Baijia Village was an extremely small village nestled deep within the mountains, a home built by poor people who had fled famine.
At that moment, Baijia Village was eerily silent; the village was devoid of any human presence, a silence that frightened anyone who experienced it.
Suddenly, a series of footsteps sounded from the entrance of the village. Three figures slowly appeared at the entrance—it was Lin Fang and his companions.
"We're here," said the young man, pointing at Baijia Village.
Lin Fang looked ahead. The silent village was filled with the aura of death, and the air was permeated with a faint smell of blood. It seemed that the people here had already fallen victim to foul play.
The young man also seemed to sense that something was amiss and hurriedly stepped forward into the village.
The village was quiet, without the sound of any living creature, which deeply saddened the young man; he had arrived just a step too late—the detestable demon had already made its move.
Lin Fang followed closely behind the young man, sensing the atmosphere around him. Death and the smell of blood were pervasive, but there was no trace of demon Qi.
This discovery made Lin Fang frown. According to the young man, it was clearly a demon, so why was there no demon Qi? He did not believe that such a monster could master the art of being Leakless.
The young man rushed anxiously back to his home, only to see the door wide open. He burst in and urgently called for his parents, but received no response.
The young man knelt on the ground, angrily pounding the floor. He hated his own weakness as well as the cruelty of the demon.
"Brother, you're here," a frail voice said.
The young man looked up in shock and saw a slim but very pretty woman. She was dressed in beautiful red clothes and was smiling tenderly at him.
"Who are you exactly?" the young man shouted angrily.
The woman's face showed a puzzled expression as she responded, "Brother, are you sick? I'm your sister, don't you recognize me?"
Her expression appeared genuinely sincere.
"So you are his sister. He mentioned you many times on the way here. I never thought the sister he spoke of would be such a beautiful girl," Lin Fang's voice timely intervened, instantly drawing the woman's attention.
"Are you friends of my brother? I don't think I've seen you before?" the woman said, very puzzled, as she didn't recall her brother having such friends in her memory.
That Taoist priest looked distinguished at a glance; how could her brother, a simple farmhand, know such a person?
"Yes, I am Lin Fang," Lin Fang said, his face alight with a warm smile.
"Oh, then please have a seat, I'll go cook for you," the woman said cheerfully.
The young man stared blankly at his sister, very puzzled in his heart. His sister seemed completely normal, which made him think that what he had seen at night was just a dream.
"Where are Dad and Mom?"
"Brother, are you confused? They naturally went to work in the fields at this time. What's wrong with you today? You seem really strange." The woman looked at the young man suspiciously and spoke with some concern.
"It's nothing. Weren't you going to cook? Go cook quickly, I'll go greet the guests first."
After the conversation, the woman went to the kitchen to prepare food, and the young man, still puzzled, led Lin Fang and another person to the main room of their house.
The room was very simple, but one could tell it was arranged with care, very clean, with a somewhat crude wooden table on the floor, and a few pottery bowls on it.
Upon entering the room, the young man quickly looked around and, finding that his sister indeed went into the kitchen, then asked Lin Fang, "Taoist priest, can you see anything?"
At that moment, the young man secretly harbored a hope that everything he saw was false, that his sister had no issues, and his parents were indeed working in the fields, but everything he had seen since entering the village spoke to the cruel reality, so he urgently desired an answer.
Lin Fang, however, shook his head and said, "No matter how I look, I can't detect any Demon Qi on her."
"My sister is normal?" The young man asked, somewhat excitedly.
"Although I can't see any Demon Qi on her, the strong scent of blood cannot deceive anyone. What you see is likely the reality," Lin Fang said softly.
Upon hearing this, the young man became distraught, and he sat down on the ground, tears tracing his rugged cheeks as he muttered, "Is that so? It looks like Mom and Dad have been harmed by her, too."
Unknown to him, his sister was in the kitchen, finding a grindstone to sharpen a knife. She opened her mouth wide, her teeth suddenly grown long and incredibly sharp. She was sharpening her teeth with the grindstone, making a grating sound, and murmuring, "Brother, just wait; I am almost done with the food, and I'm also hungry."
Meanwhile, a small white paper figure witnessed the entire eerie scene. Frightened by what it saw, the newly sentient paper figure covered its mouth, though it had none, and then leapt down, hopping towards where Lin Fang was.
Since Lin Fang and the paper figure were psychically linked, he became aware of this scene. He turned to look at the kitchen, anticipating that the Demon might soon come after them.
"Brother, the food is ready; I'm bringing it out now," the woman's voice came from the kitchen.
Indeed, she brought out a spread of dishes, but the sight of the food shocked the young man. Among the dishes were live snakes, writhing in a plate, and a jar filled with loudly croaking toads.
"Brother, eat quickly, I made this carefully, it's really good," the woman said quietly, staring at Lin Fang and the others.
Seeing that Lin Fang and the others were unmoved, she spoke again, "It's not good to waste food I worked hard to prepare."
As soon as she finished speaking, she opened her mouth, revealing terrifying fangs, and lunged at Lin Fang.
Lin Fang did not hold back either. He punched, knocking the Demon flying back into the wall. The huge force caused the wall to collapse, kicking up a cloud of dust.
The Demon crawled out from the pile of debris, her appearance dramatically changed. The flesh on her face disappeared at a visible rate, quickly turning into ghastly white bone, while deep flames blazed within her eye sockets. Her hair flew about, transforming into tentacle-like strands attempting to ensnare her targets.
"Corpse demon?" The term flashed through Lin Fang's mind, a creature the Old Daoist Priest had once mentioned. They transformed from human corpses into spirits, thus their Demon Qi was faint. If cloaked by flesh and blood, it was difficult to detect.