Ostentatious Zhao Yao ~ Ch 24

Ostentatious Zhao Yao by Jiu Lu Fei Xiang

《招摇》 作者: 九鹭非香

Ch 24

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At night, I possessed Zhi Yan’s body and went to find Mo Qing. When I entered through the door, I just heard him give someone an order. He said that he wanted to imprison Yuan Jie in the dungeon under Chen Ji Mountain’s main peak.

Yuan Jie unexpectedly did not run away? I was a little surprised. Mo Qing knew what he had done and in spite of everything did not kill him? This made me even more surprised.

Even someone who had betrayed Mo Qing, he would choose benevolence and spare his life? Under this selective benevolence of Mo Qing’s, it made me truly not understand him.

But as for me, it was actually better that he did not kill Yuan Jie. After all in my eyes, Yuan Jie was only disloyal to Mo Qing but not to me. Even up until now, he was still extremely loyal to me. Otherwise, he would not want to kill Liu Cang Ling on that day and said those kinds of words that he wanted to help the former Sect Leader release her hatred.

This old man still remembered me in his heart. He was not satisfied with someone like Mo Qing. Up to the extent that he wanted to borrow someone else’s hand to kill Mo Qing. But after everything was revealed, he would rather be captured than to flee. It was also probably because he was sentimental towards Wan Lu Sect.

How about after I waited for my strength to grow a little stronger, I could go straight to Yuan Jie and clarify my identity. Then I would drag him out of the dungeon and let him become my right-hand man again…

Just as I was mulling things over in my mind, my eyes shifted and I saw arranged in Mo Qing’s room the sparkling shine of Liu He Tian YI Sword. I felt that all other matters should be put aside for next time.

The only serious matter right now was to show loyalty and seduce Mo Qing.

“Master.” I called out to him and Mo Qing raised his head to glance at me. Mo Qing just finished talking to the Dark Guard; he bowed his head discreetly as he received his orders and instantly departed. Mo Qing raised his head and shot a glance at me, his expression never wavered and it seemed a bit colder compared to before.

He bowed his head and wrote characters, ignoring me.

As I advanced forward with small steps, I frowned in distress and said, “You’re always busy with handling affairs, you don’t even rest a bit? Yesterday, you came to save me and the day before, you went out to fetch the sword; you at least have not slept in two days…”

The sound of Mo Qing’s voice was indifferent: “No bother. In my dream, no one makes an appearance anyways.”

Hiss, these words of his had significant meaning.  Moreover, it sounded like… He was having a tantrum?

He felt that since I entered other people’s dreams, therefore, he was unhappy? But it was obviously me, Lu Zhao Yao, who entered other people’s dreams. Could it be that he also wanted to see Lu Zhao Yao in his dream?

Oh, maybe it was indeed true. After all, in the beginning, the reason I used to keep close to Mo Qing was — ‘Lu Zhao Yao can enter my dream. I will help you find Lu Zhao Yao.’ Yet now, other people had seen Lu Zhao Yao but he still had not seen her. He definitely thought that I did not take the job he gave me seriously.

‘Looking from his perspective, he adores me so much, likes me, and spent a lot of time to go really far away to fetch the sword for me, too. As a result, he gave me one matter to handle and I did not even take it seriously.’

‘No wonder he isn’t happy.’

I straightened out the issue and planned to prescribe the right medicine for his illness. So I approached his desk and leaned forward, and then I moved my head close and looked at him. But before I could say anything, he raised his eyes and asked me: “Can you use the Instant Shadow Technique?”

I was a little distracted: “I… Can.” When he fought with Jiang Wu before, did I not use it in front of him once…

When he received my answer, Mo Qing narrowed his eyes slightly: “Oh, but I heard, the moment before you met Jiang Wu, the Dark Guard secured time for you to escape. But you did not leave.”

My heart trembled, he was calculating old debt!

“How can I abandon him and escape by myself!” I said with a face of solemn urgency, “That’s the person Master sent to protect me, I absolutely can’t leave him!”

Mo Qing leaned his body against the back of his chair, crossed his arms and looked at me, “But Jiang Wu said that you wanted to talk to him about a transaction. What transaction?”

I answered with a straight face: “I gave him paper money and let him burn it to help Lu Zhao Yao.”

