Thousand Dusts Ferry Me - Chapter 31

Cheng Suiyan hadn’t taken a hot bath for several days. Tonight, soaking in the bathtub with floral scents swirling and mist floating around him, he stretched his body, feeling his bones soften and muscles relax. His entire being felt like a fluffy pile of goose down drying in the sunlight, so comfortable that he was too lazy to even lift a finger.

The only slight imperfection was that the bathtub was too small; his long legs couldn’t fully extend.

He tilted his head back, resting the back of his head lightly against the edge of the tub, and closed his eyes to rest.

Unconsciously, he fell asleep.

In his half-asleep state, a woman laughed softly in his ear.

The laughter was extremely seductive and coquettish, like a strand of gorgeous silk thread drilling into one’s ear. Just hearing it would make an ordinary man’s blood surge.

In his foggy mind, Cheng Suiyan thought, am I too repressed normally? Why am I having this kind of dream…

After laughing for a while, the woman suddenly said in a coquettish voice, “Oh, you smell so good!”

Cheng Suiyan: “…” So it turns out I like this affected type?

The woman: “So fragrant and sweet, I love it.”

Then came another burst of coquettish laughter, followed by a pair of delicate, boneless hands gently stroking his arm.

The cool, soft fingertips crawled up bit by bit, occasionally drawing small circles on his skin, nimble and playful.

The fingertips traced over his bulging chest muscles, prominent collarbones, and finally stopped on his neck where blood vessels pulsed.

Cheng Suiyan wanted to speak but couldn’t make a sound. His consciousness seemed bound by something, making even thinking difficult, and he couldn’t wake up.

After struggling for a long time, he painfully opened his mouth and laboriously uttered a few unclear words. “Help… Yun Qing… save me…”

Bang!

The room door was suddenly kicked open from outside.

This was followed by sounds of fighting and furniture being swept to the floor with clatter. Cheng Suiyan’s consciousness gradually loosened, and he opened his eyes.

The small room (already the largest in the entire inn) was now extremely crowded…

Yun Qing and Fu Xue were fighting something—um, some unidentifiable thing.

The thing looked like a broom in shape, with limbs resembling hands and feet protruding from its clothes, colored similar to a cooked octopus. He couldn’t see more clearly as it moved too fast; Cheng Suiyan’s eyes could only capture afterimages.

With swords clashing back and forth, many things in the room had already been shattered. Cheng Suiyan sat naked in the bathtub watching people fight a demon—truly the most embarrassing situation he had experienced in his twenty-some years of life.

Soon, an even more embarrassing situation arose.

The broom-octopus monster ran toward him. Cheng Suiyan felt a fishy wind sweep past his face, followed closely by Fu Xue’s sword light. Slash! She missed the demon but sliced the bathtub into pieces.

Whoosh——

Like a giant water balloon suddenly bursting, the water in the tub scattered in all directions. The person sitting in the bathtub was naturally completely exposed.

“Ahhhhhhh!” Cheng Suiyan thought, just let me die!

At this moment, Jiang Baiyu also walked into the room with his sword.

As soon as he entered, he saw Cheng Suiyan naked, climbing up from the bathtub fragments, his body covered with flower petals, both hands covering his front while his glistening buttocks were directly facing him.

Jiang Baiyu: “…………” I might as well be blind.

The broom-octopus monster found an opportunity, crashed through the window, and ran away. Yun Qing and Fu Xue chased after it in succession.

Jiang Baiyu passed through the room to follow them. When he passed by Cheng Suiyan, he really couldn’t bear to look anymore, so he grabbed clothes from the rack, tossed them onto him, and then jumped out the window.

Cheng Suiyan, red-faced and fumbling, hurriedly put on the clothes, picked up the Beihai sword, and chased after them, cursing as he went. “Stop right there! You broom spirit, you’re dead! Die ten thousand times!!!”

…….

The demon ran to the forest outside the town. The pursuit scattered countless birds from the trees.

Yun Qing stayed close behind the demon, listening to it plead. “Big sister, I was wrong, I won’t dare do it again. Can you please stop chasing me?”

“Big sister, I really was wrong. Don’t be like this, I’m scared!”

“Big sister, say something! When you don’t speak, I’m even more afraid!”

Yun Qing impatiently said, “Noisy!”

