In the night wind, Song Ciwan transformed into a shadow and was swept away.
But her heart was anything but calm; in fact, she was profoundly shaken.
Zhang Ping had his cries, and didn't she have hers as well?
Zhang Ping had recalled his family before he died; she, too, was now recalling her parents.
There was Song Youde, coming home from his shift, handing a flower for her hair to Lady Liu and saying, "Lady Wan, Lady Yue is grown up now. From now on, you get half of these flowers, and she gets the other half."
And the message he'd had someone send back before his night patrol that day: "On duty today. Will be home late. Don't worry."
He did come home late. Not only was he late, but he had left as a living, breathing man, only to return as a mangled pile of bones!
If he had truly died just to capture a Demon, it would have been a death in the line of duty, and there would be nothing more to say.
But the truth was, Zhang Ping had grabbed him and thrown him to the Demon. The Demon's claws became Zhang Ping's tool, which he then used to make a blood offering for his own blade!
Song Youde had become the sacrificial offering for Zhang Ping's blade.
Who could endure that?
Unconsciously, tears soaked her Human Skin Mask. Song Ciwan wiped them away, silently feeling the illusory Heart Demon Seed churning in her Sea of Consciousness.
The First Layer of the Void Illusion Demon Sword, Heart Demon Illusion, was all about condensing this illusory Demon Seed!
Song Ciwan silently exhaled. 'In this life, who can be without demonic thoughts?'
The true power of these demonic thoughts was also beyond her expectations. A Martial Artist at the peak of the Organ Refining Stage, only a step away from the Innate realm, had a Heart Demon planted in him just because she had pointed at him from afar in the snow, and it had erupted in an instant.
'—No, I didn't kill him. He had too many Distracting Thoughts of his own and Fell into the Demon Realm.'
'Zhang Ping died because his own mind was unstable, causing his Heart Demon to erupt. What does that have to do with me, the perfectly just and impartial Nameless Divine Venerable?'
Song Ciwan could only silently let go of a burden, thankful that fate had helped her eliminate the enemy who killed her father.
'After all, the real Song Ciwan is so weak, so pitiful. What could she possibly know?'
The weak and pitiful Song Ciwan drifted home, and on the way, she saw large black beetles, each the size of a bushel basket, crawling out of a dark alley in swarms.
Song Ciwan was startled.
The fine snow covering the ground glowed white, and in the corner, the pitch-black beetles resembled Lianfei—
And what are Lianfei?
Simply put, they are giant cockroaches.
The giant cockroaches twitched their antennae. On the night of the winter solstice, in the corners of the city, they were like soldiers of the dark, forming ranks in a line.
This scene—was it terrifying or not?
In that instant, goosebumps erupted all over Song Ciwan's body. Without a second thought, she raised her palm.
But the next moment, Song Ciwan lowered her hand. 'I can't use Palm Thunder; it'll make too much noise.'
She changed her hand sign, touching her thumb and middle finger together, and flicked a thin strand of flame from her fingertips.
This strand of flame was like a fine thread imbued with spirituality. It danced in the night wind and shot straight into the mouthparts of the lead giant cockroach.
The giant cockroach, which had been probing with its antennae, suddenly went rigid. Then, it violently flipped over and thrashed in the snow.
Behind it, the other giant cockroaches grew agitated. As if sensing something, they suddenly turned and fled into the depths of the dark alley.
All this takes time to describe, but the chaos happened in an instant. In that split second, Song Ciwan cried out in her heart, 'This is bad, I can't let them escape!'
Though she didn't know where these giant cockroaches came from, since she had encountered them and already made a move, she couldn't leave any loose ends.
Song Ciwan immediately flicked her fingers repeatedly. Strands of fine fire shot forward like a rain of arrows. Wherever the fire threads passed, giant cockroaches were pinned in place.
One, two, three, four... nine, ten, eleven... twenty, thirty...
Song Ciwan couldn't even count how many fire threads she had flicked out; she only saw giant cockroaches toppling to the ground one after another.
An indescribable fluctuation rippled invisibly through the air. Song Ciwan's heart pounded with fear, and she accelerated her use of Magical Power.
Finally, the first giant cockroach that had toppled over burst into flames.
The flames erupted from the inside out.
As if in a chain reaction, the giant cockroaches that had been hit by the fire threads began to ignite one by one.
