"Alright." Su Ziyu nodded with a smile, then turned around and left.
All good things must co to an end.
After experiencing so many worlds, Su Ziyu has gradually adapted to saying farewell to friends, because as long as fate allows, they will et again.
Junhe Kingdom.
After bidding farewell to Mu Lingji, Su Ziyu arrived at a small town in Junhe Kingdom. Because of that dream from the Baku, he suddenly felt sowhat unwilling to go to Mount Fuji.
Perhaps he was sowhat afraid of encountering Qing Ji again.
Because he didn't know if he could bring himself to act when he encountered Qing Ji again, and Qing Ji didn't seem like she would co out to harm others voluntarily.
"Hey!"
"Have you heard?"
"The evil mountain sprite from Shijue Mountain was taken down by a mage from the Eastern Land!" A deliberately lowered voice rose in the inn.
Soon, his words attracted the attention of many people.
"Really?"
"Did they really take down that harmful mountain sprite?" A middle-aged man dressed as a rchant said happily.
A person next to him chid in: "I think I heard about it too!"
"It was a wandering mage from the Eastern Land who acted, and they say that people saw a sudden thunderbolt from afar that day!"
"Surely it was using lightning to strike the demon dead."
The first person to speak said: "Of course it's true. Nobles from Sanhe Province even sent people to find that mage, reportedly wanting to offer a reward for exterminating the demon."
"They found the remains of the mountain sprite from Shijue Mountain, all burned to ashes."
The expression of the middle-aged rchant showed so surprise as he said: "That mage didn't go to collect the reward? I heard it was a considerable sum!"
"That's a person of high status! Maybe they don't care about the reward," the person next to him said. "I heard soone tried to impersonate him and claim the reward, but they were found out by the lord and had their head chopped off by samurai."
"And that mage also eliminated the harmful Jorogumo of Yuanjiang Province."
Speaking of this, he lowered his voice and said: "You know about Jorogumo, right? It lures n secretly and eats their heads after three days!"
"That demon was also taken care of by the mage."
"Reportedly, nearby lords are looking for him, probably hoping to seek the mage's protection."
"After all, there have been quite a few demons cropping up recently."
Su Ziyu, who was drinking tea nearby, listened in surprise. He was very sure that when he eliminated the mountain sprite and Jorogumo, there were no people around.
But who spread the word about him exterminating demons?
It seed like soone was trying to make him famous!
The stories these people told were not far from the truth, as if soone had secretly witnessed the events.
Who could it be?
Su Ziyu couldn't help but furrow his brows slightly, and soon an image of a bald old man surfaced in his mind.
Slippery Ghost!
The only one who could approach him silently and remain undetected was the Slippery Ghost. The Baku barely counted as one, though it could only approach when Su Ziyu was asleep; if he were awake, it would surely end up in the pot for stew.
"What does that mage look like? If there's a chance to et him, I definitely want to ask for a protective Peace Talisman," the middle-aged rchant asked.
"I don't know about that," the first speaker replied. "They say he's a handso man like Lord Seii!"
Hmm.
These people do have a discerning eye.
Su Ziyu silently drank his tea, deciding that next ti he would seek out the Slippery Ghost to settle the score. This whole thing was probably ninety percent his doing, and he didn't know why he would do it.
The rchants chatted idly while eating, before soon switching topics.
"Have you heard?"
"Soone encountered Isohi near Edo in Kanto! It used to be just a rumor, but this ti soone really got hard!"
The oldest rchant said: "They say the demon's body is as long as a ship!"
Isohi?
Su Ziyu was quite unfamiliar with this na, so he took out the Hundred Tales to flip through it for a while, quickly finding the record about Isohi.
Turns out Isohi is a humanoid fish-tailed demon, called rfolk in the East and known as rmaids or Siren Sea Demons in the West. Legends of Fusang describe Isohi as an extrely ferocious demon, with a body as long as twenty to thirty ters—such a long body resembling a Siren Sea Demon. Isohi attacks humans near the coasts, a highly troubleso Sea Siren according to folklore.
