Netherworld Painted Skin Scroll

Chapter 342 Justification
Speaking out at this moment was not planned, but Li Wuxiang noticed that something was wrong with Xiao E. He had never personally witnessed a demon forming its core, but as far as he knew, the process seemed similar to human cultivation, a change that occurred internally, without any terrifying or bizarre scenes.

He sent E Meifeng to find Hu Wei, also to trick her into giving him back the Great Rejuvenation Pill—Xie Qi felt a pang of heartache, and Li Wuxiang himself knew it was a valuable item and certainly wouldn't let Hu Wei use it herself. The crocodile demon's innocent and naive nature easily won over its kind. Based on his understanding of the fake Hu Wei, Li Wuxiang devised several conversation strategies for her. The days he spent constantly annoying Hu Wei were his way of teaching the crocodile demon to memorize these lines.

Sure enough, she obtained the Great Elixir without much scheming. Therefore, Li Wuxiang didn't intervene when Hu Wei offered to help her cultivate. Firstly, he was certain this female demon wouldn't harm her, and secondly, he was eager to see what methods she used to help the crocodile demon form its core—he had never heard of such a thing before.

— He had never heard of such a method before; it was just a matter of a breath.

The process of the crocodile demon forming her core far exceeded his expectations—she first emptied her internal organs, and then her entire body swelled into a ball. Then, the flesh and blood inside the ball contracted, transforming into a very large egg. The outside of this egg was not a shell, but covered with layers of scales, which immediately reminded Li Wuxiang of a "dragon egg".

Then, E Meifeng, who had completely transformed into human form, hatched from the egg.

Upon witnessing this scene, Li Wuxiang thought of a term—imprinting. This refers to the phenomenon where birds, after hatching, follow the first moving object they see and mistake it for their mother. E Meifeng's first sight after hatching was that fake Hu Wei. She wasn't very bright to begin with; would she mistake her for her mother too?

Then, when he heard E Meifeng talking to Hu Wei, he couldn't laugh anymore.

After being forced to produce its demon core by Hu Wei, the crocodile demon hesitated before finally mentioning its name. Such beings naturally command spirits and bewitch people; Li Wuxiang didn't know what methods she used, but he couldn't let E Meifeng utter the words!

Xu Pianpian was startled by Li Wuxiang's words. It wasn't that she was afraid of Li Wuxiang, but rather that she thought of Xu Zhen.

In an instant, her playful mood vanished, and Hu Wei's memories and emotions surged forth as if possessed. The moment the thought of "What should I do?" crossed her mind, she came up with a solution.

She whispered to the crocodile demon, "Don't be angry, I didn't mean to—"

The crocodile demon was still in a daze, only managing to say, "Huh?"

But the next moment, I heard a loud thud on my head and suddenly lost consciousness.

"Master, there's a demon here!" Xu Pianpian raised her hand and scratched herself a few times. As she scratched, sharp nails extended from her fingertips, and blood immediately appeared on her shoulders and limbs, oozing blood.

When Li Wuxiang jumped off the cliff, he saw the crocodile demon lying straight on the ground, its head covered in blood, and it looked as if there was a dent in it.

She appeared dead, but Li Wuxiang knew she was still alive. This demon was ruthless, but not entirely stupid; she knew that with Zhen Huwei's cultivation level, she might not be able to kill this crocodile demon in one blow.

Seeing Li Wuxiang jump down, Xu Pianpian picked up a stone from the ground and said, "Master, I chased this monster out here, she wants to eat me!"

After saying this, she raised her hand again, as if to deliver a few more blows to the crocodile demon's head.

But a sword light shot out and knocked the stone out of her hand. Li Wuxiang quickly walked in front of her, grabbed her hand and pulled her back: "Get away from it, I'll handle it!"

He saw that expression, which looked like a smile, appear on Hu Wei's face again, but it vanished in an instant. He ignored her, walked over to the crocodile demon, stood down, looked at it, and frowned slightly: "You said this demon wants to eat you?"

"It was... suddenly from the waterway in the alchemy room—"

Why didn't you call me?

"Ah...you weren't here then, you..."

"Why didn't you call him Elder Xie?"

"...It dragged me down! It dragged me down in an instant! I fought with it as I ran out of the river!"

