Chapter 4469: Ying Xiong
Chapter 4469: Ying Xiong
Hearing Old Sixth shout, Lu Yin and the others turned back.
The toad pointed at the bear, who closed the book. It then easily sliced the ground open with an arm and pulled it up, making something like a table. It then made two stools and sat down, beckoning to Lu Yin and gesturing for him to sit across the table.
Lu Yin was bewildered. What did this mean? He had only been putting on an act.
The bear stared at Lu Yin and gestured for him to sit again. Left with no choice, Lu Yin could only pretend to be excited. “Ying Xiong, have you recognized me?”
The bear shook its head and once again gestured for Lu Yin to sit.
Lu Yin looked lost and turned to Old Sixth. “What does that mean?”
Old Sixth rolled his eyes. “It means that it is not the Ying Xiong you know, but it likes the name ‘Ying Xiong.’”
Fishbone was astonished. “How did you get that meaning from it?”
For the fourth time, the bear gestured for Lu Yin to sit.
Zhou said, “Go see. If it really is Ying Xiong, maybe it has no choice.”
Lu Yin was speechless. What was this nonsense about having no choice? There was no such creature as Ying Xiong to begin with.
Still, with the situation having developed to this state, he could only go over.
Step by step, he walked closer, passing by Old Sixth to arrive at the table. Then, Lu Yin sat down across from the bear.
The bear neatly placed its book on the table and curiously examined Lu Yin. Although it only had one mechanical eye, Lu Yin could tell that it was extremely curious.
It raised a paw and made a gesture of invitation.
Lu Yin could not understand it.
Old Sixth’s voice came over. “It wants you to keep talking.”
“About what?”
“About Ying Xiong.”
Lu Yin. “...”
“If it’s not Ying Xiong, what’s the point of saying anything?”
The bear gave a small smile. Being half mechanical and half skeletal, it looked quite ferocious. It once again made a gesture of inviting Lu Yin to continue.
He looked over at Old Sixth, who said, “It thinks that it may have lost its memory, and your words might help it remember.”
Fishbone was dumbfounded. “Where did you get that from? How can you even translate that? It was just one movement. You made that up yourself, didn’t you?”
Zhou said, “Tell it a little. Maybe it really is Ying Xiong.”
Lu Yin looked at the bear, then at Zhou. “I forgot. Ying Xiong was weaker than me. This bear seems to be an Immortal, doesn’t it?”
Only then did Zhou seem to realize. “That’s right, it is an Immortal being. It cannot be Ying Xiong. I am the only Immortal being from Revolution Planet.”
Lu Yin stood up. “I’m sorry, I was mistaken. Farewell.”
Old Sixth raised a hand. A steel fork appeared horizontally in front of them as they cast a sidelong glance at Lu Yin, blocking his path.
Zhou reached out, their sharp claws pressing firmly upon the steel fork, yet the fork did not budge in the slightest.
Terrifying force overlapped atop the steel fork, shaking the void and cracking the ground.
The lotus leaf above Old Sixth’s head rose up. “Not bad. Withered Requiem really does have experts under them.”
As the toad spoke, the corners of their mouth curved upward. Without anyone seeing it do anything, Zhou was forced back step by step. They retreated a full seven steps and then stared at Old Sixth in shock.
Lu Yin was astonished. In that instant, Old Sixth had definitely done something, but from the perspective of the skeleton clone, Lu Yin had failed to see anything.
Old Sixth’s strength could absolutely rival that of a two-law Immortal.
Fishbone, Zhu, and Yong Heng all immediately retreated. If even Zhou could not get half a step closer, then this toad was truly formidable.
“You, stay seated.” Old Sixth stared at Lu Yin.
Left with no choice, Lu Yin sat back down. “I made a mistake.”
The bear smiled again and made a gesture for him to continue.
Without needing Old Sixth to translate, Lu Yin understood. It was telling him to speak about Ying Xiong’s past. What the hell does this bear want? Why does it want to hear this?
