Chapter 103: bl**d of the Corrupted Divine
Looking at Jumeng’s frightening expression, Luxianbei felt a cold sweat on his forehead. In that moment, his mind raced, and countless excuses and lies floated through his head.
Facing a high-tier urban legend like Jumeng, he certainly couldn’t confront her directly; he could only find a way to muddle through.
Last time, Jumeng had no intention of killing him at all. He expended great effort just to make her suffer a minor injury.
“I, what happened to me? I didn’t do anything!”
“Hmph!” Jumeng squinted her eyes, glancing sideways at Luxianbei. “Still pretending to be foolish? You created this trouble yourself; do you need others to remind you?”
Luxianbei’s face paled a bit, and he hurriedly said, “Come on, don’t bring that up. I hate it when others ask me that question.”
“Helping the elderly across the street, stuffing money into a poor girl’s piggy bank, assisting a primary school student at the internet cafe while he goes to the restroom…”
“I’ve done so many good deeds, where should I even start with all of this?”
“Don’t know where to start?” Jumeng tilted her head, sneering for a moment, then abruptly lifted her shirt, pointing at her flat and fair abdomen. “Then let’s start from here!”
Luxianbei covered his eyes with both hands, peeking through his fingers at that perfectly curved abdomen that made him blush, and quickly shut his eyes again.
Hiss–! What does this mean?
This stinky sister went out and did something reckless, and now she wants me to take responsibility?
Just as Luxianbei was thinking this, he suddenly noticed a wisp of black mist on Jumeng’s abdomen, writhing under her fair skin as if it were alive, causing him to frown involuntarily.
“Are you talking about that black mist?”
“If not, then what?” Jumeng rolled her eyes with annoyance. “I’ve long since thought that your intentions were malicious. I didn’t expect you to use this thing, contaminated with the bl**d of a corrupted divine, to harm me!”
Luxianbei was stunned. Corrupted divine bl**d? What is that? I’ve never heard of it!
“Do you know that if I get contaminated with this filthy thing, I could fall into ruin? When that happens, don’t think you can escape. The entire Huacheng will be in trouble! Hmph!”
Luxianbei, “…” It sounds pretty serious. Uh, I’m really sorry about that!
“I’m just staying at your place, asking you to help me gather the core of urban legends, right? Although this is a bit dangerous for an ordinary person like you, I haven’t treated you poorly! Besides, isn’t it nice being able to see such a beautiful girl every day?”
Pfft! Shameless! Luxianbei spat in his heart, suddenly feeling less guilty.
Clearing his throat, he said, “Ahem, I really don’t know where that bl**d of yours comes from. I just happened to hunt an urban legend, shared half of it with the Decapitated Senior, and then brought the core back. There’s no middleman taking a cut.”
It can’t be that the Decapitated Senior is some kind of corrupted divine, right? She doesn’t look like that! Luxianbei thought.
“You really don’t know?”
“Really don’t.”
Hearing this, Jumeng glanced at Luxianbei with suspicion, raised her hand to check the back of her hand, and finding that the hidden contract mark beneath her skin did not glow, she temporarily set aside her doubts.
“Then what kind of urban legend did you hunt, and where did you encounter it?” Jumeng asked seriously, looking at Luxianbei.
“I think, based on the amount of corrupted divine bl**d contained in the core of the urban legend, the one you hunted is likely a minion of a corrupted divine.”
Upon hearing this, a scene from the Bamboo Slips Illusion flashed through Luxianbei’s mind, the thing beneath the sinkhole, and he suddenly understood.
Luxu had become an urban legend precisely because of the bamboo slips, so he likely had a good chance of being a minion of that thing in the bamboo slips.
Thinking of this, Luxianbei didn’t directly reveal the source of the core of the urban legend but instead asked Jumeng, “Since you asked, I’ll certainly tell you the origin of that urban legend, but you should at least tell me what corrupted divine bl**d is first, right?”
Jumeng frowned slightly, glanced again at the mark on the back of her hand, and upon confirming that Luxianbei’s question posed no harm to her, she began to explain.
“In terms you from the Siye Society would understand, a corrupted divine is a fallen mythological species, you know, like me—completely messing things up and losing my wits. Do you understand?”
Luxianbei nodded. From what he had seen in the Bamboo Slips Illusion and the hints in Jumeng’s words, he had already formed some speculation.
“Corrupted divine bl**d, in a narrow sense, doesn’t just refer to the bl**d of fallen deities in mythology, but to everything containing their spirit energy fluctuations.”
“Those things have a significant impact on upright deities like myself and once exposed to a certain amount, will lead to losing one’s sanity, like a virus that drives urban legends crazy.”
“I understand, I understand.” Luxianbei remarked, “So, after those guys go mad, their minds twist, they can’t stand to see others do well, they want to drag people down with them and seek revenge on society, right?”
