Queen of Ten Thousand Demons Insists on Marrying Me - Chapter 25

Seeing Lu Wanbai follow the figure, Dantai Jing was relieved. At least they didn’t have to sneak into the Mei family’s mansion. As a dignified Grand Demon of Gouwu Mountain, climbing walls every day was beneath her.

Lu Xiaoxiao looked at Lu Wanbai’s disappearing back and immediately summoned the Chaoyuan Sword, taking Dantai Jing with her to give chase.

The scenery on both sides rapidly blurred backward. The surroundings became increasingly remote. Half an hour ago, it was the bustling Qingzhou City; now, they were in some unknown mountain ravine. The temperature on the mountain was even colder, and even though it was May, snow was falling heavily.

Lu Xiaoxiao: “Dantai Jing, was that really my mother just now? Why is she not only hard of hearing but also leading us into a ravine? It looks like she’s setting up an ambush to kill and rob. If something happens later, I’m counting on you.”

Dantai Jing looked at her back: “How could that be? Isn’t that your mother?”

Lu Xiaoxiao chuckled dryly to cover her embarrassment: “I mean, we didn’t see clearly just now. What if Lu Wanbai was mistaken?”

Fortunately, Dantai Jing had excellent eyesight. Lu Xiaoxiao nearly flew in the wrong direction several times but was corrected by Dantai Jing. After flying for another half an hour in the darkness, they finally caught up with Lu Wanbai at the foot of a mountain.

As soon as they landed, Lu Xiaoxiao hurriedly grabbed Lu Wanbai’s sleeve and said: “Don’t fly anymore. Wait for us.”

“I know. This mountain has a restriction; we can’t fly with our swords. Master is just ahead. Follow me into the mountain quickly.” Lu Wanbai was sweating anxiously. She turned and pulled Lu Xiaoxiao, rushing up the stone steps.

The trees in the mountains cast dappled shadows under the moonlight. A night wind swept through, making the leaves rustle.

Lu Xiaoxiao felt increasingly uneasy. If this person was Lu Mingyu, why was she here? If it wasn’t Lu Mingyu, what were her intentions? “Elder Sister, if that was Master, why would she come to this place?”

Lu Wanbai was also startled by the question: “I don’t know, but that figure was definitely Master.”

Lu Xiaoxiao knew more talking was useless. Lu Wanbai was a nameless, starving, poorly clothed little beggar when she was young. It was Lu Mingyu’s kindness that brought her back to the Xuantian Sword Sect and gave her a name, letting her take her surname. To Lu Wanbai, Lu Mingyu was no different from a mother.

They reached a fork in the path halfway up the mountain, encountering two stone tablets. The left one was inscribed with Yangling East Mountain, and the right one with Wule Temple.

Lu Wanbai said: “Let’s split up. I’ll take the left, and you take the right. Miss Dantai, this is a matter for Xiaoxiao and me. The road ahead is unknown. Why don’t you wait here for us to come down?”

Upward from the mountainside, the dense forest became thicker. Moonlight struggled to penetrate the layers of leaves. The torch they had hastily made only illuminated a radius of two or three meters.

Dantai Jing had just opened her mouth when Lu Xiaoxiao said: “Elder Sister, if we’re going up the mountain at night, we must be heading to Wule Temple. Your side is probably just a mountain peak. There’s no need to go there.”

“No, what if we miss her?”

Lu Xiaoxiao grabbed Dantai Jing’s hand and coughed twice: “Alright then, Dantai Jing definitely has to come with me. It’s too dangerous for her to guard this place alone. Right, Dantai Jing?”

Seeing Dantai Jing nod, Lu Wanbai stopped trying to persuade them, turned, and rushed forward.

As Lu Wanbai’s figure gradually disappeared, Dantai Jing finally pulled her hand away from Lu Xiaoxiao and joked: “Didn’t you have a high fever? Why are you coughing now?”

Lu Xiaoxiao took a step back to walk side-by-side with her, casually making an excuse: “I haven’t fully recovered, and she dragged me out. We traveled so far in the middle of the night. It’s freezing with all the snow higher up on the mountain. It’s gotten worse, obviously.”

