Relief

At night was one thing, it could be concealed to some extent.

But in broad daylight, especially at such a critical moment in catching a demon, this Gu really knew how to pick its moments to act up!

More importantly, this time it wasn’t enough for them to just be close.

Lian Qiao glanced at the hand he had wrapped around her waist, trying to negotiate. “Um, can you let go first?”

Lu Wu Jiu’s tone was impatient. “You think I don’t want to?”

It was over!

It seemed they had to embrace this time, and right from the start. Later on, they would undoubtedly have to sacrifice more.

Over there, Yan Wushuang and Zhou Jiannan had tired of fighting and were looking over. Lian Qiao was so scared she quickly grabbed her sword and pretended to chase the demon.

Heavens, being with Lu Wu Jiu was even more thrilling than catching a demon!

Just then, the fox demon swept its tail toward them. Lian Qiao immediately leaned back to dodge. As she dodged back and forth, she also had to maintain physical contact with Lu Wu Jiu.

So she had no choice but to fight while brushing against Lu Wu Jiu, managing not to leave his side by more than a step.

But being tied together like this greatly affected their performance. When Lian Qiao was about to draw her sword, Lu Wu Jiu was also drawing his.

One used their left hand, the other their right. Before the swords were even out, their elbows slammed into each other.

Lian Qiao grimaced in pain and turned to complain, “Hey, when I’m drawing my sword, can you not draw yours too?”

Lu Wu Jiu paused. “If I remember correctly, I was the one who drew my sword first.”

Lian Qiao was speechless.

‘Fine, then she just wouldn’t use a sword!’

There happened to be a pond in the courtyard, so Lian Qiao switched to casting a water-summoning spell, shouting, “Water, come!”

Instantly, a water dragon rose from the pond.

However, before the roaring water dragon could even touch Zhen Niang, it suddenly fizzled out above Lian Qiao’s head with a splash, drenching her like a drowned rat.

Lian Qiao was stunned.

Slowly turning her head, she realized that while she was summoning water, Lu Wu Jiu had simultaneously conjured fire in his palm.

Water and fire were incompatible. When they collided, her water dragon was burned away to nothing!

What kind of damned tacit understanding was this!

She wiped the water from her face. “Did you do that on purpose?”

Lu Wu Jiu glanced at her soaked and now somewhat transparent ruqun, his tone irritated. “How was I supposed to know you would use a water-based spell?”

“…”

Lian Qiao shook the water from her hair, glaring at him fiercely. “Forget it. If this goes on, the fox demon will escape. This time, we’ll use swords. I’ll use my right hand, you use your left. Don’t get it wrong, and don’t use anything else. Got it?”

Lu Wu Jiu was noncommittal.

And so, with a shared intensity in their eyes, two streams of sword energy, one white, one gold, shot through the air like rainbows. The fox demon, who had already gotten far, let out a miserable cry and fell from mid-air.

At this moment, Zhou Jiannan and Yan Wushuang also stopped fighting.

But more than being surprised that the fox demon was subdued, they were astonished to see Lian Qiao and Lu Wu Jiu standing shoulder to shoulder.

One in green, one in white, the clear wind whipping their robes, making them flutter loudly.

Zhou Jiannan rubbed his eyes. “Am I seeing things? Or has the hallucinogenic incense not worn off! The two of them are actually standing side by side?”

Lian Qiao felt very uncomfortable in her heart, but she deliberately raised her voice. “What are you looking at? A little bit of hallucinogenic incense was enough to send you two spinning in circles. If we hadn’t joined forces, this fox demon would have escaped!”

Zhou Jiannan and Yan Wushuang immediately started blaming each other, completely oblivious to the fact that Lian Qiao and Lu Wu Jiu were still standing intimately close even after the fight was over.

Successfully diverting the trouble, Lian Qiao patted her chest in relief. That was close!

But this Gu’s flare-up would last for an hour. She had to solve this fox demon problem quickly. She didn’t want her business with Lu Wu Jiu to be exposed.

She quickly began to interrogate the fox demon.

“So, you did indeed kill Gu Sheng?”

The fox demon, prostrate on the ground, looked up with hatred in her eyes. “So what if I did? He deserved to die!”

Zhou Jiannan was puzzled. “Although Gu Sheng wasn’t a good person, you’re vicious enough. It wasn’t enough to harm him once, you had to harm him a second time, and with such a cruel method. What deep-seated hatred is there?”

“I harmed him?” Zhen Niang was taken aback, then she sneered. “He’s good at twisting the truth. It was clearly he who wanted to kill me for wealth and glory! Now he’s turning the tables on me!”

Lian Qiao was completely confused.

“Wait, that’s not what Gu Sheng said before. Which one of you is lying?”

