After Cultivating To Immortality, I Became the Demon Venerable's White Moonlight - Chapter 9

Across the hunting net, the hunters pressed forward one after another, reaching out to touch the snow-white antlers. In an instant, they felt an unprecedented wave of comfort and relief washing over them, and the unnatural complexions on their faces completely returned to normal.

“Let me touch it!” “Don’t push, you’re crowding me!” “This fur feels like satin, it’s so smooth and sleek…”

The hunters scrambled forward, eager to catch a glimpse of this legendary treasure whose fame had been passed down for thousands of years.

Jing Quan stood to the side, brimming with complacency as he quietly watched the scene unfold. “Don’t fight over it, one at a time.”

The net was lined with sharp thorns, leaving the snow deer covered in wounds and drenched in blood, whimpering continuously. Oddly enough, the blood flowing from its wounds was a dazzling, brilliant white, it blended seamlessly with its snow-white fur, making it surprisingly difficult to see the extent of its injuries. Large, transparent tears welled in its eyes, rolling down like crystals and reflecting the brilliant sunlight.

Someone looked up at Jing Quan, visibly excited. “Uncle Jing, how old-timers like you knew exactly how to net it? This is a treasure of thousands of years, and you’re the very first one to actually lay hands on it!”

Jing Quan merely smiled without a word, putting on the profound, knowing air of an experienced master.

Another hunter said excitedly, “This deer hide should be skinned completely intact. It’ll fetch a fortune if we take it to the city to sell.”

Someone disagreed, “One deer only has one hide, how do we divide that? I say we search this forest thoroughly again to see if there are any more deer like this.”

Yet another hunter gripped the antlers tightly, refusing to let go. “I don’t want anything else, but nobody better fight me for this pair of antlers. I’m claiming them.”

Seeing that the situation was about to devolve into utter chaos, with several of the more hot-headed men already turning red-faced and on the verge of a fistfight, Jing Quan coughed loudly. He shouted repeatedly to command order: “Don’t fight! Everyone present gets a share of the treasure. Let’s take it back together first, and then we’ll divide it fairly. No one will be left out!”

Amidst the arguing, no one noticed that the white blood dripping from the deer’s body had quietly corroded the hunting net, eating away a large hole right beneath it.

Shaking its body, the deer forced itself up, mustering its remaining strength to stand.

By the time someone finally noticed the breach, it was already too late.

The deer shifted its weight, on the verge of escaping the area at lightning speed. At that critical, hair-raising moment, its body suddenly stiffened, its snow-white neck was clamped firmly in the grip of a slightly unfamiliar figure who had materialized out of nowhere.

Bringing his hands together, the figure exerted a sudden burst of strength, and the two white antlers snapped off with a sharp crack.

The snow deer let out a pitiful cry as the blood from its head poured into its eyes, masking its black pupils in a wash of white.

The newcomer had arrived completely without a sound, and this sudden turn of events caught everyone entirely off guard. However, once the hunters caught sight of the man’s face, they all let out a collective sigh of relief.

“Father! Father!” Zhong Ying recognized the man’s face from a distance. Overjoyed and deeply moved, she rushed forward, only to be grabbed firmly by Yi Qinglan, who signaled with her eyes for her to stay quiet and not move.

Perplexed, Zhong Ying followed Yi Qinglan’s gaze downward. There, she saw the Shuxin Sword pointed directly at her “father,” its blade vibrating with a low, ominous hum.

At that moment, one of the hunters called out to Zhong Yan, “Old Zhong, didn’t you go into the mountains days ago? Where did you spring out from? Beautifully done! If it weren’t for you, this treasure would have slipped right through our fingers.”

Another hunter chimed in banteringly, “You rascal, you usually act like you don’t care about worldly gains, making everyone think you’re some kind of immortal living off the wind and dew! What’s the matter, did your eyes finally get greedy when you saw such a prime treasure? Hahaha!”

“Alright, cut the chatter. Old Zhong, hurry up and bring the treasure over here!” Jing Quan said, trying to sound reassuring, though a trace of anxiety crept onto his face.

Zhong Yan remained deathly silent, but he didn’t take a single step forward either. Suddenly, from behind him, another graceful silhouette unexpectedly stepped out.

The moment Zhong Ying saw the woman, a mixture of shock and hatred surged within her. “It’s that demon! How did she follow us here?”

“Sister-in-law Chunyan? Why are you here?” Someone recognized her as Zhong Yan’s newly wedded wife.

