I've led the Villain Astray, How Do I fix It?

Chapter 47

47
At this time, although Xu ZiRong still couldn't move, he was finally able to speak. He quickly reassured Xu ZiYan that he was alright, before he reminded his brother to be careful of that mermaid.
Xu ZiYan nodded vigorously before saying, "As long as you're fine, that's good. Just now, I actually didn't realize there was something wrong with you. That's something that truly shouldn't have happened."
The expression on Xu ZiRong's face was also somewhat dignified. Ever since he was reborn, everything had proceeded in a smooth manner. After so many years, he actually became a bit careless.
Just now, after he and Xu ZiYan entered this clearing, he unexpectedly and unwittingly entered a fantasy array. If he hadn't noticed how Xu ZiYan had been a bit off in the fantasy array, he wouldn't have managed to break out of it that quickly.

However, he would have never expected to see Xu ZiYan approach that ferocious mermaid the moment he broke out of the array. In addition, he himself was suddenly controlled by some sort of power. He couldn't move his body nor speak any words. This kind of feeling of being suppressed by someone, helpless and unable to retaliate, immediately made him remember some of his extremely unpleasant memories……
Face becoming gloomy, Xu ZiRong glared at that mermaid. His gaze looked as if he was itching to dismember the mermaid into ten thousand pieces. Unfortunately, he was still unable to move a single step right now, and thus he could only use his glare against that mermaid.
After carefully hiding Xu ZiRong behind the rock, Xu ZiYan pursed his lips and turned around. He planned to go and get rid of that mermaid.
A few threads of sadness appeared in his expression as Xu ZiYan mocked himself. Sure enough, his understanding of his world was still not deep enough. The more beautiful something or someone were, the more dangerous they were, ah……
That mermaid was still soaking within the hot spring. When she saw Xu ZiYan emerge once more, hints of happiness appeared on her face. The food that escaped actually returned, it was truly great!
After Xu ZiYan stood in a stable position, he pulled back his bow to shoot an arrow. Immediately, an arrow made out of lightning spiritual energy formed on his bow and flew toward the mermaid.
That mermaid revealed a look that made it seem as if she had been wronged. She stared at Xu ZiYan with a blaming gaze, as if she was finding fault with how he had actually made a move to attack her.
To be honest, if the mermaid hadn't almost slit his throat just now, just by looking at her current expression and attitude, Xu ZiYan was afraid that he would never believe this mermaid was actually a monster that would murder without blinking and even less that she was a demonic beast that fed upon the flesh of humans.
This only proved that this mermaid's beauty was truly too bewitching. Even Xu ZiYan had temporarily made the mistake of judging a book by its cover.
The moment he became aware of how dangerous his opponent was, Xu ZiYan no longer held back. He pulled back his bowstring over and over again. Every time he pulled it back, at least three arrows made out of lightning spiritual energy shot out.
The endless wave of arrows seemed to have made that mermaid very angry. She pouted as she fumed, her face crimson red, looking as if she had suffered some sort of huge grievance. It looked like she was going to burst into tears the very next moment.
Xu ZiYan's expression was ice-cold and blank. He had already learned the lesson he was just given. If he became soft-hearted now, then he would really be a complete fool!
The next moment, he began praising himself for this decision.
That mermaid suddenly opened her mouth to emit a resounding howl. What immediately followed that was the corners of her pink lips suddenly ripping apart, until the opening crack reached her earlobes. The teeth in her mouth also became incomparably sharp. One only need a single glance at her to know she was a violent, wild beast.
A layer of cyan scales covered her pale and fair skin. Her round, wet black eyes also turned silver in colour, with vertical slits as pupils——looking ice-cold and ruthless.
At this point, the mermaid finally abandoned its own disguise, exposing her original and most primitive combat form.
As soon as she transformed, the mermaid's fighting strength practically soared. Increasingly more different kinds of water elemental attacks were released in an endless manner.
Fortunately, although she had many tricks, her strength was suppressed. Several times, Xu ZiYan's arrows made out of lightning spiritual energy struck her attacks head-on, before both disappeared without a trace.
