Chapter 41 The Mohist School of Central China (5) Mechanical Puppets
Shi Yubai looked at the boy who was clutching Fu Yunyao's sleeve, his eyes hidden behind a white veil, and felt a headache coming on.
"You're just going to take him with you like this?"
Fu Yunyao glanced at him sideways, "Or, you can come?"
The boy also looked at him. Although his eyes were covered by a white veil, Shi Yubai still strangely sensed a trace of resentment.
Shi Yubai: ...
"What I mean is, can you turn him back into his essence blood? By carrying him around like this, aren't you just announcing to all the demons in the city that the essence blood of a cultivator that can greatly increase their cultivation is with you?"
Upon hearing his words, the hand gripping Fu Yunyao's sleeve gently shook.
His movements did not escape Shi Yubai's eyes. He rubbed his temples, never expecting that this boy, formed from the essence of the Dust Sword Master, would be so clingy.
Even the Sword Master of Dust...
Thinking of this, he paused, his expression subtle.
It seemed that Sword Master Rang Chen was always clinging to Fu Yun Yao; at least, the place he most often saw Sword Master Rang Chen was beside Fu Yun Yao…
His thoughts drifted further and further away, so he quickly stopped. When he came to his senses, he realized that they didn't seem to be heading in the direction of the city gate.
The people in the city heeded the advice of the demon hunters and stayed indoors. The warm sunlight fell on the deserted streets, giving off a desolate and lonely atmosphere.
He hesitated for a moment before asking, "Where are we going?"
Fu Yunyao paused slightly, and upon hearing his question, she casually replied.
"The weather is nice today, let's take a stroll around."
"Huh?" Shi Yubai was a little confused. She didn't seem like the kind of person who would have the leisure to wander around.
Shi Yubai did not understand.
Shi Yubai followed behind her.
Finally, she stopped at the entrance of an alley.
Fu Yunyao looked up at the sealed-off pavilion, seemingly deep in thought.
Shi Yubai followed his gaze and saw that the walls of the attic were blackened by smoke, and the plaque hanging at the door was tilted as if it would fall down at any moment.
The writing on it was blurry, and only the two characters "Xiangfang" could be vaguely made out.
"Xiangfang?" Shi Yubai murmured, "Is this the Xiangfang in the South Alley that the demon hunter mentioned was burned down by the fire fox demon?"
"Mm," Fu Yunyao replied.
What are we doing here?
“There is residual demonic energy here.” This time, it was Xuan Kui, whose wrists were wrapped around Shi Yubai, who answered.
Shi Yubai paused, "Demonic energy?"
Before he could react, he saw the person beside him lightly tap his toes and climb through the window into the attic.
Shi Yubai: ?
"Could you at least say hello to me first? At least we're in the same boat now."
As he spoke, he followed Fu Yunyao, saying, "Pah, they're not grasshoppers, they should be companions standing shoulder to shoulder."
He leaped through the window and was relieved to see Fu Yunyao standing inside, having not left before him.
Regardless, she still knew to wait for him.
Inside, the house was in complete disarray, with charred remains everywhere and spilled spices on the floor.
Shi Yubai brushed his fingertips across the spices, gently twirling them, and looked up to signal to Fuyun Yao.
"It's just ordinary spices, there's nothing wrong with it."
Xuan Kui transformed into human form and landed inside the house. His ears twitched slightly, and he spoke up to warn, "Someone's coming."
Fu Yunyao and Shi Yubai exchanged a glance, and the next moment, Fu Yunyao, with the person tightly gripping her sleeve, leaped onto the roof beam.
After a while, Bai Luo was behind the door, her palm beneath her sleeve holding a sacred wooden divination stick.
"Da, da."
The man drew closer, his fingertips landing on the door.
"Squeak."
He pushed open the door.
Xuan Kui paused for a moment, then quickly spoke up.
"etc--"
At the same time as his voice fell, the sacred wooden talismans, which obeyed Shi Yubai's command, trapped the person who stepped into the room.
The man stared blankly, his legs trembling slightly, and asked in a somewhat fearful tone, "Who are you? How did you get here?"