“Aren’t there also such people among humans? You know, the carriers of some virus, who not only refuse to cooperate with treatment, but also go insane and infect others everywhere.”
“Although this process isn’t spontaneous on their part, it’s pretty much the same idea!” Jumeng crossed her arms in front of her chest, pouting.
“So now you can tell me where your core of the urban legend comes from, right?”
“Wait, wait!” Just as Luxianbei was about to speak, he suddenly remembered something and urgently changed the topic. “Last question, if what you said is truly serious, then if I shared half with the Senior, wouldn’t she be in serious trouble?”
As Luxianbei spoke, he imagined the Decapitated Senior, twisted and mutated by half of that urban legend core, killing students one by one in school, causing his heart to shudder.
Upon hearing this, Jumeng’s face darkened, and her brows furrowed.
“Hmph! You heartless b*stard! I almost got killed by you! You didn’t even ask whether I was okay, and yet you’re worried about some other woman outside? Huh?”
Luxianbei, “…”
What is this jealousy about?
“Okay then, are you okay?” Luxianbei asked, his face expressionless.
“Nope, this level of corruption can’t harm me; I’d have turned into a Black Mountain Old Monster long ago.”
“And the Senior?”
Jumeng pouted, “Nope, that low-tier urban legend is too weak. It can’t even affect me with the bl**d of a corrupted divine.”
This setting is really strange. So being weak is not original sin but becomes a hidden bonus? Luxianbei was stunned and continued, “Last question.”
“Speak!”
“Honestly, since you’re fine and the Senior is fine, why are you throwing a tantrum?” Luxianbei asked expressionlessly, thinking to himself that he almost thought she had discovered his secret!
Right, besides thinking I might have been poisoned and getting a bit angry at first, what am I even mad about? Jumeng frowned, pondered for a few seconds, couldn’t find a reasonable answer, turned around, and gave Luxianbei a smack that nearly knocked him out.
“You talk too much!”
…
According to their agreement, after Jumeng answered his questions, he was supposed to tell her the source of Luxu’s urban legend core.
So after handling the bump that had formed on his head, Luxianbei went upstairs to fetch the bamboo slips he got from Professor Ma.
Luxianbei placed the wooden box containing the bamboo slips on the coffee table, unlocked it, and as soon as he opened the lid, he saw Jumeng shrink back slightly, covering her nose with a disgusted expression. “It stinks! What the hell is that?”
“Does it stink? I don’t think so.”
Luxianbei leaned in to sniff and, aside from the overwhelming aromatic scent of camphor, he couldn’t smell a hint of odor.
“You can’t smell it as a human. The smell I’m talking about is the scent of corrupted divine.” Jumeng explained.
“Oh really?”
Luxianbei frowned, thinking, but I didn’t smell anything particularly special on the bamboo slips when I transformed. Is it me or her that has a problem?
Lost in thought, he held the bamboo slips in his hands, placed them on his lap, and gently patted them. “This is the set of bamboo slips I asked you to translate last time. The urban legend I hunted last night likely also escaped from here.”
“I was thinking of getting the bamboo slips from the professor and keeping them at home, so whenever an urban legend escaped from them, you could handle it as needed. I didn’t expect…”
“I didn’t expect a luxurious buffet to turn into a toilet buffet, right?” Jumeng pouted.
“I mean, could you consider your identity as a beautiful girl and not say such cr*p? Don’t you think it tarnishes your image?” Luxianbei replied displeased.
“I don’t care about that!” Jumeng shrugged indifferently. “I’m already thousands of years old. What do you expect from me, to act like a seventeen-eighteen-year-old fairy? Not realistic, kid! At my age, I just want to KEEP REAL!”
As long as you’re happy! Luxianbei shrugged noncommittally, then shook the bamboo slips in his hand at Jumeng. “Want to take a look?”
Jumeng frowned, looking thoroughly disgusted, pondered for a few seconds, and finally said, “Fine, let’s see then?”
As she spoke, she took the bamboo slips from Luxianbei’s hands, delicately wanting to untie the rope binding the bamboo slips, as if handling something vile.
The moment she unfolded the bamboo slips, Luxianbei suddenly felt a sharp pain in his eyes, an intense sense of unease surged through his nerves.
The special characters on the bamboo slips glowed with a bloody light, writhing like little people dancing wildly, clawing and scrambling out from the slips, charging towards Jumeng like a school of piranhas sensing bl**d.
Seeing this, Luxianbei’s pupils contracted slightly, and he rushed to snatch the bamboo slips from her hands before those special characters landed on Jumeng; then he tilted his body and pressed down on her. In that instant, the tips of their noses were just one and a half centimeters apart.
Luxianbei, “…”
“You listen to me explain…”
“Don’t say it. I understand.” Jumeng smiled enchantingly, wrapping her arms around his neck…
