So it turns out I'm the demon!

Chapter 209 Another Fox Cub (Second Update)

All of this happened so fast that by the time he came to his senses, Prince Sheng had already collapsed to the ground.

Even He Shan'er was completely bewildered.

"boom!"

After kicking Prince Sheng away, the disciple swung his palm back at the massive bronze furnace from a distance.

The bronze furnace exploded instantly.

The shattered bronze fragments shot out in all directions like hidden weapons.

Amidst the raging sea of ​​fire and debris, a small, blood-red sword, only three inches long and as translucent as blood jade, burst forth from the furnace with a sharp sword cry.

Xiao Jian was surrounded by black, malevolent energy.

"Your Highness!"

Only then did the guards who had been accompanying Prince Sheng awaken from their daze, drawing their weapons and lunging at Prince Sheng, who lay in a pool of blood, with bloodshot eyes.

However, the next moment.

The blood-red slender sword, suspended in mid-air, transformed into a scarlet ray of death and shot out.

"Pfft! Pfft!"

The two guards at the forefront didn't even have time to scream before the red light pierced through their necks.

Then, it shot towards the direction of Jiang Mu and the others.

"What the hell is that?!"

Jiang Mu's eyes flashed, and the Blood Mad Blade was instantly drawn, slashing at the strange little sword.

"clang--!"

Swords clashed.

Jiang Mu felt a surge of icy, immense force rushing down the blade.

He groaned, forced back several steps by the invisible force.

Yan Fenghuo, who was standing to the side, was not so lucky.

He swung his knife to try to block, but was directly hit by the murderous aura surrounding the small sword. His body was sent flying, crashing heavily into the stone wall. He groaned and blood spilled from the corner of his mouth.

The assassin disciple grabbed at the air, and the blood-red dagger obediently flew back into his palm.

He gripped his sword, his figure flashed, and he leaped to a nearby high platform. Looking down at the chaotic crowd below, a wicked smile curled at the corner of his mouth: "The Divine Sword Sect truly lives up to its reputation as a renowned sword-forging place in the martial world—a fine sword, indeed a fine sword."

He Shan'er's pretty face turned ashen, and she shouted sharply, "Who exactly are you?!"

The assassin disciple toyed with his small sword, his tone mocking: "Madam He, those words are hurtful. Of course, I am a disciple of your Divine Sword Sect."

Your Divine Sword Sect secretly ordered us to ambush and assassinate Prince Sheng here.

Now that I have accomplished my mission and fulfilled my duty, it's one thing for you not to reward me handsomely, but why are you turning your back on me like this?"

"You're talking nonsense!!"

He Shan'er's consistently dignified and elegant image collapsed, and she was so angry that she cursed on the spot.

Not to mention the catastrophic consequences of killing a prince of the current dynasty.

Just considering that, under the watchful eyes of everyone, if this false accusation is firmly pinned on them, the Divine Sword Sect will be completely finished today!

"You scoundrel, you won't leave here today."

He Shan'er was furious. A powerful surge of star power erupted from her body. She stretched out her figure like an enraged purple venomous spider and was about to pounce on the assassin on the high platform.

"Boom—"

—

However, at that moment, the ground around the Jian family erupted in an even more violent tremor than before.

This time, it was accompanied by the shaking of the ground.

The ground beneath the dried-up blood pool of the Jian family suddenly cracked open with fissures.

Immediately afterwards, a series of mournful roars, seemingly from the deepest hell, surged forth from the crack.

What followed was a demonic aura.

"This is----"

He Shan'er sensed the demonic aura, and her pretty face changed instantly. She abruptly stopped her attack and landed back on the ground.

How did the demon's lair hidden beneath the Sword Tomb get opened?

Those terrifying monsters, used for blood sacrifices to forge swords and tormented to the point of madness over the years, would be a disaster if released.

Before He Shan'er could figure out the reason...

"Hiss hiss hiss—"

—

Waves of red energy shot up from the cracks in the ground like fountains, rapidly spreading in all directions.

"It's demonic poison!"

Yan Fenghuo struggled to get up from the ground. When he saw the red aura, his expression changed drastically, and he immediately activated his protective qi.

The others followed suit.

Jiang Mu circulated the Profound Qi True Explanation to expel the demonic poison, then touched his brow with two fingers:

[Spiritual Divination]!

My vision instantly transformed into a world of black and white lines.

