5.
That night, we went back to school and got a good night’s rest.
When I got back to the dorm, I heard whispers coming from the room next door.
“I told you all, that Trần Linh is up to no good out there. Just look—it's almost eleven tonight, and she still hasn't come back to the dorm. And she actually dares to compete with us for financial aid for poor students. She has no shame.”…
I stopped and looked back.
They were badmouthing someone without a care who might hear them. Their dorm room door was still open, and everyone inside was busy with their own thing.
The one talking was named Vương Nhiễm. She usually seemed so honest, but I never expected her to be so good at badmouthing people.
I raised a hand and knocked on their door.
“You know, those who sow bad karma with their words will reap what they sow.”
Vương Nhiễm went pale and lowered her head without saying a word.
I gave a quiet laugh, then turned and went back to my room.
Back in my room, I showered and finished tidying up. As soon as I lay down, I got a message from Vương Nhiễm.
[Ruyi, do you know what Trần Linh has been doing lately? How is she making so much money? Could you ask her to recommend a job for me?]
Me: “…”
I was speechless. Truly speechless.
I immediately typed out a reply: [No way. I have to go make some big money tomorrow, too. I'm afraid you'll steal my livelihood.]
Then I blocked and deleted her.
Keeping in touch with idiots would only pollute my phone.
6.
The next afternoon, around six thirty, we arrived at Long Mén Old Town.
Lâm Nguyện stood beside me, looking a little hesitant.
This was his first time accompanying us on a demon hunt.
Three hundred years ago, my husband, the Dragon King Minh Uyên, was accidentally invaded by evil energy while ridding the world of demons. The Ten Great Spiritual Sects sealed him beneath Mount Đông.
Recently, an elder of the La family in Thanh Thành passed away, and the seal began to weaken. A fragment of Minh Uyên’s demon soul escaped and took up residence in the body of a college student named Lâm Nguyện.
They reached an agreement.
By day, the body belonged to Lâm Nguyện; by night, it belonged to Minh Uyên.
Not long after, that Mr. Giang finally arrived.
“You’re Student Vân, right?” He looked at me with shining eyes.
I smiled faintly and pointed to Lâm Nguyện. “This is my boyfriend.”
Mr. Giang looked Lâm Nguyện over, then said, “What a handsome young man.”
He glanced at his watch. “It's almost time. Shall we go change first?”
He led us around the old town, eventually turning into a narrow alley and stopping in front of a building.
The building was in the Huizhou style, with white walls streaked with black and blue-gray roof tiles thick with moss.
It looked extremely eerie.
Mr. Giang stopped in front of the main gate.
“Student Vân, you two go on in first. Someone will show you the way. I have something else to take care of, so I’ll be going.”
With that, he stepped forward and knocked.
When he heard a rustling sound from inside, he immediately turned and ran. It was as if something terrifying might get him the very next second.
Lâm Nguyện and I stood in front of the gate.
The sun slowly disappeared from the sky, until it was completely hidden.
The person beside me suddenly seemed to change. He reached out and took my hand.
“Are you scared?”
I glanced at him. “Do you think so little of me?”
Minh Uyên smiled faintly. “I wouldn’t dare.”
As we spoke, the large gate in front of us creaked and slowly began to open from within.
A dull eye peered out through the crack.
Then the gate opened halfway.
It was a girl dressed in a shabby maid’s outfit. Her skin was almost ghostly pale, her pupils very dark, and the bright rouge on her cheeks looked strangely out of place. When she stared at you, she looked positively uncanny.
“Follow me inside.”
Minh Uyên and I exchanged a look, then followed her through the gate.
Beyond the gate was a very large house.
The girl leading the way didn't say a word.
I stared at her feet.
At first I thought she was walking on tiptoe, but when I looked more closely, I saw that her feet had been bound.
It was the twenty-first century—how could I still be seeing this barbaric practice?
I raised my hand to cast a spell, but Minh Uyên gently squeezed it.
“She’s not alive. Look at her neck.”
Looking more closely, I saw a faint raised line on her seemingly smooth neck.
It was the seam where the paper had been pasted together to make a paper effigy.
So she was a paper effigy.
After walking for a while, another paper effigy appeared beside us.
She blocked Minh Uyên’s way. “Groom, this way, please.”
