Unseen Immortal of Three Hundred Years - Chap 66

Chapter 66

For the Nightfall City, it seemed that no one could sleep that night.

When the thirty-three thunderous roars lifted the self-imposed ban of Sparrow’s Restraint, almost every demon and monster with the ability to move their legs in the city showed up. Those who couldn’t make it freed paper talismans and puppets to investigate on their behalf.

So, every building around Sparrow’s Restraint was crowded, with some who didn’t like to interact with people, perching on the rooftops. At first glance, it seemed like shadows were everywhere, surrounding from near and far.

There was indeed a sense of a pack of demons lurking.

Someone in the clamor asked, “You all were here earlier, did you see the city lord?”

“I didn’t see their face.”

Someone corrected, “Former city lord.”

“It’s hard to say whether they’re former or not.”

“That’s right, there’s still a chance.”

“So, it really is the city lord who has returned.”

“With your question, everyone knows, Ning Huaishan and Fang Chuzi have been with the city lord for the longest time. They should be considered close confidants. Even they couldn’t open the gates of Sparrow’s Restraint before. How could anyone else?”

Someone sarcastically remarked, “Speaking of which, I have to sigh again for those poor souls.”

“Who’s poor?”

“Those surnamed Ning and Fang.”

“Why do you say that?”

“I heard that when the Canglang Northern Territory collapsed, Ning Huaishan and Fang Chu left the city.”

“They left. I happened to return to the city that day and caught a glimpse. They didn’t bring many people with them. I thought it was just a usual outing, looking for some living beings. Now, thinking back, they might have really gone to the Canglang Northern Territory.”

The person who mocked them continued, “So, they’re both foolish and pitiful, having truly strayed into demonic practices, yet they still talk about loyalty. But what’s the use of loyalty? After all these years, they don’t even have the right to enter the door, just seen as mere dogs in the eyes of the city lord.”

Ning Huaishan absentmindedly tossed the talisman papers, his gaze fixed on the activity outside the courtyard. Just then, he happened to overhear these remarks through the paper talisman. His hand paused briefly, then he rolled his eyes in disdain.

In truth, when the city lord first faced trouble, he did entertain such thoughts. Anyone returning home amidst chaos only to find themselves locked out would feel disheartened and aggrieved.

It was also during that time that he belatedly realized he had stayed in Sparrow Falls not solely out of fear, but because he had genuinely come to consider it home.

So, he was particularly furious.

He had a temper to begin with, and during that period, he was like a rabid dog, biting whoever crossed his path. Unfortunately, he bit Fang Chu’s head and ended up getting severely beaten by Fang Chu.

There was actual bloodshed.

Of course, Fang Chu didn’t fare well either. After their fight, they both secluded themselves for quite a while to recuperate.

During their seclusion, Fang Chu told him, “Once we’re out of seclusion, try it yourself. Once you try, you’ll understand that the barrier at Sparrow Falls keeping us out wasn’t set by the city lord; it was set by Sparrow Falls itself.”

Later, Ning Huaishan did try it for himself and nearly got himself killed.

So, he fought Fang Chu again, and they secluded themselves together for another two months. But he had to admit, Fang Chu was right.

While others in the Night City might not recognize or bother to discern the city lord’s prohibitions, he and Fang Chu were too familiar with the city lord’s aura of restriction. That barrier wasn’t set by the city lord indeed.

This revelation lifted his spirits somewhat.

From that day on, both he and Fang Chu felt that Sparrow Falls was not an ordinary place, perhaps imbued with a hint of spirituality.

At that time, Fang Chu said, “Maybe someday someone will set their sights on Sparrow Falls and decide to seal it off.”

Sure enough, as if predicting the future, the new city lord, Feng Xueli, targeted it immediately upon taking office.

Few in the Night City knew that Ning Huaishan had actually clashed with Feng Xueli on the day he attempted to enter Sparrow Falls.

Fang Chu often described Ning Huaishan as having a “dog’s temper,” a label Ning Huaishan himself accepted. Due to his involvement in refining poisons, his stature and appearance had been frozen in his youth, and so had his temperament – short-tempered.

Ever since he heard Fang Chu’s words about “someone coveting Sparrow Falls,” he began to patrol near Sparrow Falls regularly, inevitably crossing paths with Feng Xueli.

That marked his initial encounter with Feng Xueli’s visage.

The man exuded a palpable sense of incongruity all over, owing to his background in the immortal sect. Despite possessing a handsome “righteous appearance,” his neck bore a sprawling tapestry of floral tattoos, extending down to the left side of his face. One particular line intersected his mouth, perpetually lifting one corner while leaving the other straight.

Upon casting a single glance, Ning Huaishan found himself profoundly ill at ease, utterly unimpressed. Furthermore, the notion of the other party seeking entry into Sparrow’s Rest only compounded his distaste.

In truth, Ning Huaishan could have observed from afar, allowing Feng Xueli to be repelled by the prohibition on his own. However, he couldn’t contain his anger and charged forward, muttering curses all the while.

