A Pair of Eyes

Under the shroud of night, a man hurrying down a long, narrow alley suddenly stopped as if sensing something, pausing to look cautiously toward the depths of the alley. The next moment, the man looked as though he had seen some terrifying entity, his eyes filled entirely with despair and terror. He subconsciously opened his mouth to cry for help, but with a flash of a dark shadow, the man's body withered at an extremely fast speed, leaving behind a shriveled corpse drained of its very last drop of vital essence in the blink of an eye.

He Yuan looked with extreme excitement at the Naked Ghost-faced Yaksha Idol that had devoured the man, casting a greedy gaze toward the long street at the end of the alley, where auras of Flesh and Blood Soul Aura were drawing him in.

With a casual wave of his hand, the corpse lying on the ground instantly turned to flying ash, and He Yuan's figure vanished without a trace.

At this point, few pedestrians could be seen on the street, yet looking not far away, a smile also appeared on He Yuan's face.

"The eighth one, far from enough. If not for not wanting to alert those people of the Great River Sect too early, casually seeking out a few households would yield dozens of blood foods. Tsk tsk, those so-called Guardian Spirits and Guardian Deities are only capable of warding off some climate-less malevolent spirits. For cultivators of our generation, and even powerful gods, demons, and malevolent spirits, there are plenty of ways to bypass these guardian spirits. Only those foolish commoners would believe that the divine idols they attend can protect them from all harm, failing to realize that many tragic cases of ruined homes and destroyed families are actually committed by high gods, who ultimately shift the blame onto malevolent spirits!"

He Yuan, whose figure seemed fused with the darkness, gave a cold glance at the corpse lying at his feet, lost in dark reflection within his heart. Suddenly, the sound of footsteps reached his ears, and He Yuan's eyes couldn't help but light up. Following the sound, he saw a person walking in a hurry—who else could it be but Huang Huai?

"Tsk tsk, another one!"

He Yuan's gaze locked fixedly onto Huang Huai, that palpable, evil stare making anyone who saw it tremble in their heart.

At this moment, Huang Huai saw his target ahead: a highly eye-catching inn came into view, and joy welled up in his heart.

This was one of the few inns he had already noticed during the day, and as it happened, this particular inn was the closest to him.

The inn stood fully three stories tall, constructed entirely of wood and looking quite elegant. Two lanterns hung on either side of the inn's front entrance, and a servant stood at the doorway seemingly drumming up business for customers.

Seeming to notice Huang Huai, the servant's eyes lit up.

The mental relaxation Huang Huai felt vanished in an instant as his body stiffened. That sensation of being watched by some terrifying entity caused Huang Huai to instinctively look all around.

"Hiss, what is that!"

In the dim alley in the distance, a pair of eyes radiating a chilling frost seemed to be staring straight at him. Merely meeting those eyes made Huang Huai feel a bone-deep chill.

"I'm done for, I must get out of here!"

With a skyrocketing sense of warning in his heart, Huang Huai instinctively wanted to activate that mysterious portal connecting the two realms and escape. Yet right at that moment, a voice rang out: "Is the honored guest staying the night?"

The servant's voice rang out like heavenly music. In a single instant, Huang Huai felt that chilling gaze that had been fixed intently upon him vanish abruptly. With the crisis averted, Huang Huai unleashed a surge of hidden potential, arriving at the entrance of the inn in a single moment under the servant's slightly astonished gaze.

Seeing this, the servant smiled and said, "Honored guest, please come right in."

Huang Huai forced himself to calm his emotions, trying to appear as normal as possible. Even so, recalling the sense of crisis from just moments before still left him lingering with terror.

Exhaling a breath and steadying his startled nerves, Huang Huai stepped into the inn. Upon entering the main hall, the first thing he saw was a divine idol standing fully a person's height. This idol held a sword in one hand, cradled a glittering Golden Ingot in the other, and had a colorful ferocious tiger lying at its feet. Apart from growing a pair of wings on its back, Huang Huai would have taken it for an idol of God of Wealth Zhao Gongming at first glance.

