The Guide to Capturing a Black Lotus

Chapter 18: Bamboo Forest and Green Apricot(6)

The frightened passengers all congregated on the deck. Many of them had heard the ruckus in the middle of the night and crawled up from bed. Their clothes were messy and they didn’t even have shoes on their feet. They all squeezed together into an area like shivering little lambs.

Mu Yao’s white clothes were floating in the air. A section of her snow white arm was exposed as she raised it high up. A point of light appeared on her fingertips and if one were to look carefully, she was supporting a massive round shaped barrier. Because there were too many people in the barrier, the edges of the barrier were barely visible; To the point that they blended in with the night.

“Hurry! Everyone, stand behind me!

The entire river was full of starry spots of black smoke. The water demons that only moved in darkness, had come out full force this time. They had made a frontal assault grandiosely.

The ship was violently trembling. The sturdy boat had been corroded by the termite-like water demons in the darkness. Under the constant crashing of the water demons, the boat was letting out miserable hoarse groans like it was about to fall apart in the water at any moment.

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“What’s wrong with the ship….” From the mass of people, a child’s crying arised, “Wah wah… is the boat about to sink…”

The mass of people suddenly became restless. A middle-aged man with a ferocious looking face gave the little child a fixed glare: “Little child, don’t speak nonsense. You’ll bring bad luck!”

“Wah……” The child started crying again and his wails threw the hearts of listeners into disorder and caused a commotion to arise.

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“Uau! Rq usw nau yduxsal, R’zz jkzz usw!”

“Ysvbla!”

“Zs-usw… obyv es usw oydv vs es? El’al fwpv y okeso yde y nbkze, esd’v vau yduvbkdt…” Mbl xsvbla rasvlnvle vbl nbkze kd bla lxcaynl yp pbl nsdvkdwswpzu pvlrrle cynjoyaep.

Fsxl kd vbl taswr czsnjle vblx. Fsxl sq vblx nwaple swv zswezu. Fsxl sq vblx nakle swv kd psaaso. Wsa y xsxldv, lhlauvbkdt vwadle kdvs y xlpp.

Yw Zys jlrv vwadkdt yaswde vs zssj yv vblx. Tla lmralppksd vwadle blyhu yp pbl pbswvle: “Jl iwklv! Mbl csyv osd’v pkdj…”

“Gb!”

NRjl kv oyp vaukdt vs eldu bla osaep, vbl pbkr pweeldzu vkzvle shla. Mbl wdralryale rlsrzl olal zkjl y rzyvl sq pyde, pweeldzu pzkekdt vsoyaep y nsadla. Fnalyxp yde oykzkdt pweeldzu alynble yd yzz dlo bktb.

“Ohlausdl caynl uswaplzhlp sd vbl pbkr!” Yw Zys alkdqsanle vbl cyaakla kd bla bydep. Mbl oyvla elxsdp vssj yehydvytl sq vbl pweeld nbysp vs calyj kd yde yvvynj. Mbl rlsrzl obs olal pbsnjle pkzzu cu vbl elxsdp bye ds vkxl vs elqlde vblxplzhlp yde lhlauvbkdt clnyxl yd wvvla xlpp.

“Why did you step on me!?”

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“Brother, you’re not speaking reason. When did my feet touch you?”

“Shut up! We’re all going to die!” A woman’s shrill voice penetrated into everyone’s ear, carrying with it a heavy resentment.

The mass of people suddenly turned quiet for a moment before curses and quiet crying started to surface.

All of the planks of the ship were creaking. The connecting wooden bonds were pulled out, leaving a wide hole. The bonds had grown loose and under the constant collisions, started to split apart and cracks started to form.

Mu Yao was supporting the wooden boards by herself. She clenched her teeth and her feet left the ground. Floating in the air, her fingers moved rapidly. She threw out a talisman and in an instant, knocked down a large group of water demons; Black water splashed about and pale white bones fell onto the ground.

The group of people became restless: “Look at her talisman, she’s from the Mu family…”

”We’re saved—-”

Miaomiao ran out onto the deck and saw from afar, Liu Fuyi walking towards her. She hurriedly charged over: “Brother Liu—–!”

“Miaomiao!” Liu Fuyi was carrying a little male child in his arms with an unconscious old lady on his back. He quickly arrived by her side, “Are you ok?”

“I’m fine. Let’s hurry and go find Sister Mu!”

Liu Fuyi raised his chin, “Yao’er is over there saving people. Let’s go meet up with her right now.”

Miaomiao took the little child in Liu Fuyi’s arms. Then, she followed after Fuyi at a hundred meter dash speed onto the deck. All the while, thinking to herself: Mu Sheng’s worries were completely unnecessary right? These two people both had great skills and tacit teamwork. How could they possibly get surrounded?

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On the contrary, staying near the dark and gloomy crack by himself seemed to be much more dangerous…

Black clouds had already created holes in the hold’s ceiling, exposing the pitch black curtain of night. The bright moonlight was blocked by the dark clouds and the countless meters of river water around them were covered by a thick and dense demonic aura.

