After Escaping From Death, He Went Even Crazier By Criticizing Black Lotus Chapter 4
byChapter 4: Senior Brother, You Must Die
They failed to kill each other and both ended up in an illusion…
The room was pitch black. Outside the window, the night wind howled, mixing with a persistent knocking that pierced the deep darkness and entered the room.
Seeing no response, the person outside knocked three more times and called out softly, “Junior Brother?”
However, Feng Jiangyue, who appeared to be the most caring person on Lichen Mountain, was actually not very reliable. She occasionally used forceful methods to make her senior and junior brothers comply. To summarize her: unreliable and violent, but she liked to play the maternal role.
But no matter what, she would never be so gentle and accommodating, blending into this Jiangnan Water Town setting like this.
In the past, Chongjiang True Lord, unable to tolerate her behavior, advised her to cultivate her character and become a lady. Feng Jiangyue’s response was: “If it doesn’t increase my cultivation or allow me to ascend immediately, what’s the use of cultivating it?”
Therefore, this “Senior Sister Feng” who came looking for someone in the middle of the night was definitely an imposter.
Su Huan dared to bet, based on his experience reading countless novels, that the “Senior Sister Feng” outside was most likely their mission target—the demon causing chaos in Liufang City.
Xiao Jianming had clearly guessed the person’s identity earlier than him. Before the person appeared, he had already cast a spell to conceal both their auras and was listening intently to the movement outside the door.
“Creak—” The person pushed the door open.
Immediately afterward, the person let out a frustrated sound: “Damn it! Where are they?”
Xiao Jianming frowned.
In the darkness, the cold light from the dagger he hadn’t yet put away reflected on Xiao Jianming’s tense cheek. The entire world was so quiet they could hear their own breathing.
Suddenly, Xiao Jianming’s eyes narrowed. He grabbed Su Huan and fled through the window: “Hurry!”
A white-furred, red-striped tiger engulfed in Nether Demonic Flames burst through the wall, baring its vicious fangs. It slammed a paw onto the bed, letting out a deafening roar—
“Roar!”
If Xiao Jianming hadn’t anticipated the attack, the two of them would have been pierced by the sharp tiger claws.
The demonic cultivator sneered, “You two brats, hiding together, were you!”
Xiao Jianming turned and threw the dagger in his hand, aiming for the demonic cultivator’s head. It was dodged, only grazing the face and drawing a streak of blood.
Su Huan followed closely, nervously pulling out a handful of talismans from the storage pouch on his waist and, with the recklessness of the wealthy, detonated them behind him. For a moment, the entire courtyard was like a stellar explosion, flames shooting skyward, crackling and thundering, making the rest of the City Lord’s Mansion seem utterly silent and dark, like a bloody, man-eating maw.
Su Huan didn’t know if the demonic cultivator had been killed by the explosion. He only knew that if the Black Lotus didn’t let go of the back of his collar soon, he would be strangled. He raised his hand and forcefully slapped the iron arm behind him: “Quick, let go…”
Xiao Jianming flew through the air on his sword, ignoring him completely.
The demonic cultivator was incredibly resilient. Riding the tiger, it emerged from the smoke and dust. Its fine clothes were tattered and ragged, and overwhelming demonic energy surged around it. Its expression was sinister as it glared fiercely at the two flying figures, cursing, “Vile human cultivators!”
*
They didn’t know when, but the entire city had been enveloped by a barrier. Xiao Jianming decisively dove into an empty alley.
After landing in a secluded spot, he casually pushed open a house door, which was, predictably, empty.
Xiao Jianming released his grip, and Su Huan fell to the ground unexpectedly, coughing incessantly as he desperately gasped for fresh air, narrowly avoiding a suffocating death.
Along with him, his communication token, tied to his waist, also fell. A crystal-clear piece of jade, clearly priceless, hit the ground with a “clatter,” causing him heartache.
Thinking that his Senior Sister and the others might be trapped in the City Lord’s Mansion, Su Huan hurriedly grabbed the jade token and channeled spiritual energy into it. However, after sending the message, there was no response.
A bad premonition arose in Su Huan’s heart. He tried several more times, but still received no reply.
Xiao Jianming impatiently stopped him: “It’s useless. Perhaps everyone is already dead.”
Su Huan was stunned, a silent surge of grief and indignation welling up inside him. He felt that City Lord Liu had truly colluded with the demon race, utterly betraying his Senior Sister’s trust.
But the most urgent matter now was how to escape.
They had rushed in earlier, but now that they had settled down to look around, they noticed the room was in disarray. Tables and chairs were overturned, and scattered footprints marked the floor, suggesting thieves had broken in and looted the place. Yet, strangely, there were no signs of a struggle.
Everything felt odd.
Su Huan was puzzled and said, “Since City Lord Liu has already betrayed us, hasn’t this Liufang City long become a demonic lair?”
Xiao Jianming, meanwhile, was leisurely playing with the golden glass orb in his hand, a smile in his eyes, looking completely detached.
However, when the smile in his eyes met the consistently pale golden spiritual energy within the orb, it was like spring water gradually freezing over with frost and snow, silently turning cold.