However, the next moment, Jiang Mu's scalp suddenly tingled.

Beneath the ground of the Sword Tomb, countless scarlet characters for "evil" surged upwards like boiling magma, densely packed and layered.

It was like a boiling sea of ​​blood.

"Grass!"

Jiang Mu grabbed Duanmu Li, who was standing next to her.

He slung the petite girl under his arm like a sack of potatoes, and yelled at Yan Fenghuo in the distance, "Old Yan, run!"

As he spoke, Jiang Mu unleashed the full power of the [Serpent's Movement Step], transforming into a blur as he shot towards the Jian family's exit.

Yan Fenghuo was startled and quickly followed.

However, when Jiang Mu rushed out of the cave and saw the scene outside, she was stunned.

The once clear sky has been obscured by thick, low-lying, blood-red clouds.

The entire Divine Sword Sect was enveloped in a layer of red mist.

Even more chillingly, countless eerie human faces were floating deep within the churning red clouds.

These faces include men and women, young and old.

They had no bodies, only pale skins floating in the red clouds, their empty eyes gazing down.

"Painted Skin!"

Upon seeing these floating faces, those two words immediately popped into Jiang Mu's mind.

"That Prince Sheng is such a jinx!"

Jiang Mu cursed, "I knew this job wouldn't end well."

"Put me down."

A muffled sound came from my arms.

Jiang Mu looked down and saw Duanmu Li tucked under his arm, her ponytail loose and her face flushed.

"See? I told you not to come, but you insisted on coming to join the fun."

Jiang Mu put the girl down and said irritably, "Now look what's happened, we're probably not going to leave here alive."

Duanmu Li straightened her clothes and said, "It's alright. If you die, I'll go with you."

"Old Jiang!"

Yan Fenghuo's shouts came from behind.

Seeing the blood mist outside, he gasped in horror, exclaiming, "How could it have turned out like this?"

"Where are the others?" Jiang Mu asked.

"I don't know, everything's a mess."

Yan Fenghuo wiped the sweat from his face with his sleeve, both anxious and angry. "We're doomed. The prince died right under our noses. The court will definitely tear our heads off."

"I knew I shouldn't have taken this lousy job. I was even thinking of currying favor with the prince to get some benefits—bah!"

Yan Fenghuo became more and more distraught as he spoke, feeling that his future was bleak.

Whether we can survive today is still unknown.

Jiang Mu snorted coldly, interrupting his complaint, "I've said it before, the Divine Sword Sect is not clean, and they are secretly raising demons."

Did you hear the commotion in the Sword Tomb just now? All those demons driven mad by the blood sacrifice are probably all out here, going berserk now.

Yan Fenghuo pointed to the strange faces in the sky: "Then...then what are those in the sky...?"

"It's a demon with painted skin."

Jiang Mu's eyes were icy cold as he said in a deep voice, "It must be that great demon who has arrived. I didn't expect him to appear here."

At this moment, his mind was also a complete mess.

Previously, he had only suspected that Prince Sheng might be colluding with the Painted Skin Demon because of the similar jade thumb ring.

So now, this guess has been confirmed.

No sooner had Prince Sheng arrived at the Divine Sword Sect than the Painted Skin Demon appeared.

What a coincidence!

What puzzled Jiang Mu was why Prince Sheng, who was suspected of being a participant in this situation, was stabbed through the heart.

What happened?

Could it really have been an assassination attempt by the Divine Sword Sect?

Of course, it's still hard to say whether Prince Sheng is truly dead or not.

Yan Fenghuo looked up at the terrifying human face in the red clouds, bared his teeth, and said, "I wonder where the real Painted Skin Demon is hiding. If it sees you here too, we're doomed. After all, Old Jiang, you killed more than one of her subordinates."

Just as Jiang Mu was quickly calculating the current situation in his mind, several more figures stumbled out of the Sword Tomb Cave.

These were several of Prince Sheng's personal guards.

These men had multiple injuries, and their faces still bore the marks of fear and rage.

As soon as the head guard steadied himself, he looked up and saw Jiang Mu and the other two.

His bloodshot eyes widened instantly, veins bulging on his forehead like earthworms, and he pointed at Jiang Mu's nose, cursing: "What are you people from the Demon Slaying Division of Huzhou good for?! A bunch of useless trash! Good-for-nothings!"

The demons were allowed to run rampant, even attempting to assassinate the prince.

