Chapter Ninety-Two: A Delicate Stratagem of Beauty in Thin Garments

The sinister aura of this gale was heavy indeed. It seemed that a nest of monsters was already rushing this way.

Zi Lian stopped in his tracks. No longer struggling to shake off my arm, he lowered his brows slightly, his expression grave as he lifted his gaze toward the bamboo grove.

Seeing that he had no intention of moving on, I also ceased my shuffling and turned to look with him.

“Hahahaha...”

A shrill laugh rose up, chilling to the bone, drawing nearer from afar little by little, the harsh sound scraping against the eardrums.

“Mon... monsters?”

I swallowed hard and hurried to my feet, hiding behind Zi Lian. One hand clutched his robe tightly while I watched the bamboo grove with caution, wary that some spirit might suddenly fly out from nowhere and injure both him and me.

A fierce gust swept past, and four female demons in green garments appeared before us. Their faces were all passably pretty, each wearing a vivid green belly-wrap that blended perfectly with the color of the bamboo forest.

From the looks of their cultivation, they had only trained for a few hundred years at most, and were inferior even to me as I was now. Coming here in a small crowd to pick a fight, they might outnumber us, but their power probably did not even amount to one little finger of Zi Lian’s. So brazenly coming here to trouble him, they were likely here on a suicide mission.

Still, no one would be so reckless as to joke with their own life. Enduring the pain in my eyes, I examined the scraps of cloth hanging from them. The way these spirits dressed was truly economical with fabric; the garments on their bodies barely covered the important parts. If a gust of wind came along and lifted those bits of cloth, there would be hardly any difference between that and nakedness.

I thought to myself: could it be that, knowing their magic would not compare with Zi Lian’s, they had dressed so breezily in order to use beauty against him?

“Little Fish.”

Zi Lian called to me.

“Yes, Master.”

I answered and shrank back, hiding behind him once more, using his body to shield mine.

Zi Lian said with ease, “Go sit on that stone. Sit there properly and do not move. Unless I give the order, remember not to come over and disturb me.”

“Disturb you?”

Disturb what? Disturb how? Could it be that he really intended to fall for those green creatures’ beauty trap? As I thought this, I had to admit it: with such specimens, my Zi Lian’s tastes were truly severe.

“Why are you still standing there? Hurry up and sit on the stone.”

Seeing that I would not move, Zi Lian urged me on with a hint of displeasure.

“Yes, Master.”

There was no helping it. I had to obey whatever my master said, who else would I be if not his one and only cutest senior disciple? At worst, I would wait until he was just about to be ensnared by the beauty trap, then rush over and stop him.

The wind rolled through the woods; branches swayed, and bamboo leaves rustled.

The demon women had already begun to form their array, yet Zi Lian remained still, standing there motionless as if nothing had happened at all. Could he have actually dozed off while standing there? I was not at ease, so I hopped down from the stone and crept to one side. Going a little farther, I drew a little nearer to him. I wanted to see whether Zi Lian was really nodding off as I suspected.

Glancing over, I saw his eyes half-closed, his head dipping now and then, as if he were weary and on the verge of sleep. His thick, delicate lashes trembled lightly in the wind.

“Master, Master.”

I called him softly a few times, only to see his head suddenly sink, then pause. After that, he opened his eyes and looked around to the left and right before turning back to me and asking, “Weren’t you sitting on the stone? Why have you come over here again?”

“I-I, I...”

I stammered, not knowing how to explain it to him.