Not Letting This Poor Daoist Cultivate in Peace?

Before long, Ren Shanshi had set the table beneath the banyan tree.

"Sit, hurry. Try my cooking. It may not compare to a restaurant's, but it's got that home-style flavor."

"Th... thank you for the trouble."

"Why be so polite with me?"

As the two chatted back and forth, Ren Qing sat off to the side, cultivating by consuming qi. Whenever he paid them any attention, he felt as though he were watching a period drama from his previous life.

"Father, this poor Daoist saw that you were in quite a hurry earlier. Did something happen at the martial arts hall?"

Ren Qing currently had almost no eyes and ears in the outside world. Before undergoing a second enlightenment, the Daoist boys would easily give themselves away amid streets full of monsters.

"The instructors have vanished without a trace. The martial arts hall needs to close its doors for a few days, though I don't know the specifics."

Ren Shanshi could not help asking, "Yun Niang, you said there was a human bear in the martial arts hall earlier. Is that thing really so sinister?"

"I... I heard the human bear's voice."

Yun Niang unconsciously rubbed the rim of her bowl as she stammered out what she knew. Back in Three Rivers Prefecture, she had heard local elders say that human bears who had become spirits would put on a show and knock at doors. They could also hide in the rafters or behind doors.

Ren Shanshi's heart sank. Silently, he added some food to Yun Niang's bowl. "Don't think about it. Eat first."

Ren Qing frowned slightly. From his limited observations through divine consciousness, the tiger ghosts were supposed to maintain order in Water Mouth City. By rights, things should not descend into chaos until at least the provincial examination began.

Could it be related to the Fuyang Chamber of Commerce removing Li Yao's wanted notice?

He murmured coldly, "When yin and yang fall into disorder, spirits and evils emerge; when the five elements lose their order, mountain monsters are born."

Yun Niang raised her eyes toward Ren Qing. Unable to make out his face, she assumed he was spouting nonsense out of fear, and her gaze softened a little more.

Not knowing how to comfort him, she only spoke after a long while. "A... A-Qing is right."

Ren Qing felt uncomfortable all over under Yun Niang's gaze, but he was also somewhat startled.

Was the effect of tempering his Dao heart through Yun Niang really so immediate? Splendid, splendid indeed!

None of the three liked talking, and before long, the backyard held only the sound of bowls and chopsticks clinking together.

It was not until they cleared the table that Ren Shanshi suddenly said, "Black River Martial Arts Hall has closed its doors, and Yun Niang has nowhere to go for now. A-Qing, I plan to let Yun Niang stay in the empty room for a few days. What do you think...?"

"Fine."

Before Yun Niang could even speak, Ren Qing had already nodded in agreement.

Cultivation required teachings, wealth, companions, and a place. Ren Qing now understood this deeply. In his previous life, he had buried his head in cultivation—how could his Dao heart have been as pure as it was now, after being tempered through others in this life?

"O... okay."

Yun Niang had no choice but to agree. Only at the coffin shop could she feel a brief moment of peace, and the events of the day had left her exhausted in both body and mind.

Taking advantage of the remaining daylight, Ren Shanshi tidied up the side room, then hurried out again.

When he returned, his expression was exceptionally grim.

Though he had not gone to the martial arts hall, he had found several acquaintances to ask for news.

In just half a day, two more elderly martial artists had vanished without a trace.

Ren Qing narrowed his eyes, resting his knees upon Fish Immortal as his aura gradually withdrew to the utmost limit.

Only the sound of the east wind passing through bamboo leaves remained in the backyard.

Night soon arrived, and Water Mouth City had long since sunk into utter silence.

The cold wind rapped against the tightly shut doors and windows of every household. Any trace of activity had already vanished at this hour.

On the street beside Blessed Life Coffin Shop, a clump of shadow so dense it could not be dissolved darted continuously about, silently sweeping past one dwelling after another.

If one listened carefully, faint, fragmented chewing sounds could be heard within the shadow.

