Jiu Baiyun looked at the two brown bears who had instantly changed their attitude and were now proudly insisting on guarding the gate, at a loss for words.
He could feel his temples starting to throb again.
If he actually let them stand at the sect’s entrance in their current furry, nearly ten-foot-tall bear forms, the deterrence would be sufficient, but the visual would be far too “primitive.”
[Su Zhiyun]: How about letting them guard it for a bit?
Jiu Baiyun understood Su Zhiyun’s intention well enough.
In the Human Realm, encountering an even stronger eerie creature every now and then wasn’t unusual, and constantly needing to flee for one’s life was the norm.
From Su Zhiyun’s perspective, the more safety measures, the better—that was a perfectly normal mindset.
Looking at Su Zhiyun’s message, he hesitated for a moment, then nodded.
His gaze shifted to Zhu Le and Zhu Shi.
“Can you two change forms?”
Jiu Baiyun pointed at them.
“Like… transform into human shapes? Otherwise, with your current size standing at the gate, it’s too… conspicuous.”
He chose his words carefully, leaving out the “might scare people” part.
“Human form?”
Zhu Le scratched his furry ear and asked in a rumbling voice:
“Like the Young Lord? Only keeping the ears and tail?”
“No, a completely human form.”
Jiu Baiyun emphasized:
“Don’t show any demon traits at all. Just look like ordinary human cultivators.”
“Oh! Got it, Young Lord!”
Zhu Shi, quicker on the uptake, immediately thumped his chest and assured:
“No problem! We’ll change right now!”
It wasn’t that they couldn’t take human form—they just didn’t like it.
Both of them were great demons at the Five Mysteries Period, and transformation was a skill they had already mastered at the Second Xuan Stage.
As they finished speaking, a cloud of yellowish demon light rose from the two giant brown bears.
The glow wasn’t blinding, but it was still sizable.
Within the light, the massive bear silhouettes rapidly shrank and shifted.
Bones creaked with faint cracking sounds, and the thick brown fur receded like a tide.
When the light faded, standing in their place were two extremely burly and sturdy human men.
Both were nearly six and a half feet tall, with bulging muscles that radiated explosive power.
However, there was a problem—both men were completely bare from the waist up.
Their solid chests, chiseled abs, broad shoulders, and thick arms were fully exposed to the air.
As for the lower half, they had manifested a pair of sturdy-looking brown coarse-cloth trousers, barely covering the essential parts.
“Young Lord! We’ve transformed!”
Zhu Shi puffed out his chest, his voice booming with a hint of pride at having completed the task.
“Young Lord, is this okay?”
Zhu Le also flexed his thick arms, feeling a bit curious but also awkward as he touched his bare torso.
After all, unlike the Qingling Nine, they had always remained in their original forms.
Suddenly turning human was truly uncomfortable.
To Jiu Baiyun, it wasn’t that bad, but to Su Zhiyun, the visual impact was too strong.
The moment she saw them—
“Ah!”
Su Zhiyun instinctively shot out both hands, precisely covering the eyes of A Ran and Xiao Mu beside her.
“Sister Su?”
A Ran’s vision went dark, confused.
Xiao Mu also let out a soft “Huh?” and instinctively tried to turn her head.
“Don’t look! Kids aren’t allowed to see!”
Su Zhiyun’s tone was stern, and there was disgust on her face.
Even though she had transmigrated, the sight of these two “human-shaped weapons” standing there shirtless was too visually jarring—practically indecent.
Especially in front of two little girls!
On top of that, she didn’t like men…
Seeing this only caused her physical revulsion.
Su Zhiyun had zero interest in muscles.
Jiu Baiyun looked at the two, especially Zhu Shi proudly puffing out his granite-like chest, and couldn’t help but twitch at the corner of his mouth.
He instinctively glanced toward Su Zhiyun.
Sure enough.
Her undisguised disgust and instantly pale face told Jiu Baiyun that Su Zhiyun was having a stress reaction.
He was momentarily stunned, then found it somewhat amusing.
Catching Jiu Baiyun’s gaze and sensing the hint of a smile in it, Su Zhiyun shot him a fierce glare.
Her eyes were full of warning.
Stunned by the glare, Jiu Baiyun coughed softly, immediately suppressing the amused expression on his face, leaving only resignation.
He quickly averted his gaze from Su Zhiyun and looked back at Zhu Le and Zhu Shi, who were still obliviously showing off their muscles.
He spoke impatiently:
“You two… put on some upper body clothes too! What do you think you look like naked!”
Zhu Shi scratched his head covered in short brown hair, looking confused and troubled.
“Young Lord, I… we usually don’t wear clothes.”
He looked down at his bare torso, then tugged at the awkward coarse trousers, adding:
“This fabric is too tight. It feels like my demon power can’t flow smoothly. It’s more uncomfortable than fighting!”
Zhu Le nodded vigorously beside him, rubbing his arm skin with his thick hand.
“Young Lord, we really aren’t used to wearing these… feels like I can’t even breathe! Maybe… we should just change back?”
They usually moved in their original forms and had zero habit of wearing clothes.
They only covered their private parts when taking human form.
The main thing was, wearing clothes felt truly awful to them.
“If that’s the case, then forget it. You two can go back.”
“Judging by your attitude, you don’t really want to guard the gate anyway.”
Seeing that Zhu Shi and Zhu Le were unwilling, Jiu Baiyun frowned slightly and said directly.
He didn’t mean anything else—he just didn’t want to force them.
After all, from the start, Zhu Shi and Zhu Le weren’t exactly eager to come.
If Ku Mu hadn’t said so, Jiu Baiyun figured these two wouldn’t have been willing otherwise.
But his words sounded different to Zhu Shi and Zhu Le.
Didn’t this mean they were being rejected?
“I think guarding the gate is still necessary!”
Zhu Shi immediately dropped to one knee and said hurriedly:
“Young Lord, it’s just clothes! We’ll wear them!”
Zhu Le immediately followed suit, nodding frantically.
Even the scar on his face couldn’t hide his simple-minded expression.
Jiu Baiyun looked at the two bears’ clumsy, eager attitude and felt a bit speechless.
He instinctively glanced at Su Zhiyun again.
She was still covering A Ran and Xiao Mu’s eyes, her disgust undiminished.
At that moment, Zhu Shi and Zhu Le exchanged a glance, seeming to reach some agreement.
They turned almost simultaneously and strode over to Ku Mu, who was standing nearby.
“Old Man Ku Mu! Quick! Give us two sets of clothes!”
Looking at the two before him, Ku Mu also frowned, showing a helpless expression.
Ku Mu let out a low sigh.
With an extremely subtle movement of his fingers at the cuff of his dark green robe, two sets of wide, simple white linen robes appeared in his withered hands.
“Put them on.”
Ku Mu’s voice was still hoarse as the robes fell steadily into Zhu Le’s and Zhu Shi’s hands.
“Huh? Oh, oh!”
Zhu Shi and Zhu Le fumbled to catch them.
They were clearly extremely unskilled at the technical task of dressing.
But with Ku Mu’s help, the two wide white robes were finally properly put on them.
Though the bulging muscle lines still stretched the fabric tight, exuding a sense of power, at least they were no longer bare-chested, looking much neater.