Tingyang Prefecture. Yongan City.
A quiet teahouse. In the corner, a square table with a single customer.
You Longtao had exchanged the black armor and crimson cape for an elegant long robe. He held a bowl of plain tea, trying to savor a rare moment of ease.
The scalding tea had just reached a drinkable temperature.
Then several figures appeared at the entrance.
Xiao Qiangwei walked in and came to his side. “Why the sudden message to the demon-hunters?”
You Longtao set down the bowl, a slight regret at the moment’s brevity, but his expression stayed warm. “I felt something was off. I wanted to consult with Senior Yang.”
Xiao Qiangwei’s face went serious immediately.
The Senior Yang he meant was one of the three gold-bell demon-hunters.
A gold-bell demon-hunter’s time was never free — the Division would never disturb one without pressing cause.
She shook her head. “I was actually going to bring someone along and have you take a few days of proper rest.”
As the words settled, another person came through the door.
The tall, pretty young woman had somewhat disheveled hair and the look of someone who’d been on the road hard. There were small scrapes on her cheeks. The fitted white sleeve was spotted with blood, and her right arm was visibly broken, hanging without strength.
The smile on her face was easy despite all of it.
“Martial Elder Brother.”
You Longtao exhaled. “Why is this your appearance every time I see you? Are you trying to give me a heart attack? Didn’t Baiyun County teach you anything?”
“Elder Brother, you’re so long-winded!”
Lin Baixi made a dismissive sound, then turned to the side. “Could I have something to eat? Anything filling is fine.”
The teahouse owner had already read the room. These were clearly not ordinary people. Even though the shop only served tea, he sent his boy out immediately to buy a few baskets of meat buns from the nearby stall.
Lin Baixi plainly had no interest in continuing to hear her martial elder brother’s concern. She sidestepped it and looked around with curiosity.
“What’s actually happening?”
Her teacher had returned to Qingzhou. Even if his focus was largely on the Howling Moon, what demon would bet its life on the Qingzhou General not having his attention on them?
“Nothing too alarming, really.”
You Longtao closed his eyes slowly, something puzzled in his expression. “I just feel something is wrong. Why are they getting bolder?”
Qingzhou’s Division and the demons had always maintained a delicate balance, both quietly waiting for the day that balance broke.
Situations like this one — active consecutive provocations against himself — were rare.
“Could they be under orders to tie you down after the Junior Demon King was wounded?” Xiao Qiangwei said quietly.
“I’m not sure. But the Junior Demon King being wounded isn’t new—” He adjusted his breathing. The unease deepening quietly.
If this was containment strategy, the Yangchun River approach was more their style. Send a handful of demons of middling power to cause widespread damage across multiple locations — keep everyone scrambling. As long as they didn’t run into someone with movement arts far beyond Qingzhou’s norm, it would keep the court’s people exhausted.
“Are you just overtired?” Xiao Qiangwei had noticed something off in his manner. “If the Junior Demon King had already broken through, they’d have simply attacked. We wouldn’t have time to be sitting here talking. And if it hasn’t broken through — why would they risk Qingzhou?”
“…”
You Longtao opened his eyes and produced a smile. “Hopefully I’m overthinking it. But I genuinely am losing my ability to manage them — that part isn’t wrong. I asked Senior Yang here to see if we might be able to deal with another core-nurturing demon lord.”
“You’re leaving Qingzhou?” Lin Baixi had just bitten into a bun, cheeks full, muffled with surprise.
That required reporting to Qingzhou city first. This was serious.
“With Teacher holding things steady, there won’t be any trouble. I want to try.” You Longtao’s manner didn’t change.
But Xiao Qiangwei heard something else in those words. For a moment, she forgot herself entirely.
“You haven’t told the General?” Her voice dropped sharply. “Have you lost your mind?”
She genuinely couldn’t imagine these words coming from the most composed of the General’s disciples.
“…”
You Longtao looked toward the teahouse entrance, and his voice went quiet.
“I only want to try to buy her a little more time. So that before she truly breaks through, she doesn’t have to agree to anything she wouldn’t want — just because the situation is too urgent.”
If his failure to contain a demon lord led to another place becoming a landscape of bodies somewhere—
He knew the martial sister who looked so cool and undisturbed was not, in fact, the way she appeared. She was exactly the opposite — she’d crawled out of the worst demon disasters firsthand. She remembered what they looked like.
Using the Mysterious Ice Seven-Kill Sword Intent to stimulate the path infant without stop — forcing an already voracious Heaven-Devouring core-infant to absorb what it couldn’t possibly bear. The sword intent, suffused with cold and killing force, was piercing through the qi sea without pause, every moment of every day.
The calm in those eyes was the numbness that came last, after endless pain.
With her talent, she’d already done more than enough for Qingzhou. There was no need for the last of her dignity to be buried in a royal household in the imperial city.
“Senior Xiao—” He inhaled slowly, and said it directly, with complete openness. “For the first time, I’ve found myself with a small doubt toward the teacher I deeply respect. And I can’t think of any other way.”
As a disciple, every one of them had given everything they had. They simply weren’t equal to the task.
“…”
Lin Baixi had reached her fourth bun and suddenly found she had no appetite.
“Do what you think is right.” Xiao Qiangwei didn’t know what to say, so she said nothing.
Then — a thin, bald man walked in.
He turned a gold bell over in his hand, sat himself down across from them with casual ease.
“Senior Yang.” Both women rose immediately.
“General You — what did you need?” The bald man paid no attention to either woman. He looked at the man across from him with a cheerful smile.
You Longtao looked at the gold bell the man had dropped on the table.
Then, for some reason, sighed again.
He looked up, expression even.
“I want to hunt a demon.”
The bald man brightened with understanding and curiosity.
“Which demon, General?”
You Longtao’s expression took on a quiet warmth.
“The Red-Maned White Jade Rabbit.”
At that name, the bald man blinked. Then opened his mouth like something had genuinely amused him.
“General — where are you planning to hunt it?”
You Longtao stood slowly. “Here, if possible.”
Xiao Qiangwei felt something shift. Lin Baixi’s hand, wiping the corner of her mouth, went still.
Under all three of their eyes—
The bald man became, in an instant, a beautiful woman — pale skin, a figure of striking curves. White dress of considerable quality. Black hair to the waist, with one strand the color of dark red.
The pretty face carried playful intent.
“How exactly are you planning to hunt me, General You?”
As she asked, she drew the gold bell across the table with a delicate finger.
The bell’s sound was clear and bright.
You Longtao heard only the unmistakable weight of a threat in it.
(End of Chapter)