When I Lay Flat, the Female Lead Panicked - Chapter 14

Chapter 14: Demonic Being

“Luo-Xiao-Xiao…”

The mysterious being had no intention of staying hidden in the shadows.

Its eerie, indistinct voice, like a ghost from hell returning to the human world, echoed abruptly in the small space where Luo Xiaoxiao could only hear her own breathing.

“…Hmm? Who, who’s calling, calling me?”

Wrapped in her blanket, hearing her name called out in such a bizarre way, her spine instantly went rigid. Luo Xiaoxiao’s hand, clutching the protective talisman, trembled in fear, and goosebumps instantly covered her entire body.

“Heh, who else would be calling you besides me, Luo-Xiao-Xiao.”

!!!

Overwhelmed with fear, she suppressed the urge to scream and bravely poked her head out from under the blanket.

Luo Xiaoxiao looked in bewilderment at the black figure who had leaped lightly and was now leisurely walking towards the center of her bed.

“You, I, you, you, you…”

She swallowed her saliva, her words stuttering.

Luo Xiaoxiao looked in astonishment at the black cat that had mysteriously appeared and was now speaking in a human-like voice. For a moment, she was stunned, feeling as if everything was an illusion.

“This, this Hachimi, it… it can talk?!”

Her heart pounded. Her round, deer-like eyes widened abruptly. A whirlwind of thoughts went through her mind as she thought detachedly:

This, this is a world of cultivation, right?

She, she shouldn’t be the kind of person who becomes a magical… magical girl, right?

So this cat, it…?

“My name is Yuan, Lord of the Ghost Realm.”

The black cat gracefully walked to the center of the bed and sat down. Meeting Luo Xiaoxiao’s astonished gaze, it spoke again like a human, introducing itself.

“…”

Ghost… Ghost Realm?

Hearing the black cat’s self-introduction, aside from a strange sense of dissonance in her heart, Luo Xiaoxiao felt that the place it mentioned sounded a bit familiar…?

Lost in thought, she seemed to remember something little by little.

The hand Luo Xiaoxiao used to grab the talisman instantly went stiff, and she watched helplessly as the protective talisman slowly slid down from her hand, moved towards the black cat’s paw, and then, after a nonchalant touch, instantly burst into flames and turned to ash.

Her heart suddenly went cold. At that moment, Luo Xiaoxiao had only one thought in her mind: “My life is over…”

After all, the Lord of the Ghost Realm, the demonic being Yuan… that, that was the powerful and unbeatable demonic boss from the mid-to-late stages of The Prideful World!

As for this boss, since The Prideful World was unfinished, Luo Xiaoxiao only knew that its identity was mysterious and it didn’t appear much. But… every major event in the cultivation world was always a result of its schemes…

And in the last part of the story she had read, this big brother had not yet been justly vanquished by the female lead!

Seeing Luo Xiaoxiao’s astonished and seemingly familiar expression, the cat’s mouth twisted into a sinister, evil smile. Yuan’s dark green eyes showed a hint of interest in the beautiful girl in front of him.

But just as he was about to say something else, Bang! Bang!

A series of powerful impacts were hitting the barrier he had set up from the outside.

“Oh? This power…”

Sensing the threat of a powerful spiritual energy, Yuan nonchalantly raised his paw and licked it, pretending to sound regretful as he said, “What a shame. Someone has come. It seems my plan to continue our pleasant chat has fallen through.”

“…?”

Not knowing what the demonic being was trying to say, Luo Xiaoxiao didn’t dare to speak. She weakly retreated back under the blanket. Her face was “aloof,” with no expression, but in reality, her legs had turned to jelly…

She was just too scared to show any expression.

Fortunately, the demonic being did not intend to force her to speak. Its dark green cat eyes looked at Luo Xiaoxiao’s beautiful large eyes with a knowing smile.

The cat’s body slowly turned into a wisp of black smoke and drifted away. And just as Luo Xiaoxiao was scared out of her wits, thinking the demonic being had left, she suddenly felt as if something had come very close to her ear, leaving a single, exceptionally clear sentence.

“Luo Xiaoxiao, I think we will meet again…”

“…”

Not understanding the meaning of those words and not wanting to find out how the other party knew her name, Luo Xiaoxiao’s expression was one of wanting to cry but having no tears. She only had one thought.

“…Is this, is this a death threat?”

Damn it, who wants to see the demonic boss again?! Whoever wants to see him, can go and do it themselves!

…

While Luo Xiaoxiao was still feeling spooked and her fear was spiking from the lingering words of the demonic being, the noisy fighting downstairs had, at some point, reached the upper floor.

Aaaah… help~ me~!!!

A high-pitched scream echoed clearly throughout the inn.

Being chased all over the inn by the man who had been turned into a corpse, the chubby and skinny guys were so scared that all their physical potential was unleashed. They ran around in a panic, without a clear direction.

But no matter how they ran or hid, the corpse, as if it had a precise lock on them, relentlessly followed them. Its “love” was so deep.

They had scurried to the end of the second-floor corridor, where there was no longer any way to retreat.

Looking at the terrifying corpse brother approaching step by step, the chubby and skinny guys embraced each other in despair, frantically squeezing into the corner, trembling.

While squeezing, the two of them fully demonstrated the fine tradition of respecting the old and loving the young.

“Brother, I’m fat. I’ll be the meat shield behind you.”

“No, no, my dear brother. As your big brother, I must be your solid backing. I’ll stand behind you!”

“No, good brother, let me do this.”