His behavior was indeed a bit strange. Shi Yubai looked at Xuan Kui in surprise and saw the other man scratching his brow and muttering to himself.
"This is not a demon, just an ordinary mortal."
Shi Yubai: ...
As soon as Fu Yunyao landed back on the ground, she saw Shi Yubai's pleading eyes and the person who had fallen to the ground in fright.
Fu Yunyao: ?
"Ahem." Shi Yubai coughed lightly, feeling embarrassed.
"I'm sorry, I thought you were a demon."
As he spoke, he took back the sacred wooden slip.
The man finally came to his senses and scrambled to his feet, looking rather disheveled.
He patted the dust off his clothes and muttered, "What demons? I think you're the demons!"
Shi Yubai and Xuan Kui knew they were in the wrong, so they could only swallow their insults.
The man muttered a few curses, and perhaps fearing they would attack again, he turned to leave.
"Wait." A gentle voice sounded from inside the room.
The man paused slightly as he left, but quickened his pace after a moment, saying, "You said you'd wait, so I'll wait... I..."
A sword, gleaming with icy coldness, stood in front of him, blocking his path.
He staggered back a few steps, his face pale. "You, you really are demons, aren't you?"
Beneath the veil, Fu Yunyao raised her eyebrows and spoke softly, "The acting has gone a bit too far."
As soon as she finished speaking, the air in the room froze.
A demonic aura rose from the man's body. He suppressed his fear and asked indifferently, "When did you find out?"
"From the very first moment you appeared."
"Heh." He chuckled lightly, "As expected of the young master of the Yaotai Realm."
Shi Yubai felt the sudden surge of demonic energy in the room, his eyes filled with disbelief.
"Is he a demon?"
No, he can't be a demon.
As time passed, Bai raised his two fingers together, and the divine wooden talisman once again surrounded the person inside the room whose demonic energy was emanating from it, setting up an array.
He asked, "Who exactly are you?"
The man raised an eyebrow slightly. "Your reaction time is pretty quick."
The next moment, the demonic energy suddenly dissipated, and the people inside the formation collapsed limply as if they had lost consciousness.
Shi Yubai looked at the person who was not moving at all, and then looked up at Fu Yunyao.
She spoke up to remind them, "Let's dispel the formation."
Shi Yubai put away the divine wood talisman and asked, "What exactly is it?"
Fu Yunyao reached out, her fingertips landing on the wrist of the person on the ground, and lifted up half of his sleeve.
On his wrist, a dark red mark was slowly fading, eventually turning into a wisp of smoke and dissipating into the air.
Fu Yunyao flicked her finger and lightly tapped his wrist.
"Knock, knock."
It was a strange sound, like tapping on a block of wood.
Shi Yubai also heard this sound. He frowned and instantly understood the situation in front of him.
The thing lying on the ground is not a person; more accurately, it is a—
"Mechanical puppet."
"No wonder those captured and imprisoned in the dungeon were able to escape. But—" he was somewhat puzzled, "why would the person behind this control a puppet? Is there some secret here that we haven't discovered yet?"
“No.” Fu Yunyao shook her head. “He did it so that we would discover that he could control puppets.”
"Why?"
Fu Yunyao did not answer; instead, she glanced at the boy standing beside her.
Her fingertips landed on his wrist, pressing precisely on the soul imprint beneath his sleeve.
The boy tilted his head slightly, looking at her with his eyes hidden by the white veil.
"Want him to stay with you forever? Then come find me, and I'll make it happen."
The voice echoed in her ears.
Fu Yunyao lowered her brows. From Shi Yubai and Xuan Kui's reactions, she knew that they had not heard those words.
Do you want him to stay with you forever...?
Beneath the veil, Fu Yunyao's eyes held a smile, and the corners of her mouth lifted slightly.
That's a really good temptation.
"Yun Yao?" Shi Yubai called to her, "Have you discovered anything?"
Fu Yunyao snapped out of her daze, and the young man beside her met her gaze, a slow smile spreading across his lips.