Balls of fire burned on the snow in the deep alley. The fine snow melted, and where water met fire, an occasional, scalp-numbing SIZZLE could be heard.
Song Ciwan quietly retreated to a distance, observing from afar until what sounded like a Night Watchman's voice came from the other side: "What was that noise?"
CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!
The Night Watchman struck his clapper. "Two inches of snow tonight! Mind the roof tiles! It's the third watch—"
In the deep alley, the flames burned all the struggling giant cockroaches to ash. Song Ciwan let out a sigh of relief from a distance. The night wind swirled, and she silently made her escape.
Although she had escaped in time, deep down, Song Ciwan was still shaken. 'I really am too weak. It took me so long just to kill some cockroaches; I couldn't even kill them instantly. This won't do! I have to cultivate harder and hide myself better. It's too dangerous outside.'
Speeding away, Song Ciwan left everything in the night wind behind her. A strong sense of unease filled her heart. This feeling prompted her to circle the city before finding an empty hut, where she stripped off all her clothes, including her shoes and socks.
As she changed into a fresh set of clothes, she set fire to the ones she had taken off, burning them to ash.
Only after finishing all this did she once again use her Escape Technique to depart.
What Song Ciwan didn't know was that giant cockroaches had appeared all over the city that night.
The ones she encountered were just a small group. By killing them all, she had indirectly saved the life of the Night Watchman who patrolled that route.
After returning home, Song Ciwan bathed thoroughly several times. The set of clothes she had changed into was also taken off, suffering the same fate as the previous set—burned to ash.
If not for the fact that her Cultivation of the Blazing Flame Technique wasn't profound enough, Song Ciwan would have loved to burn herself clean too.
'Unfortunately, my Cultivation is insufficient. I can't burn myself. At most, I could only scrub my skin raw.'
Once everything was taken care of, Song Ciwan walked to the memorial tablets of Song Youde and his wife and lit three new sticks of incense for them.
The blue-gray smoke curled upwards. Song Ciwan let out a soft breath, feeling the relief of a burden lifted, as well as the lingering thrill of the danger she had just passed through.
She stood silently like this for a moment, then bowed three times.
Returning to her small bedroom, Song Ciwan summoned the Heaven and Earth Scale to sort through her gains from the night.
From the deceased Zhang Ping, she received two types of returns.
One was his seven emotions and six desires, which she sold.
[You have sold human desires: greed, hatred, and ignorance. Weight: five jin and six liang. You have obtained the Blade Technique: Illusion Breaker.]
It was actually a Blade Technique!
A torrent of blade incantations flowed into her mind. Song Ciwan frowned slightly as she committed them to memory.
This Illusion-Breaking Blade Technique actually had a very high potential. Contrary to the Void Illusion Demon Sword's ability to stir up Heart Demons, the Illusion-Breaking Saber, when practiced to its peak, could sever all thoughts!
'And once a person's every thought is extinguished, even if their body is still alive, their soul might as well be dead.'
This was an incredibly powerful Blade Technique. Naturally, Song Ciwan wouldn't turn her nose up at it; she had just never imagined she could also practice with a blade.
'It isn't a bad idea, come to think of it. For example, when everyone thinks you're a Mage, you're actually an Assassin. And when everyone thinks you're an Assassin, you suddenly pull out a melee blade!'
A faint smile appeared on Song Ciwan's face. 'You can never have too many life-saving trump cards. Even if I don't normally use my close-combat abilities, they're good for self-defense.'
She firmly memorized the various incantations of the Illusion-Breaking Blade Technique before operating the Heaven and Earth Scale again to sell the second item bartered from Zhang Ping.
[You have sold the Heart Demon of the Organ Refining Stage Martial Artist Zhang Ping. You have obtained the Marvel: Tongyou Mirror.]
'Huh? What's this?'
[Tongyou Mirror: A Basic Netherworld Mirror. It can reveal Low Level Ghosts, Yin Qi, and the true forms of strange entities at Village Level or below.]
Song Ciwan held the Tongyou Mirror, which was about the size of her two hands, in her own. It was bone-chillingly cold to the touch. The back of the mirror had a pattern twisted like a ghostly form, while the surface was as smooth as water, yet like a blank sheet of paper, it reflected nothing at all.
She immediately let out a sigh of relief, and her wildly pounding heart began to slow down.
This was the Tongyou Mirror, a mirror that could connect to the Netherworld. The fact that it reflected nothing was the best possible outcome.