I Can't Be Sword God

...

The moment he showed his grinning face with his eight eyes to Li Chu, Li Chu was really taken aback by the sight of it.

“It’s a blessing for a gnat like you to die by my Thousand-Spider Demon Venom! Your soul will become part of my venom, and be part of my continuous slaughter! Hehehe, be very afraid while you are still alive! The more afraid you are, the purer the refined soul venom will be!”

The eight-armed man spat cruelly. With his menacing face, terrifying voice and chilling words, anyone with a slightly weaker mind would have been frightened to the point of their legs giving way.

Perhaps he just wanted to inspire fear in his prey.

And his wish did come true.

The more Li Chu listened on, the more he felt that this monster’s strength was not weak. If he allowed the latter to launch another attack, he would be hard-pressed to defend against it!

With this fear in mind, Li Chu decided to strike first.

SHRRRRING!

He unsheathed the sword and drew the blade in one motion.

The next moment, the eight-armed man who had yet to finish his sentence suddenly saw the most splendid scene he had ever seen in his life.

One of the few poems that he had heard before suddenly popped out in his mind.

‘One sword light... how many states were there again?’

‘It’s like a dragon descending from the heavens, like a stallion roaming the skies. Is there such a mighty sword Qi in the mortal realms?’

His eight-eyed face was distorted maniacally as all eight pupils suddenly enlarged.

At this moment, an outrageous thought suddenly came in his mind.

‘I’m just a little spider demon who had been cultivating for about a hundred years...

‘What merits do I have...

‘To die under such a sword strike...

‘Am I worthy?’

Aside from that, there were some deep confusions.

‘How a person without any True Qi fluctuations perform a slash like that?

‘Why did I run into such a person in a seemingly inconspicuous small town?

‘Even if it is karmic retribution of my evil deeds, isn’t this a little too outrageous?

‘So by appearing here tonight... Who is the unlucky one again?’

But he did not have the chance to know the answer, nor did he even have the time to finish his question.

Of all of the words in his mind, only three words managed to form out of his mouth.

“It’s a misunderstanding—”

It was indeed a misunderstanding... He had thought this quarry was a mortal that he could kill easily. If he knew the person was of such caliber, only a fool would jump out to die.

As if a rolling thunder sweeping through, the sky in the forest was brightened by a white light for a brief moment.

And the black figure with his eight flailing arms was instantly swallowed by it.

Li Chu blinked.

‘Did... someone say it was a misunderstanding earlier?’

‘Oh well.

‘I’ll just pretend I did not hear anything.

‘Anyway, I heard that he was going to harvest souls to refine his venom, so he was definitely not a good demon.’

A large blob of experience points converged inside Li Chu, and he was quite satisfied. Although he was delayed for a bit, what he gained from this strike was as good as a few days’ worth.

‘But...

‘That was just too dangerous.

‘It is better not to encounter such things frequently.’

Although he could increase the spiritual power inside his body by killing monsters and levelling up, which also strengthened his mind, his physical body did not see much improvement.

Now he was like a high attack low difference DPS character in the game, and while he could one-shot ‘weak’ Evil Beings, but if he was slightly careless, he might still end up dead.

‘If not for the fact that the eight-arm demon had not been blabbering so much nonsense, I would probably have been refined down into venom by now.’

‘What if I run into a mute next time?’

Thinking of this, Li Chu could not help but feel afraid.

He then made up his mind to find a way to strengthen his body!

...

With the death of the eight-armed demon, all of the complex webs it had deployed within a hundred square feet radius fell down and became ordinary fragile spiderwebs.

Just as it said, the venom on the spider silk had something to do with souls. With its soul vanquished, the power and the toxicity of the spider silk disappeared as well.

Li Chu continued his journey and headed towards Deyun Monastery.

He planned to put the matter of grinding monsters aside tonight. It was a rather tumultuous night tonight, and he might run into trouble if he were to linger outside.

Fortunately, the journey home was peaceful.

In the veil of night, a yellow light lit up from the small monastery up the slope.

...

It was the light of home.

Li Chu had initially told his master that he would not be back tonight, but he instead came home much earlier than usual.

But for the old Daoist, it was no different. The young man’s routine was very healthy—working at sunrise, resting at sunset.

Li Chu, like usual, carefully entered the monastery, nodding at the Three Pure Ones in respect before returning to his bedroom.

