A sound of pleasure
That night, after receiving the news from Yue Niang that it was nightfall, several people squatted in the house, and through the slightly opened gaps in the wooden windows, they kept a close eye on the movements outside the house.
However, until Yue Niang brought news again, saying that a monster had been killed on the mountainside, there was no movement outside the house.
They quickly left the house, and Si Xi was already waiting in the yard, taking them to the place where they were killed.
The dead one was a horse demon, probably several hundred years old. His body was exactly as Yue Niang had described it: bloated, pale, with wrinkles on the tips of his fingers from being submerged in water for too long, it truly looked like a floating corpse that had been soaked in water for too long.
However, the hair on the horse demon's body was dry.
"Could it be that this evil spirit is actually a water ghost?"
Si Xi said to Yan Ye speechlessly: "The river on this mountain has been dry for who knows how long. The original water ghosts should have been forced to move away. It is definitely not a water ghost."
"That's not a water ghost. The river on the mountain has dried up again. How could the horse demon's body be soaked like this? Perhaps there is an underground river in Yuemang Mountain!"
"Stay aside and shut up." Si Xi glanced at Yan Ye impatiently, motioning him to stand aside, then turned around and continued to look at them for suspicious points.
After a careful inspection, Yuanli's face became serious as she said, "I wonder if you've heard of a monster called Si Tiao. Si Tiao is usually a woman. Before transforming into a monster, it was just a kind of water insect. It is soft, boneless, and has no limbs. Its body is emerald green. It crawls onto the shore at night. When the moon shines on it, its entire body emits a faint light. It eats resentment and eliminates miasma. It is originally a beneficial insect."
"I've never heard of it. If I had known earlier that there were such beneficial insects, I would have invited them to Yuemang Mountain, and the mountain people would have been less troubled by the miasma. Blame me for being so ignorant. I wonder where I can find Si Tiao?" Su Yang asked.
"Si Tiao is rare, and it's a good thing you don't know her. If you really invite her, with the miasma of Yuemang Mountain, you won't be able to control even a Si Tiao."
"What do you mean?"
"Si Tiao, before they transform into demons, are truly beneficial insects. Born from the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, they are extremely rare. From birth, they embark on a journey to seek out resentment and miasma. Miraculously, they seem to be able to sense where resentment accumulates and where miasma is dense. They follow the riverbeds, coming ashore at night to continue their journey until they reach the place they sense and fulfill their mission. However, even those born to feed on it cannot escape the harm of the resentful miasma. Generally, when the intake becomes unbearable, Si Tiao's life ends. However, there are exceptions, and those who survive become monsters driven by the resentful miasma. A tragic life, doing good deeds but ending badly."
"What a pitiful monster! Do you suspect that the evil spirit causing the rebellion is the demonized Si Tiao?"
Yuanli nodded and pierced the horse demon's arm with the hairpin. Instead of blood, a thick white fluid flowed from the wound. Using the firelight to illuminate the wound, she could vaguely make out a number of tiny, densely packed white worms scurrying frantically.
Si Xi and Yan Ye were somewhat disgusted and tried hard to suppress their vomiting. She asked, "Hey, are these maggots?"
"No. This is the demonized Si Tiao's saliva."
"Saliva? These are clearly maggots!"
"They're not maggots. They're not even living insects. When Si Tiao absorbs resentment and flatulence into her body, it absorbs them and transforms them, but this harms her. During the transformation and consumption process, the resentment and flatulence transform into this milky white mucus. Only the mucus in the demonized Si Tiao's body can wriggle like this. Furthermore, upon entering the body, this mucus will divide madly, sucking blood. Without blood, the worms will wander through the body, splitting themselves if they can't get through, or using their own urine to slowly corrode a path. To prevent their host from being drained too quickly and losing the protection of flesh, nearby worms will follow the path they've already corroded, in a very orderly manner."
Upon hearing this, everyone except Yuanli silently stepped back, and Heqi even pulled Yuanli directly behind him.
Yuanli comforted them, "Don't be afraid, everyone. They can't crawl on dry ground. Even if they try their best, they can only crawl a distance the length of a finger."
"Then why does the horse demon look like it was drowned?"
"Because the first worms to emerge from those tiny holes that corrode the skin will sacrifice themselves, merging with each other to continuously coat the horse demon's body with a thin layer of water mist, keeping it moist and preventing the worms inside from drying out. Constant moisture will naturally cause the skin to wrinkle as if it's been soaked, and the pale, swollen corpse is due to the worms within."
"So, Si Tiao's method of killing people is spitting?"
Yuanli affirmed: "In short, yes."
Su Yang asked in confusion, "Killing people by spitting? That's unheard of. How can we fight him? Even if we use all our strength, a single spit from him can kill us."
"Long-range combat? How far can Si Tiao's saliva reach?"