Li Wuxiang was speaking with his back to Xu Pianpian. As she spoke, Xu Pianpian slowly retreated three steps behind him, thinking she was probably doomed—if she gave herself away, Xu Zhen would definitely be furious when they got back. Why did she have to be so playful? Wouldn't it have been better to just endure it for another three or four days?
Even if he didn't give himself away, he was still unlucky. He had just subdued a little demon, and now he was about to be captured by Li Wuxiang. He really had to endure it for another three or four days. Maybe he should just kill Li Wuxiang… what if he could kill him? Anyway, he wasn't much stronger than him—

"I don't think you're telling the truth." Li Wuxiang turned around and looked at her in the darkness.

Demons are very sensitive to scents, and Xu Pianpian detected a familiar scent, similar to Xu Zhen's—a little hot, a little stuffy, quite heavy, with a faint fishy smell. This was the scent of someone about to get angry… Oh no, he'd found out!

Demonic power surged through her body in an instant, and a surge of demonic energy gathered in her chest and abdomen. Xu Pianpian was about to transform into her true form and unleash a burst of powerful energy—

“This demon doesn’t eat people, and it certainly wouldn’t drag you out of the alchemy room—Elder Xie already knew she was at the bottom of the waterway, but he was too lazy to care. Why would she suddenly come to eat you?” Li Wuxiang stared at her coldly. “You didn’t take the Great Extinction Pill, did you?”

"Huh?" The demonic energy she hadn't managed to rise was swallowed back down. Xu Pianpian was stunned, realizing that this fool in front of her didn't seem to suspect her. She didn't understand for a moment how he knew she hadn't taken the Great Extinction Pill, but could only nod, "Ah... I, I didn't take it?"

Li Wuxiang stared at her silently. Just when Xu Pianpian thought he was finally about to lose his temper, she noticed that the aura of anger emanating from him suddenly dissipated.

Li Wuxiang sighed softly, put his hands behind his back, and shook his head: "Your mentality won't work, Hu Wei. I know you had a hard time in the past, and it was difficult for you to get anything. Living like that for a long time makes people stingy and insecure. Even if you get something good and know it will be of great use to you, you won't be willing to use it, even if you find it for free."

"Is that why you're reluctant to eat it? If you don't eat it now, how long do you plan to save it?"

What nonsense is this guy spouting? What does he mean? Xu Pianpian didn't understand, but could only go along with him, "I...I don't know either..."

“If you don’t take what Heaven gives, you will suffer the consequences. Remember this saying from now on—what is yours, you must take. Otherwise, at best you’ll have bad luck, at worst you’ll be in trouble.” Li Wuxiang glanced at the crocodile demon beside him. “This demon doesn’t usually eat people, nor does it cause trouble on Mount Dapan. You were in seclusion in the alchemy room with the Great Resurrection Pill, but you couldn’t bear to eat it, so you attracted this demon, didn’t you?” Xu Pianpian finally understood. She was almost dying of laughter at Li Wuxiang’s self-righteousness. But she couldn’t laugh, so she could only hold it in and say with a wronged expression, “Yes.”

"So this demon stole your Great Elixir. You were afraid that if you lost the elixir, Elder Xie and I would blame you, so you jumped down to try and get it back, didn't you?"

Hahaha, are you an idiot? Or a ghost?

"Um...yes, it's a real person."

“I'm telling you, that's right. This demon didn't have a demon core before, but now it has taken human form—you were able to injure her because you attacked when she was weak from forming her core. Hu Wei, do you know where you went wrong again? The Great Rejuvenation Pill is an external thing; once it's lost, it's gone. But if this crocodile demon had recovered its strength after forming its core and taking human form, I'm afraid you would have been finished too—I'm angry because you don't know how to cherish yourself, not because you lost the pill, do you understand?”

A few days ago, Xu Pianpian wouldn't have understood. But now she understood a little, and while smiling to herself, she said, "Real person, I understand."

"Let's postpone your seclusion for a while. We'll have Elder Xie refine another one for you. To be honest, Elder Xie and I were also at fault for forgetting about this demon."

Li Wuxiang turned to look at the crocodile demon. Xu Pianpian knew he was probably not happy, so she decided to try and appease him. She picked up a stone from the ground and quickly said, "Master, this monster is awful! I'll kill it right now! Master, you can—"

But then Li Wuxiang turned and glared at her: "Why did you kill it?"

"what?"

“It’s already difficult for animal spirits to cultivate, and it’s even more difficult to achieve such a high level of cultivation. Didn’t you hear me say that Elder Xie knew all along that this demon usually hid in the waterways? I knew that too. Demons are like human children; without someone to teach them, they don’t know what is right and what is wrong.”

