Shi Shaojian: That Female Demon Tasted Pretty Good!

【Jie-jie-jie! Watching the torrential downpour, then looking at the turbid and clear qi fiercely clashing across heaven and earth in the break of primal dawn, sudden realization dawns in your heart. It was precisely this juncture of yin and yang intersecting that caused the Heavenly Gate once used by that layman to faintly reveal its outline once more...】 【...Ambition surges in your heart. You immediately resolve to dash toward the Heavenly Gate to immerse yourself in comprehending the profound origin of the Great Dao of Time. Once you thoroughly master the mysteries of spacetime laws, shatter the shackles of eternal ages, and crush the haughty prodigies of the Daoist sects beneath your heel, that shall be the moment to sweep away every obstacle in your path and dominate the cultivation world!】 A layman? The Heavenly Gate? Liu Xiu's heart stirred. He subconsciously recalled a movie titled An Eternal Combat. Quickly helping up Daoist Qianhe, who was kneeling before him, he said, "Martial Uncle, I'm going to go check on the coffin!" "..." Honestly, wasn't there something off about the way that sounded? Though Daoist Qianhe knew Liu Xiu intended to inspect the imperial-clan jiangshi, he still felt there was a double meaning in his words. Even so, still feeling that he truly deserved to die, Qianhe nodded and turned to Dong, Nan, Xi, and Bei, instructing them, "You four go as well." Dong, Nan, Xi, and Bei acknowledged the command. Then the five of them followed after Liu Xiu! "???" Wait? Five people? Dong, Nan, Xi, and Bei's expressions changed. They hurriedly glanced at the extra person—who turned out to be Jiale, who had tagged along. Scratching his head, he gave a bashful grin. "Heh heh..." "A man scaring a man can scare someone to death!" Nan said speechlessly. Jiale laughed sheepishly in embarrassment. With the bronze-cornered golden coffin on his mind, he looked up at the sky, where a drizzle was falling once more, and remarked, "The Old Man in Heaven is really weird. Earlier I thought He’d had too much to drink, but now it looks like He didn't drink that much after all..." Jiale chuckled as he spoke, but unfortunately Dong, Nan, Xi, and Bei were used to keeping quiet and ignored him, leaving him to smile awkwardly and look ahead toward Liu Xiu. Ahead of him, Liu Xiu was holding an umbrella! Huh? An umbrella? Where did he get an umbrella? "..." × 4 + 1. Fine! Must be nice having a storage magic treasure! All five grumbled inwardly, their eyes tinged with resentment as they watched Liu Xiu holding an umbrella all to himself. Liu Xiu didn't pay them any mind. He simply maintained his pace, heading toward the three tents two hundred meters away. A distance of two hundred meters was covered in no time. Just as Liu Xiu was thinking of pulling out his gun to make a soldier lift the tent flap, his steps suddenly halted. Before his eyes, a blurry image appeared. It was none other than the scene from yesterday morning on the rugged official road, where Liu Xiu had asked Daoist Qianhe about the types of jiangshi. [Jie-jie-jie?], [Jie-jie-jie?] [Jie-jie-jie?], [Jie-jie-jie!] [Jie-jie-jie!], [Jie-jie-jie?] Two nearly identical voices from the narration cheat sounded one after another. After Liu Xiu grumbled to himself that the Tathagata Buddha had good reason to be annoyed by cicadas, his mind subconsciously recalled yesterday's line from the narration cheat: My name is Liu Xiu. By the time you read this, you are already dead... As the thought rose and fell, the narration cheat in the past spacetime within the blurry scene followed his cue and began prompting yesterday's self. Immediately afterward, the image shattered and vanished, leaving only two echoes of jie-jie-jie laughter reverberating in Liu Xiu's mind. "Scaring myself..." Speechless, Liu Xiu realized that the one who had terrified him had been himself all along. In other words, he had just completed a temporal closed loop. To tell the truth, it was rather wondrous! "Junior Brother, what's wrong?" Liu Xiu's sudden stop prompted the trailing Jiale to ask in confusion, while Dong, Nan, Xi, and Bei looked around with furrowed brows. Finally, the four boys' gazes settled on the soldiers, whose attitude was night and day compared to last night when they had guarded the imperial-clan jiangshi. Simply put, the soldiers' attitude right now was far too pleasant— every single one beamed with a welcoming