Chapter 2: The Winds Rise and the Clouds Scatter—Part 2

“Creak, creak…”

A sound emerged from the roof of the brothel on the left side of the street, followed by the soft clatter of tiles.

A gray shadow swiftly flashed across the eaves and entered the back hall of the building.

Since nightfall, Yusang had been stationed on the eaves of the highest bell tower in Yunsui City.

She watched as the demon leaped out from somewhere in the eastern part of the city and then made its way across rooftops to Yuntian Street.

Noticing the demon circling the courtesan house roof several times, she quietly landed on the eaves of the pawnshop opposite, observing the scene.

When the demon finally entered the back hall of the courtesan house, Yusang retrieved a white jade brush from her waist as a precaution.

A red tassel adorned with a bright pearl dangled from the end of the jade brush, emitting a faint glow, clearly marking it as no ordinary item.

The brush’s shaft, crafted in seven sections resembling bamboo, was slightly longer than a regular writing brush, with a warm, mysterious quality.

Notably, the brush lacked any bristles at its tip.

Yusang gripped the white jade brush, prepared to take action.

However, she paused when her peripheral vision caught movement on the street below, prompting her to crouch down and continue observing.

On Yuntian Street, a small light gradually emerged from the mist, growing more distinct as it approached. It was a lantern held by someone.

Yusang initially thought it was a night patrol guard, but as the person drew closer, she realized it was a young man in white robes, though his face remained unclear due to the distance.

The man seemed to be there for the demon in the courtesan house. He walked to the entrance, adorned with red silk ribbons, and stopped, facing the building.

He muttered a few spells, and the light within the lantern brightened.

Suddenly, there was a crash from inside the building.

“Clang…”

A sharp cry rang out from a second-floor window of the courtesan house as half the carved window frame shattered.

A pair of twisted, skeletal hands with long nails clutched the sides of the window, followed by a thin, sharp head with enormous green eyes glaring down at the man in the street.

“Hiss…”

The demon turned its head, baring its blood-stained mouth and yellow teeth in a snarl.

“Stinky Taoist, it’s you again.”

The demon’s long nails dug deep into the wooden window sill, its green eyes glowing brighter, its yellow teeth clicking together with a hair-raising sound in the dark.

“I already promised never to set foot in this city again, yet you still won’t let me go. You’ve pushed me too far—don’t blame me for being ruthless!”

The demon gritted its teeth and leaped from the window, lunging straight at the man.

The man tilted his head slightly, watching the demon descend, making no move to defend or evade.

But just as the demon came within a meter of him, he raised the lantern a little higher.

The demon screamed in agony as it touched the light, recoiling and crashing into the wall outside the courtesan house.

“A soul-guiding lantern… this… is a soul-guiding lantern… Who are you… who are you?”

The demon writhed in pain at the base of the wall, eyes filled with fear as it stared at the lantern, lips trembling.

The man ignored the demon’s words, instead tossing the lantern into the air.

It hovered beside him, as if held by an unseen force.

The man then began chanting, conjuring a white, luminous sword from his fingers.

Realizing the man intended to attack, the demon snapped out of its shock and quickly rolled aside.

Then it expanded its form, lunging at the man’s legs, deliberately avoiding the lantern’s light.

The man sidestepped the attack and skillfully spun his sword, aiming at the demon’s lower body.

Though the demon moved quickly, it couldn’t avoid the blade entirely and suffered a cut on its ankle.

“Taoist, I know I’m no match for you. If you spare me, I’ll willingly offer up a century’s worth of cultivation to aid you, and I’ll never cause trouble again.”

The demon quickly pleaded after evading the strike.

To anyone else, such words might evoke pity, but the man acted as if he hadn’t heard.

His sword strikes grew even swifter, and he soon plunged the blade into the demon’s abdomen, pinning it to the ground.

“Why… why? I already promised not to cause any more harm, yet you still won’t spare me.”

As the demon’s life force faded, its inner core began to appear, but it remained filled with resentment, its green eyes wide with disbelief, more intense than when it first saw the man.

The man paid no attention to the demon’s gaze.

He casually extended his hand, using a spell to extract the demon’s inner core, examining it before turning to the nearly disintegrated demon on the ground. With a slight curve of his lips, he retrieved the lantern and walked away.

“I hate it most when people call me a Taoist. You, unfortunately, called me that twice. How could I let you go?”

His cold, clear voice echoed through the empty, rain-soaked street. The demon heard this explanation, its eyes widening in regret, filled with remorse.

But it was too late; its form continued to dissipate. Watching the man slowly disappear into the distance, the demon, still unwilling to accept its fate, mustered the last of its strength to ask, “Who… who are you?”

“Yan Qige!”

In the blink of an eye, the demon outside the courtesan house and the sword pinning it to the ground vanished into thin air.

Everything returned to calm.

The light rain continued to fall, and the street remained shrouded in mist, as if the events that had just transpired were nothing but a dream.

Yusang stood up on the rooftop, glanced around, and then silently leaped away across the tiles.

As Yusang’s figure disappeared over the rooftops along Yuntian Street, a shadow clad in a black cloak quietly appeared behind the broken window.

The figure looked down at the now empty street, revealing a hand holding a folding fan, which gently tapped the palm of the other hand.

The next morning, County Magistrate Wang was startled awake by the sound of the injustice drum being struck. A disheveled clerk from the county office, accompanied by a constable, came running and loudly announced outside the door that another murder had occurred.

Cursing under his breath, Magistrate Wang quickly got out of bed, threw on a white undergarment, opened the door, and tossed his official robe hanging on the screen to the middle-aged, scholarly-looking clerk.

He then stretched out his arms toward the black-clad constable standing before him and said, “Quickly, tell me, who was killed this time?”

“It was the maid of Miss Ranqing, the courtesan from the courtesan house.”

“What?”

Magistrate Wang exclaimed in surprise, quickly realizing his loss of composure.

After a dry cough to cover his embarrassment, he brushed aside the clerk’s attempt to fasten his belt and did it himself, asking, “Who discovered it?”

“It was one of the early-rising procures in the courtesan house.”

“Let’s go and take a look right away.”

Magistrate Wang adjusted his bun and donned the official hat handed to him by the clerk.

But as he stepped out of the threshold, he collided with someone coming in.

“Are you blind, daring to bump into an official?”

Already in a foul mood, Magistrate Wang couldn’t help but curse.

Looking more closely, he saw it was Wang Wang, the steward of his household. Knowing that Wang Wang must have an urgent matter, the magistrate held back his anger and asked, “What is it? Speak quickly. I have a case to attend to.”

Wang Wang, bowing respectfully, said, “It’s… it’s the old madam. She got angry again and sent away the maidservant who was attending her.”

“Then just go find another one from outside. There’s no need to report such matters to me anymore,” Magistrate Wang instructed dismissively.

He then hurriedly led the constable and clerk to meet the coroner waiting outside, and they all headed to the Courtesan House.