Translator-Rhapsodite
Editor-Pierce, Proofreader-adjective
A thick and lethargic male voice—with a rather impatient tone—came from the other side of the door.
“Who is disturbing my cultivation?”
Hearing the man’s response, Fan Hemian knew that she knocked on the right door. Immediately, the hairs on her back raised as she answered with vigor:
“Chief Steward Yan ordered this servant to bring ‘Empress Ren’ to serve the Emperor…”
The tone of her voice seemed tense, but it fit the image of a small servant girl trembling before a mighty demon. The Wutong Shen inside the room didn’t doubt it and just asked lazily, “Empress Ren? A newcomer?”
Fan Hemian hurriedly responded, “Yes, yes.”
The voice from inside became briefly quiet.
The eldest sister of the Fan family was unsure if it was because of her growing anxiety. She just felt her brows slightly tightening, the back of her neck felt cold, and goosebumps suddenly sprang spontaneously all over her body as if an unseen gaze was riveted on her face. The attention on her shifted away in disinterest after seeing her appearance.
At that moment, Fan Hemian heard Emperor Wutong Shen idly order, “The one in white, take off your bamboo hat and take two steps forward.”
——Surely, it was not my illusion!
——He can ‘see’ outside!
Cold sweat broke out on Fan Hemian’s temples.
She remembered the cultivation novels she had read before with special skills such as Divine Mind Perceiving Worldly Affairs,” and so on. She always thought that it was just creative literacy. But now, it seemed that this Wutong Shen did have a little bit of divine power to see through walls. No wonder he could control the whole mansion, which was brimming with hundreds of demons.
Fan Hemian turned to Ren Jianmo; she saw that the other party had already raised his hand to take off his veiled hat and walked a couple of steps forward with a calm expression, quietly standing in front of the door.
The intrusive gaze pierced through the door again and focused on Ren Jianmo’s face.
This time, the answer came quickly.
“Come in.”
As soon as the man’s spoke, the door opened to the outside with a “shua.”
Fan Hemian felt a gust of wind brushing against her sleeves. In a blink of an eye, Ren Jianmo—who was initially next to her— was dragged into the room.
The door to the room slammed shut with a bang, leaving her no chance to enter and indicating that she should stay outside and not come in to cause trouble.
The cold sweat on her temple trickled down to the side of her face.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
Although she didn’t catch a glimpse of this Wutongshen’s real face, his eyes could see through walls and had the ability to easily blow a person away with a gust of wind. He was different from those they had dealt with before. This particular demon was a unique creature on its own.
Mjc Lfwljc ofjgfv atja Efc Aljcwb kbeiv cba yf jyif ab wjxf Qeabcu Vtfc vglcx atf “Ktberjcv Tfjgr bo Ggecxfccfrr.”
Po atja kfgf atf mjrf, atfgf kbeiv yf ylu agbeyifr.
Now that the identity of the [Ghost] was passed to Ren Jianmo, he haD only less than 10 minutes left. And now, she was locked outside, even finding a chance to take the [Ghost] identity from him seemed impossible.
Po Efc Aljcwb mbeiv cba ufa glv bo atf DYVV lc atf gfwjlclcu alwf, tf kbeiv yf obgmfv ab ifjnf atf ujwf rlcmf tlr alwf tjv gec bea. Yatfgr mbeiv cba fzqfma atf qijc ab yf mjgglfv bea. Ktfs mbeiv bcis gfis bc olutalcu fjmt batfg ab byajlc atf gfwjlclcu ribar ab regnlnf.
……
While an anxious Fan Hemian stood waiting outside the door, Ren Jianmo finally saw the true face of Wutong Shen.
According to the descriptions of various historians in “Liaozhai,” the legendary Wutong Shen was a handsome man with a magnificent appearance.
From what Ren Jianmo saw, if one only talked about facial features, the Wutongshen was indeed fair-skinned and beardless with majestic features.
But obviously, this “beautiful man’s” aesthetic standards should be closer to the Sui and Tang Dynasties.
This fair-faced, handsome man had a round face, broad shoulders, and a hunched back. However, the most unsettling thing was that he has a very obvious beer belly, making him look like he was seven or eight months pregnant.
At this time, Wutong Shen was sitting on the couch. He was dressed in a single, gold-embroidered garment, his belt unfastened. When he turned around, the placket was pushed up along his huge belly, exposing his filthy pants and his single leg.
At once, Ren Jianmo understood.
According to “Liaozhai’s Strange Tales,” the five Wutong Shen brothers shared the same name. The Wutongshen would often disguise themselves as handsome men and terrorized the women in the countryside. However, one day, a man named Wan cut down three of the Wutongshen brothers in succession. Meanwhile, the fourth brother demanded to marry the wood merchant’s daughter, so Wan promptly confronted the spirit and hacked off one of his legs. Until finally, it transformed into its original form—a strange-looking bird—only to escape.
Come to think of it, this fat man, with his white face and large belly, was the legendary “Fourth Master” who had one of his legs sliced off.
“Come, beauty. Come to my side.”
Conjuring a gust of wind, the white-faced, fat man waved at Ren Jianmo, dragging him forward. Ren Jianmo flew halfway across the room and was dragged to the side of the bed. The man stretched out his hand to pull the white beauty’s wrist.
However, Ren Jianmo had no intention of letting this monster take advantage of him.
He instantly moved his body, stepping out of his reach and deftly avoiding being entangled with the Wutongshen.
Next to the bed was a low table.
There were fruits and snacks, teapots, and teacups on the table. Although plentiful, the owner seemed uninterested in them, not even wanting to peel a grape to eat.
