Transmigrated as the Villain’s Sword - Chapter 73

The moment Wenxin’s mirror surface made contact with the eggshell, he was still in a daze. After a few seconds of bewilderment, he finally realized what had happened and burst into a string of curses: “You—!”

“Look, everyone!” Ling Chenyan’s eyes lit up as she stared at the egg. “It just flashed! The evil aura thinned out a little bit!”

Everyone peered closer. Sure enough, just as Ling Chenyan said, the spot where the egg had been “bonked” showed a visible depression in the evil aura, which then slowly rebounded—but compared to before, it was undeniably missing a chunk.

Surprisingly, though this method was a bit crude, it was actually quite effective.

Seeing the gazes gathering around him, Wenxin felt a surge of unease and roared in fury: “I am a Divine Artifact! How dare you treat me like this!”

Ling Chenyan looked at him with a beaming smile. “We all know, Lord Wenxin, that you are the most powerful Divine Artifact. Your dharma is profound, your power immense—no ordinary artifact can compare to you…”

The crowd followed suit, showering Wenxin with a barrage of random flattery until he was practically floating. Sensing his ego was sufficiently inflated, Ling Chenyan’s eyes darted as she continued, “So, Lord Wenxin, surely you won’t stand by and watch this evil thing be born, right?”

“Of course not,” Wenxin replied reflexively. “But—”

“No ‘buts’!” Ling Tian snatched the Wenxin Mirror away. “Contribute your strength, Lord Wenxin!”

With three successive bang-bang-bangs, Ling Tian gripped the mirror and smashed it down, successfully dimming the red glow on the egg a few more shades. He laughed heartily, “Hahaha! A Divine Artifact is truly a Divine Artifact! Impressive indeed!”

Wenxin’s head throbbed from the impact. Seeing that the person holding him was that “wild-style” youth, his temper flared again. He broke free from Ling Tian’s hand and prepared to headbutt him, but Ling Chenyan grabbed him back.

“Stop wasting time,” Ling Chenyan said. “Delay leads to trouble. Let’s keep going.”

With that, she unleashed another flurry of clatter-clatter-clatters. At first, Wenxin remained silent, but as the hits accumulated, he started to speak tentatively: “Don’t just pick on me. What about that other kid? Get Jinjin out here too!”

“No way,” Ling Chenyan said. “He’s too weak. He’s not as strong as you. You’re the strongest—you wouldn’t say you’re ‘not doing fine,’ would you?”

Wenxin: “…I’m doing fine.”

“I knew it.” Even as she voiced her “doubt,” Ling Chenyan’s hands didn’t stop for a second, continuing the relentless bashing. The onlookers felt a wave of sympathy for Wenxin as he was hoodwinked into silence.

Soon, the patterns on the egg faded at high speed. Simultaneously, the exposed evil aura was nearly ground away, yet the eggshell remained perfectly intact.

Ling Chenyan swung one last time with all her might, then stopped to wipe her sweat. “For some reason, I feel like this egg is quite pitiful. I don’t have the heart to hit it anymore.”

Ling Tian rubbed his chin nearby. “Tell me about it. To be honest, I lost the heart to do it a long time ago.”

Tong Di added, “True. It looks quite pathetic.”

“Then maybe…” Tong Di and Ling Tian exchanged a look and said in unison, “We should release it first?”

Ling Chenyan was startled. Even though she felt a bit bad for it, she had never considered letting the evil thing go. Yet, Tong Di and Ling Tian were already stepping toward her.

Ling Chenyan’s mind felt slightly hazy as well. But suddenly, a hand pressed against her shoulder. A surge of clear, spiritual energy gathered her scattered, chaotic consciousness. She jolted awake.

She looked at the two men opposite her, who had been slapped awake by the Old Demon Emperor and looked equally shaken. She swallowed hard and looked at Guan Luowei behind her. “Highness… this thing can influence people’s thoughts without them even noticing.”

Guan Luowei’s eyes flickered with a faint black mist as she pointed her chin toward the egg. “Look.”