She recounted Gu Sheng’s words, especially the part about the fox demon causing trouble and being killed. As Zhen Niang listened, her teeth grew cold. “He’s so righteous, telling seven parts truth and three parts lies about the past. But he deliberately confused the most important point—he didn’t meet Miss He after killing me. He met the wealthy Miss He first, had a change of heart, and then came up with the idea of divorcing his wife and remarrying. He was even afraid of others gossiping behind his back, so he wanted to burn me to death even before he knew I was a demon. So what if I’m a demon? It just gave that scoundrel couple an excuse to kill me!”

Yan Wushuang tutted twice. “It was like that?”

The more Zhen Niang spoke, the more grief-stricken she became. “Gu Sheng was the first man I met after coming down from the mountain. They all say a demon’s nature is treacherous and fickle, but at that time, I never thought of harming him. I just transformed into an ordinary human and cooked for him. How could I have known that humans could be even worse than demons? After he went to the city to study, he would come back with some perfumed powder on him each time. Gradually, he stopped coming home. Several times, half-asleep, I found him standing by the bed, looking at me coldly. Until I became pregnant…”

“When a demon is pregnant, its magical power is greatly reduced. I was already feeling very unwell every day at that time. He suddenly had a change of heart and took the initiative to brew medicine for me. Who knew that as soon as that medicine entered my stomach, it tore through my intestines… I was in excruciating pain and revealed my true form, but I still didn’t hurt him. I just asked him why, but he called a Taoist priest to vivisect my inner core, nailed me to a peach tree, and set a fire to burn me to ashes!”

“Then… how did you escape?” Hearing this, Lian Qiao felt a pang of sympathy.

“At that time, although I had no inner core, my spiritual power had not completely dissipated. I risked my life to sever my tail and escape.”

Zhen Niang turned her head slightly, stroking her fur.

Only then did Lian Qiao see that her tail was incomplete, and her fur was mottled and patchy. Beneath the patches, there were scars from being burned.

“And then, I rested and recuperated. I used my charm to bewitch the county magistrate, pretended to be his distant niece, and returned to this place with a new identity, just to see if Gu Sheng would repeat his mistakes. Who would have thought that Gu Sheng was still incorrigible? I just casually opened a box full of gold and jewels and mentioned that my uncle was the county magistrate, and he abandoned Miss He and turned to showering me with affection…”

Lian Qiao pondered. “So, you were actually the one who instigated Gu Sheng to kill Miss He?”

“Does a person like him need my instigation?” Zhen Niang seemed to find it amusing. “No, he was the one who suggested it first. He had long grown tired of her. I’m afraid that ever since he heard about the heart-ripping incidents, he had been thinking of imitating the killings. Until yesterday, when the truth was exposed, a ruthless person like him would certainly not leave any loose ends.”

“And then, you used the same method to kill him, right?”

“So what if I did?” Zhen Niang gritted her teeth in hatred, as if it still wasn’t enough. “It’s just that you came too quickly. After killing him, I didn’t have time to leave, so I could only make a few cuts on myself to try and deceive you. But my skills were inferior, so I admit defeat. Besides, my demon core is destroyed. I wouldn’t have lived for much longer anyway.”

A look of relief from having achieved her revenge appeared on her face. Starting from her tail, her body began to gradually disappear.

It probably wouldn’t be long before she dissipated completely.

This scene was quite moving. Speaking of which, this fox demon was a pitiful person.

“But pitiful is pitiful, you shouldn’t have killed so many innocent people,” Lian Qiao sighed.

Zhou Jiannan was also aggrieved. “I only laughed once. Why did you beat me to death?”

Zhen Niang, however, also frowned. “You think all the people who died in this town were killed by me?”

“Weren’t they?” Zhou Jiannan was surprised.

Zhen Niang sneered. “I did kill someone, but only Gu Sheng. As for Miss He, she can only blame herself for not being a good judge of character and bringing home a wolf. As for the others, they have nothing to do with me. Every wrong has its perpetrator, and every debt has its debtor. I was just borrowing their hearts—”

“Hearts?”

“That’s right. Otherwise, do you think I could maintain my human form after having my heart ripped out and my inner core destroyed? Naturally, it’s by eating human hearts. Since those people were already killed, it’s not a great sin for me to take their hearts, is it?”

“So, you were the one who ripped out the hearts, but another demon has been killing people all this time?” Lian Qiao was dumbfounded.

The fox demon’s body had mostly dissipated, and her voice was becoming faint. “A demon? I don’t know what it is either…”

Lian Qiao understood. If the fox demon was telling the truth, the recent murders in this town were not the work of one person. There were three culprits—

Miss He was killed by a person disguised as a demon, and this person was Gu Sheng.

Sir Gu was killed by a demon disguised as a person, and this demon was the fox demon.

And the thing that had been tormenting No-Laughing Town for the past month was neither of them!

It hadn’t even truly shown itself from beginning to end. Perhaps this thing was hidden among them, watching them go in the wrong direction all along!

Instantly, a sense of danger crept into everyone.

