Chapter 3: She'll see what's really going on behind the mask—rich and willful...
Hua Deng finally understood why she had felt a strong sense of unease when facing Shen Zhou before.
Because those weren't the words he truly wanted to say; his calmness and indifference were merely attempts to suppress the murderous intent within him.
But now, he doesn't need it anymore.
Dark clouds drifted across the sky, obscuring the already thin moonlight and plunging the world into darkness. The deep night, like a black fog, made the already oppressive atmosphere of the daytime even more so.
He was facing the streetlights, the red silk ribbon binding his hair brushing against his cheeks, its blood-red color glaringly bright. The contrasting half-bronze mask pressed down on a pair of deep eyes, colder than the winter wind.
At this moment, Hua Deng could clearly hear the sound of his heart pounding.
She clenched her fist, trying to calm her breathing, then looked at Chen Zhou without flinching, and asked softly, "So, are you going to kill me?"
She had no doubt that Shen Zhou might actually kill her, but she believed even more in her own principle—money makes the world go round.
If not, then it means there isn't enough money.
Hearing her words, Shen Zhou's eyes flickered slightly, and a hint of life finally appeared in his usually stagnant eyes. He said coldly and impatiently, "Didn't I tell you not to follow me?"
Hua Deng immediately stepped forward and showed him the spirit stones in her arms: "This is five hundred spirit stones, your reward."
As he spoke, he kept taking out the things he had bought that day from his storage ring and throwing them on the ground with a thud, quickly piling them up into a small mountain half the height of a person.
She hinted, "These, these, and these, did you see them all?"
Shen Zhou: "I'm not blind."
Hua Deng laughed and said, "I've given you everything! As long as you agree to my request, there will be even more in the future!"
"Your request?" Shen Zhou straightened up slightly, his eyes behind the mask seemingly scrutinizing her. "—To be your Daoist partner, is that your request?"
Before the streetlights could respond, he scoffed, "Utterly ridiculous."
Hua Deng immediately pressed, "Why?"
Shen Zhou simply said, "I do not engage in dual cultivation with others."
Hua Deng frowned, and upon hearing those words again, she sensed something unusual.
Not with others...
"Ah, I see." A sudden realization dawned on her; she understood something.
"You misunderstood me, I didn't mean to cultivate with you!" she hurriedly explained. "What I meant was—I need someone to take over my identity as a cultivation partner, that's all."
That's all?
Shen Zhou paused in his toying with the longsword, finally turning his eyes to look directly at the girl before him.
She wore an apricot-yellow dress and a fox fur cloak. Perhaps she had been running for a long time, as her black hair was disheveled and fell across her face, brushing against her obsidian-like eyes.
The weather was cold in the twelfth lunar month. She had not yet learned any magic to resist the cold, so she would stomp her feet and rub her hands in small movements, and exhale a faint white breath when she spoke.
Despite being someone accustomed to a life of luxury, there was not a trace of impatience on his face. He looked at him with a smile from beginning to end, seemingly ignoring the sword in his hand and the threat in his words.
Shen Zhou became interested: "You're not the Holy Body of Union?"
A look of surprise appeared on the girl's face, as if she was amazed by his strength: "I was already disguised, how did you see through it?"
Too lazy to answer that stupid question, he simply changed the subject: "If you don't practice dual cultivation, what are you after?"
She said matter-of-factly, "It's because you don't want to cultivate with me."
Shen Zhou: "?"
The unusual silence made Hua Deng realize there was an opportunity.
She took a step closer, her legs stiff, and smiled as she held the spirit stones in her hands, saying, "You see, you've noticed my constitution is rather special, so I really need a reliable bodyguard. Don't you think you'd be a perfect fit?"
"bodyguard?"
This was the first time Shen Zhou had heard such an absurd request. However, he did manage to restrain his murderous aura somewhat, and he gradually withdrew his divine sense, which had been used to check for any ambushes around him.
He looked at the streetlights with an expression as if they were looking at a fool and asked, "Do you really know who I am?"
