Big thanks and a shout-out to biki for sending me a laptop so that I can translate LWSL more conveniently!
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Blast injury (minor character), violence, explicit gore
“It’s you two pieces of trash.” Jing Lun scoffed disdainfully. At lightning speed, he raised his hand and threw the top-grade shenling pills towards the main entrance: “Gui San! Take the pills back!”
“Yes, sir!” A Gui clansperson materialized at the main entrance, caught the top-grade shenling pills, rapidly hid themselves and left.
Hei Xuanyi’s gaze hardened. His thumbnail sliced across his index finger swiftly, droplets of blood flowed from his index finger, and then with a flick of his finger, it struck Gui San right smack in the center of his back. With a deafening ringing noise, Gui San exploded into smithereens. The top-grade shenling pills in his hands flew away. Closely after, a Gui clansperson hiding in the darkness nearby quickly picked up the top-grade shenling pills and left.
The sentry guards chased after in a hurry.
Jing Lun knew that he wasn’t a match for Hei Xuanyi and the others, so he had no intention of exchanging blows with Hei Xuanyi. He promptly retreated back to his people’s sides. Using a secret technique, he summoned the hundreds of skeletons buried in the ground to defend against the sentry guards, then he took out smoke bombs and threw them towards Hei Xuanyi, Head Supervisor Lu and the others.
“Boom—!” The smoke bombs exploded. In an instance, white smoke filled up the entire auction grounds.
Jing Lun shouted: “Let’s go!”
Hei Xuanyi deftly and adroitly caught the arm of Jing Lun, who wanted to escape, and forcefully slammed him into the ground. Then and there, Jing Lun crashed to the ground and was in so much pain that he couldn’t get up. However, his other accomplices successfully escaped.
When Wu Ruo saw that the dangers had been eliminated, he quickly came to Hei Xuanyi’s side: “Are all of you alright?”
When Jing Lun heard Wu Ruo’s voice, he strained to open his eyes to look at Wu Ruo, then he pointed at Hei Xuanyi with much difficulty and said: “Don’t. Be. Fooled. By. Him.”
Hei Xuanyi’s gaze instantly darkened. With a flick of his finger, he directly blasted Jing Lun’s head off. In the blink of an eye, brain matter, blood, flesh and fragments of bone went flying in every direction and splattered onto the robes of Wu Ruo and the others.
Wu Ruo stood unmoving, staring at the headless corpse in a daze. What did those words of his mean?
With Jing Lun’s death, the skeletons that he had summoned instantly fell to the ground, disintegrating into a pile of broken bones.
“Dasao, are you alright?” Hei Xuantang asked tentatively: “Did that frighten you?”
“No.” Wu Ruo adjusted his weimao so that the dirtied side was behind his head, and the undirtied side was in front of his face instead: “It’s a good thing I had the weimao on, otherwise I would be splashed with a face full of blood.”
“Who is the one causing trouble on my1本座 (ben zuo): the form of self-address that Ji Xi and Ye Ji use. territory?” A great and deep voice rang from the entrance.
Everyone in the area was surprised.
“It’s the Proprietor!”
“The Proprietor has arrived!”
“He’s the Proprietor? It’s my first time seeing him.”
Wu Ruo, Hei Xuanyi and the others all looked out of the entrance. A person dressed in a black doupeng cloak, wearing a ferocious looking mask on their face, stood at the entrance with a squad of sentry soldiers following behind him.
Wu Ruo stared dazedly at the Proprietor that everyone was talking about. Internally, he felt incomparably stunned. This person’s manner of dress was exactly the same as the mysterious person who had sent him to be reborn in his previous lifetime. Even their voices were the same.
He hurriedly lowered his voice and asked Hei Xuanyi: “You really don’t know the Proprietor’s identity?”
“I don’t.” Hei Xuanyi’s tone was extremely certain.
A flash of confusion passed over Wu Ruo.
Then that was strange.
In his previous lifetime, Hei Xuanyi had clearly known the other party. However, that had been after thirteen years. Perhaps they had only gotten to know each other later on.
Head Supervisor Lu went over to the Proprietor and reported the situation that had just occurred.
After the Proprietor finished listening to his report, he wasn’t angered. He asked nonchalantly: “Are you saying that my top-grade shenling pills were stolen just like that?”
“Yes, sir.”
