Archfiend Chapter 20

Chapter 20: Manager Su (Four)

Su Lianyue's voice carried with it a trace of quivering: "I'm actually… a virgin…"

Xu Yangyi was slightly surprised to an extent, however, he nodded: "Mhm."

This was a woman whose heart was not easily opened, armored with a hard shell. Everything before had been nothing more than a mere pretense.

"Clip… Clip… Clip…" The clothes on her upper body had been entirely cast off. Surprisingly, she wasn't wearing anything underneath.

Beautiful, very beautiful, perhaps it could be said that at this moment, the word beautiful had become somewhat superfluous.

With her perfect S-shape figure and willowy waist without a shred of excess fat, she didn't make people feel that she was gaunt upon continuing to press down with their hands. Moonlight spilled forth, making the present Su Lianyue appear as if she was a moon-bathed goddess.

"This is my bargaining chip… Are you satisfied…?"

She closed her eyes because she wasn't willing to have the tears at the corner of her eyes be seen by the other.

She had her own self-respect, as well. 

Xu Yangyi roughly swept his eyes over her: "You can use money."

"To a man like you, could money be said to be a difficulty?" Su Lianyue allowed the moonlight to illuminate her and laughed gently but bleakly: "I have no spirit stones, and I'm not a cultivator. I have less than this share…" 

"Perhaps… to you, women are also quite cheap. However, this is the most precious thing I can put forth…"

"Am I… pleasing to the eye?"

Xu Yangyi lit a cigarette: "The matter you seek to accomplish is certainly not simple."

"No, it is quite simple. However, I am insufficient in myself to request anyone." Su Lianyue gazed at the ceiling, her voice quivering: "Did you know… Sanshui City is a destitute land. The demons here are all of the initial stage of Qi Condensation. At the greatest, they are of the middle stage… in kind, the demonslayers that come here are at most cultivators of the middle stage, as well… there has never been… never, a number one that has come here… even the number one of a city…"

"These demons… are quite content with their lives. They don't wish to bring about wanton destruction and only desire to continue living nicely… You've seen that centipede at that stadium, too… that's the auntie that buys vegetables at the supermarket… how could she possibly warrant the kill order of a high-level cultivator? As for me…" She shut her eyes and her eyelids fluttered. Her body was bared, without anything to conceal it: "You don't know how lowly the cultivation world regards failed cultivators… and how strictly they are looked after… I am basically unable to conduct business outside the scope of cultivators… Not to even speak of leaving Sanshui City… my term of office is…" 

She paused: "Fifty years…"

"She opened her eyes, staring unwaveringly at Xu Yangyi: "You are the first I have run across. The first."

"So, I'm a hot commodity?" Xu Yangyi tossed the clothes aside: "Continue."

Su Lianyue didn't answer.

Her clothes fell off her body, continuing to slide off.

"I want to find my little sister." Her eyes reddened: "She disappeared after I joined Heavens Law. I joined Heavens Law because my mother was killed by a demon. My parents divorced long ago, so it was my mother that raised the two of us growing up."

"Her name is Su Xingyao. As long as you help me find her, I am yours."

"Regardless of where your desires lie, I shall concede to them."

Xu Yangyi faintly opened his mouth. This was the first time he viewed the other seriously.

He was welcomed with a serious set of eyes in kind.

"Your bargaining chip is insufficient." Xu Yangyi said after a long time: "If a woman could take her clothes off to get me to help her find someone as she pleased… Who do you think I am?"

"I know." Su Lianyue's gaze was empty to a degree, but was set ablaze in an instant: "I also know… in half a month, you will return to HeavensLaw to participate in the graduation ceremony… Moreover, I'm aware that afterwards, you shall go to many places, places that I am incapable of setting foot in…"

Xu Yangyi nodded, but in the next second he was about to say something, all of his words became stuck in his throat.

Like the formation of substance, his gaze gathered onto Su Lianyue's hand, since in her hand, there laid a feather. 

A feather that was black in color and inlaid with gold on the edges. On the rear, there was a golden design that interweaved to form the shape of an eye.

