Chapter 74 |
Red Sand Well…
After the black-robed man left, Yuan Yuanyuan sat in her chair spacing out for a long time.
He probably didn’t want to poke too deeply into “Yi Qi’s” painful past and had just casually mentioned it. It took her half a minute to remember—Red Sand Well was the place where Yi Qi had supposedly been executed back then.
Her heart skipped a beat, and she didn’t dare make a sound. She kept her head down like a quail the entire time he was there.
Yuan Yuanyuan knew all too well that she and Yi Qi were completely different people. But the black-robed man hadn’t shown much suspicion toward her, so she’d just assumed that maybe he and Yi Qi weren’t all that close to begin with.
After all, Yi Qi had gone off alone as a spy and died. She had been missing for a long time. Even if someone had once been close to her, it’d be hard to recognize her after so many years—especially since she’d been out of sight for so long.
But it turned out, he didn’t doubt her personality… he was actually suspicious about her strength.
Still, with Yi Qi’s identity supposedly so well-hidden, most people wouldn’t even imagine that someone could impersonate such a powerful demon. Add to that Ji Qiu’s storytelling magic, and even this man hadn’t truly questioned her identity.
He’d just reasonably wondered if maybe Yi Qi had experienced something in the Red Sand Well that caused a major change…
In ancient times, demons worshiped the Demon Gods there.
Humans worshipped demons, demons worshipped their own higher beings… and the Red Sand Well was said to be a well that connected directly to the realm of the Demon Gods. Every few centuries, demons would toss a few of their own kind into it as sacrifices.
The Red Sand Well had a terrifying ability—it could absorb the spiritual energy of any demon who got too close. The sacrificial demons were often left as dry, shriveled husks.
So when the black-robed man asked if she’d experienced anything in the Red Sand Well…
The subtext was: “Bro, looks like you’ve lost some serious power, huh?”
Leaving that aside, Yuan couldn’t help but feel a strange admiration for the demon world’s… resourcefulness.
Killing people while recycling them as spiritual fuel? Now that’s commitment to efficiency.
…
“Where… am I?”
“This is Qingshan Temple,” someone said as they entered. “The Sanqing Daoist Temple was burned down. Until it’s rebuilt, you’ll live here.”
Lying on the bed, Fa Ning shot up and saw a young monk carrying a tray of food and medicine.
“What about our sect elders?” he asked urgently.
“Some have returned to help rebuild, others are still here recovering.”
Looking at the plain vegetarian meal on the table, Fa Ning sat in silence for a long moment—then suddenly collapsed back down.
—From the latest issue of Demon Chronicles.
Yuan Yuanyuan was gnawing on a duck neck and fiddling with a box of hair dye. She’d never dyed her hair before and was trying to figure out how to do it when—
“Boss! What are you doing?!” Tang Shi suddenly barged in.
Yuan turned around, caught red-handed with hair dye and a bowl of hot water. Tang Shi’s expression instantly became… hard to describe.
“……”
Yuan, still in her chair, explained, “See, the thing is—I’ve realized my face looks a little too similar to someone else’s. So I thought I should switch up my hairstyle to look a bit different. Especially since that person I resemble is kinda high-profile right now…”
“Then don’t go with this color!” Tang Shi waved the dye. “Brown? That’s so boring. At least try something wild—like sakura pink, or electric purple!”
Yuan thought of a purple-haired Yuan… and shuddered. Tang Shi asked, “Did you eat breakfast?”
“Nope, just got back… pulled an all-nighter.” Yuan rubbed her eyes. “You do your thing—I’m gonna crash.”
“I don’t even know what you’re doing out so late,” Tang Shi said. She suddenly spotted the notebook on the table and picked it up. “What’s this?”
“Notes,” Yuan mumbled groggily.
Tang Shi started flipping through the pages, muttering aloud, “Demon concealment techniques, incantations… ‘first rise then fall’?”
She paused, puzzled, then shook Yuan’s shoulder. “Boss, this is wrong! Our teacher taught us the chant with no rise or fall!”
“Huh?” Yuan blinked, then slurred, “Try reading it again. You messed it up…”
Before she could finish her sentence, Yuan yelped—Tang Shi had yanked her ear.
That woke Yuan up fast. She sat up, glaring, and saw her notebook being rifled through. “Hey! What are you even reading?! I can’t believe you’re snooping through my notes!”
“…You really do take notes,” Tang Shi muttered.
It was true. That notebook was full of demon technique research. And thanks to the black-robed man’s recent visit, Yuan had been studying so hard she was practically obsessed.
Since she was now wide awake and her ear hurt too much to sleep, she gave up. She pulled out her phone. A new chapter of Demon Chronicles had dropped yesterday, but she hadn’t read it yet—too busy studying.