"Hu Wei, did you ever crush ants or tear apart dragonflies when you were little? You just thought it was fun back then, but would you still do it on purpose now that you're older?"

"……what?"

Surely you will?

"This demon is the same. Sigh." Li Wuxiang sighed. "It usually eats small fish and shrimp in the water. This time, it only came to snatch the Great Elixir because it couldn't resist the smell. It's like a child who's starving; it won't care whose food it is, it just takes it and eats it. With its cultivation level, it wouldn't be difficult for it to harm you even before it formed its core, but it didn't, so why go to such lengths to kill it?"

Xu Pianpian's smile vanished. She thought Li Wuxiang's words were utter nonsense, because Xu Zhen had told her that the people of the Central Continent killed any demon they saw.

To be honest, the name "妖" (yāo) is not the original name of the demon, but should be "精" (jīng) – demons are the essence of heaven and earth, and in the past, not only the Eastern Continent, but also the Central Continent was full of demons.

Later, a great evil spirit named Li Ye appeared in the Central Continent. He led people to almost exterminate all the demons in the Central Continent and started calling "spirits" "demons". It was a great demon named "Jingwei" who used her supernatural powers to fill the sea and ferry the surviving demons to the Eastern Continent. Only then were demons called demons. Xu Zhen said that this was to remember what the people of the Central Continent had done. Only after killing all the people of the Central Continent could they call themselves "spirits".

But what nonsense is he spouting now?
Wait... is he even human?
Xu Pianpian was stunned for a while before asking, "Then... Real Person, what do you plan to do? Aren't you going to kill it?"

"Of course we let it go. It was quite fortunate for it to get the Great Rejuvenation Pill from you. It didn't kill you, and you didn't kill it, so it's just that its life wasn't meant to end. If we were going to kill it, Elder Xie would have done it long ago."

Xu Pianpian was momentarily speechless. Li Wuxiang's cultivation was higher than hers, but she hadn't initially taken it to heart. There were many with higher cultivation than her, yet few of them had met a good end. His thoughts were strange, his reasoning strange, but Xu Pianpian hadn't given it much thought either, only knowing that this person was indeed different from Xu Zhen. But those thoughts and reasoning would probably all change once she truly understood who she was.

But now things are different… He’s nothing like the people Xu Zhen talked about—he doesn’t want to kill this little demon!?
She stood there, stunned, the feeling she had when Li Wuxiang gave her the Great Elixir resurfaced. She'd known these past few days that this feeling was ominous, though she couldn't quite pinpoint why, and had told herself not to overthink it. But now she couldn't resist anymore, looking at Li Wuxiang, thinking of Xu Zhen—

These two are similar yet different. They share many similarities, but also many differences. The similarities are what she likes, while the differences include some where Xu Zhen is better, and others—

When she thought of this, her mind went blank. She couldn't immediately recall any reasons why Xu Zhen was "better."

No, there's one thing Xu Zhen has that's even better—Xu Zhen won't lock her up for days on end for no reason now.

Li Wuxiang turned around and waved his hand: "Go back. I've been thinking about it, and I realize I've been too impatient these past few days. At your age, your mind is still unsettled, and it would be very difficult for you to go into seclusion for four or five days. Elder Xie will continue to refine medicine for you starting tomorrow, so I'll give you the ten-day leave I promised you. Go and pay your respects to your master morning and evening, and you can figure out what to do with the rest of the time."

Even this "better" one is gone.

A thought popped into Xu Pianpian's mind—actually, staying here is quite nice.

Actually, we could stay a few more days. Xu Zhen already said there's no rush. Li Jianbai, Xie Qi, and Xue Baoping aren't going to escape anyway. It would be better to stay longer and get to know them better before making a move. If Xu Zhen asks later, we can just say, "Oh dear, they're too cautious. I couldn't find an opportunity to strike!"

Thinking about this made her truly happy. A ten-day period meant she could walk hundreds of miles a day, and she didn't know how many fun things she could find. But compared to all those fun things, she thought the most fun was this Li Wuxiang. Not exactly fun… but if Xu Zhen didn't kill him, she would definitely love having him by her side.

She smiled with narrowed eyes and said to Li Wuxiang, "Master, I understand."

Li Wuxiang nodded, then glanced at the crocodile demon on the ground, knowing that the original plan had to be changed.

He knew that demons could be capricious and ruthless, but he had underestimated them until tonight.

She can't let this thing stay by her side for long. After tonight's shock and relief, she should be greatly relieved, so tomorrow will be a good opportunity to make her move.

(End of this chapter)