The Guide to Capturing a Black Lotus

68

Illusion demons, naturally born in Jingyang Slope, were completely different from those who turned into demons and other such evil creatures. They were powerful beings fondly looked upon by the heavens. Assuming that things went smoothly, they would have the chance to become spirits of the forest.

It was a shame that several years ago, a large plague broke out and the villagers were unwilling to leave their homes. In any case, the plague spread rapidly and in the blink of an eye, it had swept through the entire village. Just like that, Jingyang Slope turned into a natural cemetery.

The residents of this place encountered this harsh disaster, leaving behind a wasteland covered with corpses with no one to mourn for them. The resentment of the souls of the departed coalesced to form the core of the extremely evil illusion demon.

The illusion demon had its own consciousness and could easily change its form. It could be the wind in the forest, the fog in the woods, or the daughter of the new residents. And once this was known, everything would turn extremely terrifying.

Without a strong opponent, there wouldn't be an interesting plot. In the original work, "Demon Hunters," by the time the story had reached the end of the Jingyang Slope arc, there was a small climax——Liu Fuyi was injured by the illusion demon and pulled into the fissure by the creature, his condition unknown.

Mu Sheng was besieged by demons and at the same time, as if the scene was not already chaotic enough, then came Princess Duanyang who had hurried over.

The Princess, whose confession had been rejected, had spent her days in the palace recalling that painful experience. It was only in the past few days that Pei Yun continued to whisper encouragement in her ears.

Pei Yun told her, "Since you can't make Young Master Liu give up demon catching, then Her Highness should support his career and aid him. You can consider it as returning the favor from when he saved your life."

Princess Duanyang was convinced by her words and immediately picked out the four most powerful Taoists from the Imperial Astronomers Ministry1 to accompany her on her route, wearing herself down to the bones so she could aid Lui Fuyi.

But she did not expect that she would be seeing her last sight of him and that he would be pulled by the illusion demon, the two of them jumping down into a bottomless fissure.

At the time, there was a bloody hole in Liu Fuyi's chest and his face was like gold paper, utterly lifeless.

Duanyang sat beside the fissure crying and grief-stricken. Behind her, the four elder Taoists looked at each other in dismay, bitter looks on each of their faces. They had no clue how to console her and only after a long time passed did they cautiously speak out.

"Princess, that Young Master Liu has already had his heart dug out. Seeing that there's no hope for him, we should return..."

Duanyang's eyes were tinged red and she pushed him forcefully, like a little beast which had gone mad. "You're the one who can't live anymore! Are you not going to slap yourself!"

The Taoist groaned secretly and put on an act of slapping himself a few times. The other elder Taoist paused before tactfully speaking.

"Princess, please calm down...uh...there is a lot of evil present here, and demons run rampant. For the sake of the princess's jade body, it is better to quickly return to the palace..."

When the son of heaven was uninterested in matters related to gods and demons, the Imperial Astronomers lived like good-for-nothings.

These four Taoists had nowhere to use their ability and for them to be picked by the noble Diji as major players, they were obviously shocked.