QT: LAC Chapter 149: Ninth World (14)

Chapter 149: Ninth World (14)
Translated by Shiya of Exiled Rebels Scanlations
Edited by Sulo

Bai Duan didn’t know what Cao YuYing was doing, but one of his strengths was that he never really meddled unnecessarily. In his mind, Cao YuYing had a reason for doing everything. He just needed to be obedient and not cause trouble for him. Of course, Bai Duan was not reluctant to help if he was needed though.

After observing for a few days, Cao YuYing almost completely understood the general personalities and status of the Miao village residents, and also determined a proper starting point. The next thing to do was to wait patiently for the right time to come.

Fortunately, it didn’t take long for Cao YuYing to find that his target had come out of the village areas — the target was a teenager who was about the same age as Cao YuYing and Bai Duan. As the son of the clan’s leader, he had a high position in the village. Because he was still young and had been pampered, he was more straightforward than the other Miao tribe people. He was not familiar with the outside world.

Unfortunately, such a simple and kind-hearted child had become the target of Cao YuYing.

Miao teenagers needed to go out to collect medicine, but they were mostly relaxed when they went around, running and jumping.

As Cao YuYing watched him gradually move away from the village, a slight hostile expression crept up on his face. Bai Duan laid on Cao YuYing’s side, and seeing his expression, he couldn’t help but raise his eyebrows, thinking that the young man was quite unlucky.

Sure enough, in the next moment, there was a roar from a tiger in the nearby forest. Even Bai Duan, who had been prepared for a long time was startled, let alone the teenager who was having fun.

The Miao teenager’s expression changed suddenly, from a happy smile to a pale face, even with some disbelief. He subconsciously threw away the plant he had just picked and ran to the opposite direction of the sound.

But would the tiger — or rather, would Cao YuYing let him go? Just after he had run for two steps, the young Miao tribe teenager saw a gorgeous tiger spring out of the trees. A pair of fierce and coveted pupils stared at him directly. With a slight flick of its tail, it broke a thick tree branch.

The young Miao teenager was so scared that he couldn’t even cry for help. He could only run forward as hard as he could. It was a pity that he was in such a crisis for the first time, so excessive fear made him stiff, his legs weak, and he stumbled when he ran. He nearly tripped over the roots and weeds several times.

Although the fierce tiger had several chances to knock him down, it only acted like a cat playing with a mouse, and it drove the teenager further and further away from the Miao village.

Bai Duan was led along by Cao YuYing as they followed the tiger and the Miao teenager. He couldn’t help but look at Cao YuYing with puzzled eyes, “This tiger… are you controlling it?”

“Hmm, it’s me,” Cao YuYing knew Bai Duan had never been a sympathetic person, he nodded to admit it. Sure enough, Bai Duan paid more attention to ‘how he did it than the moral behind the action’. He looked like he was amazed by the fact that he could manipulate such a beast! Such power!

Bathed in the adoring eyes of his sweetheart, Cao YuYing was quite elated, “I can do this because of a power called ‘mental power’. I will teach you later.”

Bai Duan’s eyes brightened. Bai Duan nodded enthusiastically, it was impossible to hide his desire to try.

As they were speaking, the tiger had already chased the young man far away from the village, and the young man had gradually calmed down from the panic when he first saw the tiger.

Realizing that it was almost impossible for him to survive if he only continued to escape, the Miao youth bit his teeth, then took out a milk white bottle from his waist pocket. He pulled out the bottle stopper, and flung it towards the tiger behind him.

Cao YuYing noticed his action, he squinted his eyes, and noticed a tiny insect flying out of the mouth of the bottle — that must be the so-called ‘Gu insect’.

The Gu insects were always a taboo in the Miao tribe. They couldn’t be used at will until the very important moment. Some insects even required a person’s whole lifespan to rear. In such a life-threatening moment, the insect brought out by Miao youth must be extraordinary. How could Cao YuYing watch this little thing destroy his plan?

Before the insect could reach the tiger, Cao YuYing picked up a small stone, then raised his hand and flicked the stone at the insect.

Under the blessing of mental power, the stone broke through extremely fiercely and quickly, and before the insect could react, it collided with the stone in the air and fell to the ground.

The Miao youth did not find out about this of course, after all, he was still busy running for his life. After releasing the insect, he had no energy to pay attention to whether it smoothly reached the tiger. After running for several steps, he saw that the fierce tiger behind him was still chasing after him, and there was no difference. The young man realized that his insect had no effect. By this time, he had been driven away by the tiger for a long time. He could not see the insect that fell on the ground and was struggling to fly again. Cao YuYing pinched the insect’s wings and put it in a sealed box — this box was prepared by Cao YuYing before he entered the dense forest. What he thought at that time was that he might be able to ‘steal’ one or two insects for research. Now the thing he prepared came in handy.

The only Gu insect that could be used to protect his life failed unexpectedly. The expectation in the eyes of the young Miao teenager went out. He changed from being panic stricken to being completely gray. Maybe he was hit too hard. Maybe he ran too long and almost ran out of physical strength. The boy’s body suddenly stumbled and fell after being tripped by a tree root protruding from the ground.

