CBUaWS Chpt: 37

Chapter 37: Pupil of the Blood Moon

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Edited: 11.08.2021

Although it was nighttime, Mo Zhaocai was like a deft hound and easily navigated through the rugged mountain road. He was probably afraid that he would be separated from Lin Rufei, so the entire way, he held onto the corner of Lin Rufei’s clothes and constantly whispered the directions. 

“Gongzi, this side of the grass is deep, you have to be more careful!” Mo Zhaocai gasped for breath.

Lin Rufei’s body was already weak. As he scurried around with Mo Zhaocai, he was also slightly short of breath. Mo Zhaocai’s footsteps slowed down a little and only had the effort to speak in a breathless voice: “Those things don’t seem to be following us.”

“Yes, it seems not.” Mo Zhaocai looked behind him. He double-checked to make sure he couldn’t see those horrible eyeballs and finally heaved a sigh of relief. He muttered, “What the hell are those things, I thought I was having a nightmare……”

Lin Rufei asked, “Where are we now?”

Mo Zhaocai looked around. They were surrounded by a dense forest and at this time, the light was dim so he didn’t recognize the road under his feet. He couldn’t help but say with a bitter smile, “I do not know. It seems like we’re lost.”

Lin Rufei looked grave. He took out a paper crane from his ring and sent the paper crane out.

After a while, the paper crane came back with a message from Fu Hua. Fu Hua said that Lin Rufei shouldn’t worry. They had cleared out most of the eyeballs and intended to eliminate the rest as well. They asked Lin Rufei to stay put and that they would come looking for him when they were done dealing with the eyeballs.

Lin Rufei heaved a sigh of relief when he saw that his maids were all right. However, Mo Zhaocai, who was standing beside him, got nervous and said, “Lin gongzi, Lin gongzi, come here quickly. Crouch down in the grass, don’t say anything—”

Before Lin Rufei could react, he was pressed down by his shoulders and into the grass. Just as he was wondering what was going on, he heard the rustling sounds of footsteps from not too far away. 

Lin Rufei followed the gap in the grass and saw a group of people who were walking in this direction. These people carried exaggerated large swords, wore simple short shirts, and emitted a smell of blood all over their bodies. No matter how one looked at them, they didn’t look like good people.

The leader of the group had a fierce face. Even through the dull moonlight, an exaggerated scar could be seen across his cheek, giving him a hideous appearance. He was leading about a dozen people behind him and they were all looking around as if they were searching for something.

“These people are all mountain bandits.” Mo Zhaocai was so nervous that he muttered in Lin Rufei’s ear inaudibly, “They are all bad people who kill without blinking. If we let them find us, we will be finished.”

Lin Rufei nodded, signaling that he understood.

The two squatted in the grass, trying to cover themselves with the mounds of grass. They watched as the group slowly walk past their eyes and it seemed that they were quite lucky. When Lin Rufei saw the last person disappear, he let out a long breath. Mo Zhaocai, even more so. His whole person flopped down onto the ground and he let out a big gasp: “That scared me to death, scared me to death. I thought the two of us would die here.”

Lin Rufei asked, “You know them?”

“I don’t know them, but I know the swords in their hands.” Mo Zhaocai said in a trembling voice, “They should be Xiao Shou. That pattern engraved on that sword, I can’t forget it even after I die……”

“Why can’t you forget?”

“Of course I can’t forget. I saw with my own eyes as they cut off the heads of a whole caravan.” Mo Zhaocai answered, “The blood, ah……wait……” His original relaxed expression suddenly froze, because he suddenly realized that the person who asked “why can’t you forget?” was not Lin Rufei, who had been beside him, but from someone behind him. 

Lin Rufei and Mo Zhaocai turned around together and saw a dozen mountain bandits standing behind them.

The leader of the group had a nasty smile on his face and when he noticed their pale faces, he laughed, “Yo, it looks like we’re lucky to have found these two little guys.”

Mo Zhaocai screamed. He turned around and wanted to run but was kicked directly by the man onto the ground. Lin Rufei stood still. The man walked up to him, almost face to face, and sized him up: “Where is this beautiful little gongzi from. Why did you come to the Xiliang Mountains on such a dark night?” 

Lin Rufei pursed his lips slightly but did not speak.

Mo Zhaocai cried: “Big brother, big brother, you have the kindness to let us go^[1]. We are just casual travelers passing by, we don’t have any silver with us.”

