Lanpu

Kapitel 40

He touched his nose. "I've ridden a bike before too."

"I know, I can ride one too."

He laughed and said subtly, "I left a motorcycle at Uncle Shi's house."

I knew the owner of this house was surnamed Shi. But I didn't know that the "motorcycle" Tang Chen had left there actually cost 1,000 cc.

"...Is this yours?" I followed him to the garage and was completely dumbfounded when I saw the enormous thing under the tarpaulin.

He shrugged. "It was a congratulatory gift from my second uncle when I first got into high school." He began to skillfully wipe and maintain it. "I rode it for one summer after graduating from junior high school."

…What kind of monster attractant are you, riding a Harley with a human? And it's really unnatural that this Harley wasn't completely wrecked… Looking down for a closer look, this imposing heavy motorcycle had some words painted on it. The underside was black, and the paint was also black, so it wasn't clear at first glance.

When I realized it was the Diamond Sutra, I fell completely silent.

"Shall I give you a ride for a drive?" he asked while changing the engine oil.

I chuckled dryly, "...I still need to take my medicine later, and the night wind is strong."

He nodded, with a hint of regret. "It's been a long time since I've ridden one. Yu Zheng asked me to give her a ride once, but she wouldn't let me anymore. She even got quite angry because I kept riding."

…I completely understand how she feels.

But good fortune is not misfortune, and misfortune cannot be avoided. What is destined to come will come, and what is destined to happen... must be boarded.

When I was woken up by the sound of speeding cars, I heard someone whispering outside the window.

"...I always feel guilty."

"We can't get involved, so let each person bear their own fortune and misfortune. There's no need to collude with them, but we also don't need to get involved in this matter."

"But…"

"Why should we concern ourselves with so many other things? At most, we should prevent them from dying in the wilderness."

I sat up, but then there was no sound. I listened carefully, but I couldn't hear anything.

The fact that Huang E poured her life force into me was the main reason I survived. Without her life force, my uncle would have had to come and collect my body. But my skin has turned into fine scales, and my constitution is more demonic. But being neither demonic nor human, human medicine has become extremely ineffective for me, yet I can't escape my original fear.

I've become more susceptible to illness, yet I lack the special abilities of the demon race. The demonic ability manifested in me is simply a greater capacity to perceive human emotions than before. But it's just emotions; I still need to concentrate to barely qualify as mind reading.

The human mind is always very chaotic, like watching a movie with a lot of noise, sometimes you can't understand it at all.

But the conversation outside the window just now was clearly not between humans... at least not between living people.

Partly from exhaustion, and partly from prolonged illness, I lay down again, drifting off to sleep. I had just fallen asleep when I was roughly shaken awake.

"You're about to die, and you're still sleeping!" Huang E shook me violently, almost breaking my bones. "Get up, get up!"

I blinked twice, then groggily got up, throwing on my clothes. "...Wilderness?"

"Keep your voice down!" Her voice was quite loud. "Go wake Tang Chen up, hurry up and go!"

That snapped me out of it, and I stumbled into Tang Chen's room. He hadn't turned on the light, and it took me ages to find him.

"...Hengzhi?" His voice was filled with embarrassment. "You, you..."

“Tang Chen,” I nudged him, “Huang E told us to leave.”

"What are you dawdling for?" Huang E shouted angrily, "Hurry up and go!"

Tang Chen and I, in a daze, got her to rush to the garage. As soon as she saw the Harley covered in the Diamond Sutra, her eyes lit up. "There's hope! There's hope! This is the one! Hurry, hurry, you poor folks!"

I really didn't want to be the translator, and after struggling for a while, I said, "...Huang E wanted us to ride this."

"This one?" he asked, his eyes full of questions. "She wants to go for a drive?" Despite his confusion, Tang Chen obediently took the keys and started the engine.

…I really didn’t want to get on the bus, but Huang E kept hitting and cursing me, forcing me to get on.

"What's wrong, Huang'e?" I tried to struggle, "Why aren't you sleeping in the middle of the night..."

"Still sleeping! If you don't run away, you'll be sleeping forever!" She jumped onto my left shoulder. "This is bad!"