Xiao Jianming said coldly, “Yes, I estimate that everyone in the city has been offered up to the demons by that old man, torn limb from limb and eaten.”
Even though Su Huan knew he was deliberately trying to scare him, he couldn’t help but shiver.
In the original novel, although the main plot revolved around Xiao Jianming’s journey of playing the pig to eat the tiger and becoming a god, it clearly mentioned that the demon race, the reserve villains, were monsters who fed on human cultivators. Whenever they caught a human cultivator, they would boil them in cauldrons. Some even enjoyed them like fresh fish sashimi, vivisecting and slicing humans, using a pill to keep them alive while meticulously using a dagger to cut thin slices for careful tasting. It was said that the cultivator hadn’t even died when they were finally reduced to white bones, only able to watch as their flesh and blood were devoured by the demons.
If the demon race hadn’t been so cruel and beyond redemption, the Immortal Venerable ten thousand years ago would not have exiled the entire race to the barren lands beyond the Sea of No Delusion, forbidding them from ever entering the human realm again.
But after thousands of years, the power of the sea ban had weakened, allowing some demons to find ways to sneak in. They even formed small factions, hiding in the shadows, becoming thorns in the flesh and eyes of the Hundred Immortal Sects. Whenever they were discovered, people were immediately dispatched to suppress them.
And this Liufang City, having suffered some terrible misfortune, had become a ghost town even before they arrived to offer aid.
Xiao Jianming said, “Since the communication talismans can’t send messages out, we can only rely on ourselves to fight our way out.”
He had already revealed his true Nascent Soul cultivation level to Su Huan, so he no longer concealed the spiritual waves emanating from his body. Given the circumstances, he had no choice but to cooperate with this idiot in front of him.
He didn’t expect the idiot to say something shocking, opening his round, seemingly innocent eyes and saying, “Ah? But can’t you…”
Suddenly realizing something, he hastily shut his mouth.
Xiao Jianming narrowed his eyes slightly, turning the glass orb in his hand, and asked, “Can what?”
I shouldn’t say it, I shouldn’t say it! In the original work, the Black Lotus hated nothing more than people knowing his background. If the Black Lotus knew that he knew he was a descendant of the Lingxi Clan, whose bloodline was naturally close to spiritual energy, meaning no barrier in the world could trap him, his life would truly be over!
Su Huan really wanted to slap himself twice for being so loose-lipped!
However, while his conscious mind knew he couldn’t speak, his body did the opposite. His mouth automatically opened and said, “You are a descendant of the Lingxi Clan, you can pass directly through the barrier and escape…”
He physically clamped his mouth shut in an emergency, closed his eyes, and thought, I’m finished.
Xiao Jianming was stunned.
The look in his eyes instantly turned cold. His slow tone was outwardly gentle, yet permeated with killing intent: “Good Senior Brother, tell me, who told you this?”
The golden glass orb in his hand was instantly clenched tight, his eyes utterly frigid.
Su Huan immediately felt an invisible force gripping his throat. He finally realized what the small glass orb the Black Lotus had been playing with was. Terror involuntarily spilled from his eyes, and he heard his own voice tremulously crawl out of his throat: “No one told me…”
Xiao Jianming’s icy gaze softened slightly. He asked, “Then how did Senior Brother come to know… my secret?”
Su Huan struggled to articulate the words: “A book, in a book…”
“In a book?” Xiao Jianming was puzzled. He asked again, “Where is that book now?”
Su Huan was sweating profusely: “In my mind…”
Before he finished speaking, Su Huan’s eyes were filled with extreme fear. He thought, I’m done, I’m done. Is the Black Lotus going to dig out my brain?
Hearing this, Xiao Jianming’s expression softened instead. He loosened his grip on the glass orb to let Su Huan catch his breath, then asked, as if confirming, “Where did Senior Brother obtain this book?”
Su Huan collapsed onto the ground, gasping for air. He held back, then quickly changed his words: “That book only exists in my mind now, you won’t be able to find it…”
That was close, he almost revealed he was a transmigrator.
However, this very sentence caused Xiao Jianming to misunderstand. He smiled and raised an eyebrow: “It seems this is Senior Brother’s fortuitous encounter.”
It wasn’t unheard of for cultivators to stumble upon a heavenly opportunity and acquire a page or two of a heavenly book fragment detailing celestial secrets. Xiao Jianming naturally categorized Su Huan into this situation.
Xiao Jianming gripped the golden glass orb, looking down at him and asking, “If that’s the case, has Senior Brother told anyone else about my secret?”
Su Huan thought he had abandoned his killing intent, so he tentatively said, “I haven’t told anyone, and I swear I will never speak of it in the future, as long as you don’t kill me.”
Xiao Jianming chuckled lightly, saying, “But only if Senior Brother dies—dies so completely that even soul-searching is impossible—will this secret never be discovered.”
Su Huan’s heart turned cold.
Xiao Jianming suddenly clenched the golden glass orb in his hand. The orb instantly cracked and shattered. He said coldly, “I originally intended to spare Senior Brother, but unfortunately, you now know my secret.”
