Luo Zhou turned around!
There stood a young girl behind him, her head tilted as she watched him!
She was young, beautiful and graceful, with fragrant, jade-smooth skin—delicate and fair, like congealed cream. Her bright eyes wandered from side to side, rippling like autumn waters. She was exceptionally elegant and heartbreakingly lovely!
Luo Zhou let out a long breath. He pointed at her, wanting to say something but unable to get the words out. All he could manage was an awkward smile.
"Hey, what's wrong with you? Why do you look like you've seen a ghost?"
The girl asked again, her tone haughty!
Luo Zhou panted heavily, then said, "You scared me to death. A few days ago, I asked a dead man that exact same question.
"When you asked me that, I thought a ghost had crawled out of hell to take revenge on me!"
"You look so clean and fair, but you sure know how to make nasty jabs at people!"
Luo Zhou hurriedly said, "No, no, I mean it! I swear to heaven!"
But inside, he was on tenterhooks!
He recognized this girl from Li Haitian's memories. She was Fang Ningshuang, the city lord's daughter.
That demonic Blood Parrot was her pet.
He'd messed this up!
According to Li Haitian's plan, he'd found a place where no one was watching and tried to lure the Blood Parrot.
But he'd forgotten one crucial thing: the Blood Parrot had an owner!
The Blood Parrot had been eating its fill for the past few days, but it was a demonic creature. As a demon pet, how could it possibly have no contract with Fang Ningshuang?
So when the Blood Parrot ate its fill, Fang Ningshuang knew someone was feeding her pet. How could she not come take a look?
The wronged party had caught him red-handed!
And the reason for all this was Li Haitian.
Li Haitian had never taken the Blood Parrot seriously. He'd treated it like livestock, just a Woodworm Devil with no skill to speak of.
In his heart, he'd never thought much of them!
Without realizing it, that attitude had influenced Luo Zhou, and the plan had been flawed from the start.
Just one look at Fang Ningshuang told Luo Zhou that his life was in her hands!
Fang Ningshuang's strength was terrifying. She was clearly only at the Qi Refining stage, yet she was the most frightening person Luo Zhou had ever encountered.
She could kill the old Crocodile Dragon!
It was instinct. Luo Zhou's soul, his spiritual senses—even every cell in his body—were warning him!
Move, and die!
Fang Ningshuang looked at Luo Zhou, her head tilted as if deep in thought.
"Are you the trial-taker from the sect that everyone's been talking about?"
Luo Zhou was taken aback. What trial-taker from a sect? He shook his head to show he didn't know.
Fang Ningshuang suddenly reached out, and the Eyebrow-Level Staff strapped to Luo Zhou's back landed in her hand.
Luo Zhou didn't react at all. He hadn't even had time to react!
Fang Ningshuang squeezed hard, crushing the staff and revealing the Dragon-Slaying Thrust inside.
She lightly brushed it with her fingers and said,
"Still saying you're not? Isn't this the Dragon-Slaying Thrust from Sword Sinking, the one used in the sect?"
Luo Zhou couldn't help making a surprised face. "Huh?"
So he wasn't the only one who knew the Dragon-Slaying Thrust? Everyone from Sword Sinking knew it?
The sect? Which sect? Heaven and Earth Dao Sect?
"Then you're doing a trial, right? With the Dragon-Slaying Thrust, you blow people's heads off. Even an idiot knows the Head-Exploding Devil is a trial cultivator from Sword Sinking.
"How many demon cultivators have you killed? How many more do you need for the trial?"
Luo Zhou honestly had no idea how to answer. All he could do was say, "Huh?"
"Do you think I'm a joke? Playing dumb?
"Just because you're from the sect doesn't mean you can do whatever you want, however you please!"
Fang Ningshuang pouted, looking rather angry.
That expression on such a delicate girl was unbearably cute. No one could look away.
But Luo Zhou felt like his head was about to explode!
His Rewarding Good and Punishing Evil sense picked up Fang Ningshuang's true thoughts:
"Kill him, kill him, kill him..."
It was just like Zuo Sanguang's mind-reading.
But Zuo Sanguang had used it to call for help, like a person giving a quiet cry for assistance.
Fang Ningshuang's thoughts were like the furious roars of thousands!
The crazed, endless howling was hardly even human!
The adorable girl in front of him was actually a mad demon!
A true mad demon. Compared to her, the Woodworm Devils he'd killed were perfectly decent people!
She was desperately searching for a chance, waiting for him to make a mistake so she could use it as an excuse to kill him.
Luo Zhou smiled. "Friend, the Dragon-Slaying Thrust was hard to make. Let me have it back once you're done looking, all right?"
He said it with a smile, looking Fang Ningshuang in the eye without either groveling or backing down!
That way, if he died, at least he'd die with dignity!
