1575 The Beauty, the Beau, and the Beast

“How many is that now?”

Dongfang He stood on the “corpse” of a probationary Demon Subduer. The so-called corpse was an unfortunate person who had been struck by the paint from Dongfang He’s Demon-Subduing Bolt. The white mark on his chest signified that he was now dead for this hunting test. But the unfortunate guy hadn’t imagined that after he obediently laid down, Dongfang Jia would step on him, even while the ache from being struck by the bolt burned.

“Your harvest this time has been pretty good. This is already the forty-third one!” a subordinate immediately piped up.

Dongfang He raised an eyebrow and asked, “What about Jia Yuntian? How many has he hunted so far?”

!!
Ever since he had arrived at Subduing Demon City, he had taken Jia Yuntian as his lifelong rival. Both of them had illustrious backgrounds as descendants of Demon Slayers. Demon Slayer was a title given to those who had once killed the family members of Demon Kings. Only a few families in the entire Lower Realm had that honor!

His subordinate hastily started contacting people to see how well Jia Yuntian was doing. But Dongfang He suddenly chuckled, revealing his gleaming white teeth. He said with an inborn pride, “Forget it. There’s no need to ask. So long as I do my best, I trust that there’s no one in the world who can beat me!”

The aura of a king erupted from his body. Dongfang He’s subordinates were all pretty female students, and all of them appeared enchanted, shrieking like passionate fans who had encountered their idol.

There was nothing to be done about that. After all, Dongfang He had been born with a Ruler’s aura, coming from an illustrious family and inheriting a kingdom’s worth of wealth. Most importantly, he was very handsome, his chiseled face radiating powerful masculine appeal. If he was in a movie, the director would definitely have made him a prince, and he would definitely excel in the role!

Sometimes, the differences between people were bigger than the differences between dogs and humans. This young man with such a handsome appearance, carrying the halo of a main character, had ultimately decided to rely on strength to make a living. In terms of combat, only his old rival Jia Yuntian could match him!

“Let’s go!” Dongfang He called out, raising his arms. As he pointed to the sky, a massive beast shining with golden light descended from above.

It was a lion vulture, with the claws and limbs of a lion, and the wings and mouth of an eagle.

The Lion Vulture stood at the top of the animal pyramid in the Lower Realm. Wherever it went, all beasts would bow. Whether it was the White Lightning Cathead Eagle, or the Flamebird that represented passion and power, they would all tremble and respectfully welcome this true king.

Dongfang He jumped onto the Lion Vulture’s back. The Mythical Beast threw its head back and screeched, the sound wave howling through the forest like a river bursting through a dam. The unfortunate fellow lying on the ground playing dead immediately covered his ears with his hands, his heart in a panic and his face turning pale.

I should go and see Nikai so that she knows about how well I did, Dongfang He thought to himself.

Since ancient times, even the greatest of heroes had found it hard to overcome their desire for beauties. Rather than glory, Dongfang He and Jia Yuntian could better be described as fighting for the right to mate. Who was the best fit for Subduing Demon City’s number one most beautiful female warrior, Nikai, was a constant subject of gossip!

There was no need to speak of Nikai’s charm. In Subduing Demon City, there were hundreds of thousands of young men in her age group, but only two people dared to pursue her: Dongfang He and Jia Yuntian, the two most outstanding young men! The others could only take the occasional glance and find themselves completely unsuitable for the role, feeling that looking upon her with their vulgar eyes was a sort of blasphemy toward their goddess.

Whether it was men, women, or even animals, few of them dared to even stand next to Nikai. After all, the halo of the goddess was too blinding and divine. Mortals could only disperse before it!

…

The accidental unlocking of the ability to control beasts left both Xia Fan and Traveling Buddha very happy, but trouble had swiftly followed. It seemed that some powerful beast was traveling a long distance to reach Xia Fan, seething with killing intent.

“This is probably a sense of territoriality,” Xia Fan deduced, stroking his chin. “It’s like a peak expert discovering that there’s an existence with a similar level of strength next to him. The expert would definitely come to challenge them, or else his life would truly be lonely and bleak.”

“Nonsense!” Traveling Buddha hugged his shoulders and said, “Brother Fan, stop boasting. You’re some peak expert? You only figured out this beast-controlling technique not two minutes ago, and you’re calling yourself a peak expert?

“Take me for example. An expert like me has never deigned to challenge others, because it’s troublesome and pointless. Unless that guy ambushes me, then it’s as the saying goes; if you’re not afraid of being stolen from by a thief, you’re afraid of being marked by a thief! In any case, anyone furtively spying on me is definitely someone I want to kill.

