Chapter 75: Who is the Pavilion Master?

F*ck! What is this?

Tang Doudou lifted her hand and slapped that thing onto the ground. When she recalled the feeling, she thought, isn’t that a bug?

She immediately shuddered. Could it be that blood-sucking bug?

When blood-sucking was brought up, Tang Doudou no longer had the mind to wonder about why the bug would fall from the sky. She quickly continued to work on undoing the rope on her feet, before blindly heading towards Lou Qingyun’s direction!

“Lou Qingyun, at least squeak ah!” Tang Doudou called softly.

But it was to no avail. That Lou Qingyun had probably fainted long ago because there was no response at all. Tang Doudou could only rely on what she remember and groped her way towards that direction.

After walking a few steps, she stepped on something soft.

Her intuition told her it was a person, so she immediately crouched down and gathered her courage to touch that person. When she managed to find the person’s hand, she finally loosened a breath in relief. Looks like this person is Lou Qingyun.

“Lou Qingyun, Lou Qingyun! Wake up!” Tang Doudou reached out and slapped Lou Qingyun a couple times, but there was no reaction. Tang Doudou then searched in her chest and pulled out a rolled torch*.

old Chinese torch made by rolling several layers of paper. After lighting it, you blow on it until the flame is extinguished so that it burns with a red faint light. It can last for a long time and you only need to blow on it to make it light up again.

After pulling open the rolled torch and gently blowing on it to light it up, the endless darkness was finally lit up a little. Tang Doudou slightly squinted as she waited for her eyes to adjust to the light, then she lifted the rolled torch to view the person on the ground.

Tang Doudou was currently feeling grateful to Bai Feiyun from the bottom of her heart. All of these were things that he had attentively arranged for her. Otherwise, with her careless personality, how could she have prepared something like a rolled torch before heading out?

She just didn’t understand what exactly this damned place was. With the little bit of light the rolled torch gave off, she could see clearly the things close to her. However, any place outside her arm’s range was still pitch dark and impenetrable.

Precisely because of this, Tang Doudou couldn’t see the person on the ground clearly and could only crouch down to move the light closer.

“Ah!”

However, this time she was alarmed to the point her body became covered with cold sweat. That pair of open, grievance-filled eyesT/N was imprinted in her vision, refusing to get out of her head. Tang Doudou scrambled several steps backwards and was so frightened that her face had turned pale white. It was way too scary. Could it be that’s how Lou Qingyun looks after he died?

“Cough cough...” Yet right at this moment the sound of Lou Qingyun’s weak cough came. “Who?”

Could it be the person she saw earlier wasn’t him?

When she heard this sound, Tang Doudou couldn’t be bothered to worry about her fear anymore. She bent down and picked up the rolled torch that had fallen to the side. After she blew it a little brighter, she used it to light up the side.

If she said that she wasn’t nervous right now, that would be a total lie. She was so terrified of seeing the same scene that even her hands were trembling. She only gave a sigh of relief when Lou Qingyun’s slightly pale but familiar face appeared in front of her. “Lou Qingyun, why didn’t you say anything earlier? You caused me to look in the wrong place! I almost got scared to death!”

“I also wanted to talk ah.” Lou Qingyun closed his eyes until he adjusted to the light a little before opening his eyes again. When he saw the filthy Tang Doudou in front of him who still had an expression of lingering fear, he tugged out a trace of a smile. “What did Alliance Head Li see earlier? You scared me right back to consciousness.”

Tang Doudou sat down next to him and shone the rolled torch towards his wrist, trying to see what that bug Lou Qingyun talked about earlier looked like. When she heard him ask this question, she recalled that earlier scene. Luckily she had a lot of guts. Otherwise, she would have already been scared unconscious.

“It’s a dead person. I think he was probably like you and died from getting his blood sucked dry by those bugs. That appearance was seriously tragic...” said Tang Doudou, still feeling a little scared. She glanced over in that direction before continuing, “Lou Qingyun, if you don’t want to end up like that, pull yourself together and think of some way to escape.”

As she spoke, she finally saw the bugs that Lou Qingyun had talked about. In the weak light, several long black bugs were on Lou Qingyun’s mangled arm. They were a little like centipedes, yet their bodies were as soft and flexible as earthworms.

