Night Ride and Uninvited Guests

The night descended, and the city lights flickered to life.

Even as night fell, Tianyuan City, a bustling metropolis, remained a cacophony of sound; neon lights adorned the towering buildings, casting a vibrant glow upon its indulgent nightlife.

On the bustling downtown streets, a heavy motorcycle weaved through the dense traffic, its engine’s thunderous roar invariably drawing curious glances from passersby.

Yet, it was perhaps the rider and passenger atop the roaring machine, rather than the heavy motorcycle itself, who truly captivated the onlookers.

The rider wore a lightweight sun-protective jacket over a black-printed T-shirt, though she had conscientiously zipped it all the way up. Below, her exquisite, long legs, still clad in denim shorts, pressed firmly against the surging steel beast beneath her, quivering subtly with each thrum of the engine.

Li Yue, her golden hair tied back, wore a full-face motorcycle helmet, a stray lock escaping to dance playfully in the evening breeze.

Mo Linyu sat perched sideways on the motorcycle’s rear seat, her arms wrapped tightly around Li Yue’s waist, her exceptionally soft curves pressing intimately against Li Yue’s back.

Even through their clothing, Li Yue could distinctly feel that soft, yielding touch, an intimate contact that stiffened her posture and sent her heart racing uncontrollably.

“Hey! You’re too close!”

Li Yue’s shout was barely audible, her words swallowed by the fierce rush of the wind.

“It’s my first time on one of these things,” Mo Linyu complained faintly, “Are you sure you’re not going too fast?”

Even in the annals of her past life, the finest nightmare steeds of the Demon Race could not hope to rival the sheer velocity of this motorcycle.

Li Yue, however, merely took the opportunity to mock her.

“Ha! What are you talking about? Even the traffic cops wouldn’t bat an eye at this! Has the mighty Demon Queen truly become such a faint-hearted coward? I haven’t even begun to truly ride!”

Her current speed was, in fact, quite moderate. Within the city’s dense traffic and numerous intersections, she dared not indulge in excessive recklessness, especially considering she was not only driving without a license but also an unregistered individual.

Getting caught by the traffic police would undoubtedly spell trouble.

Their plan for the evening was to first complete a circuit on the city’s ring expressway.

They would then exit the expressway at a suburban interchange, commencing their search along the outlying roads. While the city center boasted a denser population, which would theoretically make locating the otherworldly soul easier,

However, operating within the city proper presented its own inconveniences. To maximize the motorcycle’s mobility, they had resolved to begin their search in the suburbs, believing this approach would yield greater efficiency.

Mo Linyu merely quirked a corner of her mouth, then closed her eyes, focusing intently on the sensation of the scar etched across her chest, seeking a semblance of peace beyond the confines of reality.

Since even the Goddess herself had validated this method of searching for otherworldly souls, it surely had to be effective.

‘If only I still possessed magic power,’ she mused.

Though any monarch of the Demon Race was inherently titled Demon Lord, her mastery of magic in her previous life had ascended to a height rivaling that of the gods themselves. Thus, she had been not merely the King of Demons, but the undisputed King of Magic.

Alas, on an Earth devoid of magic, even with every rune’s pronunciation and intricate combination clearly etched in her memory, she remained utterly incapable of casting a single spell.

Moments later, the motorcycle surged towards the expressway entrance.

“Hold on tight, I’m about to take off.”

The moment Li Yue uttered those words, a chilling premonition seized Mo Linyu.

“Wait, what are you doing?”

Before she could even finish her sentence, Li Yue had already twisted the throttle, and the Kawasaki H2R beneath them surged forward with a jolt, its rear wheel searing a black streak of rubber onto the asphalt.

The powerful G-force pinned Mo Linyu against Li Yue’s back, causing her to instinctively tighten her grip around Li Yue’s waist, clutching her with renewed strength.

“Wait! Are you insane?!”

Having been the Demon Lord in her previous life, her exalted position had rarely allowed for moments of tension; yet now, her entire body involuntarily tensed.

