Dandan finds himself in a dicey situation…
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Ch. 51 | The lu-shu
‘I guess I know what’s going on.’ Dandan appeared very calm as he stood up, his eyes slowly going from pink to dark red as he silently assumed a battle-ready stance. ‘But Troy, I have to say, you’ve chosen an extremely wrong path.’
‘There’s no cause for worry.’ Bai Yini noticed his dark red eyes and added gently, ‘I won’t hurt you. I came today to invite you to be my guest at the Bai Manor.’
‘Did that old hag send you?’ Dandan’s muscles tensed. ‘Tell her to come see me herself.’
Bai Yini laughed. ‘Little rabbit, the Crone will not show herself so easily.’
Dandan cocked his head and looked at Troy. ‘This was the woman who saved you?’
Not daring to look him in the eye, Troy lowered his head and said, ‘Yes.’
‘… Well, she may be quite pretty but the way she talks is annoying. Are you sure you want to work for her?’
‘After saving me from the Gu scorpions back then, she said that as long as I worked for her, she would be able to get me into the Song Manor… I just wanted a chance to get close to Second Master, I just wanted a home.’
‘Even if you want a home, this isn’t the way to go about getting it…’ Dandan sighed. ‘You killed Chen Yang?’
‘Not me, it was the Crone,’ Troy replied in a small voice.
‘True, the way he was killed, it couldn’t have been anyone but the Crone.’ Dandan snorted coldly, his gaze swiftly sweeping over the Qingling pendant which Troy was wearing on his neck. This fellow really… one less weapon meant one less advantage and given that his opponent was Bai Yini, that made things a little dicey.
He coughed lightly and said in a deliberately airy tone, ‘My apologies, Miss Bai, I’m not free today. How about Second Master Song and I visit you some other time?’
‘Little rabbit, surely you’re not so naive as to think you can escape today?’ Bai Yini was spelling out a circular array in the air with her fingers which radiated a dazzling light.
The next moment, a white deer immersed in a golden nimbus stepped out of the array. Its entire body was sparkling and crystal clear, and its eyes were an icy silver. On its head were a pair of antlers, also translucent, and as wide and broad as tree branches. It was dotted with little sparkling glimmers and enveloped in a hazy mist. Upon closer inspection, there was also an unknown quantity of white butterflies flitting around it, just like something out of a celestial paradise.
Dandan took a step back — the lu-shu!
Blast, was there still enough time to get away?!
That deer came to a stop beside Bai Yini and then morphed into its human form with a whoosh. It turned out to be a tall and slender boy with short silver hair who yawned and said languidly, ‘I was just taking my midday nap. Why did you summon me?’
Bai Yini took his arm and pouted, ‘Bijou, this Mr Rabbit doesn’t want to go home with me. Help me reason with him.’ Bai Yini laid peculiar stress on the two words ‘reason with’.
‘Rabbit?’ Bijou looked lazily over at Dandan then strolled over leisurely, hands in his pockets, coming to a stop in front of him. Dandan found himself having to look up — this fellow sure was tall…
The boy with silver hair paused for a moment before bending down, his eyes level with Dandan’s and asked in very languorous tones, ‘Do you want to come with us like a good boy, or shall I kill you and drag your corpse back?’
For some reason, there was something rather terrifying about that light, cool tone. ‘The first option or the second one? Hurry up and decide so I can go back to my beauty sleep,’ Bijou urged him languidly¹.
Dandan took a tiny step backwards. ‘Ummm… I think the second option is too bloodthirsty, I don’t really recommend it… what about you?’
‘I think the fastest option is the best one,’ Bijou had just finished saying this when a compass of snow and ice suddenly appeared behind him and innumerable icicles came shooting out of the compass like a tempest and straight at Dandan.
¹ 慢条斯理. If you’re not reading this chapter at hiding in plain sight, it has been stolen and reproduced by novelscraping sites.
Dandan immediately sprang aside and hung upside down from a tree, his claws digging into the tree trunk. The icicles pierced the ground he had just been standing on and exploded immediately. Bijou did not even pause as he turned towards Dandan hanging from the tree, the compass following suit and a second later, countless icicles again attacked the tree and it exploded, throwing up a huge amount of soil as it did so. When the dust finally settled, they discovered that he had already dodged the attack earlier.
Next, the icicles went for Dandan like non-stop artillery fire as he went leaping and dodging among the trees without a pause. The icicles flew after him and after a series of loud bangs, an entire row of trees went crashing to the ground…
Dandan grabbed onto a branch in front of him even as his mind raced — not working, can’t keep on being this passive! He thus swung himself over the branch and doubled back abruptly while pulling out a massive red sword from his chest — all of which was done without once stopping.
The big red sword spun rapidly in his hands, becoming a whirring fan, slicing the attacking icicles into tiny pieces. Innumerable icy bits landed on his hair, his eyelashes… the last slash was at Bijou, coming down from above and splitting him from head to toe. A powerful burst of spiritual energy hit the ground with a bang, causing it to shake but he then discovered that this Bijou was made of snow.
While the real Bijou, eyes ruthless, had already materialised behind him; the compass turned and countless icicles shot out again. Dandan’s ears twitched and he dodged them nimbly.
Bijou drew out a long silver sword from the compass, sprang to his feet and used the icicles to block all of Dandan’s escape routes, boxing him in. Then he went diving down and was on the verge of stabbing Dandan, only to find himself being held immobile² by a force.
‘What?!!’ Bijou swung his head round sharply and saw a near-transparent rope tied round his legs.