"I order you all to get back to the Prince immediately! I demand to see him alive or dead. If anything happens to the Prince, I'll make sure your entire Demon-Slaying Division of Huzhou is buried with him!"

The head guard had clearly lost his mind because of the prince's assassination attempt.

After all, as the prince's personal guards, if their master died, they, as his subordinates, would all lose their heads according to the laws of Daqing, and their entire families would even be implicated.

Jiang Mu looked at him coldly, her eyes filled with a mocking gaze as if he were an idiot: "Are we trash?"

And what are you then? Maggots in a rice bucket?

When the prince was assassinated, were your knives rusted and impossible to pull out, or were you blind and unable to see?

Now that the person is gone, instead of rushing to search for them, you come here barking at us aimlessly?

"How dare you! This is the work of a demon; it should be the responsibility of your Demon Slayer Division!"

The head guard, his face flushed, roared.

"joke!"

Jiang Mu scoffed, "Protecting the Prince is your job, don't try to pin all sorts of blame on our Demon Slayer Division!"

"You're asking for it!"

The head guard was already on the verge of collapse, and after being humiliated by Jiang Mu, the string of reason snapped instantly.

He drew his sword from his waist, pointed it directly at Jiang Mu's face, and gritted his teeth, saying, "Believe it or not, I'll chop you up right now!"

Jiang Mu was both amused and annoyed.

With a flick of his wrist, the Blood Frenzy Blade emitted a bloodthirsty low hum, and half of the blade was drawn from its sheath: "Fine, then I'll see how you're going to chop me up today."

Yan Fenghuo also drew his broadsword and stood beside Jiang Mu.

His face was filled with a chilling murderous intent as he coldly stared at the group of guards before him: "Want to fight? Fine, then let's have a proper fight today and see who falls first!"

For a moment, tensions rose between the two sides.

"Hey, you guys—"

Just then, a voice suddenly drifted over, "Instead of properly dealing with the demons, and instead of trying to retrieve the prince's body, you're drawing your swords against each other here. What? You're tired of living, trying to perform some kind of ritual for each other's souls here?"

Before the words were finished, a figure lightly landed between the two sides.

The visitor was none other than the Master of Wine.

At this moment, Master Jiu also looked quite disheveled.

His tattered Taoist robe was stained with blood. He carried his ever-present wine gourd in his left hand, while his right hand seemed to be holding the corpse of a strangely shaped monster covered in bone spurs.

"The monsters here are a bit strange."

The Daoist priest casually tossed the monster's corpse on the ground. "I just killed a few of them and discovered that these beasts were all covered in sword energy."

This sword energy not only hardened their flesh but also formed a cyclical array within their bodies, making them quite difficult to deal with.

He let out a burp, his gaze sweeping over the two sides who were facing off with drawn swords, and his face darkened: "Put away this piece of junk for me, you two!"

"Don't push your luck. If anyone dares to make the first move today, I, this old Taoist priest, will take pity on them and throw them straight into that pile of demons."

The head guard glared at Jiang Mu resentfully, but ultimately sheathed his sword.

He turned to Master Jiu and respectfully asked, "Senior Jiu, what should we do now given the current situation?"

The head guard isn't stupid.

Although the Daoist Master Jiu and the Monk Kuhai looked like the prince's bodyguards, they were actually people the prince had hired at great expense to examine the sword.

The prince's death was undeniably the fault of his personal guards, who could even shift the blame to the Huzhou Demon Slayer Division for their inadequate protection.

But in any case, the responsibility cannot be placed on Master Jiu and his group.

To survive, we still need this wise man to point us in the right direction.

Seeing that everyone had put away their weapons, Master Jiu let out a satisfied snort.

He tilted his head back and took a gulp of wine, his expression grave. "Right now, it's still uncertain whether the Prince is alive or dead. But we absolutely cannot enter the Sword Tomb now."

.

"However, you don't need to be too afraid of this painted-skin demon."

After all, this is the Divine Sword Sect, and He Qingyang is a Grandmaster of the Ninth Realm. He would never tolerate a powerful demon running rampant and causing chaos on his territory.

With him holding the line inside, even if that demonic imp is rampant, he won't be able to cause any real trouble for the time being.

"Then now—" Yan Fenghuo asked.

Master Jiu glanced at the increasingly thick red mist around him and said, "The most urgent thing now is to find a way down the mountain and ask for help as soon as possible."