“If we follow this line of thought, then it must be that when you were using the beast control art just now, you didn’t know how to control it and inadvertently spied on some nearby beast king, which is why the guy wants to kill you. Mm, it must be like that. It must have been because you were too vulgar.”

“Your sister!” Xia Fan scowled. “When did someone as upright and frank and me become vulgar?”

“My sister is called Little Buddha, and it’s not like you’ve never met her before. Moreover, if you say something bad about my sister again, then I’ll have it out with you,” Traveling Buddha replied blandly.

Xia Fan sighed helplessly. “Ah, forget it. I can’t be bothered to argue with you. In any case, that guy is coming here right now, and I can’t show my power here, so I’ll have to depend on you in the future. Speed isn’t your strong point, so let’s find a place with high elevation where we can set our ambush.”

Traveling Buddha thumped his chest and promised, “No problem! This Little Old Buddha is no pushover!”

—

Thus, Xia Fan led the team to a place midway up a mountain, looking down from a high elevation at a canyon. Based on the direction that distant smell was coming from, the beast would pass through this canyon. At that time, Traveling Buddha would transform into the Battle Buddha and begin a frenzied attack from the mountain. There probably wouldn’t be many problems. In any case, Traveling Buddha was tough, so it would be difficult to kill him unless he did something dumb.

Le Jiajia seemed to have noticed Xia Fan’s plan, and she looked in the direction the beast was approaching from, tension in her eyes. As for Jiang Zhibei and Du Yu, when they heard that they were going to ambush someone, they rubbed their hands, took out their Demon Subduing crossbows, loaded them with sharp bolts with triangular arrowheads, and took up positions on a rock.

Xia Fan took Jiang Zhibei’s Demon Subduing crossbow from him and weighed it in his hands. Jiang Zhibei had a large and fat body, so his crossbow was rather heavy. Unfortunately, in the eyes of Xia Fan, who had studied engineering, this crossbow still had a lot of room for improvement. Its noise-reducing capabilities, the power of its spring, and its air flow were all lacking.

“Not bad, right? It’s my family’s crossbow. Crossbows are the most important weapon for us Demon Subduers. No matter what abilities or skills a warrior has, they will always have a few quality Demon Subduing Crossbows,” Jiang Zhibei boasted about his family’s treasure as he ate potato chips.

Xia Fan exchanged a glance with Traveling Buddha. He had no interest in this lousy crossbow. To tell the truth, this crossbow probably fired slower than Xia Fan could run. Alas, he needed to hide his speed and was unable to utilize his advantage!

“The goddess is coming!” Du Yu looked up at the sky and called out in surprise, his voice trembling.

Xia Fan and Traveling Buddha turned to see what Du Yu was looking at, and saw a hunting team appear above them. There were five people led by a woman. She was riding a white Lion Vulture, while the others rode more ordinary flying beasts with drab colors and rather inconspicuous figures. It made her look like a phoenix leading a flock of chickens.

“Goddess?” Xia Fan said in confusion.

“It’s Nikai, the holy maiden in the eyes of all unmarried men of Subduing Demon City. Actually, even the married men of Subduing Demon City admire Nikai, though they’re too afraid of their wives to say it. Though it’s hard to say what sort of dirty thoughts they’re having,” Jiang Zhibei explained quickly.

Traveling Buddha found this rather amusing. “Ha, so Subduing Demon City has a person like this? So I suppose you’re also one of Nikai’s admirers?”

Jiang Zhibei nonchalantly shrugged. “I’m no ugly toad craving after a swan. Besides, I prefer potato chips.”

“Your attitude isn’t bad. You seem to know your place,” Traveling Buddha laughed. Patting Jiang Zhibei on the shoulder, he said, “But don’t be disheartened. What will happen will happen. Take me as an example. I would have never imagined myself to have a son before the age of twenty, but look at me now. I already have a wife and child…”

Xia Fan snorted. He was disliking more and more the background Traveling Buddha was selling of him being a good father and wife. While other people didn’t know it, Xia Fan was keenly aware that Traveling Buddha was a block of wood. If not for Hidden Water being so forward, would he have started a family? He probably would have spent his entire life a virgin!

But back to the subject, Nikai truly was a girl with transcendent looks. Du Yu vulgarly took out a set of binoculars, looking at the skies above the canyon while drooling.

