ATLAS TRANSLATES

“Stay close and don’t run off.”

Another wave of intense dizziness hit.

Xing Shuishui suddenly opened her eyes and sat up from the ground, back at the Luoshen Manor. Her palms were ice cold, and the sky was dark – she had no idea how long she’d been unconscious. Time flowed differently in the Chixuan dream realm.

She looked around.

White-robed demons were everywhere in the courtyard – on the walls, in the sky, all around. Their robes fluttered chaotically as spells flew about like a plague of locusts.

Li Guanxing and Li Guanyu fought together, their sword techniques blazing with fire and stirring up dust storms. Even with the Li family’s puppet techniques, they were struggling. Whoever was behind this had really gone all out to guard the manor with so many demons.

Xing Shuishui rubbed her head, still dizzy from emerging from the dream technique.

In the dream, she had seen scenes from her past life and finally understood what the Luoyu flower was. But where did this harmful thing end up? And was Du Dizhu involved? She still didn’t know.

Right, and there was also… the Luoyu Flower King.

First, they needed to kill this troublesome flower!

She was smarter this time, covering her nose with her sleeve. But before she could take two steps toward the Flower King, she felt a tug at her wrist.

Then she fell backward.

He Liansheng had grabbed her collar and lifted her up. Only then did Xing Shuishui notice the red thread on her wrist hadn’t disappeared. Looking back, she saw the other end was somehow connected to He Liansheng’s wrist.

“…”

This dream technique actually had side effects!

He Liansheng had clearly tried to cut the red thread connecting their wrists as soon as he woke up, but failed. His expression was terrible.

Li Guanyu noticed they were awake and nearly got slashed by a white-robed demon in his joy. The Taoyuan sword scabbard flew out to block the strike. Li Guanyu came to his senses and countered with a sword strike, making the demon drop its short blade.

He Liansheng retrieved his scabbard.

Xing Shuishui got down from his grip and said, “He Liansheng, let’s go cut off the Flower King’s head!”

He Liansheng didn’t need her to tell him that, but the red thread connecting them was a problem. It couldn’t be cut and they didn’t know what it was – very inconvenient.

“Stay close and don’t run off.”

The young man dipped his fingers in cinnabar and drew talismans in the air, violently breaking open the formation in front of the Flower King.

The fierce wind whipped past, making his bound hair flutter.

He Liansheng gripped the Taoyuan sword firmly as he stared at the Luoyu Flower King, a sneer appearing at the corner of his mouth.

The Luoyu Flower King sensed the threat instinctively but could no longer use the Chixuan dream technique. It immediately let out a strange cry, as if calling for something. The already crowded courtyard suddenly filled with even more ordinary people. These mind-controlled humans rushed forward recklessly toward He Liansheng, along with the demons, trying to form a wall of flesh and blood.

He Liansheng blasted apart a group of white-robed demons but couldn’t bring himself to attack the ordinary people.

How cunning.

Xing Shuishui wouldn’t let this harmful thing get away. Seizing her chance, she picked up the fallen short blade and threw it straight at the Flower King’s heart. With a rip—blood-like liquid flowed from its heart, the petals and emerald leaves quickly withered and shrank. The fragrant scent turned to rot, filling the air with the stench of decay.

Perhaps this was how it was meant to be.

The people controlled by the Luoyu flower regained their senses, looking around in confusion. Seeing the tide had turned, the white-robed demons tried to flee but were trapped by He Liansheng’s formation.

Li Guanyu sheathed his sword and smiled, “Thanks to Shuishui.”

Li Guanxing still couldn’t believe she had awakened from the Chixuan dream technique. He asked curiously, “Wasn’t the Chixuan dream technique supposed to be hard to break? How did you both get out? What did you see in there? How did you escape?”

Xing Shuishui froze.

Her past life, her sister, the secret of the Luoyu flower. And three days spent with He Liansheng at Fanxin Cliff.

So much had happened in one brief dream…

She couldn’t react for a moment, unsure what to say and what to keep hidden, or how to tell these Lingshan people about the Luoyu flower. She could hardly say it was something Du Dizhu wanted to give her in her past life.

Fortunately, He Liansheng turned and gave Li Guanxing a cold look: “Don’t ask what you shouldn’t.”

He raised his wrist, and only then did Li Guanyu and Li Guanxing notice the red thread on their wrists hadn’t just remained—it had connected them together.

The young man impatiently said to Li Guanyu, “Ask your master what this cursed thing is. It appeared as soon as we came out.”

Then He Liansheng walked toward the formation trapping the white-robed demons. The red thread pulled Xing Shuishui along unwillingly.

The white-robed demons had witnessed his swordsmanship and crouched trembling on the ground.

He Liansheng asked, “Tell me, who sent you?”

The demons gathered their courage: “Even if we tell you, you won’t spare us!”

Before He Liansheng could speak.

Xing Shuishui said from beside him, “Spare you? Have you forgotten what you’ve done? When you used an entire nation’s people as vessels to cultivate the Luoyu flower, did you never think this day would come?”

The white-robed demons stammered, “We, we were forced!”

Forced?

Earlier, she’d heard the Xia brothers say the Luoyu flowers had been plaguing the Luodan Kingdom for a long time.

Xing Shuishui pondered. Plus, in the dream, Du Dizhu had said the Luoyu flower’s effects were probabilistic. During this time, how much cultivation power had that person gained through the Luoyu flower?