But Zhou Jiannan was quite timid. He mulled it over. “A demon’s nature is cunning. Could she be tricking us again, trying to buy time? Maybe this dissipating spiritual energy is just one of her escape methods. Why don’t we just eradicate her completely?”

“What you say is not without reason.”

Lian Qiao was conflicted. On one hand, she sympathized with this fox demon, but on the other, she was afraid it was a self-inflicted wound ploy.

The fox demon scoffed, but she did not resist. She just smiled. “They all say a demon’s nature is cunning. I think the human heart is no less so.”

As she hesitated, Lu Wu Jiu said in a deep voice, “It’s indeed not her.”

Lian Qiao was close and noticed his breath was scorching hot. She suspected he was about to lose control, but she had to get to the bottom of this!

“How do you know?” she squeezed his palm hard, signaling him not to speak nonsense.

Lu Wu Jiu’s palm felt as if it had been licked by fire. He pulled his hand behind his back, paused, and then spoke. “The wounds of someone injured before and after death are different. If a person’s flesh is pierced before death, the wound will curl and retract, and blood will spurt out, like Gu Sheng tonight.”

Lian Qiao was confused. “So what? What does that have to do with these two cases?”

“There’s indeed no problem with them. But—” Lu Wu Jiu paused, “I have observed the previously heart-ripped victims. The scratch marks on their bodies were not like this. Instead, they were like a crack had been cut open, smooth and flat.”

“That’s right!” Zhou Jiannan immediately chimed in to support Lu Wu Jiu. “I once read a book on autopsies, and it said exactly that.”

Lian Qiao shot him a look. Zhou Jiannan immediately swore to the heavens, “Really! I really have read it, I’m not talking nonsense!”

Lian Qiao snorted.

Since they had both noticed the abnormality, it seemed what this fox demon said was indeed true.

She had indeed only killed Gu Sheng, which was why the wound where his heart was ripped out would curl. And the previous victims, she had only ripped out their hearts after they were dead, which was why their wounds were flat.

‘No wonder,’ she thought, ‘if this fox demon had the Kongtong Seal with her, she wouldn’t have dissipated so quickly.’

The fox demon probably didn’t care about these rights and wrongs anymore. Only her head was left, and then it slowly dispersed, leaving only a vague sentence behind. “That thing is very strange…”

Lian Qiao stared blankly at the fox fur that floated down from mid-air and sighed. ‘A fatal attraction, truly a fatal attraction. One love affair has harmed four people.’

‘But what did the fox demon’s last words mean? If even a demon found it strange, then what exactly was it? Could it not be a demon?’

What she hadn’t expected was that this thing would soon come looking for her on its own.

Of course, at that time, Lian Qiao didn’t know this yet. After cleaning up Gu Sheng’s mess, Yan Wushuang and Zhou Jiannan put the fainted Councilor He on a carriage, and then they also got on one.

There was another carriage outside. Considering that Lian Qiao and Lu Wu Jiu had never gotten along, who should ride in this carriage was a rather tricky problem.

Just as Zhou Jiannan was hesitating whether to call another carriage, Lian Qiao coughed. “No need to be so troublesome. Lu Wu Jiu and I still have important matters to discuss. It’s a good time to discuss them on the way back.”

“You and His Highness?” Zhou Jiannan’s jaw was about to drop. “Did the sun rise from the west today?”

Lian Qiao smiled, her eyes crinkling. “The sun didn’t rise from the west, but if you continue to be sarcastic, I don’t mind throwing you to the west to bask in the sun.”

Zhou Jiannan immediately shut up.

‘Too scary. How can there be such a woman who resorts to violence at the slightest disagreement!’

Lu Wu Jiu listened to their back-and-forth, a hint of impatience in his brow. “Chatterbox.”

Lian Qiao scoffed and quickly followed him into the carriage.

This rosewood carriage was not very spacious to begin with. Lu Wu Jiu was exceptionally tall, and as soon as he sat down, the carriage was filled with his legs. Lian Qiao, holding onto the carriage door, had nowhere to put her feet.

She knitted her brows. “Where do I sit?”

Lu Wu Jiu rested his hand on the window frame, tapping it idly. “Wherever you want.”

Although he said this, he was sitting with his knees apart, completely occupying the cushion, leaving only a gap between his knees.

‘How is this ‘wherever’?’

‘He clearly wants me to sit between his knees, right in his lap, so he can alleviate his Gu poison!’

Lian Qiao snorted lightly. “Sly old fox!”

She lifted the hem of her flowing dress and sat down with her back to him.

But she had clearly underestimated her own figure. The two of them were too squeezed. She mumbled, pushing Lu Wu Jiu. “Hey, can you move back a little?”

Lu Wu Jiu closed his eyes and didn’t speak.

Lian Qiao was exasperated and could only roll up her sleeves and scoot her bottom to squeeze in.

After pushing and shoving a few times, Lu Wu Jiu suddenly opened his eyes and pressed down on her shoulder.

“If you keep moving around, you won’t just be sitting on my lap.”