Chapter 124: Capturing the Demon

"Are there many monsters like this in the city?" Wu Yang asked, helping Su Yuanbai back to his feet as he looked at the calm Cui Dandan.

"Not many dare to eat people openly like this. Most are those who take advantage of the chaos, wearing human skin to prey on others," Cui Dandan replied, casting a glance at the commoners hiding in their houses, peering out at them from both sides of the street. "If you encounter man-eating monsters, you can come find us at the Xie Mansion in Dreamfloat City."

Not everyone was willing to abandon their homes in Dreamfloat City to flee for their lives; these houses were bought with the hard-earned blood and sweat of their daily labor.

"Why not have them come to the Cui Mansion?" Wu Yang asked, looking at Cui Dandan with curiosity.

Cui Dandan said calmly, "The guards at the four city gates of Dreamfloat City are funded by the Cui and Xu families. The fact that we didn't see any guards at the West Gate means they have already recalled them to their own estates."

Wu Yang watched Cui Dandan as she spoke while walking into the city, not rushing to interrupt her.

"And the Cui and Xu families certainly wouldn't allow these commoners near their estates. No one can be sure if there are monsters wearing human skin hiding among them," Cui Dandan said levelly.

"Then are we returning to the Cui Mansion or the Xie Mansion?" Wu Yang asked.

Cui Dandan lifted her gaze to the monsters emerging from the street corners and alleyways, her tone steady. "The Xie Mansion, naturally. Someone has to provide a place for these innocent commoners to take shelter."

"It seems I have no time to rest," Wu Yang laughed candidly.

Cui Dandan looked back at Su Yuanbai, whom Wu Yang was supporting, and said slowly, "As long as we wait for him to wake up, there will be a way to solve everything."

*Swish.*

The White Ape Mother-Son Staff grazed Cui Dandan's cheek, the whistling wind from the rod stirring a few strands of her hair. It struck the head of a man standing at the alley entrance with stiff legs, causing it to burst like a shattered watermelon.

But the liquid that sprayed out was not brains; it was a fat, green flesh-worm.

This bloated green worm had a mouth and eyes, and beneath its eyes were short, inch-long wings. Seeing this, it flapped its wings, searching for another person it could parasitize.

"A Green Wine Worm. It likes to parasitize the brains of those who are hungover, feeding on their marrow; they are also addicted to alcohol." Cui Dandan walked casually into a wine shop by the street, looking down at the shop owner hiding in an empty vat, and said calmly.

The shop owner turned deathly pale.

Cui Dandan helped herself to a jug of aged wine from the shop's counter, looked at the pale-faced owner peering out from the vat, and said, "There aren't many Green Wine Worms in Dreamfloat City, and one host is enough for them to parasitize for a month. If the host has money to buy more alcohol, they might live another month."

Cui Dandan smashed the jug of aged wine on the ground, and the fragrance of wine overflowed.

The fat green worm immediately flapped its wings and flew toward Cui Dandan.

"These monsters are truly stupid." Wu Yang opened his palm abruptly, and the White Ape Mother-Son Staff vibrated back into his hand.

Cui Dandan watched the fat green worm flying toward them and said calmly, "If it cannot find a host for a long time and is exposed to the air for too long, it will dissolve. And if it goes too long without alcohol, it will die of thirst."

"Die of thirst? Can't they just drink water?" Wu Yang easily struck down the fat green worm that had delivered itself to his trap, looking back at Cui Dandan with curiosity.

Cui Dandan looked down at the crushed green worm, its juices carrying an extremely rich scent of wine. "Naturally not. These monsters are born from human desire, fear, and rumors; without wine, there would be no Green Wine Worm."

Wu Yang held his staff and chuckled. "It would be better if the city were filled with only these kinds of monsters."

"If the city were full of such monsters, the powerful ones would have already claimed their own mountain strongholds as kings; they wouldn't be lurking and scavenging in a human city," Cui Dandan said, supporting Xie Xiushi as they slowly moved forward. "But these small demons are endless. With the slightest bit of turmoil, they will take advantage of the chaos to devour humans everywhere."

"If they are endless, what are we to do?" The smile on Wu Yang's face faded, and he said helplessly.

"Just because we cannot wipe them out, doesn't mean others cannot." Cui Dandan stopped, looked back at Su Yuanbai, who was being supported by Wu Yang with one hand, and said softly.

...

Lifloat City is one of the twelve cities in Nanxi Prefecture of the Southern Wilderness Province, and the Fufeng Temple is located on Wufeng Mountain, ten miles outside Lifloat City.

After Cui Ya received the necklace from her young mistress, she did not rest for a single moment.

In truth, Lifloat City is not close to Dreamfloat City, but Cui Ya had no time to first go to Dreamfloat City to find a carriage or a good horse.

