Chapter 67: CH 44.1

Lorren chuckled and said,  “How about I lend you one? I just recently took in a very cute little guy.”

He flicked his fingers, and a baby-faced young man appeared out of thin air.

Xie Jianwei:  “…”

Yan Ke took a deep breath: [Oh my god. Is that me?]

Indeed… Lorren’s ‘cute little guy’ looked exactly like Yan Ke.

Lorren on the other hand, was still pouring over with introductions:  “Pretty good-looking right? It’s a pity that he’s a man, if he was a woman…… Hehehe, I won’t lend her to you.”

XIe Jianwei:  “…… ”

Yan Ke: [I have a lot of bad things1 that I don’t know whether to say or not!]

Unfortunately, he couldn’t even say a word as Lorren continued to rattle on, sparing no effort to blacken his dignity:  “Little Kě, give your greetings to your new lord.”

[What Little Kè2? My name is Yan Ke!] Yan Ke’s grievance is about to break through the dream and reach the universe!

Xie Jianwei, who was feeling quite amused by the two’s antics, said:  “No, you should keep him.”

“Really don’t want him?” Lorren said,  “Little Kè is not a bewitching spirit, he’s of pure demon blood, and he is quite easy to use.”

Although he knew that Lorren’s ‘use’ meant the normal use, still, everything that comes out of this prodigal son’s mouth sounds something more…. colorful.

Yan Ke stared at the demon that looked exactly like himself and wanted to cry, [My lord, why don’t you take him with you?]

He was afraid of leaving  “himself ” to Lorren. Even if Lorren was a straight man, but who the hell knows what would happen here, in the Marshal’s dream? (t/n: IS THIS SOME KIND OF A FORESHADOWING FOR A FUTURE SHIP?)

Xie Jianwei ignored Yan Ke and continued to speak with Lorren:  “Demons are very rare.”

He saw the smugness between Lorren’s eyes when he said those words, and figured that apparently, being able to get a demon as a messenger was something to be proud of.

Sure enough, Lorren began to blabber and said a lot of things that Xie Jianwei didn’t know about this dreamscape’s  “setting”.

“Look how cute his little bone wings are. He’s still young right now, but he’s got a bright future. I made a bet with him at the bar and this kid lost, that’s why he signed a contract with me– otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to get such a pure demon.”

Xie Jianwei then understood that Lorren wanting to lend him Yán Kè was just a ruse; his real goal was to show off.

Well, he wasn’t planning on taking Yán Kè either in the first place, because one Yan Ke in his head was enough. Remembering how gossipy the  Yán Kè was from the previous dreamscape, he firmly decided that he would really never get another one!

Xie Jianwei praised Lorren:  “Mmm.. so he really is rare.”

Lorren replied:  “Of course he’s not as good as the great demon you had before, but it’s not convenient to make the demon’s ability too strong. If I can’t control his powers, then I would suffer from a …….” He wanted to say  ‘backlash’, but upon remembering something, he glanced at Xie Jianwei and quickly shut his mouth.

Xie Jianwei was smart enough to capture the key points in just a few words. He then frowned and said,  “Don’t mention the past.”

When Yan Ke heard the Military Advisor’s words, he became anxious, [My lord, there’s obviously something more to that, and perhaps the said great demon is the Marshal. Aren’t you going to ask further?]

Yan Ke soon realized how naive he was.

Xie Jianwei asking for more information? If he really did as Yan Ke said, Lorren would certainly become suspicious. Saying  “Don’t mention it again” was the most appropriate vague response to these kinds of things.

Lorren was Lu Li’s comrade and his most trusted aide, so his presence in the dreamscape must be beneficial to Xie Jianwei— because there’s no doubt that. Lu Li would always give Xie Jianwei what he thought was best.

Since that’s the case, Lorren would definitely care about Xie Jianwei, and as long as the latter frowns and shows an expression like he had a lot on his mind, Lorren would definitely take the bait.

And as expected, Lorren waved his hand to make Yán Kè disappear and approached Xie Jianwei as he sighed: “Why are you so silly… He’s nothing but a demon. If you lost him, so be it. Why do you want to get him back? Besides, he’s a great demon, so he has probably gone back to the Demon Realm to be free yet here you are, moping around and still can’t let him go.”

