(GL) The Supporting Female Character Strategy Manual - Chapter 24

They sent the eleven children back one by one. These families who had painfully lost their children and then miraculously recovered them all broke down in tears without exception, crying until they were covered in snot and tears. Only after they had cried enough did they remember the saviors standing nearby.

“Master, thank you so much.”

“No need.”

Jian Tongyao noticed that Qian Wanyu instinctively avoided physical contact with those people. Her expression tightened, and beautiful creases formed between her brows, as if this was something extremely unbearable. Jian Tongyao couldn’t help but want to laugh. Yet the other woman patiently listened to these parents ramble on with grateful words. By the time they sent off the last child, the seductive night had unknowingly climbed across the treetops.

Only the three of them remained on the cold street. The safe return of these children should have been cause for celebration, but the blood-sucking demon had not yet been found. Each household still kept their doors and windows tightly shut. Hearing even the slightest sound on the street, pairs of frightened eyes only dared peek out through the window cracks.

Jian Tongyao kept making eyes at the little white fox, but this brain-damaged little fox demon stood righteously beside the demon hunter Qian Wanyu, not feeling anything was amiss at all. Her cheap little paws kept trying to touch the demon-slaying sword in the other’s hand, as if she didn’t think her little life was long enough.

“What is she saying?”

“Xiao Jiu says we need to find a chance to slip away.”

Jian Tongyao was dumbstruck. Her frantically waving vine tendrils froze.

“…”

Little traitor!!!

Qian Wanyu’s lips curved in a half-smile as she moved her demon-slaying sword closer to Jian Tongyao.

“Try slipping away for me to see, hmm?”

Faced with such authority, what else could she do? She raised two vine tendrils high in surrender.

“But we haven’t done anything bad. Can you please spare our lives?”

Her soft muttering grew quieter and quieter until she nearly shrank into a ball under the other’s cold gaze.

Without Qian Wanyu needing to prompt her, the little white fox had already blabbered everything, conveying Jian Tongyao’s sacred message. At the end, she added, “We’re all principled good demons. Xiao Jiu said so.”

“Principled good demons?”

The corner of Qian Wanyu’s lips curved up as she produced a silver ingot like a magic trick.

“Is this what you call principled and good demons?”

The two little demons tilted their heads and stared at the silver ingot for a long time without seeing anything special. Qian Wanyu kindly reminded them, “The silver ingot from beside the bed of Huang Erniu’s wife.”

Jian Tongyao’s face flushed slightly red. Doing good deeds without leaving a name was a habit of Lei Feng Vine. Being suddenly discovered made her feel somewhat embarrassed.

Qian Wanyu couldn’t tell if a color-changing vine was blushing. She coldly tossed the silver ingot upward. Xiuxiu Sword caught it cooperatively, jingling and jangling for a while. The sound was quite loud in the night. Xiuxiu Sword even performed in midair, but unexpectedly, the little white fox leaped up, jumping even higher than it, snatched the silver ingot, and shook it by her ear. There was no sound at all.

Qian Wanyu ignored the little white fox’s strange behavior.

“What method did you two little demons use to obtain this ill-gotten wealth?”

Jian Tongyao, “!!!”

The little white fox played with it for a bit, found it boring, and tossed the silver ingot back to Xiuxiu Sword. Once again, she sold Jian Tongyao out completely. “Took it. Xiao Jiu says this is called taking ill-gotten wealth, so using it is guilt-free.”

They had passed through Xianyao Town and encountered a bullying little chubby boy. The chubby boy wore luxurious clothes with four or five evil servants following behind him. He took a liking to an embroidered cloth tiger that a child was playing with and had his servants snatch it. Not only did they snatch it, they also beat that child. If it had only been that, it would have been one thing, but the chubby boy played with it for a while and then grew disgusted. When leaving, he even stomped on it several times until the embroidered tiger was completely ruined.

Jian Tongyao and the little white fox had been walking toward the less crowded alleys at the time. They happened to witness this scene, so she instructed the little white fox to go teach him a lesson.

Qian Wanyu played with the silver ingot for a long moment.

“What a fine example of taking what’s rightfully taken.”

Jian Tongyao felt that Qian Wanyu was mocking her. She was so ashamed that she wanted to dig a hole and bury the little white fox beside her. She wasn’t afraid of godlike opponents, only pig-like teammates.

“You may go.”

“Really!”

Without waiting for Qian Wanyu to confirm a second time, Jian Tongyao took off running. The little white fox stood frozen in place for several seconds, tilting her head to look at Qian Wanyu, then at Jian Tongyao, who had nearly run out of sight. She seemed caught in a difficult choice.

Qian Wanyu glanced coldly at her. The little white fox whooshed away.

“Xiao Jiu, Xiao Jiu, wait for me!”

Qian Wanyu looked at her restless sword. “Coming out for a trip, your heart has truly gone wild. You can even make friends with demons. Tell me, how should I deal with you?”

Clang! Clang! Clang!

Qian Wanyu lightly flicked her fingers and fastened it back to her waist.

