Banishing Demons

On a desolate, drought-stricken farmland path, Bai Yujun walked slowly with the Book Box on her back.

The heat made her whole body miserable. She wanted to find somewhere cool to lower her temperature.

A large crowd suddenly appeared ahead on the road—a crowd of crazed people. White cloth was tied around their heads, and they carried wooden poles draped with strips of white cloth. More than a dozen young men carried a statue whose features could not be seen, shouting as they approached, while people at the front scattered paper money as they walked.

Bai Yujun stepped aside to let them pass. She had no intention of clashing with a pack of crazed lunatics.

The procession slowly passed in front of her. Men, women, old, and young were all delirious with frenzy. Bai Yujun watched this human farce without expression. Chaotic times were also when evil cults flourished. Their founders beguiled disaster victims into worshipping all manner of jumbled gods for all sorts of purposes. Those facing death, unable to go on living, would seize this lifesaving straw at all costs. Even if they knew in their hearts it was false, they would desperately hypnotize themselves into believing it. They were merely a group of pitiful people.

The frenzied crowd passed, leaving the ground littered with paper money and dust...

Bai Yujun continued on her way, leaving behind a trail of S-shaped footprints...

A little boy lay beneath a broken wall by the roadside. All alone, he was terribly, terribly hungry. Lying on the ground without an ounce of strength, he could only wait until hunger made him faint. He had heard that once people fainted from hunger, they would no longer feel hungry. The little boy looked forward to it.

Then, through the blur, he saw a white figure approaching in the distance.

As the person drew near, the little boy saw her face clearly. She was beautiful—more beautiful than Wang Daya from his village. The boy thought she had to be a fairy descended from heaven. If he grew up and took a wife, he would definitely marry one this beautiful. Unfortunately, he was about to starve to death, beneath this half-collapsed wall.

What was she eating?

The boy looked at the beautiful woman's fair, tender hand. She held several locusts in hand and stuffed them into her mouth. This... locusts could be eaten?

The beautiful woman walked away. The boy turned to look at the densely packed locusts on the ground before him, then grabbed them like a madman and stuffed them into his mouth, grinding his teeth as he chewed. They seemed quite delicious...

The little boy survived. He had kept his life with nutrient-rich locusts. When hunger struck, he had long stopped caring whether they were poisonous.

From then on, the little boy decided that when he grew up, he would definitely marry a beautiful girl as his wife—someone like that beautiful woman.

While searching for evil demons, Bai Yujun encountered something evil.

Many monsters liked eating humans. Perhaps it was because the human race possessed many things that could enhance blood and cultivation, luring in demons and monsters. Even certain low-grade evil creatures became stronger after eating humans. In this famine-stricken year, with corpses everywhere and resentment soaring to the heavens, evil demons had an extremely high chance of appearing. Obtaining human corpses or living people had become easier and easier.

Around a dozen refugees huddled together. Men holding wooden sticks and broken blades stood trembling around the outside, protecting the women and children hiding within the crowd. Three wild dogs as large as calves prowled in circles around them, growling low. The three wild dogs were in no hurry to kill their prey. Out here in the wilderness, more than a dozen people could never outrun mutated wild dogs. Being eaten was only a matter of time.

The three wild dogs were deeply abnormal. Their sparse fur made them look as if they had some skin disease, exposing the crimson skin beneath. Their bloodshot eyes were an eerie red, while foul-smelling drool constantly dripped from their mouths. One look was enough to tell that they were low-grade Demonic Beasts mutated from eating too many dead bodies. They were not monsters—monsters were evolved living creatures. These things belonged to the evil demons.

The men gripping their wooden sticks struggled not to shake. They clenched so hard their knuckles turned white and their palms sweated.

"None of us are getting out alive today! Even if we die, we'll drag these monsters down with us!"

The man roared himself hoarse, sounding more like he was trying to bolster his own courage.

One of the prowling wild dogs suddenly lunged forward, biting a man's shoulder and dragging him out of the crowd before he could react!

"Ah..."

The other two launched their attacks as well. Ignoring the wooden sticks, they easily broke through the defense, seized their targets, and dragged them away. In an instant, the refugees' suppressed screams and sobs erupted...