‘The Bind spell…’ Bai Yini’s eyes narrowed. ‘When exactly did he use it?’
² 动弹不得. Translation belongs to theresanother(DOT)wordpress(DOT)com.
The Bind spell was one where the user took a portion of his spiritual power and turned it into a rope. This required considerable mental concentration and considerably high levels of spiritual power to manipulate. As seeing that one end of it was already hanging from a tree, this would mean that while dodging and ducking, Dandan had also been drawing out his own spiritual power and turning it into a rope? … Little wonder then that he was Yu Huan’s bonded spirit beast, if he was able to do so much and to that extent!
Seeing that Bijou was trapped, Dandan counterattacked and ruthlessly thrust the Blood Weapon into his opponent’s heart but something didn’t feel right.
‘Damn!’ Dandan immediately leapt aside as the Bijou before him turned into a pile of snow and collapsed.
Another snow double!
The real Bijou materialised out of nowhere, his long silver sword attacking without the least hesitation³ which Dandan nimbly parried. A few sharp clangs rang out from their weapons as they exchanged lightning-quick blows in mid-air, their speed making it impossible to discern what moves they were making. The only things that could be seen were the half-hidden flashes from the red and silver swords when they both collided and the shock waves resulting from those collisions.
³ 毫不犹豫. Please consider reading from hiding in plain sight rather than from novelscraping sites.
Styx, holding the newspapers, was walking past the kitchen when he suddenly overheard the servants girls’ discussion.
‘How did it die just like that?’
‘Such a pity.’
He went inside. ‘What died?’
‘Oh, Your Excellency Styx!’ The two startled servants greeted him and one then explained, ‘A stray cat wandered in from nearby, took a few bites of an apple and then just died.’
Styx walked over to them, took a look at the dead cat and the half-eaten apple and asked with a frown, ‘Who bought these apples?’
The servant girl looked worried and thought for a while before saying, ‘I think it was Troy who bought them a few days ago for Dandan.’
‘Troy?’
‘Yes, when I came in to add firewood, I saw Troy about to throw the apples away. I asked if he had bought those for Dandan and why he was throwing them away if so. Troy said he had been cheated by the pedlar and that the fruits were all rotten. He then threw them into the bin and went off. I took a look — they were perfectly fine and not at all rotten so I picked them up and fed one to the cat.’
‘Fruits…?’ Styx stood lost in thought for some time before his expression changed suddenly and he immediately turned and walked out, heading to Song Lin’s study. ‘Young Master!’
‘Hmm?’ Song Lin looked up from the book he was reading.
‘I’m afraid Dandan is in danger!’ Styx said heavily.
Bang!
Bijou was sent flying by one of Dandan’s kicks and landed heavily on the ground.
Bai Yini’s expression changed slightly and she commanded, ‘Beast change, defend!’
At her command, Bijou’s entire body began to glow, swelling up exponentially and transforming into a gigantic white deer in an instant.
Dandan landed gracefully and tipped his head back to look at this deer, then suddenly felt an intensely strong spiritual force overwhelming him, making him gasp.
Just then, the white deer’s antlers produced a silver halo while above his head, another compass appeared, its needle spinning rapidly. A white beam of light shot upwards into the sky. The light was so dazzling that Dandan couldn’t open his eyes. He was just about to cover his eyes with his hand when he suddenly heard the deer roar and immediately after that, Dandan discovered that he couldn’t move. Or rather, it was more like time had come to a standstill for him.
Blast… he actually… had him suspended in time!!!
Bai Yini walked over then and removed the Blood Weapon from the immobile Dandan’s grasp.
‘Sssss—’ she hissed in pained surprise as the Blood Weapon scalded her palm. ‘No wonder it’s Song Lin’s Blood Weapon, the spiritual power is so strong.’
She gazed at the smoke still coming out of her palm. Suddenly, her eyes turned dark and she broke the sword into two over her knee.
The broken sword clattered to the ground.
Troy’s eyes widened in sheer shock — she… she had actually broken Song Lin’s Blood Weapon barehanded! What kind of a monster was she!
He furtively clasped the Qingling pendant near his heart, his fingers trembling slightly.
Dandan has now… lost every weapon he has… If I return this pendant to him…
(Approx. 1842 words)
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Translated and edited by 12
hiding in plain sight 
Troy, did you really think you’d have a place with Song Lin if you betrayed Dandan this way? I know he wants a home, that he’s been longing for it, but this is just… dumb. YOU DUMB DOG. You think Song Lin wouldn’t figure it out? You think he’d still want you after you did all of this to Dandan? The logic just fails here.
Finally meeting Bijou is a trip! NGL, I like lazy, all powerful characters. :’)
I really want Dandan to just… pound all of their heads in, aha. I like the flashes of brilliance, but it’s very tempered by the fact that Dandan just meets up with a bunch of powerful foes while he is not at his best, and hasn’t been his best in years. Cries. I want him to bash in their heads…
I still love Troy, but ugh. Rather disappointed in him right now.
Thanks so much for the translations!
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Ha, it’s quite funny how all the powerful spirit beasts are lazy bums at heart 😆 and would rather spend their time doing anything except fighting.
I thought Dandan did rather well here, handicapped yet forcing Bijou to use his ‘cheat code’ quite early. Bai Yini’s breaking Song Lin’s Blood Weapon was a bit of a surprise though — I would have thought Song Lin’s weapon would be a lot more durable.
Troy, sigh, just not streetwise enough, unfortunately. Now he has to lie in his own bed.
💕
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