Ch19 - Stone

Yan Xuan was momentarily stunned, only now realising that at some point, he had grown taller than Yi Ning.

“You’ve become shorter.” Yan Xuan lowered his head, letting Yi Ning wipe away the wine on his hair with the handkerchief. His head nudged into his palm, seeming somewhat fatigued. 

The smell of realgar wine was hard for him to endure and caused his head to spin.

As Yi Ning wiped, he said blandly, “Shut up.” If he didn’t speak, Yan Xuan would be a very cute person.

Even a cold and stubborn person like him had soft hair.

From his hair to his temples then to the side of his face, Yi Ning unavoidably met Yan Xuan’s eyes and his face suddenly felt hot. Pretending to be unbothered, he withdrew his hand and said, “Alright, it’s time to go.” 

Yan Xuan hadn’t enjoyed himself enough yet. He brushed aside the damp hair on his forehead reluctantly and said disdainfully, “It’s not even clean yet.” He had endured a faceful of wine for Yi Ning’s sake after all.

Hearing his complaints, the corners of Yi Ning’s mouth raised slightly, then was quickly tamped down as he said, “Time’s running out, go find Fang Shilan.”

He nodded, then sheathed his saber and said to Yi Ning, “Next time something like this happens, chant my name three times in your head. I will hear it.”

Chant his name three times? Was it some new spell? Yi Ning had always liked researching all types of spells, for example, the Thirst Hex. He asked with interest, “Is it long distance voice transmission?”

Long distance voice transmission was incredibly difficult to do, but the demon race might have a spell that could do that.

Yan Xuan shot him a look. He knew what Yi Ning was thinking about; doubtlessly it was one of those strange and troublesome spells. If Yi Ning managed to figure it out, he might use it on him, so he replied mildly, “No, it’s my blood.”

Once someone drank his blood, Yan Xuan would know where the person was, though he could not control them.

Yi Ning suddenly remembered, didn’t Yan Xuan initially tell him that his blood could control his life and death? He was a little suspicious, was a half-demon’s blood really that powerful? 

He couldn’t have been tricking him, could he?

Faced with Yi Ning’s gaze full of suspicion, Yan Xuan’s expression remained unchanged as he walked in front of Yi Ning. “Let’s go, what are you standing around for?”

Yi Ning followed after him, still pondering how to manage long-distance voice transmission. He heard that there was a type of Mind Gu in Nanjiang that, once planted in a body, would allow the person who planted the Gu to communicate telepathically with the other person.

As he mulled over it, his head smacked into Yan Xuan’s back. 

His nose smarting, Yi Ning clutched his nose, tears involuntarily welling up at the corners of his eyes.

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.

“Ktfgf’r rbwfbcf eq jtfjv.” Tjc Wejc mbcpegfv eq rbwf vfwbclm obu jcv kgjqqfv atf akb bo atfw lc la, tlvlcu atflg qgfrfcmf. Qtfc tf aegcfv tlr tfjv jcv rjk Tl Rlcu’r jqqfjgjcmf, tf gfjmtfv bea j tjcv jcv qlcmtfv tlr cbrf obg tlw.

“Gbc’a wjxf j rbecv.” Olxf mjpbilcu j mtliv, fnfc atbeut Tjc Wejc kjr bynlberis wemt sbecufg atjc tlw.

Yi Ning nodded. The spots where Yan Xuan touched him felt a little hot. This didn’t seem like something friends did. 

He didn’t have the time to think more on this, because when they drew closer, they could see that up ahead were a few narrow rooms, within which the 17 women were clustered together, chatting with each other.

What was shocking was that their bellies had already started to swell up.

It seemed that demonic fetuses grew incredibly quickly, without even mentioning the spells that Fang Shilan had put up. Very quickly, they would be fully formed.

“Fang-jiejie, Yan’er says her belly hurts a lot. Quickly, come take a look.” A woman dressed in pink worriedly supported the woman by her side. That woman’s belly was the biggest out of everybody there. 

Fang Shilan did not detect Yi Ning and Yan Xuan standing by the entrance. She gently stood up and, seemingly very concerned, stroked Yan’er’s belly.

After a while, she lifted her head up and smiled at the people gathered around her. “There’s nothing wrong. The child has grown bigger and is kicking now.” After a pause, seeing that they were still apprehensive, she continued, “Don’t worry, isn’t it just giving birth to a child? After they’re born, you can take some money and leave to start a new life somewhere else.”

This was Fang Shilan’s tactic, disguising a threat as a promise. Yet these pitiful women were fooled by her without knowing anything.

Those children will take their life. 

Yi Ning closed his eyes. He had never taken on such a task, yet the only thing he could do was take advantage of the fact that the fetuses were not fully formed to persuade these women to abort them.

“Go catch Fang Shilan, leave these women to me.” Yi Ning transmitted these words to Yan Xuan. Yan Xuan instantly understood.

Yinzhen left his hand, flashing like a crescent moon with Yan Xuan close behind. Taking advantage of the element of surprise, the saber’s edge was pressed up against her throat in an instant.

Fang Shilan jumped in fright, hurriedly turning around only to have Yan Xuan grabbing her by the throat. 

“Venerable Lord, as expected, you are inelegant as ever.” Fang Shilan choked out hoarsely, a thread of venom flitting through her eyes that was accurately captured by Yan Xuan.

He sneered, “Are you thinking about how to call Fu Zhuo to save you? However, he was just wounded quite heavily.”

