Step Back! Master is Here! - Chapter 60

Chapter 60: I Was Bluffing You Just Now

“Ahhhh!”

Incredibly tragic and piercing screams capable of rendering people unconscious echoed within the villa.

With one hit, Tang Luo’s palm strike shattered the four human figures that hadn’t fully manifested yet.

They broke into countless fragments and rained down on the floor. The fragments seemed like flesh and blood, yet they were as sharp as mirror shards and left several scratches on the floor.

Tang Luo’s upward impetus carried on, and he grabbed the mirror, yanking it down.

The mirror vibrated continuously and struggled in Tang Luo’s grip.

Fluxes of Yin energy burst from the mirror and invaded Tang Luo’s body.

His fingers closed together forcefully.

Cracks appeared on the mirror surface, and the shrill shrieking became even more piercing. Yet it echoed only inside the villa, coming across as incredibly strange.

Dark-red blood began to flow from the cracks. They trickled down the mirror surface and dripped onto the floor. The blood gave off bursts of white vapor, causing incessant hissing.

Before long, several holes appeared in the floor’s surface, corroded by the dark blood flowing from the mirror.

More and more cracks appeared in the mirror.

The original few lines of cracks turned into a net-like state. However, the amount of dark blood flowing from the cracks lessened, seemingly as though it was about to run out of blood.

The shrill shrieking also began to die down.

Crash!

Together with a crisp-sounding crash, Tang Luo closed his fingers fully.

At the same time, the bronze mirror shattered into countless fragments completely and fell onto the floor. It was only with this that the Mirror Demon could truly be considered dead.

Tang Luo shook his right hand, flicking off the blood on it.

“It’s more resilient than what I had imagined… Although there isn’t much vital energy in this world, these demons and spirits are surprisingly having a pretty good life living off blood rations.”

The power of virtuous merits was generated and absorbed by the Jade Lotus of Virtuous Merit.

Tang Luo didn’t feel much joy, though. Instead, he frowned lightly.

One shouldn’t be fooled by how easily he had killed the Mirror Demon. If he’d been a regular human, just a mere touch of the bronze mirror alone would have killed him.

Employees of Gods and Demons who had gone through six missions could probably stand against it a little, but skills were probably an absolute requirement if they really wanted to cause substantial damage to the Mirror Demon.

Even a road roller or a hydraulic press machine wouldn’t be able to leave any hint of a crack on the main body of the Mirror Demon.

Its durability exceeded Tang Luo’s expectations.

“Did someone hang the mirror up there deliberately?” The Mirror Demon’s main body hanging in the air felt more like the result of human factors than of its own volition.

The Mirror Demon wasn’t a high-grade spirit whose intelligence had developed. Or at least, this particular one that Tang Luo killed wasn’t one. Thus, the likelihood of it doing something like that was pretty low.

Without any leads on the matter, Tang Luo took out his cell phone and dialed Qin Menglan’s number as he walked out of the villa. After all, he was someone who had an organization backing him up now. He needed their help to deal with the aftermath.

He didn’t talk about anything related to the Game of Gods and Demons and only gave a simple explanation of what had taken place tonight.

On Qin Menglan’s end, they agreed to handle the aftermath of things.

He walked over to the entrance of the other villa.

The unconscious Wang Shuishui lay on the floor. Next to her was the woman who had pretended to be a ghost.

“You… I’ve already called the police!” said the woman upon seeing Tang Luo coming back again.

Her voice was shaking and had no intimidation effect on it whatsoever.

“What a coincidence so did I.” A smiling Tang Luo waved his cell phone at her.

Although his double happiness was gone, at least, he had managed to save one and a half people. Adding to it the fact that he killed the Mirror Demon, his rewards tonight were still pretty good.

He wasn’t far from “Master here is only left with 10% of his power” now.

With 10% of his power, he could fight whenever he wanted and throw up a mouthful of blood or two and slack off whenever he didn’t—what a perfect situation.

As a Master, he mustn’t steal the limelight from his disciples.

How inappropriate would it be for the Master to step forward and fight the enemy boss that the disciples couldn’t defeat?

It was all well and good if he could defeat it, but if he couldn’t, then that would be a huge goddamn embarrassment.

