Chapter Ninety-Two: From Hell

The mist vanished in a flash, gone from where it had stood. Such sorcery lay far beyond Zhou Yi’s understanding, and he and Sophia did not move, remaining prone upon the roof tiles.

After waiting for a while, with no stir from below and Wu Wencai still motionless, Zhou Yi nudged Sophia.

“Shall we go?”

Sophia pointed downward.

“Let’s go inside and take a look. This world seems to have cultivators, and these people appear to be very wary of anyone controlling the city lord. I’m sure there’s a reason.”

Zhou Yi pressed his lips together, thinking of the city lord lying in a deep sleep, his expression clouded with worry.

“His son is gravely injured and not yet recovered, and the father is left in such a stupor, tended only by servants. I don’t think Wu Wencai is all that important. Besides, if we go down there and that black-robed imperial preceptor returns, he’ll surely sense us. Then it would truly be dangerous.”

Sophia nodded helplessly, for she had been worried about the same thing.

“All right, then. But shouldn’t we get hold of a map? So far we know of Wanzhou City, Yingzhou City, and Qingcheng Mountain. They all seem to fall under the rule of this Kingdom of Liang.”

Zhou Yi thought for a moment.

“Let’s go to the outer courtyard. It should be the quietest place now. Maybe we can find the map we need there. From what they said, Qingcheng Mountain ought to be a place of cultivation, or perhaps a sect. These people seem to be very averse to opposing the court.”

Sophia nodded. She had no better plan, and Zhou Yi’s ideas were as good as any.

After orienting herself, Sophia grasped Zhou Yi by the belt and leaped away.

With a few bounds, they reached the outer courtyard. Not a shred of light could be seen here; only the main gate had guards posted.

She set Zhou Yi down. Once he was on the ground, his feet felt unsteady, as though he had flown too long and lost his balance.

The two of them slipped quietly into one of the buildings. It was clearly the main hall, a place for handling official business. After circling around the front room, they held up flashlights and searched the desks at the back without pause.

Sophia quickly found a map. Though crudely drawn, it was still enough to make out the terrain of the Kingdom of Liang. Even the desert they had crossed earlier had been sketched in part.

Zhou Yi kept searching through letters and documents, until at last his hands stopped on one letter. After reading it carefully, he understood a little more. Sophia came over as well, and Zhou Yi folded the letter shut and returned it to exactly where it had been.

“Let’s talk after we get back.”

Sophia knew they could not linger here, so she said nothing more. With Zhou Yi in tow, she leapt out the window and disappeared into the night.

When they returned to the inn, Cheng Zhi was standing by the window. They hurriedly shut the doors and windows tight, then lit the lamps.

The fat man came hurrying over too, looking them over from head to toe and wiping the sweat from his brow.

“All night long I’ve been on edge, afraid something would happen to you. It’s good to see you back safe.”

Sophia gave him a sidelong glance. After all, the fat man’s gaze had been drifting toward Zhou Yi the whole time. She snorted and sat down directly.

The fat man was no fool. He quickly smiled at Sophia and handed her a cup of tea.

“Miss Sophia, you’re the deputy leader, so you count as our direct superior. But the boss is different. We’re all one unit. If anything happens to him, none of us will get out unscathed. Why don’t you take us with you next time? We may drag our feet, but at least we’d feel safer than sitting here and waiting.”

Sophia ignored him and looked at Zhou Yi instead.

“What did you find in those letters?”

Zhou Yi unfolded the map and pointed to a city on the southern side of Wanzhou.

“This is Yingzhou City. Wu Wencai went there, then abducted the daughter of the chief elder of Qingcheng Mountain. Look—Qingcheng Mountain is to the east of Yingzhou City. Together with Wanzhou, they form a triangle.”

“I also read a letter just now. It was a notice from the Kingdom of Liang’s court, telling the people of Wanzhou and Yingzhou to watch for the appearance of demonic men in recent days.

“It said that in a village where Yingzhou, Wanzhou, and Qingcheng Mountain meet, such creatures have lately been harming the people. Villages have been wiped out one after another. The court has already dispatched the imperial preceptor to investigate, and the two prefectures are to cooperate.”

