Mosquito Demon

Yan Jue split off a strand of her divine soul. At first, all she could see was a wash of white light; little by little, her vision cleared.

The room gradually came into view.

A cold, oppressive aura filled the air, making Yan Jue feel sick to her stomach.

A man and a woman lay before her.

Huang Niangzi was on the bed, her breathing ragged and disordered.

Chu Fu was peeling Huang Niangzi’s clothes open.

Yan Jue stared at that disgusting scene and suddenly understood why Qi Xianqing had insisted she come in to save her.

No one was born to be part of a harem.

Huang Niangzi had been trapped in the illusion; later, after what had been spilled could no longer be gathered back, she had developed feelings for Chu Fu.

And as for them, of course they should stop it if they could.

Yan Jue walked up to Chu Fu.

Chu Fu glanced at her. “A Jue, you’re here too? Come on, let’s—”

As he spoke, he reached out to grab her. Yan Jue quickly stepped back, forming a hand seal as she recited the incantation. In an instant, a small ice spike appeared in front of her.

This was the Ice Summoning Art she had been practicing hard over the past few days. With her current cultivation, she could only conjure an ice spike about the size of a palm, but that was enough.

The ice spike gathered force in the air, then shot straight toward Chu Fu.

Chu Fu’s pupils contracted violently. He cried out in terror, breaking out in a cold sweat as he snapped awake.

Yan Jue’s gaze slowly drifted to the handsome man who had been silent all this time on the couch.

This should be the evil thing that had caused Huang Niangzi’s soul to wander off.

A layer of black qi had been shrouding his head the entire time. Though Yan Jue kept staring at him, she still couldn’t make out his features very clearly.

Whether he was truly good-looking or not, Yan Jue didn’t care. She formed the hand seal for the Spirit-Communion Art; the collar around her neck instantly transformed into a golden thread, which shot out like an arrow.

It pierced straight through the gauze curtain, leaving a gaping hole. The handsome man inside the canopy sprang out, fists clenched, his face twisted in fury as he hurled himself at Yan Jue.

Yan Jue rolled on the ground to avoid the man’s iron fists, then slapped the handsome man across the face with a sharp crack.

At the same moment, the golden thread came screaming back and pierced straight through the man’s back!

The man shrieked, clutching his chest tightly as black mist faintly surged from the wound.

Yan Jue had no time to care about anything else. She hurriedly and gently scooped up the fever-hot Huang Niangzi. “Huang Niangzi, wake up! Your soul has been away from your body too long; you have to go back right now!”

Huang Niangzi stared at her, her pupils contracting sharply.

“Ah—” Huang Niangzi began to scream at the top of her lungs.

Yan Jue felt like her ears were about to be shattered. Holding her, she rushed toward the flesh body lying beneath the bed curtains.

In the blink of an eye, they finally reached Huang Niangzi’s body. Yan Jue used all her strength and hurled Huang Niangzi’s soul toward it.

The surrounding light gradually faded, turning into endless darkness.

Yan Jue opened her eyes with a jolt and found that she had no idea when she had ended up lying on the bed.

Someone beside her heard the movement and lowered her head to look at her.

Firelight flickered over her elegant face, and a loose strand of hair slipped from beside her ear.

Somehow, she had ended up beside Qi Xianqing.

Duan Luxi : “You’re awake, Junior Sister. You’re amazing!”

Yan Jue hurriedly scrambled off Qi Xianqing and retreated two steps, only to bump into something. She turned sharply and saw Chu Fu lying beside her, a large patch of bright red blood spreading across his chest.

In an instant, that patch of blood began to turn black.

Along with a bizarre aura, a dense plume of black smoke suddenly rose from Chu Fu’s chest!

The trace of interest that had just appeared on Qi Xianqing’s face vanished at once. The black smoke crashed wildly around the cramped room, then shot toward the window at lightning speed, as if trying to flee.

Zhuying was instantly unsheathed; a flash of blue light cut through the air, and Qi Xianqing severed that cloud of black mist with a single sword strike.

“Huff... huff... huff...” Chu Fu sat on the bed, his face deathly pale. A dark red line of blood spread from his chest.

He looked up at the others, his expression turning cold. Then he suddenly got to his feet, leapt out the window, and vanished into the night.

Duan Luxi : “Hey, what are you doing?”

Chu Fu gave no response, leaving only a cold, receding back.

The male lead was the type to be arrogant to the core, the macho sort. What he had just done in the Soul-Summoning Mirror had been witnessed by so many people; he would definitely need to find a place to regroup and clean himself up.

