Great Demon - Chapter 87 Part 2

“It’s fine to speak freely,” Zhuyou lifted a hand, wiping away the ghostly energy. The words dissolved into smoke and vanished.

Only then did Huoshu continue, “Come to think of it, the first person who discovered that demons were mysteriously disappearing in the city was Wu Buzhi. That day, he came to me, asking if I had seen a little fox demon from the incense house. My place is filled with countless wandering demons and devils—it was impossible for me to immediately recall if someone had gone missing. But Wu Buzhi was unusually persistent. He insisted that I find her, saying he wanted to book her for seven days.” Huoshu paused deliberately, her fox-like eyes curving into an alluring smile before she continued, “Half the city’s demons and devils heard about it. Wu Buzhi, of all ghosts! Ever since that Demon Clan servant died, he hadn’t sought out anyone else. He never stepped out of his door, acting like some virtuous maiden. And now he suddenly wanted to book a female demon?”

“Enough with the nonsense,” Zhuyou pinched the bridge of her nose, unwilling to hear about Wu Buzhi’s history with women.

“Don’t be impatient, Your Grace,” Huoshu quickly said. “At first, I didn’t want to bother with him, but he offered me far too much. So I agreed. But guess what?”

“You couldn’t find her.” Zhuyou had already guessed. Demons and devils frequently vanished in the city, all thanks to Guanshang’s sinister method of entering the Endless Abyss.

“Exactly,” Huoshu nodded. “Not only could we not find her, but even her hun soul and po soul were missing. A few days later, all we found was her clothing, buried in a pile of dirt—just like what we saw before.”

Zhuyou blew out the phoenix fire in her palm, stood up, and asked, “Did Wu Buzhi learn anything after that?”

“I don’t know what he figured out, but after that day, he went out even less. Even when he did, no one ever ran into him in the city. It was as if he had vanished. If someone wanted to see him, they had to leave tea and wine as an offering at his door. Only when he smelled the fragrance would he open the door and step out,” Huoshu said in a low voice, glancing sideways.

Zhuyou’s frown deepened. “If he had already left the house, how could he open the door again?” Her words halted suddenly as she turned to look at Huoshu in shock.

The cat demon tilted his head in confusion. “He’s a ghost. Maybe he sneaked back through the walls and then deliberately opened the front door to scare people.”

Zhuyou didn’t respond. She suddenly felt that this cat demon wasn’t as clever as she had thought.

Huoshu covered half her face with her fan, her fox-like eyes curving into a playful smile. “In any case, after that day, he became even more peculiar. He only appeared when others came looking for him.”

Zhuyou lowered her gaze, the corners of her lips lifting slightly. Now she understood—Wu Buzhi must have long known about the Endless Abyss. He might have even colluded with Guanshang’s subordinates, leading her into their trap step by step.

That explained why Wu Buzhi could come and go without a trace—he was using the power of the Endless Abyss.

She shook her head slightly and clicked her tongue. Wu Buzhi had risked his life to sell her information about Cold Eye, all because he wanted her and Changying to kill each other. Unfortunately for him, she hadn’t died at Changying’s hands. This was an unexpected variable, forcing Guanshang to adjust his plans and lure her into the Endless Abyss instead.

However, thinking back carefully, something still didn’t add up. When she first discovered the Endless Abyss, she hadn’t encountered a single mortal searching for Cold Eye. It was as if she had known about Cold Eye’s existence before anyone else.

Then she recalled Changying’s words when they bathed in divine light in the heavens.

She had a nagging feeling that someone in the Nine Heavens had leaked the information, allowing Wu Buzhi to learn about it in advance.

Could the one who leaked it be that ancient devil who, two hundred years ago, secretly glimpsed the divination signs?

It seemed the Nine Heavens were truly about to change.

Wu Buzhi, she repeated his name slowly in her mind. She should be furious right now. Her gaze sharpened, and in a flash, she slammed her palm onto the table.

Instantly, all the paper offerings on the table burst into flames.

Huoshu and the cat demon quickly stepped back. If they got burned by phoenix fire, their lives would be over.

The firelight flickered in Zhuyou’s eyes, making her seem utterly enraged. Yet she remained motionless, staring at the growing flames, lost in thought.

Huoshu, seeing that the fire was about to scorch the wooden table and spread to the beams, quickly called out, “Your Grace, this fire—?”

Zhuyou let out a light scoff. Her pale hand, resting flat on the table, moved slightly. With a subtle curl of her fingertip, the flames leaping up to the rafters immediately shrank.

The fierce fire instantly condensed into a small cluster, leaping into her palm. With a sudden clench of her fingers, the fire was extinguished.

Huoshu let out a breath of relief. Her face, which had been on the verge of returning to human form, sprouted mouse whiskers again from the fright. The paper fan she held was too small to fully conceal them. She hesitantly asked, “Who was Wu Buzhi leaving those words for?”

“For me.” Zhuyou’s voice was calm. “Wu Buzhi must have known I was coming. He fell out with Guanshang. He’s a ghost that has lived for hundreds of years—how could he not know that devils have this kind of temperament?”

“What kind of temperament?” the cat demon asked.

