Chapter 11 Under the moon, the magnolias are shrouded in darkness; you are ill.
Hua Deng felt like she was playing a simulation game.
Q: What would you do if you encountered a serial killer on the street?
A: Ask him to kill someone for you.
B: Pay him to stop killing you
C: Dating him
The answer to "Hua Deng" is D: Select all.
He paid a serial killer to be his Daoist partner and asked him to help drive away malicious opportunists.
Hua Deng has a terrible headache.
She wasn't afraid of being slept or dying before because the system had promised that the Transmigration Bureau would compensate her with a chance to be reincarnated.
Although the next development may not be much better, this is undoubtedly an important safeguard for Hua Deng.
She was able to get used to Chen Zhou's sharpness and coexist peacefully with him, thanks in part to this layer of protection.
But things are different now.
If the reason for killing the people of the Big Dipper Palace is because the cultivation world is a dog-eat-dog world, and this has been the case for thousands of years, then what is the reason for killing the Myriad Swords Sect?
That was his master who saved his life, his fellow disciples who called him brother, and the sect that nurtured him from an ignorant child into a powerful swordsman.
Of the entire family of three thousand, not a single one survived.
Can Hua Deng really treat such a person as a partner or even a friend?
Hua Deng couldn't understand it, so she could only avoid Shen Zhou. Even after the mission of "cultivating with the sect leader for three days" was declared complete, she still couldn't find the courage to face him directly.
Whether it was a coincidence or not, Shen Zhou seemed to be unusually busy these past few days. After taking the time to beat up the sect leader, he never paid attention to Hua Deng's classes again, which made Hua Deng's sneaky behavior seem less abrupt.
That day, the sect leader held up the "Legend of the Rising Sun" and explained the new contents to Hua Deng.
He had a serious expression and was completely focused. If he occasionally lost focus for a moment, he would nervously apologize to the streetlights, which would make the streetlights awkwardly wave their hands and say that it was no need.
In the book, after being trained by her master, the female protagonist transforms from an innocent and pure girl into a wild and domineering woman.
In reality, after being trained by Shen Zhou, the master transformed from a lustful wolf into a husky with clear eyes.
Despite her many doubts, Hua Deng had to admit Chen Zhou's work performance.
During the break between classes, after much hesitation, she finally asked the sect leader, "Master, if you knew someone who was very capable but also very complicated, and you were afraid of him but couldn't help wanting to trust him, what would you do in this situation?"
The sect leader didn't answer, but instead asked her, "Is this person important to you?"
Hua Deng said sullenly, "I don't know."
The sect leader then asked, "Is he good to you?"
Hua Deng opened his mouth, then lowered his head in defeat: "...I don't know."
The sect leader smiled and said, "That's quite an interesting person."
Seeing Hua Deng looking over expectantly, clearly wanting to hear more from him, he smiled kindly and asked, "Does that person know what you're thinking?"
Hua Deng paused, realizing she had never considered this question before.
Seeing this, the sect leader's smile deepened, and he said, "Go find him. I'll let you leave get out of class early today."
...
Hua Deng, who finished class early, did not return to Haitangyuan immediately.
She took a detour, kicking at the pebbles on the ground, still unwilling to face Shen Zhou.
Pedestrians kept passing by, and without exception, they noticed her and then raised their hands to greet her in a friendly manner.
Hua Deng casually walked back, and as he walked, he suddenly stopped.
She recalled the day she first arrived at the Medicine Purification Sect, when someone greeted her as if she had seen a ghost.
In just a few days, she was able to take a walk here without worry.
Hua Deng sighed.
Although it wasn't explicitly stated, she knew that Shen Zhou had been secretly monitoring those people's movements. Otherwise, Duan Yi wouldn't have disappeared so completely, and her senior uncles wouldn't have run away whenever they saw her, never daring to strike up a conversation.
Regardless of how he treated others, at least with her, he perfectly fulfilled the promises in the contract.
Hua Deng turned around and walked towards Haitang Garden.
She figured it out.
She always told Shen Zhou to be honest, but honestly, had she done it?
She was the one who approached Shen Zhou and pestered him to sign the contract, but now she's getting stuck on this and avoiding him. This isn't how you treat a business partner.
We need to talk to him.
Even if Shen Zhou is unwilling to be frank, we should at least get his attitude.
