Chapter 52 The Mark of Chizuka
Shao Yanzhe paced back and forth, thinking a lot, and finally decided to go and see what was going on with other people.
The first person he contacted was Zhou Jiming, whose room was closest to his and would save him time.
He knocked lightly on his door, but Zhou Jiming did not open it.
Did something happen to him?
His already uneasy heart began to beat faster after receiving no response from Zhou Jiming.
Shao Yanzhe simply ignored everything, pushed the door open forcefully, and strode into Zhou Jiming's bedroom. He lifted the bed curtains and saw the person sleeping sprawled out on his back.
After observing carefully, and confirming that Zhou Jiming was indeed just asleep and that there was no intention to wake him, they lowered the bed curtains.
Just as he was about to leave, he suddenly remembered that he had just seen Zhou Jiming with the blankets tucked under him.
He looked around, then finally picked up the clothes he had hung on the hanger, and pulled back the bed curtains to cover his stomach.
When you sleep, you must cover your stomach with something!
After finishing, Shao Yanzhe went out and gently closed the door, but after all that commotion, he was no longer sleepy.
After standing in front of the door for a moment, he slowly walked to the stone bench in the courtyard and sat down without wiping it.
He looked up at the sky, which was dark and dotted with stars, much like the ones he saw in modern times.
This made him feel a little melancholy. He had just saved enough money to buy a house, and he planned to wait another year before buying one. Unexpectedly, he died suddenly from overwork and was transported here.
He shook his head instantly. He couldn't think about it anymore, or he would feel heartache for the money in his bank account.
After being exposed to the cold wind for a while, he gradually felt sleepy. Just as he was about to get up and leave, he heard a rustling sound coming from the top of the wall.
Before he could react, a soft voice rang in his ears.
"Shao Yanzhe!"
The voice was calling his name.
The voice sounded familiar, but Shao Yanzhe couldn't immediately recall who it belonged to.
At the same time, a desire to reciprocate the other person's feelings arises in one's heart.
"Shao Yanzhe!" The voice rang out again.
"Shao Yanzhe!!"
Before Shao Yanzhe could react, the voice called his name again, this time with more urgency, and the desire to respond was even stronger.
He forcibly suppressed this feeling, turned his head in confusion, his pupils trembled involuntarily, and he stood up abruptly, taking several steps back in shock.
On the opposite courtyard wall, a creature with a snake's body and a human head was clinging to the top. The head was that of a very beautiful woman, with an extravagant hairpin in her hair bun, fair skin, delicate features, and a forked tongue that occasionally protruded from her cherry-red mouth.
This gave Shao Yanzhe a chill down his spine. What was this thing?
"Shao Yanzhe! Why won't you agree to my request?" The woman's head spoke again, her snake body clinging to the top of the wall, her head slowly being supported by the snake's body as she peered into the courtyard.
Shao Yanzhe took a few steps back again. After a moment, he ran his fingers over the slightly cool jade hairpin pen, which made his fear subside and replaced by curiosity.
This was the first time he had ever seen something so strange. What kind of ghost was it?
"Who are you?" he asked.
The woman was taken aback, clearly not expecting that Shao Yanzhe was unaffected by her. Judging from his appearance, he was obviously unaffected by her abilities.
What surprised her even more was that when the scholar saw her, he didn't scream or run away in fear; instead, he even had the courage to ask who she was.
She immediately became interested, staring at the scholar, her pupils suddenly contracting into a vertical line, radiating a cold, beast-like aura.
"You want to know who I am? May I come in?" The woman's voice was sweet and innocent, making anyone who heard it feel like their bones were melting.
Shao Yanzhe then realized that the strange thing was still clinging to the wall and showed no sign of entering the courtyard.
He thought for a moment, then tightened his grip on the jade hairpin pen. He didn't sense any danger from the thing in front of him, meaning it couldn't harm him.
Having reached this conclusion, he no longer hesitated: "Yes."
No sooner had he finished speaking than the woman's head shot towards him like a sharp sword.
Shao Yanzhe raised his hand, about to attack her, when a black figure struck first.
"Meow! Meow! Meow!"
How dare you touch my two-legged creature!
Xuan Yao's heterochromatic golden-black eyes emitted a faint green glow in the black night. Its hind legs were planted seven inches from the woman's head, and its two front paws were forcefully striking the woman's head, making it look extremely fierce.
Shao Yanzhe: ...
The woman was momentarily stunned, then struggled to break free.
However, Xuan Yao was very strong, and the woman's head couldn't break free at all, so she could only let the black cat on her body beat her.
"Stop hitting! Stop hitting! Stop hitting!"
"I'll never do it again!"
The woman begged for mercy repeatedly, her originally sweet voice becoming hoarse and unpleasant.
Xuan Yao finally stopped, satisfied, and then looked up at Shao Yanzhe.
When Shao Yanzhe saw its small, perky chest, which looked like it was saying, "Aren't you amazing? Praise me!", he couldn't help but curl his lips into a smile.
"You're amazing!"