"Ten years ago in autumn…" Su Lianyue's voice carried with it an indescribable grief, the emotion brought to her eyes staunch without peer: "She disappeared… At the scene, there was only this black feather."

Her voice not yet falling, a sharp stab of pain jolted her should, yet she grit her teeth and didn't cry out.

Xu Yangyi had already seized onto her shoulder. The greatness of his strength was as if he wanted to pinch the other's shoulder blade into pieces. However…

She simply dared not to struggle free!

Like a white rabbit had encountered an old tiger, his mere might made her dare not to flail an inch!

She was too naive… At this moment, all she wished was to shut her eyes, but she simply didn't dare to.

Truly was she naive… This was a man she couldn't rely on her beauty to seduce… Sure enough… was there anyone exceeding that of the number one? There was also… How could the freaks and superhumans that came from a perverse place like HeavensLaw… possibly be normal people? How could her beauty… truly be greater in comparison to cultivation in the other's eyes?

A flame burned within Xu Yangyi's eyes.

It was an infernal blaze, ordinarily drowned at the back of his eyes, but when it erupted, it would leave the hearts of men in fear! 

"If you're lying to me…" Xu Yangyi's voice was grim without a trace of emotion: "I'll make sure you suffer a fate worse than death."

He tone was rather serene, but it carried with it an absolute coldness.

"My words ring true. There's not one lie." Su Lianyue's hoarse voice shivered: "If you're going to search my soul, then search it."

She finished speaking and shut her eyes.

She didn't desire to listen to the judgement of the other.

To help or not to help?

Before, she was quite confident in herself, but as soon as she laid her eyes upon a genuine cultivator, a true rank one, her confidence had already given way on first contact, scattering to ashes without any remains.

Her final hope was the feather in her hand, only to look forward at the gathered resources she had acquired with all of her strength in the past ten-odd days and the million plus dollars she had relinquished wouldn't be wasted in vain.

So much that she had wept silently for this coincidence. 

Xu Yangyi gazed coldly at the stunning, half-nude beauty before him. At this moment, his heart was serene, even in light of the baleful wind and cascading rain pounding it.

It was "It"...

This was definitely It!

The killer he had pursued for thirteen years! The god of death he would never be capable of forgetting! It was most assuredly it!

The feather was an exact duplicate… to the extent that he could smell the air of that blood-stained night from thirteen years ago!

It had unexpectedly still dared to reveal itself… In the past thirteen years, it had made him fall into a nightmare after he pushed open that door. Now five years ago, it had destroyed another household once again!

Death!

No mercy!

The murderous will within his heart had never been so firm.

His debt, along with the burden of the countless lives that rested on its back, would be personally be made recompense by him. 

Among the endless silence. Su Lianyue finally heard a sound like that of a heavenly lyre.

"I accept."

She suddenly opened her eyes, staring at Xu Yangyi incredulously. 

"It's not because of you." Xu Yangyi's eyes had turned somewhat crimson, like he was looking at Su Lianyue unwaveringly, yet not looking at her: "There won't be a next time. To humiliate yourself in exchange for sympathy is too cheap. This is a burden you cannot bear."

"The path of a cultivator is not as simple as you think it to be."

"Since you have already left it, spend your hundred years as a mortal smoothly and steadily."

Su Lianyue couldn't help but to shed tears of joy once she heard these three lines. 

Her figure, unyielding like a bow, slowly continued to bend downwards. Subsequently, an extremely low sob, likely from her throat, escaped outwards liked a trapped beast.

"Boohoo…" After several seconds, as if wounds within her heart of the past several years had been torn open, she looked up towards the sky and wailed mournfully: "Ahhhhhh!!!!"

How many years had it been… Finally, finally someone would accept her request, someone had dared to accept it...

Was the little sister she had been separated for years from still living or not? Where was she? In any event… the gray of her life was added with the first smidgen of color. 

No matter how the tears rolled off her face, she simply didn't plan on wiping them away.

This wound was too, too long. Too long ago that she believed she had forgotten it, but in a flash, it had unexpectedly bursted out so fiercely.

