Chapter 218: Fortune Shearing

Zhu Rong wore a floral print dress under a brown coat, an outfit both simple and stylish that embodied some of the poise and grace of a mature woman.

"Well now, if it isn't Chi Yue'an's ex-wife," Guan Ya said with a sniff. "Here to avenge your ex-husband? Or to thank our Yuanshi for doing heaven's work and cleaning house on your behalf?"

Perhaps the woman's hot, hungry stare had gotten under Guan Ya's skin, because despite her smile, the open-minded lady's words came out barbed, a needle wrapped in silk.

Zhu Rong dragged her eyes away from Zhang Yuanqing with some reluctance and turned them on Guan Ya.

"And who are you?" she demanded flatly.

"She's my girlfriend." Zhang Yuanqing said quickly as he slid an arm around Guan Ya's slim waist to sell it.

Guan Ya's body went a little stiff. Without a flicker, she pushed his hand away and let out a little "hmph," playing the role of an annoyed girlfriend when some other woman was chatting up her man.

Zhu Rong studied Guan Ya's exquisite, striking oval face, and something stirred in her. Girlfriend...

She had two great loves. One was keeping boy toys, and the other was seducing married men then whipping and tormenting them in front of their wives, making the woman watch her beloved husband turn into her own lapdog. A ruined husband, and a wife in unbearable pain. A beautiful love, fouled and wrecked. Zhu Rong could draw enormous pleasure out of that.

The woman in front of her was such a beauty. She wondered what kind of face she'd make as she watched Yuanshi Tianzun grovel at another woman's feet, or labor away, plowing at another woman's body. Tearing apart the love of a beauty like this would be a fine thing too.

Zhu Rong smiled, keeping her voice soft. "I'm terribly sorry about Chi Yue'an. He and I divorced long ago, though it's true the Zhu family was backing him behind the scenes. I never imagined he'd do something like that to satisfy his own selfish appetites."

Huh? Is this woman actually talking sense? Zhang Yuanqing was a little thrown-off. He'd assumed Zhu Rong had come to settle a score.

He looked her over a few times, not the slightest bit enticed by the woman's beauty. Keeping his eyes on her ring, he said flatly, "So?"

No good. One look at her and I think of the audio of Demon Lord's "training," Zhang Yuanqing groused inwardly.

Zhu Rong arched an eyebrow. She had woven her Musician's power into that little speech. No man could refuse her. And yet this Yuanshi Tianzun wasn't moved at all?

She drew a deep breath, softened her expression, and let a dollop of coaxing sweetness seep into her tone. "To show you how sorry I am, I'd like to treat you to a meal and let the Chi Yue'an matter be put to rest."

Zhang Yuanqing's face went cold. "You egged Chi Yue'an into breaking the law, imprisoning innocent women, forcing them into selling their bodies, and you think one meal will put this all to rest?"

Zhu Rong's expression froze for a beat. Nothing. My charm did nothing at all...

She quietly deactivated her Musician skill and said flatly, "You need to understand two things. One, the Bronze Sparrow Tower was running for a full ten years, and ten years ago, I wasn't yet married to Chi Yue'an. Two, what Chi Yue'an did has nothing to do with me. Since you won't give me face, then forget it."

With that, she turned and left.

Zhang Yuanqing watched her go, her waist swaying, and under the long dress a backside full and round as the moon, bouncing invitingly as she walked. A figure so incredibly lush and lovely, coupled with an alluring face... It was no wonder the Demon Lord hadn't had the heart to kill her back then.

"What is she actually after?" Zhang Yuanqing asked the open-minded lady beside him. A Scout's sharp eyes ought to have caught something.

"She wants to sleep with you!" Guan Ya said sourly.

"I'm trying to talk business here," Zhang Yuanqing said, annoyed. "Quit steering everything into the gutter."

Guan Ya's brows shot up and she laughed coldly. "Everything I said is the truth. That woman has a fierce urge to conquer you and to mate with you. Believe it or not, you could go lie down on a bed and do absolutely nothing, and she'd climb on and get to work herself."

Zhang Yuanqing was both startled and delighted. "Is there really such a sweet deal available?"

Guan Ya smiled dangerously. "If you think it's a sweet deal, why did you still turn her down? And what did you use just now to counter a Musician's charm?"

Zhang Yuanqing blanked out for a second, then his face went white and his heart went to ash.

Guan Ya didn't get it. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing, it's nothing..." The subject was too heavy, and he didn't want to get into it.

"So has nobody ever copied Fu Qingyang and tried to master a rule-type skill?" he asked instead, steering the conversation away.

"Of course they have," Guan Ya said firmly. "The Fu family, the White Tiger Legion... His actions set off a whole craze towards specializing in Insight. A lot of the Fu clan even started drilling the slash day after day. Yet nobody could pull it off. All these years, only Crossing Pawn has truly made some headway into this specialty, which is why they call him Little Qingyang."

She paused, then went on, "My guess is that when Insight is honed to the absolute limit, every possible response an opponent might take can be observed. At that point, in some way, Fu Qingyang is able to shut every one of those responses down. That's how the unavoidable rule asserts itself."

"Is your guess right?" Zhang Yuanqing asked, sounding doubtful.

"Fu Qingyang says the same thing," Guan Ya sniffed.

And just like that, Zhang Yuanqing found himself agreeing with Fu Qingyang's assessment on a deeper level.

Guan Ya really was trash. She had monstrous talent yet chose to lie around like a dried fish[1].

***

After Zhu Rong left Yuanshi Tianzun, she didn't stay for the rest of the matches. She went straight back to the real world.

