Ugly Hero - Chapter 4

From then on, Lu Nanzhu devoted herself wholeheartedly to cultivating Heavenly Demon Art. Sure enough, just as the Eccentric Hero Jun Moxiao had said, as her skill improved, Lu Nanzhu’s appearance grew uglier and uglier.

First, the skin all over her body became unbearably rough. Afterward, even her facial features began to distort. By the time she had cultivated Heavenly Demon Art to the eighth level, when Lu Nanzhu looked at herself through the surface of the cold pool, she had already become hideously ugly, too unbearable to look at directly.

The Tianshan snow lotus had long since dried out, but Lu Nanzhu now had enough confidence. With her current skill, she could completely force the cold poison out of her mother’s body.

When Heavenly Demon Art broke through to the eighth level, Lu Nanzhu did not want to wait another moment. She felt as if she had stepped into an entirely new world. Whether it was her five senses or her inner breath, both had risen to an unprecedented height.

Lu Nanzhu stood at the bottom of the valley and looked up at the ten-thousand-zhang cliff. A feeling rose in her heart: this time, she would definitely be able to get out.

Lu Nanzhu took a deep breath, raised her inner breath to its peak, and leaped up!

With the support of her powerful inner breath, Lu Nanzhu took more than a hundred consecutive steps in midair and finally escaped to the world above!

Lu Nanzhu jumped up happily. Without stopping for even a moment, she rushed all the way back home in one breath.

In the end, she had still returned too late. Her mother had already passed away. Moreover, because of Lu Nanzhu’s unbearably ugly appearance, she frightened the villagers badly. Having no other choice, Lu Nanzhu could only hastily bid farewell to her parents, then flee back to the bottom of Tianshan Valley.

At that time, Lu Nanzhu had not yet achieved full mastery of Heavenly Demon Art. She spent one month walking out of her inner demons, then continued to devote herself to cultivating Heavenly Demon Art.

One year later, she reached the ninth level. When she broke through the bottleneck of the eighth level, an extremely tyrannical power surged out from her dantian. In an instant, it swept through every part of Lu Nanzhu’s body. But this power did not stop. Instead, it was like the endless waters of a vast ocean, surging and roaring without end, constantly battering Lu Nanzhu’s body.

Lu Nanzhu sat down on the ground, gritted her teeth, and used all her strength to resist this power, protecting her mind to avoid suffering qi deviation.

But this power was simply too overbearing!

Before long, Lu Nanzhu’s clothes were soaked through. Blood seeped from her seven orifices. In the end, every pore on her body began to bleed. This tyrannical power turned all the beads of blood attached to Lu Nanzhu’s body into blood mist, and Lu Nanzhu was wrapped in a circling crimson haze…

No one knew how much time passed before Lu Nanzhu lost consciousness.

When she woke again, the first thing she smelled was a piercing stench that nearly made her vomit. Lu Nanzhu flipped upright like a carp and leaped straight into the cold pool.

She took a long, satisfying bath. She had thought she was surely dead, and even if she was lucky enough not to die, her martial arts should have been completely crippled. Yet after waking, she felt incomparably comfortable, as if every pore on her body could breathe. Not only had her skill not disappeared, it had become many times more abundant than before!

Moreover, Lu Nanzhu discovered with delight that the originally bone-piercing icy water now actually felt warm!

Amid her joy, Lu Nanzhu thought of the words of the Eccentric Hero Jun Moxiao. She took a breath and dove into the cold pool.

She kept diving downward. Only after half an hour did she finally reach the bottom. Lu Nanzhu was amazed. Once Heavenly Demon Art reached the ninth level, it actually possessed such great power.

Sure enough, at the bottom of the cold pool, she found a long box wrapped in chains. She held the box in her arms and surfaced in one breath, breathing in fresh air in great gulps. Then she happily shook out her hair. Her wet long hair scattered behind her head, and crystal-clear water droplets drew a beautiful arc through the air before returning to the cold pool, stirring layer upon layer of ripples.

Lu Nanzhu went ashore and opened the wooden box. The things inside once again stunned her. Inside the box was a transparent bottle almost as long as the box itself!

Lu Nanzhu had lived for seventeen years and had never seen such a bottle. It felt cold in her hand, and when she tapped it with her finger, it made a crisp “ding ding” sound. Lu Nanzhu held the bottle and studied it for a long time, but she still could not tell what material it was made of. She opened the stopper and poured out the things wrapped in oilcloth inside.

After peeling away layer after layer of oilcloth, the Eccentric Hero had left her a total of three things.

The first was a silvery-white vest. It looked like armor and felt extremely light in her hand.

The second was a letter.

The third was a weapon. Whether because of its great age or because some mystery was hidden inside, this sword was covered from hilt to blade in a special kind of rust. Its original appearance could not be seen at all!

“Could it be… that Master used a rusty sword like this to roam unhindered through the jianghu back then?”

With this doubt in her heart, Lu Nanzhu opened the letter left to her by the Eccentric Hero.

Disciple, hello:

I do not know your name, nor do I know how many years have passed by the time you obtain these things. Now, I will hand all of them over to you.

This sword is called the Canglong Sword. It is a rare divine weapon. Holding this sword will surely be like adding wings to a tiger. Back then, this Canglong Sword was equally famous with the Phoenix Blood Saber. If possible, I hope you will take this sword and meet the successor of the Phoenix Blood Saber. Perhaps there will be an unexpected surprise.

That white vest is a bulletproof vest. I imagine you must think the name is very strange. In short, it is a peerless protective garment impervious to blades and spears. Under heaven, only the Canglong Sword and the Phoenix Blood Saber can break through this vest’s defense. Put it on. I have already given it a new name: Silver Dragon Inner Armor.