Ling Chenyan felt a warmth in her eyes. When she looked at the egg again, she gasped in shock. “What… what is this?”

Ling Tian and Tong Di couldn’t help but ask, “What happened?”

Ling Chenyan pointed at the egg. When the two looked, they saw that the patterns and evil aura they thought had vanished had reappeared. Although there was less than before, it was nowhere near as “naked” as they had initially seen.

The two were horrified. “How is this possible?!”

The Old Emperor’s face darkened. “It beguiled you into a dreamscape. But because its cultivation is still shallow, Weiwei and I spotted the flaw quickly.”

Wenxin narrowed his eyes as if remembering something. “Actually, I’ve had a strange feeling since we started. Every time I hit it, I felt it absorbing my energy. It was a tiny amount each time, but the energy in my body has definitely decreased slightly.”

After a weird silence, Ling Tian took a sharp breath. “Does that mean it can absorb others’ energy and then use their abilities?”

“No, it’s not quite like that,” Wenxin said. “It’s likely that a high-level evil entity, while beguiling others, has evolved the ability to create illusions.”

“As for my energy,” Wenxin paused. “It can’t just mimic my abilities with that tiny amount. It must be doing this for something else—though I’m not sure what.”

“Shouldn’t your energy have a restraining effect on it?” Tong Di asked. “If it’s restrained by you, why would it do such a thing? To fake a weakening of itself?”

“Possible.”

“Not necessarily.”

Two voices spoke simultaneously, drawing everyone’s eyes to Wenxin and Guan Luowei.

Guan Luowei spoke slowly: “All things in nature have mutual restraint and generation. Your energy can restrain it, but it might also help nourish its evil power. If not that, it might be calculating exactly how much restraining power your energy has over it.”

The crowd was stunned. Ling Tian took a deep breath. “It’s just an egg… how can it have so many ‘scheming hearts’?”

Guan Luowei didn’t explain, but Ling Chenyan had a gut feeling she was right. Lin Qingwan was the heroine of the original story—how could her power and intelligence be weak? Ling Chenyan would believe it if someone said she had a hundred and eight layers of schemes.

After a long silence, Ling Chenyan sighed. “So, do we keep hitting it or not?”

“Hit it,” Guan Luowei said firmly. “Since it has begun to beguile you into illusions and planted the subconscious urge to spare it, it means our actions have threatened its safety. Therefore, it is more likely calculating the extent of Wenxin’s restraint.”

Ling Chenyan nodded repeatedly. Facing such a high-level evil being that could beguile, create illusions, and calculate its enemies’ strengths while under threat—it was terrifying.

Such a thing must never be allowed to hatch.

Ling Chenyan gripped the Wenxin Mirror, hesitated, and asked, “Wenxin, you still doing fine?”

“Of course I am!”

“In that case, I’m starting.”

Ling Chenyan raised the mirror high, ready to smash it down. Suddenly, the egg began to vibrate violently. At the same time, a demon guard ran over frantically.

“Report—Majesty! Disaster! The Junior Chief… he’s gone mad!”

The Old Emperor’s expression turned grim. “What’s the situation?”

The guard said in terror, “The Junior Chief has killed many of our guards! Chief Zong is trying to stop him, but she can’t hold him back!”

“What?!” Before the Emperor could speak, Ling Tian grabbed the guard’s shoulder. “What nonsense are you talking? How could Shaoyou…”

“Ling Tian!” Tong Di snapped. “Let him finish.”

The Old Emperor simply said, “Where is he? Lead the way.”

The guard turned to lead them, then froze, eyes widening as he stumbled back two steps.

“He’s here,” the Old Emperor whispered.

At the edge of the square, the white horizon suddenly turned blood-red. Shaoyou’s figure appeared before them. He was floating in mid-air, his robes whipped into a frenzy by his speed. His once-gentle face was twisted with malevolence. His pupils were red with black mist swirling within. He was drenched in blood, charging toward them.

Everyone’s heart sank. Their greatest fear had happened.

