Chapter 138 Gaze

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“You have already fought it once, and the result was mutual injury. Now that it has consumed so much vital blood, are you certain you can still defeat it?” Cui Dandan asked calmly, looking at Wu Yang.

A hideous wound ran from Wu Yang’s temple to his chin. It was impossible to tell what kind of weapon had caused it—perhaps claws, perhaps teeth.

Aside from that ghastly injury, similar wounds covered every inch of skin exposed beyond his clothes. Some had already scabbed over, while others still revealed tender pink flesh beneath.

“It is not like the intelligence-deficient monsters we encountered when we first entered the city. It clearly knows some kind of evil technique. It understands how to consume vital blood and strengthen itself,” Cui Dandan said calmly, gazing at Wu Yang’s eyes, which concealed a simmering rage.

Though she was furious herself, Cui Dandan understood that if she lost her composure, the situation would only grow worse and slip further beyond control.

Nor were they completely helpless. She still had a chance.

Cui Dandan glanced back at the main room of the inner courtyard. The handsome man who had slain the mutated centipede demon of the Mercy Dharma Temple was lying inside. As long as he awoke, nothing would be impossible.

“But if we do not deal with it, Cui Yaya will not be able to return to the city. If Cui Yaya cannot enter, he will not wake up either.”

Wu Yang also glanced back at the main room of the inner courtyard. He knew that once the handsome man inside awoke, none of their present troubles would matter.

He had witnessed that battle at the foot of Azure Pool Mountain. No one understood the man’s terrifying strength better than he did.

But the man was asleep now.

“If you go out there now, you will only be throwing your life away.” Cui Dandan looked at Wu Yang and warned him again. “Rather than die needlessly, wait until Cui Yaya returns. Then go out and create some disorder so that she can get inside.”

Wu Yang said nothing. He merely crushed another blue roof tile beneath the end of the long staff in his hand, then leaped from the roof.

Cui Dandan did not climb down the ladder nearby. Instead, she silently walked to the ridge of the roof and slowly sat down, now looking toward the entrance of Floating Dream House, now gazing at the Cui residence on the opposite side.

Grandfather was dead.

The grandfather who had doted on her had been killed by her own hand. If she had not insisted on finding someone to destroy the mutated centipede demon of the Mercy Dharma Temple, he would not have died.

The people at the foot of the mountain had once said that as long as the mutated centipede demon atop the Mercy Dharma Temple remained alive, Grandfather’s life would continue to be sustained by its demon essence.

Yet her father had never told her that.

Nor had Grandfather ever stopped her from eliminating the demonic monk of the Mercy Dharma Temple. Instead, he had even prevented the other members of the household from interfering with her actions.

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She did not understand.

Cui Dandan drew her legs together and rested her head lightly against her knees. Turning her head, she looked toward the tall pavilion rising within the Cui residence—the viewing tower her father had taken her to for the first time.

From its highest level, one could survey the entire cityscape of Floating Dream City.

Actors in the pleasure quarters sang their tunes and danced with graceful figures. The teahouses and taverns were crowded with people, while the colorful wares displayed by street vendors could be seen lining both sides of the roads.

Hawking peddlers and traveling merchants mingled with the cries of market sellers and street folk. The savory aroma drifting from the bun shops blended with the cheap powdery scent of the rouge stalls, forming wisps of smoky dust in the air.

But as a young girl, she had never seen the bones that occasionally appeared in the narrow alleys, nor the corpses lying dead in their sleep at the ends of lanes and street corners.

Those matters had nothing to do with her. She was the most cherished young lady of the Cui household; she would neither see such things nor come into contact with them.

All she could see was bustle and clamor, smoke and dust, pleasure and amusement.

If she had not run beyond the city walls that night and gone to Azure Pool Mountain, where she saw the Mercy Dharma Temple, revered and worshiped by the people and sustained by endless offerings of incense, she might have remained just like the young master of the Xu household for the rest of her life—

Unable to see clearly, unable to perceive the truth.

But now, confusion clouded her. And within that confusion, there was a rare trace of helplessness.

“Was it right... or was it wrong...?”

Cui Dandan murmured softly. Slowly, she opened her palm. The lines there had already become streaks of blood, crisscrossing one another.

“I do not know either...” she whispered, slowly curling her fingers into a fist.

Wu Yang had no idea what Cui Dandan was thinking about alone on the roof. He walked straight toward the inner courtyard. Instead of going first to the main room, he went to a side room on the other side.

Xie Xiushi’s forehead had already been bandaged. He lay quietly on the bed, his breathing steady. He appeared to be out of danger.

“I wonder how much of his fighting strength remains.”

Wu Yang no longer addressed Xie Xiushi as Master Xie. He silently stared at him for a moment, muttered under his breath, then left the side room and entered the main room.

Su Yuanbai lay quietly upon the bed, covered by a quilt.

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He showed no sign of breathing. His entire body was like an empty shell. At times, Wu Yang even had the illusion that the man lying on the bed was not unconscious at all, but a lifeless object devoid of every sign of life—

No different from a table, a chair, or a bench.

“Has he still shown no change?” Wu Yang asked, turning his eyes toward the maid, who had risen nervously from the table.

The maid had been specially transferred from the Cui residence by Cui Dandan to care for Su Yuanbai.

“This... young master has been like this since last night,” the maid replied hurriedly.

She stole a glance at Su Yuanbai on the bed, suffering in silence. She could not understand why the young lady had asked her to care for a dead man.

The man had neither a pulse nor any breath.

She had checked countless times during the night and had quietly reminded the young lady several times whenever she came to the room, but the young lady had paid no attention at all.

“Very well.”

Wu Yang did not linger. He turned and left the main room. He would not leave Cui Dandan alone in the outer courtyard for long. Who knew whether there might be a bad person among those sheltering there?

The maid breathed a sigh of relief. She had just closed the door of the main room and was about to rest for a while when she heard another knock.

Could Young Master Wu have forgotten to give her some instruction?

Puzzled, the maid went to the door and opened it, only to find a man standing outside. His skin was pitch-black, and a pair of ram’s horns grew from his forehead.

Her heart trembled, but she quickly composed herself. She had heard the young lady say that this man was the master of the residence—Xie Xiushi.

“Master Xie, you are awake? Have you come to see the young lady or Young Master Wu?” the maid asked respectfully, bowing at the waist.

She did not notice that Xie Xiushi’s eyes now held strange horizontal pupils. Around them, in the whites of his eyes, floated white substances resembling tufts of powder. A faint, putrid corpse stench also clung to him.

Yet the incense burning in the room concealed the odor, and the maid noticed nothing unusual.

Xie Xiushi did not answer her. Instead, he violently shoved aside the maid blocking his path and strode toward Su Yuanbai, who lay on the bed. Lowering his eyes, he stared down at him.