Chapter 1: The Haunted Yōlin (Part 1)

  The girl didn't walk far before stopping by Xiuhu Lake, gazing at the three distant mountain peaks with bright eyes. The cute little monster beside her was hugging her leg and acting coquettishly, its chubby body looking very cute and adorable.

  Ding Lingxiu stood under a tree behind her, originally intending to go up and strike up a conversation. However, based on his impression of the girl, he felt that this girl was genuinely an ice beauty, although they were both demon hunters, but her eyebrows were filled with an arrogance matching Nan Gong Ao Tian's, she would absolutely not be so easily approached, if he rashly went to chat her up, it was very likely that he would get a cold reception.

  Ding Lingxiu was thinking about the right way to start a conversation, and he became distracted. The cigarette in his hand was carelessly pinched out on the tree trunk and thrown onto the grass.

  Ding Lingxiu was about to pick it up when a sanitation worker rushed over in a huff:

  "Hey, what's wrong with you kid? You have no manners, throwing cigarette butts everywhere."

  Ding Lingxiu couldn't help but laugh:

  "Isn't this exactly what I'm picking up?"

  "What are you laughing at? You'll be fined 50 yuan. This is a scenic area, don't think it's your home!" The sanitation worker spoke in a rude tone.

  Ding Lingxiu was completely speechless, it turned out that this worker had been lying in wait for a long time, just waiting for someone like Ding Lingxiu who randomly throws cigarette butts to appear.

  Ding Lingxiu took out 50 yuan from her mouth.

  "Alas, looking at this situation, if I don't throw away the cigarette butt, you won't have a job."

  The sanitation worker gave him a white eye and took over the fine saying:

  "Why don't you just die then? If you didn't die, all the funeral homes would have no work."

  "You..."

  Ding Lingxiu couldn't help but sigh at the boundless wisdom of the working people, and was suddenly speechless. He shook his head in frustration and turned to leave.

  At this time, the white-clothed girl also heard the voices of the two people and turned her head.

  The girl's eyebrows were furrowed, her expression cold and proud as she stared at Ding Lingxiu. Her face, illuminated from behind, looked holy and pure.

  Ding Lingxiu also stared at her, stunned for a moment before speaking:

  "Hi! What a coincidence."

  The girl nodded slightly, with a faint smile that seemed deliberately put on:

  "Really? Are you coming with me?"

  "Yes, I saw you standing alone by the lake and got a bit curious, so I followed you." Ding Ling replied truthfully.

  "Hug, hug, what's wrong? I want a hug..." The little boy pulled on the girl's skirt with his small hand and stretched out his other hand to reach for hers.

  The girl gently squatted down, picked up the little boy, and the little boy tightly hugged the girl, kissed her, and blinked at Ding Lingxiu with a mischievous look in his eyes.

  "This kid loves to be coquettish, go on and talk, you must have something to say since you came looking for me." The girl had a poker face with no expression, but she was still quite reasonable and didn't directly ignore him as Ding Lingyu had expected.

  "Hasn't he found the gates of hell yet?" The girl asked tentatively.

  Ding Lingxiu shook his head and said:

  "It's not that, it's just that on the way to the Gate of Hell, I encountered some trouble. My friend, the Taoist who was showing off his knowledge in front of you, had his internal elixir stolen by a mountain demon on the way to Yangyang Temple, and he became somewhat abnormal, with his spiritual energy also becoming disordered. So I wanted to help him retrieve it, but when I left, the abbot of Yangyang Temple only told me that it was the work of demons, without telling me where the demons were, saying only that someone would assist me. At a loss for what to do, I saw you."

  The girl listened indifferently, her slender fingers pinched the small hand in her arms, shaking it up and down, and Xiao Nang was teased into giggling uncontrollably, just like a newborn baby.

  "Oh, I see, so you think I'm the partner that Master Fangzhang was talking about?" The girl said.

  "Heh heh, I think you won't refuse a beauty like me, right, Xiao Nang..." Ding Lingxiu said with a smile, while also teasing the little girl's Xiao Nang in her arms.

  He didn't expect that just as his hand was about to touch Qiao Nuan, Qiao Nuan's lovely smiling face suddenly froze, her complexion turned dark green and iron grey, like a newborn baby who had just died, her eyes were wide open, and the hair on her head which was originally hanging down also stood up, revealing the blue veins under her hair, Qiao Nuan opened her small mouth and revealed the sharp teeth inside, and bit towards Ding Lingyu.

  Ding Lingxiu quickly withdrew his hand, his heart racing with fear.

  Although he understood the nature of the demon, he thought that this demon had been tamed by the girl and should not have any violent or evil aura. But now, he realized his own misconception and almost lost his fingers.

  "Hehe...... Look, Xiao Nang has answered for me." The girl showed a faint smile again, which was clearly a laugh, but sounded as calm as water and cold as ice.

  "Your servant has not been subdued?"

  "Of course, Xiao Nang is my good partner, why would I want to subdue it?" The girl replied, gently stroking Xiao Nang's little head a few times. Xiao Nang's ferocious appearance immediately disappeared, and it obediently nestled in her arms.

  Ding Lingxiu's face turned pale with shock, although he had heard that some demons might be attracted to the charm of a demon hunter and follow them without being subdued, but this required the demon hunter to have strong confidence in their own abilities, otherwise if the demon's demonic nature suddenly burst out, it could possibly harm themselves.

