When Ning Xiu returned to Spring Breeze Pavilion, Lu Hao and the others had already started clinking cups and drinking, with beauties nestled in their arms.
Seeing how long Ning Xiu had taken, Lu Hao hurriedly urged him, "Brother Ning, you sure took your time in the latrine. Come, come, sit down and punish yourself with three cups."
"Sure." Ning Xiu calmly found a seat and sat down. No one could have guessed that he had just killed several Evil Spirits on the third floor of Spring Full Pavilion.
Just then, Lu Hao pulled a white bottle from his robes with a mischievous grin and asked mysteriously, "Everyone, take a look at this. Do you know what it is?"
The others hurriedly looked, all of them puzzled.
One man urged him, "Brother Lu, stop keeping us in suspense and just tell us."
"Heh heh. This is called an Essence Locking Indomitable Pill. It's the most popular tonic among the high officials and nobles these days. One pill lets you go at it for an hour or two without getting tired. This tiny bottle alone sells for as much as fifty taels. I'll give each of you a pill later, so you can find out what it's like to be a champion between the sheets."
Someone else laughed. "As expected of Brother Lu. You're so young, yet you've already mastered what others haven't. I'm impressed."
After several rounds of wine, the atmosphere in the room gradually warmed, and as they drank, the unfamiliarity between them vanished.
Seeing how much Lu Hao and the others were enjoying themselves, Ning Xiu figured this was the perfect time to ask. "Brother Lu, do you know who owns Spring Full Pavilion? To open a brothel this large in Chaotian Capital, the person behind it must be no ordinary figure."
Hearing the question, Lu Hao smiled. "Brother Ning, you've come to the right person. I really do know. Have you heard of Marquis Wuyi?"
Ning Xiu nodded. "I have. He's one of Great Shang's thirty-six marquises, and a relative of the Son of Heaven."
Lu Hao's expression turned wistful. "Marquis Wuyi was once a devoted man, and he cared only for Madam Han, whom he married when he was young. But life is unpredictable. Madam Han died unexpectedly of an illness a few years ago, and Marquis Wuyi changed overnight. He started chasing skirts and carousing night after night. He's brought no fewer than eight hundred young women into his estate, and a year ago, he even opened Spring Full Pavilion himself as a place for people to seek pleasure."
"Does Marquis Wuyi get involved in Spring Full Pavilion's daily business and management?" Ning Xiu asked.
"Brother Ning, what a question. What sort of person is Marquis Wuyi? He's one of the thirty-six marquises, with countless people working for him. Why would he need to get involved in a single Spring Full Pavilion? Of course he has someone else managing it flawlessly."
Ning Xiu picked up his wine cup and remained silent. Spring Full Pavilion was an establishment opened by Marquis Wuyi, yet it had become a hiding place for Evil Spirits, a den where they preyed on the people.
He wondered whether Marquis Wuyi was involved in all this, or if someone was using him as a protective umbrella to commit their crimes under the cover of darkness.
Just as Lu Hao was talking animatedly, someone suddenly shoved open the door to their room at Spring Breeze Pavilion. A plump woman barged in, leading three young servants.
The sight left Lu Hao staring in surprise, unsure what was going on.
But he quickly reacted, stood up, and snapped, "What do you think you're doing? You dare barge into my private room? Are you trying to drive away your customers?"
Taking advantage of the commotion, Ning Xiu quietly used the Spiritual Eye Qi Observation Technique. Behind the plump woman, he saw that the three young servants all had faces covered in festering sores, empty eye sockets, and arms that hung down to the ground. They were terrifying creatures, transformed by Evil Spirits.
Outside the room, an Evil Spirit with arms and legs as long as bamboo poles slowly crawled past. Several wealthy young masters walking beside it didn't seem to notice it at all.
"I'm terribly sorry, gentlemen. I came to the wrong room." After glancing around, the plump woman immediately put on a fawning smile and kept apologizing. "I've interrupted your enjoyment, and I'm truly sorry. I'll have someone bring over two more jars of fine wine later as an apology."
Watching the group arrive and leave in such a strange, hurried fashion, Ning Xiu guessed that the other Evil Spirits had probably discovered he'd killed several of their kind.