She rose from her chaise, shrugged off the coat, walked to the bookshelf, and gently pressed a mechanism disguised as a light switch. The base of the shelf sat on a rail, and at the press of the switch, it slid silently to one side.

Behind the shelf was a hidden room, lit by only two dim crystal lotus lamps. Inside stood a table draped in yellow silk, and on it was a candlestick that held two red candles. Beneath the candlestick sat a bronze basin of glutinous rice, copper coins strung on red cord, a yellow paper talisman with symbols drawn in cinnabar, a porcelain bowl of some unnamed liquid, incense, a bronze bell, an octagonal mirror, and three red leaves as clear as rubies. Last of all was a palm-sized wooden puppet. The puppet had no features, and had the crudest possible human shape.

Zhu Rong walked to the yellow silk table and stared blankly at its surface. This table was known as the Table of Malevolent Curses. That's right—it was an item. An item left to her by Demon Lord. Everything on the table was part of it.

She raised a hand and lightly stroked the table's edge, and it was as if that man's voice echoed in her ears again.

"Your month is up, Miss Zhu. You've pleased me greatly. As agreed, you're free to go. Oh, right. Before you leave, I'll give you an item.

"It's called the Table of Malevolent Curses. A Saint-tier Hex Master's item, with Curse and Fortune Shearing functions. As the saying goes, one night as man and wife earns a hundred days of tenderness, and this month, we've played husband and wife every single day. Consider this item a keepsake. Besides, when I've got the time someday, I'll come to the Zhu family to find you."

That parting was the last time Zhu Rong and Demon Lord ever saw each other. And later on, Zhu Rong heard the news that Demon Lord had fallen.

"Demon Lord, you died too soon. How could you die so easily? You were supposed to die by my own hand," Zhu Rong murmured to herself, her eyes glimmering with hate and resentment, her heart feeling both aggrieved yet thankful. A man who never kept his word.

She drew a deep breath, and a sick smile surfaced on that lovely face. "But it doesn't matter. I've found your replacement. I'll do to him exactly what you once did to me. I'll make him wish he were dead, make him drown in the sensations of the flesh, make him lose his dignity, make him unable ever to forget me..."

She picked up one of the leaves, dropped it into the brass medicine jar, took up the pestle in her jade hand, and ground it gently. Then she lifted a small porcelain bowl, poured the black liquid into the jar, and kept grinding and stirring. Once the black liquid and the leaf fragments were thoroughly blended together, she spread out the yellow paper talisman, took up a fine brush, dipped it in the "ink," and wrote out four characters: Yuanshi Tianzun.

Setting the brush down, Zhu Rong pressed the talisman onto the puppet. A moment later features appeared across the puppet's face, unmistakably the likeness of Yuanshi Tianzun.

Zhu Rong picked up the string of copper coins beside her and laid it lightly on the puppet.

The Fortune Shearing was complete.

From that moment on, Yuanshi Tianzun would be dogged by misfortune, unlucky to the point that even cold water would catch in his teeth. In three days, his fortune would run dry and he'd die, killed by some accident. Anyone below the Saint tier was absolutely beyond saving. Moreover, Fortune Shearing didn't inflict damage directly. It was silent, imperceptible, and left no trace. The one struck would only find it strange that his luck had suddenly turned rotten.

Zhu Rong didn't plan to let the boy die. She meant to let him suffer for two days, then step out and lean on him. She'd originally intended to seduce first and coerce later, which was why she'd deliberately invited Yuanshi Tianzun to a meal earlier on. Who'd have thought the boy would shrug off her charm? But since that happened, there was nothing more to say. She'd just use the spell to bring him to heel, and defile him after.

***

The world before him slowly swam into focus, and Zhang Yuanqing was back in the real world and standing in his bedroom. It was seven-thirty in the evening.

He opened the bedroom door, and the rich smell of food rushed up his nose. At the dining table sat his Little Aunt in cartoon pajamas, along with Grandpa and Grandma.

Grandma saw him come out and laid into him without warning. "What's with you, locking your door every day lately? Believe me, I'll take the lock off your room door if this keeps up."

"Grandma, I need my private space—"

Jiang Yu'er heard that and cackled. "Ma, go check his trash can, quick."

The words were barely out before Grandma smacked her on the scalp, furious. "A grown girl, spouting filth like that all day long. How could you?"

Jiang Yu'er clutched her head, wrinkled her nose at her mother, then turned to her nephew as he walked over. "Yuanzi, tomorrow Auntie's taking you shopping."

The next day was her company's day off, and a week's worth of pent-up shopping urges was about to spill over. She'd decided she would properly fleece her well-off nephew.

"I'm not going. I've got something on in the afternoon," Zhang Yuanqing said coldly, heartlessly turning her down.

He'd tracked down Mr. Bill in the arena and set a meeting for the next day to discuss a deal. He'd only said he was selling an item, but hadn't said which one, afraid Mr. Bill would refuse on the spot.

I don't even find Zhu Rong pretty anymore. That's a seriously bad sign.

"Come on, come oooon," Auntie wriggled her hips and wheedled.

"I'm not going!" he repeated in the same cold and heartless tone.

The words had just left his mouth when, as he was walking to the table, his feet suddenly skidded out from under him. He pitched forward, his knees hitting the floor with a bang, and he landed, kneeling, right in front of his aunt.

Jiang Yu'er's beautiful eyes went wide as she stared, disbelieving, at her nephew. "If you don't want to go, you don't want to go. There's no need to kneel down and beg for forgiveness over it."

1. A dried fish can't move. ☜