smile! However, those smiles weren't directed at them, but at Liu Xiu. Dong, Nan, Xi, and Bei exchanged looks, each seeing the resignation in the others' eyes. "I was wondering if there might be eight hundred axemen hiding inside this tent with the coffin..." Liu Xiu quipped with a chuckle. As he spoke, he withdrew his Colt from the storage thumb ring, randomly picked a lucky soldier, and said, "Go on, lift the flap!" "..." × 4 + 1. Junior Brother, aren't you being a bit too cautious! Dong, Nan, Xi, Bei, and Jiale all thought with strange expressions. Liu Xiu didn't care. Only after the soldier bowed and scraped with a servile grin to pull open the flap did Liu Xiu peer inside; confirming no one was lying in ambush, he walked in. "Whoa, it's gorgeous!" Entering the tent behind him, Jiale stared at the gleaming bronze-cornered golden coffin and couldn't help marveling aloud. At the sound of this, the soldier at the entrance raised his chin and cast a contemptuous sidelong glance at Jiale. Liu Xiu glanced at the soldier and smiled at Jiale. "Senior Brother Jiale, are you thinking about buying a coffin like this for Martial Uncle?" "Yeah, yeah! Once I make money in the future, I'm definitely going to buy Master a bronze-cornered golden coffin just as pretty..." Jiale answered instinctively. The soldier's eyes widened. Gulping in terror, he took two steps back, instinctively putting distance between himself and Jiale. Not just the soldier—even Dong, Nan, Xi, and Bei stepped back with bizarre expressions. They meant no offense; it was just that Jiale's filial piety was really... truly... too rare! Yes, rare! Extraordinarily rare! The word rang in all four of their minds! "Why are you all backing away?" Jiale asked, puzzled. Only after speaking did he belatedly realize how odd his words sounded. Scratching his head, he chuckled sheepishly. "Heh heh..." "Keep it up, Senior Brother. Earn lots of money!" Liu Xiu encouraged with a chuckle. Dong, Nan, Xi, and Bei looked at one another and chimed in with smiles: "Right, keep it up!" "This coffin is eight parts bronze and two parts gold!" "There are hundreds of jin of gold in it alone!" "Work hard to earn money, Senior Brother!" "We're rooting for you!" Jiale heard the part about earning money, but what caught his attention even more was the hundreds of jin of gold. His eyes widened as he stared at the bronze-cornered golden coffin. "There's that much gold in this thing?!" "Pretty much. Even if it isn't eighty percent bronze and twenty percent gold, it's at least ninety-ten. As for gold, there should be four to five hundred jin!" Liu Xiu said. The reason he estimated four to five hundred jin was that he noticed the coffin wasn't quite as heavy as he had originally anticipated. As for why, he reasoned it was probably due to internal construction—perhaps wooden boards were sandwiched inside, or the interior cavity was relatively large. "Oh, I see..." So expensive... Master, please die later! Jiale thought subconsciously. He figured that if his master died too soon, the poor man would probably have to be buried twice. This corpse qi... seems to have gotten stronger... Liu Xiu narrowed his eyes as he looked at the corpse qi, which was suppressed by the cinnabar net binding the coffin yet noticeably more potent than yesterday. Having observed this, he spoke to the soldier: "If the tent leaks, make sure to fix it right away. Otherwise, once your Prince gets out, you lot will be the very first people he bites!" "Yes, yes, of course..." The soldier bowed and scraped with utmost servility. Watching him, Dong, Nan, Xi, and Bei couldn't help thinking this soldier must have an identical twin brother who liked to look down his nose at people. Fine, no point kidding ourselves! × 4. Dong, Nan, Xi, and Bei exchanged glances, seeing only helplessness in each other's eyes. Liu Xiu didn't dwell on it and said, "Let's go back!" "We'll stay here and watch the coffin!" Dong and Xi offered. Liu Xiu nodded, leading Nan, Bei, and Jiale—who kept turning back every three steps to stare at the bronze-cornered golden coffin—back to the wooden hut. Wait, are you really planning to buy this coffin?! Nan and Bei watched Jiale with bizarre expressions and subconsciously took a few more steps away from him. Liu Xiu held up his umbrella and walked back, picking up his pace as the rain grew heavier. His rush was out of concern that all the heavy metal on him might turn him into a lightning rod. BOOM— A deafening