Yin Zhaoxian thought rapidly about what to do.

The first option he rejected was shouting for help. Although it had only been for a moment, he was certain that what he had seen was not an illusion, and that the woman in front of him was no ordinary person at all.

Unlike his old friend Ji Yuan and the old man he had met at night, who were both immortals, the one in front of him was obviously a ghost or a monster. He was afraid that if he shouted, he might lose his life on the spot.

Forcing himself to pretend that he didn’t see anything, Yin Zhaoxian displayed the bearing of an indifferent scholar.

“My lady, men and women should not touch one another outside of marriage. I, Yin, already have a family, and have no intention of taking a concubine. You had best leave this place, don’t ruin either of our innocence!”

Despite the fear in his heart, Yin Zhaoxian managed to calm himself, and spoke fluently. He did not break her illusion, hoping that the woman in front of him would retreat on her own. After all, this was the seat of power in Ji Province, so perhaps the other party would be afraid to act too drastically.

Madam Hong flirted and posed for a while, but was a little surprised to find that the scholar was not seduced by her.

‘It has been said that people with great virtue are not afraid of the temptation of evil spirits. Could this be true? Let me break his great virtue first! ’

As soon as the thought flashed in her mind, Madam Hong opened her mouth and spoke in a delicately and tender voice

“Yin Jieyuan, does your wife have a figure as graceful as mine, or a beauty like mine~?”

Mrs. Hong stood up and twisted her body, putting one hand on her lower abdomen, and covering her lips with the other hand. She smiled at Yin Zhaoxian, and a pink scent, invisible to the naked eye, drifted out from her.

Yin Zhaoxian only felt that his lower abdomen was burning, and his breathing grew a little short. Although he clearly retained his consciousness, he couldn’t help but grit his teeth and glare fiercely at Madam Hong.

“You are such an ungrateful woman! Your parents gave birth to you and raised you, yet you come here to humiliate yourself. I am not the kind of person you seem to think I am!!!”

His shout was half out of genuine anger, and half venting his fear. As soon as his voice sounded, an aura of virtue suddenly arose in his body, and a faint white light flashed.

Although this white light had a sharp aura, in the end, it was still weak. When it reached Madam Hong, it dissipated with a narrowed eye and a wave of her sleeves. Likewise, Madam Hong’s patience also dissipated.

“Hmph… Interesting, Yin Jieyuan, to tell you the truth…”

Madam Hong stretched out a hand while speaking, and Yin Zhaoxian suddenly found himself floating in the air towards the red shadow. His neck was caught in a strangling, long-nailed grip.

The contact between her arm and the virtuous Qi produced bursts of tiny electric currents, making Madam Hong feel a slight sting. However, she didn’t care. Instead, she brought her face even closer to Yin Zhaoxian, who suffocating in pain.

“I am not afraid, not even of the City God of Chunhui Prefecture. A mere mortal scholar like you cannot escape my grasp. Hehehe…hohohoho…”

Her sweet laughter rang hollow and grew hoarse the longer it went on…

Yin Zhaoxian’s face turned pale, then blue and red. He clutched tightly at the claws around his neck. As the virtuous energy and demonic energy collided, he could clearly see the appearance of a bloody red skull.

As he suffocated, Yin Zhaoxian’s consciousness blurred. Images of his wife and children appeared in his mind, as well as his good friend Ji Yuan, and the time he had spent playing chess with him..

“Demon… demon… demonic monster… Mr. Ji… save me…”

At this moment, Ji Yuan, far away in an inn in Juntian Prefecture, was suddenly awakened. A white piece appeared in his hand, and he saw a black wisp of gas wrapped around it, making it flicker unsteadily.

“Master Yin!?”

Normally, Ji Yuan could not feel any day-to-day changes in his chess pieces. However, at certain key points, he could get a sense of heaven’s will. This moment was clearly a bad omen.

By concentrating and calming his mind, Ji Yuan could even feel a faint evil demonic energy from the chess piece. Although there was a virtuous aura rising from the white piece, it was too weak.

‘Master Yin is in danger! ’

Ji Yuan’s best friend in this life was in a crisis at this very moment, and Ji Yuan was helpless. He despaired for a moment. Ji Yuan didn’t even know what was happening to Yin Zhaoxian, nor what he had encountered, only that it was absolutely something supernatural.

‘We have to think of a way, we have to think of a way! ’

He forced himself to enter into a state of meditation, and manifested his inner mental world. The white chess piece he placed in his hand, and the other four chess pieces in this inner world were safe and sound, floating in the sky.

Ji Yuan appeared as an illusory giant between heaven and earth, holding a giant star in his hand, frowning in thought.

Suddenly, he spotted the alchemy furnace at the top of a distant mountain. His first thought was to replenish the alchemical energy to support the chess piece; his second thought was of the True Fire of Samadhi.

He didn’t know whether the True Fire in the furnace would be useful, and he also didn’t know whether the white piece would be able to withstand the True Fire. However, Yin Zhaoxian was obviously in imminent danger, and Ji Yuan had no time to deliberate. He could only try the ideas that came to mind.

As if the heaven and the earth were bending to his thoughts, Ji Yuan suddenly appeared beside the alchemy furnace in his inner world in an instant. Through the hole in the furnace, he could see the True Fire blazing inside.

He drew out a wisp of red Qi and injected it into the white chess piece to temporarily stabilize it. Just as he was about to drop it into the alchemy furnace, he suddenly stopped.

