I Can't Be Sword God

Blame It On Your Bad Luck (Grin)

People often joked that an ugly person could ward off evil spirits.

But in actuality, ghosts were not afraid of ugly folks. No matter how ugly one was, could they actually beat a ghost in that respect?

Today, Li Chu’s experience had proven that only good looks could ward off evil spirits.

After dealing with the vengeful spirit, he did not linger in the empty Xue family manor and instead walked out by himself.

Just as he got out of the main gate into the streets, a voice called out to him from the opposite side of the street.

Zhou Dafu led a group of constables out of the opposite alley as he hurriedly called out. “Daoist Li, where are you going?”

Li Chu did not answer but instead looked at them strangely.

After pondering for a moment, he could guess that this group of public officers did not slip away at all, but they were all too afraid to come in, so they had been watching from the alley as a group.

Now that he had come out, they might have thought he was going to slip away too.

As he approached them, Zhou Dafu felt his skin tingling from Li Chu’s gaze as he sniggered and laughed. “I have just found all of my brothers and was just about to come back and back you up. We can start now!”

Li Chu shook his head. “It’s done.”

“Huh?” All of the constables were gobsmacked.

Zhou Dafu was also surprised. “Daoist Li, y-y-you h-h-have F-F-First Madam d-d-done s-s-so soon?”

“Yeah, it went rather smoothly.” Li Chu said lightly.

Looking at the faces of the constables, he decided to just leave out the details of the exorcism to not make them sad.

“Where are you heading to then?” Zhou Dafu knew Li Chu would not lie, and he was immediately relieved as a smile appeared on his face.

Li Chu said, “It is still early, so I am going back to Ten Li Slope first.”

As night had only just fallen, if he went back to kill monsters now, he would not lose out on his daily progress, and that made him feel very satisfied.

After a pause, he said, “But for me to exorcise the vengeful spirit earlier than expected, the bounty should still be the same as we have negotiated earlier?”

“Relax, no problem with the bounty.” Zhou Dafu waved his hand and then leaned in as he pulled Li Chu’s sleeve, whispering. “How about we go celebrate tonight, and play around?”

“Play around?”

The constable beside him smirked. “That’s to go to the House of Blossoming Spring to play around—”

Li Chu rolled his eyes and declined. “I’ll pass.”

Another constable quickly laughed and quipped. “Are you embarrassed, Daoist Li? Don’t worry, it will be fine once you are used to it.”

“I just think”—Li Chu raised his eyes to look at the constable as he said slowly—”there is no need to spend money on this kind of thing.”

Immediately, he nodded to everyone as he turned and left.

Looking at his straight back, an old constable quickly sneered. “I couldn’t tell that this young Daoist priest is a miser. Pfah, how can you get to play if you don’t pay?”

But he immediately felt something was wrong once he said that.

‘If we think about Li Chu’s face, it seems like... the ladies of the House of Blossoming Spring will not refuse if they are asked to pay him instead.

‘If thinking in this way, no wonder Li Chu feels that there is no need to spend such money.’

The group of constables looked at each other a few times and suddenly felt that the wind tonight was much colder.

“D*mn it!” Someone cursed angrily even though he himself did not know what he was mad at.

...

It was a cool summer’s night. The stars and moon were shining bright.

It was just a short ten-mile journey from Yuhang Town to Ten Li Slope. Even when Li Chu walked unhurriedly, he would arrive there just after a while.

The path was a spacious official road, but there were wild woodlands on both sides with no person in sight.

Although the curfew set by the Heluo Dynasty was not considered strict, the city gates were relatively guarded strictly. What’s more, this was a world where Evil Beings ran rampant. Hence, unless there was a very urgent matter, most normal folks would not go out of the city for a walk at night.

Of course, cultivators were the exception.

Li Chu walked and walked, and as he reached near a midway pavilion, he noticed something was amiss.

The surroundings were just too quiet. There should be plenty of living creatures in the wild in summer—the toads in the puddles, rodents and birds in the forest, cicadas on the trees, and howling beasts in the mountains. All of the usual cacophonies had disappeared.

