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Chapter 339: If It Wasn't For the Pressures of Life

"Then I arrived in Taotie City just earlier and happened to hear that you're looking for a Human-Faced Xiao."

The young lady briefly recounted what she'd experienced.

Chu Liang had just received the news about the Human-Faced Xiao the day before. The villagers had probably just spread the news, and the Pavilion of Celestial Fate then immediately passed the information to Chu Liang. That was how Chu Liang managed to have such a timely encounter with the young lady who had fought the Human-Faced Xiao.

Chu Liang glanced at the imposing large black dog behind the young lady and asked, "Is that Hua Hua?"

"Yes." The girl nodded. "I'm Ling'er, and this is Hua Hua."

Chu Liang smiled and said, "But it only has one color all over its body..."[1]

"Who said that?" The young lady, Miss Ling'er, huffed. "Hua Hua, stick out your tongue."

The black dog had a rather calm temperament. Instead of refusing the young lady’s request, Hua Hua's eyes just showed a sense of helplessness and great affection toward her. It stuck out its scarlet tongue briefly to indulge the young lady's request and then immediately retracted it.

That showed that Hua Hua did not have just one color; it had two.

Chu Liang couldn't help but chuckle at that. "Haha."

Miss Ling'er thought for a moment and then added, "Don't be fooled by its all black fur. It's got many 'flowers'[2] in our hometown; it's intimate with many little female dogs—"

"Woof woof..." Hua Hua hurriedly barked softly.

It seemed to be saying... Please stop. That's enough.

After leaving Taotie City, Miss Ling'er climbed onto Hua Hua's back and then patted Chu Liang's shoulder.

She said, "Get on."

Hua Hua was a large dog, but it was ultimately still just a dog. With a teenage girl already sitting on its back, there wasn't much room left for Chu Liang to get on as well.

Seeing that, Chu Liang smiled and replied, "It's okay. I'll just follow you."

"Acting like you've got it all handled..." Miss Ling'er scoffed before turning away. "Well, up to you. I'll have Hua Hua fly slower."

With a swoosh, Hua Hua soared into the sky.

Once Chu Liang was up in the sky as well, he found that Miss Ling'er hadn't simply spoken those words out of courtesy. As soon as Hua Hua took off, it turned into a gust of black wind, flying at an unimaginable fast speed that an average fourth-realm cultivator would not be able to keep up with!

Fortunately, Chu Liang's sword-flying skills were far superior to that of cultivators at the same realm as him. He was able to follow Hua Hua on his sword at a steady pace.

After taking off, Miss Ling'er had intended to pat Hua Hua to have it slow down. However, she swept her divine sense over to Chu Liang and noticed he was following at a steady pace. Feeling quite surprised, Miss Ling'er didn't get Hua Hua to slow down in the end.

The Boundary Marker Mountain was not far from Taotie City; they arrived in a short time.

In ancient times, this place had been part of a battlefield, and humans had erected a monument there. It was considered one of Taotie City's outposts. Even after so many years, some ancient ruins and artifacts would occasionally be unearthed nearby. Nevertheless, most of them were worthless, so few people went there to search for treasures. It was totally unlike the ancient lands of the Southern Bastion Mountain, which attracted countless explorers every year like moths to a flame.

Hua Hua stopped at the mouth of a valley.

Miss Ling'er said, "This was where I lost track of the Human-Faced Xiao last night. From here, we can have Hua Hua lead the way as it follows the Human-Faced Xiao's trail."

Chu Liang replied, "Then I'll have to trouble you, Miss Ling'er."

The young lady waved off Chu Liang's courteous words and took out a pill. She fed the pill to Hua Hua, patted its head, and followed it, walking forward in large strides.

As she walked, Miss Ling'er grumbled, "I thought I was quite unlucky to encounter this Human-Faced Xiao. I put in a lot of effort, but I ended up failing to kill it, so I didn't receive a reward from the villagers either. But who knew that I would meet you the moment I returned to Taotie City? It seems my fate is tied to this creature."

Chu Liang suddenly asked curiously, "Miss Ling'er, why are you doing this job where you exorcize evil from places for others?"

He asked that because he didn't think the young lady was an unorthodox cultivator.

To put it simply, the Spirit-Energy Raising Pill that Miss Ling'er had fed to the dog was similar to the ones the Mount Shu Sect fed to Bai Ze. The reward for exorcizing one evil spirit for the villagers wouldn't be enough to buy one of those pills. This behavior didn't seem like that of someone from the martial community, who were known for their meticulous planning and careful handling of financial matters.

"Haaa..." The young lady sighed and rolled her eyes. "My father died early, my mother is bedridden, and my younger brother has just reached the age where he has to start going to school. If it wasn't for the pressures of life, who would want to do this?"

...

As they entered Boundary Marker Mountain through the mountain pass, Hua Hua's expression became cautious and fierce, its black eyes gleaming with cold light. Hua Hua picked up the scent of the Human-Faced Xiao and followed its trail.

Ordinary ghosts didn't have corporeal bodies and would sometimes disappear during the daytime, reappearing at night. The Human-Faced Xiao didn't have this issue though, as it was a rare ghost with a corporeal body and thus existed at all times.

