I became the demon of the female devil

Chapter 257 The Holy Maiden Yu's mouth couldn't close! A visit to Prince Yu's residence!
Chen Mo looked up at Yu Hongyin, frowned, and said, "You can only come to me? What do you mean by that?"

Yu Hongyin organized her thoughts and said concisely, "Recently, disciples from various sects in the city have mysteriously disappeared. As far as I know, at least seven have lost contact..."

"Missing?"

Chen Mo chuckled and said, "Are you sure they didn't go to a nearby town to farm contribution points?"

Since the imperial court established the new civil service examination and set up the list of outstanding talents in the martial arts world, the enthusiasm of these sect disciples has been extremely high. In order to climb the list, some have even gone so far as to go to the border of Zhongzhou to hunt down fugitives...

It's normal to not be able to find someone for a while.

Yu Hongyin shook her head and said, "At first I thought so too, until two Netherworld Sect disciples also disappeared..."

She took out a talisman from her sleeve and said, "The Netherworld Sect's beacons can cover a radius of a thousand miles and can detect locations in real time, but now we can't sense any aura at all."

There are only two possibilities.

"Either they violated the sect's rules and left the capital without permission, traveling thousands of miles overnight, or something must have happened..."

Upon hearing this, Chen Mo frowned even more deeply.

"You mean, someone is secretly targeting the sect?"

"This is just my guess, but it's highly likely."

Yu Hongyin said helplessly, "If that's really the case, then it's clearly beyond the capabilities of the Six Doors, so I had no choice but to come to you."

Chen Mo has successively killed two great demons and solved many major cases. In terms of crime-solving ability, no one in the entire capital city can surpass him.

"When did this happen?" Chen Mo asked.

“Four days ago,” Yu Hongyin replied, “At first, it was two martial arts practitioners from the Kui Xing Sect who went missing. Nobody took it seriously, assuming they had disappeared while soliciting prostitutes at the brothel. But now the number is increasing…”

Chen Mo rubbed the cat's belly, lost in thought.

Although Yu Hongyin is not a very reliable person, she probably wouldn't joke about something like this.

Moreover, given the terrible relationship between the two, the fact that they came to him indicates that the problem is indeed very serious.

Just then, a line of prompt text flashed before my eyes:
[Special Event Triggered: Catch the Real Culprit!]

?

Chen Mo was slightly taken aback.

The last time I received a system mission was in the Mountain of Knives and Tomb of Swords, so I'm still a little out of place.

"Catch the real culprit..."

"In other words, these sect disciples were indeed assassinated and are very likely dead..."

Seeing that he remained silent, Yu Hongyin was somewhat disappointed and said in a low voice, "Fine, since you won't do it, I'll go find it myself..."

Before he could finish speaking, Chen Mo casually tossed the cat aside, stood up, and said, "Who said I don't care? I'm determined to handle this! Let's start by investigating your Netherworld Sect. Where were they last seen before they disappeared?"

Yu Hongyin blinked her clear black and white eyes, came back to her senses, and said, "On Cuiyan Street in the south of the city."

“Alright, the sooner the better, let’s set off now,” Chen Mo said immediately.

?

Yu Hongyin was still a little confused.

Actually, she didn't have high expectations for this trip.

After all, Chen Mo was a military officer of the imperial court. What did the life and death of the sect disciples have to do with him? There was no need for him to meddle in other people's business... but he didn't expect this person to be so concerned, as if he was even more anxious than he was.

"Meow~"

The cat tugged at Chen Mo's trouser leg with its paws, its heterochromatic eyes looking at him pitifully.

It was as if she was complaining that he had just returned and was about to leave again, giving off a strange sense of loneliness, like an old cat living alone.

Chen Mo hesitated for a moment, then grabbed it by the scruff of its neck and lifted it onto his shoulder. "Alright, I'll take you out for a walk, but you have to behave and not run around, or I'll put you in solitary confinement for a month..."

"Woo!"

The cat stuck out its pink tongue and excitedly licked his face.

"Shut up, you're getting my face all saliva on you, it's disgusting."

"Meow~"

"..."

Watching the interaction between the person and the cat, Yu Hongyin's expression was slightly strange.

What a sassy cat!

……

……

After entrusting the affairs of the yamen to Li Yuan, Chen Mo and Yu Hongyin left Huaizhenfang.

Neither of them rode horses; their figures swept across the streets.

Yu Hongyin's red dress fluttered in the wind, like a wisp of smoke, its trajectory unpredictable.

