Chapter 629

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Protagonist:

Shen Yao

"Wuu wuu wuu, Dong Lang."

A young woman knelt before the inn entrance, surrounded by a circle of onlookers, all pointing at her.

When Shen Yao squeezed in and found no spot, she casually pulled over an older woman to ask what was happening ahead, why there was the sound of a woman crying.

"Ai, what a sin!"

The older woman slapped her thigh and said with heartfelt grief that it was a young couple quarreling; the man refused to return home, and the woman came every day to win him back.

"They live in Guihua Alley not far from here," the older woman said, pointing behind her and whispering to Shen Yao that this Lady Dong's skill in brewing Guihua Brew was unmatched by anyone, "They were close at first, but later for some reason she insisted on divorcing him."

Shen Yao covered the corner of her lips upon hearing this. "Could it be the man has a new love?"

Between a new love and an old love, of course the new love matters more.

Before the older woman could speak, others beside her couldn't help but take up the conversation, "No, Dong Cheng isn't that kind of person. I heard it's the Dong family that's been troubled by a yaoguai calamity."

"Ah! A yaoguai calamity means divorcing his wife? Could this yaoguai calamity be Lady Dong herself?"

"Not exactly, but it has something to do with Lady Dong. Otherwise why wouldn't Dong Cheng dare return home? Staying at an inn costs no small amount of silver money."

The chattering discussion helped Shen Yao quickly sort out the cause and effect.

It was a romance between a human and a yaoguai again. Could this really be a specialty product of this Shijie?

Shen Yao tilted her head and, while the crowd was busy arguing, squeezed to the front.

The view ahead opened up instantly, and Shen Yao saw just as she wished a young woman kneeling on the ground covering her face and weeping, calling out Dong Lang without cease.

She was not old, her hair wrapped in deep blue cloth, her simple cloth skirt neatly adorned.

Shen Yao sniffed her nose and smelled a clear, sweet osmanthus fragrance coming from this Lady Dong; recalling the season, osmanthus was indeed in bloom.

Moreover, Lady Dong's family lived in Guihua Alley, named for a hundred-year-old osmanthus tree before the alley.

"Wan Niang, go back. Our, our marital fate ends here."

"Wuu wuu wuu, Dong Lang, I don't want to part from you. Why must you divorce me?"

Shen Yao raised her eyes and, following the direction Wan Niang was speaking, saw the male protagonist standing inside the inn doorway.

He was a young man with decent looks; were it not for the dark circles under his eyes showing he had been living terribly lately, these two looked well matched by appearance alone.

One wanted to divorce his wife, the other refused to leave, and they tugged at each other.

As more and more people gathered, the innkeeper had to step in to stop them, after all this affected his moneybag and business.

"Wan Niang, I've already placed the divorce papers at home. Take them and leave quickly."

After Dong Cheng spoke, he covered his face and ran into the inn, until his figure disappeared from sight.

Seeing this, Wan Niang still wanted to speak to win him back, but helplessly she couldn't enter the inn, nor find a chance to talk with Dong Cheng, and finally could only leave weeping.

Shen Yao coldly watched this man with a look of insisting on not giving up. Mm, he would come again in a short time; the liveliness before the inn door could be watched for some days.

"Boss, bring me some of your best dishes quickly for me to taste."

Rubbing her belly, which had digested too quickly, Shen Yao ate without any burden, anyway she had plenty of gold, silver, and jewels in her space.

"Guest, please wait a moment."

Little Two brought out the inn's widely praised dishes; as a building combining lodging and dining, the inn not only did lodging business, but daytime meals were the main source of income.

Shen Yao happily finished a table of dishes and planned to leave the inn to wander elsewhere, not expecting a middle-aged man appearing at the doorway to catch her attention.

Grey clothes, a waist sword at his back, his hair tied in a topknot and fixed behind his head.

The middle-aged man smelled too strongly of wind and dust, but what made Shen Yao even more doubtful was the unusually thick blood-stained yaoguai qi clinging to him.

Hiss

This person must have killed many yaoguai!

A Daoist? Monks are bald; this middle-aged man's thick hair clearly didn't fit.

But are Daoists all so bloodthirsty? How does it not match what the system said?

"Host, could it be that he is simply a villain who focuses on catching and killing yaoguai?"

The system jumped out, saying it didn't take the blame; this was clearly not a good person.

Shen Yao could release and retract her own yaoguai qi at will and had no worry of being detected, so when the middle-aged man looked over, she returned his gaze without courtesy.

As a result of this mutual gaze, Shen Yao noticed a flash of lust in the middle-aged man's eyes.

Mm?

Interesting, so he really is a villain!

Shen Yao withdrew her gaze as if nothing had happened, paid, stood up, and left.

In the moment of brushing past the middle-aged man, Shen Yao secretly cast a technique on him so she could detect his location at any time.

