Gou Zai Yao Wu Simulated Immortal

The wind whipped up blood, and the stench between the wooden fences grew stronger.

Li Qian stood before the gate of the village, sheathing his sword.

Night fell heavily over the Sandiegou Valley, and there was no sound of human voices around.

Only a few embers remained, crackling softly, casting flickering light on the corpses scattered on the ground.

Now that this place has been cleaned up, even if someone comes to investigate in the future, it will only be seen as a revenge killing.

As for the real reason behind it, let it rot in the bones of these bandits.

Li Qian stepped down the mountain, his figure quickly disappearing into the night.

……

Heixi County.

The city was much quieter than during the day; the alleys were deep and narrow, with the occasional barking of dogs.

Xue Duan lay prostrate under the eaves of a dilapidated house facing the street, wearing a coarse old cloth garment and his face smeared with dirt, looking no different from any other down-and-out man.

He had been watching the Liu family for half a day.

At first, the Liu family was no different from usual; servants still came and went in front of the door, and smoke still rose from the kitchen.

But the more I stared at it, the more something seemed off.

According to inquiries, Liu Haoshen, who usually loved to invite friends and frequent restaurants, has not shown up since.

Not only that, but several of the most trusted old servants in the house were sent out separately, heading in different directions under the cover of night.

Xue Duan's eyes darkened slightly.

He couldn't help but think of the two account books in the cave, and a murderous intent surged within him, but he ultimately suppressed it and did not act rashly.

A crack appeared at the back gate of the Liu family's house.

An elderly servant in gray peeked out and looked around before quickly stepping out.

After that, a very inconspicuous sedan chair was carried out. The chair was very old and showed no sign of being a wealthy family.

Xue Duan's eyes narrowed, and he silently followed.

The sedan chair didn't head towards the bustling parts of the county town; instead, it bypassed West Street and drove out of the town through a secluded alley.

Two more servants of the Liu family, who had been sent out separately earlier, quietly joined them along the way, protecting them from the front and back, their actions extremely furtive.

Xue Duan followed from a distance, not daring to approach.

After leaving the city, the sedan chair was replaced by a horse-drawn carriage, which headed towards a remote mountain road.

This road is no longer the road to ordinary villages and towns.

The further you go, the more barren the vegetation becomes, and the fewer the insects chirp. Towards the end, even the moonlight seems to be swallowed up by the mountain shadows, leaving only a pale line illuminating the rugged path, which looks like a path leading to the underworld.

Xue Duan followed for half the distance and saw the group of people ahead stop.

The old servant of the Liu family bowed and said a few words to the shadows by the roadside. Immediately afterwards, two figures silently emerged from the woods.

The two men moved with extremely light steps, yet their movements were strange.

A person with a hunched back, and unnatural protrusions between their shoulders and neck when walking.

The other was wearing a straw raincoat, so his face was not visible; only half of his hand, covered in fine gray hair, was visible through the cuff.

Xue Duan narrowed his eyes, exuding a demonic aura.

However, he couldn't escape the intuition he had developed while working in the Demon Slayer Division.

wrong.

Even though I was far away, the thing wearing the straw raincoat seemed to tilt its head slightly.

It looked like... she glanced in his direction.

Xue Duan felt a chill run down his spine and immediately dared not linger any longer. He used the rocks and withered trees to conceal himself and retreated.

Once he had retreated far enough, he exhaled a heavy breath.

He dared not follow along.

If we follow up any further, we might not even be able to get the message back.

After a moment's thought, Xue Duan returned to the inn in the city.

He dared not linger in the room, leaving only a short note on the table.

It describes the unusual movements of the Liu family, their direction of leaving the city, and their final destination: a dilapidated earth temple outside the mountains.

He then turned back and went out again, intending to continue keeping an eye on the Liu family.

The resentment in his heart still outweighed his will to survive.

……

the other side.

Li Qian has not relaxed since returning from San Die Gou.