Chen Mo walked slowly with his hands behind his back, each step covering several meters, displaying the demeanor of a grandmaster (or a master of swagger).

"Shrinking the Earth into an Inch?"

"It seems a little different..."

Yu Hongyin was skilled in movement techniques and quickly figured out the trick.

The concept of "shrinking the earth to an inch" refers to an understanding of the laws of space, equivalent to traversing the void over a short distance.

Chen Mo's "Shrinking the Earth to an Inch Youth Edition" uses the reaction force of true essence to continuously propel himself forward.

This method seems simple, crude, and lacking in skill, but in reality, it consumes a huge amount of true energy. Even a fourth-rank martial artist couldn't sustain it for long. Only this freak could pull it off...

In the short time it takes to burn half an incense stick, the two traversed several blocks and arrived at Cuiyan Street in the south of the city.

This neighborhood was designed to resemble the features of the Jiangnan region, with white walls and black tiles, small bridges and flowing water, and willows swaying in the wind on both banks.

"right here."

Yu Hongyin led Chen Mo into a secluded alley and they arrived at a mansion.

As soon as I pushed open the door, a young maidservant quickly came to greet me.

"Holy Maiden, you've returned."

Seeing Chen Mo standing to the side, a hint of surprise flashed in her eyes, and she bowed and said, "Greetings, Lord Chen."

Chen Mo had a vague impression of this girl.

On the surface, she is Yu Hongyin's personal maid, but in reality, she is a protector of the Netherworld Sect, a peak fourth-grade cultivator with considerable strength.

Back when facing the Blood Demon in the Southern Frontier, he single-handedly defended against Bai Lingchuan, suppressing him so much that he couldn't even lift his head. Even after swallowing the Blood Burning Pill, he still couldn't do anything to him.

"You're too polite, young lady." Chen Mo nodded slightly, then asked, "I heard Saintess Yu give a brief account of what happened. What exactly happened?"

Qiao Tong struggled to tear her gaze away from that handsome face and replied, "It's like this. In response to the imperial court's call, in addition to the Holy Maiden, the sect sent two of its direct disciples to the capital for study, but we don't usually live together..."

“They usually arrive at the Imperial College on time for their lessons, but they were late the day before yesterday.”

"When I came to check after receiving the message, I found that the place was deserted and I couldn't contact them with the communication talisman."

"The key point is that this isn't the first time this has happened. As far as I know, other sects have also had disciples go missing in the past few days, and the situations are all very similar..."

As Qiao Tong recounted the situation, Chen Mo's gaze swept across the courtyard, his eyes gleaming with a purple-gold light.

After observing for a long time, no abnormalities were found.

There were no signs of a fight, nor any lingering traces; it was as if it had simply vanished into thin air.

"Let's go inside and take a look."

Chen Mo walked through the courtyard and into a bedroom.

The bedding on the bed was spread out, looking slightly messy.

I opened the wardrobe, and it was full of clothes.

"If it's just a trip to a nearby town, it's impossible that two days have passed without any news. But if it's a long journey, why wouldn't they bring any luggage?"

"There's a high chance something bad has happened..."

Yu Hongyin looked somewhat worried.

Chen Mo looked around and asked, "Were there any witnesses that night? Or did you hear any unusual noises?"

Qiao Tong shook her head. "We've already asked every house in the neighborhood, but we haven't found any useful clues."

Chen Mo then asked, "What is the strength of the two missing people? Have they had any conflicts with others recently?"

Qiao Tong replied, "Both of them are fifth-grade cultivators, and they are quite popular. I haven't heard of them having any conflicts with anyone."

Chen Mo remained silent, lost in thought.

This case is probably going to be a bit difficult to handle...

Most importantly, the perpetrator's motive remains unclear... Who would target a sect disciple? And what would their purpose be?
"Meow~"

At this moment, the cat stretched.

She stretched out her little paws and tugged at Chen Mo's collar, wanting him to play with her for a while.

Seeing that he ignored her, she felt a little bored, jumped off his shoulder, and started wandering around the room.

After a moment's thought, Chen Mo took out a bronze candle from his storage ring.

With a flick of his fingertips, a flame ignited, and he lit the wick, placing it on the table.

This soul-guiding lamp was seized from the ghost cultivator You Daoren. Once the lamp is lit, it can automatically attract wandering souls from the vicinity.

After waiting for a long time, nothing happened.

"It seems that the two of them are most likely not dead, or at least not in this room."

While this is good news, it also means that the last clue has been lost.

Yu Hongyin breathed a sigh of relief.