“Fickle, despicable, and vile.” Zhuyou’s red lips moved slightly as she spoke, her tone utterly composed, as if she herself had never been a devil.

The cat demon was stunned for a moment. “Wu Buzhi was deceived?”

“He wasn’t deceived.” Zhuyou paused, then added, “He capsized in the gutter.”

Huoshu pursed her lips. “Does Your Grace still intend to find Wu Buzhi?”

“No. I might not be able to find him.” Zhuyou turned to look at her, and in that unguarded moment, she caught sight of the half-exposed mouse whiskers peeking out from behind the fan. She pressed her lips together, feeling that the demons and devils in this city were all unreliable, one after another.

Huoshu noticed Zhuyou’s gaze and, caught off guard, made brief eye contact. Her eyes instantly burned hot, and she hurriedly averted her gaze.

“This city—I will still drive it into the Demon Realm. You must watch over the streets inside and out for me. If anyone appears or disappears, you must tell me at once,” Zhuyou instructed after a moment of thought.

Huoshu quickly responded, bowing slightly while keeping her face partially covered.

Zhuyou rose and stepped out of the courtyard, looking up at the heavy sky. The Nine Heavens were no longer visible.

She wondered what Changying was doing now. Changying still didn’t know that Guanshang had fled, nor did she know about Zhuyou’s plan to send the city into the Demon Realm. But the dragon’s breath still lingered here—when the time came, she would surely sense it.

Huoshu followed closely behind Zhuyou. She hadn’t dared to look before, but now she finally allowed herself a proper glance. Her gaze swept over Zhuyou’s silver hair, then slowly moved down to her shoulders, the waist cinched tightly with crimson ribbons, and the pale ankles revealed as she walked through the silk folds of her dress.

No wonder, two hundred years ago, when this one became a devil, the immortals of the Heavenly Realm wailed like they had lost their parents. Who could bear to let such a beauty slip away from their sight?

Huoshu was just pondering whether anyone in the Jianxiang Pavilion could doll themselves up to resemble even half of this Vermilion Phoenix when she suddenly saw the real Vermilion Phoenix pause in her steps.

Huoshu immediately stopped as well, curving her eyes into an innocent, harmless expression while keeping half her face covered.

Zhuyou turned back to look at her expressionlessly. As if something had just occurred to her, her brows furrowed slightly, and she seemed displeased. Without warning, she said, “Do you not want your eyes anymore?”

Huoshu shut her eyes at once, wishing she could walk ahead blindly.

The cat demon grabbed her arm. Having just witnessed Zhuyou’s tendency to set wooden houses on fire at the slightest provocation, he was terrified that she might get angry again. He cautiously peeked up at her, then, like Huoshu, squeezed his eyes shut and walked forward blindly—only to crash into a wall with a thud after just a few steps.

“Ow!” Huoshu yelped. Since her mouth had stretched longer in her half-mouse form, it was the first thing to hit the wall. She sucked in a sharp breath and complained, “What kind of guide are you?”

The cat demon stared at her in confusion, completely unaware of what she had bumped into.

Zhuyou found it amusing. Since when was a cat afraid of a mouse? But this cat demon’s cultivation was pitifully weak—he was still just a half-demon, the offspring of a demon and a human’s illicit affair.

Huoshu let out a frustrated sigh, then hurried after Zhuyou again. “Your Grace, why not stay at my place tonight?”

The cat demon, who had been following behind, nearly popped his eyeballs out of their sockets at her words. They were both from Shangxi City—how could he not know what kind of place Jianxiang Pavilion was? His voice trembled as he muttered, “You’ve got some nerve.”

Zhuyou glanced back at the two demons, thinking that the cat demon was actually quite sharp—he had spoken the very words she had been about to say.

Huoshu looked aggrieved but hesitated, unable to explain herself.

“I have my own place to stay,” Zhuyou said.

Huoshu had no choice but to curve her eyes into a smile again. “Your Grace, in this Shangxi City, you need only call my name, and no matter where I am, I will come to you.”

Zhuyou waved her hand, dismissing them from following her, then walked alone to the glacier formed by the dragon’s breath.

The massive rift was frozen solid, truly resembling a silver dragon lying upon the earth.

Zhuyou sat atop the glacier, gazing toward the distant sky, then used her spiritual power to lift Shangxi City into the air.

The city floated like a ship upon the sea, and she was the one rowing it.

With a flick of her sleeve, a strand of black hair drifted down, landing lightly against her wrist.

The moon was no longer visible in the sky. Though she was clad in a dark gown, her face was as pale as a jade crescent in the heavens.

Beneath her chest, the drop of blood from her heart lay still and silent, as if the thread connecting it had been severed once more.

Zhuyou raised a hand to press against her heart. After a moment, she closed her eyes, slowly lifted the strand of hair, and, tilting her head slightly, placed it against her lips.

Her lips were pink. The hair was black.

A faint misty glow rose from the glacier, but upon closer inspection, it was not light—it was the dragon’s breath.

The dragon’s breath silently and soundlessly condensed into human form. Standing behind Zhuyou, it took in the entire scene before its eyes.