Mo Qing’s eyes stared at me coolly, the only difference was that these words “I see you still want to talk some more nonsense” were written on his face.

Quickly, I coughed once and switched back to my own motive: “Master, in fact, I came here today to report to you about certain matters!”

“Speak.”

I said resolutely: “Master, when you came to save me today, your physique was formidable, extremely handsome, and the aura of your whole body could shake all the way up to the Nine Heavens and all the way down to the Nine Springs! Master, you didn’t know this but when I saw you coming, it was like I truly saw a hero from legend. The bottom of my heart was touched to the point it shivered! My whole body cried just wanting to fall into your embrace. I wanted to embrace you and be embraced by you in return!”

* Nine Heavens, Nine Springs – the highest of the heaven, the lowest of the underworld

“Ahem.” Mo Qing coughed once.

When his cheeks were slightly reddened, I thought that the level that he attained was nearly there, so I was able to come to a halt on the topic: “Master, you are so powerful. I know that there is already nothing in this world that can shake your position… There is only the undispersed soul of Lu Zhao Yao. She is the thorn in your side.”

Mo Qing was slightly startled: “The thorn in my side?”

I nodded and continued to say: “That’s right.” Again, I moved forward a little to get closer, “Don’t I frequently burn paper money for Lu Zhao Yao? It was to establish a good relationship with her and then obtain some intelligence from her lips. If I know how she intended to harm you, then in return I can protect you, Master.”

Mo Qing raised his eyebrows, and the light in his eyes stared at me with some complicatedness: “Oh, so how does she intend to harm me?”

Likewise, I looked straight into his eyes. I did not avoid or escape his question: “Lu Zhao Yao once told me before, she originally did not intend to harm you but the result was some time ago, did you not take Wan Jun Sword to her grave to show off?”

“…”

“Then she wanted to find you to seek her revenge. Afterward, she saw that you wiped away her previous spell formation, also got rid of the pillar and stage. Therefore, she wanted to return to snatch back the sect leader’s position.”

I felt that talking about the situations pertaining to me up to this point was nearly enough. It looked like I was telling Mo Qing about some matters, but in fact, I still did not reveal a tiny bit of information about how I would regain the sect leader’s position. But these pieces of information were already enough to regain Mo Qing’s trust in this body of Zhi Yan’s.

I thoroughly thought that at this moment, Mo Qing was certainly thinking of a way to make Lu Zhao Yao’s soul appear. But who would have thought, he just stared at me and the expression in his eyes appeared to contain a mixture of laughter and sadness: “Then you help me tell Lu Zhao Yao…” His body moved a little closer, “If she can come back, this sect leader’s position, I will surrender it with both hands; it doesn’t matter.”

His eyes were sincere and earnest. In a blink of an eye, it surprisingly made me feel that the words that he said were genuine.

I retreated back slightly and managed to react.

‘Well, youngster, relying on his own current strength to break through the horizon. He immediately babbles a mouthful of nonsense to mock me! ‘If she can come back, this sect leader’s position, I will surrender it with both hands.’ Then the premise is based on the above, ‘she can come back.’’

‘He just thinks that I cannot return, right!’

Not batting an eyelid, I put a smile on my face: “Master, you are truly magnanimous! Lu Zhao Yao will definitely be touched by you!”

Mo Qing still stared at me slightly carrying some degree of scrutiny, like he wanted to see through my innermost being. I turned my head and my eyes fell upon Liu He Tian Yi Sword: “By the way, Master, yesterday, you just used this sword to break through Jiang Wu’s enchantment barrier?”

I circled around to the sword’s side and examined it. I only saw that this sword was born from nature and made by heaven. As expected, it was rough and rugged, powerful and unconstrained. But the edge of the blade looked like it was finely polished by manual labor to be as thin as a piece of paper: “It’s truly a rare sword.” I was just about to grab the sword’s hilt when I saw a faint trace of dark red between the rough steel stones above the hilt. This apparently… Looked like a dried bloodstain.

I was a little dumbfounded and turned my head back towards Mo Qing’s direction, he was approving documents again.

“Master.”

“Mhm.”

“Are you injured?”

Mo Qing did not even lift his head: “It’s a minor injury.”