For Old Sixth to obey it so readily, the bear had to be even stronger than the toad.
Lu Yin glanced at Old Sixth and then back at the bear across from him. There was no way around this. He could only start making something up on the spot, inventing a past that involved Ying Xiong.
As he spoke, the bear raised a finger and drew in the void, sketching a person and a bear. As Lu Yin’s fabricated story unfolded, the person and the bear reenacted the described scenes, continually reliving them. It was both interesting and eerie to look at.
With one paw propping its head up and the other replaying the scenes, the bear was like a director creating a movie.
From the distance, Yong Heng watched on calmly. The doubts that he originally had were suppressed.
The story continued for several hours before finally coming to a close. The bear lowered its arm and looked Lu Yin over with great interest. After studying him for quite a while, it waved a paw.
Lu Yin let out a breath of relief and left. This encounter had been inexplicably bizarre.
After Lu Yin and the others left, the bear replayed the scenes once again. The difference was that, as the scenes accelerated, they gradually formed two sets of movements: one human and one bear. The two continuously merged until they became fists that gripped one another and then threw a punch that shook the void.
Old Sixth praised the bear, “You created another battle technique. Impressive.”
The bear shook its head.
Old Sixth was puzzled. “Not enough?”
The bear looked in the direction Lu Yin had left.
Old Sixth understood. “Then let’s continue. Inspiration isn’t something that you can afford to lose.”
The bear grinned. Humans really were interesting.
In Joy City, each day was measured according to Withered Requiem’s music. Lu Yin had discovered that the interval between Withered Requiem’s performances was exactly one day.
One day later, Lu Yin and the others were traveling downstream. They did not stop for an entire day, only wanting to get as far away from that bear as possible.
The entire time Lu Yin faced that bear, he had felt uneasy. It was the kind of feeling that made one shiver.
“Bear?” Fishbone cried out in shock.
Lu Yin and the others looked over. On the bank up ahead of them, the bear was seated at the stone table while the Seven-Treasure Anura, Old Sixth, stood nearby, calmly watching the Dream Band.
When Lu Yin looked over, the bear gestured for him to come and sit at the table.
Lu Yin’s heart sank. This was bad. He was being targeted.
He desperately wanted to get away, but his skeleton clone was completely incapable of teleporting.
Powerless, Lu Yin once again sat down opposite the bear.
At this moment, even Zhou felt powerless. Fishbone, Yong Heng, and Zhu did not dare to utter a single word.
The bear made a gesture, inviting Lu Yin to continue.
“What do you mean?” Lu Yin asked.
Old Sixth grinned. “Continue yesterday’s story.”
“I already finished it,” Lu Yin replied.
Old Sixth raised a brow. “Then keep talking.”
Lu Yin feigned anger. “I’m done! Are you saying that you want to know every detail of life between Ying Xiong and me?”
With one paw supporting its chin, maintaining a very strange pose, the bear drew a circle with its right paw.
Lu Yin looked at Old Sixth.
The toad said, “Say whatever you want. You have many stories. It wants to hear them.”
Lu Yin stared blankly at Old Sixth. “Where would I get so many stories from?”
“How should I know?” Old Sixth rolled their eyes.
The bear smiled, and its right paw traced another circle.
Lu Yin stared at it. “What exactly do you want to hear? I really was mistaken yesterday. Is an apology enough? Also, please speak. Given your strength, how could you possibly not be able to talk?”
The bear drew another circle.
Lu Yin very much wanted to eat bear paws.
Old Sixth said, “Don’t waste our time. You have so many stories, and they must be worth hearing. Saying them aloud will be good for everyone.”
“...” Lu Yin was left speechless. Also, the bear had only drawn a circle. How had Old Sixth extracted so much meaning from just that?
“I don’t have time to waste on the two of you. This is Joy City. It is not your place to order us around. We have to compose music, challenge the castle, and then challenge the Death Band. These are the rules put in place by Lord Withered Requiem.” Lu Yin’s voice dropped low.
