Missing

Sad to say, if it was just a missing person, it wasn't really a world-shaking event in those days.

People died every day in the world, and not every death was clear-cut.

Those disciples from the Immortal Sects couldn't find the person, nor could they find the reason. In the end, they could only offer the most easily accepted explanation—an Evil Demon was at work.

It must have been some well-hidden, undiscovered Evil Demon that had secretly eaten the missing man.

Thus, the matter changed from "searching for the missing person" to "searching for the hidden Evil Demon."

Then, they discovered a hair-raising result...

Even now, recalling that scene made a chill run down the innkeeper's spine and his scalp tingle. He spoke with a dry voice, "Have you... have you seen the kind of Demon-Detecting Talismans those immortal masters use? You light them, they burn to ash, and a gust of wind scatters them. If they encounter the aura of an Evil Demon, the paper ash will drift and gather there."

"That day, I watched with my own eyes as the paper ash drifted out from the window of my inn. Those immortal masters, fearing they would cause a panic, all pretended to be on a routine patrol or just strolling around. They followed the ash on a full circuit around Fallen Flower Mountain Market, and in the end, it led them right back to my inn..."

At that time, everyone looked at each other in dismay, thinking it was because there were too many people in Fallen Flower Mountain Market. Such a dense concentration of living human aura was enough to overwhelm any other scent, so the Demon-Detecting Talisman wasn't working well.

Just as they were about to collect the ash, they saw the pale gray flecks swirl and stick to a person.

It was none other than the missing man's young daughter.

The girl was very young. The shop boy couldn't bear to see her cry, so he had gone to the market to gather a pile of trinkets to coax her and had also warmed a bowl of sweet red date soup on the stove for her.

At that moment, the little girl was sitting in the inn's main hall, scooping up the soup spoonful by spoonful.

When the paper ash gathered on her, she lifted her eyes to look at everyone and licked the corner of her mouth.

Everyone was first met with dead silence, then they found it absurd and unbelievable—

This little girl ate her own father?

How could that be...

So, the people from the Immortal Sect took out another kind of talisman, a Soul-Seeking Talisman.

Previously, in order to find the missing man, they had tried this Soul-Seeking Talisman in every corner of Fallen Flower Mountain Market, to no avail.

This time when they used it again, they saw the Soul-Seeking Talisman drift about and finally land at the little girl's feet.

If the Soul-Seeking Talisman wasn't mistaken, then the residual scent of the missing person's soul was truly on the little girl...

In that instant, everyone present was scared into silence.

***

Later, the Immortal Sect took the little girl away, and the matter of the "guest's unprovoked disappearance" was considered settled.

The innkeeper and the shop boy were both terrified and fell ill for several days. After they recovered, everything returned to normal, and they gradually put the matter out of their minds.

Until the second year, not long after the Mountain Market was lit up and opened for business, something happened at the inn again—

That day, a scholar-like man checked into the inn with his study companion. They were talking and laughing at the time, and the scholar seemed gentle and modest.

But by the next day, the study companion had vanished without a trace.

Everything was exactly the same as with that father and daughter.

The innkeeper felt as if the nightmare had returned.

Looking at the scholar's "worried and anxious" appearance, he felt that beneath that layer of skin, there must be a well-fed Evil Demon licking its lips.

Just like last time, he invited those immortal masters again, watching them first use the Demon-Detecting Talisman, and then the Soul-Seeking Talisman.

As expected, whether it was the Demon-Detecting Talisman or the Soul-Seeking Talisman, the person they pointed to was the scholar.

When the talisman paper stuck to him, the horror and fear that slowly emerged on the scholar's face were even deeper than anyone else's. He frantically brushed the Demon-Detecting Talisman's ash off his body, shouting, "It wasn't me," "It can't be me," so frightened that he tumbled to the ground, all his scholarly grace gone.

At that moment, watching the scene, a terrifying thought suddenly flashed through the innkeeper's mind—what if this scholar wasn't just hiding it well, but had truly done it unintentionally, seduced by something in his sleep? What if he was supposed to be fine, and the reason this happened was because there was something wrong with the inn?

He again remembered the advice from the people of the Immortal Sects, who said his place had turned from a land of fortune to a land of misfortune, where evil incidents would occur frequently.

The innkeeper was terrified by this thought, feeling that every inch of ground beneath his feet exuded an indescribable strangeness.

Although it was only guests who had been involved, and only two in two years, which wasn't many. But who knew what would happen in the future, and whether one day, they themselves would be the ones in trouble?

During that period, the innkeeper was plagued by nightmares every day. He would either dream of being eaten by the shop boy or dream of eating the shop boy. Either way, he was too scared to sleep at night.

So he was no longer stubborn and asked the people from the Immortal Sect to help him.

***

"They agreed quite readily and sent many experienced people disguised as guests to guard my little inn day after day," the innkeeper said with a woeful expression. "But Heaven seemed intent on playing a trick on me. When the Immortal Sect came, there were no more strange occurrences. Not a single one, it was completely calm."

"They are busy people and still need to cultivate, so they couldn't just waste their days away in my inn. Later, they came up with a solution that served both purposes." The innkeeper pointed at the Corpse Person on the floor. "It's this..."

That was the first time he knew that the Immortal Sects would also use a method like "corpse driving," which didn't seem so righteous and upstanding.

At the time, the people from the Immortal Sect explained to him: "We wouldn't do this unless we had no other choice. Innkeeper Yu, you may not know this, but a Corpse Person's perception of Evil Demons is actually more acute than us living people, even more effective than things like the Demon-Detecting Talisman. If another Evil Demon enters your inn, it will definitely know. If something like what happened before occurs again, it can stop it."