Huang E said that the monsters in the city were provoked and were determined not to let monsters from other counties or cities eat Tang Sanzang's flesh. They had painstakingly formed an alliance to divide Tang Sanzang's flesh among themselves. And since it was the seventh month of the lunar calendar, when the gods and Buddhas were least in control, they deliberately chose this month to launch their attack.

But with so many people and so many opinions, it was difficult to unite them. Only now have we finally resolved the issue of who belongs to whom, and just then, Tang Chen and I left home, so we seized this opportunity to come over together.

"...How did you know..." I suddenly realized. No wonder she was always out having fun and never came back. My harmonious relationship with Huang'e was only recently before I went to university, and not long after, I went south to study. These monsters didn't know about my new relationship with Huang'e, and seeing that she had accidentally created a Golden-Winged Roc, they wanted to win her over.

Huang'e, as expected of the goddess Zigu, feigned compliance with them, trying to find out when they would officially launch their attack.

After hesitating for a while, the proud bird king shouted angrily, "What are you thinking about! Hurry up and make Tang Chen ride faster!"

"Tang Chen, Tang Chen!" I hugged his waist and shouted "translation" in his ear. He listened silently, then nodded. "Hengzhi, hold on tight to me."

Then it shot away like a cannonball, and I couldn't help but scream.

This is downhill, bro! We need to ride faster, but not like this! Let's not have an accident before the monster army arrives!

Not long after we started running, those aggressive teenagers came running up from the bottom of the mountain. What was even more terrifying was that they crossed the double yellow lines in unison and drove straight towards us!

The tires screeched horribly. Tang Chen calmly made a sharp turn, but seeing that he couldn't get past the densely packed group of racers, he changed direction and rode up the mountain.

"Hurry up, hurry up!" Huang E shouted, jumping up and down.

Without her even yelling, I said to Tang Chen with a pale face, "Don't let them catch up."

Those speeding teenagers weren't just menacing; they almost all exuded a ghostly or demonic aura. I was thinking that such a large-scale hunt couldn't possibly go unnoticed, but I never imagined they would possess the bodies of pale-faced teenagers obsessed with speed to deceive others.

"Leave it to me." Tang Chen remained calm, drifting around a corner and riding the Harley so low it resembled an airplane, widening the distance between himself and the hunting party.

But it also robbed me of my courage.

"Relax, Hengzhi," Tang Chen said in a casual tone. "Being too stiff will make it hard to maintain balance."

"I..." Before I could finish speaking, Harley suddenly lunged forward. I grabbed his waist tightly and muffled my screams behind him.

I have to say, even going astray requires the right environment. I was so weird that even delinquent girls wouldn't want me, let alone race motorcycles. I only got a motorcycle for school; I gritted my teeth, bought a used one, and crashed for two days before I learned to ride it myself. Tang Chen always laughed at me for riding like a tortoise, saying I never got older than forty.

But I only glanced at the speedometer once and didn't have the courage to look a second time. I guessed the speedometer must be broken; there was no way the motorcycle could reach 100 km/h.

This is a mountain road!

With a snap, all the streetlights along the road went out. Apart from the car headlights, there was no light ahead. The hunting party, however, pressed closer, their high beams creating a blinding white haze.

"Hmph, a mere trick." Tang Chen sneered, swerving and ruthlessly forcing the guardrail to swerve around the bend. My heart was pounding in my chest.

Yu Zheng, I truly, truly understand how you feel. I swear, as long as I have a breath left in this life, I will never let Tang Chen touch the handlebars of the motorcycle.

He was far more terrifying than the hunting party that followed!

"What are you hiding for, my lady!" Huang'e yelled at me. "They're closing in too close... I'm going to cover them, you should at least check behind you!"

She dashed into the line of cars, glanced back, and saw several motorcycles wrecked together; she didn't know if anyone was dead or injured. But I quickly forgot about that bit of mercy…

Because a rider about three car lengths away from us, with a neck as long as a snake, and a set of white teeth that gleamed under the headlights, sticky with saliva, lunged at us.

Almost reflexively, I pulled out my slingshot and moonstone from my pocket, drew the bowstring taut, and fired into the gaping maw that was right in front of me.