Ling Tian reacted most violently, flying into the air to roar at him: “What are you doing? Shaoyou, have you lost your mind?!”

Shaoyou wasn’t mad; he had succumbed to evil. He had swallowed an Evil Seed. Ling Tian had to know, but he didn’t want to believe it. Shaoyou was never one to seek quick shortcuts in cultivation. Ling Tian couldn’t imagine any other reason for Shaoyou to do this to himself.

In that time, Shaoyou closed the distance, his fingers like claws reaching for Ling Tian’s heart without a shred of mercy. At the critical moment, the Old Emperor pulled Ling Tian back and glared at him. “Stay back.”

The Emperor stepped forward to meet the attack. Ling Tian stood there, stunned.

Tong Di glanced at him. “Idiot. He’s lost his mind. He doesn’t know you. He won’t show mercy if you jump in.”

“I know!” Ling Tian shouted. “Who asked you?!”

Tong Di ground his teeth, ready to punch him, but looking at Ling Tian’s angry, grieving profile, he held back. Ling Tian and Shaoyou had gone on more missions together than anyone. He was likely the one who least wanted to see this.

Tong Di looked ahead. A rolling wave of red was flowing toward them. He turned to shout, but another voice beat him to it.

“Yanyan, put the egg away!”

Ling Chenyan instinctively moved to obey Guan Luowei. But this time, the egg didn’t stay still. As she was about to touch it, it shot away like a meteor, flying toward the surging red tide.

“The egg!”

In a flash, Tong Di witnessed the escape. At the final moment, he lunged and caught the egg, holding it with a death grip.

Simultaneously, the blood-red tide reached them. It was a small lake formed of blood, radiating a faint demonic aura. It was clearly the blood of the demons. Tong Di roared, “Ling Tian! What are you staring at? Get over here and help!”

Ling Tian snapped out of it and helped pin the egg down. Ling Chenyan approached to pull it into her space. Guan Luowei faced the churning lake of blood, using her demonic energy to form a wall and hold it back. The Old Emperor had now subdued Shaoyou and was bringing him over.

Ling Chenyan finally touched the egg and pulled it into her storage space. The blood lake outside stopped churning. Everyone let out a slow breath of relief. The situation seemed under control.

Ling Tian looked at the man held by the Emperor. “Majesty… Shaoyou, he…” He wanted to ask if there was any hope left.

Before he could finish, Shaoyou—who had been hanging his head—suddenly looked up. His eyes weren’t blood-red anymore; they were a clear, lake-blue.

Ling Tian had always thought Shaoyou was handsome, especially those gentle blue eyes. He used to hate him, thinking Shaoyou stole his spotlight with that “gentle person” act that gave Ling Tian goosebumps. But it was the first time he saw those beautiful eyes filled with terror and sorrow.

Shaoyou was screaming at them: “RUN!”

Run?

Ling Tian didn’t understand. He looked at Shaoyou’s clear eyes. Before he could say a word, Shaoyou tore himself from the Emperor’s grip and sprinted into the distance with incredible speed. Ling Tian tried to follow, but after a few steps, he saw the blue figure…

BOOM!

He exploded into a fireworks display of blood.

The sound echoed through the Demon Realm. Ling Tian’s hearing vanished, replaced by a high-pitched ringing. His mind went blank.

Guan Luowei reacted instantly, throwing up a barrier. But the self-destruction was too sudden and powerful; even with the barrier, the shockwave threw them back.

As Ling Chenyan was sent flying, she cried out in alarm—the egg in her storage space had taken advantage of the distraction to break free, hurtling toward the deep sea of blood below.

“Highness!” Ling Chenyan steadied herself and shouted.

Guan Luowei’s eyes flickered. The egg was blocked in mid-air by her demonic wall, and Wenxin conveniently appeared beside it, slamming into the egg with all his might.

The egg, which had almost reached the blood lake, was sent tumbling right back to Ling Chenyan’s side.

Ling Chenyan clutched the egg: “…”