The fleeting, sinister sense of being watched had been like a thorn in his heart ever since She Zhuyin died.

Walking alone at night, surrounded by silence, that indescribable feeling gradually rises up.

It felt like something was following me.

Unseen and intangible, yet it has never left.

Li Qian dismounted, startling the black horse, and they went in completely different directions.

A golden talisman was quietly tucked between the fingertips and the sleeve.

Another half mile passed.

That feeling intensified.

Li Qian suddenly took advantage of a turn in the mountain road and flashed away.

After silently hiding into a rugged rock, he simultaneously activated the Concealing Breath and Hiding Form Talisman.

A mountain breeze swept through the gaps, causing the withered grass to sway.

A moment later, a black line slowly emerged from the shadows of the distant forest; the thing was no more than the thickness of a finger.

Its movements were fluid and boneless, gliding lightly along the ground, so fast that it was almost invisible.

A chill ran through Li Qian's eyes.

But before he could make a move, the black line suddenly stopped.

As if sensing something, it immediately shrank back and disappeared into the grass and mud, leaving no trace.

Li Qian stared at the bushes for a long time before continuing his journey towards Heixi County.

That spying was not an illusion; even though She Zhuyin is dead, there must still be something there.

By the time Li Qian returned to the inn in Heixi County, it was nearly midnight.

The courtyard was eerily quiet.

Li Qian paused slightly.

No, it's too quiet.

He raised his hand and pushed the door open, which creaked open.

The lights inside were out, but a pale moonlight shone through the paper windows, casting shadowy images of the tables, chairs, and beds.

Xue Duan was not there.

Li Qian glanced around, about to check if there were any marks left on the table, when suddenly his foot tightened.

From the shadows beneath the table, a thin snake silently crawled out.

The snake was entirely black, yet it had no scales, and its skin and flesh looked as if they had been soaked in oil, making them slippery and shiny.

The most bizarre thing was its eyes, which were completely white, without a trace of black.

As soon as it emerged, it stared intently at Li Qian.

boom!

The black snake exploded on the spot, turning into a pool of foul-smelling black blood that splattered everywhere!

Li Qian was already on guard, and he used a magic spell hidden in his sleeve.

The spiritual water stored within the Sumeru Ring suddenly flew out, transforming into a thin curtain of water that blocked his path.

The black blood splashed onto the water curtain, immediately sizzling and rising a plume of putrid gray smoke.

This splatter of black blood would probably be enough to rot half of an ordinary person's face.

He raised his hand and waved it out the window, throwing the stained water curtain out and letting it fall onto the stone slabs in the courtyard, where it corroded black marks in the cracks of the stones.

Then, he walked to the table.

There was a note on top of it.

The handwriting was slightly hasty, but the gist was: the Liu family is in chaos, and they sent someone out of the city overnight. I followed them all the way to the abandoned land temple outside the mountains, but I dared not press them too far. I could only leave a message first, and now I have gone back to keep watch.

After reading it, Li Qian slowly folded the note.

A dilapidated earth temple.

The Liu family is shrouded in an eerie aura.

And then there was that self-destructing black snake...

Li Qian did not delay any longer.

He flipped his hand and took out a tracking talisman, drawing the last bit of residual energy Xue Duan had left on the paper into the talisman. With a burst of spiritual power, the talisman trembled slightly and pointed in a direction slightly to the northwest.

As night fell, the undisguised, flowing steps of the man were far faster than those of a thoroughbred horse.

The mountain road became increasingly remote.

Further on, only tall weeds remained, withered vines hung from the trees, and scattered rocks lay everywhere.

The moonlight was torn into shredded white flakes by the mountains and old forests, falling to the ground and draping the barren mountains in paper money.

Li Qian followed the tracking talisman and continued on his way.

The wind carried a strong earthy smell, mixed with a very faint scent of incense.

The combination of these two flavors at this moment made it even more eerie.

Suddenly, a dilapidated temple came into view ahead.