Chapter 48

For a moment, everyone stopped talking and looked toward the wall.

Yu Si frowned slightly.

It wasn’t surprising that someone would specifically ask for him.

His reputation in the Kunwu Mountain Sect was indeed higher than that of other disciples.

Moreover, due to his kind nature and lack of arrogance, many people usually sought him out.

But at this moment, they were not within the Kunwu Mountain Sect.

And the person mentioned something related to a snake demon right off the bat.

Yu Si had already scanned Huang Shunyu with his spiritual sense several times but hadn’t detected anything unusual.

Nonetheless, he remained cautious and said gently, “There are no outsiders here. You can speak freely.”

Huang Shunyu was evidently unaccustomed to facing so many people.

He wanted to say something, but Yu Si’s voice carried a calming strength.

The young man, kneeling on the ground, was silent for a moment before suddenly breaking into uncontrollable sobs.

The sobs were filled with immense pain, as if some unbearable anguish had been suppressed for a long time, only to erupt uncontrollably now.

Yu Si was startled and instinctively descended from the city tower, crouching down to gently pat Huang Shunyu’s shoulder.

“Are you okay?”

Huang Shunyu’s crying paused slightly, but it was clear that Yu Si’s voice was like a lifeline to him.

Yet he still chose to let himself drown in the sea of sorrow.

The young man covered his face and wept bitterly.

He had so much he wanted to say but didn’t know where to begin.

He tossed and turned in bed, tormented by guilt, countless times considering ending it all, only to remember the last words his mother had said when she pushed him away:

“Live.”

But he didn’t feel he deserved to live.

He had brought such a disaster to his hometown, a crime so severe that death wouldn’t be enough to atone for it.

Yet he had to live, bearing the immense guilt and sin.

His very existence was a punishment for himself.

These overwhelming emotions left him unable to speak, but he knew he had to explain himself.

Finally, he gritted his teeth, forcing down his emotions, and introduced himself again in greater detail, even specifying which mountain and room he stayed in at the outer sect.

Only then did he begin, haltingly, “That day, I left the sect, intending to visit my mother, sister, and brother for the New Year. On a street in Liyun County… I bought three snakes.”

Though he stammered and spoke with a northern accent, he still managed to tell the story clearly.

The young man found the small green snakes cute and lively.

People from the desert were often bold and unrestrained, and their toys were equally unpretentious.

Various fearsome-looking reptiles from the desert were their playthings, so Huang Shunyu didn’t think there was anything wrong with playing with snakes.

He took the colorful jar with the three small snakes and returned to the small village outside Tianjiu Town.

The village was so small it didn’t even have a name, with a population of fewer than a hundred people.

Now, when they counted, nearly half had disappeared. But just a few days ago, the village was bustling, decorated for the New Year, with lanterns and paper cuttings on the windows.

As the son who had returned from cultivating immortality at the Kunwu Mountain Sect, Huang Shunyu was warmly welcomed by his family.

After distributing the gifts he had brought for everyone, he finally handed the small snakes to his brother and sister.

And this was what he regretted the most.

Children are not always gentle with living creatures.

His brother swung the snakes around by their tails, and one of the small green snakes bit him.

Their mother, seeing this, angrily chopped the two snakes into pieces.

Later that evening, when his sister returned, she said that the snake she had was lost, having slithered into the desert.

Huang Shunyu’s voice trembled as he continued, “After that… the snake demon came. I… I may not have started cultivating yet, but I’ve always had a good memory. So, even though the snake demon had grown so much, I could still recognize it. It was… it was the snake that got away from my sister.”

He didn’t need to say more; everyone already knew what happened next.

Yi Zui’s face showed sorrow.

Watching a loved one be devoured right before his eyes must have been an excruciating experience, a pain etched into his bones.

What’s more, Huang Shunyu had brought this disaster upon them.

He would likely live in regret for the rest of his life.

His entire family was dead, leaving only him.

After telling his story, Huang Shunyu’s sobbing subsided, reaching a point where he could cry no more.

The young man, almost numb, knelt there and slowly lifted his head.

