Chapter 1: The Haunted Forest of Demons (Part 1)

  The tree fell and the monkeys scattered, the human-faced tree was subdued by Ding Ling, and the other tree spirits immediately disappeared without a trace.

  Ding Lingxiu no longer concealed his powerful spiritual energy, and the majestic spiritual pressure made it so that not a single low-level demon dared to approach them again. The two of them walked until deep into the night, arriving at the southern edge of the mountain forest. The desolate night wind blew, making Xia Xianyao's back feel chilly, and she was exhausted, her eyelids heavy with sleepiness.

  "Lingxiu, we probably can't make it back tonight, or... why don't we rest here first?" Xia Xianyao said vaguely, her two arms dangling in front of her chest.

  "It's not that I'm afraid, it's just that we can't go back. From here to the exit of the forest is at least ten miles away, and even if we walk through the night, we still need to walk more than ten miles to reach the county town. Of course, it's impossible to hitch a ride on the highway, which means we have to walk another twenty miles on foot, totaling forty miles." Ding Lingxiu said calmly.

  "Why are you so sure we won't catch the bus?" Xia Xianyao said with a pout.

  "My young lady, what are you wearing? At this late hour, with your red dress and long hair, who dares to let you take a rickshaw?" Ding Lingxiu shook his head helplessly.

  "Anyway, I'm too tired to move on, I've decided to rest here."

  Xia Xianyao gave him a white eye and sat down on the ground with a plop. At the same time, she inserted her hand into the long sleeve, as if searching for something.

  Before long, she actually pulled out a flower rug and a pillow from inside.

  "You..." Ding Ling Xiu was taken aback, wanting to speak but stopping himself.

  Because he saw Xia Xianyao put the quilt and pillow on the grass, he actually took out a simple tent from his sleeve.

  "How can this golden brocade clothing be so powerful? It's a divine artifact for daily life and travel."

  Ding Ling's eyebrows rose in surprise, and she couldn't help but feel a sense of emotion.

  "I've told you all along, Jinlv clothes are like containers, even spiritual energy can be stored. What's the big deal about this thing?" Xia Xianyao smiled triumphantly.

  Although Xie Yao's demon-hunting skills were inferior to those of Ding Lingxiu, Xia Xianyao had a significant advantage in terms of hardware.

  "Alright, you really have your ways. With this divine object in hand, you still can't think of using a flashlight." Ding Ling Xiu looked at the flashing alarm on his flashlight, secretly feeling hurt.

  "You really don't understand life at all." Xia Xianyao set up the tent and said disdainfully to Ding Lingxiu.

  Ding Lingxiu didn't respond, gazing blankly at the sky.

  In the pitch-black night sky, the stars shone with exceptional brilliance, as if there were countless eyes in the heavens, coldly gazing down at this vast land. The Nine Celestial Evil Stars hung high above the sky, their icy lights flickering on and off.

  Xia Xianyao had already set up her tent and crawled inside.

  "Hey, I don't care about you anymore, I'm going to sleep. If you dare have any improper thoughts, I'll definitely beat you up."

  Xia Xianyao poked her head out of the tent and shook her fist at Ding Lingxiu.

  Ding Lingxiu turned his head back, sneered and said in a low voice:

  "Haha, this joke is quite lively. But what about your appearance? I have some unseemly thoughts about that golden dress of yours and it's also possible."

  "Go die!"

  Xia Xianyao angrily threw a stone at him, which was dodged by Ding Lingxiu. He held his chin with his hand and continued to gaze up at the sky above his head.

  "Aren't you sleeping?" Xia Xianyao asked.

  "I'm not sleepy, you go to sleep first." Ding Lingxu replied casually.

  "You don't think of running away while I'm fast asleep, do you?"

  Xia Xianyao had some doubts, after all, she had gone through great difficulties to find the human-faced tree, and she didn't want everything to go down the drain.

  "I won't." Ding Lingxiu's voice was lazy, but convincing.

  Xia Xianyao was skeptical. Although she had just met Ding Lingxiu, she quickly got used to his cold and hot personality, fortunately, she was well-prepared and calmly returned to her tent.

  It turned out that Xia Xianyao was also a rough but delicate person. Before Ding Lingxiu set fire to the forest, she had secretly infused her spiritual energy into an inconspicuous brooch and pinned it on Ding Lingxiu's backpack, preventing him from shaking her off.

  Ding Lingxiu indeed wanted to get rid of her, but not in order to monopolize the Renmian tree species. Rather, he simply didn't trust Xia Xianyao. Having left his hometown for half a year now, during which time he had learned too many things on the road that weren't taught in school, and was even more familiar with one principle: the heart of man is unpredictable.

  The solemn and majestic forest was even quieter at night, with only the faint sounds of insects chirping. Xia Xianyao had perhaps long been accustomed to her wandering life, but on this particular night, she slept very soundly.

  When she woke up, the eastern dawn had turned into a deep red, and the sky above her head showed blue. The red clouds were scattered, and the golden light shot into the forest in strips, which was really beautiful.

  She rubbed her sleepy eyes and walked out of the tent, only to find that Ding Lingxiu was nowhere to be seen.

  "Ding Lingxiu? Ding Lingxiu?"

  She shouted a few times, her voice echoing in the quiet mountains but there was no response, and all around was empty.

  "How detestable..."

  Xia Xianyao gritted her teeth, her heart burning with anxiety, and immediately perked up, taking out the Demon-Seeking Bead to search for the location of Ding Lingxiu's hidden needle.

  But when she saw the display on the Mo Yao Pearl, a surge of uncontrollable anger rushed straight to her chest cavity and spread rapidly through her blood.

