Chapter 512 - 255: "Don’t Come Over Here!

Chapter 512: Chapter 255: "Don’t Come Over Here!

One day, his children ran to their father and said they wanted a ride on his boat. Bai Qiuyue agreed.

But on that fateful day, on the very river he had navigated his entire life, a reef appeared out of nowhere and smashed his boat to pieces. He and his children were thrown into the water. He was eventually washed ashore, but by the time he found his children, weeping and searching along the bank, the water had already turned their bodies a deathly, bloated white.

His Madam, consumed by sorrow, threw herself into the river to her death. Bai Qiuyue thought of jumping from his boat to end it all, too. But something had changed. He had never been a good swimmer, but since the tragedy, it was as if he were a different person. The moment he hit the water, he would float. When he tried to sink, he found he could inexplicably breathe underwater.

He saw different things "down there."

Only then did he learn that the birthmark on his back held a different meaning.

He could use the "Bund" to travel the length and breadth of the land, journeying far and wide.

Gradually, Bai Qiuyue emerged from the shadow of his tragedy and decided to live out his days as an ordinary Ferryman. He had one rule: he would not accept payment, ferrying only the fated.

Bai Qiuyue believed he was unique in the world and kept his existence a secret. That is, until an unexpected guest arrived in his Path, a place where he had always been alone.

He said his name was the Night Lord.

Bai Qiuyue stood at the prow, rowing the boat. Fragrant Maiden sat at the stern, quietly observing the scene.

"I’m very curious. Why would you give up on the ’Nascent Soul’ when you were only one step away?"

"Hehe," Fragrant Maiden said, covering her mouth with a chuckle. "Once the ’things’ from the Darkness are drawn into the Common World, no one can stop them. After things are settled over there, we can simply go and retrieve the Nascent Soul."

Bai Qiuyue averted his gaze from Fragrant Maiden. His eyes sharp, he stared straight ahead and said coolly, "Don’t forget what you promised me."

"Everything in this world is governed by ’constants’," Fragrant Maiden said with a nod and a smile. "You, me, him... all Mystics... we are ’anomalies’ that should not exist. We are ’errors of the Common World,’ and we don’t belong here. When the errors of the Common World are corrected, everything will be set right. Your family will return from the distortion, back to your side. But at that point, the Deceitful Object will be stripped from you. You will lose the Magic you now wield and will no longer be able to see such wondrous sights. Will you truly have no regrets?"

"Heh." Bai Qiuyue lowered the brim of his hat and chuckled, offering no reply.

The answer was in his heart.

’Like hell I believe you!’

Suddenly, a voice interrupted their conversation.

Bai Qiuyue spun around in shock.

CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!

"You!"

Fragrant Maiden’s bloodcurdling scream erupted from behind him.

Bai Qiuyue whirled around to see a terrifying monster. A mask of white bone covered its face, from which fangs protruded. A single, dream-like wing sprouted from one side of its body, while two horrifying, muscle-corded arms extended from the other.

Those two arms were clamped around "Fragrant Maiden" in a death grip, holding her fast.

Fragrant Maiden shrieked as translucent tentacles shot out from beneath her skirt and bit into the monster.

In an instant, their battle had carried them into the sky.

The scene was unmistakable: two monsters, locked in a fight to the death.

"You’re one nasty old hag!"

The tentacles struck the monster again and again. Wherever they bit, its skin shriveled at a visible rate, its vitality being drained away. But the monster only fought more ferociously, its two thick arms clutching Fragrant Maiden, refusing to let go no matter how she thrashed.

Bai Qiuyue could never have imagined that a third person, aside from the mysterious Night Lord, could ever reach his "domain."

’Impossible!’

In the air, Fragrant Maiden roared in an aged, disbelieving voice, "Impossible! Impossible! How could you... How did you..."

"It was easy. I just went *swoosh* and I was in."

Zheng Xiu let out a ferocious laugh, his mouth stretching open to a horrifying degree.

A pitch-black light began to brew within his mouth.

From below, Bai Qiuyue watched as the black light in the monster’s mouth grew more and more intense, coalescing into what looked like a pitch-black Scorching Sun, burning with a cold, distorted fire.

’This is bad!’

His scalp tingling with alarm, Bai Qiuyue decisively leaped into the viscous water and vanished in the blink of an eye.

"Die!"

Zheng Xiu finally seized his chance and unleashed a cannon blast from his mouth.

In that instant, a cannonball of pure black light erupted from Zheng Xiu’s mouth. The immense recoil sent him flying backward.

No wonder the Dan Demon had to root itself to the ground when it possessed a host. The recoil from this oral cannon was tremendous; every action has an equal and opposite reaction. After he blasted Fragrant Maiden to smithereens, the shockwave made him cough up blood. When he came to his senses, he was only clutching two bloody, severed hands. Ahead, scattered body parts were visible within the slowly dissipating black light.

’Is she dead?’

Zheng Xiu had been blasted far away and was now panting for breath. This was his first time attempting to be possessed by two Demons at once, and the grotesque form it created was something he couldn’t even bear to look at. But the temptation of an aerial super-cannon was just too great. The Anti-Aircraft Cannon was incredibly practical; he had snuck up on them from above and let loose a single blast, catching both Fragrant Maiden and Bai Qiuyue completely off guard.

Zheng Xiu knew Zhu was capable of more than this. Or perhaps it was that this [Orchid] Incarnation of Zhu’s hadn’t posed much of a threat to him beyond its writhing tentacles. Looking at the bite marks all over his body, Zheng Xiu felt something was off. He scanned his surroundings, wary that Zhu was just playing dead and could rise again at any moment.

Just then, Zheng Xiu felt a sharp, stabbing pain between his eyebrows. The [Prisoner] Deceitful Object there felt like it was about to burst forth.

SNAP!

In the distance, amidst the scattered "chunks of flesh," a "thing" shaped like a "withered branch" began to unfurl like a living creature, making a series of snapping sounds. From afar, it looked like a gigantic stick insect.

’What the hell is that?’

Zheng Xiu froze. After killing Fragrant Maiden, did she... drop some kind of strange "loot"?

CLICK-CLACK-CLICK-CLACK!

Immediately after, a sharp pain lanced through the spot between Zheng Xiu’s eyebrows. A decaying chain burst forth from his brow and shot toward the "withered branch."

After a moment of astonishment, Zheng Xiu’s expression changed drastically. He turned to flee without a second thought.

"Fuck! Don’t you come near me!"

The chain was moving on its own. In an instant, it crossed the distance between them, clamped down hard on the withered branch, and began dragging it back toward Zheng Xiu.

At that moment, Zheng Xiu understood exactly what the "withered branch" was.

"The Orchid Deceitful Object!"

"I don’t want it!"

Zheng Xiu turned and fled in terror.