There is Still Such A Good Thing? - Chapter 6

Xun Ye was shocked.

Xun Ye felt relieved.

Xun Ye finally understood what Chen Jun meant when he said, “I overestimated him.”

Ambition? This child probably does not even know how to write the word “ambition.”

The two characters look similar, and combined with the dancing, flowing style of the talisman scripts, it is difficult for Wu Kunkun, with his limited eyesight and poor knowledge of the Demon Clan, to distinguish the specific difference between them.

However, one talisman script was as elegant as the wind, while the other was filled with murderous intent; visually, they were quite different.

Wu Lingchan tilted his head and stared for a long time. He then grabbed Xun Ye’s collar, pulling him down, and squinted to compare them one by one.

Seeing that Chen Jun did not object, Xun Ye, though inwardly furious, dared not speak and bent down, letting him look.

After a long while, Wu Lingchan laughed: “Hahaha.”

What a misunderstanding.

Xun Ye gave a stiff, mirthless smile: “Young Lord must have suffered a great deal while drifting in the Immortal Alliance all these years.”

Wu Lingchan did not catch the sarcasm and coughed, preparing to salvage his image of intelligence: “Not at all. They all called me the Child of Heavenly Luck, and I topped every ranking list. A genius never suffers.”

Xun Ye: “…”

Xun Ye let out a dry “Ha.”

Never mind. Why bother arguing with a fool who cannot even recognize the characters?

With the misunderstanding resolved, Wu Lingchan found his elder brother pleasing in every way again. He did not feel embarrassed and eagerly crowded closer.

“Brother, I have not seen a demonic beast’s inner core yet. Could you let me, um, broaden my horizons?”

Chen She said indifferently, “Hold out your hands.”

Wu Lingchan hurriedly cupped his two hands together and held them out like a squirrel begging for food, looking up at Chen She with eager eyes.

Whoever saw this look would likely find it impossible to refuse him anything, even if he were asking for the stars in the sky.

…Unfortunately, Chen Jun was blind to it.

Chen She held the gold chain and placed the gold bell, which had fallen off while Wu Lingchan was crawling about, into his palm: “Keep this safe. This is not an ornament. If you encounter danger later, throw it out or shake it. If I am nearby, I will arrive immediately.”

Wu Lingchan nodded vigorously, still cupping his hands and waiting.

Chen She seemed not to notice his hands and let his “gaze” sweep over the ruins around them: “Someone will come to rebuild Danjiu Palace tomorrow. Follow me back to Pihan Terrace to rest for now.”

Wu Lingchan: “?”

Wu Lingchan curled his fingers and scratched twice, looking at him in confusion.

Is he not going to give me the inner core?

He could not hide his thoughts, so he asked again, unwilling to give up.

Demonic Qi has always been disliked by Chen She, and few in the Demon Ruins dare to mention it in front of Chen Jun.

Seeing Chen Jun decline time and again while the child still refused to let it go, Xun Ye could not help but interject: “The substance contained within the inner core is a forbidden item in Kunfu; it is best, Young Lord, that you do not inquire about it.”

Wu Lingchan was puzzled.

A forbidden item?

Chen She’s patience was exhausted. He gathered his robes and left: “Follow.”

Wu Lingchan pondered repeatedly: “Danjiu Palace has not completely collapsed; it is still habitable, so I will not go and disturb Brother.”

Chen She did not even look back and dropped two words coldly.

“As you wish.”

Xun Ye followed quickly, turning back to give Wu Lingchan a strange look.

Chen She’s expression was as usual, but having followed his master for many years, he sensed that Chen Jun was extremely displeased.

Was it because of the Demonic Qi?

Once the two disappeared from Danjiu Palace, Wu Lingchan hurriedly ran into the demonic beast remains, hoping to find a trace of purple mist that had not been collected by Chen She.

Unfortunately, Chen She’s spiritual power was too overwhelming; not a bit of the purple mist remained.

