Celestial Master Tang Zhou
Yu Mo slowly stood up, shielding Yan Dan behind him. He closed his eyes briefly, and when he opened them again, they were bloodshot.
The young man lightly landed in front of the two with one foot, took a step forward, and his long sword transformed into a streak of green light that swept upwards.
A dark blue-black demonic aura appeared and tightly bound the sword's edge.
Yu Mo raised his hand, his demonic aura causing his clothes to flutter, a strange light flashing in his eyes. There were few demons in this world stronger than him, let alone a mortal like him.
Suddenly, the sword light surged, piercing through layers of demonic energy and stabbing straight into his chest. Yu Mo felt his blood surging and his ears ringing. He quickly pulled Yan Dan over and jumped off the boat: "Go!" The river water splashed up, transforming into the shape of a dragon, raising its head high, opening its mouth wide, and choosing someone to devour.
The young man calmly took out a talisman from his sleeve, lightly extended his finger, and chanted, "Break!"
In an instant, the dragon transformed into countless water droplets. The crystal-clear droplets fell onto the deck, making a pitter-patter sound, like a sudden spring rain.
He raised his hand to sheath his longsword, preparing to give chase, when suddenly his foot tightened as someone held him tightly. Meanwhile, river water was pouring in through the hole in the deck, soaking his clothes.
Zhou Shiming clung to his legs, his flabby white flesh trembling violently, and cried out in a pitiful voice, "Great hero, you can't leave! Please save me! I don't want to be eaten by the monster..."
He frowned slightly, looking at the chubby white man at his feet: "The monster is gone."
"No, no, no, they will definitely come back, to cut off my flesh and eat it! Hero, you must save me..."
The young man looked around; the monster was nowhere to be seen. He raised his foot and kicked it, saying, "Get lost."
Yu Mo walked ashore, soaking wet, his steps faltering. Suddenly, he vomited a mouthful of blood and collapsed to the ground. He simply lay down on the riverbank and closed his eyes to rest.
Yan Dan sat down beside him. He was pale, with blood at the corner of his mouth, and coughed occasionally. She could only raise her hand and gently pat his chest: "Yu Mo, how are you? Are you alright?"
Yu Mo suddenly sat up abruptly, propping himself up with one hand on the ground, and began coughing violently. Yan Dan was startled and quickly patted his back gently, asking repeatedly, "Are you alright? Are you badly injured?"
Yu Mo suddenly stopped coughing and collapsed weakly onto her.
Yan Dan held him tightly, not daring to move, her heart burning with anxiety: "Yu Mo, hold on a little longer, please don't die..." After a long while, she felt Yu Mo move slightly and speak weakly: "Isn't it too early to mourn now?" His complexion was still not good, but there was already some color in it.
Yan Dan, with a stern face, said coldly, "My lord."
Yu Mo smiled and said, "Lian Qing."
Yan Dan coldly said, "Please forgive me, Your Majesty, for being ill and unable to attend to your passing. Please do not take offense."
Yu Mo looked at her and said seriously, "It seems that I can only repay Lian Qing's deep affection in the next life." After saying that, he couldn't help but laugh.
Yan Dan smiled, but still looked a little worried. She slowly said, "That Celestial Master is really powerful. Even you are no match for him, let alone me."
Yu Mo gave a lazy "hmm" and said in a low voice, "It's not surprising. His soul must be very pure to be able to use Taoist arts to this extent. In the Three Realms, the most powerful are not the immortal lords of the Heavenly Court, nor the demons that were destroyed in ancient times, but something that is the purest. Demonic arts are far from pure enough."
"Yu Mo, may I say something?"
"you say."
"Turn your head and look behind you. That person has caught up and will be here soon."
Yu Mo cursed under his breath and stood up: "I'm usually the one chasing others away, but today it's the other way around."
Yan Dan's expression was very sincere: "Experience is good for cultivation."
Yu Mo looked into her eyes: "Let's split up. If we're unlucky, it's better for one of us to die than the other." He pointed ahead: "You go this way, I'll take the waterway, in the opposite direction from you."
Yan Dan looked at him, hesitated for a moment, and then said, "Okay." Going from Yu Mo's direction, she might run into that Taoist priest, while her route was much safer.
