Back To When The Demon Lord Was A Beggar - Chapter 19

The stall owner didn’t react at first when he saw him. He stared for a long time before realizing it was the little beggar he used to cross paths with frequently. He broke into a grin. “Eh? Little beggar!”

He had assumed that no one survived after the Central City fell, but it seemed he had underestimated things. Cautiously circling around Wu Xiang, he walked over and scanned Chu Nanzhen from head to toe. “I almost didn’t recognize you just now, you look completely different! You haven’t been on the streets lately, so I thought something bad had happened to you. Seeing you safe and sound today really puts my mind at ease.”

Hearing this, Chu Nanzhen lowered his head and smiled.

Indeed, he was quite different from before. In the past, he would wear a single thin garment for five or six years, washing it when it got dirty and patching it when it tore. He couldn’t afford cloth shoes and had to scavenge ones others had thrown away, wearing them for just as long. Life had been bitter. Now, Zhishi Yi gave him money regularly, so he didn’t have to worry about freezing or starving, and he no longer wore clothes full of patches.

“Can you tell us what happened to this city?” Zhishi Yi asked. He figured that since there was a survivor here, the man must know something about how to stay alive, otherwise, death would have been the only option.

“Ah.” The stall owner sighed and looked down. He didn’t intend to hide anything. “This city is no place for the living, it’s a ghost city! If ordinary folk enter, they rarely make it out alive.”

“Listen to you. Aren’t you just ordinary folk? You’re still standing,” Wu Xiang said irritably, walking over with his arms crossed. “You were acting all sneaky just now. Don’t tell me you’re the one behind all this?”

The stall owner snapped his head up and glared. This person’s words were incredibly foul, like they were dipped in poison, it was exhausting. Seeing this, Chu Nanzhen let out a forced laugh to smooth things over. “Don’t mind him. He’s just petty, he feels the need to argue with everyone over the smallest things.”

Wu Xiang retorted, “I’m not eating anyone’s ‘petty’ intestines!”

“…”

Sometimes Chu Nanzhen really wished Wu Xiang would just stay silent, that way, no one would have to get angry.

The stall owner didn’t bother arguing further and simply explained, “Not long after you left, things in the city started getting strange. It felt as if this place where we’ve lived for years had been set up in advance.”

That night, he had just finished packing up his stall and was about to head home when he heard someone screaming, “The evil demon is back!” But having lived in the Central City for so long, wouldn’t he know if there was an evil demon? At the time, he thought it was just a child making things up. Strangely, the townspeople looked terrified, each running faster than the last. In the blink of an eye, a human skin appeared before him. He screamed, and overcome with terror, he abandoned his stall and bolted. Fortunately, he lived nearby and made it home in just a few steps.

He stumbled inside and barred the door, even boarding up the windows. He spent the night like that. The next morning, piercing screams erupted outside, and the ground trembled slightly. In times like these, survival was paramount. For several days, he stayed inside while the screaming continued. It all happened so suddenly that no one could prepare. He knew he couldn’t stay forever or he’d starve, so after a few more days, when the noise stopped, he poked his head out. He found the streets littered with corpses, literally one every few steps. They died in agony, blood flowed like rivers, and the air reeked of rot.

Since his home was quite far from the city gates, he had to hurry day and night, staying alert in case that human skin appeared again. However, the skin seemed to have vanished into thin air. He arrived here two nights ago, intending to scavenge for food, but to his horror, the people who had died had come back to life. Even the bloodstains on the ground disappeared when they woke.

Those people seemed to be under some kind of control, repeating the same actions over and over. The human skin reappeared on the main street at that time, too. Driven by desperation, he hid in the inn for a few days, choosing a room and keeping the door tightly locked. No matter who called out or knocked, he refused to open it.

Having managed to survive this long, he wanted nothing more than to leave this ghost city immediately. He warned them, “If you ask me, you all should leave right this second. If you wait much longer, I’m afraid that human skin will come back.”

“The skin is right here with me. You want it? If you do, take it, I’m not exactly thrilled to be carrying it,” Wu Xiang said calmly, pulling the half-piece of human skin from his robe.

The moment the stall owner saw the skin, his face went white with fear.

After listening to the stall owner, Shen Shangli became even more certain that her senior brother had met with foul play. She looked up at the room from before. If the formation had wiped out everyone in the inn, her senior brother likely hadn’t been spared. She said to the others, “I’m going to bring my senior brother down.”

Bring him down, and take him back to the sect.

Her senior brother was an orphan, the Qianshan Sect was his only home. After being away for so long, a child should eventually go back.

When they returned to the sect, she would bring out the finest wine and give it all to him so he could drink his fill. Her eyes grew hot, and tears slid down her cheeks. At least he had died in the formation rather than by her own sword.

She pushed the door open gently, but there was no sign of him. An underlying sense of unease and urgency flared in her heart. She searched the room, but couldn’t find a single trace of him.

“Senior brother is gone!” she cried out anxiously, her tears still wet. She gripped the second-floor railing tightly and shouted down to the others.