Yan Jue knew the male lead wasn’t stupid. The reason he had acted so foolishly in front of her was because he had not yet obtained her yin essence.

Aside from his habit of collecting harem members, the male lead truly was a genius in every other respect.

He had a cheat-like advantage, along with all kinds of opportunities; in cultivation and enlightenment, he was an absolute prodigy. In just a little over a month, he had already reached the peak of the Qi Refining Realm.

If he could get hold of her yin essence, breaking straight through to the peak of the Light-Bearing Realm would be no problem at all.

It was precisely because the male lead had always appeared before others as a handsome young genius that what happened today—being caught in the mirror doing such disgraceful things—had been a complete accident.

Duan Luxi covered Huang Niangzi with the blanket, then stood up. “So our mission was a complete success this time?!”

“It really was that simple!”

Qi Xianqing said nothing, staring out the window as if lost in thought.

Duan Luxi picked up the bronze mirror from the cabinet and handed it to Qi Xianqing. “Senior Sister, that guy from just now didn’t take his thing with him.”

After what had happened earlier, Duan Luxi’s fondness for Chu Fu had plummeted to rock bottom.

This junior brother was only a little good-looking; it seemed he didn’t have any real ability at all. The moment he saw a woman, he went straight for her. How was that any different from those beasts who only knew how to use... their brains?

Qi Xianqing took the Soul-Summoning Mirror and said thoughtfully, “I suspected from the start that this magic artifact had a problem.”

Yan Jue sat by the bed, her face a little pale as she pressed a hand to the left side of her chest.

For some reason, her chest was aching faintly.

Yan Jue : “Right. How could someone with that level of cultivation have a magic tool like this? Could it have been stolen?”

Qi Xianqing looked at her, her gaze a little strange. “...”

Duan Luxi was instantly full of suspicion. “Now that you put it like that, it really does seem a little suspicious. There isn’t any Chu family among the four great immortal sects right now; where did Junior Brother Chu get such an artifact? Could it have been stolen?”

“...”

Duan Luxi : “Then Senior Sister, what do we do next? Should we stay and guard Huang Niangzi?”

Qi Xianqing shook her head and took a small box from her Qiankun bag. She opened the lid and showed it to them. “Just set up the perimeter around the inner room.”

“The formation can block most evil spirits, and it can also heal Huang Niangzi.”

Yan Jue couldn’t help looking up when she heard that. She saw that Qi Xianqing was holding a formation model in her palm.

When cultivators traveled outside, they would usually carry several pre-prepared formation models for convenience.

That way, an array that would originally take an hour to set up could be activated in just a few breaths.

Yan Jue felt a little sour again.

Why did the female lead know everything and have everything?

Earlier, Qi Xianqing had observed that black mist.

It had heavy yin energy, but no demonic aura.

That ruled out demons, ghosts, and the like.

What was left was the comparatively easier-to-handle category: monsters.

...

Since they were the ones mainly carrying out the mission, everything still had to rely on their own efforts; Qi Xianqing could only provide some basic guidance.

Duan Luxi stamped twice on the ground, and the formation model in her hand emitted a faint white glow.

An almost imperceptible barrier spread out from around the group.

The formation was successfully activated.

Duan Luxi : “Yan Jue, what magic tool did you use in the mirror just now? It seems so powerful. Don’t you cultivate swords?”

Most disciples of Five Dragons Mountain chose sword cultivation, and Five Dragons Mountain was also famous throughout the cultivation world for its immortal swords.

Duan Luxi asked this with some hesitation.

After all, divine powers and magic artifacts were extremely sensitive things in this world.

No one liked exposing their spells and treasures in front of outsiders; those things were usually kept hidden.

Because sometimes, one’s magic artifact or innate skill was exactly what was used to save one’s life at the very last moment.

Yan Jue smiled and removed the collar to show Duan Luxi. “Yes, this is a magic artifact. I haven’t started sword cultivation yet; I’m an outer sect disciple, so I’m not qualified to enter the sword tomb.”

Duan Luxi froze. She hadn’t expected Yan Jue to show it to her so readily, and warmth rose in her heart.

Watching Duan Luxi activate the formation with such practiced ease, Yan Jue couldn’t help asking, “Senior Sister, you’re at the early Light-Bearing Realm now, right? Why did you take an entry-level mission?”

Duan Luxi said carelessly, “Wasn’t it just because I was too playful back when I was at the Foundation Establishment Realm and didn’t want to do missions? I dragged it out until now, that’s all.”

Yan Jue: “...You really are gifted, aren’t you.”

Inside Five Dragons Mountain, the disciples’ source of income was their monthly stipend.