"What's wrong with the world!" the middle-aged man beside him said. "I t a friend from Kyushu the other day."
"He said sotis you can see a Demon Sword burning with ghostly flas flying through the streets at night near Sakura Island!"
"Sigh." Another person sighed: "That's nothing."
"The real threat is Jiutun Tongzi near Kyoto! Supposedly, nobody dares to go out at night in Danbo Province! And yet no one is taking care of it!"
"The nobles in Kyoto only care about pleasure and don't care about the lives of the common people."
At this point, the older rchant said: "They probably can't manage it anyway."
"You might not know yet?"
"Ghosts have started haunting around Kyoto at night! Nobody dares to pass by Vermilion Bird Dao! They say it's because Lord Seii set up barriers to seal it!"
"Those demons haven't been resolved yet."
"Business is getting harder and harder."
"Once I finish this deal, I'll go back to my hotown and retire."
Su Ziyu silently listened to the rchants' complaints, then got up and left the inn. He decided not to continue traveling and to return to Kyoto tomorrow because Fusang still had the most demons around Kyoto.
At worst, he could disguise his identity to avoid the Netherworld and head directly to Danbo Mountain to hunt so ghostly creatures.
He might as well go check out the situation in Ghost Capital!
This ti, Su Ziyu didn't plan to act openly but rather to operate in secret—grabbing so Source Power if there's an opportunity. After all, the prominent figure of the era is Abe no Seii, so let him deal with those demons and monsters. Su Ziyu is just a passerby wandering in the wild.
If a wanderer wants to beco a legend, naturally needed is so steady developnt.
anwhile.
Just around Odawara in Kanto, a beautiful lady with a white paper umbrella appeared on the street. Her appearance was incredibly beautiful and enchanting, with a graceful and refined deanor like that of a traditional Eastern lady. Her long hair was pulled up into high clouds, adorned with jade ornants. She wore a white dress embroidered with strange cloud patterns. In her delicate hand was a paper fan, looking like an ethereal fairy descended into the mundane world.
With her appearance, it seed like the entire street quieted down. People found themselves irresistibly drawn to her beautiful figure, a trace of dazed fascination upon their faces.
No difference between n, won, old, or young; all were captivated by the unintentional charm she exuded.
The extrely beautiful lady seed to be searching for sothing. Her gaze swept across many people, then a trace of disappointnt appeared on her face.
She strolls onward.
Like a fairy walking through the mortal realm, people around her instinctively made way, so n displaying enamored expressions—but as soon as they approached, they were swept away by her gaze, standing there with trembling bodies as if frozen, cold sweat dripping like rain.
The white-robed woman left in disappointnt, before departing, she opened the folding fan in her hand, her eyes dreamily fixed on a line of Chinese poetry written on it.
—"How in this world can one gain both? To neither betray Buddha nor forsake you."
Her expression seed to carry a hint of pain as she murmured, "Where are you? I will definitely find you!"
So greedy eyes followed her moving form.
After leaving the town, the white-robed woman stopped by a secluded forest, then turned her gaze not far away, saying softly: "Co on out. You've been following for a long ti."
Heh heh.
With a strange laugh, five or six scruffily dressed n erged, the leading brute wearing a lecherous smile, said sleazily: "Beauty? Where are you heading alone?"
"Knowing I'm going alone, yet still daring to follow?" The white-robed woman's beautiful face broke into a graceful but cold smile.
Wisps of ghostly blue fla rose in her palm.
"Mamma mia! A demon! Help!"
"Don't kill !..."
"I was wrong!...I won't dare again!..."
As the exquisitely beautiful white-robed woman turned away, all that remained on the ground were ashes burned to cinders, slowly dissipating in the breeze.
.........
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