He was young and of average height, but the puppet was extremely tall.

So, after placing the talisman, he looked up, only to feel the puppet looking down at him with half-lidded eyes. The sense of pressure…

Was absolutely crushing.

And that Soul-Probing Talisman, not only did it not darken, it even... seemed to have gotten a little lighter.

This was something he had never seen before.

But the receiving disciple was in no mood to care about such things. He hastily peeled off the talisman and was about to run.

Before leaving, he followed the Family Head's instructions and added, “Peach Blossom Isle is in a perilous location. Even though we check twice a day, Evil Demons still manage to come in along the waterways. Almost every month, two or three disciples lose their lives because of this. So, there are disciples patrolling every road here. There might be some noises at night, so I hope you'll bear with it.”

“Oh, right, absolutely, absolutely do not go to the Peach Blossom Forest over there. Don't even take one step near it!”

“…”

'You would have been better off not mentioning it,' Wu Xingxue thought. 'Although I'm not the type to court death, some people are. Now that you've said it, even those who weren't curious will become curious.'

Fortunately, the receiving disciple didn't intend to be vague. He said with a solemn expression, “All the Evil Demons caught on our Peach Blossom Isle, as well as everyone devoured by them, are buried there. Have you ever seen a centipede that's dead but not yet stiff? Evil Demons are like that. Even if they're dead, if they feel some kind of summons, they will still stir restlessly.”

“Then why do you still keep them?” Wu Xingxue wondered.

“There are benefits.”

Wu Xingxue: “For example?”

The receiving disciple: “For example, at night, when the foul qi is at its strongest, if an outsider invades who is stronger than those buried in the Peach Blossom Forest, the ones buried in the ground will grow restless and agitated, wanting to gather toward that direction. That is the nature of Evil Demons.”

Those who cultivate demonic paths are all like this. There are no feelings between them, only suppression.

The weak will submit to the strong and instinctively move closer to them.

That's how Zhaoye City, the Demon's Lair, came to be.

Otherwise, how could a City Lord emerge from a group of Evil Demons and heretics who kill without restraint?

“If they make a big commotion and all move toward a certain place, we'll be able to notice, won't we?” the receiving disciple said. “It also makes searching easier. But this trick is rarely useful, since the ones buried there are very malevolent. It's rare to encounter something more ferocious than them that could attract them to move.”

“Anyway, just don't go looking for trouble.”

The receiving disciple was in a hurry to report back with the paper talismans, so he left quickly.

Wu Xingxue was not an impolite person.

Peach Blossom Isle was hosting him for a day, and he didn't want to cause any trouble, so he didn't wander around and wasn't curious about the things on the isle.

The only one he wanted to see, Yi Wusheng, he would be able to see the next day. There was no rush.

The sky over Chunfan City was layered with dark clouds, gloomy and threatening rain. Evening came especially quickly.

Not long after the receiving disciple left, the Family Head, Hua Zhaoting, had someone deliver a meal, which could be considered thoughtful and enthusiastic.

Wu Xingxue lifted his sleeve, opened the box to look, and his lips moved silently a few times.

'As expected,' he thought. 'The entire box was filled with the type of food that disciples of Immortal Sects liked—bland as death, but beautifully made, with a dish of elegant-looking Peach Blossom Crisps.'

He had no interest in it, so he closed the food box again, sat down at the table, and poured himself a cup of tea.

He had just taken a sip when he suddenly heard a voice by his ear say, “Ordinary mortals get hungry.”

Wu Xingxue's eyelashes fluttered. He swallowed the tea in his mouth.

There was clearly another chair beside them, but after waiting a moment, he saw that Xiao Fuxuan was still standing behind him and showed no intention of sitting. So, he held the rim of his teacup and turned his head. “What are you doing looming behind me? Trying to show off how tall you are? If you had ever seen my dinners in Magpie Capital, you wouldn't be saying this.”

A moment later, Xiao Fuxuan's voice came from behind him, replying, “Ordinary puppets generally don't need to sit.”

Wu Xingxue: “…”

He glanced at the patrolling disciples passing by outside from time to time and said in his heart… 'Fine, you can stand then.' Then he poured himself another cup of tea.

Without turning back, Wu Xingxue held his teacup and muttered in a low voice, “But it is a bit strange, I'm really not that hungry. I wonder if it's because this Demon Lord's body is too powerful and can endure it.”

Despite his disdain, he still ended up picking out a Peach Blossom Crisp.

Lamps had already been lit in the room. The warm yellow light traced a folded line across his brows, eyes, nose, and lips. And Xiao Fuxuan's shadow fell from behind him onto the table in front of him.

After nightfall, there were even more patrolling disciples. To avoid arousing suspicion, the two of them didn't speak much.

But during a lull, Wu Xingxue glanced out the door, and as if recalling something, he suddenly asked, “…Xiao Fuxuan, what kind of person was that Demon Lord, my original self?”

It was actually a strange question, because he himself had said, 'that Demon Lord'.

For a good while, he didn't hear Xiao Fuxuan answer.

But he could feel a gaze resting on him.

He couldn't help but turn his head and meet Xiao Fuxuan's eyes. He saw the man leaning against the wall, holding his sword, and looking at him for a long time before saying, “Aren't you a living soul who entered the wrong body and wants to return to Magpie Capital? Since you're going back to Magpie Capital, this place is just a dream. Why bother asking this question?”

Wu Xingxue narrowed his eyes slightly, then turned back and said, “True.”

He had thought that would be the end of it.

But after a long moment, he heard Xiao Fuxuan say, “I don't know how others judge him, but to me, he is someone I would recognize no matter what he turned into.”

Wu Xingxue's gaze flickered.

Perhaps it was because of this answer, or perhaps it was because two guard disciples had arrived. Neither of them spoke again that night.

Xiao Fuxuan didn't need to eat or sleep. He leaned against the wall with his eyes lowered, conscientiously playing the part of a puppet. Wu Xingxue tidied up and curled up in bed.

In the latter half of the night, a sudden clap of thunder echoed across Peach Blossom Isle.

This was the time of night when the foul qi was thickest. The aura of an Evil Demon could not be concealed, and if someone were to invade, it would be most obvious at this moment.

At some unknown moment, the urgent ringing of bells suddenly sounded from the Peach Blossom Forest, followed by a clamor of voices.

Patrolling disciples, holding small silver bells, hurried back and forth, shouting the news. Nearly a thousand disciples poured out of their doors in a great mass, only to see the soil of the Peach Blossom Forest, which had been still for so long, churning as if a hundred insects had been suddenly startled.

The next second, the commotion surged in one direction like an earth dragon.

That was… the guest room.