Ji Yuan uttered a single word: “Edict-“

As the sound of the Tao fell from his lips, mysterious yellow clouds which had been gathering in the sky since the manifestation of his chess pieces, gathered around the alchemy furnace. After careful consideration, Ji Yuan drew a wisp of mysterious yellow energy and wrapped it around the white piece.¹

‘Master Yin, hold on! ’

Without any hesitation, he resolutely threw the white chess piece into the alchemy furnace.

Boom!

The white piece rushed through the True Fire of Samadhi in the furnace, igniting almost as soon as it touched the flames. At the same time, the friction between the flame and the mysterious yellow Qi produced a stream of light.

The mysterious yellow Qi and the virtuous Qi emanating from the chess piece merged together, resisting the onslaught of the uncountable flames, and the chess piece made dangerous cracking sounds, as if it couldn’t bear the pressure.

Ji Yuan felt chills when he heard these sounds. Seeing that the situation was looking dangerous, he quickly took the lid off, letting the white piece fly out of the hole on the other side. He didn’t dare let it stay in the furnace any longer.

In barely an instant, the chess piece had become extremely hot in his inner world, and fine cracks had even appeared on the surface. However, a faint aroma of wine wafted out from the piece, and it gradually returned to its former smoothness. Ji Yuan was a little relieved.

Ji Yuan’s lightning-fast little operation in his inner mind was reflected far off in the distance In Chunhui Prefecture in Ji Province, and it was no small matter…

Yin Zhaoxian originally felt suffocation and terror from the demon, but all of a sudden, these sensations felt like no more than a drizzle compared to everything else.

For a moment, he felt like he was thrown into a frying pan; as if his heart had been pieced by thousands of arrows; as if he had been struck by lightning; as if he had been burned alive by fire. The pain threw his consciousness into chaos.

In terms of the event’s physical manifestation, Yin Zhaoxian’s entire body instantly turned extremely hot, and the surface of his body turned red as a cooked shrimp.

“Sizzle…”

Just as Mrs. Hong was about to bring her face to Yin Zhaoxian’s and forcibly absorb his Yang energy and literary aura, she was burned and forced to let go.

Before she could feel surprise, the dark night scene in front of her had been flooded by gray-red light.

Boom!

A ball of flames filled with a sense of the void² shot out of Yin Zhaoxian’s body, penetrating all the solid objects in the room including clothing and walls, and swept past Madam Hong, who was still standing frozen, not having had time to react…

A red-grey flame flashed.

“Ah!!!”

The woman’s shrill screams echoed throughout the room.

“Bang!”

“Bang!”

“Bang!”…

She smashed through the room’s door, crashed through the guest room opposite, and slammed into the wall of the inn… Half of Madam Hong’s body had been completely charred as she was knocked away and smashed all the way out of the inn.

“Haaah…haaah…”

Madam Hong’s hoarse voice was trembling, and she couldn’t conceal her anger and fear. She had been caught off-guard and failed to react, and was actually tricked by a young scholar. Her demonic aura rose in anger.

“Aaaah!!! Yin! Zhao! Xian! I want you to die~!!!”

“How dare you, demon!!!”

Rumble… Rumble…

From the direction of Temple Administration Lane, the roar of the City God of Chunhui Prefecture sounded out like the tolling of an enormous bell. Waves of sound inaudible to ordinary people rolled in!

Madam Hong looked hatefully in the direction of the in, where phantom heat and smoke were still rising. She had no idea who had helped Yin Zhaoxian, so she finally grit her teeth in fury, waved her sleeves, and flew towards the city exit.

“Arrogant demon, stay!”

The two night patrol officers drew their swords in the middle of the road. Eerie sword light directly covered Madam Hong. The latter didn’t even try to evade it, but instead grabbed their Yin swords with her bare hands, picked up the two underworld messengers, and flew away with them in a tow.

After getting halfway, she clawed at the two underworld officers dozens of times in an instant with her fingernails, and then dismembered them. Then, Madam Hong took in a deep breath, and their Yin energy flowed into her mouth.

“You disgraceful–!”³

With the roar came a golden light mixed with the power of incense. It collided with Madam Hong’s fierce demonic energy, erupting in a burst of thunder.

Boom!

Madam Hong groaned, but she endured the blow and rushed out of the city. In an instant, she had flown tens of miles away and hidden in a hill.

Almost at the next moment, the City God of Chunhui Prefecture and all the head officials of the Yin and Yang Departments and the Rewards and Punishments Departments moved from the spiritual world to the real world. However, they could not detect the demon who had escaped to the hill.

“The wretched creature angers me to death!!! To death, I say!!!”

Although the City God roared in fury, he also felt confusion and uncertainty in his heart.

Dazhen had always been peaceful, and Ji Province was experiencing an era of peace. However, today, such a strange demon appeared in a territory his own jurisdiction, and it was still able to escape after being discovered. Had it only just appeared, or had it never been discovered before?

T/n: Imagine JY goes on a cooking show…

JY: Ok, so when you heat the frying pan, you just want to turn up the flames a liiiiitle bit…

Everyone else, 5000 miles away: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA–

The moral of this story: modern electric stoves have made us forget how to adjust a raw fire~

In all seriousness though, I do love me some (unintentionally) badass JY

1. Just wanted to note that “mysterious” could also be translated as “dark,” but more in the sense of “shadowy” than in a color sense. I chose mysterious because “dark” didn’t really have the right connotations
2. 虚无 (xūwú): nothingness, the void
3. Amusingly enough, Google translates 混账 as “asshole,” which… I mean close enough

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by Aunomay Read