Netherworld Painted Skin Scroll

Chapter 340 Prisoner
So Xue Baoping taught Xu Pianpian a set of cultivation techniques in the alchemy room. This technique was the one Zeng Jianqiu had taught her before, when her aptitude was still very poor.

Even though this was the method she was taught, Xue Baoping secretly made some changes to the wording, thinking to herself: She won't actually practice it, so she shouldn't be able to find out.

Upon hearing this method, Xu Pianpian felt it was simple and crude, almost like something meant to be used to appease someone. She thought to herself, "I won't actually practice it; she probably won't notice."

Both harboring their own ulterior motives, they soon parted ways. Accompanied by Xie Qi, Xu Pianpian returned to her room to pack her things—Elder Xie had gone to inform her original master.

Xue Baoping then went to Li Wuxiang and said, "She really does have a chain around her neck. I provoked her a bit, and she showed me the chain—she's not very smart. It seems she was able to convincingly impersonate Hu Wei because she ate her."

Li Wuxiang nodded: "She's not exactly smart, but maybe she is. Think about Xiao E, she's about to form her demon core, which is much harder than a human's Foundation Establishment, and she's still just a child. Compared to her, this one is incredibly smart. But now that we know what kind of mind she has, things will be easier—the second step is to figure out how deep her cultivation is, what other supernatural abilities she has, and then we can set a trap. This time, I'll play along with her."

Li Wuxiang's methods are similar to Xue Baoping's, with slight differences.

He accompanied Xu Pianpian as she practiced her martial arts. What he explained and instructed her on were things that she considered extremely simple, and he made her repeat them over and over again.

He struck a balance—making her feel annoyed, but not so annoyed that she forgot her original purpose, and could only endure it while pretending to be Hu Wei on the verge of collapse.

At first, Xu Pianpian was actually quite happy. In her mind, Li Wuxiang and Xu Zhen were very similar, and they did almost the same things—her skills, apart from her innate supernatural abilities, were almost all taught to her by Xu Zhen. It was the same back then, little by little, over and over again, she honed her skills for countless years.

Unlike Xu Zhen, Li Wuxiang neither hits nor scolds people, nor does he punish them. Several times, she couldn't stand it anymore and deliberately provoked him to get him out of there, but he didn't get angry.

Xu Pianpian had never had such an experience before, so while she called out "real person" aloud, she was also calling out "Xu Zhen" in her heart, and felt that the person in front of her really was Xu Zhen. This feeling was absolutely wonderful.

However, no matter how good it felt, Xu Pianpian couldn't take it anymore after four days. She felt as if her hands and feet were tied up, and she was stuffed into a tightly bound iron barrel. Xue Baoping and Li Wuxiang were too clingy, taking turns to accompany her in practicing martial arts, almost day and night.

Finally, on the fifth day, after she pretended to practice breathing exercises a few more times, Li Wuxiang said, "That's about enough."

Xu Pianpian was overjoyed, thinking that she would finally not have to sit all day anymore.

Then Li Wuxiang continued, "Starting today, you will stay in the alchemy room and fast. While fasting, take the Great Fasting Pill that Elder Xie gave you—with your current cultivation level, you should be able to refine its medicinal properties in about five days. Hu Wei."

At this moment, Xu Pianpian was seriously considering whether she should fly away immediately—after she left, which was more unbearable: Xu Zhen's punishment or being locked up in the alchemy room for five days?
She replied absentmindedly, "Oh, real person, I'm here."

"This step is crucial." Li Wuxiang looked at her earnestly and seriously. "Your aptitude is not good. Elder Xie accepted you as a disciple because of my favor and also because of that Great Rejuvenation Pill. If you don't refine the medicinal power well in these five days, Elder Xie might not accept you anymore. But if you do refine it, Elder Xie will become the sect leader soon, and you will be the sect leader's personal disciple. I know you've been feeling bored and restless these past few days, but if you can get through these five days, I will grant you a ten-day leave on behalf of Elder Xie. You can relax and wander around the mountain and the valley."

On the mountain and down the mountain—Xu Pianpian immediately thought of her bead, and the thought of escaping vanished instantly. She said cheerfully, "Okay, Master, I will definitely dissolve the medicinal effects properly."

Li Wuxiang laughed and patted her head: "I'll be guarding outside for the next five days, right in the courtyard. If you feel anything has gone wrong during your seclusion, call me immediately."