Of course, he should let himself be left with only 10% of his power, legitimately slack off, and allow others to shine instead.

‘Wait a minute, none of my disciples are here!’

When he thought of the most crucial factor here, Tang Luo’s smile instantly vanished.

During the journey to the west, in order to become stronger, he hadn’t been able to slack off.

Now that he was injured and without his disciples by his side, he remained unable to slack off.

Was he doomed to the fate of laborious toiling for the rest of his life?

Tang Luo couldn’t help but sink into deep contemplation.

In the distance, police sirens could vaguely be heard.

…

“Mirror Demon?” Qin Menglan’s brows furrowed deeply.

“Yeah, and I suspect that it was deliberately set up by someone,” replied Tang Luo.

“Noted. I’ll get someone to investigate this.” Qin Menglan nodded.

More than ten days had passed since the supernatural exploration that night. The incident had been perfectly taken care of by Approaching Science.

The first reason for Qin Menglan’s visit today was to get a detailed account of what exactly had happened from Tang Luo.

The second was to pass him his credentials. And the third was because the date of the next meet-up was approaching.

It just so happened that Tang Luo had met with the incident, and since a Destiny Bearer was involved, Qin Menglan made a trip down personally.

The credentials she brought was a press pass to be shown to outsiders and documents indicating his identity as a consultant in the Approaching Science program.

Other than that, there was also a special employment pass for him to use if he met with trouble and needed to contact the official organization.

What was noteworthy was that apart from the press pass, all the names on his credentials were listed as Xuanzang.

Several of the Employees of Gods and Demons who joined Approaching Science owned dual identities.

They used the false identity when they carried out missions for Approaching Science. This identity was also used in the meet-ups and when they were interacting with other Employees of Gods and Demons.

Tang Luo’s Master Xuanzang was an example of this.

As for their true identities, those were completely separated from these matters.

Employees of Gods and Demons who could afford to do so would even take on two totally different appearances in order to make the separation even cleaner, so as to avoid affecting their friends and family.

Apart from Qin Menglan and a few other contact persons, most of the other Employees of Gods and Demons were unaware that A and B were actually the same person.

Tang Luo, however, had no reservations at all. He faced everyone with his true appearance.

To put it more accurately, he wasn’t the least bit concerned about encountering danger brought upon by his identity as an Employee of Gods and Demons in real life.

In fact, he even planned on exposing his identity as a Destiny Bearer.

Why? To fish, of course.

He wanted the villains to come to him like moths to fire. By spreading his net wide, he could get a bigger haul of fish.

The probability of malicious people being present among Employees of Gods and Demons who targeted Tang Luo for the sake of destiny and their own benefit would definitely be higher than elsewhere.

Tang Luo intended to be the brightest and shiniest star among the night landscape of Employees of Gods and Demons.

Nothing could block his brilliance.

‘C’mon, hit me if you can!’

Just the thought of virtuous merits falling into his lap while he lazed at home made him as happy as a lark.

“Are you sure you want to dress like this?”

Qin Menglan stared at Tang Luo, dressed in grand monk robes as if he were going for a comics convention. She did not incline to walk next to him at all.

“Don’t I look good?” asked Tang Luo.

His hair that he was growing out had already been styled. The current Tang Luo looked even more handsome than before.

“It’s too exaggerated,” replied Qin Menglan.

This wasn’t about whether it looked good or not, alright?

“The president and only employee of the Blessing Company, I am my very own advertisement.” Tang Luo spoke with conviction.

“You can just dress like this in the Gods and Demons missions instead.” Qin Menglan didn’t know what to do with him. “We must stay low-profile.”

Weren’t other Destiny Bearers very low-profile in the real world?

What was up with this fellow here?

“Fine.”

Tang Luo thought for a moment and then went back to the room. After shoving the clothes into the suitcase, he changed into a set of casual clothing.

It didn’t matter at all if he kept a high profile.

However, he was traveling with Qin Menglan this time. If he made her high-profile too, then that wouldn’t be very wise.

She had come all the way here and was even giving him money and opportunities to gain virtuous merits.

Tang Luo felt that he needed to be considerate toward Qin Menglan.

“Let’s go.”

When looking at Tang Luo, who had reemerged from the room, Qin Menglan felt a lot more comfortable right away.