"That... I don't know, Si Xi. When you told me about Si Tiao's monster, you never mentioned how far her saliva could travel. Si Tiao loves water. Even after she transformed into a monster, she still likes to stay in the water. We can try to find her near the water. Water has always been precious and rare in Yuemang Mountain, so there aren't many places for her to hide."
Si Xi approached Yuan Li and whispered in her ear, "My father dug a small pond in the backyard of their house to please Mother. He planted lotus flowers and raised fish. Yue Niang said she wanted to preserve my father's hard work, so she is the one raising the lotus flowers and fish. Will Yue Niang raise Si Tiao in that small pond?"
"Can you take us there?"
Si Xi said in embarrassment, "This... is a bit difficult. Yue Niang rebuilt a house next to my parents' yard. To get to my parents' house, you have to pass by her door. If Si Tiao is really in the pond, Yue Niang will definitely be keeping an eye on her movements and won't let you get close."
"When you went to your parents' house, did they ever stop you or deliberately ask you to stay shorter?"
"No."
Yuanli was just thinking when she heard another howl in the distance: "Help! A female ghost is killing people! Run! There's a ghost!"
Hearing the sound, several people quickly ran in the direction of the howling, with Heqi leading the charge, while Suyang and Sixi protected the rear. The forest was pitch black, and Heqi immediately formed a hand seal and cast dozens of fireballs in all directions, illuminating the woods.
They could see clearly that the ground was littered with corpses, all of them dead in the same way as the horse demon, likely killed by Si Tiao. Many demons were desperately trying to escape.
Si Xi turned around and told Yan Ye, "Go and catch a few of the fleeing monsters. Pick out the ones you've seen before and ask them what the female ghost they're calling looks like."
"Okay. Then you, be careful."
Chasing in the opposite direction of their escape, the bodies on the ground continued to pile up, but they still couldn't find any trace of them. As they chased further, the bodies on the ground became fewer, with only one body every few meters.
Yuanli asked, "Should we continue chasing? It feels like they are deliberately trying to lead us after them."
"Of course I did it on purpose. Chase her, why not? If I don't, how can I watch her next role?"
As expected, the last corpse of the guide appeared at the edge of the cliff. The body was half buried, with the upper body exposed, facing the cliff, and a white cloth with red words on it was stuffed in its mouth.
Si Xi tore off the cloth strip without hesitation, not even feeling disgusted. He saw that it said: If you don't want to die, don't meddle in other people's business.
After reading it, Si Xi rolled his eyes fiercely and said speechlessly: "This is too obvious!"
Su Yang reminded him, "Si Xi, throw away the cloth quickly. Who knows if there are Si Tiao's worms on it."
"No, look! The body isn't pale or wrinkled, nor is it bloated. His arms are limp and hanging, but his body is perfectly straight. Remember, he's only half buried, so there's no way he could have straightened up on his own. I'm guessing there must have been something long, like a stick, piercing through his... that... part, and the killer must have used tremendous force to pierce him directly. His expression isn't terrified, his eyes open; he looks like he's asleep, which suggests he was unconscious before being stabbed. The cause of his death was the weapon that pierced him."
"Miss Yuanli, what you said is really creepy. From what I can see on his head, there's no wound or blood. He must be bleeding from one of his seven orifices, right?"
"The killer used just the right amount of force, not enough to penetrate the skull. As for the lack of blood, I suspect it was a red-hot iron rod or sword. During marches, there's a method of stopping bleeding, using a red-hot iron to burn the wound to quickly stop the bleeding. This works the same way."
"If you want to achieve the effect of using a branding iron to stop bleeding as my sister said, with such a long iron, only a fire-type monster using magic can achieve this effect. Ordinary fire will not work, and there won't be enough time."
"Yes, then there is another tricky fire demon here."
Si Xi said, "I think I know who this fire demon is."
"who?"
"Remember that weird guy I mentioned that Father and Yue Niang met regularly? He always came alone, except for the first time after Father died, when Yue Niang went up the mountain. The weird guy brought a huge, hideous guy with him. He was bald, with a long beard braided into a centipede-like braid, and his body was covered in burn scars. It was him who helped Yue Niang establish her authority. His hands could turn into red-hot embers, and he could even melt a knife. I can't think of anyone else besides him."
Tsurugi said, "Isn't that the big guy without a shirt? There's a scar on his back that runs diagonally from his shoulder to his waist? And he's limping on his right foot."
"How do you know? Do you know him?"
"More than just knowing him. I was the one who gave him the scar on his back. If he hadn't eaten the Miaohua Immortal Grass given by his master, he wouldn't be alive today. The fact that Toad allowed him to help establish his authority shows that both Yue Niang and your father work for Xie Yuan's former subordinates. Let me ask you, who listens to whom, the weirdo or the big guy?"
"Big guys listen to weirdos."
There was murderous intent in Heqi's eyes, but he was also a little excited. He said to himself, "In that case, the identity of this weirdo can only be one of those three."
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