A hint of curiosity appeared in her eyes as she looked at Chen Mo.

Ghost cultivators and witch cultivators are similar in some ways, except one devours souls and the other controls souls. I didn't expect him to know such methods...

Just when everyone was at a loss, the cat crawled out from under the bed and kept meowing.

"Shut up, you stupid cat!"

Chen Mo was getting annoyed by the noise and was about to throw it away. But when he looked down, his gaze paused.

"Ok?"

The cat waved at him, a strand of black hair wrapped around its paw.

Chen Mo squatted down, removed the strand of hair, and examined it carefully.

Yu Hongyin and Qiao Tong also came over.

"The cut is very clean, indicating it was severed with a sharp tool, not naturally detached." Chen Mo twirled his fingers and said, "The hair hasn't become dry yet, it's been no more than three days."

"That's exactly the point at which it went missing."

Yu Hongyin said thoughtfully, "The Netherworld Sect is skilled at summoning spirits and tracking. Perhaps when they encountered danger and realized they couldn't defeat the enemy, they cut off a lock of hair and threw it under the bed, hoping to use it to send a message..."

"If one had a sundial, one could recreate the scene with just this strand of hair."

"Unfortunately, after slaying the Blood Demon Fu Li, the magic weapon disappeared without a trace. It seems we can only send a message back to the sect and ask our master to come here in person... Hmm?!"

Before he could finish speaking, the conversation abruptly ended.

Her rosy lips parted slightly as she stared blankly at the scene before her.

In Chen Mo's hand was a palm-sized bronze disc. The inner circle was engraved with the twelve two-hour periods of the day, and the outer circle was engraved with densely packed runes. The meteorite iron gnomon embedded in the center was dark and shadowy, as if it could devour light.

"An erosion... an erosion sundial?!"

"How did this end up in your hands?!"

Yu Hongyin exclaimed in disbelief.

"I picked it up."

Chen Mo said calmly.

"..."

Yu Hongyin recalled the scene at that time: after the great battle, Chen Mo mysteriously disappeared, and the sect's sacred artifact, the Sundial, was also nowhere to be found. Her master searched the ground three feet deep but could not find a single clue...

So he picked it up?!

"Putting everything else aside, with this we can find out what happened that night!"

She looked excited and instinctively reached out to grab it.

The next moment, a chilling killing intent enveloped her, and her movements suddenly froze.

Chen Mo narrowed his eyes slightly and said indifferently, "You want to just steal it, huh? Do you have any manners?"

Yu Hongyin's throat moved, as if she wanted to say that this magic weapon originally belonged to the Netherworld Sect, but she swallowed the words back.

The sundial has been lost for decades, and Chen Mo almost lost his life because of it... It's really a bit unreasonable to think that he can get it back so easily now.

"Lord Chen, you misunderstand. I only wanted to borrow it for a moment; I had no intention of stealing it."

Yu Hongyin shook her head and said, "Besides, even if you had it, it would be useless. The Eclipse Sundial is different from other magical treasures. It is a combination of Xuanming and Zhaoming, Yin and Yang. Without the corresponding cultivation technique, it is impossible to activate..."

"It's just Yin and Yang, why make it sound so complicated..."

Chen Mo's palm emitted black and white light, which was injected into the eclipsing gnomon, causing the gnomon needle to tremble violently.

?

Yu Hongyin's jaw almost dropped to the ground.

Judging from this aura, it's probably stronger than me!
How can it be……

"The three jiaos are upside down, the sundial rotates between yin and yang, blood and marrow congeal into sand, eroding away the light of heaven..."

Chen Mo muttered to himself, activating the "Taiyin Reverse Time Technique," and the gnomon reversed direction accordingly.

At the same time, a shadowy figure emerged and became entangled with the strand of black hair.

Finally, the gnomon stopped at three-quarters past midnight.

The light suddenly dimmed, as if we had jumped from daytime to night in an instant.

The candlelight flickered in the bedroom, and a ghostly figure lay fast asleep on the bed.

Although the figure was somewhat blurry, Qiao Tong and Yu Hongyin recognized it at a glance; this was one of the missing Netherworld Sect disciples.

call--

At that moment, a gentle breeze arose, and the candlelight flickered softly.

The man seemed to sense something, suddenly sat up, peered outside, and his expression instantly turned terrified.

Suddenly, the previously closed window was quietly opened, and a huge eye that occupied the entire window was peering into the room!

The horrifying sight left him stunned for a moment.

Then, his eyes retreated, and an ancient, giant hand reached in and grabbed at him.

