The Demon Cult Leader’s Path to Chasing His Wife [Ancient to Modern] - Chapter 10

Chapter 10: Insight and Manifestation (Part 3)

“Sis, I’m begging you.”

Lu Qian held the phone, his tone sounding pitiful. “Just help me this once, just once.”

“I don’t believe for a second that you suddenly have an interest in corporate management and are clamoring to hear about litigation procedures,” Lu Yue said crossly. “You definitely have an ulterior motive!”

No one knew the brother better than the sister. Lu Qian’s secret scheme was pierced by his sister instantly. “Please, didn’t you hire a Lawyer Xia to handle a lawsuit? I’ve suddenly become very interested in the law.”

“You little rascal, you haven’t fallen for Lawyer Xia, have you?”

“I’ve been wronged!” Lu Qian groaned inwardly.

It’s not me who’s fallen for her; it’s my Boss. As someone with the self-awareness of a loyal underling, Lu Qian was naturally willing to go through fire and water for his Boss without hesitation.

Despite getting a scolding from his sister, Young Master Lu successfully managed to score a meal—

While his sister and Lawyer Xia were in a tense and serious discussion about going to court, he was off to the side eating and drinking happily. He didn’t listen to a single word; he only learned that the chicken legs at this restaurant were exceptionally delicious.

About halfway through the conversation, Lu Yue’s phone suddenly rang, interrupting the two. Lu Yue glanced at the screen, apologized, and went out to take the call.

Lu Qian, still holding a chicken leg, turned to look silently at Xia Zhitao. The two exchanged a smile.

Last time, when Zhang Kuang was waiting for her in front of the law firm, Xia Zhitao had happened to see Lu Qian crouching under the tree. No wonder Xia Zhitao felt he looked familiar; it turned out he was Lu Yue’s younger brother.

Xia Zhitao asked with some curiosity: “Are you Zhang Kuang’s friend?”

Lu Qian said solemnly: “No! I am her underling.”

And a god-tier assist underling at that!

Then, Lu Qian added plenty of “color” as he told Xia Zhitao about Zhang Kuang, including the fact that she was a time-traveling Demonic Cult Leader and possessed high-level martial arts.

Xia Zhitao believed most of it. She had read quite a few web novels and was even a die-hard fan of a certain author. Although she was still half-skeptical, Zhang Kuang’s behavior, mannerisms, and attire were completely out of place with ordinary people. Furthermore, the fact that she had never sat in a car or even seen a mobile phone fit the “time travel” narrative exceptionally well.

When Lu Yue knocked and entered, she saw the two of them sitting formally on opposite sides of the table, the room quiet and still.

Ding-dong—

A notification tone suddenly rang out. Xia Zhitao had just finished her shower and was using a towel to wring out her dripping long hair. She looked at the WeChat message notification on her phone; the two characters for “Zhang Kuang” sat squarely in the center of the screen.

Xia Zhitao recalled Lu Qian’s “tears and snot” description of the Cult Leader’s difficult path to modern survival earlier that morning and couldn’t help but feel some sympathy for Zhang Kuang.

A Demonic Cult Leader who should have commanded hundreds at a single call had lost her lover, followers, “prestige,” and treasures overnight… it was truly quite tragic.

Xia Zhitao swiped open the screen, and Zhang Kuang’s message jumped out: “Good evening”

Xia Zhitao wrapped a towel around her neck and replied: “Good evening. Are you used to using the new phone yet?”

Zhang Kuang: “The phone you bought is truly too easy to use. It’s very easy to pick up, and I learned quickly. Thank you so much.”

The two underlings watched in silence as Zhang Kuang shamelessly typed the words “easy to pick up” and “learned quickly.” In their hearts, they only had one phrase: Heh heh.

Just five hours ago, the Cult Leader only knew how to use a single finger to play with the phone.

As soon as the two underlings had returned, they saw the Cult Leader had changed out of her usual black martial arts outfit. She was dressed in a suit of ink-black long robes, with her wrists and ankles bound tight with black silk. The clothing was layered and complex, with the hems and cuffs embroidered with intricate patterns in shimmering silver thread, looking incredibly solemn and imposing.

