Chapter 222: To Tell the Truth

Although the weather had warmed up, it was still cold at night, and a bright moon hung in the sky, the moonlight also so cold.

The two walked in the night.

Lin Jue walked in a hurry.

The Junior Sister looked around with worry.

Not walking far, another person stood by the road ahead.

The two were terrified. Borrowing the moonlight in the sky, at first they only felt it was a black shadow, like a tree stump by the road. Walking closer, seeing it was a person, both were startled.

"Two, don't be afraid." Only saw that person say with a smile, and asked them, "How to get to Liu Family Village?"

The sentence structure, wording, and tone were all very stiff.

"You, are you human or ghost?"

Lin Jue looked closely and saw that this person was tall and thin as a stick, wearing a cloth garment, as if wanting to appear friendly, with a smile on his face, but the stiff smile made him look even more ghastly.

Such a person is a demon...

The fox and the colorful fox in the back basket were also quietly scratching his back.

However, Lin Jue had already seen it.

Only heard that person answer: "A passerby, just asking for directions."

"Liu Family Village? It's ahead."

"Oh!"

Hearing this, this person smiled slightly and stepped forward, walking with them.

Although the two were afraid, they couldn't refuse, so they had to ask:

"Are you from Liu Family Village?"

"Consider it so." The withered person answered, "The night road is hard to walk, let's walk together."

"What do you mean by consider it so?"

"Oh? Oh! My wife is from Liu Family Village! It's New Year here, she returned to her mother's house and hasn't come back yet. I came to find her, forgot how to walk for a moment, and took the wrong road!"

This demon clearly wasn't good at lying, but was making up lies.

Lin Jue found it funny in his heart, but his expression remained the same.

"So that's how it is..."

"Who are you two? Where do you live? Where are you going? Why are you still walking on the road so late? Aren't you afraid of encountering robbers or demons?"

"..."

Under the moonlight, the two looked at each other.

Originally, the reason they found was Liu Family Village. The road ahead was somewhat remote, and the only famous big village was Liu Family Village. Unexpectedly, this demon found the same reason as them.

Lin Jue thought for a moment and changed the way of saying it:

"My name is Lin Jue, this is my sister, named Lin Qingyao. We have an uncle named Qiao Xuefu. When he was young, he borrowed ten taels of silver from a friend, but unfortunately, he was poor and destitute later and had no money to repay. Recently, I heard that his friend's couple both fell ill with serious illnesses, lying in bed, and had no livelihood, so he tried every way to scrape together five taels of silver, and we brother and sister knew, so we tried every way to scrape together the remaining five taels, and went to Runze County together to repay his friend. But he had to stay there for an extra day, so we came back first."

"Oh?"

The demon seemed stunned: "Really or fake?"

"Of course it's true!" Lin Jue said, "Isn't it, we also caught two cat puppies from his friend's house after repaying the money, preparing to take them back to raise, maybe we can sell them for some money, exchange for a bag of salt. After scraping together money for him at home, we couldn't even open the pot."

The demon couldn't help but look behind Lin Jue.

There was indeed some movement in the back basket, and some cat smell.

"Meow~"

"Meow!"

Two cat calls, the latter slightly strange.

"Tsk tsk!" The demon couldn't help but click his tongue repeatedly, shaking his head and saying, "There is actually such a trustworthy person in the world!"

"Reasonable..."

The demon immediately stopped being suspicious, and even felt some admiration.

"What are you doing here..."

Lin Jue turned to look at him, just waiting for him to reveal a bit of ferocity, or any intention to harm them, and then take him down.

Unexpectedly, he heard this demon sigh and say:

"To tell the truth, I am a demon in the mountains, preparing to harm you on this road, so as to extort some money and sacrifices from you. But after hearing what you said, I feel that your life is also difficult, and you and your uncle are both rare trustworthy people. Although I am a demon, I also admire such people in my heart, so I won't make things difficult for you today!"

"Hmm?"

Lin Jue and the Junior Sister were unexpectedly surprised.

"The night road is hard to distinguish and hard to walk. Where do you live? I will send you home!"

"?"

The Junior Sister's hand loosened, secretly adjusting the position of the beans in her palm, and the incantation for the bean soldiers was also on her lips, but she took it back again.

