Nightfall.
The inn’s grand hall was brilliantly lit, candles casting flowing shadows that reflected off one another.
On stage, several songstresses with graceful figures danced elegantly.
Tables below were laden with fine wine and dishes, exotic fruit platters, and delicate snacks in countless variety.
The crowd indulged in wine and conversation, bursts of loud laughter ringing out frequently. It was a scene of pure revelry.
Only one person sat at a redwood table beside the stage, not speaking, not drinking, ignoring the crowd around him feasting and drinking.
The songstresses were stunningly beautiful and alluring, drawing waves of admiration and covetous whispers from below.
Fine wine, beautiful women, and musicians playing strings and flutes in accompaniment.
This was no ordinary inn; this was a den of pleasure.
This out-of-place individual wore a moon-white brocade robe. His face was handsome, ethereal as an exiled Immortal, his aura refined like a Moon God. A silver sword hung at his waist, its blade wreathed in swirling, icy white mist.
The lead dancer, wearing a veil, her clothing coverage painfully minimal, twisted her serpentine waist, swirling her red silks as she floated down from the stage and approached the white-robed swordsman’s table. “Sir, do you dislike this dance? I haven’t seen you smile. Let me change the performance for you, shall I?”
With a graceful twirl, she spun three hundred and sixty degrees on the spot, drawing continuous applause and cheers from the onlookers. Then, her foot “accidentally” twisted—and she landed perfectly in Duan Nanyun’s arms. Conveniently, her veil slipped off, revealing a face of peerless beauty that enraptured the soul.
By an eerie coincidence, this face, no matter how you looked at it, bore a nine-tenths resemblance to Fu Mingxia. The remaining tenth was missing her strength of character, her elegant severity, replaced instead by seduction and coquettish charm.
Looking at that face, the man who had been utterly unmoved finally reacted.
He reached out and grabbed the dancer’s delicate white wrist. The force was so heavy it made the girl frown and whine coquettishly, “Sir, you’re… you’re hurting me…”
Duan Nanyun stared at her face for a long moment, then let out a soft laugh. Leaning close to her ear, he whispered in a voice befitting a jade-like gentleman, “Do you know whose face this is?”
The woman’s eyes darted slyly. “Who it belongs to doesn’t matter. As long as you want me to be…”
She never finished her seductive line. An icy-cold sword body had already pierced her heart. That wasn’t enough—the Sword Qi exploded the next instant, shattering all her internal organs!
Then he stood up and casually tossed her aside like a piece of trash to the ground.
A chilling white Sword Qi erupted, aimed at the surrounding crowd.
He coolly raised his eyes. “How you want to play is your business. But there are some people you shouldn’t mimic.”
The moment the words ended, Sword Qi burst forth instantaneously, piercing every single person in the hall!
An androgynous voice echoed out, impossible to distinguish as male or female: “Don’t be so ungrateful! If it weren’t for your pretty face, I would have already…”
Duan Nanyun laughed. “They might be illusions, but that girl on the floor carried your Demonic power. That must have been one of your clones. That sword strike just now… it truly did hurt you, didn’t it?”
The voice raged, then laughed in anger. “Aren’t you afraid that not all of this is an illusion? What if I actually hid real people in here? Your sword move just now would have taken their lives!”
The smile remained on the white-robed swordsman’s face, but his tone was utterly cold. “So what if I killed them? Do you think I would care about their lives? I’m just here to take something.”
The voice cursed venomously, “Dream on if you want my thing! Since you’ve come, then die here!”
The woman on the ground burst apart from the Sword Qi, her corpse transforming into a withered leaf. The surrounding tables, chairs, and furnishings rapidly aged and rotted away. In the blink of an eye, the paradise on earth turned into a hell on earth.
A gloomy wind howled; ghosts wailed.
Watching Duan Nanyun raise his Moon-Chasing Sword, the hidden Demon creature felt a throbbing headache.
Madman!
Wasn’t it said that righteous Sword Cultivators were supposed to be ascetic and celibate, upholding justice and protecting the weak?
Why do you only “uphold justice” and not “protect the weak”?! Why don’t you play by the rules?!
Fu Mingxia returned to the Government Office, intending to speak with Magistrate Kong. But He Gan informed her that Kong had been feeling unwell and had taken sick leave for the past several days. After thinking it over, she realized a Vice Magistrate was also in charge of the prefecture’s household registrations, military funds and labor levies, and prison litigation and sentencing. Asking him might actually be more efficient.
