Chapter 82

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Chapter 82: Returning to the North

"You're a demon too?" The man stood up and stared at Ji Yunhe.

During his attack, neither of them used any power, demonic or spiritual. It was a contact of pure physical strength. Although demon masters had the spiritual power from their double pulse, their bodies were still just ordinary human beings. Only demons could have such strong, raw force.

Aji did not deny it.

Ji Ning was now even more shocked.

In the middle of their conversation, the crowd with torches approached and the fire lit up their surroundings.

Aji looked around and roughly counted twenty of them. If these people were all around the same level as the man with the axe, then it should not be a problem. But Aji did not know their capabilities. Plus she had to keep Ji Ning safe, and focus on keeping her transformation in place. Most importantly, she could not activate the spiritual power inside her body…

If this fight grew messy, she could easily expose herself...

Got to run.

Among the people surrounding them, there were both demon masters and demons. Aji could tell they did not have a very close relationship with one another, and did not form a seamless circle around her. She found a weak spot between them easily.

She quickly planned inside her head. She had never learned these things before, and Lin Haoqing only taught her some formations and basic skills. But somehow she seemed to know exactly what to do in a situation like this. Weighing the pros and cons, analyzing, deciding, and executing…

The burly man in front of her held his injured wrist and said, "Kid, no matter what you are, I advise you, you cannot take someone wanted by the north. It's best for you to stay out of this and mind your own business!"

"I'm not minding something that's none of my business," Aji said. "I am minding over someone's life and death."

While everyone was distracted by their exchange of words, Aji suddenly grabbed Ji Ning and charged to a less guarded part of the circle. Two people reacted and came to block her, but she quickly unsheathed the dagger from her waist and struck their elbows with the side. Their arms immediately went numb and drooped down.

Aji took the opportunity and jumped over the treetops carrying Ji Ning on her shoulder. A few steps on the branches and she flew away like a bird, as if heading for the moon.

She turned back to look behind her. The northern men were now blocked by trees and their faces blurred. Aji laughed, "Taking your guy..."

In this moment of triumph, a shadow was suddenly cast over them. She looked up and saw a huge oryoki bowl dropping down from above. She widened her eyes and turned to escape, but it was already falling over their bodies.

Clang! The sound vibrated and echoed throughout the forest like a giant bell. Startled night crows flocked into the sky and flew away.

Aji and Ji Ning were both trapped under the huge bowl.

The northern men hurried over, scratching their heads. Then someone walked out from between the trees and a man immediately saluted, "Master Kongming, Miss Luo, thank you for your help!"

"Heard the commotion here from far away." Luo Jinsang walked out from behind Kongming and knocked on the bowl. "Baldy's magic weapon is quite useful for catching people, yes?"

Aji and Ji Ning could not hear the people talking outside, but they could hear her knock loud and clear. It echoed back and forth for a very long time, making them unable to do anything other than cover their ears in misery.

Luo Jinsang knocked on it a few times before stopping. Then she curiously asked the burly man, "Who's in there?"

"A disciple of the Grand Master's house and an unknown demon," the man replied. "Since this river leads to the Northlands, many children born with a double pulse pass through here on their way up. Quite a few had fallen victim to the frost poison. We found a couple of disciples of the Grand Master's house dropping poison into the source of the stream. We killed one, and this is the other one that ran away."

"Disciple of the Grand Master's house?" Kongming raised his eyebrows and snorted. "Heh, the Grant Master sure indulges that witch, even getting his own disciples to carry out these cruel tasks..."

"Yes. In recent years, the Grand Master's house has been in a shortage of people, so his disciples have also started taking in disciples. I heard earlier that this kid's master is Ji Chengyu."

Kongming shifted his eyes to the oryoki upon hearing the name.

"Hmph. These guys are rotten to the core!" Luo Jinsang landed a fierce punch on the side of the bowl.

The loud and lingering buzz made everyone's ears uncomfortable. Kongming threw her a scolding look.

"All right, they've been caught, and that punch was enough to suffer them for a while. Baldy, put your things away and let's get going. There are still many kids in need of our help"

Luo Jinsang turned and left. Kongming pinched a spell between his fingers and the huge bowl slowly shrank back to a normal size. "Don't kill the disciple. Take him back to the Northlands and see what information you can get out of him."

The big man was shocked. Kongming was famous for being ruthless and killing evil without hesitation, now he wanted to spare this disciple's life. But the big man did not dare to question him, and just nodded "yes".

The oryoki bowl that had just shrank to a few inches suddenly exploded out and was tossed aside.

