Hu Mei Er
At Fang Yuan’s word, one Ten Tyrants member pins the female Gu Master down and tears her clothes further while the rest close in around her. Watching righteous Gu Masters grit their teeth but hold back, since one warns that the black and white twin demons stand with the Ten Tyrants and another dismisses her as no righteous person worth the risk. One gang member thanks Fang Yuan and Bai Ning Bing for the courtesy of staying out of it and promises to report it to his boss, while the member pinning her down moves to force himself on her. ch. 338
A pink light bursts from her body the instant he closes, hurling him a hundred steps away, unconscious. When the rest of the gang charges together, the light flashes again and throws every one of them down, leaving them weak and unable to rise, and her disguise falls away to show her true, striking face. The Ten Tyrants members feel a genuine rank four aura pouring off her as they struggle up, and the news changes the expressions of everyone watching. Only Fang Yuan’s expression stays the same, as if he had known all along. ch. 338
She reproaches Fang Yuan for leaving a maiden in distress, drawing sympathy from the crowd. He answers coldly, naming her Hu Mei Er and asking whether she thought that level of acting could fool him. Startled that he placed her before she ever dropped her disguise, she recovers and asks how he managed it; Fang Yuan admits he had only been guessing, and that guessing right or wrong cost him nothing either way. Watching Gu Masters name her: a demoness famous through the demonic path, an expert at disguise who devours people whole and is completely ruthless beneath her beauty, known to have slept with many demonic Gu Masters. The Ten Tyrants realize only now that Hu Mei Er staged the whole scene, using them to test and draw close to the black and white twin demons. ch. 338
Hu Mei Er warns Fang Yuan that all of San Cha mountain now knows two demonic geniuses have arrived, that many seniors mean to test them, and that he may not leave the mountain alive if he keeps this up. Fang Yuan answers that he fears offending no one, however many people that takes. Delighted, Hu Mei Er declares that his contempt for her looks has offended her in turn, promises to see who laughs last, and leaves. ch. 338
Fang Yuan knows her by more than this meeting. In his previous life she was a demoness of the enchantment path who sowed discord across Southern Border, her origins a mystery to everyone but him: granddaughter of granny Mei Hua, a rank six Gu Immortal who holds the Mei Hua blessed land. That demoness commanded many puppets across Southern Border, some of them rank five Gu Masters, and rank four Gu Masters once fought each other over jealousy of her. A hundred years later in that life, she gathered her forces and marched on Xi Yang mountain; no one learned what happened there, only that she alone walked down, having climbed it a rank four Gu Master and descended at rank five peak stage. She took a particular interest in young men, and Fang Yuan judges that her enchantment path has only now begun drawing in followers, that she has taken a personal interest in him, and that she means to seduce him into becoming one of her puppets. Five hundred years of memory purged him of mortal desire, but he counts himself still unguarded against her methods, and decides he must isolate her from granny Mei Hua’s Gu before he can move against her; for now, against anyone she sends who is not rank five, he trusts his experience and his Gu worms to keep him from losing, even where he cannot win outright. ch. 338
In central continent, Fang Zheng and his companions reach Tian Ti mountain by flying crane after days and nights of travel, arriving after many elite disciples from the other ten sects. Fairy Bi Xia of Heavenly Lotus Sect walks and talks with him happily, surprising onlookers who have never seen her speak so warmly to anyone her own age. A young man greets her, recalling how badly he wanted to meet her again and admitting he begged his master to let him come to the Hu Immortal Inheritance for that chance. Her smile vanishes the moment she sees him. ch. 338