  The location shown above was actually near his own tent.

  Xia Xianyao walked to the edge of the tent and indeed saw a small note with her own brooch pinned on it.

  "Xianyao, little sister, don't be angry. It's not that I broke my promise, but last night something urgent came up and I had to leave immediately. On October 5th this year, I will wait for you at the foot of Changyang Mountain and return the human-faced tree sapling in person."

  "Ding Lingxiu, you bastard." Xia Xianyao finished reading the note and immediately tore it to shreds, cursing loudly.

  Ding Lingxiu had already left the mountain forest and arrived at the county town.

  Ding Lingxiu left without saying goodbye, and indeed he had his reasons. Last night, while stargazing, he suddenly discovered that the southeast direction of his demon-seeking compass was showing a strong reaction again, indicating that there might be demon activity of a demonic level not far away. With an urgent desire to find demons, he left a note and walked out of the mountain forest overnight.

  After leaving the mountain forest and walking for another morning, he finally arrived at the highway and stopped a large bus. He fell asleep as soon as he got on the bus and arrived in a small county town southeast of the mountain forest in a daze.

  When he woke up, the sky was already dark. Ding Lingxiu had only rested in the car for three hours on this trip. When he got off the bus, his legs ached unbearably and kept trembling.

  "Big brother, where is this?" Ding Lingxiu asked the middle-aged man who got off the car with him.

  "This is Benxi County." The man replied.

  "Oh, thank you." Ding Lingxiu rubbed his shoulders and slung on his backpack.

  "How did you get on this bus without knowing where it's going?" The man finally reacted, looking at Ding Ling in surprise.

  Ding Lingxiu smiled and didn't answer.

  Having gone a day and night without eating, Ding Lingxu's stomach had long since begun to protest. He walked around the bus station and found a roadside mutton soup stall, where he sat down and ordered a large bowl of mutton soup and four stuffed pancakes.

  In various parts of Liaoning Province, you can almost drink mutton soup everywhere, but Benxi's Xiaoshi Mutton Soup and Huanglaoxia Mutton Soup are a must-try dish. The mutton soup is fragrant and savory when entering the mouth, yet not greasy, with an aftertaste that lingers on.

  Ding Lingxiu was already starving and had no mind to savor the delicious mutton soup, so he wolfed down the buns and drank the soup in big gulps. At the same time, he didn't forget to take out a map of Benxi City from his backpack and study it carefully.

  Ding Lingshu fell into deep thought, his slender and lonely figure standing out awkwardly against the bustling tavern in the twilight.

  Suddenly, a fashionable and sexy girl walked up to him. The girl had a lovely face, was charming and flirtatious, and smiled sweetly at Ding Lingyu, saying: "Handsome guy, why are you alone? Let me treat you to a drink, you can make an outrageous request, and I'll definitely satisfy you!"

  Ding Lingxiu's face was tired and lazy, slowly looking at her, this look immediately shocked the beauty in front of him with a low-cut, explosive-breasted, suspender and ultra-short skirt, his spirit greatly invigorated. Without saying another word, he yelled at the waiter to bring up ten more strings of lamb skewers and a case of beer...

  The two of them chatted and laughed, drinking until the sky was completely dark. It wasn't until then that they discovered this beautiful girl was also single. Two lonely men and women meeting by chance, it was simply a match made in heaven. In the dim light, this beautiful girl's face had already turned rosy red. She gently pulled on her shoulder strap, gazing at Ding Ling Xiu with drunken, dreamy eyes, smiling sweetly as she said: "Handsome guy, now you can make your request..."

  Ding Lingxu stroked the smooth shoulder of the beautiful sister, his loving eyes hazy and soft voice said: "Sister, can you really make excessive demands?"

  "Hmm..." The beautiful sister leaned into Ding Ling's arms and replied in a soft voice.

  Ding Lingxiu scratched his head and said:

  "I've already mentioned it, you go and settle the bill."

  “……”

  "My god..."

  The beautiful girl was speechless, the wine's potency surged up, and she fell onto the table.

  Ding Lingxiu pushed away Jing Mei, lit a cigarette, and at this time, the conversation between two people at the next table caught Ding Lingxiu's attention, and the cigarette in his hand also stopped in mid-air.

  "Brother, have you heard? That murderer has been getting more and more rampant recently." A middle-aged man wearing a large shirt said to his friend after taking a sip of wine.

  "Yes, he's really ruthless this time. It seems like two students were killed, just like the last two bodies. The way they were murdered was extremely brutal and there wasn't a single clue left for the police." His friend also sighed, with a very mysterious expression.

  "Wow, this murderer is really something else. They completely disembowelled the person from the inside out and didn't leave a single clue behind." The man in the sweatshirt couldn't help but curse, clicking his tongue in shock.

  "It's not that there are no clues at all, I heard a few days ago when we were drinking together, Little Zhang from the Public Security Bureau said that although those corpses seemed to have been disembowelled, but inside their bodies, there were signs of being pecked at, and on the empty skeleton, there were still feathers and eggshells stuck to it, just like small birds had incubated inside. The friend of the man in the undershirt said this far, his expression twisted, as if he felt a bit nauseous."

  "I'm going, isn't this exactly the same as the previous case? Who's so perverted? It's really a big world with all sorts of strange things. Forget it, let's not talk about such disgusting topics while eating. Cheers." The man in the sweatshirt frowned and raised his wine glass, not wanting to continue the conversation.

  Ding Lingxiu, who was eavesdropping on the side, stood up with a surprised slap on the table and muttered to himself:

  " Sparrow entering..."