Volume 1: Chapter 106 - Overwhelming Demonic Might

Chu Chu cast a helpless glance at the young man in the green robe. This was Zhang Yunhe, the young master of the Danxia Zhang Clan, patrolling with them to quell the demon disaster. From the very beginning, Zhang Yunhe had stuck to her side, and no matter how coldly she treated him, he refused to leave. Looking at Zhang Yunhe who was talking eloquently, Chu Chu shook her head in dismay. Visit the Danxia Zhang Clan? What a joke—wouldn't it be better to use that time for cultivation? If not for the Zhang Clan being a powerful aristocratic family on par with the Lingtian Sect, Chu Chu would have already driven him away. Fortunately, they were about to return to the imperial city, and she could finally shake him off. At the thought of visiting her Third Uncle once back in the city, a faint smile unconsciously curved Chu Chu's cherry lips.

Zhang Yunhe stared 痴迷 (obsessively) at her smile, believing that after days of persistent pursuit, he had finally touched her heart. As the old saying went, "Even the fiercest woman fears a persistent man." If he could become Daoist companions with Chu Chu, all his days of ingratiating himself would be worth it. "Miss Chu Chu, I—"

"Be careful! Something's wrong with the town ahead!" Zheng Qingyan suddenly interrupted, cutting off the words he had spent so long preparing.

"Shishu (Master Uncle), what did you find?" Chu Chu looked at Zheng Qingyan, her pretty face full of confusion. The others also turned to her—among them, Zheng Qingyan had the highest cultivation, reaching the seventh rank of the Purple Mansion. If she sensed something amiss, trouble was surely afoot.

"The village ahead is too quiet." Zheng Qingyan pointed to the town ahead. In the night, a few 气死风灯 (windproof lanterns) faintly lit the town, which seemed no different from others.

"Elder Zheng, are you overreacting? These towns aren't as bustling as the imperial city; aren't they all this quiet at night?" Zhang Yunhe retorted with irritation, annoyed at having his long-prepared confession interrupted.

"Shishu is right. Something's definitely wrong," Chu Chu interjected, pointing out the anomaly. "In the towns we passed before, even though they were quiet, dogs barked as we approached. Now we're outside this town, and there isn't a single bark—it's too strange."

Everyone nodded, finding Chu Chu's analysis reasonable. "Maybe no one here keeps dogs?" Zhang Yunhe retorted stubbornly, feeling his pride wounded.

"Whether it is or not, let's go in and see." Chu Chu shot Zhang Yunhe a cold look, her disgust for him reaching its peak.

Drawing their weapons, the group advanced into the town with the imperial guards leading the way. The guards who entered first turned pale and rushed to the roadside to retch, leaving others wondering what had happened. When Chu Chu entered, she saw hundreds of corpses haphazardly piled in the town center like a small mountain. Limbs intertwined, all of them wore 狰狞 (ferocious) expressions frozen in death, their faces turned outward, making the mound resemble a hill studded with human heads. Blood trickled from the base of this horrific mound, spreading wildly through the town, and a thick stench of blood assaulted everyone's nostrils. No wonder the guards had vomited—even Chu Chu felt queasy, only suppressing the nausea by circulating her spiritual power.

"Let's go take a look." Zheng Qingyan gave a solemn order, striding toward the mountain of corpses. The previous demon disasters had involved warriors infected by the Soul-Eroding Blood Fiend, forced to become killing maniacs before self-destructing and spreading the infection. But the people here had clearly been tortured to death and arranged in this manner, obviously for some demonic ritual.

As they approached cautiously, a thin, gauze-like layer of blood-red mist began to rise unnoticed in the town. By the time they reached the corpse mound, the blood mist was visible to the naked eye, enveloping the entire town. "Not good! The blood mist is problematic!" Zheng Qingyan observed the thickening mist. "Circulate your spiritual power, don't inhale the mist—we need to retreat first!"

"Retreat? Where do you think you can run?" A cold, eerie voice suddenly sounded in everyone's ears. The voice was bone-chilling and erratic: one word came from the east, the next from the north. The speaker seemed to stand right before them, whispering in their ears, yet also seemed omnipresent, hiding in every corner of the town.

"Who's playing tricks? Show yourself!" Zheng Qingyan raised her longsword, channeling spiritual power that emitted a greenish glow, forcing the blood mist back three zhang (about 10 meters). The others also circulated their power to fend off the mist. By now, even the dullest realized the sudden blood mist spelled danger.

"Playing tricks? Hehe. To deal with you, why would I need to?" A figure emerged from the blood mist. The Blood Demon Lord grinned hideously. "A mere seventh-rank Purple Mansion warrior—I could crush you as easily as an ant!"

"You're the Blood Demon Lord?" Zheng Qingyan gasped. They had set out to resolve the demon disaster, only to encounter its very source.

"Correct, it is I. You've come at just the right time. After sacrificing all of you, my cultivation will surely take another leap!" The Blood Demon Lord laughed wildly, regarding everyone before him as mere sacrifices for his demonic ritual.

"Fire the signal rocket for help!" Zheng Qingyan snapped at the accompanying imperial guards. Though unsure of the Blood Demon Lord's exact strength, she could tell from his aura that she stood no chance against him.

As a guard took out a signal rocket and prepared to launch it, the Blood Demon Lord 冷哼 (snorted coldly). With that snort, the guard holding the rocket felt his heart skip a beat. His body suddenly swelled, transforming into a bloody meatball that exploded with a boom. Blood rained down toward Chu Chu and the others. One after another, the imperial guards below the Innate Realm self-destructed, creating a bloodstorm. Despite desperately channeling their spiritual power to resist, Chu Chu and the rest were stained by the Soul-Eroding Blood Fiend.

Upon being splattered by the guards' exploding blood, Chu Chu felt a powerful force surge through her meridians. It seemed that by unleashing this force, her cultivation could skyrocket to realms she had spent years striving for. Meanwhile, evil thoughts grew like weeds in her mind: memories of being mocked and bullied as a sickly child resurfaced, igniting a violent urge to return to the Great Han imperial city and tear her tormentors to pieces. Such negative emotions multiplied, gradually distorting her pretty face.

Just then, a surge of incomparably powerful spiritual energy burst from Chu Chu's dantian, sweeping through her meridians like autumn wind through fallen leaves. It scattered the invading demonic energy, dissipating it completely. Simultaneously, the 暴虐 (tyrannical) emotions in her heart faded, her features returning to normal, and her eyes regained clarity.