The Inner Demon and the Inner Demon of the Inner Demon / Chen Luo: That's How They Do It in Novels

Other people's protective charms were a string of beads or some strange triangular paper talisman. Yun Xia's protective charms were necklaces, seemingly made of jade.

And the expensive-looking necklaces numbered at least twenty in the bodyguard's hands.

"Miss said that the more protective charms, the better. If possible, she hoped that Young Master Chen Luo would wear all of these protective charms."

"??? Who carries more than twenty protective charms around for no reason? Aren't they heavy?" Chen Luo did not understand. He truly did not understand.

"Miss also said that if Young Master Chen Luo does not want to wear them all, then he must wear at least three at once."

Yun Xia seemed to have anticipated this long ago.

"All right, I'll take them." After pondering for a moment, Chen Luo accepted the twenty protective charms.

"If there is nothing else, I'll be leaving first." The bodyguard nodded at Chen Luo, then turned and left.

After accepting the protective charms and watching the other man leave, Chen Luo decisively shut the door.

Then Chen Luo looked at the protective charms in his hand. After counting them, there were as many as twenty-four.

Protective Jade (Item): Can ward off evil. The more there are, the better the effect, with a maximum of 12.

Rank: One-star (Twelve combined together become two-star)

Price: 10 Primogems (each)

"...Holy shit, Yun Xia is so generous. This thing costs ten Primogems each. Twenty-four of them are worth 240 Primogems." Chen Luo exclaimed in surprise.

According to the Talent Panel's rules, one-star items could be bought with money, while two-star items might be bought with money, but were not necessarily obtainable.

For example, Chen Luo's two-star Barrett sniper rifle could indeed be bought in reality, but Endless Coconut Milk might not be available for purchase.

Though the effect of that Endless Coconut Milk was merely producing ten gourds of coconut milk each day.

Chen Luo only had 585 Primogems now, which meant the string of things in his hand was worth half a Chen Luo.

"Hmph, a mere 240 Primogems. If we were in our world, I'd go snatch the Heavenly Fire Greatsword for you right now," Herrscher of Knowledge said disdainfully from beside him.

"What kind of bizarre competitive mentality is that?" Chen Luo gave Herrscher of Knowledge a helpless look.

Heart Demons and the Heart Demon of a Heart Demon

"All right, enough about that. I read something interesting from that person's mind just now. Want me to explain it to you?" Herrscher of Knowledge said as she led Chen Luo back down to the basement.

It was perfectly normal for Herrscher of Knowledge to be able to read other people's thoughts, right?

Especially when the other party was truly quite weak.

With that little strength, Herrscher of Knowledge genuinely wondered whether he was protecting Yun Xia, as Chen Luo had put it, or Yun Xia was protecting him.

Although Herrscher of Knowledge believed she had never been inferior to anyone in her life, she would still give proper respect to someone whose individual item and Talent price were only one Primogem below hers.

"All right, stop keeping us in suspense. What are we to each other?"

"Tch. Fine. That bodyguard was limited in strength and did not know much, but he happened to know what this thing was." Upon hearing Chen Luo's friendly words, even Herrscher of Knowledge could not keep making trouble without reason.

"This world is not peaceful. You understand that more or less by now. That bodyguard did not know much, but he understood some basic things. For example, this thing may, under extremely unlikely circumstances, become a monster born from someone's immense negative emotions. It is called a heart demon." Herrscher of Knowledge pointed at Blondie.

"A heart demon? That sounds awesome." Chen Luo said in surprise.

"Yes, it does sound powerful. After all, heart demons have always been a great taboo for cultivators since ancient times. But this thing is currently still at its lowest level."

"A heart demon is one of the evil spirits born from negative emotions. It can devour negative emotions and strengthen itself. A person possessed by a heart demon will initially receive a boost of negative energy, causing their physical abilities to soar. At the same time, it is highly concealed and extremely difficult to detect. Only when they are angry will their pupils turn completely black like this, leaving only a trace of red light."

"After a heart demon is born, it will go eliminate the heart demon that created it."

"Wait a second, that is a little convoluted. Isn't he a heart demon? Why would he eliminate a heart demon?" Chen Luo interrupted Herrscher of Knowledge.

"How should I put it? Heart demons tend to be extremely vengeful, and a heart demon also represents the host's dark side. Only after avenging the hatred in the host's heart can the heart demon completely control the host's behavior. It can even switch to another body and parasitize it after the host dies."