Mu Sheng’s black hair and outer robe was ruffled about by the evil wind. The dark mist in front of his congealed and one could barely discern half a human’s figure within.

“Was it you?” The dark figure’s voice was soft like a woman’s.

”What? After killing the male, the female brought out the entire family to carry out revenge?” He lowered his eyes and carefully looked at his arms. His thick eyelashes caused a long shadow to fall upon his face. This sort of softness immediately cut down on the arrogant killing intent surrounding his body.

“Hmph…” Its shrill voice caused the surrounding air to shudder, like someone was scraping their nails on the ground, “Little thing. You’re quite arrogant.”

”Your cultivation is lacking.” Mu Sheng slowly took off the Demon Restraining Circlets around his wrists. He tilted his head to side to look at her, looking like he was truly curious: “Are you not afraid that today, your clan of water demons will be completely annihilated?”

The black mist bubbled and churned. A thin waisted, broad hip figure could be seen through the darkness: “I’ve heard that the Mu Family Head is a female. Who are you?”

“I am Mu Sheng. The Family Head is my sister, Mu Yao.” Mu Sheng lightly smiled like a beautiful spring flower, “What a pity. To deal with rabble like you all, I alone am enough. My sister won’t need to make a move at all.”

”Mu Sheng…” The voice repeated his name once before laughing deeply, “A nobody. However, a youth that can kill the Water Demon King in one attack… you’re not just a creature in the pond are you? You’ve hidden yourself away for so many years, for what?”

Mu Sheng didn’t continue her line of thought: “If that short-lived husband of yours didn’t try to hit on my sister, he could’ve lived a long time as the Water Demon King.”

The Demon Restraining Circlets in his hands immediately flew out like a ray of lightning cleaving apart the skies, “Those who dare disrespect my sister can only die.”

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”What do you understand!” The voice suddenly turned extremely shrill as she rapidly retreated backwards like a surge of steam shooting towards the sky. The crumbling ship shuddered and swayed back and forth, “He was doing it for me! It was all for me!”

It was just another demon that coveted Mu Yao’s constitution.

This kind of body was completely unique and incomparably pure… just like the snow at the top of a snowy mountain. It could forgive all souls, whether they were kind or wicked… they could all live forever…

The Demon Restraining Circlet suddenly struck her waist with a massive ‘clang!’ Black water burst out and several bones fell onto the ground with a clatter.

”I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again, if your cultivation isn’t up to par, don’t come on out and make a disgrace of yourself.” There was a cruel smile on Mu Sheng’s lips. The Demon Restraining Circlet flew through the air rapidly like a cat toying with its prey.

“I am someone on the edge between life and death… there’s nothing left for me to live for… I’m not afraid of divine extermination…” Her voice was eerie and it came from above his head.

The sound of cruel and bizarre laughter came and went like a nightmare one couldn’t break free of. “The truly pitiful one is you, Mu Sheng… you shouldn’t be in this place… do you still remember your mother laying underground while you’re so happily demon hunting?”

”What did you say? Mu Sheng’s face abruptly changed and he grit his teeth. The violent aura around him increased explosively and he basically squeezed out his words from between his teeth, “Say that again.”

He motionlessly stared at the mass of blackness.. The ends of his eyes turned red like they were soaked in blood.

”Mu, like eternal twilight. Sheng, playing a farewell song… Little Sheng’er,1 [1] This is a different Mu and Sheng from the Mu Sheng we’ve seen so far. They’re homonyms and mean different things. This Mu 暮 is basically evening/nighttime and the other Mu 慕 is admire(Mu from the Mu family). This Sheng 笙 is a type of wind reed instrument. The other Sheng 声 is basically sound/voice/audio. tell me. You call us rabble that abandoned your pitiful mother. Then you, who turned around to throw yourself to the Demon Hunter families, what kind of thing are you considered?”

“Leak… there’s a leak!”

A furious gale started to blow causing howls to erupt in everyone’s ears. Great waves rose up on the river’s surface. The dark clouds above were as thick as ink; They stayed constant and didn’t disperse.

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The Demon Restraining Circlets Mu Yao released were zipping back and forth in the air. More and more skeletons piled up on top of each other outside of the barrier.

The Mu Family Head’s strength was enough to block the attacks of countless water demons at the same time by herself, yet she was unable to stop the weak passengers from dispersing in all directions.

The ship was already half collapsed, and countless miniscule cracks covered it. The river water rushed up and reached everyone’s ankles. The ship seemed to be chomped by something as it slowly sunk down little by little.

The passengers all chaotically tried to climb their way to the higher points of the ship but continuously slipped in the water. They fell into pools of water, causing the cold water to spray out like a flower made of water.

At the moment, the Wan River was dyed in cold hues. The frost-like moonlight shone on everyone’s faces, turning them ashen. Their faces were completely written with fear and despair like they were little demons from the underworld.