The Cangye sword flew out through the air. The pure black blade didn’t reflect any light in the night, making it almost invisible.

The demon heard the sound of the blade cutting through the air and narrowly avoided it. Its foot slipped, and it fell to the ground, rolling several times. Just as it was about to get up and continue running—

Jiang Baiyu arrived. Seeing the demon’s figure, he suddenly leaped up, pointing down with one foot, and stopped in midair, looking down from above.

Wind blew through his sleeves, hair brushing against his face, his features frost-like—like an immortal banished to the mortal realm.

He held his sword behind his back with his right hand, while his left hand quickly drew a talisman in the air. Once completed, the talisman took form in the air, shimmering with a pale golden light.

Jiang Baiyu pinched the talisman between two fingers and, as the demon rolled on the ground, seized the opportunity to aim at its back and gently tossed it.

The talisman shot down like a meteor. The demon knew things were bad and dodged, but it was still a step too slow and was hit on the shoulder by the golden talisman.

After striking it, the golden talisman dissolved into fragments of light that seeped into its body.

Yun Qing couldn’t help but cheer, “What an elegant point-talisman technique!”

Jiang Baiyu’s lips curved slightly.

Generally speaking, drawing talismans with a medium (paper, brush, cinnabar, blood, etc.) was called talisman drawing. Drawing talismans without a medium was called point-talisman, which was much more difficult than regular talisman drawing, mainly because of the cultivation requirements.

Master Le Chenzi had taught this skill too, but Yun Qing had learned it only roughly.

First, because a person’s energy was limited, and she had used most of her energy to study Emperor Xi’s Wordless Book. Second, because of her temperament—she had always preferred direct confrontation and lacked patience for talisman drawing and pointing.

Fu Xue had studied it diligently, but most of her diligence was devoted to talisman innovation.

The slightly more normal innovations included the “Blazing Fire talisman” for cooking assistance and the “Ripening talisman” to help fruits ripen quickly. A more outlandish innovation was the “Dog Barking talisman.”

This talisman, which left both Le Chenzi and Yun Qing dumbfounded, did exactly what its name suggested—after a person attached this talisman, all their words would turn into “woof woof” barks.

Yun Qing really couldn’t understand what kind of mindset her junior sister had been in when she invented the “Dog Barking talisman.”

By now, Fu Xue and Cheng Suiyan had caught up, the latter’s face still flushed with anger.

Fu Xue kicked the demon on the ground. The demon wasn’t dead, just immobilized. After being kicked, it groaned in pain. The groan was neither masculine nor feminine, completely different from what Cheng Suiyan had heard in the bathtub.

Cheng Suiyan understood then that this demon must know some illusion techniques.

Fu Xue pointed at the demon and said to Cheng Suiyan. “Look!”

So Cheng Suiyan looked at the demon.

Today was the second day of the eighth lunar month, with only a crescent moon in the sky, so the light wasn’t very good. With his limited cultivation, Cheng Suiyan’s vision was insufficient. He couldn’t make out much, only knowing that the monster was black and murky, wearing a silk garment stolen from somewhere.

He couldn’t even tell where the creature’s face was.

Cheng Suiyan could only vaguely comment. “It’s really ugly.”

“You think I’m asking you to judge its beauty?” Fu Xue kicked the demon again, and amidst its groans, she said, “This is a wealth-eating ghost. See, I didn’t lie to you!”

Cheng Suiyan was stunned, “No way, your words actually came true?”

“Mm-hmm.”

Cheng Suiyan squatted down and poked at the monster, muttering to himself. “So it wanted to eat me, I thought…” it wanted to sleep with me.

Fu Xue said to the demon, “Hey, tell him, are you a wealth-eating ghost or not?”

The demon asked, “If I tell the truth, will you let me go?”

Fu Xue smiled. “I don’t know. But if you don’t tell the truth, I might turn you into cured meat. Don’t worry, I’ll add lots of pepper to make you the most dignified cured meat.”

“Okay, okay, I’ll tell you. According to what you humans call me, I am indeed a wealth-eating ghost. But I’m not a ghost, I’m a demon. I don’t know why humans call us wealth-eating ghosts.”

Yun Qing asked, “How many people have you eaten?”

“I… don’t remember!”

