Drunken Spring Pavilion (2)

That night, Drunken Spring Pavilion glittered with lights.

In the main hall on the first floor, girls dressed in sheer, revealing clothes sat beside men with coquettish smiles, drinking and keeping them company.

Rou Yi was especially happy today.

A wealthy young master from the capital had come to Qingye Town in search of the immortal path, and the moment he saw her in the portrait, he had taken a liking to her.

Yesterday, he had specifically asked for her to keep him company through the night.

Tonight, he had come looking for her again.

Their line of work was hard enough already. Some time ago, the death of the courtesan Li had made business even worse, and after that, for reasons no one understood, several top girls had left one after another. Drunken Spring Pavilion, which had once been lively and bustling, had become desolate and bleak.

And last night, Drunken Spring Pavilion had even taken in an extremely beautiful young woman, who had taken over her Verdant Mist Palace.

She was probably here to steal her business. If the few customers Rou Yi had were drawn away by that girl, how was she supposed to live?

Because she was afraid the girls’ moods would be affected and they would not want to receive clients, the madam had kept the matter tightly under wraps, only telling the servants to secretly bury the body and be done with it.

Rou Yi knew nothing. She only vaguely felt that something was off.

For example, the faint smell of blood she caught every morning when she woke up...

Inside the room, Yan Jue lay on the bed, outwardly as calm as an ancient well, though her heart was pounding.

“Miss Wenxiang! Miss Wenxiang!” someone called while knocking on the door.

Yan Jue: “Come in.”

The door opened, and the madam walked in from outside. After she turned and shut the door again, the flattering smile that had been on her face disappeared without a trace the moment she looked at Yan Jue.

With a bitter expression, she stepped forward and said in a low voice, “Immortal one, I’m entrusting everything to you tonight!”

Yan Jue nodded heavily. “Don’t worry. I’ll do everything I can.”

The madam left the room with a grave look.

Yan Jue sat up on the bed and lifted the moon-white hand at her side to touch the talisman hanging from her waist.

She was only at the early Foundation Establishment stage now; her cultivation was shallow. She didn’t even count as the “immortal one” the madam spoke of, and she certainly wasn’t some world-saving hero. If not for a mission, why would she have come to a place like this?

The arrow was already on the string and had to be loosed. But as the bait luring the murderer in, she still couldn’t stop herself from feeling nervous.

Yan Jue lay on her side on the bed beneath the green gauze curtains. Her clothes were half-open, revealing snow-white skin; her long legs were slender and well-proportioned, and the pale instep of one foot faintly showed blue veins.

So alluring, yet so clean-cut; it was hard for anyone to believe she wasn’t one of the women from the brothel.

She summoned the iron sword from her storage bag; it lay quietly at her side.

Half an hour passed, and night deepened.

A gust of cold wind kept sweeping in through the window.

Yan Jue lay on the bed, waiting and waiting, but no one came. At last, she couldn’t help getting up.

In an instant, a pair of black ears appeared on her head, fluttering about as if they were catching the wind.

The fox form the original owner had taken did have plenty of advantages, such as especially sharp hearing and smell, enough to catch things others could not.

“..."

Suddenly, from the roof outside the window came a very faint sound of footsteps.

Tiles scraped against each other, and as the footsteps grew faster and faster, it seemed something was racing this way.

Yan Jue’s nerves snapped taut. On the surface she remained lying motionless on the inner side of the bed, but inwardly she was staring fixedly at the window, gripping the iron sword tightly, every muscle in her body tense.

Then, from the neighboring room, Rou Yi let out a deafening scream.

Yan Jue froze, then rushed out the door.

This time, the murderer had not come for her; he had gone to the room next door, Morning Glow Hall!

The two rooms were extremely close. In just a few breaths, Yan Jue reached Morning Glow Hall and kicked the door open. What met her eyes was the back of a tall man.

He wore black night clothes and had his back to her as he clamped Rou Yi’s neck tightly.

Rou Yi’s face was as white as paper; she was screaming at the top of her lungs, her clothes in disarray.

And on the floor, a naked man was already lying in a pool of blood!