Fortunately, his ferocity was limited, and he astutely leveraged Sparrow’s Rest’s self-prohibition.

The denizens of Night City were aware of Feng Xueli’s past encounter with Sparrow’s Rest’s prohibition, during which he lost a hand and took considerable time to recuperate. However, none were privy to the fact that it was the result of Ning Huaishan’s calculated instigation.

However, Ning Huaishan had a more harrowing experience that day, narrowly escaping death.

The reason for saying “narrowly” is that when he intercepted the opponent’s lethal move, a sudden barrier manifested within him, momentarily safeguarding his spirit.

Initially perplexed by the origin of this barrier, Ning Huaishan gradually pieced together the puzzle after enduring several days of bone-chilling shivers, akin to being trapped in an icy abyss.

It was during one of his early years at Sparrow’s Rest when a training session went awry, leaving him bedridden for days. Amidst the fog of illness, his faculties faltered, culminating in an audience with the city lord.

Terrified of Wu Xing to the core, Ning Huaishan shut his eyes in dread upon seeing the latter raise his hand, convinced of impending doom. To his surprise, he felt a palm upon his head.

Though the touch was light, its impact was akin to an avalanche of icy water cascading down, freezing his very blood.

Startled, Ning Huaishan remained pale-faced, mustering the courage to ask the city lord, “What is this?”

The lord gave him a glance and remarked, “What other punishment could there be?”

Reflecting later, that tone carried a hint of intimidation. However, at the time, Ning Huaishan was genuinely afraid, feeling as though the lord had placed a curse on him. This fear lingered for an entire year, with him worrying that he might suddenly erupt and meet his demise.

As time passed without any further developments, he eventually forgot about it. It wasn’t until he took on the responsibility of countering Lord Xue’s lethal move that he recalled the crucial moment of survival, perhaps caused by the lord’s earlier spell.

The lord’s temperament was volatile, and that action might have been merely a casual gesture due to a relatively good mood that day, not revealing much else.

However, nobody treated him and Fang Zhuo disrespectfully.

In the Night City, where discussions of emotions among demons were rare, occasionally, someone deserved a modicum of loyalty.

Hence, he willingly ventured into the northern region of Canglang, and now, he willingly sat guarding the gate, rolling his eyes, listening to the mocking jeers from outside the courtyard.

He grasped two talismans, one to continue tracking Fang Zhuo’s movements, the other to scout outside the courtyard.

He witnessed the demons and evil spirits gathered there, but they only talked tough and refrained from taking action, as if engaged in some unseen standoff, all curious about whether the former lord still wielded any power and if the unsealed Sparrow Unfall could enter.

But none dared to make the first move, so they all waited.

“Cowards,” Ning Huaishan leaned against the wall, propping up his legs with his arm, deriding those people, treating it as entertainment.

Before long, someone finally couldn’t resist acting.

The one who took action was none other than Feng Xueli’s subordinate. This subordinate consistently wore a smile, with eyes and lips curved like three slender arcs. His expression seemed permanently fixed on his face, hardly ever changing. As a result, he earned the moniker “Smiling Fox.”

With a flick of his hand, the crescent-shaped blade glinted with silver light, sweeping straight toward Sparrow Unfall.

A deep reverberation ensued,

The blade clashed against the barrier in the void, sending splatters of golden light, and the overwhelming pressure of Mount Tai dissipated suddenly.

“The blade had been knocked back.

Due to the overwhelming pressure, the returning blade carried even greater force and speed, swift as lightning.

In the moment when the sound of breaking wind roared past, two nearby individuals couldn’t dodge in time and were swept by the blade’s force, their figures suddenly stiffened.

Their mocking expressions still lingered on their faces, but in the next moment, their heads tilted, and their entire skulls rolled down.

Laughing Fox was just about to raise his hand to catch the curved blade when he saw this scene. His whole body tensed up, but it was already too late to retract his hand. He only felt a chill in his palm, trying to grasp the blade, yet unable to feel his own fingers.

He paused for a moment, seeing half of his palm drop “plap” at his feet.

Despite the surrounding area being filled with people, it fell into silence at that moment. After a long while, it suddenly boiled up again.

Ning Huaishan stopped swinging his legs, straightening up with a “huh.”

He saw Laughing Fox clutching his hand, deeply looking at Sparrow’s Landing, then turned and disappeared into the night, most likely going to inform Lord Xue Li.

Ning Huaishan glanced at the window frame of the bedroom, hesitating whether to inform Tian Su inside.

Although in his eyes, the worthless Xue Li couldn’t compare to his family’s lord even with a single finger, he didn’t want to mess with someone who seemed so mysterious and unpredictable.

He walked to the window frame, his hand raised. Suddenly, he remembered Feng Chu’s advice from years ago.

Feng Chu said, “Never knock on the lord’s window during the critical period, even if it’s just to convey a couple of words.”

Ning Huaishan was puzzled at the time, “Why not?”

“Why not,” Feng Chu replied.

