Su Lian took one look at Lin Shijin’s state and said to Ye Lang, “Stop scaring him. We’ve a mission in the city. Seventeen’s mission token was shown to his shixiong, and we still don’t know which side Sheng Liuguang belongs to.”
If they were opposing sides, it would be troublesome. Sheng Rufei alone was difficult enough to deal with. Their trial missions always pitted two sides against each other. One to complete the task, the other to obstruct. This greatly increased the rate of elimination.
Ye Lang reluctantly released him, having at least half-listened. The moment his hand lifted, Lin Shijin sprang back like a startled rabbit, putting the greatest possible distance in a straight line between himself and Ye Lang, keeping a wary eye on him at all times.
If only he could hide his ears and tail, he thought miserably. His ears twitched; he felt as if his tail twitched with them.
He reached back, vaguely aware of something, but felt nothing. Surprised, he thought about letting his tail emerge… and a fluffy ball promptly popped out.
His ears, however, remained. He touched them, then tucked his tail away again; better to hide it than not.
“We’re outside the city at the moment. First, we must find a way to slip in. Yixiu City doesn’t welcome demons. If we go in openly as such, we’ll never get through the gate.”
Lin Shijin’s mood had been up and down like a rollercoaster. All he wanted now was to finish the mission as soon as possible. He understood Su Lian perfectly: of the three, only he had difficulty maintaining a proper human form.
“The two of us can enter without any issue,” Su Lian said. “We only need to mask our aura.”
“But just in case, we’ll bring human-skin masks as well. However, your ears won’t be easy to hide, even with a mask.”
“Try an illusion at the gate. Once inside, wear a veiled hat. Your demon aura is faint… close to a mortal’s. You won’t need to conceal it.”
“As for the tail…”
Su Lian was still contemplating a solution when Lin Shijin inched closer, glanced nervously at Ye Lang, and whispered, “Su Lian-shixiong, I can hide my tail.”
“Truly?”
Su Lian looked and found that the tail had indeed vanished.
“Truly, I’ve only just learnt how.”
Pleased with himself, Lin Shijin turned around only to meet Ye Lang’s stare. Ye Lang, sword in hand, was looking directly at the spot where his tail had been. Lin Shijin gave a full-body shudder, and a fluffy tail instantly popped out.
Startled out again.
Su Lian: “…”
Both of them stared at him. There was a trace of a smirk in Ye Lang’s eyes, and Lin Shijin’s face turned crimson at once. He wished desperately he were a blade of grass so he could sink straight into the earth and be spared the shame.
He stared at the grass for a moment, then suddenly felt hungry. He tore his gaze away and tried again to retract his tail… but failed.
His tail lay limply behind him, drooping uselessly.
“I could retract it a moment ago,” Lin Shijin muttered, embarrassed and slightly aggrieved. “If he weren’t looking at me, I’d be able to.”
Ye Lang remained silent, sword held in the crook of his arm, watching him with open amusement.
“If you don’t hide it,” Su Lian said, “you’ll cause trouble the moment you step into the streets.”
“Lin-shidi, try a few more times.”
“If it really won’t go, we’ll find something to cover it.”
Ears could be hidden with a veiled hat. But a tail? Lin Shijin didn’t even want to imagine the options. He tried several more times and at last managed to force the shameful thing back in.
“Once we enter, there’ll be an illusion for a short while,” Su Lian reassured him. “If it fails, we’ll think of something else. Don’t worry.”
Relieved, Lin Shijin followed the others. They were not far from the city now. The three donned their human-skin masks and completed their disguises.
Their physiques remained much the same; it was their faces that had changed. Ye Lang’s features had become sharper, deeper, resembling someone from a distant region. Lin Shijin found him strangely familiar yet couldn’t tell why.
He hadn’t seen many people in his life; even trying to identify a resemblance, he couldn’t recall anyone who looked like Ye Lang. Yet the longer he looked, the more familiar he seemed.
Su Lian, naturally handsome, now appeared plain and unremarkable under the mask, with a gentle, mild air.
As for himself, he had no idea how he now looked. Su Lian said he appeared more ordinary, with a mole at the corner of his eye, though his temperament was much the same.
They reached Yixiu City’s gate. The guards were strict: each person’s appearance and identity token had to be checked. Spirit-Building Platforms were installed at the gates. These were devices that reacted to demonic energy.
A thousand years ago, mortals had relied heavily on these platforms, though they were troublesome to construct and notoriously inaccurate, making it easy for demons to slip inside. To reduce the chances, multiple checks were required; unless the city lord issued a special order, the common folk found entering or leaving extremely inconvenient.
A long queue had formed. Lin Shijin and the others were at the back. On the way, he recognised several disciples disguised as locals attempting to enter for their missions.
But since mission details could not be revealed, recognising them made no difference. Completing the task came first.
“Su Lian-shixiong, before we came in, the elder said we needed to collect jade pieces. What are they?”
“Is this your first mission in the secret realm?”
Lin Shijin nodded.
“I see,” Su Lian said. “Jade pieces are a type of spiritual material that the secret realm produces over long periods. Think of them as condensed spiritual energy. Our tokens are made of them. Jade pieces can be obtained by killing demons, by crushing other disciples’ tokens, or by resolving lingering obsessions within the realm. Three methods in total.”
Lin Shijin understood. The second option sounded dangerous. Every disciple needed a certain number of jade pieces; failing to meet the requirement meant elimination. Many disciples would rather avoid hunting demons, so the simplest method was to break someone else’s token.
