The Red King Arrives

"Yawn—" Chu Xiaoyao looked at Zhou You with a strange expression. He had been yawning since morning, and it was contagious enough that she wanted to yawn too. "What did you do last night, to be this sleepy?" As she remembered it, Zhou You was rarely this tired. It reminded Chu Xiaoyao of the times she had stayed up all night reading novels. "Browsing posts. It was novel, and I couldn't help looking a while longer." "What posts? A top student's notes?" "The Immortal Cultivation Forum." Zhou You smiled, pleased with himself. Yesterday he had said he was going to sleep, but he hadn't resisted the temptation and browsed a while longer. That was why the yawns wouldn't stop. Chu Xiaoyao was astonished. "There's something like that? What's the address?" Zhou You waved a hand. "Invitation only. Anyone without cultivation attainment isn't allowed in." "Damn it. The immortal cultivators of this world discriminate against those of us who transmigrated. The day my student personality takes the lead, I'll start cultivating." It had already been several days. Shouldn't she have recovered some memories, like a cultivation method? Chu Xiaoyao grumbled inwardly. "Sect Master, I'll help you wake up." Nuomi flew behind Zhou You and blew hard at his neck—whoosh, whoosh—chilling him until he shivered. "All right, all right, stop blowing. I'm awake." Zhou You clutched his neck and hurriedly begged Nuomi to withdraw the divine ability. Those two breaths from Nuomi were like pressing a block of ice to the back of one's neck. No one could stand it. ... Chang'an Airport. "Has the Red King arrived?" Nianshi and Lishi, their heads wrapped in gauze, stood at the arrivals exit, rising onto their toes to peer inside. They had received notice from the Organization: the Red King was taking this flight straight to Chang'an, and they were to receive him. "Strange, though. If we're dealing with a vengeful ghost, shouldn't they have sent the Soul King? Why send the Red King?" Lishi didn't quite understand, though the Red King was very powerful too. "Word on the grapevine from headquarters is that they originally meant to send the Soul King. Two Golden Core cultivators crossed the ocean and fought the Soul King in a battle to the death. The Soul King took on two alone and unfortunately fell behind, and had no choice but to recuperate at headquarters." "One against two. Immortal cultivators really have no shame!" "Look, quick—is that the Red King?" Nianshi kept his eyes on the arrivals exit as he spoke. Lishi was tall and could see more clearly. "It is." "Then hurry up and go greet him." Nianshi rushed forward to receive him. The Red King's special ability was far too powerful, and his yang qi was so abundant that it made him bad-tempered and hard to provoke. If they slighted him, the two of them would have no good days ahead. "We pay our respects, Lord Red King." The Red King was a man in his thirties, expressionless. His ghost-seeing lenses did not make him look refined; they added a trace of ruthlessness instead. In age he was even a little younger than Nianshi and Lishi. Status in the Organization, however, had never depended on age, only on ability. People of middling ability like Nianshi and Lishi, if not for the matter of the Human Dao supreme treasure, would never in their lives have been qualified to enter the upper ranks. The Red King, by contrast, had shown formidable ability from childhood. The Professor had thought highly of him and trained him personally. He had also carried out many high-difficulty missions successfully, and his status had risen swiftly. What made the Red King famous was a rank assessment. Placing in the top ten would have been enough to pass, yet the Red King chose to crush everyone, so that all of them lost their qualification. His figure became a nightmare for countless examinees. Even now, some still needed psychological counseling. Those allowed to take part in that assessment were, without exception, the pride of every branch—dragons and phoenixes among men, raised with countless resources poured into them—yet none was a match for the Red King. Afterward, when the Professor asked why he had done it, the Red King answered only with cold indifference. "Those wastes aren't fit to be promoted alongside me." The Professor valued him all the more for it. The Red King lived up to expectations and soon became one of the Seven Kings. Through the lenses, the Red King's sharp gaze flicked over Nianshi and Lishi. He tossed his suitcase to them and recalled the files he had read on the way. Nianshi: his ability was said to be mental control, but he could only control ordinary people for a few short minutes. Lishi: not a small build, but ordinary strength. His enhancement ability ranked at the bottom in the Organization. Outwardly they were called archaeology experts. In reality they were tomb robbers. In short, two wastes whose only bit of use was in translating ancient texts. His voice was nearly a command. "Lead the way." "Yes, yes." Nianshi answered at once. Drawing