Chapter 371 — Bounty [Second Update]

Nan Yue was not there, nor was Cang Ze, and Zuo Yan felt a touch of disappointment. He had meant to ask the two of them whether there was any way to look up records of the War of Sealing — after all, they were true demons, and knew their own kind far better. Pu Yao might have an impeccable pedigree, but three thousand years had passed, and what the demon world looked like today was a complete blank to him.

"He actually... he actually insulted Miss Ji Hua like that! It is utterly unreasonable! A fellow of that sort is simply detestable!"

"Exactly! What does the Xuan Shu Alliance have to do with us? But he dared to spout such arrogance — Mole, curse him, if I ever run into him, I will have it out with him properly."

"We are no match for him..."

"Even if we are no match, we cannot just sit by! We will make him understand that to offend Miss Ji Hua is to offend us! And whoever offends us will never know a peaceful day again!"

"Brother Wang, do you have some good plan? Out with it!"

"Ha — those wastes in the Xuan Shu Alliance cannot even protect Miss Ji Hua's good name. There is no counting on them. We must rely on our own strength and fight for Miss Ji Hua! Of course we are no match for Xiao Moge, but there is always someone who is. We will put up a bounty!"

"A bounty?"

"Exactly! There are no few of us who stand with Miss Ji Hua — you and I are hardly alone. Our individual strength may be pitiful, but if we pool it together, we can certainly give that damned Xiao Moge a taste of our fury. I will put up every coin of my allowance for the past half year as a bounty for experts to deal with him."

"Brother Wang, that little bit of money will not be enough."

"Of course it is not enough. Heh — I do not know whose idea it was, but someone has opened a bounty on Xiao Moge in the demon market, and it allows the stake to keep being raised. The sum inside has already reached two million!"

"Two million! My heavens! Xiao Moge is finished now!"

"Heh, and that is only in our little corner. They say bounties are up in practically every city now. Miss Ji Hua's power — Xiao Moge will learn of it soon enough!"

"Haha! A brilliant idea! I am going right now! For Miss Ji Hua, I will put up a whole year's allowance!"

...

Zuo Yan's face went slack, and he was struck dumb on the spot.

No way — did I kick a hornet's nest? Mole could not possibly have that kind of power...

Wailing inwardly, Zuo Yan was close to tears. In the old days he would have dusted himself off with an easy grace — I am done playing with you lot — and this whole Ji Hua, Qinghua Zangshui business could only stand and gape.

He had only just gotten ready to make the Ten Finger Prison his new battleground, and now he found that the battlefield was full of his enemies.

Good heavens, that is not how you play with a man!

"Pu Yao, is there any way to change one's appearance?" Zuo Yan asked hurriedly.

"From the fifth prison onward, you can alter your appearance. The first four prisons, no." Pu Yao's answer ruthlessly snuffed out Zuo Yan's last shred of hope.

Zuo Yan let his eyes dart this way and that out of the corners, looking for all the world like a thief. All right, all right — perhaps they only knew the name Xiao Moge, and not necessarily what he looked like. Just then, a flash of light appeared not far off, and a minor demon materialized before him.

The minor demon caught sight of Zuo Yan and froze.

Seeing the other's reaction, Zuo Yan cried out inwardly: This is bad.

"Xiao Moge!"

With a furious roar, the minor demon pointed at Zuo Yan.

Swish — every scrap of noise vanished, and silence fell all around. Zuo Yan could feel countless pairs of eyes swinging toward him all at once. Even a man who had seen great scenes as he had felt his scalp prickle and his whole body go rigid.

There was nothing for it now but to brazen it out. He put on a show of glancing indifferently at the fellow, then withdrew his gaze and walked straight on, giving no sign that he meant to take any notice at all.

The minor demon's reaction was quick; his face went white as a sheet, and regret flooded through him. How had he let himself be possessed and shouted out like that?

Within the Ten Finger Prison, fighting was free. It would not take a life as it might in the real world, but injury to the spiritual sense was unavoidable. There had once been a case where wounds taken inside the Ten Finger Prison were so severe that a man's spiritual sense regressed by two realms. After that, fights within the prison dropped off sharply. Later still, people discovered that it was not only fighting that could injure you — even on the prison's battlefield, injury to the spiritual sense was possible.

Once the spiritual sense was wounded, the pain that came with it was something one simply had to endure.

Amid countless gazes, Zuo Yan turned into a streak of light and withdrew from the desolate beast chessboard.

"Hahahaha!" Pu Yao roared with laughter, the sound carrying far through the sea of consciousness. Utterly without dignity, he pointed one hand at Zuo Yan and clutched his belly with the other, howling with mirth without pause.

Zuo Yan's face was as black as the bottom of a pot. "What are you laughing at? What is so funny?"

"Hahahaha!" Pu Yao showed not the slightest restraint; he laughed all the more wildly. "I will die laughing! A rat crossing the street — haha, you are now a rat crossing the street in the truest sense!"

Already foul-tempered to the extreme, Zuo Yan grew even fouler under Pu Yao's laughter.

His heart hardened. So what if it is the Ten Finger Prison? Who is afraid of whom?

He would just have to see what sort of goods came looking for him!

Zuo Yan set his jaw, and without further ado, murderous in spirit, he entered the desolate beast chessboard once more.

The scene before him shifted, and he was back inside the desolate beast chessboard. Once he made out his surroundings, his heart settled: good — every time he entered, the location was different, and for him that was a most favorable point. At the very least, if he could not win, he could run!

With a card or two still up his sleeve, Zuo Yan was not flustered.

He began to ponder what this affair meant for him. In all that had gone before, he had taken things quite casually, never treating them in earnest. Now the circumstances were different, and so were his needs.

The Mole business seemed to have blown up rather large. Having weathered so many storms, Zuo Yan knew well that there were advantages to a thing blowing up — fame, for instance, came quickly. He had barely broken out of the prison, and already people were coming to recruit him.

What he needed was material on the War of Sealing. In truth, Zuo Yan still harbored a sliver of wishful thinking. Even Pu Yao did not know about it — whether the demon world had preserved any record at all was itself a question. And even if such material existed, it would never be obtained easily.

Nan Yue was an ordinary minor demon; the Teng Clan of Tiannan had declined far too long ago. Cang Ze's situation was a little better than hers, but only a little. Zuo Yan had a premonition that investigating the War of Sealing would be no easy task, and that if it required the deployment of vast resources, it was not something the two of them could accomplish.

The spiritual mark on his arm stirred, and Nan Yue and Cang Ze arrived.

Zuo Yan sent out a thread of thought through the spiritual mark on his arm, and a moment later the two came together.

"My lord!" The two made haste to bow.

"Ahem — is there somewhere quiet?" Zuo Yan truly felt there were too many people and too many eyes about.

Cang Ze was the quicker to react. He said at once, "My lord need only set up an illusion formation."