Fang Ningshuang looked at Luo Zhou. The frenzied thoughts in her mind suddenly faded away.
"This boy's pretty handsome. Tall and slender, like a green pine..."
The boundless killing intent vanished in an instant!
But now Luo Zhou was even more afraid.
What normal person was like that?
She really was unhinged. Truly insane!
At that moment, Luo Zhou was immeasurably grateful to his teacher.
The Hinoki Force User, Bamboo-Thin Pine-Slender—being handsome like a pine tree really gave him an advantage with girls. She didn't want to kill him anymore...
"What are you thinking about?"
Luo Zhou cupped his fists. "Luo Zhou of Class Three, Heaven and Earth Dao Academy, pays his respects to the princess. I'm fishing for birds!"
Fang Ningshuang didn't answer. She just stared at Luo Zhou.
"Why can't I see what you're thinking?"
The Hinoki Force User's Bamboo-Thin Pine-Slender made him as resilient as a pine tree. Luo Zhou was resistant to mind-reading and other perception-based spells and magical abilities.
Luo Zhou smiled but didn't answer!
"Why do I want to get close to you? Why do I like being near you? Why don't I want to kill you anymore?"
Could this be the Bamboo-Thin Pine-Slender's birds-choose-their-perch effect? As a giant pine tree, was he especially appealing to birds?
Her pet, the Blood Parrot, was a bird after all. Was its nature somehow influencing her?
But he had to answer that!
Luo Zhou smiled. "Because I'm kind!"
There was no point trying to have a normal conversation with someone this crazy!
To his surprise, Fang Ningshuang nodded in agreement.
"You're strange, boy. I can't see through you, and I like you...
"Most importantly, you're not afraid of me?"
Suddenly, another boundless fury surged through Fang Ningshuang's mind, like the roar of thousands.
"Why aren't you afraid? Why aren't you afraid of me, why!"
"They're all afraid of me, every one of them! My older brother, my older sister, my younger brother, my father, my master—they're all afraid of me!
"Why aren't you afraid of me? Why aren't you afraid!"
"Kill him, kill him, kill him..."
She was having another episode!
He absolutely couldn't let her keep thinking.
Luo Zhou pointed at the sky. "Look at that cloud. Doesn't it look a little like a horse?"
He was talking nonsense just to interrupt her!
All of Fang Ningshuang's thoughts suddenly disappeared. She looked at the cloud.
"That's just a cloud. A cloud is a cloud. How could it possibly look like a horse?"
"Look at it this way. Those are the horse's legs, and that's its head. You're looking at it from the wrong angle..."
The wrong angle? She abruptly lay down on the ground and looked up at the sky, watching the cloud.
Luo Zhou shook his head. Ignoring the dirt, he lay down too and said,
"Look closely. Doesn't that look like a horse?"
He pointed at a cloud and called it a horse!
"No, it doesn't! What horse? Doesn't that look like a steamed bun?"
"A steamed bun? I think it looks like a mountain."
"Are you blind? It's obviously a steamed bun..."
The two of them lay there, chatting nonsense back and forth.
Fang Ningshuang had two more episodes during that time, her mind turning to killing Luo Zhou, but he distracted her with another topic each time.
Most importantly, Luo Zhou's Hinoki Force User made him resistant to mind-reading and attractive to birds. He was handsome, and Rewarding Good and Punishing Evil let him hear her thoughts. That was how he managed to escape danger each time.
For some reason, though, Luo Zhou felt a special familiarity with Fang Ningshuang.
It was a natural, inborn feeling, as if he knew the sky inside out, as if they'd been childhood friends and she'd been his beloved for years.
That was why he'd managed to avert every crisis in time.
As time passed, Luo Zhou suddenly rose to his feet and said,
"It's late. I have to go home. If I get back late, I'll be scolded!"
Fang Ningshuang asked pitifully, "Will you come again tomorrow?"
Luo Zhou listened to her thoughts. She was having another episode. If he said he wouldn't come, he'd die!
"I'll come. I absolutely have to!"
With that, he snatched back his Dragon-Slaying Thrust.
This was a treasure forged with nine years of true qi.
"I'm off. See you tomorrow!"
Then he left without looking back.
Fang Ningshuang watched Luo Zhou leave, and another outburst erupted in her mind:
"He actually ignored me and ran off!"
"Kill him, kill him, kill him..."
Luo Zhou didn't look back. He was already far away, so he acted like he hadn't heard.
If she'd wanted to attack him, she would've done it already. He'd just gotten away with his life!
In truth, even his undershirt was soaked with cold sweat.
Fang Ningshuang soon vanished into the distance. Suddenly, Luo Zhou thought he heard the words "kill him" change.
"Kill me..."
In a daze, a figure flickered into view. The girl's skin was delicate and fair, like congealed cream. Tears silently slipped from her bright eyes!
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