“No, little brother, your brother is willing…”

Brother… little brother… brother! Little brother! Aaaah!!!

They pushed each other towards the corpse brother. The chubby and skinny guys’ faces were full of fear, and they were deferential to the extreme.

But the corner was only so big. Seeing the corpse brother getting closer and closer, their pushing and deferring became more and more frantic.

Just as a downpour follows a leak in the roof, the door at the end of the corridor, whether due to disrepair or something else, swung open when the chubby one, out of balance, fell with the skinny one.

They fell hard, right onto the door…

As they fell, stars appeared in both of their eyes, and their gazes, by a stroke of fate, met with their beloved young master.

“…” One disaster after another.

Luo Xiaoxiao stared blankly at the terrified expressions of the chubby and skinny guys, then quietly looked at the roaring corpse brother who had, at some point, approached the door.

“Aaaah!!!”

The high-pitched female shriek, which had been completely scared out of her, once again echoed through the inn, instantly attracting the attention of the corpse-transformed man.

“Roar!!”

His pale white eyes slowly moved to look at Luo Xiaoxiao.

Finding his target, the corpse opened its mouth wide and pounced with a fierce jump, flying towards the bed where Luo Xiaoxiao was hiding in a twisted posture that no normal person could achieve.

But luckily, just as he pounced, the chubby and skinny guys, one grabbing a leg each, desperately pulled him back from behind.

“Young master, we’ve got him! Run!”

“You…”

She was silently touched, but the emotion only lasted for a second. The next second, Luo Xiaoxiao watched as the chubby and skinny guys were thrown away like trash, each one kicked through the roof, flying far away…

“This damn foot strength of the corpse brother… it’s a real shame he can’t be on the national soccer team.”

Looking at the fast-reacting corpse, which once again opened its bl00d-soaked mouth full of the stench of decay and lunged at her, Luo Xiaoxiao, who knew that she had many expensive and rare magical artifacts on her, was completely terrified. She closed her eyes and thought in a disconnected way.

But even though she knew she would probably be fine, facing it so directly was still incredibly scary…

And although she had many magical artifacts, most of them were powerful offensive weapons and talismans, and she, a weakling, didn’t dare to use them recklessly. If she used them improperly, she might accidentally expose her identity in front of the female lead and become a suspect.

Although Wen Nanshu was beautiful and kind, not scary like the corpse brother, she was, after all, the one who truly killed her in the original story…

Thinking this, she sighed silently, lamenting that she hadn’t even dealt with Wen Nanshu yet. Now she had attracted a strange demonic boss and was being terrorized up close by a corpse brother…

Heart turned to ash. jpg

Hiding her face in her arms in distress, Luo Xiaoxiao was cursing her bad luck.

She was hoping a certain treasure in her storage bracelet would be a good boy and take care of this big brother soon, so her eyes would suffer less.

But just as Luo Xiaoxiao’s bracelet emitted a faint glow as the corpse got closer, swoosh!

A sword’s shadow was clearly faster than her protective artifact.

Then, thud! a heavy object hit the ground with a loud bang.

The next second, the terrifying creature that was about to pounce and bite Luo Xiaoxiao was forcefully impaled through the heart by a sword, pinning it firmly to the wall.

“Roar!!” The corpse’s painful wail was ear-piercing.

The noise in her ears was distinct, and she didn’t feel the heavy corpse energy getting close to her. Luo Xiaoxiao, whose eyes were tightly shut in fear, slowly opened them.

And as she opened them, she saw a beautiful woman with her back to her, her spiritual energy sharp and her aura powerful.

“It’s Wen Nanshu!!!”

Her heart trembled. A mix of complex emotions—surprise mixed with a hint of grievance—instantly welled up inside her.

Luo Xiaoxiao momentarily forgot her fear. Her moist eyes, which had welled up from being scared, stared blankly at that beautiful back.

In a place Luo Xiaoxiao could not see, she didn’t know that Wen Nanshu, who was no longer calm, was staring at the corpse with a coldness that went deep into her bones.

Her red lips were tightly pressed together. Her brows were furrowed as she watched the evil-repelling spiritual energy of her sword, Feixue, forcefully devour and extinguish the dense malevolent energy on the corpse king in front of her.

Wen Nanshu’s heart, which had been raised in concern, would not settle down.

Just thinking about the horrifying scene she would have faced if she hadn’t arrived in time, Wen Nanshu felt a wave of fear.

She had promised to protect the girl. If Luo Xiaoxiao had truly been harmed, Wen Nanshu thought she would never forgive herself for it.

With this thought, her cold brows furrowed. The spiritual energy in her fingertips circulated rapidly.

For the first time, Wen Nanshu felt a deep murderous intent toward an evil creature.

Knowing that a being at the level of a corpse king would not be easy to annihilate, Wen Nanshu muttered a spell. A wave of cold, blue-purple spiritual energy slowly enveloped her body from her fingertips.

“Ice fills the sky, sealing the soul and killing the body!”

The creature pinned to the wall couldn’t even struggle. Its body was instantly covered in a layer of ice, freezing it in place and taking away all its ability to move.

And as Wen Nanshu slowly approached and nonchalantly pulled out Feixue, which had pinned it to the wall, the sword was pulled out, the object cracked, and the corpse instantly turned into a pile of ice shards on the ground.

After dealing with the danger, Wen Nanshu’s first reaction was to turn around and check on Luo Xiaoxiao.

But before she could move, a wisp of strange black smoke quietly floated behind her, and its form changed unnaturally.

“Big Sister! Look out!!!”