Jian Tongyao ran in one breath from the city head to the city tail. Tender yellow leaves rustled and fell all along the way. Fortunately, the single-minded little white fox collected every leaf she dropped without missing one.

“Xiao Jiu, Xiao Jiu, you dropped so many again.”

More than that, she had felt unbearably itchy all over just now, as if ten thousand ants were crawling across her body. She didn’t want Qian Wanyu to think she was a mutated, highly dangerous demon. That’s why she held it in all the way. But now she really couldn’t hold it in anymore.

She quickly found a quiet spot in a corner by the city wall and let herself go. One after another, new green leaves emitted a rich vitality in the darkness. But this vitality was fleeting, like changing seasons. In the blink of an eye, she was draped in a brilliant yellow robe again.

The little white fox was ordered to stand one meter away from Jian Tongyao. She gazed longingly at the miraculous scene before her. Within the time it took to burn a stick of incense, Jian Tongyao achieved the grand spectacle of flowers blooming and withering, then made people experience the desolation of deep winter.

One kept producing garbage, the other kept picking up garbage.

Whoosh!

The sound of a sword cutting through the wind.

The person hadn’t arrived, but the sword came first.

Xiuxiu Sword had clearer tracking than her Love-You-to-Death System’s positioning. They had barely been separated for long, yet it could accurately find them without error.

It stopped half a meter from Jian Tongyao, anxiously flying back and forth in midair. Qian Wanyu arrived a bit later than expected, looking as if she had just thrown on some clothes and rushed out. Her hair was still dripping water.

“Have you two little demons seen Jiang Qin?”

Jian Tongyao couldn’t control herself from displaying the scene of blooming and withering, so she tried hard to shrink into the corner. Unexpectedly, this action made the other woman assume she was feeling guilty.

Qian Wanyu stepped closer, her cold voice carrying a hint of killing intent. “You’ve seen her. Where is she?”

The little white fox busily swept up falling leaves with her paws, piling them up and sweeping them into her pouch.

“Xiao Jiu says no, we’ve been busy looking for children all day.”

“And don’t get close to Xiao Jiu. Xiao Jiu is super poisonous!!!”

Qian Wanyu paused slightly but still took another step forward. With the help of the faint moonlight, she finally saw clearly the abnormality on Jian Tongyao’s body. “You—”

She had never seen such a tremendous transformation. Green leaves grew rapidly, then were immediately replaced by yellow leaves. The two alternated in the space of a single thought.

All things had their own growth order. This vine demon’s growth clearly deviated from her understanding. In this moment of hesitation, the vine demon before her seemed to have already passed through seven or eight seasonal cycles.

Jian Tongyao wrapped herself in leaves and silently chanted.

Soon, soon. I’ll soon shed this bare, ugly appearance.

Ever since she absorbed the great demon’s blood, she seemed to have entered some kind of accelerated evolutionary cycle. As long as she endured this evolution, things should be more normal afterward.

Seeing Qian Wanyu turn to leave, she suddenly realized that Jiang Qin’s disappearance at this time was very ominous. She hurriedly chased after her two steps. With this swaying motion, she shook herself bare again.

“I, I can find other demons to help you search for her.”

She had a vague, bold speculation but didn’t dare think deeply about it. After all, that scheming demon Yan Ying and Jiang Qin had disliked each other for a long time. If she wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to do something…

Thinking of this, she didn’t dare waste any more time. “I’ll go summon the little demons. Everyone will gather outside the county town.”

Qian Wanyu, “…”

She watched the two little demons run off right under her nose in a panic. Her feelings were complicated. “Could they be afraid of me and running away?”

Xiuxiu Sword whooshed around in front of her twice, clanging twice.

Jian Tongyao mobilized the little demons to search for a demon hunter’s whereabouts. The one she mobilized was that weak-legged, easily-kneeling frog demon. Don’t let his crooked appearance fool you. The frog demon had extensive demon connections in Xianyao Town and Linchuan County. He was utterly convinced that she could survive from Qian Wanyu’s hands and had become her little fanboy, following only Jian Tongyao’s orders.

Demons had their demon ways. Within an hour, Jian Tongyao had learned from various little demons where Jiang Qin was last seen before disappearing. It was in the completely opposite direction from where they had searched for children today, quite far apart.

“Under normal circumstances, Jiang Qin would leave markers when doing anything. This time, there were none. And she even came to such a remote place…”

“Perhaps she was tricked into coming.”

The three of them asked, answered, and translated in turn. The atmosphere was quite harmonious, though it might have been better if Qian Wanyu hadn’t picked up a blood-stained demon-sealing bag halfway through.

Jian Tongyao shuddered at the sight of this thing. After all, it was a little black room. But for some reason, the carefree little white fox also hopped backward.

Qian Wanyu gripped the demon-sealing bag tightly until her fingertips turned white. “The demons in the demon-sealing bag have all been released.”

Jian Tongyao frantically shook her vines. “It wasn’t me, it wasn’t me.”