The underlings were curious: Why did the Boss suddenly dress so formally? Looking closer—

They saw the Great Cult Leader sitting upright on the sofa, the phone laid flat in the center of the coffee table. Zhang Kuang looked serious, focusing all her attention on using her index finger to swipe the screen once, then tapping it a few times.

Song Muzhao: “…”

Lu Qian: “…”

They would never forget the look she gave them when she heard the door open.

That gaze was full of grief and despair, yet a spark of fire ignited the moment she saw them. That solitary spark was filled with too many complex emotions: expectation, hope, the joy of rain after a long drought, the relief of meeting an old friend in a foreign land.

The Great Cult Leader picked up the phone tremblingly. “Help me…”

Look at what modern technology has done to the poor Cult Leader; it’s truly a plague on humanity.

The two rushed over to help. Zhang Kuang pointed at the phone’s built-in mechanical keyboard and asked, somewhat collapsed: “What is this?!”

QWERTY… what on earth was this ghostly thing? Why did it pop out neatly when tapped, taking up a third of the screen? And Zhang Kuang couldn’t understand that pile of strange-shaped patterns at all; she almost suspected they were some kind of wicked incantation charms.

“That’s called a Pinyin keyboard,” Song Muzhao went into the settings and deleted the Pinyin and Wubi keyboards. “I’ve changed it for you.”

She set the default input method to “Handwriting Input” and then showed it to Zhang Kuang: “Look, from now on you can just write by hand to type.”

Zhang Kuang fiddled with it in great surprise and wrote out the three characters for “Xia Zhitao” stroke by stroke in the memo app.

Even though it was just using her finger, the handwritten characters that appeared briefly in the white box were like “scudding dragons and startling snakes,” with strokes as sharp as iron. Unlike the elegant and delicate style of a noble lady, Zhang Kuang’s writing possessed a righteous and unyielding spirit.

“And that ‘scarf’ where I can see Zhitao’s mood, how do I open it?” Zhang Kuang asked. “I’ve been looking for a long time and couldn’t find it.”

“That’s called Weibo; it’s a piece of software,” Song Muzhao explained.

“What is software?”

Connecting to WIFI, downloading software, registering an account, browsing web pages—after a long struggle, Zhang Kuang finally gained entry-level phone skills.

It wasn’t easy. The two underlings watched as the Boss began to fiddle with the phone and gave satisfied smiles.

After several hours of intensive training, Zhang Kuang felt quite good about herself and hurriedly opened WeChat to message her beloved.

Xia Zhitao replied quite quickly: “Then you’re quite amazing; you already know how to use it.”

My wife praised me! Zhang Kuang held the phone and smiled blissfully, her heart feeling as thick and sweet as honey.

“Can I come find you tomorrow?”

In fact, she had been crouching at the law firm’s entrance early this morning, but Xia Zhitao had only come to drop off some materials before driving away. Seeing her hurried expression, Zhang Kuang guessed she had some important business and left silently.

Xia Zhitao held her phone and thought for a while, intending to refuse Zhang Kuang because she had too much work on hand. Suddenly, the image of the “pitiful little Cult Leader” described by Lu Qian popped into her mind—those beautiful eyes blinking, looking as if she were about to cry.

In an instant, Xia Zhitao’s heart softened: “I’m free in the afternoon. Do you want to go shopping together?”

She thought that since Zhang Kuang was a newcomer and only had that black martial arts outfit to wear all day, she could take her to buy some new clothes.

“Where is ‘shopping’? Is it the name of a street?” Zhang Kuang asked aloud while quickly replying with “Okay.”

The underlings explained: “It means going with the Madam to purchase clothes, jewelry, and other supplies.”

Zhang Kuang nodded, but then realized with a start:

If she wanted to buy things, she didn’t seem to have any money?? Last time, her wife had paid for the phone; surely she wouldn’t have to pay the bill this time too?