"Are you really a demon? Don't talk nonsense!"

"Genuine!" The demon said, "But although I harm people here, it's only for this period of time, and I have never taken anyone's life. If you are truly afraid and dare not walk with me, I will leave."

"Listening to this, you don't look like a bad-hearted one. Why do you want to harm people on this road?" Lin Jue couldn't help but ask.

"You are human, how would you understand?"

This sentence made Lin Jue think of the dog demon by the road before, and he became interested.

"Anyway, it's walking the night road, and anyway, it's encountering a demon. There is no other talk on the road, why not talk about it?"

"Talking is fine, don't spread it outside."

"Can!"

"The world is chaotic today, and it's not just the human world that is chaotic? The demon world in the mountains is also chaotic!"

This demon still walked forward with them, sighing while walking:

"For example, there is a Long Wang here. With the capital as the center, the southeast direction is his territory. Although he doesn't have as many officials and soldiers as the human court, and doesn't collect taxes on weekdays, every ten years at his birthday banquet, we demons must prepare a generous gift to offer to him, otherwise we will be made difficult by him, or even have his subordinates sent to kill us." 【222-6

"For instance, there is a Long Wang here. With the capital as the center of Qin Zhou, the southeast direction is all his territory. Although he doesn't have as many officials and soldiers as the human imperial court and doesn't collect taxes on a daily basis, every ten years when his birthday banquet arrives, we yaoguai must all prepare a grand gift to offer him, otherwise we will be troubled by him, or even have his subordinates sent to kill us."

"Long Wang? A birthday banquet?"

"Yes! I usually cultivate in the mountains and play freely. I don't need money, nor do I seek treasures, so where would I get a grand gift for him? There's no way, no way at all. I heard that he has become obsessed with alchemy in recent years, so I had no choice but to find some wealthy-looking families on this road, use spells to trouble them, and extort some money and offerings, preparing to buy a few ginseng roots of a certain age to offer him, so I can live peacefully for another ten years."

"So that's how it is!"

"You haven't told me where you are going yet? I see you aren't afraid of me, so I'll send you back," the yaoguai said. "Although there are no yaoguai causing trouble like me on the road ahead, there are still some yaoguai and ghosts. If you are accidentally bumped into, even if they don't want to harm you, if you are physically weak and timid, you will inevitably fall into a serious illness if you are tainted by yin energy or ghost energy, or if you are frightened."

"..."

Lin Jue looked at his Shimei again, feeling both amused and troubled.

This yaoguai also felt a bit strange—

Although these two were young and bold, they shouldn't be completely fearless when encountering a yaoguai while walking on a night road, right?

Could it be that they had encountered those described in human books, people born with courage, unafraid of yaoguai or ghosts, and destined to achieve great things?

Just then, a sentence was suddenly heard in his ear:

"To tell you the truth..."

It was similar to the tone he had just used.

"We two are Daoist priests from Mount Yishan, skilled in spells to subdue yaoguai and eliminate demons. We heard that there was a yaoguai causing trouble on this road, so we came to eliminate you!"

"Ah!?"

Upon hearing this, the yaoguai was greatly shocked.

His footsteps stopped, and a glance from the corner of his eye showed the young man beside him smiling, looking completely unafraid of yaoguai or ghosts.

This was much more terrifying than those destined for great things!

"Bad!"

Small yaoguai and ghosts have always been like this; if people are not afraid of them, they will be afraid of people. This is their way of survival.

The yaoguai turned and ran.

Unexpectedly, with a clatter—

The bamboo hat covering the basket on Lin Jue's back was lifted, and two shadows jumped out, one after the other.

The white shadow in the front grew as it met the wind, instantly transforming into a three-tailed white fox nearly the size of an ordinary mountain tiger. It rode the wind and immediately blocked his path.

A tabby cat ran out behind it; it was also quite fierce, but as soon as it landed and ran two steps, it couldn't help but freeze, looking up to size up the white fox in front.

Then some chanting and slight sounds of breaking through the air were heard.

The yaoguai looked up—

Under the bright moon, seven or eight flying swords circled from both sides, stopping in the air to his left and right, spinning incessantly, reflecting the cold light of the moon, and cutting it to pieces.

