Luo Qingdie, the Great Demon

Several days later, Chu Lu arrived at a great city named Hundred Years City. According to Luo Qingdie, it counted as the largest and most prosperous city in the area.

After casting a simple spell to alter his appearance, Chu Lu strode into the city.

It was still morning, and the streets brimmed with the lively bustle of everyday life.

Street vendors hawked all manner of breakfast foods.

"Hey, hey, hey! Sir, would you like some Fried Luo?" As Chu Lu walked along, a vendor suddenly called out to him.

The strange name piqued his curiosity.

"You said you were selling what?" Chu Lu asked.

"Fried Luo! It's a breakfast food that's only recently become popular. The outside is golden and crisp, the inside soft and fluffy. One bite makes it go 'crunch'—it's absolutely delicious!" the vendor enthusiastically promoted his wares.

Chu Lu grew interested. He looked over—and froze.

—Wasn't this a fried dough stick?

"Vendor, why is this called Fried Luo?" Chu Lu asked.

"Ah, sir, don't you know? Fried Luo Qingdie."

Chu Lu: "??"

"That Luo Qingdie really isn't human. She's simply a Great Demon, jealous of the worthy and virtuous, and she caused the Inquiry Sword Sect's downfall, making us common folk suffer. Someone got so angry that they treated dough as Luo Qingdie and tossed it into a wok of oil to fry. Turns out it tasted pretty good, so that's how Fried Luo came about."

Chu Lu: "What the hell? No, tell me in detail, how did it—"

Before Chu Lu could finish, a crowd arrived holding copper coins and shouting over one another.

"Give me one Fried Luo."

"I want ten."

"Damn it, give me five! I'm going to bite Luo the Demon to death!"

The vendor's face immediately blossomed into a grin. He hurriedly got to work, tossing Chu Lu aside.

At that moment, Luo Qingdie poked her head out. "Chu Lu, I have a bad feeling about this."

Chu Lu said, "So do I..."

Although Chu Lu had killed people like flies, he still had principles in how he did things. He wanted very much to understand the reason, but seeing how busy the vendor was, he had no intention of forcing an answer out of him and causing trouble.

In any case, this matter seemed to have spread quite widely. He should be able to find out by asking elsewhere.

Thus, he quickened his pace.

After walking a little farther, he saw a crowd gathered by the roadside, making an especially lively scene.

When he moved closer, he found a wooden statue standing ahead. It was roughly the size of an ordinary person, but crudely carved; one could barely tell it was a woman. A sheet of paper had been pasted onto its face, bearing the words: 'I am Luo Qingdie, a great sinner.'

Before the wooden statue, a group of people wore excited expressions as they viciously lashed it with whips.

A man who appeared to be the host shouted from the side, "Whip Luo Qingdie! Whip Luo Qingdie! One copper coin for a whole incense stick's worth of whipping! One copper coin to vent your anger to your heart's content—come on, everyone!"

Chu Lu: "..."

Luo Qingdie: "..."

They continued onward and came across a bookstore promoting popular books.

Chu Lu went over to take a look and found that eight out of ten books were related to Luo Qingdie.

"Record of Luo Qingdie's Execution for Harming the Loyal and Good," "Biography of the Evil Fiend Luo Qingdie," "Luo Qingdie: Wicked Bones and Mad Heart," "The Story of My Desperate Battle Against Luo Qingdie," "The Story I Had No Choice but to Tell About Luo Qingdie," "Luo Qingdie's Secret," "With Dirt on Her, I Successfully Made Luo Qingdie Submit," "Luo Qingdie's Fall."

Chu Lu: "..."

—Why did these titles feel more and more wrong?

Luo Qingdie's voice trembled slightly. "Chu Lu..."

Sensing that Luo Qingdie was not in a very good state, Chu Lu decisively abandoned his plan to flip through the last book.

He called over the shopkeeper and asked, "Shopkeeper, I just arrived from out of town, so I don't know what's going on. What's the story with this Luo Qingdie?"

The shopkeeper was clearly a businessman. With a cheerful grin, he said, "What's the fun in listening to me talk? Why not just buy one and read it when you get back?"

As he spoke, he picked up the last book, wearing a lecherous smile. "Buy it. You definitely won't regret it."

Chu Lu immediately refused, afraid Luo Qingdie would collapse. He picked up the seemingly more respectable The Story of My Desperate Battle Against Luo Qingdie instead and said, "No, I'll buy this one. But I still want to know what exactly happened."

"Fine." Seeing that Chu Lu was willing to spend money on a book, the shopkeeper became much warmer. "Go straight ahead, turn right, then turn right again, and you'll reach Fulai Teahouse. The storyteller there has been recounting Luo Qingdie's deeds every day lately. Buy a bowl of tea and you can listen for free. You'll understand everything then."

"Thanks." Chu Lu paid for the book and made his way to Fulai Teahouse.

There were quite a few people in the teahouse. Chu Lu chose a seat in the corner, ordered a bowl of tea, and quietly listened to the storyteller's richly cadenced voice up front.

