(T/N: female lead is actually a yao (妖 ) and not a real demon that often mention in western culture.. Yao which can be translate as monster/demon/spirit. Yao is a broad term for any animals, plants, or even inanimate objects that have gained spiritual awareness and magical powers (usually by absorbing Qi from the natural world over a long period of time) and even a stone can become a Yao…)

Chapter 1: The Winds Rise and the Clouds Scatter—Part 1

Eighth Month, Wanling Kingdom, Yunsui City.

Today, the city is shrouded in thick fog, and by midday, autumn rain begins to fall. The fine, dense raindrops land on people’s faces, causing both an itch and a chill.

The few pedestrians on the street have mostly disappeared, the stalls have all been packed up, and most of the shops along the street have closed their doors to keep the rain from blowing in.

Business today is half-hearted at best.

In the late afternoon, a white-clad man silently appears on South Gate Street.

The man is strikingly handsome, carrying a sword wrapped in soft leather on his back, a lantern in one hand, and an umbrella in the other as he walks unhurriedly through the empty street, heading straight to the largest inn on Guihua Street, the Hongcai Inn.

The inn has no business today; the owner is in the back comforting his wife and holding his son, leaving only a young attendant to watch the front. The attendant is about seventeen or eighteen years old, somewhat slender.

When Yan Qige entered the inn, the young man was dozing off at the table. Hearing the sound of the door, he squinted his eyes and looked up, stunned for a moment when he saw who had entered. After rubbing his eyes, he quickly jumped up to greet the guest.

“Young master, are you here for a meal or a stay?”

“A room upstairs, facing the street,” Yan Qige said, tossing a silver ingot over, then heading straight upstairs.

In the Tianzi Room on the second floor, on the left side facing the street, the attendant soon brought up hot tea and water, smiling as he tried to find out where Yan Qige was coming from, where he was headed, and whether he was visiting friends or traveling for pleasure.

Yan Qige didn’t respond, carefully hanging the lantern beside the screen. The attendant, still enthusiastic, walked over with a smile and said, “Young Master, it’s not yet dark, why light a lantern now? If you find the room too dim, shall I light the lamp for you instead?”

As he spoke, the young man reached out to take the lantern.

Yan Qige glanced at him sideways, and the attendant’s hand immediately froze, as if his soul had left his body, standing motionless.

“No need. You may leave.”

At these words, the attendant seemed to come to his senses, scratching his head as he turned to leave, mumbling, “What just happened to me?”

The sound of the attendant’s footsteps gradually faded on the second floor. Yan Qige stood before the screen, staring at the small flickering flame inside the lantern. After a moment, he began to chant softly, bringing his fingers to his lips.

The originally dim flame inside the lantern brightened, emitting a faint pink glow.

Seeing this, Yan Qige’s lips curled into a slight smile as he turned and walked to the window, pushing open the wooden shutter facing the street.

Yunsui City, in the fine rain, had a unique charm.

The pink walls and black tiles spread out like watercolor paintings.

The half-shrouded riverbank to the east was veiled in mist, resembling a fairyland, while the northern Guihua Mountain was in full bloom, with the fragrance of osmanthus flowers mingling with the rain, creating a slight intoxication.

The scene before him was the epitome of the misty, rainy Jiangnan region.

At the same time, a pair of eyes hidden in some dark corner was also fixed on this carved wooden window. The owner of those eyes revealed an almost imperceptible smile before silently retreating into the darkness, transforming into a faint gray shadow that swiftly disappeared over the black-tiled rooftops.

At the northern gate of Yunsui City, the second-to-last house on the street was the Yunsui City Magistrate’s office. There had been a group of bamboo demons in the magistrate’s backyard garden for as long as anyone could remember.

Magistrates had come and gone, each new one renovating the residence, yet all of them had a fondness for the purple bamboo in the garden.

While the rest of the garden changed, the bamboo demons remained the same.

The current magistrate of Yunsui City, surnamed Wang, had been in office for over three years.

Magistrate Wang had no particular hobbies except for sleeping.

To be fair, if the city was peaceful, sleeping more wouldn’t be a problem, but Magistrate Wang not only slept a lot, he also snored loudly—so loudly that even the dogs in the back alley outside the magistrate’s residence could hear it, barking and running down the street in fear.

For six months, Yunsui City had been free of cases—no elopements, no deaths from marriage or funerals, not even petty theft. So the magistrate spent his days napping in the back hall, driving the bamboo spirits in the garden to distraction with his snores.

The bamboo demons had considered scaring him at some point, but the oldest among them, Huayi, thought it unwise.

Although they disliked the magistrate, he was upright and honest and treated the people better than his predecessors.

If they accidentally scared him into illness, they would incur heavenly punishment.

Worse, if the magistrate brought in a Taoist priest to perform exorcisms, the garden might be exposed, and the bamboo might be chopped down, creating a lot of trouble.

So they let it go, eventually growing accustomed to the snores. If they didn’t hear them on a particular day, they knew something had happened in Yunsui City and the magistrate was handling official matters.

Recently, the weather has been poor. As the saying goes, rainy days are good for sleeping, yet strangely, the magistrate had not snored at noon for several days.

“Why do you think the magistrate hasn’t been snoring these past few days? It feels weird,” one bamboo demon said lazily, trimming its branches.

“Exactly! I’ve felt like something’s missing, like I’ve lost a part of my soul,” another bamboo demon responded, shaking its leaves.

“That’s because you’re not paying attention! Something major has happened in the city, and you don’t even know,” Huayi, the oldest, spoke with authority.

“What did you hear? Tell us quickly!”

“I overheard it from a servant girl in the house. Apparently, there have been several murders in the city recently. The drum outside the magistrate’s office has been beaten so much it’s nearly broken. The people in the city are all terrified, fearing that they might be next.”

“Could it be that there’s a thief who kills for money?”

“This…”

“No, those people had their throats slit and their blood drained completely using some cultivation technique.”

Suddenly, a voice, still tinged with three parts drowsiness, interjected, startling the bamboo demons gathered in the grove.

Looking up toward the sound, they saw a woman in a green robe lightly bending a branch of purple bamboo, using it as a bed. She lay on her side, resting her head on her hand, her long, silky hair draping down from the bamboo branch, blending harmoniously with the freshly rain-washed green leaves, as if she were part of a painting.

Seeing the woman in the bamboo, Huayi’s eyes lit up with joy.

She lightly hooked a bamboo stem, using it to leap up.

With a few graceful bounds between the bamboo stalks, she landed on the bamboo pole opposite Yusang, her white clothes as pure as snow, her beauty striking.

“It’s been a hundred years since we last met. I hope you’ve been well, Sister Huayi.”

Yusang slowly opened her eyes, revealing a pair of autumn-like eyes framed by long, curled lashes.

Her dark pupils had a hint of silver-gray, a color neither human nor spirit possessed, unforgettable to anyone who saw them.

As night fell, the fine rain continued without pause.

Due to the recent series of bizarre and brutal murders, the streets and alleys of the city were deserted early in the evening.

Yuntian Street, situated between South and North Main Streets, was usually bustling with night market vendors calling out their wares, and the red lanterns hanging at the brothels at the street’s end added to the lively atmosphere.

But now, the street was so quiet that you could hear a pin drop. The fine rain falling to the ground turned into mist, making everything seem blurry and dreamlike, adding a layer of eeriness to the scene.