A Good-for-Nothing

264. Lao Tao Flew Away

Translator: Dragon Rider

As He Zheng finished speaking, he found that Tao Wujiu was still stealthily standing there, showing no inclination to leave. “Lao Tao, what are you standing there for? Where’s the stuff you said you would burn those paper men with?” he asked.

Tao Wujiu bobbed his head and smiled an awkward smile, “I just feel like eavesdropping on you guys.”

While speaking, he made towards the tree to which those paper men were pinned. He had just held the shaft of an arrow and reached out his other hand to produce his white phosphorus when suddenly the paper man’s mouth, a slit made with scissors, curved into an eerie arc and with that the paper man extricated itself from the arrow. Tao Wujiu was stunned for a moment, in which the little paper man overlaid Tao Wujiu’s back, appearing to be trying to lift him up. The next second, an extraordinary lightness spread through Tao Wujiu’s whole body and he was bodily hoisted into mid-air.

“Help!!!”

Chen Kai, sitting crouched and picking his nose, heard Tao Wujiu call for help in a weak voice, turned his head back and saw that Tao Wujiu hanging from a paper man was flying away! He was flying away!

“Shit! Lao Tao needs help!” Chen Kai immediately took to his heels and streaked in that direction. He Zheng and the others were still chatting. On hearing this, they quickly reacted. At this time, all the other paper men who had been “playing dead”, as though having just received some kind of instruction, extricated themselves from the arrow shafts by tearing their own bodies and flew to Tao Wujiu to help fly him away.

“On my back! All of you!” shouted Carnotte. The others quickly did as he asked. However, Lao Ka the wolf was carrying four people, while those paper men were carrying only one, so Tao Wujiu was moving faster and the wolf was unable to catch up with him!

He Zheng felt that if there was one saying that spoke the truth, it would be “Your experience grows with your age.” Whatever he had expected, it was not that one day his companion would be dragged airborne by a bunch of paper men.

What made this more unbelievable was that Tao Wujiu was a man with a body weight of over 70 kilograms.

But it was happening right in front of them, so they had to believe it, no matter how hard they found it to do so.

Those paper men were light and swift and cooperating with each other. Some were dragging Tao Wujiu by his collar, some by his arms, and some by his legs, their little paper heads fluttering. The wolf was tearing forward at full pelt, and those little paper men were chirping non-stop, as if saying, “Come on. Catch me. If you catch me, I’ll let you … Ha ha.”

Carnotte, anxious to rescue his teammate, turned into a blur of movement. What with the fast speed, He Zheng felt terribly nauseous, and so did the others. He wrapped his arms around the wolf’s neck with all his might and managed to stop himself from falling off.

Those paper men were flying jerkily. When the wolf was about to lose them, they halted and waited for a few moments. When the wolf was about to catch up with them, they sped up again. It was as if they were luring them somewhere.

Countless tall trees were streaking back on their flanks so fast they blurred. When they had crossed the last grove, those paper men slowed down.

Tao Wujiu’s face was deathly white, and he was barely breathing.

The group of paper men stopped in a spot and dropped Tao Wujiu from mid-air, who groaned in pain as he heavily thudded to the ground.

Chirping and cackling, those paper men disappeared into thin air as He Zheng and the others caught up with them.

The wolf finally stopped. He Zheng and the others hastily jumped off the wolf’s back to check on Tao Wujiu. “Lao Tao, are you okay?”

“Give me … a Purity Pill … It’s in my pocket.” Tao Wujiu couldn’t even speak fluently.

Purity Pills helped calm people’s nerves and clear people’s minds.

He Zheng fumbled in Tao Wujiu’s pocket for a moment and produced a variety of bottles and phials. Having little morals, He Zheng shoved two pills into Tao Wujiu’s mouth and secretly pocketed the remainder.

Then, he fished out some Advanced Restorative Pills and gave his teammates one apiece.

“Eat these. They’ll help you recover your strength.” He Zheng was handing out pills made in Hezao Sect as though they were cold medicine. Tao Wujiu would definitely be pissed off when he found out.

But right now he didn’t even have the strength to open his eyes, so he was unaware of what “favor” He Zheng had just done him.

“Do any of you get the impression that those paper men lured us here?” asked Chen Kai, his hands in his pockets.

“That’s only too obvious. There’s no doubt someone wants to make trouble for us,” replied He Zheng, his eyes staring at a particular spot, his lips curving upward in a faint sneer. “Nakayi Hakute, how much longer are you going to hide there?”

Nakayi Hakute, hand in hand with Honyani Susuhana, emerged from behind a tree.

At a leisurely pace, Nakayi Hakute walked out, bathed in sunlight. He was very young. If it weren’t for his previous actions, people would regard him as an innocent young man, because he also had the same harmless-looking face as He Zheng’s.

“What a nice weather.” Nakayi Hakute looked up into the sky, a very contented expression on his face.

Everyone, including Tao Wujiu who was tiredly lying on the ground, was on full alert.

“I’ll let the kids play with you for a while.” Nakayi Hakute smiled a watery smile and with that a man and a woman emerged from the flanks of the clearing. They looked a little older than Nakayi Hakute. The man was swarthy-skinned and carrying a large medicine chest on his back, a sword with a tiger-head-shaped hilt hanging from his belt, while the woman was in the company of two giant white tigers, presumably her Contracted psychic entities.

