The Visitor's Ill Intent

"Heh heh heh, Deer Pear—what a lovely name. Deer Pear, my disciple, tell me, who came up with such a lovely name? Heh heh heh."

"You old fossil, shut your mouth already!"

After leaving the Artificer Association, Lu Li wanted nothing more than to curse someone out. That menial servant must have been blind as a bat—how had such a vigorous, strapping man like him been mistaken for some delicate young lady?

Utterly absurd!

One moment ago, he had resolved that whenever he made up a false name in the future, it absolutely could not resemble his real one. The next, he had been forced to accept this "fair name," which was practically a homophone of his own.

Even worse, the name had already been entered into the records. Even after he received his dual seals, the name written on them would be Deer Pear, not Lu Li.

This effeminate name was actually going to follow him for the rest of his life!

What a monstrous humiliation!

The more Lu Li thought about it, the more ashamed he became—so ashamed his toes curled into the ground. His face, originally so pale it looked somewhat unnatural, was now tinged with an intoxicating blush that spread from his cheeks all the way to his ears.

Thinking of this, Lu Li only hated his own lack of learning. If only he could compose a poem to express the resentment and frustration knotted in his heart.

Yet Elder Duan still had no intention of letting him off, teasing him relentlessly over that name.

"Let your master tell you this—remember it well. The next time you introduce yourself, say: 'My name is Deer Pear. Deer as in a little deer racing through one's heart, and pear as in rock sugar snow pear.' Only then will others think you're a daughter of a distinguished family."

"I don't wanna be no daughter of a distinguished family! I ain't!"

"My disciple, you need only hold fast to your true heart. Why care about anything else?"

"Right, right. I need to hold fast to my true heart."

A name was nothing but an external thing. As long as he held fast to his true heart and believed himself to be a man, then he was a man.

That servant had merely been blind as a bat, judging his gender by his face. The problem lay in his face—one's expression determined one's bearing.

With that thought, Lu Li immediately pulled a stern face, putting on the air of a cold, ruthless youth.

Little did he know that before that face beautiful enough to feast one's eyes upon, all his efforts were futile. They merely sent him another great stride down the path of becoming a cold and haughty enchantress.

"Careful. Someone's coming."

"Who?"

"I don't know, but they mean no good."

Lu Li instantly grew alert. Hurried footsteps came from the street behind him. Judging by the sound, there were at least five people, and one of them shouted furiously:

"Lu Li, don't run! Stop right there! You dared kill my little brother—let's see if I don't kill you today!"

"Oh no. That servant really was up to something. He must have suspected me, then immediately gone to tip someone off."

Frightened out of his wits, Lu Li turned and ran. He had originally thought that once he escaped to Maple Fragrance City, Azure Sun Hall's reach would be too short to extend here. Over a mere thirty-six spirit stones, they surely would not travel all the way to White Moon Palace territory to kill him.

But now, it seemed the situation was far from simple. He suddenly recalled what the disciple he had killed had said—that he had someone backing him.

Caw!

Several Wood Crows perched atop the wall, but none of them looked this way.

"You should count yourself lucky. The Wood Crows here aren't under Azure Sun Hall's control. Otherwise, your location would have been exposed long ago."

"What good is saying that now?"

"It is useful. In Maple Fragrance City, as disciples of Azure Sun Hall, they dare not act too openly. You only need to hold out before these four artificers until the city's stationed disciples arrive."

"Four artificers!"

To be called an artificer meant they had passed the dual-seal examination. At the very least, each had a first-turn artificer device in hand—no weaker than the Monkey King.

Lu Li tore down the street at full speed. He could not see those people, but their hurried footsteps remained behind him, pursuing him without relent.

They were incredibly fast. Lu Li could clearly feel the distance between them steadily shrinking. In his panic, he suddenly turned and dashed into a nearby alley.

Lu Li ran faster and faster. The uneven roof tiles atop the courtyard walls on either side rose and fell like surging waves. But before long, he slammed to a stop—facing him was a wall.

This was actually a dead end!

Damn it.

Lu Li glanced at the courtyard walls on both sides. He first jumped onto the lower edge of a patterned window, then twisted and leapt upward, gripping the tiles along the top of the wall with both hands. With a powerful push, he effortlessly flipped himself over.

Back when he had secretly sat in on lessons beside the schoolhouse, he had often clung to the wall to peek at the mechanism diagrams the teacher taught. Naturally, climbing over courtyard walls was something he knew like the back of his hand.

"Don't run! Once I catch you, let's see if I don't skin you alive!"

The curses behind him drew closer and closer. Lu Li looked around and discovered that he had somehow climbed into someone's side courtyard. A row of bright, multicolored clothes hung drying from bamboo poles in the yard.

Meanwhile, five people were racing along the street outside the courtyard. They were Azure Sun Hall disciples in disguise, and the leader was a man named Zhu Yi.

He was tall and slender, but both arms had been modified. His right arm had been turned into a mechanical arm, while his left had been transformed into a chainsaw.

Though the artificer devices on either side looked cumbersome, Zhu Yi wielded them with ease. When he ran, he moved as swiftly as if flying; the other four were drenched in sweat just trying to keep up.

"Boss, the Tracking Disc shows he went into this courtyard."

"Good boy. It really is him. Did he think I wouldn't recognize him just because he changed his name? Hmph! If I didn't have a few connections, he really might have slipped into White Moon Palace."

"But this courtyard seems to belong to the Mo Family. Wouldn't it be inappropriate for us to barge in like this?"

As a family renowned for mechanisms, the Mo Family was known to practically everyone in the surrounding area. Of the more than twenty large mechanism workshops in Maple Fragrance City, nine belonged to the Mo Family.

"What are you afraid of? At worst, grab him and get out quickly. If anything happens, I'll shoulder it. He's just a bastard who hasn't even passed the pincersmith exam—how long could it take to catch him?"

"Yes, yes."

"I'll send you in first. Go seize him."

The four nodded in agreement. With his left hand, Zhu Yi lifted the remaining four one by one and tossed them over the courtyard wall. Then, bracing himself with both hands, he too leapt inside.

Thud!

The man landed steadily, but his four companions stood in a row before him, dumb as wooden chickens.

His younger brother's murderer was right before his eyes and about to escape. How could Zhu Yi spare a thought for anything else? He poured all the spiritual power in his body into the chainsaw on his left arm.

Bzzzz!

The chain-like saw blade spun at high speed. Zhu Yi charged forward without a care for anything else, but the sight before him left him utterly dumbfounded.

The person standing before him was not the boy he had imagined, but a black-haired woman in a plain ruqun. She stood quietly beside the flowerbeds before the moon gate, her blue-green sleeves covering half her face and revealing only a pair of lively, harmless-looking eyes.

Wait, who was this?

Zhu Yi froze for an instant. But he had charged in far too fiercely just now, with no time to notice anything else. The chainsaw was running at full force, sending him forward like lightning. No matter how desperately he wanted to pull back now, it was already too late.