Yan Jue held the cheap iron sword in her hand and silently recited the sword art she had learned; then she raised her arm and slashed viciously at the back of the black-clad man’s neck.

The strike landed on the man’s back, and blood gushed instantly.

The man dodged quickly and thrust out a thick arm straight at Yan Jue.

Yan Jue’s heart tightened. She immediately flung the quicklime she had hidden in her sleeve at the black-clad man’s exposed eyes.

The quicklime stung his eyes. The black-clad man let out a muffled grunt, and a razor-sharp dagger flashed through the air; it seemed to carry immense force as it swept toward Yan Jue.

Yan Jue took the chance to pull Rou Yi, now freed from his grip, backward, then sidestepped the black-clad man.

The black-clad man leaped out through the window.

Yan Jue raised her iron sword and chased after him.

Night deepened, but the red-light district was still full of people.

The murderer’s movement technique was swift; he leaped across the roof beams like an arrow loosed from a bow, his ghostlike figure gradually blurring into multiple afterimages.

Yan Jue’s original body was a fox demon, and her abilities were far above those of cultivators at the same level.

She chased close behind the black-clad man, jumping from beam to beam.

But after all, she was only at the early Foundation Establishment stage. At first her movements were light and nimble, but gradually her stamina gave out, and her steps became heavier.

As Yan Jue watched the black-clad man pull farther and farther away, she knew something was wrong.

Demonic energy churned wildly in her chest, and a familiar scorching heat surged up like a tidal wave.

Yan Jue silently recited the Heart-Calming Formula several times, then reined in her tail, which had accidentally slipped out. She then saw the black-clad man vault down from the city gate. Yan Jue hurried after him; beyond the city gate lay a forest outside Qingye Town.

But the black-clad man had vanished without a trace.

“The man in black... ran into the forest?”

The forest was very quiet. From somewhere in the trees came a few eerie bird calls; it was utterly different from the town.

Yan Jue tightened her grip on the iron sword and walked a distance into the forest.

Her shoes stepped on dry leaves, making crisp rustling sounds.

It was pitch-black; she couldn’t see a thing.

“..."

Tonight’s pursuit might have been for nothing.

Looking at the darkness before her, Yan Jue couldn’t help feeling a little dejected.

That black-clad man came to the brothel once a month. If she lost him this time, who knew when the next one would be.

Every talisman from the Administrative Hall had a time limit. If the murderer went into hiding to recover from his injuries, by the time next month came, the mission would already have expired.

And if the mission failed, she wouldn’t be able to take on another talisman for half a year.

Even if she managed to get another one after that, she would already have been killed by the ice mountain female lead, Qi Xianqing!

Yan Jue’s thoughts were in total disarray. She lifted the iron sword in her hand and hacked at the thousand-year-old tree in front of her.

The ancient tree did not move at all; only a shallow mark appeared where she struck.

Yan Jue: “..."

Now Yan Jue fully understood the importance of cultivation in this world.

If her lightness skill were a little better, or if her cultivation were a little higher, perhaps the murderer would not have gotten away so completely.

Yan Jue knew there was no point staying here any longer. It would be better to hurry back and check on Rou Yi’s condition.

Just as Yan Jue turned to leave, she suddenly noticed something and stopped short.

In the deep darkness of the forest not far away, at some point in time, a faint glow had appeared.

In the silent woods, there was also the sudden sound of something very faint.

So faint that if one were not careful, it would vanish in an instant.

The black fox ears on Yan Jue’s head shot upright at once, flicking left and right as if they were catching the wind; she realized that the sound was indeed coming from that faint glow over there.

“Top-grade medicinal herbs! Only three spirit stones!!"

“Superior bat eyes! One hairpin and you can take them away, aaahhh!"

Footsteps, hawking cries...

It sounded a bit like the noisy wet market from modern times!

Yan Jue frowned and tightened her grip on her sword as she walked toward the glow.

After pushing through the messy undergrowth, everything around her gradually became clear.

Yan Jue froze, then unconsciously widened her eyes.

Deep in the forest, this place was actually...

a market?!

The originally dense woods suddenly opened up in this area.

People of all kinds had set up little stalls on both sides of the clearing.