Yu Mo pushed her: "Hurry up and go."
Yan Dan turned and walked away, but after a while she looked back and saw Yu Mo slowly walking down the riverbank. When she reached the bend in the mountain path and looked back again, she could no longer see his back. She stamped her foot and ran away quickly.
Night deepened, and Yan Dan continued walking in the mountains, cold and exhausted, yet she dared not stop. Through the layers of trees, she could see a bright imperial star in the distant sky, brighter than any other star in the heavens. The brighter the imperial star, the more stable the foundation of a dynasty, signifying its resurgence.
Yan Dan suddenly remembered that this was something she had learned before. In fact, she was best at understanding Zen principles, but in the end, it was still of little use. How proud she was back then, able to say nonchalantly that she never wanted to enter the ranks of immortals because she didn't care. Now, it seemed like a very, very long time had passed.
As dawn broke, she finally saw a small village in the distance, and behind the village, on the mountain, was a tea plantation.
She breathed a sigh of relief and sat down to rest on the tree stump. Suddenly, she heard light footsteps behind her. Turning around, she almost jumped up in surprise—the Taoist priest had actually followed her here! The man's sleeves were wide and his belt fluttered. He had handsome features and a youthful, resilient air about him. He seemed quite young, probably only in his early twenties. Yan Dan sighed. She had truly wasted all these years, not even as good as a mortal.
The young Taoist priest slowed down as he walked past her, frowned, and looked her over before politely asking, "Excuse me, are you a local, young lady?"
Yan Danxin was delighted. Yesterday, Yu Mo had handled everything, so he wouldn't remember her appearance too clearly. At most, he only had suspicions in his heart. So she slowly said, "Look, the tea trees are growing better than in previous years."
The man was taken aback and asked again, "I mean no harm, I just wanted to ask where I can stay for the night."
Yan Dan said, "Can you see some rocks that look like monkeys on that hill over there?"
The man finally gave up and walked on. Yan Dan watched his retreating figure, pondering whether she should continue forward or turn back. She didn't have the strength to walk that path again, and if the man noticed something was wrong and chased after her, she probably wouldn't be able to escape. If she followed him, although it was risky, it would be a matter of life and death, and perhaps she could escape this way.
Having made up her mind, she stood up and walked towards the village ahead.
After taking a few steps, he saw the man turn back and ask, "Miss, have you seen a woman of your age pass by? She is very beautiful and about your height."
Yan Dan didn't even look at him, walking straight past him in a daze: "I'm going home, my mother is waiting for me, are you going too?"
After taking two steps, I heard someone behind me sigh softly: "So he's just a fool..."
Yan Dan pouted, but could only curse inwardly. Normally, she would have definitely retaliated, but the other party's magic was too advanced, so she had to swallow her anger. She walked a short distance when she suddenly heard someone softly chant a spell behind her, quickly and quietly. She heard a whooshing sound in her ears, and suddenly everything went dark, except for a sliver of light above her head, as if she had fallen into a dark hole. Then, even the only light above her was blocked.
Yan Dan was shocked. She flicked her finger, and a beam of white light struck the surrounding walls, only to bounce back.
A slow, deliberate voice rang out from outside: "Don't waste your energy. With your abilities, unless someone lets you out, you'll only be able to stay inside the magic artifact."
A magical artifact? Yan Dan touched it to the side; it was cool and smooth to the touch, almost like jade. She circled around it again, noticing a rounded curve. Could it be... a consecrated jade gourd?
Yan Dan was dejected for a while, then sat down on the ground: "Where did I give myself away? You clearly believed me just now."
"You acted so convincingly that I almost fell for it. It's just a pity that your clothes are made of such fine material, and your hands don't look like they've been through a lot of work, as does your face. Being exposed to the wind and sun all the time would naturally make them rough."
Yan Dan sighed, resigning herself to her bad luck: "May I ask your esteemed name, Celestial Master?"
After a long pause, the person finally answered, "Tang Zhou."
Yan Dan lay inside the gourd, her eyes closed: "I have one last question. Have you encountered my companion?"