"And then?" The innkeeper was not reassured. "It can't just be about stopping it, what if it can't be stopped!"

The people from the Immortal Sect replied: "It has a talisman on it. If it really makes a move here, we will know even from a thousand li away. Once we receive the signal, we will rush over immediately. At that time, be it an Evil Demon or a disaster, the aura will be at its strongest, and it will be very easy to find anything. Then we can see which piece of land in your inn is the cursed land, and why it became so for no good reason."

Although the people from the Immortal Sect repeatedly assured him that they had properly handled this Corpse Person and that it was different from the yin corpses commonly used by evil heretics, the innkeeper was still timid and skeptical.

He followed the immortal masters' instructions, usually placing the Corpse Person in a coffin, putting the coffin in the top-floor attic, and pasting many coffin-sealing talismans on the lid.

He instructed the shop boy to change the talismans with a new batch every so often, to prevent the coffin from being improperly sealed and the Corpse Person from coming out to cause trouble at will.

***

Two years passed like this. No new disasters occurred at the inn, and the Corpse Person remained obediently inside its coffin, which had never been opened.

People are always like this; once the wound heals, the pain is forgotten.

The innkeeper gradually began to feel that the so-called ominous or calamitous land was only temporary. As the saying goes, minor luck lasts for three years, major luck for ten; even if his fortune had been bad before, it was time for a change.

The shop boy had developed a corpse-like smell, and he himself had huge bags under his eyes. But now, at last, he could sleep. It was just that his inn's business had not yet recovered.

Even though those who knew about the two disasters had kept their mouths shut, and the stories hadn't spread wantonly through Fallen Flower Mountain Market, his inn still grew quieter by the day, with few guests coming.

Because of those two disasters, the innkeeper and the shop boy had developed a strange habit—

If a single guest arrived, they were very welcoming. But if two came together, they would be reluctant and on edge, terrified of another scene where one person goes missing overnight.

The innkeeper glanced at Wu Xingxue with a face full of fear, then quickly looked away. "The day before yesterday, when you wanted to stay at the inn, I was scared to death, I was really scared to death! I didn't sleep the whole night, and I didn't dare open my eyes, afraid that the night would not be peaceful."

There was one thing the innkeeper didn't dare to say—he had actually kept his ears pricked all night, listening for any movement from the guest room. But the night was indeed extremely peaceful. He hadn't heard the slightest sound, not conversation, not movement, not anything else, not a single peep.

He even suspected that the two guests had placed a Restriction or a Barrier on the room.

Early the next morning, he was already standing behind the counter, waiting and hoping for the two guests to wake up and come downstairs.

"When I saw you both come down safe and sound, my heart finally settled." The innkeeper sighed deeply and said with chagrin, "So, why did you have to come back? If you hadn't stayed this extra night, you wouldn't have—"

The innkeeper, his mind full of worries, only realized what he was saying halfway through his sentence.

He abruptly cut himself off and looked up in terror.

He saw Wu Xingxue's deep, dark eyes watching him. "I wouldn't have what?"

The innkeeper swallowed hard. He wouldn't dare to continue even if he were given a hundred times the courage.

But even if he remained silent, Wu Xingxue knew what he was going to say.

He had already said a lot—that the little girl, under the influence of this calamitous land, had eaten her own father in the middle of the night. That the scholar, under the influence of this calamitous land, had eaten his study companion.

When it came to Wu Xingxue, it was naturally the same. In the innkeeper's eyes, it was simply another tragic disaster of someone eating their own companion.

For a moment, Wu Xingxue found it utterly absurd, so absurd that he almost wanted to laugh out loud.

'How is that possible? I'm not crazy.'

He thought.

But soon, a more absurd after-fear grew out of that absurdity...

Because he really was an Evil Demon.

Evil Demons know no restraint—one moment, that Sang Yu was borrowing a person's vital essence for comfort and warmth, and the next, he had drunk all their blood. Yun Hai, who was once an immortal, also lost control and acted wantonly.

'What about me?'

Wu Xingxue thought.

'Have I ever had such moments? Have I lost control? Has anything similar happened before? And… did Xiao Fuxuan see it?'

He actually didn't believe that the great High Immortal Tianxiu would vanish into thin air and never be seen again because of a small inn. Those rumors and strange events didn't scare him.

He just suddenly wanted to see the other person. Very much so.

Just as this thought flashed through his mind, the sound of chaotic footsteps came from outside the guest room door. A handful of paper ash flew into the room from the open window, gathering around Wu Xingxue.

Perhaps because the demonic aura was too strong, the paper ash even pulsed and shot out sparks.

A group of people in matching disciple robes followed the ash. They had long ribbons trailing from their high topknots, each carrying a sword. On every silver scabbard, a round seal with the "Feng" character was carved in vermilion.

It was the Feng Clan, the Immortal Sect often invited to Fallen Flower Mountain Market.

The one in the lead was a young woman with a sharp and clever appearance. She was saying, "The Corpse Person has been stable for a while now, it should have already brought that Evil Demon to hee—"

"…………el."

The moment they stepped through the door, they saw the "stable and unmoving" Corpse Person on the floor, and the "brought to heel" Evil Demon, holding a sword.

The Evil Demon had a voice as warm as a gentle breeze, but the more one pondered his words, the more terrifying they became: "I'll have to trouble you all to dig three feet deep to find someone for me. Otherwise, don't bother going back."