Inner Demons

Chapter 115: Embers

The embers had all been extinguished.

This place was originally a green grassy slope—a gentle slope in the vast Wild Plains Mountain Range, forty li outside Weicheng.

In the past, the vegetation here was lush, and ancient trees reached for the sky. In the forest, there were giant trees that took several people to encircle, and countless birds and beasts. Even those who had lived in the mountains their whole lives dared not go too deep—for fear of getting lost. The forest was full of ferocious beasts, and a moment of carelessness could lead to one's bones not even being found.

But now, this stretch of the Wild Plains that crossed the mountains near Weicheng had completely changed its appearance.

It was as if a rain of fire had fallen from the sky, or as if lava had spewed from the earth. For a radius of more than ten li, not a single blade of grass grew, and no birds or beasts remained. The ground was covered with black ash. Occasionally, an unburnt, dried tree branch would be exposed in the ash heap, and upon contact with the wind, it would burst into flames again.

Smoke rose from an area as far as the eye could see, like an impending volcanic eruption.

Liu Ling stood here, like a straight, unyielding tree.

Unrecognizable.

Her hair bun had come undone, and there wasn't a single ornament on her head. Her long black hair cascaded down, reaching her waist.

The pink palace dress was also gone, leaving only a white silk undergarment. Her smooth, long legs were bare, and she stood barefoot in the ashes, trembling slightly.But it was not out of fear, but out of exhaustion.

Right now, she held the last magical treasure on her body—the "Sound Bell" on her wrist.

Half an hour ago, she had just sacrificed the pink "Rainbow Skirt" she was wearing. When this magical treasure was pushed to its limit and then self-detonated, it had instantly destroyed everything within a radius of three or four li, even peeling away a thick layer of soil from the ground. But the damage it had inflicted on this Bai Yunxin was merely—

Tearing her clothes.

Right now, Liu Ling held the last magical treasure in her hand, feeling that her Snow Mountain Qi Sea had been pushed to its absolute limit. She still had the final strength to trigger this magical treasure to self-detonate. But now, the only thing she hesitated about was…

Self-detonation, or suicide.

Having heard many stories about demons, she understood that falling into a demon's hands would never lead to a good end.

But…

"What… what on earth are you?!" Her voice trembled slightly, but again, it was not from fear, but from exhaustion. "What on earth are you?!"

But Bai Yunxin just looked at her, circling her slowly like a beast about to pounce, or like a cat toying with its prey. Her expression was calm and composed, as if she had just been playing.

"Dragon Little Jiu… you know?" she said in a small, thin voice. "There wasn't much fun here to begin with. Dragon Little Jiu was the most fun."

"A long, thin strip, tough on the inside, and crispy on the outside," she said, stopping in front of Liu Ling, only a step away. Her eyes seemed to have turned into a pitch-black color again… out of excitement. Only black, no whites.

"And he was stupid and dumb… unlike his brothers and sisters." She stuck out her long, thin pink tongue and licked her lips. But she seemed to quickly realize this was improper and quickly retracted it. "Mmm… so I could only eat him."

"But you killed him!!"

She suddenly shrieked, her voice piercing the clouds and tearing silk, pressing right up against Liu Ling's face, staring at her.

Two breaths later, thin lines of blood trickled from Liu Ling's ears.

The Sound Bell fell to the ground with a clang—she had subconsciously used her last bit of Spiritual Power to protect her heart meridians, so she hadn't been killed by the shock. But now she was starting to regret… she should have died then.

Now she could barely move.

Bai Yunxin stared at her like this for a while, then suddenly pulled her head back, tilted it up slightly, and took two steps back.

"Oh, and there's that… Li Yunxin." She frowned slightly, seeming to get angry. "His scent, it's… umm…"

She blinked rapidly, thought for a long while, and then said, "It smells really good. The scent of his Spiritual Soul… so fresh, so mellow, and with a little bit of a spicy kick… I've never smelled anything like it!"

"But you killed him too!!"

She suddenly spun around, right next to Liu Ling's ear, and shrieked again.

Liu Ling shuddered and fell straight to the ground, kicking up a large cloud of ash.

Her Snow Mountain Qi Sea had been shattered.

"Two fun, tasty things, both ruined by you." She seemed to be getting angrier and angrier. "So I wanted to go home! But my Feathered Gown! It was stolen by you stinking Taoist priests! I could have found it, but you gave it to a little Taoist priest like you to bring out! Now you tell me—tell me—where did my Feathered Gown go?!!"

She squatted down and stared at Liu Ling.

However, at this moment, Liu Ling could only stare wide-eyed, the blood beginning to redden the whites of her eyes. With her Snow Mountain Qi Sea destroyed, her cultivation was crippled, her power dissipated. There were many ways to live like an ordinary person after one's cultivation was destroyed—but this was definitely not one of them.

Her eyelids began to tremble rapidly, and blood welled up from her throat, soon to pour into her lungs.

Bai Yunxin frowned and stood up.

"So annoying."

She kicked Liu Ling viciously a few more times, and seeing that she no longer moved, she seemed to have let out her anger, and skipped down the mountain with light, bouncy steps.

…

…

At this moment, Old Daoist Liu was sitting on a stone slab in the ruins of the Dragon King Temple. His hair was disheveled, his face was smeared with mud, and his Daoist robe was torn in several places.

The people who had taken him away at night had some conscience—after searching him for his silver, they had thrown him into an alley.

When he woke up in the morning and walked back, he found that the entire Taoxi Road was unrecognizable. It took him some time to recognize the place, and then he saw the ground covered in blood and gore.

He sat there, amidst the pile of broken bricks and tiles, until now—there was no more sound from the northeast, and the firelight had also been extinguished.

After another half an hour, the old Daoist felt thirsty.

A woman was crying nearby, her voice intermittent, grating on his nerves. On the ruins of a nearby house, two people were also sitting dazedly, probably not knowing what to do either.

The old Daoist lifted his sleeve and wiped his eyes. He rummaged through a pile of rubble for a long time before finding three uneven, but at least not soaked, incense sticks. Then he spent another quarter of an hour finding a tinderbox and lit the three sticks of incense…

And stuck them into the dark brown earth.

Then he sat back down, staring at the curling green smoke rising from the three incense sticks, gradually feeling the sun rising behind him, burning his back.

But soon, the old Daoist heard footsteps again.

The soles of shoes scraped against the rough rubble with a rustling sound. The newcomer walked through the ruins and finally stepped onto the muddy ground.

After a few more steps forward, he stepped on and extinguished the three incense sticks.

Old Daoist Liu looked up, slightly bewildered, and saw a look of glee and complex emotion on the newcomer's face. His hand rested on the hilt of the saber at his waist. His pair of standard-issue constable's boots ground into the ground, and then he spat on the ground, saying, "Good, a good death. This scourge."

"His death isn't enough. We can't be missing you, old coffin."

---