Chapter 42.2
Face-Slapping the White Lotus Merman (2.2)
Editor: ghost
Ming Chi wanted to reject him but he raised his head to see Zhao Shuxuan crying again.
Speechless, he perfunctorily nodded his head and answered, “Sure.”
Meanwhile in the Dragon King’s palace, Zhou Xu found out that An Si had escaped.
Slightly smiling, Zhou Xu did not take it seriously. In any case, An Si had limited skills; he was unworthy of entering his eyes. In addition, Zhou Xu was busy finding someone and had no time to care about a crybaby.
When An Si found Zhao Shuxuan, the latter had just woken up to work on his arm strength. However he had not yet started before he was hugged by someone.
“Ah, you are all right, unexpectedly, really all right. That’s great, ” An Si threw himself into Zhao Shuxuan’s embrace. Looking at Zhao Shuxuan’s state, he knew what stage he was at, hence he consoled, “Don’t worry, you only need to persistently train and a year later you will recover.”
Zhao Shuxuan blinked his eyes. He looked at the beautiful lady who looked like she came out of a painting and asked, “Miss, who are you?”
An Si was stunned He looked at the handsome man in front of him, then remembered that he knew nothing. From start to end, it had been just An Si who had been working hard to save him.
Wiping his tears, An Si felt wronged as he sobbed, “I am An Si. I’m the one who saved you.”
Zhao Shuxuan looked at An Si. He was gentle and delicate; this tear-stained beauty had a miserable yet still beautiful appearance.
“You saved me?”
“Yes, I saved you. Also I’m not a woman, but a man.”
“You are male…” Zhao Shuxuan noticed An Si’s Adam’s apple and quietly swallowed the words he was going to say. He awkwardly changed the topic, “How did you save me?”
“I saw you lying on the beach, dead, but I…” An Si slightly paused. His fair skin turned a bit red, looking especially moving. Although he was a man, his beauty made people unable to take their eyes off him, “Then I secretly took the Dragon King’s palace’s revival pill. When I fed it to you, I was chased by the second prince of the Dragon King and was locked up in prison for more than a month before I could come out.”
“Really?” Zhao Shuxuan asked, but he already believed him in his heart. An Si had mentioned the revival pill and the timeline coincided with his. Moreover, it was impossible for the two white-haired elders to know about the revival pill.
“It’s indeed true. At that time, you were unconscious. The second prince even used his commonly-used move against us. When you awoke, you should have seen many small injuries all over your body. It was the same for me. Moreover, I had secretly protected you then, otherwise your injuries would have been even worse.”
This time, Zhao Shuxuan truly could not be suspicious. When he had regained consciousness, the tiny injuries on his body could not lie.
“It was really you?” Zhao Shuxuan was a bit touched. He wanted to raise his hand but could not exert any strength to do so. He could only tearfully say, “Thank you. I am really unable to repay this great kindness. If I recover my health, I will definitely do my utmost to repay you.”
“No no no. I didn’t do this for repayment. I only felt that you should not die. I hope that I can accompany you, is that okay? Otherwise, the second prince will capture me again and lock me up in prison. I don’t want to idle in prison again.”
“I’m sorry. It’s my fault that you were captured by them. I’ve truly wronged you.”
An Si slightly lowered his head. His face became somewhat red, “No, it’s nothing. As long as you are alright, I’m fine.”
Looking at his bashful appearance, Zhao Shuxuan’s heart pounded like a drum. He never knew that a man could be so beautiful and gentle, as well as kind-hearted and brave. It was as if a fairy maiden had appeared in his ordinary life.
The more he looked, the more he liked An Si. Zhao Shuxuan’s face also started to become red.
“I, I’ll teach you how you should train.” An Si said.
“Okay, then I’ll be troubling you to do so. Right, I am Zhao Shuxuan. You can just call me Shuxuan.”
“I am An Si.”
The two looked at each other and remained silent, ambiguity permeating the small room. That was until a noise from outside startled the two who were making eye contact. They then started training.
The process of training was very tough. Zhao Shuxuan had to exhaust all his energy to complete it. Every time he finished training, he will perspire all over and then awkwardly tell An Si, “Sorry, I’ve perspired a lot, I may smell. I’ll go and wash myself.”
And every time, An Si would slightly lower his head, softly replying, “No problem, I don’t mind.”
Throughout the year, the two continued being ambiguous every day. Zhao Shuxuan finally recovered after a year. He recovered so quickly because he had indeed put in effort, but An Si had a great contribution to it as well – he would mix in his blood with Zhao Shuxuan’s meals. A merman’s blood could speed up the healing process of wounds and had great benefits to someone overcoming paralysis. Of course, after more than ten months of being lovey-dovey, the two were finally together.
At present, Zhou Xu had given up on finding that person. He had no success after a year and decided to rely on fate. After all, he did not intentionally look for him in the past, but he had always managed to find him, or rather that person would always find him. Since this was the case, perhaps the more he took the trouble to look for him, the harder it was for things to go his way. Hence Zhou Xu threw the matter to one side and prepared to focus on getting revenge on the protagonists.
It was ridiculous that Zhou Xu had actually been killed by the Devil King yet he was merely a lackey of the protagonists.
However, since he was a lackey, the Devil King would definitely go and find the protagonists. If Zhou Xu found the protagonists, then he would definitely find the Devil King as well. In the original world, Zhou Xu’s martial prowess was below the Devil King’s.
Meanwhile, the Devil King was anxious. He had waited for an entire year, but still had not seen Zhou Xu. His little attendant Hong Yu was soon going to mock him to death. As the Devil King, he found himself quite depressed.
But holding onto the principle that he should not fight with women, he still endured.