"System, watch closely. Maybe we're opening business this time we entered the city."

System:... Mm?

Open business? What open business? Open what business?

"Of course acting on behalf of Heaven, eliminating violence and bringing peace," Shen Yao said with firm words, saying that a scoundrel like this being able to live and continue doing evil was an insult to her.

System:... Is this inconsistent with the Host's persona?

Shen Yao didn't care whether it matched or not; she had the system monitor the middle-aged man.

As expected, the middle-aged man sought out the man named Dong Cheng.

Through their conversation, it was learned that the middle-aged man had discovered Dong Cheng's wife Wan Niang was a yaoguai, and after telling Dong Cheng, he wanted to take Wan Niang away.

And Dong Cheng, worried about Wan Niang's personal safety, therefore chose to divorce his wife, letting Wan Niang leave.

Right now the middle-aged man came over to question Dong Cheng about his wife Wan Niang's whereabouts, and used this as leverage to force Dong Cheng to cooperate with him in catching demons.

Shen Yao:...

After listening to the dialogue full of loopholes, Shen Yao said, '... Wan Niang isn't a demon, so how do you catch her?'

The premise conditions are wrong; although the osmanthus scent on Wan Niang's body is strong, that is only from long-term contact while making Guihua Brew, not something emanating from herself.

'Host, this middle-aged man has ulterior motives; although Dong Cheng means well, he did the wrong thing.'

Actively divorcing his wife like this—how is an ordinary ancient woman supposed to live?

'Hmph! I see his heart isn't right either; whether the person by his pillow is a demon or not, how could he not know?'

He just likes to deceive himself and others.

People say in human-demon romances the demon will deceive, but after long companionship, no matter how much deception, flaws will eventually show.

Unless one truly doesn't care, few people would fail to notice.

This Dong Cheng doesn't speak very honestly, and the middle-aged man also has ulterior motives; Shen Yao raised her hand and touched her chin, deciding to make a trip to Guihua Alley to take a look at that osmanthus tree that became a spirit and at Wan Niang.

Indeed, the one that truly became a spirit is the osmanthus tree; Wan Niang, due to daily contact with it, carries demonic energy, but that demonic energy floats and doesn't last long—once she leaves the area behind the osmanthus tree, it will slowly dissipate. The middle-aged man surely won't not know this principle.

Knowing it yet pretending not to know—what exactly does this middle-aged man want to do? Could he be using Wan Niang as bait?

Thinking this, Shen Yao raised her foot and walked into Guihua Alley not far away.

In early August, Guihua Alley was fragrant; before even entering inside, she was lightly struck by drifting pale yellow flower petals.

Shen Yao looked up at the osmanthus tree that nearly blocked the entire alley entrance, and in her heart sighed that it's not easy for plants and trees to become spirits.

Even if this osmanthus tree is already a hundred years old, the age at which it became a spirit isn't great; the reason is simple—the osmanthus tree cannot leave Guihua Alley.

Even if the rose spirit caught by Shen Yao to sell rouge has no means of self-defense, it can at least carry its own body around everywhere.

But what about the osmanthus tree? Bound to Guihua Alley, once blocked, there's only a dead end.

'Host, this osmanthus tree only became a spirit not long ago, and Wan Niang's body has strong demonic energy;' a connection between the two is unlikely.

This is common sense: an osmanthus tree with demonic energy too faint doesn't have the ability to claim Wan Niang as its own territory.

Then where does the demonic energy on Wan Niang's body come from?

'We must first find Wan Niang, or look at the place where Wan Niang usually resides;' the owner of the demonic energy and Wan Niang must have frequent contact, even an intimate relationship.

Dong dong dong——

'Who is it?'

'Hello, may I ask if you are Wan Niang?'

Wan Niang, that is, the young woman who was crying at the inn doorway this morning, opened the door and looked at Shen Yao with a confused gaze, not understanding why the other person came to find her.

Shen Yao smiled, 'I just want to talk about your husband Dong Cheng.'

Dong Cheng?

Wan Niang's expression suddenly changed, her eyes full of vigilance, 'Dong Lang, do you have some past with him?'

Facing a young, strange, and extremely beautiful woman, Wan Niang sounded the alarm line in her heart.

'I'll go first, take care.'

'Thank you for the reminder, Miss Shen; Wan Niang understands.'

Shen Yao came out of Wan Niang's home, and before leaving Guihua Alley, she saw the middle-aged man standing at the alley entrance.

Obviously, he also noticed Shen Yao; although the lust in his eyes couldn't be hidden, he could still clearly distinguish priorities—at least the other person's energy was currently all on the osmanthus tree at the alley entrance.

Hualalala——

Pale yellow petals fluttered down, and along with the falling petals came demonic energy mixed in among them.