While her own maid’s driving skills had been nothing to commend, at least within a carriage, one had the security of seatbelts. This motorcycle, however, was ‘flesh-wrapped-iron’; a crash would undoubtedly leave a person plastered to the ground.

“Ha! What’s there to be afraid of? I don’t even have a license for them to deduct points from!”

Li Yue erupted into a wild, exhilarated laugh. In the blink of an eye, the speedometer needle surged past the 200 kilometers per hour mark, and the surrounding vehicles were instantly flung behind them as if frozen in time. The night wind howled, and the lights on either side stretched into elongated streaks across her helmet’s visor.

‘This Hero is nothing short of a madwoman,’ Mo Linyu couldn’t help but curse inwardly.

“Hey! Is your wound reacting?”

“…No!”

Mo Linyu found herself shouting her reply, for speaking in a normal tone would have been utterly inaudible amidst the roar.

“Could you possibly slow down a little?” she shouted again.

“Huh? What did you say?”

Li Yue, however, deliberately feigned deafness, instead twisting the throttle even further.

After all, the current velocity was far from the ultimate limit of the iron steed beneath her.

****

The motorcycle exited the interchange, reaching the city’s outskirts in significantly less time than Mo Linyu had ever imagined.

After exiting the expressway, Li Yue continued to ride the motorcycle along a stretch of suburban road. The outskirts at night were sparsely populated, with streetlights spaced much wider apart than in the city center. This tranquil evening possessed a distinct ambiance, entirely unlike the urban clamor.

Li Yue pulled into a roadside rest area, equipped with a few benches and three vending machines, though one could hardly expect air conditioning in such a spot.

Though the sun had long since dipped below the horizon, the day’s heat lingered stubbornly on the asphalt, making the summer night feel oppressively muggy.

“…Phew, we finally stopped.”

Mo Linyu removed her helmet, letting out a long, audible sigh of relief. Her dark purple hair, disheveled from being confined, nevertheless did nothing to diminish her captivating allure.

Li Yue followed suit, removing her own helmet and shaking out her sweat-dampened golden hair.

“So, what do you think? Was that thrilling enough for you?” she asked, a triumphant smile gracing her lips.

Mo Linyu merely rolled her eyes at the daredevil, offering no reply.

Only when Li Yue retrieved a can of iced tea from the vending machine and offered it to her did Mo Linyu finally speak. “You’re so utterly reckless,” she began, “aren’t you afraid the police will come knocking on your door?”

“Ha? Afraid of what? I took off the license plate!”

Mo Linyu’s gaze flickered to the motorcycle by the roadside, and indeed, the license plate was… conspicuously absent.

This was driving without a license, an offense compounded by another.

Although, she had already been “uncovered” (TL Note: A playful pun, ‘wú zhào’ can mean both ‘unlicensed’ and ‘uncovered,’ subtly referencing Li Yue’s earlier transformation.) on the road this morning.

Li Yue settled down beside Mo Linyu, continuing, “Besides, in my current form, I’m practically a ghost, an unregistered phantom. Once I revert to Li Longkang, who among them could possibly find me? And how would they ever prove that I am even myself?”

“…Truly lawless.”

“Heh, that’s quite amusing coming from the Demon Lord.”

For Li Yue, after a year’s brutal baptism by the battlefield, only the sheer exhilaration of speeding seemed capable of stirring any sense of thrill within her.

Just then, a sleek black luxury sedan turned into the rest area, coming to a halt not far from where they sat.

Two burly men in dark suits emerged from the vehicle, their gazes immediately locking onto Mo Linyu. They consulted a photograph, then began to whisper conspiratorially to each other, all while standing openly before the two women.

“Hey, they’re staring at you,” Li Yue observed. “And they don’t look like they mean well, do they?”

Mo Linyu did not recognize them, nor had she ever encountered a situation quite like this before.

However, recalling their daytime discussions, a faint suspicion began to form in her mind:

“I guess they are here for my father.”