What kind of immortal spell is this?

The yaoguai was greatly shocked and turned to look.

Those two people were still in their original spots, only it was unknown when the other woman had already embraced an ancient long sword, and the other person was also unhurried, as if not afraid of him running away.

"True Lord, spare my life!"

The yaoguai's expression changed instantly.

Lin Jue looked at this scene, still somewhat dazed.

Encountering a yaoguai tonight, with the yaoguai disguised as a human and talking to him, was truly seven or eight parts similar to his initial experience.

It was just that the dog yaoguai's acting was better back then; this one perhaps didn't often interact with people, so it was worse. That dog yaoguai only scared people, but this one really wanted to harm people.

Although it had never taken a human life, it still caused people to lose wealth and suffer disasters.

However, he was no longer the person he used to be.

Back then, he had to rely on intimidation to scare away the dog yaoguai; now, he didn't even need to use much effort, nor did he need to rack his brains for words; he only needed to use a few methods to scare the yaoguai.

"We came here to eliminate you, but I didn't expect that our unintentional actions would instead make you spare us," Lin Jue said to him with a smile. "If we eliminate you now, it seems a bit heartless."

"True Lord, spare my life! This small yaoguai has never taken a human life!"

"I have heard of that. Not taking a human life means the crime is not punishable by death, but blocking the road to rob is also a serious crime." Lin Jue stepped in front of him and said, "However, considering that you have your own helpless circumstances, and we do indeed have matters we want to ask you about, there is room for negotiation."

"Room for negotiation?"

The yaoguai looked up and then looked around.

Although the flying swords hanging in the sky were gone, the white fox was still eyeing him covetously, as if it could bite off half his head in one bite. The woman holding the sword was silent, also putting great pressure on him, so the fear in his heart not only did not dissipate but continued to ferment.

Hearing that there was still room for negotiation, he immediately said:

"True Lord, please speak!"

"We have also heard that there is a Long Wang here, and we have long admired him. We also heard that he is holding a birthday banquet this summer, and we want to join in the fun. We happened to meet you, so we want to ask you: where is the Long Wang's cave dwelling, and when exactly is the birthday banquet?"

"So that's it!"

The yaoguai breathed a sigh of relief and hurriedly said:

"The Long Wang's cave dwelling is two hundred li from here. Follow the Wei Shui River down, and at the widest part of the river bend, there is fog blocking the right side all year round. There is a ferry crossing; go down from there and you'll be there!"

He paused after saying this:

"As for the time, it's not in the summer, but in the spring, on the twenty-second day of the second month this year. If you want to attend, you must arrive three days in advance."

"Can humans attend?"

"The Long Wang's birthday banquet is held once every ten years. I have attended twice, and both times people came. It's just that humans cannot enter the Long Wang's cave dwelling to attend the banquet. If you bring enough gifts, you can still join in the fun outside."

"So there are many yaoguai?"

"There are quite a few."

"How many powerful ones are there?"

"There aren't many powerful ones; most are like me," the yaoguai hurriedly replied.

"How many soldiers and generals does the Long Wang have?"

"True Lord? This..."

The yaoguai's expression changed, and he suddenly felt something was wrong.

Is this going to attend the banquet to join in the fun?

"We are humans after all, and different from yaoguai," the Xiao Shimei holding the sword finally spoke. "So we must be cautious."

"This..."

The yaoguai thought about it and could barely accept it.

"I don't know how many soldiers and generals the Long Wang has. Every time I go to the banquet, I haven't entered the Long Wang's cave dwelling, only watched from afar outside. I heard that the Great King has a military advisor who is skilled in spells, and there are dozens of shrimp and crab soldiers and yellow-scaled guards. There are also great yaoguai and generals like the Chicken Immortal and General Rhinoceros."

"So that's how it is."

Lin Jue nodded, his face showing contemplation.

It sounds like that turtle yaoguai sorcerer is quite famous among them, and those shrimp and crab yaoguai are the main force.

Although that turtle yaoguai sorcerer and those shrimp and crab yaoguai have some skills, like that Black Shrimp General and those yellow-scaled guards, an ordinary squad of elite soldiers in the human world might not be able to deal with even one of them.

However, for them now, it would be easy to deal with.