In the pitch-black night, one could not see their hand before their face. It was already deep into the night.
Every street in Jiu Nan Town lay in deathly silence.
The doors of every household were shut tight. No one dared make a sound, afraid of drawing demons and monsters; even in sleep, they did not dare snore.
Even the night watchmen who usually patrolled after dark had vanished without a trace.
Yet within the darkness, two figures flitted swiftly over the low rooftops, one ahead of the other, before finally stopping atop a roof.
"Senior Brother, what is it?"
Pan Yu had been racing along after her Senior Brother Pan Shi, using movement techniques. She had not expected him to suddenly halt.
"Shh!"
Pan Shi gestured for silence, his gaze fixed on the street below the roof. Then he quickly crouched down.
"There's a demon! Get down!"
He immediately warned his junior sister behind him.
Pan Yu obediently crouched as well and looked in the direction Pan Shi was watching, but she saw nothing.
The cold, silent street was completely empty.
"Where is it? Why can't I see it?"
Excitement gleamed in Pan Yu's eyes, but finding nothing left her somewhat disappointed.
"You can't see it because your Mana is too weak. You are still flesh-and-blood mortal, and your True Sight has yet to open, so naturally you cannot perceive a demon's true form."
"Once you pass the Resonance Stage and reach the False Eater Realm, which ordinary people cannot see, like I have, you'll be able to spot these fellows easily."
"But I want to see what demons actually look like. We've been out of the sect all this way, and we haven't seen a single demon yet, have we? Senior Brother~ Help me, please~"
Pan Yu pleaded softly, shaking Pan Shi's arm with a pitiful look.
Pan Shi sighed. Helpless against his own junior sister, he could only nod in agreement.
"Close your eyes!"
Pan Yu immediately shut her eyes, delighted and obedient as ever.
Beside her, Pan Shi extended three fingers, then reached into his own eye socket and dug hard.
He gouged out a bloody eyeball at once. The nerve tissue connected to it snapped, hanging limply from the hollow socket, while bright red blood streamed down the bridge of his nose.
Pain stabbed through Pan Shi, and he drew in a sharp breath.
But in order to maintain his dignity as Senior Brother before his junior sister, he still did not react too strongly.
Holding the eyeball in his right hand, Pan Shi formed several hand seals with his left, then gently pressed the eyeball onto his junior sister's forehead.
The eyeball seemed to take root, instantly fastening itself to Pan Yu's forehead. Its black pupil trembled, slowly beginning to focus.
"Alright, you can open your eyes now."
Only after finishing all this did Pan Shi speak to his junior sister.
Pan Yu opened her eyes and excitedly looked down at the street below the house. At once, she saw a twisted figure shambling like a walking corpse toward a private residence.
Pan Yu curiously examined the so-called demon, the pupil in the eyeball on her forehead slowly turning.
"So this is a demon? It looks neither human nor ghost, but it doesn't seem all that frightening."
"It's not even as scary as those horror movie props I saw in my hallucinations."
Her intense curiosity instantly turned into boredom after she saw the demon's true form. It was far too different from what she had imagined.
It was not nearly as thrilling as the horror films she saw in another world whenever she entered hallucinations while cultivating her techniques.
"You can't put it like that. Don't judge it by its looks. It may not look like much, but it is at least a False Eater Realm demon. Even your Senior Brother might not be able to handle it. Never judge a book by its cover and let down your guard."
Pan Shi immediately cautioned her in a soft, earnest tone.
He knew his junior sister was spouting nonsense again, but he paid it no mind. Clearly, he was already used to it.
Her cultivation technique was unusual, and she would often fall into a certain kind of hallucination, seeing things from another illusory world.
Thus, strange terms Pan Shi could not understand often popped out of Pan Yu's mouth. Over time, neither he nor the other disciples of their sect paid them much attention.
Hearing Pan Shi's words, Pan Yu nodded and said nothing more.
The demon below had not noticed the two of them. It had now reached a residence whose gates were tightly closed, where it simply stood motionless.
"What is that demon trying to do?"
Pan Yu asked in confusion.
She had only recently become their master's disciple and understood very little about many things, so she could only rely on Pan Shi to clear up her doubts.
"What else could it be doing? It wants to eat people, obviously!"
"Though these demons and cultivators like us walk the same path of cultivation, they cannot suppress the desires in their hearts. Their minds are filled with nothing but flesh and blood. At least we can retain our reason."
Pan Shi explained softly.
Cultivators had always looked down on these demons. Though both cultivated this flesh-and-blood Mana, the distinction between righteous and evil was still vast.
He then looked toward the residence the demon faced. While the entire town was shrouded in darkness, this house alone shone brightly with lamplight. It had clearly lit a lamp.
The people in that house truly had something wrong with their heads. They still dared light a lamp under such circumstances—they were practically courting death.
After one glance, Pan Shi lost interest in watching any longer. Anyone could guess what would happen next just by thinking with their backside.
Once the demon entered that house, the people inside were certainly doomed.
Pan Yu, however, seemed somewhat worried. It was her first time witnessing demons devouring people.
"Should we intervene and save the people inside?"
Pan Shi immediately shook his head without a second thought.
"Setting aside whether your Senior Brother can defeat this demon, even if I could, I would not interfere."
"Junior sister, don't forget why we came here. Master instructed us that we must not let anything go wrong on this trip to attend the Communal Feast Convention."
"As far as I know, all of Jiu Nan Town is White Buddha Temple territory. A demon appearing in this town must be connected to White Buddha Temple. We are only passing through, so we absolutely cannot stir up trouble. Those bald donkeys are not easy to provoke."
"Once that demon is finished and goes a little farther away, we should leave this place quickly as well. Don't let it notice us."
Seeing Pan Shi refuse without hesitation, Pan Yu could not say anything more. She only looked down at the house with a trace of pity in her eyes.
Compared with the peace and happiness of the other world she saw in her hallucinations, the state of this world was simply far too chaotic.
If she could choose, she would rather abandon cultivation and slack off as an ordinary person in that hallucinatory world than see such detestable things in this world.
If not for the need to protect herself in such troubled times, she would never have embarked on the path of cultivation.
Unfortunately, that world was only a hallucination. It did not truly exist, and she did not have the power to choose the circumstances of her birth.
On the roof, the Senior Brother and junior sister both fell silent, quietly lying in wait for the demon below to finish and leave.
And at that very moment, inside the brightly lit house the two were watching below.
Yang An sat on the bed. He had waited from nightfall until deep into the night, yet nothing had happened.
Just as he was beginning to feel bored, a wave of drowsiness suddenly washed over him. Before he knew it, his mind had grown hazy, his whole body weak, as though he could no longer control it and was about to collapse onto the bed.
A long, drawn-out ringing also arose in his ears.
This drowsiness had come far too suddenly. Before this, Yang An had not felt the slightest bit sleepy. Bathed in the red flames of the Lighting Method, he had been entirely alert.
Just as that groggy sensation arose and his body could not help but begin to fall toward the bed, red firelight suddenly flooded his vision, and an ice-cold chill pierced through his entire body.
The red flames immediately dispelled the condition. The Lighting Method's power to clear the heart and purify the spirit was constantly at work.
Yang An jolted, instantly becoming fully awake. His heart began thudding wildly in his chest.
The instant he regained consciousness, he reacted quickly and reached beneath his pillow for the small knife he had prepared beforehand.
This sudden feeling of grogginess...
It was exactly the same as last night!
Clearly, the demon had come!
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