The Proprietor swept a gaze at the ground that was full of corpse bones, narrowed his eyes, and then he walked over to Jing Lun’s corpse. He stepped on the corpse a few times, then, in an instant, he looked up at Hei Xuanyi. He made eye contact with Hei Xuanyi for a long time, separated by the black veil, then his gaze shifted to Hei Xuantang and stared at him for a while. Finally, the Proprietor’s gaze landed on Wu Ruo.
His gaze was overly sharp, it was as if the black veil in front of his face was simply decorative, and his gaze could pierce right through it and look into Wu Ruo’s eyes.
Wu Ruo had a feeling as though he was being seen through. He couldn’t help but hold his breath and secretly wonder if this person had realized that he had absorbed all of Jing Lun’s spiritual energy?
Just now, when he saw that the person had already died, he couldn’t just let all the spiritual energy go to waste. So he had taken the opportunity, while it was still possible, to absorb all of the other person’s spiritual energy. Jing Lun deserved it after his people had stolen Wu Ruo’s top-grade shenling pills, so Wu Ruo had taken his spiritual energy as recompense. Now, he was brimming with spiritual energy. He could probably raise his cultivation level again.
The Proprietor turned around and gave an order to Head Supervisor Lu: “Arrest all these people who were causing trouble.”
“Yes, sir.” The sentry guards rapidly surrounded Wu Ruo and the others.
Hei Xuantang’s expression was gloomy: “We weren’t the ones causing trouble, what does it have to do with us?”
A sentry guard said: “Whether or not you were causing trouble, once matters have been clarified, you will naturally be allowed to leave.”
“Daddy!” Dandan, who had been placed on the ground by Hei Xuantang just now, anxiously ran over on his tiny legs and hugged Wu Ruo’s thigh.
The corners of Wu Ruo’s eyes crinkled up.
This silly little son of his, why did he run over at this point of time?
The Proprietor lifted Dandan up directly by the collar of his robes, staring at him with narrowed eyes.
“You bad person! Let go of me now!” Dandan huffily kicked towards the Proprietor’s face with his legs. Everyone couldn’t help feeling cold sweat run down their backs for the little kid.
The Proprietor didn’t fuss over such a little thing with the child. He turned to Wu Ruo and asked: “Your son?”
“Yes, Proprietor. Please return my son to me.”
The Proprietor snorted coldly, carrying Dandan and leaving immediately.
“Daddy! Father!” Dandan looked at Wu Ruo and the others pitifully.
Wu Ruo took two anxious steps forward, but was stopped by Hei Xuanyi: “Don’t worry. That person won’t harm children.”
Wu Ruo nodded, then followed after the sentry guards.
“Erge…” Wu Xi, who was standing far away, saw Wu Ruo being taken away and shouted anxiously.
Hei Gan said: “Miss Xi, don’t you worry. Master and the others didn’t kill any sentry guards. The Proprietor won’t do anything to them.”
Wu Xi asked: “Then when will the Proprietor let erge and the others go?”
The senior who had been chatting with Wu Ruo said: “Little miss, everyone present here can be a witness that your erge and the others didn’t kill any sentry guards. At the most, they’ll be let go after one or two days.”
“Thank you, Senior, for the information.” Wu Xi looked at Hei Gan: “What do we do now?”
Hei Gan replied: “Our entry token is only valid until before nightfall. We should head to the main entrance first to meet up with Senior Nu Mu and leave. Tomorrow morning, we’ll buy another entry token and come and take a look.”
Wu Xi hesitated for a moment, then nodded in agreement.
Wu Ruo, Hei Xuanyi and the others were led by the sentry guards to the place where the Proprietor resided, then their weimao were taken off. After that, they were separated into different locations.
Wu Ruo was brought to a garden planted full of flowers and locked into a massive iron cage placed at the center of the garden. The material of the iron cage was extremely special. The moment that his fingertips touched the iron cage, he could immediately feel a bone-piercing iciness. It was as if he had fallen into an cave of ice, and he couldn’t help but shiver.
The sentry guards left after locking him up inside. Following that, no one walked past from the vicinity, neither did anyone come forth to interrogate him about the things that had occurred today. It was only until dinnertime that a sentry guard entered, carrying a huge lunchbox.
The dishes in the lunchbox were extremely generous. There were chicken meat, duck meat and steamed fish. There were also pork ribs and stew. It was simply as though they were entertaining a VIP guest, the cuisine was exquisite and fragrant.
Wu Ruo used the chopsticks to poke at the sauces of every dish, confirming that there wasn’t any poison before he dug into the food.