However, those cunning Human-Faced Xiao wouldn't typically enter human settlements. This particular Human-Faced Xiao hiding in the Boundary Marker Mountain had dared to descend into the human village to steal livestock because it had already matured. When the villagers tried to stop it, it even injured a villager, almost killing them with one swipe of its claw.

Crack...

The Boundary Marker Mountain was overgrown with trees. It was to the extent that they blocked out the sun, making it very dark on the mountain. The ground was covered with twigs and dead grass. Each step that the two humans and one dog took was noisy, the dead plant matter crunching underfoot.

Yet, there were no sounds of insects or birds. There was a saying that this place had been a battlefield in the ancient past. To this day, it still exuded such an intense murderous aura that ordinary birds and beasts were unwilling to live here.

After walking for nearly a quarter of an hour, Hua Hua suddenly crouched down and let out a low growl toward a path up ahead that led deep into the mountain.

"Grrrr..."

"Be careful. Hua Hua has found the target!" Miss Ling'er yelled.

Chu Liang had already spread out his divine sense, but he couldn't detect anything besides the dense yin qi.

While he was still feeling doubtful, the large black dog sprang forward! It looked like a streak of black lightning!

Whoosh—

Sand and stone suddenly flew up from the ground!

Before Chu Liang and Miss Ling'er could go after Hua Hua, a gale blasted out from the path with a wave of black qi, forcing them to keep their eyes closed! The wind was mixed with frigid yin qi that pierced like arrows!

"Miss Ling'er, be careful!"

Chu Liang immediately opened up the Green Leaf Umbrella in front of him. The sounds of the yin qi hitting the umbrella rang out incessantly.

"I'm fine. Go after Hua Hua!"

Miss Ling'er darted forward and raised the bracelet of five-colored ropes on her wrist. The ropes immediately turned into colorful clouds, surrounding her and blocking all the attacks hidden in the fierce wind.

With the Green Leaf Umbrella shielding him from the wind, Chu Liang was able to move faster, and he quickly caught up to Hua Hua. He went down that path, venturing deep into the mountain.

Then he saw a huge egg-shaped nest made of gathered leaves and twigs. It was quite wide and contained many of what seemed like bone fragments of the recently deceased. This was likely the Human-Faced Xiao's nest.

Just as Chu Liang stepped inside, he heard someone cry out, "Come save me!"

He turned to see Miss Ling'er sitting on the ground. There was a bleeding wound on her ankle.

Chu Liang's first reaction was not to approach but to ask a question.

"What happened to you?"

"Hua Hua has gone mad! It's being controlled by the Human-Faced Xiao!" Miss Ling'er shouted.

A beam of black light suddenly shot out from above the nest. It was the large black dog, Hua Hua!

Hua Hua charged out with a flurry of leaves and its mouth wide open. It was ferociously baring its teeth at Miss Ling'er!

It looked like Hua Hua was about to snap its owner in half with one bite!

Miss Ling'er hurriedly moved to avoid the attack, but she was too late. Hua Hua bit her thigh, and blood spurted out all over!

"Save me! Help me hold it down!" Miss Ling'er yelled.

Hua Hua let out a muffled growl as it bit Miss Ling'er repeatedly, seemingly determined to rip her apart!

Faced with a decision at this critical juncture, Chu Liang raised his hand, and a beam of golden light suddenly shot out from it!

Wham!

It was the Flying Brick Technique!

The Demon-Revealing Brick swiftly smashed into Miss Ling'er's head, making her bad situation even worse!

Black light poured out of her head, and Miss Ling'er instantly transformed into a gray large-headed Human-Faced Xiao!

The Human-Face Xiao howled in pain and cursed, "You wretched creature, I will never coexist with you under the same sky!"

It turned out that this Miss Ling'er had been a Human-Faced Xiao in disguise. The matured Human-Faced Xiao had the ability to change its form, making it hard to identify it. But unfortunately for the Human-Faced Xiao, it had encountered a highly skilled spirit dog! There was even someone who could throw bricks!

The real Miss Ling'er ran in and chased the Human-Faced Xiao. She raised her hand and shot three beams of silver light toward the Human-Faced Xiao.

Seeing that, the Human-Faced Xiao gritted its teeth and turned to flee.

Suddenly, there was the sound of flesh being ripped! The Human-Faced Xiao tore off its own leg!

Clang, clang, clang.

The three beams of silver light hit empty spots. The Human-Faced Xiao was extremely fast and disappeared into the forest in the blink of an eye!

At this moment, a beam of white sword qi broke through the air!

Slash—

It cleaved the Human-Faced Xiao in two with a single strike!

Behind the Human-Faced Xiao, Chu Liang deactivated the sword seal with full satisfaction.

He snorted coldly and scoffed, "You think you can escape?"

1. Hua Hua is literally “flower” x2. Basically means pretty and flowery. Stuff with flowers are also usually associated with being colourful, hence Chu Liang's little joke here. ☜

2. This part here is a word play on the dog's name again. I assume it's referring to the term 花花公子(hua hua gong zi), which means playboy/casanova. It's probably continuing on from how the dog's fur isn't colourful, just plain black. Despite that, the female dogs find Hua Hua attractive. ☜