Chapter 102: Unexpected Encounter with an Old Demon (Requesting Monthly Votes)

“Thud-thud-thud...”

The demon lay on the ground, its body pierced by five flying daggers and another embedded in its skull—its life already severed, yet it continued to writhe and thrash, making unmistakable noise.

“It’s dead?”

“Should be.”

“Brother, where did you learn these spells...?”

“Don’t ask.”

“Oh! Then it...”

The junior sister pointed at the twitching corpse on the ground.

With a crash, the room door was smashed open.

Four tall, imposing armored soldiers stepped in first, their faces painted with bright red pigment, shields raised; behind them came Third Brother, sword in hand.

Upon entering, they saw a charred corpse on the ground, its clothes reduced to rags—only its human shape discernible, life long gone, yet neither quite human nor quite corpse.

Third Brother exhaled in relief, then turned to the two.

“I knew you’d run into a demon too—good thing, looks like you’ve already dealt with it.”

“Why did you only show up now?”

“Only now? These bald monks have made plenty of demon friends—I’ve already slain two snake demons and a giant spider out there!” Third Brother glanced down, “What is this thing? Why’s it still twitching after death?”

“This is...”

Lin Jue looked down, fragments of the earlier scene flashing through his mind; his eyes narrowed in thought, then suddenly widened, his expression hardening.

“Danger!”

He thrust out his palm—a dragon of flame roared forth.

Fire and wind intertwined.

The spiritual fire flared—and the demon on the ground revealed its true form.

It was nothing but a twitching tail segment.

Lin Jue snapped to attention and, without hesitation, gripped his sword and chanted:

“Heaven and earth vast, spirits of this land, heed my command! Spiritual light cleanses, shattering ancient darkness! Demons and ghosts, come forth—do not hide from the light! Three realms of yin and yang, my incantation reveals your form!”

Spiritual light rippled outward like water.

A mottled trail of blood appeared on the ground.

Lin Jue turned his head—

A shadow clung to the wall, slipping past the armored soldiers inside. It reached the doorway, saw it had been spotted, abandoned stealth, and dashed out in a blur.

In a flash—the fox shot out the door first!

The three followed close behind.

Stepping outside, they looked up—the thing had already cleared the courtyard wall; though badly wounded, it moved with terrifying speed, leaping over in an instant.

The courtyard was already a bloody mess.

Many pilgrims and townsfolk trembled in fear.

“Running?”

Lin Jue hesitated, but as he glanced at the blood on his shoulder, the pain still pulsing, he gritted his teeth, gripped his sword, and pulled out a small blue bottle, no bigger than a finger.

He swallowed it whole.

Now that he had mastered the ingestion method, the speed and potency of pills far surpassed his former results—immediately, a wave of heat surged through his body, his feet seeming to catch the wind.

The Wang pilgrim hid inside his room, peering out cautiously.

This morning’s events had come so suddenly—they terrified him and shattered his understanding of the world.

First, for no reason, the young Daoist who had been so amiable yesterday drew his sword and confronted the temple monks, waving his hand to turn beans into soldiers—his power like that of a god—and no one knew why he was enraged.

The temple’s senior monks were initially confused and terrified, as if the young Daoist had gone mad. Some bolder souls tried to reason with him; the timid ones had already fled the temple or hidden away. But when the young Daoist slashed one monk’s throat, the monks’ faces changed instantly—desperate to save themselves, they summoned demons.

Both sides accused the other of being demons.

The young Daoist claimed the monks hid deep evils—the demons reeked of death. The monks claimed the great serpent was a heavenly dragon protecting the Buddha’s teachings, and the armored soldiers were ghostly demons.

The Wang pilgrim could not tell who was good or evil.

In the end, the young Daoist had the upper hand.

Yet the Wang pilgrim still dared not step out—just as he thought the chaos had settled—he saw the two younger Daoists storm out of the room, the Lin Daoist without a word drawing his sword and dashing outside.

Though young in appearance, he took one step to the courtyard wall, another to its top, sword raised toward the rising sun.

The white fox leapt lightly—and cleared the wall too.

The two Daoists behind followed close.

It seemed they were chasing something.

The temple’s battle had lasted barely a moment—yet the sun had not yet risen.

Beyond the courtyard wall, the world opened wide.

First came a pine and cypress forest, squirrels foraging among the trees, birds singing softly, all veiled in a faint morning mist.

But this calm shattered instantly.

The demon darted through it with uncanny agility.

Lin Jue, having ingested the Divine Speed Pill, felt as light as a swallow, his feet brushing the wind—he abandoned the ground entirely, leaping from treetop to treetop, eyes locked on the creature below.

Beyond the pine forest lay a field of farmland.

Autumn harvest had long passed; several autumn rains had nourished the fields. In the windless morning, each plot was a perfect square mirror, reflecting sky, clouds, sunrise, earthen ridges, green grass, and farmhouses.

Yet a demon raced across the water-mirror like a bolt of lightning, its feet not sinking, leaving only a widening ripple in the reflection.

The dawn’s glow dyed the flooded fields a brilliant red; smoke curled from thatched cottages beside the fields—normally a tranquil autumn countryside scene. But when a farmer heard the noise and opened his door, he saw a Daoist leaping across ridges and water, sword in hand.

The figure glided—truly like a god.

The farmer stared, dumbfounded.

Third Brother, though powerful, had never learned ingestion methods, and gradually fell behind.

The only one who could keep pace was a white shadow, running shoulder-to-shoulder with him.

It moved like running, yet leaping; like leaping, yet flying. One step on the center of a flooded field, and it crossed to the opposite ridge.