near the Red King, he felt a hint of heat, as if the air around the Red King were warping. That meant his special ability was powerful enough to spill outward. No wonder headquarters had sent him. Against a ghost king, he would be no less effective than the Soul King. Lishi drove, and Nianshi sat in the passenger seat. Both were on edge, hardly daring to breathe. "Any movement from the Zhenyue Ghost King?" "From what we've observed, the ghost king rarely leaves Class Three of the third year. Even when he does, he only follows Zhou You for a short while, and he has never left the school grounds." "Zhou You is the unlucky one in the report, possessed by the ghost king?" "Yes." "Go on." "Zhou You often goes out on leave with a girl from another class. The two of us still have to watch the ghost king, so we don't have enough people to follow Zhou You and the girl. We aren't sure what they do when they go out. For instance, the two of them left in the evening and didn't come back until very late." "From what we've learned, there's something improper between them. The girl once knelt and demanded that Zhou You take responsibility." "That much of a scumbag? Then it sounds reasonable that a ghost king would possess him," the Red King said. "Just as Lord Red King says. We think so too." "Also, Zhou You founded an acrobatic troupe called the Carefree Sect. Its purpose is unclear. The members are his deskmate and someone named Nuomi. We still haven't found out who Nuomi is." The Red King frowned and rebuked the two of them. "Does it matter who Nuomi is? Don't waste effort on useless things like that." Nianshi murmured his assent again and again. "Any leads on the Human Dao supreme treasure?" "None yet." "Wastes." "Lord Red King, we're here. Please get out." Nianshi undid his seat belt, got out, trotted to the rear door, opened it, and set a hand over the door frame as he invited the Red King to step down. "This is the school?" The Red King looked up and found an eighteen-story apartment building. "From the apartment roof you can observe No. 2 High," Nianshi explained. These past days he and Lishi had been living on the roof, watching the ghost king through a telescope. They didn't dare go near the ghost king again. That feeling of walking the line between life and death—once was enough. "Fine." The Red King thought it was just as well to observe the ghost king from a distance first, and a good chance to try the ghost-seeing lenses the Professor had given him. The three of them reached the roof. Beneath a sun umbrella sat a telescope aimed at No. 2 High. Beside it stood a simple self-built shack, stocked with everything needed for daily life. Who knew how Nianshi and Lishi had put it up. The rooftop ought to have been scorching, but the special ability the Red King wielded, "Red Yang," was the extreme of yang qi and flame. An environment like this was comfortable for him instead. Nianshi adjusted the telescope's angle. Through the telescope, the Red King did see Class Three of the third year at No. 2 High. Because Zhou You sat by the window, he could see everything clearly. "The one in the last row by the window is Zhou You." The Red King saw Zhou You: an ordinary third-year student, without much that was special about him. "The Zhenyue Ghost King actually looks this cute?" With the ghost-seeing lenses, the Red King saw the Zhenyue Ghost King's appearance clearly. It was nothing like the pitch-black, terrifying ghost shadow described in the report. She wore a pure white dress, bare feet drifting in the air, circling Zhou You without stop, and looked not the least bit intimidating. "Able to lower people's guard with appearance alone—this ghost king's intelligence isn't low," the Red King murmured, raising his assessment of the ghost king. His gaze shifted slightly, onto Zhou You's deskmate, and his body went rigid all at once. In an instant the Red King's blood nearly froze. Enormous fear surged up in his heart, almost enough to drown him. "Lord Red King?" "Lord Red King?" Nianshi noticed that the Red King had frozen. Puzzled, he called several times in a row and got no response. The Red King wrenched his head around, his eyes full of fear. He was like a fierce tiger that had met its natural enemy, roaring at that enemy to display its might, while the fear rooted in his bones made the display look hollow. He stared fixedly at the two of them, wishing he could flay them alive. "Why didn't you report intelligence this important!" Nianshi and Lishi jumped at his reaction. All the way here the Red King had carried himself as someone high above them, aloof and indifferent to everything, hardly even taking the ghost king seriously. How had he suddenly lost his composure like this? "That person... Zhou You's deskmate. Don't you recognize her!" Nianshi and Lishi exchanged a look and shook their heads together. The Red King had never imagined he could lose his composure like this. His voice was hoarse, like shattered glass. "She is history's strongest superpower user. Codename—Natural Disaster!"