The man ignored Mo Zhaocai and with a wave of his hand, his men took out ropes and tied Mo Zhaocai up tightly. When it came to Lin Rufei, he smiled and said, “Little gongzi, are you going to come with us by yourself, or should I do it?”

Lin Rufei calmly said, “I can go by myself.” After saying that, he coughed lowly twice and his face, which was already not very good, turned even paler.

When the man saw that he was weak, he laughed nastily, “We are traveling fast, little gongzi, I’m afraid you won’t be able to keep up.” He reached out his hand and actually lifted Lin Rufei directly onto his shoulder. Lin Rufei’s vision was instantly reversed. Just as he was about to grit his teeth and say something, a hand chopped^[2] down on the back of his neck and he fainted.

When Mo Zhaocai saw this scene, he revealed a terrified look. The man smiled straight at him and said: “Although I didn’t find what I wanted, I still got an unexpected harvest.” 

As he said this, the others also carried Mo Zhaocai and the crowd soon disappeared into the forest. 

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When Fu Hua and Yu Rui arrived, the place was already empty. The maids, who just had a fierce battle, were still covered with blood and enveloped in a murderous aura. They had rushed here as fast as they could, but when they did not find their family’s gongzi, they were instantly annoyed.

“Where is gongzi?” Yu Rui screamed.

“There’s the scent of other people here! Someone has been here!” Fu Hua exclaimed, “Go, follow the scent and search there!”

The two put their swords away. They looked as fierce as Rakshasasas^[3] and chased all the way in the direction that the bandits had left.

Lin Rufei woke up to find himself lying on a soft bed. His head vaguely hurt from the chop. When he got up from the bed and looked around, he saw Mo Zhaocai in the corner, almost tied up like a crab.

Seeing that he was awake, Mo Zhaocai almost cried out: “Gongzi, you’re finally awake. I thought something had happened to you!”

Lin Rufei rubbed his neck and asked in a low voice: “Where are we?”

Mo Zhaocai replied honestly, “In the bandit’s den.”

Lin Rufei was silent for a moment before he questioned, “What do they want?”

Mo Zhaocai said, “Are you asking if they’re after me or after you?”

Lin Rufei wondered, “What’s the difference?”

Mo Zhaocai said bitterly, “Of course it’s different. I’m just a poor punk with no one to depend on, the bandits will probably kill me with a single strike. However, since they encountered you, they certainly won’t let you go. I heard that their boss eats anything^[4], he likes beautiful people. He alone, already has more than twenty wives—” 

Lin Rufei still didn’t understand: “What do you mean?”

“Means he wants to marry you, ah.” Mo Zhaocai replied sadly. How did he only find out today that this beautiful gongzi was a bit stupid. 

Lin Rufei exclaimed incredulously: “But I am a man.”

Mo Zhaocai sighed: “You don’t understand. If there aren’t women, then men can also do. Furthermore, there are people who like men……especially ones like gongzi, beautiful and with a good body.”

Lin Rufei, with his weak and slender body, handsome face—coupled with a noble aura that even normal people could see, was simply the favorite targets of the mountain bandits. But apparently, the gongzi in front of him was completely unable to understand this matter. He was sitting on the bed showing an expression like he had just seen a ghost.

The two of them were still talking when a man came in from outside. It was the same man who knocked Lin Rufei unconscious. When he saw Lin Rufei, he smiled, “Awake?”

Lin Rufei looked at him and didn’t say anything.

The man said, “After coming here, no matter what your status was before, you are now my person.” He walked up to Lin Rufei and reached out to grasp his chin, however, Lin Rufei dodged it with a frown.

“Yo, still hiding. This is gonna be fun, ah. I like feisty beauties, otherwise, it’s gonna be like doing a dead fish—boring.” The man said as he revealed an evil smile. He already saw that Lin Rufei’s body was light and wasn’t even as heavy as his sword. He didn’t look like someone who had practice, furthermore, he had no sword intent so he was probably just an ordinary family’s wealthy son. Just that he was born with beautiful good looks that made a person’s heart itch^[5] when they looked at him.

“The Spring night is short, let’s not waste time either.” The man reached out and was about to grab Lin Rufei’s hand, trying to accustom him to the bed.

Lin Rufei had just suffered a loss so this time, he had experience. He shrank back a bit and with his right hand, he reached into his dimensional ring to pull out a black wooden shield. He raised his hand and aimed for the man’s head. The man didn’t know where he got this wooden shield from, but when he saw his action, he laughed. He raised his hand to grab it, believing that Lin Rufei’s shield would have no force and could be easily stopped. 

