CH 269

Translator: Truth

Editor: Dhael Ligerkeys

The sentries closest to the female apparition fared worse than him. Even Liu Sanbao wore a pained look on his face.

“Roar!” 

Thankfully, Amber was here to seal the deal. From Lu Ye’s shoulder, it let out a mighty roar that not only suppressed the female apparition’s cry, but also stunned her for a brief instant. When she came to, she realized that the tiger was not an ordinary one and watched it warily.

Amber pounced toward the female apparition and inhaled at her. Knowing she was in danger, she played a note on her pipa and sent it flying from her. It even flipped a couple of times in mid-air.

Yi Yi immediately emerged from Amber’s body and fired a spell at the female apparition. At the same time, Lu Ye rushed forward and brought down his saber.

The female apparition was able to block the spell but not Lu Ye’s attack. The aura surrounding her body flashed once.

Not a moment too soon, the surrounding sentries tossed their Spirit Shackling Ropes, and Liu Sanbao his three dice at the female apparition.

The female apparition placed her long, slender fingers on a couple of strings and plucked them hard, freezing most of the Spirit Shackling Ropes in mid-air and shattering the rest.

“Waaaaaaaaaah…” She began crying again.

“Roar!” Amber immediately countered with its roar, and it was even louder than last time. A visible shockwave washed over the female apparition and stifled her cry. Her expression looked pained as well.

Lu Ye immediately brought down his saber a second time.

“Waaaaaah…”

“Roar!”

Thwack!

“Waaah…”

“Roar!”

Thwack…

The female apparition was crying for real after that. Giant droplets of tears slid down her cheeks as she hugged her pipa close and stared at Lu Ye like a bullied child. Unfortunately for her, her customer this time was a tough one. Not only could he not recite poems or compose rhyming couplets, he was also a shouter and an abuser…

A while later, Amber swallowed the depressed female apparition and converted her into a Ghost Spirit. Naturally, Lu Ye was extremely pleased with this outcome.

He asked Amber to release the female apparition to check on her condition. Just like Liu Sanbao, her cultivation level had fallen to the Ninth-Order.

Her expression was blank, and her eyes had lost their soul stealing quality. She was hugging her pipa, but her movement and posture were much stiffer than before. He could see a hint of her former fragility though.

Unfortunately, this was one of the major flaws of Amber’s ability. Any apparition it converted into Ghost Spirits would turn into mindless drones.

Lu Ye examined the pipa in the female apparition’s hands for a moment and noted that it was similar to Liu Sanbao’s dice cup. At the beginning, he had thought that the dice cup was a Spirit Artifact. However, he soon realized that it was really a manifestation of his power. It was neither real nor false like the apparition himself.

With that done, he gave his small army of Ghost Spirits a look over. Excluding Yi Yi, he had thirty one Ghost Spirits and only fourteen of them were ordinary sentries; the rest were two special apparitions and fifteen sentry leaders.

This was so much better than the force he had when he had neutralized Chu Qing’s ambush. If he had such a force back then, not a single one of them would’ve been able to make it out alive.

Suddenly, he realized that he had forgotten to ask the female apparition her name. It wasn’t a problem though. He mentally labeled her as “Pipa Girl” before resuming his exploration.

Two hours later, Lu Ye stood in front of a compound with tall walls and stared at the lantern hanging at the entrance. He then pushed open the door and walked in.

A compound like this was pretty rare in the city. Its owner was probably an important person before they passed away. He could vaguely hear the sound of running water from nearby.

Lu Ye’s gaze was immediately drawn to a shade of red at a corner of the compound. A slender woman was sitting on a swing with her back to him.

Lu Ye could barely control his delight as he praised his good fortune. Before this, he had been searching for special apparitions like Liu Sanbao. Now, he had run into both Pipa Girl and this mysterious woman in just two hours! Perhaps special apparitions weren’t as rare as he thought after all. The reason he hadn’t run into them earlier was probably because he was unlucky or because they were killed by other cultivators.

The swing gently swayed back and forth. The woman’s dress was long enough that it dragged against the ground.

Lu Ye was just about to ask Amber to release the Ghost Spirits and communicate with the woman when suddenly, he turned as stiff as a statue.

He rubbed both his eyes before staring at the woman in red dress intently. When he confirmed that he wasn’t mistaken, he hurriedly clamped his hand around Amber’s mouth.

The tiger looked at him innocently. It just wanted to yawn…

He then slowly shuffled backward while trying his best not to make a sound.

Boom!

Suddenly, the wooden door he came through a moment ago slammed shut behind him. He immediately rammed his shoulder into it because it looked rotten enough to shatter at the slightest touch. It didn’t work though. It felt as solid as the stones that made up the walls of this compound.

He wasn’t out of tricks though. Spiritual Power surged into his back as a pair of fiery red wings burst into existence. He soared into the air and tried to jump over the wall, but he was frozen in place at the last second by an invisible energy. Even his Spiritual Power was completely frozen, causing his wings to disappear into nothing.

Cold sweat poured down Lu Ye’s forehead like a waterfall. Alarm bells rang loudly in his head as he stared at the woman in the red dress. Suddenly, he understood exactly how his enemies felt when they found out that the person they thought was prey, wasn’t. It was an emotional roller coaster alright.

