Young Noble Be Monster Slaying

Chapter 763: Hu Sanlang

The moon hung high in the sky.

Chu Liang had finally managed to explain everything clearly. Thankfully, Senior Sister Jiang was not the kind of girl who would make a fuss over unreasonable things. If not, this would have dragged on for three to five days with the chance that this might be brought up at every New Year's festival in the years to come.

After everything calmed down, Chu Liang took out the Demon-Binding Rope and frowned.

The Demon-Binding Rope was a very effective movement-restricting enchanted tool. However, the tortoise-shell bondage method had caused him endless trouble. Over the years, he had lost count of how many times people had mistaken him for a pervert because of it.

A sudden thought struck him—if he were to awaken a spirit within the rope today, could it gain self-awareness and no longer be limited to just the tortoise-shell bondage method?

The only problem was that he wasn’t sure if it would work. After all, when he had awakened the Demon-Revealing Brick, its intelligence seemed far from sharp. Just last night, he had spoken to it, and it only responded this morning. He had no idea what was causing such a severe delay, but it made normal communication impossible.

Would the Demon-Binding Rope end up the same way? Well, there was only one way to find out.

With that thought in mind, Chu Liang channeled his cultivation energy and activated the Talisman of Life Restoration.

Whoosh!

A flash of golden light burst forth, and in an instant, the Demon-Binding Rope floated midair, its surface shimmering with spiritual energy. Moments later, the radiance faded, leaving behind a flickering trace of divine light.

"It worked?" Chu Liang’s eyes lit up with excitement.

Just then, a sinister laugh echoed through the room. "Hee-hee-hee..."

The voice came from the Demon-Binding Rope.

"Darling, you in the mood for something thrilling?"

"..."

Chu Liang felt speechless. As he watched the Demon-Binding Rope flying in mid-air, he had an ominous feeling.

He quickly spoke up, "Hold on, don’t get too excited. Let me explain first."

The Demon-Binding Rope seemed to have figured out the situation and he called out loudly, "Master! I know! You have given me life. I will make sure to bind your enemies tightly! I’ll make them tremble, fear, cry out, submit to you, and address you as master..."

"Stop! Stop! Stop!"

Chu Liang frantically waved his hands to cut it off. This was getting way out of hand.

Why does this Demon-Binding Rope sound like some old pervert? It's almost as though it has been possessed by Lin Bei. Does it have something to do with the land it was born in?

"I awakened a spirit in you because I wanted to discuss something," Chu Liang said, trying to reason with it. "Can we not use the tortoise-shell bondage method when tying people up from now on?"

The Demon-Binding Rope did a spin in mid-air while responding, "Of course! How could I ever disobey my master's command?"

Chu Liang finally let out a breath of relief. "Good."

It looks like this perverted artifact spirit can be reasoned with. At least it's better than the Demon-Revealing Brick.

The Demon-Binding Rope let out a mischievous chuckle. "Heheh, I get it!"

Hm? Get what exactly?

Chu Liang frowned and was about to explain clearly when a faint fluctuation of spiritual energy rippled through the courtyard. If his cultivation level had been any lower, he would not have noticed the energy fluctuations at all.

A glint flashed in his eyes as he asked, "Who's there?"

In the next instant, he used Dimension Compression and appeared in the courtyard.

Beneath the corridor’s pillars, a shadowy figure lurked, hidden so seamlessly in the darkness that it was nearly undetectable. It was clear they were using some kind of advanced stealth technique.

Without hesitation, Chu Liang drew his sword!

"Nooo!" the shadowy figure shouted as he dashed out with his hands raised.

He then spoke with such a deep and firm voice, "Chu Liang, I have something to tell you!"

The man was clad in black, his face half-covered in grotesque scars. Wounds ran jaggedly across one side of his features, leaving him almost unrecognizable. But Chu Liang recognized the other half of his face.

With just a glance, he knew that this was someone he had fought before.

"Hu Sanlang?"

Chu Liang couldn't help but wonder, It has been six years since they last met. How did Hu Sanlang end up like this?

Just as the two locked eyes, a golden streak of light suddenly shot out from the room along with a yell, "Oh, darling~ Surrender at once!"