After hearing his words, Fang Shilan gritted her teeth harshly. This Fu Zhuo, she shouldn’t have agreed to work with him, he never listened to what she said. He probably went to look for trouble with Yi Ning and ended up getting hurt. As expected, he ruined her plans.

Within the room, Yi Ning blocked in the 17 women who wanted to escape and said coldly, “If you run, you will die without a doubt.” 

The 17 women shivered in fear and huddled together, as if Yi Ning was some fearsome beast.

They were all pitiful people who lived harsh lives.

Yi Ning sighed softly. When he turned his head, he saw that Yan Xuan had already controlled Fang Shilan and felt slightly more at ease. He said to the women, “I assume that Fang Shilan did not tell you that what’s in your wombs are all demon fetuses.”

Even though he didn’t know how Fang Shilan managed to get these women pregnant, he was willing to bet that these women weren’t willing to play around with their lives. 

As expected, the women looked at each other, then looked pleadingly at Fang Shilan. “Fang-jiejie, didn’t you say we just had to help the City Lord bear a child?”

Hearing their words, Yan Xuan laughed coldly and said, “She isn’t wrong, you are indeed helping her and the City Lord give birth to a child. However, the child she wants you to give birth to is a half-demon.”

Half-demon. Who didn’t know that a half-demon was incredibly hard to grow? Even the slightest error will result in a difficult birth. Furthermore, some races’ children will tear open their mothers’ wombs and crawl out when they’re fully formed.

In an instant, the womens’ faces paled, and they said disbelievingly, “How could this be? Isn’t Fang-jiejie infertile?” 

“She told us she couldn’t get pregnant, so she needed us to give birth to the child, and after the child was born, she would give us sufficient wealth and freedom.”

“How could Fang-jiejie be lying to us? She treated us so well…”

Some of them were trafficked women, others were brothel women who were forcibly wedded, and some were slaves with lowly statuses.

As Yi Ning watched, he couldn’t bear it. 

Their lives were already so harsh, yet they had to be used by Fang Shilan as containers for a half-demon.

She was a sufficiently ruthless woman. For the sake of being with Mu Xiaoyun, she could do whatever unforgivable, immoral thing.

“She’s a demonic cultivator of the rat race, you must not keep the children. After we reach the surface…” Yi Ning hadn’t yet finished speaking when Fang Shilan interrupted him. “Immortal Master, they are all under the hex poison. If the children are aborted, they will die even faster.”

The women who were still in disbelief were all struck dumb at this moment. 

Fang Shilan really was tricking them.

That meticulous care, unjudging gaze, warm living quarters, and gentle reassurances were all fake.

Some women had already started crying. Yi Ning had never learned how to comfort people, and so he stood stiffly by their side, feeling like he should be saying some words of comfort to them at this point.

However, when he had just opened his mouth to speak, he was interrupted by Yan Xuan. “Yi Ning, come here.” 

After speaking, Yan Xuan pushed the saber closer to Fang Shilan’s throat, and said expressionlessly, “Dispel the poison for Yi Ning. Otherwise, after you die, I will kill Mu Xiaoyun. No matter where you’ve hidden him, I will find him.”

“You!” Fang Shilan was filled with hate. After a beat, she forced out a smile and said, “The feelings between the Venerable Lord and the Immortal Master sure run deep, calling for others to be envious. However, only the person who laid down the hex poison can dispel it. Even if you kill me, the poison won’t be dispelled.”

After spitting out those last few words, she suddenly surged toward Yan Xuan’s blade. Sharp enough to cut through bone, Yinzhen immediately sliced open her throat. The next moment, Fang Shilan transformed once again into a huge rat.

Yet another fake body. 

Even so, at least they managed to save the women. Yi Ning started thinking about what Fang Shilan just said. The hex poison could only be dispelled by killing the one who cast it, truly a strange poison that left no way out for its caster.

The person who poisoned him, if he was not wrong, should be Fu Zhuo. However, with his current cultivation, wanting to kill Fu Zhuo was as difficult as scaling the heavens. After this issue was settled, he needed to find a way to lift the seal.

“If we leave now, what about Gan’er?” Yi Ning arranged for the women to follow the opening that Yan Xuan carved open up to the surface, suddenly remembering Gan’er who was still within the tunnels.

Yan Xuan said unconcernedly, “Maybe she’s fallen asleep somewhere. If something happens, she’ll send a signal to me.” After speaking, he lightly pulled Yi Ning into his embrace and said, “Go up and take care of them first. I’ll look for Gan’er. You know what to do if something happens?” 

I do, chant your name three times. Yi Ning suddenly felt like laughing. Yan Xuan really treated his friends well.

However, speaking of Yan Xuan’s friends, Yi Ning suddenly remembered Fu Zhuo. Something had to have happened in the past to cause Fu Zhuo and Yan Xuan’s friendship to turn into hatred.

What was the reason? What could break apart Yan Xuan and Fu Zhuo’s relationship?

Liking to ponder about mundane things wasn’t always a good thing. Sometimes, he would be constantly bothered by unsolvable cases like this. 

“Then, I’ll be going now.” Yi Ning turned to follow the women to the surface, but was stopped by Yan Xuan’s call. “Wait.”

Yi Ning turned his head back suspiciously and saw Yan Xuan placidly turn his head away and say, “You are forbidden from seeking out Fu Zhuo’s location yourself. Wait for me in the tower.” After a pause, he tacked on, “Be careful.”

“Alright.” Yi Ning lowered his eyes and affirmed lightly.