Fu Mingxia asked, “If a Demon has been in Xuzhou for some time, it couldn’t have only harmed the Zhang family. Think carefully: has Xuzhou had any unusual happenings in recent years? A spike in missing persons cases?”
Fu Mingxia’s questions were precise, her direction clear. He Gan only needed a moment’s thought to have an answer. “Over the past couple of years, there have indeed been a few missing person reports. But they were usually assumed to be family disputes or people leaving home for distant travels. Xuzhou has a large population; occasional comings and goings are normal. The missing persons in these cases had no known enemies, and no bodies were ever found. To say it’s connected to a Demon… the evidence is likely insufficient.”
Qin Jinghan stated, “Whether it’s the work of a Demon creature, we’ll determine that ourselves after investigating. Give us a few official constable badges for ease of movement.”
Fu Mingxia nodded. “In addition, I want all case files and reports on missing persons from the past three years.”
The case files couldn’t leave the Government Office, but the two of them had extraordinary memories. A quick glance-through was enough to commit all the details to memory.
Over three years, there had been nine missing person reports. For a large city with hundreds of thousands of residents, that was indeed not many.
Furthermore, these missing persons had no connection to one another. They varied in wealth, and found no similarities whatsoever in age, gender, family background, or residence.
Qin Jinghan asked, “Where do we start?”
Fu Mingxia closed the case file. “Pounding the pavement.”
Based on the perfunctory information and records in these files alone, nothing could be deduced. Answers would only come from investigating on-site, personally.
Inside the City Lord Mansion,
Lady Wu had just finished her medicine and was reclining against the headboard, covered by a quilt. Her face was still gaunt, but far better than yesterday.
Li Weiyi wanted to get some useful information out of her. “Granny, why do you keep insisting your son’s disappearance is related to monsters?”
Lady Wu coughed a few times and recalled, “In the days before he left home, he was constantly restless, muttering about some once-in-a-lifetime, golden opportunity. Often, late at night, he’d dance and flail his arms in the courtyard, acting very strangely. At the time, I didn’t understand. Looking back, wasn’t that clearly being bewitched by a Demon creature?”
Li Weiyi pressed, “Is that all? Any other clues? For instance, who did he associate with? Where did he like to go?”
“Him? He never had many friends. We often went next door to borrow rice or lamp oil. He could exchange a few words with the neighbors. When he met anyone else on the street, he’d always walk with his head down, silent. No friends, even less any enemies.”
Li Weiyi said, “That alone doesn’t prove he was bewitched by a Demon.”
Lady Wu added, “The Eminent Monk from south of the city also said his disappearance was connected to monsters!”
Li Weiyi asked, “An Eminent Monk? How would he know?”
Lady Wu rubbed her aging, blurry eyes. “The Eminent Monk performed a divination ritual and said my son’s life hung by a thread and needed three taels of silver to save his life!”
Li Weiyi: “…And you gave it to him?”
Lady Wu nodded, her voice hoarse. “It’s just a pity, the Eminent Monk said the Demon’s magical power was profound, impossible to subdue without an Immortal’s intervention. By defying heaven to seek a protective talisman for my son, he himself was targeted by that vicious and cruel Demon. He then required another tael of silver to dissolve the calamity and extend my son’s life by a few months.”
Li Weiyi had no concept of ancient currency units, but looking at Lady Wu in her ragged state, emaciated to skin and bones, he could guess what a heavy burden spending those amounts in taels must have been.
Li Weiyi muttered to himself, “He sounds like a bit of a fraud…”
Lady Wu grabbed his sleeve. “Immortal, when will the Immortals return? My son doesn’t have many days left. I beg you, Immortals, please save him!”
Li Weiyi reassured her, “Don’t worry, Senior Sister Fu has already gone to investigate. Try to remember carefully: is there anything else unusual?”
Lady Wu released his sleeve, coughed a few times, and said, “In the days before he left home, he was constantly restless, muttering about some once-in-a-lifetime, golden opportunity. Often, late at night, he’d dance and flail his arms in the courtyard, acting very strangely. At the time, I didn’t understand. Looking back, wasn’t that clearly being bewitched by a Demon creature?”