Whoosh!

With that golden streak of light, Hu Sanlang was completely bound.

...

Back in the room, Chu Liang's expression darkened as he stood over the tightly bound Hu Sanlang. He lowered his voice and commanded, "Let him go."

The Demon-Binding Rope, sensing Chu Liang's displeasure, asked, "What's wrong? I did as you said and used a different binding method."

"I told you not to use that perverted tortoise-shell bondage method..." Chu Liang said while he yanked on one end of the rope. "But I didn’t tell you to replace it with something even more perverted!"

At this moment, Hu Sanlang lay sprawled on the ground. His arms were stretched straight out and bound with his legs in an X-shape posture. Confusion filled his eyes. He had expected that he would suffer when he came to see Chu Liang tonight, but he really didn't expect this kind of hardship... His brain almost couldn't process what was happening.

"Master, you don’t like this one either?" the Demon-Binding Rope asked. "Should I try another?"

"That won’t be necessary."

Chu Liang quickly stuffed it into the White Pagoda, saving himself from further embarrassment.

Then, he helped Hu Sanlang to his feet and said seriously, "That was an accident."

"Ah..." Hu Sanlang let out a long breath of relief and nodded. "Good."

The awkward silence in the room stretched on.

Finally, Chu Liang was the first to break the silence. "You were the one who kidnapped the Dragon Dancer while having that demon core in your mouth, right?"

"Yes," Hu Sanlang answered with a bitter chuckle. "I knew I wouldn’t be able to hide it from you."

"I had only just noticed that your aura was very similar to that kidnapper," Chu Liang explained. He then asked, "Why did you come looking for me tonight?"

"I..." Hu Sanlang hesitated for a moment. Then he gnashed his teeth and suddenly fell to his knees with a thud. "I came to ask you for help!"

"Get up first!"

Chu Liang quickly pulled Hu Sanlang to his feet while thinking, What is going on? Why is everyone suddenly coming to me for help at the same time?

Once he helped Hu Sanlang up, Hu Sanlang looked at him and said at a slow pace, "The Dragon Dancer... is my lover."

Chu Liang listened as Hu Sanlang recounted the past few years of his life.

After the Assembly of Immortal Sects, the Fuyao Kingdom's team, despite not achieving a high ranking, did not get much of a scolding. After all, they had been defeated by the Mount Shu Sect, who ultimately emerged as the champions of the assembly, so their loss was hardly a disgrace.

After the Assembly of Immortal Sects, the Fuyao Kingdom's team took up positions at the Royal Wave Bureau. Because of their relationship with Han Lingshuang, they were considered members of the royal family and soon became the king's personal guards.

It was during this time that Hu Sanlang met a beautiful girl who grew up in the Royal Wave Bureau and had a mysterious background. She was always seen dancing on the other side of the courtyard walls.

It didn’t take long for the two to fall in love and become a couple.

Her name was Jing Yue.

Then, one fateful day, Jing Yue asked Hu Sanlang to meet her outside the city, deep within the mountains, and Hu Sanlang eagerly agreed. However, the one waiting for him there was not his lover, but a group of powerful cultivators. It was an ambush and Hu Sanlang was severely injured with his face disfigured. In the end, he suffered a fatal strike and tumbled into the ravine below.

"If it had been anyone else, they would have died. However, they had no idea that I was raised in a tiger’s den deep in the mountains!"

Even as Hu Sanlang recounted what had happened, his eyes burned with rage.

As he lay on the brink of death, a tiger demon from the mountains saved him and brought him back to its lair. He remained there, slowly recovering for more than a year until his wounds were mostly healed and he was able to leave the mountainous area.

When Hu Sanlang returned to Canglang City, he discovered that he had been framed as a criminal that had tried to assassinate the king. As for the woman he loved, she had become the City of Azure Waves’ dazzling Dragon Dancer.

As Hu Sanlang hid in the shadows, he realized that he had been deceived. Seeing as she had not gone to meet him that day, it was quite possible she had been working with the group of people who had ambushed him.