Soon, she arrived at Shen Zhou's door.
She had been clamoring to sleep in the same room as Shen Zhou, and Yueya and Yueman bought a bed the next day, but she never mentioned it again, and the bed remained in the storage ring.
Hua Deng mustered her courage, silently rehearsed her prepared words, and gently knocked on the door.
"Knock knock".
There was no movement.
"Knock knock knock?"
There was still no movement.
She tentatively pushed the door open: "It's me. May I come in?"
The door opened easily, and sunlight streamed into the empty room. In this minimalist room, almost devoid of furniture, the bed curtains hung still, and dust motes floated in the air, but Chen Zhou was nowhere to be seen.
Strange, Shen Zhou used to always inform her in advance whenever he went out.
Hua Deng scratched his head and had no choice but to return to his room and open the window to observe the situation outside.
She waited all night, sleeping and waking up repeatedly, and went to knock on Chen Zhou's door again, but there was still no response.
So he simply went into Shen Zhou's room, sat down at the table to cultivate, so that Shen Zhou wouldn't sneak away again when he came back in the middle of the night.
This time she didn't have to wait long; around noon, she heard light footsteps in the courtyard.
Upon hearing this, Hua Deng rushed out of the room, still holding the half-read immortal scripture in her hand.
She quickly threw the book down and called out, "Where were you last night and this morning?"
Shen Zhou slowly turned around and used magic to clear the blood energy from his body.
He seemed to have returned from a very far place, his outer robe carrying the scent of a downpour, cold and damp.
“Murder,” he said, his voice slightly hoarse, his eyes lowered.
Normally their conversation would end here, but this time Hua Deng unusually pressed on, asking, "Who did you kill? Your enemy?"
"Maybe."
He walked into the house as he spoke.
Hua Deng followed closely, holding back but unable to resist, staring at him and asking, "Why did you kill so many people?"
Shen Zhou's expression remained unchanged as he said, "Because they are all weaker than me."
Hua Deng took a deep breath and stood blocking his way: "Can you even count the number of people in this world weaker than you? Do you have to kill them all before you're satisfied?"
Chen Zhou stopped in his tracks and tilted his head slightly: "Why not?"
He paused, his voice tinged with a hint of sarcasm and mockery.
"I have 107 swords, and I can kill any number of people without hesitation."
Hua Deng watched him silently for a moment.
"Does that include me?" she suddenly asked.
Chen Zhou did not answer, or perhaps he disdained to answer, and walked straight into the depths of the room.
Hua Deng hated this kind of attitude the most, so she simply put her hand in front of him, raised her face, and said, word by word, "I'm so much weaker than you, does that mean I deserve to die?"
As soon as he finished speaking, Shen Zhou glanced at her, and though it was only a glance, it was full of condescending pressure.
“Miss Hua, what do you think?” he answered casually. “Or do you still have some unrealistic expectations of me?”
A sense of emptiness washed over him, and Hua Deng felt his hands and feet gradually go numb.
Shen Zhou continued, "Whether I kill you or not depends entirely on my mood. I might see you one day and just kill you without a reason, just like I kill other people."
Seeing the trembling eyelashes of the streetlights, his lips twitched, but his words remained merciless: "Scared?"
Hua Deng said, "I didn't—"
"If you're scared, stay away and don't meddle in other people's business."
He uttered these words from his cold, thin lips, walked past the streetlights to the bed, lay down fully clothed, and closed his eyes in silence.
Hua Deng's chest heaved, his face was stiff, and a red tinge appeared at the corners of his eyes, it was hard to tell whether he was angry or something else.
...This person is indeed a complete bastard.
"We can't agree on anything," she stamped her foot, turned away with a stern face.
She never wants to talk to this guy again!
But just as he turned around, he caught a glimpse of his exposed arm, covered in crisscrossing bloodstains, each wound oozing a black aura, exactly like the demonic energy described in the book.
She was quite certain that Shen Zhou was not a demonic cultivator, so what was he?
As she gazed hesitantly, Shen Zhou opened his eyes.
He glanced down, casually conjured a curved blade, and began to stab at the wound on his arm.
Blood and flesh flew everywhere.
The lights suddenly closed their eyes, suffocated for a moment, and then opened them again.
The flesh on Shen Zhou's right arm grew back without leaving a single scar. But the black aura also appeared, coiling around his forearm again and again, like an arrogant little snake.