Mo Zhaocai also couldn’t bear it and closed his eyes. He was afraid that Lin Rufei would completely anger the mountain bandits and then when the time came, he would have to suffer a bit more. 

But who knew that with his eyes closed, he heard a “clack” sound followed by the bandit’s muffled grunt. When he opened his eyes again, he saw Lin Rufei holding the wooden shield with an innocent face. The bandit’s arm took on a twisted shape and he fell directly onto the bed unconscious.

“How, how did you do that?” Mo Zhaocai was so surprised that his dialect even came out.

(t.n: I’m not sure how to convey dialect in English, but I believe this is the Sichuan dialect [I’m not good with dialects either XD])

“I just wanted to try. I didn’t think I would hit him that hard.” Before Lin Rufei traveled to the mountains, he was learning with Gu Xuandu on how to attach sword Qi to foreign objects. Now, he finally had results and it seemed to be outstanding. He reached out and probed the mountain bandit’s nostrils to make sure he was still alive, “I thought I had smashed him to death.”

Mo Zhaocai’s eyes were about to pop out of their sockets.

“Your shield is working quite well.” Lin Rufei raised the wooden shield in his hand and said seriously, “A medium-grade spirit stone was quite worth it.”

Mo Zhaocai was silent for a while before he finally, with a red face, squeezed out a sentence: “Gongzi, untie me first. Otherwise, someone will come in later…..” 

Lin Rufei nodded and untied Mo Zhaocai. The two of them tied up the mountain bandit, who had a broken arm, and also used a towel to tightly plug his mouth.

After all this, Lin Rufei’s whole body was covered in sweat so he sat down resting while also panting. 

Mo Zhaocai quietly touched the door. He looked to see the movement outside then turned back and whispered: “Gongzi, what to do, ah, there are people guarding the door.”

Lin Rufei asked, “How many?”

Mo Zhaocai responded, “I only saw one.”

Lin Rufei thought for a while. He then raised his hand and slapped the bandit, who was just knocked unconscious, a few times to wake him up. The bandit woke up in a daze. He reflexively wanted to speak harshly after seeing Lin Rufei and Mo Zhaocai standing in front of him, however, he found that his mouth was firmly stuffed with something and couldn’t let out a word no matter how much he tried.

Lin Rufei pulled out a dagger from his dimensional ring and placed it directly against his neck. He wasn’t able to control his strength well and directly cut a clear blood mark on his skin. He hurriedly said, “Sorry. First time using it, not too skilled.” 

The mountain bandit’s face showed horror.

“I’ll unstuff your mouth, but you’re not allowed to make a sound or I’ll chop off your head with a dagger.” Lin Rufei slowly said, “Nod your head if you understand.”

The bandit slowly nodded his head.

Lin Rufei gave Mo Zhaocai a look and Mo Zhaocai carefully pulled out the cloth stuffed in the bandit’s mouth. The bandit gasped violently for a few seconds before hissing, “Even if you two kill me, you won’t be able to leave here!”

Lin Rufei looked at him, “That’s not necessarily true.”

“Haha, I know you have some exiled immortal tactics. These tactics are enough to deal with a mortal like me, but to deal with the thing in the mountain, it’s not even close to enough.” The mountain bandit sneered, “Don’t think I don’t know why you’re here.”

Lin Rufei wondered curiously, “Oh, you know where that thing is?”

“Who doesn’t know the location of that thing?” The mountain bandit said, “It’s one thing to know and another thing to get your hands on it.”

Lin Rufei pondered for a moment and was about to ask again, but Mo Zhaocai suddenly became nervous and pointed outside, “Gongzi, someone is coming this way!”

As his words fell, chaotic footsteps came from outside, followed by a heavy knock on the door. Someone called out, “Brother Wang, are you done yet?”

So the bandit’s surname was Wang, Lin Rufei pushed the dagger in his hand forward and slightly raised his chin, signaling him to say what he should say. Thus, the bandit surnamed Wang said gruffly: “F**k off, are you trynna pressure me? You think I’m like you, two hits and done?” 

The crowd outside the door burst into laughter.

“You guys go ahead, I’ll follow you as soon as I’m done.” He continued as he turned his head to look at Lin Rufei.

“Yo, it looks like that pretty little gongzi is quite to your liking.” That man laughed, “Then remember to hurry up, those two women have already been lured over.”