Sophia froze, momentarily unable to process it. The existence of cultivators in this world had already overwhelmed her senses, and now demonic men had appeared as well?

“Demonic men?”

Zhou Yi nodded.

“The letter didn’t explain, but I found other correspondence that mentioned them in passing. No one knows where these demonic men come from. They used to roam the desert, targeting lone travelers. Anyone attacked by them was found drained of blood.

“And on the neck there are always two puncture marks. These beings come only by night and lie low by day. No one has ever discovered their lair. The court sent the imperial preceptor here with a force to wipe them out, both to protect the people of the two prefectures and, likely, to suppress bandits as well.”

The fat man shivered.

“Biting the neck, moving only by night, sucking people dry of blood—aren’t those vampires?”

Cheng Zhi slowly shook his head, apparently unconvinced by that explanation. He glanced at Zhou Yi, hesitated for a moment, then still said earnestly:

“I think the Kingdom of Liang’s court is probably just trying to crack down on horse bandits. These are merely excuses and pretexts. Once they say it that way, the common folk naturally won’t dare go out, especially not to that area.

“That way, innocent people are less likely to be harmed, and it also makes it easier for the court to clear out the local banditry that has run rampant. Besides, Wanzhou City is on the frontier, practically bordering the Kingdom of Wei. Whether this move has some deeper purpose, I couldn’t say.”

Sophia nodded. She felt Cheng Zhi’s explanation was more believable.

After all, whether in historical records or in policy, the movements of those above always shape the world below. What the truth actually is may be vastly different.

“I think Cheng Zhi makes sense. Cultivators are already strange enough. Do these demonic men really exist? In a world like this, no other base has ever mentioned them. I honestly can’t imagine it.”

Zhou Yi narrowed his eyes, thinking of the black-robed imperial preceptor and the terrifying aura around him. That suffocating sensation still seemed to linger nearby. It was not the feeling he got from ordinary spirit stones or from cultivators, and it was very different from the grave keeper.

“I keep wondering what that black-robed imperial preceptor cultivates, and why his aura feels so strange. We’ve encountered the grave keeper before. Though that man was formidable, he still carried a sense of righteousness, and he also gave off the feeling of the five elements’ spirit stones. But this man is far too different.”

Sophia fell silent. After a moment’s thought, she looked at Zhou Yi.

“For some reason, I can’t sense any aura from that black-robed imperial preceptor. It doesn’t feel like any elemental attribute. Could he be like you? Or is it because I’m a half-robot, and my perception differs from yours?”

Zhou Yi paused, then understood what she meant. She was suggesting that the black-robed imperial preceptor might have a mental or spatial attribute, which was why she could not detect him.

After thinking about it seriously, Zhou Yi shook his head.

“No. He has the aura of death. Just getting a little closer feels as though you’re about to suffocate, as if around him there are only vengeful ghosts tearing and rending. That was exactly how I felt on the rooftop.”

Sophia’s eyes widened. As if struck by a thought, she quickly opened the terminal on her wrist and began searching.

Watching her, Zhou Yi grew curious and leaned in to look. The results were all related to dark-element information. The term made him pause.

Dark element?

He had never heard of such a thing. That suffocating feeling seemed as though it were something the black-robed imperial preceptor had been born with—oppression, suffocation, terror. If one drew near, even the air seemed to freeze.

“I suspect this black-robed imperial preceptor is a dark-element cultivator. But I can’t sense it, so I can’t be certain. When he caught that woman in green, he looked as though he didn’t move at all—just raised a hand slightly, and she was seized by the throat. That’s somewhat similar to your spatial power.”

At the mention of spatial power, both the fat man and Cheng Zhi looked up at Zhou Yi, clearly not understanding. Sophia frowned in irritation, as though she had said too much.

Zhou Yi did not mind. These two were slaves bound by a spiritual contract; their loyalty needed no doubt. Their prosperity and ruin were shared.

He merely shook his head.

“I don’t know what dark element is, but I feel it is different. That man seems to have come straight from hell, like a person assembled from the resentful spirits of the dead. There isn’t the slightest trace of living breath about him. All around him is only death.”