  While Ding Ling was staring at the girl in front of him, who seemed to be around his age or a few years older, she was alone and yet dared to let an untamed demon stay by her side, which was truly unimaginable.

  "But don't worry, I was just joking earlier. This time, I'll help you, solely because of Master Fangzhang's face." The girl smiled stiffly and glanced at Ding Lingxiu.

  "That's really great." Ding Lingxiu relaxed a bit, put his hand in his pocket and pulled out a cigarette, gazing at Xiuhu Lake with a flat tone like smoke: "Just now I saw you staring at Xiuhu Lake, were you admiring the view?"

  The girl didn't respond, but also shifted her gaze to Xiuhu Lake, which was surrounded by mountains and shimmered with a soft, beautiful light, without anything out of the ordinary. Two people who were both very reserved when interacting with each other felt like the air around them was filled with a thick, impenetrable fog that was suffocating and oppressive, and the cigarette smoke wafting from Ding Lingxiu's hand seemed to materialize this fog.

  "Has your Spirit Beast Detector failed to detect any monster tracks?" The girl's eyes stared at the reflection of the mountain light on the lake, her voice without inflection.

  "Yes, I'm also puzzled. Why didn't my demon-seeking compass react at all? The demon that could quietly steal the Aiyin inner elixir must be a top-notch demon, it's impossible for there to be no reaction." Ding Lingxiu took a deep breath of smoke and fell into contemplation.

  "I also find it strange why I didn't feel any demonic energy and yet things were stolen from me," said the girl.

  "Have you also had something stolen?"

  "Yes, it wasn't until I came down the mountain that I discovered my Spirit Gathering Orb had been stolen. Such a large thing, I really couldn't have imagined." The girl's stiff face revealed a look of surprise for the first time.

  "Is it a huge crystal ball? Will it also emit green light?" Ding Lingxiu asked.

  "That's right, how did you know?" The young girl raised an eyebrow and looked at Ding Lingxiu.

  "The thieves who stole our things are indeed a group of demons, they first stole your Spirit Gathering Ball and then used the Spirit Gathering Ball to steal Ah Yi's third-grade inner elixir." Ding Ling Xiu's azure eyes sparkled with spiritual light, he finally understood why Ah Yi was stolen of his inner elixir but remained unaware.

  The problem lay in the crystal ball, which was a spirit stone called the Gathering Spirit Ball, located at the top of the Fanghu Mountain. It was formed by condensing the cold air from all over the world and had a pure and transparent body, like crystal. Inside the ball, there were 81 cold lines that would change color according to the spiritual energy absorbed. Although the Gathering Spirit Ball was a spirit stone, it did not have any spiritual energy itself, but it was the best vessel for storing spiritual energy among all the strange and extraordinary people. This was because the Gathering Spirit Ball was extremely pure, and any spiritual energy stored in it would not be contaminated, and could be freely deposited and withdrawn. Compared to other spiritual energy storage devices, the Gathering Spirit Ball had a special feature: it could also extract the inner elixir and primordial spirit from a person's body, without causing any reaction or awareness. Therefore, when using the Gathering Spirit Ball to store someone else's spiritual energy or inner elixir, the user must make the person being extracted repeat a sentence spoken by the user, in order to confirm the extraction. After successful extraction, different colors of light would be emitted according to the amount of spiritual energy extracted.

  "Unexpectedly, they are so arrogant, stealing even from our Demon Hunter's head, and it's getting worse and worse." The girl was somewhat indignant, gently putting down the pouch in her arms.

  "And most importantly, I'm completely clueless, and even my demon-seeking compass is not reacting." Ding Ling furrowed his brow, looking helpless.

  "Who says it's impossible? Do you think all demon hunters have to rely on finding the Demon Spirit Tool to find demons?" The girl suddenly became pleased with herself, and Ding Lingyu discovered that this cold-as-ice girl only had a natural expression when she was being proud of herself. Perhaps because she was born with an aristocratic aura, she was more suited to having a haughty look.

  She had just finished speaking, when the little creature beside her leg also raised its small head, hands on hips, nose humming, big eyes staring blankly at Ding Lingxiu, full of arrogance.

  "Do you know where they are?" Ding Lingxu muttered to himself, looking at the girl with a puzzled expression while taking out the demon-seeking compass, thinking that something had changed, but the demon's aura had appeared, and the compass was still the same, the needle didn't move.

  "You don't even know why Master Fangzhang sent you to find me, because I can locate the exact position of demons and monsters just by reading the wind and water. I don't need these things at all." The girl's voice was confident and arrogant, she gently swept aside a strand of hair blown up by the lake breeze, her white long robe fluttering in the wind.

  In backlight, the girl is like a white lily, noble and elegant, with warm yet indifferent light shining from her eyes, making people dare not invade.

  Relying on Feng Shui to subdue evil spirits? Could it be...

  Ding Lingxiu was as if struck by lightning, his teeth almost biting off the mouth of the pipe, and he exclaimed in shock:

  "Is Feng Shui used to subdue evil spirits? May I ask, beautiful lady, what is your name?"

  The girl replied faintly:

  "Guo Mohan."