Qian Wanyu naturally knew this vine demon with a heart smaller than a chicken’s couldn’t do such a thing. She paid them no more attention. One person and one sword searched around the area. In the grass three meters away, they found a blood-stained scale with a piece of torn cloth hooked on it.

Jian Tongyao recognized at a glance whose it was. She hadn’t expected that scheming demon to be so audacious, making a move against Jiang Qin practically in front of Qian Wanyu. Clearly, the other party didn’t take the demon hunter seriously at all. Then her purpose in approaching Qian Wanyu was… very intriguing.

Qian Wanyu searched all night and only returned to the inn with Jiang Qin’s remaining belongings at dawn.

Jian Tongyao secretly hid nearby, watching her, wanting to offer a few words of warning. But she also knew Qian Wanyu’s attitude toward demons, as well as the weight of Yan Ying, this “lifesaving” benefactor, in the other’s heart. Comparing the two, she was completely defeated.

If she tried and failed, she would lose more than she gained. Not worth it.

“Xiao Hui, we can’t let that scheming demon continue doing evil.”

“Okay.”

…

Yan Ying knew Qian Wanyu had stayed in her room all day. She specially had the innkeeper prepare tea and refreshments. After everything was ready, she leisurely knocked on Qian Wanyu’s door.

“Benefactor, you haven’t eaten for a long time. For the sake of your health, please eat something.”

Qian Wanyu glanced at her coldly and stepped aside to let her into the room.

Jian Tongyao was shocked. She had just seen the scheming demon add something extra to the tea and refreshments.

Could it be that from beginning to end, the one she wanted to deal with was Qian Wanyu? But why?

She hurriedly brought the little white fox to peek through a crack.

“Xiao Hui, are you sure the thing is on her body?”

The little white fox nodded like a pecking chicken, using her paws to touch her fluffy face several times.

Qian Wanyu sat at the table, looking distracted. If not for her demon-slaying sword at her waist shaking nonstop, she probably wouldn’t have even noticed that the other woman had already set out a table of refreshments.

“Yan Ying, I don’t want to eat. Take it all away.”

Dense beads of sweat appeared on Yan Ying’s forehead despite the weak smile on her face.

“I know Miss Jiang’s matter has hit you too hard, but if you stay in your room like this without eating or drinking, how can you catch that demon who harms people? All the common people of Linchuan County are counting on you, benefactor.”

These words weren’t false at all. What was false was the purpose.

Jian Tongyao quietly extended a vine tendril through the crack in the room, waving it to signal Xiuxiu Sword. The sword also swayed back and forth, making Qian Wanyu unable to sit or stand comfortably. Suppressing it with spiritual power didn’t work either.

“I specially had the innkeeper make these refreshments. Try one.”

“Don’t eat them.”

Jian Tongyao wanted to cover the little white fox’s mouth, but it was too late. She had only silently chanted one sentence, and the little white fox had already dutifully translated it.

Yan Ying’s hand trembled. The refreshment fell back onto the plate. She was shaking badly, her heart somewhat panicked. Something was very wrong. She braced both hands on the table.

“Who’s there?”

Qian Wanyu said, “Come out.”

Yan Ying looked in shock at a dirty little fox and a yellow-orange vine demon. “Demons.”

Jian Tongyao guiltily greeted Qian Wanyu. Xiuxiu Sword happily flew out and bounced twice on the table. Those refreshments and teacups clattered and mixed together, no longer showing their original refinement.

Yan Ying caught a glimpse of scales emerging on her hands from the corner of her eye. She tried to hide behind Qian Wanyu, desperately tucking her hands behind her back.

“Benefactor, I’m so scared. Quickly kill them.”

The little white fox pointed at Yan Ying and scolded, “You’re a blood-sucking bad demon.”

Jian Tongyao excitedly waved her tendrils.

It appeared, it appeared! The snake scales finally appeared, not just when sucking blood. Sure enough, no matter what form of snake demon, they all inevitably hate the same thing.

The little white fox beside her also seemed to sense her good mood. “Look, look, the bad demon is exposed!”

Only now did Yan Ying finally understand the source of her earlier panic. These two little demons, whose necks she could snap with one hand, had actually set her up.

Compared to the two little demons’ jumping and bouncing joy, Qian Wanyu was exceptionally calm and composed. Even when seeing those snake scales, she showed no surprise.

“You lured Jiang Qin out.”

Yan Ying touched the snake scales on her arms and face, closed her eyes, and when she opened them again, those beautiful pupils had changed into the vertical pupils a snake demon should have.

“That’s right. She sought her own death. She can’t blame anyone else.”

Clang!

Xiuxiu Sword viciously slashed at Yan Ying. In the blink of an eye, the two had moved to the courtyard.

Jian Tongyao and the little white fox hurriedly found a place to hide, watching as more and more snake scales appeared on Yan Ying’s face. She couldn’t help but wonder, “Wow, I thought she had some beauty before, but why do so many snake scales only appear on her face?”

As for other places, there were very few.

The little white fox fearfully tugged at her fluffy face with her paws.