That was why they were using the excuse of having entered the wrong room to search everywhere for suspicious people.
But those Evil Spirits probably never would have imagined that the person who'd attacked them hadn't fled afterward. Instead, he was drinking freely right under their noses.
Meanwhile, in the deepest room on the third floor of Spring Full Pavilion.
The entire Spring Full Pavilion blazed with light, yet this room was dark and gloomy. Its owner showed no intention of lighting a candle.
The window stood open. The clear moonlight fell upon the dressing table beside it, the only light in the room.
Before the bronze mirror, a woman hummed a soft tune as she combed her glossy black hair.
"Steward Chu, we've searched all of Spring Full Pavilion, but haven't found anyone suspicious." A person with disheveled hair entered through the door and spoke in a voice that shifted between male and female.
"If you could spot a suspicious person, they wouldn't be suspicious." The woman set down her comb and reached out to gently stroke the bronze mirror.
A hideously ugly face gradually appeared in the mirror. No matter how lavishly the woman dressed or how carefully she made herself up, nothing could improve her looks.
After the woman caressed the mirror for a while, its image slowly changed. Several beautiful faces appeared one after another, then turned into skulls.
After several transformations, the mirror finally showed the blurry figure of a young man whose features were indistinct.
"Your Ladyship, your Soul Searching Technique grows more and more exquisite," the disheveled person praised.
"Go ask if anyone has seen this person. Spring Full Pavilion's secret must never reach the Demon Subduing Bureau. If it does, then even with that person covering for us, there'll be no way to turn things around."
"Yes."
Young men had the least self-control. Except for Ning Xiu, Lu Hao and the others all planned to spend the night at Spring Full Pavilion, sharing a bed with the women who had entertained them.
Knowing the secrets hidden within Spring Full Pavilion, Ning Xiu naturally wasn't going to do anything so suicidal. He tried to persuade Lu Hao and the others, but when that failed, he had no choice but to head back to the Demon Subduing Bureau alone.
If Lu Hao and the others hadn't returned by tomorrow, he would report the matter to Su Qianqian.
By the time Ning Xiu walked out of Spring Full Pavilion, it was already the second hour of the Ox. The night breeze carried a chill, and with the wine he'd had, he was feeling a little light-headed.
The carriage Lu Hao had hired was long gone, so Ning Xiu had to walk back to the Demon Subduing Bureau.
Although there was no curfew in Chaotian Capital, no one other than the wealthy would be out wandering the streets at this hour. Once he'd gone some distance from Spring Full Pavilion, the streets fell utterly silent, without a soul in sight.
Clip-clop, clip-clop!
Listening to his own footsteps, Ning Xiu suddenly stopped where he was.
His pupils had turned white: he had quietly used the Spiritual Eye Qi Observation Technique. In his eyes, Evil Qi swirled all around him. There had to be an Evil Spirit hiding nearby.
"For an Evil Spirit, you're awfully bold. Show yourself already." Ning Xiu turned and spoke.
As soon as he finished, a figure emerged from behind the pillar of a shop some distance away. The person wore black and had disheveled hair that made his face impossible to see.
An Evil Spirit? Or a Demon Person?
Primordial Yang Fist: Seventh Layer (730/3000)(+) Golden Bell Shield: Fourth Layer (112/800)(+) Spiritual Eye Qi Observation Technique: First Layer (21/200)(+) Great Sun Profound Scripture: Fourth Layer (910/1600)(+) Universal Proficiency: 1700
Ning Xiu warily brought up his panel and spent 700 points of Universal Proficiency on the Golden Bell Shield, raising it by one layer.
He put the remaining 1,000 points into the Great Sun Profound Scripture, raising that by one layer as well.
At once, he felt the Internal Energy in his dantian grow stronger, and his body seemed to become tougher, too.
By raising his combat strength right there and then, Ning Xiu felt a little more confident facing the mysterious person before him.
"You're pretty alert. But unfortunately for you, finding me will only make your death more miserable."
The man spoke strangely, his voice shifting between masculine and feminine in the middle of each sentence, as if a man and a woman were speaking at the same time.
Before he could finish, Ning Xiu charged forward and threw a punch straight at his head.