After getting used to the routine of killing monsters at this hour, and now he was suddenly free, he actually did not know what to do.

The nightlife of people back in the ancient era was just too lacking.

But this might also be his own doing.

Thinking of Zhou Dafu and the others back in Yuhang Town fooling around right now, it was probably rather riveting.

But Li Chu always felt that the joy of that sort of entertainment brought on was very fleeting. And after a moment of extravagance, the lack grew even deeper.

It was both impoverished and lacking in equal measure.

At this moment, there was an urgent-sounding knock on the door outside.

...

BAM BAM BAM!

Li Chu got up again to open the door.

The Daoist monasteries and temples had the function of accommodating passers-by. Some were night travellers who could not find an inn to stay or poor folks who could not afford a room and would often choose to stay in a monastery or a temple.

And Deyun Monastery occasionally had such visitors as well.

He came to the front yard and opened the door.

The one knocking was a middle-aged literati clad in a brown shirt and long Confucian robes. His face was pale and clean-shaven, looking gentle and well-mannered.

Behind him was a horse carriage. To Li Chu’s surprise, the decoration and the crest on it showed it was actually an official’s carriage!

One would at least need to be a county magistrate to be assigned such a carriage. Yuhang County’s administrative office was also in Yuhang Town, so Li Chu had seen such carriages before.

“Young Daoist,”—The middle-aged literati greeted him with a hold-fist salute—”my daughter and I have passed through here and would like to seek shelter for tonight. I wonder if it is possible to accommodate us?”

“Please, come in.” Li Chu nodded and invited the literati in.

Seeing Li Chu agree, the literati turned around and called out. “Rou’er.”

When the carriage curtain was lifted, a young woman in a water-blue dress got down from it. Her long thick hair was tied up with a simple knot. Her skin was as fair as ivory. Her face was tiny, yet the facial features were very defined, especially her pair of eyes looking like two azure lakes. Coupled with her rather tall stature and elegant temperament, she looked like she was a floating cloud among the mountain peaks.

The lady got down from the carriage and stepped forward slowly. Upon seeing Li Chu, a glint appeared in her beautiful eyes.

Li Chu nodded in acknowledgement and then said, “It’s just that our monastery is not very spacious. There are only two bedrooms. I’ll go squeeze in with my master, and the both of you may need to share a single room.”

“That is fine. We are already very grateful that you agree to take us in.” The literati smiled.

After getting them to stay in the front hall for a moment, Li Chu poured them some water and then went to clean up the bed.

He placed a new bed board in his room and then put another new sheet onto it. Soon after, the room was ready.

He then returned to the two. “Sorry to keep you waiting. The room is ready.”

“Thank you, young Daoist.” The literati thanked him again then said to his daughter. “Rou’er, you head in first.”

The young lady nodded and slowly entered the room.

It was only then the middle-aged literati said to Li Chu. “I would also like to ask you to look after my daughter for a while. To only let her leave until afternoon tomorrow.”

“Hmm?” Li Chu was taken aback. By the tone of the literati, he did not intend to stay the night?

The middle-aged literati seemed to notice Li Chu’s puzzled look and said with a smile. “I won’t hide the truth from you...I’m afraid I’ll die soon. If I were to stay here, I fear that I might get you people involved in it as well. So yes, I must leave regardless. However, my daughter is innocent, and you don’t look like a bad person; that’s why I can temporarily entrust her in your care.”

Hearing his rather calm tone, no one expected him to be talking about a matter of life and death. Li Chu did not know what was going on, so he could only nod to agree.

Who knew at this moment, a determined voice suddenly rang out from the courtyard. “I will go with you, dad!”

The young lady who had gone into the room came back out again.

In fact, when she secretly opened the door and tiptoed her way to the front hall, Li Chu had heard it all. But he did not expect the literati to tell him something so grim, and by the time he wanted to warn the latter, it was already too late.

“Rou’er, you silly child.”The middle-aged literati sighed when he saw his daughter return. “I’ve gotten news earlier they have paid a handsome sum to hire that monster from Blue Wing Lodge to kill me. And that Eight-armed Asura from the Blue Wing Lodge had already let word slip that I will never reach Yuhang Town alive! He will definitely intercept me on the path ahead, so why needlessly throw your life away with me?”