In chaotic times, refugees drifted from place to place, while vicious evil creatures ate human flesh and drank human blood.

Suddenly!

A whistling sound rang out, followed by the scream of something cutting through the air from the sky.

With a squelch, a heavy ruler nailed one wild dog to the ground. The dog whimpered and howled, yet could not break free no matter how it struggled. In the distance, a white figure rapidly approached.

"Awooo!"

The other two mutated wild dogs released their prey and charged towards Bai Yujun. Having become low-grade Demonic Beasts, they had gone mad, ignoring whether their target was strong or weak.

Bai Yujun drew her light weapon, the Hengdao, and burst forward with the explosive acceleration unique to serpents, flashing between the two mutated wild dogs!

She came to a stop, flicked the blood clean from her blade, and sheathed it.

The two mutated wild dogs that were still charging toppled and rolled, kicking up great clouds of dust. After falling, they twitched a few times and could not stand again. The sharp, slanted point of the blade had nearly sliced through half of each wild dog.

She walked over to the wild dog pinned to the ground and pulled out the heavy ruler.

The mutated wild dog growled continuously at Bai Yujun as it struggled. Bai Yujun raised the heavy ruler high with both hands, then slashed down diagonally!

Splat! The dog's head flew up and rolled away, landing covered in dust. Blood quickly soaked into the dirt, turning it blackish red. The headless corpse continued twitching in reflex.

She shook off the blood and returned the blade to its sheath. Even without an edge, the heavy ruler could become sharp when empowered by spiritual energy.

The dozen or so refugees, young and old, knelt on the ground and kowtowed. Even when their foreheads turned blue and swollen, they refused to stop.

"Fairy, please show mercy and save my son... Please, Fairy, save his life..."

The bitten men lay on the ground, staring at Bai Yujun with eyes full of hope. No one wanted to die. In their eyes, a fairy was an immortal capable of anything.

Bai Yujun walked over to the bitten men. After examining their wounds, she frowned deeply.

The saliva in the mutated wild dogs' mouths was full of bacteria and viruses, especially after they had eaten so many rotting corpses. Their saliva was nearly more vicious than that of some venomous snakes. Even a small scratch would certainly lead to death from infection within three or four days. One man in particular had a bloody wound in his chest; the bacteria and viruses had likely already invaded his internal organs.

After thinking briefly, she decided to give up on the man bitten in the chest.

"He can't be saved. Hurry and settle his final affairs."

After saying that, she ignored the man's weeping and his family's wails, immediately beginning treatment on the three lightly injured men. She set down the Book Box, removed the waterskin hanging from it, and poured water over their wounds to wash them.

Water on the wounds hurt terribly. The bitten men gritted their teeth, their faces flushed red with pain.

"Endure it."

Once the wounds were cleaned, she quickly took out a medicine packet and sprinkled powder over them. She found some strips of cloth and bandaged the wounds, then fed each injured man a pill to prevent infection. She treated the other two in the same manner.

By the time she finished treating the injured, the severely wounded man was burning with fever. Half-conscious, he began babbling nonsense. The infection had already spread. A foul stench wafted from his wound, and the blood vessels around it had turned black. Even immortals could not save him.

Bai Yujun shook her head, slung the Book Box onto her back, picked up her two weapons, and turned to leave despite their pleas.

A snake was not omnipotent. Let fate take its course.

In chaotic times, human lives were as cheap as grass.

The disaster-stricken area was far too vast. The Chunyang Disciples scattered apart like a handful of sand tossed into water, vanishing without a trace in the blink of an eye. Bai Yujun wandered through several small towns for a long time without encountering a single Chunyang Disciple. She did learn that Xu Ling was nearby—the girl had brought two Lingxu Palace disciples with her to treat the sick and save lives everywhere. Who knew when this drought would end.

Walking along a road where locusts filled the sky and dust flew everywhere, Bai Yujun looked up.

A faint black mist was drifting closer from the distant horizon. For some reason, she instinctively loathed that thin veil of black fog. With natural disasters and human calamities, evil fiends rose on every side; as the famine dragged on, the baleful energy between heaven and earth grew ever stronger. She glanced toward the distance, then continued onward.