The disciple came to his senses and shouted loudly, but his companion sleeping next door did not respond.

The gap between the two was so great that he couldn't even muster the will to resist. He used his fingers like a knife to cut off a strand of hair from his hair bun, which then drifted down to the floor below the bed.

The next moment, he was grabbed by a giant hand.

With his hand clenched tightly, accompanied by the sound of bones cracking, the disciple immediately fainted.

The giant hand grabbed him and slowly pulled him back out of the window.

Outside the window, all was quiet; the moon was bright and the stars were few, as if nothing had happened.

The scene abruptly stopped. Chen Mo severed the Yin and Yang energies, and everything returned to normal, with the light becoming bright again.

You could hear a pin drop in the room.

Yu Hongyin and Qiao Tong looked very serious.

No wonder there were no signs of a fight; the opponent was that strong!
So shocked were they that even the absurd fact that Chen Mo could use the "Taiyin Reversal Technique" was temporarily forgotten...

"Judging from its size, that giant is probably bigger than this house. How could such a huge body go unnoticed?"

"Is it an illusion?"

"But he clearly kidnapped her... Could it be the work of the demon race?"

The two of them were puzzled.

“It’s not a demon.” Chen Mo shook his head and said, “There wasn’t a trace of energy leaking out throughout the entire process. If the demon race had such methods, Tiandu City would have been in chaos long ago.”

Yu Hongyin hurriedly asked, "Has Lord Chen discovered anything?"

Chen Mo put away the eclipsing sundial and said calmly, "It's hard to say about other things, but one thing is certain: this is at least a Grandmaster of the Celestial Realm."

"Grandmaster?"

Yu Hongyin frowned.

As fellow disciples, she knew their strength very well; they were at the peak of the fifth rank, only one step away from the fourth rank.

However, they were powerless to fight back against that "giant," something that probably only a grandmaster of the third rank or higher could achieve.

"But why would he attack a disciple of the sect?" Qiao Tong asked, puzzled.

"It's still unclear, but we've gotten a little clue about the other party's identity." Chen Mo's eyes narrowed slightly.

Although he couldn't see the whole face, there was a strange sense of familiarity in those eyes... If what he thought was true, then this would make sense.

"Well done, I'll give you extra food when we get home tonight." Chen Mo reached out and rubbed the cat's head.

"Meow~"

The cat rolled over, revealing its soft belly, seemingly very happy with his praise.

Chen Mo picked up the cat and held it in his arms, saying to Yu Hongyin, "Didn't you say that people from other sects have also gone missing? Let's go and take a look; perhaps we'll find something."

"it is good."

Yu Hongyin nodded.

After leaving the house, the three went to the residences of other sects.

It took about half a day to compile a list of all the sect disciples who had gone missing in the past few days. There were a total of eight people: five martial artists and three cultivators. All of them were at the fifth rank and had suddenly lost contact within the last three days.

During this time, Chen Mo used the "Taiyin Reverse Time Technique" again, and the situation he saw was exactly the same.

In the dead of night, he was suddenly grabbed by that "giant"...

The sense of familiarity he felt towards those eyes grew stronger.

"Lord Chen, where should we begin our investigation?" After leaving the residence of the Kui Xing Sect disciples, Yu Hongyin looked at Chen Mo and asked.

Qiao Tong also stared at him expectantly.

Chen Mo stretched and said casually, "It's getting late, I should go home. Let's finish today's investigation and talk about it tomorrow."

After saying that, he turned and left.

?

Yu Hongyin and Qiao Tong exchanged a glance, their expressions blank.

This person was full of energy just now, why does he suddenly want to rest?
……

……

Holding the cat in his arms, Chen Mo strolled leisurely through the crowd, quickly leaving the bustling neighborhood and arriving at Jinglan Street.

This place is adjacent to the imperial city and has a quiet environment. Only members of the imperial family and relatives of the empress are qualified to live here.

He stopped in his tracks when he arrived at a huge mansion with five courtyards and three lanes.

As dusk approached, the afterglow of the setting sun shone on the black plaque above the gate, making the three gilded characters "Yu Wang Fu" gleam brilliantly.

"What's meant to happen will happen..."

Chen Mo's lips curled up, and he stepped forward.

The two guards standing at the gate raised their hands to stop him and said in a deep voice, "This is a restricted area of ​​the Prince's residence. Unauthorized personnel shall leave immediately!"

wow-

Chen Mo pulled out a string of tokens, colorful and dazzling.

"Open your dog eyes and take a good look. Who are these 'unauthorized people'?"

(End of this chapter)