Her present beauty was like an exiled immortal, a hidden flower in an empty valley beneath moonlight. In this moment, her complete splendor had finally blossomed. 

Xu Yangyi didn't disturb her and only looked on calmly. He rather understood this frame of mind. If was just like him when he had first come to Heavens Law.

How many nights had his dreams returned to that blood-drenched moment? From crying to screeching, to date, he neither cried nor laughed. He had sharpened the dense murderous will within his heart layer by layer to a shine, transforming it into a dagger and concealed it deeply.

"Put on your clothes." After several minutes, Su Lianyue's sobs stopped. Xu Yangyi looked at the clothes at her feet and said.

Yet he hadn't expected Su Lianyue to laugh, carrying with her a charming expression. She came over one step at a time, her eyes bearing a wisp of resolution and determination.

Perhaps… it wouldn't be bad to give herself to him like this...

At the very least… right now, at this moment, this second, she wouldn't regret it.

The stone within her heart had been set free. Presently, all she desired was to clear her mind and relax.

"Aren't you… going to take your down payment?" Su Lianyue grabbed onto his hand and slowly, but without hesitation, placed it on her ample breast. Her face blushed for the first time and she said softly: "My trust… is hard to come by…"

Xu Yangyi was dazed, looking at her carefully for a few seconds and then laughed: "And my down payment is quite expensive, as well."

He scooped the other into his arms and made off with her without the least bit hesitation towards the bedroom: "I forgot to tell you, I'm a virgin, too. Don't blame me, blame Heavens Law…"

A night without dreams.

A sweet spring night, woefully too brief. The sun had already risen high, but the pair revelled in debauchery, ignoring their matters of business.*

The night had passed quite quickly, but also rather slowly. By the time Su Lianyue had awakened, Xu Yangyi had already bought breakfast. Of course, what he had bought was Kentucky Fried Chicken take out.

Su Lianyue arched her lower back; it was incomparably sore.

She had guessed early on that the body of a cultivator would be pretty good… but too much of a good thing wasn't that great, as well.

Xu Yangyi's gaze as he looked at the other was somewhat complex. He helped her up and handed her a can of cola, not saying anything.

"There's no need to be responsible for me." Su Lianyue said faintly: "I don't need you to take responsibility for me."

"This is the price." She took the offered cola, her expression composed: "Yesterday night, I fell into the heat of passion. You fell into the heat of passion. You took the down payment that you should've, and this was it. It was price I was happy to pay. I hold no love towards you, only appreciation. As for you, no love exists for me, as well. It was only a passing pity for me. So things are rather simply."

Xu Yangyi looked at her for a couple seconds and laughed: "I thought that after a woman had popped her cherry, she would fall in love." 

"We're both adults here. The thought of falling in love is already too distant…" Su Lianyue sighed: "You know, acquaintances or close lovers don't get into bed first and then speak of emotion like we do. I dislike such matters. However...."

The corner of her mouth raised upwards: "It's not like I dislike this kind of feeling, as well. Oh, I was talking about the feeling of the bed."

Xu Yangyi was silent. After quite a bit of time, he said solemnly: "If something's the matter later on, you can give me a call. I will help you with a single matter. As long as it's within my limits and doesn't go against my principles."

"A promise worth a thousand catties of gold?" Su Lianyue wasn't too languished and laughed: "I'll remember it. Anyway, you're promise of a single matter is so restricted. It's really stingy of you."

"As soon as your body gets better, I will leave." Xu Yangyi flipped on the television: "No matter of what things are like between us later on, at the very least, I am not a man that takes and leaves."

* 春宵苦短日高起，从此君王不早朝。- This is one of those things if I translated it directly, it would be very out of context. This statement refers back to ancient Chinese times regarding the Emperor Xuan Zong. In pretty much means: Xuan Zong was having such a wild time with his concubines that the night felt short. By the time he woke up, the sun was already high, but he didn't get out of bed with his concubines and elected to just hang out with them and "stuff". Thereafter, he did not go the imperial court early to settle his affairs. 

Chapter end