After he finished eating, the sentry guard took the lunchbox and left.
When the evening lights were lit, lanterns were hung all over the garden and the entire courtyard was covered in a layer of scarlet light.
After night fell, Wu Ruo constantly felt as though someone was looking at him.
He looked all over but couldn’t find any person. This feeling kept persisting until haishi29pm to 10:59pm..
The following morning, at chenshi37am to 8:59am., the Proprietor appeared in front of Wu Ruo.
He stood in front of the iron cage with his hands behind his back, and he kept staring at Wu Ruo who was imprisoned until Wu Ruo felt uncomfortable all over before he spoke up and asked: “Are you called Wu Ruo?”
Wu Ruo guessed that the Proprietor must’ve gotten his name from Hei Xuanyi and the others, so he nodded his head: “Are my son and husband still alright?”
“Last night, your son drank five bowls of shark fin’s soup, three bowls of blood bird’s nest4Blood bird’s nest doesn’t actually contain blood. It is a blood red-coloured variant of the usual bird’s nest, which tends to be off white or beige. The colouration of blood bird’s nest is due to the minerals absorbed into the edible nest from the location it was constructed. More information about this found here., two plates of guineafowl, three plates of golden canary5金丝酥雀 (jin si su que): when I checked Baidu for what exactly this is, the results seem to vary. Some pages seem to refer to it as a kind of Chinese savoury pastry, but there are also references to an actual kind of canary bird. I’m not 100% sure what this dish is supposed to refer to, so if anyone knows for sure, please leave a comment and let me know., and half a roasted lamb from me. Do you think he’s alright?” These words seemed to be squeezed past the Proprietor’s gritted teeth: “Such a small thing, how is he able to eat so much?”
“…” Wu Ruo was a little embarrassed: “He wasn’t like this before. Perhaps right now he’s eating a lot because he’s growing.”
The Proprietor snorted coldly, then opened the lock of the iron cage and let Wu Ruo out: “All you have to do is tell me how that person, who had their brains blasted apart, summoned those skeletons, then I’ll let you go.”
Wu Ruo frowned: “I don’t know that person’s style of magic, how would I know how he was able to summon those skeletons?”
He originally intended to say that Hei Xuanyi also knew this technique, so the Proprietor could ask Hei Xuanyi to demonstrate it for him. However, he was also worried that the Proprietor would think that Hei Xuanyi and Jing Lun were in cahoots, so he dismissed the thought.
“Just roughly describe it to me. I only want to see if your testimonies align with each other.”
“Alright then.”
Wu Ruo acted out the events that had occurred yesterday, not leaving out the details of any person’s actions. However, when he spoke about how Jing Lun summoned the skeletons, the Proprietor asked him to repeat the actions many times.
“I’ve never seen any practitioner who is capable of summoning skeletons to act as soldiers for their use. Do the actions for me one more time. I want to see it clearly one more time.”
“It was like this…” Wu Ruo acted out the actions for him once more.
The Proprietor said: “I still haven’t gotten a clear look. Do it one more time for me to see.”
Wu Ruo glared at him angrily. This was already the tenth time. So what if he could clearly see the actions of the secret technique? The spiritual energy inside of each person’s body was all different, there was simply no way to actually perform the secret technique.
However, who else was the other party but the Proprietor? Wu Ruo could only do as he wished.
Wu Ruo repeated the actions once more, but the Proprietor didn’t even take a look and just said: “Once more.”
Wu Ruo could only do it once again.
“I still haven’t gotten a good look. Do it again.”
Wu Ruo did it again.
“…”
“As before, I still haven’t gotten a good look…”
This was already the fifty-seventh time that the Proprietor was asking Wu Ruo to repeat the actions.
Wu Ruo gritted his teeth.
This person was definitely doing this on purpose, taking revenge for his son eating a whole mountain of expensive tonics6All the dishes that the Proprietor listed beforehand are generally well known as health foods in Chinese culture that are meant to boost the body. .
“I’m doing this for the last time.” Wu Ruo suppressed his anger. In his head, he recalled the slow actions that Hei Xuanyi had done before he had absorbed Hei Xuanyi’s spiritual energy. It was extremely similar to what Jing Lun had done. On top of that, both actions summoned skeletons. According to that logic, it should’ve been the same secret technique.
The Proprietor side-eyed him: “It’s useless no matter how many times you do it. I think you just don’t want to leave this place.”
