Exactly.
When the lights were extinguished that night, wasn't the figure he had seen the perfect match for this one?
Madam!
Zhao Huai came back to his senses and remembered. He recognized the figure in midair.
He could not help but feel astonished.
Why had Madam come to the Drunken Flower Pavilion? Hadn't she gone to watch a play?
Thinking carefully about the time, she should have returned home by now. She should have been in the household! As Zhao Huai pondered this,
another fierce battle broke out above the pavilion. After Yu Qinghan suppressed the black qi before her, her cold gaze swept across the sky, and she discovered that the black qi had scattered in several other directions.
"Dividing yourself into five, do you think that will let you escape?"
Yu Qinghan chased after the largest mass of black qi, moving with astonishing speed.
"Damn it!"
The Fox Demon woman cursed, terror and fury filling her heart as she hurriedly fled into the distance.
She was utterly no match for that woman. Thus, she could only abandon her physical body and let her Primordial Spirit escape.
She had several physical bodies. As long as she left this place and casually switched to another one, she could survive.
The Fox Demon clan had always cultivated with the Primordial Spirit as their focus. A mere physical body was worth nothing, which was why the mortal world spoke of Fox Demons having nine lives.
In the end, they had merely changed bodies.
In no time at all, Yu Qinghan vanished from Zhao Huai's sight.
Standing at the entrance, Zhao Huai mused, "Was that Fox Demon Madam was fighting just now? Could the Drunken Flower Pavilion's lair already have been dealt with?"
With that thought, Zhao Huai tossed a copper coin.
Fortune and misfortune depended on each other. For now, he would take a look. Divination Sign One: Elm coins could not buy a thousand-gold smile; why would willow ribbons need the adornment of a hundred treasures? Upon entering the Drunken Flower Pavilion, the guidance you received was "fortune." Tracing Guidance: Romance beneath wind and moon, this journey would span many years.
After reading the result, Zhao Huai stepped through the front entrance and entered the Drunken Flower Pavilion.
What he saw left him greatly astonished.
The place was a complete mess. The red-papered walls had been badly damaged, glazed tea cups lay shattered across the floor, and fruit tea and pastries had been scattered everywhere.
"Who did all this? It couldn't have been Madam, could it?"
Zhao Huai asked in surprise.
In his eyes, Yu Qinghan had rarely acted. He had once been fortunate enough to see her do so when facing pursuers, and at the time, he had thought her cultivation was only at the fifth or sixth level of Qi Refinement.
He had not expected that he had still underestimated her. Judging from the spiritual energy disturbance here, she was likely at the peak of Qi Refinement, and her destructive power was terrifying.
The only thing he could not understand was why Madam had come to the Drunken Flower Pavilion to slay demons. As Zhao Huai surveyed his surroundings, a ball of white light slipped into his mind.
"Oh? This can trigger a Fate Trait too?"
He immediately checked it.
Brothel Visit (Superior Human Grade): Visiting a brothel can relieve fatigue, leave one refreshed, and greatly improve one's mood.
"This works too?"
The corner of Zhao Huai's mouth twitched slightly.
Still, this Fate Trait was surprisingly useful. If he ever grew tired from cultivation, he could take a stroll through a brothel and immediately feel refreshed, all his fatigue gone.
But it was better left as a thought. With Madam around, wasn't she ten thousand times better than those women of the dust?
Tap, tap.
The sound of footsteps descending the stairs caught Zhao Huai's attention.
"Didn't I tell you to wait outside? Never mind. The demons here have already been cleared out anyway."
Lu Wanqiu descended the stairs as she spoke, her pretty face filled with confusion.
"How strange. The entire Drunken Flower Pavilion is empty. I didn't see a trace of any demon."
"Someone must have gotten here first."
Zhao Huai naturally knew who had cleared out those demons. He reminded her, "I saw a demon's shadow outside just now. It was indeed being chased and fled toward the distance."