Under Wutongshen’s burning gaze, Ren Jianmo swiftly came to the table, took out a small, reddish mud-colored wine jar, and poured the “Thousand Years of Drunkenness” into an empty cup.
“Chief Steward Yan has ordered me to bring good wine to pay tribute to the Great Emperor.”
As he spoke, he picked up the cup and faced Wutong Shen with a light smile.
“Let me serve the Great Emperor a drink.”
Being teased by the beauty’s charming smile, Wutong Shen became excited.
Repeatedly saying “yes,” he got up from his couch and hopped on his only foot. He wrapped one arm around Ren Jianmo’s waist while the other grasped the hand holding the wine cup. The Wutong Shen leaned forward, wanting the other party to directly serve it to him.
However, at this time, he smelled a particularly recognizable aroma of fruits wafting from the cup.
“This…”
Wutong Shen’s expression suddenly changed. He raised his head to glare at the beauty, who was a few centimeters taller than him.
The moment his eyes met Ren Jianmo’s, he noticed that the colors of the other party’s pupils—one brown, the other black—had suddenly changed.
The pair of pupils became very light, almost golden in color. There seemed to have some vague gleam drifting in them.
Time seemed to have come to a complete standstill at this point.
The Wutongshen faintly felt that something was wrong. Similar to a mountain pressing on his body, he felt a crippling and inevitable pressure on him, causing him to not only be immobilized but also unable to escape. Even such subtle movements like moving his eyeballs were difficult to do.
Immediately after, he heard the beauty in white before him speak.
The sentence was simple, with only a few words:
“Drink the wine.”
These short, few words seemed symphonious to his ears, tickling not only his eardrums but also causing his heart and soul to tremble.
Wutong Shen couldn’t think at all. Like a strung puppet controlled by invisible forces, he took the cup with a trembling hand and slowly pressed it to his lips. He stretched back his head and swallowed it with a gudong.
The thick fragrance of the fruits, accompanied by the taste of alcohol that even the gods could not resist, slipped into his throat to his insides.
Wutong Shen woke up from his trance, from Ren Jianmo’s powerful control. Before he could turn himself away, he was overpowered by the raging wine, swaying from left to right. His only foot became feeble, and his eyes rolled back, falling to the ground with a thud! He slipped into a deep slumber, his snore loud and clear.
Right beside his feet, Ren Jianmo stared down at the fat, white demon, who lay on his back. His eyes were now gradually changing back to their original color.
Then as if his spine had been suddenly yanked by an invisible hand, he lost his strength and sat on the ground. He weakly supported himself with his arms. Fortunately, he did not faint.
It felt like there was a steel needle sticking into his brain. The pain was excruciating, his vision blurring, and his eyeballs seemed to be burning, causing his eye sockets to feel sore.
The blood on his cheeks had faded, and his lips were sickly pale. His whole body was soaked in a cold sweat as if he had just been fished out of icy water. The air was stuck in his chest, causing him to have trouble breathing.
Eventually, he could taste iron in his throat. He lifted his arm, but before he could cover his mouth, he vomited an ample amount of blood, splotches of it sprayed on his clothes and cuffs. Upon closer inspection, there were also golden-red particles mixed in it.
——Activating two abilities at the same time still puts a strain on me…
Ren Jianmo was feeling light-headed, his ears were buzzing, and his mouth was still filled with an acrid fishy scent, which almost made him spit out another mouthful of blood.
He was now like a low-end computer with two, new, massive softwares running simultaneously. The computer was now experiencing overload, but hadn’t crashed yet and was barely holding on.
Ren Jianmo clutched his sore chest as he struggled to breathe. Spots of white and black gradually accumulated in his vision, making him barely see what was in front of him.
He turned his head and weakly focused on the Wutong Shen next to him.
He was still intoxicated from the “Thousand Years of Drunkenness,” sound asleep and snoring heavily.
Ren Jianmo breathed a sigh of relief.
He waited for another minute before he stood up, took the hair crown from the Wutongshen’s head, and pulled out the hairpin, where he discovered that it was an exquisite key inlaid with a Pixiu jade.
——Ok. I found the key to the treasury’s door.
Then, Ren Jianmo flicked his left index finger, and a fifteen-centimeter-long dagger appeared in his palm…
……
Close to losing her mind, Fan Hemian anxiously waited outside when the door opened.
Seeing Ren Jianmo’s appearance had her shivering and her eyes wide open.
It was the first time Fan Hemian saw this master, who always seemed to be able to do his job with ease, in such a mess.
The other party’s face was as pale as paper. His forehead was covered in sweat. The lapels and sleeves—even the hem—of his clothes were stained with blood. He looked like he had gone through a gruelling struggle between life and death.
——But, I waited outside for a long time, and I didn’t even hear a single commotion!
“Come in.”
Ren Jianmo waved at her.
Fan Hemian walked into the room with apprehension. Immediately, she saw a large puddle of blood beside the long couch, and a red and black, fluffy object laying in a pool of blood.
She approached it with haste and saw the true appearance of the ambiguous mass.
It was a one-legged bird that looked like an eagle-sized crow, only it had been decapitated with a knife.
Fan Hemian asked incredulously, “This… is Wutong Shen?”
Ren Jianmo leaned back against the door, took a breath, and nodded.
He then stretched out his right hand and showed her the tattoo in his palm. “The identity of the [Ghost] is still on me.”
Fan Hemian understood what he meant.
Even though they had taken out the most powerful boss in the entire mansion, they still hadn’t been able to stop the “Hide and Seek” game. This meant that their strategy to pass this [Film] was not as simple as vanquishing the Wutong Shen.
“Okay, I got it.”
Fan Hemian quickly stepped forward and let him pass the [Ghost] identity to her, “I’ll go and find Ji Xiao’niao and the others now!”