Xu ZiYan realized that if they continued to dally like this, his spiritual energy won't be able to last. Thus, Xu ZiYan clenched his teeth and released a protective shield. Then, he stopped moving and stood in one place before slowing pulling back his bowstring.
Following his movements, a ray of lightning that was as thick as someone's arm formed on the bow. At the top of the arrow, the purple lightning was compressed so much, it was already at the point where it looked black in colour.
That mermaid probably also sensed it was dangerous. She opened her bloody mouth and began roaring in a frantic manner. Her moving hands also accelerated a great deal as water arrows, water bombs, and even water dragons all rushed out at an insane pace.
Unfortunately, this wasn't the waters where her species lived. Even if she yelled in a louder voice, there wouldn't be members of her species to come and aid her.
A second before Xu ZiYan's thunderstorm-like arrow completely formed, that mermaid began laying out water shields in front of herself. The water in the hot spring began disappearing at a speed visible to the naked eye. Instantly, at least seven or eight layers of water shields condensed in front of the mermaid.
The bowstring was finally stretched out to its limit. Xu ZiYan's gaze was sharp as his fingers slightly relaxed——
A rumbling noise suddenly thundered through the air. That ray of lightning rapidly flew out with a berserk aura as it pounced toward the mermaid.
Alarmed, the mermaid began to scream. This thunderstorm arrow could be considered as Xu ZiYan's current trump card. If it hadn't been for this troublesome mermaid, he would have never wanted to reveal it.
With a fierce momentum, the bright and glaring arrow made out of lightning penetrated layer by layer of the water shields the mermaid had created. There was already no need to use words to describe the horror on the mermaid's face. She widened her eyes. Within her silver pupils, one could only see the black tip of an arrow approach her bit by bit. At the split second before the arrow was about to penetrate her body——
The pluck of a string sounded in the air.
As if they were bubbles, the entire scene began collapsing. That mermaid's expression turned quite bewildered and hazy. It was like she had forgotten she was almost killed, forgotten the enemy standing right before her, forgotten——everything.
She once again transformed back into her innocent and cute appearance before she began cheerfully playing around in the hot springs. Soon after, a burst of ripple-like fluctuations began distorting the scene before Xu ZiYan's eyes. The mermaid and the hot spring she was in began to disappear. What was left was a small and narrow path on the mountain side opposite to them, one that extended outwards.
After putting away the longbow he was holding, Xu ZiYan inhaled deeply. It could be considered that he finally passed this round. As for what followed next, it was time to take a look at the next round!
"Big brother," ever since the mermaid disappeared, whatever restrained Xu ZiRong vanished as well.
He leisurely climbed up from the ground, where every movement was infused with an indescribable elegance.
Xu ZiRong lightly pulled on Xu ZiYan's sleeves, before he stared at his brother with limpid eyes that were full of worship and adoration. "Big brother is so powerful."
Xu ZiYan's heroic spirit immediately surged forward when he saw his little brother's worshiping expression. He chuckled and said, "It was just a mere trifle. Later, watch your big brother win first place!"
Xu ZiRong smiled, his eyes turning into crescents. "Big brother is the most amazing."
Xu ZiYan's mood became much better. In fact, the dismay that had just emerged because of how he had been deceived by the mermaid vanished without a single trace.
If one compared his current strength to the original Xu ZiYan's, they wouldn't even be able to measure just how much stronger he was. Even if the original Xu ZiYan took his place today, he was afraid that he would be unable to do much better than himself.
If he thought about it, in his nearly thirty years of life in his previous world, he had always lived in a very peaceful place. Although the business world had the same mutual deception and dog-eat-dog world concept, it would never pose any danger to one's life. Therefore……in reality, he truly ought to praise his own adapting capabilities.
Since even the original Xu ZiYan's life developed so well, there would be no reason for someone like him, a person well-acquainted with the plot, to die a violent death——right?