The Great Cult Leader felt very stifled.

Fine, fine. After a big circle, things had returned to the starting point—that same old problem. She couldn’t help but think of the “martial arts double” job; she didn’t know when Director Li would notify her.

Early the next morning, both underlings went to school, and Xia Zhitao was busy with work in the morning. Zhang Kuang slipped out of the apartment alone and came to the street from before.

Earning money by working was too slow. Zhang Kuang remembered the pile of “scrap metal” in her pocket dimension bag and planned to take out a few pieces of beautiful jewelry. Perhaps someone in this era would like them?

She had observed pedestrians on the street; many of them wore necklaces, earrings, and other jewelry. Although most were made of materials she had never seen, someone might like her styles.

Zhang Kuang found a random jewelry store. She skipped over the jewelry displayed in the glass counters and found a salesperson: “Hello, can I pawn jewelry here?”

The salesperson looked at her suspiciously. Zhang Kuang pulled a golden feather hairpin from her bosom, embedded with translucent jade. The workmanship was exquisite and delicate with complex patterns; a close look revealed it must have been crafted by a master artisan.

There was originally a notorious “Asura Road” demonic sect on Qiling Mountain. After Zhang Kuang slaughtered the entire sect, she took their magnificent palace and all their treasures for herself; this golden feather hairpin was one of the most inconspicuous items among them.

The salesperson set down the hairpin reluctantly and explained: “I’m sorry, we only sell jewelry; we don’t pawn it.”

She visited several similar jewelry stores and received the same response. The Great Cult Leader felt a bit dejected: It seems people in this world don’t have much interest in gold and silver treasures, otherwise, at least one place would be willing to pawn them.

“Stop! Don’t run!”

A full-throated shout suddenly entered Zhang Kuang’s ears. She instinctively turned around and saw a person charging straight toward her, while behind them, a young man in blue was running and shouting.

“Get out of the way, get out of the way!” The person being chased looked nervous, seemingly clutching something in his bosom, as he roared fiercely at Zhang Kuang.

Zhang Kuang smiled.

In the next instant, the world turned upside down. The thief only felt his vision go dark before his arm was seized by Zhang Kuang. With a slight exert of force, the thief’s throat was pinned by her as he was pressed painfully to the ground.

Zhang Kuang pinned his limbs and leaned down.

Her voice was like a murmur as she whispered into the thief’s ear: “If you don’t want me to twist your bones one by one until they snap, stay still.”

The young policeman who had been chasing all the way arrived. He let out a long breath and took out his handcuffs.

“That move just now was truly cool!” the young policeman said as he shackled the thief, thanking Zhang Kuang. “Thanks for the help.”

Zhang Kuang nodded: “A small effort, not worth mentioning.”

It was clear this had happened suddenly; the young policeman’s ID badge was still hanging on his clothes, clearly displaying the three characters “Xia Zhisong.”

Xia Zhitao, Xia Zhisong.

Zhang Kuang glanced at the ID badge, then moved her gaze away, harboring some thoughts in her heart.

Soon, the victim whose wallet had been stolen also arrived. It was a pair of female lovers. The girl with a playful and cute appearance held her wallet, thanking her repeatedly. The woman with an “alpha female” aura standing behind her, however, pulled out an envelope and handed it to Zhang Kuang.

Her expression was cold, and her tone didn’t have much fluctuation: “Many thanks.”

Zhang Kuang was truly curious, so she accepted the envelope.

After the crowd of onlookers dispersed, Zhang Kuang walked a bit further away. She found a random set of steps to sit on and opened the envelope.

The stack of RMB inside startled the Great Cult Leader. She flipped through it and also saw a business card with the name “Wu Zheng” written on it. That person seemed to hold some powerful status, which explained the generous reward. Zhang Kuang counted the money and realized belatedly that she now had money to go shopping with her wife.

However, today’s incident was purely an accident; it was still a bit far from her goal of earning a pile of money to support her wife.

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