Wu Lingchan sat cross-legged in the ruins, covered in dust, clutching a strand of his long hair and braiding it while trying to think.

How could something capable of instantly restoring a shattered Golden Core be classified as a “forbidden item”?

Calling it “Immortal Qi” would not be an exaggeration.

No, he had to find a trace of that purple mist from somewhere to try it out.

Just as he was thinking this, a familiar voice suddenly emerged in his sea of consciousness.

“Be careful.”

Wu Lingchan was overjoyed: “Mobao! You are awake?!”

Xuan Xiang seemed to want to scold him, but he was so weak that after uttering those two words, he went silent again.

That purple mist was indeed useful; a wisp of Xuan Xiang actually showed signs of waking up.

Wait.

What did Mobao say? Be careful?

Wu Lingchan instinctively held his breath and slowly scanned his surroundings.

The dust kicked up by the collapse of Danjiu Palace had long since dispersed. In the quiet night, the sound of falling stones seemed deafening.

Out of the ruins, a pitch-black shadow slowly walked over the rubble, accompanied by the low growl of a wild beast.

Wu Lingchan: “…”

Even with Chen She acting, there was still a survivor.

Wu Lingchan’s hand shook, and the braid he had just finished unraveled like a snake.

He really was the Child of Heavenly Luck; whatever he needed, it just showed up.

He could not defeat a pack of demonic beasts, but one? Was that not easy pickings?

Watching the beast emerge from the darkness, Wu Lingchan rolled up his sleeves, ready to deal with it. However, his eyes landed on the creature, and he was slightly stunned.

What walked out of the darkness was a person.

Or perhaps it could not be called a human. “He” was wearing tattered clothes, and growing from between his messy, knotted hair were two curved goat horns. He looked as destitute and filthy as a savage.

Wu Lingchan made a sound of disgust: “Eww.”

A half-demon?

Such creatures, half-demon and half-beast, were not tolerated by the world. The human race shunned them, and neither the demon nor spirit worlds accepted them. Their spiritual power was weak, and they lived wretchedly at the very bottom of society.

Because anyone could easily suppress and beat them, their numbers were very low.

This half-demon’s face was dirty and smeared with blood. On his shoulder, two broken arrows were even embedded in his flesh and bone. Perhaps because no one helped him pull them out, the wounds could not heal, and the arrows had rusted.

The half-demon glared at Wu Lingchan with cloudy eyes, but seemed attracted by something, stepping forward cautiously until he was ten paces away.

Just as Wu Lingchan was about to draw his blade, he saw the half-demon kneel on the ground and start licking the blood off the floor.

Wu Lingchan: “?”

A moment ago, Wu Lingchan had been bitten, and a few drops of blood from his calf wound had dripped onto the ground.

Wu Lingchan: “…”

The half-demon licked a few times, then quickly looked up to glare at Wu Lingchan, seemingly guarding his food.

Wu Lingchan’s eyes narrowed as he keenly sensed that the half-demon was stained with traces of that purple mist.

The half-demon had apparently come with the demonic beasts to scavenge for leftovers. The beasts could not be bothered with him, and his cultivation was so weak that even Chen She did not think him worth killing.

Wu Lingchan felt reassured and stepped forward.

The half-demon’s hair stood on end, his pupils narrowed into vertical slits, and he clawed at the remaining few drops of blood, angrily baring his teeth to bite.

“Slap.”

Wu Lingchan swiped a palm across his face.

The half-demon’s head tilted to the side, and his fierce gaze seemed to clear up.

Wu Lingchan bit his fingertip and waved a drop of blood in front of him, raising an eyebrow: “Obey me, and I will give you fresh blood.”

The half-demon looked at him warily.

Wu Lingchan realized belatedly that he had spoken in the common language of the Three Realms. Just as he was about to repeat it in the Kunfu language, he heard the half-demon, staring straight at him, rasp: “You, not kill me?”

Wu Lingchan raised a brow.

This half-demon knew the common tongue? That made things easier.