This Saturday’s chapter had finally arrived… and readers were left dumbfounded again.
Fa Ning, now a homeless cabbage-child, had recovered a bit at the temple and decided to leave.
His situation had flipped completely. Before, even as a rookie, at least he had a temple. Now? Burnt to the ground.
The Sanqing Daoist Temple had lost many people.
He had seen it himself—fellow disciples slain like animals under demon claws.
Some dropped their pride and rolled on the ground in agony. Others raised broken swords in one final charge…
Fa Ning felt something inside him change—an emotion he’d never felt before.
It wasn’t righteous fury. It was cold, dark… corrosive like poison.
He knew something was off. But his thoughts were too chaotic to make sense of it.
Eventually, he made a decision—to go incognito, leave the mountain for a while.
He couldn’t forget the demon who’d burned the temple.
He had seen many “powerful demons” before. But this one exceeded them all.
The final panel showed Fa Ning boarding a bus. He wore sportswear and blended in with the humans around him—but his striking face still drew attention.
His chin rested on his hand as he looked out the window, while passengers around him stole glances.
This plot twist shocked readers, but many female fans were thrilled.
Fa Ning’s whole vibe had changed in Volume Two. His transformation was dramatic—he now had a “tragic, dangerous hot guy” vibe.
Yuan actually felt kind of bad for him. She figured this was all Ji Qiu’s fault—if he hadn’t thrown in that giant plot twist, Fa Ning’s sect might still be standing.
The chapter likely depicted events from two weeks ago—since Ji Qiu had been on hiatus during that time, he had plenty of time to script this arc.
Yuan flipped to the latest pages. Fa Ning had arrived in a new place—a mixed zone of exorcists and demons.
He walked the streets in casual clothes, hidden aura concealing his identity as an exorcist.
He coolly glanced at a woman being dragged off by a demon…
Damn, Yuan thought, cold dead eyes have never looked this good.
In an alley, Fa Ning stepped on a demon’s head, hands in his pockets. “What kind of demon do you think you are… being this arrogant?”
Without waiting for an answer, he stomped harder. His spiritual pressure grew.
The woman he saved had first looked grateful, then pale with fear—finally, she screamed and fled.
Fa Ning knew this wasn’t the right thing to do. If the temple elders had seen this, they’d scold him nonstop…
But right now, he didn’t care. He just wanted to crush the head beneath his foot.
…Damn. He’s actually gone dark, Yuan thought, wide-eyed. Are we getting a blackened, killer-exorcist arc now?!
As the demon lay dying, Fa Ning lazily pulled a wrinkled talisman from his pocket, chanted softly, and slapped it on the demon’s head.
It was a soul-searching talisman. It would force the demon to recall its deepest memories—but also risked turning it into a vegetable.
(Fun fact: it works on humans too.)
Fa Ning watched as the demon faded, then pressed the talisman to his own forehead.
His long lashes trembled slightly—as if he were trying to remember something.
He was new here. Knowing the local power dynamics couldn’t hurt.
Then he began seeing… all kinds of nonsense.
Some of the demon’s personal life. Power structures. Famous demons. Beautiful women.
Amid the chaos, something strange floated into view—like a phantom, drifting into his mind.
“Ruhua is a very carefree person. You… seem more restrained than him.”
“I’m not Ruhua,” a man said quietly, in a sea of red. “I’m Yuan.”
Countless demons surrounded a man in black. He stood alone in the center.
This memory had left a deep impression on the dying demon. It had happened two months ago, when he’d stumbled into a crowd gathering around a fight.
And now, readers saw it too—one person at the center of a massive demon gathering.
That day, there was no night sky. The whole world was drenched in blood-red light.
…
Yuan stared at the comic. Her mind went blank.
Wait—wasn’t this… two months ago?!
How the hell did this end up in the manga?!
I thought this would never get shown. Now it’s suddenly here, two months later?!
Which means… what I’m doing now could also show up in a few months?!
“Yuan looks so damn cool,” Tang Shi leaned over. “He’s so hot. I didn’t expect him to be this strong—he’s surrounded by all these big-name demons. He’s gotta be one of the top ones, right? I used to think he was just some lolicon…”
In the comic, Yuan in black vanished in an instant, and a beautiful red blossom bloomed where he stood—like a branch of plum flowers.
…Wait. What the hell? Was that a smoke bomb?!
(And of course, Yuan had never seen herself disappearing before… no one had ever told her what it looked like.)
…Flashback scene. Cinematic buildup. Alone in the spotlight…
So many boss-level cues…
Yuan’s eyes suddenly welled up.
Ah… as a low-level, powerless little demon…
Why the hell am I this cool?!