Inner Demons

Chapter 150: Wusu and Lili

The final sound startled Yu Meng awake again—a few moments after he had been knocked unconscious.

The young Dragon Head of the Escort Agency Guild shot up from his bed and looked toward the bedside.

But there was no one there, only moonlight on the floor.

He stared at the moonlight for a moment, then shouted, "Someone! Someone! Wusu! Lili!"

His voice quickly woke the young maids sleeping in the outer room—two girls of fourteen or fifteen, hastily tying their clothes while holding candlesticks, pushed the door open and walked in. But as soon as they entered, they let out a cry—

The floor by the door was a mess. The curio shelf had fallen over, and the bracelets they had strung for their master in the afternoon were scattered. Shards were all over the floor, and their master's porcelain pillow was there too!

The two young maids, named Wusu and Lili, rushed to Yu Meng's bedside with their candlesticks, placed them on the table, and grabbed him. One felt him over carefully in the front, the other in the back. Yu Meng was so anxious he stomped his feet, wanting them to move aside so he could look at the broken pieces on the floor, but the two young maids were insistent. They pushed Yu Meng back onto the bed, asking in a flurry, "Is Mengmeng alright? Are you hurt anywhere?"

"Is there truly no law in this Weicheng? Even the Yu Family can be robbed! This is the inner courtyard!"

"Hurry and call for people, what are you standing there for!"

"I have to watch him, you should be the one to go!"Yu Meng was frantic and quickly waved his hands. "No, no, no, don't call anyone! I smashed it! Don't call anyone!"

Wusu and Lili were stunned and stopped arguing. Two small hands simultaneously reached for Yu Meng's forehead, and tears welled up in their eyes. "Was Mengmeng frightened?"

Yu Meng got angry, stood up forcefully, and dashed to the table. "Stop it, stop it! Let me tell you, someone came to me in a dream!"

As he spoke, he looked at the mess on the floor by the candlelight, and his eyes lit up. "It's really true, I remember throwing a pillow in my dream—ah, it's just like it was real!"

Then he turned to Wusu and Lili. "Let me tell you. Just now, in my dream—"

As he spoke, the two girls looked at him with affectionate eyes, guessing whether he was frightened or had a nightmare, and just humored him by listening. But as they listened, they felt something was wrong.

Wusu got up and walked behind Yu Meng, wiping his bare back with her hand. Then she was stunned. "Oh my... yes..."

The Yu Family was a large household. The inner rooms had polished stone floors with underfloor heating. It was cool in the summer and warm in the winter. But since there was no rule about taking off shoes indoors, and there was dirt outside in the courtyard, it was inevitable that there would be some dirt and dust on the floor.

The steady and careful Wusu had felt a trace of dirt on Yu Meng's back.

Yu Meng reached back and wiped his own back, his eyes widening in a laugh. "See, see, I'm not talking nonsense! I remember seeing that person in my dream and then falling asleep..."

"Mengmeng, you remember seeing that person and then falling asleep." Wusu thought for a moment and looked at her hand with worry. "What if it was real? For example, what if it wasn't a ghost but someone who drugged you... and us..."

A figure outside the window heard her words and smiled faintly.

He hadn't expected Yu Meng to have such a careful and cautious little maid by his side.

But... planning things never goes perfectly. He had planted a seed, and whether it would sprout or not was up to it.

So when Lili whispered in the room, "I have heard of that Divine Dragon Cult, but repairing the houses is a good thing," Li Yunxin floated away.

And at that moment, Yue Yunzi floated in—to the place where Qingliangzi had been killed.

No one else was there. People wouldn't even come within a hundred steps of this street. The lesson from last time was still fresh—when the strange phenomenon occurred on Taoxi Road, a group of people had run over to loot the dead, only to be killed by a demon that hadn't left.

And the Yamen Runners dared not go even more—last time on Taoxi Road, the constables and officers of Liuhe Prefecture were all cut in half at the waist by a demon because they arrived too quickly!

Therefore, on this long street, he was alone.

Yue Yunzi stood by the edge of the pit with his hands behind his back, on the bloody paste that was once the beggar's body, his eyes slightly closed.

He was trying to reconstruct everything that had happened here through the various traces at the scene.

However, no matter how he thought about it, he couldn't figure it out...

Was it the old thing who had acted, or was it Bai Yunxin?

In the current vicinity of the Wei River, only those two could kill Qingliangzi.

Qingliangzi, with the body of an Underworld Emissary, the realm of a Great Achievement Master, and the strength of the Manifestation Realm peak, along with his insight and knowledge... who could kill him like this?

That old thing couldn't step a single foot out of Dongting. It probably wasn't him.

