Lie Huo Jiao Chou Volume 2 Chapter 36

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Welcome to the 21st century!

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　　The disciples hurriedly carried out the mithril bullets from the car trunk, then started to retreat while holding immense killing intent in their hearts.

　　Everyone feared something they couldn't see: it was a fact known ever since the beginning of time. Bacterias, viruses, toxins, bad luck... this fact was proven even more by looking at the frequency of people imagining paranormal things to scare themselves; they managed to scare the soul out of people better than any type of 'visible' monsters.

　　This made Sheng Lingyuan become more confused the more he watched —— these people used the same weapon to destroy a mountain and to deal with some dummies.

　　Before he could see the mithril bullets clearly, he heard Xuan Ji's mind cursed out a bad word, he turned around to look and saw Xuan Ji gave a hand signal to Luo Cuicui.

　　Luo Cuicui stopped breathing and stood still, then his face reddened as he 'stretched' out some branches of devil's ivy. The green leaves fell down to the ground and rustled closer to the disciples who were carrying the mithril bullets and quietly circled around the people's ankles.

　　Then, Xuan Ji raised his phone, and Luo Cuicui suddenly pulled at the branches. At the same time, a female demonic scream and a drumming sound pierced through the air.

　　"Demons! Demons are pulling my feet!"

　　The group of people shouted and chaos ensued.

　　Right after that, with a 'bang', mithril was shot out!

　　Sheng Lingyuan stretched out his hand to cover his eyes, his palm almost touching the heat of the approaching mithril. On one hand, since he had never seen such a weapon, he was overwhelmed for a while, thinking about how such powerful energy could be generated from such a simple ritual. On the other hand, he wasn't familiar with any modern horror movies, so he couldn't follow the plot of the play. His head was confused, wondering how these people became scared shitless.

　　The disciples of the man in grey traditional suit hugged the mithrils, looking like elementary school children who hugged some knives. When they truly encountered danger, not only this weapon became useless for self-defense but it also made them stab themselves.

　　The mithril bullet, which was accidentally shot out, released a white light. It looked exactly like a shooting star dropping in a distant place. It made a dazzling parabole curve when it touched the highway, completely splitting the street into two. The terrified disciples, who were getting into each other's way, were blinded by that bright light.

　　Wang Ze: "Zhang Zhao!"

　　A clicking sound came from Zhang Zhao's side as he pressed on the clock, then, Wang Ze and Xuan Ji moved at the same time!

　　...It's just that, there was no mutual understanding at all.

　　Wang Ze flicked his fingers, the humid air in Dongchuan instantly consolidated into droplets of water and quickly weaved into a net as it rushed toward the disciples. On its path, the net formed a transparent handcuff on the hands of whoever it touched and linked them together, making it impossible for them to escape.

　　Yet, Xuan Ji was planning to burn mithril bullet guns directly, making it so hot that the disciples would have to let go.

　　Too bad the two of them didn't discuss this well beforehand, they acted at the same time, making it a situation of 'fire against water' —— the water handcuffs were evaporated by Xuan Ji's fire!

　　Pig-head teammates!

　　Wang Ze's vein popped out: "Director Xuan, do you remember that you're from the logistics?"

　　Xuan Ji: "The entire world has forgotten and only I remember, is that even useful!"

　　Sheng Lingyuan: "..."

　　His migraine hadn't yet passed, his forehead was now throbbing because these two screamed back and forth.

　　The precious one second passed by just like that, and the old man in traditional suit regained his wit: "Who's there?!"

　　Zhang Zhao was incredibly useless: he stole one second but had to give one back right after, their surrounding would move twice as fast and they would become slower. After all, that old man had some skills. In a blink of an eye, he had realized he was fooled, and the monstrous sound Xuan Ji had used earlier revealed their location!

　　The old man: "You rats!"

　　He suddenly pulled out a chunk of something from his sleeves. It was as big as a handkerchief and gray in color, looking like a rag.

　　The 'rag' fell down to the ground and immediately expanded everywhere. The ground under the people from the Deviant Control Office turned into mud. Besides Xuan Ji who had wings, everyone started sinking down into the mud.

