In the end, Ling Yun chose to spare the "slime" before him and tossed it back to its owner.
After all, he had gotten quite a bit of useful information from the fellow tonight. There was no deep enmity between them, not enough to drive him to such madness that he would kill someone.
Ma Xiu, still unaware that he had just walked through the gates of hell, took his spirit back and carefully merged it into his own shadow. Only then did he let out a long breath.
He then stood up and gave Ling Yun a deep bow, his expression solemn as he said,
"Tonight, we have Senior to thank for intervening. Otherwise, I fear we would not have lived to see tomorrow's sun."
"May I know Senior's name? We will certainly repay this favor generously!"
Ling Yun waved a hand and casually gave a name. "Zhang Mu."
"Zhang Mu?" Ma Xiu muttered the name several times, silently committing it to memory.
In an inn some unknown distance away, Zhang Mu, who was sleeping soundly outside Ling Yun's door, suddenly sneezed violently and jolted awake.
"Which bastard is talking about me behind my back?"
Zhang Mu rose to his feet, looked around, and cursed indignantly.
He then looked at the tightly shut door behind him. It was utterly silent inside, without the slightest sound.
"This is too quiet. Don't tell me Boss has already fallen asleep?" Though Zhang Mu was puzzled, he did not dare make a sound and disturb him.
Rubbing his somewhat numb legs, he continued diligently standing guard outside the door.
"Take care, Senior."
After exchanging a few more words, Ling Yun swayed away.
Watching the direction in which Ling Yun disappeared, Ma Xiu's gaze flickered. No one knew what he was thinking.
"Cough, cough!!"
A violent bout of coughing suddenly rang out.
Delighted, Ma Xiu turned to look toward a corner of the room.
There lay a figure covered from head to toe in bandages, trembling as she tried to rise.
Ma Xiu hurried over and stopped her. "Don't move recklessly. You have fractures all over your body, and your internal organs are badly injured as well."
"If it gets any worse, no one will be able to save you."
That figure was Rou Yan.
She obediently lay flat again, then turned her head and asked weakly, "Uncle Ma, that Ghost Infant..."
Ma Xiu did not elaborate. He merely explained that a powerful passerby had intervened and slain the Ghost Infant.
Even a child probably would not have believed such words.
Rou Yan was half-convinced, half-doubtful, but said nothing more.
Her physical injuries, coupled with her mental exhaustion, soon sent her back into a deep sleep.
After examining her briefly, Ma Xiu's mood grew heavy.
She had taken a direct blow from the Ghost Infant. If not for the Demon Suppression Envoy's decent physical constitution, and if he had not used pills in time to keep her alive, she would likely have died long ago.
But the situation was still far from optimistic. All they could do now was hope that reinforcements arrived soon, then return to the Demon Suppression Division and find a way to treat her.
As for that boy Jiang Wu, he lay on the other side. His severed arm had been casually bandaged, and from excessive blood loss, he too was unconscious.
Looking at the miserable state of the two of them, Ma Xiu felt rather depressed.
Everything had been fine when they came. Now it had truly gone to hell.
He could even imagine the miserable fate awaiting him once they returned.
After all, he had been responsible for them. Now that they had ended up like this, who else could they blame if not him...
Just then, heavy footsteps suddenly sounded outside. Before he could react, the tightly closed door was slammed open.
Amid gusts of chilling wind, a man with a vicious face and a thick aura of blood slowly walked in.
Yet when Ma Xiu saw who it was, he let out a breath of relief. Then he forced a smile uglier than tears onto his face. "B-Boss, what brings you here?"
The man glared at him irritably. "What brings me here? If I hadn't come, those old geezers would've torn the Demon Suppression Division apart!"
"I always thought you were pretty reliable, kid. Who would've thought you'd turn around and cause me such a huge mess!"
"Now tell me exactly what happened, from beginning to end!"
As he spoke, he swept his eyes over the two people lying there, and his gaze visibly relaxed.
Facing the man's terrifying pressure, how could Ma Xiu dare hide anything? He recounted everything from beginning to end, including Ling Yun's final intervention.
Yet instead of receiving lenient treatment as he had expected, he was met with an even harsher rebuke.
"Are you babbling on and on because you want to shirk responsibility? It was just a tiny Ghost Infant, and you couldn't even handle it. Useless trash!"
"And where is that strange martial artist you mentioned? Why didn't you bring him into the Demon Suppression Division? Don't you know the headquarters just finished cleaning up... and we're short-handed now?"
Ma Xiu was sprayed across the face with spit. Though he felt utterly wronged, he did not dare show the slightest sign of it.
He stood there obediently, like a well-behaved student.
After finishing his tirade, the man turned and walked out of the room. Under Ma Xiu's bewildered gaze, he said flatly, "Handle things here. I'll go after that strange martial artist you mentioned first."
Before leaving, he tossed out one more sentence. "Oh, right. Chief Envoy Wang will be here soon. Kid... pray for yourself!"
Before his words had even faded, the man had already vanished. Yet no matter how one looked at it, he seemed to be fleeing for disaster.
Ma Xiu stood there trembling all over, howling despairingly in his heart, Boss! I never even told you which way he went. What the hell are you chasing?!
Dawn was just beginning to break.
Ling Yun stepped out of a ruined house, dusted himself off, and wore a somewhat gloomy expression.
After leaving Ma Xiu and the others, he had continued searching all over Cloud City for traces of Evil Spirits.
Yet it was as if those Evil Spirits had planned it together. After more than half the night, he had not found even a single hair.
He had previously asked Ma Xiu how the Demon Suppression Envoys determined the locations of Evil Spirits. The answer was that the Demon Suppression Division possessed a spirit artifact called the Spirit Net, which could sense the appearance of Evil Spirits within a certain range.
They only needed to dispatch the appropriate Demon Suppression Envoys based on those locations to deal with them.
So-called spirit artifacts were special weapons refined from Evil Spirits.
Their grades ranged from low-grade to high-grade, while the Spirit Net was a rare mid-grade spirit artifact whose range was enough to cover all of Cloud City!
According to Ma Xiu, for certain reasons, the Spirit Net had remained shut down in the past, which was why Evil Spirits had been able to slaughter civilians throughout the city so freely.
But now that the Spirit Net had been reactivated, the sight of demons and devils running rampant would definitely be gradually brought under control.
And that meant his chances of finding wild Evil Spirits had become even lower!
"Damn it!"
Ling Yun wanted to curse, yet had nowhere to direct it.
After all, from the perspective of all Cloud City, this was undoubtedly a good thing.
It was not as though he had not considered simply joining the Demon Suppression Division. Unfortunately, someone as talentless as him probably would not even catch their eye.
Seeing pedestrians gradually appearing on the streets, Ling Yun could only sigh gloomily and vanish from where he stood.
Before you continue