"No," she replied, her voice sounding somewhat pleased.
"Oh," Shi Yubai responded, and began searching the room again.
Xuan Kui: Don't you notice this atmosphere is a bit strange? Hey!
Just then, he heard Shi Yubai call out to him, "Xuan Kui, what are you doing standing there? Come and help."
"oh."
He casually picked up some incense from the shelf that hadn't been affected by the fire, twitched his nose, and couldn't help but sneeze. He pinched his nose and said with considerable disdain, "The fragrance in this room is way too strong."
As he was saying this, he put the incense back in its place, but his fingertips touched a protrusion on the inner shelf.
"What's this?"
Out of curiosity, he applied a little pressure with his fingertip, and the protrusion actually moved slightly.
The next moment, the wall, blackened by the fire, moved, dropping specks of dust.
Shi Yubai happened to be searching next to that wall when he was choked by the dust.
"Cough cough." He waved away the dust that had fallen in front of him and asked, "What's this?"
The Rangchen Sword in Fuyun Yao's hand hummed.
Xuan Kui frowned, "Such heavy demonic energy..."
The lights in the secret room came on, revealing everything inside to them.
A workbench with carving tools, mechanical materials scattered on the floor, and...
Fu Yunyao looked up and saw a series of eyeless heads hanging from the ceiling staring at her.
"Damn it!" Shi Yubai stepped into the room, and a mechanical puppet wielding a giant axe swung down at him from the side of the door.
He cursed under his breath as he swiftly dodged.
Xuan Kui unleashed a burst of demonic energy to block the puppet's attack.
With a crash, the mechanical puppet collapsed to the ground, and a lifelike head rolled to Fu Yunyao's feet.
Xuan Kui withdrew his hand and looked up at the ceiling with a guilty conscience.
"Wow!"
He suddenly shouted, and Shi Yubai frowned and looked in the direction he was looking.
On the ceiling, a human-skinned face grinned with blood-red lips, its eyes wide open, staring straight at them.
Shi Yubai felt a chill run down his spine and said uncertainly, "She... she hasn't been staring at us like this ever since we came in, has she?"
"Who on earth is this person, so cruel!" Xuan Kui was a demon in the first half of his life and fell into demonic ways in the second half. Although he could not be called a good person, he claimed that he had never harmed the lives of innocent people. Compared with him, the owner of this house was simply insane.
Fu Yunyao also noticed the strange thing on the ceiling. She raised her hand and let the Dust Sword Qi instantly peel off the human skin face.
He used the Dust Sword to pick up the human skin face that had fallen to the ground and carried it to Fu Yunyao.
She reached out and grabbed a corner of the human skin face with her fingertips, and said calmly, "It's fake."
"Fake?" Shi Yubai's gaze fell on the human skin face in her hand, somewhat surprised. "So realistic?"
He wanted to take a closer look, but then he saw the man's skin face being taken by another hand and burned to ashes.
Fu Yunyao glanced at him, and the young man opened his lips and said in a very slow voice, "Dirty."
While Shi Yubai was still marveling at how this person formed from essence blood could speak, he heard Fu Yunyao's soft yet cold voice the next moment.
She said.
"You're pretty dirty too."
When the time was up, Bai stopped. The boy who had been called dirty was also stunned. He turned his head slightly, as if to confirm who the "you" she was referring to was.
"Me? Dirty?" he asked.
As the dust sword slashed down the sleeve he was holding, his fingers tightened instinctively, leaving only a corner of the garment.
He seemed unable to understand why things had suddenly turned out this way; she had just been quite happy.
Why?
Fu Yunyao didn't explain, and stepped into the secret room. Shi Yubai glanced at the boy who was still standing there. He seemed to want to catch up with the person in front of him, but stopped because of the coldness emanating from her.
Shi Yubai sighed softly and looked away.
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Author's Note: Little Soul Blood: ? Does this mean you don't love me anymore? I'm wronged, but I won't say anything, so please don't be angry.
Today was another day I loved Liao Liao! [Sprinkling flowers]
I really want it to be a paid subscription! Please add it to your favorites soon!
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