Martial Dao: Peace by Force

Chapter 327: Chapter 186: The Malevolent Being Awakens

”...”

Wan Ze was left speechless.

In fact, Feng Jiuchen had also fallen silent. He tilted his head to look at Wan Ze, then glanced at Liu Yu in the distance.

The gossip in his eyes was completely unconcealed.

Especially when he looked at Wan Ze, his smile was tinged with a knowing look, as if to say, ’You’ve been holding out on me, kid.’

’You two... know each other pretty well, huh?’

Feng Jiuchen snickered, making a few gestures with his hands, his eyebrows raised high.

Wan Ze took a deep breath, suppressing a certain emotion.

’Is this the power of a dream?’

One moment she was going ballistic, shouting about ”slaying demons to bring peace to the world,” and the next, she jumped to a completely unrelated topic.

The leap in topic was so vast that Wan Ze felt as if he wasn’t in Huangliang, but in a movie theater where someone was fast-forwarding the film.

’It seems Squad Leader Liu is quite hung up on the fact that I don’t turn in my homework.’

The moment this thought surfaced, Wan Ze himself found it absurd.

In Huangliang, a world with a Red Moon in the sky, overrun by Deceitful Beasts, to actually hear the word ”homework”...

”Liu Yu, can you see me?” Wan Ze asked.

His voice wasn’t loud, but in the now-quiet valley, it was perfectly clear.

He was fairly certain the answer would be no, but he had to ask.

He wanted to confirm the state of ordinary people after being pulled into Huangliang.

As it turned out, just as Feng Jiuchen had said, Liu Yu couldn’t seem to hear him.

She stood there blankly, the silver glow on her armor slowly fading.

The dense crowd of soldiers behind her, who had been a dark mass just moments ago, now also began to change with the topic. They crumbled like sand figures, collapsing bit by bit into fine grains that were swept away by the mountain wind, vanishing in an instant.

Wan Ze watched in amazement.

Liu Yu, however, didn’t notice any of this. She was still chattering away, her words tumbling out quickly. She was like a child who had been holding it in for a long time and had finally found someone to talk to, pouring out everything she wanted to say regardless of whether the other person could hear.

”...Wan Ze, don’t forget to come for the exam in a couple of days. You haven’t been to school in so long. You have no idea how bored I am now. Everyone in class is more boring than the last... Zhou Xianchuan only knows how to eat, Fang Xiaoxi walks around with a long face, crying all the time, and Liu Xi talks like he’s reciting a textbook, without a single word out of place. It’s exhausting just listening to him...”

”I was really looking forward to New Year’s, but this year it was so boring... I wasn’t the one who invited Liu Xi, either. Fang Xiaoxi mentioned it, and he insisted on tagging along. I never liked him anyway... He’s so fake.”

Her tone suddenly became hurried, as if she were trying to explain something.

Wan Ze noticed her fingers nervously tugging at the hem of her armor.

”I didn’t expect to run into you at Property Plaza... It seems we’re fated to meet... Last time it was the train station, this time it’s...”

But in the next second, her voice suddenly dropped, so low it was as if she were afraid of being overheard. Yet, in the quiet valley, every single word was crystal clear.

”Are you dating Senior Sun Fan? Do you really like her? Why did you have to start dating? What a shame.”

What a shame.

These words were spoken very softly.

But Wan Ze heard them, and so did Feng Jiuchen.

Feng Jiuchen’s expression immediately turned peculiar. The corners of his mouth quirked up slightly as he snuck a glance at the two of them.

’Kids these days...’

He snickered to himself.

Before Liu Yu could finish, she was lost in her own dream, her mind wandering to some new fantasy.

A beam of light rose from beneath Liu Yu’s feet, like a hand lifting her, pushing her entire body upward.

”That’s all for now. I have to go save the world.”

With that, Liu Yu’s body began to rise. Like a leaf caught in the wind, she was swept involuntarily toward the depths of the mountain range.

Her speed increased.

Under the Red Moon, her armor became a streak of light, like a reverse shooting star, launching from the ground toward the sky.

But just then, her voice drifted down from on high, broken and faint: ”Wan Ze—remember to turn in your homework—don’t forget—”

Then she vanished.

A rift seemed to appear in the space before them. It opened without warning and closed just as suddenly, like a mouth opening and shutting.

Wan Ze froze.

He turned his head to look at Feng Jiuchen.

”Is she... going to be okay?”

Feng Jiuchen’s arms were crossed, still enjoying the show, completely lost in the fun of being a spectator.

Caught off guard by Wan Ze’s question, he paused and blinked.

”She should be fine.” He hesitated before speaking, the lack of conviction in his tone so obvious that he quickly added, ”Living people who are forcibly pulled into Huangliang are sent out by the world’s own rules when they leave. They won’t get hurt or have any lasting side effects. At most, she’ll wake up tomorrow morning feeling exhausted, like she just ran a marathon.”

’Should be?’

Wan Ze was lost in thought.

He saw that the space where Liu Yu had disappeared had closed completely, leaving not even a trace behind.

The mountain range, which had been twisting and surging moments before, also stopped its growth at that instant.

The peaks that had erupted from the ground finally fell silent. Their silhouettes became clear under the Red Moon, no longer in that previous state of constant, savage growth.

Countless majestic mountains, massive and imposing, spread out layer upon layer, stretching beyond the horizon.

A misty vapor rose, taking on a faint purple hue in the light of the Red Moon, like a thin veil covering the mountains.

The moonlight in the sky seemed to dim considerably, perhaps because it was obscured by the mist.