Looking at this rather ordinary-looking idol before him right now, he unexpectedly felt a faint sense of safety welling up within him for no apparent reason.

After wandering around for most of the day and entering or leaving no fewer than a dozen shops, Huang Huai could be considered to have gained a bit of worldly experience. After all, having witnessed the various different divine idols inside the shops he had visited, seeing such a prominent idol placed in the main hall of an inn at this moment, Huang Huai had already grown accustomed to it and found it completely unremarkable.

In fact, one could even say that if this inn hadn't attended even a single divine idol, that would have been what made him feel surprised.

The servant accompanying Huang Huai seemed to notice his gaze lingering on the idol and immediately spoke to Huang Huai: "Honored guest, our Ping'an Inn is a century-old establishment here in Great River City. Whether it's our reputation or our security guarantees, it's something everyone knows well."

As he spoke, the servant also intentionally or unintentionally highlighted the shop's town-guarding divine idol, the Crouching Tiger Subduing Demon God Idol, beside him. After all, according to the servant's experience, any guest visiting their Ping'an Inn for the first time, upon hearing that Ping'an Inn was a century-old establishment and then seeing the attended idol, would absolutely never doubt the inn's reputation.

After all, according to common sense, a century-old establishment represented a profound foundation, meaning that the divine idol attended within the inn very likely had been attended for over a hundred years, accumulating massive Incense and Fire Prayer Power that could manifest powerful divine power to protect the safety of everyone in the inn when facing any danger.

It was just a pity that the servant's display and hints were like making eyes at a blind person, entirely wasting all his effort—especially since Huang Huai, as an outsider, had no inkling of the intricacies involved at all.

However, upon hearing the servant say that the inn was a century-old establishment, Huang Huai already had his mind made up. Never mind that this inn was a century-old shop; even if it weren't, given the experience he had just been through, he would still have stayed here first even if this very inn were a shady establishment.

Glancing at the servant, Huang Huai smiled and said, "I've long heard of the reputation of Ping'an Inn in Great River City. In that case, arrange the best guest room in your inn for me."

The servant's eyes instantly lit up. Those eyes, already honed through years of greeting arriving and departing guests, swept tracelelessly across Huang Huai's entire body, lingering for a brief moment on the exposed parts of Huang Huai's wrists and neck. Immediately after, he bowed to Huang Huai with a smiling face and said, "Divine Character No. 1 Courtyard for one honored guest!"

Led by the servant, they crossed the main hall and passed through a doorway. Instantly, the view opened up, and what appeared before Huang Huai's eyes were several exceptionally secluded and elegant independent courtyards.

Huang Huai truly hadn't expected that the guest rooms of this Ping'an Inn would be standalone private courtyards; this point alone made Huang Huai believe a fraction more of what the servant had said.

With a squeak, the servant pushed open a gate, and a faint fragrance rushed over him. What came into view was a secluded courtyard. Though the courtyard wasn't large, it was kept extremely clean and elegant. Seeing this, a look of satisfaction could not help but appear on Huang Huai's face.

Being most skilled at reading expressions, the servant saw Huang Huai display a look of satisfaction just as he had anticipated, and smiled as he said, "Honored guest, this is the best Divine Character No. 1 Courtyard in our Ping'an Inn. I wonder if the honored guest is satisfied with it!"

Hearing this, Huang Huai chuckled and casually tossed a prepared Silver Gourd Seed to the servant, saying, "This courtyard is not bad. I am very satisfied!"

Catching the Silver Gourd Seed and feeling its weight in his hand, the servant's smile grew even more brilliant as he said, "This humble one will see the honored guest to here. If the honored guest has any needs later, just pull the doorbell to summon us."

Huang Huai nodded slightly, and with a stir in his heart, he suddenly spoke up to ask the servant, "I am traveling out on this occasion and have newly arrived in Great River City. I wonder if there is anything in this Great River City that one needs to pay attention to?"