　　Ping Qianru had the fastest reaction: first, she dropped herself to the ground, then laid straight beside Sheng Lingyuan's feet.

　　Sheng Lingyuan looked at her in surprise. Ping Qianru had confirmed this one was a 'sword spirit' and not that 'great devil who had been struck by lightning', so she wasn't afraid to explain it to him: "Increasing the surface area will reduce the pressure."

　　Xuan Ji: "Pressure my ass, move out!"

　　The old man grabbed a mithril gun and shot at the mud which had 'caught' some people.

　　Sheng Lingyuan sighed. He could somewhat understand why the Qing Ping Division was closed down.

　　He lifted a hand and made a sign, at the same time, he quietly chanted a line in the shaman tribe language.

　　The mud under their feet was like an obedient child and followed the 'voice' on the ground, 'twirling' upward towards the sky and cascaded down to cover the old man in traditional suit and his disciples.

　　Xuan Ji was surprised: "That was a shaman tribe incantation?"

　　Sheng Lingyuan made a sound of agreement.

　　Xuan Ji immediately asked: "But how did that gray rabbit use the spell? Did they decode the language?"

　　Sheng Lingyuan didn't answer, but Xuan Ji saw an image formed in his mind —— a young Human Sovereign lying on the stone-ground, dipping fishbone into a special type of flower sap, with one stroke after another, he translated the shaman tribe language into old Mandarin on the permanent leaves. Mandarin was different from the shaman tribe language, the letter had vertical and horizontal lines as well as sharp angles; if he wasn't careful, the leaves would be torn, so he had to be as delicate as if carving on eggshells. Little Aluojin stood on the side and watched, he was hypnotized by Sheng Lingyuan's slow movements, his eyelids grew heavier, his head dangled for a while then dipped into the flower sap, making the flower sap spill everywhere. Thanks to him, Sheng Lingyuan was drenched in petal-like stains, all the leaves he spent so much time on writing were also ruined, so he caught Aluojin and beat him up.

　　This image suddenly showed and suddenly went away, so quickly that Xuan Ji almost thought he had an illusion.

　　The shaman tribe wasn't recorded in history, so it was as if they had never existed. There was only something miscellaneous like the 'Mirage Butterfly' that was passed down until now with people talking about 'butterflies' color transformation'. If they knew its origin, maybe the shaman tribe would be added to the real-life references for villains in movies and novels.

　　Maybe Lord Yue De's people only thought they had uncovered a grave belonging to some strange and mysterious tribe, and that this tribe was good at playing around with incantations but had no culture to pass them down, that they had soundlessly appeared and soundlessly disappeared into the stormy history without having time to develop from a barbaric state to a feudal society.

　　If things came into light, all people cared about would be Lord Yue De being fraudulent to gain his fame and obstructing public safety. No one knew what they had destroyed, and no one would care.

　　The old man fired; the bullet along with the counter-incantation furiously collided into each other, throwing the old man and his disciples into the air. Not waiting for him to regain his vision and get up, there came a 'crack' sound from his wrist which was holding the mithril bullets. Right after, the pain flooded into his senses, the old man screamed in agony.

　　Once the white light faded away, the disciples were surprised to see their master kneeling on the ground, his wrist was twisted to his back, his neck looked up unnaturally, and he was choked by someone until his eyes turned white.

　　Xuan Ji hurriedly yelled in his mind: "Bixia, have mercy!"

　　Sheng Lingyuan looked at him, Xuan Ji immediately translated for him and yelled at the surprised disciples: "Drop your weapons! If not, I will break your master's neck!"

　　The old man in traditional suit fainted at his words, the mithril bullets in the disciples' hands filled the ground.

　　"Wait," Going straight from confiscating extremely dangerous and impactful weapon to catching the criminals, Wang Ze didn't have time to calm down, "Aren't we government officials, why does that sound like a line from the script of a villain?"

　　After Xiao Zheng heard the news, he flew from Yong'an himself, and at the same time, he urgently asked for backups from the surrounding districts and wards to catch all of Lord Yue De's most important disciples.