"I know you are Shen Zhou, the most powerful sword cultivator in the cultivation world. I have always admired you." Hua Deng casually said, slowly coaxing, "I am very rich, fifty thousand a month, definitely not a loss."
Shen Zhou lowered his eyes, and after a long while, he spoke.
"—Okay. You'll regret it." After a slight pause, he added, "One hundred thousand."
"Eighty thousand!" Hua Deng's business instincts compelled him to subconsciously haggle.
He immediately saw Shen Zhou's ambiguous smile and realized something was wrong, so he changed his mind and said, "Ten thousand, ten thousand it is!"
Hua Deng's heart was bleeding. Seeing that Shen Zhou did not maliciously raise the price again, she breathed a sigh of relief, took out the contract with difficulty, and changed the price with tears in her eyes.
"It's settled then. From now on, you'll be my nominal Daoist partner, and there's no going back on it. I've already drafted the contract; you just need to read it, sign it, and that's it. It starts at one year, with no upper limit!"
"At most three months."
Hua Deng gritted his teeth: "...Deal!" Let's get the person first.
And so, under the cool moonlight filtering through the trees, the two read the contract together and signed it.
In consideration of Shen Zhou's requirements, a clause was added: "During this period, Party B (Shen Zhou) shall not be forced to engage in dual cultivation."
After reading all forty-seven articles, Shen Zhou's handprint fell from the last page. Hua Deng immediately hugged the contract to his chest and smiled like a fox when he looked up.
"From now on, we're in this together. No matter what danger we encounter, you have to come and save me."
Shen Zhou gave a faint "hmm". He still had that much professional ethics when it came to getting paid to do a job... probably.
With her worries gone, Hua Deng felt light as a feather and couldn't help but think, "I didn't realize you cared so much about your chastity."
Before she could even say anything, he was already bothered by the idea of dual cultivation.
She had even seriously considered why he refused, and even speculated that he might have a hidden, unrequited love in his heart.
It turned out that it was simply because he was afraid of having his innocence tarnished!
Do I look like someone who would force you?
Faced with her questioning, which was filled with sighs, Shen Zhou calmly replied, "The cultivation method I practice requires a person with strong primordial yang to master it."
Well, it's all for practicing skills again. What a sword fanatic.
Putting that aside, Hua Deng was in a good mood. As she walked out of the woods, she asked, "Is there anything you want to ask me?"
Shen Zhou followed her at a leisurely pace, then, remembering something, asked, "How did you find me?"
"This?" Hua Deng was looking down at his purse, pulling out a small piece of dried meat. "The Hua family is so big and powerful, finding you alone would be a piece of cake."
Shen Zhou's dark eyes stared at her: "I'm asking, how did you find 'Shen Zhou'?"
Hua Deng paused in his action of stuffing dried meat into his mouth.
She remembered.
Shen Zhou had been using the alias "Shen Ye" while out in public, and his cultivation level was perfectly suppressed to the Golden Core stage, which is why there was no news of him for the first few days.
If it weren't for the system, she wouldn't have recognized this person as Shen Zhou at all.
Her mind raced as she chewed slowly, feigning nonchalance: "Is this so hard? You didn't even bother to choose a pseudonym, using 'Day' and 'Night' as if you were afraid no one would notice."
Shen Zhou: "...Hmm."
*
Upon receiving the news, Hua Deng's two maids, Yueya and Yueman, had already driven to the outskirts of the city and successfully picked up Hua Deng.
Upon seeing Shen Zhou, they didn't ask any questions, and waited respectfully by his side with normal expressions, inviting the two to get into the car.
Shen Zhou walked quickly, taking a long stride to step inside. Hua Deng hurriedly followed, peering out from behind and saying, "Why are you walking so fast? From now on, you should follow behind me."
"Um."
As soon as Shen Zhou agreed, she took it a step further and said, "Also, you have to get off the carriage before me, walk half a step behind me, and usually address me as Miss Hua Deng."
The sound was chirping, clear and sweet, like a lark flying beside his ear.
Shen Zhou turned to the side, giving her a chance to walk in front.