They were something she didn’t recognize. “Lou Qingyun, take a look. Do you recognize these bugs?”

Tang Doudou asked Lou Qingyun as she felt around on the floor with her hand. Then, she found a pretty stiff piece of rice straw and get ready to lift that long bug up for Lou Qingyun to take a look.

Lou Qingyun lowered his gaze and glanced at his arm. Then he immediately stopped Tang Doudou. “Don’t touch this thing, you’ll end up poisoned!”

From those words, it was clear that Lou Qingyun recognized this bug.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

“These are Black Demonic NightcrawlersT/N2. They’re the sacred bugs of the Demonic Sect...” Lou Qingyun closed his eyes again to rest a bit. When he opened them and saw that Tang Doudou seemed shocked, he smiled and asked, “Alliance Head Li, you don’t recognize them?”

“Oh, it didn’t come to me for a moment. So they’re Black Demonic Nightcrawlers!” Tang Doudou saw that Lou Qingyun seemed to be probing her and hastily forced out a laugh before changing the topic. “Then this means Rutaceae Pavilion also belongs to the Demonic Sect?”

No wonder Mu Ye had appeared in Rutaceae Pavilion the night she transmigrated. Bai Feiyun had said it was because of Elder Yu, but from the looks of it now, that wasn’t the case!

Tang Doudou’s line of thought was thus, but unexpectedly, Lou Qingyun shook his head. “No, Rutaceae Pavilion can’t possibly belong to the Demonic Sect. It’s illogical.”

“Then how do you explain how we were both drugged unconscious in Rutaceae Pavilion, then appeared here at the same time? Not to mention there’s still Black Demonic Nightcrawlers climbing all over you?”

Tang Doudou disdainfully gave a cold humph. Looks like this incident was related to Mu Ye, that demonic headT/N3 again! It was very likely that this was karma for messing around with him last time!

After hearing what she said, Lou Qingyun sank into thought once again.

“No matter what, we should just escape from here first!” Tang Doudou didn’t blow out the rolled torch in her hand. Instead, she lifted it high in order to look around. However, just like before, she couldn’t see anything clearly. She could only make out some faint figures that looked like corpses.

“Escaping from here is easier said than done just based on the fact that I can’t even move. However, even if I could move and got outside, I would be captured by the people guarding outside,” Lou Qingyun said with a helpless tone.

However, Tang Doudou could care less about that. She would rather head outside and be captured again than to stay even a second longer in this damned place!

“Wait a little bit more. I keep feeling that this matter isn’t as simple as it seems.”

Aren’t those useless words? Tang Doudou rolled her eyes and got up. “If you want to wait, then just wait. I’m leaving!”

She had seen the situation on Lou Qingyun’s arm earlier and saw that, as he had said, those disgusting bugs only gathered around places with injuries.

Then, she recalled that soft cold thing on her forehead earlier. Suddenly, a terrifying thought emerged, that couldn’t have been a Black Demonic Nightcrawler, right?

But didn’t Lou Qingyun say they were poisonous?

Then how come she didn’t feel it even a little?

Tang Doudou thought about it, then her gaze darted towards Lou Qingyun as her eyes filled with complicated emotions. He’s lying!

When she came to this realization, Tang Doudou got a bad premonition. However, in order to prevent Lou Qingyun from finding out, she pretended to check the surroundings with the rolled torch before extinguishing its light.

“Why did the fire go out?” Lou Qingyun knitted his brows as he asked.

Tang Doudou definitely couldn’t say that she purposefully extinguished it so she could only feign embarrassment. “I used too much force. I never thought that this rolled torch was of such low quality.”

“Can it still be used?”

“I don’t think so,” said Tang Doudou dejectedly. However, she tucked the rolled torch back into her chest carefully. “I’ll go look around to see what exactly is this place. You rest a while, but don’t faint no matter what!”

“Poison and medicine are mutually supplementing existences. Since the Black Demonic Nightcrawler is a poisonous object, then there’s definitely something to inhibit it in the surroundings. I’ll try to find it and see if I can undo your poison.”

Before, she had thought that Lou Qingyun sounded so overly weak because he lost too much blood. However, from the looks of it now, that wasn’t the case. Although those bugs were scary, they weren’t that big. The biggest was probably only as big as an enoki mushroom. There weren’t a lot of them either. There were only four climbing back and forth on him. No matter how fast they sucked blood, they couldn’t have caused him to faint that quickly.