All year round, Liu He Tian YI Sword was subjected to celestial lightning strikes that formed its shape. To this day, the lighting was still incessantly falling from heavenward, the magical beast treasure protector was sideward, and also the heavenly-made spell formation was earthward. The problem that he faced when he went to fetch the sword was perhaps equally comparable to that year when I went to the Sword Tomb to get Wan Jun Sword. The wound that he received was very likely not a small injury.

I suddenly remembered, last night when Mo Qing fought against Jiang Wu, from the beginning to the end he did not draw his sword. At that time, I just thought that it was because Mo Qing despised Jiang Wu. Now that I think about it, when he first appeared under such raging mad circumstance, would it not had been even more refreshing to cut Jiang Wu down with one slash, and then he would not have needed to waste words with him for so long.

I looked at Mo Qing without blinking.

He became aware of my gaze and finally looked at me for a moment, as if he realized something: “Worried about me?” The light in his eyes illuminated and the corners of his lips desired to curve up as he gazed at me.

With these words of his, it made me ask myself absent-mindedly.

‘I’m… worried about him?’

‘Surprisingly just now, I’m… Worried about him? I think that this is a little absurd. Zhi Yan can worry about him, but I cannot.’

‘Mo Qing is my enemy.’

I laughed: “At first, I was very worried. However, Master said that it was a minor injury, so it must be a small injury. In this world, there is nothing that can hurt Master.” I changed hands and picked up Liu He Tian Yi Sword. I practiced two martial art moves and did not give Mo Qing the answer that he wanted.

From the corner of my eye, I glimpsed in Mo Qing’s direction. Just now, I saw him repressed the twinkle in his eyes, the corners of his lips secretly curled up, and his expression was a bit self-deprecating.

I speculated from my many experiences, his appearance changed to truly look like he was somewhat wounded.

I practiced with the sword and turned my head to ask him: “Master, this Liu He Tian Yi Sword does not have a sheath. The lightning on the sword’s blade can perhaps hurt other people accidentally.” It was all right for me to trifle with the sword. What I was afraid of was if later I gave Zhi Yan the sword to handle, she could perhaps hurt herself. It was better to have a sheath.

Mo Qing heard what I said, he nodded: “It is necessary to have a scabbard.” His expression during that brief interlude just now was completely wiped away.

I naturally did not mention it anymore. I only went towards his desk, leaned forward, and said: “If delivering Buddha, then must deliver him all the way to the west. Master, how about you also present me with a sheath?” I pondered for a bit, “There aren’t many ready-made sheaths available but there must be someone in the market who makes sheaths…”

Mo Qing agreed. He set down the writing brush and stood up: “Feng Zhou City is currently still bustling with excitement. Let’s go there now to have a craftsman make it.”

‘Yi, right now?’

Mo Qing nevertheless had a swift and decisive personality…

After a while, as I carried the sword, Mo Qing brought me along to arrive at Feng Zhou City.

This place was different from Jiang City. If Jiang City was a trade city that developed from the narrow cracks between the two celestial and demonic paths, then Feng Zhou City was all evil and sinister, it completely belonged to the demonic path.

In this place, Wan Lu Sect had absolute control. Naturally, it did not hinder other small sects of demonic cultivators to come here and trade, too. Compared to the bustling prosperity of Jiang City, this place was more like a carnival in purgatory. Outside in the light and inside in the dark, it was all chaos, they engaged in eating, drinking, whoring, gambling, killing people, and cultivating skills. However, because of these reasons, this place had everything.

Anything that was within the imagination or outside the imagination; as long as there was money, anything could be bought.

For a long time, I had not found myself in this kind of environment. I could not help it and took in a deep breath: “I really like this place!”

Although Wan Lu Sect compared to this Feng Zhou City was not remarkably frenzied but a little more solemn and serene, but this kind of evil atmosphere here was actually just right.

“Aren’t you a celestial sect disciple?” Mo Qing was idle at my side and asked me this question. I turned my head to look at him and rolled my eyeballs: “Master, this proves that deep down in my heart, you and I have already tied the knot to our destinies together.”

As I said these words, I seized the opportunity to hook my pinky finger onto his pinky finger. The touch was not much but enough to tease his heart.

The look in Mo Qing’s eyes instantly deepened, and then he turned his face away again: “Let’s get going. Go buy a scabbard.”

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Enjoy your reading pleasure!

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