To suddenly encounter such a beautiful woman in the depths of a remote, primordial forest was absurd and bizarre. But on second thought, the men assumed she must have come out of worry for Zhong Yan.

Hearing the question, Chunyan didn’t answer. Instead, she offered a glamorous, enchanting smile and reached into her sleeve to pull out a plate of pastries. “I heard that you big brothers have had a grueling hunt, and you’ve even caught a top-tier treasure. You must be exhausted and starving. This little sister specially made this plate of pastries. Please, have a taste.” With that, she walked forward with a sweet smile.

One of the hunters standing closer to her actually took a pastry from the plate, popped it into his mouth, and began to chew. He gave her a thumbs-up and praised, “Sister-in-law, your culinary skills are top-notch!”

Seeing this, Zhong Ying immediately rushed forward, screaming, “Don’t eat it! Don’t eat anything she makes!” She slapped the pastries out of the hands of those who had taken them, sending the food scattering to the ground.

Unfortunately, it was already too late. Several hunters had already swallowed the pastries and were looking at Zhong Ying with bewildered expressions.

Someone mocked, “Zhong Ying, what’s wrong with us eating a bit of our sister-in-law’s food? We’re not stealing yours.”

“Ugh!” Zhong Ying was frantic. Disregarding everything, she shrieked at the top of her lungs, “She is a demon! There’s something slipped into the food, if you eat it, you’ll fall under her control!”

The moment those words left her mouth, the expression on Chunyan’s face instantly turned cold, as if blanketed by a layer of frost. She glared viciously at Zhong Ying, scaring the girl into recoiling in fear.

“My dear daughter, what kind of nonsense are you spouting? Your habit of speaking without thinking never seems to get cured. It seems I’ll have to make you suffer a bit for you to learn. I’ll have your father teach you a lesson right now!”

Zhong Ying bolted backward, but Zhong Yan was standing far too close to her. Under the female demon’s manipulation, he acted instantly, throwing his large hand straight toward the center of her back.

Yi Qinglan and Lin Wanying had already witnessed firsthand through Jia Ren just how monstrously strong a hunter controlled by the demon could be. Although Zhong Yan didn’t hold any sharp weapons in his hands, if he actually managed to grab her, he would likely tear five bloody holes right through Zhong Ying’s back.

There was no time!

Just as Zhong Ying was about to be seized, a long arrow suddenly shot through the air, piercing clean through Zhong Yan’s hand. The arrow didn’t even lose its momentum; after drilling through his hand, it flew straight toward Chunyan.

Zhong Ying looked up and saw that it was Jing Quan, who had drawn his bow and aimed it right at the space behind her.

Seeing that Zhong Ying was safe, Lin Wanying immediately pulled her behind her own back, shielding her securely.

Chunyan gracefully twisted her body to dodge the long arrow. Her agile, fluid movements were certainly not those of an ordinary housewife.

She grinned savagely at Jing Quan. “You old codger, so you managed to see through me after all.”

Realizing her cover was blown, Chunyan stopped hiding. She pulled her arm out from her sleeve, revealing that it had turned into the form of a tree branch, adorned with swaying green leaves that twitched and flexed like a cluster of highly dexterous fingers.

Suddenly, the men who had eaten the pastries felt an unbearable, agonizing pain in their bellies, as if something were rapidly growing inside their abdominal cavities, threatening to rupture their internal organs. Immediately following this, their limbs began to move independently of their conscious will, jerking about like marionettes on strings. Clutching their sabers and bows, they turned their weapons on their own fellow villagers, stepping forward to close in on them.

Chunyan sneered, using her hand like a command flag. Within moments, countless figures slowly emerged from all directions, shuffling forward with stiff, staggered steps to surround the group. They looked exactly like the controlled Zhong Yan. Even Jia Ren was among them, his face purple and swollen from poison as he slowly joined the perimeter of the blockade.

As it turned out, the hunters who had previously been lured into the mountains by her enchantments had already become corpses. Their bodies were scattered throughout the mountains, yet even in death, they could still be driven like puppets by her command.

The dark secret behind the manipulation of these villagers, before and now, rested entirely upon this seemingly ordinary woman.

The two factions of hunters clashed in a chaotic brawl, and within seconds, several flashes of blood sprayed into the air. The tree branch on Chunyan’s hand elongated like a slithering serpent, thrusting straight toward Yi Qinglan and Lin Wanying. The two women drew their swords, hacking down countless vines, but the severed pieces seemed to spring back to life. They wriggled and sprouted on the ground, growing over ten feet long in the blink of an eye, lunging at the two women with snapping, claw-like tendrils.

