Chapter 112: The Centipede

The stone stele inside the pavilion had collapsed, shaken as if by an earthquake, with more than half of it fallen. Cui Dandan slowly stepped out of the pavilion. The blood that had poured from her ears had already dried, resembling two crimson earrings hanging from either side of her neck.

“Zhu Yan?”

Cui Dandan furrowed her brows slightly and murmured as she approached the unconscious Su Yuanbai lying amidst the chaos on the ground. A faint mist seemed to rise from her clear eyes as she looked at him.

She had clearly heard the startled shout of the two-thousand-year-old purple centipede demon just moments ago.

This handsome man, besides the faint ghostly aura Cui Dandan had sensed earlier, now exuded a heavy, violent demonic energy. Just one glance at this brutal aura stirred a growing rancor deep within her heart.

“Miss, are you alright?”

“Don’t disturb me!”

Cui Dandan cast a sharp look back at Cui Ya, who had rushed over from the Arhat Hall with a worried expression. A fierce intent arose in her eyes—one even she did not fully understand—and she instinctively snapped at Cui Ya harshly.

“Miss...”

Cui Ya halted in her tracks, feeling a strange unfamiliarity in the voice of her usually gentle mistress.

Behind Cui Ya, Wu Yang’s sleeve concealed a short bronze staff, its ends stained with patches of purple blood. Fleeting remnants of arthropod limbs with fuzzy texture clung to his clothing.

“The demonic energy is so intense, completely different from that of the other monsters,” Wu Yang said, his eyes weary but still sharp as he looked at Cui Dandan and the unconscious Su Yuanbai behind her.

Is he human or demon?

Wu Yang gripped his short staff tightly, knuckles whitening.

“The demons you fought must have fled by now. Do you think I could still be a demon disguised in human skin?” Cui Dandan stepped away from Su Yuanbai slightly, allowing the uncontrollable rancor within her to subside somewhat.

“There’s more than one demon,” Wu Yang warned as he pulled Cui Ya back from moving closer to Cui Dandan.

“I never thought he could actually kill Master Kongchen. I had only planned for him to eliminate Master Huiming first. Now we are in for much trouble.”

Cui Dandan ignored the tightly clenched short bronze staff in Wu Yang’s hand and approached Cui Ya, lowering her gaze to the bewildered girl.

—

Wu Yang gripped the short bronze staff, making a few feints but never striking.

“Watch over him here and do not get close. Even if you haven’t learned the art of aura reading, you must feel the thick, ferocious demonic energy.”

Cui Dandan’s calm voice weighed heavy with seriousness as she looked at Wu Yang, who had several times shown killing intent toward her.

“If... he turns into a demon, what then?” Wu Yang asked slowly, his earnest eyes fixed on Cui Dandan’s clear gaze.

“There is no choice but death.”

Cui Dandan lowered her eyes and began walking toward the Arhat Hall. Beyond it lay the Grand Hall, and further on, the Hall of Heavenly Kings, which led out of the temple gates.

“Be cautious,” Cui Ya reminded Wu Yang with a glance.

Then she drew the double-edged short knife from her waist—an implement she had pulled out and put away multiple times—and hurried after the retreating Cui Dandan, leaving Wu Yang behind.

“No choice but death, huh?”

After seeing them depart, Wu Yang’s exhaustion became clear. He leaned weakly against the shattered stele in the pavilion, murmuring as he gazed at the distant, unconscious Su Yuanbai.

If this man truly becomes a demon, it would indeed be a despairing matter.

Wu Yang chuckled bitterly, lifting his head to look at the mountain summit, where the clouds had dispersed. Yet no matter how he looked, he could not see beyond the mists or understand why demons here roamed unchecked.

Neither the earthly sovereign nor the celestial immortals intervene?

Wu Yang lowered his gaze to Su Yuanbai and slowly closed his eyes. He was tired—after last night’s battle and the numerous events since dawn, his body and mind were utterly exhausted.

—

Cui Dandan stepped into the Arhat Hall. The five hundred Arhat statues no longer shone with golden brilliance as she had remembered. The gold paint peeled away, revealing ugly, mottled statues.

Inside, incense burners had toppled, ashes scattered across the floor. Several shriveled corpses lay there, alongside remnants of centipede carapaces.

“Wu Yang led me through all this,” Cui Ya whispered behind Cui Dandan.

Cui Dandan kicked a centipede corpse as large as a person lying on the ground, not bothering about the filthy blood staining her dress.

“Your best option was to let him take you away from this Fa Ci Temple. You were lucky to only encounter these insignificant little centipede demons.”

“But Miss, you’re still inside...” Cui Ya whispered.

“If that two-thousand-year-old mutated purple centipede really wanted my life, none of you would have mattered. It let you come here deliberately, just to find an excuse to devour you,” Cui Dandan said calmly as she stepped out of the Arhat Hall.

Cui Ya followed behind, stabbing a few centipedes that crawled out from the statues, each about the size of an arm.

“Do these demons need an excuse to eat us? Don’t they just eat if they want?” she asked.

“It’s not that simple. This Fa Ci Temple on Qingtan Mountain is so large—do you think the county magistrate of Nanxi doesn’t know?” Cui Dandan looked up at the nearby Grand Hall with a sigh.

Cui Ya easily sliced a centipede in two with her short knife, puzzlement on her face as she looked at Cui Dandan’s retreating figure.

“But even if they know, there’s nothing they can do...” Cui Ya said.

“Do you really think so? Do you truly believe these demons only demand one pair of boys and girls for sacrifice each year because they have small appetites or feel mercy?”

Cui Dandan slowly entered the Grand Hall, looking up at the statue of Shakyamuni Buddha, before which she had knelt countless times.

Cui Ya’s grip on her knife paused at those words. Unaware, she was bitten on the arm by a scurrying centipede. The wound quickly turned bruised.

In pain, Cui Ya stabbed the centipede to death and took out an ointment from her bosom, applying it to the wound.

The Grand Hall was already swarming with centipedes, leaving almost no place to stand. Even the Buddha statue was covered with them. Strangely, none dared approach Cui Dandan; they all avoided her.

“The most terrifying things in this world are never demons disguised in human skin, but the people we live with daily. For selfish desires, the things they can do are beyond what we can imagine,” Cui Dandan said softly.

Cui Ya silently followed behind her.

“Next, we must deal with humans.”

Cui Dandan calmly walked out of the Grand Hall. The white veil that once covered her face had long since drifted away. A faint, resolute smile touched her pale lips as her deep eyes gazed into the distance.