If it was Bai Yunxin... then what was with the Nine Heavens Thunder True Fire afterward?!

After thinking like this for a quarter of an hour, Yue Yunzi's eyes shot open—

He sucked in a cold breath.

He had thought of...

A very terrifying possibility. Compared to this possibility, he would rather it was indeed the old thing and Bai Yunxin who did it!

A breath later, Yue Yunzi flew out of this long street.

Three breaths later, Yue Yunzi was back at the Shangqing Elixir Cauldron Sect's residence. And from his large sleeve, he took out a Talisman.

It was still deep in the night, the moonlight bright.

Yue Yunzi waved his sleeve to extinguish the candle on the table, and the Talisman in his hand began to emit a faint golden light.

He was considering whether to use this talisman.

The Daoist Orthodoxy and the Sword Sect had residences in almost every city in the secular world, with cultivators stationed in them. Although their cultivation might be low, and the various Schools and Grotto-heavens were not always on harmonious terms, they were, after all, branches of the same tree.

If he used this talisman now, the news would be transmitted back to Langya Grotto-Heaven within a few days—and someone would come.

But Yue Yunzi hesitated for a moment and finally put the talisman down.

The worrying possibility he had just thought of was—another Dragon's Son had arrived in Weicheng.

When Lingkongzi wanted to eliminate the Dragon's Son, although there were objections within the Grotto-heaven, they were not strong. Because high-level cultivators all knew some secrets among the great demons. For example, although Young Master Nine was also one of the rare and powerful demons in the world, among the nine Dragon's Sons, he had the lowest cultivation.

The Divine Dragon also didn't seem to like this ninth son very much, only giving him the Wei River—which was also encroached upon by other demon clans.

Therefore, if they really wanted to kill him, it was possible—there was already a consensus within the Daoist Orthodoxy and the Sword Sect. That was, there would eventually be a battle between humans and demons.

The only worry was that the Dragon's Son's brothers might seek revenge for him. However, the possibility of this was extremely small.

First, demons were cruel and cunning, and there wasn't much affection even between brothers—let alone the nine sons who had different temperaments, origins, and strengths. There was no family affection in the emperor's family in the secular world. It was even more so in a demon family.

Second, even if a certain son was on good terms with the ninth Dragon's Son, or intended to seize his Wei River... his reach couldn't extend here.

When the True Dragon appeared back then, it subdued the great demons of the world one by one, and then divided seven-tenths of the world's water systems among the nine sons. But the problem was... it was "seven-tenths of the world's water systems," not "seven-tenths of the world."

Beyond the rivers, lakes, and seas, there were mountains, forests, canyons, deserts, snow-capped mountains, and grasslands in this world. In those places, there were also many powerful demons—so powerful that even the Divine Dragon was unwilling to provoke them, and only required them to submit as vassals.

The reason why Young Master Nine's Wei River and Weicheng could be preserved was also because it was far from the other Dragon's Sons, with powerful demons occupying the land in between.

And now that the True Dragon had not appeared for a long time, those powerful great demons who had once submitted to it were all getting restless—without the protection of the Divine Dragon, the nine Dragon's Sons were just demons. On what basis did they occupy seven-tenths of the world's waters? Even if it was only in name!

It was for this reason that the elders of the Grotto-heaven believed that eliminating this Ninth Dragon Son could, on one hand, test the attitude of the demons, and on the other hand, nip a potentially growing great demon in the bud. It was killing two birds with one stone.

But now... Yue Yunzi felt that he was not so sure anymore.

Simply because of that "Nine Heavens Thunder True Fire." Nine Heavens Thunder True Fire referred to the powerful energy contained in the lightning generated by the collision of yin and yang energy between heaven and earth. Among demons, only the Dragon Clan possessed this kind of means.

As for cultivators, some high-level cultivators could also perform this kind of trick, but it wasn't any "thunder true fire"—generating lightning from the palm and striking down from high above, no matter how grand the momentum or powerful the force, it didn't have a shred of the divine primordial energy of the Nine Heavens Thunder True Fire.

Over a thousand years, cultivators had tried to solve this problem—the Dragon Clan gathered clouds and mist to produce lightning, and cultivators could do the same. However, the same lightning, when produced by humans, was not that true fire—it seemed that when the Dragon Clan used this means, there was a mysterious and profound principle at play in the unseen world.

Qingliangzi... was killed by this true fire.

There were, of course, other ways to kill him. It's just that those methods would require a great deal of effort, and the person's cultivation would have to be extremely high.

Therefore, Yue Yunzi became bewildered in his confusion. He didn't know if he should alert his own sect.

