Chapter 55: The Essence of Mist Demons

Night was deep.

Zhang San lay in bed, listening to the steady breathing of his old and young wives and children. He remained motionless, waiting for time to pass.

Suddenly, dense howls and ghostly cries came from outside the small town. Mist Demons within the Dark Mist were trying to attack. It happened every day, every night exactly like this.

He silently sat up immediately. He leapt to the floor like a civet cat. Even in the pitch-black darkness where nothing was visible, he still accurately hung several thick straw mats over the windows and doors.

Then, he lit the oil lamp.

Staring at this small light, Zhang San felt a momentary daze. When would this kind of life ever end?

Zhang San’s ancestors, to be precise, his great-grandfather, was once a Nascent Soul True Cultivator, and even the Seventy-ninth generation leader of the Lanshan Sect…

Zhang San wasn’t actually very clear on the true meaning of these titles. He only knew that from his grandfather’s generation onwards, the Zhang family had been tenants in Kao Mountain Town.

The nominal owner of Kao Mountain Town was the territory of the Marquis House Ma family. The Ma family were nobles of the Sacred Raven Kingdom. But in truth, Kao Mountain Town ever only had one true master: the Temple.

Over the past hundred years or so, the Zhang family had also produced four generations. But so far, the entire family, old and young, only numbered nineteen people. Other family members either died of strange illnesses, died encountering monsters, or were favored by the lords in the Temple and never returned.

Yet throughout it all, over this past hundred years, at least part of the things left by Zhang San’s great-grandfather still remained.

Heaving a silent sigh, Zhang San glanced at the bed. His eldest wife, now shockingly old, his still somewhat young second wife, his concubine, and then in the large partitioned space, his second son, youngest son; in the smaller partitioned space, his eldest daughter, youngest daughter; and in the outer partitioned space, his eldest son, eldest son’s wife, and a young grandson.

Then, outside the room, in the two connected houses, lived the families of his younger brothers Zhang Si and Zhang Wu.

This was his everything.

This was the entirety of the Zhang family.

Nineteen people in total. But just a few days ago, it had been twenty. Because his youngest son had been favored by a Temple lord, taken to the Temple, and never returned.

Suppressing the deep sorrow in his heart, Zhang San tried to calm his emotions. Carefully, he retrieved a buried wooden box from under the bed. Opening it revealed a small hourglass. This was his Zhang family’s most important treasure.

Because his grandfather himself had told his father, and his father himself had told him.

“Every day at midnight, when the forces of heaven and earth converge, when earthly energies rise, that thing is at its weakest. It’s also the time when the wronged souls who died unjustly in this world want to seek justice. That’s when you can remove the amulet from your neck. Remember, you have only two hours. You absolutely must not miss the timing.”

His father’s terrifyingly serious voice still echoed in Zhang San’s mind. He stared fixedly at the hourglass until all the black sand inside drained down. This meant midnight had arrived.

Zhang San quickly flipped the hourglass over. He hastily removed the amulet hanging on his neck that felt like a death warrant. Then he removed them for his three sons, two daughters, one daughter-in-law, and his young grandson. As for the others, there was no time to care for them.

This was the Zhang family’s future.

After removing them, Zhang San took out six sheets of Talisman Paper. He pasted them onto their foreheads. They were said to be the Zhang family’s ancestral Dispelling Talismans, able to effectively remove toxins within the body.

As for their effectiveness… well, one could see by looking at Zhang San’s three wives.

Zhang San himself didn’t understand them, but he knew how to make them.

Originally, Zhang San had six brothers and three sisters. Only he had this talent, so the most dangerous tasks were always done by his eldest brother, second brother, fourth brother, fifth brother, and sixth brother. When the Temple lords came to select people, his brothers and sisters were always chosen first.

He was kept well-protected.

He was even granted special permission to take several wives.

But Zhang San was not happy at all. He missed his two honest older brothers. He missed those sisters, who had such beautiful smiles and were taken away when barely teenagers. He missed his own youngest brother. He missed all the family members who had died over the years. And he missed his youngest son, taken only a few days ago at just six years old. Before being led away, the boy thought he was going to eat something delicious. He kept looking back, shouting again and again for father and mother.

Those shouts had carried clearly from afar, echoing relentlessly in his mind these past days.

Zhang San crouched in a corner, biting his younger sisters who laughed so beautifully but were taken away in their teens. He missed his youngest brother. He missed family members who had died one by one over the years. He missed his youngest son, only six years old just a few days ago. Before being taken away, the boy thought he was going to get tasty food. He kept looking back. He kept calling for his father and mother.

The shouts came clearly even from far away. They had echoed ever since.

Zhang San crouched in the corner, biting his own arm, crying silently.

Soon, Zhang San stood up. He still had things to do. Every day, he had only one hour to sit in meditation. One hour to make Dispelling Talismans. He didn’t know what use it was. He could only use every possible method to endure. Endurance would eventually yield hope, right?

——

The river surface shrouded in Dark Mist was somewhat crowded. Mist Demons were everywhere.

Even though Li Si was wearing a Black Fog Cloak and hidden within the Dark Mist, his heart pounded wildly. He didn’t dare to take even a deep breath.

It was worth mentioning that when he put on the Black Fog Cloak, it seemed he too transformed into a Mist Demon. He gained a vision similar to theirs. In this vision, the standard for seeing things wasn’t the brightness or darkness of light anymore, but life and death.