……

Xu Pianpian wanted to sneak out on the first night, but found that Li Wuxiang was indeed guarding the courtyard. He himself seemed to be practicing martial arts, sitting under the bamboo forest like a stone sculpture covered in night dew.

Xu Pianpian looked at him through the crack in the window, sighed, but did not leave immediately, instead continuing to watch him.

When she first met Li Wuxiang, there was one thing she didn't understand—why compensate Hu Wei with something as valuable as the Great Rejuvenating Pill?
Then there were the things she hadn't figured out before—why was Li Wuxiang so good to Hu Wei?

These past few days, she'd noticed that the people around her didn't seem surprised by this. She just didn't know much about the Central Plains, but she wasn't stupid, so she gradually came to understand that some people, like Li Wuxiang, would be kind to others for no apparent reason, and they had their own reasons for it.

This kind of logic would be absurd in the Eastern Continent, but it seems different here.

So she realized that these past few days, when she was calling Li Wuxiang "True Person," she sometimes wasn't thinking of Xu Zhen anymore. This Li Wuxiang was actually completely different from Xu Zhen. Several times, she even felt that Xu Zhen was Li Wuxiang, and it would be better if Li Wuxiang were Xu Zhen.

But there are many things in the world that "would be better." For example, if only I could go down the mountain right now and find her little bead, I wouldn't be so bored—

The alchemy room consists of two rooms. The outer room contains tables, chairs, a wooden bed, and a medicine cabinet, while the inner room contains four furnaces and a waterway for dumping alchemical waste.

Xu Pianpian spent only one day exploring all these things, and found it incredibly boring. She even considered crawling into the waterway to take a look. However, she knew that Li Wuxiang was outside protecting Hu Wei, and he was a Nascent Soul cultivator stronger than herself. If he discovered she wasn't in her room, things would go wrong—because he could come to the window anytime, day or night, and gently knock, asking, "Hu Wei, what's wrong?"

She walked away from the window, tossing the Great Rejuvenation Pill in her hand to play with it, while wondering if she had become familiar with Xue Baoping and Li Wuxiang. If she could endure another four days, would she be able to make her move?

First, kill Li Jianbai. She'd only seen him twice in the past few days and knew killing him wouldn't be difficult at all. Killing Xie Qi might be a little harder, but she could lure him down the mountain; any commotion that caused wouldn't matter. Finally, there was Xue Baoping—

Just then, Xu Pianpian heard a sound coming from the waterway inside the alchemy room. It was very faint, but because of the quietness of the room and her excellent hearing, it became especially clear—

"Knock knock knock knock".

Xu Pianpian's ears perked up immediately. She stood still, turned towards the inner room, and then sniffed hard.

The taste. The taste of its own kind. The taste of demons!

But the sound never came again, and the taste, which was originally very faint, disappeared in the blink of an eye.

Is there a demon in the waterway beneath the alchemy room?

Xu Pianpian wanted to go inside and take a look immediately. Judging from the smell, it was an inconspicuous little demon, but it could still be used to pass the time.

But just then she heard a sound outside the courtyard again—Li Wuxiang, who was like a statue, stood up, paced around the courtyard a few times, and then walked to the window and gently knocked on the window frame: "Hu Wei, how are you?" She immediately said: "I'm fine, I'm fine."

The little demon in the waterway seems to have gone far away. Its demonic aura was already very faint, and the water was flowing fast, so now it can't be smelled anymore. I don't know if it went downstream or upstream.

"Don't let your guard down, and don't be impatient." Li Wuxiang started rambling on and on again, which Xu Pianpian didn't want to listen to at all. When he finally finished speaking and walked away, Xu Pianpian quickly went to the inner room to look into the waterway—it was pitch black, with only the sound of water and steam, nothing else.

But her mood improved. She stayed by the inner room door all night and all day, thinking the little demon might come again. But even late into the next night, there was no further movement.

Xu Pianpian was going crazy with boredom and decided to go check out the waterway. If Li Wuxiang asked, she would say she went to take a bath, or that she accidentally fell in and was swept away by the water before swimming back.

But just then, she heard that voice again—

"Knock knock knock knock".

The sound was even louder than last night, and it seemed to be coming right from the waterway entrance!
Xu Pianpian immediately rushed into the inner room and peered down—

A huge crocodile was swimming in circles in the water below the waterway, tapping its mouth as it swam.

