Huai City, West Street.
Compared to the tidy and pristine East Street, the environment here was far more chaotic.
There were no grand mansions like those belonging to officials and wealthy families, no officers patrolling back and forth, and the hurried pedestrians wore threadbare clothes.
Yet in terms of sheer bustle and energy, West Street outshone East Street by far.
Walking side by side with the Demon Subduing Division Lord, Yin Luan was like a wide-eyed kid in a candy store, peering this way and that, drinking in every intriguing sight.
Du Xuan, walking beside her, seemed stiff and ill at ease by contrast.
“You must have some plan by now. Aren’t you going to tell me?”
How had she gotten roped in with this girl again? Once they’d wrapped up the living corpse case, shouldn’t they have parted ways for good?
“Don’t panic,” Yin Luan said, scanning the area until her eyes landed on a stall hawking antiques and knickknacks. She grabbed Du Xuan’s hand. “Let’s go check that out!”
She hadn’t been in this world all that long—not ages, but not a blink either—and she still hadn’t done any proper street shopping.
Now she finally had company. She had to make the most of it!
Yin Luan was all for having fun, but Du Xuan was the impatient type. After they’d poked around a couple of spots, she couldn’t hold back and prodded again.
“Whatever you want to buy, I’ll get it for you… Just tell me what method you’re planning to use first?”
“You’re out having fun with a girl, and you’re still obsessed with business,” Yin Luan huffed, puffing out her cheeks. “Do you even know how to sweet-talk someone?”
“No.”
Of course not. Her position and status meant people fawned over her most of the time; she never had to sweet-talk anyone.
“Fine, fine, you win,” Little Snake said, sticking out her tongue. “My sense of smell is way sharper than a normal person’s. That Talisman Seal fragment we found—if it’s shown up around here, I might be able to follow the scent trail and sniff out whoever handled it.”
“You can do that?!”
Du Xuan’s eyes lit up.
“See? You really have no idea how to sweet-talk…” Little Snake flopped dramatically onto a tea stall’s wooden table, going limp. “I’m all out of energy. Don’t wanna search anymore!”
What an insensitive woman… She’d have to sneak in a couple of licks later and see if Du Xuan truly didn’t know how—or just didn’t want to bother.
“If the Huai City Living Corpses were someone’s deliberate handiwork, then that culprit’s no small fry,” Du Xuan said. “Who knows if it’s stirred up trouble elsewhere too? What if…”
“Am I just a tool to you? Planning to use me up and toss me aside? If I hadn’t said I could track the person down, would you have bolted town overnight? You heartless cad—boo hoo hoo!”
No matter the place, juicy gossip between a man and a woman was always prime entertainment for the masses.
With Yin Luan sprawled on the table, pouting in aggrieved misery, passersby shot Du Xuan odd, judgmental looks.
“Fine,” Du Xuan said. But this time, she’d learned her lesson and dropped the badgering. “I’ll handle the search myself. No need to trouble you…”
“Wait—why aren’t you blushing this time? Thicker skin now?”
“…I really should’ve learned that ‘Vajra Demon-Subduing Fist’ from Master!”
One solid punch a day—that’d sort things out.
Tracking down someone in West Street who’d touched the Talisman Seal was no simple matter. Even with Little Snake’s exceptional nose, the onslaught of mingled scents was overwhelming. The pair could only wander and hope for a lucky break.
Life for ordinary folk in this world was modest at best, especially in the Great Zhou Kingdom, where poverty was rife.
The rich had their paths; the poor had theirs. As they meandered along, they stumbled into the black market.
Huai City’s “lawless zone” peddled all manner of bizarre, shady goods.
With the living corpse incidents blowing up lately, anything promising to ward off evil was flying off the stalls.
“Celestial Demon-Suppressing Talismans! Three for ten coppers—slap one on, and no demon, ghost, or monster comes near!”
“Millennium Peachwood Sword! One swing cleaves any demon clean in two. Today’s steal: fifty coppers!”
“Latest 《Demon-Subduing Scripture》! Master it and conquer the world—it’s no pipe dream!”
The Great Zhou Kingdom recognized only the Demon Subduing Division as the official force against evil spirits. They clamped down hard on all demon-subduing gear, techniques, and lore, keeping it from leaking out.
The junk on display here was, of course, all counterfeit.
“Lady, Lady,” Yin Luan tugged at Du Xuan’s sleeve, pointing to an item on the stall. “I want this. Buy it for me!”
“Quit with the squeaky voice,” Du Xuan said, giving it a glance. “《Demon Annals》. It’s got more value than those bogus cultivation manuals. What do you want it for?”
“Study it,” Yin Luan said. “Learn about the different kinds of demons. If we run into one someday, at least we’ll know how to beg for mercy.”
“I think you’re overthinking things,” Du Xuan said with a cheerful laugh. She pulled out some copper coins and bought the somewhat tattered book, explaining as she did, “In the Great Zhou Kingdom, your odds of encountering a demon are far lower than stumbling across an evil spirit.”
“Why’s that?”
“The Great Zhou Kingdom seems to be a forbidden land as far as the demons are concerned. After that chaos thirty years ago, any demons who survived by sheer luck all fled the kingdom and headed elsewhere.”
“Elsewhere where?”
The Little Snake Demon asked curiously.
“No idea, but definitely not anywhere inside the Great Zhou Kingdom… Here, take it—and remember to work hard once you’ve got it.”
It sounded like she might actually have some companions out there to track down. Could there be a whole Snake family? One filled with beautiful snake demons?
But that was a worry for another day. They hadn’t even finished exploring the Great Zhou Kingdom yet. Heck, they’d barely scratched the surface of East County itself.
Yin Luan clutched the 《Demon Annals》 to her chest, her face lit up with a beaming smile. Du Xuan couldn’t help reaching up to touch her own cheek.
What a silly girl… If she wanted a gift, why not ask for some fancy jewelry? And here she was, over the moon about a beat-up old book?
“Sniff, sniff.”
As they walked along, Yin Luan came to a sudden stop. She sniffed the air a couple of times, then flicked out her tongue when she sensed something amiss.
Following the scent, she led Du Xuan to a stall tucked away in the depths of the Black Market.
The stall owner was a gaunt man with deep-set eyes, his face pale and wan—like someone sorely lacking in yang energy.
“He smells just like the Talisman Seal!”
The Little Snake Demon stated with absolute certainty.
Du Xuan strode forward and demanded, “I am Du Xuan of the Demon Subduing Division. Have you recently had any contact with a young woman named Shu Wen?”
The instant the name “Shu Wen” left her lips, the man’s face drained of what little color it had left. He abandoned his stall without a second thought and bolted for it.
But how could an ordinary person possibly escape the two of them?
Du Xuan casually kicked an Earthen Jar off the stall, striking the man squarely in the ankle. He let out a howl of pain and sprawled face-first onto the ground.
“Looks like you have met her,” she said coldly, advancing on him. “If you don’t want to suffer, spill everything you know!”
“M-Madam! I-I didn’t hurt her!” the man stammered, dropping to his knees in desperate supplication.
“I only helped that guy consign two jars for sale, that’s all! He said only someone brimming with resentful energy could break the seal on them!”