Therefore, relying on the memory in her mind, she did not take the relatively safe, wide main roads, but instead chose dangerous mountain paths.

Although these mountain paths were treacherous, they shortened the journey significantly.

However, this also caused Cui Ya's physical exertion to become much more intense. Fortunately, she did not encounter wild beasts or fierce birds in the mountains, so no unnecessary battles occurred.

But Cui Ya did not possess the ability to "fast" (bigu), nor could she absorb the wind and dew; she was merely an ordinary maid with a slight grasp of martial arts. From last night until this morning, she was already exhausted, relying entirely on a single breath of determination to keep going.

Coupled with the rushing along this journey, Cui Ya was spent.

...

Cui Ya was well aware of her state. She feared that before reaching Fufeng Temple, she would starve and collapse on the road, and the sky was already growing dark.

So, Cui Ya found an inn to stay the night.

If her memory served her right, not far from this inn was a small town called Yangjing Town. Reaching Yangjing Town meant one thing: she was halfway to Lifloat City.

Even though Cui Ya had been traveling light the whole way, the fact that she could walk nearly fifty miles in one go without stopping showed that her stamina and endurance were truly remarkable.

Panting, her calves aching, Cui Ya sat quietly in a corner of the inn. She slightly lowered the bamboo hat she had taken from Xie Xiushi and deliberately placed her twin short blades on the table, her fingers touching the hilts intentionally or otherwise.

This could help Cui Ya avoid unnecessary trouble and make those who were oblivious a bit more sensible.

Cui Ya cast a glance at the inn on the outskirts of Yangjing Town. In her memory, this inn had been open for some time, but she felt a faint sense that something was wrong.

In the main hall of the inn, wooden tables and stools were arranged neatly. A few people sat sparsely in the center of the hall, all dressed in gray robes and bamboo hats, with swords at their waists—appearing to be martial artists of the jianghu.

It looked like they were also waiting for their food.

But Cui Ya noticed something wrong: food and drink had already been set out on their tables, yet she did not see them picking up chopsticks to eat.

Cui Ya looked toward the inn's counter; the shopkeeper was nowhere to be seen, and even the waiter who had greeted her earlier had vanished.

Cui Ya drank all the water in the teapot in one breath; she did not want to linger here. But as she moved to rise, the gray-robed martial artists also stood up abruptly.

Time ticked by, and for some reason, the temperature in the inn grew colder. Cui Ya felt a chill.

It was as if winter had arrived.

The gray-robed martial artists remained standing, not sitting back down.

At this moment, whistling sand and wind, carrying a strange atmosphere, battered the inn's doors and windows. Sand from outside began to cross the threshold, flowing through the inn.

Cui Ya's pupils contracted at this sight; when she had entered the inn, she had seen no sand on the ground outside.

This eerie atmosphere increased the pressure on Cui Ya's heart. Her fingers touched the hilts of her blades more frequently, and she lowered her hat more often.

Cui Ya could no longer bear the strange atmosphere. She stood up, gripped the short blades on the table, and simultaneously slid a sharp throwing dart from her sleeve into her palm.

She did not leave the inn immediately, for doing so would expose her back. Instead, she chose to walk toward the nearest gray-robed martial artist.

"May I ask, from where do you hail?"

No one answered Cui Ya's question.

The food on the tables of these martial artists had gone completely cold, and shifting grit, carried by the wind, had coated the dishes.

Yet, based on how cold the food was, Cui Ya knew the food hadn't been served long—about half an hour ago, since she could still smell the aroma when she first arrived.

"If you don't eat this food, it will be fed to the wind and sand," Cui Ya said, lowering her voice and deliberately using a muffled tone.

*Clang.*

Cui Ya’s words were like a stick poking a hornet's nest. The sword at the waist of the martial artist nearest to her suddenly unsheathed, slashing straight at her.

Cui Ya felt a flash of suspicion at the stiff movements of the martial artist. She easily dodged the strike, circled in front of him, and her heart nearly stopped.

The eyes of this gray-robed martial artist were filled with death. From his pupils leaked an eerie black mist, and the aura of this mist made Cui Ya extremely uncomfortable.

Cui Ya did not hesitate. She understood that now was not the time to worry about whether she could win, but that she had to fight—a fight to the death.

A trace of killing intent emerged in Cui Ya's eyes. Taking advantage of the martial artist’s failure to retract his blade, she slashed his throat with her short blades.

*Sssss.*

The crisp sound of the throat being slit echoed, but there was no expected spray of blood; there was only the sound of the martial artist falling heavily to the ground.

"What exactly are you people?" Cui Ya said with a grave expression. She exhaled a breath of turbid air and focused all her attention on the martial artists who were closing in and surrounding her.

...