The crowd was forced to shade their eyes from the black wind that blew at them. Kongming was very quick to react. He turned the zen staff in his hands and instantly formed a shield to block the demonic wind. Then he narrowed his eyes at the one standing in the center of the black gas. "Fox demon?"

Aji had summoned her demonic energy to protect herself and Ji Ning who fell unconscious from the outburst. Now that they were outside again, the black gas slowly dissipated.

Kongming studied her.

She looked back at him and felt a slight headache. Numerous images flashed through her mind again, but she could not make sense of any of them.

And in this moment of confusion, she abruptly felt a chill on the back of her neck. She looked behind and did not see anyone there, then she grew dizzy and fell to the ground. Before passing out, she saw the woman who had left earlier slowly fade into view.

Invisibility...

This woman could stealth?

Aji then completely lost her consciousness.

Seeing that her eyes were now closed, Luo Jinsang patted her chest in relief. "Luckily I didn't go far, this demon is quite powerful." Luo Jinsang squatted down and pushed back the hair covering Aji's face. "He doesn't look like this little demon master's demon slave, why is he protecting him?"

Kongming walked over, grabbed Aji's wrist, held it for a moment, then released it. "A very powerful demon indeed. Take him back to the north too."

...

When Aji woke up, she was inside an extremely cold dungeon.

She rubbed her temples, sat up, and realized she had been captured. She touched her chest then the top of her head... Luckily, she had managed to preserve her transformation at the last moment and did not reveal anything...

She breathed a sigh of relief, then quietly surveyed the surroundings.

In front of her were cold iron bars and the walls to the side were frozen. She touched the wall and suddenly felt like imprisonment was very familiar…

She turned her head again and was surprised.

There was someone else inside her cell...

To be precise, there were two.

Ji Ning was in the corner, still out cold. Another man in tattered clothing sat by the wall, staring at her.

Aji walked to Ji Ning, felt his pulse and confirmed he was still alive before turning to the man by the wall. "Are you also a disciple of the Grand Master's house?"

The man crossed his arms and said, "I'm your daddy."

Aji froze, looked around, then looked back at him and asked, "The daddy of this prison?"

The man's face turned green. A strange laugh came from the opposite cell, and a voice neither male nor female said, "Little bro, this guy will be beheaded in a few days, so just humor him a bit."

Aji looked across the cell and saw an androgynous snake demon hanging on the bars like he had no bones. Although he had a human face, his tongue was still that of a snake, spitting out while he talked.

"Your mama! Don't forget you are also getting beheaded!" The man stood up and shouted, then he smashed his fist against the cell door. "If it weren't because you, would I be here? You wanna die together then let's die together, who's afraid who?!"

The snake demon spat out his tongue seductively. "Lu Jinyan, you only dare to yell at me. If you have the guts, go cuss out the jiaoren."

What the snake demon said seemed to have touched Lu Jinyan's sore spot, and he did not curse again. He walked a couple of circles in the cell and found a place to squat, then spoke in a muffled voice.

"If I had known that jiaoren was also a son of a bitch, I would not have joined the north. What's the difference between him and the Grand Master, and that bullshit princess in the capital!?" After complaining, he stood up again, kicked the cell door, and pointed at the snake demon. "You demons are fucking unreliable! You all should be mastered and enslaved! Venerable lord? That's giving you face! Let's see how the world falls in chaos after I die! You're all fucking bastards! No one is ever satisfied! No one will ever let anyone live in peace!"

He cursed and kicked the wall a few more times.

Aji sorted through his cussing and made sense of his words. "That venerable Lord of the North is going to execute you two for fighting with each other?"

"Yeah," the snake demon answered first. "We demons and them demon masters are natural born enemies. Now that we have all mixed together here, who can truly get along? That jiaoren probably wants to kill a chicken for the monkeys to see, make an example out of us."

"You're the fucking chicken!" Lu Jinyan cussed again.

Aji stroked her chin and wondered, "So the jiaoren put me and this kid in the same prison as you, does that mean he's going to chop off our heads too?"

The snake demon laughed, "The boy has finally caught on. He is a disciple of the Grand Master's house, you are a demon who helps a disciple of the Grand Master's house. Now that you are here, obviously you are also a chicken."

Aji was not happy. "That doesn't work for me," she said. "That's too much. I don't want to be a chicken. Not even a chicken for people to eat, but just to be killed for people to see, no no no."

"What? This dungeon is comparable to the prisons in the capital, you think you can get out?"

Aji smiled. "Either way we are going to get beheaded, why not give it a desperate attempt?"

Lu Jinyan and the snake demon both fell into silence. They looked at each other, then looked at Aji.

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