Lin Wanying was trying to protect Zhong Ying while hacking away at the vines. It was exhausting work, and her arms gradually grew numb and weak. In a brief moment of distraction, the surrounding vines formed a dense, impenetrable wall, wrapping tightly around her.

Suddenly, a flash of spiritual light erupted, and the vines recoiled as if stung by intense pain.

Looking up, Fang Shuyue was hovering in mid-air upon her flying sword, her hands rapidly forming hand seals. A deep, ancient forest naturally favored a tree demon in combat, but Fang Shuyue possessed a natural Wood Spiritual Root; fighting force with force, her attributes perfectly countered the enemy.

“Senior Sister, are you all right?” Fang Shuyue leaped down from her immortal sword. To her surprise, Lin Wanying shoved the young girl into her arms without a word of explanation, ordering, “Take her and go!”

“I’m not leaving!” Zhong Ying shrieked. “My father is still here!”

With a single strike, Yi Qinglan’s sword pierced clean through the abdomen of a controlled hunter. The man stumbled and fell to the ground, but he didn’t bleed. Instead, a mass of seeds and long, leafy vines spilled from his torso, having already completely filled his internal organs.

Horrified by the sight, Zhong Ying quickly covered her mouth.

Giving them no time to react, Chunyan rallied her forces and charged once more, lashing out with her wooden branches and vines. Making a split-second decision, the trio of Yi Qinglan, Lin Wanying, and Fang Shuyue placed Zhong Ying in the center of their formation and drew their swords to face the enemy. Yi Qinglan conjured a Fire Condensing Seal with her fingers, and a fiery dragon suddenly roared to life, coiling tightly around the woman.

The flames intensified rapidly, engulfing her completely. Caught off guard, the female demon shrieked and wailed in a bizarre, screeching tone that didn’t sound like any human voice.

The tree demon feared fire, but the controlled hunters had already lost all consciousness. Even as the flames caught on their bodies, they felt absolutely nothing, continuing their frantic, murderous hacking.

Yi Qinglan gathered spiritual energy in her hands, intending to fan the flames further, but Lin Wanying held her back.

“There is too much vegetation here, it’s far too flammable. Once the fire rages out of control, it will be impossible to stop, and we might end up falling victim to it ourselves,” Lin Wanying said calmly.

Within the bright flames, the woman’s figure gradually shrank, shriveling up like a leaking, desiccated water bladder until she finally vanished from sight.

As the fire died down, the surrounding plants were reduced to a charred, blackened mass. Lin Wanying immediately cast a spell to suppress the remaining embers.

Now that the demon was dead, the controlled people should have returned to normal. But when the three of them turned around to look, they found that the hunters had completely lost their minds to bloodlust. Amidst the flashing blades and swords, the ground was stained with endless pools of blood, leaving countless dead and wounded.

Having run out of arrows, Jing Quan was wielding a dagger, locked in a desperate, life and death struggle against the puppet like Zhong Yan. He was gradually showing signs of exhaustion.

Fang Shuyue rushed over, channeling her spiritual energy to help Jing Quan fend off the mindless Zhong Yan. However, while under control, the hunter possessed the strength of a raging monster, beneath his bruised, purplish face, his skin had turned a ghastly black, making for a truly horrifying sight. Fang Shuyue struggled to hold him back, eventually using a spell to force him away.

When would this bloody farce truly come to an end?

In the midst of their helplessness, the sudden sound of a flute echoed through the woods.

The melody of this flute music sounded incredibly familiar, strikingly similar to the one Yi Qinglan and the others had heard before entering the mountains. The difference this time was that the flute notes were exceptionally loud and clear, resonating as though the player were playing directly above their heads. Yet, the mysterious flutist behind the music refused to show themselves.

For a moment, almost everyone stopped what they were doing, listening collectively to this eerie, haunting melody.

A black-patterned butterfly flapped its wings gracefully, taking flight and creating barely perceptible ripples in the air before landing gently on a slender fingertip.

A cup of wine remained unfinished, suspended just above the low table.

“They’re here,” Feng Hanyu murmured, staring at the Twin-Heart Butterfly faintly fluttering its wings on his finger. His lips curled into a smirk.

With that, he vanished like a gust of black wind rushing through the main doors. The tavern servant blinked, thoroughly convinced his eyes were playing tricks on him.

“Wait, what? Just now… where did the customer who was sitting right here go?”