Chapter Ninety: Unbridled Audacity

On the broad avenue, only the incessant shouts of combat and the clash of steel could be heard.

In the midst of the street, a petite figure was seen, clutching a crystal palace lantern as she sparred with two cloaked figures.

The young woman moved with feather-light steps, as though treading upon some arcane pattern. Advancing and retreating, she was like willow catkins borne on the wind, like a startled swan flashing across water; beautiful to behold, yet in truth concealing deadly peril.

She bore no weapon in hand. The palace lantern in her arms alternated between shield and spear: at one moment fending off blade and sword, at another piercing toward an enemy’s vital point. Its radiance flowed and shifted, becoming the most troublesome of restraints, sealing off every avenue of advance and retreat for the two cloaked figures.

The pair launched several assaults in succession, each one blocked by her alone and by the lantern, leaving them unable to press forward or fall back.

Behind them, the footsteps of armored enforcers from the Demon-Suppressing Office drew nearer and nearer. It was plain that they had already become trapped like turtles in a jar, and the two could not help but grow more and more anxious in their movements.

Lu Chenyuan and Shangguan Chuci stood at the street corner, several zhang away, unable to see clearly.

Yet the moment Lu Chenyuan’s gaze fell upon the scene, he recognized at once the object the girl held in her arms: the crystal palace lantern that could reflect the workings of the mind. He could not help thinking to himself:

“So it was that investigator. She looked so timid just now; I never imagined her martial skill would be this remarkable.”

Still, as he watched the flashing blades and sweeping shadows before him, he felt an indescribable strangeness rising in his heart.

The two cloaked cultivators clearly had reached the Fire-Bearer realm, yet for some reason the fight always seemed to be missing something in his eyes.

When he had faced that demonic Daoist Wei Zhuo a few days ago, the pressure the man gave him had been far greater than these two. Especially after the opening of the second gate, his methods had been bizarre beyond measure.

Was it that all Lantern-Bearers were like this, or that Master Li and his disciple were simply unusual...

While he was lost in thought, he suddenly heard Shangguan Chuci give a soft laugh, her clear voice drifting gently by his ear.

“Brother Lu’s expression is rather peculiar. Could it be that you have suddenly fallen into the feeling that once one has seen the vast sea, all other waters seem but a brook?”

Lu Chenyuan was taken aback, then gave a helpless smile and nodded. “You really can’t fool Young Master Chu.”

“And how did you suppose I knew?”

“Could it be that Young Master Chu feels the same?”

Shangguan Chuci smiled with amusement. “Congratulations, Brother Lu, you guessed right. Unfortunately, this is a no-prize contest.”

That night, when Wei Zhuo perished and the painted realm descended, the heavens and earth changed color. The terrifying means, comparable to a two-dimensional foil, remained vivid in her memory.

And the scene of Lu Chenyuan forcibly breaking free from that two-dimensional painted prison, violently dragging the paint-demon down from the third dimension into the second, was carved even more deeply into her heart.

Now, looking upon this struggle, it was truly like watching children brawling in a sand pit. No matter how lively, it no longer stirred even the slightest ripple in her heart.

Seeing her say this, Lu Chenyuan felt even more strongly the tacit understanding that comes when one meets a kindred spirit.

His gaze returned to the field. Looking at the two cloaked figures, his heart stirred, and he asked, “Could they be that pair of brother and sister who came by day? There are indeed two of them, and both are wearing cloaks.”

Shangguan Chuci smiled faintly. “This Sea-Calming River is now like a muddy pool, and who knows how many fish, turtles, and shrimp are lurking beneath it. Whether they are or not, we’ll know once we go over and see for ourselves.”

Having said that, she no longer urged her movement technique. Instead, she walked side by side with Lu Chenyuan, like two ordinary night wanderers, unhurriedly making their way toward the circle of battle.

By the time they drew near, the outcome in the field had already been decided.

With a sharp clatter, several black-gold chains shot out from the shadows, forming a spell array that bound the brother and sister tightly within a net, leaving them unable to move.

Several armored enforcers stepped forward and yanked the hoods from the two with a single motion, revealing two pale faces.

It truly was the brother and sister from daytime.

Seeing this, Lu Chenyuan could not help stepping forward and asking a leading armored man:

“Officer, what crime have these two committed? Why are you arresting them?”

The armored man was just fastening shackles onto the pair. Hearing this, he turned back and, seeing only a youth in plain coarse clothes, immediately frowned and barked impatiently,

“The Demon-Suppressing Office is handling official business. Where did this country bumpkin come from, daring to speak up? Step back at once, and do not make a fool of yourself here!”