Doing so only eliminated the other disciple. Although they would be expelled unharmed, the jade pieces would be gained.
He quietly tightened his grip on his own token, tucked it into his robe, and cast a wary glance at the black-clad youth beside him.
Su Lian almost laughed but held it back.
What a foolish rabbit.
Ye Lang had been watching his every movement. He watched the youth tuck the token away. Still restless, he then shifted it several times… into his sleeve, into his hand, even holding it behind his back… paranoid that Ye Lang might see it.
“If I wanted your token, you wouldn’t have lasted this long.”
Ye Lang reached out and tugged his ear yet again. Lin Shijin froze instantly, going soft and stiff all at once, eyes wide and aggrieved.
Ye Lang didn’t tug hard; if the brat’s tail popped out again, it would only create more trouble.
He’d never seen someone so hopeless. Unable to transform properly, unable to hide a tail, courage smaller than a pinhead…
Yet somehow he had the gall to play the hero.
Lin Shijin, oblivious to Ye Lang’s thoughts, only felt his ear being pulled again. He shuffled forward to put more distance between them, hugging his token and pointedly ignoring Ye Lang.
He didn’t believe a word that came out of that man’s mouth.
Before entering, he had decided he would not only complete the mission, but also capture a few demonic beasts to take back. Beasts from the secret realm could be brought out, though most disciples found it troublesome and hardly worth the effort.
He wanted to prove himself to Feng Rugao.
With this in mind, the three moved forward. When it was finally their turn, Su Lian was calm as always while Lin Shijin alone was nervous. He still had ears atop his head, hidden only by Su Lian’s illusion.
He noticed all the guards wore black robes and boots, sleeves embroidered with crescent moon swords. Their tokens bore the character “斩” (Zhan—Slay). Their bearing was nothing like ordinary sect disciples.
After they passed through the gate without incident, Su Lian caught his lingering curiosity and glanced back.
“That is the Scourge-Slayer Envoy,” he said quietly. “An organisation founded a thousand years ago, dedicated to exterminating demons. Back then, they served solely as the city lord’s attack dogs.”
Unlike now, when the Scourge-Slayer Envoy had become an independent power.
Lin Shijin let out a small “Oh.” Clearly he knew far too little about this world; none of what Su Lian said had ever appeared in the original novel.
Perhaps the original had only shown the tip of the iceberg.
“This area is prone to accidents,” Su Lian said. “Let’s find somewhere safe first and gather information.”
Neither objected. But just as they turned away, urgent horns blasted from the gate. More slayers appeared, fast and numerous.
Their crescent-patterned sword tassels fluttered as they drew nearer. The swords were engraved with the thousand-year-old city lord: Yixiu City’s ghost king.
“A scourge-slayer has ordered this: demons have infiltrated the city. All who just entered must be re-examined!”
Lin Shijin and the others were immediately surrounded. The scourge-slayers drew their swords; the whole street fell silent. No one dared offend the slayer. Once they deemed someone a demon, they had full authority to kill on the spot.
Su Lian frowned slightly. The scourge-slayer was their enemy. They had entered the city quickly, yet the scourge-slayer had reacted even faster. The one commanding them must be formidable.
Lin Shijin also felt their luck had run dry. Seeing Su Lian and Ye Lang still composed, he looked at the surrounding exorcists and forced himself to keep calm.
He mustn’t show fear.
No one dared mutter a complaint. The city lord ruled the city, and because of the demon threat, had granted the Scourge-Slayers Envoys the highest authority. They were absolutely not to be offended.
Everyone was herded back to the gate. One person attempted to flee into the city and was cut down instantly. A single swing of the blade left nothing but black mist, which slowly dispersed.
Lin Shijin stared in shock. Everyone immediately fell obedient, and the three followed quietly.
“Those who entered earlier, this way.”
The guards at the city gate stepped forward to identify each person. The three of them were indeed among those who had entered moments ago. This time the scrutiny was far stricter. They were even separated into different lines.
Lin Shijin grew increasingly anxious. Were they truly going to fail the mission the moment they arrived? Their task was to remain hidden; if they were exposed before even taking a single step into the city, that was as good as failure.
A dense crowd had gathered ahead. There had been some murmuring moments earlier, but at the sharp cry of “The Scourge-Slayer Envoy has arrived!” the entire area fell deathly silent.
“My lord, all those who entered just now are here. The Spirit-Building Platform showed no reaction.”
Lin Shijin instinctively lifted his head.
In the distance stood the scourge-slayer.
The young man wore a long black robe embroidered with a crescent-sword motif. His silver hair fell in a sleek cascade, and his face was cold, breathtaking, almost unreal in its beauty. His brows and eyes held a chill, a sharpness like frost cutting through moonlight. At his waist hung a longsword engraved with the Ghost King Yixiu, and upon his shoulder was the insignia of a ghost mask. It was unlike ordinary slayers, and was the mark of someone above the rest.
His presence was icy and austere, like a plum blossom lingering un-melted upon winter snow, or a blade still sheathed, its killing edge concealed but unmistakably keen.
“That,” someone murmured low beside him, “is the Commander of the Scourge-Slayer Envoys. The city lord’s loyal hound.”
*
Author’s Note:
Sheng Rufei: Hi, wife.
ps: To those who were guessing Ye Lang’s identity last chapter, it’s not Jun Yewu aaa.