He immediately fell, and the car behind him hit him, causing him to tumble into a heap. The sounds of collision and screams were extremely jarring in the dead of night.

I immediately packed away my compassion and pulled out Shuo's old tricks. Just kidding, I'm a witch too! I'm willing to be completely virtuous, but I'll definitely retaliate for the slightest offense!

"Hengzhi?" Tang Chen asked with some concern.

“…It’s okay.” I hugged his waist, trembling. “Faster.”

He readily complied, though the wind was practically blowing my face away.

Huang E flew back, panting, "Too many. Where did all these reckless idiots come from to have their bodies possessed?"

"...Is a youth without recklessness truly a wasted youth?" I gave a wry smile.

Tang Chen laughed, while Huang E rolled his eyes at me.

I don't know much about Tang Chen's skills, but he did persist for a long time. But he was eventually caught up. The speeding teenager (or demon?) who tried to kick the car only managed to touch the car body, screamed, and pulled his leg back, which then caught fire.

"An uncomfortable-looking car, but truly amazing," Huang E praised, then wondered, "Who was so crazy as to turn a motorcycle into a magical artifact?"

I'm curious to know... but I also don't want to know. I already know too many people in Tang Chen's family; I don't want to know any more of their "experts."

My uncle is considered relatively tolerant, but I know that most powerful demon-slaying masters don't give monsters a second word.

The hunting party no longer tried to target the motorcycle, but instead wanted to bring me or Tang Chen down.

Is it that Tang Chen was incredibly skilled, or that his instincts were simply extraordinary? In any case, despite their best efforts, Tang Chen managed to dodge their attacks, leaving me to shoot him with my slingshot. As the supply of moonstone dwindled, I couldn't help but feel regretful.

I initially thought Tang Chen's family was a virtuous family, and there was nothing that would require the use of force, so I didn't bring many people with me.

The last moonstone, but two monsters' spears were still about to pierce us.

In a fit of rage, I used the last moonstone to deal with one of them, and then I drew my bow without aiming at the other and finished him off.

Yes, I squandered my health (or rather, my vitality).

Their numbers were terrifying, practically an army. Even the mighty Huang'e couldn't wipe them all out; she was exhausted. Tang Chen focused on shaking them off. "If I don't sacrifice my health, who will?"

It seems my health is truly formidable, even stronger than moonstone. Fighting as we went, the once terrifyingly large convoy became scattered and the distance between us increased.

Until a three-way intersection.

Unexpectedly, the battle that lasted half the night was in vain, as two ambushes were lying in wait there.

We're doomed.

"Ride down into the valley!" Huang E pointed into the darkness. "Tang Chen, you can do it!"

The desolation on my shoulder gradually heated up and glowed, shining like a ball of fire. "Don't underestimate me, the Golden-Winged Roc King, the Heavenly Empress!" I shouted as I charged into the ambush.

“Wasteland!” I cried out.

But Tang Chen suddenly changed direction, broke through the guardrail, and sped through the bushes at a terrifying speed, heading down into the valley.

Although I don't know much about racing, I guess Tang Chen's driving skills must be excellent. We didn't rush straight down the valley, but rather zigzag slightly, dodging many trees without crashing into them.

It raced all the way to the valley, got stuck in a muddy stream, and then spun out of control and slipped, finally bringing the Harley to a stop.

Falling on soft sand is far better than crashing into a tree and getting your car destroyed, not to mention being chased and eaten to pieces by a monster.

I tried to get up, only to hear a tearing sound and feel a slight stinging pain in my chest. It must have been a fallen branch that had snagged on me, but I didn't think about that. I just frantically groped my way across the dark beach.

Where is Tang Chen? Where is Tang Chen?

He touched my face, and we both asked almost simultaneously, "Are you alright?"

The valley was dark, and it was a cloudy night; not even the stars could be seen. I felt him holding me tightly, and at first I was startled. But then, thinking of how I had escaped death, my chest warmed, and I hugged him back, sobbing softly.

Once my eyes adjusted to the darkness, I felt a chill on my chest. Looking down, I realized—oh no! My shirt had been torn in the front by a dry branch when I pulled it. I could only clutch my chest, feeling incredibly embarrassed.