In fact, to Ming Chi, Hong Yu was his little sister and he was very fond of her. It was a pity that this little sister grew up devious and it seemed that currently she was becoming more and more so.
On Hong Yu’s side: the most brilliant person in the devil world was trashy to this point; she already had no faith in men.
Ming Chi, who was anxious for a year, had waited until Zhao Shuxuan finally recovered, then agitatedly ran to find him to clarify his doubts. As a result, he found out that after a year of not meeting, that b.a.s.t.a.r.d had unexpectedly found a lover. Moreover, this lover was not just any person but precisely the beauty he saw last time, An Si.
Hong Yu followed behind Ming Chi. She looked at An Si and gulped down her saliva; it would be good if she had this kind of appearance.
The recovered Zhao Shuxuan was again an elegant and unrestrained handsome youth. He smiled as he said to Ming Chi, “Brother Ke, this is An Si, my…. lover. We will overthrow the rotten imperial court together.”
Hong Yu slowly turned her head to look at the person the Devil King had possessed. She paused at each word, saying, “You want to overthrow the rotten imperial court?”
Hong Yu’s eyes were filled with rage. This karma would definitely attract a grand heavenly calamity. At that time, even if he was the Devil King, he could be annihilated – turned into a puff of ashes and smoke.
The Devil King lightly patted Hong Yu’s shoulder and said, “Don’t worry, nothing will happen to me.”
Hong Yu was so angered her body shook from head to toe, “I will go and tell my mother. I’ll make her kill you, you unfilial son.”
This time, the Devil King lightly laughed and said to Hong Yu, “You’re so worried about me?”
Hong Yu flung her sleeves, “Worried your grandpa.”
Hong Yu turned to leave. The remaining three people looked at each other helplessly. Ming Chi lightly coughed and said, “Ahem, it’s nothing. Her temper is always like this; it’s better if you get used to it.”
“Oh.”
“Right, An Si, aren’t you a merman? How come you are here?”
An Si froze. Zhao Shuxuan also froze. Ming Chi pondered for a bit before saying, “Sorry, I’ve spoken blindly.”
Zhao Shuxuan turned his head to stare at An Si and asked, “An Si, didn’t you say you were just a mortal who is cultivating?”
An Si’s tears fell like rain. His miserable appearance made Zhao Shuxuan soften his heart, “An Si, it’s alright. Regardless of whether you are human or not, I will still like you.”
“Ying ying ying, really? I was afraid that you wouldn’t be able to accept that I was a merman so I didn’t dare mention it. I really love you, Shuxuan… I didn’t want to conceal it; I was just too scared and too in love with you…”
Zhao Shuxuan quickly embraced An Si, patting his back to console him, “It’s okay, it’s okay. I was at fault for not giving you the confidence to say it. An Si, in the future I won’t ask you anything. I also like you.”
Ming Chi looked at the two hugging and could only quietly turn to look at the roof. He realised that this room was quite damaged.
A few months later, Zhao Shuxuan’s troops started to increase in scale, but the drought began to worsen.
Zhou Xu knew that the human world was already in the midst of suffering and the troops that were rising in rebellion were not just one or two.
The one of the most welcomed troops was Zhao Shuxuan’s Chidai Army and it was wholly because their other leader was Ke Yuanlin.
Ke Yuanlin was originally a great general of the imperial court. After he was exiled, he formed this army with Zhao Shuxuan.
Another quite well-received army was the Zhanlan army and their leader was originally a monk who practised the martial arts.
The monk’s clerical name was Xu Yuan and the temple he resided in was closed down by local authorities. All the monks had no choice but to leave the monastic order and resume their normal life or wander far to other temples to seek blessings.
Xu Yuan did not leave. He remained to form the Zhanlan troops and did not change his name.
He had travelled everywhere in the past. Seeing the human world plagued with hardship, he abandoned his pursuit of the Buddhist texts and took up his spear; he realised that no matter how much he prayed for good fortune for the common people, they were still suffering yet those in power were indifferent.
The current emperor was so mesmerised by the prospect of eternal youth that he wanted to increase taxes despite the country experiencing a great drought, in order to build a spirit-gathering palace.
Xu Yuan’s troops mostly came from the north while Zhao Shuxuan’s troops were from the south; all of them were impoverished people.
Zhou Xu knew that in the previous world, the Devil King followed Zhao Shuxuan’s troops. He faintly laughed. Zhou Xu would help Xu Yuan’s troops. It was not certain who would win in the end.
As shown in the information Zhou Xu received at the beginning, the human world was already experiencing a great drought; there had been no rain for the past few months in the entire country.
The land cracked, the rivers dried up and the flora withered. The entire world seemed as if it had entered purgatory.
Starvation drove people mad. Cases of arson, murder and robbery exponentially increased, making the lives of the common people even harder.
Zhou Xu was expressionless as he observed the happenings in the world. He was not a G.o.d nor a benevolent Buddha, but he was happy to s.n.a.t.c.h away the protagonist’s halo.
But before that, he needed to first find Xu Yuan. If he was some degenerate, then Zhou Xu would be disinclined to help him.
Travelling by controlling the wind, Zhou Xu quickly found the Zhanlan troops’ camping ground. Without hesitation, Zhou Xu drew open a tent and entered.
Behind the tent’s curtain was a bald monk whose eyes were shut, sitting on a prayer mat as if in meditation.
Zhou Xu had not yet opened his mouth when the person spoke, “Brother, take a seat since you have arrived.”
Seeing that his eyes were still closed, Zhou Xu smiled slightly; he felt that this person was quite interesting.
Translator’s Note:
i see my stockpile going down real fast;;; anyway, see you next monday! it’s been one h.e.l.l of a busy week and my results are coming back next week… all the best to anyone in the same situation