You Are My Dearest Nemesis

Chapter 6

Happy New Year dear readers!!!

By the time the group of young cultivators interrogated the victims' families it was already morning where the sun had peeped into the village glistening the vast lands and rivers. This time they were finally able to gather a very important clue from the families of the victims, which actually left the cultivators in shock.

While they were strolling around the village for more hidden clues they were accidentally revealed about another surprising yet important fact.

Apparently this village had a "Protection Barrier". A protection barrier was set through four large sandstone pillars at the four corners of the village. If you observe the four pillars from the sky these pillars form an identifiable square securing the people inside. A protection barrier was very rare in a remote village like this but it being rare explained its importance. The village chief had it done after he realized the village was in great danger.

Qing Wu remembered the unconscious guards at the mountain during the night of Gu Ping's death. These guards were within the barrier so there was no way they could be unconscious due to direct influence of the demon. Now there was an explainable answer to this mysterious problem that caused Qing Wu a headache. What was he going to do? This case was unexpectedly riskier the more he dug into it.

Normally when there were protection barriers it would prevent any form of spirit entering the designated area. Only one type of demon can affect the barrier and they were precisely the high level demons, but even among high level demons there was a special type of demon who could cause this trouble.

Demons can be categorized according to their strength. Just like cultivators they can eventually be stronger but that's through absorbing human souls. Human souls are the source of its energy. This strength was the definition of high level demons while self-indulgence, jealousy, loathing, vengeance could make the soul tainted with dark energy to the point where there would be no returning back.

The demon causing ruckus in the village was special because it gained strength through absorbing many human souls and having exceedingly high resentment energy. They can even stride around in broad daylight. But this depends on how strong they were.

A protection barrier can't easily be broken but if it was continuously attacked by such a demon the barrier weakens and eventually it had now led the South barrier of the village to be broken. This process would continue months to take place. The impact of when the protection barrier breaks causes the patrolling guards who were close by to lose consciousness.

Qing Wu massaged his temples as a frown formed between his eyebrows while quietly analyzing the situation... A high level demon could be handled but... A special case like this needed to be handled by a couple of senior cultivators with a certain amount of experience. Why do you think it was hard to beat up the Demon King? It was in fact due to this very reason. These demons sliced off heads like cutting watermelons! They were the famous "crazy dogs" of the Demon King.

Rampant, uncontrollable, blood thirsty, vile and horrifying monsters. They were handled through the great demon's single command. A single command to "kill" would take lives of those who didn't even deserve it. Such a heartless demon had to perish to the ground! However, Qing Wu knew it wouldn't ever happen in the near future unless the world collapsed to mere dust. He was undefeatable.

The people thought war had ended but they were only fed with lies after lies. That monstrous man left the battlefield completely unharmed but what about them? Thousands of cultivators had to offer their lives at this one-sided war. Even the heartless Demon King must have had pity in them to kindly step back and retreat. If people knew that the so called Demon King fought an entire army of thousands of cultivators with less than 400 or so underlings of his, Qing Wu couldn't even imagine the consequences. The five "Guardians of Hell" were already enough to wipe off a whole bunch of 300 cultivators off the surface within a short period of time.

Qing Wu laughed mockingly... He still couldn't understand his motive in retreating but the foolish sects took advantage of the opportunity to assume that the Demon King ran away. Qing Zhao, his cousin was the last to witness the great demon. But there was another ridiculous rumor spreading due to this. They once again assumed that the great demon ran away because of Qing Zhao's bravery. Originally Qing Zhao was a predicted candidate for the Yang sword. Now they think that he is the true wielder of Yang sword. They just kept assuming things in order to have a sense of relief for their own convenience.

Shaking off the irrelevant thoughts he suddenly remembered how he tried to summon the evil spirit inside the tea house. He face-palmed himself inside his head for such a bold move. By now everyone in the house would have been dead meat. Because once it was angered it doesn't have to particularly be its targets.

He didn't have to worry because the demon wasn't attacking random people yet. But what if it wasn't satisfied? The problem lies there.

Human souls were like a drug to them. Once they achieve their revenge, the greed and thirst for human souls would take over them, eventually leading them to lose self-control. Once that happens it would be impossible to purify their soul. So the final option was to eliminate it. And to eliminate such a vile demon needs to be done by a resilient cultivator.

Qing Wu let out a long sigh but freezes half way through when he feels something slithering across his shoulder which caught him off guard, "AH!"

But before he could fall down flat on his face, his waist was caught on a tight grip. Slowly turning around to see who it was, he was pissed. The other cultivators were grinning at the scene.

"Xu Yang! Cant you just speak to me?" 

"Well I did but you were daydreaming. Say, what were you thinking so hard for?" At the moment they were trying to solve a case. What else was he supposed to do other than thinking?

"Did you find out anything?"

"Yes indeed. They are at the center of the mountain. I know the exact place."

"Oka- Wait, where is the guard?"

"Hmm? Ah! Now that you mention it. He was right behind me but then he suddenly... He was gone."

"What?! Why didn't you say so earlier?! Hurry up we need to-"

"Hold on. Can you handle it alone?" Xu Yang questioned him sternly.

"..."

"I know you worry about his life. Think twice before you act. Or else you will put their lives in danger." Xu Yang tilted his head to the other cultivators and he asked them,

"Did you manage to get something useful?"

They nodded in unison as they started explaining everything to Xu Yang who was calmly listening to their report. His expression within the veil could tighten the hearts of people. His sharp eyes were ruthless enough to stab a person's soul. A cold sneer tug at the corners of his lips.

*****

What brought the most shock to these cultivators was not the fact that it was a special type of demon but the target of this demon.

Hundreds of years ago until now this village had been consisted of 20 main families followed by other small families which included immigrants who were slowly scattering across the little village. Now its like a small plant grown into a tree spreading its branches to the far and wide blue sky. So if you look closely most of them in this village were actually related to each other. When interrogating the families of the victims, the cultivators were able to note down a similar statement that every family mentioned to them about the victim. After that to further clear up the suspicions they interrogated the rest of the victims' families with only one question. It was then that they came to the conclusion that the demon was only targeting a specific family. It was one of the main families in the village.

And it was precisely the Gu family.