Not the Slightest Bit of Inner Turmoil

"Come over here~!" Xu Chunliang's taunting voice carried into the darkness and reached the ears of the people within the golden light.

The five brothers stared at Xu Chunliang in surprise. They had just heard from the survivors in the golden light that an unknown Weird lurked in the darkness, silently taking lives.

They had just been discussing why they hadn't encountered the deadly Weird.

Now, seeing Xu Chunliang taunt it, Yinjian, who seemed sunny on the surface but was gloomy at heart, felt a thought stir in his mind. Then he was utterly shaken!

He recalled how Xu Chunliang had suddenly stopped every few steps while they were in the darkness.

"Could it be???!!!"

"No way!!!"

"What kind of ability is that!!!"

When he looked at Xu Chunliang again, his gaze was filled with shock and astonishment.

Not far from them, the white-robed swordsman who had been sitting in the brothel's main hall also looked curiously at Xu Chunliang.

He had made it here safely by using the lives of those merchants along the way, so he knew full well how terrifying the evil in the darkness was. Seeing Xu Chunliang taunt the Weird now, he was naturally just as shaken, and a few questions arose in his mind.

Could it be... that he knows some of the rules of this ruin realm?

Impossible! The white-robed swordsman immediately rejected that terrifying thought. The grotto he was currently in was a ruin realm that had never appeared before. There was no record of it in the Demon-Slaying Bureau's secret files, nor did it have a code name.

Everything remained to be explored. No one should have any information about it.

Then... He looked at Xu Chunliang, a guess forming in his mind.

He's gambling! What a madman! He was betting his life on the rules he had guessed at. The swordsman had never seen such a crazy gambler.

His phoenix eyes fixed intently on Xu Chunliang, wanting to see whether he would win or lose his bet.

There was no prize for winning. If he lost...

Death.

In the darkness, the blue eye widened as it stared at Xu Chunliang, its gaze filled with pure madness!

Ignoring the golden light that could burn its hair, it viciously shot a strand out.

In an instant, the strand passed through the darkness and entered the light. Everyone's eyes widened. At last, they saw part of the Weird that had killed so many people.

Pitch-black, slender, and lightning-fast!

So it's a strand of hair. I'll call you the Hair-Strand Weird... The white-robed swordsman gave the eyeball in the darkness a name in his mind.

The strand of hair shot forward, heading straight for Xu Chunliang's open eye.

Xu Chunliang's gaze was calm. He didn't even blink. Without the slightest emotion, he was as unperturbed as a dead man, or rather...

A god.

Whoosh!

Flames ignited at the front of the strand, but it continued to stab toward Xu Chunliang's eyeball with fierce killing intent.

Xu Chunliang stood there quietly, letting the burning strand shoot toward him.

"Brother Xu, get back!" Brother Dao's voice rang out, but Xu Chunliang remained standing quietly with his hands behind his back, his body not trembling in the slightest, just like a statue of Buddha.

Sizzle~~~!

The flames burned, and at the very last millimeter before the strand entered Xu Chunliang's eyeball, it was reduced entirely to ash!

Xu Chunliang felt the scorching heat of the burning hair. It was very hot! And very comfortable.

The corners of his mouth rose in a faint smile that no one saw.

"Hiss! Roar!!!"

A sharp, agonized shriek came from the darkness, like sandpaper scraping or a speeding train braking. The people in the golden light couldn't help trembling and howling as chaotic emotions invaded their minds, nearly destroying their sanity.

Fortunately, the eerie sound of the little girl chanting scriptures had never stopped. It soothed their tumultuous hearts. Only then did the shriek fail to kill them.

"What are you doing? Since you've already escaped the darkness, why provoke that unknown being?" a swordswoman dressed in green glared at Xu Chunliang and scolded him.

Xu Chunliang turned to look at her. Hmm, she was barely passable, with regular features and a touch of seductive meanness. Her taste in clothes was ordinary and, like her looks, a little mean.

After looking her over, Xu Chunliang shook his head and looked away.

The green-robed swordswoman's eyes widened, and she blurted out, "What do you mean by that?"

A slightly plump youth standing beside her, who had been carefully attending to her, immediately drew a short saber with a clang and pointed it at Xu Chunliang, as if he had received an order.

"Apologize to Miss Jin, now!"

Xu Chunliang rolled his eyes and ignored him. In his previous life, Xu Chunliang hadn't wanted to bother with conceited women and simps, much less in this life.

"Hey! Now you've got me mad!"

"Baby, don't be angry. I'll teach him a lesson for you!" The slightly plump simp gave the green-robed swordswoman a fawning smile. When he looked back at Xu Chunliang, his face instantly turned ice-cold!

Pointing his short saber at Xu Chunliang, he said coldly, "You'd better apologize to my baby right now! Otherwise, I'll kill you with one stroke! No one in this world has the right to make my baby angry! No one!"

"If my baby gets angry because of you and refuses to talk to me, you deserve to die ten thousand times over!"

As Xu Chunliang listened to those familiar simp lines, his heart, which had become as still as an ancient well and as calm as an immortal's or a god's after dying more than ten thousand times,

unexpectedly felt a rare ripple of irritation.

What was most annoying in the world? Simps and holier-than-thou do-gooders!

Xu Chunliang raised his left hand and beckoned provocatively with his fingers. Then he looked at the slightly plump youth and said, "Dumbass, come on, slash me!"

"If you don't dare, you're my grandson!"

"If you really like her, go be strong! What's with all the licking? Are you a dog? Do you like licking that much?"

Xu Chunliang's words set the slightly plump youth's heart ablaze. He knew something was wrong with his behavior too, but he didn't understand exactly what it was.

The shame he felt from being a simp had been suppressed by his self-proclaimed state of being [deeply in love].

But suppressing it didn't make it disappear. Now, when Xu Chunliang asked whether he was a dog and liked licking that much, he saw the light.

No wonder I always felt something was wrong. I'm like a dog!

The shame that had long been suppressed suddenly emerged! He was overwhelmed with shame! Then his shame turned to anger, and he raised his saber and pointed it at Xu Chunliang.

Clearly, though he should have chosen between being angry at himself or at the green-robed swordswoman, he chose to be angry at Xu Chunliang.

Not the slightest bit of inner turmoil!

"You dare call me a dog! I'll kill you!"

He raised his saber and brought it down as he charged at Xu Chunliang, using a move from the very saber technique Xu Chunliang had practiced before upgrading it, the Black Tiger Saber Technique:

Starving Tiger Pounces on Prey.

Fierce as a starving tiger, he lunged at Xu Chunliang.

Xu Chunliang merely turned sideways, stepped forward forty-seven centimeters with his left foot, and then bent his leg,

placing it precisely in the path the slightly plump youth had to take with Starving Tiger Pounces on Prey.

Smack!

His foot blocked the youth's, and so the youth went flying high in the air with the momentum of a starving tiger pouncing on prey,

before crashing heavily onto the edge of the darkness and the golden light.

A black strand of hair instantly shot out of the darkness and pierced his eyeball.

The simp died.