Normally, a Yin Yang Master could only control one Contracted psychic entity. Only those with extraordinary talent were capable of controlling two at the same time, so though a woman, she was actually a more formidable opponent compared to the man carrying a huge medicine chest.

“Rumor has it that in the Neon Kingdom there are some people called Druggists. Although he is a drug seller, he has the ability to drive away evil and demons.”

Tao Wujiu rose to his feet. His weapon was a Yōkai-refining pot, but it was not offensive and could only be used to deal a fatal blow to the target when they had been weakened greatly. Tao Wujiu smiled, “Then let’s go a few rounds. I happen to be a pharmacist as well.”

“My name is Qianli Yu. I accept your challenge.”

The two of them were the first to fight. Surprisingly, it was not spells but poison that they were attacking each other with.

On the other side, Qiu Luo could tell that the two Contracted psychic entities would put any of his teammates at a disadvantage. He was the best sword master of them, so he glanced at Chen Qianlin and smiled, “Since Lao Tao has beat me to that guy, I’ll take care of the two psychic entities instead.”

The woman raised her chin slightly and looked at Qiu Luo with disdain. “That’s quite the big talk!”

With that she gave some instructions to the two white tigers which then came at Qiu Luo one after another.

He Zheng raised his eyebrows slightly and, with a shadow of a smile, looked at Nakayi Hakute. There would inevitably be a fight between him and Nakayi Hakute on this day. “We outnumber you. It seems you got the short end of the bargain.”

Nakayi Hakute was still smiling, looking collected. “Not necessarily.”

He waved his hands and with that countless paper men flew out of his sleeves as though a machine were manufacturing them. Chen Kai lazily yawned, but when he put his hand down, his longbow had materialized in his other hand. “I’ll handle these paper-cutting toys.”

A smile curled the corners of He Zheng’s mouth. “And now?”

Nakayi Hakute’s countenance remained unchanged. Three of them had started fighting, but Nakayi Hakute was still outnumbered three to one. But for him, this was enough.

Nakayi Hakute let go of Susuhana and tweaked her cheek affectionately. The look in his eyes was so saccharine that He Zheng, Chen Qianlin, and Lao Ka feel goosebumps rising up their whole bodies.

“Susuhana, which one of the three of them do you like the most?”

Susuhana looked like a marionette. She stiffly raised her hand and pointed in the direction of He Zheng.

“No, no. I know you hate him, but I heard that he’s quite badass. Pick another one … How about that one with a sword? Do you like him?”

Susuhana nodded. She looked exquisite, but her eyes were as dim as those of a puppet.

Chen Qianlin felt offended as he heard Nakayi Hakute deem He Zheng badass and tell Susuhana to pick another one. Unable to tolerate being considered inferior to He Zheng, he whipped out his sword with a menacing tinkle and sneered, “I’ll have you know I’m no inferior to that good-for-nothing He Zheng!”

Thus, the two of them came into blows as well.

He Zheng was Nakayi Hakute’s final target and killing him was the main purpose of this trip of his.

Honya Susuhana was the Contracted psychic entity of Nakayi Hakute. Now that she was fighting, part of Nakayi Hakute’s power had been imbued into her. On top of that, he also had to spare some internal energy to keep those paper men moving, so Nakayi Hakute’s power had now actually been divided into three portions.

However, he did not seem to be worried at all. He raised his head and looked up into the sky. That day, when Chuan had died in his arms, the weather had also been sunny and cloudless.

“Master, you will feel much better if Li Zong is in pain, right?” said Nakayi Hakute in a faint murmur. When he looked at He Zheng again, the expression in his eyes had changed.

With the Shadow Sword in his hand, He Zheng made his move. Ever since he had suffered greatly during that fight with Chen Qianlin that day, he had been practicing hard to improve his swordplay. Li Zong had said that he was not a master swordsman, but when a man had lived for thousands of years, no matter how untalented he was, he could by no means be a bad swordsman. Besides, the Luminous Firelight Sword had been doing Li Zong’s bidding for so many years, and his swordplay had some time ago reached a level beyond common people’s imagination.

Remarkably, Nakayi Hakute summoned another Contracted psychic entity! It was a blood-red snake. Its tongue flicking in and out, it stared coldly at He Zheng with its slit-pupiled eyes. When He Zheng made his first move, the snake opened its giant mouth and lunged at He Zheng.

The Shadow Sword flew out of He Zheng’s hand. Faced with Nakayi Hakute, He Zheng didn’t dare lower his guard for a single moment. He immediately entered a state of combat readiness and produced a Lightning Fu. When he finished reciting the spell, a loud rumbling sound issued from the sky as an enormous dark cloud flew over from the horizon. He Zheng let out a roar which mixed with a clap of thunder as a huge lightning bolt struck down from the sky and, enveloping the Shadow Sword, shot towards the big snake.

For Nakayi Hakute, dealing with He Zheng was indeed not as easy as dealing with a common opponent, but a lightning spell was far from enough to cause him any harm. Nakayi Hakute was no mean exorcist. The two of them bumped into each other and quickly separated. Both suffered some injuries due to the great force of the impact. He Zheng swallowed the blood which tasted like rust, a quite mutinous smile curving his lips.

The thunderbolt hit the snake which then hissed in anguish. He Zheng stared at Nakayi Hakute provocatively, waiting for another thunderbolt to strike the target.