Sun Tian’er gasped.

When he had spoken earlier, everyone thought his heavy sobs and halting speech were normal.

But now, they could see that half of the young man’s face had been bitten by the snake demon, one eye was blind, and a massive wound tore across his mouth, with only sparse medicine applied, and the wound hadn’t even begun to scab over.

Everyone was both drawn to his injuries and shocked by his story.

Xuanyuan Heng wondered if the person who sold him the snakes was behind this.

Why was Huang Shunyu chosen?

Could this all have been a conspiracy?

But who would devise such a scheme?

Was there something important in Yuebei City…or rather Tianjun Town?

Tan Mingtang’s fingers moved slightly as she began searching through the bottles and jars in her storage bag, thinking that the medicine meant for cultivators might not work on an ordinary body.

She needed to check if there was still snake venom in Huang Shunyu’s body.

Lu Zhiheng and He Gu were both teary-eyed, deeply sympathizing with the young man and worrying about his future.

Yu Si, however, was pondering something else.

If the snake was originally only as thick as a finger and grew so large after entering the desert, could it have transformed into a demon so quickly?

But if not, and the snake had been that large all along, merely hiding its true form inside the jar, could there really be a trade in selling demons?

Only Yu Xizhi’s eyes flickered.

She stood at a distance from Yu Si, holding a pot.

With no time to do anything else, she threw a pot of demon cores towards Yu Si—

At that very moment, something unexpected happened.

Huang Shunyu had been waiting for this moment when Yu Si was distracted after he lifted his head.

Or perhaps this was no longer Huang Shunyu.

All the wounds on his face burst open simultaneously, with thick green fluid shooting out from his face and orifices, aiming directly at Yu Si’s face!

Even before noticing Huang Shunyu’s sudden movement, Yu Si instinctively sensed the wind behind his head and dodged.

This reflexive move also allowed him to avoid Huang Shunyu’s attack.

At that moment, a large black pot came crashing down, almost irrationally and forcefully, blocking all the poisonous liquid that Huang Shunyu had sprayed.

With a loud “clang,” it struck Huang Shunyu on the head.

Just as Huang Shunyu was about to launch another attack, he was knocked unconscious by the heavy blow from the pot.

The black pot didn’t fly off but instead followed Huang Shunyu’s collapsing form, landing squarely on his head and making a dull thud as it hit the ground.

It wasn’t until the series of sounds had ceased that everyone finally reacted.

Yu Si quickly cast a barrier, enclosing Huang Shunyu entirely within it.

Yi Zui was shocked.

“What’s happening to him?”

Yu Xizhi shook her head.

“I don’t know. I just happened to open my spiritual sight and noticed something was wrong with him.”

After a pause, she hesitantly asked, “Can a human… turn into a demon?”

No one knew what Huang Shunyu had become.

With the black pot covering his presumably scarred face and his entire body enclosed within Yu Si’s barrier, everyone stared at him, unable to determine if he was alive or dead.

Reflecting on their emotions after hearing his story, they felt a sense of confusion.

“Then… was what he said earlier true?” Lu Zhiheng asked hesitantly.

“Whether it’s true or not, we can find out by investigating,” Yu Si, as the senior disciple, had already regained his composure.

“Meng Xizhou, take a few people to question the villagers. Find out everything about Huang Shunyu’s life, his family, and his usual behavior.”

Xuanyuan Heng, who had been startled earlier, quickly attached several talismans to the barrier.

After hesitating for a moment, he gritted his teeth, pulled out another talisman, reached into the barrier, and placed it on Huang Shunyu.

The white paper talisman floated down, but as soon as it touched Huang Shunyu’s body, it turned black, then crumbled into ashes and dissipated.

Yu Xizhi seemed to recognize the talisman’s effect.

“Is that…”

Xuanyuan Heng’s expression darkened.

“It’s a demon-detecting talisman.”

There was no need to say anything more.

If the demon-detecting talisman had turned that black, it could only mean one thing.

Huang Shunyu had already become a demon.

This brought them back to the initial question Yu Xizhi had asked.

Can a human… turn into a demon?