"Now think carefully. Who exactly made him develop a heart demon?" Herrscher of Knowledge glanced meaningfully at Chen Luo.

"Wait, are you saying that I am the heart demon?" Chen Luo pointed at himself in disbelief.

"No. More accurately, you are the heart demon's heart demon."

"..." Chen Luo suddenly did not know what to say.

Chen Luo had originally thought he was a good person.

"After a heart demon appears, taking revenge on its own heart demon is its foremost task. After succeeding, it will enter an unlimited growth phase and may even become a powerful demon capable of threatening an S-rank Talent holder," Herrscher of Knowledge continued explaining.

"Emmm, so after he beat me up, he might break through his limits and become a true heart demon, then go on a killing spree, while I have strangled the future of a powerful demon in the cradle?"

After hearing Herrscher of Knowledge say this, Chen Luo increasingly felt that he was terribly unlucky.

His two friends in this world, Yun Xia and Yun Lian'er, were both S-rank Talent holders, yet the first enemy he provoked was a heart demon that might become an incredibly troublesome powerhouse in the future, with an S-rank threat level.

This was fucking ridiculous.

"No, you may have misunderstood something. A heart demon is not some kind existence that merely beats you up. From what I learned through that person's memories, 90% of a heart demon's targets of revenge die horribly." However, Herrscher of Knowledge shook her head.

"Huh? What about the remaining 10%?" Chen Luo glanced at Blondie in surprise.

Chen Luo did not remember offending Blondie all that badly.

What had he done?

Blondie bullied classmates, shoving their heads into toilets. Chen Luo had told that classmate to use a mop dipped in shit to plug his mouth, returning the favor in kind. That was perfectly normal.

Blondie had incited the class to ostracize classmates who dared resist his "tyranny," driving one of them into depression and ultimately forcing them to drop out. Chen Luo had written a report himself and sent it directly to the police station, resulting in Blondie receiving up to five days of detention and a 500-yuan fine. Chen Luo had actually thought that was letting him off too easily.

Two days ago, Blondie had tried to commit home invasion robbery and intentionally injure him. Chen Luo had merely buried him in the yard so he could experience some loneliness.

Why was this guy so petty?

"The remaining 10%? They live worse than death..." Herrscher of Knowledge looked somewhat complicatedly at the little blond-haired man lying on the ground, who was still glaring fiercely at Chen Luo.

"And nearly all heart demons bring disaster upon their families," Herrscher of Knowledge added.

"..."

"What are you thinking? If you cannot bring yourself to do it, I can help you. Letting a tiger return to the mountains— even if you are willing, I will not agree to it." Herrscher of Knowledge looked at the pensive Chen Luo and asked worriedly.

Chen Luo had never seen blood before. Although he had cut down Militants, killed Honkai Beasts, and stabbed horse bandits to death in the consciousness space, that had only been the consciousness space.

Herrscher of Knowledge felt that, as his older sister, she needed to correct her little brother's mistaken way of thinking.

After all, according to the other party's memories, heart demons could not be eliminated by any normal means. Even if they were destroyed through special methods, if the host was not killed, a new heart demon might emerge after some time.

That was what they meant by practice makes perfect.

"I was thinking, if we kill him now, will we become criminal suspects? Do not underestimate this world's investigative methods, especially since he followed me into the residential complex..."

To Herrscher of Knowledge's surprise, Chen Luo's train of thought was completely different from what she had imagined.

"What is there to worry about? At worst, we can just run to the Honkai World, can't we?" Seeing that Chen Luo was not hesitating out of weakness, Herrscher of Knowledge felt relieved.

Her devilish training of him in the consciousness space had not been in vain.

It was just that he thought about a little too many things.

"You idiot." Chen Luo rolled his eyes at Herrscher of Knowledge.

Your parents are not in this world, but mine are.

Besides, life was going perfectly well in this world. Who could handle suddenly having to leave their hometown behind?

"You dare call me an idiot? I... Fine, then you tell me. What do you think we should do? If you have the ability, think of a better method." Herrscher of Knowledge said indignantly.

You are the idiot. Your whole family is idiotic.

I am the mighty Herrscher of Knowledge, the Herrscher who controls consciousness. How could I possibly be stupid?

I am extremely smart!

Chen Luo: That's How Novels Usually Write It

"Little Senti, if you controlled his body and made him leave our residential complex, could you do it? Or would it be enough just to get him farther away from the complex?" Chen Luo asked.