Minh Uyên said nothing. After looking at her for three seconds, he let go of my hand and followed her into a room nearby.
I was led in the opposite direction to another courtyard.
As soon as the courtyard gate opened, a foul stench hit me in the face.
7.
The stench nearly knocked me unconscious.
This smell could rival a biological weapon!
After taking a moment to collect myself, I touched the jade-green dragon token at my chest.
Minh Uyên’s voice rang in my mind. “I’m fine. Ruyi, this is the Demon Realm. Be careful. I’ll find a chance to meet up with you.”
The so-called Demon Realm is a domain created by powerful demons with profound magical abilities.
When demon hunters enter a Demon Realm, their powers are weakened.
Demons, on the other hand, have their magic amplified, making them harder to subdue.
I once broke into the Fox Demon’s realm, but its Demon Realm hadn’t fully manifested then, and I was lucky to escape with my life.
This time, I was afraid it wouldn’t be so simple. A Demon Realm this vast, powerful enough to sustain so many paper effigies—just what kind of formidable demon was behind this?
I rubbed the dragon token in my hand and narrowed my eyes at the dark courtyard ahead.
The black mist vanished, and my clothes turned into a brilliant red wedding dress.
A bridal veil suddenly blocked my vision.
Someone placed a strip of red silk in my hand.
The person tugged on the silk strip and led me into a room.
Then the door closed, and silence settled around me again. I lifted the bridal veil, and everything before my eyes was red.
It turned out to be a bridal chamber.
I smirked, clasped my hands, and formed hand signs. The Spirit-Seeking formation had barely taken shape when it spread out around me.
But the moment it touched the walls, the formation vanished.
“The Demon Realm really is powerful,” I murmured.
Just then, I heard a rustling sound at the door. I hurriedly pulled the veil back over my head. The door swung open, and a small-faced man in a red wedding robe walked in.
“Wifey, heh heh. Wifey.”
Me: “…”
Where did this ugly idiot come from?
Drooling, he reached toward me. “My third wife.”
“Heh heh.”
The moment his fingers touched my veil, I grabbed his wrist.
8.
I don’t know how many times I punched him.
When my fist struck his face once more, the man screamed and reverted to his true form.
A bushy tail sprouted behind him, fur began growing on his face and hands, and his mouth grew longer and longer…
So he was a weasel!
“It hurts! It hurts!” he cried and screamed.
“This wife is too fierce! I don’t want her anymore!”
He shrank smaller and smaller until he was a weasel about three feet long, then ran away.
Why was this demon so weak? I wondered for a moment.
But I had no time to think it over. I immediately stamped hard on its tail.
“Talk! What did you do to the girls you lured here before?”
It pointed to the room next door. “There! In there!”
I grabbed it by the scruff and kicked open the door to the next room.
It was another bridal chamber, identical to this one.
Someone sat motionless in front of a carved wooden bed, wearing a wedding dress and a bridal veil.
My gaze sharpened. I bound the weasel tightly with a demon-binding cord and tossed it aside.
When I approached the bed, I saw that the person was trembling all over. I reached out and lifted her veil.
Trần Linh’s face suddenly appeared before me.
She squeezed her eyes shut and cried out in terror, “Don’t touch me! Don’t touch me!”
I gently patted her face. “Trần Linh, Trần Linh! It’s me, Vân Như Ý!”
When she heard my name, she finally calmed down.
She opened her eyes wide and stared at me. A few seconds later, she burst into tears.
“Ruyi! I ran into a demon!”
Trần Linh said she had come here for a part-time job yesterday, but after the person in charge led her here, she couldn’t get out.
A man who looked like a yellow weasel kept calling her “wife” and trying to touch her, but the bracelet she was wearing kept him from getting close.
I looked at her bracelet. Even in this Demon Realm, it still gave off a faint silvery glow.
What a fine item.
I examined her. Thankfully, all three of her souls were intact; she’d just been frightened.
Trần Linh clutched my hand. “Ruyi, did you see that ugly demon?”
I reassured her. “It’s okay, it’s okay. That demon was really weak. I’ve already subdued it.
“Look, it’s over there…”
I pointed toward the corner. But my smile suddenly froze.
Trần Linh stammered, “Where?”
Me: “…”
Where was it?
I didn’t know either.
The demon-binding cord lay slack on the ground. The yellow weasel had vanished long ago.