Tang Zhou simply replied, "I ran into him."
"So what about him? Did you kill him, or did he escape?"
"I have already answered your last question, so I don't need to answer this one again."
Yan Dan tapped the base of the gourd and said angrily, "You..." Then she suddenly chuckled softly, "So he got away. Thank goodness."
Tang Zhou was still not fooled. Judging from the voice, it seemed to be saying with a smile: "You're too clever for your own good."
Yan Dan could only close her eyes and sleep. Exhausted, she needed to rest and recover before she could escape her predicament.
She was so tired that she quickly fell into a deep sleep. It was dark inside the gourd, making it easier to fall asleep. When she woke up, it was still pitch black all around her, and she didn't know whether it was day or night outside.
She sat up, hugging her knees, and slowly racked her brains for a way to escape. She thought of seventeen or eighteen, but none of them seemed feasible. Suddenly, the earth shook violently, and she slammed against the gourd wall with a thud, covering her face and feeling a stinging sensation in her nose.
Tang Zhou said slowly, "You were so quiet, I thought you weren't inside anymore."
Yan Dan said irritably, "It was so comfortable inside that I only woke up now."
Tang Zhou chuckled softly, his voice deep and pleasant: "You're different from the demons who were locked up before. They were all too scared to sleep."
Yan Dan's heart skipped a beat, and she asked, "Have you taken in other demons?"
After a long while, Tang Zhou's voice came: "Are you trying to ask how I finally dealt with them?"
Yan Dan, realizing that her thoughts had been read, readily admitted, "Yes."
"When I caught the first demon, I had just learned alchemy. I accidentally misread the recipe and the heat was wrong, so that spider demon died a terrible death. The second was a bear demon, whose fate was much better than the spider demon's. As for the third, it was a peony flower spirit. Every part of it was precious, so I used it to study several recipes left over from hundreds of years ago..." Tang Zhou's tone was very slow and deliberate. "I hadn't even done anything to the tenth one before he went crazy from fright. You are the eleventh."
Yan Dan felt a chill run down her spine upon hearing this, and forced a smile, saying, "It's an honor." Anyone would find it unbearable to hear about the fates of their kind, wouldn't they?
She opened her eyes wide in the darkness and suddenly said, "Tang Zhou, I'm hungry."
Tang Zhou's voice sounded somewhat surprised: "You're a demon, and you can still feel hungry?"
Yan Dan pouted, trying her best not to make her voice sound too harsh: "Of course demons get hungry, even gods get hungry. Outside, I can absorb the spiritual energy between heaven and earth, so it doesn't matter if I don't eat anything, but here there's nothing, it's all dark."
A moment later, a sudden light shone overhead. Before Yan Dan could adjust to the unexpected light, a blade of grass fell beside her, and then darkness returned. Yan Dan trembled with anger, constantly reminding herself to be patient, to be patient again, for a small act of impatience could ruin a great plan.
After a long while, she finally managed to squeeze out a sentence through gritted teeth: "You're such a good person."
"You're too kind. It was nothing, no need to thank me." He said this with a smile in his voice.
Yan Dan could only hug her knees and continue to think of a solution. Having lived this long, she could easily outwit almost anyone if she wanted to. Now, she had encountered someone equally cunning—no, equally clever—and she needed to put her plans into action.
In fact, everyone has weaknesses. As long as you find the right direction, you can defeat your opponent in one fell swoop.
But what are Tang Zhou's weaknesses?
She remembered that Zi Lin's weakness was that he was afraid of others knowing that his true form was a mountain tortoise, Dan Shu's weakness was that she was afraid of ghosts, and Yu Mo's weakness was... well, actually, as long as the request wasn't too unreasonable, Yu Mo would do it for her, which led to her developing a habit of being lazy and unwilling to work.
And where is Yu Mo now? Is he safe and sound?
Although she was about 70-80% certain that Yu Mo was safe, she still had a few uncertainties. Tang Zhou was tight-lipped, and she couldn't get anything out of him.
Yan Dan had a terrible headache, so she rested her chin on her knees and closed her eyes to rest. But the atmosphere around her was so pleasant that she fell asleep again after only a short while.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