The most important problem now was that when this guy followed Chen Luo, he had not cared about surveillance cameras at all. He had definitely been caught on camera following Chen Luo. If he died or disappeared, Chen Luo would be the prime suspect.

As long as he could be made to leave the residential complex, Chen Luo had as many ways as he wanted to make him disappear from this world.

He could chop him up and throw him directly into his backpack, ensuring he never saw the sun again.

Or he could drag him into the tavern and have Venti dump the body somewhere in the wilderness when he came.

If the police in this world had the ability, they could go to a Different World and find the body. If they could find it, Chen Luo would hit hard pity on every pull for the rest of his life!

"No. I already tried just now. It seems that because of the heart demon's existence, he has some immunity to mind-control-type skills. Especially while I am still recovering from serious injuries, he could very likely break free from my consciousness cage at any time." Under Chen Luo's expectant gaze, Herrscher of Knowledge shook her head.

"Wait, you are still recovering from serious injuries?" Chen Luo looked at Herrscher of Knowledge in surprise.

"What did you think? Did you really think the 'seriously injured' part in your quest description was just a prefix? I have only recovered about 30% of my strength right now. But fortunately, this world's spiritual energy has a tremendous healing effect on injuries. So I should be mostly recovered before long." Herrscher of Knowledge gave Chen Luo a contemptuous look.

"Spiritual energy? What is that?"

"According to the knowledge in that bodyguard's mind, spiritual energy is this world's unique power. Like Honkai energy in our world, it is a form of magic power. I do not know about anything else, but at least for healing injuries, spiritual energy is much more useful than Honkai energy. So, have you come up with a solution now? We cannot keep him tied up in the basement forever, can we?"

"This... I do have an idea."

"What idea?"

"Since Yun Xia gave me protective charms, do you think she might have some kind of item that monitors whether the protective charms have been activated?" As Chen Luo spoke, he tossed the string of protective charms in his hand onto Blondie.

When the protective charms touched Blondie, the charms that had shown no sign of light in Chen Luo's hand suddenly lit up, and they actually looked quite beautiful.

"Ah!!!" The instant the protective charms lit up, Blondie immediately screamed, and wisps of black smoke rose from his body.

Blondie's scream was full of strength. If not for the basement, someone would have heard it and called the police long ago.

"Crack..." While Blondie screamed, Chen Luo also heard cracking sounds from the protective charms.

Hearing that sound, Chen Luo hurriedly removed the protective charms from Blondie and looked at them with concern.

"Good, only two protective charms have cracked a little, and they can still be recycled." After checking the exact condition of the twenty-four protective charms, Chen Luo sighed in relief.

"These things can be recycled?" Herrscher of Knowledge could not help asking.

"Yes, of course they can. The recycling price is just a bit of a rip-off: half price, meaning five Primogems each."

Chen Luo strongly objected to this, but his objections were useless.

"Still, will your method really work?"

"Will it work? We will know if we try." Chen Luo took out his phone.

If Chen Luo's guess was correct, he would receive a call in less than two minutes.

"Sigh, I wonder whether Chen Luo can awaken his Talent. I heard that people who are about to awaken a Talent but have not yet done so are the favorite desserts of those evil spirits. Good thing I was smart and sent him Protective Jade. Still, I hope he will not need it..."

Lying on her large bed, Yun Xia idly played with a dragon-shaped jade pendant.

This dragon-shaped jade pendant was paired with the Protective Jade and could be considered a remote monitoring method.

If the dragon-shaped jade pendant lit up, it meant the other party's protective charms had taken effect.

If the dragon-shaped jade pendant shattered, it meant all the Protective Jade had been used up, which also meant the user was in danger.

When the user of Protective Jade encountered different levels of danger, the pendant's brightness would differ as well.

A faint glow like the pendant had now indicated that the other party was in danger, but it was not particularly fatal.

Wait, a faint glow?

Looking at the jade pendant that had already lit up, Yun Xia shot upright from the bed.

"Number Two just called and said he received the protective charms, yet it lit up right away?" Yun Xia found it hard to believe.

Although she found it unbelievable, she immediately picked up the phone beside her and urgently dialed the number she had pinned to the top.

At the same time, a wand about a meter long appeared in Yun Xia's hand. After a flash of light, Yun Xia, who had been wearing pajamas, was instantly wrapped in a cute pink outfit.

"Hello, A-Luo, are you okay?" Seeing that the call was only answered after quite a while, Yun Xia hurriedly asked.