“I know. One more round and I’m coming.” The mountain bandit answered.

The man outside the door seemed to be used to this style of action and did not find it strange, so he turned around and walked away.

Only after the footsteps had completely disappeared did Lin Rufei ask, “Two women? Who are the two women they are talking about?”

The mountain bandit said, “It’s said to be two exiled immortals at the fifth-level of cultivation, I’m not sure about the specifics……”

Things seemed to be getting more and more complicated. From the time they headed up the mountains, they were already being watched and the people who were watching them seemed to be involved with the thing that was affecting Gu Xuandu.

After thinking for a moment, Lin Rufei bargained with the mountain bandit to take him to that place. The bandit immediately agreed, saying that he would be willing to take Lin Rufei and Mo Zhaocai out as long as he was not killed.

“Gongzi, don’t believe him, you can’t trust a word from this bandit’s mouth.” Just then, Mo Zhaocai suddenly opened his mouth and said anxiously, “If we let him go out, he will definitely renege on his promise and take our lives.”

When the bandit heard Mo Zhaocai say this, he laughed: “Without me, you can’t even find your way out, so how can you save the two women?”

“Just because you say we can’t find it, doesn’t mean we can’t find it!” Mo Zhaocai disdainfully said, “Not to brag, but as long as someone walks past me, even after half a day, I can follow their trail all the way there, we don’t need you!”

Since Mo Zhaocai could find the way, then the mountain bandit in front of him was indeed of no use.

Lin Rufei looked at the dagger in his hand. The bandit felt something and his face contorted into fear. He was about to open his mouth to beg for mercy when Mo Zhaocai fiercely stuffed his mouth with a cloth.

In the end, it was Lin Rufei’s first time killing with his own hands so he was slightly hesitant and Mo Zhaocai noticed the incomparable anxiousness in his heart. He was afraid that Lin Rufei would go soft-hearted, so out of nowhere, he pulled out a short knife and slashed at the mountain bandit’s neck.  

This knife directly slashed the bandit’s aorta and the blood sprayed extremely high, splashing all over Lin Rufei. Lin Rufei took a step back and frowned at Mo Zhaocai.

Mo Zhaocai: “Gongzi, I was afraid you couldn’t do it…….” This Lin Rufei indeed looked like he couldn’t kill. He was afraid he couldn’t do it, so he simply solved the problem himself.

Lin Rufei sighed, “At least say so before you do it.” He pointed to the blood on his own body, “It splashed all over me.”

Mo Zhaocai was dumbfounded, he thought Lin Rufei would blame him, but he didn’t expect him to say such a thing.

“Also.” Lin Rufei continued, “You killed him just like that but the people outside have yet to be settled.”

Only then did Mo Zhaocai remember that there was still a man guarding the door. He raised his hand and scratched his head in panic and let out an “oops.”

Lin Rufei looked at him thoughtfully but did not say anything more about him. He just took out a talisman from his ring and told Mo Zhaocai the usage of the talisman.

This talisman was given to him by sister Lin Weirui before he left Kunlun. Most of the things she gave were strange and odd but they were very practical contraptions, such as this talisman. He just had to paste it on that person’s body and that person would not be able to move for half an hour.

“Let me do it, gongzi.” Mo Zhaocai volunteered, “I’m nimble, I can definitely paste it on.”

Lin Rufei handed the talisman in his hand to Mo Zhaocai.

Mo Zhaocai really lived up to his expectations. He lightly opened the door and before the man could react, he touched behind him and directly pasted the talisman on.

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Lin Rufei then followed Mo Zhaocai out of the room. The two were about to leave when Mo Zhaocai suddenly stopped in his tracks and said hesitantly, “Gongzi, wait for me for a moment.”

Lin Rufei, “Hmm?”

Mo Zhaocai replied, “I’ll be right back.”

As he said this, he turned and scurried into another room and when he came back again, there was a huge backpack behind him—the same one he had carried on his back before.

“Hehe, I thought I lost it.” Mo Zhaocai rubbed his nose and laughed, “It turned out to be in the next room, my luck is pretty good.”

“Indeed the luck is not bad.” Lin Rufei’s words, however, had a deeper meaning.

Mo Zhaocai exclaimed, “Then let’s go quickly, we can’t let the others find out.”

This bandit’s den was very laxly guarded since most of the people inside had left. Lin Rufei suspected that the place these people went to was the same place where Fu Hua and Yu Rui were led to. However, he didn’t know what they wanted to do and why they would focus on two exiled immortals with a level five cultivation.