“I’ll stab you with my sword and then you’ll remember.”

“Hey, hey, hey, I really don’t remember! I was locked up for a very long time and was only recently released!”

“Who locked you up?”

“How would I know? Just that it was humans. You humans are really too evil!” Seeming to have reached a point of heartbreak, it suddenly began to wail loudly. As it cried, it wriggled toward Cheng Suiyan’s direction.

Thanks to it, Cheng Suiyan could finally see its face clearly. It did have a nose and eyes, but it was excessively ugly, to the point where it affected one’s appetite.

The wealth-eating demon rapturously sniffed in Cheng Suiyan’s direction, its two nostrils excitedly flaring wide open. While sniffing, it muttered. “Smells so good…”

This disgusted Cheng Suiyan terribly, making him back away several steps.

Suddenly, a thought occurred to Yun Qing.

She pointed at Cheng Suiyan and asked, “You think he smells good and want to eat him?”

“Yes, he smells sweet and fragrant. Can you let me take a bite of him before I die? Then I could die without regrets.”

Cheng Suiyan shuddered, “Dream on!”

Wealth-eating demon: “If I can’t bite, licking once is fine too.”

“I’ll kill you right now!” He unsheathed the Beihai sword with a clang.

“Wait,” Yun Qing held Cheng Suiyan’s arm, then pointed at Jiang Baiyu and asked the wealth-eating demon. “He’s also a pampered young master. Doesn’t he smell good?”

The wealth-eating demon was quite indignant. “If you’re going to kill me, just do it. Why insult me? Who do you think you’re looking down on? He clearly smells like a dead person!”

That single remark stunned all four of them.

Yun Qing was the first to break the silence, stepping on the wealth-eating demon’s face, “I think you’re starved into confusion.”

Muffled wails came from under her foot.

Yun Qing said to Cheng Suiyan, “Now you can kill it.”

Cheng Suiyan held the Beihai sword, looking down at the demon’s struggling, twisting body. For some reason, even though it was detestable, at that moment, he suddenly felt that it was also somewhat pitiful.

Seeing his hesitation, Fu Xue drew her sword and said, “I’ll do it.”

Cheng Suiyan stopped her, “No, I’ll do it.”

He couldn’t let others do what he himself was unwilling to do. That wasn’t right.

The sword rose, the sword fell.

The heavy Beihai sword, carrying the sound of wind and thunder, sliced the wealth-eating demon into two pieces with a single strike.

A large splash of liquid sprayed out, followed by an intense fishy odor that spread around. The smell was somewhat like rotten fish thrown into a toilet—nauseating to smell.

The wealth-eating demon, cut into two pieces, twitched its limbs a few more times before gradually becoming still.

Cheng Suiyan had always felt that slaying demons and evil should be an extremely satisfying thing, but now that he had killed the demon, he didn’t feel very happy. Instead, he felt somewhat heavy-hearted.

After all, he had destroyed a living being, watching a life tremble in fear, desperately struggling to survive, only to end in defeat and stillness. Even knowing that he was on the side of justice, he still felt regret and sadness.

Fu Xue gently patted his shoulder, comforting him. “It’s always like this the first time.”

“Mm.”

They dug a hole and buried the wealth-eating demon, then headed back together.

The sky was too dark, and the surroundings were excessively quiet. Fu Xue always felt as if eyes were watching them from the forest, so she took some of her past demon-slaying experiences, exaggerated them tenfold, and began boasting endlessly. Cheng Suiyan listened in bewilderment.

While walking, Yun Qing sensed that Jiang Baiyu was feeling low. She fell back a step to walk beside him and suddenly took his hand.

Jiang Baiyu was startled.

With their palms touching, Yun Qing felt Jiang Baiyu’s warm, dry hand and smiled. “Your hand is so warm, how could it be like a dead person’s? Don’t listen to a demon’s nonsense.”

Jiang Baiyu gave a soft “mm.”

After saying this, she withdrew her hand, and he, as if still savoring the moment, clenched his fist.

His face was burning.

Fortunately, the moonlight was faint that night, and everyone was focused on hurrying along the road, so no one noticed his blushing.

They passed by a river on their way. From far away, before they could see the water’s surface, they had already heard the sound of rushing water.

And, mixed with the sound of water was an intermittent crying.