A wide variety of goods were laid out on the stalls.

Crowds moved back and forth in the middle, and it was very lively.

Yan Jue walked in. Seeing that no one was surprised by her arrival, her tense nerves loosened a little.

“..."

Yan Jue wandered around this market, which was neither too big nor too small, and discovered something astonishing.

All the stall owners in this market were demons!

As a fox spirit, the original body had a natural sensitivity toward her own kind. The people selling things here looked human on the surface, but all of them had thick black aura rising from above their heads.

Demonic energy.

A young man who passed by enthusiastically introduced it to her: “This is the Myriad Demons Pavilion, madam. You can find all kinds of unexpected treasures here.”

The world was divided into three great powers: humans, demons, and fiends.

Demons were a neutral group between humans and fiends, with their own independent living space.

This Myriad Demons Pavilion was said to be a market opened by a family of tortoise spirits.

It existed not only here, but also had branch stores in other major cities.

All the demons in the world could sell the valuables they had treasured here.

Demons had lives of their own too; they needed to eat and trade just like humans. What was so strange about having their own market?

Yan Jue didn’t think it was strange at all.

After all, she was a little fox too.

Before she knew it, Yan Jue had stopped in front of a stall.

What caught her eye was a square piece of metal, gleaming brilliantly in the moonlight.

A wooden sign next to it bore several large characters: Demon-Locking Ring.

The stall owner was a pig spirit, and he enthusiastically introduced it to Yan Jue. “Madam, this is a demon-locking ring made from Northern Sea black iron. Just carrying it with you can seal your own demonic aura so cultivators won’t easily detect you. It’s very cheap; would you like to try it?”

Yan Jue’s eyes lit up. “This thing..."

Halfway through her words, she stopped abruptly.

Awkward.

She had no money.

In this world, ordinary currency was useless to cultivators; transactions were basically all done with Spirit Stones.

But the original owner had been entirely focused on accompanying the male lead and never did missions, so of course she had no savings at all.

The pig spirit seemed to notice her embarrassment. His eager gaze landed on the hairpin atop her head. “Madam, why worry? This demon-locking ring isn’t that precious. Just trade me the hairpin on your head!”

Yan Jue was stunned. She raised a hand, pulled the hairpin out of her hair, and handed it to the pig spirit. “Can I?”

She knew the ancients could barter with goods, but she had no idea it could be done like this.

Wasn’t the value a little off?!

After asking around for a bit, Yan Jue finally understood that for old demons living deep in the mountains and forests, these human ornaments were extremely rare and novel.

In the past, if demons wanted such little trinkets, they could just go rob them directly. But now the Five Great Sects had become more and more strict in their control over the demon realm, and no demon dared to go seize them by force anymore.

Rouge, hairpins, sachets, handkerchiefs, and similar items could all be used as currency at the Myriad Demons Pavilion.

In that sense, the Spirit Stones commonly used in the cultivation world were instead worthless at the demon market.

Yan Jue accepted the gleaming demon-locking ring, still puzzled that such a neat little square could be called a “ring,” when a flash of gold suddenly burst in her palm.

This piece of Northern Sea black iron had actually changed!

The originally square black iron slowly lengthened in her hand, while its upper and lower edges gradually closed in on themselves, gradually transforming into a golden collar.

It was clean and bright, and hanging in the center of the gold collar was a lock, with three tiny bells dangling beneath it.

The pig spirit chuckled. “This black iron is very spiritual; it changes according to the temperament of the person using it. In madam’s hands, it becomes a longevity lock. In someone else’s hands, who knows what it would look like.”

Yan Jue suddenly had an epiphany and immediately put the demon-locking ring around her neck.

The cool collar rested against her throat, and she felt a faint change in her body.

The demonic aura she had been struggling to suppress seemed to disperse quite a bit in an instant.

In the original novel, the author had only mentioned in passing how the original body had mixed into Five Dragons Mountain.

But when a fox demon cultivated into human form, demonic aura was hard to eliminate. Later, the reason she was stabbed through by the female lead Qi Xianqing’s sword was precisely because she had not properly concealed her aura and was discovered.

And now, she just happened to be lacking this very thing.