The voice was exceedingly soft and gentle, clearly belonging to a young woman of marriageable age.
Yin Luan followed the sound, glancing back, yet she spotted no figure anywhere.
“Hello,” she called out. “Would you come out and be friends? My name is Yin Luan, and I’m a pure and innocent girl.”
She had not reverted to her Snake Pupils, so she could only probe her surroundings by scent.
Faintly permeating the air was the smell of “water,” mingled with a trace of rot and a fishy stench.
Her counterpart fell silent and made no further sound, but the odor indicated it was still lurking nearby.
“I’m talking to you, you know,” she said again. “Isn’t it a little rude not to even show your face?”
She wasn’t sure which word in her speech had struck a nerve, but the woman responded with evident anger.
“You—you women with your pretty faces! Of course you can show yourselves openly and bask in everyone’s admiration!
“I’m the rude one? You just want to mock me!”
Whoosh—whoosh—
A yin wind howled through the woods, sending chills rippling across her skin. Yin Luan pulled her cloak tighter around herself, her gaze darting about.
“What do you mean by that?” she pressed on, continuing the conversation. “Why on earth would I mock you? Why saddle me with some baseless accusation?”
“My face,” its voice echoed from amid the trees. “Whenever you lot see my face, it’s nothing but ridicule or revulsion! I—I haven’t done anything wrong!”
A thick wave of Resentful Energy surged toward her, churning the woods into chaos. Every animal with even a spark of spirituality fled in terror, not daring to linger in the area.
“Do you mean… you’re not much to look at?” Yin Luan furrowed her brow. “Looks are just one part of who you are. Haven’t you ever heard the saying? It’s a beautiful heart that makes someone truly beautiful.”
“Would you be willing to ruin your own pretty face?”
“Of course not. What a ridiculous notion.”
Good looks were a gift—why throw them away?
“Ha, hahaha!”
The Yin Wind fused with the Resentful Energy, coalescing into a tangible barrier that encircled Yin Luan, cutting her off from the world.
“So what kind of nonsense is that? No matter how beautiful your heart, it can’t hold a candle to a pretty face!”
Bang!
A figure plummeted from above, crashing down with tremendous force.
Little Snake’s reflexes were lightning-quick. With a light, graceful step, she dodged the attack effortlessly.
“Resorting to violence without even… urgh—!”
She had just started to voice her complaint when the sight of her attacker made her whirl away and retch.
It was a humanoid… monster.
Its limbs and torso resembled those of a woman—neither tall nor burly—with strands of green water weeds entwined around its body, sprouting directly from the skin.
Nestled among those weeds were several intact… human faces.
The skins of young women, affixed to its wrinkled, reeking flesh.
As for its own face… it was no longer a “face” at all. It looked as if some dull object had been scraped across it again and again, obliterating every feature and leaving behind this horrific remnant.
Unhurried, the monster peeled a face skin from its body and slapped it onto its own.
But with its underlying structure so mangled, the result was a grotesque mismatch, even more nauseating than before.
“Silver-tongued women, flaunting your charms with that pretty skin of yours,” it roared twice before charging at her. “I hate your kind the most!”
The monster moved with blinding speed, closing the distance to Yin Luan in an instant as it clawed toward her face.
Yin Luan didn’t bother counterattacking. She simply twisted at the waist and tilted her neck, slipping past the talons with ease—not even a single water droplet from its swing touched her.
To an ordinary person, that speed would have been nearly impossible to react to; even Du Xuan might have found it troublesome.
But in Yin Luan’s eyes, it was no different from an apple dropping from a tree. She could catch it if she wished or dodge without a second thought.
Little Snake had always kept a timid and cautious mindset, for she had no idea what tier of strength she occupied in this bizarre world.
What if the average person here could punch a cow to death with one fist? What if some random Little Ghost could drag her away?
It was only after encountering Du Xuan that she gained a vague sense of her own power.
Hmm… am I actually… not weak? At the very least, the Demon Subduing Division Lord doesn’t seem able to do a thing to me.
Though she couldn’t be entirely certain… For all she knew, Du Xuan might just be a temporary stand-in, an unofficial member of the Division.
Be that as it may, the Living Corpse before her was no match for her, that much was clear.
A Talisman pinched between her fingers, Yin Luan hesitated over whether to put the monster down for good.
Hold on—if she showed off too much strength, wouldn’t that give the game away? The Evil Spirit that even the Demon Subduing Division Lord had to struggle so hard against would be taken care of in just a couple of moves. Wouldn’t they haul Little Snake back for dissection and study?
If she was going to put on an act, she had to commit fully. After all, she was just a weak woman!
“Yin Luan, hold on!”
Whoosh—!
The sword hummed as a crack appeared in the barrier woven from gloomy winds and Resentful Energy. Du Xuan’s anxious shout echoed alongside it.
“Damn it, you bastard, I hate you!”
After more than a dozen failed strikes in a row, the monster was clearly getting frantic. Its attacks grew even more vicious.
Yet Yin Luan’s body seemed to have no bones at all. She twisted at impossible angles time and again, dodging every blow.
Bang!
The monster swung with all its might, smashing a massive crater into the ground.
Yin Luan emerged unscathed, but the people outside appeared to be losing their patience.
“Demon Subduing Third Style: Evil-Breaking Slash!”
Whoosh! Whoosh!
Two slashing strikes ripped a gaping breach in the barrier. The Demon Subduing Division Lord outside brimmed with fierce momentum, her treasured sword aglow with faint golden light.
“Hmph!”
The moment it saw the barrier shatter, the monster halted its assault without a word and bolted.
Yin Luan was quick on the draw. She pinched her fingers and flung a talisman like a flying dagger at the fleeing target.
Sizzle—!
The talisman burned to ash in an instant, branding a glowing “Zhen” character onto the monster’s body.
“Aaah!!!!!”
The monster let out a wretched howl, its speed surging as it dove headlong into the lake.
Du Xuan glanced in the direction of its escape but held back from giving chase.
“My miscalculation,” she said. “I never imagined this monster had advanced to the point of using the Qi-Inducing Technique, condensing Resentful Energy into a barrier like that… Are you all right?”
“Waaah!”
Yin Luan buried herself in the Demon Subduing Division Lord’s arms, nuzzling and whining spoiledly.
“You scared me to death! I’m so terrified I might puke up dinner! Comfort me, pleeease! By the way, how many layers do you have on under those clothes? It feels so hard!”
“…The hard thing ought to be my fist!”
Only now, seeing Yin Luan completely unharmed, did Du Xuan exhale a long breath of relief.
This girl might be a bit dim, but she sure had a tough life…
By the time their tussle had ended, the reinforcements from the city had hurried over. The bushy-bearded man’s face was a mask of terror, tension, and near-tears desperation.
“L-Lord… where’s the Evil Spirit? We didn’t rush over earlier—not because we were cowards, but because we didn’t want to get in your way…”
“It got away,” Du Xuan replied calmly, shoving aside the still-fidgeting Little Snake Demon. “But the talisman’s aura is marked on it now. It won’t get far!”