The white-robed demons said, “We were just small spirits living freely in the mountains, but then… we accidentally encountered a cultivator. She immediately captured all of us, fed us poison, and threatened that if we didn’t do as she said, she wouldn’t give us the antidote. Please spare us, immortals! We just wanted to live!”

Li Guanxing didn’t believe them: “Do you hear yourself? A cultivator abandoning proper cultivation to use poison to threaten you into causing havoc in Luodan Kingdom!”

The white-robed demon said, “I swear, may heaven strike me down if I speak falsely! If the immortals don’t believe us, you can investigate yourself.”

Li Guanyu stepped forward to cast a detection spell and frowned: “They are indeed poisoned, and strangely so. I can’t even identify what kind it is. Perhaps only the Shangguan family would know.”

The white-robed demons chimed in: “We didn’t want to harm anyone, we really were forced! Who would want to manage these broken manors otherwise?”

After all this effort, they’d only caught some small fry. Xing Shuishui didn’t know what these Lingshan people were thinking. Li Guanxing’s face was almost green with anger: “Since you say you were forced, who is this cultivator you speak of? What distinguishing features do they have?”

Several white-robed demons shook their heads together.

He Liansheng drew his sword, his tone ice cold: “Shall I help you remember?”

The white-robed demons feared him most and hurriedly said: “Wait wait wait wait wait—one moment!”

One of them seemed to recall something: “That cultivator was female.”

More followed.

“That cultivator was especially powerful, with high cultivation.”

“That cultivator was skilled with poisons!”

“That cultivator seemed very afraid of being recognized! She didn’t use a sword or magical tools, and wore a white veil to cover her face!”

“Though that female cultivator deliberately disguised her voice, it was beautiful!”

Li Guanxing: “Isn’t this all useless information?”

After asking for so long and getting nothing but useless details, He Liansheng’s gaze turned cold. Those white-robed demons were good at reading faces.

“I remember now, that female cultivator is in Qingzhou! Every time we prepare the Luoyu flower paste, she has us deliver it to a courtyard in Qingzhou. Only if there’s no problem will she give us a month’s worth of antidote.”

Li Guanxing asked with folded arms: “You have to make deliveries every month?”

The white-robed demons nodded.

He Liansheng asked: “What do you need so many Luoyu flowers for?”

The white-robed demons said weakly: “It’s not us. It’s that female cultivator. We just transport the Luoyu flowers. Seems like they’re used for pill refining…”

Li Guanyu said: “The Luoyu flower has harmed Luodan for many years, luring innocent people to nourish the flowers with their flesh and blood. If not for us, you would still be obstinate in your ways.”

The white-robed demons kept kowtowing: “Immortal, we know we were wrong, but we had no choice. If we had the antidote we definitely wouldn’t do it again.” Li Guanxing sneered: “Still talking about antidotes? We’re being merciful not killing you all on the spot! Quickly tell us the location of that courtyard in Qingzhou. I want to see who’s bold enough to reach so far.”

He pointed at the group of white-robed demons and asked He Liansheng: “How should we deal with them?”

He Liansheng said: “Take them back to Lingshan for punishment.”

The white-robed demons turned deathly pale at hearing the word “Lingshan.” Li Guanxing grumbled: “My demon-suppressing pagoda is full. Sister, how about yours?”

Li Guanyu said: “Mine is almost full too.”

Now only He Liansheng’s was left. Xing Shuishui focused her gaze on He Liansheng.

The young man took out a pagoda the size of a grain of rice from within his crossed collar. When his knuckle touched the pagoda, as if triggering some mechanism, the pagoda quickly expanded like a water-absorbing sponge until it was large enough to hold in his hand.

Looking down at them he said: “Collect.”

With a flash of golden light from the demon-suppressing pagoda, the white-robed demons vanished.

So that’s where he kept his demon-suppressing pagoda!

Xing Shuishui took a deep breath. How could she steal it? Unless he was drugged unconscious, who would dare grope around on his body? If discovered midway, wouldn’t she be cut into pieces on the spot?

The rescued people of Luodan Kingdom were confused at first, until their minds and memories returned. They fell to their knees.

“Immortals! Thank you for saving us! If the immortals hadn’t come in time, we would have been drained dry by these demon flowers!”

“I knew there was something strange about that flower’s fragrance! As soon as we entered Luoshen Manor we felt dazed. We thought it was Xue Zhuangxin’s ghost haunting us!”

“Thanks to the immortals! Truly heaven blesses our Luodan!”

They chattered away as Li Guanyu smiled and helped them up, somewhat embarrassed.

Xing Shuishui looked at He Liansheng. He Liansheng glanced at her. The young woman had her head lowered, her figure thin, looking a bit dazed.

He couldn’t help but recall those three days in the dream technique: how she had walked toward him holding an umbrella, how she had crouched with bent knees to build a fire for warmth, and how she had dozed off sitting up, her head bobbing up and down.

It wasn’t that he hadn’t seen women before.

But someone like Xing Shuishui—foolish and simple, yet full of lies with unclear motives—was a first.

She clearly hadn’t done anything. After multiple tests she probably wasn’t a demon.

But ever since she appeared, many things had started developing in strange directions. Even He Liansheng had a strange feeling he couldn’t quite place.

She seemed to still be lost in thought.

He Liansheng’s expression shifted unpredictably. He usually acted without warning. He had meant to just walk away and let this fool trip when the red thread connecting their wrists pulled her.

But somehow.

He Liansheng stopped and said to her: “Keep up. Stop daydreaming.”

Xing Shuishui came back to her senses.

The young man said fiercely: “I won’t repeat myself.”