.
Despite the long awaited peace between humans and enlightened demons, the damage had already been done... Humans had realized what the enlightened demons were capable of, and they began to fear them.
They ousted any demon cultivator, even to the point of treating them like a highly contagious plague, and in fact, more often than not, the demon cultivators were sought out and murdered, shortly after they were discovered, which sent them into hiding.
Still, not one person could deny how powerful some of the demons were, so in other to eat their prime duck and still have it, cultivators began to practice a different, and safer, form of demon cultivation.
They hunted the lesser demons, killed them, and then refined their cores to pure Qi, which they could absorb.
There was no problem with this...
As training or competition, cultivators hunted demons, and LanFen was no different. Absorbing Lesser demons were a fast way to acquire qi to grow and break bottle necks, especially during secluded cultivation.
Even the enlightened demons didn't mind, as Lesser demons acted purely on instinct, and could run rampant and hurt both enlightened demons and humans.
It was a balanced situation.
However, there were greedy people, who refused to draw a line.
Thousands of years of grudging peace between humans and demons had passed, but fairly recently, a few greedy humans were now secretly hunting and absorbing the enlightened demons in an inhumane way.
This was because, absorbing an enlightened demon generated far more power than the lesser, animalistic demons.
There were also those that were secret demon cultivators like LanFen. But rather than establish a mutual contract, they hunted the enlightened demons, and then forced them into slave contracts against their will...
And so, though the enlightened demons had struggled to attain enlightenment, and now looked like humans, they were hunted like mere animals, killed and absorbed, or forced to become slaves.
LanFen's Master lived in a place where there were many traditional demon cultivators, who offered a mutual agreement to enlightened demons, as opposed to forcing them into slavery.
LanFen had learned to make the talisman from one of her master's books, and one day, she had run into Elder Xu.
All she had seen was a middle-aged man trying to kill a weak-looking, elderly man, and her body had not consulted with her brain, before she had jumped to the old man's defence.
Before she knew it, Elder Xu had tricked her into 'adopting' him, and she had somehow become a demon cultivator.
Thanks to Elder Xu, she could now hear the cry of any enlightened demon in trouble, and since her sword, Shubi, could instantly tell a peaceful demon from an evil one, she had now adopted fifteen demons!
At present, LanFen sighed again, her wide eyes on Elder Xu. "Fine. I'll acknowledge that none of you want to be free, but there's no way I can escape right now. They blocked my spirit power, and I'm even bound by spirit-binding ropes."
Elder Xu scoffed. "You dare try and deceive this old man? Now that you are here, you can take one of us to help you escape! You're not seeking death are you? Have you decided to give up on life?!"
LanFen's eyes had narrowed, filled with an icy glint. "Old man Xu. Do you think I will leave this world without taking that person with me?"
"Hmph!" Elder Xu folded his arms. "Who knows if you've decided to end your life and reunite with the boy early!"
"Heh! There's nothing I can do if you think that way... Besides, if I summon a demon here, won't that be breaking my promise with master?
"I promised I won't use any of you in a way that would make people hate or fear demons... That's why he let me keep you all in the first place.
"If someone as notorious as 'Xuè Shèngrén', suddenly brings out a demon and escapes, wouldn't that solidify people's hatred of demons? Better to follow them and find the right time to summon one of you..."
But she didn't add that she wanted the opportunity to enter the Shuǐ Manor...
Her eyes narrowed suddenly. "Old man Xu! I've also said you should stop addressing me as 'You'! Don't I have a name?!"
"Really?" Elder Xu's tone was clearly taunting. "Which one should I use?" He smirked. "LanFeng? LanFen? Qin Feng? Qin Yuming, or Xuè Shèngrén?"
Her face darkened at the last name.
LanFen was her original courtesy name.
Her father had personally named her LanFen before he died, so her mother couldn't discard it, so she had called her LanFen in private, and LanFeng in front of everyone else.
Qin Feng was the name LanFen had used for five years, and Qin Yuming was pulled out whenever she disguised, or rather 'undisguised' herself as a woman...
But now, as if she didn't have enough already, the people of Xin Dao had added yet another name to her long list of names!
'I would like to know who's drunkenness led to the tasteless name, 'Xuè Shèngrén'?!' LanFen's irritation was evident, but as she opened her mouth to let out a long string of not-so-polite retorts, her ears twitched.
She scowled at Elder Xu. "It has gotten noisy outside, so I'm leaving. If you pull me in here for nothing again, I'll tear your contract talisman on the spot!"
She performed a hand seal, shut her eyes and then opened them in the real world.
.
Elder Xu watched LanFen vanish from his sight.
He scowled at the empty spaces her feet occupied just a second ago, watching twin water ripples spread wider and wider from the spots. Then he glanced around at the gloomy, foggy black waters around him.
Her heart was in turmoil, so of course it would affect her spirit realm.
Despite all the hardship Zhao LanFen endured as a child, it had remained sunny in here, with azure skies, blue water, land and greenery.
But it had become like this recently...
He didn't care much for the scenery... None of them did, but they all cared for her, especially him.
She didn't know it, but he had been around for thousands and thousands of years.
In that time, he had watched greedy humans kill each other, and about two hundred years ago, they had begun to hunt and absorb his kind.
Naturally, he had completely written off humans...
Until a tiny small girl had jumped in from nowhere and 'defended' him from danger.
Of course, he hadn't really been in any danger that day.
He had been in the middle of luring a human that had been killing off and absorbing enlightened demons, so he had pretended to be weak to lure the stupid cultivator.
But LanFen had jumped in to 'rescue' him.
At first, she had tried to reason with the cultivator, but the man had just turned his fury on her.
"How dare you intrude on my prey?! He's not even human! He's a demon! Are you siding with a demon right now?!"
At that point, Elder Xu had expected LanFen to turn around and leave, but she had just grinned.
"Tch! whether it is demons, plants or humans, say it like it is... Isn't this just a case of bullying the weak for power you didn't work for?" Then her smile had vanished. "I won't let you get your way!" She had declared, and they both began to fight, and she had won.
Elder Xu had latched onto her after that, lending her his power and using her as a sword against the cultivators that hunted enlightened demons.
Over the last two years, watching her grow had turned his feelings of respect and curiosity, into an immeasurable fondness.
But now, this same person who had become like his own child was in danger...
He could sense that something was after Zhao LanFen, and it was the owner of that overwhelmingly powerful aura that had distracted her in that restaurant and led to her capture.
The aura felt so old and powerful, and more importantly, it was familiar in the wrong sort of way. He could recognize it from years ago, and the events surrounding it were not good ones.
'Yi Wen's aura.' He thought to himself.
But the person called 'Yi Wen' was long dead, which must mean, 'That evil fellow has resurfaced again!'
Elder Xu didn't know what that person wanted, but it was clear that he had wanted LanFen to get captured by the Shuǐ Clan.
Did the Shuǐ Sect have something to do with this?
He didn't like the fact that she was being taken there right now...
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