Hua Deng nodded in satisfaction, walked past the outer room, and headed straight for the middle of the carriage.
As soon as she entered, a warm atmosphere enveloped her. She took off her cloak and let out a comfortable sigh.
The Hua family has many collaborations with cultivation sects and is also the representative of the Immortal Alliance in Yangzhou City. Their businesses cover all walks of life, making them a truly wealthy family.
Even the carriages they used for traveling were incredibly luxurious, beyond the imagination of others.
The carriage's exterior was inconspicuous, but it was actually created using spatial magic. Its interior was extremely spacious, divided into three levels by carved wooden doors.
The inner layer is a storage room, while the outer layer is where the crescent moon and full moon are ready to be used, and even includes a small kitchen, which can meet all of Hua Deng's needs at any time.
She herself stayed in the middle carriage, which was almost the same size as her room in Washington, D.C., complete with a bed and a table.
Shen Zhou should have sat outside, where there were empty tables and chairs, but Hua Deng thought for a moment and then beckoned him in, reluctantly giving him a chaise lounge instead.
There were soft cushions on the tatami mat, as well as some replicas of dolls that she had recreated from memory, such as Kapibala and Bonnie Rabbit.
No matter how you look at it, it's completely out of place with Shen Zhou's cold and aloof temperament.
But he ignored it and leaned against it without any hesitation. The little eight cushion was squeezed flat behind him, and he even picked up the pink mink knee pads and put them on his legs with great interest.
Hua Deng did her best to rescue her favorite raccoon plush toy from under him.
Shen Zhou glanced at it, neither agreeing nor disagreeing with the ugly-cute creature, but he moved a little further away as if he didn't notice, looking somewhat disdainful.
Hua Deng picked up the raccoon and sat down on another tatami mat.
She was still waiting for Shen Zhou to speak, to ask her why she had appeared, who she was, and so on, but he seemed to care about her completely and even started circulating his energy to cultivate.
Hua Deng: "..."
Is your cultivation world really this complicated?
Helpless, she took the initiative to move closer, pulled out a communication disc and waved it in front of him: "What about yours? Let's add each other, so it'll be easier to contact each other later."
Shen Zhou opened his eyes and said, "No."
Hua Deng: "...As expected of you."
Fortunately, she had plenty of these things, and had a maid deliver one to Chen Zhou.
"You know how to use it, right? If not, I'll teach you."
"I know." Shen Zhou's slender fingers casually traced lines.
Seeing that he was operating it fairly skillfully, Hua Deng stopped paying attention to it.
It turns out that this person isn't buying it because they don't have the money. Just how poor are they?
After a while, Shen Zhou successfully tinkered with it, and the two became friends.
Chen Zhou: "Wait, the lights are going off?"
Hua Deng said expressionlessly, "Don't read my online name, thank you, it's embarrassing."
Shen Zhou casually put away the communication disc: "Oh, wait a minute, ding-ding."
The streetlights glared angrily.
"Knock knock".
After two knocks, Crescent Moon and Full Moon bowed their heads and pushed the door open, placing the snacks and tea on the table before quietly leaving.
The snacks were all Hua Deng's favorites, which immediately put her in a good mood. She picked up a cup of tea, leaned back on the couch, and gracefully brushed away the tea foam: "What is your cultivation level now?"
Shen Zhou said calmly, "You don't know me very well?"
"No matter how much you know, it's never as certain as asking in person. What do you think?"
Shen Zhou closed his eyes again, speaking casually: "I'm currently in the late stage of the Fusion Realm."
Hua Deng's hand trembled, and he almost got scalded by the tea.
Qi Refining, Foundation Building, Golden Core, Nascent Soul, Deity Transformation, Body Integration, Tribulation Crossing.
She was as far away from Shenzhou as the South China Sea and the Northern Wilderness.
But it doesn't matter, Shen Zhou has been working on it for so long, and she has only just begun.
Composing herself, she forced a smile and asked, "How old are you?"
"Twenty-four, I guess."
Damn it!
Hua Deng's pupils dilated in shock: "So young? I don't believe it!"
