A winter night. A small courtyard. A fine snow was still falling.
Song Ciwan's gaze fell on a corner of the wall. There, she saw a giant mouse standing upright, its front paws clasped before its chest.
"SQUEAK—"
The giant mouse let out a soft cry, and a spectral gleam seemed to flash in its mung bean-sized eyes.
Then, something bizarre happened.
Following the giant mouse's cry, a gentle and refined voice, like that of a human male, suddenly rang in Song Ciwan's ears.
"Young lady, I am the Matchmaking Flower God of Giant Deer Country. Our Second Prince has fallen gravely ill, and through Divination, we have learned that you are his fated bride. Only by marrying you can our Second Prince recover from his illness and be reborn."
The male voice was gentle and sorrowful. Not only that, but in that instant, Song Ciwan blinked, and the scene before her eyes seemed to blur and change.
The creature standing in the corner had at first appeared to be a mouse-like demon, but when she looked again... huh? How strange...
'How could this be a Mouse Demon? Wasn't this clearly a gentle, slender human man?'
He was a bit short, and his floral clothes looked somewhat odd, but his features were compact and exquisite. The overall impression was one of a strange, handsome beauty.
His voice was also extremely alluring. Seeing that Song Ciwan didn't respond, he spoke gently again, "Young lady, are you willing to save our Second Prince? The Sovereign is willing to offer ten carts of Gold Pearls, a hundred carts of Silver Pearls, and a thousand bolts of brocade as the betrothal gift."
As he spoke, he released one palm-sized wooden cart after another from his wide, colorful sleeves.
The small carts tumbled to the ground like falling rain, growing the instant they landed. In a flash, the small carts became large ones, the Gold and Silver Pearls on them shimmering and filling the Song Family Courtyard until it was cramped and crowded.
An ocean of gold and silver seemed to appear before Song Ciwan's eyes. On the other side of this ocean, the handsome man in floral clothes waved to her. "Young lady, tonight is an auspicious night. Will you come? Will you come?"
Each question was like a hook, trying to pull Song Ciwan forward, to make her walk over to the other side of her own accord.
This was the first time Song Ciwan had ever encountered a demon of this type!
To be honest, the whole scene had an indescribably bizarre and surreal quality—grotesque, fantastical, and not at all like the Mortal World.
This demon didn't use force to harm people. Instead, it used wealth, glory, power, and that distant lover, the "Second Prince," to tempt them.
Naturally, Song Ciwan felt no temptation. 'Is it because my own Power is sufficient? Or is it because the Sutra of Sitting and Forgetting's Dual Cultivation of Life and Spirit has made my soul resilient and my mind clear, allowing me to resist the Mouse Demon's Illusion Technique?'
'There's no need to delve into that for now.' She just had one clear feeling at this moment: this was absolutely not the time or place for a forceful counterattack against the Mouse Demon.
'Why?'
'Logically, the Giant Deer Country behind the Mouse Demon might actually exist. If I kill this one now, I might provoke a whole nest of them later. That would be a disaster.'
But setting logic aside, she was struck by a sudden intuition. As the Mouse Demon's calls echoed, Song Ciwan's heart stirred. She opened her palm and, in the midst of its cries, released a single glyph from her palm: "Doubt."
The Mouse Demon was still trying to tempt her gently. "Young lady, the auspicious time has come. If you do not come, our Second Prince's life will be in danger. Can you truly bear it...?"
Before it could finish its sentence, the dim, ethereal glyph for "Doubt" had already drifted across the ocean of gold and silver and floated before the Mouse Demon.
The Mouse Demon seemed to sense something, its eyes suddenly widening. It opened its mouth as if to scream, but the "Doubt" glyph had already landed silently upon it.
The Mouse Demon stopped screaming. It closed its mouth and a smile appeared on its face. "Good, excellent! Young lady, you've come. This humble god will carry you to the bridal sedan..."
So that was the effect of the "Doubt" glyph: a miraculous power to reverse black and white, to make one call a deer a horse.
'The Scholar's Illusion Text is truly marvelous.'
"SQUEAK, SQUEAK SQUEAK!"
The Mouse Demon bent down and, as if drunk, picked up a black stone about a foot long from the corner and slung it onto its back.
The moment the stone was on its back, the image of the handsome man burst like a bubble with a soft POP. The stone weighed it down. The Mouse Demon, only about a foot tall to begin with, was now carrying a foot-long stone. Its spine instantly bent as if under an unbearable weight.
The Mouse Demon's back was arched as it carried the stone, yet it seemed completely unaware that anything was wrong. Instead, it squeaked joyfully again.
Then, carrying what it believed to be its "bride," it hopped and skipped away, burrowing out from the corner of the Song Family Courtyard. With that, the Mouse Demon vanished.
With its disappearance, the mountains of gold and silver in the Song Family Courtyard collapsed.
RUSTLE RUSTLE... A pile of shredded paper fluttered down, filling the air. Song Ciwan swept her sleeve, flicking out a wisp of Blazing Flame that instantly incinerated the paper scraps to ash.
The Big White Goose awoke as if from a dream, shaking its head.
Song Ciwan quickly bent down and gently patted its head. A wisp of aura from her Dream-Entering Technique was released, and the Big White Goose, still shaking its head, fell back into a deep sleep.
Song Ciwan took out the House Protection Talisman she had bought today. She placed the talisman in a Brocade Pouch and hung it around the Big White Goose's neck.
The goose went into its pen and fell back asleep.
Song Ciwan, meanwhile, changed into black clothes and put on a new Human Skin Mask. With a slight sway in the fine snow, she transformed into a shadow and melted into the night.
Escape into the Night. Song Ciwan gave chase to the demon.
On this snowy night, demonic disasters were erupting all over the city.
As a shadow, Song Ciwan even caught distant glimpses of the City Patrol Department's Night Watchers in the streets and alleys, as well as other masters who leaped through the darkness, clearly a cut above the rest—
She couldn't tell if they were independent masters or Demon-slaying Captains from the Lantern Hanging Department.
The Mouse Demon, however, scurried toward deserted areas. Song Ciwan used the "Doubt" glyph to track it, winding through several streets and alleys, pursuing it into increasingly remote areas until, at a certain moment, the Mouse Demon darted into a dead-end alley.
At the end of the dark alley was a brick wall of an indiscernible color. Just then, a deep, ink-blue light began to glow faintly from the base of the wall.
A short, arched doorway seemed to appear within the light, and the Mouse Demon scurried forward to enter it.
At this point, Song Ciwan knew she could follow no further.
'Where does the gate of light lead?'
Song Ciwan didn't want to know. She was keenly aware that she currently lacked the ability to get to the bottom of it.
Her only purpose in chasing the demon was to kill it!
And she would start by killing this Mouse Demon.
The Mouse Demon, still carrying the stone, had yet to notice the approaching danger. It stood before the gate of light, shaking the fine snow from its body, and then let out a soft "squeak."
But the "squeak" was not fully uttered. Suddenly, a clap of thunder split the night sky, striking down from nowhere!
Palm Thunder.
SQUEAK!
The Mouse Demon looked up at the sky as the thunderbolt descended upon it, but how could it possibly have time to dodge?
It was not faster than the lightning. The Palm Thunder struck it, splitting it clean through from head to toe.
The Mouse Demon fell dead to the ground. Song Ciwan flicked her sleeve, summoning the Heaven and Earth Scale, and used one of its Balance Plates to collect the Mouse Demon's body.
Arriving like a shadow, leaving without a trace.