Shen Zhou calmly made his move again.
Again and again, he cut off the flesh affected by the demonic energy, and then watched it heal time and time again.
After countless times, he grew tired of it.
He abandoned the scimitar and instead gripped the crook of the arm with his palm; with just a little force, he could break half of the arm.
Hua Deng, as if waking from a dream, blurted out, "Don't move! You're sick!"
"sick?"
Shen Zhou's hand paused slightly, then exerted force without hesitation, a look of agitation rising between his brows, clearly not listening at all.
Hua Deng, exasperated, stepped forward: "Why didn't you see a doctor? I..."
Shen Zhou suddenly turned his head.
"Get out of my way!"
Along with his roar came a wisp of black smoke bursting from his arm.
The black smoke surged menacingly toward the lanterns, completely escaping Shen Zhou's control, and hurtling straight for her vital point.
She was just an inch away from losing her life.
On the brink of life and death, Hua Deng finally managed to determine what it was, thanks to the keen perception of spiritual power by his wood spirit root.
It wasn't some kind of demonic energy, but rather the sword energy unique to Shen Zhou that she had witnessed many times before.
A piercing sound erupted from the air, and the black smoke suddenly turned a corner, grazing the face of the streetlights and flying backward, piercing into Chen Zhou's arm like a throwing knife before returning to its source.
It left a faint scar on the streetlight, imprinted on the left side of its face, and a strand of hair was mercilessly cut off, drifting leisurely to the ground.
Shen Zhou's gaze followed the wisp of black hair until it lay peacefully at the foot of the lantern, motionless. After a long while, he looked up again, his eyes, as still as the Dead Sea, fixed on the lantern.
The Hehuan Sacred Body possesses extremely strong self-healing abilities; even the smallest wound will heal automatically without Hua Deng's intervention. However, the trace of blood remained, making her terrified face appear even paler, and she seemed on the verge of collapse.
She was terrified.
Shen Zhou withdrew his gaze, his words devoid of any warmth.
"Don't come any closer." He pressed his arm to stop the gushing blood, his profile hidden in the shadow of his hair. "Otherwise, you'll die too."
Hua Deng's eyelids twitched wildly.
Strangely enough, her heart calmed down completely under these circumstances.
She knows her own temper; it's neither bad nor particularly good. At least in this situation, she should show some anger and disgust.
But at this very moment, she did not.
Was it because Shen Zhou forcibly reversed his heart meridian and withdrew his sword energy the moment he raised his eyes; or was it the image of a little boy holding a wooden sword and grinning foolishly that inexplicably appeared in her mind?
She couldn't help but wonder if Shen Zhou back then would have wanted to become like this now.
More importantly, as she recalled this scene, she suddenly noticed something else.
The letter said that Shen Zhou was abandoned by his parents when he was less than five years old. So who was the woman in white in his memory?
The letter also stated that his parents were ordinary people with no hope of cultivating themselves. So, who was he referring to as "like his father"?
On the sixth day after seeing that memory, Hua Deng belatedly realized.
It seems she has stumbled upon some incredible secret.
Perhaps it was precisely because of this secret that the Immortal Alliance spared no effort in suppressing news of Chen Zhou.
It was precisely because of this secret that he was hunted down by the people of the world and had to wade through mountains of corpses and seas of blood.
Completely oblivious, she foolishly asked Shen Zhou if he had dimples. In that instant, Shen Zhou must have realized what she had discovered.
But his reaction was far too normal; he even had the leisure to tease her and joke with her, as if it were no big deal.
Despite having such a crucial secret witnessed by others, he never revealed even a trace of murderous intent.
They didn't blackmail her, interrogate her, or erase her memory.
Hua Deng still remembers the look in his eyes at that moment. The man's eyes, which were covered in heavy shadows, were momentarily stunned, and then a faint ripple spread across them, gentle and serene.
"Why didn't you kill me when we were in the Divine Weapon Pavilion?" Hua Deng said in a low voice.
Why did you give her that look? Now she can't turn around and leave at all.
There was no response.
Shen Zhou had already gone to sleep.
A shimmering purple barrier enveloped him three feet away, its contained magical power ferocious and immense. Anyone who dared to approach, whether human or ghost, would be instantly torn to shreds.