　　The shaman tribe altar was annihilated, but there was this saying: "If you don't want people to know, don't do it." Lord Yue De had occupied Dongchuan for almost a century and had numerous disciples, a big movement would be hard to hide; the 'incantations' were found after shuffling through all types of transactions and transfers. The evidence was incredibly clear that even Grandma Yu had nothing to say.

　　In the Penglai Conference, when they were with the Deviant Control Office, all the elders were as silent as chickens for fear that they would get involved —— they didn't have such amazing natural resources like that of Lord Yue De and they didn't have any ancient incantations, naturally, they also didn't have such a crazy way of getting 'profit'. But, if one dug deep enough, no one could guarantee that their disciples didn't do anything similar.

　　Only until Director Xiao came that Xuan Ji's group could rest, and the disordered group was brought to a hotel in the city. Since receiving this unlucky assignment, Xuan Ji first found out his sword wasn't his, then he was pulled into seeing Bixia and the shaman tribe growing up together and going through the ups and downs. Xuan Ji felt like all the things he believed in all his life had been pushed back too many times and he was exhausted, so he slept on the way there.

　　All the chaotic scenes in his dream pulled him down. In his dream, it was like he had come back to the era of the War of Jiuzhou. His vision was changing nonstop; one time he was a human, then he was a demon, then he was some type of human, his tribe staying far away from the chaos. But, no matter how it changed, all of them ended up in various types of death.

　　Sometimes it was getting raided on the battlefield; he saw himself getting mentally tired and squatting on the ground. He wanted to eat wood to fill himself, but he didn't have a chance to because he was decapitated by an enemy who suddenly came out from the darkness.

　　Sometimes he was a commoner who curled up in a corner of the ragged room; only the sounds of screaming could be heard. The ground was trembling, it was so chaotic that he didn't know who he was, nor who was fighting with who outside. And then, he died because of an astray incantation, just like an ant that died soundlessly.

　　Sometimes he was a refugee running away from the war, walking on the dry ground for thousands of miles. In front of him, there were only corpses and ashes. His stomach felt as if it was burning, and he had no way to move his eyes away from the bloodied and messy corpses. In the end, he couldn't help it and lurched forward, picking up the rotting flesh on those corpses and sucking it. The dead bodies on the road all died strangely, there were traces of evil incantations and curses lingering on the bodies, and they still had corrosive power. On one hand, he kept shoving food to his mouth, on the other hand, he watched helplessly as his hand and esophagus got burned and pierced through, but he couldn't stop... He was too hungry and became a living hungry ghost, eating as he killed himself bit by bit...

　　Xuan Ji woke up in cold sweats, the car had taken them to the hotel entrance. The soul-numbing fear and hunger still lingered in his chest, Sheng Lingyuan leaned against the car window and watched him: "This dream of yours is very interesting."

　　Xuan Ji: "..."

　　That's right, his head right now was a convertible!

　　Xuan Ji bit his teeth, he pressed down the thoughts in his mind and started listing out all types of food, in an instant he got more hungry. The look in Sheng Lingyuan's eyes carried a hint of a smile.

　　"Not bad. I, Aluojin... even Danli, although we had numerous sorrows and unwillingness, it was meager compared to the world's situation then... Mn, thank you." Sheng Lingyuan got out of the car and graciously nodded at the child who helped him open the door, but only half a sentence came out because he was shaken by the luxurious main hall of the hotel and forgot his words.

　　Reality had shown, ancient people —— even the Human Sovereign, when they were faced with the abundant and materialistic life of the modern world, would become an old-fashioned person who had seen and known nothing.

　　Sheng Lingyuan was dazed for a long while: "...What is this hall*?"

*he was referring to the halls of imperial palaces

　　"It's a hotel." Yawning, Wang Ze came out from the car, it wasn't easy for him to understand one word from Sheng Lingyuan, so he struck up a conversation, "Brother Sword... Ah, what kind of vocative phrase is that, sounds like I'm cursing at people —— welcome to the 21st century!"

　　Sheng Lingyuan had been here for a while, but he was first pulled into a district hospital to be quarantined, then he was turned into a sword. Although everything looked new, it only stopped at 'looking'.

　　Only until now did he officially 'enter the mundane world'.

Chapter end