It's important to understand that in the cultivation world, age isn't measured in centuries, but in millennia. To crush a group of ancient monsters who have cultivated for over a thousand years with only twenty-four years of cultivation seems utterly unbelievable.
"Now, it should be twenty-four," Shen Zhou said calmly.
Hua Deng recalled the rumors about him from the book.
Whether it's the reincarnation of a powerful being, a divine bloodline, or the resurgence of a sword immortal, I believe at least one of them must be true.
She breathed a sigh of relief and decided to stop dwelling on these issues that were undermining her confidence.
She began to nitpick at Chen Zhou: "Look at your clothes, they're too plain. You can't dress like this as my Daoist partner."
"I've prepared all the clothes. Change into them right away. From now on, you should change into a different outfit every day. I like what I see."
"And my hairstyle, wristbands, boots... I'm changing everything!"
Compared to 100,000 spirit stones, this was nothing to Shen Zhou.
He readily agreed.
Hua Deng then turned her gaze to the sword beside him: "This sword..."
After thinking about it, I realized that the swordsman's sword must be quite important, so I reluctantly changed my mind and said, "Let's put this in the mustard seed space. We don't need to carry it outside normally."
She remembered reading in the book that those above the Nascent Soul stage could possess a mustard seed space, so Shen Zhou should be able to as well.
She took his silence as agreement and stood up to walk around him.
"Aren't you used to wearing jewelry? Why don't you even have a jade pendant? I still have a few jade rings. What... what's that noise?!"
A sharp roar exploded from outside the carriage, followed by violent shaking, neighing of the horses, and the carriage almost tilting at a ninety-degree angle.
Caught off guard, Hua Deng slipped and tilted forward, hurtling straight toward Chen Zhou.
She had a thousand curses in her mind, but she saw that Shen Zhou didn't dodge at all. He just maintained his original posture, leaning against the wall with his head slightly raised, letting her rush in recklessly.
Just before his nose was about to collide with his chest, Hua Deng successfully stopped the momentum, bracing himself with his arms to achieve a delicate balance on either side of his body.
With an eerie posture, Hua Deng's breath froze, and he slowly raised his eyes.
Shen Zhou was tall; when he stood, he was a head taller than her, and she still had to look up at him.
What catches the eye is his prominent Adam's apple and sharp jaw. In the heat of his breath, one can even feel the rhythm of his breathing—light, slow, regular, and even.
Even her suddenly stopped breathing resumed, only now it was a little hotter than it could be.
During the stalemate, Shen Zhou slightly moved his legs, which were being held down. Compared to the bewilderment of the person in front of him, he appeared quite calm.
Crescent Moon's voice came from outside: "I'm sorry, Miss, a cultivator just bumped into the carriage, and the spirit horse was frightened. We are currently calming it down."
The carriage continued to jolt along, and Hua Deng, struggling to maintain his balance, asked with his neck stiff, "How is that person?"
"It's nothing serious, it's already flown away."
Hua Deng, too lazy to argue, simply said, "I understand."
Turning her head, she saw that Shen Zhou was also looking at her, looking lazy and casual: "I said I don't cultivate with others, so throwing myself into their arms won't work."
...Which eye of yours saw that this was an attempt to throw herself into someone's arms?!
Hua Deng was so angry she wanted to bite him. This guy was like a silent gourd when he didn't open his mouth, but when he did, he was just too annoying to handle.
Just as she was angrily preparing to retort, she suddenly discovered something even more unacceptable.
Just now, in order to avoid contact with her, Shen Zhou actually set up a spiritual energy shield the moment she pounced on him, isolating her entire body, so the two of them did not actually touch each other at all.
Do you have a skin condition that would kill you if someone touched you?
Having lived for decades, she had always been the one to chase away those who deliberately approached her; this was the first time she had ever been so disliked.
Hua Deng was so angry he laughed. Whether out of rage or curiosity, he impulsively reached out and quickly removed Shen Zhou's mask.
She wanted to see whether what was down there was a human or a ghost.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com