And a stench soon began to reach the tip of his nose.

Of the four types of Evil Beings—spiritual creature, demon, ghost and monster—spiritual creature’s Qi was stinky. The mortals would feel dizzy after inhaling it for a long while. Demonic Qi was pungent and would cause mortals to feel hostile, while ghostly Qi was chilling and could cause mortals to feel nauseous.

Lastly, monsters—a collection of different types of supernatural beings that were extremely bizarre—did not actually fit into the same category, nor did they share the same aura.

One could say that aura was the most distinctive feature of an Evil Being. In other words, it served as the most important basis in determining an Evil Being. In fact, it was precisely because most Evil Beings were unable to hide their aura that they could only operate outside human settlements.

If not for that, the Evil Beings of this world could slip into the cities at will, and then humanity may not be as peaceful as it was now.

Li Chu could tell that the smell he had caught a whiff of earlier was a monster’s Qi.

And it was a potency that he had never felt before.

Out of caution, he did not plan to seek trouble as he sped up his pace and wanted to quickly return to Deyum Monastery.

Yet trouble seemed to want to look for him.

After three quick steps, his waist seemed to have suddenly touched a fine but tough thread as an elastic force suddenly came bouncing back.

He quickly twisted and backed away before finding that the white belt on his waist had been corroded and blackened.

The thread was poisonous!

Using the bright moonlight, he opened his eyes wide and scanned his surroundings carefully. It was only then that he found the threads were arrayed in the form of a Bagua array, like a huge spider web!

Not only was the road blocked, but even the woods on both sides were also densely covered by these black silken threads! Several dead animals were lying on the grass in the forest, seemingly killed by the poison after coming into contact with it.

...

It was all over the place, so much so that even birds cannot escape.

What was he doing? Hunting?

This was the first time Li Chu encountered something like this. He took two steps back carefully as he tried to find another pathway.

At this moment, a black figure darted out from the midway pavilion on the side of the road.

Hearing the movement, Li Chu immediately looked over.

He saw a bald man in black with tied-up sleeves and leggings appearing.

Li Chu did not know why the person was wearing nightclothes because that was not really meaningful.

It was because its bald head was just so conspicuous at night! With the moonlight shining over, the reflection formed was like a halo over his body. If Li Chi had worshipped the Buddha, he would have knelt in reverence by now.

And it was also because his bald head was too bright and surroundings too dark that his facial features were difficult to discern.

Also, it was because of his bald head that Li Chu only realized at the second glance that the most terrifying part of his body was not his head but his arms.

He had eight whole arms!

...

Each of them looked very strong and powerful with bulging muscles.

The moment he appeared, the monster Qi around him became more intense and even created ripples. It was obvious that he was the source of the aura.

Li Chu stared at the man without saying a word. He had not run into many monsters before, so he did not know what to say without knowing the origin of his opponent.

The eight-armed man also looked at Li Chu.

‘He is young, and without any true Qi fluctuations around him, seems to be just an ordinary Daoist priest.’

So he let out a bizarre cackle.

Just when Li Chu did not understand what he was laughing at, the latter struck!

When the eight-armed man quickly raised one of his right hands, a black gap ripped open at the center of his palm. With a blast, a black beam shot out of it and was almost invisible at night.

If it weren’t for Li Chu’s excellent eyesight, he could barely see this black light. He quickly moved sideways and barely avoided the black light.

There was a strange hissing noise on the ground, and only then Li Chu realized the black light was a spray of venom. The moment it landed on the road, it instantly corroded and perforated the ground! If the venom landed on a person, their body would be a goner.

Li Chu frowned as he looked at the latter. “I have no beef with you, why did you suddenly try to kill me?”

“Hehehehe.” The eight-armed man grinned menacingly. “Who asked you to appear here tonight, blame it all on your bad luck!”

The eight-armed man looked up, and it was only then that Li Chu clearly saw the man had two rows of eyes on his face. Terrifying!

He opened all eight of his arms wide as he stood under the moon, looking extremely menacing, much like a demon!