The Ninth Dragon Son, Chiwen, was the weakest of the nine sons—in the eyes of the True Dragon and the other eight sons, ridiculously weak.

Only at the peak of the Manifestation Realm.

And the other eight sons, six of them had the cultivation of the Great Achievement Master Realm, and two were already at the Profound Realm a thousand years ago. However, this analysis and classification was only measured by cultivator standards... almost no one could truly experience how powerful the demon body of a True Realm or Profound Realm was.

Yue Yunzi didn't think he would necessarily lose if he had a conflict with a Dragon's Son. But the problem was...

A secular person might spend months or years carefully carving an external object, and would stamp his feet in heartache if it was damaged—cultivators spend decades, even hundreds of years, tempering their bodies and Spiritual Souls in pursuit of longevity. How could they not treasure their own lives?

High-level cultivators certainly didn't look down on low-level cultivators. But if cultivators whose cultivation levels were not far apart fought at the drop of a hat, just as mortals imagined...

In just a few decades, all the cultivators in the world would be dead, and how could there be a heritage of several thousand or even ten thousand years?

Therefore, Yue Yunzi sat alone in his inner chamber for an hour.

But in the end, he still put away the Talisman.

"There is something strange about this..." this accomplished Master gently stroked his smooth, long beard. "Strange indeed..."

The night passed without a word.

The next day, the street that had been damaged in the fight became busy. The young master of the Yu Family, the Dragon Head of the Great Qing Dynasty Escort Agency Guild, Yu Meng, provided money and manpower to rebuild this street.

Such a good deed naturally caused concern—many shopkeepers from the street ran to inquire about the situation.

Yu Meng set up camp in a teahouse on this street that had been less affected. A dozen or so family servants holding short staffs stood outside the door, and the inside was cleared out. A soft rattan chair and a few small tables were added. Snacks and tea were placed on the tables, and there was also a bucket of melons and fruits chilled with crushed ice on the floor.

Wusu held a sheathed, ornate long sword studded with gold and jade in her hands, and Lili carried a small incense burner.

Yu Meng lay on the soft rattan chair with his eyes half-closed, catching up on the sleep he had missed last night, holding a bamboo fan in his hand.

When the shopkeepers from the street came, they saw this scene from outside the large window, and their momentum couldn't help but weaken. They had originally been whispering among themselves about questioning Young Master Yu about his intentions, but now they didn't dare to speak up, just crowding together outside the teahouse—

And the tall family servants outside the door ignored them.

After being left to stand for a few breaths, Lili finally placed the small incense burner in her hand on the table, and walked gracefully to the door, her steps swaying. She asked in a soft, delicate voice, "Do you neighbors have any business? Is it that the money or timber for someone's repairs isn't working out?"

After a while, a beardless shopkeeper stepped out, glanced into the room, and said, "Miss Lili, the money and timber, we haven't touched them yet. We came here not because we don't appreciate the Young Master's kindness, but because we feel we don't deserve a reward for no merit—the cost of repairing our shops is not a small sum. Now that the Young Master has done us such a good deed, it's like saving the lives and fortunes of many of us. We've thought about it and feel we have no way to repay him, and we feel very uneasy—"

But Lili suddenly interrupted him. "How should I address you, respected elder?"

The shopkeeper quickly said, "I dare not be called respected. I am the manager of the Wood South Residence's Little Hun Street branch, Shi Quanyong."

Lili smiled. "Shopkeeper Shi. How do you recognize me?"

Seeing her smile, a hint of a smile also appeared on Shopkeeper Shi's face. "Last winter, your mansion ordered a banquet from the main branch. At that time, I was the kitchen supervisor at the main branch and went to the mansion with the banquet—I had the honor of seeing Young Master Yu and you, miss."

"For Shopkeeper Shi to be managing a branch now, you must be a sharp person. Then, does Shopkeeper Shi still remember the value of that banquet last winter?"

Shopkeeper Shi frowned slightly and thought for a moment, then said, "Last winter, it was because the main branch had acquired a rare white roe deer, so we made a white roe deer banquet to celebrate the new year. If I remember correctly..."

He paused. "It was worth five hundred taels of silver."

If Li Yunxin were here, he would know that based on the purchasing power of this world compared to his, these five hundred taels were worth... one million.

A murmur went through the crowd behind Shopkeeper Shi.

They all knew the Yu Family was one of the richest in the Great Qing Dynasty, but... a New Year's Eve dinner, a single banquet worth one million, had already surpassed the imagination of anyone in this marketplace!

What... what kind of wealth was this?!

Lili waited for the commotion to die down, then smiled nonchalantly again. "Then does Shopkeeper Shi know what happened to that banquet in the end?"