Everyone felt a sense of dread. The very next second, a burst of white light erupted beneath Chu Nanzhen’s feet. An invisible force yanked at his ankles, trying to drag him down. Zhishi Yi was quick and grabbed his hand, but the force caused him to stumble to one knee. Before the others could reach them, they were sucked in and vanished.

Wu Xiang: “?”

Beneath the white light was a long tunnel. As they slid down, the stones in the earthen walls dug painfully into them. At that moment, a dull ache blossomed in Zhishi Yi’s chest. Every breath felt like a piece of his flesh was being carved out. It was agonizing. Soon, cold sweat beaded on his forehead, and his face turned pale.

He could only barely squint his eyes open, cursing in his mind, This pain really chose the wrong time…

When they hit the ground, their clothes were inevitably torn, and they were covered in dirt. Seeing his poor complexion, Chu Nanzhen hurried to help him up, asking worriedly, “Are you okay?”

Zhishi Yi gave a faint smile. “I’m fine, just some minor scratches not worth mentioning.”

“Do I look that easy to fool?” Chu Nanzhen said crossly.

If they were truly “not worth mentioning,” would he look this miserable? Even a dog wouldn’t believe that!

“When have I ever lied to you?” Zhishi Yi closed his eyes and panted for a few breaths, his body trembling. “I’ll be fine in a moment, really.”

Chu Nanzhen scanned the surroundings. The terrain was rugged and uneven, like a mountain range. The tunnel was damp, and the soil beneath them was like slush. Several oil lamps hung on the walls, but there wasn’t even a place to sit.

Fine…

True or false, just sit down first!

Chu Nanzhen pushed him down to the ground, getting more mud on him. Zhishi Yi frowned at his clothes, his face full of “reluctance.”

So dirty…

He didn’t like it.

He wanted to take them off…

“Look at you, all weak and sickly. You can barely stand, so just sit there properly. It might be, well, a bit dirty, but at least you can sit. Just make do.”

It was obvious Zhishi Yi was repulsed, but this wasn’t the City Lord’s Manor. No matter how much he hated it, it didn’t matter. Zhishi Yi looked up to meet his eyes, pursed his lips, and explained, “My body is strong. I’m not sick, nor am I weak.”

“?” Chu Nanzhen was ruthless. “Then explain what’s going on with you right now.”

“I was blindsided by fate.”

Rather than chatting with him, it was more practical to find an exit. That force from earlier was incredibly strong, and he didn’t know what had dragged them down. However, he soon found out. After walking a few steps, the ground began to tremble, and then half a human skin suddenly appeared right in front of him, eye to eye.

He had already seen the half-skin before, so this sudden appearance didn’t scare him. It just smelled terrible. Chu Nanzhen was disgusted; he held his breath and frowned, quietly shuffling backward, wanting to move behind Zhishi Yi.

However, the skin only gave him a chance to move a few steps before a white array appeared beneath his feet, trapping him. The skin let out a cackling laugh, the echo making it even more bone-chilling. It made his body shudder, but only for a moment. Zhishi Yi was behind him, and wherever Zhishi Yi was, he always felt a strange sense of peace.

He waited for a while, assuming Zhishi Yi would come to his rescue, but since being trapped in the array, Zhishi Yi hadn’t said a word. Looking back, he saw that Zhishi Yi had already curled into a ball, his body shaking violently. When he saw blood trickling from the corner of the man’s mouth, panic flared in his heart.

“…”

His heart was racing.

Could it be that his life was going to end here—

Before he could finish the thought, a sharp pain radiated through his body. A sensation like scorching fire attacked his internal organs, and the feeling of his bones snapping made him gasp. He dropped to one knee with a muffled groan.

His eyelids grew heavier, and his vision blurred. Seeing him like this, the human skin actually spoke. The man’s voice was old and feeble, sounding very weak. The skin laughed mockingly for a long time before saying, “It’s all mine, it’s all mine!”

“Once your soul is scattered, the world will be at peace! When that time comes, forget one City Lord, I wouldn’t care if a hundred or ten thousand came! I’m afraid even the Heavenly Dao won’t be able to stop me then!” The skin leaned in close to Chu Nanzhen and said viciously, “If it weren’t for your existence, there would be no such filthy things as evil demons in this world. This is all because of you! You are beyond redemption!”

After finishing its rant, the skin unhurriedly moved to Zhishi Yi’s side and clicked its tongue. “If it isn’t City Lord Zhishi, why so pathetic?”

Zhishi Yi looked up and cursed fiercely, “The one whose soul should be scattered is you, and the one beyond redemption is also you. A coward who can only possess human skin has no right to mention the Heavenly Dao!”

“Once I’ve drained him dry, I’ll take you as well!” the skin shouted. It took a deep breath, its voice softening into a laugh. “Don’t go crying for your parents then.”

“Don’t go thinking this is my fault. I never believed my existence was the cause of the world’s unrest,” Chu Nanzhen said word by word, his consciousness fading. “You think scattering my soul will bring peace, but I think the world will only truly be at peace when you are gone!”

“You talk of peace? What about the people of the Central City? Are they just chips in your hand? Or a useless chess piece?!” The power of the array weighed heavily on him, yet he forced himself to stand. “Since you want our lives, I will summon the lightning of the Awakening of Insects and blast you into a thousand pieces first!”

Support