'Ahh……let's take things one step at a time. If worst comes to worst, let's just hide front the male protagonist.' Once again, Xu ZiYan made a firm decision to stay far away from Bai Hua.
After all, in the original text, although Bai Hua admittedly obtained unceasing opportunities that arrived one after another, immense danger and a crisis followed every one of those opportunities. Other than Bai Hua's boyfriends who made it out fine every time, there were countless people who died because of those crises. Since Xu ZiYan decided to not become one of Bai Hua's boyfriends——of course, he would want to stay away from those crises.
And although he practically watered at the mouth at the thought of the protagonist's opportunities, the novel had described the rules very clearly. Apart from Bai Hua's three boyfriends, anyone else who tried stealing Bai Hua's opportunities all died a violent death……
Xu ZiYan hadn't lived enough after he inexplicably reincarnated into this world. In order to cherish life, he must hide far away from Bai Hua!
After passing through the mountain wall by taking the small path that had appeared, the two brothers continued to climb to the mountain peak.
The distance between their position and the Liu Guang Sect's summit was rapidly shortening. However, while the Xu brothers scaled the mountain, there were already Elders in the Liu Guang Sect main hall who were about to fight each other in order to secure their right to take the brothers as their disciples……
When it came to talented disciples, these Elders would never think they had too many.
Unexpectedly, even that Wei Ying didn't want to miss obtaining the Xu brothers, those good seedlings. With no trace of politeness, he began arguing for them with those old men.
"Wei Ying, what are you participating in this for? Isn't it certain that the youngster from your Wei family will be sworn in under your door?" An Elder with a white beard and white hair gasped in anger. "With such a good younger generation like him, why are you still not satisfied?"
Wei Ying offhandedly replied, "Hey! I don't dare to guarantee that. Although the children of our Wei family are outstanding, it isn't certain that he will throw himself under my door."
"Oh? If that's really true, then I won't be polite," a middle-aged woman said with a gentle chuckle.
"Whatever," Wei Ying waved his big hand. "If that brat doesn't want to worship someone as his master, you could break his neck and he would still refuse to do it. In any case, I can't control him. If you could make him worship you as a master, then that is your skill."
Something flashed through the middle-aged woman's eyes. She couldn't help but start pondering the possibility of recruiting Wei Qing.
A young girl in the prime of youth shook the sleeve of another icily arrogant-looking woman. "Senior-apprentice sister Zhou, look……that Xu ZiRong is so powerful ah, maybe you should stand in for Master and take him in as a disciple?"
In response, Zhou XueTing couldn't help but laugh. "Little Peach, why did you suddenly think about recruiting disciples for Master?"
Little Peach——she was precisely that young girl who looked very cute, shook her head. "He he, don't you think this Xu ZiRong looks very delicate? When he grows up a little bit in the future, it's certain he'll be able to attract many female disciples to our Shu Yun Peak. When that time comes, our Shu Yun Peak may become Liu Guang Sect's most prosperous Peak!"
Normally, Zhou XueTing was expressionless. However, whenever she was with Little Peach, the girl's bold and imaginative way of thinking always made her smile.
"Nonsense," she quietly chided her. "This Xu ZiRong, he cultivates Wood Element martial arts……"
"Isn't that even better? Senior-apprentice sister, you also cultivate Wood Element martial arts. When the time comes, giving him pointers would be a super easy, trivial matter!" Little Peach quickly cut her off.
Zhou XueTing shook her head. "We were only watching him through our water mirror, however, when he attacked HongYun, Wood Element martial arts doesn't seem to be the only thing playing a role in those three, blood huge vines of his."
"What's weird about that?" Little Peach asked in a disapproving manner. "I already read his file. This Xu ZiRong has a Tri-Spirit Vein for water, wood, and earth. Mixing other things into his Wood Element martial arts wouldn't be something strange. What's more……at eleven years old, with his Tri-Spirit Vein aptitude, he actually managed to cultivate to the eighth layer of Qi Condensation Stage. From this, it can be clearly seen that he either has a body suitable for cultivation, or……he has extremely high comprehension skills."