The bear lowered its palm and slowly tapped the tabletop.
This movement was far too familiar to Lu Yin. This was exactly what he did when he was scheming against others.
This bear was thinking about how to scheme against him.
Old Sixth did not translate the movement, and instead simply waited quietly.
In the distance, Zhou and the others waited as well.
The river flowed and lapped at the bank. Lu Yin noticed that the bear’s eye had been fixed on him the whole time, or more precisely, on his bones.
He grew a bit uneasy. His bones contained the spinning stars of the Cosmic Art, which held the Stillness that he had devoured. This bear could not have seen through that, could it?
Just as that thought crossed his mind, the bear straightened up and pointed at Lu Yin.
Lu Yin looked at Old Sixth, but the toad shook its lotus leaf and did not translate.
The next moment, the void around the bear grew distorted. One distortion, two, three... a hundred. A full 100 spatial distortions transformed into vortices that revolved around the bear’s body.
Others could not tell what this meant, but Lu Yin was horrified. Is this... the Cosmic Art?
Yes, these distortions were in the precise locations of the stars of his Cosmic Art. Had this bear somehow learned the Cosmic Art just by looking at Lu Yin’s skeletal body? How was that even possible?!
Not even the sudden arrival of Obscura’s Keeper of Balance in Joy City had shocked Lu Yin this badly.
At this moment, he felt an absurd disconnect from reality. This bear had merely looked at him, and then in an extremely short amount of time, it had learned the Cosmic Art and started using it as easily as breathing or drinking water.
Even with the strength of Lu Yin’s true body, if he had never learned the Cosmic Art, he could not have possibly succeeded so easily. At the very least, he would need to practice the cultivation art, and yet this bear had not practiced it at all. It had simply looked, stared, and then learned it.
What the hell? It was usually Lu Yin’s cultivation talent that shocked others, but at this moment, he was the one utterly shocked by a bear’s.
The bear smiled at him.
“You see? So simple,” Old Sixth translated.
Lu Yin stared fixedly at the bear. “You already knew it.”
The bear shook its head, raised its right palm, and waved.
“It did not,” Old Sixth stated.
Lu Yin’s voice grew dry. “Just who are you?”
The bear’s smile grew even brighter. Humans really were interesting. It had met many interesting humans before, but all of them had been used up.
Its right paw drew a circle.
“You have many stories. I want to hear them,” Old Sixth translated. It was the same words as before, but this time, they gave Lu Yin a completely different feeling.
One could hear nothing unusual from Old Sixth’s mouth, but Lu Yin knew that this bear was threatening him. Since it had seen through the Cosmic Art, it could certainly also see through the Stillness that the stars of the Cosmic Art had devoured.
Given the combat strength of Lu Yin’s skeleton clone, it should not be able to contain this much Stillness.
This was a threat.
Lu Yin had never expected that, while looking for the Seven-Treasure Anuras’ Old Sixth, he would run into something like this. This bear was absolutely not simple.
The key problem was, what other stories did Lu Yin have? And how could he possibly share the stories of his true body?
The bear lowered its paw and simply stared at Lu Yin while smiling.
Lu Yin took a deep breath. “I do have some stories. If you are willing to listen, then I am willing to tell them.”
The bear’s grin widened even further.
“Thank you,” Old Sixth translated, only to then roll their eyes.
Lu Yin began making up stories. That was exactly what he did, create stories. Since this bear wanted to listen to stories, then Lu Yin would fabricate stories and see how many it could put up with.
After one story that lasted an hour, Lu Yin left while the bear remained sitting lost in thought.
This time, Lu Yin and the others did not travel by water. Instead, they moved as quickly as possible to get to the other side of the castle and hide, terrified that the bear and Old Sixth would find them again.
But for some unknown reason, no matter where their group hid, they were always found.
On the second day, Lu Yin was found and had to continue telling stories. He deliberately told a story completely different from the previous one, and the bear was happy to listen.
On the third day, he continued telling stories.
The fourth day...
The fifth day...
...