Her footsteps flowed like shadows, and the short blades followed like phantoms.

The battle ended quickly.

Accompanied by Cui Ya’s heavy, ragged breathing, she knelt weakly on the ground, wiping the blood flowing from her nose with her sleeve, and looked back at the group of martial artists who had surrounded her but were moving slowly.

A blade mark had appeared on each of their throats. As the marks appeared, they fell to the ground one after another, but the eerie black mist leaking from their pupils floated above the inn's hall.

Cui Ya clutched her chest; her heart suddenly beat rapidly, and a feeling of panic flooded her mind. This panic grew, suddenly turning into a terror she could not control.

A wisp of black mist began to appear in the whites of her eyes, drilling like a water snake toward her terrified, dilated pupils.

The wind and sand were desolate and pervasive. The banner outside the inn swayed precariously in the gale, the sound it made like a whip lashing out in the air.

Cui Ya looked at the cracked patterns on the wooden table with vacant eyes. The expression on her face turned sorrowful, then suddenly self-deprecating, then transformed into one of absolute grief, and finally revealed a trace of despairing sharpness.

Her terrified, dilated pupils were gradually solidified by the black mist, and the expression on her face slowly became numb. Suddenly, a crisp bell sound rang in Cui Ya’s ears, bringing a glimmer of spirit back to her dull eyes.

A girl's light laughter followed.

"You Soul-Devouring Demon, you really can run! I’ve chased you all the way from Zhonghe Province to the Southern Wilderness Province. Let's see where you can run to now! If I can't catch you this time, I might as well quit being a Demon-Suppressing Guard of the Demon-Suppressing Department!"

Cui Ya regained a bit of her senses. Her blurry eyes lifted slowly to see a beautiful girl walking in from outside the inn; the voice she had just heard belonged to this girl.

The beautiful girl wore a crescent-colored dress, the patterns of which were embroidered with green and ink-colored silk. The green silk depicted a magnificent, brilliant galaxy, while the ink-colored silk embroidered along the collar depicted distant, ethereal demons and monsters.

Hanging from the girl's waist was a peculiar little black gourd, with green vines wrapped around its mouth, tied to the girl's hand.

In addition to the gourd, she held a string of copper bells, each engraved with Daoist runes.

The crisp bell sound Cui Ya had heard earlier came from these bells.

The wind and sand outside the inn howled, and the sinister wind inside the inn surged as well. Cui Ya’s aura grew increasingly withered, and a thick sense of death lingered between her brows.

But the black mist above the inn hall suddenly sank, and the heavy aura of death between Cui Ya's brows rose. The two converged to form a humanoid black mist resembling Cui Ya, which tried to fly out of the inn.

The beautiful girl’s crescent-like eyebrows arched. The magnificent galaxy embroidered on her dress suddenly manifested, and as the girl guided it with her fingertips, the galaxy enveloped the inn.

"You want to run again the moment you see me? I won't give you another chance! You've run away so many times that I have no face left. Besides, using her life to threaten me won't work."

The green vines on the girl's gourd extended abruptly, the tips of the vines lightly tapping Cui Ya's brow. With a sound like a metal chain breaking, Cui Ya’s head slumped powerlessly to the side.

The humanoid black mist flying in mid-air suddenly dispersed. A shrill, miserable screech came from within the mist. Countless black mists erupted from the cracks in the inn floor, filled with various negative emotions.

Voices filled with temptation and threats rang constantly in the beautiful girl's ears. The strange black mist before her suddenly dissipated, revealing faces wrapped in black energy.

These faces were all pale green, with jagged teeth like saw blades, rushing toward the girl.

"You want to resist this time, too?"

The beautiful girl made a face at the group of evil spirits. The demons and monsters embroidered on her collar floated up, protecting her.

Even though many evil spirits attacked, they were helped by the embroidered creatures.

Seeing this, the girl gave a delicate snort and, unhurriedly, shook the copper bells engraved with Daoist runes. The bells rang.

The skulls of the evil spirits cracked one after another. A heart-wrenching roar came from the black mist in the inn. Then, followed by terrified, shrill screams, the evil spirits with cracked skulls began to turn into dust, dispersing into wisps of black mist, flowing toward Cui Ya’s body.

"I told you, using her life to threaten me won't work. This time, I’m going to catch you and turn you into a member of my Myriad Ghost Star Dress."

The girl made another face. The galaxy enveloping the inn descended, and the ground shimmered with starlight, forming a brilliant net that captured all the black mist above and below the inn, along with the wisps trying to crawl into Cui Ya’s body.

Even though the galaxy net had holes, the black mist could only churn within it, unable to escape.

"Seal!"

The beautiful girl wrinkled her nose, opened the lid of her little black gourd, and sucked the black mist from the galaxy net into it.