“Creak—–” The ship’s body let out a painful groan and Mu Yao’s face immediately changed. A rift-lift fissure suddenly appeared down the middle and the passenger ship was split down the middle into two separate parts. The part that was lifted into the air followed the crack slowly down into the water. It looked like it would completely submerge at any moment.

”Ah!” The people trapped on the broken half of the ship were all jumbled into a big group. Screams and sorrowful wailing seemed to suddenly fill the air.

Mu Yao extended out her arm and her white rainbow-like streamer launched out, passing through the horizon. She used her own streamer to tie down that half of the ship. She clenched her pearly whites while her arm trembled. Surprisingly, she was extremely slowly but surely dragging the boat back up.

Creakkkk—–

She already threw in all of her strength into drawing the streamer as tightly as possible. Mu Yao’s face was extremely pale.

Large beads of sweat dripped down her forehead as she strenuously adjusted her breath. She then tried to revolve the strength she had nearly completely used up.

”She can’t hold on for much longer!” A person’s voice suddenly shouted out from within the human pile. It was the middle-aged man with a fierce-looking face. He was looking around in all directions as he shouted out in terror: “We must crawl over! Otherwise, if this white streamer breaks, we’ll be done for!” After he spoke, he rushed over to grab hold of Mu Yao’s streamer.

”Don’t… don’t…” Mu Yao turned pale with fright. Blood was already dripping out of the corner of her mouth, “Don’t come over!”

The middle aged man grabbed onto the streamer and started climbing over with his hands and feet. The others were like headless flies swarming over to him; Not even bothering to understand why Mu Yao so loudly warned them.

“Don’t pull! I can’t hold on anymore!” Mu Yao let out a cry full of lament as a mouth of blood spilled out. The barrier suddenly broke and at the same time, the white streamer ripped in half. The half of the ship it had been holding in place suddenly erupted in screams. Like a bloodthirsty beast opening its jaws wide open, the half of the ship very quickly disappeared into the river’s waters.

Many bubbles appeared on the surface of the water.

The remaining half of the ship was also capsizing. The river’s water was rushing into the ship and it had already reached their shanks.

Mu Yao’s expression was pale white as she sat down in a puddle. She stared blankly at the empty waters in disbelief. However, her waist was being tightly hugged by the middle-aged man who had climbed over: “Miss Mu! Save me! I don’t want to die… don’t want to die…”

Mu Yao, who was powerless now, was dragged down by him and they both slowly sank down with the ship.

“Whoosh!” A streak of golden light suddenly appeared and the sky was lit up by a golden falling star-like light. When it stopped in place, a nine layered pagoda appeared with light shining off of it in all directions. The water demons were like water droplets falling to a burning bowl of oil, instantly turning into flying ash.

The middle-aged man was harshly kicked in the side of the face and his arms loosened. He lost his footing and subsequently slid into the river with an eardrum tearing howl, “Save me! I don’t want to die… argh….”

Liu Fuyi grabbed onto Mu Yao’s arms and pulled her into his embrace.

His expression was especially hard to look at: “Yao’er!”

Yet, Mu Yao turned back around to look at the man struggling for his life in the water: “He—-”

“Sister Mu, this person nearly caused you to die just now!” Miaomiao had been a spectator for a while now and the anger inside of her was starting to burst out.

”No, save him…” She tried to struggle in Liu Fuyi’s arms. Liu Fuyi was normally warm and gentle but he was still a person with a temper. In the current situation, he tightly clenched his arms around Mu Yao, gritting his teeth without replying to her.

Miaomiao saw that the boat was sinking while the two were still at odds with each other and so she hastily picked up a broken mast pole from the deck and threw it into the water while clenching her teeth: “Enough! Sister Mu, stop moving around, I’ll save him!”


[1] This is a different Mu and Sheng from the Mu Sheng we’ve seen so far. They’re homonyms and mean different things. This Mu 暮 is basically evening/nighttime and the other Mu 慕 is admire(Mu from the Mu family). This Sheng 笙 is a type of wind reed instrument. The other Sheng 声 is basically sound/voice/audio.


TLN: …………………. 😀


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Entropy [Translator]

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2 Comments

  1. Deputy of Sacrilegious Affairs

    I’m sad that Mu Sheng always enduring it silently in the background, and my impression of Mu Yao hadn’t improve at all, well this is still at the beginning tho, so I’m looking forward for some developments to happen in the future

    Anyway, thank you for your amazing hardwork translator-sama!! We luv it 💕

  2. :3

    Yeah… looking at this, I guess I’m more of a subscriber to MiaoMiao’s

    “As long as the people I care about are safe and happy, I will be very satisfied.”

    than for MuYao’s weird super benevolence to strangers. Especially one’s that have already proven to be jerks. Old dude’s only looking out for number 1 obviously. What is the merit in risking your safety or MiaoMiao’s safety to save someone like that? Is it just to rebuke LiuFuyi? Like oh, I have the moral high ground. But I suppose MiaoMiao might already be dead if not for this sort of righteousness and magnanimousity(?) So…🤷‍♀️ ty for the chapter💕💕💕