However, he couldn't bother to dwell on his pain. He had to find his esteemed teacher, Han Lingshuang, and tell her the truth. Yet, before he could even approach the Royal Wave Bureau, he heard light, familiar footsteps behind him. The Dragon Dancer had followed him.

Hu Sanlang was shocked. His face was disfigured and he had covered his face with a veil. Even so, she had been able to recognize him.

To this, the Dragon Dancer had simply said, "The way you look at me is different from anyone else. Even if you became a beast, I would still recognize you at a glance."

After a long and complicated exchange of emotions, they finally opened their hearts to each other.

It turned out that the Dragon Dancer was the adopted daughter of Jing Wuya, the General of the Royal Wave Bureau. From a young age, she had been raised and trained under his watchful eye to be a pawn in his schemes. One of her tasks had been to frame Hu Sanlang.

Jing Wuya possessed a powerful enchanted mirror known as the Mirror of Captured Light. When the mirror reflected someone’s image, it could store their reflection. If another person with a similar physique was found, the reflection stored in the mirror could then be used to make that person indistinguishable from the original.

The Dragon Dancer had once secretly used the Mirror of Captured Light to capture Hu Sanlang’s reflection. However, when the time came to kill him, she hesitated because she had truly fallen in love with this young man with such passion and enthusiasm during this time.

However, Jing Wuya didn't care about her feelings for Hu Sanlang. He sent Hu Sanlang a message in her name and tricked him to the outskirts of the city, where the ambush happened.

He had also located an assassin whose physique was similar to Hu Sanlang and had the assassin infiltrate close to the king.

The assassin failed in the end and was killed with all traces of his existence erased. Jing Wuya even used this opportunity to diminish those that did not stand with him and greatly weakened Han Lingshuang's influence in the Royal Wave Bureau.

The reason the Dragon Dancer had stopped Hu Sanlang from returning to the bureau and seeing his teacher was that everyone in the bureau was monitored by Jing Wuya. If he showed up in the bureau, he would never be able to escape again.

Hearing this, Chu Liang recalled the strange expression he had seen on Han Lingshuang’s face earlier today. Perhaps Han Lingshuang had already sensed that something was wrong.

The Dragon Dancer urged Hu Sanlang to leave Canglang City. "With your talent, as long as you go far away, you can make a name for yourself anywhere. Don’t stay in this dangerous place."

However, Hu Sanlang wanted to take her with him. Still, she shook her head and expressed that she couldn't leave.

After a long internal struggle, Hu Sanlang ultimately decided that he would stay in the Fuyao Kingdom. He would investigate Jing Wuya from the shadows and find the chance to bring him down.

Yet, the deeper he dug, the more terrified he became.

Jing Wuya’s influence had seeped into every corner of the Fuyao Kingdom. Jing Wuya had even established connections within the Penglai Supreme Sect, ensuring they ignored the turmoil within Fuyao Kingdom.

If not for the unwavering loyalty of the Fuyao citizens to the royal family, Jing Wuya would have had enough power to overthrow the monarch of the Fuyao Kingdom.

And now, the moment had come—Jing Wuya was finally revealing his fangs, and Hu Sanlang could no longer sit still.

"If you wanted to stop his schemes from succeeding, why did you abduct the Dragon Dancer?" Chu Liang asked curiously.

He now understood why the Dragon Dancer had turned against Jing Wuya. After all, she and Hu Sanlang were truly in love. In the end, his intervention had almost caused the couple to break up. But he still couldn’t grasp why Hu Sanlang had taken such a reckless action now, after years of careful planning.

He had endured years of hiding in the shadows, only to come dangerously close to losing it all in a moment of impulse.

Hu Sanlang frowned and said, "The king has rarely left the palace since the last incident, and security around him is tighter than ever. But..."

He hesitated before continuing. "There’s one little-known secret. He is utterly obsessed with guqin and is a devoted admirer of Xue Lingxue. During the South Melody Conservatory’s last selection for their head disciple, the king even disguised himself and secretly traveled to the Yu Dynasty just to see her.

"I suspect the general’s next scheme revolves around this obsession. He is likely planning to have Jing Yue impersonate Xue Lingxue... and assassinate the king."