Looking at the man who had exploded into a mist of blood, the woman in red swallowed hard, lowered her head, and her expression became even more respectful.
This woman is truly a capricious goddess of slaughter.
Li Guanshi snapped back to reality, pocketed the jade hairpin, casually picked up the wine jug from the lake, took a sip, and his smile-flecked gaze briefly drifted off, enigmatic and inscrutable.
She turned her head to look at another spot on the shore, "And who is she?"
A woman was kneeling on the bank.
Her eyes were tightly closed, as if restrained and bound, her expression one of terror.
The woman in red spoke softly, "Not long ago, a man sank his wife to the bottom of the lake; coincidentally, a remnant spirit of a rabbit demon drifted here, about to perish. I then put the demon spirit into the body of the woman."
Li Guanshi observed for a moment and said with some surprise, "The aura of the Life-Death Mysterious Thunder Talisman lingers on her body; indeed, she's lucky not to have her soul completely scattered."
She waved her hand to undo the woman's restraints and asked coldly, "Are you from the Sky Demon Sect?"
The Life-Death Mysterious Thunder Talisman is a secret technique of the Sky Demon Sect.
The rabbit demon of a woman, frightened out of her wits, prostrated on the ground and said in a trembling voice,
"Real one, spare my life. I was originally a maidservant by the side of Sect Master Qu Hongling of the Sky Demon Sect. In a moment of greed, I stole a bottle of precious Demon Energy from our sect and came to make a deal with a mysterious person in the Capital.
But without warning, he betrayed and left me for dead.
I had the Sky Demon Sect's Life-Death Mysterious Thunder Talisman on me; that's the only reason why a sliver of my demon spirit survived. I drifted here and was luckily saved by the senior Mengniang and managed to inhabit the body of this woman..."
The rabbit demon was so afraid of Li Guanshi that she poured out everything about her identity and the reason she came to the Capital.
Qu Hongling's maidservant?
Li Guanshi, who was originally intent on killing the rabbit demon, showed a glimmer of interest in her eyes.
Having heard about the newly-emerged young genius girl of the Demon Clan, she said playfully, "So you're saying, you are a traitor to the Sky Demon Sect. Will your former master come to 'clean house'?"
The rabbit demon shook her head bitterly, "I don't know."
After pausing, the rabbit demon said sadly, "Given the Sect Master's temperament, she will not let it go easily."
Li Guanshi smiled and couldn't be bothered to deal with the mess the other created, waved her hand to indicate for the other to get lost.
After the rabbit demon had left, Li Guanshi spoke to the woman in red about serious matters,
"Many years ago, the young master of the Pingyang Mo Family, Mo Ruye, saved you when you were a little snake. A few years later, your Demon Energy unexpectedly revived, and as a newly awakened intelligent being, you had the good fortune to become the first demon. Out of gratitude, you were determined to marry him.
But life is unpredictable, and on the night of your wedding, the entire Pingyang Mo Family was slaughtered, becoming an unresolved case.
Of course, everyone knows who the hidden killer is.
The reason you, as a demon, were not killed is that someone from the Imperial Astronomer's office did not wish to kill you, so they suppressed you in that house.
I released you so you could find the only surviving descendent of the Pingyang Mo Family, the child of Mo Ruye. Only you can find him."
The woman in red's eyes widened as she exclaimed in a sharp voice, "Impossible! Mr. Mo could not possibly have a child!"
Li Guanshi chuckled with a look of pity,
"What if I told you that the young master of the Mo Family named Mo Ruye was actually a woman? Would you collapse?"
The woman in red was stunned.
Li Guanshi gently bit her lush red lips that resembled freshly picked cherries and smiled brightly,
"Mo Ruye was raised as the family head from a young age, always presenting herself as a man. Unfortunately, a woman is a woman after all; she fell in love and gave birth to a child for another man.
The Pingyang Mo Family weren't fools; how could they not know you were a demon? Mo Ruye agreeing to marry you was simply to use you, to protect her own child.
This secret I uncovered with much effort. Less than five people in the world know this bitter secret."
Li Guanshi stretched out five slender fingers and said with a smile,
"Even Zhao Wuxiu didn't know back then. Otherwise, how could that baby hidden outside have survived? Counting the time, the child should be almost of age by now.
Even the old sage Zhuge Xuanji couldn't divine where the child is. I can only send you to look. After all, you and Mo Ruye already formed a karmic bond, tangles of cause and effect at their deepest.
Only you have the hope of finding that child."
Li Guanshi looked at the woman in red, her tone steady but laden with an oppressive force,
"In any case, I've told you what you need to do. I'll find you a host body, so you can leave this place unencumbered.
Moreover, I've settled an agreement in the Capital; as long as you don't do anything outrageous, they won't seek you out for trouble.
But should you face danger, life or death will be entirely up to your own abilities."
"A host body?"
The red-clad snake spirit was still recovering from the initial shock and frowned subconsciously.
