Who Doesn't Have a Heart Demon?

[In the end, they're only a bunch of...]

Before the thought had fully formed in his mind, the Heavenly Mandate Bone Plastron in Li Boyang's hand suddenly stopped spinning.

Seeing the Heavenly Mandate Bone Plastron with its reverse side facing up, Li Boyang's pupils abruptly contracted.

Immediately afterward, the flying sword that had been speeding through the black mist stopped without warning, its blade trembling uncontrollably.

"A mere mountain god, how dare you bully me like this!"

A voice as loud as thunder suddenly rang out from Black Cloud Marsh.

Just as Li Boyang would not wait for the ghost king of Black Cloud Marsh to grow to full strength,

how could that strange old man, a fellow with a wealth of experience, stand idly by and watch himself be weakened?

The "opportune moment" mentioned in the earlier divination had arrived!

Whoosh... whoosh... whoosh...

In the space of a few breaths, the black mist throughout Black Cloud Marsh surged like a storm.

Terrifying tiger roars and wolf howls spread for a hundred miles around, waking countless Mountain Folk settled nearby.

The Mountain Folk in the nearby villages and towns scrambled out of bed in panic, trying to see what was happening outside.

But what awaited them was endless darkness, and a beast tide that had arrived ahead of time.

"Roar!"

Beast roars rose and fell from the mountains, drawing ever closer to the human settlements beyond them.

Under the circumstances, Li Yu and his wife, Chen Yun, were naturally awakened as well.

Li Yu hurriedly got dressed and grabbed his bow and arrows.

He immediately ran outside to organize the village's able-bodied adults to guard against the approaching beast tide.

As for his wife, Chen Yun?

She rushed to Li Boyang's cradle without even having time to finish getting dressed.

"Son!?"

From where Chen Yun stood, all three of Li Boyang's eyes were wide open, and flames were rising from the top of his head.

He was also clutching a round piece of bone tightly in his hand, looking as terrifying as a demon or ghost.

Yet Chen Yun could not worry about any of that. She instinctively stepped forward and swept her son into her arms.

"Son, are you all right?"

"Don't scare your mother like this! Your mother isn't very brave!"

Feeling the scorching heat coming from Li Boyang's body, the panicked Chen Yun could not stop her tears from falling.

At that very moment, Li Boyang's shadow suddenly began to writhe without warning.

It was like a vengeful ghost about to break free of its bonds.

Li Boyang's shadow twisted and struggled, gradually taking the shape of a ghost with a blue face and protruding fangs.

"Don't you dare hurt my son!"

Seeing the terrifying ghost about to take shape, the fierce nature hidden in Chen Yun's character erupted once more.

Without a moment's hesitation, Chen Yun grabbed a pair of scissors from beside her and stabbed viciously at the blue-faced, fanged evil ghost.

Pfft!

Unfortunately, Chen Yun's attack not only failed to have the slightest effect, but thoroughly enraged the evil ghost instead.

"You're courting death!"

A low voice issued from the evil ghost's mouth, and a torrent of Sha Qi surged in from all directions.

"You're the one courting death!"

In the nick of time, Li Boyang came to his senses and shouted in a muffled, childish voice.

Because he had forced himself to speak, Li Boyang's childish voice sounded somewhat hoarse, but it succeeded in startling the evil ghost.

"You..."

The blue-faced, fanged evil ghost stared in disbelief at Li Boyang, who was held tightly in Chen Yun's arms.

"Since you're my Heart Demon, she's your mother too!"

"I was going to see what you were capable of, but now it seems I can't let you stay!"

Before he had finished speaking, the blue-faced, fanged evil ghost let out a heartrending wail.

By the time Chen Yun reacted, Li Boyang had already erased the consciousness of the evil ghost that had tried to hurt her, and it had returned to the form of his shadow.

At the same time, outside Li Household Village.

The able-bodied adults Li Yu had gathered were staring tensely beyond the village.

In the noisy darkness of the night, pairs of bloodthirsty eyes lay hidden, as though they might charge out at any moment.

"Big brother, those beasts seem to be deliberately avoiding our village?"

After a long standoff, the quick-witted Li Chengfeng seemed to notice something. He pointed toward the village entrance and spoke softly.

"Huh? It really does seem that way?"

Hearing this, the other villagers immediately realized it too and began discussing it among themselves in surprise.

They had noticed that the beasts hidden in the darkness seemed, intentionally or otherwise, to be going around the village.

Or, more precisely, they were avoiding the village's only entrance and exit.

"What are they afraid of?"

Li Yu, who dealt with the beasts in the mountains year-round, immediately sensed that something was amiss.

But that was precisely why he was even more puzzled.

The only things usually capable of frightening so many beasts, even making them go out of their way to avoid them, were the "mountain lords" that ruled over stretches of mountain forest.

The problem was that even across the entire Hundred Lands Mountain Range, there were not many "mountain lords" of that level.

If there really were a mountain lord nearby, all of Li Household Village would have moved elsewhere long ago.

"Have Big Girl and Non-Crying Child been there recently?"

As if he had suddenly realized something, Li Yu deliberately lowered his voice and asked Li Er, who was standing beside him.

"Uh, those two little ones run all over the village..."

"The village entrance isn't a dangerous place. How could they not have been there?"

Li Er gave Li Yu a rather odd glance, clearly not expecting him to ask that question at a time like this.

Li Chengfeng, standing nearby, seemed to have caught the implication behind Li Yu's words.

"During those few days when we were firing bricks and setting up sentry posts, Big Girl and Non-Crying Child seemed to be hanging around the village entrance..."

"I even asked them about it at the time. Big Girl said they were burying something."

Li Yu exchanged a silent glance with Li Chengfeng.

He asked no further questions, instead turning his gaze toward the village entrance.

"In any case, things are much better than we imagined."

Not having to fight those beasts and spirits to the death was indeed far better than the best outcome Li Yu had expected.

"What about the other villages, then?"

Suddenly, someone asked that ill-timed question.

This beast tide was unprecedented, and it had come just as spring began.

If things were better for Li Household Village, that meant they would be worse for the other villages.

If this beast tide could not be brought to an end quickly,

even if the other villages ultimately survived it, they would never make it through the coming winter.

"Let's wait and see how things develop..."

"If this beast tide really does go around our village, we'll gather some people and go check on the other villages."

Li Yu looked around as he spoke, and silence fell over the people present once more.

As Mountain Folk living near these mountain forests, the villages had their differences, but they also depended on one another as lips protect teeth, standing watch and offering mutual aid.