From this, it can be seen that they were definitely poisonous bugs.

Lou Qingyun was silent for a while before he said, “Then I’ll have to trouble you, Alliance Head Li.”

“If you’re fine, then I’ll leave first!”

Lou Qingyun, who exactly are you?

Tang Doudou walked forward a couple steps before a light bulb flickered to life. Could it be that Lou Qingyun was the Pavilion Master that Boss Qing had talked about?

That’s not right... She immediately threw out this unrealistic guess. Even though Lou Qingyun was speaking normally right now, from the way he had acted earlier, it was obvious that he was just some spoiled useless son from a rich family. No matter how you looked at it, he couldn’t be linked with that mysterious Pavilion Head.

But if it was really like this, then why did that Lou Qingyun lie to her?

Tang Doudou wasn’t able to think of any explanation and didn’t want to try thinking about it anymore. She was just about to turn away and put some distance between herself and Lou Qingyun when she heard a creaking sound as if an old door was being pushed open.

Right after, a fierce white light came from above them.

Tang Doudou subconsciously moved to cover her eyes, but Lou Qingyun looked pensively towards the hatchway being opened overhead.

“Someone has finally come!”

Tang Doudou immediately cheered up upon seeing someone’s figure moving in the hatchway. She still held onto that sentence - she would rather be caught by someone and given a fierce beating than stay here even a moment longer.

“Haha, how did Alliance Head Li enjoy your stay here?” Boss Qing’s voice carried a tone as if she was rejoicing in the misfortunes of others. It caused Tang Doudou to itch to rush up and beat that stinkin’ woman to death.

“Boss Qing, what is the meaning of this? I went to your Rutaceae Pavilion to attend to business, yet you kidnapped me and brought me here. Could it be that you no longer wish to preserve Rutaceae Pavilion’s reputation?” Tang Doudou purposefully put on a displeased tone and sneakily glanced at Boss Qing only to see that there was a vague dark figure behind Boss Qing.

From the looks of that figure, the person was also female. It was just that Tang Doudou didn’t know if she was Boss Qing’s maid or someone else.

“Aiyoh, is Alliance Head Li threatening me?”

“How could I dare? It’s just, didn’t you say that your Pavilion Master wished to see me? Why aren’t you bringing me over to him?” From Tang Doudou’s words, she seemed to have completely forgotten that she was kidnapped.

Upon hearing this, Boss Qing laughed mirthfully like a trembling branch of flowers. Only after a long while did she gently reply, “Alliance Head Li sure has a great sense of humor. You’ve already stayed with my family’s Pavilion Master for quite a long while. Where do you want me to bring you to?”

When these words came out, Tang Doudou immediately turned to look at Lou Qingyun who was in the dark. As expected, she didn’t guess wrong!

“Boss Qing, what are you babbling about!?” Lou Qingyun’s weak voice was filled with anger, “Who in this world doesn’t know that your family’s Pavilion Head is called Xin Yue and is a woman!? Boss Qing has used this scheme to drive a wedge in the wrong area!”

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Credits: Translated by Chiyomira, Edited by snowgem

[Chiyomira's Corner]

T/N - I’m not sure if this is the same in Western culture, but in Chinese culture, people who die with grievances refuse to shut their eyes while people who pass away peacefully close their eyes in acceptance. It’s a common scene in movies for side character B to die in a battle or something, then main character A who happens to arrive spectacularly a second late 1) hugs B, falls to his knees and roars at the sky, 2) swears vengeance, 3) then puts his palm over B’s eyes and closes them as he says something like ‘rest in peace, I will get vengeance for yah’.

T/N2 - The actual Chinese name for Black Demonic Nightcrawler is made up of these words: ‘black’ ‘to gather’ ‘demonic’ ‘bug’. But~~ I couldn’t see how to fit ‘gather’ in there and bug lacks impact... So I went with nightcrawler since it sounds pretty cool and the description of the bug is slightly wormlike. :3

T/N3 - The reason why demonic head isn’t capitalized when Tang Doudou calls Mu Ye a ‘demonic head’ is because she’s not actually addressing him by a title. The term is cursing him for being a powerful demon, or powerful evil person.