Li Guanshi said with a smile, "You're in luck. The host I found for you, a little snake demon, is a dead person. Not only will he not harm your demon spirit, but will nourish it."
——
Inside the cabin, Jiang Shouzhong was enveloped in a blazing golden light, at times eerie, at times divine.
As the gold light gradually faded, the man returned to normal.
The characters in the book remained, but they seemed to have lost their spirit.
```
It was uncertain how much time had passed when a shadowy figure suddenly appeared in the room, ghostlike and emerging without a sound.
It was a woman in a black robe, wearing a silver mask with the likeness of a bird person.
Indeed, it was the mysterious woman Yeying who had once saved Jiang Shouzhong in Anhe Village.
"Drunk?"
Yeying, who had originally intended to wake the man, hesitated for a moment before retracting her extended hand back into the wide sleeve of her robe.
She poured a glass of water, set it beside the bed, and properly covered Jiang Shouzhong with the blanket. Then she silently sat down in a chair, planning to wait for him to wake up before discussing matters regarding their trip to Qingzhou.
Outside the room, the sound of the frosty wind scraping against the window paper whistled incessantly.
The man immersed in his dream occasionally furrowed his brows.
"Hong'er..."
In the darkness, the man mumbled a dream-talk in his drunken haze.
The eyes beneath Yeying's mask were filled with complexity as she looked at the man's handsome and transcendental face and murmured, "Jiang Shouzhong, perhaps I shouldn't use you. But at the moment, the only one I can trust... is you."
The woman slowly removed her mask, revealing a pale face as immaculate as frost and snow.
"Jiang Mo... Mo..."
The woman's distant gaze seemed to fall into the whirlpool of memories as she said with mournful self-mockery, "Everyone thinks the child of Mo Ruye is a boy, even betrothed as an infant, how ridiculous. But what does it matter if I can deceive the world? How long can I, a scion of the Mo Family, possibly live?"
In a flash, Yeying regained her composure and lifted her head, her gaze sharp as a real sword, as if piercing through the door.
She put on her mask and disappeared from the room.
The next second, the woman appeared atop a roof. Her black robe flapped in the wind, resembling a hawk in the night, coldly watching a sneaky figure appearing on the street below.
It was Nalan Xie.
Nalan Xie hadn't intended to come; after all, there was no need to get involved personally just to discipline a Jiang Mo with no cultivation.
Yet, for some reason, he felt an inexplicable unease, so he came to take a look.
Looking at Jiang Shouzhong's peaceful house, he felt even more puzzled.
Hasn't taken action yet?
Could it be that fool Shi Yi got drunk on pleasure wine and passed out?
After debating internally for a long time, Nalan Xie ultimately suppressed the impulse to check and turned to leave.
Watching him walk away, Yeying hesitated a moment before also vanishing into the night.
Yeying swept through dark alleys and upon reaching a corner, she suddenly stopped, turned around, and focused on the sneaky person she had coincidentally encountered again.
In the night, the man's tall frame was like jade, quite out of the ordinary.
Nalan Xie casually grabbed at the air, drew it to his nose, and took a deep sniff, smiling, "It's the fragrance of a woman, my luck is good tonight."
He flashed a brilliant smile at Yeying, "Ah, a beauty with jade pendants and delicate charms, whom I've seen in my dreams. Miss, why are you out here in the middle of the night instead of sleeping at home? Are you here for a tryst with a lover from your dreams? What a coincidence, I dreamed during the day of a fairy waiting here for me, and it must be you, Miss."
Yeying cut straight to the point and, on the tips of her toes, lunged at the man.
"Is the miss so eager to throw herself into my arms?"
Nalan Xie's laughter grew even heartier as he spread his arms open.
Besides his dog's nose, which was several times more sensitive than the average person's, his divine eye could instantly discern the depth of someone's cultivation.
That was why he was so brazen.
He would hide from the strong and pursue the weak.
He saw that this woman was at the minor Grandmaster Realm, with strength comparable to Shi Yi's.
But compared to him, a Great Grandmaster... she lacked a whole realm!
One realm's difference was as vast as the difference between heaven and earth.
Probably few people within the Liushan Division knew that the usually frivolous Nalan Xie was actually a high-ranking Great Grandmaster.
However, as Yeying approached, Nalan Xie's face suddenly changed drastically.
Something's wrong!
This woman is deliberately concealing her cultivation with a secret technique!
Yeying's eyes beneath the mask gleamed with mockery. From her sleeve, a hand as pale as a wraith's, seemingly light as a firefly's non-stick feather, floated effortlessly onto Nalan Xie's chest, booming like thunder.
Bang!
The man flew backward, blood splattering his chest, and a trail of crimson stains dotted the ground.
Yeying wanted to pursue, but she abruptly stopped, turned her head, and looked in the distance.
A blurry figure clumsily fled far away.
"Doppelganger shadow, Yin Yang transformation?"
Yeying frowned slightly, a smirk forming on her lips, "Turns out it's a disciple of the Yin Yang Sect."
```