His senses had tingled immediately after he saw the woman’s aura or rather, a lack thereof.

He had seen three people with no apparent aura in his life. They were Sister Shui Yuan, the Sect Master, and Lady Yun.

Sister Shui Yuan was a True Lake Realm Master, and the Sect Master and Lady Yun Divine were Ocean Realm Masters. The reason he couldn’t see their auras was because they were way beyond his level.

This was also why Lu Ye had wanted to escape the moment he realized this. It was because the woman in the red dress was most likely unbeatable even with an army of Ghost Spirits on his side.

Of course, there was a chance she didn’t have any Spiritual Power because she was powerless. For starters, non-cultivators did not have an aura.

This was the Lost City of Xianyuan though. How could there be an apparition who was completely powerless?

Even if she was an exception to the rule, there would be no point in converting her into a Ghost Spirit. He wanted to capture special apparitions because they were powerful, not the opposite.

In any case, avoiding the woman was his only option.

Unfortunately, he was too late. The door was closed, and his Spiritual Power was sealed. The worst part was that the woman in the red dress had done all this without lifting a finger. She had not moved an inch from her swing.

As it turned out, the information of the Divine Trade Association wasn’t so reliable after all. At the very least, there was no mention of such a terrifying existence in the Lost City of Xianyuan.

[I want my money back!]

Suddenly, the woman began singing. Her voice was soft, but it sounded like she was singing right next to his ears. The melody flowed straight into his soul.

Lu Ye relaxed not because the melody was soothing, but because he was resigned to his fate. What was the point in resisting when the enemy was so obviously beyond his power? He might as well see where this goes.

Speaking of which, every special apparition in the Lost City of Xianyuan inherited an obsession or a hobby from when they were still alive. Liu Sanbao was a gambling addict, Pipa Girl wanted to recite poems and compose rhyming couplets, and this woman in red dress had launched into song without warning.

Did she want him to listen to her song? Or maybe she wanted him to reciprocate with a song of his own after she was done?

In any case, there was still hope. The fact that the apparition only trapped him here instead of killing him outright meant there was still a chance he might escape with his life—but only if he made the right choices.

So, he calmed his mind and listened closely to her song. What if she asked him about her song later, and he couldn’t give her an answer? It would be a horrible way to go.

Unfortunately, he could only tell that she was singing a tragic and sorrowful song. He could not make out a single word of what she was singing.

The emotions of the song infected him before he realized it. The song seemed to be a story of parting where two lovers were, for whatever reason, separated for thousands of years. All that was left was a woman who still yearned for her lover to this day.

An unknown amount of time later, the song that shook the soul finally faded into nothing. However, Lu Ye was unable to shake off the sorrow in his heart immediately even though he knew it was the influence of the song. It was quite tragic.

The swing stopped, and a quiet voice entered his ears, “Have you seen Tang Yuan?”

“You want to eat Tang Yuan (glutinous rice ball), miss?” Lu Ye sniffed while groaning on the inside. He had plenty of food inside his Storage Bag, but the large majority of them were jerkies. Of course he didn’t have stuff like Tang Yuan.

Her back still facing toward him, the woman in the red dress shook her head. “Tang Yuan is the name of my cat.”

“Oh. Sorry, but I haven’t seen it.”

She fell silent for a moment before saying, “Can you find Tang Yuan for me? It’s a dangerous world out there. I worry for its safety.”

“Sure.”

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome!”

Boom!

The door that had been shut all this time suddenly opened. Lu Ye immediately strode out of the compound as quickly as he could.

Boom!

The door closed once more. It sounded like the woman was singing again.

Lu Ye empowered himself with Windwalk before running at top speed. He did not stop until he was two streets away from the compound.

As he stopped to catch his breath, Yi Yi floated out of Amber’s body with tears in her eyes. Clearly, she was affected by the song as well.

“Are we going to look for the cat, Lu Ye?”

“Of course—” Lu Ye wanted to say “of course not”, but his heart skipped a beat right before he was about to finish the sentence. It was as if his sixth sense was warning him of a grave danger. Now that he thought about it, breaking his promise with the woman in the red dress or even talking behind her back would probably go poorly for him, so he hurriedly corrected himself, “—we will. It can’t be too hard, right?”

As if on cue, the feeling of danger vanished into nothing. It told him that it wasn’t just his imagination.

Now, Lu Ye understood why the woman had released him so easily. At the same time, he felt a growing headache in his head. How was he going to find a single cat in such a huge city? Did the cat even exist for that matter? If it didn’t, then he was as good as dead.

[No, wait, that’s not right. She said, “can you find Tang Yuan for me”, not “you will die if you don’t bring me my cat”. That means I’ll live as long as I put in the effort. Whether I can actually find it is beside the point.]

He felt much better after he figured this out. His situation wasn’t as bad as he thought.

Still, he couldn’t help but lament how odd the Lost City of Xianyuan was all over again. No wonder the cultivators hated this place so much. Not only was it rife with danger, one had to take care of the special apparitions’ strange requests as well. The slightest mistake could be their last.

Suddenly, Lu Ye sensed a fight nearby. Judging from the shockwaves and the noise, it was quite the huge fight too.

He told Yi Yi to hide before activating Conceal Presence. Then, he quietly made his way toward the commotion.