Living things appeared as flickering flames. The dead were darkness itself.

As for the Mist Demons themselves, they were flowing masses of gray.

Additionally, Li Si hadn’t found any evidence that these Mist Demons were allied with the Evil God Cult, nor had he found that they possessed intelligence or the ability to communicate. The only certainty was they held a near-instinctive craving for living beings.

They wanted to live.

Like at this moment, the reason so many Mist Demons appeared on this river was entirely because a small town of about three thousand people had emerged on the river’s east bank.

Those flickering flames became a target coveted by large numbers of Mist Demons.

As for the distance between this town and the Deserted Village where Floating Cloud Sect was located, it was about a hundred miles, Li Si figured, since he felt he had paddled the boat for at least five hours.

“Not bad. If I can destroy an Evil God Idol here, it should definitely open things up.”

Thinking this, Li Si cautiously paddled the small boat. Occasionally he even had to jump into the water and pull the boat forward, because the Mist Demons around were too crowded. Who knows where they all hid during the day?

“These Mist Demons don’t seem like lackeys of the Evil God. They seem more like beings formed because of the Evil God’s invasion. Ghost-like but not ghosts, demon-like but not demons, yet intensely eager for fresh life. Their only way of attack is to drain life force, tsk-tsk!”

Li Si finally managed to squeeze to the riverbank. He directly sank the boat into the mud at the bottom of the water. He wasn’t worried about losing it; he could find it anytime with a Track-Finding and Trace-Erasing Curse.

Besides, he felt he might not need the boat anymore after this. There were clever people in the Evil God Cult who were sure to figure out that both times he attacked previously, he moved along the river.

Clad in the Black Fog Cloak, Li Si swiftly moved between the many Mist Demons and soon reached the very front – the place where all the Mist Demons were being held back.

Large stone tablets stood here, carved with various symbols. Now, through the vision of the Mist Demons, one could see these symbols blazing fiercely, burning any Mist Demon daring to get close alive. Mist Demons were burned to death continuously.

“Huh, these are Cultivator techniques. How ironic.”

Li Si also didn’t dare get too close, because his Black Fog Cloak was also suppressed by the symbols on the stone tablets.

But this didn’t stop him from moving around and picking up benefits. When a Mist Demon was burned to death, he earned Black Fate Fuel as long as he got close quickly, even without doing anything himself. The amount varied randomly, sometimes dozens, sometimes just a few pieces.

For a time, Li Si felt quite happy hanging around here.

In less than half an hour, just by taking advantage of this, he had already gathered 598 pieces of Black Fate Fuel, equivalent to killing six Mist Demons.

Comfortable.

However, he also noticed something odd. As time gradually approached midnight, the Mist Demons grew more excited and restless. They even seemed to recall some past memories. Some Mist Demons even managed to shout a few words.

This gave Li Si a bold idea. If he threw out a Heart Cleansing Curse at this moment, would they become clear-headed?

But this was no place for experimenting. His intuition told him he was about to discover some secret.

Then, as Mist Demons began regaining clarity, initially it was just a few daring to charge forward. Later, it became dozens charging up.

At this point, the fiery symbols on the stone tablets couldn’t handle them all. Within a few minutes, symbols on one tablet finally dimmed. In an instant, all Mist Demons became restless and, surging wildly through this breach, charged in.

Like a raging flood.

This situation truly surprised Li Si, but he still didn’t dare act rashly. While continuing to take advantage, he followed behind them. He really wanted to know how the Evil God Idol in this town attacked the invading Mist Demons.

If they couldn’t stop these Mist Demons… believe him, in one night this town would become a place of death.

Obviously, that couldn’t happen.

Sure enough, a familiar surge of power soon appeared. Li Si’s heart instantly felt a slight throb of apprehension. This was the Evil God Idol gazing upon them.

But the intensity was low, maybe only one percent of what he experienced before. Not fatal. And because this power wasn’t focused but spread out, covering the entire town’s surroundings, the pollution level for any individual barely reached mild.

If an ordinary person stood here right now, they might need to stay for an hour just to accumulate 1% of Alienation Contamination Degree.

Yet, just this tiny dose had an immense suppressing effect on those Mist Demons.

Exactly like… an instinct carved into their bones. Even after becoming ghosts, those knees just couldn’t straighten.

Hey, could these Mist Demons actually be ghosts? Humans can change under the Evil God’s influence; no reason ghosts can’t change too.

“These Mist Demons are still too cowardly.”

Li Si quickly came to this conclusion because most Mist Demons now stopped about one mile outside the town. They stood there, howling their hearts out. If one could ignore the terrifying sound, it might even be compared to a lotus pond at night, filled with frog calls.

Besides that, not all Mist Demons refrained from charging in. They tended to be stronger, and had regained the most rationality at this moment. They could even communicate briefly, could urge other Mist Demons to charge together…

But in the end, only a scattered few charged in—three or five, two or three, three or four—only to be quickly dispatched by the Black-Armored Warriors on the town’s outer wall.

So this was the truth.

“What are you waiting for? Dared you not fight when you were alive? Don’t dare even now that you’re dead?”

Suddenly, an exceptionally clear voice rang out. This was the most logical-sounding Mist Demon voice Li Si had ever heard. As its voice sounded, the Mist Demons around it seemed to become restless too. But right then, a dark ray of light shot from the town wall—it was a flying chain shackle. It locked onto this Mist Demon and dragged it into the darkness.