crash of thunder and a blinding flash of white light erupted. Just as Liu Xiu was instinctively thinking that being struck dead by lightning didn't hurt at all, Shi Jian's anger-suppressed voice abruptly rang in his ears. "Keep an eye on your senior brother!" The words fell, and the white light vanished. Liu Xiu's mouth twitched twice as he steadied his breathing and heartbeat. Then he looked at Shi Shaojian, who had just been kicked out from a water screen right before his eyes. Shi Shaojian—sporting two massive black eyes like a panda! "Huh, Senior Brother Shaojian!" × 2. Rubbing their eyes, Nan and Bei stared in astonishment at Shi Shaojian, who had materialized out of nowhere. Just as Jiale was trying to remember who this was, Nan and Bei blurted out together once more: "Huh? Senior Brother Shaojian, why is your face so swollen?!" "..." Honestly, the two of you really don't know how to talk! Shi Shaojian, black-eyed like a panda, glared darkly at Nan and Bei. He then frowned at Jiale, who hadn't even addressed him as Senior Brother, before turning with a smile toward Liu Xiu, who was saluting and greeting him as Senior Brother. Nodding slightly, he said: "Junior Brother, in the future, talk less with these 'no three no four' riffraff!" "...Zero!" You truly are an English genius! Liu Xiu nodded with a momentary strange look in his eyes. He didn't mind when Shi Shaojian snatched his umbrella, merely observing with curiosity Shi Shaojian's depleted, kidney-deficient appearance. "Senior Brother, how did you end up like this?" "Well, this..." Shi Shaojian spoke vaguely, too embarrassed to explain directly. Liu Xiu gave Nan and Bei a subtle wink to head back first. Once Nan and Bei led Jiale away, Liu Xiu continued probing. Before long, Shi Shaojian burst out indignantly: "Damn that female demon! She actually disguised herself as an ordinary woman and ambushed me! At the time, I only thought she was a commoner who had strayed into the Demon Realm by mistake. Who knew it was that demon in disguise..." "An ambush?" Liu Xiu's heart stirred. He pressed further. Though Shi Shaojian didn't state it outright, Liu Xiu managed to piece together the entire sequence of events. Seeing she was no match for Shi Jian and was being relentlessly hunted down by him, the female demon had conceived the idea of targeting Shi Shaojian. If I can't beat you, can't I at least beat your son? Yet the female demon hadn't dealt with Shi Jian by killing Shi Shaojian; instead, she had disguised herself as a woman lost in the Demon Realm to seduce him, ultimately succeeding in taking Shi Shaojian's primordial yang. Having figured it out, Liu Xiu thought to himself what a venomous female demon she was, then looked at Shi Shaojian. Seeing Shi Shaojian's lingering expression of relish, Liu Xiu promptly gave him a thumbs-up and said, "Senior Brother is mighty! To even subdue a female demon beneath your crotch—my admiration for you surges like torrential river waters..." "Cough, cough, cough..." I know you have a silver tongue! But isn't this laying it on a bit too thick! Shi Shaojian coughed awkwardly a few times. Seeing that Liu Xiu didn't look at him with disappointed fury like his father, but rather seemed genuinely admiring, he held his head a little higher and said: "Of course! You have no idea how I took her... cough, cough. In short, the female demon tasted pretty good... Bah! That vile female demon better not let me run into her again, or I'll make sure she gets more than she bargained for!" "Rest easy, Senior Brother. I'll help you take revenge!" Liu Xiu said earnestly. Even though his senior brother had plenty of flaws—arrogant, despotic, looking down his nose at people, and having no sense of propriety— still, this was his senior brother! He couldn't just turn a blind eye to the female demon ruining his senior brother's Dao foundation. Liu Xiu silently noted the matter of the female demon. He didn't ask why Shi Jian hadn't come, either, because he knew Shi Jian was surely hunting down the female demon like a madman right now. She'll probably end up in pieces scattered east and west! "Hmm... right. Is that coffin over there holding the prince or whatever we need to escort this time?" Shi Shaojian pointed toward the bronze-cornered golden coffin revealed not far away when the wind blew open the tent flap. As for Dong and Xi, he simply ignored them. Same as before— they were just a bunch of "no three no four" nobodies! "That's right..."