Suddenly, a candle was lit in the neighboring house.

Then came an infant's crying, followed by a man's curses.

"Who's making noise in the middle of the night instead of sleeping? Build up some virtue!"

"If the yamen weren't so useless..."

The light shining through the window illuminated the shadow, revealing a blood-drenched human bear.

The human bear stood over two meters tall. Unlike the monsters participating in the provincial examination, it wore no clothes. Its entire body was covered in needle-like fur, and its eyes brimmed with savagery.

Its jaws opened and closed as they tore into a corpse.

The man inside the house seemed to sense something amiss. The candlelight quickly went out again, and faintly, someone could be heard desperately trying to muffle a child's cries.

The human bear paid it no heed.

After a long while, the chewing sounds gradually ceased.

Plop.

Half a bloody human head rolled out from the shadows and landed on the ground dusted with a thin layer of snow.

The head's eyes were bulging wide, its temples protruding high. Had Ren Shanshi seen it, he would certainly have recognized it—it belonged to the disciple who had still been packing up at the martial arts school that day.

"Hungry."

An arm covered in sparse black fur snatched up the head, then withdrew into the shadows.

Only after the man-bear had finished eating did it continue down the row of houses.

"Heehee, hehe, eat, read..."

Like a child barely over a year old, the man-bear deliberately mimicked human speech, but its voice retained the hoarse rasp of a beast. It echoed through the dead of night, making one's scalp crawl.

Everywhere it passed, even the snow seemed stained a dark crimson.

The man-bear was headed straight for Blessed Life Coffin Shop, yet it had not noticed the other demon perched atop the courtyard wall less than half a meter away.

"It should not be far from gaining intelligence. No wonder Black Lady specifically brought it to Water Mouth City."

Dou Sangu stared coldly at the man-bear, considering whether to stop it from approaching the coffin shop. After all, the great medicine inside was something he had coveted for a long time.

The man-bear's cultivation was nowhere near sufficient to take part in the provincial examination. In truth, it was still far short even of the child examination.

All demons first had to undergo the child examination to gain intelligence, then the provincial examination to assume human form. Put plainly, this man-bear had been brought to Water Mouth City specifically to eat people and increase its cultivation.

Dou Sangu narrowed his eyes, shaking his head restlessly.

One had to know that Black Lady, standing behind the man-bear, possessed deeper cultivation than he did. She at least had a chance of earning a place on the golden list, while he would most likely fail the provincial examination.

And Black Lady had indeed not broken the rules.

Before the provincial examination began, demons were forbidden by custom from actively eating humans. But since the Fuyang Chamber of Commerce had removed the wanted notices in advance, those people were no longer under the government's jurisdiction.

Under Dou Sangu's watchful gaze, the man-bear turned into the depths of the alley.

"No."

"Though the great medicine is guarded by a demon, that bear demon has hide like leather and flesh like iron. Even I would find it difficult to assassinate. If Black Lady discovers the great medicine afterward, I will have no chance of competing with her."

"Not to mention that the city holds many Demon Cultivators ranked among the top three on the golden list!!"

Dou Sangu's expression shifted between light and dark. He had only a ten or twenty percent chance of passing the provincial examination and assuming human form. If he could not obtain the great medicine, he would have no possibility of advancing any further.

He could also sense that the great medicine's age had been steadily increasing.

When he had first discovered it, it had been only forty or fifty years old.

And now? It was at least three hundred years old. The thought alone was incredible.

"Perhaps I can try stealing the great medicine amid the chaos? It might work."

Dou Sangu forcibly suppressed his instinct to avoid disaster and approached the alley step by step. Yet just as he was about to enter, he calmed down again, his narrow tongue licking over his eyeball.

"Better to wait until both sides are battered and broken, then sit back and reap the fisherman's profit."

Dou Sangu's legs had gone a little weak. His innate divine ability had never feared anything so intensely.

Even when facing the prefectural governor, it had never reacted like this. Just who was inside?