“Why would I kill you for no reason?” Wu Lingchan sat cross-legged in front of him. “Come here, I want to ask you something.”

The half-demon was silent for a long time, staring at the blood on Wu Lingchan’s fingertip as his throat moved slightly: “What?”

“It is a long story.” Wu Lingchan started babbling, “This matter started a year ago. I was ordered by my Master to subdue a beast in the Penglai Islands, but that thing used techniques typical of a Demonic Cultivator, as if it had been possessed. And even though I was not hit, my Golden Core shattered after returning. It could not be reshaped, and I could not break my cultivation to start over, so I had to travel everywhere with only Qi-refining cultivation to find spiritual herbs to reshape my core. When I first reshaped the inner core…”

The half-demon: “…”

Has this person never spoken in eight lifetimes?

The half-demon stared fixedly at the rambling Wu Lingchan, a cold light slowly revealing itself in his pupils. When Wu Lingchan reached the part about how dangerous the fifth attempt to reshape his core was, the half-demon suddenly pounced toward his throat to eat him.

“SLAP!”

Wu Lingchan gave him another slap, displeased: “How rude. Were you even listening to me? Where was I? I have to start from the beginning again.”

The half-demon: “…”

The half-demon had little spiritual power, though his body was as tough as a demonic beast. However, the arrows embedded in his back reached deep into his bone, and every movement brought piercing pain, making it difficult for him to act.

After receiving two slaps in a row, the half-demon calmed down a bit, squatting there and listening to him chant with suppressed rage.

Wu Lingchan had been popping out words one by one in the Kunfu language, but now that he could finally speak to his heart’s content, it took a full two quarters of an hour before he finally got to the point.

“Do you know what the purple mist on the demonic beasts is?”

The half-demon, sporting three well-distributed slap marks, was now completely docile. Squatting there like a dog, full of animal nature, he said coldly: “Demonic Qi.”

“Demonic Qi? My brother said it is a forbidden item. Why is it forbidden?” Wu Lingchan asked hurriedly. “Where can I get more Demonic Qi?”

“Demonic Qi is used by demonic beasts for cultivation; it is in every beast core. Places with a lot of Demonic Qi are either leaks from the Void Rifts or the Blood Sea of the Reincarnation Tombs.”

Wu Lingchan was lost in thought.

No wonder Chen She collected all the demonic beasts’ inner cores.

The Reincarnation Tombs were not a good place, and if Void Rifts appeared, they were inevitably accompanied by demonic beasts; they were certainly not things a Qi-refiner could handle.

Wu Lingchan thought it over and decided that starting with the demonic beast cores in Chen She’s possession was the safest bet.

At the very least, his elder brother would not kill him.

After asking, Wu Lingchan patted his robes and stood up.

The half-demon’s whole body stiffened, his teeth clenched, and his jaw set so tightly that his fierce face looked even colder.

Whether in Kunfu Ruins or the various states of the Three Realms, the lowly half-demon was a symbol of disaster. Like a rat crossing the street, everyone shouted for him to be beaten, and he could only hide in the gutters to survive.

Today, he was going to lose his life over a few drops of blood.

The half-demon’s body trembled slightly.

He was not willing to die like this.

“I told you everything.” The half-demon gritted his teeth, almost begging as he whispered, “Can you…”

Before he could finish his sentence, a hand slowly reached toward his neck, carrying the sweet scent of snacks.

In that instant, the half-demon almost thought this slender, jade-like hand would crush his throat, leaving his corpse to be exposed in the wilderness like a stray dog.

Suddenly, those warm fingertips brushed lightly against the corner of the half-demon’s lips: “Open your mouth.”

The half-demon knelt on the ground, forced to lift his head and open his mouth.

From his perspective, the youth, still bearing the youthfulness of his years, stood under a red maple tree. His brows and eyes were like a painting, his features so beautiful they hardly seemed real.

The half-demon’s vertical pupils trembled.

Wu Lingchan looked down at him, his fingertips hovering three inches from the half-demon’s face, and moved his fingertip slightly.