Lu Wanqiu asked seriously, "Where did you see it?"
"Southeast."
"I'll go investigate. You should head home first. Leave this place to me."
In Lu Wanqiu's eyes, Zhao Huai was merely a pawnshop owner. She could not sense any True Qi from him, so naturally, he should stay far away from matters involving demons.
After giving her instructions, Lu Wanqiu threw out a longsword and stepped onto it.
She rode through the air in the direction Zhao Huai had indicated.
"That Fox Demon won't die so easily."
Zhao Huai murmured to himself, then headed upstairs.
Having fought the Fox Demon several times, he already understood her tricks well and knew just how cunning she was. Naturally, he would not leave.
It could be said that he was the person here who understood this demon best.
Relying on the Demon-Revealing Eye Fate Trait, Zhao Huai searched all around, trying to find some clues.
The world before him turned gray and white, while strands of entwined black qi guided the way ahead.
The second and third floors of the Drunken Flower Pavilion were filled with private rooms, each beautifully decorated and heavy with the scent of women's perfume.
When he reached a private room on the third floor, Zhao Huai gradually caught the smell of blood.
"Where is that smell coming from?"
He pushed open the door to one of the rooms.
The room was elegantly furnished, its candlelight bright. Gauze curtains danced softly, and the screen was beautiful as a painting.
All sorts of tools had been laid out on the square table.
"Playing this perverted?"
Zhao Huai clicked his tongue in amazement as he looked at the tools.
The bloody smell came from the cabinet. Zhao Huai opened its doors and saw a nauseating sight.
Inside were sheets upon sheets of human skin, male and female alike, every single one stained with blood.
Suppressing the discomfort in his heart, Zhao Huai tossed in a Fire Thunder Dao Talisman and burned every piece of human skin to ashes before closing the cabinet again.
After doing so, he discovered that the strands of black qi before him ultimately led beneath the bed.
"Another unexpected discovery?"
Zhao Huai slowly approached the bed and pulled out an exquisite wooden box.
Opening the box, he found mask after mask inside, but they differed from the human skins he had just seen.
Half of the masks were damaged, while some were intact. The intact masks were quite attractive.
The dense Demonic Qi naturally emanated from these masks.
"These should be human-face masks the Fox Demon refined herself. They can conceal her among humans and erase some of a demon's traits."
Zhao Huai thought this to himself.
Thud.
Suddenly, a sound of something landing came from outside the room.
Zhao Huai fixed his gaze on it warily. The black strands before him immediately converged, all pointing outside.
Clearly, the Fox Demon had returned.
Madam and Lu Wanqiu had both gone after her, yet she had still managed to escape back here?
He stored the wooden box in his Storage Ring, then hid behind the screen, held his breath, and concealed his aura.
A mass of black qi pushed open the door and condensed into the figure of a woman.
Scarlet threads embroidered bewitching roses along the broad cuffs of her sleeves, making her look delicate and alluring.
It formed a stark contrast with that ugly fox face filled with sharp fangs.
She took out a mask from her sleeve and put it on. Her ugly fox face abruptly changed, becoming that of a beautiful woman with willow-leaf brows and jade-like teeth fragrant as blossoms.
She touched her own face and gave a coquettish smile at the bronze mirror, as though intoxicated by her own beauty.
Yet her expression soon changed, and she said with an ugly look on her face,
"That woman is truly detestable! She kept pursuing me relentlessly. I have never been this miserable in my life."
"Thankfully, I was one step ahead and kept something in reserve. There is still a remnant of my Primordial Spirit within this physical body."
Hearing this, Zhao Huai's eyes shifted, and he understood.
This Fox Demon had split her Primordial Spirit into several portions. As long as even one remnant remained, she would not die.
Then this should be her final fragment of Primordial Spirit, right?
At once, Zhao Huai quietly drew the sword artifact from his Mysterious Ring.
Before you continue