At his words, Shangguan Chuci’s delicate brows instantly knitted.

Before she could say anything, Lin Jianyan’s heart was already pounding up into her throat!

How could she not know the strange and fearsome nature of the young man before her?

Her colleague, ignorant of the depths involved, had spoken so rudely. If he provoked this capricious old monster and, in a fit of whim, the man released that evil thing, then let alone these few colleagues, even this entire street might have to pay with their lives for this accidental remark!

“Ahem!”

Lin Jianyan gave a heavy cough. In a flash of movement, she stepped in front of the armored man before him, faintly shielding Lu Chenyuan behind her.

The armored man saw that she too wore the uniform of the Demon-Suppressing Office and assumed she was merely assisting in the arrest. Yet her behavior was odd enough to make him pause, and he was about to speak when he saw that the young woman holding the palace lantern had already drawn out the black iron token from her bosom and held it before his eyes. Because of her urgency, her voice even carried a tremor as she said sharply,

“Bold!”

The armored man had still been somewhat indignant, but when he clearly saw the ancient and simple character on the token, his spine went cold at once. His arrogance vanished in a flash, replaced by understanding and reverence. He hurriedly bowed and said respectfully,

“This lowly one had no eyes and failed to recognize the Investigator’s presence! I did not know this young master was a friend of the Investigator. I have offended him greatly and beg Your Excellency’s forgiveness!”

He spoke in a flustered, fearful manner. When Lin Jianyan heard the words “friend,” the expression on her delicate oval face stiffened, and an indescribably strange feeling rose in her.

Friend?

Her eyes darted quickly toward the youth behind her. Seeing that he remained calm and showed no reaction to the phrase, the wildly pounding heart in her chest finally settled a little.

Lin Jianyan forced herself to compose her expression, put away the token, and then turned to meet the armored man’s respectful gaze. Slowly, she asked,

“What exactly have these two done? I would also like to know...”

Shangguan Chuci watched Lin Jianyan’s manner and immediately felt a thought stir within her.

This young lady from the Demon-Suppressing Office had, from the moment she appeared, been stealing glances at Lu Chenyuan as if casually or intentionally. Yet each time their eyes met, she would quickly look away as though she had encountered snakes or scorpions.

Shangguan Chuci thought to herself: “This Investigator Lin holds no low rank, and her cultivation is likewise impressive. In this Sea-Calming River, she is already at the level where she can do as she pleases. How could she be so afraid of Brother Lu?”

With a flash of thought, she had already sifted through Lin Jianyan’s nighttime investigation of the woodshed and the perfunctory questioning by the Demon-Suppressing Office during the day. After a brief consideration, she understood seven or eight parts of it.

“So that’s how it is,”

she could not help thinking with amusement.

“This Investigator Lin must have fallen victim to that evil puppet and suffered a great loss.”

“Perhaps when she came to the rear courtyard to resolve the problem of the vengeful spirit, she found Lu Chenyuan comforting that evil thing, and so mistook him for its keeper. She thought him to be a man of extraordinary powers, yet fickle and temperamental, an unruly devil roaming the mortal world.”

Thinking of this, she looked again at Lu Chenyuan’s still somewhat youthful face and the half-worn coarse clothes upon his body, and found the whole matter even more absurd and amusing.

“This Miss Lin’s reasoning is wildly off the mark, straying far from the truth, yet when it comes to the words ‘unruly devil,’ she has by sheer accident hit seven or eight parts of the truth. Only she does not know that this devil is not Brother Lu, but rather the vicious thing within him, whose origins are anything but ordinary.”

While her thoughts churned, the cloaked brother and sister, now restrained, had also clearly taken in the situation in the field.

The elder brother first saw Lu Chenyuan, then Shangguan Chuci beside him. As his gaze shifted again and landed on the strangely composed Lin Jianyan, he blurted out,

“It’s actually you people...”

Before he had finished speaking, his heart had already turned cold halfway.

The two of them had roamed the jianghu and had seen black inns and dens of thieves before.

Yet though black inns were common enough, when had they ever seen such unclear and inexplicable collusion with officials, especially with an Investigator of the Demon-Suppressing Office, that very critical institution?

The brother and sister exchanged a glance, each seeing shock in the other’s eyes.

They had only thought this Sea-Calming River was a place of mixed dragons and snakes, where human hearts were sinister, and that the black inn raising evil spirits was already astonishing enough for being in league with the authorities.

Who could have imagined that the sea itself was no peace either, and that within it lurked demon fish whose wounds gave birth to pearls, only to devour a man in an instant!

Just how many horrors that defied all reason were still hidden in this tiny Sea-Calming River?