It was midnight.
The moon had been especially bleary during the early hours of the night yet now it was as bright as the morning sun. The streets were illuminated perfectly leaving elongated shadows that were almost ghost-like. Yi Chang followed the scent with much focus. The demon scent would sometimes concentrate on one place but most of the time it was moving and then it suddenly stopped at an inn.
The inn was not very far from the tavern. The lights from the rooms were not on. The scent had stopped here so it meant that the demon he was chasing was hidden someplace here or in one of the rooms. Yi Chang first thought of rounding the inn before checking the rooms but he had just taken one step before a sound stopped him, it was a child's cry.
The cry was especially shrill and sharp in the silent streets sending chills down his spine. He had already reached here so he could not turn back. The outside was dark but the inside was even darker. If it were not for the seeping rays of the moonlight Yi Chang would have already tripped a hundred and one times. The child's cry was strange; it sometimes sounded near and sometimes far at the same time. This was probably an illusion created by the demon.
Yi Chang remembered what his father had told him back then during one of his lecture sessions; 'Demons are masters of illusion. The first five attempts are always confusing but when encountering illusions, the sixth try opens the way for an answer.'
Back then he did not know he would use such words yet his encountering the situation today seemed like an overshadow for those words. Following the words he realized that the cry had sounded four times but he still did not know which room the demon was hiding in, he was already on the first story of the building. The fifth cry sounded. It was not very different from the previous four but this time it was everywhere at the same time, it was even next to Yi Chang's ears at other times.
It seemed as if the demon had already realized that someone had identified and was looking for them. Normal mortals would not sense the presence of demons even if they were standing right next to them but Yi Chang was no normal mortal. He had cultivated a spiritual core for years so things like these were not very hard to notice.
To deal with illusions one had to block the senses he would not use. For example; what had attracted Yi Chang initially was the smell so for the searching he had to use his nose yet now the scent had disappeared and all that was left was a cry which meant that he had to switch from using his nose to using the ears. Right now Yi Chang stood in the middle of the corridor with eyes closed, mouth shut and nose automatically blocked. He could neither see, smell nor taste. All that was left was his ears. Now that the other senses had been blocked, his ears became alarmingly sharp and his hearing ability became like that of a fox.
The sixth cry sounded.
It was even shriller than the first one and not as childlike as the others. Yi Chang knew at once where the demon was. Before he made a step, the smell assaulted his nose once more. He opened his eyes at once and moved then once again a voice sounded behind him. "Sire, are you lost?"
The voice was familiar; it was the waitress from the tavern. Her looks were more ravishing. Her pale face held a hint of color and her lips were redder than the maples. Her hips swayed seductively as she made her way up the stairs to meet Yi Chang. With every movement, her long, raven hair flowed. He noticed that the mark on her face was glowing brightly, indeed she was a demon but Yi Chang wanted to play this game a bit more before he finished her off.
"I was a bit tired and was looking for a place to retire. Lucky I found this inn but it seems no one is here." Yi Chang said as he moved to meet her. Innocence instantly flooded her face as she said mildly as though she had thought of something.
"This inn won't do, it has been closed for some time. I can lead you to another one if you like." Her voice was pure and very enticing.
"A closed inn means I won't pay a dime. It is an even better deal than going to another. It is also troublesome walking around as I am a bit tired." Yi Chang who was energetic a few seconds ago became lethargic all of a sudden. His face showed weariness that was not there. The lady only smiled as a response.
"Does sire want to know why it was closed?" her voice continued. Yi Chang's interest was piqued and motioned for her to continue.
"It is said to be haunted." Her voice was a hushed whisper as if she was afraid, even her body shuddered a bit. Yi Chang was amused and from his mouth came a light chuckle. The lady was confused by the chuckle as if she could not understand why he would laugh at such a statement but still continued demurely.
"People stopped going to the inn after they reported hearing a child cry at night. Some people were said to disappear from here, never to be seen again. Anyways it is not a place fit to spend the night. Sire, you really have to get out of here." She was now frightened.
"Is that the reason why you followed me here?" Yi Chang asked but before she replied he asked again, "You said that the inn was haunted, is it by the likes of you?" His playful eyes turned a few degrees colder; he was tired of playing this game. The smile on the lady's face also froze only for a bit before it was replaced by a much more menacing one.
"Sire you found out." Her mouth moved and so did her body.
