Chapter 1: The Haunted Yōlin (Part 1)

  "You mean this door is like those automatic sensor doors in the city? No way."

  Guo Mohan was a little unbelievable that Ding Lingxiu would make such a strange guess, but she took a closer look at the thorns and suddenly understood what Ding Lingxiu meant.

  "Your meaning is that the door may be controlled by these vines embedded in the door?"

  Ding Lingxi nodded and continued to observe the vines, thinking that if he could summon the human-faced tree now, it would be great. If these two monsters were using the vines to control the door's switch, the human-faced tree must have a way to control the vines too.

  "If it's like what you think, then this door should be opened from the inside out, right?" Guo Mohan crouched down and found that these vines were twisted together from the outside. If they could control the door inside, the door would only open outward, similar to a castle gate drawbridge.

  "What's the big deal? This door weighs a few hundred kilograms less and is embedded in the wall, there's no good solution for now." Ding Lingxiu stood up and patted the dust off his hands.

  Guo Mohan also stood up and touched Jiao Yun's head, saying, "Jiaoyun, burn them, okay?"

  "Good! Let me down, Mo Mo." Xiao Nang patted and hit his small hands, pulling Guo Mo Han's hair and acting coquettishly.

  Ding Lingxiu curled her lips and thought to herself, "Why don't you just jump down yourself?" Being cute really has its advantages, everywhere she goes, she throws tantrums and takes advantage of the situation.

  Guo Mohan gently picked up Jiao Nang, slowly lifting it to the front of the door. It swayed in a circle and jumped down from Guo Mohan's hands, its two small hands reaching forward. The surrounding area was shrouded in darkness, with blue-black demonic energy swirling around Jiao Nang.

  The two of them only felt a dizzying sensation in front of their eyes, as if it was happening in a dream. A blue light suddenly burst forth, enveloping the entire space. The small hands of the young girl converged this powerful demonic energy, which compressed and condensed into a beam of light that shot onto the thorny gate.

  With a whoosh, the entire thorny gate burst into flames. The thorns shriveled up in the blue demonic fire, as if being corroded by strong acid, and withered away instantly, turning into dust. It seems that the giant bear just now was killed by this very move.

  "The smell of burning plants is really refreshing." Ding Lingxiu sniffed the air with her nose.

  "Why can't you just say you want to smoke?" Guo Mo replied coldly.

  Ding Lingxiu smiled and pulled out a cigarette from his pocket and put it in his mouth.

  Looking at the big thorny bush that had all turned into grass ash, Xiao Nang patted his small hand, his bright and shiny eyes blinking, swaying and walking to Guo Mohan's side:

  "Hug..."

  Guo Mohan held it in her arms.

  "You've burned them all, are you planning on pulling the door out from the outside directly?" Ding Lingxiu took a deep drag of his cigarette and raised his head.

  "You guessed it, and there's nothing else to do, right?" Guo Mohan handed the flashlight to Jiao Nang, and took out the Lingying Palace lamp from his backpack again. "By the way, you didn't bring any monsters here, did you?"

  Ding Lingxiu's cigarette paused in his mouth, but he immediately put on a cold face and replied without thinking:

  "No, I am an Extreme Yin Yang Master."

  Guo Mohan was surprised, though she didn't show it on her face. She really hadn't expected that Ding Lingxiu, a hunter who had struggled to deal with the giant bear earlier, would be an exceptional hunter. In fact, Ding Lingxiu wasn't an exceptional hunter at all.

  The so-called absolute-style demon hunters are a group of demon hunters who treat demon hunting as a business. They have extremely agile movements, mostly being robust men or high-level martial artists, and some are skilled in using magical artifacts, spiritual guns, or other supernatural weapons. They almost always act alone, specializing in hunting down high-priority, high-difficulty demons with large bounties on their heads. During the hunt, they will stop at nothing, and some may even be extremely cruel. However, after successfully hunting down a demon, they will not let it stay by their side for too long, usually handing it over to the underworld authorities within seven days, as these demons have an extremely strong evil aura that can revive their spirits after the "still-soul day", making them potentially uncontrollable even for the hunters. It is precisely because of their absolute and ruthless methods that they are called absolute-style demon hunters.