Looking at Le Jiajia and then at Nikai, Xia Fan understood the difference between an icy beauty and a wealthy daughter. Nikai was truly resplendent, her smile as gentle and warm as the spring breeze.

—

“You should leave. A big guy is coming, and you guys aren’t a match for him. I don’t want to see any of you hurt,” Nikai said to her four followers without turning her head.

Her four followers were instantly in tears. Their goddess was worried that they would be injured, preferring to face battle on her own rather than see them hurt! Her followers felt unworthy of this grace!

—

“Can I ask her to please try and not steal our prey? I’ve been waiting for ages now,” Traveling Buddha grumbled.

Xia Fan patted Traveling Buddha on the shoulder. “Look, another one is coming.”

Less than a minute later, a silver Lion Vulture descended into the canyon, landing next to Nikai’s white Lion Vulture. It was like an idol show, the girl was like a goddess while the man, with his long silver hair and exquisite looks, looked like an elven prince out of a movie. While his expression was cold and indifferent, he had a face that could send countless maidens swooning.

“Is this a test or a beauty contest?” Traveling Buddha grumbled again. As he spoke, he scratched at a new pimple on his forehead, squeezing out a few drops of white pus.

Even Traveling Buddha, a married man with a child, had to admit that these two people were absurdly good-looking. That goddess and the silver-haired elf prince basically didn’t give any chance of survival to all those with average appearances!

“That is Jia Yuntian. He’s also one of the proud stars of this generation. While his personality is a little cold, the number of girls that love him could extend for hundreds of kilometers. But Prince Jia loves a real goddess. No one except Nikai is worthy of his eyes,” Jiang Zhibei told them.

Xia Fan chuckled. “It seems you look down on Jia Yuntian?”

Jiang Zhibei smiled bitterly. “I’m just joking. We already look like this, so what right do we have to look down on the handsome? I just feel like Jia Yuntian is too cold, so Dongfang He has a better chance. At least Dongfang He is an upright and open person, saying whatever is on his mind. As for Prince Jia, he likes to remain aloof, going around everywhere with that gloomy aura of his. It ruins my appetite.”

“What do you mean by ‘we already look like this’? Can you not so casually group us together?” Xia Fan said sullenly. Rolling his eyes at Jiang Zhibei, he felt his own face, feeling a little sad. Although he wasn’t much of a looker, at least his body was better than fatty Jiang Zhibei, right?

They were both born from the same mother, but Xia Fan had grown up an orphan, while Xia Xiaofei had grown up next to his parents. Xia Fan had an ordinary appearance while his big brother was so handsome that he left girls entranced.

“This world is so unfair. I want to go and have a good cry,” Xia Fan grumbled, and even Traveling Buddha was starting to get unhappy.

Back in Ashen Moon, Xia Fan and Traveling Buddha had never lost before, even emerging perfectly fine from the lair of Ashen Dragon Hidden Moon. That had been a glorious period, and they had received fierce praise wherever they went.

But now, the swan had gone back to being an ugly duckling. When he returned to the Skywings, Xia Fan discovered that his speed wasn’t even worth mentioning, worse than that of the seven-year-old Xia Di. As for the tough body that Traveling Buddha was so proud of, it couldn’t even last a few seconds against the speed of the Skywings. Those guys were unreasonably tyrannical, a real pack of monsters!

“Ha, this sensation of being knocked back into reality is really cruel.” Traveling Buddha put a hand on Xia Fan’s shoulder, the two of them commiserating. Xia Fan’s father had put it nicely, saying that he was having Xia Fan and Traveling Buddha study in Subduing Demon City, but in reality, he simply felt they were too weak!

“Haha, this is interesting. Dongfang He is also coming. All three elites are gathered.” Jiang Zhibei pointed at a golden Lion Vulture approaching in the sky. “I can’t be wrong. A golden Lion Vulture King means that it’s definitely him!”

This ruckus had made Xia Fan almost forget why they were laying in ambush on this mountain. The goddess, the elf prince, and the human prince, the three most outstanding members of Subduing Demon City, had all appeared. Given the love triangle between them, what had appeared like an idol show was seemingly about to turn into some idol drama.

Xia Fan raised his head and sniffed. That frenzied beast was drawing closer and closer. Xia Fan couldn’t tell what species it was, but it was powerful. Xia Fan’s ability couldn’t enter its mind at all.

“Three idols about to start some drama, along with one mysterious beast. Isn’t this the Beauty, the Beau, and the Beast? Mmm, I’m looking forward to it,” Xia Fan nodded as he rubbed his hands wickedly.