Chapter One Hundred: Blood Ties

The storm that rose that day did not subside. With the cultivators entering the fray, the entire demon realm seemed like a cauldron of boiling water split open, everywhere reeking of blood and smoke. And Xu Nuo, with Lu Ciyuan at her side, was the fuse that ignited the gunpowder. Wherever they went, there the battlefield began.

"Sister Xu, it hurts." Lu Ciyuan touched the blood on his face and looked at Xu Nuo with a pitiful expression.

"Stop pretending. What kind of man plays weak?" Xu Nuo gave him a shove. "Hurry up. If you finish them off, I'll give you sour jujube cake."

"Oh." Lu Ciyuan had no choice but to keep working hard.

One would never know without seeing it, but witnessing it with one's own eyes made one truly understand just how ferocious this seemingly delicate, easy-to-bully wastrel of a boy could be. To say that he stained the demon realm in blood would not be an exaggeration.

Lu Ciyuan had once worried that Xu Nuo's identity as a woman would bring trouble if exposed, but facts proved that as long as they were strong enough, it made no difference at all.

Many came for Xu Nuo, and every one of them was cut down beneath Lu Ciyuan's blade. The demons were a race that knew nothing of fear, and the number of demon corpses Lu Ciyuan had dealt with was already beyond counting.

What was strange, however, was that the world of cultivators never made a move. It was as though they had vanished entirely, leaving no trace behind.

After once again dealing with a demon who dared to challenge them on the stage, Lu Ciyuan could not help asking, "Why does Sister Xu seem so anxious about something?"

"Anxious about what?" Xu Nuo was looking at the bug-fix notice sent by the system, answering carelessly. "I'm not anxious about anything."

"Is that so..." Lu Ciyuan shook the blood from his sword. He thought perhaps it was only his imagination.

007 told Xu Nuo, "Once this round of the game ends, you will be able to return to the real world."

"Mm." Xu Nuo looked at the notice, then unconsciously glanced at Lu Ciyuan. She could not help asking, "After I leave, will the plot of this world come to an end?"

"Technically, yes," 007 said. "As for when it can be fully repaired and the game reopened, I don't know either."

Rarely had its host shown such a reluctant expression, and 007 wondered if it had seen wrong. "It's also very possible that this game world will be destroyed."

"Destroyed?" Xu Nuo's brows tightened as she fell into thought. No matter what 007 said after that, she no longer answered.

Once Lu Ciyuan stopped suppressing the bloodline of the demon clan, his strength became terrifying beyond reason. He was simply unstoppable, a god sent down to slay gods and a Buddha sent down to slay Buddhas. On the second day, he came down from the arena and charged straight into the palace of the main city.

When the blade pointed at the city lord on the high seat, Lu Ciyuan's blood father, the man stared in disbelief, still holding a beautiful, fragile woman in his arms.

"You... you are..." That shock carried another meaning as well.

Lu Ciyuan's face was expressionless. "You still remember me?"

"You're not her..." The city lord suddenly understood. "You're that little beast!"

Lu Ciyuan swung his blade straight toward the city lord's lower body.

"Aaahhh!!!" The city lord's screams tore through the heavens. The beauty in his arms trembled in terror and fled in panic, not even turning back no matter how the city lord cried out.

"Someone come! Someone! Assassins!!"

Lu Ciyuan and Xu Nuo waited patiently until his voice turned hoarse. Only after they discovered that no one came in response did they stop wasting time on his shouting.

"How did you get in here?" The city lord, grievously wounded in a vital place, was weakened to the extreme. His already weary face, worn thin by excess and indulgence, had lost all color, pale as a corpse or a ghost.

"Were all the guards killed?!" The city lord had no choice but to accept the truth. His twisted face slowly filled with despair and pleading. "You're here for revenge?"

Lu Ciyuan did not answer. He merely looked at him, expressionless, as the man made a spectacle of his own disgrace.

They did not kill him at once, and when the city lord saw there was still hope of survival, he clutched it like a drowning man grabbing weeds at the riverbank. "Son, listen to me. I had my reasons back then. I never meant to abandon you and your mother. I regret it deeply!"

"Those people who bullied you and your mother back then, I killed them all to vent your anger!"

"Heh." Lu Ciyuan let out a cold laugh.

Clang.

He threw the sword in his hand down before the city lord.

The city lord was overjoyed. "Son! Your father was right about you after all!"

"Why won't you fight back?" Lu Ciyuan asked. "Do you not even have the courage to resist?"

The city lord froze. "What?"

"Don't dare?" Lu Ciyuan found it utterly ridiculous. "What kind of trash doesn't even have the courage to resist have to do with being my father?"

"No, no, I..." The city lord struggled to dredge up a few scraps of memory about this cheap son of his. "Xiao Xing, you are my son. How could I ever lay a hand on you? If you want the seat of city lord, I can give it to you! I am your father!"

"If I want this position, I'll take it myself. Why would I need you to give it to me?" Lu Ciyuan had no patience left. He drove his sword straight through the city lord's heart.

"Splurt—"

The man his mother had always spoken of in tones of resentment mixed with hidden affection, the man who had brought him every misery in life, now died so disgracefully before his eyes. And yet Lu Ciyuan felt no great satisfaction in it.