"Speaking of Luo Qingdie, she received no small amount of grace from the Inquiry Sword Sect. She had originally been nothing more than an unloved little girl from a remote minor clan. Her master, Ji Xiangshan, the former Sect Leader of the Inquiry Sword Sect, took pity on her and accepted her as a disciple, keeping her by his side to cultivate."

"Though Luo Qingdie lacked talent, she was deeply scheming, ruthless, and insatiably greedy. She tried every possible means to squeeze profit from her master. Her master was an honest and kind man, and in a moment of softness, he gave her whatever she asked for. In the end, she actually drained his entire family fortune dry, and he even lost the position of Sect Leader."

"After Luo Qingdie became Sect Leader, she went even further, bullying men and dominating women, building pools of wine and forests of meat within the sect, and ruining God knew how many innocent male cultivators. As the saying goes, one's appearance is born from one's heart; perhaps because of that, Luo Qingdie was hideously ugly. Pig head, pig brain, pig body, pig tail—she was practically a pig spirit transformed into human form."

The crowd below immediately burst into laughter.

Then someone shouted, "Enough nonsense! Hurry up and tell us how she destroyed the Inquiry Sword Sect."

"Yes, yes, hurry up. Tell us something interesting."

"Alright, alright." The storyteller wore a helpless expression before beginning his tale. "As everyone knows, the destruction of the Inquiry Sword Sect began with a disciple named Liu Yan'er. She was extraordinarily beautiful, exceptionally gifted, and of excellent character, beloved by all. She could not have been more different from Luo Qingdie. Yet precisely because of this, she incurred Luo Qingdie's jealousy and hatred."

The storyteller then recounted in full how Luo Qingdie had formed a grudge against Liu Yan'er, how she had caused havoc in the Inquiry Sword Sect, how everyone else had tried to stop her, and how Luo Qingdie had killed them all.

The overall sequence was roughly the same as reality, except... the roles had been completely reversed.

In the storyteller's mouth, Luo Qingdie became the one who used every manner of scheme and trick to frame Liu Yan'er. The others in the sect could endure no longer, so they helped Liu Yan'er resist Luo Qingdie—only to be killed by Luo Qingdie one after another, like moths flying into a flame.

Moreover, the storyteller had some skill. He told this section wonderfully, stirring the emotions of his listeners and fully displaying Luo Qingdie's cruelty, as well as the nobility of the Inquiry Sword Sect's other cultivators and the tragic grandeur of their deaths.

The audience listened until tears streamed down their faces, and they all began cursing loudly.

"Beast Luo Qingdie! You beast!"

"I will be at odds with you until death in this lifetime!"

"Luo Qingdie, you have lost all conscience and brought calamity upon the nation and its people! We would gladly eat your flesh alive and drink your blood to ease the hatred in our hearts!"

"Damned Luo Qingdie! A treacherous villain like you will stink for ten thousand years, and even your descendants will live in shame!"

Luo Qingdie, inside Chu Lu's body, had already been trembling with rage as she listened to the storyteller's reality-twisting tale. After hearing the listeners' heartfelt curses, she finally broke completely.

She rushed into the Chat Group to pour out her grievances.

"Guys, who understands this? I've become the number one Great Demon of the Nine Provinces!"

Hua Honglian: "?"

Xu Liniang: "?"

Zhu Shanlin: "?"

Liu Ruyue: "?"

Then Luo Qingdie explained. The more she spoke, the more aggrieved and furious she became. After she finished, she accused them bitterly, "They're spouting nonsense! They're twisting the facts! They use dough as me and fry it in oil, make wooden statues of me and whip them, and they even write dirty little books about me! Dirty little books about me!"

Hua Honglian: "Tell us more about the dirty little books."

Xu Liniang: "Tell us more about the dirty little books."

Zhu Shanlin: "Chu Lu, you're reading this, right? Go buy them and upload them to the group. I'll pay!"

Liu Ruyue: "Me too."

Luo Qingdie: "You people, you people... Waaah!"

The Chat Group descended into chaos. They made a fuss for quite a while before finally calming down and seriously discussing the problem.

Hua Honglian: "But it really won't do to slaughter people so casually."

Xu Liniang: "Yes, things really aren't that simple."

Zhu Shanlin: "Every gain comes with a loss. The more casual the plan, the more troublesome it is to clean up afterward."

Liu Ruyue: "Equivalent exchange."

Luo Qingdie: "Then what should I do? How am I supposed to restore my reputation?"

Zhu Shanlin: "You can only find a major power, explain the situation, and have them publicly clear things up. Which Righteous Path sect is the strongest on your side? Are you on good terms with them?"

Luo Qingdie: "The Heavenly Profound Immortal Sect is the strongest. But I don't have much contact with them. I only helped out when they were maintaining the Magic Severing Array and killed some demonic cultivators who came to harass them."

Zhu Shanlin: "That's enough. Go explain the situation to them."