The wind of his punch howled, instantly sweeping aside the hair in front of the man's face and revealing a sullen-looking male face.
What surprised Ning Xiu was that the man had a woman's face on either side of his head, right where his ears should have been.
They glared at Ning Xiu with venomous eyes, as horrifying as Evil Spirits.
Smack!
The Demon Person raised a hand and blocked Ning Xiu's attack. A mouth suddenly split open on the back of his hand and lunged to bite Ning Xiu's arm.
But Ning Xiu's newly advanced fifth-layer Golden Bell Shield wasn't for show. The mouth bit his skin as if it were biting a piece of bronze or iron, and couldn't hurt him at all.
Ning Xiu had never seen anyone with such bizarre abilities before. This was the Demon Person's true strength—not like the creatures in Demon Subduing Prison, whose powers had been sealed by the Demon Subduing Captains, leaving them helpless at their mercy.
Before the other man could react, Ning Xiu channeled Internal Energy into his left leg and kicked the Demon Person in the abdomen, sending him flying more than two zhang.
Ning Xiu had put eighty percent of his strength into that kick, and infused it with Internal Energy. He was confident he could have kicked straight through a stone wall.
Yet the Demon Person lay on the ground for only a few breaths before struggling back to his feet.
"Martial Ninth Rank. You're with the Demon Subduing Bureau." The Demon Person wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and identified Ning Xiu with a single glance.
Ning Xiu didn't answer. He charged forward again. He didn't believe the Demon Person was immortal. If one kick hadn't killed him, he'd just kick him again.
The Demon Person had underestimated Ning Xiu's strength and paid for it with that kick. It hadn't been enough to kill him, but it had still left him badly injured.
If Ning Xiu landed another one or two hits, the Demon Person might really lose his life that night.
No longer underestimating his opponent, the Demon Person unleashed all his abilities.
In an instant, his long hair flew upward, though there was no wind, revealing the three connected faces—male and female—that had been hidden beneath it.
"Blegh!"
All three faces vomited, sending three bowl-thick Black Serpents shooting toward Ning Xiu, twisting through the air.
The Black Serpents were covered in sharp scales, and their fangs were like those of beasts. Getting bitten by one was sure to hurt.
But Ning Xiu, who had cultivated the Golden Bell Shield, wasn't afraid of them. His body was his best armor.
The best defense was a good offense. Ning Xiu grabbed one of the Black Serpents as it lunged at him, poured all his Internal Energy into his hand, and crushed its skull.
At the same time, the other two Black Serpents easily sank their fangs into Ning Xiu's shoulder and thigh. For the first time, the Golden Bell Shield—which had always served him well—had met its match.
Ning Xiu's skin held out for less than a breath before the Black Serpents' fangs pierced it and sank deep into his flesh.
"Hiss!" Feeling the pain inside his body, Ning Xiu couldn't help sucking in a sharp breath.
But he didn't give up his attack. If he stopped now, he'd be doomed to die without a burial place.
Grabbing the Black Serpent biting his shoulder, Ning Xiu thrust his fingers into its eye and violently tore open its socket, digging its brain out on the spot.
Seeing that being bitten had only made Ning Xiu even more ferocious, the Demon Person could no longer keep his composure.
The Martial Ninth Rank Demon Subduing Captains he'd fought before hadn't fought like this. Which of them was the real Demon Person?
The Demon Person had even used his killing move, yet still couldn't subdue Ning Xiu. He couldn't help thinking of retreating.
If this went on, it might not be him killing Ning Xiu tonight. Ning Xiu might kill him instead.
But Ning Xiu wasn't about to give him that chance. He swiftly stomped the skull of the last Black Serpent to pieces, then erupted into his fastest speed and reached the Demon Person in a flash.
Before the Demon Person could dodge, Ning Xiu's hand shot out and seized his main face.
"No! Don't!"
Crack!
As the Demon Person stared in disbelief, Ning Xiu crushed and twisted the man's main face out of shape with his hand.
The sound of his skull cracking rang out again and again, until it finally burst apart.
The women's faces on either side didn't escape either. Ning Xiu crushed them one by one with his Internal Energy.
Demon Person slain. Universal Proficiency +700
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