The wish he had once made before leaving the demon realm had also come true today. The city lord's position had once been something he was determined to seize, but now that he looked upon that bloodstained throne, it seemed no more than that.

Lu Ciyuan carefully washed away the blood on his body before walking to the person beside him.

"Sister Xu, I did it."

"Mm, you did very well." Xu Nuo patted Lu Ciyuan on the head.

The soft touch on his head had always been something he liked before. He had loved the feeling of Xu Nuo acknowledging him. But now he was no longer satisfied with that alone—Xu Nuo looked at him as though she were looking at a younger brother.

As Xu Nuo stroked Lu Ciyuan's head, the texture suddenly changed, the hair shifting from a boy's softness to something cold and hard.

Lu Ciyuan lifted his disguise and revealed his true appearance. He had the build of a young man, a head taller than Xu Nuo, and the last trace of youthful innocence had vanished from his face.

"Sister Xu."

Even his voice had become far more mature and low.

Xu Nuo flexed her slightly numb fingers, feeling that something about this had become strangely off.

"Let's go." Lu Ciyuan lifted Xu Nuo with one arm and seated her in the crook of his elbow.

Xu Nuo had not yet grown used to the posture and instinctively wrapped her arms around Lu Ciyuan's neck. "Why are you suddenly carrying me?"

"Because Sister Xu walks too slowly," Lu Ciyuan said.

Xu Nuo felt a little awkward, but sitting without having to walk did feel rather nice. "Where are we going now?"

"To bathe and change clothes," Lu Ciyuan said.

Xu Nuo nodded. "Mm. You're the city lord now, so you should change into a more proper, more solemn image."

"No. It's because the smell of blood on me is too strong." Lu Ciyuan said, "You promised to give me sour jujube cake."

Xu Nuo still had not figured out what the smell of blood had to do with sour jujube cake, but she still started searching. "Oh no, the sour jujube cake is all gone."

The audience immediately tipped her plenty of sour jujubes.

Why couldn't they just tip sour jujube cake directly? Xu Nuo could only sigh. "Fine, I'll make it for you."

Lu Ciyuan smiled and nodded. "All right."

On the first day after becoming city lord, the main city passed through in a relatively peaceful atmosphere. Lu Ciyuan was not a blood-mad butcher; he merely killed some of the former city lord's loyal retainers, and the rest of the time he spent handling affairs.

As the saying went, when a new official takes office, he lights three fires. Yet this city lord was not all that diligent, and most matters were left to Xu Nuo. Among the demon clan, it was already being said that the beautiful female at the city lord's side was absolutely the future city mistress.

However, the peaceful atmosphere did not last long. The world of cultivators formally declared war on the demon clan, on the grounds that the demons had abducted one of their sect disciples—the woman now at the side of the new city lord. If they refused to hand her over, then war would follow. But the demons were not all fools; they knew that even if they handed her over, the world of cultivators would not spare them.

Besides, most of the demon clan were born for battle. If they were going to fight, then they would fight. They would never back down a single step.

The war between the demon clan and the world of cultivators was already a foregone conclusion.

On the third day after Lu Ciyuan became city lord, an uninvited guest arrived in the city.

Xu Qingyin appeared before Xu Nuo without a sound.

Xu Qingyin said to her, "You don't seem very surprised."

Xu Nuo said, "Mm. What do you want to talk to me about?" Nonsense. With the system warning her in advance, there was no way anyone could scare her.

Xu Nuo's calmness made Xu Qingyin somewhat uncertain as well. He tested cautiously, "Is he treating you well?"

"You're talking about Lu Ciyuan?" Xu Nuo looked blissful. "He treats me especially well. He indulges me in everything, cares about me, and loves me. I feel that my choice was right. Back then, I made the right decision to follow him no matter what."

After hearing that, Xu Qingyin's calm expression cracked slightly. He said helplessly, "You're not a child anymore, so why do you always like to argue with me?"

Xu Nuo said, "Who are you to meddle in my life?"

Xu Qingyin said, "I am your granduncle."

So he was that nominal relative, her backer in the sect. But still—"Why didn't you say you were my granduncle before?"

He had not appeared when she was treated coldly. He had not appeared when she was ostracized. The sect disciples all looked down on her, and he still did not step forward to stand up for her. Wasn't it a little late to start playing the family card now?

Xu Nuo asked him, "What do you want with me now?"

"Don't persist in your wrong path," Xu Qingyin urged. "It's not too late to turn back now."

Xu Nuo asked, "If I had not become the master of the Helo Jade Tome, would you have cared so much about me?"

Xu Qingyin paused, then said, "In any case, you are the last bloodline of the Xu family."

Xu Nuo said, "You also bear the Xu name. If you're so concerned about the continuation of the bloodline, then go have one yourself."

Xu Qingyin was choked by that outrageous remark. Having long been detached from worldly affairs, he did not know how to speak with this niece by blood. "How could I have one? I am doing this for your own good."

"Is it really for my own good?" Xu Nuo shook her head. "I don't need it."

Xu Qingyin frowned. "You are my niece."

"Don't. Let's just be strangers. Don't bring up all that bloodline nonsense. No one should be bound by blood." Xu Nuo said, "What else do you have to say?"

"I really am doing this for your own good," Xu Qingyin said anxiously. "Lu Ciyuan's purpose is the Helo Jade Tome."

"He can never love you forever and leave the Jade Tome in your hands."