Chapter Eighty-Eight: The Great Demon Lingling

Do not try to curry favor with me. I am not about to stand on ceremony. Tell me your terms—what do you want me to do?

Someone wants me dead. More than one, in fact.

With a faintly mocking look, he said, “You can barely protect yourself, and you want to protect a ghost like me? Hmph.”

Jiang Lan stepped forward. “No. I just don’t understand the rules here very well. If I act rashly, I’ll always have reservations. I need a strategist, an adviser.”

“So you came looking for a ghost? Ha. No—two ghosts.”

“Yes.”

Jiang Lan nodded. Compared with people, ghosts were more trustworthy to her. She did not even know why she felt that way; for no reason at all, she found many ghosts strangely familiar, as though she had known them for a very long time.

That sense of trust she had only ever felt toward the demon clans before. Her emotions now were odd. She should not have had much contact with the ghost realm.

And yet that deep, inexplicable familiarity remained. It had first appeared when she realized that female ghost might be the one she had seen before, as if somewhere, somehow, they had met long ago.

“If you are going to look, at least find someone decent, will you?”

“And you’re not decent?”

Gu Chengwu fought down the urge to retort. “Do you think I’m flattering myself?”

Jiang Lan laughed. “Xie Muyun is very good. You’ll understand later.”

“Later? As if I have a choice whether to stay?”

“Are you sure you still have one?” Jiang Lan pointed toward the scarlet light surging outside the wall. “Besides, I should be the one wondering whether this deal is even worth it.”

She touched her chin, her brows knitting slightly as though weighing the matter.

When Gu Chengwu followed the direction of her finger and looked, he was aghast.

“So they really did follow us here after all. No, this is your doing—you have to take responsibility!”

Jiang Lan looked down at the man who had suddenly rushed over to clutch her arm, and the corner of her eye twitched. She thought darkly, If I had known it was this easy, I should have found some sinister sorcerers or demonic priests to scare him. But would that be too underhanded?

While justice and evil were wrestling in her sea of consciousness, the howls outside grew louder and louder, and the grip on her arm tightened until it hurt.

“Fine, I can take responsibility. But shouldn’t Lord Gu stay behind and help me finish a few things?”

“You’re taking advantage of a crisis!”

“No, this is a trade. A perfectly normal trade. Our needs simply complement each other. Besides, I’m afraid this kind of opportunism may well be Lord Gu’s original invention. I would not dare wave a broadsword before Guan Yu himself.”

“All right, all right. I’m only staying here for a year.”

“Deal!”

Jiang Lan also found a vessel for Gu Chengwu to dwell in. Unfortunately, the man was exceedingly picky. In the end, he forced Jiang Lan to open the storeroom and dragged out the Xue family’s hidden treasure: a Ru-ware jade porcelain vase.

“Can you really handle those things? If you’re not confident, don’t go. I’ll reduce the time I promised you to half a year. You do not need to force yourself into a fight.”

Jiang Lan clapped her hands. “Go inside and take a look. If you need anything, ask Qingli.”

“I’m talking to you just now—did you not hear me?”

“I heard you. It’s only a bunch of riffraff. One year is one year. Don’t even think about welching.”

“...”

Gu Chengwu, enraged, withdrew into the vase and never wanted to bother with such a vulgar person again. Clearly, that was not what he meant by welching.

After carefully choosing two neighboring rooms in the courtyard, Jiang Lan placed the jade vase and the gold lion paperweight in them respectively.

Then she returned to the courtyard, with Qingli attending her side.

“There seems to be some evil spirit outside,” Qingli said quietly. Even a grown demon like her felt a chill at the sight of that blood-red radiance.

“They followed us back. They’ve been here for some time, and it looks like they’re only getting more numerous.”

The howls, mingled with scarlet light, shot straight into the heavens. Such a commotion must have alarmed every Daoist in the imperial capital by now.

“Immortal Lady, what should we do? Should we attack?” Qingli was already gripping her sword.

Jiang Lan shook her head and asked, “Did you erase all traces along the way when you came back?”

Qingli nodded. “They must have followed us. They did not track us down by our trail.”

“Go back to your room and sleep.”

“Huh?”

“Someone will clean this up for us. Go to bed. No matter what happens outside, do not come out.”

Jiang Lan turned toward the bedroom, waving to Qingli as she spoke.

Qingli looked at the sword in her hand, then at the blood-red light spreading across the sky, the howls of resentful spirits, the clamoring of monsters and fiends... After some thought, she finally turned into a wisp of green smoke and settled on the wooden hairpin in Jiang Lan’s coiffure.

When Wei Li arrived with a group of reinforcements, he saw utter chaos outside the Residence of the Duke of Wei.

The ground was strewn with the corpses of demons and evil creatures, along with the lingering malice of resentful spirits. Daoist cultivators of every stripe had drawn out their magical implements and were locked in battle.

A massive crimson barrier sealed the sky above the residence, while outside that barrier another layer of silver formation trapped the fiends within the blood light.

At the center of the formation stood a familiar white Daoist robe.

“Uncle Master Rong!”

Rong Mu looked over at Wei Li, who had arrived with his followers, and nodded. Then he sent a transmission: “They are all wicked spirits and demons. Let the disciples come in and gain some experience.”

“Yes, Uncle Master.”

Wei Li obeyed and relayed the order below.

Seeing a gap open at the nearest point of the light barrier, Wei Li led the others forward. Just then, an evil spirit tried to flee. He raised his sword at once and cut it cleanly in two.

“Advance!”

Rong Mu opened the way for all the forces that had arrived from every direction. Soon, the number of trapped fiends within the formation gradually dwindled. Just as everyone was beginning to rejoice, a savage surge of demonic aura outside the imperial capital slammed straight into the formation around the city.

It seemed like only a single blow, yet the century-old array, built at enormous cost by immortal masters of great attainment, collapsed in an instant.

“Oh no—it’s a great demon!”

The cultivators within the formation cried out in alarm.

And before even half a breath had passed, a monstrous figure appeared above them, its body wrapped in purple demonic miasma. It was enormous, with the body of an ox, and a dark mark faintly visible upon it—upon closer inspection, a rarely seen tiger-shaped talisman.

From its seven apertures poured billowing evil energy.

“It’s a great demon raised by demonic cultivators!”

There are good people and bad people, and so it is with Daoists and demons.

Ordinary mountain sprites and cultivated demons are not usually provoked by Daoists, except by the wicked cultivators who refine pills to aid their own cultivation.

Because of the great demon’s appearance, the scarlet light that had been fading within the formation suddenly surged, brighter than before.

The strength of the evil spirits and demons also increased, and many cultivators were trapped.

The moment that great demon’s aura appeared, Jiang Lan, who had been lying on the bed, suddenly opened her eyes.

“A great demon of the Lingling tribe? Why is he here?”

Jiang Lan rose to a seated position. On the table in the distance, the wooden hairpin gave off a thread of green smoke.

Qingli brought over a cup of warm water infused with demon power. “Immortal Lady.”

Jiang Lan took it.

Qingli then sat on the footstool at the side of Jiang Lan’s bed, looking up curiously. “Immortal Lady, what is a great demon of the Lingling tribe? Is it very powerful?”

“An ancient beast-shaped illusionary creature with tiger patterns on its body, resembling an ox. This one is probably not the one I know. Its power is far too weak.”