Wu Ruo was seized by the impulse to strangle the Proprietor to death: “What do you mean I don’t want to leave this place?”
“I asked you to repeat the actions, yet you only repeat the actions without using spiritual energy. It’s no wonder that the actions every time aren’t the same.” The Proprietor laughed coldly: “Don’t tell me you don’t have spiritual energy. Even if you wear that bangle7Quick reminder: Hei Xuanyi gifted Wu Ruo a bangle he personally crafted that conceals Wu Ruo’s spiritual energy, even to regular ninth level practitioners. They are unable to sense that he has spiritual energy. to cover up your body’s spiritual energy, I can still sense the fluctuations of your spiritual energy.”
Wu Ruo: “…”
This person was truly powerful. Even Wu Chenzi couldn’t tell that he possessed spiritual energy, but this person could sense it.
The Proprietor said darkly: “I’ll give you one last chance. If you don’t perform properly, then you can stay here for the rest of your life.”
Wu Ruo took a deep breath: “Then your elderly self should take a proper look. I will also only do it one last time. If you still persist on being unreasonable, then I won’t need to stay polite either.”
“I’d like to see how you intend to be rude.”
Wu Ruo couldn’t be bothered with him. He did the actions one last time, imitating Hei Xuanyi’s hand gestures, and used his spiritual energy.
The Proprietor closely stared at his every move.
As Wu Ruo completed the final action, it was as if he was brandishing a sharp jian, pointing its razor tip at the ground.
Suddenly, the ground began to vibrate violently.
Wu Ruo was stunned, looking around in surprise, but he was only met with the ground emitting booming noises. Countless white bones dug their way up from underground. With just one look, there were at least five hundred skeletons already above ground.
There were skeletons digging their way out even in the underground jail. When Hei Xuantang, who had been locked inside the prison cell, saw the white bones digging their way up from underground, he was so frightened that he hurriedly held onto Hei Xuanyi who was by his side: “Fuck me! That scared the hell out of me. I thought it was some kind of monster showing up!”
Hei Xuanyi narrowed his black eyes.
“Who’s using the White Bone Technique?” Hei Xuantang looked up at Hei Xuanyi: “Dage, do you think Xiu Jun has come?”
“Doesn’t seem like it.” Hei Xuanyi looked at the white bones and said lightly: “There’s no killing intention, and it’s not rushing at us to fight. See how the skeletons seem like they don’t know what to do? They were probably summoned by someone else.”
“Then who could it be?”
“I don’t know.”
The person that the two brothers were currently discussing was currently staring blankly at the skeletons hopping and skipping around in front of him: “This… This…”
These skeletons hadn’t been summoned by him, had they?
The Proprietor said, coldly angry: “You were actually in cahoots with the person who stole the top-grade shenling pills.”
Wu Ruo: “…”
The Proprietor shoved him back into the iron cage jail: “You can squat8One of the phrases for being in jail in Chinese is ‘squatting in jail’, which is why the Proprietor tells him to squat there. He doesn’t mean it literally. here for the rest of your life.”
Wu Ruo looked at his own hands in disbelief. He wasn’t from the same clan as Hei Xuanyi and the others, how could he have summoned the skeletons? They probably hadn’t been summoned by him, right?
He looked up at the Proprietor who was locking up the iron door, and said with a dark expression: “We were already willing to spend thirty million taels to buy the top-grade shenling pills, so how could we possibly be in cahoots with those people? If we were really in cahoots with them, then why would we have killed the person who stole the pills? Can you use your brains to think for a bit?”
The Proprietor locked the door securely and said: “If you don’t return the top-grade shenling pills to me, then I’ll sell your son.”
“How dare you!” Wu Ruo grabbed the doors of the jail viciously, glaring furiously at the Proprietor: “If you dare to touch a single strand of hair on my son, I’ll make sure I bury you as a grave ornament.”
The Proprietor glanced at the hands on the doors of the jail: “Before you bury me as a grave ornament, are you sure your hands won’t be crippled?”
Wu Ruo looked down and saw that the hands he had placed on the doors had actually turned into ice. He quickly pulled them back.
The Proprietor snorted lightly, then he left while swinging the keys.
“Motherfucker!” Wu Ruo let out a rare expletive, then he kicked the iron cage jail forcefully with his foot.
The next two days, the sentry guards sent him food as usual, but the Proprietor never appeared again. Just as he was thinking about how he should force his way out, a sentry guard actually took the initiative to open the iron door and said: “You can leave now.”
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