Inner Demons

Chapter 61: Tree Betrayal

The Three Flowers Dame struck Li Yunxin as increasingly complex.

He set that aside for the moment and inquired about Qiao Jiaxin. In truth, not much could be gleaned—the faceless ghost was muddled, and though communication with the Three Flowers Dame was slightly smoother due to both having less than sharp wits, no earth-shattering secrets were revealed.

A few days prior, the faceless ghost had fled in fright, yet couldn't articulate what had startled it.

Li Yunxin looked up at Jiaxin on the roof, wondering in his mind what to do with her.

Just then...

He saw Qiao Jiaming, grinning crookedly and drooling, stumble and lurch into the back courtyard.

The jagged remnants of his liquor bottle were nowhere to be seen, and his eyes were vacant and listless, clearly bewitched. Li Yunxin was right there in the room, but Qiao Jiaming seemed not to notice. Swaying unsteadily, he shuffled a few steps with a grotesque smile, then, spotting an old, gnarled tree with exposed roots in the courtyard, he abruptly lunged at it.

He threw his arms around it, and in a few swift motions, shed his trousers. With a thrust of his hips, he impaled himself between two of the old tree's branches, commencing his depraved act.

The tree bark was rough, and Qiao Jiaming was exceptionally forceful. After just a dozen or so thrusts, his lower body was already a bloody mess.

Everything happened so quickly that Li Yunxin watched in stunned silence. The cat demon, witnessing this, clapped her hands and giggled, "Ooh, ooh, how fun!"Li Yunxin swatted her back. "Stay under the bed!"

...

...

At this very moment, a woman arrived outside the Qiao family's main gate.

The sky instantly darkened.

This was her perception, of course. One moment, there had been the warm morning sun; the next, it was midnight. But even in midnight's embrace, it wasn't particularly dark.

Because a string of large red lanterns had been hung before the Qiao family gate. Their warm, festive light completely dispelled the fear that darkness might bring. She stood at the entrance, already hearing faint, indistinct laughter from within—the laughter of three, four, or perhaps more young girls.

There were scents, too. Like the aroma of a grand family celebrating a joyous occasion—wine, meat, and firecrackers.

Everything suggested that, on such a midnight, entering this grand manor was the most sensible choice—there would be soft, dry beds, or charming, exquisite maidservants awaiting her.

The woman pondered for a moment, then truly stepped inside.

She stepped over the threshold and took a few paces. Behind her, the great doors silently swung shut, making not a whisper of sound.

Ahead, she saw a skeletal maidservant smiling and staring at her. The maidservant's eyes were wide, bulging orbs, as if lidless, her entire eyeballs protruding. Yet, in this environment and atmosphere, they did not seem out of place; rather, they appeared perfectly normal.

Her mouth stretched into a grin that reached her earlobes, revealing two rows of gleaming, snow-white teeth.

This smile hung on her face like a mask, utterly unchanging. The maidservant bowed slightly, like a wooden puppet with stiff joints, extending one hand forward to point the woman in a direction.

The woman stopped before the maidservant, observing her with an expressionless gaze for a moment, then shook her head faintly and proceeded in the indicated direction.

In the night, the entire Qiao family courtyard was illuminated. Floating sky lanterns drifted overhead, while the edges of the pond and the rockeries were crowded with candles and incense sticks. Tree branches were laden with white joss paper, fluttering in the breeze, yet against the yellow lamplight, they exuded an air of opulent prosperity.

After a few steps, the woman heard a man laughing in the wind.

A man in colorful robes, hands clasped behind his back, head held high, smiled as he walked toward her.

His steps were lithe and nimble, each stride seeming to land on springy cotton. His hair was tied into a tall topknot, adorned with a large red silk ribbon that fluttered in the night wind, seeming to hang suspended in mid-air.

As for his face... He had enormous yellow lips, which almost consumed half his face. The lips were smooth and glossy, as if oiled. Yet, the man's appearance, in such surroundings, still did not seem out of place.

He extended a hand to the woman. After a slight hesitation, she took it.

The man let out a clear, high-pitched cackling, pulling her along at a faster pace toward the back courtyard.

As they neared the back courtyard, the laughter and heavy, ragged breaths became more distinct.

Once they passed through the moon gate, the woman clearly saw the source of the sounds.

She saw a woman, naked, her legs spread wide and propped high, lying on a stone table. And a man, clutching the woman's ankles like a bull in heat, was vigorously thrusting.

The woman stopped, her brow subtly furrowed.

The man beside her gently released her hand and began to unfasten his colorful robes.

The woman frowned at him, then turned her head to look forward. In the night, ahead lay the door to the inner residence, also adorned with lanterns. Two stone stools sat on the steps before the door. On one stool rested a swirl of blood-red mist, and on the other, a writing brush.

The woman stared at these two stone stools, her frown deepening, and asked, "Why harm him?"

...

...

When the woman entered, Li Yunxin was about to kick Qiao Jiaming away.

He couldn't be bothered to examine what kind of enchantment had ensnared this degenerate; he simply felt that these four whom he had just named truly knew how to amuse themselves.

While these beasts still lacked human understanding, their keen instincts nonetheless allowed them to sense one's deepest desires and project them into visibility.

Indeed, whether one was an ascetic or a scholar, the primal urges of reproduction and instinct remain hidden within one's body and genes. These demons had stumbled upon a true insight by exploiting this particular aspect.

Upon seeing the woman, Li Yunxin also frowned, halting in his tracks.

All who were bewitched by spirits became disoriented and unaware. A chasm might lie before them, yet they would perceive it as a mere ditch and step right over.

But this woman...

Her eyes, however, were strikingly clear.

He only had time to wonder who she was, why she had come here, and what abnormalities she possessed, before she turned her head, fixed her gaze on him, and asked—

"Why harm him?"

The instant those words left her lips, the woman, the stone table, the lanterns, the joss paper, the man in colorful robes, and the entire night vanished without a trace.

Qiao Jiaming paused, finally seeing the tree before him. But before he could even process the question of "Where had the beauty gone, and why was he here?", a colossal wave of pain, surging like a tide, violently spread from his lower body to every corner of his being. The excruciating agony prompted a scream, but it choked in his throat, stifled by the spasms that seized him.

He collapsed to his knees, clutching himself with both hands. Through his blurred vision, he saw the figures of Li Yunxin and another woman.

Instinctively, he lunged toward Li Yunxin, but his faltering steps caused him to stumble toward the woman instead.

But the woman did not evade him. She merely frowned at Qiao Jiaming's bloody lower body, brought her right hand's middle and index fingers together and, with an imperceptible swiftness, traced something in the air. Then she pointed subtly at him—

With a soft 'thump,' Qiao Jiaming disintegrated into a cloud of bloody mist, splattering across half the courtyard with a wet rush.

Li Yunxin frowned, sighing. "My dear lady, you just killed my experiment."

But the woman did not answer him; she simply asked, "Which sect's disciple are you? Why do you harm people?"