***
The instant the Slaying Immortals Saber struck something solid, Bai Yunsheng knew something was wrong—he had fallen for it!
With a crisp crack, the sound of a tree being chopped down, the illusory mirage before his eyes faded away, revealing instead a… pine tree lying on the ground.
At the same time, the Evil Twin-Tails’ sinister voice drifted over once more—
“Bai Yunsheng, you wouldn’t want anyone finding out what happened tonight, would you?”
Bai Yunsheng: “…………”
A huge crossroads appeared above Bai Yunsheng’s head.
He exploded in frustration. “Is this the only trick you know?!”
Wu Guanyue answered him with utmost seriousness, “It doesn’t matter how many tricks you have, as long as they work. Oh, right—I forgot to tell you. You just chopped down a Seven-Treasure Pine.”
Bai Yunsheng: “…………”
Bai Yunsheng: “………………”
Bai Yunsheng laughed heartily and said brightly, “I knew it! You really are something!”
Wu Guanyue: “…………?”
Wu Guanyue and Bai Yunsheng stared at each other. Why had this fellow suddenly become so emotionally stable?
Then Bai Yunsheng’s expression suddenly changed. He raised the Slaying Immortals Saber in his hand, his face twisted into a ferocious, contorted grimace.
“How could you possibly have a Trace-Shadow Pearl…? Hahaha! As long as I kill you now, who else will know what happened tonight? Ah! Who? Who will know?!”
Wu Guanyue let out a long sigh of relief and said, pleased, “I was wondering what was wrong. So you’ve merely gone insane! Hahaha! In that case, I’m relieved!”
A vein bulged at Bai Yunsheng’s temple, and murderous light flashed in his eyes.
Wu Guanyue stood perfectly still, gazing at him with an innocent expression. Moonlight shone down upon her, casting her shadow onto the ground. The girl stood with her hands on her hips, looking utterly triumphant.
And behind her… two tall men had appeared at some point, one on either side.
Broad hats and cloaks, merciless sabers.
Black-clad and powerfully built, their sword edges gleaming like snow.
Naturally, they were Wenren Ying and Chu Yingfeng.
At this moment, the two men were staring coldly at the hand clutching Bai Yunsheng’s Slaying Immortals Saber. Wenren Ying’s expression was hidden beneath his broad hat, but Chu Yingfeng’s eyes unmistakably held a considerable amount of disdain.
Bai Yunsheng: “…………”
Bai Yunsheng: “………………”
Bai Yunsheng’s gaze instantly became clear and lucid.
Chu Yingfeng might not kill him, but giving him a beating would be an easy matter…
Bai Yunsheng simply sheathed his saber, clasped his hands behind his back, and declared decisively, “You beat the Seven-Treasure Pine until it cried for its mother and father and revealed its true form. When you realized you couldn’t clean up the mess, you concocted this whole performance and lured me into destroying the Seven-Treasure Pine’s primordial spirit… Hmph. Now that we’re accomplices, I naturally can’t hold you accountable anymore. Am I right?”
Wu Guanyue was utterly astonished. “I didn’t expect even you to see through my brilliant plan!”
Bai Yunsheng: “…………”
Bai Yunsheng flew into a rage. “What do you mean, ‘even me’?! What do you mean, ‘even me’?! Explain yourself!”
Wu Guanyue said earnestly, “Look at you, getting worked up again! You’re always too quick to lose your temper, and that’s why you fell right into my hands!”
Chu Yingfeng nodded deeply in agreement.
Bai Yunsheng: “…………”
Another huge crossroads appeared above Bai Yunsheng’s head.
Yet he couldn’t even say a word in reply… because what she had said was completely true!
To be fair, Wu Guanyue’s scheme itself had not been complicated. The key to its success was simply that Bai Yunsheng was quick-tempered…
And overly concerned with his dignity.
But then again, could he really be blamed for having a temper? Could he be blamed for caring about his dignity?! Who could possibly tolerate having their bare bottom exposed for all to see?!