The demon ahead was slowly pulling farther away.

Further ahead lay the mountains.

Deep autumn: grasses yellowed, the hills ablaze with red, mist clinging to the ground like a white veil over the forest.

Lin Jue still wove through dead branches and crimson leaves.

Occasionally, red leaves drifted down, mingling with the mist to block his view. Fortunately, Fuyao seemed to understand his intent, darting through the hills below like a shadow, guiding his path.

“Shu-shu-shu...”

Several flying daggers shot out, embedding into the ground.

Then, amid incantations, they flew back.

This demon ran fast—even wounded, it was slowly widening the distance.

Gradually, they reached another great mountain.

Unconsciously, beside him, among the dead branches and flying leaves, appeared a crow—flying parallel at a distance, occasionally glancing back at him.

“Aowu~”

A distant, prolonged wolf howl.

“Another demon?”

Lin Jue glanced back—Third Brother still followed—so he did not slow.

Now atop the mountain, he imagined this place must have been lush with spring grass; now it was knee-high with dead grass, glowing red in the sunrise, swaying with the mountain wind.

The demon fled desperately through the grassy hills, carving a clear path through golden-red blades; the distance from Lin Jue grew ever greater. Just as Lin Jue began to think he’d never catch it—and hesitated, fearing he’d chased too far, too dangerously—he saw the grass on the opposite hill stir too, cleaved open by a distinct trail.

The two paths seemed destined to meet.

Lin Jue halted, staring ahead.

The fox stopped beside him, head raised high, watching the distance with sharp alertness.

Wind swept the hills, morning light blinding.

The demon fled wildly; the distant trail closed rapidly—the two met.

Then came a scream and a roar.

Piercing, unbearable.

The rustling of the grassy hills ceased.

Lin Jue stopped, sword ready, wary.

From the knee-high grass ahead, a tall man suddenly rose, one hand gripping the demon. Through wind and swaying grass, he strode toward Lin Jue, slowly approaching—now visible: the demon’s head had been torn off, as if by some ferocious beast.

The fox grew even more alert, lowering its body.

But Lin Jue felt the man was familiar.

“Savior...”

The figure reached Lin Jue’s side and stopped, tossing the demon before him: “Why come to Zhou Shan and not seek us out? Why chase demons here at dawn?”

“Pup-pup-pup...”

A crow landed on his head.

Lin Jue suddenly remembered—

It was indeed the wolf demon from Langtou Mountain.

“Zhou Shan?”

Is this Zhou Shan?

Lin Jue looked around and realized he had unknowingly entered the heart of a great mountain; after some thought, he turned again to the wolf demon and the crow before him: “I never expected to run into you two!”

This puzzled the fox; it tilted its head, looking at him, then at the wolf demon and the crow.

At the same time, Third Senior Brother and Little Junior Sister arrived beside them.

Third Senior Brother had no idea what was going on and looked as puzzled as the fox; Little Junior Sister, however, still remembered this wolf demon and crow, and upon seeing them again, immediately felt something was deeply strange.

“Why are you chasing the demon, benefactor?”

“It’s a long story…”

Lin Jue raised his sword and studied them; he detected no aura of death on them, and only then did he relax slightly.

It wasn’t that he was overly suspicious—this place was not far from the mountain’s base, merely ten or twenty li away, and a little caution was only natural.

But upon further thought, this temple had stood for more than just a year or two; these two had dared to attend the banquet of the Lord of Langtou Mountain last early summer, so they must not have been corrupted back then. They likely never joined forces with the wicked. Now, with no aura of death, their steadfastness was confirmed.

Lin Jue briefly explained the situation.

“Those monks of Songyin Temple? They’ve been here for years—they’re not monks at all. The original monks were killed by them. Over the years, they’ve harmed a few people, but not many; mostly for silver. Otherwise, they’ve always kept a low profile.” The wolf demon spoke to him. “No one, not even immortals, has ever come to intervene.”

“You knew about this?”

“Of course we knew, but we never interfered with each other.” The wolf demon said. “Now that we’ve fallen into your hands, it’s only justice.”

“I see…”

Lin Jue frowned in thought, then suddenly felt puzzled:

“They’ve been here for so long—where did all the silver they stole go?”

“I don’t know.” The wolf demon shook its head. “I’ve wondered too. They consume pills, but they don’t refine them. I checked—just ordinary pills.”

“I know!” said the crow perched atop the wolf demon. “They trade all the silver they swindle for silver ingots. Often, demons come to the temple—those demons take all the silver and leave behind pills!”

“Huh?”

Lin Jue was startled that it could speak; he quickly bowed his hands and said to the wolf demon and the crow: “It seems your crow brother has successfully attained the Dao—you’ve finally gotten what you wished for.”

“We owe you much gratitude, benefactor.”

“Thank you, benefactor.”

“I owe you both thanks today. If not for you, it would have escaped.” Lin Jue glanced at the wound on his shoulder—if it had gotten away, his heart would never have settled.

“It was nothing.”

“You say demons took the silver?” Lin Jue frowned, even more puzzled. “But what do demons need silver for?”

“We don’t know.”

“Thank you.”

As the man and the two demons spoke, Third Senior Brother and Little Junior Sister stood nearby watching—only the crow tilted its head and saw the white fox approach the dead demon—the demon was dead, its soul scattered, its spiritual energy, vital essence, and aura of death dissolving naturally into the air—but the fox still wouldn’t let it go, running over to sniff it, then alone and bored, slapping it repeatedly.

The crow tilted its head and stared.