A drop of blood fell vertically onto the tip of the half-demon’s tongue; the blood of a pure-blooded Demon Clan turned into a wave of heat that rolled down his throat.

Having given the promised reward, Wu Lingchan said: “Alright, you can go now.”

He was in a hurry to go to Pihan Terrace to probe his brother’s attitude and was about to run off when he heard the half-demon, who had been silent all this time, suddenly ask: “Why did you not kill me?”

Wu Lingchan paused, his red robes fluttering as if melting into the night’s maples.

“Ah? Should I have killed you? Is that the rule here in Kunfu?”

“I am a half-demon!” The half-demon’s eyes seemed to flush red with anger. “Do you know what a half-demon is? When others see me, they find me filthy and kill me offhand.”

Wu Lingchan looked him up and down and nodded: “You are indeed quite filthy. Hurry and find a place to bathe. Do you know how much you stink?”

The half-demon: “…”

The half-demon’s mind was in turmoil, biting his teeth so hard that an emotion he had never felt before exploded in his chest.

This person… is he a fool?

Wu Lingchan was thinking about the demonic beast cores and did not want to say more, so he hurried off to Pihan Terrace.

The half-demon knelt in place, staring blankly into the distance.

Wu Lingchan hummed a little tune, his robes flying as he trotted through the corridor lined with red maples. The dappled light fell upon the youth’s brows and eyes, breathtakingly beautiful.

Above the ruins, maple leaves drifted down.

Pihan Terrace was covered in snow all year round.

There was no bed in the inner hall, only a jade platform in the very center, with white silk paintings hanging on four sides, covered in densely packed talisman scripts.

Chen She sat in the center meditating, the strange talisman scripts on his brows and eyes seemingly twisting slightly like snakes.

Several demonic beast inner cores floated around him, with wisps of purple mist drifting from them, swirling and condensing into a bizarre purple core in front of Chen She.

As the core formed, the inner cores, having lost their spiritual power, turned to powder and vanished.

Chen She reached out and pinched the purple core in his palm, his expression cold and disgusted.

Chen She closed his fingers, and the Demonic Qi condensed from dozens of inner cores instantly shattered, the gray powder flowing through his fingers.

Xun Ye, who was guarding nearby: “…”

Chen She said coldly, “Heartache?”

Xun Ye dared not lie and evaded the issue: “All these years, under the protection of the Great Elder, Jiang Zhengliu has earned a fortune using Demonic Qi. Even precious items like thousand-year nectar are used to bathe the Young Lord…”

Chen She smiled slowly: “Since you think it is a waste, how about I reward you with all the Demonic Qi next time?”

Xun Ye’s face paled, and he knelt down directly: “This subordinate has no such intent!”

Chen She did not even look at him, ordering: “Let Fu Yu go to Tonglan Palace and retrieve the Demon Lord’s half-seal. From tomorrow on, if anyone dares to use Demonic Qi or trade it privately, kill them.”

The interior of Pihan Terrace was filled with an aura of slaughter. Seeing that Chen Jun was in a foul mood, Xun Ye dared not disobey.

“Yes.”

Just then, the palace door seemed to be scratched by someone, and a familiar voice drifted in through the crack.

“Brother, Brother, Brother, Brother, Brother…”

Chen She: “…”

Xun Ye was unsure of Chen Jun’s attitude toward the Young Lord and hesitated as he looked at him.

Chen She showed no expression, as if he had not heard the chattering outside.

…Yet, Xun Ye felt that Chen Jun’s mood seemed to have improved slightly.

Wu Lingchan had run all the way here, but the excitement had been blown away by the snow at Pihan Terrace. He was not wearing a cloak, shivering as he squatted at the palace door, scratching the door.

“Brother, it is so cold outside. Can I come in and stay for the night?”

Hearing this, Chen She chuckled and finally spoke indifferently: “Did you not say Danjiu Palace has not completely collapsed and is still habitable? Why come here to disturb your Brother?”

Wu Lingchan: “…………”