  Ding Lingxiu had no choice but to say that, as he couldn't summon the already subdued demons and monsters around him. Instead, he was accompanied by an intelligent and beautiful woman who was as cold as ice. To avoid arousing Guo Mohan's suspicion about this point, this was the only explanation that made sense.

  "I really didn't expect that. I overestimated you." Guo Mohan said coldly and indifferently, with no warmth in his words.

  Ding Lingxiu, however, did not think so. The dim moonlight cast a pale glow on his delicate face as he became immersed in the light blue mist, his eyes deep and calm, smiling as he replied:

  "That's why I'm asking for your help."

  Guo Mohan turned his head, and the clear and mysterious eyes sparkled with a hint of pride.

  She raised the Lingyin lantern again and recited the incantation once more. Three beams of eerie light illuminated the ground.

  This time, she chose yellow light.

  The light of the Lingying Palace lantern turned yellow and became dazzling, the flashing light made the dark cave suddenly bright, and the depressed mood also became open.

  A yellow aura condensed into a shape, and a golden-haired gorilla walked out of the yellow light.

  This giant gorilla was incredibly large, its appearance making the already cramped space even more crowded. Ding Lingyu continuously retreated backwards, soon standing at the edge of the stone platform, biting his cigarette and gripping a protruding rock with one hand to prevent himself from falling off.

  "The demon you summoned isn't a bit too big, is it?" Ding Lingyu said with his teeth clenched on the pipe, his shoulder already stuck to the golden fur of this demon.

  "Heh heh, I haven't gotten tired of you dirtying my fur yet." The great ape turned its head to look at Ding Lingyu, its expression endearingly silly.

  The only difference between this golden-haired gorilla's face and that of an ordinary gorilla was the extremely thick cheek pads on either side, which looked like two windbreak walls. On its throat, there was a large pouch, similar to a gorilla's vocal sac, but covered in small fleshy spines. On its plump, round face were two small eyes, like grapes, that seemed to be stuck on like pushpins. When it smiled at Ding Lingyu, the dense wrinkles on its face scrunched up into a ball, just like an old lady's face in her seventies or eighties, but it wasn't unpleasant, instead it was quite mischievous and cute.

  Ding Lingxiu stroked its fur and said:

  "Indeed, what a beautiful golden retriever."

  The giant ape was overjoyed when he heard this, and suddenly became enthusiastic. He immediately turned around, sat cross-legged in front of Ding Lingxiu, and began to talk incessantly:

  "Of course, my fur is like this. Don't look at how shiny and good it looks now, it's a lot of trouble to maintain. I have to wash and groom it every day. First, I need to use a nanmu comb to remove the dust on top, then I can use water from a well over 1,000 meters above sea level to clean it. After washing, I have to let it air dry naturally before starting my morning dew moisturizing..."

  The golden monkey was talking excitedly, when suddenly its eyes widened like a tack and it bared its teeth.

  "Hey, what's wrong with you, auntie? Why did you pinch me?"

  "Stop your nonsense and get to work! You're too familiar with everyone, and if you keep dawdling, this bad uncle will burn you with his cigarette butt." Guo Mohan pinched the golden monkey's buttocks with a helpless expression.

  Ding Ling's eyebrows also twisted, and she muttered to herself:

  "Strange uncle?"

  "Alright, alright, I'll go, don't be like that, Uncle. Wait for me and I'll tell you the rest later." The golden-haired gorilla seemed to have more to say, but walked towards the door while chattering away.

  Weird uncle? Ding Lingxiu heard this absurd title for the first time and couldn't help but have a black line on his head.

  At this time, the Xun Yao Luopan also reacted again, the pointer rotated several times before stopping, displaying the attributes of the golden-haired gorilla in front of him:

  Name: Bipi, Rank: Oni, Weakness: Filth

  Ding Lingxiu took a deep breath of smoke, almost choking himself, and stared at the mischievous golden-haired gorilla in astonishment.

  It's actually on the same level as a Ghoul, is it a high-ranking Oni?