It is time to tell you some things. By the time you see this letter, I will no longer be in this world.

Shiyin Village at the foot of the mountain was built to shelter certain people who had reached a dead end in the jianghu but had committed no evil. They are very pitiful. I hope you can take this sword and protect them well.

I truly do not know how much time has passed, nor do I know whether the stone monument below Tianshan still has the power to intimidate others. If the authority I accumulated is no longer there, then please carve out a world of your own again, continue guarding this mountain, and protect the villagers of Shiyin Village.

I have no other wishes left. I only hope you will guard Tianshan well. Also, you must meet the successor of the Phoenix Blood Saber and use this Canglong Sword to exchange moves with them.

Also, the jianghu is dangerous. In the future, if you encounter some unavoidable peril in the jianghu, you may simply flee back to Tianshan. You have two choices that can save your life.

One is to climb to the summit of Tianshan. Tianshan is covered in ten-thousand-zhang ice. Back then, aside from me, no one could reach the top. You may try it later. If you cannot climb up, then on the platform halfway up the mountain, there is another broken cliff to the northwest. You can jump down from there. Below is an underground river. With Heavenly Demon Art protecting your body, you can jump into the river and remain safe.

Oh, right. After reading this letter, burn it together with Heavenly Demon Art. Heavenly Demon Art no longer needs a second successor.

Lastly, consider this a small joke from your master to a disciple I have never met. Go look in a mirror.

After Lu Nanzhu finished reading the letter, she was completely confused. There were far too many words in the letter that she did not understand. But she did not think too deeply about them. Perhaps this was precisely why her master was honored as the “Eccentric Hero.”

Lu Nanzhu felt regret in her heart. So Master had passed from this world not long after writing this letter. No wonder the strength of the brush in this letter was completely different from the bold, flamboyant writing in Heavenly Demon Art. The brushstrokes were more like the words later added on the fourth page of Heavenly Demon Art. So it was because Master had already experienced the vicissitudes of life that her brushwork had become so restrained.

Afterward, Lu Nanzhu felt a wave of envy. Even at the end of her life, Master had still been able to maintain such a state of mind. Lu Nanzhu hoped that when she herself grew old one day, she could also live as freely and unrestrainedly as her master.

Lu Nanzhu properly kowtowed three times before Heavenly Demon Art. Following Jun Moxiao’s instructions, she burned the letter and Heavenly Demon Art, then put on the Silver Dragon Inner Armor.

The inner armor carried a force of its own, clinging tightly to her body, yet it did not feel restrictive. However, because of it, the feminine features of her chest were flattened quite a bit…

Lu Nanzhu carried the rust-covered Canglong Sword and walked to the cold pool. Using the reflection on the water’s surface, she looked at herself.

With a “clang,” the treasured sword fell from her hand. Lu Nanzhu touched her face in disbelief. The breathtakingly beautiful woman reflected in the water also raised both hands and touched her cheeks, the shock in her eyes exactly the same as Lu Nanzhu’s.

Lu Nanzhu was dazed for a long time before she finally came back to herself. In her heart, she felt both admiration and a kind of helpless amusement. Jun Moxiao was truly worthy of the word “eccentric”!

…

Lu Nanzhu drew herself out of her memories, a smile on her face. Although she had never met her master, she admired her from the bottom of her heart. Whether it was the Eccentric Hero’s almost prophetic mind or her unrestrained, carefree personality, both had deeply won Lu Nanzhu over.

During this trip out of the valley, Lu Nanzhu had heard that on the fifteenth of next month, the major sects of the martial world would gather at Tianqiong Mountain to discuss the great cause of demon-slaying. She planned to go there and take a look. Perhaps there would be some clues!

Because Lu Nanzhu had cultivated Heavenly Demon Art, her appearance had gone through extreme ugliness and extreme beauty, making her no longer fixated on external appearances.

Back then, when she had returned to the village with an ugly face, she had frightened many villagers badly. The first time she returned, there had originally still been more than twenty households in Shiyin Village. By the time she returned again after mastering Heavenly Demon Art, only five households remained in the village. The rest had all been scared away by this “monster.”

The five households left were all elderly people. They had lived here for generations and had never left. Now, in their twilight years, they had nowhere else to go.

Especially Grandma Sun’s family, which still had two small children.

Lu Nanzhu decided to protect this land well. Therefore, her identity absolutely could not be exposed.

So she put on a mask. Beneath the mask, she also wore an extremely ugly human-skin mask that she had bought from the Northern Ugly Clan, preventing her true appearance from being revealed if the outer mask fell off. Because of the Silver Dragon Inner Armor, Lu Nanzhu suddenly had an idea and even disguised her gender. No one in the village knew that she was the Ugly Hero. Only in this way could she better protect Shiyin Village.

Lu Nanzhu waited in the village for seven days. Although the fifteenth was already drawing very near, she still wanted to wait until Little Huzi regained his sight.

That day, Lu Nanzhu watched Grandma Sun and the two grandchildren embrace each other and weep happily. She also felt happy along with them.

These last five households—she would protect them well in her master’s place.

Lu Nanzhu gave Grandma Sun a few instructions. Then, one night, she once again put on the Silver Dragon Inner Armor, used a special medicinal liquid to paint all her exposed skin a wheat-like color, put on the human-skin mask, changed into coarse men’s clothes and straw shoes, then wore the wooden mask and took the Canglong Sword.

Taking advantage of the night, she flew out of Shiyin Village using qinggong.