Crossroads began popping out above Bai Yunsheng’s head at a rate of two per second.
Wu Guanyue couldn’t bear to watch any longer and hurriedly advised him, “Don’t be so pessimistic, Bai Yunsheng. Actually, we didn’t record you at your most vulnerable yesterday.”
Bai Yunsheng’s eyes lit up. “Really?!”
Wu Guanyue: “But we did record you killing the Seven-Treasure Pine today. Please watch the replay!”
The black cloud that had been sitting primly atop her head sprang into the air. A small sheet of water suddenly appeared in the rear courtyard. Within it, Bai Yunsheng could be seen with his hair disheveled and his expression wild, roaring something about “a pincer attack from both sides” as he charged at the Seven-Treasure Pine…
The Seven-Treasure Pine: deceased.
…All right, then.
Bai Yunsheng stood there with a heart as dead as ashes, staring at Wu Guanyue.
Wu Guanyue: OωO
Wu Guanyue: Oω<!
Wu Guanyue winked at him… and looked unbelievably evil while doing so.
Bai Yunsheng clenched his fists again. The rear courtyard filled with a sound rather like a rat gnawing on wood. Bai Yunsheng was grinding his teeth.
Wenren Ying cleared his throat at just the right moment and took over the negotiations.
In truth, now that matters had reached this point, negotiating was exceedingly easy.
Bai Yunsheng could, of course, tell Perfected Renhua the truth. Wu Guanyue, Wenren Ying, and Chu Yingfeng would certainly meet with an unpleasant fate.
But Bai Yunsheng himself wouldn’t get off lightly either!
If hurting others could benefit oneself, then naturally one should hurt them a little. But if the result was a thousand injuries to the enemy and eight hundred to oneself, what kind of fool would actually do that?
Besides, Bai Yunsheng’s position within the Profound Heaven Sect was equivalent to that of a “hostage.”
The Cloud-Dream Bai Clan and the Cloud Platform Yan Clan were on poor terms, while the two factions within the Divine Firmament Daoist Sect were also locked in fierce struggle. Caught between them as a hostage, Bai Yunsheng’s position was already extremely awkward. The Cloud-Dream Bai Clan did not value him very much, and the Profound Heaven Sect would never truly accept him.
In a sense, the reason he provoked Chu Yingfeng and bullied him was that Bai Yunsheng’s own place in the pecking order was not particularly high either. Chu Yingfeng was simply the only person he could vent his frustrations on…
Therefore, he had no choice but to pinch his nose and become Wu Guanyue’s accomplice.
As for the murder of the Seven-Treasure Pine—ha ha, everyone could simply agree never to mention it again.
Everyone had their own difficulties. Everyone had their own difficulties…
But how should he answer Perfected Renhua’s command?
Bai Yunsheng let out a mocking, sarcastic laugh. “You actually care how I respond to my master’s orders? You can stop worrying about it, old lady!”
Wu Guanyue: stare stare…
Bai Yunsheng: “…………”
Her stare made Bai Yunsheng’s skin crawl. To avoid having his clothes stripped off a second time, he finally swallowed his pride and said, “We’ll find some unlucky… demon or evil spirit, kill it, and say that it was the one who killed the Seven-Treasure Pine. That’ll do!”
Wow! What a vicious scheme for shifting the blame!
Judging from the pause halfway through his sentence, Wu Guanyue had a feeling that Bai Yunsheng had initially meant to say “unlucky scapegoat” rather than “unlucky demon or evil spirit.”
Wu Guanyue reminded him, “It has to be a monster that’s been terrorizing the mortal world! No randomly picking someone!”
Bai Yunsheng said impatiently, “You’re sticking your nose into far too much. Aren’t you?”
Chu Yingfeng folded his arms around his sword and looked down at him from on high. He gave an apparently casual snort.
Bai Yunsheng: “…………”
Bai Yunsheng continued to swallow his pride. “…Fine. If there are any monsters terrorizing the mortal world, you can pick one yourselves. You pick!”