His dressing earlier was honestly too painful on the eyes. It was pretty much only short of a beam of golden light shining upon him from the back.

They boarded the plane.

Tang Luo’s eyes widened dramatically, shrewdness beaming in his eyes like a flash of lightning. His ears were cocked so high to listen for any suspicious sounds that they were practically antennas.

“What are you doing, looking around so much for?” Qin Menglan looked at Tang Luo, who was glancing everywhere around him like a child. “Is this your first time on a plane?”

They were already adults. Even if this was his first time on a plane, he should behave like a frequent flier.

“Yes,” replied Tang Luo.

Before transmigrating, he had always taken the high-speed rail.

“You can’t possibly be afraid, right?” asked Qin Menglan.

A lot of Employees of Gods and Demons were reluctant to take the plane.

Not because they were timid but because they disliked the feeling of losing control over their lives.

High up in the sky, the moment anything went wrong, even those who had already gone through six missions would perish unless they had skills that happened to be just right for such situations.

Other forms of transportation were either on land or at sea.

Should the Employees of Gods and Demons meet with danger, they could at least still hold control over their lives.

The way to an individual owning immense power was precisely the avoidance of reliance on external forces.

“No, I’m checking if there are any dangerous situations,” replied Tang Luo. “For example, people hijacking the plane and things like that. I can save people if anything like that happens.”

Since he couldn’t slack off, then he would work properly.

Tang Luo was an expert at adjusting his mindset.

“Don’t watch so many moves.” Qin Menglan sighed.

“Movies are adapted from real-world incidents too,” replied Tang Luo.

“The year is already 8012,” said Qin Menglan.

When considering the stringency of security checks these days, potatoes were probably the only thing one could use to hijack a plane.

“Don’t worry, if we meet with danger, I’ll bless you and save you. It’s free of charge!” Tang Luo gave Qin Menglan a thumbs up.

“What’s there for me to worry about!” Qin Menglan felt mentally exhausted.

For the first time, she found social interaction such a difficult task.

Based on the information on his background, they had obviously evaluated Tang Luo, who had grown up in an environment and family background like his, to be someone who possessed a level of calmness and maturity beyond his peers.

No one who became an Employee of Gods and Demons would have an inflated ego. They would only be even more calm and mature, to the extent of becoming cold and detached.

Why did it feel like the fellow in front of her right now had returned to the days of his youth?

Was it the influence of his destiny?

Were there any passionate types among the famous monks?

The plane took off and flew stably. There was no hijack incident. The air stewardesses began to serve in-flight meals.

Both Qin Menglan and Tang Luo rejected it and only asked for a cup of water and a cup of orange juice.

This was just a short flight. Neither of them was hungry. There was nothing delicious about in-flight meals anyway. They were just there to fill the stomach when one was hungry.

Before long, the sounds of a commotion came from the back.

Shortly after, an in-flight passenger announcement was made. A passenger had suddenly felt unwell and needed medical care from a medical professional.

Tang Luo got up at once. “Let me do it. I’m a doctor!”

Qin Menglan was flabbergasted.

What doctor?!

He was just a freaking college graduate. And even one who was of a standard where he would rejoice at scoring 60 marks.

“You’re a doctor?” The air stewardess was also stunned for a moment.

A young and handsome doctor and one with white hair no less, like him, was uncommon.

“Yes.” Tang Luo pointed at his white hair. “Do you see this? It’s the result of memorizing medical texts.”

“…” The air stewardess believed him right away.

A few minutes later, Tang Luo returned to his seat amidst praises.

Qin Menglan couldn’t help asking softly, “Your ‘blessing’?”

She realized that the blessing he spoke of wasn’t him taking advantage of her and just speaking flippantly.

Perhaps it was his skill?

A rare healing skill!

“Yes.” Tang Luo said, “I told you, I’m the president of the Blessing Company, honest.”

“You’re not a doctor?”

The air stewardess at the side blinked with a look of puzzlement on her face.

What blessing were they talking about? It sounded so strange.

“I was bluffing you just now. This monk’s Dharma name is Xuanzang,” replied Tang Luo as he passed her a business card. “I specialize in demon subduing and blessing people. No charges if it doesn’t work.”

“…”

The air stewardess felt like making a police report right away.