This little imp looked really stupid—Xu Pianpian had been staring at her for a while, but she hadn't noticed. Xu Pianpian couldn't help but ask, "What are you doing?"

The crocodile glanced at her in the water, then went back to chasing its tail in circles: "I'm just playing."

Xu Pianpian wanted to ask what you were playing, but then she suddenly remembered her identity—Hu Wei! Hu Wei wouldn't react like this to a little demon!
She immediately shrank back: "You can talk, you're a demon!"

"Oh, you're only just realizing that? Don't make such a fuss. I've been here for years, Elder Xie knows me. Who are you? Why are you bothering with me?"

Xu Pianpian searched through Hu Wei's mind again, but found that Hu Wei genuinely knew nothing about it. She frowned: "You demon, talking nonsense."

The crocodile rolled its eyes: "Go ask Elder Xie. You're such a nuisance, sigh!"

After saying that, she stopped spinning and started swimming downwards. Xu Pianpian quickly called out to her, "Don't go! I remember now, my master mentioned you. Elder Xie is my master."

But then the crocodile demon said, "Oh dear! You humans are truly remarkable, you even have masters! Unlike me, a mere little demon, who hides here and cultivates by myself! You should go find your master to exorcise this demon!"

Normally, if someone spoke to Xu Pianpian like that, she would swallow them whole. But now, the speaker was a little demon, and a human at that, speaking in a strange and sarcastic tone. Xu Pianpian had been cooped up on this mountain full of people for so many days, and suddenly she wasn't angry. Not only was she not angry—she had previously wanted to turn her into a bead, but now she had given up on that idea and decided to wait until after she had killed Li Jianbai, Xie Qi, and Xue Baoping.

But she didn't want to say anything that would upset the little demon. Because Hu Wei wouldn't do that.

She asked, "What were you playing just now?"

The crocodile demon finally stopped swimming downstream, flicked her tail in the water, splashing water onto her face, and said in a sarcastic tone, "I play with my tail? Sigh, can't you even tell? Sigh, you humans are really amazing, but do you even have a tail?"

Xu Pianpian wanted to speak, but she couldn't.

The crocodile demon got even more excited and said, "So what if you have a master? You're still locked up. And you can't even play with your tail when you're locked up."

"You're the one who's locked up; I'm in seclusion."

"Sigh, seclusion? Sigh! Can you even get out? You're basically locked up. Otherwise, go out and show me."

"Watch this!" Xu Pianpian jumped up and walked to the door of the inner room, but stopped just as she was about to step out.

The crocodile demon said in a muffled voice from the water, "Look at you, you've been locked up by your master, sigh!"

Xu Pianpian turned around and walked back to the waterway. A large, black and yellow tail, as thick as a teacup, dangled into the water: "Look, do I have a tail?"

There was a splash in the waterway, as if the little demon was frightened by her and immediately darted into the depths of the water.

Xu Pianpian panicked and whispered at the waterway entrance, "Don't go!"

She called out twice, and as the demonic aura grew farther and farther away, she knew that the crocodile demon was truly frightened—this didn't surprise her at all; that's how it should be in the Eastern Continent.

She took out the Great Elixir, but it swayed under the waterway: "Don't go! Don't be afraid! I have something good for you to eat!"

The demonic aura was no longer gone. After a while, the crocodile demon's carapace resurfaced, and then it revealed its head, staring intently at the Great Resurrection Pill in her hand.

Xu Pianpian tossed the pill to the crocodile demon, who swallowed it whole. Then, delighted, it spun around in the water a few more times, exclaiming, "You're so stupid!"

Xu Pianpian was stunned: "What did you say?!"

The crocodile demon stiffened, as if realizing she'd misspoke. She hurriedly spun around in the water, seemingly recalling something someone had already warned her about. Then she surfaced again: "Oh, I...oh! I mean, oh, you're a demon too? This is good stuff! You didn't eat it yourself, and you gave it to me! Oh! You won't be able to get any more! Oh! Be careful someone finds out! Xie Qi has been trying to capture me! I hate him!"

Xu Pianpian then stopped glaring and said smugly, "What's so great about this? Only little demons like you would think it's something good. I don't care at all. Discover me? Capture me? Haha, only little demons like you would be afraid of this. I'm much more capable! I'm going to kill him! Just you wait and see!"

(End of this chapter)