Chapter 328 |
Yuan Yuanyuan strode toward the tavern in full red attire, looking bold and dominant. She called over a few youkai to wake up the ones who’d been knocked out.
Apparently, the intruders hadn’t come to kill—they were more interested in humiliation. Several of the fainted youkai had bruised and swollen faces. They looked miserable. Yuan Yuanyuan couldn’t help feeling a burst of anger.
As the saying goes: Don’t hit the face. But now they’d all been beaten into pig heads—how was that even remotely civilized?
She picked up a long smoking pipe that was normally just a hallway decoration and walked deeper inside. As she moved forward, the candles in the corridor behind her began extinguishing one by one, casting her path in deepening shadow.
Come to think of it… if this part made it into the comic, it would be the Red-Clothed Woman’s first real “combat mode” scene, right? Should she fight differently from Yuan? Or maybe sprinkle in some similarities for the readers to notice?
Lost in thought, Yuan Yuanyuan suddenly realized something strange—the extinguished candles behind her were re-lighting, one by one.
But this time the glow was dimmer, more golden and hazy—dreamlike and entrancing.
Swish, swish—the sound came from behind her. She turned around, stunned.
From the far end of the hallway, sheer beaded curtains began falling down from the windows, one by one.
Yuan Yuanyuan stood dazed for a second before realizing: the curtains were dropping fast—too fast. They were about to reach her. She rushed forward a few steps.
Just as she stepped into the next room, the final curtain dropped behind her.
Her vision plunged into darkness. It was then she noticed something eerie—there was no sound at all now, upstairs or down.
Just moments ago there had been plenty of youkai around. It wasn’t like they’d all been scared off—this area was a secret base, with a corridor leading toward Yuan Yuanyuan’s room and the main hall downstairs where the youkai usually gathered.
Many of the weaker youkai—newly transformed ones—typically stood in this corridor for tasks like delivering messages. Stronger ones rarely came upstairs, especially after Yuan Yuanyuan had been targeted in several assassination attempts.
But now… all those youkai who had just been lying on the ground—gone. Vanished within five minutes. Dragged off when?
Suddenly, all the heavy doors downstairs swung open.
From them came a procession of female youkai, all dressed alike, each one gorgeous like a celestial maiden. They walked over to a large incense burner in the hall and lit incense. Yuan Yuanyuan caught a familiar scent.
…Blue-smoke incense.
She’d used it before—this used to be her job. She knew the location of every incense burner around the tavern. No exaggeration, they were everywhere, even in the bathrooms. Back then, she thought it was a bit excessive, but only about a tenth were ever lit at once.
This hidden base technically counted as part of the tavern, and it had the same decorative style. But the incense burners here had never all been lit—until today.
Now that all the blue-smoke incense had been lit… Yuan Yuanyuan suddenly felt incredibly at ease.
The hall filled with a thick, drowsy fragrance. But she couldn’t tell if it was just her imagination—because to her, the scent was beyond pleasant. For those old men downstairs, though? Probably very unpleasant.
After all, this was made from demon pearl powder… if a human felt good from that, now that would be weird.
She hadn’t used her “Chessboard Technique” in ages. Earlier, when she picked up the long pipe, she’d been planning to use it. But the moment the incense lit, the technique activated on its own—and now the whole room’s positions flooded her mind.
Those old men… were about 100 meters ahead. Aside from the girls lighting incense, there were definitely others lurking around to watch the show.
Most noticeable of all was the boss lady, standing front and center, clearly excited to watch the drama unfold… Yuan Yuanyuan now realized those girls had probably been summoned by her.
Her enhanced hearing, now paired with the Chessboard Technique, picked up whispers from the peanut gallery nearby.
“That window over there—”
“Not bad…”
“Damn, this is so badass. She looks amazing. I want to solo like the Red-Clothed Lady too.”
“Can you even win though? What if you get counter-killed?”
“Have you ever seen her fight?”
“Once, but it was too fast—I didn’t really catch it.”
Yuan Yuanyuan twitched at the corner of her mouth. Seriously? First time she’s had a crowd this big for a fight… It felt like a gladiator match at the Colosseum. Not unlike that mountain duel from before.
She suddenly realized the biggest difference between fighting as Yuan vs. fighting as the Red-Clothed Woman:
The scale and the drama.
When she fought as Yuan, she didn’t bring cheerleaders.
With that many eyes on her now, there was no way she could afford to look lame. But her usual fighting style didn’t really match the “grace and mystique” of this setting. Yuan’s approach was all about spy tactics—quick, precise, lethal. Efficient, sure, but hardly elegant.
Even Fa Ning, Yuan’s disciple, had inherited his master’s brutal style.
She pushed the door open and saw the old man inside. No pleasantries—she asked the one thing she needed to know:
“Why didn’t you go after Fa Ning? Why me?”
Her voice was deliberately raspy—part of the character. Everyone who’d ever heard the Red-Clothed Woman speak assumed she had a smoker’s voice. Everyone… except the boss lady.
“I’ve always thought something was off about you,” the old man sneered. “From what I’ve observed, this place doesn’t actually have many top-tier fighters. Just two—one is the woman who’s always at your side. The other… is that little thing called Si Qun, right?”
Yuan Yuanyuan had no response… because he wasn’t wrong. The boss lady had a habit of hiding all her strongest cards. Si Qun had always been a behind-the-scenes kitchen hand, and barely anyone knew about him until his appearance in the comic exposed him.
The tavern used to have its own army, but it was currently on the front lines—loaned out to Fa Ning. Yuan Yuanyuan suspected this guy came now precisely because the tavern was under-defended.
And maybe… they weren’t even here to start a war. Maybe they just wanted to teach the Red-Clothed Woman a lesson. After all, she’d said some pretty provocative things to Fa Ning in the last issue.
Yuan Yuanyuan weighed her options carefully. She couldn’t go in too hard right away. Her fighting “aesthetic” had to be refined.
Fortunately, she was still holding the long pipe. She lit it, took a slow drag, and let the smoke drift from her lips. She studied the pipe. Nice and long. Slender. Elegant.
“Go!” the old man barked.
Instantly, two youkai ghosts leapt from his sides.
On the left—a woman in red with blank, upturned eyes. On the right—a man in white, covered in blood.
Red and white ghosts, charging her with shrill screams. Both powerful—clearly ancient. As they emerged, the lights in the corridor flickered wildly.
Gasps came from the spectators. The whole hall looked like a horror movie now. The lights blinked harder and faster, hurting everyone’s eyes and making the scene all the more chaotic.
Yuan Yuanyuan took another slow drag.
Then, she rose into the air.
Her red robes swirled in the air behind her, drawing a graceful arc.
Her movements were slow and deliberate. Everyone could see what she was doing. She held that slender smoking pipe—and gently tapped each of the ghosts once.
No one even saw what happened to the ghosts.
Their figures faded.
Then suddenly—they became two paper dolls.
They drifted softly to the floor.
A strong wave of blue-smoke incense swept through the hall.