CHAPTER 58: CHAPTER 58: THOUSAND-YEAR VERMILION FRUIT

Rainy night, ancient temple.

Candlelight, sword shadows.

In a mere moment, the dimly-lit Nuwa Temple, modest in scale and sitting at the foot of the wilderness mountains, is soaked with thick, scarlet blood filling the cracks between the worn stones. It mixes with the dust accumulated over years, trampled under leather soles, squelching like mud with every step.

Nezha treads through this bloody mire, advancing step by step towards the ’Night Master.’ He seems weary, slowly squatting down.

On this chilly rainy night, he exhales a breath that shows white and clear, eyeing the other’s face that has turned purple with suffocation, he says, "If you knew it would come to this, why did you even begin?"

His fingers, clutching the Chaos Sky Silk, twitch, slightly loosening its grip.

"Cough! Cough!"

The woman keeps coughing. She looks up at Nezha, his youthful face brimming with a content smile, blood spattered across his fair skin.

Valued by King Wu Cheng, she was revered as the ’Night Master’ by her subordinates, tasked to sneak into Jue Long Ridge and steal the millenary Vermilion Fruit, rumored to prolong life, right under the watch of thousands of bandits and various forces.

Though she had faced enemies several times, even the cultivator in her team succumbing to fatal wounds, lost to the vast mountains during the escape, she had not once found herself in such dire straits, on the brink of death as now.

She giggles lightly and says, "Those four bandits, Deng, Xin, Zhang, Tao—have been gathering here for years, coveting the millenary Vermilion Fruit. I should have expected it wouldn’t be so easy to obtain. I, Huang Juan, accept my loss willingly; it’s just a pity I don’t know who outsmarted me. What’s your name, and which bandit’s lackey are you?"

After despair, she deliberately adopts a decisive demeanor like she’s seen through life and death, but a trace of fear in her eyes betrays her.

Her fingers and forearms tremble slightly; she is afraid. If so, she couldn’t have been so nonchalant in the face of death.

What is she hiding?

Nezha heard about the millenary Vermilion Fruit and the four lords, Deng, Xin, Zhang, Tao, knowing there’s a misunderstanding, but he doesn’t bother to explain.

He’s merely curious about the truth hidden beneath her cunning performance.

Out of curiosity, he feigns lowering his guard, arrogantly preparing to answer the woman’s question, saying, "I’ve told you already, my name is Li Zha, why don’t you—"

Nezha quickly sees it, the woman lightly opens her mouth, a flashing cold gleam in the midst of her tender tongue, the once calm Heaven and Earth Primordial Qi in the temple suddenly becomes chaotic!

Hidden weapons must be used when the enemy’s guard is at its lowest, to maximize their lethal potential.

Nezha has to admire the ruthlessness of the woman before him; even as she watched her companions fall one by one in pools of blood, she still awaited patiently in desperation, looking for that moment with the greatest chance of success.

He admits to himself he might not possess such patience, but unfortunately for her, that supposedly optimal, correct moment was still mistaken.

Nezha lightly raises his hand, a silver needle shot at his wrist, hitting the Qiankun Ring, snaps with a ’ting’ into two pieces, falling to the ground.

Nezha lowered his head and glanced at the needle tip on the ground that was emitting a purple glow, smiling, "Poison, huh? Strange, you’re clearly not a Cultivator, yet you can manipulate the Heaven and Earth Primordial Qi. Is it a magic treasure that even ordinary people can use?"

Seeing the smile on Nezha’s face, at that moment, this woman truly fell into despair, real despair. Her snowy-white face, once flushed with color, turned exceedingly pale, her eyes brimming with tears.

Seeing her remain silent, Nezha reached down to pick up the needle and asked, "Tell me, what do you think would happen if I were to prick your face with this needle?"

Upon hearing these words, the woman’s body suddenly shook, as if recalling something extremely horrendous. Then, her whole face twisted in fear, as tears naturally started flowing down from beneath her iron mask.

"No, don’t! I’ll give you anything you want, just name it."

Nezha reached out and removed her mask, looking at it twice, and sighed that indeed at times, it’s this kind of suggestive ambiguity that is most enchanting. Without the mask, the night mistress could be considered a beauty, but the feeling she gave off was completely different from just a moment ago.

He sighed and said, "Seeing how frightened you are, I suppose the consequences of this needle piercing flesh must be quite terrifying. Mr. Fan was right; delving into the mortal world, one finds many things far more sinister and vicious than what Cultivators wield."

As he searched her body with his hands, he thought to himself that he was merely a seven-year-old child, and this certainly didn’t count as taking advantage. Moreover, his goal was to search for something—the woman had just said she obtained the thousand-year Vermilion Fruit, a highly precious item, which of course should be kept close to the body for safety.

He certainly wouldn’t be doing this just because the woman had a slender waist, long legs, and flesh on her chest.

Absolutely not!

Sure enough, underneath the woman’s cloak, tied tightly around her waist, he found a firmly sealed and heavy cowhide pouch.

Seeing the change in the woman’s eyes, Nezha felt delighted.

"I believe you have no more tricks up your sleeve, but since you just attacked me using such treacherous and venomous methods, I must take further precautions. I’m truly sorry."

As soon as he finished speaking, Nezha rose to his feet, stepped on the woman’s thigh, and with a crack, her thigh bone snapped. A shrill scream echoed through the rainy night, immediately drowned out by the continuous peals of thunder.

Nezha shook his head and said, "Don’t be in a rush, it’s not over yet. Hang in there; it might hurt a bit."

He reached out, placed his hand on the woman’s shoulder, and with a light tap, her shoulder blades were shattered.

The woman opened her mouth—she was in so much pain she could no longer speak. Her face turned pale, while large beads of sweat rolled down her forehead one by one.

It was only after Nezha withdrew the Chaos Sky Silk that she seemed to finally regain her senses. Seeing her arms limp and one leg broken, even if Nezha left her alone, in the absence of anyone to rescue her, she would never manage to leave the mountain alive, and she couldn’t help but feel utterly heartbroken.

Nezha turned back to search through the scattered remains, saying as he looked around, "I actually wasn’t lying to you before; my name was indeed Li Zha once, only later did I change it. And I was purely passing by—if you hadn’t troubled me or even attempted to kill me, I wouldn’t have killed you."

"I am actually quite an honest person; I’ve never even killed a chicken before... apart from killing one Yaksha and two Crab Generals, I really haven’t killed anything else. But being honest doesn’t mean I’m without temper. Since you’ve provoked me, naturally I have to seek revenge."

The combined possessions of these guards amounted to less than a hundred Silver, not even enough to buy their armor sets, and even the bottoms of these Silver Ingots were engraved with tiger head insignias.

Nezha extended his thumb and carefully rubbed away the engravings of these insignias, then rolled these uniformly shaped Silver Ingots in his palm like putty, before returning to the woman’s front.

He spoke, "The night is still long, and there are some questions I’d like to ask you. For instance, who are you, who do you work for, and why are you here."