Her lithe body moved with agility as strong demonic energy engulfed her whole being. At once her face changed and all that was left was a black mass. Yi Chang dodged just as her palm was inches from his body. Dealing with demons like this was very hard because they would easily change forms. From past experience, Yi Chang guessed that they were demons from the south. These demons were notorious for their illusions and seduction. Their original forms were black masses but they could easily steal and occupy the bodies of low-level cultivators and mortals. She was now a black mass with glowing green eyes.
The inn which was initially dark now glowed green. Yi Chang looked around and realized that other demons had crept all around them. Their eyes were menacing and their black masses produced hissing sounds that could send chills down someone's spine.
Yi Chang found two troublesome issues; one he did not have his sword and two, his spiritual energy was weak. There were many demons in the inn at the moment and dealing with them would be a bit difficult.
He had been dodging for some time now and sweat was already forming on his brows. With every dodge, the demons were angered even further and their attacks became even more menacing. Their howls almost created dents on the rooftops.
Their bodies were dark mass energies; this was their true forms and as they moved they created whoosh sounds just like the wind. Yi Chang was being cornered little by little. His red robes were already drenched from sweat. He looked down and noticed that the bodies of the villagers these demons had occupied were lying neatly on the floor. Their bodies were ashen, obviously dead.
Yi Chang conjured a spell with his hands which smashed two of the demons into two, their black masses dissipating like smoke. After he had sent forth the energy he realized a problem, the spiritual light did not look at all like his from his previous life.
When he was cultivating in earnest back then before he had died, his spiritual light was almost a haze. It was deep grey and had almost the same constitution as hazy fog yet the light that he had just thrown out was almost crystalline, it was a blinding white.
Yi Chang only knew two people with such a clear spiritual light; one of them was the immortal librarian, keeper of the soul books and the second was the person whose sword had carved out his heart, the god from the heavens, Sheng Huo.
He did not know of anything that happened after he died but before, these two people were considered close acquaintances. The first one was a lazy man who had nothing to do other than sit and wipe books. No one knew his name or his true appearance but Yi Chang knew that he was quite the old guy. The second one was considered close but not quite close.
Of these two people, he did not know which of their powers revolved around his body. Yi Chang put his worries aside first and then used these newfound powers with vigor. He loved how strong they were and how the demons were almost incinerated upon contact.
The fight ensued. Many things were broken inside the inn. While continuing, Yi Chang noticed something amiss. What had attracted him to this inn was a demon's scent but after he had reached at the inn, it was the cry of a child. The cry was exclusively human-like. As if one of them had read his mind, the black mass moved speedily into one of the closed rooms. Its body fleeted past the openings.
A faint whimper of a child could be heard. It seems like the demons had magnified this sound and used it to attract people to the inn. The demon waitress had told him that this place was haunted because of the cries of a child being heard at night yet she herself came here. This meant that they wanted to see if he had the perfect body to be occupied. The child was probably left after they had taken over his parent's bodies.
The time was little. Yi Chang rushed into the room and looked for the child before the demons had their hands on him. The child was a boy of five or six. Tears and snot filled his face and his clothes were dirtied by the dust. His parents hid him inside a cabinet after they probably realized that this was a dangerous place.
The demons were closing in on the room and their hisses were as loud as hundreds of snakes put together. Yi Chang threw the child on his back as he made his way down. He shot a couple more spiritual lights that killed the demons in an instant; all that was left was the black mass for the waitress. Before he moved, she turned back to human form.
Her red dress was shimmering against the lights and that smile never once left her face. Her voice soft like catkins; "Sire, you are very cruel."
This was definitely a complaint but it was said without a hint of annoyance. It was as if it was not a trivial thing that she had just suddenly thought of. Her long legs went down the steps in a beautiful fashion but she stopped when she heard Yi Chang speak; "Cruel? Look in front of you." It was the villagers. Their bodies had started showing signs of Mortis and their skin was ashen.
The lady scoffed and then continued down the steps but Yi Chang was not letting her go that easily. He moved once, his attack cruel yet his face did not change in the slightest. The light his hands produced was the brightest, probably from the rage that was slowly building up inside of him. He had just risen up after being dead for who knows how long yet he soon met up with these troublesome things; they truly made his blood boil.
The moment the attack made contact with her body, she wailed loudly as her black mass separated from the body of the lady waitress.
"Sire, have mercy." The demon wailed loudly. The body of the waitress had already fully separated from her own. Her black mass was dissipating slowly by slowly
"Sire, have mercy." Her voice had gone from high decibels to low. She whispered this relentlessly as her body completely disappeared into thin air. Yi Chang sighed as he hoisted up the child high on his back and stared at the bodies strewn all over the inn.
"Well, what a hassle."