances remained unspoken, and he couldn’t find the specific criminal to enact revenge on.
If Yue Bing was still practicing summoning techniques with Yue Yang at home, she would’ve discovered that Yue Yang’s Thorny Flower had already become a Silver ranked ‘Devil Mask Spitting Thorny Flower’.
Although the Black Mountain Bandits didn’t have any extraordinary warriors, they were superior in numbers. After the Spitting Thorny Flower devoured 100 people in succession, it had smoothly left the Bronze rank and evolved into the Silver rank. The only thing Yue Yang felt was disappointing was that there wasn’t a single Level 3 Hero among the Black Mountain Bandits. Otherwise, the current Thorny Spitting Flower could probably have easily advanced to a Gold Thorny Flower.
After devouring 100 people, the Thorny Flower wasn’t far from reaching Gold rank.
Yue Yang trained every day, and the days gradually returned to their previous peaceful state.
Another three days had passed. The beautiful woman was carrying the little girl, happily entering the small courtyard where Yue Yang was practicing. She waved a letter in her hand and chirped, “San-er, Bing-er sent a letter! I’ve been worried that the matter at Merry Forest would interfere with letters. I hadn’t imagined that we’d be able to receive a reply from Bing Er so early!”
She excitedly opened the snow-white letter to read it.
What nobody could’ve imagined was that as soon as she read the letter, her smiled immediately vanished, replaced with concern.
“What’s wrong? Did something happen to Seventh Sister?” Yue Yang was alarmed; could it be that Yue Bing had encountered danger even when she had been practicing on the first floor of Tong Tian Tower? He hurriedly put down the spoilt little girl bouncing around in his arms and said, “Si-niang, should I go and fetch Bing Er back?”