The instant those words hit the ground, a new quest popped up in Wu Guanyue’s task list!
[Side Quest: The Art of Finding a Scapegoat (NEW!)]
【Quest · Details: You and Bai Yunsheng have become evil accomplices. In order to give Perfected Renhua an explanation, you’ve decided to find a demon or evil spirit to serve as a scapegoat. Who would be a good choice?】
And the old quest had already been completed!
【Quest · Side Story: Wherever You Go, You Leave a Mark (Completed!)】
【Quest · Details: When you killed Daoist Master Songfeng, you apparently never considered that someone might come knocking at your door… Yet your intelligence allowed you to resolve the matter with ease. Truly, you’re as cunning as a demon!】
【Quest · Reward: 1,000 Shop Coins】
【Shop Coins: Can be used to purchase items in the in-game shop.】
An in-game shop? Where had that come from?
Could it be a new feature that would unlock after the inn was upgraded or she completed the main quest? That was certainly something to look forward to.
But speaking of the main quest… Wu Guanyue remembered that her turnover still had a very, very long way to go before she reached the target.
Wu Guanyue’s innocent gaze once again fell upon Bai Yunsheng.
Bai Yunsheng: “…………”
Bai Yunsheng’s heart began to feel uneasy again. He hurriedly spoke at double speed: “Hmph! Wu Guanyue, you’d better pray that you never fall into my hands one day! We’ll meet again!”
With that, he wanted to leave this troublesome place as quickly as possible.
But Wu Guanyue’s wicked voice drifted over once more.
“Bai Yunsheng, you wouldn’t want to…”
Bai Yunsheng flew into a rage. “Are you ever going to stop?! Are you ever—”
Wu Guanyue held up his shorts and gave them a hard shake. The fabric rustled loudly.
Bai Yunsheng’s voice cut off mid-sentence.
Wu Guanyue leisurely finished what she had been saying: “…let someone else get their hands on your Heavenly Spider Velvet shorts, would you? Give me nine thousand taels of Tongxuan silver, and I’ll sell them back to you!”
Bai Yunsheng looked like a goose that had been grabbed by the throat.
Even Chu Yingfeng’s ice-and-snow-like face revealed an expression of utter disbelief. Although he had already witnessed Wu Guanyue’s daring feat of stripping someone, using a pair of shorts to blackmail someone for money still exceeded the limits of his understanding.
Only Wenren Ying, upon seeing Wu Guanyue like this, felt a strange sense of reassurance well up inside him—something along the lines of, “Of course she would.”
He suddenly recalled what Little Wu… what Little Shopkeeper Yue had said that day—
“I’m thinking about how to pull off something big!”
…So this was the big score she had been planning?
Still, there was nothing wrong with it.
Extortion and blackmail were certainly bad behavior, but when the target was Bai Yunsheng, they suddenly seemed especially righteous—nothing less than an act of justice on behalf of Heaven.
The money was in Bai Yunsheng’s hands, and all he would do was squander it. Giving it to Little Shopkeeper Yue was an entirely different matter. Little Shopkeeper Yue needed the money to improve her own life.
With that thought, Wenren Ying raised a hand and pressed down the brim of his bamboo hat.
He said with a lazy smile, “Oh, my… Heavenly Spider Velvet is a specialty of the Cloud-Dream Marsh. Little Shopkeeper Yue, why don’t we take it to the pleasure district and sell it tomorrow? Young Master Bai, if I remember correctly, your Bai family head, Primordial Lord Qingming, strictly forbids members of the Bai clan from visiting disreputable places…”
Wu Guanyue and Wenren Ying suddenly exchanged a glance. Then, in perfect unison, they said, “Bai Yunsheng, you wouldn’t want to…”
Bai Yunsheng roared hysterically, “I’ll buy it! I’ll buy it, all right?! Shut up! Don’t say that again!!!”