He wanted to get up, but found that his ankle was hurt, he could not stand up at all, let alone escape. He had only turned over, when the tiger pounced towards him with its strong hind legs! At that moment, the pupil of the young man suddenly constricted, which seemed to have made the moment slow down a lot, but he could still only watch as the tiger got closer and closer to himself. He even felt the odor and temperature coming out from the tiger’s mouth. In the next moment, when the young man was ready for pain and death, he found that the tiger suddenly gave out a painful cry, twisted and fell into a mess on its side.

The Miao youth didn’t know whether he was lucky or just shocked. He just instinctively turned over several times, and kept himself as far away from the tiger as possible. Until he successfully distanced himself, he sat up leaning against a tree. He saw a young man about his age holding a sword and flying out in front of him, facing the fierce tiger.

The young man was dressed in Han tribe clothings, he had long hair and a bright face. The sword in his hand was formed from silver, forcing the tiger to jump and dodge and roar with threats. Although the tiger was fierce, the young man with the sword was not weak at all. After the conflict, there were traces of blood and wounded flesh on the tiger’s shiny fur.

Soon, the tiger realized that he was no match for the man, and with an unwilling roar, it turned its head and fled into the forest. The young man with the sword did not continue to pursue it. After fighting, he adjusted his breath for a moment, then turned his head around to show the youth his sharp eyes and handsome face.

For the first time, the Miao youth saw the martial arts from ZhongYuan. He only thought the sword move was beautiful and powerful, his eyes were full of admiration and gratitude.

Cao YuYing returned the sword to the scabbard. He walked up to the young Miao youth and asked softly, “Are you ok?”

The young Miao teenager was stunned and stood up while leaning on the tree trunk. His eyes were eagerly staring at Cao YuYing, he opened his mouth and said something[efn/note]In China different ethnic groups have different languages, but they usually use the same set of characters (depending on the period of time).[/efn_note].

Cao YuYing was also shocked, then he smiled and used the same language as the teenager. He repeated his question again.

At last, the young man understood and shook his head. The gratefulness on his face deepened.

At the same time, Bai Duan was confused. Seeing the two of them talking for a long time, then when their conversation finally came to an end, he interjected and asked, “What were you talking about?”

“We were communicating in the Miao language,” Cao YuYing chuckled. “I told him that we came to the forest for an adventure, but we went too deep into the forest by mistake. We lost our way, so we were hoping that he could do us a favor by leading us back out.”

Bai Duan nodded in silence, trying his best to hold back his disdainful expression, “Being brought out of the forest… that’s definitely not your purpose.”

“Of course not,” Cao YuYing caressed the long sword at his waist, looking all gentlemanly. “It’s getting late and unsafe now, his ankle is also hurt, so we were discussing going back to the Miao village first. He can rest there, then we can head out tomorrow or the day after tomorrow.”

Bai Duan, “…………”

Subconsciously, Bai Duan cast a pitying glance at the Miao youth. The poor young man obviously didn’t know what was ‘it’s easy to invite someone, but not so much to ask them to go away’. Either that or he was blinded by the happiness of coming out of this unscathed. The youth easily brought the strange Han people into the village where he lived — but it was exactly because of his personality that Cao YuYing chose him as the springboard to enter the Miao village.

After receiving Bai Duan’s gaze, the Miao youth smiled at him with a friendly expression. His pure and clear eyes were full of curiosity. He said something to himself, and then made an action that was a part of the Miao etiquette.

Cao YuYing looked at Bai Duan, who was confused, he smiled and translated for him, “He said his name is Shui JiuDao, he was just greeting you.”

Bai Duan didn’t know the Miao dialect at all, so he only smiled and nodded. Cao YuYing turned around and said something to the youth, which caused the young to show a very surprised expression. He also seemed to have an envious smile on his face.

“…What did you say?” Bai Duan narrowed his eyes slightly and felt something was wrong.

Cao YuYing smiled proudly, “I told him that we were ‘husband and wife’, not friends.”

Bai Duan, “…………”

“Why do you have to say that!” Bai Duan scolded as he blushed a little, “There’s no need for that!”

——He was really ‘fed up’ with this lover’s show of affection everywhere, as if for fear that other people didn’t know their feelings. And even when he put on men’s clothes, he still constantly called him ‘wife’!

“How is it unnecessary? I think it’s very important!” Cao YuYing raised his eyebrows. “You see, the Emperor and the Enchantress were in love only because they were ‘hero and the beauty’. In case the person I saved is so grateful for my help, that he wants to become my lover, and then when I cannot return his love, he puts insects in my brain, what will I do then! Of course, we should make it clear in advance to avoid these troubles!”

Bai Duan, shocked by the thickness of his lover’s face, “…………”

He wanted to tease Cao YuYing about it, but then he saw the Miao youth’s face. His eyes were sparkling, his skin flushed, and apparently he was still immersed in worshipping Cao YuYing. Bai Duan swallowed the thought after seeing that.

——Well, you are the one who said it, not me. In order to avoid repeating the same mistakes, it’s better to kill all the rotten branches in the cradle. I guess having a narcissistic partner isn’t a bad thing, anyway?

The innocent Miao youth, “Baa.”