Dantai Jing had long seen that the person was completely fine, but she didn’t argue and instead showed concern: “Be careful later, and stay behind me. Although Lu Wanbai seems so sure, we still shouldn’t let our guard down.”

Hearing this, Lu Xiaoxiao turned and hugged her arm, acting subserviently: “I knew Sister Jing would protect me. After all, we are comrades who have shared life and death together.”

Having lived for so many years, Dantai Jing rarely saw such thick skin. The two bickered and finally reached the mountain peak.

Indeed, there was a Wule Temple on the summit. The temple was dilapidated from years of neglect. The temple walls were stained and peeling, and the stone steps in front of the gate were covered with moss and weeds, making it look desolate and lonely, as if no incense had been burned there for many years.

Lu Xiaoxiao pushed open the tightly closed main door. The door hinge squeaked loudly from prolonged idleness.

In the deepest part of the dilapidated hall of Wule Temple, a peeling Maitreya Buddha statue was vaguely enshrined in the dim light.

“Is anyone here?”

The voice echoed through the empty hall for a long time.

Lu Xiaoxiao pulled Dantai Jing, wanting to go back and find Lu Wanbai, when she saw Dantai Jing staring at her chest.

Looking down, she saw a white light shining through her clothes. She reached in and pulled it out. The object glowing was the Zi Wu Plate that Mei Yuanhua had given her earlier.

Previously, afraid that Mei Ce would accuse them of murder and treasure theft, she could only claim the Zi Wu Plate was lost. Unexpectedly, it began to glow spontaneously in this remote, deserted temple.

Before she could examine it closely, the Zi Wu Plate flew up into the air and landed firmly in the palm of the Maitreya Buddha statue.

“Not good!”

Lu Xiaoxiao was terrified. An anomaly often signals danger. She quickly grabbed Dantai Jing and ran toward the hall exit.

As soon as the two stepped outside, they found the scenery had completely changed. This was no longer the barren mountain they had just traversed!

Lu Xiaoxiao waved the torch left and right: “Is this… inside a cave?”

Dantai Jing took the torch and looked at the cave wall: “Yes…”

The cave seemed to be naturally formed. The walls were uneven, and luminous stones were embedded in the walls on both sides.

Turning around to look back, the temple was gone, replaced by a deep, bottomless cave tunnel.

Standing in a long, winding cavern, the two were suddenly at a loss for what to do.

“An illusion?”

“No!”

Lu Xiaoxiao was about to ask another question when she heard heavy thudding footsteps coming from behind them. The sound was heavy and forceful, like some large creature or a frantic person running quickly toward them.

Lu Xiaoxiao’s hair stood on end. It definitely couldn’t be Lu Wanbai. She grabbed Dantai Jing’s wrist, intending to run forward.

But Dantai Jing grabbed her hand back: “Don’t be afraid! I’m here.”

The footsteps grew closer, like the drums of death echoing from the depths of hell. Each step heavily pounded on Lu Xiaoxiao’s heart, making it feel like it would leap out of her chest.

An inexplicable sense of oppression, as if a boulder weighing a thousand pounds was closing in on them step by step.

The light from the luminous stones flickered on the cave walls, and shadows rapidly lengthened as the footsteps approached, seeming to devour them into endless darkness.

Suddenly, a figure lunged out, like a savage beast with its jaws wide open, pouncing on the two of them.

At the same time, Dantai Jing drew Gui Chen and lashed out, striking the figure hard across the face with her whip.

The figure let out a shrill, eerie howl that sent chills down one’s spine. Accompanying the shriek, the figure abruptly retreated, landing on all fours like an enraged beast, ready to launch its next attack at any moment.

Only then did Lu Xiaoxiao get a clear look at the figure’s full appearance. It was actually a monk. He had six distinct scar marks from burning on his head, the marks left by Buddhists to show piety.

However, the entire face was dominated by one large, oddly prominent mouth, taking up half the area. The corners of the mouth were ripped open to the ears, revealing jagged, sharp teeth like an animal’s, constantly dripping saliva.

His monastic robe was tattered and covered in mud and blood, its original color unrecognizable, though the style of a martial monk’s attire could faintly be discerned. Yet, this outfit looked jarringly out of place on him.