This was the osmanthus tree sensing danger, trying to scare the middle-aged man away through intimidation.

'Hmph! Putting on an act!'

The middle-aged man's hands were stained with who knows how much demon blood; this osmanthus tree before him had low ability and not even a proper attack method, 'Sooner or later I'll pull you out by the roots.'

Turning around, the middle-aged man left.

After all, his plan wasn't yet at the stage of wrapping up; after confirming the target's location, the rest was just normal progress.

'Host, this person's gaze is shifty and his steps unsteady; he definitely has a lot of bad water in his belly.'

Who knows, he might still be scheming against our Host; that lecherous look really deserves to die!

The system was unusually violent, wishing to directly deal with this man.

Shen Yao raised her eyebrow, thinking the system couldn't take this anymore; what would she do if she encountered the same thing in the future?

The world is so big; there are not a few people doing the same thing as the middle-aged man. Shen Yao isn't a demon who likes to meddle in others' affairs, but once she encounters it, she can't truly ignore it.

Speaking from a utilitarian point of view, for every person/demon she helps, she receives a reward from the World Consciousness, and it also indirectly advances the completion of the main mission.

After all, her true form is a demon, and her offspring will most likely be demons too.

Demons are individually powerful, but they can't withstand many ants biting an elephant to death.

If the demons' survival environment could be improved, easing the conflict between humans and demons, that would also benefit Shen Yao.

It's just that achieving this goal is somewhat difficult; human hearts are greedy, and demons are treasures from head to toe. Just look at that middle-aged man—you can tell the reason he keeps doing this without stopping is that he earns too much.

'The first step in roaming the martial world is to deal with those in the way.'

Shen Yao raised her hand and pinched her fist, then left Guihua Alley with a relaxed expression.

About time she came out; time to fill her belly and go home to rest.

The night in Qingping City was even more lively with smoke and fire; everywhere there were stalls and small shops.

Shen Yao's true form eats grass, and after becoming human, she still prefers some vegetables and fruits.

Running to the end of this side and then stepping back, Shen Yao carried the food she bought in her hand, her whole person overflowing with happy emotions.

"Boss, how much for these wild fruits? Pack them all up for me to take away."

"Boss, your flowers are blooming well; just deliver them straight to the alley entrance ahead."

"Boss, one must be honest in life; using wild grass as a substitute won't do."

"……"

Shen Yao had a good eye, picking out only the useful things to buy, especially those demons who came down from the mountain to do business; because of their attribute of being cheap and good quality, she bought them all up.

The demons were simple and enthusiastic; the things they put out at their stalls were all things they had casually pulled down from the mountain, and some, if not carefully identified, one wouldn't even know their effects.

Shen Yao was well-informed and experienced; she would neither cheat the demons nor be a sucker.

Just like that, by the time Shen Yao left the night market, not only were her hands full with no free space, but even her home's doorway was piled full of things.

Shopping is addictive!

While silently reciting in her heart that impulse is the devil, absolutely not, absolutely not; while also putting the things she bought back into her space, to take them out again when needed.

…………

"Host, Wan Niang has gone out."

"Host, Wan Niang has made an appointment to meet Dong Cheng outside the city; isn't she afraid of trouble?"

"Host, that middle-aged man is so sinister, actually sneaking off to Guihua Alley!"

"Host……"

The system was like a little assistant broadcasting on time; without waiting for Shen Yao to react, it spoke out the content it had monitored first.

Shen Yao propped her chin with one hand; outside today a drizzle was falling, and the air carried a thread of cold desolation.

Looking outside through the system window, Shen Yao picked up the tea cup on the table with one hand, bringing it to her lips to sip lightly.

"Where is the middle-aged man?"

"Guihua Alley."

Swish—

Shen Yao opened the oil-paper umbrella at her hand, pushed open the room door, and walked into the rain.

In just a moment, Shen Yao's figure disappeared in the front courtyard, leaving only the tea cup on the table steaming with mist.

The place Shen Yao reappeared was under the osmanthus tree in Guihua Alley.

The osmanthus flowers originally hanging full on the branches had fallen all over the ground, mixed with mud, revealing pitted water surfaces.

Drip, drip

Shen Yao walked forward holding the oil-paper umbrella; not far away stood the middle-aged man.

As for Shen Yao's appearance, the middle-aged man obviously did not feel surprised; even if Shen Yao's breath-concealing effect was excellent, meeting again and again, again and again, he was not a newcomer just out of his hut; how could the middle-aged man fail to discover the problem?

"Yaoguai!"

The middle-aged man struck first; the long sword behind his back shot straight out, and after floating in midair, he gripped it tightly.

"I am the yaoguai, then what are you? Scum?" You still have the nerve to talk about her; the sins you yourself have created probably cannot be washed clean even if you went to the Underworld.

The atmosphere suddenly became tense; a great battle was imminent.