Chapter 44: I’ll Keep You, Since You’re Useful
Shi Lan held the poor man’s head inside the river, indifferent to his desperate struggles, the flapping of his legs and his hands flailing, trying to reach out. He gazed at the crescent moon, distant in the sky, and had a lonely look on his face.
He thought about his time cracking the Moon Goddess, in her temple. She was worshipped and loved by a lot of people; they would bring offerings to her temples and even had an entire day dedicated to celebrating her existence.
And in one of those temples, the one built on the highest peak in the Martial Realm, he had spread her legs on the statue that was carved for her, and beat her divine enclave so hard that the temple crumbled that night.
The Experts and Mortals of the Martial Realm interpreted it as the wrath of the goddess, not knowing that the goddess had just received a dragon that made her see stars.
And it went to show the ignorance of mortals. They were so full of themselves... yet so stupid. Shi Lan had never met any race more stupid than humans. And he had met a lot of races.
He belatedly realized the body had grown still and released his grip.
A few beats passed, and Shi Lan kept looking down, not moving. Then he lifted his head.
"I’m surprised a trader like you has the time to be eavesdropping on other people."
The lady gently moved out from between the bamboo trees, covering her lower face with a fan.
"As expected, you’re not like them. You’re a cultivator, aren’t you?"
Shi Lan turned to the lady with an eerie smile on his face.
"What does that matter to the likes of you?"
He casually squeezed his wet sleeve, sending out drops of water.
"I’m sure, that you would have met several Cultivation Masters from the Martial Realm, what business does one more Cultivator in the Mortal Realm serve you?"
The lady’s eyes widened, for a moment, fear crawled all over her face, but she quickly composed herself before glaring at Wei Shi Lan.
"You... I underestimated you before, but I can see you’re not an ordinary man, you don’t belong here... that means... you’re hiding, what better place to hide from the gaze of powerful Cultivators than the overpopulated Mortal Realm?"
Shi Lan scoffed.
"You speak of me or you speak of yourself?"
The lady closed her eyes and looked calm, but within her mouth, her teeth were gritting very strongly, enough to crush a metal sheet.
"Let’s drop the act, dear cultivator."
She said, looking at Wei Shi Lan, then at the body that was sprawled by the side of the river.
"Perhaps, you don’t understand that this is the Mortal Realm, and there are ways things are done here. But you just killed that man and blew your own cover."
Shi Lan looked at her, his expression blank.
"Shall I kill you too?"
His voice sounded almost sweet with those words, such that the lady didn’t know when she had taken a few steps back, already touching her neck, as it felt like her neck suddenly became too weak to hold her head.
Dumbfounded, she stared at the man, thinking to herself.
"This man... what kind of killing intent is this? It’s like facing an Immortal...
Her eyes widened.
’Could it be?... No, no, there’s no way one of those beings would be in Mortal Realm, hiding, hiding from what exactly. But still he’s strong, enough to make a Spirit Realm Expert like me actually scared... I can’t ignore him!’
She inhaled and calmed herself, now looking proper and polite.
"It seems I have overstepped. But I didn’t mean to... I simply meant to sincerely tell you, if you’re trying to cover your tracks by being in the Mortal Realm, this incident could potentially blow it up, but if you allow me to take care of this, then it won’t."
The lady said with a confident look in her expression.
But she was only met by silence.
When the silence continued, and after a moment, she felt uncomfortable and added:
"I have taken care of businesses like this for famed people, even the Patriarch of the Peach Blossom Sword Sect."
Shi Lan finally showed a reaction.
’Peach Blossom Sword Sect, those people Qing Rou saved from me... I figured she’s from there...’
He raised his head.
"This Patriarch of the Peach Blossom Sword Sect, tell me more about him, and about the Matriarch too, if they have one."
Shi Lan seemed to have a second thought, then he added.
"Oh, first tell me, little girl, what is your name?"
The woman seemed displeased by a lot of things but only suppressed it.
She replied Shi Lan with a matter-of-fact, at the same time, careful tone.
"Shouldn’t you be concerned about different things right now?"
Shi Lan stayed silent and kept looking at her.
His silence alone was enough pressure to get her to say what he wanted to hear. There was just something disturbing about the look in his eyes.
"The Patriarch, if I would describe him, is a very terrible man, well, that is why he is of course, a Patriarch of some mountain top sect in the Mortal Realm. But ignore him, his backing is what you should pay more attention to. He has the last name Yuwen."
The lady was watching Shi Lan very delicately and quite surprisingly, the look in his eyes did not change even after she had mentioned the Yuwen family.
’Most people love to not get involved with the Yuwen family, but this one seems not to care, is he actually something or is this ignorance... I can’t tell, but I will stick with him for now.’
She sighed, closed her eyes for a moment and opened them.
"I’m Bai Lianhua, Owner of the Gambling Den."
Shi Lan was silent, not answering her; this was because he was thinking.
’Hm, the Yuwen family huh, then it must be tied to that bastard Yuwen Tai... although I have nothing against his descendants, I can’t say I won’t enjoy this.’
Afterwards, he looked at Bai Lianhua and stood up. He took a few steps closer to her and held her chin towards his face, releasing a small, dashing smile.
"I’ve decided to keep you... Bai Lianhua."
He then let her go, and walked away, waving. He seemed to suddenly be in a good mood. And Bai Lianhua was left confused at what in the world just happened.
At the same time, she couldn’t get the image of his face so close to hers out of her head.
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