Dantai Jing frowned, seemingly disgusted herself.

The whip in her hand flew, carrying several sharp streaks of cold light, repeatedly lashing the strange monk.

Each strike was accompanied by the screams of the large-mouthed monk and the dull thud of the whip sinking into his body. His robe was torn by the whip, revealing bloody gashes.

Finally, unable to match Dantai Jing, he let out a roar and fled in the direction he had come from.

Lu Xiaoxiao’s face was pale from being repulsed by this creature: “What is that thing? Is it a demon too? How can it look so carelessly made? It doesn’t even have eyes or a nose.”

Dantai Jing’s expression also grew more serious: “I don’t know. When demons transform into human form, they generally don’t make themselves this ugly. I think this thing looks more like a demon cultivator who failed their ascension into the demonic path and lost their mind.”

“It’s a good thing you’re here. You are simply too amazing.” Lu Xiaoxiao noticed that Dantai Jing had shed the stealth pearl at some point, restoring her original appearance, with a mane of silver hair like frost and a fierce flame mark on her forehead.

Dantai Jing’s brow did not relax: “This might be troublesome. Although that thing was only at the Nascent Soul stage, I don’t know how many of them there are. While I’m confident I can kill them, I might not be able to protect you.”

“It’s alright. I have the Chaoyuan Sword. I might be able to protect myself. Don’t worry too much about me; your own safety is more important. Also, I noticed that thing had no eyes or nose, only a mouth and ears. If we try not to make noise, they probably won’t find us.”

Dantai Jing nodded, then suddenly said: “Who said I was worried about you? I meant you should protect yourself. If anything happens, I won’t take care of you.”

Lu Xiaoxiao rubbed her nose in agreement. The two walked forward together and eventually entered a spacious area after an unknown distance.

Within this vast cave, dozens of large Buddha statues, several zhang (tens of feet) high, were arranged sporadically. They were of various forms, some sitting cross-legged on lotus pedestals, with eyes closed in meditation, looking compassionate and solemn, others reclining elegantly by a lotus pond.

Each Buddha statue was carved so lifelike, and combined with their immense height, they exerted an unassailable sense of oppression.

Lu Xiaoxiao walked closer and saw that these statues were all made of gold.

She couldn’t help but gasp. She wondered if the Chaoyuan Sword could chip off some gold pieces so they could go out, buy some land, and become landowners. She no longer wanted to suffer the hardship of dealing with these hideous demons and monsters that affected her sleep quality.

But she didn’t dare to actually do it. She had watched too many TV dramas. If she really slashed one with her sword and the statue suddenly stood up and chased her and Dantai Jing, she would be the universally despised liability. Moreover, before anyone else could scold or hit her, Dantai Jing would be the first to throw her to that weird, mouth-only monk.

Thinking of this, a chill ran through her. That weird monk only had a mouth; was it perhaps to eat them?

Before she could think further, she heard a loud boom.

At some point, Dantai Jing’s whip had split one of the Buddha statues into two, shearing it diagonally from top to bottom, causing it to slide and crash to the ground.

Dantai Jing truly hasn’t watched those TV dramas… Lu Xiaoxiao thought to herself, then clapped: “Good whip, great cultivation. I don’t think it’s any worse than the Chaoyuan Sword.”

Dantai Jing ignored her flattery. She walked closer to the break. Inside the gold-plated, several zhang-high Buddha statue were actually numerous corpses. Black blood continuously dripped from the remaining lower half of the statue, pooling everywhere on the ground.

Seeing this scene, even Dantai Jing felt a chill. There were eighteen Buddha statues here, and the cross-section revealed that the horizontally stacked bodies inside must number in the hundreds, including both mortals and cultivators.

Lu Xiaoxiao couldn’t bear to look directly: “They don’t seem to have been dead for very long. Looking at the clothes, there are people from both the mortal and cultivation worlds. What kind of place is this? Is it some sort of evil cult conducting practice?”

Dantai Jing noticed that Lu Xiaoxiao hadn’t vomited this time and was about to tease her, but then she heard the strange monk’s footsteps again. By the sound of it, there were not just one, but dozens of them this time.