Could it be that Lu Li is that great demon?

This possibility couldn’t be ruled out. After all, in this dreamscape, Lu Li wouldn’t let Xie Jianwei have any intimate involvement with anyone other than him.

Xie Jianwei:  “I already did.”

Lorren patted him on the shoulder:  “Okay, okay. You don’t have to say anything,  as long as you know what you’re doing. By the way, the results of your seclusion in the Black Region this time are not bad, you can advance to the Six-star Rank after completing a random mission.”

Black Realm? Xie Jianwei thought of that dark place he was in beforehand.

So I was in seclusion… But why did it feel like I was only sleeping for a long time…

Forget it, this is Lu Li’s settings anyway. He was probably secretly giving me the green light again.

After chatting with Lorren for a long time,  Xie Jianwei was finally able to get enough information.

The place he was currently in was the Middle Realm, also called the Death Realm, and this dreamscape has angels, demons, humans and grim reapers.

The angels and demons were of course, in the opposing faction, while the human beings were the poor little lambs who were occasionally bullied and at the same being protected, and it’s easy to understand why.

As for the grim reapers, they were neither angels nor demons. Their task was to control the constant reincarnation of the soul. In a sense, they were the only entity who selflessly  “contributes” to mankind.

Angels need the power of human faith to reproduce, demons need the human soul to feed on.

As for the reapers, they need nothing but the darkness.  As long as the Black Region remains standing, they too, wouldn’t fall.

They also have a ranking system.

The new reapers undergo internship, and they would be tasked to collect souls. Each success had its equivalent death points and after they accumulated enough points, only then would they be able to enter the Black region for seclusion. After they come out, they can get promoted in rank as long as they get reinstated.

The so-called reinstatement is to complete a task of enchanting3 the soul.

Xie Jianwei was a five-star Grim reaper and was now about to advance into a six-star. In the entire Middle Realm, the highest ranked grim reaper was only a seven-star.

So Xie Jianwei’s status was quite high.

Lorren:  “It’s a pity that I fed my death points to my demon; otherwise I could have hit the six-stars rank too.”

A death scythe could collect the human souls and at the same time, it also could also be used to make contracts with evi spirits or demons.

After establishing a contract, the demon messenger had to serve the master and do all the things stipulated in the contract.

Under normal circumstances, most of the grim reapers’  messengers are bewitching spirits, because they are relatively weak and easier to make a contract with.

A powerful reaper could also make  the demons into messenger, but it’s extremely  difficult and consumes a lot of death points. Except for those who have special tasks or unexpected good luck like Lorren, no one would usually choose demons.

Of course, if one could possess a demon, it would show how powerful that grim reaper was.

Hearing this, Xie Jianwei kind of regretted that he didn’t accept Little Kè.

But he was betting that Lorren wouldn’t really do so, because all the latter wanted was to  boast about that accomplishment to him. If he really took Little Kè in, Lorren’s ‘tail of smugness’ which stood up gallantly towards the sky would definitely snap into two because of distress.

Imagining that happening, Xie Jianwei actually found it quite funny, and then felt even more regretful…

.

.

.

After parting ways with Lorren that day, Xie Jianwei went on his own to check if there was any information related to him, only to find out that reapers were all very independent. They each live their own lives and mostly minded their own businesses, so there was no centralized management.

Although the ranking system existed, the lower-ranked reapers only had respect for the higher-ranked ones, not a boss-subordinate relationship, and the higher-ranks didn’t strive to dominate the lower-ranks.

Regardless of their level, all of them needed to receive their tasks, and collect souls.

Therefore,  all the grim reapers are very busy on their own affairs, and few are free to record for someone.

Xie Jianwei was very concerned about the demon messenger that he had apparently lost, but he couldn’t find any useful information.

He then thought of Lorren.

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Translator’s notes:

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MMP = PY: mā mài pī (媽賣批). It means ‘your mom’s a prostitute’. It’s an expletive phrase, but when used on the internet, it’s more like a trendy way of expressing bad emotion/bad things.