I have a very bad feeling; something terrible is about to happen here. If we delay any longer, we might all perish here.

The demon with the painted skin laid out a maze here, which not only shielded divine sense from detection, but also continued to expand and change.

If you rashly venture in, and are unlucky, you'll sink deeper and deeper like a headless fly, eventually getting trapped and dying inside.

The most troublesome thing is that the core of this maze seems to be constantly moving; once we are inside it, we are very likely to be randomly teleported by the power of the formation.

As everyone listened to the Taoist priest's analysis, and then looked up at the surging red mist and the faintly falling human faces, their hearts grew heavy.

The Taoist priest took out a string of copper coins from the sleeve of his Taoist robe.

He tossed the copper coins to everyone present and said, "These things are called 'Guiding Coins,' a little gadget that I, the old Taoist, consecrated using a secret method, specifically for finding a way and breaking through miasma."

Once you lose your way, throw this coin on the ground.

It will guide you in a general direction based on the life force of the formation.

Follow it. Although I can't guarantee you'll escape this demon-infested maze unscathed, it's still much better than wandering around blindly. Your chances of survival are much higher.

Whether you can successfully get out depends on your own luck. This old man will not accompany you any longer.

After saying that, Daoist Jiu moved swiftly towards the red mist on the right and disappeared in the blink of an eye.

The head guard, clutching the copper coin in his hand, glared fiercely at Jiang Mu, then turned to his companions behind him and coldly ordered, "Let's go too, let's find a way down the mountain first."

After saying that, he led several guards in another direction.

Yan Fenghuo watched their departing figures, snorted coldly, and spat on the ground: "Pah! A bunch of spineless cowards, afraid of losing their heads, so they're in a hurry to shift the blame onto us."

"What a bunch of idiots! If the prince really dies here, even if they pin all the blame on our Demon Slayer Division, as his personal guards, they will absolutely not escape the death penalty for dereliction of duty and failing to protect the prince, and the execution of their entire families!"

Jiang Mu rubbed the copper coin in his hand, looked up at the red mist that was constantly approaching them, and said coldly, "Ignore them, I'm leaving too. Stay close together, and don't get lost."

He wasn't afraid of any mutated little demons tainted by sword energy.

With his current cultivation level and endless tricks, dealing with those rabble is as easy as cutting melons and vegetables.

What he truly feared were the complex and numerous enemies within the Divine Sword Sect.

After all, they were on the other side's territory, and it was hard to guarantee that He Shan'er or He Qingyang wouldn't take advantage of the chaos to kill him and avenge their son.

Not to mention the Painted Skin Demon.

Even the monk Kuhai, suspected to be the real culprit in the serial killings, is secretly lurking in the shadows.

A rough calculation shows that the number of people in the Divine Sword Sect who want to kill him is almost enough to fill a mahjong table.

The density of enemies is ridiculously high.

Hold on to me.

Jiang Mu wanted to take Duanmu Li's hand.

But the girl reached out her small hand and grasped Jiang Mu's hand in return.

Jiang Mu paused slightly, glanced down at their clasped hands, and offered her other arm to Yan Fenghuo: "Old Yan, why don't you hold my hand too?"

Yan Fenghuo looked disgusted: "Get lost! I'd rather be eaten by demons than be led around like that!"

Despite saying that, he still reached out and grabbed Jiang Mu's arm, chuckling, "Old Jiang, you're really capable. I feel safe following you."

Jiang Mu pursed her lips and stepped into the swirling red mist.

The moment the fog enveloped them, Yan Fenghuo vanished.

"Old Yan?"

Jiang Mu looked around.

There was nothing behind him.

Yan Fenghuo, who had been holding his arm just moments before, had left not a trace of his breath.

"This maze is truly impressive!"

Jiang Mu's heart skipped a beat.

No wonder even Daoist Lianjiu was so wary of this formation.

It seems Old Yan was unlucky; he was teleported elsewhere by the randomly changing array core.

Jiang Mu pulled herself together, clenched her small hand, and whispered, "Ah Li, stay close to me as much as possible, and whatever you do, don't—"

Before she could finish speaking, Jiang Mu's voice abruptly stopped.

He discovered that the hand he was holding was ice-cold, without any warmth.

Jiang Mu turned her head.

There was a strange woman next to me.

She was short like a little girl, with a mature and charming face, and a fiery red fox tail trailing behind her.

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