Feng Chu then raised two fingers and said, “Firstly, there’s no response, not even a slight movement. The lord doesn’t reply at all. Secondly, when the lord eventually comes out of seclusion, he doesn’t mention it. I thought he hadn’t heard, so I repeated it, and his expression was very…”

“What?”

Feng Chu didn’t know how to describe it, so after a while, he said, “Anyway, it’s very complicated. Just don’t do such foolish things.”

Now, Feng Chu wasn’t around, but Ning Huaishan decided to heed his advice and resisted the urge to knock on the window.

The whole night Ning Huaishan spent was restless. He remained vigilant, worrying about any issues with the lord’s seclusion and fearing Xue Li’s arrival at such a time.

Fortunately, until the next midday, Feng Xueli didn’t show up to cause trouble.

But he still tapped on the window once because around noon, the who-knows-which exploratory talisman he released finally showed some activity, and it was decent activity.

He saw Fang Chu returning, walking on the road leading to Sparrow Falls.

That kid must have gone through something on that past line. At first glance, he looked very tired, with a pale face, but his broken arm had healed.

However, exploratory talismans can’t compare to the naked eye; they can only sense a general idea, specifics would have to be discussed once inside.

However,

The Tian Su’s barrier tightly wrapped around Sparrow Falls, and Ning Huaishan didn’t know how to let Fang Chu in, but he couldn’t just leave Fang Chu outside either.

So he cautiously approached the bedroom window sill, hesitated for a moment, and finally raised his hand to tap on the window, instinctively calling out, “Lord of the City.”

At that moment, the person Ning Huaishan called was leaning against Xiao Fuxuan’s shoulder, squinting his long eyes, even his breathing was trembling.

His fingers were resting on Xiao Fuxuan’s forearm. The extreme coldness that had once been on his fingertips had long faded away, leaving his hands almost transparent, but the joints of his fingers were tinged with a faint red.

That was the color after gripping too tightly and then gradually relaxing.

The same faint red had also spread to his shoulders, back, and neck.

How things had turned out like this along the way, Wuxing Xue could no longer remember at all.

He only remembered that initially, he had tried to deceive the other party by saying “qi strength would suffice,” but later, qi strength had become an extremely annoying thing. Unfortunately, Xiao Fuxuan could perceive his every thought.

So it became uncontrollable.

Then, at some point later, his demonic instincts took over, and he bit Xiao Fuxuan’s neck, wanting to get a bit of blood. But that thought was forcefully suppressed back the moment it flashed through his mind.

Indeed, the calamity period required blood; without it, everything else would just be a temporary solution. Initially, he had wanted to limit it to just kisses and qi strength, fearing that delving deeper would only make him more restless, unable to control that desire.

He had seen those demons* turn the whole room into a bloodbath, a complete mess, and then discard the emptied shells*. He detested such scenes.

He couldn’t imagine one day becoming the person sitting in that pool of blood, with Xiao Fuxuan’s empty and lifeless shell* beside him.

But that kind of endurance did become unbearable and painful in the end.

The unrelenting cold surged back like a tide, and in just a moment, even his eyelashes were frosted over.

It was at that moment when Xiao Fuxuan leaned against his jaw, causing him to tilt his head slightly upward.

“What are you doing?” Wu Xingxue asked hoarsely.

Before the words fell, he felt a very light itch on his neck, as if it had been pierced a bit. Blood seeped out, only a drop, but it slid down his skin very clearly.

Xiao Fuxuan lowered his head and kissed there.

Wu Xingxue’s throat moved slightly, closing his eyes.

His mind was blank, feeling the blood rushing to the place where he was being kissed, and then he heard Xiao Fuxuan slightly back off, warm breath falling there, and he spoke in a low, deep voice, “I’m waiting for you to reciprocate.”

It seemed like it was from that sentence onwards that his heart began to beat violently.

What followed was a night of utter chaos, until now.

Originally, when he was cold to the extreme, even his eyelashes were frosted. But now his breath was scorching, and his eyelashes were moistening Xiao Fuxuan’s shoulder and neck.

A bead of sweat trailed down his skin as he bent forward, a tremor coursing through his breath before he shut his eyes.

As the haze of distraction finally lifted, he faintly heard someone address him as “Lord of the City.”

Turning his gaze aside, the mist still clouding his vision, he observed shadows of people outside cast upon the window. Unlike Ning Huaishan and the former crown prince, who would continue speaking after addressing him as the city lord, he waited for a response.

Demons were known for their lack of restraint; even the former Sang Yu never held back in public.

But this demon lord was different.

Responding to Ning Huaishan at that moment was out of the question; his throat felt painfully hoarse, and he had no desire to utter a single word. So, he redirected his gaze and casually tapped the Tian constellation, signaling for the other person to reply.

Once more, Ning Huaishan called out, “City Lord.”

The bedroom’s enchantment remained intact, shrouding the room in darkness and silence.

However, a glimmer of golden sword aura pierced through the ornate window grilles, exploding into the air before Ning Huaishan, wordlessly.