Li Weiyi: “…?”
Am I stuck in a loop?
Didn’t she say that exact same line just moments before?
“Think about it: where might he have been targeted by a Demon?”
“The Eminent Monk said the Demon that harmed my son has profound magical powers, impossible to subdue without an Immortal’s intervention. By defying heaven to seek a protective talisman for my son, he himself was targeted by that vicious and cruel Demon. He then required another tael of silver to dissolve the calamity and extend my son’s life by a few months. Now, there are only a few days left.”
Li Weiyi: “…”
Have I encountered a bug, or am I just not finding the right keyword to trigger the quest?
Or perhaps Lady Wu only has this much useful info, so she just keeps repeating it.
He wanted to call over the kid lounging in the chair next to him for help, but Rechen merely lifted an eyelid before closing it again, unmoving. “Tired.”
Li Weiyi: “…Forget it. What use could I expect from a little brat like you?”
A bolt of spiritual energy shot towards Li Weiyi’s side, instantly snapping the curtain it struck, which fell to the ground.
Rechen said: “Benefactor, choose your words carefully.”
Li Weiyi: …
I get it now. I thought I was the game’s main character, but I’m actually at the very bottom of this world’s food chain. Even a child can threaten me.
Just wait until I join the Fuxi Sect, unseal my Spiritual Light, form a Golden Core, prove my Great Dao, reach the peak of life, and marry the Sect Leader’s daughter… Then you’ll see!
Nice fantasy, but reality was cruel.
His conversation with Lady Wu felt like an infinite loop, yielding no breakthroughs whatsoever.
Just as Li Weiyi was racking his brains, trying to dig out anything new, Fu Mingxia and Qin Jinghan pushed open the door and entered.
Li Weiyi breathed a sigh of relief, instantly tearing up. “Godd… Senior Sister Fu, you’re finally here!”
If you hadn’t come, I was about to go searching for a walkthrough!
Fu Mingxia spent a moment comforting Lady Wu and asking about the situation. But the old woman just repeated the same few sentences over and over. Li Weiyi began to suspect it wasn’t a game bug—the old woman was likely suffering from dementia.
After arranging for someone to tend to the old woman, Fu Mingxia led everyone to the main hall.
She briefly recounted what they had found at the Government Office. “Here are the files of the nine missing persons. We’ll start investigating from the most recent. The closer in time, the more clues there should be.”
Qin Jinghan agreed, “Feasible. However, the most recent disappearance isn’t in these files.”
Li Weiyi asked, “Huh? How do you know?”
Qin Jinghan replied, “Because the most recently missing person is surnamed Duan, given name Nanyun, courtesy name Lunatic.”
Li Weiyi said, “You mean… he might have been taken by a Demon too?”
Rechen bolted upright from his chair. “Nonsense! The Zongyue Sword Immortal doesn’t have such a courtesy name! Besides, he’s not someone some ordinary Lesser Demon could harm!”
Fu Mingxia intervened, “Enough, stop fooling around.”
She brought out paper and ink and wrote down the names and addresses of the missing persons as she remembered them. “Jinghan has two constable badges. If you and the Number One Sword God Under Heaven, Li Weiyi, show yourselves, the citizens won’t be suspicious. You two take one each and split up to investigate these nine people.”
Rechen stood on his tiptoes, craning his neck to see. “And what about me?”
Fu Mingxia asked, “Weren’t you tired?”
Rechen’s eyes widened. “How did you know?”
He looked around the room, trying to find a little spy Fu Mingxia might have planted.
Fu Mingxia extended her hand, and a spirit paper bird flew down onto it. “Stop searching. I was worried the Devil Cultivator might return to the City Lord Mansion, so I left it to watch over Li Weiyi. After all, he’s currently the Evil Nightmare Temple’s prized treasure.”
Li Weiyi wiped his cold sweat. “Prized medicinal ingredient, thank you very much.”
Rechen wanted to participate, but it was merely an excuse to stay and wait for Duan Nanyun.
Since he was asking, Fu Mingxia didn’t refuse. She assigned him to investigate the last four cases with Li Weiyi, while the five most recent cases were left to Qin Jinghan.
Qin Jinghan asked, “And what about you?”
Fu Mingxia replied, “I’m going to go pay a visit to that ‘Eminent Monk’ with the hefty fees.”