Receiving the praise, Xuan Yao nodded reservedly, his sharp cat-like eyes fixed on the woman's head that it had stepped on.
Shao Yanzhe looked at him and asked again, "Who are you? Why are you here?"
The woman looked at Xuan Yao fearfully and answered honestly, "I am just a lingering resentment that got entangled with a dead snake, which is why I look like this. I don't know who I am. I am here to hunt."
Shao Yanzhe nodded; he could tell that the strange thing wasn't lying.
However, this thing must be a rather dangerous ghost, so we can't let her leave.
Then we have no choice but to kill him!
Shao Yanzhe's gaze toward the woman's head immediately turned hostile. He raised his hand, revealing a jade hairpin pen in his hand, which emitted a faint white light unique to scholars, making it look like a uniquely shaped luminous pearl.
When the woman saw the jade hairpin pen in his hand, she couldn't help but feel a little regretful.
I originally thought he was a weak scholar, but he turned out to be a tough nut to crack.
When she looked away, she saw a willow leaf formed from demonic power on the back of his hand.
"If I had known you were marked, I wouldn't have come!" She gave Shao Yanzhe a resentful look.
Shao Yanzhe was taken aback, then frowned and asked, "What do you mean by 'marked'? Who marked you?"
The woman's head: "Of course it was the great demon! I didn't expect you to be marked by that one. Luckily I didn't attack you, or I would have been in big trouble!"
Seeing the lingering fear on her face, Shao Yanzhe's thoughts shifted, and he tentatively asked, "Was that great demon the big willow tree outside Jiangzhou City?"
The woman nodded: "That's right, you have his powerful demon mark on the back of your hand. Ghosts and monsters weaker than him dare not attack the prey he marks."
As she spoke, she looked at Shao Yanzhe with sympathy: "It sounds good, but who knows when that great demon will enjoy his prey. Even if you want to escape, you won't be able to."
Shao Yanzhe raised his hand and glanced at the back of his hand, but in his eyes, there was nothing on the back of his hands, no mark of any great demon at all.
He placed it in front of Xuan Yao so he could see it, but Xuan Yao shook his head in confusion: "Meow?"
Xuan Yao looked at the woman's head suspiciously. He couldn't see anything. Could it be that this damned guy was just making up a lie to escape his fate?
The woman smiled ingratiatingly and said, "My Lord Spirit Cat, you must have been deceived by the great demon, which is why you can't see it."
Xuan Yao was stunned for a moment, then anger rose in his cat-like eyes, and he slapped the woman on the head.
"Meow!"
Damn it!
The woman's head was hit several times for no reason, and she suddenly felt hopeless, lying limply on the ground, looking very pitiful.
Shao Yanzhe quickly picked up Xuan Yao and comforted him. The woman's head on the ground seized the opportunity to run away, leaving shallow pits on the ground with its winding snake body.
Upon discovering this, Shao Yanzhe quickly used his spiritual energy to create a sphere and enclose the woman's head.
Upon seeing this, the woman quickly shrank her body, trying to squeeze out through the gap.
But as soon as it shrank, the ball formed by the Wenqi combination also shrank, and the woman's head had no way to escape.
He carried Xuan Yao over and saw a woman's head crawling around inside.
"Why are you leaving? I'm a hospitable person. Since you're here, I have to treat you well."
The woman, her head buried in the balloon, looked up at the scholar towering above her, knowing that she had truly lost this time.
"What do you want to do?" she asked.
Shao Yanzhe controlled the balloon to float up. After hearing the question, he thought for a moment and said, "I want to know some information about that great demon. Also, I want you to help me see if my companion has also been marked by the great demon."
The woman asked warily, "Is that all?"
Shao Yanzhe nodded: "That's right!"
The woman tentatively stated her request: "If I complete everything you said, you must let me leave!"
Shao Yanzhe readily agreed: "Okay."
"make a deal!"
After showing the woman's head to Zhou Jiming, Liu Mingyuan, and the other four, Shao Yanzhe received the answer that they too had been marked by the great demon.
He wasn't too surprised by this; they had gone to the big willow tree together, so it was reasonable for them to be marked by the great demon together.
They returned to the courtyard.
Shao Yanzhe placed the Wenqi Balloon on the stone table, then sat down with Xuan Yao in his arms and began to inquire about the situation of the willow tree demon.
"Why would that great demon mark scholars?"
The woman said, "I don't know the reason. I only know that the great demon is passionate about teaching and wishes that all the people he teaches can pass the imperial examination. He is a very strange great demon."
"Continue, tell me everything you know." Shao Yanzhe glanced at the woman's head, his eyes devoid of emotion, but being stared at by those eyes made him inexplicably uneasy.
The woman's head snapped to attention, and without further hesitation, she revealed all the information she knew about the great demon.
"That great demon has lived for over a thousand years. According to my elders, he only targets scholars. Those who fail his test all die in their homes in a very strange way. The humans just think those people have gone mad, but we can see that the dead people all have the mark of the great demon on their bodies."
Oh, and one more thing, each marked human only has seven days. If they fail the great demon's test on the seventh day, they will die!
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