Hua Deng had seen this barrier before, just a few nights ago, the night after Duan Yi disappeared.
She woke up from her sleep to find the system scanning out an identical barrier—completely invisible, yet undeniably protecting her safety. He hadn't mentioned any of this.
Oh, right, the system.
"What's wrong with him? Can you scan him?" Hua Deng asked in his mind.
The system, unusually lacking in confidence, said: "I'll try my best."
Hua Deng grunted in response and cautiously took a step closer to observe Chen Zhou's state.
He lay quietly, his hands at his sides, hidden by his wide sleeves. His jet-black hair was slightly curled and scattered on the pillow.
Outwardly, his breathing was steady, his brows relaxed, and he showed no signs of distress. Only his bloodless lips and the sweat soaking his temples betrayed the excruciating pain he was experiencing.
Hua Deng couldn't help but think of his past life.
That body was unhealthy from birth, constantly taking medicine, and frequently hospitalized due to illness.
At fifteen, probably because they knew she wouldn't live long, her parents had another son.
Once, when she was hospitalized with a fever, her parents brought her younger brother to visit her. After sitting for a while, her brother couldn't stand the smell of disinfectant and started complaining that he wanted to go home.
"I don't want this sickly girl to be my sister!" the child cried out loudly.
The parents didn't take it seriously and comforted her with a smile, but Hua Deng grabbed the water glass next to her and threw it hard to the ground.
The ceramic cup shattered with a sharp cracking sound, sending shards of porcelain and water droplets flying.
She pointed at the three people and shouted, "Get out! All of you, get out!"
The parents quickly shielded the younger brother behind them, and the boy burst into tears. The parents comforted the boy while looking up with a look of astonishment.
From then on, they never let their younger brother come to the hospital again. Gradually, they came much less often. Whenever Hua Deng recalled that moment, she would regret her loss of control.
Over the years, being sick was certainly unpleasant, but it was the surprised and disgusted looks from those around her that truly stung her.
As for Shen Zhou, he had probably gotten used to this kind of pain and look in his eyes.
"Host, I cannot analyze the cause of his illness," the system's voice sounded again.
It hesitated for a moment and said, "Chen Zhou's power is beyond my comprehension; I cannot scan any information about him."
"It's alright, then forget it," Hua Deng said.
"Given his level of danger, host, you'd better keep your distance from him."
"I know, you should go into hibernation first."
Once the system's voice faded away, the streetlights turned their attention back to the still night.
He remained in the same position, motionless, without struggling or rolling over.
He looked like he was dead.
The sudden thought made Hua Deng's heart skip a beat. Even though she knew Shen Zhou wouldn't die, she still fell into a daze.
What will happen if I leave it alone? Will it suddenly wake up in the middle of the night in pain? Or will I continue to cut off pieces of my own flesh and watch it heal, just like before?
Hua Deng couldn't think straight anymore.
She bit her lip, reluctantly walked to the table by the window, sat down, took out a storybook from her storage ring, and absentmindedly turned to a page.
She'll... stay a little longer.
Wait a while, until it's completely dark. If Shen Zhou is alright, she'll leave quickly to avoid him causing her bad luck again.
*
When Shen Zhou woke up, it was already completely dark.
He wasn't asleep; sleep was impossible for him. He had to enter his consciousness and immerse himself in deep meditation to suppress the energy within his body.
This state would cut off all contact with the outside world, so he set up a barrier that could be awakened by any slight movement.
However, tonight is unusually quiet.
Normally, his meditation would last at most an hour, but this time it lasted for more than three hours. When he woke up, his breathing was completely calm and his magical power had returned to its peak.
He even sat on the edge of the bed for a while before remembering that he was now in the Yaoqing Sect, for a contract that was rather ridiculous.
A faint noise came from the window.
There was another person breathing in the room.
Shen Zhou raised his eyes, which were filled with murderous intent.
The next second, the murderous aura dissipated, and he silently stood up.
She's still here.
Despite being so afraid of him, she hasn't left yet.
Clutching the storybook, she leaned against the wall, asleep, so asleep she didn't even notice someone walking up to her. Half her face was resting on the window frame, the other half bathed in moonlight, serene and soft, like a magnolia blossom blooming in the dead of night.
Shen Zhou's fingers, hanging at his sides, curled up almost imperceptibly.
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