“Therefore, you must die.”
Su Huan suddenly spat out a mouthful of blood, as if half his life had been squeezed out of him. He lay on the ground, his face as pale as paper, his entire body wracked with intense pain.
The smile had vanished from Xiao Jianming’s eyes. He summoned his spiritual sword and walked toward him. The spiritual orb could control and injure people, but it couldn’t kill them.
Splat—
The long sword pierced through his abdomen, and the spiritual root, the source of a cultivator’s vitality, shattered instantly.
The blue bricks on the ground were stained with blood, and the life force scattered into the air as faint, shimmering light.
Watching Xiao Jianming summon fire with a hand seal, intending to burn the body and refine the soul, Su Huan felt an unusual calmness now that death was truly imminent.
His only regret was that he had been accepted into a top media academy but hadn’t lived long enough to earn the title of Movie Emperor.
He had bled too much. As if triggering some taboo, a dark, gaping hole suddenly split open beneath him.
Xiao Jianming was caught off guard and was swallowed, along with the dying Su Huan.
On the empty floor, a massive character subsequently appeared—Liu.
*
With a loud “bang,” Su Huan fell to the ground, unconscious and his life unknown.
Xiao Jianming, who fell after him, flipped over and landed steadily. He first surveyed the space he was in—
A wooden table sat in the center. Embedded in the wall was a massive, ferocious beast head. The character “Silence” (静) was crudely carved onto its head. Aside from the crooked strokes, there was nothing unusual. It was an extraordinary meditation chamber.
After confirming there was no danger, Xiao Jianming immediately cast a spell to summon fire, vowing to bury his secret and Su Huan together in this place.
As his fingers moved, he suddenly heard a sigh: “Where did this child come from, to be so ruthless?”
Xiao Jianming’s eyes sharpened. It was the beast head speaking.
It said, “Observing the karma, he holds no grudge against you. Why must you harm him?”
Xiao Jianming sneered, “Since he knows my secret, he must pay the price. As for you, whatever demonic entity you are, do you intend to stop me?”
The fire dragon emerged, originally aimed at the person lying on the ground. As his words fell, the dragon’s head twisted mid-air and suddenly attacked the beast head.
The beast head, which had been closed, was now provoked to anger. It opened its eyes and roared, “Ignorant child, how dare you offend me!”
Xiao Jianming was hit by the earth-shattering sound wave. The barrier he instinctively raised was inexplicably useless. After taking the full force of the beast’s roar, his body swayed. He braced himself with his sword and knelt.
He hadn’t expected this beast head to be some kind of exotic creature. It was one thing that it could speak after death, but its roar was also strangely potent, as if possessing some miraculous power that dragged people into sleep.
Xiao Jianming shook his head, chanting the Clarity Sutra repeatedly in his mind, but still couldn’t resist. He stumbled and fell to the ground, unconscious.
After the beast head’s roar, it belatedly felt a hint of regret. Seeing the situation, it thought, This is bad.
Judging by their clothes, these two were Xuanji Sect disciples. If Liu Zhejun found out that Xuanji Sect disciples had been dragged into a Heart Tribulation Illusion by it, he would surely nag endlessly.
In its distress, its peripheral vision caught sight of the other unconscious youth on the ground. Its vertical pupils swiveled, and an idea instantly struck it.
The beast head snorted lightly, exhaling a breath of spiritual energy that landed on Su Huan’s brow. It glanced sideways at the unconscious boy who had offended it: “I am the divine beast Chijing. I can send cultivators into a Heart Tribulation Illusion. Breaking the illusion can grant a fortuitous encounter, breaking inner demons, refining cultivation, and even crossing a realm in a single dream is not impossible.”
“But you, child, are truly despicable. I shall use your opportunity to atone for your crime.”
That way, it could tell Liu Zhejun that it had pulled the boy into the Heart Tribulation Illusion to save him.
No sooner had the words left its mouth than the silent chamber door was suddenly opened. A youth in green robes walked in and asked, “Chijing, I heard a disturbance just now. Did a demon find this place?”
Behind him followed a woman holding a sword. She instantly saw the two people lying in the meditation chamber and rushed toward the blood-soaked youth, crying out in alarm, “Fourth Junior Brother!”
It was Liu Zhejun and Feng Jiangyue.
After Chijing explained the situation, it didn’t forget to emphasize, “At the time, that boy only had one breath left, his life hanging by a thread. Since there were no life-saving immortal elixirs here, I could only save him this way.”
To its surprise, Liu Zhejun still frowned and scolded it: “Nonsense! How can you arbitrarily send people into a dream!”
Liu Zhejun was furious, pointing at the unconscious Su Huan and nearly jumping up and down in anxiety—
“If both of them successfully break the illusion, fine, but he was already weak-willed before you forcibly sent him into the illusion! How can you guarantee he will successfully break through the illusion? If he can’t escape, you will have killed him right here! You are driving me mad!”
Chijing opened its beast mouth, finally realizing that it seemed to have made a mistake.