At dawn the next day, as the great sun rose in the east, the gray mist outside the village dispersed.
Everything returned to stillness, as though the strange events of the night had never happened. Demons, Night Miasma-all seemed like phantoms.
The Village Head stood with the villagers at the village entrance, watching Chu Mo and the others from afar with a complicated expression.
In the end, he said nothing. He merely led the villagers in a deep bow toward Chu Mo's party.
Shen Ming, who led the way along the official road, seemed to have recovered somewhat from his injuries, but his complexion was still poor. It was hard to tell whether worry or something else weighed on him.
He opened his mouth, only to say, "My lords, if we follow this road, we should reach Linhe County sometime this afternoon."
Chu Mo gave a brief acknowledgment, then asked with an air of casual curiosity, "Shen Ming, you seem to... harbor a bitter hatred of demons?"
At this, a trace of remembrance and pain surfaced in Shen Ming's eyes. "I hate them. Both my parents died horribly in demons' jaws, not even their bones left behind... with a blood feud as deep as the sea, how could I not hate them?
"And I'm not the only one. How many people in Great Yin have seen their friends and kin reduced to food for demons... everyone hates them. Everyone longs to eat their flesh and sleep upon their hides."
His words were flat, without any audible rise or fall of emotion, yet they carried a hatred that seemed to demand punishment from heaven itself.
"If a day ever comes when we can wipe out the demons, then even if I have to descend into hell alongside them, I, Shen Ming,