Luo Qingdie: "But if I tell them, will they believe me?"

The moment she said that, the few goofballs in the Chat Group seemed as though they had been injected with chicken blood and spoke in unison: "Then dig out your bones in advance to prove your innocence!"

Hua Honglian: "If that still isn't enough, dig out your cultivation foundation too."

Xu Liniang: "And the Phoenix Bone."

Zhu Shanlin: "Your life-bound artifact."

Liu Ruyue: "Jump off a cliff and break your legs."

Hearing this, Luo Qingdie also made up her mind. "Fine, then that's what we'll do."

Chu Lu: "?"

Because after the storyteller finished describing the sect's destruction, he also told a section much like an epilogue—what the escaped cultivators were doing, how demonic cultivators had celebrated upon hearing the news and planned to attack the mortal cities protected by the Inquiry Sword Sect, and so on—Chu Lu entered the Chat Group later than Luo Qingdie.

He had not expected that in only that brief delay, they would have come up with such an outrageous plot.

"Are you people insane?" Chu Lu complained. "If you do this, wouldn't I have slaughtered the Inquiry Sword Sect for nothing?"

Luo Qingdie: "But there's no other way. If I don't restore my reputation, Chu Lu, you won't be able to complete your mission either."

Hua Honglian: "That's right. This is a necessary sacrifice. Without doing this, there's no way to wash away the disgrace you caused."

Xu Liniang: "Same."

Zhu Shanlin: "Same."

Liu Ruyue: "Same."

Chu Lu could not help complaining, "Stop messing around, alright? This disgrace has nothing to do with me. It's obvious someone is pulling strings behind the scenes. Think about it—how many days has it been since this happened? How could it have spread so wildly already? Are communications in this place really that advanced? And why are the rumors the complete opposite of reality? Why haven't those Inquiry Sword Sect cultivators who escaped come out to clarify things?"

Hua Honglian: "This... does seem to make some sense."

Xu Liniang: "It really did spread a little too quickly."

Zhu Shanlin: "But who did it? Why would they do this?"

Liu Ruyue: "Mysteries upon mysteries."

Chu Lu: "Who cares why? We'll find the person and ask, won't we? The mastermind made such a huge fuss; there's no way there won't be any clues. We'll follow the vine to find the melon and track them down for sure. So stop crying and making a fuss, Luo Qingdie. If I say I can settle this for you, then I can settle it!"

Luo Qingdie: "Alright..."

Hua Honglian: "Eh... don't you think? Chu Lu sounded rather domineering just now."

Xu Liniang: "He did."

Zhu Shanlin: "His words struck the ground with force, and he was so aggressively imposing."

Liu Ruyue: "My heart fluttered a little."

Chu Lu: "?"

The atmosphere in the Chat Group suddenly became strange. Chu Lu felt uncomfortable all over and voluntarily withdrew.

He tossed the goofballs' nonsense to the back of his mind and prepared to deal with the matter before him.

At that moment, the storyteller was also preparing to step down and rest for a while.

Chu Lu quietly followed him, dragged him into an empty corner, and emerged a moment later looking perfectly composed.

"See? I wasn't wrong." Chu Lu said to Luo Qingdie in his heart. "Someone really is fanning the flames behind the scenes."

He had just seized the storyteller and interrogated him. As an ordinary mortal, how could the man withstand such a scene? He immediately spilled everything like beans pouring from a basket.

He said the script for his storytelling had not been gathered by himself, much less written by himself. Someone had actively handed it to him and demanded that he tell it again and again, with the purpose of ruining Luo Qingdie's reputation.

And that person was the lord of Hundred Years City—Zhang Yongyan.

Zhang Yongyan possessed some strength himself, having reached the Nascent Soul Middle Stage. But before Chu Lu, that little strength was no different from an ant by the roadside.

He stormed into the City Lord's Mansion, came before Zhang Yongyan, seized him, and demanded answers.

In only a few moves, he got to the bottom of it.

It turned out Zhang Yongyan had also been acting on someone else's orders.

The mastermind was the lord of Qingyun City, a thousand miles from here. He had provided the script and an entire process for smearing Luo Qingdie, then paid a large sum of money and ordered Zhang Yongyan to carry it out.

Chu Lu listened with a puzzled expression and asked in his heart, "Does the lord of Qingyun City have a grudge against you?"

Luo Qingdie was equally confused. "I don't know. I don't even know him."

"Forget it. We'll just go ask him directly." With that, Chu Lu left the City Lord's Mansion under the terrified gazes of the servants.

After he left, a mansion servant in charge of cleaning suddenly hid herself away. She took out a carrier pigeon, tied a message tube to its leg, and released it.

The carrier pigeon flew all the way to a place outside the city, where someone received it.

After reading the message, that person immediately cast a communication spell and passed the intelligence onward.

A moment later, at the Heavenly Profound Immortal Sect.

The Heavenly Profound Sect Master received the intelligence. The corners of his lips curled upward slightly as he said, "Luo Qingdie has taken the bait!"