Mo Zhaocai did indeed have an unusual talent for finding his way around.

He looked east and then west and easily led Lin Rufei out of the bandit’s den, bypassing many patrols in the process. When they reached the outside of the den, Mo Zhaocai quickly determined the direction of the group’s departure and said, “Gongzi, they are heading this way, but should we follow them?”

Since they already made it this far, then naturally they had to follow them. Lin Rufei walked forward, but a strong sense of foreboding arose in his heart. He felt that he was getting closer and closer to the thing that was affecting Gu Xuandu.

Mo Zhaocai also became vaguely excited but he forcibly suppressed this emotion. He continued pretending to be afraid and led the way for Lin Rufei. Lin Rufei saw this but did not point it out. After all, he still needed this little guy to lead the way.

The further they went, the more strange the scenery on the roadside became.

The original lush trees began to reveal dry branches and the roadside weeds were gone, replaced by jagged rocks and red mud. In the mud, they could clearly see messy footprints and they even vaguely saw blinding blood. However, the blood had already turned dried brown. Most likely a fight happened here a long time ago. 

Mo Zhaocai carried his huge backpack and walked carefully. He looked around from time to time while Lin Rufei once again took out the paper cranes from the ring to send a message to Fu Hua and Yu Rui, but the paper crane could not fly out. This could only mean that either something had happened to the two of them or they were now in a space where they could not communicate with the outside world.

Mo Zhaocai, who was walking ahead, suddenly stopped walking and lowered his voice, “Gongzi, those people are just ahead.”

Lin Rufei asked, “Can we get a little closer?”

Mo Zhaocai looked around and pointed to a huge red rock not far away. This rock looked a bit abrupt on the side of the road, but there was really no other good place to hide except there.

Lin Rufei and Mo Zhaocai then moved next to the rock and looked in the direction of the mountain bandits.

The mountain bandits were about two dozen in number and were gathered together at the moment. Borrowing the night light, Lin Rufei saw them drawing a complex spell formation. After drawing the spell formation, they took out a huge cloth bag and rustled something out of the bag. As soon as those things were poured out, they rumbled and rolled all over the place. Upon a closer look, they realized it was a bag of human eyeballs. The eyeballs looked like they were just dug out and were still wet with blood. It looked extraordinarily gruesome at first glance.

These eyeballs were most likely dug out from the passing travelers. It was just that they didn’t know exactly how many people’s eyes were dug out to fill out an entire bag.  

Mo Zhaocai trembled with fear and his body couldn’t help but shiver. Lin Rufei slightly frowned: “What are they doing?”

Mo Zhaocai said: “It seems to be related to the thing in the Xiliang Mountains……”

Lin Rufei asked, “What thing?”

Mo Zhaocai said, “Rumor has it that the Heavenly Ruler put a precious magic treasure in the Xiliang Mountains back then. If they were able to get that magic treasure then a wish would be granted.”

Lin Rufei looked at Mo Zhaocai: “You believe it?”

Mo Zhaocai’s hand, which supported the heavy backpack, tightened: “I believe it.”

As the two were speaking, not far away in the sky, a round blood-red object slowly rose. At first glance, it looked like a blood moon, but upon closer inspection, it was actually a huge pupil and it cast a cold gaze towards the dozens of mountain bandits.

The bandits, seeing such a treacherous situation, did not show any fear. Instead, they all got excited together and dozens of them started whispering to the pupil, as if they were chanting some kind of incantation.

The blood-colored pupil quietly hovered in mid-air, like the pupil of a god without sorrow or joy and it gazed indifferently at the mortals who were in a frenzy under the night.

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The author has something to say:

Gu Xuandu: First day offline and Xiao Jiu was assaulted. 

Lin Rufei: If you didn’t go offline, I would have been assaulted daily by you. 

Gu Xuandu: Then pick one?

Lin Rufei pulls out his shield: I’ll just smash them all to death.

Gu Xuandu: …….

Lin Rufei who got the wooden shield seems to have opened the door to some strange new world

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^[1] The phrase here is 大人有大量 which means someone in power should be able to tolerate and won’t argue/bicker with others, so in this case since he is in power, he should have the power to let them go and not bicker with them. ↩

^[2] Knife-hand strike. ↩

^[3] Read about Rakshasa here 🙂 ↩

^[4] Does it with both men and women. ↩

^[5] Tempted. ↩

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