The stipend was very small; if you wanted to make money, you mainly had to take more missions down the mountain.

Yan Jue was a little curious about Duan Luxi’s family background. How much money would it take for someone to go from the Foundation Establishment Realm all the way to the Light-Bearing Realm without needing to do missions?

-

After Duan Luxi finished setting up the formation, she turned back to look at Qi Xianqing. “Senior Sister, then we’ll head back to our own quarters?”

Qi Xianqing looked at her arm for a while and asked, “Did you bring any healing salve this time?”

Duan Luxi : “Ah... no.”

Only then did Yan Jue notice that Qi Xianqing’s arm was covered in red marks of some kind.

They looked a bit like mosquito bites.

When they came today, they had passed through a forest and seen a swarm of huge mosquitoes inside it.

But Yan Jue remembered that Qi Xianqing had clearly used a protective barrier to block them then; she didn’t know why she would still get bitten...

Yan Jue : “I have some in my room... ”

As she spoke, her chest flared with pain again, so she paused in the middle.

Qi Xianqing looked over. “Can Junior Sister Yan lend me a little?”

Yan Jue still remembered the grudge of Qi Xianqing taking a photo of her ugly face.

She wasn’t giving it to her.

Yan Jue immediately rolled her eyes. “...Of course.”

The night grew deeper.

The Huang residence was also a large family estate, its carved beams and painted rafters exquisite and beautiful.

On the way back to their rooms, Yan Jue walked in front while Qi Xianqing followed behind.

For some reason, Yan Jue’s steps kept getting faster and faster.

Qi Xianqing suddenly asked, “Junior Sister, are you that afraid of me?”

In the quiet night, Qi Xianqing’s voice was very soft too.

Yan Jue : “No...”

Qi Xianqing looked at her retreating back, her eyes shifting slightly, but she said nothing.

Qi Xianqing followed Yan Jue to her room. She saw the girl squat down in front of her, pull open a drawer to rummage through it, then stand up and hold the medicine out to her with both hands.

A trace of confusion flashed through Qi Xianqing’s eyes, but she also held it with both hands and lowered her head slightly as she accepted it.

Yan Jue accidentally saw the marks on Qi Xianqing’s hand; they were all red and swollen, and in several places the skin had broken, seeping faint traces of blood.

Yan Jue froze. “Why does a mosquito bite swell up this badly?”

“It’s a minor injury; no need to mind it.” Qi Xianqing lifted her hand to look at it, then pulled down her sleeve. “It was the mosquito demon in the forest today.”

Yan Jue couldn’t help asking, “When we passed through the forest today, didn’t you use a protective barrier? Why were you still bitten?”

Qi Xianqing : “A protective barrier can block mosquito demons of a certain size. But some mosquito demons are small; they’re good at finding gaps to slip through. Those can’t be blocked.”

It was Yan Jue’s first time hearing that even mosquitoes could cultivate into demons. She couldn’t help thinking of the fist-sized mosquitoes she had seen in the forest today. “After mosquitoes cultivate into demons, do they turn into big mosquitoes?”

Qi Xianqing paused. “They’re still low-level demons. Their size doesn’t change; their bites just become much more powerful, and they have to absorb more blood to survive.”

Every time Yan Jue chatted with Qi Xianqing, she learned something new.

She knew this world contained abundant spiritual qi, and everything could cultivate into spirits—pigs, pots, bowls, and all sorts of things.

With a constitution like Qi Xianqing’s, she probably got bitten by mosquitoes all the time... no wonder she was used to it.

Imagining that scene, Yan Jue couldn’t help smiling. With a casual tone, she mocked, “I never thought Senior Sister would be this amazing and still lose to a few tiny mosquito spirits.”

Qi Xianqing’s brows and eyes curved slightly. With her hands clasped behind her back, she said slowly, “I also didn’t expect Junior Sister, who seems fearless in the face of anything, to be afraid of such a tiny image in my Captured Shadow Box.”

Yan Jue: “?”

Suddenly remembering something, Yan Jue’s expression turned solemn. “You deleted that photo... image, didn’t you?”

An immortal’s head could be chopped off, blood could be spilled, but ugly photos were absolutely not allowed.

Qi Xianqing was silent for a long while before saying, “Deleted it.”

Yan Jue let out a breath of relief and was finally satisfied. Just then, a tingling, painful itch flared across her back. She hissed and reached behind herself to scratch, but that spot seemed to be very far back; she simply couldn’t reach it.

Qi Xianqing noticed her movement, and a trace of barely perceptible amusement appeared in her eyes as she asked, “Junior Sister was bitten by mosquitoes too? Do you need me to help apply medicine?”